Hi, it is 4th of July as I finish this so happy Independence Day guys.
Naruto sat on the side of his bed, his eyes still full of sleep and a little bit of drool coming from the corner of his mouth. Only after wiping them both did he notice the groaning from across the room. Getting up and around the curtain showed him that Kai was awake.
"Ah, rise and shine. You've had your beauty sleep for 4 weeks." Kai just kind of stared, he didn't understand a word that Naruto had said. The teen quickly realized that sleep was still in the man's eyes and moved for a more understandable gesture.
Kai did understand when Naruto made an eating gesture. He quickly jumped off the bed and Naruto got to see the clothes he bought him. It was just a simple kimono, but it looked very nice on him.
Naruto had to look up at Kai, he forgot he made him as tall as Zabuza. The two crawled out of the hatch right after they put on their shoes. Naruto decided to walk instead of run. "You awake now?"
Kai nodded with a groan. "My entire body feels stiff, especially my left… you…" Naruto just smiled. The man began to stretch out his fingers, while doing so he realized that his skin was young-looking.
"Did I become younger?" Naruto nodded. "I changed your cells into younger versions of themselves and altered the bone structures. You are a different person at this point."
Kai was astonished. "Why become a bounty hunter when you can do medical work like this?" Naruto held up his right hand, which was shaking terribly. "Because that medical work has a side effect. I haven't stopped shaking in 4 weeks and I have a doctor's appointment later today for it."
Kai didn't quite know how to react. "I'm sorry." Naruto just shook his head. "I did it voluntarily. Now, your new identity is a former shinobi of Kiri, a 20-year-old man named Hijiri Nishida. While I go to the doctor, you have to go get registered in the bounty office.
Just tell them that you were a special jonin who escaped after the civil war broke out, and you need work. Try your best during their tests and your bounty registration shouldn't take that long to complete."
Kai noticed something. "Did you change your face?" Naruto nodded. "I figured that my hair and eyes weren't enough, so I changed my cheek structure along with my jaw." Kai had to agree it was a smart thing to do, and certainly made him a whole lot different than the Naruto in his memory.
"Try to call me Masao when in public. Hell, to make it easier just start calling me Masao all the time, and I'll call you Hijiri." The man gave a thumbs-up as they saw the road ahead. Naruto turned his head with a smile. "Let's go get some breakfast."
*A couple of hours later*
Naruto sat in the examination room at the doctor's office. He had to do a lot of paperwork considering he was a new patient and a minor with no guardian so he'd spent about an hour doing that.
The door opened and a male doctor walked in. "Good morning, I'm Doctor Kema. Nice to meet you, Masao." They shook hands and Kema sat down on a chair. "Well, I have a few questions for you." Naruto motioned for him to go ahead
"Have you been sleeping well?" The teen nodded. "I usually get 7-8 hours of sleep a night." The doctor moved on, looking up from his clipboard with every question. "Do you have anxiety or are you stressed about anything?" Naruto nodded. "I am always stressed but I came here because a jutsu side effect caused this."
The doctor nodded but asked one more thing. "Last question, do you drink a lot of tea?" Naruto shook his head again. The doctor brought his hand up and scratched his chin. "Well then, to be blunt, you have extreme tremors in your hands and the jutsu you described was a simple strengthening jutsu, yet I don't know exactly what it did. You seem calm, your blood sugar is normal, and you don't look extremely tired.
My best guess is the jutsu deprived your body of vitamin B. You should be fine with taking some supplements every morning and as often as needed. If that doesn't work then I'll send in a prescription for Propranolol, which is usually for hand tremors, but I don't want to give a minor unnecessary medication. Also, do not perform that jutsu anymore."
Naruto nodded along with it all. "You can pick up your vitamins at Fuyuki's just down the road, and schedule an appointment for a month from now with the front desk before you leave." The doctor got up from his chair and opened the door.
Looking back, he added said something else. "One more thing, you need to gain a few pounds. You're not at a healthy weight for your height and age. You should be around 157 or so, but you're only 130." Naruto nodded and left the room.
After scheduling the next appointment, he made his way to Fuyuki's. Funny enough, it was the receptionist girl from the bounty office behind the counter. "Masao, what brings you here?" He lifted his hand for a wave.
"Need some vitamin B supplements, running a bit low." She nodded. "You know, vitamin deprivation is one of the most common ailments of shinobi. Anyways, the vitamins are down that second aisle there. B should be on the side closest to us."
Naruto found it quickly and she placed it in a bag. "130 ryo." The teen paid and was off with his vitamins. It had been 2 hours since Kai went into the bounty office so he was probably back from his mission.
Going into the office, he saw the old man wasn't upfront. Shrugging it off, the teen walked back in search of the former Suna shinobi. Eventually, he found the person he was looking for talking with the old man about the state of Kiri, which was just him bullshiting.
The teen waited for the conversation to end before walking up. When the old man saw him, he guided Kai to him. "Ah Masao, this is Hijiri. He just registered and was placed under Sadow as well."
Naruto nodded and offered his hand. "I'm Masao, nice to meet you." Kai turned to him and took his hand. "Likewise," The two shook hands, and one of the workers passed by them with a cart. "Hey guys, the new issue of the Bingo Book is out. A couple of new entries and a really big one on page five."
The worker handed them each a book and they all flipped to page 5. The page had a bounty for Naruto Uzumaki, 15 million ryo, to be captured alive and returned to Otogakure. 'I'm insulted, that's far too low.' He thought to himself. The teen knew a bounty was going for his head but 15 million? C'mon, he was worth more than 15 mil.
It kind of hurt thinking he was only worth 15 million but another thought entered his mind. What the hell did Orochimaru want with him? He met the man once in the forest of death and got his ass handed to him. It wasn't like he committed some crime against him.
Figuring to himself that it was probably Sasuke wanting to fight him again, he shrugged. "Hey, Hijiri, since we're both under Sadow, you wanna do a bounty together?" The man nodded and they walked to Sadow's office.
The two walked in and requested a bounty as a duo. If they did bounties together then it would reduce the time, and it wasn't like they needed money. A few minutes later, they walked out with a bounty for a bandit group with a few conditions attached to it.
They needed to capture the leader, kill the rest of the bandits, and return with the leader for completion. The problem was that they weren't all in a camp but they were split up into two small towns across southern fire county. The bounty total was 60,000 ryo though, so it was a little worth it.
