Chapter 9: Regrouping
Naruto lied on the blood-covered bridge, body wracked with unholy pain. He could feel his body turn on itself, an inner war that would doom him. Kyubi screamed at his vessel, trying to get his voice to reach the vessel on the verge of death. The age-old bijuu had been analyzing the situation and, as much as he might not like helping the child, it knew that this was one of those time.
'Kit, KIT! Focus! We're dieing! Thanks to your unstable body, my youkai is causing your body to break apart! You need to work here with me kit! Your body is breaking down faster than it can heal and without building materials we are going to die! Now FOCUS! I know its hard but we need meat! Raw, fresh flesh and blood! You hear me kit? We need flesh and blood!'
Poor Naruto, his world comprising mostly of pain, could barely hear the being inside of him. Few words registered on his mind, flesh and blood. It seemed important. Naruto knew it and while he was having a hard time, he used the last reserves of energy he had, while he had them, to speak. "F-f-flesh... g-give... m-me... f-flesh... raw... blood... n-need m-meat..." It was all he could get out before he was out of the little energy he had and screamed in pain. A pain that got even Sakura to look at his direction, so completely overwhelming it seemed. The poor villagers didn't know what to do. They wanted to help him, but they couldn't, no living being should live in such pain. Kurenai and Kakashi on the other hand, worried about something else. Even if Naruto survived, he would probably be changed. He had just killed, no massacred, a hundred humans, used the power of a demon and his body started falling apart. The physical and mental pain could tear him apart... and if that happened Kyubi...
Hinata and Haku heard his request and could only ask Shino to take care of it. The Aburame merely nodded before hounding off to find some animal to kill and get to his friend while the two medics helped Naruto stay amongst the living. Kiba, who had finally regained some mobility watched in horror as his packmate died a slow, dishonorable death. He glanced to his dog partner, who nodded in reply to Kiba's unasked question and the pair ran off to the surrounding forest to help as much as he could, even as he was tired from his fight against Haku. If Naruto could endure that pain so would he.
Haku and Hinata, aided by Kakashi and surprisingly enough Zabuza, took the trembling Naruto to Tazuna's home to take better care of him. Kurenai... was beside herself with worry. Being a friend of Anko's she knew just how Anko trained a potential student and taking into account Naruto's... past, his pain threshold should be way, way above most people's imagination. Yet to hear him scream in pain... Anko herself had told her that Naruto had enough of a pain threshold to take a tanto through his gut (one of the most painful wounds possible, often compared in intencity with a strike to the genitals) without so much as grunting. To hear him scream in agony... Kami above, even if he got through this ordeal alive, his mind could be shattered. Thankfully enough, Kurenai, being a genjutsu specialist, knew of the workings of the mind, enough to at least identify some heavy problems before they became to heavy to treat.
Kiba and Akamaru were literally scouring the entire forest in search for meat, their muscles resisting every motion and their chakra painful since they had taken two hyorongan (soldier pill, near-instant restoration of chakra at the cost of physical pain from the strain when moulding, daily safety limit is three, four or more could cause death by chakra depletion or physical exhaustion). Kiba had already been lucky enough for Akamaru to spot a pair of rabbits in a hole, which he had bagged already, but Kiba suspected from the severity of the wounds that it would probably not be enough. Suddenly his radio buzzed, it was Shino.
"Inuzuka-san, I have located a possible prey, an aged deer. Return to the client's home, I shall be there shortly."
Kiba merely grunted in reply before making way at their 'HQ'. Quickly making way at the screaming Naruto's room, he unsealed the two rabbits from a scroll and tossed them to Hinata before slumping down in a heap. His packmate had earned some more time and Shino was bringing up the rear. Kiba managed to give a weak smile to Akamaru before falling asleep.
Hinata quickly took out a kunai and cut the rabbit to pieces. Her chakra was so low it hurt to even hold her hands steady when patching Naruto up as much as she could in her limited resources. Quickly making way to Naruto she literally gutted it open, letting the blood, gore and intestines fall into Naruto's mouth, while Haku lifted the poor boy's head up so he wouldn't choke.
