A/N: This is my first try as an author so bear with me. English isn't my first language so don't hesitate to pm me with any fault you find, I am always eager to learn.
This is the moment a lot of you have been waiting for, or how the hell am I gonna have Naruto free Natsuki if he doesn't have the Key to the Shiki Fuujin. Since he didn't sign the Toad contract with Jiraya, many assumed it would be impossible for him to get it. I was quite surprised no one guessed how I would do it. Well, let's see how it goes then.
Sorry I've been updating less regularly as of late, work finally picked up with the new year and I have less time to write during the week. I'll try to publish more this weekend.
Anyway, welcome to the next chapter of Kaze No Kami.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other manga for that matter.
Chapter 31: The Key
Namikaze Compound
Naruto sat in the library room, he felt safe there inside the sealed room that only his blood could bypass. In front of him, on a desk, were the notes his father left on the Shiki Fuujin. After a first reading of the scroll's content, Naruto had to admit that it was the pinnacle of the sealing arts. Its complexity was pushed to a level no one has ever reached before. The young Namikaze clan head had to thank Jiraya again for his teachings, for without him Naruto would have never been able to even comprehend how incredible that particular seal his father made is.
He had in the past already studied his fair share of high level sealing jutsu, through the Uzumaki Clan Scroll. Developing the youki converting seal he currently had above his heart was also achieved from upgrading an old Uzumaki sealing jutsu. Judging from the notes he had before his eyes, Naruto could tell his father was a genius when it came to fuinjutsu techniques.
The Shiki Fuujin was designed to store half of Natsuki's youki inside Minato, the caster, while the other half was sealed inside the target, Naruto. However, like everything on Earth, there is a way to counter balance the seal, the Key. It was created at the same time the seal was formed and has the ability to open the lock of the seal without instantly killing Naruto in the process.
"That's it ! The reason I never could access more than five tails of your power, I only house half of your youki Na-chan." Naruto said.
"That makes sense, no matter how you look at it, you were too young and fragile at the time for your father to seal all of my youki inside you." Replied Natsuki.
"I need to find out what my father did with that Key though. According to the notes he shouldn't have had the time to really go far away with it since the jutsu cost him his life as soon as the process was complete." Naruto added.
"Then the only possible explanation is that he gave it to someone trustworthy who was also there that night." Natsuki continued.
"Jiji was there that night ! He was the one who took me back to the village, my father must have entrusted the Key to him." Naruto said as he stood up and made his way out of the room.
"What are you planning to do ?" Asked the vixen.
"I'll go to the old man's family compound and ask him about it." Naruto replied.
"What will you tell him ? I thought you said he would be against you experimenting on the seal." Natsuki asked.
"Just the truth, Jiji already knows about you anyway and I think we can trust him with the plan to save you and upgrade my power to the last level of the bloodline." Naruto replied as he went out of his house and ran to the Sarutobi Clan Compound.
Sarutobi Compound
The old man's compound was not very far from his own house, Naruto had only been there once in the past when he was running away from a mob of civilian trying to harm him, the Sandaime found him in the streets and brought him inside his house.
As he arrived, Naruto saw Hiruzen tending to his plants in the garden.
"Hey Jiji, how are you doing ?" Naruto asked.
"I'm fine my boy, what are you doing here ?" The former Kage replied.
"I need to speak with you about something personal, can we go to a secure place to talk about it ?" Naruto said with a serious tone.
"Sure follow me inside." Hiruzen said as he went inside his manor, Naruto followed shortly after him.
They went through the manor, the Sandaime then finally stopped inside a huge room, it was the family dojo. When Naruto entered the room suddenly glowed, signaling that his Jiji just sealed it.
"This should be good enough, we can freely talk here, I often used this room when I trained or developed new jutsu in secrecy and the seal is as powerful as the one in the Hokage office." The old man said getting a nod from Naruto.
"Thanks Jiji, now I'll go straight to the point, I found my father's notes on the Shiki Fuujin." Announced the blond jonin.
"I see, what can I do for you ? Surely you know better than me about fuinjutsu nowadays, I'm no beginner but it was never my forte either." Replied Hiruzen.
Naruto sighed, judging from his reaction, the old man was obviously not aware of the existence of the Key. Naruto decided to trust his instinct and told him the whole story anyway, the Key, what he needed it for and his previous assumptions about its whereabouts.
"I'm sorry Naruto-kun, I was indeed there the night of the attack sixteen years ago but Minato never entrusted me with this Key you speak about. When I found you, after the barrier your father used dispelled, there was nothing that looked like a Key." Hiruzen told him.