As they left the building, Naruto formed a plan. All the two had to do is gather them all in a singular spot. Bribing one of the higher-ranking bandits would be enough. Either he could tell them of a spot they have meetings, or try and gang up on them, which was just fine with him.
"Okay, so this isn't going to be as easy as I'd like. We have two options, gather them all in one spot, or kill them as we go. They're spread between Shiratoro and Nakashikotan." Naruto said, reading the file.
"We could just go to each town and kill them all, but then we'd have to make sure there weren't any out," Kai said. "Let's figure it out on the way there. Wasting time won't be of any help." Naruto said, getting the agreement of the older man.
As they headed to the bunker for supplies, Naruto figured it was time to talk about something on his mind."I don't know about you, but I want to climb the ranks soon, so we gotta find a better way to complete bounties. At the rate we're going, it'll take five years to become an officer and 16 to get to the top. I'd rather not be an old man at the top, so some speed would be nice."
The former special jonin had to agree. "We could take the exam to become a part of the legion but we need 100 bounties completed to even qualify." Naruto did the math in his head, knowing that some bounties took up to a couple of weeks but the rough time was around six. "It'll take upwards of 19 months. Hell of a lot better than 5 years. Let's get working."
*A few minutes later*
The teen slid on the gear he used for bounty hunting while checking his supplies. His outfit looked like a normal brown kimono on the outside, but beneath it was armor and quite a few hidden pockets for his shinobi tools. With the addition of a cloak and straw hat, he was just another civilian.
Before he left the bunker, he glanced at Kubikiribocho which he stowed on the wall. The teen hadn't used the blade since he got it back, and he kind of wanted to try it out. "Ah, fuck it." He whispered. On one hand, he wanted to use it, but then again he wanted to have some stealth during the mission.
"What's wrong?" Kai asked, walking around the curtain. He was wearing something similar to Naruto but his was more black. Naruto had forgotten how good Kai's hearing was as he jumped a bit. "I'm thinking about bringing Kubikiribocho but I don't want to blow my cover instantly."
Kai looked like he was stupid. "Just wrap it up, you'd be surprised at how little people care about a giant sword." Naruto had that idea before but it seemed like such a hassle. "Alright, this might take a while though." Kai nodded and turned to the ladder. "I'll be waiting on the bridge."
*Ten minutes later*
Kai sat at the edge of the bridge as Naruto appeared with the giant wrapped-up sword on his back. The man had to hold back all of his laughter as he saw the idiotic-looking black-haired teen. "Not a word. Not a single word." He grumbled, passing his new friend. The two began their trip while the teen thought about what to do. Alas, he couldn't think in peace as Kai started talking to him.
"I figured out a plan while you were getting ready. One of us goes to a city and finds a way to gather all of the bandits because they gotta have a way to do it. I'm going to Shiratoro so you're left with Nakashikotan."
The teen sighed, of course, he gave him the one the farthest away. "What do we do if we find the leader? Also, we need a rendezvous." Naruto questioned "Randevou in Miyazawa, it's the small town in the middle. If you find the leader, just knock him out and bring him with you."
The teen agreed with the plan as they had just gotten off the bridge. "I noticed your breathing pattern," Kai said, glancing at the teen. Naruto nodded, "I just tried to copy what you showed me so it probably isn't good."
The man laughed. "You copied it perfectly, but you copied the breathing used when running, and you've been using that for everything else which is a big no-no. There's a different pattern for different actions. I'll explain them to you when we get back."
As he finished his sentence, they set out on different paths with Naruto heading to the left. The teen's destination was an hour run even at his speed. Realizing how far he needed to run with Kubikiribocho on his back, he sighed in defeat.
*A little later*
Naruto arrived at the small town a little exhausted and almost immediately noticed the presence of the bandits. They were guarding the front of every shop and even the entrance to the village. Whenever Naruto got to said guards, they sized him up.
"5000 ryo for entry." Naruto stared in disbelief. That was a high-quality whetstone right there. "You guys are part of Inukami?" The guards grabbed onto their swords. "What of it?" Naruto took off his hat.
"I'm here to relay information from Shiratoro. There has been a problem with suppressing the civilians. There's a couple of shinobi from Konoha among them and they are retaliating." The guards seemed horrified. "I'll bring you to the boss."
The man guided Naruto through the city and to a bar with a lot of guards outside. When they entered, Naruto immediately saw the man he had to capture. Aramo Nobutsu was an older man with a giant beard and quite a big build.
"Sir, this man is from Shiratoro to relay a message to you." The man bowed and left. Aramo finished his shot at the bar and stood up to look at Naruto. The teen bowed. "Sir, the civilians have hired Konoha shinobi to fight back."
The man crushed the shot glass in his hand. "Those fucking shinobi. Shiro, gather the boys, we're heading to Shiratoro tonight. You, do you know what rank these shinobi are?" Naruto cleared his throat.
"There are three chunin led by a jonin. I believe his name was Kakashi Hatake." Naruto could feel the rage of the man. "What has happened to Naro?" Naruto gulped. "I'm sorry sir. I do not know whether he is dead or alive. All I know is he lost an arm."
Naruto felt a blade rest on his shoulder. "Naro is a woman. Are you calling my wife a man?" The teen went to his knees and rested his head on the floor. "No sir, I'm new and I've never met Naro. My hearing isn't very good so I must've misheard the message. Please forgive me, sir."
Aramo growled. "Chop off your finger and I will forgive you." Naruto nodded into the floor. "May I have a knife?" A kitchen knife embedded itself into the floor beside his head. "Which finger, sir?"
Aramo made a sound like he was insulted. "Your pinky, I don't want to cripple one of my soldiers." Naruto made a swift move and cut off his left pinky with the knife. 'Fucking moron, the pinky is the most useful finger on the hand.' He thought as the blood flowed out onto the floor. "No hesitation. I like that. What's your name, boy?"
"Masao, sir." Aramo nodded. "Very well. Get up, you will follow me tonight." Naruto stood and slid his severed pinky into his kimono along with his hand. "Sir, the men have been gathered at the front gate." Aramo grabbed a hammer from the bar and made his way out the door.
Leaving the gate, Naruto secretly created a shadow clone to take care of the bandits left over and positioned his hand in his pocket for Kyuubi to mend it back to the finger. "Masao." Aramo bellowed. The teen ran up to him. "Is that thing on your back a weapon?" Naruto nodded.
