More notes to follow at the end, basically a quick explanation of this chapter, because I think people may need it. If you don't wanna read it, you don't have to.
Firstly though, "Thanks and thanks again" to all my Faver's Alerter's and Reviewer's. Also to the C2s that have added this story. Cookies for all (and a brownie to those who got the quote reference). I'm around...1/3 done with the next chapter, and I hope to get it up soon. This week was rough at work, and because of that I had issues with getting this chapter done. I wrote it Sunday, rewrote Monday and Tuesday, and edited today for...going on 5 hours each night? My point is, sorry for the lag this week. I am working on making longer chapters but it's kind of down to bi-weekly updates or updating every other week with possibly longer chapters. I just don't have the time to bang out 10,000 words, folks. I can only do this at home, and I'z got pets and stuff to do besides write.
Secondly, I just wanna say, since there seems to be some confusion, Roy only burnt Naruto to death once. Seriously, go back and check if you don't believe me. He tells Naruto he could do it over and over, but then in his POV he thinks about how that might ACTUALLY kill Naruto because they don't know how much power he has. So, he burns up an arm, or a leg, or a shoulder...you get the idea. It's not pretty, it's a horrible thing to do, and to me, that's actually worse than killing him again and again.
Just sayin.
Whatever.
ON TO THE CHAPTER!
*&*&*&*_POV NARUTO_*&*&*&*
"Who, Father? Or is it some other mastermind?" The man didn't really seem surprised when the blond just glared at him. "You know, we've discovered something... very interesting. You see, you have this mark that appears any time you use your power, it seems."
"Yeah, so, what of it? Plenty of people do." Once again, things seemed to be rapidly going from bad to worse for Naruto.
He signaled Scar, "Well, I was wondering," Scar walked up to the now squirming blond, "what, exactly, would happen if we were to damage that mark."
Grabbing a foot that was sent at his head, the white-haired man looked grim as he reached out and lightly touched Naruto's stomach. There was a moment's pause as he gauged his power, a moment that seemed to stretch on forever to the now more-than slightly panicking youth. Every time someone had messed with his seal, it never seemed to go well. For all he knew, destroying the seal would set the Kyuubi free while killing him, or kill the fox and not him, maybe even kill the both of them. At this point, he really didn't know which outcome would be worse.
Then the moment was gone, and all he could do was scream. The pain was intense, for all that it was only a flesh wound. It was amazing, really; Scar had only removed the skin, leaving the muscles alone completely. When compared to what they'd already done to him, this was relatively mild. He'd done much the same to his own arms while training with shuriken as a child. (The third hadNOTbeen amused when the ANBU brought him the bleeding child who had stolen his shuriken.) It took Naruto a few seconds before he realized where the damage really was.Kyuubi's hurt! That actually hurt him more than it did me for a change!Of course, this meant it was taking a lot longer for him to heal, with the fox thrashing within his cage, enraged that'mere mortals DARE to harm him'as the teen hung there bleeding.
For some reason, though, the blond felt remarkably calm. It was like they'd splashed cold water on him, and in that moment with the Kyuubi distracted, he could think clearly. Granted, it really wasn't an improvement in his situation; he was still tied up, starving, had no clue what was going on, and two guys were trying to do horrible things him. Still, he felt better then he had since waking up in the body of a fox.
"That seems to have gotten his attention," mused Scar. "Maybe now you feel like giving up some answers?"
Blue eyes glared at them as he panted silently.If they do that again, I'm done for. He snorted to himself, Hell, I'm still screwed even if they don't. That damn furball's all set to take over, and I don't think I can stop him this time. Or even if I really want to...Part of him longed to just give in, to let Kyuubi demolish this place, killing everyone. That part whispered that they deserved it... he couldn't do it. He remembered his painfully brief meeting with his father, the fourth Hokage. The man who had given it all to protect his village, who prevented him from doing just that after Pein had destroyed the village. He remembered his promise to his sensei, not to use the fox's power anymore...
The golden eyed blond shook his head in disgust. "Roy, stop. This isn't going to get you anywhere."
Naruto thought fast, trying to think of a way out of this situation without letting the fox loose on them all. He was running out of time, but he wasn't the number one most unpredictable ninja for nothing.
"Back down, Ed. I know what I'm doing. These things only understand pain."
His chakra was still too low, he couldn't manage any rasengan, clones, hell even a transformation.
"Oh yeah, what makes you such an expert?"
He thought briefly of Jiraiya, wondering what that tricky sage would do.SAGE! That's it!For a second, he hesitated; the last time he had tried to reach sage mode, he'd ended up losing control. I've got nothing left to lose.
"I accounted for two, Ed. How many did you actually finish off, one?"
