Chapter 44 Gifts and Discoveries
The alarm was beeping in the distance as a slender hand moved out from under the covers and turned it off, for a moment she didn't want to move and sleep wanted to reclaim her but she forced herself to sit up in bed. She scanned the room with her deep green eyes and for a moment she actually thought she was back in the Leaf but no the walls where bare stone aside from some painting she had picked up the day before. They where wore more then she would make as a doctor in the leaf in multiple weeks but they were beautiful and one of them showed a beautiful sunrise over the lake. She blinked before she doublechecked the time, she had to get moving. She looked to see the sleeping man beside her, his wild blonde hair framed his face, he was breathing slowly as a smile crossed her face. She bent down and kissed his whisker marks moving a little bit of his hair out of the way. He responded to her kiss by waking up a little bit, his blue eyes opening a bit.
"Morning Naruto-kun and happy birthday?" said Sakura as Naruto blinked as he tried to figure out if it was really October 10th.
"It is my birthday isn't it." Complained Naruto as Sakura realized that Naruto likely hadn't have many good birthdays.
"It is and I am going to give you a gift you will really love tonight." Purred Sakura into Naruto's ear which caused a chill to run down his spin. "Now get some more sleep and I will see you at lunch."
"Not going to kick me out of your room this time." Laughed Naruto as he snuggled into her bed inhaling her scent.
"No, baka." Said Sakura as she playfully punched his shoulder only to have him overact that he had been hurt as he turned over onto his back holding his arm.
"Baka…" said Sakura as she rolled her eyes before bending over and kissing his lips, for a moment she considered straddling his hips and forgetting about work until after she satisfied more basic needs. Judging by how Naruto's hand was on her but pulling on the shorts she was wearing and the big bulge in the front of his pants he wanted her to stay. "But your my baka."
Then she placed a play bite on his ear. Which caused a bolt of energy to run both of them as both of their more basic instincts screamed at them to go on.
"Tonight, be ready I have something special in mind to give you on your birthday." said Sakura as Naruto smiled.
"Really?" said Naruto with a perverted grin which Sakura returned.
"Yes now, get some rest it will be a rather long night for you." confirmed Sakura as she moved to take a shower and get her day started.
Only two miles outside of Nysa totally unaware of how close they were to their children Minato and Kushina Namikaze lied side by side in a large double sized map with a blanket over the two of them. They had found a bar off the main road, the main house had been destroyed in a fire likely from someone destroying bodies within but the barn was still intact. The first rays of light where cutting their way into the darkness of the but both Namikaze where wide awake. Both of them had no idea which one of them had woken up first but for the longest time both of them just looked into each other's eyes Kushina with her violet colored eyes looked loving into the deep blue eyes of her husband.
"I love you, my red hot pepper." said Minato which caused a smile to cross his wife's kitsune's face before she gently play punched him in the chest.
"I love you, but you know how I feel about that nickname." complained Kushina before moving forward and kissing him. "Come on I'll make breakfast and then we will find our children."
The two of them got up to find that the both Tsume and Kane Inuzuka where already up and standing by the barn door watching the sunrise. The weather outside was cool but wet, with the smell of rain in the air.
"That isn't good, rain will wash away tracks and make following any scents harder if not impossible." stated Tsume as her husband nodded his head.
"And if the rain gets too hard Rin may have to find a safe place to wait it out." added Minato as he looked toward his two students who were asleep in a large mat similar to what he and Kushina had done. Their sleeping mat was different because Rin was a fire kami and as such it was fire resistance. Nearby the two Haruno's where sharing a mat of their own. "We could reach Nysa if we have too but I would rather search more of the area to the east before we move into Nysa."
"Nysa, I remember that place." remembered Kushina before playfully elbowing her husband in the ribs. "We had our secret honeymoon there before you became Hokage."
"I remember I had to remain hidden most of the time because we didn't want our enemies to find out about you." added Minato before giving his wife a smile "Not that I complained, we spent a lot of time in the hotel room."
"Always fun." Laughed Kane as Tsume nodded her head in agreement.
"I'll get to work on our breakfast, you plan our search if Naruto is anything like his father he wouldn't leave the Land of Fire while it is under attack." added Kushina as she went to restart the fire and start to make their breakfast. As she made breakfast the rest of their party began to wake up and move around their little camp. If someone ignored the fact that they were demons, it would have been the same sort of unite a human ninja team would do in the field. Even so there was some small differences caused not by the fact that they were demons but because there were four couples in the camp.