Naruto could feel a taste through his pain, a taste calling to him, he knew he had to eat it, even though he could barely move. Slowly the pained blonde started moving his jaw, feeling the life-giving liquid guzzle down his throat, chewing the slimy intestines of the meal that had been given to him, slowly needing more, he bit off more on his own, his body's needs overriding even the unimaginable pain he was under. Bite by bite, gulp by gulp, crushed and swallowed bone by crushed and swallowed bone, a messed up, horrid, disgusting, yet so needed meal went down Naruto's body, already being broken down even while in his esophagus.
Haku and Hinata watched as the tortured, semi-conscious boy ate the rabbit on his own, a hunger born of necessity. The rabbits were gone in a minute and both could see he was slightly better. It was not much but it was a considerable improvement over whatwas before. They knew he would need more soon though, the poor meal would only sustain him for so long. Taking their third hyorongan, knowing full well that they would probably faint in less than thirty minutes, feeling pain on every cell of their bodies as they pulled more chakra out of them than they were supposed to possess, the two medics got back to trieing to keep Naruto alive a little bit longer. They knew their pain was nothing compared to the pain he was in. What drew the attention of Haku, and at some point her fear as well, though was the fact that Naruto had seemed to slow down at a point. His heart beat had slowed down to a crawl, his breaths coming once every minute, even though by his screams he should have hyperventilated.
Shino was running through the forest, his prey secured on his holster via sealing scroll, its carcass still warm. Ignoring the door, he pushed some of his precious little chakra to his legs, leapt, and landed through the open window of Naruto's room. To his chagrin... he almost fell on poor Haku when he saw her placing Naruto's head on her lap trying to hold him still enough for Hinata to fix his eyes. Poor Shino froze and he didn't even know why he envied Naruto's position. Shino frowned, it was illogical, he would have to ask his otou-sama about this and maybe his okaa-sama. Quickly getting out of his predicament, with not a moment to waste he took out the dead deer and with his sharp and effective Kama slit its throat over Naruto's gasping mouth, blood staining both the floor and Haku's kimono, which considering the circumstances, didn't annoy her nearly as much as it should have.
Naruto drank hungrily from the blood of the animal, feeling it work its way to his own bloodstream, purifieing the carcinogenic cells that were created from Kyubi's youkai. Before anyone could hold him back, his hands shot forth, grasped the dead anima's throat and he pulled himself to the wound, trieing to drink as much as he could, as if his life depended on it, which it apparently did. After the flow slowed down to a trickle, Naruto bared his long canines and bit hard tearing through the anima's hide. Fortunately, Shino had had the mind to use his kama blades to quickly take off as much of the skin he could in the short time Naruto had literally been draining the poor animal dry.
Naruto's pain lessened with each bite he gulped down, the flesh being broken down to replace his own broken down flesh, spent to contain and repulse the 'tainted' flesh that used to be his own. Luckily Naruto found, this process allowed him to maintain his mutations, even if he didn't realize it at that specific time, being completely absorbed in devouring his fleshy meal. Kyubi on the other hand, had taken great care in cataloguing and understanding what had happened as well as help from his side on anything he could, especially directing Naruto's now operational natural healing capabilities.
If a medic opened up Naruto's stomach at that point, they would have been baffled at the sheer efficiency and speed of digestion. Naruto's body wasted absolutely nothing if it could help it, bones and flesh breaking down in what seemed like seconds, their nutrients distributed through Naruto's body at speeds that most human's bodies would be unable to compare to. Then again a Jinchuuriki with an unstable DNA chain was not normal. Naruto's body was completely replaced in a matter of a single hour, his entire blood volume in a mere 15 minutes while at the same time isolating the harmful cells that were the result of Kyubi's youkai.
