Opening - Haruka Kanata by Asian Kung-Fu Generation
"It actually worked."
Naruto gingerly picked up the first of three bronze rings on the floor, now marked with a miniscule fuinjutsu on the outside of the otherwise unmarked band. There was no crystal or engraving set into the trinket, and the new seal was the only marking on it. The creator of the new tool slipped the ring onto his right middle finger, noting with satisfaction that it fit perfectly and was rather comfortable. Naruto grinned, and pulsed a bit of chakra into his fingers, triggering the seal.
Storage seals are often considered a basic shinobi skill, and are startlingly versatile. Given enough time and chakra, a competent seal user can create a pocket dimension on a scroll, easily large enough to live in, although such a seal would likely take up an entire ninja scroll, and won't automatically filter in fresh air. Inversely, a seal can be made to create a storage dimension of exact size and shape, fitted to contain one and only one object. Such seals are slightly more complex, but can be written into a tiny package.
Naruto, like many fuinjutsu practitioners before him, had decided to write the seal on a much larger scale, on the floor of his bedroom. He'd used a rather common sealing method to shrink it down to the intended size, once its magnified version was drawn to exact detail.
The end result was that the reusable seal released his new sword into his palm instantaneously. His fingers and palm then tightened around the hilt and released chakra once more, pressing the sword back into the ring.
The weapon had originally been intended for mass production within the Uzumaki Clan, a signature weapon for them all to have access to, but their extermination and the fall of Uzushio had put a stop to that. It was given a name; U-1917 'Kuroga,' roughly translating to English as 'Black Fang.' It got its name from the fact its entire construction of high-carbon steel had been 'blued' to protect against rust, but the end result was steel that was nearly black.
The Kuroga bore a unique 'partial basket hilt,' as it had been described in the paperwork Naruto had found for it in the armory. Rather than a curved hilt of steel like an ordinary cutlass, this one had a plate of blued steel armor attached to it that covered the front and outside of his hand when he wielded it. Dozens of small holes had been cut into the plate to make it slightly lighter without making it thinner.
The blade was untouched by the years or decades since it had last been unsheathed. According to the history books, most of the Uzumaki had been killed off in the days of the First and Second Hokage, which meant the weapon was likely fifty years old, give or take a decade. The remaining Uzumaki, including Mito Uzumaki, the first Jinchuuriki no Kyuubi, brought their remaining members and assets to Konoha, including the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox sealed inside Mito, and the massive collection of weapons, mostly cutlasses, that had likely never been wielded.
Naruto had found the sword amid a pile of more generic-looking weapons, haphazardly dumped in a mound of hilts and scabbards. It had occured to Naruto that Mito herself might well have been the one to leave the armory like this, and as such, she might have been the last person to touch this sword before Naruto. That little slice of history, coupled with Naruto's newfound interest in stealthy, black shinobi clothing, had led him to choose this weapon over the countless others.
That, and the sword was clearly of the highest quality he could get. The balance was perfect, the blade was razor-sharp, and it somehow felt vastly sturdier than his previous cutlass. It was no Sword of Kusanagi, to be fair, but Naruto was confident this one wouldn't snap in two the next time he fought Orochimaru.
And he was certain there would be a next time; even if it was years down the road, even if Naruto faced him under the robes and hat of the Hokage, he would face the Snake Sannin again. It would likely be much sooner than that; Orochimaru wasn't the sort of threat that just goes away after a while. He wanted a Rinnegan, and he was ready to fight for it.
"Okay," Naruto shook the grim thoughts from his head, "Next up. Hinata's ring, then Kiba's."
It was early evening; twelve hours ago Team Eight had finished the second phase of the Chuunin Exam. Naruto had already finished his other project mere hours after he arrived home, and that left him with only this remaining invention, another crucial advantage he could share with his team. These rings would bring them closer to a Chuunin promotion, which in turn brought Naruto closer to a Hokage promotion.
Naruto first picked up Hinata's new weapon from where it lay on his bed, and drew a tiny black seal on the wooden handle. The idea for this 'targeting seal' had come from inspecting his father's Hiraishin kunai. He'd come to realize that the fuinjutsu laid on the weapon itself was startlingly simple, easy to cast on an object or a person in the middle of a heated battle. It was merely a chakra-laced target mark which made it easier to 'lock on' to, and Naruto could replicate a weaker version of the effect with his own fuinjutsu, a subtle beacon which either a person or another seal could make use of, if they knew to look for it.