Kushina smiled as she noticed the glances and small touches shared between Rin and Kakashi, she had always thought Rin was torn between Obito and Kakashi.
"Looks like she finally picked Kakashi." Thought Kushina as she noticed the small glances between the two of them. "They will make a great couple and maybe if it goes far enough parents, Rin always wanted a big family but with the…"
Kushina stopped and lowered her head as she remembered one of the reasons why Rin didn't have a family now. The wound from the chidori in the chest caused by Kakashi had damaged her heart and nearly killed her. Even the turn had healed the wound totally, she had to take pills to keep her heart going and the doctors had said that the stress of a pregnancy would almost certainly take her life.
"She will never have children and yet she is helping all of us find our children." thought Kushina as she made a quick breakfast, even while she was cooking she was listening to the others talk about the plans for today.
"We need to search this area to our North before we move into Nysa." Stated Kane Inuzuka as he ran his clawed finger across the map to the North of the lake side city. "There are some small villages among the hills which be a good source of supplies and the hills would provide a source of places to hid."
"I agree but that is what is concerning to me." said Minato as he placed his hand under his muzzle. "From what Kakashi has told us Shikamaru Nara is among this group and from everything he has told me he is as skilled as his father. That area would be an obvious place to set up a base of operation and therefor the last place you would want to go when your hiding from an enemy."
"What do you recommend." inquired Kane as Minato studied the map, Nysa was only a couple of miles away from the boarder of the land of rivers. He knew that from the intercepted communication that his son and daughter was likely in the area, he knew his son wouldn't leave the Land of Fire while it was under attack. That fact limited the area he could go. "What do we know about the group that we are searching for? We know that they have two medical ninjas in Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka. They will be trying to find a cure to the flu and how to turn people back into humans."
"Like that is possible." said Tsume with a roll of her eyes.
"They will try and that requires supplies." added Minato "Medical supplies."
"We took some when we left the Leaf." explained Kakashi
"And they will need more." stated Rin "From what you have told me they were taking mostly research material and samples, they need the equipment to study it."
"And the only place they would find the needed equipment would be a hospital." Said Minato as he looked at the map, there was actually half a dozen hospital in the area that his children where likely to be. "So we should start our search around hospitals and clinics to see which one is missing the needed tools."
"The equipment that they will need to do any useful research isn't what you would find at a normal hospital or clinic." explained Rin as looked at the map, the map was detailed enough to show the size of the hospital and their ranking. "The largest hospital in the area is in Nysa and they would be their best bet to find the needed pieces of equipment."
"So we head into Nysa see if any supplies are missing from the hospital." stated Minato as he looked at his watch.
"Nysa, you think they are hiding there? That would be the stupidest place to be because that would be where anyone who is searching the area would base themselves out of." Countered Kane
"Don't they have a communication center there?" inquired Tsume
"They do but not one strong enough to reach the Daimyo's beach house but that doesn't matter." Stated Minato "They may not be in the city itself but they may have gone to the hospital to get supplies and that may put us on their trail."
"Alright." Confirmed the others as Minato looked at his watch.
"How does 15 minutes work for everyone to head out?" inquired Minato
"Alright." Confirmed everyone.
To the southwest about the same distance away from Nysa, Temari of the Sand woke up in a dead woman's house and resting on her bed. She scanned the room with her tired travel wore eyes, she had walked the distance from her village in the middle of the Land of Wind, cross over sand dunes, grasslands and forests to reach this point. All the while she had to avoid major cities and roads both due to the risk of the infection from the red flu and from the demons who were taking over the world at the cost of humanity. She slowly deactivated her traps that would have alerted her to or killed anyone who had tried to get to her while she slept. She threw on her pack and picked up the bronze spear head which she had picked up from the museum back home and left the home. She came out in a small house located in a small roadside gathering of a dozen or so houses. She looked around the area before taking off into the tree, heading toward Nysa.
"Little boy you better be there and you better have a good place to hide." said Temari as she headed off toward the town, she could see the city from the top of
Under the city, Sakura sat behind a desk looking at the computer read out of the breakdown of the sample of fish oil pill that Tsume Inuzuka had been giving her children since the day she decided to turn against humanity. It looked like a fish oil pill, it even had a fake logo on the bottle and on the pill itself but the DNA inside the pill wasn't fish.