Naruto slowly came to his logical senses as his pain dimmed, and the deer was little more than a hind leg and a head. Not even bones escaped Naruto's feeding frenzy as he needed to replace his entire sceletal structure. As he came around, he finally realized what had gone on in the room, Kiba lieing down next to him as Kurenai and Kakashi placed him, Haku asleep and Hinata almost knocked out and a tired Shino having what seemed like soldier's soup (soldier's soup is a mixture of highly nutritional ingredients that focus to give someone as much energy as possible without harming the body, its taste is absolutely horrid, but its value when in need of a quick, easy and nutritional meal without much hassle or difficulty of ingestion is unquestioned, Tsunade was one of the first to create bars that when boiled would bring forth this soup aided by the Akimichi clan, considered jounin-ranked equipment for extended missions, though most who know of its existence carry a bar or two anyway, some prefer to slowly munch on the bars themselves claiming it makes the taste at least bearable).
Naruto slowly got up, still feeling phantom pains, Kyubi congratulating him on his survival and gently laid a hand on an exhausted and nearly asleep Hinata. Shino had already tucked Haku in a futon, not that in her near-delirious haze, could she tell what happened. Hinata on the other hand had stubbornly refused to let her eyes closed before her Naruto-kun had recovered at least a bit. Naruto picked her up bridal-style, carried her over to her futon and covered her with a blanket before nodding to Shino and getting out of the room. After all, his comrade would need his rest as well.
Naruto calmly walked down the stairs in Tazuna's home, politely greeted the family, his sensei, Zabuza and Kakashi before excusing himself and going outside to, as he said, keep watch.
Kurenai lifted an eyebrow at his behaviour and signaled to Kakashi, something was wrong, she would check it out. After getting Kakashi's approval (after all he was ANBU and more experienced than her, meaning that even if she had overall command, his opinion mattered a lot) before going out after her student. Soon her fears were confirmed as she found Naruto mercilessly pounding on a stone.
"Weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, WEAK, WEAK, WEAK I'M SO GOD-DAMNED WEAK!"
CRACK
And the poor stone exploded to dust.
"Naruto, would you care to share why you're weak?"
"What the hell do you mean sensei? I am a fucking monster. I massacred these people. Damnit there were other ways to take care of this other than that!"
"True enough Naruto, but if you hadn't defeated them so completely, they would have returned and done that all over again. But that is not really the reason is it?"
"Of course it is! But what do YOU know Kurenai? What do YOU know of taking pleasure in the ripping apart of others? In feeling their blood rush down my arms? In WILLINGLY ripping them to shreds and not resisting these murderous urges? What the hell do YOU know? You have no IDEA how I felt back then! I was fucking GIDDY! I was almost LAUGHING AS I TORE THEM APART! I AM A FUCKING MONSTER! And now... Now I've done even worse. I've let Hinata-chan get my blood on her, I've tired her out, heck her LIFE might be in danger. Do you have any FUCKING IDEA how hard it is to NOT revert back to that monster I was and blindly attack everyone? DO YOU?"
"Of course I don't Naruto-kun. Of course I don't. After all I wasn't trusted with keeping a demon down. But let me tell you, you are not as much of a monster as you think you are. I too have felt such things, I too have done such things. Mutilated the minds of others, over and over again blasting the minds of my enemies. But I know a few things about what you feel. And I know its not healthy to keep it all bottled up. I know... Anko did that as well... I saw my best friends go insane by keeping these things inside Naruto. Come here and let it all out."
Naruto slowly, unsurely, walked towards his sensei. "Its so hard sensei... So fucking hard... I can still feel the call to murder and slaughter... Even when Kyubi himself doesn't want to, even when he tells me not to listen to it... I still feel it... I... I almost... I almost killed Hinata-chan... Not just with her exhausted chakra... when... when I came around... I..."
"Let it all out Naruto... if you have to cry so be it... Don't let your emotions bottle up..." Kurenai gently hugged the distraught youth, him flinching at the touch as if... as if afraid he would taint her Kurenai realized.
"I almost hurt her... I... I almost snapped her neck sensei... I almost... killed Hinata-chan... I felt the need... the desire... to rip her apart... kill her... maim her... feel her blood flow... watch the life fade from her eyes... sensei I..."