Since Hinata's weapon had potential for throwing, this seal made it slightly more useful for Substitution, and it also served as an additional guarantee that her new weapon would appear in her hand in the correct position when unsealed, ready to be snatched and wielded immediately. The target seal on the weapon would appear perfectly lined-up with the storage seal on the ring.
The Rinnegan helped him with fuinjutsu, far more so than ninjutsu. With it, he could see the chakra in his fuinjutsu ink, and could see the multiple layers of complex seal networks, even if he hadn't been the one to draw the seal. Looking at his father's Hiraishin beacon, he could see how it was assembled. He still needed to have actual skill in order to comprehend what he was looking at, but he could see it, and that was a start, in fact it was enough to decipher this piece of the Hiraishin. He hoped that when he worked up the guts to look at the Eight Trigrams Seal on his chest with an active Rinnegan, it wouldn't be as intimidating as it felt right now.
Even a single Bijuu's power, channeled back into the Ten-Tails… you have to stop them, Naruto. Stop the Akatsuki.
The Eight Trigrams Seal was crucial. It was his best chance to convince Gaara to ally with him, and if two Jinchuuriki together, rather than just one, tried to convince the other seven to unite...
It's not time for thoughts like this, not yet. Naruto sighed, and returned his focus to the task at hand, wiping away a mark where he'd slipped in his distraction, then started painting the same mark properly.
X
Kiba Inuzuka was completely content with the world and his place in it.
Yesterday, he'd fought one of the most feared missing-nin in the world, alongside Akamaru, Naruto and Hinata. And they'd won! With the help of three other Genin, fair enough, but they'd won without a single scratch. Not only that, but they'd shortly after that passed the second phase of the Chuunin Exam.
Now, he was beginning the day alongside his team under a sunny sky, stretched out on a beach of white sand, still cool from the previous night, with Akamaru curled up on his chest and sleeping peacefully.
Yeah... this is what it means, to live... One day I'm fighting an exhilarating battle for my life; the next I'm relaxing, enjoying what I've won with my victory.
"Sorry I'm late, guys," Naruto's voice said quietly, and the sound of footfalls in the soft sand approached. Kiba peeked his right eye open, and glimpsed Hinata trying feebly to cover up her exposed legs. She was wearing her favorite lavender-white hoodie, and under it a dark orange bikini with a skirt that went just past mid-thigh. Hinata being Hinata, she had immediately felt regret at the choice of swimwear upon arrival, the very moment she made eye contact with someone. That person had been a civilian girl of maybe eight summers, walking by in a yellow sundress with a matching yellow bucket of sand in her left hand.
Hinata had squealed, sat down cross-legged in the sand, produced a beach towel when Kiba wasn't looking, and laid it over her legs, blushing bright red. This drew a confused look from the little girl who, after a moment's consideration, decided she should just resume the return trip to her sandcastle.
She gave a quiet 'eep' sound, and quickly looked away from a shirtless Naruto. "H-Hey, Naruto... N-Naru-kun," she reminded herself after a moment.
Naruto stuck his hands in the pockets of his knee-length, neon orange shorts, grinning. "Yo, Hina-chan, Kiba, Asuma-sensei!" he greeted enthusiastically. "I made you guys something!"
"Made?" Hinata questioned, surprised.
Naruto pulled his hands out of his pockets once more, and unfurled his fists. In each of his palms rested a glistening bronze ring marked with a tiny fuinjutsu, and he passed the one in his right hand to Hinata. Kiba, unable to sit up with Akamaru sleeping on his chest, merely caught the ring Naruto tossed to him carefully. "Watch this!" he triggered the seal on his ring, releasing his new sword. "Try yours, Hina-chan. Make sure the seal faces toward your palm, and pulse a bit of chakra into it."
She nodded, and stood, but blushed faintly when the towel fell from her legs in doing so. She slipped on the ring, and ejected the contents of the seal, which turned out to be a three-foot-long staff of stout, dark red cherrywood. It was roughly the proper length for kenjutsu sparring, but it clearly wasn't a sparring tool. Cherrywood was expensive, and this staff was beautifully inlaid with a swirling design of real gold. "It's beautiful," she breathed, wide-eyed, "I've never seen anything like it."
