Okay, so this isn't the Christmas chapp I promised. I thought this whole library thing would only take up a few pages and I could fit most of the Christmas chapp in this, but...of COURSE...my creative juices chose NOW to start flowing after having writer's block for this AND my Bleach fic.
Stuff I seriously, totally, absolutely LOVE to write for and update.
...Damn writer's block. -_-+
Well, anyway. MERRY LATE CHRISTMAS! AND...WHATEVER ELSE YOU CELEBRATE! ^_^;
Read, review, REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW AND REVIEW SOME MORE AFTER THAT! ...And ENJOOOOY! :D
Oh, and a warning: explanations are included in this. Meaning, things a lot of people already know. Namely the long paragraphs in which Luna's reading out loud to herself (typical manga/anime move, no? XD). Feel free to skim those little monologues of hers, but I wouldn't skip them entirely. Just in case I screwed something up, it'd be awesome if someone told me ^^;
Weeeelll...NOW you may enjoy! ...I SAID NAO.
Konoha's Archive Library was located within the Hokage Mountain. And man, was it huge. Luna walked in and stared wide-eyed at all the shelves upon shelves of books and papers. There weren't too many people there, which was surprising to her.
If Luna had access to such an expansive record of ninja history, she'd be coming all the time. Then again...these people lived that history, and she didn't. So maybe they already knew all the answers their library held.
But Luna sure didn't know the answers, and demanding them from Naruto or Sakura would take all day. She'd much rather get the answers from something that wouldn't give her a headache halfway through the explanation.
Luna slowly walked between a few aisles, scanning titles. After realizing she had no clue what any of these titles referred to, having not even known ninjas existed before coming to Konoha, she sighed heavily and took random books off their shelves. She flipped through the pages of the first one after getting a huge stack.
"'Upon becoming a shinobi, one must abide by specific rules when out in the field: a shinobi must always put the mission first. A shinobi must never show tears. A shinobi must see underneath the underneath. A shinobi must never question their leading ninja. A shinobi must prepare before it is too late,'" she read to herself.
...Huh. Naruto hardly follows any of those! And yet...I still think he's one of the most skilled I've seen. How odd...
"'Most come from a hidden village, of which some come from specialized ninja clans, and will perform missions for a fee. These missions can include: doing manual labor, acting as escorts, gathering secret information, retrieving stolen items, carrying out assassinations, etc. In times of war, ninja will come together to defend their villages and land. The clearest characteristic of a shinobi is their ability to manipulate chakra to create and use jutsu.' And jutsu...Well, I know what that is. Finally, something I do know," she muttered to herself, flipping through the rest of the book. Finding nothing else interesting, she looked at the titles of the other books she'd picked up and found one labeled "Tailed Beasts".
Luna opened it carefully, sneezing from all the dust that was stirred. Guess no one bothered to look for the actual facts on the tailed beasts since they have one living right here in Konoha...
The first few pages explained that the beasts had tails varying from one to nine, and that they were basically living forms of chakra. "'However, this immense strength is tempered due to their bestial nature, which restricts them from being intelligent enough to use it effectively. When tailed beasts are sealed within humans, they are able to benefit from the knowledge of their hosts, giving them the ability to speak and better utilize their powers.'" Luna flipped through a few more pages until she reached a summary as to the beasts' shared history.
"'In the beginning of ninja history, centuries before the founding of the ninja villages, there existed one demon, the Ten-Tailed Beast, that plagued the world until the Sage of the Six Paths defeated and sealed the beast within himself, making him the first jinchuuriki. However, knowing that his death would release the Ten-Tails back into the world, the Sage used lzanagi to divide its chakra into the nine other tailed beasts, before using Chibaku Tensei to seal its body away in what would become the moon. By the time of the formation of the shinobi villages, Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage, used his Wood Release techniques to capture and give several tailed beasts to the other shinobi villages as peace treaties, in order to stabilize the balance of power between them. However, after Hashirama's death, the villages had trouble containing these giant demons themselves and they began to run wild, so the villages instead moved to seal the tailed beasts within humans. In order to ensure that the jinchuuriki wouldn't turn traitor, it has been common practice to choose the jinchuuriki from the village's Kage family, such as a sibling or a spouse. The strength of the jinchuuriki would then be used to protect the village and be a living display of the Kage's power.'"