Naruto slowly broke down crying in Kurenai's embrace. He cried for his birden, his curse, the hate he had endured, the pain he caused, his lost innocence, the lives he took, the lives he almost took.
Kurenai could only watch and hold Naruto as he cried in what seemed the first time since his birth (she really had no idea how close she was to that observation), holding the little boy, running her hands through his hair, calming him down with relaxing words, trying desperately to bring the smiling Naruto back.
Kakashi watched from a distance at the boy's mourning, hearing its soul-wrenching cries... and found himself wondering... how could a demon cry like this... how could he be a demon if he could shed tears like this... If only... if only the rest of the village knew as well... Kakashi sighed and turned around, looking at Zabuza's grim presence behind him.
"The brat's gonna be fine Hatake. He's got more strength in him than you can imagine. Heh I should know. I fought him."
"Fighting is not the same as this Zabuza. Then again you may never have been taught that in Kiri."
"Oh spare me the emotional talk Leaflet. I know him better than you can imagine. It is often said that you can learn more about someone in five minutes of all-out fighting than in five years of talking. I'm telling ya, don't count the brat out yet. You didn't see him. You didn't see his eyes as we fought, didn't see the sheer determination burning inside them. Heck I've got half a mind to follow your Will Of Fire thing after seeing him. This gaki's tough, maybe tougher than me. He'll be fine. Maybe not like before, but he'll pull through."
"Hn, maybe he'll survive but surviving and living are two different things Zabuza."
"Oh how much faith you have cyclops. I'm telling ya, the brat may change a bit but he'll be fine. He's as pure as Haku and that's more than I can say about either of us. Now stop eavesdropping and oggling red-eyes over there."
"Whatever. I gotta check on Sasuke. Your apprentice did a number on him."
"Feh as if. She just put him in a death-trance. He'll be fine in a week."
"I find that hard to believe. I still do not trust you. I'll be keeping an eye out for you in case you switch loyalties again." Kakashi considering the conversation done went back to the house, missing Zabuza's retort.
"Switch to what side moron. Besides, following the brat there seems like a lot of fun. Now I just have to see how it turns out."
Meanwhile Naruto cried his eyes out, exhausting the meager reserves of energy he had recovered, slowly falling asleep.
Kurenai picked up the exhausted Naruto up and carried him over to the house. In the entrance Zabuza turned to her.
"I'm no good at the mushy stuff, so I'll keep out of it. Just make sure the brat is back, he's one of the few to have earned my respect and I'm not talking power."
"Arigatou Zabuza-san. I didn't know you cared. Doesn't seem to agree with your bloodthirsty profile."
"Hey I'm not a killer 24/7. I got a kinder side, well sorta. Just keep'im safe and I'll be at your side. See ya tomorrow red-eyes."
Kurenai uncharacteristically blushed as Zabuza brushed past her, his cool and collected demeanor a sharp contrast to the usually brash-looking nuke-nin. After Kurenai put Naruto to sleep, she went to her own room to sleep.
In the morning, Naruto woke up early on and left to gather supplies. Grabbing a heavy rock, he dived in the lake, his evolved lungs keeping him oxygenated for minutes and used a makeshift spear to catch some fish for breakfast. Coming back to the client's house, he was treated to a glomp by a worried haflway to death Hinata and a scolding from Kurenai. After assuring her he was fine, he brought in the food for the family. All seemed relatively normal but if one cared enough, he could notice several differences; Shino would continuously steal glances at Haku, Naruto seemed to be avoiding Hinata and Kurenai would continuously refuse to look in Zabuza's way. The morning proceeded fairly normally, even though Sasuke was still out for the count and had Sakura serve as a nurse, refusing Haku or Hinata from taking care of him in fears of stealing him away from her and Naruto got to ask his favours from the jounin.
