Drip. Drip. Drip.
Naruto's eyelids twitched.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Naruto opened his eyes. He blinked several times, trying to see in the darkness of the half-lit rocks. He lay in a cavern; he finally determined.
"You are awake," a quiet voice rasped.
Naruto turned his head sideways slowly. He balked at the sight before him. The black mask, the darkening features.
"Hmph." The masked figure placed her hat on steadily. "Do not leave the cavern. Aside from the sealing technique, I am not sure how well you'll recover if you rush too quickly into things."
"What's your name?" Naruto asked slowly, staring at the figure's cloak. Red clouds reflected in his eyes.
The shinobi rose to her feet. "Kakushiro," she stated in the same rasping voice. She swiftly turned, clipped, dark feet clicking against the rocks.
Naruto rolled over again. He stared up at the ceiling. Damn it. I want to run, but right now I'm as weak as a kitten.
Try kit. Genkuro sighed.
Naruto smiled faintly. Thanks for nothing, Genkuro. He stared steadily up at the ceiling, his eyes flicking around the room, taking in all possible escape routes. One, leading past the pair of Akatsuki. I'm going to die, aren't I?
Genkuro didn't answer.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
The hours passed. Naruto fell into fever momentarily. His eyes closed and opened. Waking dreams surrounded him. Images of Sasuke, of Sai, fading recollections of Sakura's role. Something of sadness filled him as he remembered his last vision of Kōju, before she left his presence. They probably think I'm dead. He wondered, his heart turning back toward the darkness, if they'd care or send someone after him. Not the fox, but him, he himself.
At some point Naruto heard the pair returning.
"Fucking shit. If I want to say hell, I'm going to say hell—"
"Does Jashin also command that you stop using your brain once you enter his faith?" Kakushiro retorted.
Hidan scowled. "Hey—the rules are there, woman. If I didn't have a Vizier-damned need to kill everyone, I wouldn't either, but leaving the job half-done like this pisses me off." His eyes looked up, meeting Naruto's. "Oh, hey! That stray you picked up is finally awake." His eyes narrowed angrily. "Him, too. He's another inconvenience. I mean, you could've let me stay there a bit longer, just to take off the fucking edge!"
"Leader-sama specifically ordered us to leave him alive, along with the current jinchūriki of the Two-Tails. Seems that plan failed, but we still have this one. Besides that, you are an idiotic piece of shit, who would have ended up dead and experimented on by Leaf researchers." Kakushiro walked along the edge of the rocks, her sandals splashing in the water. As she passed Naruto, she whispered, "You should close your eyes. I would prefer to avoid you trying something stupid." She stepped forward into the cavern.
Golden light descended from the ceiling of the cavern. The water rippled suddenly gold, flickering patterns of light rising through the pool. A warm, bright lantern near the bottom of the pool lit, a figure reflecting through its darkness.
Naruto turned his head to one side. He focused his attention on the lantern, memorizing the strange chakra flow around the lines of the lantern.
"You got the situation?" Kakushiro asked the figure demonstrated on the lantern.
"Yeah." Kūkyo, judging by her height, her bright golden eyes, and the enormous sword strapped to her back, nodded. "Not a bad plan, but it's tough to handle Naruto-kun this time around." Her lips curled upward.
Naruto turned his head to one side blearily.
"Why?" Kakushiro asked briefly.
Kūkyo grimaced. "The leader is in the midst of something tricky. That and being a pain in my ass. Seems he's determined to collect money a lot faster than anticipated. I can send Ki and Chinmoku over to collect him, as you need, but everyone else is tied up at the moment."
Kakushiro's eyes narrowed. "Where are they?"
"They're currently near Hidden Stone, so collecting them will take a while." Kūkyo forced a grin. She cast a brief glance toward Naruto's slumped form. Her golden eyes narrowed. "Something else. He doesn't look too well, so try to help with his health."
"It'll cost extra."
"Money's no object in this regard." Kūkyo's lips curled upward. "That young man is one I have an interest in. Take good care of him or I'll take it out of your hide and your fees."
Naruto's brow furrowed. She really remembers me that well?
Kakushiro groaned. "Fine." She rubbed her black hair. "I will keep an eye on the brat until we can transfer him." She sat down in the water.
"Hey! Naruto-kun." Kūkyo's lips curled upward. "Don't die until I see you again, promise?"