"You haven't seen anything yet," Naruto replied proudly. "Maybe try the Byakugan?" he suggested eagerly.
She nodded, and activated her doujutsu, then gasped. "A release mechanism! Triggered by chakra, to release and retract..." she pulsed her chakra again, unleashing a double-edged, foot-long blade from each end of the stave. Both blades were also adorned with more delicate gold inlays.
"This is... incredible, Naruto-kun. A weapon like this... it must have been commisioned for me personally. It can be used non-lethally with just the stave part, and with the blades extended I can angle the weapon to block and attack, both ahead of me and behind me, almost simultaneously. And the quality of it! Where... who in Konoha could have made something like this?"
Naruto grinned. "Me."
"H-Huh?" Hinata mumbled in disbelief.
"Believe it. I got the Forge Level Two working, and that means I can use the Asura Path to create high-quality, permanent weapons with only my chakra and a bit of starting material to replicate. So, the gold in that staff is made of exactly the same metal as a gold coin, since that was the source material."
Hinata retracted the blades into the staff, then pressed the entire weapon back into her ring, and hugged Naruto. "It's perfect!" she said gratefully, with a trace of awe in her voice. "It's... it's..."
"Awesome," Kiba finished. "But, I'm kinda stuck down here," he said with a nod to Akamaru, "So, what's in mine? Is it dangerous for me to unseal, down here?"
"You said yesterday, that kunai melt when you use your second Hellhound Mode, and then later, you mentioned that the first level ruins the temper on any kunai you touch, so I made you a nice little collection of kunai that won't get damaged by heat. It took a bit of work, but I was able to borrow a trace of a really heat-resistant metal called tungsten, and I alloyed it with steel," Naruto replied.
"There's about two dozen in that ring, and five Fuuma Shuriken of the same metal, 'cause Fuuma Shuriken are awesome. The kunai pop out first, one at a time, and when they're gone it starts releasing the shuriken. Remind me to fix that later with a second fuinjutsu. I kinda rushed it, 'cause it was getting late, and I didn't want to make you feel left out, ya know? If I gave Hina-chan that awesome staff, and you nothing, it'd be kinda rude."
"Thanks, Naruto," Kiba replied, and put the ring on, unsealing and resealing a shiny silver kunai without a cloth wrapping on the hilt. "That's pretty wicked."
Naruto turned to Asuma, who was smoking a cigarette a few yards away. "Hey, Asuma-sensei, I haven't forgotten you either," he noted apologetically.
"Hm?"
"Yeah, I'm gonna make you a ring too, but yours is... really complex, and like I said, I ran out of time last night. Sorry." Naruto scratched the back of his neck sheepishly.
"Pff," Asuma blew out a stream of smoke. "Don't worry about it. My chakra blades have always done the trick up 'til now."
"Nice to have an ace in the hole, though," Kiba observed. "And these things are pretty cool. Our competition in the Chuunin Exam won't see this coming."
Naruto nodded, then turned his gaze on the tide, gently washing up over a plane of wet sand, a bit further each time. "Okay, I'm going for a swim! Who's coming with me?"
Hinata took in the sight of the water, her chakra element, gently rolling up the beach as if reaching for her. Sh unzipped her hoodie, revealing the top half of her bikini. "I'll go," she replied, but blushed when she saw where Naruto was looking. "N-Naruto?"
He turned away, and wiped away a bit of blood that had trickled from his nose. The only somewhat coherent thought he could form was, She looks... good.
He wasn't, was he? Hinata shook her head imperceptibly. He wouldn't stare. Naruto wiped his nose again, and this time, she caught it. He did! He was... checking me out... "O-Okay, N-Naru-kun, let's go," she said shakily, and picked up a mussel shell from the sand at her feet, then threw it toward the water. Silently, she used a Substitution to switch places with the shell. It hit the sand quietly, while she squealed from plunging into the frigid water.
Naruto sprinted toward the water excitedly, startling Akamaru into waking on Kiba's chest. The young ninken reared his head to watch Naruto throwing himself headfirst into the water, then yawned and stood, being careful not to scratch Kiba's bare chest with his lethally sharp claws as he jumped down to the sand below. Kiba sat up, and brushed away some sand sticking to his back, then stood and did the same to his crimson trunks. "Akamaru, let's go."
