Honey & sulphur
They then went back inside, to dress on and prepare to leave the village.
Kakashi hadn't the heart to say a thing to Naruto – he wouldn't listen, however.
He was always looking Sai, talking with Sai, walking beside Sai.
Then when they had to walk on a bridge – those Tibet-like bridges one-person-a-time – Naruto blocked
Sakura to let Sai go first.
Then he left Sakura there without speaking, hastily following Sai.
Then when Sai was cold – because he was always wearing only his shirt – and Sakura was cold – for the same reason – Naruto lent his sweatshirt to Sai, and didn't even apologise to Sakura.
Then when they had to sit down to eat, Naruto ONLY thought of Sai – laying his own headband unfolded and spread on the ground, so that Sai sat on it.
Then Naruto sat leaning his back against a tree, behind Sai, and made him lean on himself, both of them facing and watching the sky.
Sai's head rested on the Kyuubi's seal. He felt it warm.
"How's it with him? How is it going?"
Naruto answered, tenderly considerate: "No, it's all going pretty good. I only had to shut him up in the first place – when I'll cope with the anger he'll let me in peace".
Kakashi wanted to say something – but stopped and had to gulp and catch his breath seeing SAI TURNING HIS HEAD TO KISS THE OTHER'S SHIRT over the seal.
Naruto smiled and grabbed Sai's face – laughing.
Kakashi was shocked.
NARUTO?
Sakura was even more shocked – upset, more than shocked. She got angry.
Sai turned again to watch Naruto's face and said, a voice like an annoyed child speaking to his mom:
"When you need help to calm him tell me. I'll do what I can, maybe I'm useless.
But" he rose a bit toward him, pointing hands on the ground "I think that more than calming the Kyuubi I may be useful in calming you."
Kakashi held the mouth open, eyes gaping, breathless and wordless. Sakura tried hard to avoid laughing – his face was incredible.
Kakashi didn't know what to choose – to be HAPPY – SAD – MOVED by his pupil's conquest – SICK – or...or...
Look at those two. And the things they went on saying to each other!
"I'm quite – pretty sure you can, Sai..." said Naruto right then, laughing.
Kakashi sprang up and tried to concentrate on the plan – THEIR PLAN to kill Orochimaru.
Naruto, instead, suddenly felt the Kyuubi gnashing teeth.
The truth was that Sai annoyed the Kyuubi.
The truth was that Sai was a pain in the back for him.
The truth was that Sai CALMED Naruto.
And the Kyuubi didn't like it.
He paced his tower prison with a dissonant appetite raging in his throat.
"I WANT TO KILL, but I don't want to KILL this Jinchuuriki.
When he gets ANGRY – he's such a beautiful FIRE. He FUELS my anger. He's with ME – since birth.
C'mon HATE, Jinchuuriki, HATE! Love's gone!
GONE!"
Naruto laughed spitefully, pitiful, sighing.
As an old man.
'I perfectly KNOW that love is gone, you bitch' ('fox' had become 'bitch' though Kurama was male) 'I'm not LOVING him.
It's just sex and collaboration to pass the time. Sex and benefit, they call it?'
The Kyuubi laughed.
"You can try as hard as you want – I'll always STAMP Sasuke on his forehead so YOU'LL think of him.
Lucky of me, he has died...and lucky of me, THEY'RE SIMILAR"
Naruto startled and watch Sai, suddenly terrorized.
Sai fired the glance back, mouth open as to say 'what's up?'
Naruto said: "Can you perform physical transformation, Sai?"
"But of course I can...anyone in the Anbus can-"
"SO, make your hair grow. Do you want them black? Red or blond or brown wouldn't be better?"
Sai laughed lightly, trying to understand.
"Let me time to try it...how's this?"
Sakura's pink – Naruto laughed.
"No, no, something like – yeah – like...like...that red – a bit lighter than Chouji's hair...no not that FUCHSIA –
maybe...oh, what about a water green?"
"A green blue you mean? Naah. What about a purple?"
"VIOLET! That would be wonderful! And the eyes – c'mon! Gold eyes..."
And so Sai did.