Luna let out a whoosh of air, inadvertently making dust go everywhere, and she promptly had another sneeze fit. "...Now how come I wasn't sneezing all the time in the Manor of Sleep?" she wondered to herself with a sweatdrop. "I really hope it didn't make me develop an intolerance for dust."
Then she sighed for a different reason entirely. "So that's why it was put inside Naruto – he's related to a Kage, right? But...who had it before him? And why did the responsibility fall on his shoulders at such a young age?" she wondered to herself. "...As to the early age...maybe it was to get him used to such a huge burden. But still...so many things could've gone wrong...!"
Luna shook her head, going back to put the two books up. Knowing her, she'd forget to later, and she didn't want people to know what she was researching. As she did so, a symbol caught her eye on one of the spines. Luna put the book on shinobi up slowly, peering up at the mysterious book. It was on the seventh shelf up. She couldn't entirely make out the symbol, nor did she really know why she was so fixated with it, but she decided it was worth looking at anyway.
"...Dammit," she muttered suddenly as a really depressing thought struck her: "I...I'm too short!" She'd never had to admit that out loud before, but now, there it was. Dammit.
With a sigh, she looked around for one of those tall ladders she'd seen, but it was nowhere to be found. "Dammit," she repeated in a hiss, securing her foot on the second shelf before hoisting herself up.
FOUR MINUTES LATER...
After lots of grunting and hand-waving, she finally got a hold of the book. How was she repaid? She fell off the shelves,all seven feet, landing flat on her back. Hard.
"Owww," she groaned, sitting up and rubbing the middle of her back slowly. Sure she was a tough Agent. Badass, even. But dammit, that hurt!
She looked down at the book, hoping it was really fricking worth it. There was no title on the cover, and even if there was, she wouldn't have been able to read it. It was layered thick with dust. After opening the cover, she was able to get a good look at the symbol, located under the title: it was a spiral.
Just like the one on the back of Naruto's jacket, and on the sleeves of a lot of jonin's jackets. "...'The Uzumaki Clan'?" she read slowly. So...Naruto DOES have family! Hoping to give him some good news about his apparent "clan", Luna flipped through the pages eagerly.
"Hmm...let's see...ah-HA! The Uzumaki clan was a prominent clan in Uzushiogakure. They were distant relatives of the Senju clan and thus both clans were on good terms; an alliance that extended onto their Hidden Villages – Konohagakure and Uzushiogakure.' ...Wait...WAIT...Was? Oh, don't tell me..." she impatiently skimmed down to the bottom paragraph, and her face fell.
"'Members of this clan were very knowledgeable of fuinjutsu. This reputation earned them renown and fear worldwide, which eventually led to the destruction of Uzushio, and the rest of the Land of Whirlpools during the era of Shinobi World Wars.' So...they're all dead? Except for Naruto...Dammit."
Luna huffed before sneezing some more. "That still doesn't tell me why HE was the one they put the Fox into. Was it just random?"
"...Y'know, if you want answers, you can always just ask," came her rather loud reply from her right. She jumped, falling right out of her chair, and a random librarian let out a rather loud "SHHHH!".
"Sorry!"
"SH!"
"Sorry!"
"SHHHH!"
"Dammit, I SAID I WAS SOR- Mmmph!" Luna exclaimed indignantly as Naruto clapped a hand over her mouth. "Stop apologizing, jeez. It just makes her angrier, trust me," he muttered with a shudder as the librarian continued to glare at them from above the top of her book. "Personal experience of yours?" Luna asked, but it came out like a bunch of muffled mush thanks to Naruto.
As soon as she went back to her reading, Naruto started laughing as quietly as possible. So Luna promptly hit him over the head with a book about his own clan after struggling to sit up, having been tangled up with the legs of the chair. "Ow!"
"SHHH!"
Naruto rolled his eyes, and the librarian made a "Hmmph!" noise before turning the page of her paperback. Luna crossed her arms across her middle, pouting up at him. "The hell are you doing here? Furthermore, WHY are you here?"