"It's a sword that I found while I still lived in Nami. I heard that it once belonged to one of the seven ninja swordsmen of the mist." Aramo had his interest peaked. "Let me see it for a second."
Naruto brought the blade from his back as it unraveled on its own. Aramo grabbed it and nearly dropped it. "Kami, what kind of strength do you have Masao?" Naruto just smiled. Whenever he got the blade back though, he answered the question.
"I have the strength of a Hunter." A quick swing of said blade bisected the two bandits standing to his left side. Unfortunately, it was a bit dull so it got stuck halfway through the second man and then into the dirt road. Improvising, Naruto used the guard as a springboard to kick off towards Aramo.
His knee met the man's nose and Naruto felt the shaking of the man's skull. Dropping to the ground, he sprung towards the rest of the men lke a rabid animal, close to the ground. The kunai hidden within his kimono proved a good enough match against the roughly 50 men.
He abused the shunshin mixed with his kunai to seem like he was teleporting. Within seconds, the 50 were reduced to one. If any Iwa shinobi were watching, they'd be horrified as the yellow flash seemed to be reborn as more of a black blur.
Getting to the last guy, Shiro, the teen decided to humor him. The man was pretty well off with his sword so Naruto played a bit. A side slash was blocked, a downward was blocked, and a thrust was evaded.
Eventually, boredom came over Naruto as the man had so many openings which grew bigger after he cut Shiro's Achilles. The man crumpled to the ground, attempting one last slash which Naruto just caught.
Yanking the man's sword from his grip, Naruto flipped it around and stabbed it through Shiro's eyeball. Naruto took a liking to the weight of the sword so he pulled it out of its old user's eyeball.
A few thrust and swings were performed and the sword was soon embedded back into the ground. Its weight was truly awful. So much so Naruto was almost appalled by it. The teen turned around to collect the unconscious Aramo just in time to see the man, not unconscious, charging him with Kubikiribocho.
Naruto felt the blade enter his abdomen and looked down. "Fuck" He gargled up some blood just as his vision went black.
When his vision returned, he was in a room with paper walls and tatami mats. Laying on a bed roll in the middle of the floor was a young man, maybe 17, with long black hair, a pair of white moon-like eyes, and a seamless soft-looking face. On his face was a mark similar to that of the Akimichi, each cheek held a black circle with a dot in the middle and a line that went to his mouth.
Another thing Naruto did notice was that the man looked sad, very sad. Naruto's assessment of the man was cut short when the door slid open and a woman walked in. Blinking a couple of times, the Uzumaki tried to get rid of the blur that covered her face.
"My poor child, why did the gods forsake you? Why did they take your legs?" The woman caressed his cheek before fading away and the sunlight outside turned to darkness. The man sat up in the bed roll and cried before bellowing a single word.
"WHY" That word shook the entire room and Naruto felt it move his bones. The roof ripped apart and a glowing being lowered down. "Your despair makes you strong, and I shall grant you a pair of wings but do not forget your voice is a power that I granted your family, it is powerful."
The teen's vision went black again and when he regained it, he was standing with Kubikiribocho in his chest. Strangely enough, he didn't feel any pain. "Make him despair. Make him feel my despair."
The voice in Naruto's head was one he didn't know but he understood it. His right arm reached out and grabbed the handle of the sword. Amaro backed up in a state of shock, the teen should've been dead.
The sword was pulled completely out and Naruto held it beside him as his chest sealed itself up. Amaro charged with his hammer and swung it down towards Naruto's skull. "Protection of despaired souls." The teen whispered as the hammer was mere inches away from crushing his skull.
The weapon hit something in the air and bounced back with a loud bang. Amaro's ears started bleeding and he wobbled before falling unconscious. The teenage Uzumaki fell out of his stupor just in time to see Kubikiribocho turn into a smaller sword.
It turned into a wakizashi, if the length told him anything. The handle had a clean white braid with a black underwrap. The buttcap was black and engraved with a sakura flower. The guard was also black with a four-leaf clover shape.
Moving onto the blade, it was a light purple that really complimented the gold guard. Said blade had the same sakura symbol etched into it, filled with white paint to make it pop even more.
Looking to the ground, Naruto found a scabbard. It was a lacquered wood with a cord the same purple as the blade. Right at the beginning of the scabbard, was a sakura engraving. When Naruto picked up the blade and put it in the scabbard, his vision went black again.
The teen found himself in the same room but this time, sitting in front of a small table with a teapot whenever it came back. The door was open to show a beautiful mountain view with sakura blossoms flowing through the wind. "I always loved the blooming sakura. The sound of the wind picking them up was something I enjoyed."
The teen looked in front of him to see the man from earlier although a bit older. "Did I awaken some kind of spirit sealed within me?" Naruto questioned, only to hear the loud slurping of tea. "Try the tea, it's pretty good."
Naruto sighed and sipped the tea from the cup in front of him. "It's a little salty." He commented while placing the cup back down. Once it clacked with the glass plate, he looked up and stared into the eyes of the man. "Where are we and who are you?" The man laughed a bit, the teen was quite straightforward.
"I am the spirit of the sword, summoned from the emotions of everyone that it has ever killed." Naruto leaned back onto his palms. "What do you mean summoned? Are you like a god?" The spirit looked at Naruto and thought to himself how casual he was being.
"You're awfully casual about this but no, I am not a god. I was a human thousand of years before your birth and was simply reincarnated into the sword." The Uzumaki shrugged. "Whenever you have a being of pure chakra sealed into your stomach, things aren't very surprising."
The teen took a quick sip of his tea before continuing. "So you're the spirit of some dead guy that was summoned by the emotions of every person killed by Kubikiribocho? Who told you that? Was it Izanami-no-Mikoto?"
The man shook his head, almost violently. "No, I was just summoned here with the knowledge in my head. To be honest, I'm still processing it all." Naruto poured some more tea into his cup before sitting back once more.
"Trying to act cool then? I can respect that. Do you know where we're at though?" The spirit nodded. "I know we're in your inner world, which is the mindscape but for your soul."
The teen sipped the tea once again. "Could I move the fox in here?" The spirit quickly realized why. "You want to remove all of your relations to your old identity."
Naruto nodded. "Is it possible?" The spirit didn't know fully himself. "I believe it's possible if you separate the Kyuubi's spirit from his physical body but you do not have the power to do so." The teenager sighed.