"If it's not you then who ? Ero-sennin was not there that night, he told me he was in a spying mission at the time. My mother died that day too so it cannot be her either." Naruto analyzed out loud.
Hiruzen replayed the scene in his head, from the moment everyone in the village heard the explosion noises caused by the rampaging Kyuubi to the moment when Minato appeared on the battlefield, riding on top of Gamabunta.
"Of course ! How could I forget ! Another ally was also there with your father that night, when he arrived on the battlefield, he was on top of his toad summon, Gamabunta." Hiruzen said.
"Then it's the toads, they have it ! Thank you so much Jiji, now I know where to look for the Key." Naruto added with a smile.
"Do you, now ? May I remind you that since you didn't sign the toad contract, you lost the only chance you had to contact them when Fukasaku-sama left." The Sandaime replied. Naruto's eyes widened, he completely forgot about that.
Seeing his surrogate grandson sad face, Hiruzen chuckled and then spoke again.
"Well there's still a way to get to them even without their contracts, I'm not sure whether it will work or not though." The Sandaime said.
"Really ? Please tell me Jiji." Naruto pleaded.
"I've heard stories about the summon creatures that we call into our world with the summoning contracts, a legend says that they all come from the same world. It is a sealed place only accessible via summoning or reverse summoning techniques. If it's true, then I assume that this summoning world must be divided in area where each type of summon creature rule over one area. The ruler of the Monkey clan is Enma while the one from the Toad clan is Gamabunta and finally the Dragon King is Ryuoh. Each of them controls an area of that summon world." Sarutobi explained.
"So if I could somehow able to convince the Dragon King to help me, then I may still be able to reach the Toad's realm !" Naruto finally said getting a nod from the Sandaime.
The blond then left and made his way towards his own home.
Otogakure – Underground Base
It had been three weeks since Kabuto started the preparations for his master's soul transfer jutsu. During that time, the snake's health just kept getting worse, as Naruto's Rasenshuriken damages were spreading inside his body. Orochimaru had been bedridden ever since they came back from the fight with Naruto and Jiraya in Kusagakure.
"I have good news my lord, the preparations are finally over for your soul transfer technique." Announced Kabuto as he came into the room.
"Good, have you poisoned his food and water as planed too ?" Replied the sannin.
"Yes the first symptoms shall appear when you confront him." Kabuto said with a smirk.
"Kukuku, the moment of my resurrection has finally come, today I shall obtain the Sharingan." Orochimaru said.
"I will summon Sasuke to your room immediately then." Kabuto said as he left his master's room.
As Kabuto reached the door of his master's room he stopped right outside, in the corridor. The medic then knelt to the ground and bowed his head down in front of a person.
"Is everything ready Kabuto ?" Asked the shadow.
"Yes my lord, Orochimaru has been fed the poison as you ordered and he won't put much of a fight. His body has now been weakened to the max from his last fight, to the extend that he can barely channel any chakra anymore." Kabuto replied.
"What about the other bases and their commanders ?" The mysterious voice asked again.
"They have all been killed and replaced by new commanders, loyal to you only my Lord." Kabuto informed him.
"How long do I have once you activate the temporary counter seal to his curse seal ?" Asked the voice.
"You will have one hour before he can use the seal against you again." Kabuto replied.
"Alright, stay here. I will go deal with Orochimaru once and for all." The shadow said as he slowly moved out of the dark corner and his face was finally visible.
"Yes Uchiha-sama." Kabuto said, still knelling in front of his new master.
"Chidori Eiso !" Sasuke said as a lightning beam left his extended hand and went through the wall of Orochimaru's room.
The lightning spear pierced Orochimaru's body and the sannin started to bleed profusely.
As Sasuke went inside the room to finish his opponent, Orochimaru tried to use the curse seal to force Sasuke to obey him but it didn't work.
"Surprised that your little seal doesn't work anymore ?" Sasuke taunted.
"How ..." Asked Orochimaru as he felt his body go numb, most likely from the lightning spear that pierced his upper body.
"You should really pay more attention to your subordinates, and to never trust someone who already betrayed his last master to join you." The Uchiha replied.
"So you betrayed me too … Kabuto." Slowly said the snake sennin as he tried to play his last card.
Orochimaru tried to summon his last forces and go for the jutsu anyway but it failed, whatever Kabuto gave him during those three weeks, it was not healing him, quite the opposite.
"You should start feeling it now, you have been fed with the poison you planned to use on Uchiha-sama. Now you have no more chakra and no energy left either." Kabuto said as he entered the room too.
"Why ?" Asked Orochimaru.
"You wanna know why ? You've changed, you're not the strong person you were in the past anymore. Lately every plan you set in motion ended in failure. I've decided to follow a stronger man, your era is over, you will now join your ex teammate in the afterlife." Replied the medic shinobi.