"Aren't those questions basically asking the same thing?"
"Does it matter? Answer them."
He rolled his eyes. "Well, why do you THINK I'm here? I'm definitely not coming here to read."
"So, you're here becaaaausee," she prompted, spinning her finger in a "Yeah, go on" kind of motion. Naruto shrugged. "I'm here 'cause you're here. Why else?"
Luna eyed him suspiciously. "How'd you know I was here in the first place?"
He pointed at himself confidently. "'Cause I know the trick to finding ANYBODY!"
"SHHHH!"
They both jumped, waiting for the old lady to go back to her book before talking again. "There's a trick to finding people?" Luna wondered. "What is it?"
"Can't tell ya. Then it wouldn't be a trick if any random idiot could do it!"
"I am NOT an idiot!" she whispered defensively, eyeing the librarian warily. She didn't look up, so Luna turned up her nose defiantly at him and continued. "I am a highly intellectual being, thank you very much!"
"...Yeah. Okay. Sure you are. That's why I saw you fall on your back trying to get that book earlier, AND that's why you had no idea I've been watching you that long judging by that look on your face," he said smugly.
Luna opened her mouth to protest, closed it, paused, opened it again, then sighed. "...Yeah, okay, you got me there. Anyway, whaddaya want?"
"Well, what do YOU want?"
"Huh?"
"You were looking for something, weren't you? Obviously it was something about me, what else would you be looking for?"
"Just because I'm looking for something, doesn't mean it has anything to do with you," she replied matter-of-factly. Naruto flashed his smug grin again. "Huh. Weird, since I heard you talking about me just a few minutes ago. Maybe you just like the sound of my name?"
"Ha! No. Okay, yes, fine, I was doing...research."
Naruto sweatdropped. "...Stalker."
BAM!
"Owwww!"
"SHHHH!"
"SHH YOURSELF!" Naruto shouted back at the librarian, rubbing his poor head tenderly. Luna's temple continued to throb, holding up the bookend threateningly. "Want some more?"
"NO."
"I was merely. Doing. Research. And it wasn't on YOU, it was on shinobi in general."
"And you just HAPPENED to pick up a book about the Nine-Tails?" Naruto asked skeptically, still rubbing his head. To be fair, she had hit him with the sharp end of the bookend. I hope he's not bleeding...That librarian'll probably make him clean it up...
Luna sighed in defeat. "Okay, maybe I was hoping to find some info on that, too. ...Sorry about your head," she muttered, flashing an apologetic smile for about three seconds. It was then replaced by a thoughtful frown. "Naruto?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you have any clue as to...why they chose to put the Fox inside you? And at such a young age?" she asked carefully.
Naruto sat in a chair and propped his feet up onto the table as if she'd asked him how he'd been doing after not seeing him in a while or something. "Weeelll, that's a bit of a long story."
"We've got nothing but time," she replied simply, sitting on the table and swinging her legs haphazardly. He frowned to himself. "I hate it when you say that."
"All the more reason to say it, Naruto." He stuck his tongue out at her in reply, and she huffed. He just smirked to himself before putting his hands behind his head smugly. "Well, since you're begging me for information and all..." he started, obviously waiting for her to protest. She didn't, ready for him to just fricking tell her already.
He drooped a little at that, but continued anyway. "Weeelll, according to my mom, the Uzumaki clan had good vitality or whatever, so that's why she was chosen to be the jinchuuriki to the Nine-Tails. That and the fact that she had those chakra chains of hers, making her a great host. 'Great host'...ugh, makes me sick. Anyway...apparently she was the second...or was it third? ...Either way, she wasn't the first. ...Yeah, I think she was the second. THEN AGAIN, it could've been that she-"
"JUST GET ON WITH IT!" she screeched, making the hair blow right out of his face as he chibified and shrunk in his seat with fear.
"SHH!" the librarian hissed, making Luna slowly swivel her head so the librarian could see her maniacally-pissed expression. She promptly ducked her head back behind her book, making Naruto snicker to himself. "...You were saying," Luna said in a dangerous voice, making him stop laughing immediately.