The juvenile ninken woofed happily, and followed Kiba to the water.
X
Kill them. Every last one.
No.
Gaara had learned to withstand the torture Shukaku was now frequently inflicting on him. Echoing under the Bijuu's tone, his mother screamed, begged him to give in, to appease Shukaku and free them both from agony. But Gaara refused. I will kill, only to prove my own existence, and that requires a worthy opponent, not a crowd of helpless civilians. I won't feed you.
Kill them all. They don't matter; they only exist to feed us with their screams. They only exist to prolong my existence.
Your existence means nothing to me. I care for only myself, I love only myself, and I live only for myself.
What about me? Mother pleaded. Save me, Gaara-kun. Please!
I will, Mother. By taking the Eight Trigrams Seal. Gaara looked up from his thoughts. Naruto Uzumaki... he has the power to defeat me. If he fails to do so, then it means his existence is weaker; mine is stronger. My path is the right one, and I will slaughter everyone he cares for. I will give you my body, and Shukaku's power, Mother, either that or I will take the seal.
Gaara's bare feet sank into the white sand as he walked, arms folded over his chest. He felt in his element here; with this much sand around him he was nearly invincible. Then again, a beach paled in comparison to his native desert terrain.
Kankurou and Temari had decided to let him come here alone, knowing he preferred it that way. Being the demon he was, hated as he was for it, he knew he was truly alone, and so he'd become comfortable with it. He had no brother in Kankurou, no sister in Temari, and no father in the Fourth Kazekage. Mother had always been enough.
He looked up from his feet, and stopped walking. A few yards ahead of him, Naruto Uzumaki and his teammates, dripping wet and panting, had just flopped into the soft sand beneath them, smiling. Behind them, a small white dog shook water from his coat vigorously.
"Gaara!" Naruto called, noticing the Jinchuuriki of the One-Tail halted in his approach. The host of Kurama was smiling at him, and waving. His friends and even his sensei joined in. "Come hang out with us," Naruto invited cheerfully.
Gaara made his decision. He approached the Konoha team, and reluctantly set down his gourd to sit next to Naruto. "You need to tell me why. Why are we so different? You should be like me, bent on proving the value of your existence. Why do you smile... like they do, when we aren't around for them to glare at us?"
Naruto winced. "I... don't really know how to put it into words," he admitted, "but I'll try. I'll tell you my story, and then I'll hear yours, yeah?"
Gaara nodded. "Go on."
The Kyuubi Jinchuuriki looked down, and took a deep breath. "The day I was born, the Nine-Tailed Fox attacked this village."
That's a terrible way to put it, Kurama noted. I need to tell you the whole story of that day, but later.
Shaken by that confession, Naruto hesitantly continued, "My father, the Fourth Hokage, took me from my mother's arms and brought me into battle against the Kyuubi, where he used the Eight Trigrams Seal to cage it inside me."
Not the whole truth, but close enough for now.
"I spent the first years of my life not knowing why they hated me, but I pieced it together eventually. They thought, and still think I'm the Kyuubi, not its Jinchuuriki but the Kyuubi itself in human form, regaining its strength to destroy them. And the more they looked at me like that, the more it hurt. The other kids wouldn't play with me, the adults looked at me with hate, and I could barely get a meal, between the shopkeepers chasing me away, and how empty my wallet always was. No parents, no siblings, no friends."
"And I started to resent them for it. I started thinking, 'I should hurt them like they're hurting me.'"
Hinata shuddered. "N-Naruto-kun," she whispered sadly.
Naruto glanced to her, but continued his tale. "I think this is where my story and yours change: One of my Academy teachers, Iruka Umino-sensei, looked at me like a person, a real person like he was, and he smiled. He took me to a restaurant called Ichiraku Ramen, and bought me food. I never stopped going there."
Naruto smiled then, startling Gaara. "When I was nine, I decided I was gonna become the Hokage of Konoha. I didn't know at the time that my dad was the Fourth; I just thought if I was Hokage, the village would have to acknowledge me, look up to me, respect me." he laid a hand over Hinata's where it lay in the sand. "A year after that, Hina-chan here came out of nowhere and made herself my friend. Everyone else besides Iruka-sensei looked at me, and they saw a demon, a monster. Hinata saw a human being."