"What the hell is that." thought Sakura as looked at the DNA profile, it wasn't human which meant it was demon but it wasn't any demon same she had. The nearest one it was to was a Kitsune but it was still very different. "It could be…what is that wolf demon called…an Inugami I think."
"But that is still a lot closer to human DNA then any of the other demons." Added Inner Sakura who was actually being useful for a change.
"Yes, it is." Confirmed Sakura to herself as she looked up from the computer and scanned the room. Karin was standing over some blood samples running tests, Ino was behind a desk rereading the reports from the Leaf and from the local hospital. The newest addition to their band, Hana Inuzuka was setting up blood work and some other tests, since she was a veterinine ninja she lacked the understanding of the human body to do some of the more advanced work. She was however very skilled at lab work and in the state they were in every little thing was useful. Either way she was a great help and she didn't mind running the tests while Sakura and Karin, the two most experienced medical ninjas in the room tried to figure things out.
"If only we could figure this out." stated Inner Sakura as she looked again at Hana.
"Hana can you come over here for a second." asked Sakura as the older women walked over and stood beside her. "Alright I have the DNA profile of those fish oil pills and it is demon DNA and I think it is Inugami."
"That is the wolf one right?" inquired Hana
"Yes, can you confirm that for me." inquired Sakura
"I can't confirm that is wolf but it is very close to dog." explained Hana as Sakura placed her hand under her chin and leaned back in her chair to think for a moment. "It is safe to say that is likely DNA from those Inugami demons."
"Which basically means you have been taking demon stem cells in pill form for years." stated Sakura as Hana made a face as she found out what she had been taking every day.
"And that saved me from the red flu?" inquired Hana
"Yes, but it may be more too it than that." stated Sakura "I am sure your parents would have wanted you to be the same demon as them and that demon could likely be Inugami's."
"You are thinking that the fact that it is cells from this demon could mean I would become that demon?" inquired Hana as Sakura nodded her head.
"Yes, I do. I will not know for sure unless either you or Kiba are turned into demons and I don't want to do that." admitted Sakura
"Good, I would rather not have a muzzle." confirmed Hana "But if the Inugami part is suppose to make sure I become one of those…things. Then what is the stem cells for? There must have a better way to get that DNA into the system. It isn't like stem cells are easy to come across."
"Actually the plant thing that turns people into demons seams to produce steam cells." explained Sakura "They must have gotten it from the plant."
"But if they did that, then how could they control what type of demon?" inquired Inner Sakura "They turn people into basically random demons, so they must have a way to turn stem cells from those plants into a certain type."
"How does this help with a cure?" inquired Hana
"The answer must be in the stem cells or maybe the small amount of demon chakra in the cells." Stated Sakura
"Wait…forehead." Said Ino from across the room as she searched through some paperwork for a moment before moving across the room. Taking position on the other side of Sakura.
"Before the Leaf fell we got a report from the land of swamps that some local apothecary cured a baby by mixing a couple of herbs with the a ground up umbilical cord." stated Ino as Hana made a slight face.
"Umbilical cords do have a lot of stem cells." Stated Sakura "Could that really be it?"
"One of the reasons why the flu is so deadly is because it destroys cells most of all the immune system and blood clotting ability." stated Karin as she walked over to join the little meeting. "adding stems cells could cause the damage area to regrow."
"But that wouldn't cure the flu would it?" inquired Ino
"No, but it would give the appearance of being cured and that is really all that is going on. We are all actually sick and unless we turn into demons the flu is supposed to kill us." stated Sakura "Maybe demon chakra makes them immune to the flu but the stem cells allows humans to be temporary saved from the flu."
"Too bad that stem cells are hard to produce in a lab and even so we would have to produce a lot of it." Stated Sakura as she looked around "We are on the right path."
"But how much time do we have to finish what needs to be done before we are out of time." countered Karin as she walked off back to her own work station.
"Why wasn't this found earlier?" inquired Hana "If you had this report about this baby living through the flu…"
"We were getting hundreds of reports about cures before the communication system broke down." explained Sakura "We didn't have time to search through them all and this was just a local story performed by someone with no medical training. Whoever processed it tossed it off as claims of magic, like the people who said eating the heart of a slaughtered bull will give you strength to live or that bathing in natural mineral springs healed people. When people get desperate wild stories about how to save themselves go wild."