It was going to be one of those goals for the future. "Well then, I suppose you have a way for me to grow said power?" The spirit gave his nod once more. "Learn my name." Naruto fully expected him to tell him his name only for silence to follow.
"Well? What is your name?" The spirit smiled. "You must find that out by learning about me and training with me. You must figure out the name given to me by the gods but for today, you have learned enough."
Naruto felt like he got hit in his head as he saw he was back in the real world. "What is with the beings in me being such dickheads, kicking me out from my worlds and shit. Fuck, I forgot to ask him how he spoke without moving his mouth too." With a sigh, the sword in his hand quickly made it into the fold of his kimono. Looking at the bodies surrounding him, the teen wished that he had an affinity for earth.
But alas, he didn't have one so a small army of clones to clean up the bodies were summoned.
He couldn't do much with them besides take them off the road. The clone from the town popped and Naruto knew that all the bandits within the town were dead. Groaning, he realized their bodies were never cleaned up either.
The teen just said "fuck it" and was going to leave the bodies in the town, the villagers could handle it. Once the bodies in front of him were in a nice pile, the Uzumaki pulled out a fire tag. A fire tag was a modified explosive tag that just burned up to start a fire instead of causing an explosion.
Once the bodies were starting to kindle nicely, he got his clones to pop one at a time with a couple of minutes between them and set off after grabbing Amaro. The teen didn't want to smell the burning dead people so his speed was max.
The run to Miyazawa was quite peaceful for the shinobi, it was late afternoon at that point so it was nice and warm. The only thing he didn't like was Amaro's heavy ass on his shoulder which made him wish Jiraiya taught him how to make a stasis seal.
The thought of a stasis seal brought memories of when he had to place a severed piece of Jiraiya's flesh into a stasis seal. The injury was the result of Naruto entering Kyuubi's four tail cloak.
Kyuubi had given Naruto a one-time favor for turning the mindscape from shallow water to land so he checked that in for the four-tail cloak with full control. The Uzumaki thought it was worth it though, using Kyuubi's chakra was fun and he got to hurt Jiraiya so it was a win-win.
What wasn't worth it was what he had to do afterward. Since Jiraiya was pretty roughed up, he needed assistance to do everything. Quite literally everything. Naruto would never forget having to help the man bath, it wouldn't have been bad if not for him constantly telling stories about Tsunade and other women.
It was just freaky as hell, but it lead to Naruto learning more about the man. He wasn't just a pervert but a fairly decent guy that had saved many people in good will. Jiraiya seemed to want his image to be of a pervert though considering all the horrible stories.
Shivering, the teen decided not to think about that and change the subject of his thoughts. It landed on his new tenant. While thinking about it, a concern grew within him. Why was he so emotionless about having it?
It was like he expected it but he didn't. Sighing, he changed his thoughts once again. This time to what the spirit said about Kyuubi. The teen would have to talk with the fox about what the spirit said later on. He knew the Kyuubi would like the mountain house better than the wet dirt pile that was his mindscape.
*Later that day*
Naruto sat on his bed, he'd been trying to access his seal to speak with the Kyuubi to no avail. For some reason, he couldn't feel much of the Fox in his seal either. Figuring him to just be asleep or not wanting to be bothered, he gave up.
The teen stood and peeked around the curtain to see if Kai was there. He was in luck as the man sat there reading a magazine. "Hey, do you mind teaching me about the breathing? If you aren't too busy."
The man glanced up from his magazine and nodded. Placing said magazine on his side, he patted the bed beside him. "Sure, take a seat and I'll explain." Naruto took his offer and listened to the man.
"As you probably know, your lungs aren't able to fully expand when you sit down so that makes your breathes shorter and…"
*About an hour later*
The Uzumaki walked to his bed and sat down. He'd just been lectured by Kai for an hour on breathing patterns and said man had just left to get dinner. Naruto had been left to practice the relaxed breathing pattern but it was boring.
So boring that he was just goin to go speak with the spirit. Grabbing the newly shaped Kubikiribocho, he was pulled into the world as his vision went black.
When his vision returned, he was in front of an annoyed-looking spirit and a small Kyuubi arguing with each other on the other side of the tea-table. "Uhhhh." Naruto was quickly silenced by the Spirit's finger which then pointed to the small fox. The small mammal looked a bit embarrassed as he started to explain.
"There was a cave that formed in your mindscape so I figured you gave me a home. Whenever I walked inside, the entrance collapsed and I was launched forward into his yard. Considering you aren't dead, I think my chakra is left in your system."
The spirit sighed and began to rub his temples. "Because of him, I'm going to have to teach you earlier than I wanted to." The glare that the spirit gave the fox was similar to what Naruto used to get from Sakura, pure annoyance.
"Since when were you so obedient, Kyuubi?" Naruto asked, earning a sigh from the spirit. "Whenever I was alive, I was the assistant of the bijuu's creator. He acts like that because I was his babysitter." Naruto grinned and had to bite his lip to stop himself from laughing.
"Listen brat, I can still fuck up your chakra flow." A rolled-up newspaper appeared in the spirit's hand as he hit the fox. "What did I teach you and your siblings about cursing?" The fox growled and bared his teeth to the spirit before a smile grew.
"Whatever you say, -." The fox had said the spirit's name but it was blanked out. "Naruto cannot hear my name until he finds it out. I can't even say it. Your name, however, I can say." The spirit held his fox-like grin.
"-" The bijuu started laughing hysterically. "It seems that he still has to find out my name as well." Naruto just sat to the side, sipping on his tea. He didn't know what the two were saying, they were using telepathy after all.
When they both looked at him, they had the realization. "You didn't hear any of that, did you?" Kyuubi asked. Naruto shook his head. "Not after you got hit with the newspaper. You using telepathy or something?" The fox and spirit looked at each other before shaking their heads.
"Yeah, I can't speak because of my cursed speech so telepathy is all I can do. Anyways, since the fox messed up my plans, you'll need to learn curses sooner." The spirit sprouted insect wings from his back and flew out the door to the yard. Naruto got up followed by the fox behind him.
"So what are these curse things? Are they seals that curse someone?" Naruto questioned, getting a shake of the spirit's head. "Curses can be thought of as seals placed on the body that is fed by negative emotions. The seal pattern is mixed with the cursed energy and causes an effect." The spirit showed his tongue.