Before Orochimaru could reply again, Sasuke took the Kusanagi that was laying on the floor besides the snake's bed and cut off his head.
"I did not come here to hear your talk with your former master, I am the new leader here now. Clean this up and go gather everyone." Said Sasuke as he made his way out of the room.
"Yes Uchiha-sama." Said Kabuto as he looked back at the retreating form of the Nidaime Otokage.
Namikaze Compound
Naruto was inside his compound's walls, in his personal training ground. He went through hand signs and called his jutsu.
"Ninpo : Kuchiyose no jutsu !" He yelled while slamming his hands on the floor.
As the smoke generated from the summoning jutsu settled down, Hiryu the fire dragon made its appearance.
"What can I do for you today, Naruto-sama ?" Asked the dragon.
"I need to speak with Ryuoh-sama, could you ask him to reverse summon me to your realm please ?" Naruto replied.
"Very well, Naruto-sama. I will go inform our King of your request." The dragon said back, then it dispelled itself.
Naruto forgot to ask how long it would take for Hiryu to actually get an audience with its leader. The blond was about to get back inside his house when he disappeared in a poof of smoke himself.
Summon World – Dragon's Realm
Naruto reappeared in a familiar place, the mountain where he met Ryuoh the Dragon King for the first time when he signed the contract three years ago.
"What can I do for you Naruto ?" Asked the Ryuoh as the Dragon King landed right in front of the blond.
Naruto bowed down as he greeted the leader of the dragons, then he told him the reason of his visit.
"Yes you have been well informed, all the summoned creature come from this world. They all belong to one of the numerous lands like the one we're currently in." Ryuoh announced, making the blond in front of him smile.
"Then can you show me the way to the Toad's area ?" Naruto asked.
"You are very lucky that the Toad are a part of the alliance we the Dragon Clan belong to. Had it not been the case I would have not been able to help you in meeting them. It is usually highly forbidden for us to bring our summoner out of our area of control." Replied Ryuoh.
"Thank you for your help, I will immediately take my leave then." Naruto said as he called Hiryu.
Summon World - Toad's Area
It took two hours from the Dragon's Realm to reach the Area of the Toad Clan for Naruto and Hiryu. As soon as they landed, the moment Naruto's foot reach the ground, they were surrounded by Toads.
"Identify yourselves ! What does a dragon do here, with a human no less ?" Asked one of the toads.
"Shut up Gamatatsu ! They are the guests that came to visit us as the Great Elder Sage has predicted." Yelled another toad.
"Sorry Gamakichi, I've never seen a human before, I was a bit scarred." Replied the first toad.
Naruto was about to yell at both of them to stop arguing with each other when a familiar voice spoke.
"Shut up both of you ! What are you doing here Naruto-chan ?" Asked Fukasaku as he appeared on the scene and dismissed all the other toads.
"I came to ask you about something my father may have entrusted one of you the day of my birth, he calls it the Key in his notes. It's important, I really need to know who my father summoned among the toads on that day." Naruto explained.
"I see, you are correct in your assumption that your father entrusted us with the protection of the Key. However, just because he was your father, we won't give you the Key until you can prove that you deserve it." Replied the Elder Toad.
"I understand, what do I need to do in order to prove that I deserve it ?" Asked Naruto respectfully.
"Come with me, Our Great Elder Sage foresaw your arrival, riding on one of our allies from the Dragon Clan. Listen very carefully when we reach his place, he will reveal to you your destiny." Added Fukasaku.
"Did Ero-sennin had his fate revealed to him in the same manner I'm about to ?" Naruto asked.
"Yes Jiraya-chan came here in the past, he had his fate revealed to him in the same manner you are about to in a few moments." Replied Fukasaku.
"Great ! Then I can't wait to see that Mega Elder Toad that already met Ero-sennin in the past." Naruto said with conviction in his voice.
A/N : What do you think ?
Naruto learns about the Key in his father's notes and decides to take a trip in Summoning World. The manga was a bit unclear when they said how Jiraya managed to get there so I decided to make up the Summoning world, only reaching it with the summoning contracts.
We got ourselves a new Otokage, the most interesting part about it is who betrayed Orochimaru to allow this to happen. What team will Sasuke form after this ? I'll remind you guys that the emo still haven't reach the Mangekyo Sharingan yet.
What fate will Naruto receive from the Senile Toad, not saying that my Naruto will suddenly believe in the fate crap thing Neji used to speak about when they were younger. Still if he has to do it order to get the Key then he doesn't really care.
As Usual please Read and Review.