"Things kept getting better from there," Naruto admitted. "A few other kids stopped treating me like dirt, I graduated and became a Genin, my problems with money even went away. I became stronger with Hina-chan's help, and now I know for sure, I'll be a great Hokage for this village, not just 'cause I want to, but because they need and deserve a great leader. I have a great life, and I'm happy. There are people now who care about me and acknowledge me, even love me."
"I see where we became different," Gaara answered. "The beginning. A demon was sealed inside me, before I was even born. When I entered this world, it was already there to eat away at my soul, and even as I took my first breaths, my mother held me, weeping and dying."
Naruto was the first to flinch, but his team followed suit quickly.
"It never got better. My older brother and sister avoided me as much as the rest of the village. The other children ran away, sometimes screaming, when they saw me, and my sand reached out to drag them back. I begged them to play with me, I cried where they could see me, but the fear was too much. I didn't even live with my father the Kazekage, I was sent to live with my uncle Yashamaru. I thought he was a good man, someone I could love like a father... right up until the night he tried to kill me, and died in that attempt."
"I gave up on people, then. I resolved care for and live for myself alone, to love only myself, and I burned the kanji for love into my own forehead, using sand, to show it. I began to kill. I let the beast inside me do the same. I was made a Genin, assigned to missions, and I was given targets outside Suna to slaughter. All the while, assassination attempts at the command of my own father kept coming; yet more people for me to kill. I began to enjoy it, revel in it. I felt healthier, more alive, when my enemies fell in a spray of blood."
"I realized then, that killing was my purpose. To prove my existence and continue it, I had to slaughter those who raised their weapons against me. And I did. I killed them all, and it made me happy, I suppose. And yet, here I am, doubting my entire existence in the presence of your own. That's why I'm going to weigh my existence against yours, in this exam. I will fight you, and kill you if I win."
Naruto felt sick now. "So that's what it is, then. No one ever reached out to you, like they did with me. No one was there to save you from that pain." he looked away, and shivered. "I'm sorry, Gaara. It must have hurt so much, but... is it really too late?"
Gaara blinked, and asked, "What do you mean?"
"I'll be your friend, if you want. I can help you find all the things that made me happy, and maybe you can break out of this nightmare you've been living in."
"So you do believe it, then," Gaara noted. "You believe that my path in life is wrong." he turned his gaze to the rolling waves on the shore. "In order for my existence to have true value, it must be willingly acknowledged, not proven in battle. I need to change, so that those around me truly desire my continued existence. I must become a person worth caring about. Does that sound right, Naruto Uzumaki? Is that how you would say it?"
"I don't know." Naruto shrugged, and looked back at Gaara with a sad expression. "I don't know how I'd say it, all I know is how I feel. And I feel hopeful."
"It doesn't matter. I'm going to test you, the only way I know how. I'm going to fight you, and whoever's existence is stronger, they'll prevail. That means that the one of us who... just doesn't understand... will lose, and if it's me, I'll rethink it all. If it's you, I'll kill you, since that's what I'm meant to do."
Naruto looked at Gaara then, and smiled. "Okay. If that's how you want me to help you, that's how I'll do it."
"I tried it, you know," Gaara confessed. "I tried showing mercy, even compassion, in the second test. I could have unleashed my killing intent on Orochimaru, or even just killed you when I found you unconscious with your team. I didn't do that, and I'm not sure whether I'm satisfied with that decision. I don't know what choice to make, so I'm leaving it in the hands of Fate, whether I receive the Eight Trigrams Seal or not."
"Fate. That's a depressing concept." Gaara turned, and glared at the newcomer, who seemed wholly unconcerned with the killing intent Gaara was trying and failing to restrain. "Ah, calm down. No use getting worked up over it," said the boy with the unusually spiky ponytail. "If you believe in fate, you believe that you're probably gonna get stuck with a life you don't want, and no amount of thinking though it calmly is ever gonna change the hand you've been dealt. What a drag."
"Who are you?" Gaara asked.
"I'm just a guy with a shogi set, looking for a good game," Shikamaru replied with a content smirk. "It's a nice day to sit on a beach and do nothing." he glanced past Team Eight's Genin, and called, "Yo, Asuma-san. You wanna play a few rounds?"