Naruto changed idea again:
"No, no, no, blue eyes...deep blue eyes...or even the eyes, purple?"
Sai tried them both.
"NO I GOT IT." Said Naruto breathless. "I GOT IT. GREY. Grey eyes and PURPLE hair. That's it!"
That was it.
Sai was wonderful – Kakashi couldn't believe what he saw.
Sakura blushed when Naruto grabbed Sai's head with both hands, pulled it to himself and kissed him.
Kakashi coughed in total panic – what do you do in situations like this?
He tried to find a subject of conversation with Sakura – actually Sasuke WASN'T a good one.
He looked at her for some minutes, suddenly realizing that he didn't know A THING about her.
"Kakashi, but you and Tsunade aren't together?" asked she suddenly.
Naruto and Sai stopped kissing to look at him, smiling and puzzled.
"Wait wait wait NO NO NO and don't go around saying this things – if SHE knows it she will simply kill me
and then I DO have someone and SHE is killing me too, so NO I won't tell you okay it's ANKO."
"Ooh...HOW CUUUUTE!" said Naruto and Sai in unison.
Kakashi made a displeased face and said "Well...now you eventually know something about me..." coughing.
Naruto sprang up screaming "ARGH!"
Sai fell down off him, hit the ground and sprang up himself, grabbing his head and stuttering:
"Wha-wha-WHAT'S UP?"
Naruto didn't answer. He was, again, looking down without seeing a thing.
He was talking with the Kyuubi, inside.
He made an angry expression – a menacing expression – showing teeth, raising lips like a dog – snarling.
The Kyuubi had insulted him again.
The Kyuubi had broken out of his gate and seal, had run to him and bitten his neck.
Naruto screamed at him "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT AGAIN? LET ME BE!"
The Kyuubi growled.
"That BITCH DOLL – you're giving all UP FOR HIM?
Could I say – I HONESTLY HOPE you get raped as that cunt of your friend there, SUCKER – you're MAKING ME ASHAMED OF BEING INSIDE YOU!
Stop PLAYING THE BITCH, you CUNT SUCKER FAGGOT!
You can – what are you trying to do now?
That fucking SEAL again?
THINK THAT YOUR SEAL CAN STOP ME?
This needs an Uchiha SUCKER like your SASUCKER – you mean to overpower and bedizen me?
WHAT ABOUT A BIT OF THIS JINCHUURIKI?"
Saying this last sentence he screwed his eyes and his iris changed.
That was something like the Tsukuyomi we know – but the moon was black, not bloody.
Naruto simply didn't SEE nor FEEL a thing – just a chilling FEAR in the mind, a cold HUG.
A freezing breath in his mind – TOTAL FEAR – fear and pain and desperation – HOPELESSNESS and COLD.
"What the hell is this? KYUUBI! GET ME OUT OF HERE!"
As reply the demon bit him again, still on the neck.
Only in that moment Naruto saw his face – completely different from the one he wore the previous day.
Evil, utter and plain evil.
Then the demon suddenly set him free.
"Have you seen, now? GOT IT, NOW?"
Naruto shut up but nodded, gulping.
"Hey, wait, listen to me – Kyuubi. Just – let me be in peace, right? A little bit of time!"
The Kyuubi laughed lightly.
"You perfectly know that I perfectly know that I CAN DO WHATEVER THE FUCK I WANT WITH AND ON YOU, fucking Jinchuuriki.
And douse my conscience when you suck that faggot's dick."
Naruto punched the muzzle. "It hasn't actually happened!"
The Kyuubi laughed.
Naruto pushed him back behind the gate.
He woke up and watched Sai, the turned to Kakashi and stated:
"Ultimately – I have to tame the Kyuubi again."
"He's quite determined to play the parasite, isn't it?" said Sai.
Naruto mumbled "If you only knew what he said about you..."
Sai grinned. "I can picture it..." he said, spitefully.
Then he grabbed Naruto's shoulders and led him to sit down again, sitting himself before him.
Kakashi looked them, thoughtful, and then said:
"Well, we have to go. It's already late.
I wonder what we can actually do with the Kyuubi..."
Someone murmured, behind them:
"You should prepare to do without the Kyuubi".