From Kakashi he asked to get a book of even more advanced seals, specifically the 'Treatise on Arrays and Seals For The Experienced by Namikaze Minato', a rare and precious work, with only a pair or so copies still in existence. From Zabuza... he gained the exact thing the man would have asked of the kid; a life-time sparring partner. Stating that Zabuza was a much better sparring partner than Kakashi, he got a hatefull glare from the Uchiha as he had wanted to steal Zabuza's jutsu. Kakashi had attempted to interrogate Naruto on the nature of his skills, once even to the point of threatening with rank.
"Naruto for the last time I demand you explain the skills you presented on the bridge. I want to know what jutsu you used as well as how you got the summons."
"Sheesh Kakashi-san, if I didn't know better I'd suspect you want me to give everything up Sasuke. Which is pretty much what you want me to do don't you? You are not my sensei and have no authorization over me. Deal with it."
"Genin Uzumaki, you will cooperate with me. I am a jounin got it? Which means I do have superiority over you."
"But you don't have superiority over the Hokage Kakashi. I'll tell you something though. The red chakra was Kyubi's, but its how the seal is supposed to act. It seems Sandaime-sama has not disclosed all information to you. The seal is made to enable me to access Kyubi's chakra in order to strengthen myself by entering a feral state no different from the Inuzuka clan." Naruto turned to leave but Kakashi grabbed him by the shoulder.
"Naruto you will comply by my commands damnit!"
"Hatake... I suggest retrieving your arm or I will take it off. Go to you boy-toy and leave me alone. I assure you Hokage-sama knows everything about me and if anything about what happened in the bridge comes out of you, my team, Zabuza and Haku, I assure you, Hokage-sama is going to destroy you. And don't even bother thinking about the faggots of the council. I obey neither them not you. You are all unworthy of my legacy. Now buzz off Hatake before I rip you apart. You were nothing before Zabuza without you sharingan and I am immune to it."
"What do you mean Naruto?"
"Uzumaki to you Hatake. And I mean what I said. Now let go."
"Naruto I-" Naruto turned with speeds that Kakashi's non-sharingan eye couldn't see and grabbed the jounin from the neck lifting him from the ground.
Growl "So weak and slow. I'm glad I picked Zabuza as my sparring partner, I would be unable to go all out against you." With a thump Kakashi's feet met the ground.
"Naruto this was insubordination and-"
"You commited insubordination first by restraining a shinobi in an A-rank mission as well as treason for reasons I won't bother to mention. Leave me alone Hatake, otherwise you may have a... how do they call it? Ah a training accident. After all I am the prankster king and you have no idea how good I really am. Besides it seems you have gathered quite the attention from Zabuza-san and Kurenai-sensei."
"This isn't over Uzumaki."
"Heh it will be over by the Chuunin exams and you'll be begging for my forgiveness Hatake. For now go train the looser you consider a genius."
Kakashi growled before leaving to train Sasuke in the use of the Sharingan. Naruto on the other hand gathered the rest of his team, set up a defencive periemeter and together with Kiba, they started analyzing everything, from tactics to imaginary situations in an attempt to continue improving even when they couldn't work out in a physical manner. Especially Haku's and Zabuza's experiences proved beneficial, since being nuke-nin they had come across some very weird situations. One of the cnversations was about Naruto's backlash from the red energy of the Kyubi (Kiba was let in on that shortly after they met, him declaring his faith in his packmate, even if he smelt like fox).
"So Naruto-kun we have to understand what happened after you stopped using the Kyubi's youkai. I suspect your body resumed breaking down."