"The patterns on my cheeks and tongue cause my voice to hold power and cause people to obey my words." The Uzumaki looked confused, very confused. Seeing that the spirit couldn't explain properly, Kyuubi stepped up.
"Naruto, you know how you can sense negative emotions whenever you use my cloak?" The teen nodded. "Well, those negative emotions in the air become cursed energy. Imagine you're making a seal, just replace chakra with cursed energy and you have curses or cursed techniques."
The teen nodded slowly. "So it's just jutsu and seals using different energy." The little fox nodded back. "Exactly, the thing is that we must get you to sense these negative emotions by yourself which will be a little difficult. Learning how to use cursed energy along with chakra is like learning two languages."
Naruto sighed. "Why does it seem like everything I learn is supposed to take forever to learn?" The Kyuubi shrugged. "To prevent you from being OP too soon. The readers don't like that and it takes all real risk from the story." The teen looked at him weirdly. "What?"
The fox looked away. "Nothing. Back to cursed energy, you can learn to sense it by just fusing my leftover chakra with yours. I have the latent ability to sense it so just accepting my chakra would do the trick."
The spirit butted in. "I wouldn't suggest that just yet." The bijuu looked at him with a confused face. "Why not? His body is already used to my chakra." The spirit sighed and facepalmed. "He has plenty of chakra already, both halves. All I would have to do is deplete more of his spiritual energy so the physical is higher. It would make jutsu harder but we both know he doesn't use many. Him joining your chakra with his would make it chaotic, we both know that your chakra still harms his body."
Off to the side, Naruto had a question. "So the physical half of my chakra is cursed energy?" The spirit titled his head and shook it slightly. "The physical half is the base, imagine it as latent potential and your emotions are the spark."
The teen nodded. "Cool, so how am I supposed to start sensing cursed energy?" The Kyuubi tried to answer only for the spirit to put his hand over his muzzle.
"You sit and meditate within a place of high negative emotions like a school or a prison." The spirit informed. "If you wanted to, a cemetery would do the trick," Kyuubi suggested through the spirit's hand, only to get a stare from Naruto.
"Alright then, no cemetery. Just go to a school or something. I do suggest blocking your chakra signature." Naruto nodded at the small bijuu and closed his eyes, trying to exit his inner world.
It worked and he was within his bunker. He opened his eyes to find Kai staring at him. Jumping back, the teen shouted. "What the fuck are you doing?!" The former old man leaned back in his chair.
"You were breathing in a wonderful pattern when you meditated. Do that more often and you'll get better at it." Naruto just stared at the man until he left to the other side of the curtain. "Weird ass old man." He whispered under his breath.
"I heard that, smart-ass." Naruto made an oops face and quickly made his way to the exit. "I thought you were getting food?" He questioned when he got to the ladder only to see Kai holding up a wallet.
"Ah, I'm going out for a run real quick so I can expend some energy." Kai shook his head and followed the teen up the ladder. Once outside, Naruto started his run and Kai waved the teen off. The Uzumaki left the woods and headed to the place he never thought he'd go to again, a school.
*Within his inner world*
The spirit rested on the ground with his wings retracted while Kyuubi lay in his lap. Of course, the bijuu would kill anyone that saw but it was comfortable. "-, what curses are you teaching him?" Said comfortable mammal questioned.
"I was thinking cursed speech considering that he can control organic materials and I was planning to use blood for the seals but I don't like the idea of him constantly using the Body Reformation Technique considering its side effects."
The fox had to agree with his old friend's decision. "Yeah, it does still puzzle me why it takes his vitamin B of all things." The spirit shrugged. "Let's leave that to the doctors." The two stayed silent in thought until the Kyuubi perked up as an idea hit him.
"Would you mind teaching him the divergent style?" The divergent style was one of his favorites that humans created. More specifically, a human that whom the spirit's grandfather was good friends with. It was originally not a style but a side effect of the human having a lag in his cursed energy.
Later on, he figured out a way to purposefully delay it and how to teach it to others. The style wasn't exactly a style but a punching technique that required a perfectly timed pulse of energy after it hit. It was devastating if placed correctly and it caused another idea to come to the fox's mind.
If Naruto learned to use it with swords, like the spirit, then he'd be one hell of an opponent. He relayed his idea to the spirit who began thinking about it. "Would you like him to learn the nail technique so that he could use it without a blade?"
The nail technique was something that Kyuubi had made to make his nails sharper and harder for when he fought. It was Jujutsu so, in theory, Naruto could learn it. "Might as well. So, my nails and what else?"
The spirit held a thoughtful face. "I think we're going too fast. We still need to teach him how to control it and such." Kyuubi shrugged, or at least as much as a fox could. "There's nothing wrong with planning ahead." The man nodded and scratched his chin. "True. I might have thought of a way to use your cursed energy left within him."
Kyuubi was all ears as the man began to explain. "We could use your energy as sorts of a constant flow to the cursed seals for enhancement so Naruto wouldn't have to focus on it. You said that you could quote fuck up his flow earlier so I take it you still have control over your physical energy?"
The fox nodded. "Yeah, I can still control it but it's stuck within his mindscape as a husk." Rubbing his chin, another idea appeared. "Could you possibly split the chakra into sixths and split them between seal tenketsu?"
Their conversation was interrupted by Naruto popping his head from the house door. Luckily for Kyuubi, he didn't see him laying in the spirit's lap. "Hey guys, I'm at that school so if you'd start taking my spiritual energy, go ahead." The spirit held his hand for Naruto to wait.
"We need to discuss something else before that. I'm thinking of utilizing Kyuubi's leftover physical chakra. I just need to know if you can open the seal because we need to move it to your curse seals."
The Uzumaki gave a funny look. "I thought you knew everything about me." The spirit shook his head. "I have your most important memories and I know the other important details but the sealing, I do not know."
Naruto shrugged. "I need the key to open it, which I don't have." The spirit sighed in defeat, missing the cheeky smirk of the teen. "I do however know how the seal is designed and how to crack it open." The frown on the spirit's face turned to a grin.
"Perfect, we'll do that later but first, I'll drain your spiritual energy for the sensory training. It won't be instant so you're gonna have to regularly go meditate at that school. I think four hours a day shall suffice."
Naruto just nodded. "Alright, I guess I'll see you guys in four hours." The teen vanished from his inner world, leaving the Kyuubi to continue his conversation. "I should be able to move it but the brat needs to leave the wakizashi out of its scabbard and with him throughout the night so I can control it better."