Kakashi, Sai, Sakura and Naruto turned immediately and saw this man – wearing a plain black cloth with a hood.
"WHAT? What do you want by me?" asked Naruto angrily.
"Yeah, look at the cuties there..." the man laughed, mocking.
He kept his head lowered, they couldn't see his face – but Naruto felt a glance, piercing as a kunai, in his mind – he even FELT the Kyuubi SHIVER.
'Who is this?'
"Hello, Jinchuuriki. How is it going without your mates?" said the man.
Kakashi turned suddenly angry – without knowing WHY.
That guy here.
That guy.
Something, his voice, his CHAKRA, his smell – something in Kakashi's mind was strangely working, before this guy.
And in Naruto's mind too – the Kyuubi was LAUGHING.
Naruto concentrated on him and felt – more than heard – the man's words to the Kyuubi:
"Hello, darling.
Long time no see.
Have you heard your Jinchuuriki awakening his hate?
That's a dream of ours, wasn't it?
You waited all that time for his mother to do this" Naruto knelt down "and she's never lost her mind, even in childbirth – when I SET YOU FREE.
You recognized me, didn't you?
I want you to come with me again.
You'll MET THE OTHER DEMONS, dear.
I'm collecting you all.
Kurama.
Come with me.
This guy here – he neither knows your NAME".
Naruto gasped holding his heart with the right hand and Sai's hand with the left one.
Sai panicked, trying to make him talk.
Kakashi looked the man and didn't say a word.
The man talked physically:
"As for your 'father' then – apart from the fact that I KNEW your father – uhm, well, I actually killed him – and your Jiraya, then...what a shit of a master.
You should have been trained by me. Jiraya wasn't a skilful ninja. A VERY SKILFUL NINJA NEVER DIES."
No one talked for some minutes.
Then Naruto thought – he followed instinct – "YOU WERE to kill Jiraya?"
"...Orochimaru killed him.
I brought them to Orochimaru.
What's your problem?
I wanted them to die.
I needed it."
He sneered.
Naruto: "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?"
"What I want will want me and come to me.
Don't worry about it.
Akatsuki will know about your cutie, Jinchuuriki.
Good luck..." he sneered again and disappeared.
Kakashi shivered "Was that a menace?"
Naruto growled, angry.
"I'd rather like you to stop acting like the Kyuubi, Naruto. It's just like being with him." said Sai.
Naruto's face suddenly changed into a lamb expression while he said:
"OF COURSE, seriously. Then, oh Sai! You got to beware those men! KAKASHI! Isn't it better if he goes back home"
"NO YOU TWO GO FUCKING IMMEDIATELY BACK HOME AND DON'T EVEN TRY TO PUT A FOOT OUT OF KONOHA DID YOU HEAR ME?"
Naruto watched him wordless. Kakashi had ROARED.
Kakashi had perfectly understood what that man meant.
"Go to Konoha and SEND ME someone and ASK THAT BLOND GUY about this shit – tell Tsunade."
Yeah tell Tsunade.
He, Kakashi, had done so – they had left with her permission.
She herself got out of her head when she knew of Jiraya – she would have come there to kill Orochimaru
herself, weren't she the Hokage.
Kakashi thought that against Orochimaru little could be helpful – if even Jiraya...
What could they do?
If even the Hokage Sarutobi had been killed, in that absurd trial – of Orochimaru – to take the Kyuubi, two years before...when he in the end recruited Sasuke in his 'next bodies' list.
The thing Kakashi couldn't understand was this: what the fuck was 'Akatsuki'?
Itachi, that man, Deidara – Akatsuki.
Kakashi reflected.
They didn't know a thing about Itachi's life, after he left Konoha.
They NEVER saw him again after that.
Naruto had fought against Orochimaru that time – they thought that only Orochimaru wanted the demon.
Kakashi realized that – they had an incredible weapon still on their hand.
They had all thought that the Kyuubi wouldn't be used as a weapon, now that those wars had ended.
Konoha remembered well the time that the young Hokage had been killed – Konoha surely wouldn't do such shit.