Shikamaru held up his favorite shogi set; the board was actually the top surface of the box that held the pieces. There were no frills or decorations on the set, and the painted squares were partially worn away from use. Asuma grinned, and beckoned him over, putting out his cigarette. "Maybe this'll be the time I beat you," he mused.
"Maybe," Shikamaru noted. "Winning every time is a drag, but at least you put up a fight."
"So where are Ino and Chouji?" Asuma questioned.
"Chouji has to pack half his body weight in snacks, to take with him whenever he leaves his house. And Ino headed here before I did. She's probably scanning the beach for Sasuke as we speak." Shikamaru began setting up his pieces. "She said something along the lines of 'Sasuke-kun can't possibly still be in that forest.' What a drag. She has no idea about Orochimaru attacking him."
"Orochimaru," Asuma repeated. "How the hell did you...?"
"No one told me, I just pieced it together." Shikamaru smirked. "And you just confirmed it."
"Damn." Asuma looked down. "I'm never gonna outwit you, am I?"
"It's a drag," Shikamaru avoided replying. "Orochimaru, taking an interest in Konoha. And worse, he's going after Genin. Granted, I don't have a doujutsu for him to steal, but still. Fears don't always have to be rational, and I know damn well I'd never beat a Sannin in a fight. Now, if I had a six-man team, with a Jinchuuriki and two doujutsu, and I knew all six were heirs to powerful clans, or the children of Kage, or both..."
Meanwhile, Akamaru looked up from his second nap on Kiba's chest, when the sunlight was interrupted by the silhouette of a kunoichi reaching down to pet him. Ino was wearing a violet bikini, which immediately drew Kiba's attention when he opened his eyes. Akamaru began to lean into the hand petting him, and his tail whipped from side to side in contentment. "Kiba Inuzuka, right?" Ino greeted. "I don't think we ever really talked in the Academy. I'm Ino Yamanaka." Kiba nodded, and she went back to petting Akamaru. "He's adorable."
"Yeah," Kiba agreed proudly, "and lethal. He could probably take out most Genin in this exam by himself."
"Is that a challenge?" Ino questioned with a sly smirk.
"Yeah, but to him, not you," Kiba replied. "Akamaru can understand human speech. He's a ninja hound, so in a few years he'll probably be able to speak."
"That's pretty cool," Ino admitted, "So, if he understands us... Can you understand him?"
"Yep." Akamaru barked, and Kiba added, "he just said he wants to be scratched right... here." he began massaging the fur behind the puppy's left ear. Akamaru yawned, and favored Kiba with a particularly thankful look. "I've been wondering for a while now... in the Academy, most of what you and Sakura said to anyone was 'don't take that seat next to Sasuke, he's mine.' So nobody really knows much about you, or even what the deal is with Sasuke..."
"Hey, I hang out with Shikamaru and Chouji; they know lots of stuff about me," she replied, and Kiba shrugged in agreement. "As for Sasuke... he's hot," she declared bluntly with a shrug. "I dig the whole 'brooding anti-hero' thing." She looked Kiba up and down, then smirked. "Still, you're kinda cute too, now that I get a good look at you."
"Flirt," the youngest Inuzuka replied, also smirking.
"You don't sound like you have a problem with it," Ino noted.
"Hey, break it up, you two," Hinata interrupted. Hinata, of all people. "There are children here."
Kiba glanced around. "Everyone here's a shinobi, and unless Gaara's a lot younger than he looks, we're all twelve or older. I think 'teenagers' sounds more fitting than 'children.' But this is just payback for the Forest of Death, isn't it?"
Ino glanced up at Hinata, then back to Kiba, and put the wrong two and two together "Wait. You, and Hinata?" she asked incredulously.
"N-No!" Hinata shouted in a panic, then added more quietly, "N-Naruto."
Ino nodded. "Aha... I get it. And Kiba... interrupted you two, when you were alone?"
Hinata nodded, then blushed much deeper than she had already. "Wait no, not like that! We were just kissing!"
"Yeah, that's all I meant," Ino replied, slightly startled. She's a closet pervert, no doubt about it. I guess it runs in the Hyuuga family, just like they say... Ino sighed out loud. Must have something to do with the fact their doujutsu can see through clothes. Yeah, like no one's thought of that! "So the rumors are true then."
"R-Rumors?"
