Nothing happens.
And Naruto and his retinue wake up to Sai pacing the room and no news about anything. A calm, quiet night with nothing suspicious in sight.
Somehow this makes Naruto hopeful that the Two-Tails is innocent, although his guards shake their heads and look confused about this growing calm environment. Shino and Ino take their time as they get ready, making sure that their surveillance doesn't show anything out of the ordinary. Sai only lets his guard drop when his teammates give him the green light to do so.
Naruto takes his time with his morning meditation and lays his chakra as thin as possible around himself. The whole process is faster now, and his control grows with each passing day, but the task is tedious.
He has made himself hyper aware of whatever touches his chakra as a means to make the time he spends doing this more tolerable, which is why he makes sure there is nothing threatening around them when he comes to his senses in their room.
Shino brings him a plate of food the moment Naruto finishes his practice. He had thought his concentration had grown stronger as they made their way to this place, as it seemed that he wouldn't catch neither conversation nor major movements around him.
And yes, he was better at tuning out things in his close vicinity. But most of it just came down to his guards not wanting to interrupt his meditation.
"You guys know you can talk to me or whatever to make me eat."
Shino sits again and the last of his food keeps disappearing behind his high-collared jacket. "The lord's meditation is important."
"Yeah, sure, but I also have to get better at catching people getting close to me, right?"
"Why?" asks Sai, his question directed at Naruto yet his whole body turned to the window, his plate in hand, "we would never let an enemy get close to the lord."
"And your meditation is important, my lord," Ino adds.
"You are… not wrong," Naruto stares at Ino, trying to gauge her disposition to explain what he wants to say. But she seems as adamant as the other to let him meditate without trouble.
"Lord Jiraiya has always said that meditation is one of the best things you can do for your body, my lord," Ino continues, her eyes bright and full of passion, "if our part is protecting you then please allow us that privilege."
Naruto thinks for a whole second that this is a joke. Or not a joke, but goodwill pulled to the extreme. Until Ino keeps staring at him with a serious face and no one else seems to want to add to her words. Naruto shakes his head and can't help the snort that leaves his mouth as the realization hits him.
They really care about him.
•····························•····························•
Naruto stares off into the distance as the Two-Tails falls into another long discussion regarding the current situation with the Four-Tails. His chakra surrounds him and the room they are in, a task that keeps him from zoning out too much.
He can feel Gaara's eyes on him every now and then, but they can't do anything without raising the suspicion of the other Beast Tamers present, so Naruto keeps his head down.
"Wouldn't you agree, Nine-Tails?"
The Two-Tails and the Four-Tails talk at length, but they make sure to bring into the conversation either Naruto or Gaara after a long bout. A mix of interest in their opinions and wanting to find them slacking off, Naruto thinks.
But he's listening. If there is something he has learned to do exceptionally well throughout his years as clan leader is zone out but just enough. Let your mind wander but still catch everything that's being said.
"Sure," Naruto answers, "though I'm more of the mind of searching for them, you know."
The Two-Tails stares and the Four-Tails scoffs. "Now?" he mocks, "even if we began searching now, I doubt we could find anything after months have passed, don't you think?"
Naruto tries to keep himself from being an asshole. That mainly entails him keeping quiet most of the time, but when he's pushed like this. Not even his father could fault him, right?
"Oh, I'm sorry, I was facing an attack that forcefully tampered with my seal, as you are well aware. What were you doing, though? Aside from clinging to life, I mean."
The Four-Tails smirks, his canines showing through. His wrinkled face contorts and a coughing fit follows. The Two-Tails gives Naruto a look, as if he somehow triggered the condition on the old man.
"So you are of the mind to eliminate the enemy?" The Two-Tails asks.
The Four-Tails' guard brings a glass of water to the old man, who grabs it with unsteady hands.
"Of course I am."
"And yet you closed off your whole clan when we could have made a counterattack."
"Excuse me? A counterattack with whom? Your seal was settling down and this old man was allegedly dead!"
The Two-Tails frowns, slightly taken aback. "Well, you were available, weren't you?"
"I was down for a while, you know that."
"Yeah," she drags the word, and her suspicion drips from her tone, "though one would argue the Nine-Tails would be enough to take care of such a nuisance."
"If I had been unscathed then maybe, if our enemy didn't have in their repertoire making us go haywire and unable to control our Beasts then even more so, but that's not the case, is it?"
Her eyes squint, and Naruto realizes she's still trying to find fault in them. To find who's in it with the Uchiha, or whatever enemy is out there.
It's a flinch. A disturbance in his laid out chakra he barely notices. A prick that makes him glance to the Four-Tails. And his heart is gripped by surprise.
His guard is under an illusion. Precisely cast and barely noticeable. And if not for his surge of chakra right now Naruto would be none the wiser.
As would be all the other Beast Tamers, it seems.
"Who's that," he growls.
The Four-Tails keeps on letting his lungs out and the other Beast Tamers look from him to Naruto.
"The guard's under an illusion."
Sai takes out his short sword and stands between his lord and the Four-Tails.
"Nine-Tails!" Starts the Two-Tails, but her own guard stands her ground and whispers in agreement with Naruto's statement.