A short distance away Naruto was struggling to keep up as Guy and Anko where launching full scale assaults on him with the two weapons his parents where most likely to use against him, a kunai and a boa staff. The combination of a distance weapon in a boa staff and the close quarter action that came from a kunai was hard to counter with his normal weapon of a chakra blade. He would stop Anko with the staff only to get hit by Guy coming in close to finish him off.
Watching the fight from her vantage point was Tenten who had finally made time to watch him fight so she could finalize a weapon that could give him an upper hand against his parents. She had a few ideas in mind but seeing how Naruto fought would allow her to give him the best options she could. Naruto jumped back getting some distance as he breathed heavy.
"You are doing better then you were doing but you still need to work." stated Guy "The 4th Hokage was legendary for his skills with a kunai, I am good but he will be better."
"I know." admitted Naruto before he started coughing a bit, the coughing got worse for a moment causing both Jonnin to look at him with concern. "I don't have the flu, I already had it. It is just a cough."
"It is dry and dusty down here." confirmed Guy
"Orochimaru never really cared about the conditions of the people he kept here." confirmed Anko as she looked at the empty cells, the cells where empty but they still gave a haunting presence to the room.
"So Tenten do you have any ideas for me?" inquired Naruto as he looked up at Tenten.
"I have some ideas." Confirmed Tenten as suddenly an alarm filled the air.
"What is that?" inquired Guy
"Demons in the city." stated Naruto "We better see what is going on and prepare for the worse."
It didn't take long for Naruto and the others to reach the serecty office, when they arrived they found that Shikamaru and Sai who where on guard duty together where already there.
"What is going on?" inquired Naruto
"We have a pair of demons, looks to be those flying bird kinds on the far northern side of the city." Explained Sai "Likely scouts or a search group."
"Really." Said Naruto as Shikamaru selected the correct camera to show two of those bird like demons. "I think they are air kami's."
"They are." confirmed Meiko from behind her brother. "They are used for scouts and finding humans. We are safe they are likely here to check to see if anyone stumbled into the plant and got turned."
"We have a major problem." Stated Sai as Naruto and the other turned toward him, in the center of the screen he had on was a tired looking woman dressed a travelers cloak with a fan on her back and a spar in her hand.
"Temari-chan." said Shikamaru breathlessly.
"She is heading straight toward the demons." stated Sai
"Open the door, I'll go get her." stated Naruto
"Too much of a risk." countered Tenten "We could be discovered."
"It is Temari-chan." stated Shikamaru the normally logical man blinded by the woman he loves walking into danger that could take away her humanity.
"I have an idea trust me." stated Naruto as he looked at everyone, the older ninjas turned and looked at me. "Trust me."
"Alright." said Sai as the others nodded their consent.
"Shikamaru, you go get Temari." said Naruto as he headed toward the exit.
"What are you going to do?" inquired Shikamaru
"I am going to distract the two demons." Stated Naruto
"Naruto if you fight them or they don't come back then anyone in command will send more search teams." Stated Meiko "Let me talk to them to get them away."
"You will just tell them where we are." counted Tenten
"I won't." snapped Meiko "How would that get my brother to trust me."
"Alright, we will go together." said Naruto as Meiko looked at him along with everyone else. The three of them headed toward the surface, at once Shikamaru took off at a sprint to go get Temari leaving the two Namikaze's alone.
"Now I will talk to them and see if I can slow them down." stated Meiko as she transformed back into her demon form. "You can listen nearby and if the worse should happen come save me."
"Ok." Said Naruto
On the surface storm clouds where gathering in the sky and the sound of thunder could be heard as a fall storm was making its way toward the village. Moving down one of the streets where a pair of air kami scouts.
"I hate rain." Complained one of the pair as they walked down the cobblestone streets toward the T juncture in the center of the road.
"Same here but we need to check to see if anyone was turned by the plant we left behind." Stated the second scout as rain began to hit on the surface of the lake. It hadn't reached them yet but it was clearly coming their way. The sound of footsteps coming from a nearby store caused both of them to turn toward the source as the front door of the store began to open. Both of them reached for their weapons expecting to see a human but instead a young kitsune with bright red fur highlighted with some white on her arms and legs came out.
"What the hell are you doing here?" inquired the first air Kami as the Kitsune blinked.