"They say Naruto awakened the Rinnegan to save you from an army of missing-nin, and you two have been on each other like dogs on furniture ever since."
"Hey!" Kiba protested.
"That's not true at all!" Hinata added firmly. "It was only two missing-nin, Kiba was fighting one already, and we haven't been..." she winced. "'on each other.'"
Ino whistled, nodding, then glanced down at Kiba. "You were fighting a missing-nin too? One-on-one?"
Kiba shrugged. "Two on one; I had Akamaru. Besides, Asuma-sensei tired him out before I got there. And I've never seen a dog do anything to furniture in my whole life," he added, indignant.
"Sorry. The saying just slipped out, I guess," she replied, then added with surprise, "Not one single time?"
"Nope. And I've been around a lot of dogs."
"Huh." Ino stroked her ponytail thoughtfully. "I wonder where the expression came from, then..." she shrugged. "Ah, forget it. I'm going swimming, you wanna come?"
"Sure."
Shikamaru, meanwhile, watched and listened to the exchange. "So, Naruto unlocked his doujutsu through some connection to Hinata. I'll have to think on that some more, later. For now..." he clicked another shogi tile into place. "Tsumi."
"...Ouch," Asuma winced, staring down at the brutal defeat he'd just been handed. "Round two?"
"This is all I've got to do." Shikamaru glanced up. "No clouds today," he observed for the seventh time. "What a drag. I'm probably gonna get sunburnt." he spotted Chouji approaching the beach, wearing brown swimming trunks and a grey shirt covered in crumbs. The Akimichi heir was shoveling back potato chips like his life depended on it. "You know, I've never seen Chouji drinking anything. How does he keep up with the salt in those snacks?"
Asuma shrugged. "If you haven't figured it out, asking me isn't gonna help."
"I wanna just say the Akimichi have a kekkei genkai for it, but come on. That's a weak excuse." Shikamaru began resetting the shogi pieces. "And it's gonna keep bothering me 'til I figure it out."
"What a drag," Asuma finished for him, and moved his first piece of the second game.
"I couldn't agree more," Shikamaru replied.
Gaara saw the volleyball coming, but even if he hadn't, his sand would still have sliced it in half.
The four civilians who had been playing with the ball, quite a distance away, froze, staring at Gaara. The bravest of the four, a sixteen-year-old boy, approached with shock and anger in his eyes. "What the hell'd you do that for?" he asked angrily, towering over a seated Gaara. He probably thought he looked menacing.
Gaara looked down at the destroyed ball calmly, then glanced at Naruto, and back up to the older boy. "...I'm sorry. It was a reflexive defence I have no control over." He paused, and added, "Please be more careful."
Naruto nodded, smiling, but the boy would have none of it. "More careful? You little-"
Gaara's eyes narrowed, and the boy shuddered. "Be... more... careful."
"U-Uh..." the boy stepped back, wide-eyed.
"Gaara, it's all right," Naruto announced. "You too," he addressed the civilian. "I can replace your ball, calm down. Hina-chan?" he called, and Hinata turned to look from her conversation with Ino and Kiba. "Can you give me a hand with this?" he asked, and she nodded.
Naruto picked up a scrap of the destroyed volleyball as Hinata approached. "I take it you play with this thing a lot," Naruto noted. "Do you know what the proper size for a volleyball is? Any specific diameter?"
"Regulation size is sixty-five to sixty-seven centimeters," the boy replied numbly.
"Great," Naruto beamed. "We can work with that." Hinata arrived, and Naruto turned his excited grin on her. "Hinata, I need you to make a Rasengan, somewhere around sixty-three centimeters wide, if you can."
She nodded. "I can do it, but... why?"
"We're gonna make a volleyball," Naruto replied, as Hinata began shaping a larger-than-normal Rasengan with both hands. He clenched a scrap of the destroyed ball in his hand, and intoned, "Asura Path: Forge, Level Two."
His Rinnegan lit up in place of his normal blue eyes, and he placed his hands just above the surface of the perfect sphere of chakra. A white liquid began to leak out from under his palms, spreading over the surface of the stable Rasengan and hardening to encase it. "Okay, give it a second... all right, stop the Rasengan." Hinata nodded, and the muffled sound of spinning chakra inside the ball faded away. She removed her hand from beneath the ball, leaving it in Naruto's hands.