The Four-Tails guard does nothing aside from keeping his hands on the old man. Their eyes are locked and Naruto rises from his chair and throws a small dagger towards his direction.
"I said who are you!" He roars and aside from the old man still doubled over and the guard fretting over him, everyone else stands in attention, ready to fight.
The guard's cloak rustles and as soon as the Four-Tails coughing starts to subside, he raises and stares back at Naruto.
"My lord!" Warns Sai, but Naruto has long kept his own eyes away from the guard.
"Don't look him in the eyes!" He orders, and since no one says anything else he believes they are all on the same page. "You fucking bastard."
The guard does nothing and the Four-Tails just keeps on working on his breathing.
"And you had the guts to come and throw complaints our way? You fucking old man."
"His eyes are red," informs Sai. Low enough for only Naruto to hear. "Just like the ones Shikamaru showed us."
"Working with an Uchiha while we are trying to do away with them, huh? The fucking nerve."
"Like you are one to talk," croaks the Four-Tails and Naruto has to keep himself from looking back with murderous intent. "All cuddled up in your compound leaving us all to fend for ourselves, huh?"
"Is that what you kept telling yourself when you accepted their help? I guess death looming over your ass made you a groveling mess."
"You insolent-" the Four-Tails' cough interrupts him and Naruto lets his red chakra cover his body.
"Whatever, you're not leaving this place alive."
"Nine-Tails!" the Two-Tails stops mid-movement, as she tries to put her thoughts in order, but the One-Tail's sand is covering the floor and the chakra of the Nine-Tails is sending wave after wave of heat.
The Four-Tails is working with the enemy. That should be enough, right?
"Get under cover!"
"Lady Yugito!"
The screams surround her and she lets her own chakra surge forward, a barrier that protects her from the Nine-Tails heated chakra. Her eyes search for her guard, knowing that he won't be able to withstand this surge of power without her protecting him.
"Isshin, come here!"
Naruto sends wave after wave of energy towards the Four-Tails but the guard seems to have been counter attacking them just fine.
He wants to get up and personal, but knowing that looking the man in the eyes is enough to put him out of commission keeps him rooted where he is.
It doesn't matter whether he is up here or in front of his face, the end result will be the same. His chakra reserves will outweigh them both and Naruto has the time to wait. The chakra around him forms and two tails rustle behind his back.
A red claw flies to the Four-Tails and the Two-Tails' scream fills the room the next second.
Her body doubles over her guard and Naruto can't help but feel dread in his stomach.
"Kankuro don't look him in the eye either!"
Naruto hears the guard curse out loud and smirks. Yeah, what an asshole. The steady outpour of chakra gives him a third tail and Naruto accumulates chakra in front of his mouth before sending a blast that sends the Four-Tails and his guard outside.
Now they won't have to worry about collapsing infrastructure.
Naruto keeps his eyes on the two men below him, two little people gathering themselves down there. "Hey, Two-Tails, you with me or against me?"
She stands at his question, her hands leaving the neck of her guard after finding a pulse. "With you, is he staying back?" she asks, motioning towards Gaara, who stands in between the rubble, his sand surrounding him dancing in the air as it keeps him safe.
"He is."
"Can you take Isshin with you? People will come soon after, you can hand him to them, as soon as my people see me fighting along the Nine-Tails they'll know who's the enemy."
Gaara doesn't move, but he nods and his sand envelops the man and drags him towards him. "I understand."
"Tell everyone not to look the bastard in the eyes."
Naruto jumps before Gaara answers, and the Two-Tails follows after him. Her own chakra transforming into a gigantic claw that drags along the walls.
"Just keep your eyes away from the guard." Naruto steals a last glance at their position before keeping his eyes on the ground.
"Roger that."
The guard sends their way a fire technique Naruto deflects with a chakra claw.
"Oh, you're gonna need more than that, little guard!"
The Two-Tails crouches and her chakra looks more and more like an enormous and monstrous cat. Naruto's own chakra output is ready to let out another tail.
"I wonder when he'll ditch the old man. If his Beast gets free-"
"Doesn't matter," the Two-Tails assures, "he's a dying man anyways."
Her chakra dense and thick, her whole body more like a cat's than her own. She sprints forward and Naruto lets out a cackle.
He breathes out, concentrates on his own body and chakra. His muscles tight and contracted. Control over everything. Nothing like that time his seal was tampered with.
The fourth tail springs forward, the Beast's chakra surrounds him and tingles all over his body, and the skeleton of the Beast forms. He prefers this form over the one where his body is fully engulfed in dense chakra. He doesn't know how the Uchiha's technique will affect his chakra-beast form, seeing as he won't have as much control over his eyes.
He doesn't have time to put it to the test.
But it doesn't matter, because this is enough.
The skeleton's weight is enough to crack the ground it touches and Naruto has to keep himself from jumping and pounding down on the enemy. He runs, the skeleton moving around him and wrecking its surroundings. Another fire technique hits him, but this time he doesn't need to deflect it, it bounces off his body.
The adrenaline pumps inside his body and Naruto revels in this chance he's been given. "Please, allow me to show you what we're capable of!"
Naruto just has so little chances of just going all out, that well... he's kind of euphoric lol
Have a good one and see you next week!