The spirit clapped his hands together. "Alright then, we got a plan. Would you mind helping me form a style for him? Mixing Yuji's technique with your nails outta be real fun. You wanna come up with a name for it before we get into it? Just for fun?"
The Kyuubi grinned. That was something they liked to do before creating things back when the spirit was still alive. They'd name jutsu or styles then actually complete them. "Hm, I was having thoughts of just using the nails for stabbing and the sword for slashing so…Piercing Divide?"
The spirit spoke his opinion. "Let's get to it then."
*4 and a half hours later*
The teenage Namikaze sat in front of the spirit within his inner world while he showed the designs he had to put on his body. The seals were more of tribal tattoos than anything with many kanji being used as little batteries or tenketsu that moved the chakra where it needed to go.
There were six of them in total. One on both of his shoulder blades, one on each of his pecs, the fifth seal being on his lower back, and the sixth going where the seal used to be. The kanji looking designs were a language he didn't understand so he didn't even want to ask about them.
Strangely, the only places that didn't have curses were his lower arms, throat, or face. The arms thing was explained by the spirit, claiming that his forearms were too frail to handle the strain of the curses which didn't make much sense considering his hands got the seals.
He wanted to rebel with an insult about the spirit's legs but he figured that was a bit too far. "You're going to get your clones to do this while you go into your mindscape and crack the seal. I suggest only wearing some small underwear, some curses do go on your thighs."
Naruto just sighed. It was embarrassing talking about this. "You should be lucky. - wanted me to enhance your penis as well." Violently turning his head to the spirit, Naruto stared in shock. Slowly turning to Kyuubi, he saw him with a random cigar in his mouth which he took out to speak.
"For the vixens you're going to get covered in. You're my container after all. It comes in the package." Placing the cigar back in, he puffed out a cloud of smoke. "I'm leaving now." The teen said, leaving as soon as he could.
The spirit reached over to the fox beside him and grabbed the cigar from his mouth. "That's bad for your lungs." He said, putting it out in the dirt. "I don't have any lungs." The fox deadpanned.
*With Naruto, a few minutes later*
The Uzumaki sat clothless on the floor as his clones surrounded him, placing many cursed seals along his skin. Since his clothes were off, the seals on his chakra were visible. They were split between his sides with three being on each side in a row. The seals themselves were kanji characters for 'seal'. Glancing down to the wakizashi sitting beside its scabbard on his lap, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
Feeling the cold water splash his ankles, he opened his eyes to find himself within the sewer-looking place that was his mindscape. Looking into the cage, he saw what seemed to be a husk of the Kyuubi. Walking up to the seal, he reached for the paper, and for some reason, he felt something was off as he ripped it off but ignored it.
Looking at the swirl mechanism, Naruto cracked his knuckles and neck. It was time to get to work. The seal was four symbols seal performed with the eight trigrams style, meaning it was a strong ass seal.
The only problem the seal presented was how it split yin and yang. Normally, it wouldn't be a problem but balance was a key thing within the world. Without yin then yang would overcome and the same for yang.
Therefore, the yang chakra holding the seal wouldn't exist if the Yin chakra wasn't there meaning that the seal wasn't pure yang. So, in theory, all Naruto had to do was extract the small piece of yin energy to make the yang disappear.
It was complicated and required such fine control that Naruto had every single one of his chakra seals on, just for the tiny bit of extra control. Placing his hand on the swirl, the teen closed his eyes and began to search for the yin chakra by sweeping the chakra of the seal with his own chakra kind of like a metal detector.
Roughly three hours passed while Naruto searched throughout the seal for the single drop of yin chakra. His legs had begun to stiffen from standing for so long and his feet burned but he knew he was close.
Feeling around a bit more, he felt a darkness-type feeling within the seal. It made him feel cold and a grin formed. Adding a little more chakra into the seal, he wrapped it around the little ball of yin energy.
'3 2 1.' He counted down in his head and yanked his hand back. As he yanked his hand back, a string of chakra followed with a ball of black chakra connected to the end. With no warning, the gates flew open, hitting Naruto back in the process.
The teen lay on the floor, breathing through his teeth and arching his back. It was a heavy door to have slammed into you. After gaining enough strength, he sat up and watched the husk melt into little particles of chakra.
Said chakra melded into the walls and the cage started to melt as well. Taking that as his cue to leave, Naruto closed his eyes and returned to the real world where he was blinded by a bright orange light.
It was the cloak of Kyuubi covering him and gathering on the artificial tenketsu points. The cloak soaked into the ink and started flowing, turning the ink a dark red color. Starting from the tenketsu on his shoulder blades and pecs, down his chest, and down the seals on his bicep.
Just a few seconds after the bicep seals were red, the ones on his hands turned as well. Once every seal was red, they settled and turned back to the black ink color. Naruto felt nothing but did feel his consciousness being pulled into the inner world.
Within his inner world, the spirit sat in front of the Uzumaki with an inspecting gaze. "Considering you aren't dead, you did a good enough job of drawing the seals." Naruto just shrugged. "Ungodly amount of hours practicing calligraphy makes it kind of hard to fuck up something as simple as those cursed seals."
As much as he wanted to call the teen arrogant, he wasn't wrong. After a certain amount of hours doing something, it does make it hard to mess up but there was one thing that he did want to fix about the former blonde.
"You curse too much." Naruto just shrugged again at his assessment. "I spent three years of my life around one of the foulest mouth people in the elemental nations. I didn't exactly have a choice in picking it up."
Off to the side, Kyuubi sat with a small smile. "You reprimand him about cursing but here we are teaching him how to use curses." Both human males stared at the fox. "New rule, no bad jokes." The spirit said, getting an agreement from Naruto.
"You guys just have shitty senses of humor." the fox mentioned angrily walking away from the two. "Ignore him, he's moody. Anyways, you won't be able to use your curses for a while because your body must get used to it so whenever you can sense it, you should feel the effects of them."
The teen nodded and yawned his hand. "If you don't mind, I'm gonna go to sleep. Long day and all." The spirit nodded and wished Naruto a good night as the teen closed his eyes. Opening them to the real world, his clones had clothed him, placed him on the bed, and cleaned up the mess.
The Namikaze sat up and watched as Kai went down the ladder with a bag of food. He'd sent him out for dinner. When the man got to the floor and saw Naruto up, he pulled a plastic bowl from the bag. "I got some ramen for you."