"Oh. Right. Well, anyway, since she was the host of the Nine-Tails, they had to do special stuff for when she went into labor with me. Something about the seal on the Fox being weak during the whole thing or something. So they went off to somewhere secret so she could have me, but then a little while after I was born, Madara Uchiha found out where they were."
"Madara Uchiha? What, is he related to Sasuke?"
"Well, sorta. He's part of the Uchiha clan, just like Sasuke."
"Well, what happened to him?"
Naruto's temple throbbed. "CAN WE GET BACK TO ME INSTEAD OF DAMN SASUKE? JEEZ, JUST LIKE SAKURA! IT'S 'CAUSE HE BOUGHT YOU THAT DAMN MILKSHAKE, ISN'T IT?"
"THE HELL DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING?"
"IT HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH EVERYTHING!"
"...WHAT? DO YOU HEAR YOURSELF WHEN YOU TALK, OR IS IT JUST LIKE SOME KIND OF WHITE NOISE IN YOUR BRAIN? Oh, wait, what am I saying? YOU HAVE NO BRAIN!"
"I DO TOO! A BIGGER ONE THAN YOU!"
"SHHHH!"
"YOU SHHHH!" they both shouted at the librarian, whose temple throbbed before going back to her book.
Luna sighed as his temple continued to throb, ready for him to just explain everything already. "...Sorry. My fault. Go ahead."
"THANK you. Anyway, where was I? Oh, right, Uchiha. So he found 'em and forced the Nine-Tails outta my mom's body. Thanks to the vitality she had, being an Uzumaki, she lived for a while and took care of me while my dad took on the Fox with a lot of Konoha's ninjas. And...in the end, mom died, and dad sacrificed himself for the rest of Konoha...and for me. To put the Nine-Tails in me. So...that's all. No huge complex reason or anything, just...survival."
Luna crossed her arms thoughtfully. "That sounds...kind of...twisted. No offense. I mean, I just can't imagine parents doing that to their kid; leaving them all alone like that with a demon inside them."
Naruto grinned. "That's 'cause you're looking at it wrong."
"...I am?" she asked, obviously confused. "I was quite sure I was merely listening, I wasn't looking at anything but you, so-"
"It's an expression, Loon. What I mean is, it wasn't that they were giving me a lonely life. It was them giving me life, period. I mean, what would've happened if they hadn't sealed away the Nine-Tails? It would've killed me, since it had already tried to, and it probably would've destroyed most or all of Konoha. Plus, he thought I could use the power to one day defeat Madara once and for all. And, you know...besides. People do crazy things for love."
Luna shrugged. "If you say so. I still think love is stupid."
He sighed and rolled his eyes. "I know ya do." Naruto then poked her with his foot, making her squawk in surprise and tumble right off the table. He started laughing as she glared up at him, blowing the hair out of her eyes impatiently. "See? If you were in love with someone, they would've caught you just then!"
"Shut up. JUST SHUT UP!"
That just made Naruto laugh even more, and she bit her lip to keep from smiling before standing up. She made a huge show of stomping as she went to put up the damn book on his damn clan. Luna clambered back up the shelves and slid the book back in its place, but as she was about to hop down, she lost her footing. "CRAP!" she hissed, flailing mid-air, but she never hit the ground.
Because Naruto caught her.
"Y'know, for an Agent, you're so clumsy it makes you predictable," he said matter-of-factly. Luna's temple throbbed, and she made a point of kicking him in the gut as she scrambled out of his arms. "OW!"
"SHHH!"
"YEAH, WE GET IT, BUT THIS PSYCHOTIC CHICK OVER HERE JUST KICKED THE WIND OUTTA ME!"
"...You sure recovered it quickly, your mouth seems to be working just fine. ...Unfortunately," Luna said dully. That just made his temple throb even more, and she coughed to stifle her laugh. "...Can we just leave this hellhole now?" Naruto asked.
Luna rolled her eyes and nodded, pushing her chair in like the good library visitor she was. "Sure. ...Big baby," she said under her breath.
He promptly stuck his foot out and tripped her. So she attacked him from behind almost before she had even really got up, jumping onto his back as they both started shouting at each other.
...And then the librarian used genjutsu to kick both their asses and make them practically run out of the damn archive library.