"Exactly. With Kyubi's youkai acting as a corrosive effect on my body, my DNA kept on breaking down on me. Of course my regenerative abilities attepted to fix it, but they were hampered by the sheer speed of the breaking down. The reason I needed flesh and blood is simple; I needed to replace mine. Since mine had been corrupted, I had to replace my flesh, blood and bones with new tissues to survive. Of course my kekkei-genkai improved my resistance to Kyubi's youkai but let me explain what we found out. There is a threshold, like a dam, if the amount is below that threshold, the dam makes sure I have no harmful effects. However the more I use, the more the dam is stressed. Once the youkai reaches a certain amount...the dam breaks and unleashes the whole amount of it on me. Also except for said dam I have no defence against youkai. In other words, if I pass the threshold... the full force of the youkai hits me as if it had hit any other human. And because of my already unstable DNA things get even worse. I had Kyu take notice on how much I used as well as approximate the backlash of every amount. He believes if I find experienced enough medics, I should be able to safely increase the strength of the dam so that I can safely call on a large amount of youkai without a problem. The snag is... that the only medics with that much of a medical knowledges are... Tsunade-sama and her apprentice as well as the fact that there is a large chance exposing me to Kyubi's youkai will shorten my lifespan considerably and kill me regardless of precautions. On the bright side, we now know what happens in such cases, so I'm going to start carrying fresh meat and blood supplies with us just in case something like this happens."
As Zabuza got Kiba and Shino started on a variety of possibilities, Kurenai spoke to Hinata for a second before the blue-haired Hyuga heiress went to Naruto drawing him apart from the others.
"Naruto-kun what's wrong? You've been avoiding me. What's wrong?"
"It's... its's nothing."
"No way its nothing Naruto-kun. You barely even speak to me. Did I do something to hurt you?"
"NO! You didn't do anything like that. You... are perfect... I am the fault of the equasion. I am the one who's responcible..."
"Naruto-kun, talk to me. Please... What's wrong? I know you're-"
"I am! I am... I am a monster Hinata... I..."
"What are you talking about Naruto-kun? What monster? You are the kindest-"
"I'm not! I'm not... I want to be... I try so hard but... Hinata... I almost hurt you... I can't... I can't forgive myself of that."
"What are you talking about Naruto-kun? You'd never hurt me. I know it."
"When... when I woke up... I... I almost killed you... when I picked you up... I had that damnable urge to kill you, hurt you... I... I don't want to do this... I can't-" And Naruto's self-pitying tirade was stopped by one of the greatest forces known to man; a simple, chaste kiss. Poor Naruto blinked and blinked, his brain, no matter how evolved, trying in vain to catch up to the fact Hinata had shut him up with a kiss.
"Naruto-kun, I never thought I'd see you like this. What are you doing wallowing in self-pity? You didn't hurt me and that's all that matters. No matter what you felt, no matter what dark urges that damable youkai put into you, you couldn't hurt me. The mere fact you're like this is proof. So stop acting like that and open your eyes. Be the Naruto-kun you really are, the Naruto-kun I... love..."
Finally, Naruto's brain started working and after Hinata's rebuttal, rebooted itself. Naruto broke into one of his rare true semi-sad, semi-happy, lopsidded smiles, his eyes holding love and affection to his pale-eyed saviour.
"Thanks Hinata-chan for reminding me what I am. I promise I will never hurt you or turn my back from you. That is a promise of a lifetime and I don't go back on my promises because-"
"-that is our nindo Naruto-kun. Not just yours, but mine as well." Hinata's soft smile brightened Naruto's day and he got a slightly teasing grin.
"I don't think I really felt that kiss though Hinata-chan. Mind repeating?" Poor Hinata, got her shyness back and blushed before kissing her love one more time on the lips.
Naruto held his angel, yes his angel, his ray of light in a dark, hateful world. He felt his resolve reform, stronger than ever before and Kyubi in his not-so-much of a prison could see the dieing trees come back to life and noted something different; the trees were of a kind that never shed their leaves. The ancient being chuckled, this ningen, this mere child, not larger than his smallest tooth, had more determination and willpower than anything else he had seen or felt before, greater even than the brat's father, who was willing to sacrifice his soul to eternal torture. Number 1 most surprising ninja indeed...