The teen stared at the man. "It's been 7 hours, what did you do?" The former suna shinobi avoided the question and thrust the bowl to Naruto. Sighing, the teen was on his feet as he took the food. "What's with the marks?" Kai questioned, seeing them on the teen's hands. Said teen didn't see a point in lying but not the whole truth. "They're seals to enhance my physical capabilities."
The green-haired man shook his head. "Kids these days with your enhancements. Back in my day." Naruto held up a finger to silence the man and turned around. When he did, the older man spoke. "When'd you grow such long hair?"
Sure enough, the Uzumaki had longer hair that covered his neck completely. Grabbing it on the back, he lifted it to show a seal on the back of his neck. "To hide this, starting tomorrow I'm going to be wearing gloves to cover the ones on my hands."
Kai shook his head once more and headed to the table to eat with the teen. Naruto had bought a table to eat at a few days before so he wouldn't get anything in the bed. "I got you miso," Kai said as the teen opened the small plastic bowl.
"Too much sodium." A voice within Naruto's head said, stopping the teen in his tracks. "Don't listen to him kid, he doesn't know how your body can survive off nothing but ramen." Another one said, obviously the Kyuubi.
'Since when could you two use telepathy with me while I'm out of that dimension?' Naruto questioned in his thoughts. "Since you put that seal on your neck." The spirit replied, gaining a sigh from the teen.
'Just don't be too annoying.' Naruto said, turning his head up to Kai. "So, where did you go?" The man ignored the question and continued to eat his sushi. Giving up, the teen finished his bowl and headed to bed without another word.
*Two weeks later*
The teenage Uzumaki stood in front of the Bounty office leader's desk with Kai by his side. "Masao, you have been our best for the past month. To reward you, you will represent us at the monthly cleansing. Hijiri, you are going with him as the Association leader wants to know what is going on in Kiri. You two are leaving early to report to his office in the land of Iron before the cleansing. I expect you to leave by noon. Dismissed."
The two left the office and looked at each other with dumbfounded expressions. How were they supposed to lie to the Association leader? The most they could do was continue the lie they told the old man there.
As the two walked, Naruto started to lose his balance. Kai caught him and held a concerned look. "You good man?" Shaking his head, Naruto moved to sit down on a bench within the hall. 'Naruto, my siblings are calling us into a meeting. You have a couple of seconds to tell your friend before we get pulled in.' The Kyuubi informed, making Naruto turn his head up to Kai.
"Kyuubi is pulling me into my mind just go get ready, I'll meet you at the bunker. Please pack my stuff as well." Just when Kai was gonna say something, Naruto found himself in another dimension. It was a big room with a floor design of a circle with tomoes.
Within the circle were 9 people including him, and the bijuu all stood outside the circle. "What did you call us here for?" The giant insect asked, looking at the turtle that was Sanbi.
A young man with blonde hair spoke up in the stead of the bijuu. "I am Sanbi's jinchuuriki and I called you all here to ask a question. Do you like the current shinobi system?" That gave away the identity of the man.
He was Yagura, the Mizukage and Sanbi jinchuuriki. The young man didn't appear to be a day over 24 but Naruto didn't notice that as the question sent him into a flashback.
*Flashback*
A 12 yo Naruto sat within his hotel room, training on his own as Jiraiya had left with a girl the moment they entered the new village. They were supposed to be finding Tsunade to become Hokage but Jiraiya was being the pervert everyone knew him to be.
A knocking on the door stole the teen's attention from training. "Dumb geezer, I bet he got shut down after they realized all of his money is stolen from a 12-year-old." Opening the door, Naruto was met with the coal-colored eyes of an Uchiha.
Considering there were two of them, it could've only been one person. "Good morning, do you mind if we come in?" Itachi asked politely, gesturing his head to the left. The preteen opened the door a little more to see the sharklike man known as Kisame.
"Why?" Naruto questioned blankly, getting a laugh from Kisame. "I like this kid." Itachi waved off his partner's comment and answered the blonde. "I shall answer that with a question. Do you like the current shinobi system?"
The Uzumaki stood there for a second before he opened the door fully and walked into his room with the two men following. Sitting on the bed, he offered them the two chairs within the room. "To answer your question, I despise the system for abandoning those broken and creating child soldiers like the three of us are."
Itachi just nodded. "I see. Well, the reason I asked is that we are trying to dismantle that system. By we, I mean the Akatsuki, which is a group of S rank missing-nin. We came here today in hopes of bringing you into our organization."
Naruto brought his right leg over his left and leaned forward. "Very well, what do I gain from this?" Kisame spoke this time. "That easy? You aren't even going to question us about maybe wanting the Kyuubi?"
The Konoha shinobi deadpanned at the man. "If you wanted the Kyuubi then you could've easily just snatched me up with Jiraiya distracted. Now that I think about it, was that girl your agent?" Itachi shook his head and flared his Sharingan.
Naruto understood it and nodded before Itachi spoke. "By joining our organization, you gain a place to go and people behind you for when you defect." The Namikaze grinned, Itachi was a wonderful shinobi so figuring out his plans wasn't an impossible feat.
"How about you just back me whenever I need it? I already have a plan to join the Bounty Hunter Association." The Uchiha grew a grin of his own, which mildly terrified Naruto. "That's good. We need someone within the Association."
Naruto leaned back. "Doing what exactly?" Kisame decided to answer. "Our main base is located within Amegakure. As you know, it is quite small and relatively poor. If you gain enough influence and place a station there then our profits would increase along with our budget."
The preteen cocked his head. "I think there's a question that I need to ask first. How and what after?" Itachi knew what he was talking about. How were they going to demolish the shinobi system and build it after?
"The whole plan can be considered a demilitarization, we take the power from them by force if needed, and then we create a new government. The children are put through school to do with writing, reading, history, math, and geography from age 4 to 12. After that, they can do whatever they like but become shinobi.
They can't become shinobi until they become an adult at 18. The government is a bunch of sector heads put in a council that speak of the village's problems and the kage becomes a military leader only.
The council is checked for corruption and monitored 24/7." Naruto chimed in with his thoughts. "What of the Daimyo?" Itachi shook his head. "The Daimyo are mostly corrupt, those who aren't shall be offered a position in the council."