He passed it to the boy. "I know it's not quite the same, but it's enough that you and your friends can keep playing." The boy nodded thankfully, and Naruto turned to his own friends. "Hinata, thanks for the help, that was pretty cool. Gaara, thanks for not killing this guy."
The boy whitened. "He was gonna...?"
"I was, and I am, fully capable of it," Gaara replied. "On another day, I might have... but..." he looked away.
Get away from us!
Monster.
No, get AWAY!
Don't hurt me, please!
Gaara flinched. I just... wanted to get your ball back. I just wanted to help.
Monster.
I didn't mean to hurt anyone!
Demon.
Please, don't run away!
Gaara closed his eyes, and remembered where he was. A beach in Konoha, many years after that day, and it felt... almost like a second chance. "But... you don't deserve to be killed," he continued. "I don't deserve to kill you. It's wrong."
What are you saying, Gaara? Mother whispered. Shukaku had fallen silent completely. We live to kill. Don't throw our existence away.
I think I always knew about you, Gaara replied. But I didn't have the courage to face the truth. He turned away from Naruto, Hinata, and the boy with the volleyball, picked up his gourd, and started walking away. "I need to go," he declared, shakily. I never had the courage to face you. But now I can't hide from it any more.
What are you talking about? Shukaku asked, voice rising with panic.
My mother is dead. Beyond Team Eight's hearing range, Gaara began to sob uncontrollably. You're a liar, Shukaku, you're alone in there. And I hate you.
X
Mizuki cast one last glance around the secluded clearing outside Konoha, confident in his abilities to spot even ANBU-level ninja following him, then slung off his backpack and drew out an exact copy of the Scroll of Seals, the collection of all of Konoha's kinjutsu and hidenjutsu. He'd returned the original the same way he took it, after mastering a few particularly impressive kinjutsu. As he unfurled the scroll, he grinned, recalling the money he'd made selling kinjutsu secrets to the Village Hidden in Sound.
"Mizuki Tora." Orochimaru appeared out of nowhere, directly in front of Mizuki.
"Damn it!" Mizuki roared, and dropped the scroll to form a single seal. "Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!" A hundred fully formed clones appeared from nothing, surrounding the real Mizuki for protection.
"Impressive," Orochimaru noted. "A hundred of them... Surely you're drained from something like that?"
Mizuki patted his weapons pouch. "I'm carrying close to three dozen soldier pills. Expensive little buggers, but worth it."
"Not necessarily. I'm not here to kill you, Mizuki." Orochimaru extended his right hand as he spoke. "The kinjutsu secrets you've been supplying me with... yes, that's right. I am the founder and leader of Oto. The kinjutsu you've been giving to us have been beneficial, but I have an additional transaction I'd like to make with you. An assassination contract; and you'll bring the body to me."
Mizuki scowled, looking around at his clones, who remained in place. "...a Konoha nin? Lemme guess, you want a Sharingan. Kakashi Hatake?"
"Naruto Uzumaki. He's proven himself immune to my favored method of capturing victims and recruits. I want one, or both, of his Rinnegan eyes." Orochimaru grinned. "That said, I'm willing to give one to you, if that's the payment you choose."
"A Rinnegan eye," Mizuki replied thoughtfully. "It's not that simple. Don't get me wrong, I hate the kid, as does much of the village, but if I just kill him and drag the body off, that'll pretty blatantly mark me as a traitor. This is a Bijuu in human form we're talking about. A priceless weapon." Mizuki smirked. "I want asylum in your ninja village, a Rinnegan eye, and access to some of your secret jutsu collection. In exchange, I'll kill Naruto, give you his other eye, and serve directly under you as an officer in this army you're building."
Orochimaru grinned. "That deal doesn't include anything I'd object to, but... I'll need to be certain of your loyalty. To that effect, I'll give you a powerful kinjutsu, right here and now, that will serve as an additional and fearsome weapon for you, whilst also serving as a means through which I can stop you from betraying me." Mizuki's eyes narrowed. "Oh, calm yourself. I couldn't kill you with it, but I could cause you excruciating pain. Enough that you'd rethink your allegiance. You're an investment, after all."
Mizuki pondered this. "The kinjutsu you're offering me... tell me more about it."
"It's called the Cursed Seal of Earth. It draws in natural energy from the atmosphere, converting it into usable chakra..."
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