The rest of the days passed in relative peace, if you took out Sasuke... asking for everyone's jutsu, fighting styles, Zabuza's weapons... you get the idea. It was not asking, it was a repeated spam of the all-so-well-known and patented Uchiha Speech Of Superiority, to be repeated until either someone gave into the demands, or what was repeatedly happening in Nami no Kuni; someone beating Sasuke to oblivion, forcing Kakashi to slap his wrists and then heal the prick, under the oh-so-delightfull opera-like screaming of a certain pink-haired banshee that, for some weird reason believed Haku liked Sasuke and Naruto liked her. Even the stoic Shino had taken steps to tone her screaming down as much as possible, namely by having some of his bugs inject a weak but effective sleeping poison to keep her silent throughout the morning. Poor fangirl never figured out why she woke up at 12 (after everyone had woken up enough to not accidentaly stab her or something) or why she was so tired every day.
It was to Kiba's continued dismay that he had to get back to his regular team after Sasuke recovered enough to train (before Zabuza beat the living shit out of the prick for demanding Kubikiri Honcho as well as Haku to be given to him as a concubine to strengthen the Uchiha clan). Kakashi had Sasuke activate his Sharingan and copy jutsu Kakashi performed in front of him. Unbeknownst to the two copycats though, there was a third copycat with them. Or many as Naruto had unleashed a veritable blanket of Kage Bunshin, using the info from the clones to break down and recreate the jutsu. He had Kyubi memorize the knowledge so he could easily re-form the jutsu back home. Sasuke never figured why Naruto seemed so damn smug all the time when he and Kakashi left for their 'secret' training. Shino spent as much time as he could with Haku without drawing attention, going to near paranoid lengths to hide his attraction, as if it was something that should not be. Kurenai on the other hand finally had a glorious night, the night before leaving. She just came inside the house and hugged Naruto saying she 'did it' with an exuberant tone. Her team, Haku and Zabuza who knew what she meant congratulated her, while Kakashi immidiately went to believing she had done something perverted. For his trouble he got his Icha-Icha book torn apart by an irate Kurenai when he commented in a perverse way. Of course it didn't slow Kakashi much as he took out another book from his Pouch Of Holding (D'n'D pun intended) and just glared at her, which did absolutely nothing to her.
It had finally been a couple of weeks after Sasuke's recovery, during which Kiba got ten times the training he had got with Kakashi in total. Naruto had finally learned how to fight properly with his newfound power thanks to Zabuza as well as train his jutsu against such a capable shinobi. Kurenai was well on her way to learning her first Kitsune Illusion, a cunning ability that would draw her opponents towards her strikes, making her seemingly never miss. Hinata had spent a lot of time with Zabuza as well, training her suiton manipulation learning one of the best jutsu for her: Kirigakure no Jutsu, making a mist that would blind everyone except her due to her Byakugan. Haku and Shino often sparred together, improving both their skills in combat and ninjutsu. Haku had, under the pressure from the entire Team 8, succumbed to picking up a weapon, going after her adopted father's, even if it was only in her heart, weapon; a sword. Of course with her being a girl she wouldn't use a zanbatou, but a katana was well suited to her considering the fact she could slash her enemies many times by merely holding the blade to her side and jumping from mirror to mirror of her Makyo Hyosho.
As the two teams plus two new shinobi were preparing to leave, it was a tearfull goodbye between team 8 and Inari, who had finally began to resemble his namesake (Prince Inari is a foxy deity and is supposed to be fairly laidback and happy from what I've gathered). Poor boy made the entire team promise to go back and see them all again. Of course the fact that team 7 didn't even get mentioned didn't seat well with the ever arrogant Sasuke and his lapdog Sakura or their sensei Kakashi, but when Kiba of all people scolded them on how foolish it was trying to push people to liking them, they sobered up. After all it wouldn't pay for the dog-boy to be wiser than them. As the two teams walked off the now completed bridge (which had been completed rather quickly with Naruto's and Zabuza's clones helping), Inari dashed towards them shouting.
"Naruto-niisan! Guess what! We named it the Bridge Of Hope! Because you and your friends gave us Hope! Thanks Niisans and Neechans!"
Team 8 laughed as they sped forth, bursting on a spontaneous mock-competition of speed, which ended having Naruto carry Hinata bridal-style, wings spread out and poor Shino trying in vain to conceal his excitement at being close to his friends. Needless to say Kurenai and Haku (who had understood a couple of things about Shino) poked fun at the stoic boy, which of course he never really objected to.