The teen sighed. "I take it you're talking to me because I am a valuable asset to Konoha and without taking me, the power struggle would be real? Are you doing this with the other jinchuuriki?"
Kisame nodded with an answer ready. "We already have the Sanbi and Rokubi on our side. We don't plan to bring in anymore until a later date because we still need to grow some more." Naruto could see the plan.
"Alright, I have two more things I want to know. First off, will I have to do anything other than this station building and will I be contacted?" The Akatsuki didn't answer verbally but just shook their heads.
"Second, why did you truly do it, Itachi? You wouldn't kill every one of your family to test your abilities." The Uchiha frowned at the question. "Orders. The Uchiha were planning a coup d'etat so I was ordered to kill them. Originally, we planned to use Shisui's Kotoamatsukami, which is a powerful genjutsu, but Danzo stole his eye."
Leaving out the part about Obito, the Uchiha continued to explain how he murdered the clan using the methods that would cause them the least amount of pain. "I was a really loyal shinobi back then, even going as far as killing the love of my life. After the mission, the village attempted to kill me to hide all evidence but all they killed was my remaining loyalty."
Taking a deep breath, the Uchiha stood. "My little brother is downstairs right now and the genjutsu is about to break on that girl so we must make haste." The two Akatsuki moved to the door and stood outside.
"One thing you must know is that if you ever get asked the question I asked then you will know they're Akatsuki." As the man finished his sentence, a young Sasuke appeared at the end of the hall.
"Itachi!"
*Flashback end*
Blinking, Naruto regained his consciousness within the bijuu dimension with Yagura standing in front of him. Looking around, he saw everyone nod. "Was the question really necessary?" A blonde woman asked.
Yagura shook his head. "Look, I was told to say that when we met so don't punish the messenger. Anyways, It's time to begin our plan." They figured out what it meant. It was time to begin weakening their villages.
Those with high ranking or respect within their village were going to start spreading the word of the new government to their subordinates while those with little respect would simply leave their village.
A girl with orange hair seemed to be a part of the latter as a question exited her mouth. "Where are we supposed to go again?" She questioned with a sheepish grin. Yagura answered her question.
"You shall go to Ame or perhaps Kiri. You're the Nanabi correct?" The girl nodded and offered her name. "You can call me Fu." Yagura nodded as well. "It would be best for you to go to Ame, Fu."
The girl nodded and the blonde Kage looked around to see if anyone else had any questions. Whenever they didn't he stayed silent. The group of jinchuuriki heard a bit of a chuckle from all of the bijuu except the Kyuubi. "He's nothing like -." The Gobi said. Naruto looked at the other jinchuuriki to see if they heard the same as him.
The confusion on their faces told him and he felt kind of relieved that he wasn't the only one who had to deal with that dumb shit. The only face that wasn't confused was Yagura. "For context, they compared me to Sanbi but ya know, you can't hear the name of a bijuu you haven't earned."
Naruto nodded, ignoring the bijuu's laughter while trying to speak. "I know this is a bit late but we should introduce ourselves to each other. You all know who Yagura and Fu are now so if you would just go after me."
The first person to speak was Naruto of course. "I'm Naruto, the container of the fur ball of fury behind me." The bijuu seemed amused with that, except for Kyuubi. "Such poor decisions for someone that I could easily cripple." The fox threatened, only to get a middle finger from Naruto.
"Please, someone continue," Naruto said, ignoring the angry bijuu behind him.
A red-haired man was next and pointed to the red armor guy from earlier. "I am Roshi, the Gobi jinchuuriki. My friend there is Han, the Rokubi jinchuuriki." All that was left were the blonde woman, a dark-skinned man, a man with brown hair, and Gaara.
The blonde woman spoke her name next. "I am Yugito, holder of Nibi. The idiot standing beside me writing in his little notebook is B, or killer B, holder of the Hachibi." The last person left was the man with brown hair.
"Utakata, holder of six." It was a simple introduction but it fit the stoic-looking man. All eyes turned to Gaara who was just looking at Naruto. "You've changed, Uzumaki." Said Uzumaki just shook his head.
"I couldn't exactly run around with my bright blonde hair, Gaara. Especially considering that I abandoned Konoha." The redhead Kage nodded and simply pointed to the one-tailed Tanuki behind him.
Without a word, he'd been completely introduced. "What a nice way to end it off." Naruto mentioned with a smart-ass tone. "The eyes on the Akatsuki will grow more and more if we are found out," Han said, gaining a smile from Naruto. "That is a very simple fix. Gaara, could you tell them what I used to look like?"
The redhead just henged into young Naruto instead and stood beside him. "As you can see, I'm quite unrecognizable. My hair was dyed naturally with a tree root and my eyes were covered with contacts. Those whiskers are covered with makeup."
Kyuubi cleared his throat. "Well, you kind of don't have them anymore." Naruto turned. "What do you mean?" The fox leaned down. "I may have used my chakra to alter your eyes, hair, and eyes whenever I did the seals. If they weren't natural then you'd be your regular self in this dimension."
Naruto just sighed. "Do you guys have problems with your bijuu like I do?" The nods were unanimous. "You kittens will go back to the real world while us bijuu talk, it's about time we catch up," Nibi said before all of the jinchuuriki were kicked out.
*Back in the real world*
The Uzumaki opened his eyes and popped his back. Sitting on a bench while unconscious wasn't a good thing for your spinal cord. Standing felt like he got whipped in his lower back but he needed to get to the bunker then the Land of Iron.
If Kai and him had time then they were definitely taking a carriage there.
*With the bijuu*
"The boy can use curses?" Hachibi asked. Kyubi nodded. "- has been revived as a sword spirit and taught the boy." The Gobi smiled. "Becoming a sword spirit is quite fun. Making them learn your name is the best part."
The others glared at him, he was the only one of them that became a sword spirit whenever he died for the 4th time. They didn't even know how becoming a sword spirit worked and didn't like speaking about it since the Gobi was such a braggart about it.
"Did you all notice his breathing pattern?" Rokubi questioned, getting an answer from Nibi. "It was the breathing of Tsukuyomi. I thought those breathing styles died out everywhere in the living world."
The Kyuubi nodded. "They're supposed to only survive within the afterlife but humans are truly like cockroaches with their secret techniques." Earning nods from the other bijuu, a silence laid upon them.
"So, you guys wanna make this a common thing? Meeting up now and then?" Nibi asked, getting many agreements. "Let's talk out the details."