Naruto frowned. He turned his head so that he began to fill his mouth with water. "Agreed," he forced out between the mouthful of water.
Kūkyo smirked. "I'll be waiting." She gestured toward Kakushiro.
Kakushiro waved her hand across the lantern. The light faded from the pool waters. The figure wobbled out of existence.
Naruto swallowed. Some of the water got down the wrong pipe and he coughed fiercely.
Kakushiro extended her arm. Several of the black tendrils forced the water out. "I am not going to waste my investment."
"You don't have any respect for anyone, do you?"
"Should I?" Kakushiro responded distantly. "The dead are good only for money and firewood. As to the living, they are treacherous. You cannot count on them when it counts. Can a human warm you when you are injured? Can a human be trusted with your life? Money at least lasts a while." She exhaled. "You are a fool, you see. A fool."
Naruto remained silent. "Better a fool than a monster."
"That, I fear, is too late for me." Kakushiro's tone grew wry. "I gave up being a fool long ago."
Naruto frowned.
"I like this kid. He's got the right idea. For not acting in this way—for not denying the fate that we have been given, to live in a world of people's suffering, people's feelings, to cause them or be affected by them—that guy's smarter than you. Fuck your greedy ideology."
Naruto looked briefly at Kakushiro.
Kakushiro chuckled. "You really believe that idiocy now, do you not?" Her hand touched the side of her robe. "Looking at matters carefully, the world does not favor your views. It is imbalanced. In this world, feelings have always come as secondary to money or power."
Naruto frowned.
Hidan gritted his teeth. "Well, if people did, it would be a better world."
"He's right." Naruto raised his voice. "Feelings are the only thing guaranteed to last. Money tarnishes."
"Wait." Kakushiro's eyes narrowed. "Your thinking is off-base. Before you agree with a fight maniac like this, remember, he is talking about a world where people are crazed on death, furious for it, desire it. He wants power, but over others' lives and deaths. That is the maximum his twisted mind can come up with."
Naruto blinked.
"Knowing that, do you still agree with him?" Kakushiro turned away. "Hidan. Head over to Zaigei. I will babysit the brat, since you have already made it clear that you want no part of that."
Hidan nodded.
"That is correct." Kakushiro's eyes narrowed. "We work for ourselves. We are our own people. Our own experts, our own timekeepers, our own masters. We are not like you Leaf ninja, tools for the amusement of others. That much he already should know, right?" She glanced downward briefly. "You will not be in our care too long, brat."
Naruto's eyes widened. "You're transferring me?" He gritted his teeth.
"A client from Hidden Mist requested your presences there. It is something that, I think, reflected something else you found to be true." Kakushiro's lips curled upward. "The Allied Nations are, one and all, liars."
Naruto gritted his teeth. Gatō still causing problems for me even after he's dead.
"Am I wrong? The experience of all shinobi is inevitable betrayal."
Naruto fell silent.
"You know something of the cruelty of the world, I think. You understand a little. But it is all meaningless until you apply that knowledge given to you." Kakushiro turned her gaze to Hidan. "How long are you going to play around like this, you bastard? Get to work."
"Fuck you." Hidan raised his middle finger, his eyes narrowed. "I'll take my sweet time about it."
Kakushiro's eyes narrowed. "This is why I should have let you get dismembered back there."
Hidan groaned loudly. "Can you shut up about that? Seriously!"
Kakushiro shrugged her shoulders. "Your rituals take forever. Your actions take forever. Your actions take forever. The one thing you are good at is irritating people with absurd complaints like this."
Naruto looked motionless at the two figures.
"Get going. Or I will take off your head and leave it somewhere. At the bottom of the ravine or something like that. Or beneath the ocean."
The sky darkened.
"I'll leave. But I'm not happy. One of these days I swear I'll kill you." Hidan's eyes narrowed.
"That is my line," Kakushiro replied distantly. A black knife rested at her side, tucked into her belt. She fingered the knife briefly before turning her gaze back toward Hidan.
Hidan spat on the ground before walking out of the room.
"Though I haven't brought it up." Naruto scowled, his face turning faintly white. "I saw you carrying one of Asuma-san's trench knives. Is he?"
"The bounty on his head was far higher than that on Chiriku-san's." Kakushiro nodded again. Her hand released the trench knife, letting the weapon fall into the water.
The water splashed over Naruto's feet as the weapon clanked to the bottom of the pool.