The shinobi easily drowned out the arguing around him, focusing instead on calming himself. Slowly, he started to feel the flow of the world around him. He could feel the anger radiating off the people in the room with him, and even feel people above him in other parts of the building, some rushing his way.
"...you asshole! I'm telling you, this is thewrongway to go about this!"
"You're a civilian now, you know. If you don't like it, I can make you leave." Naruto's eyes were closed, his breathing slow and regular, holding onto the singular moment when he'd found the balance while they fought.
A memory tickled him as he waited. "Scar, again please." Something about being in balance...a weird place... "A little deeper this time." Quickly he pushed back the emerging memory, knowing he'd only have moments to enact his crazy plan.
*&*&*&*_POV MUSTANG_*&*&*&*
He'd never been so pissed with Edward Elric as he was right at that moment. He had told the teen that he'd let him in here so the boy could observe and maybe see something he and Scar missed. He hadn't meant for the little brat to try and take over this interrogation.
His temper spiked up another notch when he heard the pounding on the door. He could hear May's muffled voice raised in distress, but he had no clue what she was saying. There was no way in hell he was opening that door, though.
I know what I'm doing, dammit!He glared at the captive's still form as Scar approached warily. Even when the Ishballan reached the prone form, it didn't even open its eyes. Scar looked at him, and he shrugged.If he's passed out, this'll wake him up again.
Just as Scar's hand reached out, the blond's eyes opened. Scar froze, arm still outstretched as the orange eyes looked at them with a determined smugness.Orange eyes now? Crap!"Scar get out of there! NOW!"Those eyes...something's off with them...
Just as the man backed away, the blond swung his leg out, just missing the scarred head, and up, towards the chain. Mustang couldn't believe his eyes as the chain seemed to snap apart before the foot even connected with it. Completing the flip, the whiskered youth landed lightly on his feet.
Several things happened at once. Blue lighting raced across the door, and May and Alphonse rushed in, shouting at them to stop. The now orange-eyed blond spat a thick glob of something at Mustang as Roy snapped his fingers. Ed grabbed the back of Scar's shirt and bodily yanked the surprised man out of the way as flame alchemy met the weird loogie. The moment the two collided, a fireball bloomed into life, pushing them all backwards in a wave of heat and sound.
What the hell was that?Roy coughed to himself as his vision and hearing slowly returned. He had perfect control over his alchemy; there was no way he'd lost control to the point of creating an explosion. Quickly, he looked to make sure the others were alright. When he saw that they were dazed, but generally unharmed, he turned his attention back to his dangerous captive while Scar went to the door, whispering fiercely to the armed officers who'd come running at the sound of the explosion. He wasn't expecting what he saw. The orange eyes were gone, once more replaced with blue eyes that glared at some unknown point in the distance.
"What the hell? YouSONofaBITCH!You usedMEas currency? What the fuck, you stupid four-legged monstrous furball! This is all your fault!" The blond ranted, snapping his manacles with ease.He could have done that at any time! No wonder we could barely contain him!"Don't you give me that shit,I'mnot the one who ran smack into a building. A building!" He waved his arms, still ignoring them completely, "I don't care that it's a lot smaller for you, Mr. I'm-so-awesomely-big, that would be like me running into...Tsunade's desk! Yeah? Well, Gamabunta's never run into a building for no APPARENT REASON, and he's the same size you are!"
Roy exchanged a very confused look with his friends as they climbed to their feet. Not only was the homunculus free, he was ranting to himself like some kind of lunatic andtreating them like they weren't there!
Ed just shrugged as he went to check on May and Al, "Greed-Ling, maybe." Mustang stared at him dumbly for a second before it clicked. This creature was arguing with his other half! He warily watched as the self-proclaimed shinobi stomped about periodically shouting. He wondered briefly if he should attempt to once again restrain him, before deciding at this point, it would do more harm than good.After all, it caused a fireball a moment ago,he mused, completely forgetting that he was equally as responsible for nearly incinerating everyone.
"You could have freaking TOLD ME what was going on, you know!" There was a momentary pause, "What do you mean, you were having fun!HOW WAS ANY OF THIS FUN?I've told you before, you stupid fox, I won't give in to you. I know your tricks and I don't care how close I was then, youtrickedme!" Chest heaving, he stood giving the wall a death-glare.
The former alchemist couldn't resist, "Are you quite done yet, stupid?" he heckled, as he helped his brother to his feet.
"YOU!" The blond rounded on him, pointing "Stop calling me that, right now!"
"Ok then, Fox-boy."
"I'm Naruto. I'm not a freaking fox." The finger jabbed the blond's navel, "He's a fox, Kyuubi." His finger thumped himself in his chest "I'm a human, dammit."
Where have I heard that word before?It was some time ago, he knew it, but for the life of him he couldn't place where or when he had heard that word.