"Ah…I am a scout." stated the kitsune
"Come here." ordered the second kami as the kitsune moved closer to the two of them. She was young, maybe 14 or 15 but was clearly destined to be a beautiful woman. "Now who are you? If you are a scout where is your patterners and who is your commander? Where is your paperwork with your orders?"
"Well…" said the young kitsune as she placed a hand behind her back.
"We have been caught." said a male voice from the door.
"Shit Naruto, I told you I would handle this!" cursed Meiko as she turned around to see her brother standing there with a weapon in hand. Instead her brother had a couple of bottles of fine whisky in his hands, but he wasn't human he was a kitsune. For a moment she actually thought her father was standing in the doorway in her brother's cloths. His pink flesh had been replaced with blonde fur, black fur covered ears poked out of the top of his head, his muzzle grew out of the side of his face with white fur running down the entire bottom of the muzzle and disappearing under his collar. His hands where covered with black fur not white and his nails had turned into black sharpened claws.
"What the…" started Meiko before a look from her brother with his sharp blue silted eyes. That is when she noticed that along the side of the muzzle and running down into the cheeks where the black birthmarks only in fur instead of flesh.
"We aren't on a scouting mission." said Naruto as he moved forward with a couple of bottles in his clawed hands. "Well not an official one."
"A little bit of a raiding what the humans left behind?" laughed one of the scouts "We should report you?"
"Should?" inquired Naruto as he extended his hand that contained four bottles of very wine whiskey.
"Should." said the second scout as he took two of the bottles and handed them to his counterpart before taking the remaining two for himself. "But I think we can arrange something."
"You don't report us and we don't report you?" inquired Naruto
"Works for me." laughed the second scout "Anything good nearby?"
"Depends what you are interested in?" stated Naruto as he made small talk with the two demons.
Nearby Temari was moving down the same road she was about to make the turn which would make her visible to the demon scouts when Shikamaru appeared in front of her.
"Shikamaru?" inquired Temari stunned to suddenly see him but the look on his face told her that something was very wrong.
"Demons down the road, we need to get you to our base." said Shikamaru as he grabbed Temari by the arm before dragging her toward the base.
Down the road Naruto was finishing making small talk with the demons, he had given them directions to some of the more interesting shops and hoping that he had stalled enough he and Meiko turned and headed back into the shop they had come from. As they did a heavy rain began to fall. They waited until they knew those two demons had entered a shop down the road from them to make their way back toward the bar which was severing as the entrees to their base.
"How…how are you a demon?" inquired Meiko as she looked at her demon brother.
"I'm not." explained Naruto as he formed a hand sign and turned back into a human. "It's a henge transformation justu."
"But…our eyes we can see through those Justus?" countered Meiko as Naruto grinned.
"Human yes, but not demon aided ones." explained Naruto "I noticed that you couldn't see that Sasuke has the flu?"
"He does?" inquired Meiko as they moved down the steps toward the base.
"Yes, and he uses human illusion justu reinforced by demon stabilizing seal to keep himself hidden from both human and demon eyes." explained Naruto "I did the same and it worked and now those demons will think they came across a pair of looters nothing more."
When they reached the base they found Temari sitting in a chair with Shikamaru kneeling in front of her making sure she was ok. She wasn't the only new addition to the group, standing there waiting for them was both Sasuke, Karin, Sakura and Karui.
"What the hell did you do!" yelled Karin
"We got Temari into the base and the demons are none the wiser." stated Naruto
"We saw it on video you are a demon!" yelled Karui as the door closed behind them sealing the base back off from the world above.
"No, I used an transformation justu and nothing more." Stated Naruto before looking at Sasuke with a grin. "I actually got the idea from you and your little trick that makes you look like you do."
"What is he talking about?" inquired Karui as Sasuke glared at Naruto before removing a ring which helped him hold his transformation justu in place. Karui and the others jumped back as the once handsome Sasuke was replaced with a sick looking weak figure, his face was pop marked with where boils had been once been only to have disappeared. New ones where growing and one of his famous black eyes was almost covered with a blood and puss filled boil. His cheeks where sucked in and he looked as if he was death warmed over.
"What the?" inquired Karui, even Sakura looked at Sasuke amazed at what had become of him.