A/N: Wahoo~! This one got out fast! I swear I'm hopeless! I can't for the life of me write anything under normal circumstances; I have to either have a headache, insomnia, be sick or slightly inebriated to write something of worth. Ah well each to his own craziness I guess.
Anyway some notes for this rather emotional chapter:
1) Kakashi doesn't know that Naruto is Yondaime's son nor the real function of the seal nor the details as to what happened when Naruto was 8. As such he maintains a shinobi aspect; he considers Naruto a risk, a necessary one yes but a risk none-the-less. That's why he will keep pushing for answers and not trust him because it could be a very logical assumption for Naruto to be affected by the Kyubi, maybe even Kami-forbid, Kyubi overtaking Naruto completely and tricking everyone. He believes this is a possibility because he had almost no contact with Naruto so keep that in mind. He isn't being unreasonable in this regard, merely paranoid, as he has been taught to be. On the matter of Sasuke though, Kakashi is unreasonable. He believes that he has to help him because of Obito as well as because Sasuke is the only one that can take out Itachi. With him having a Sharingan eye, he knows of its power but has come to depend on it so much that without it he has deteriorated to the level of a mere chuunin, which led to Naruto humiliating him. So in his warped belief, if one sharingan eye gives him so much strength, then a pure-blood Uchiha would be unstoppable. Lastly, even though he knows Sasuke is a bit weird, he still vehemently follows most of the village's belief that Sasuke is completely loyal and merely a bit dark due to the tragedies in his life.
2)Zabuza may be a blood-thirsty killer but he is no monster. He does have feelings for Haku, but being raised as a weapon himself, he has the same problem Naruto used to- he doesn't know what exactly feelings are nor how to identify them. Zabuza sees Haku as his daughter or little sister, he just doesn't know it. With Haku's troubled past on top of it, he has never come in contact with the feeling of love and care. Therefore, he constantly reverts to what he knows; no emotions, just his duty and his skills. He doesn't like it, but he doesn't know why, which is why he doesn't fight against it so much. When Hinata and Haku confronted him however, he began to understand that there is something more to existence than duty and cold-heared killing. Lastly Zabuza respects Naruto a lot. While he still considers him inexperienced and a little naive, Zabuza respects Naruto's strength of arms and strength of conviction. In Naruto he sees a childhood hero, someone who, while strong, does not hate the world or seek to oppress it. No, Zabuza knows he would respect Naruto even if he couldn't defeat him on the bridge, he would respect the courage and determination of that child, the strength of character to keep going even when the entire world is stacked against you. That's why Zabuza is eager to help Naruto. Not to mention that Naruto can make an excellent sparring partner; he can match Zabuza physically, can take a lot of punishment and is a cunning little brat.
3) Kurenai isn't in love with Zabuza -yet. She finds him interesting, a dark, slightly mysterious person, who seems to hide a lot of emotion in a dark exterior. She blushed because, even though it is not immidiately obvious, Zabuza has a lot of muscle to wield that zanbatou and she accidentaly felt him up. Whether I will pair Zabuza with Kurenai or maybe even Anko, I am not sure yet. It remains to be seen, possibly on a later poll or something. I wanna finish this poll first. Kurenai's Kitsune Illusion is called Nisemono-Kobushi (fake punch) and as written causes the enemy to get drawn to her punches. In easy terms, if you have to dodge left when she attacks you, you will dodge to the right, getting right into the path of her hit. Now imagine that with a Kunai or ninja-tou and you get one very nasty ability, considering it is almost impossible to cancel, even for sharingan users.
Thanks to my reviewers for giving me strength to continue as well as correct my mistakes and everyone who has voted on my poll. It will stay on for two weeks from posting this chapter so hurry up ok?
Today, on this 9/6/2012, I, Soulblazer87, do hereby leave this site, possibly forever.
I shall not update this, or any other story.
I shall leave them on, however. Should you desire to follow my stories, do so in my new site of residence: www dot yourfanfiction dot com.