Naruto gritted his teeth. He strode closer to Kakushiro, eyes furious. "Why? Isn't it enough that you've killed those others? Why'd you have to kill a friend?" he demanded, livid.
"Answer me this, before you continue. You killed Mizuki, yes?" Kakushiro queried. She raised a hand. "The spy of Orochimaru's in your village?"
Naruto paused. He looked down at the water. "I wasn't the one," he whispered. His eyes glistened faintly.
"It is the same, in my mind. I had no particular grudge against Asuma-san. That he had that much money on his head was unfortunate for him, but it had nothing to do with me. It was part of my role as a tool." Kakushiro paused again. Her eyes narrowed. "That aside, you seem to be suffering from the effects of poisoning. Some kind of chakra damage, yes?"
Naruto blinked.
Kakushiro looked at Naruto steadily. "As a former medic, I can tell you that messing around with this kind of problem is a mistake. Believe me, I know. I have the experience needed to heal you. You are past the point at which bed rest would prove effective, in my opinion. At this point what you need to do is start with smaller exercises."
Naruto frowned. "So like the Clone Technique or something?"
"Yeah. Basically we need to start from the bottom upward." Kakushiro clapped her hands together. "Basics upward. Do you understand?"
"I'm not that good at the basic techniques."
"Then you have probably got your best bet starting from here." Kakushiro paused. "Do not misunderstand. I would rather not involve myself excessively. But in terms of my position, I would rather see you live long enough to get you over to the client." She paused again.
Oh, she's an old one, Genkuro chuckled, her voice echoing through Naruto's mind.
You know her? Naruto's brow furrowed. You know where she comes from?
Her story is an amusing tragedy, I think. Genkuro paused. Especially for me. I found it a most amusing display, how they treated her. There's a good lesson. What is a human?
Naruto blinked. It's, well, me.
But who are ya? Yer yourself, and I'm myself. Now, I am a fox. I hunt, I hide, I find food, I play tricks. That is what I do. That is what I have done for over ten thousand years. Now. What do ya do? What have ya done? I do what I do because I am a fox. You do what you do, not because yer a human being, but because yer you. Genkuro paused. Ya also have monsters like that Sai girl. Then, somewhere in between are most humans. But the ones who have the right spirit, the right feelin', don't belong to yer people. They're mine.
Naruto frowned. He glanced at Kakushiro. "Sorry. I'm not very good at chakra control."
"It will be a sight easier now. You have weakened your chakra coils, so it would be rather dangerous to assume that you will have the same amount of chakra that you possessed before. Instead, the amount of energy used will be reduced, meaning that you may have more control."
Naruto frowned. "Huh. That's interesting." He clapped his hands together. "So I just try using basic techniques?"
"Clone Technique, Substitution Technique, Transformation Technique. Any of those three should do." Kakushiro paused. "It will take a while to get adapted again, but if you use too complicated of techniques, you are going to suffer through some significant problems. You would be injured significantly, and maybe couldn't use chakra ever again."
Naruto exhaled. "Okay." He clapped his fingers together. "Clone Technique first, then!"
A faint grin crossed Kakushiro's face. Plus, it will keep the brat out of my hair for the next several hours. Her eyes narrowed as she studied the water. Naive and easily pranked. I imagined that the jinchūriki of the Nine Tails would less resemble that old friend and more resemble that demon Fu.
Naruto clapped his fingers together. He transformed rapidly into a rough replica of Sakura, his eyes narrowed. I don't know why, but she's letting me use my skills. Because of that I can try to make an escape.
Kakushiro's eyes narrowed. I won't be letting him escape my sight. But even so, it won't hurt to give him more control of his contract—his thoughts, his motives, will be less inclined to escape if I give him this kind of way out. He thinks that he has escaped my notice, his right, his will. But he's mistaken. In reality, it's within my control. I don't know where Kūkyo got such an interest in his well-being, but she's foolish too.
Naruto drew in a tight breath. He studied the water. At the moment, I have precisely one advantage. His fingers clapped together. She doesn't know I'm aware of it. She thinks I don't know that she knows I'm planning to escape. So since I know that, if I can get closer to her, cause her to relax, I can make my escape. He exhaled. The energy flickered around his fingers. She's a member of Akatsuki, so if I try taking her on head-on, I'll get my ass kicked and lose privileges to escape. I have to wait for the right chance.
Drip. Drip. Drip. Water fell from the cavern ceiling into the lake.