"I use a stabilizing seal taken from a dead demon and with Karin's healing ablity I have stayed alive." Stated Sasuke as he put the ring back onto his boiled covered finger wincing in pain as he did so. When it was on he was back to normal but everyone had seen what was really there.
"And you sleep with him?" inquired Karui
"Yes and with luck we will have a child soon." defended Karin as she and Sasuke headed deeper into the base.
"Naruto-kun that was a huge risk." stated Sakura
"Yes." said Naruto as he looked toward where Shikamaru was kneeling before Temari making sure she was ok. "And was worth it."
Sakura looked toward the same scene and smiled herself as she understood Naruto had done that for his friends.
"Come on let's get something for lunch." offered Sakura as they all headed down to get something to eat.
The extremely heavy rain had forced Minato and his team to take cover in a small roadside inn on the outskirts of Nysa. They had to take cover for two main reasons, first the rain as power as it currently was would be risky for Rin who was fire kami and secondly because it was raining so hard that it would be impossible to move. Lightning filled the sky, hail stroke the ground and rain was hitting as hard as rocks on the ground.
"Another lovely fall rain storm." stated Kane Inuzuka as he along with the others stood in the remains of the hotel bar. It was a middle of the road hotel, something people on a budget but who still wanted to visit the legendary beaches of the nearby lake would use. They were maybe half an hour of so out from the city itself, so within walking distance but the prices of land and therefor the price for rooms was far lower than the beach front hotels.
"Yes." confirmed Minato "It's my son's birthday today."
"I know, they celebrated the death of the Kyuubi every year and you sealed him up within him." stated Kane "How the villagers used to get drunk on this day, not sure if they will anymore. No real reason to get drunk when the whole Kyuubi thing was a fake."
"There is holy day marking the birth of the first demon fox." countered Rin as she stood looking out the window.
"A holy day…not really that good of a reason to get drunk." stated Kane as he took a drink from a hip flask. "Oh well could be worse also will anyone celebrate it after this is all over? I mean it isn't like former humans will take up demon culture and religion? Anyone who comes out as a pure demon is more than likely to get their throat cut."
"Who knows." stated Minato "All I know it is another birthday away from my son."
"Sorry, but I know how you feel." admitted Kane as he shook his head. "I missed so many moments with my children, moments that I will never get back but at least they are alive. I did it all for them, so that they would make it through this and that they would have a future. A lot of people don't have one anymore."
"No they don't." said Minato as he heard movement coming from of all places outside. He turned toward the main entrees to see two air kami's stumble through the door. Their flesh was bright red from where the hard rain had hit their skin and the looks on their faces where one of desprataiton.
"Finally a place out of the rain." Said one of them before they noticed the small group of demons who were already set up. "Oh…sorry we need a place to wait out the storm?"
"You're a group of scouts?" inquired Minato
"Yes and you?" inquired the second scout.
"We are looking for our children." answered Kushina as one of the air kami tilted his head.
"Are they two Kitsunes?" inquired the air kami "Because we saw two of them in the village what an hour ago before the rain fell."
"What?" inquired Kushina
"What did they look like?" inquired Minato
"One was a young kitsune, maybe 14 or so with bright red fur and looked a lot like you." Said the 1st air kami "She was the one we saw first and later the other one walked out, blonde maybe 18 or 20 years and had black marks on his muzzle."
"Mieko and Naruto…but Naruto isn't a demon." Stated Minato "He is a human."
"We saw two demons." Stated the air Kami "They came out of a wine shop on the lake front and after a couple of minutes of small talk we went our separate ways."
Minato was about to say something, but before he could say anything Kushina was up and running out the door into the massive storm.
"Shit!" cursed Minato as he took off after his wife, heading into the massive storm.
While the storm raged over their heads down in the base everything was peaceful as Naruto and the rest were enjoying lunch, the only people missing where Sasuke and his group along with Shino and Neji who had taken over guard duty for Shikamaru. As for Shikamaru he was still looking after Temari who was still in a state of shock, it wasn't that she was hurt in any way it was more that she couldn't quite understand the sudden change from a barren lifeless city with death always around the corner to sitting at a table with a plate of hot food in front of her and death seemly banished.
"Where are we?" inquired Temari
"An old sound base, we are well hidden and for the moment safe." Explained Shikamaru "Naruto and Meiko distracted a pair of demons to make sure they didn't find you."
"Meiko?" inquired Temari as she noticed a red haired woman she had never seen before, she was young maybe 14 or so.