Ed snorted, "Seriously? You want us to call you 'fishcake'?"
"That's it! Ling and his stupid noodle-bowls!"
"That's not what it means!" The whiskered youth snapped, "It means 'Maelstrom'! It's an awesome name!" He pouted, "Though, I could really go for some pork ramen right now."
"Whatever you say, 'fishcake.'"
He flushed a bit, cheeks puffing out like a petulant child. Then he spotted the Brigadier General. "What the hell is your problem, anyway? You could have killed us all with that little stunt."
"You spat explosives at us!"
Naruto just blinked at him. "That would be really cool," came a slightly dazed response before he shook his head, "but I just spat some toad oil at you. I was hoping you'd be smart enough to not light OIL on FIRE!" It was then he noticed the others in the room. Roy looked back to see May staring at the strange creature, a smear of blood on her forehead. Mustang frowned,She must have hit the door frame.The blond returned her stare for a moment before sighing. Then he bowed to her. "I'm sorry." He straightened up, looking a shocked Mustang in the eyes, "I still think it was your fault, though."
"Why the hell are you apologizing to her then? And why don't I get an apology, you held me hostage!" Shouted Edward as he stomped up to the other blond.
"I wouldn't have had to if you had gotten out of my way. I'm not sorry about that. Iamsorry that Kyuubi destroyed one of your buildings. The bijuu are like that, they destroy everything if you let them."
"Wha..."
Fullmetal cut him off, "If you're human, what the hell was with your eyes a moment ago? And how did you manage to cut that chain? The oil thing was kind of cool, though. Does the makeup come with the eye-thing?"
A few quick notes, which I just totally forgot what I was going to say.
...
...
...
ah...
Here we go,notes, explanations as promised, a little self-defending of my ideas.
Did you know that the plural of sensei is sensei? You can use senseis, but that looks too much like Genesis to me... which makes me think of Nintendo, and Sonic...and then I get sidetracked again.
1
So, basically, a quick recap, since I'm sure there's going to be some confusion. Damage the seal, and it kind of sucks for the fox. Remember when he met his dad in front of the Kyuubi's cage? His stomach was pouring ink (or whatever) and that made me think "What would happen if you just...pealed off the seal?' and then I thought of what Orochi-teme and Ero-sennin did (BONZAI!). This is the result.
2
For those of you who caught on that Naruto was angrier and the fox's appearances were frequent, YAY you get a cookie. YES, the fox had been messing with Naruto the whole time. KyuubiIS the embodiment of rage and anger; basically, he really is Wrath, of you think about it. All the beasts kind of are . It's known that Bijuu affect the host and can influence them. This is covered repeatedly in the manga, and how Naruto's different, because he didn't give in. Kyuubi's upped the ante when they woke up in the Fox-form, and kept it up. (I know Killer-Bee has come to an agreement with the eight tails and Naruto does with Kyuubi, but that didn't happen until after the Pein battle.)
3
The memory flash (A memory tickled him as he waited, "Scar, again please." Something about being in balance...a weird place... "A little deeper this time." Quickly he pushed back the emerging memory, knowing he'd only have moments to enact his crazy plan. ) is Naruto starting to remember his little trip through the gate. That would be why he's flipping out at the fox after the fireball. When he goes Sage, he remembered, finally. I'm a 'mean and rotten person' and I'm not going to post that whole interaction in this chapter, or the next. Heck, it might end up being an Omake add on at the end because it gives stuff away, dammit. The memory did cause him to lose control over his nature chakra, which is why he's back to normal when he's ranting. Hey, I think I would want to rant and rave too if I found out a stupid giant fox had been tainting all my thoughts for the last few days, making everything a lot harder.
4
And for those of you who are like "Come on, he wouldn't forgive them and just start talking like that!" Firstly, he hasn't forgiven them, he's being ADD and riding the battle high. (He's also kinda figured out that they don't work with Pein. What can I say, he was slow.) Secondly, thisIS Naruto we're talking about. Sasuke killed him two times in the battle of the end, and he STILL wants to go 'Save his best friend' at this point in the Naru-verse. He seems to have a thing for friends who've tried to kill him. I'm not saying he's gonna give them the keys to his apartment and tell them to drop by anytime. There's still going to be some 'altercations' and general dick-ery on all sides. It's just going to be a lot less one sided now, and dialogue is going to be happening.
5
GoneFishing, YAY I finally got to use fishcake. That makes me so ridiculously happy, you wouldn't believe it. And hungry. I have yet to eat dinner and it's late.
6
I'm going to try and work on the next chapter and get it up this weekend. I promise. I'm working on making these longer, and less cliffie-ish, but believe it or not, if I stopped where I've written to it is worse. Sorry all, I think in cliffhangers. That way, I know I'll get started right away, because Iwanna know what's gonna freakin happen!