Everyone of course remembered the demons' pre-eminence among weapons of war – but NO ONE in Konoha wanted to use them again.
But some other country – countries? How could you tell there was a country behind this bunch of shit the Akatsuki was? C'mon, it was unbelievable.
He in the end decided that it was better, for them all, to go back home.
Kakashi went on reasoning and mumbling while he walked.
"Naruto" he said then "is the Kyuubi harassing you again?"
"Yep. He continuously repeats me those things that man said about Sai. There may be a chance that the demon is trying to make me go angry again. Still I can't understand..."
'Think of this, Kakashi, it could be even obvious.
That man is trying to instil hate also in Naruto's heart – the demon has to think of him as an ally, or at least to accept being inside him.
Why that? This may mean that this man hadn't another "container" for the demon.
He needs Naruto to host him.
This actually means that we got at least a bit of time – and, FIRST OF ALL, that he wasn't speaking seriously
about THAT "CUTIE" THING.
It was really nauseous...'
Kakashi said aloud: "I think the only thing we can do now is make sure that the demon stays at home."
Naruto nodded.
"Understood – I can't leave Konoha, right?
So he can't the same, with me.
You'll have to eventually share teams with Guy..." he laughed.
"You're right...we could merge Team Guy, Team Asuma and Team Kurenai with Sakura.
WOW! Let's think.
Shikamaru, Chouji, Ino, Lee, Neji, Shino, Tenten, Hinata, Kiba, Sakura. How can we ship them?"
Thinking of this, Kakashi stopped worrying about the Kyuubi.
Naruto didn't.
He didn't say a word until Kakashi and Sakura, arrived in Konoha, left him and Sai in Naruto's street, right before his door.
Kakashi, instead, had continued the entire journey to exclaim:
"Yeah!
Kiba is worth two, with Akamaru!
Yeah – Kiba and Chouji!
Yeah – Neji alone with Lee is enough.
Then – Ino and Sakura! TOGETHER! Wonderful.
Shikamaru can work alone with Tenten.
And Hinata goes with the girls. RIGHT!"
Sai commented his choices, Sakura complained about her new team.
She hated Ino – or well, she was not sure. It was all a Sasuke-related thing.
Moreover... now that even Naruto was – off service – she turned to Kakashi and asked him:
"Couldn't you change me with Tenten?"
Kakashi mumbled, then said: "Alright..."
Naruto didn't spit a word all the time.
Only when he was safe and alone in his house, 'cus he had sent Sai home "at least half an hour – I don't want you to be involved in this war of mine", did Naruto face the Kyuubi.
He was still laughing at him – "two little sluts" – "CUTIES" – "cunt of a Jinchuuriki" – he went on until Naruto gave him attention.
Then he said, suddenly calm:
"That man wasn't joking, faggot.
There are people in the Akatsuki who would really like such an entertainment.
If YOU DON'T COME WITH ME – and still you won't get it – IT'S ONLY HATE, JINCHUURIKI!
You'll kill that slaughterer of Orochimaru! You'll AVENGE Sasucker!
I won't drag you into a hecatomb, Naruto.
I ASSURE YOU I won't use you this way.
I only want to kill someone...let me vent out!"
"Kyuubi, I'm not born to kill people.
You did enough last time.
I'M NOT SO STUPID!
I should follow your advices AND THEN you'll surely fuck me in some way!
STOP HARASSING ME! What the fuck do I have to do to make LET ME BE IN PEACE?
Fuck you!"
No answer.
Why?
Naruto fucked off the Kyuubi, and subsequently the latter turned his back to him and faced away.
Naruto laughed, happily.
"Eventually.
Can't you see you don't need to hate, you idiot?
Anyone else got it. I got it.
You're free to be loved AND YOU'D KILL TO BE HATED!
You're incredible.
I see you're a beast..."
As a reply the Kyuubi decided to BE HATED AGAIN ACTUALLY.
This could only mean – refuse this Jinchuuriki.
But of course demons can't break out their Jinchuuriki by themselves.
The Kyuubi needed THAT MAN.
'And this fucker isn't leaving the place even for an eyeblink now.
I HAVE TO WAIT.
How I fucking HATE THIS...'