"Naruto's sister and a demon." explained Shikamaru as Temari's eyes widened. "It's ok, we will explain everything."
"Naruto, I got you a birthday gift." Said Meiko in an overly happy voice as she held out a small box wrapped rather poorly in red wrapping paper.
"Meiko you didn't have to get me anything." said Naruto
"But I did so take it." said Meiko as she pushed the gift into his hands. "I wrapped it myself, sorry I am not that good, mom always did that."
"It's fine." Said Naruto as he gave into his sister's demands and began to rip open the wrapping paper only to find a small box with the logo of a jewelry store on it. Naruto raised an eyebrow as he opened the box to see a platinum ninja watch. It was a fine watch, with a built in compose, timer and hidden wire capable of being used to strangle someone. But that was more for field versions, this one was more for show than anything else. It was the kind of thing a leader of a major clan would wear, it wasn't meant to be used in the field or even worn the field. The brightness of the platinum would draw the eye of any ninja attempting to hid in the brush.
"I got it from a store above us." said Meiko "I hope you like it."
"I do." said Naruto as he moved to place the watch on his wrist when suddenly another alarm went off telling everyone that a demon had been spotted in the city above them.
"No, not again." said Naruto "Did they not fall for it?"
Minato ran through the rain, he tried to focus on his wife's figure as she ran ahead of him so he never noticed as he made a turn past the bar containing the hidden entrees to the sound base where his children actually where. Instead he followed his wife through the rain as she ran toward a building, she ran inside and instantly stopped, she stopped so suddenly that he ran into her back causing both of them to stumble.
"Kushina, what are you thinking?" inquired Minato as he looked at his wife, her fur was wet and dropping, her cloths where soaked through and if she didn't look as if she had just made it through a beating. In fact the same could be said of him, the wind and the hail had did a number on him and he felt it.
"Our kids, where here!" yelled Kushina "An hour ago our kids where right here! We are right on their tail, we can finally have them back. All we have to do is follow their scents back to where they, we can have our family back."
"Kushina, nothing would make me happier but the rain…the rain would have washed away every trace of their scents." Said Minato as he had the misfortune of watching his wife's face deflate as hope of a soon to be reunion with her children faded. He moved forward and wrapped his arms around his wife pulling her close. She in returned buried her face into his chest and began to cry.
"We were so close, if only the rain…" cried Kushina as the stress of being away from her children for so long and being so close only to have it taken away from her broke her down. Minato just pulled her closer and ran his hands through her hair and down her back. He smelled the air, he could tell that that two people had come into the building. He could knew one was his daughter and the other one was male, likely his son. He also knew it was still human, so he knew that his son had somehow pulled an transformation justu that not even the demons could see through. His thoughts turned back to his wife as Kushina's legs gave out either from emotional stress or the beating she took on the way to the shop. He guided them both to the floor, so that
"We know they were here and recently with this rain they couldn't have gone far, we are on the right track." Reassured Minato as he held his crying wife close as they knelt on the floor of the shop.
In the back of the room was a camera and while it wasn't officially on the police camera network Orochimaru had access to it. Unaware to either of them, their son Naruto was watching his parents crying in each other's arms. Maybe Orochimaru was extra cruel or maybe it was the store paying extra money to have camera with audio to listen on customers but he along with everyone else could hear his and Meiko's mother cry over the loss of her childern and their father consoling her. Without saying a word Naruto turned and walked out of the room leaving the others to watch his parents.
Sakura followed him out until he finally entered his room, without messing with a knock she walked in to find Naruto sitting on his bed with his head in his hands. Reacting on instinct Sakura sat down beside him and simply put her hand on his shoulder.
"Naruto-kun…I can't understand how you are feeling right now." Started Sakura as Naruto lifted his head out of his hands, there were tears in his eyes but it was clear he was trying hard to get them to stop.
"It isn't that hard Sakura-chan, I am torn." Stated Naruto "My parents are up there and in pain because of me, but to get to them and stop my mom from crying means giving up my humanity and likely dooming humanity. One of my first memories of my mother is watching her cry…this is a no win situation."
"No, it isn't." confirmed Sakura as she wondered what she would do if her parents were up there and her mother was crying because of her.
Sorry for the long delay, I rewrote this chapter multiple times I hope you liked it. Now until next time please keep reading thanks Wilkins75.