It was a B-Rank search and retrieve mission. They were tasked with returning to the site of a blown up rogue-nin hideout. Jiraiya had told them that a jounin on an S-rank had left an important scroll behind, after blowing up the majority of the structure. Most of the dangerous shinobi had been taken out, and the ones they would run into probably wouldn't be too difficult to take out. "It should have been easy," Shikamaru said to himself once it was all over. The problem was that they were shinobi and nothing was easy, and everything had to be a drag.
"Ok Ino, he's coming this way. You need to do the switch quickly and quietly so that oaf upfront doesn't realize,"
"Yeah I know Shikamaru, we've done this a million times before,"
This time it was Naruto who spoke, "I still don't get why we don't just go up there and take them out ourselves."
"Because we probably won't be able to do it fast enough without them seeing we're leaf-nin. This gang is notorious for being vengeful, they might decide to attack every leaf shinobi they come across. If they do see us we'll have to make sure we kill all of them, and then that makes things more messy and confusing." Shikamaru replied.
"And this plan isn't messy and confusing? This could go wrong in so many ways, especially since you're confined by Ino's side until she comes back."
Shikamaru frowned, it wasn't that Naruto was a bad leader, in fact, he had become comfortable and adept at the role pretty quickly after the first few missions. The problem was he was always paranoid, the worst outcomes in the forefront of his mind. It was strange to see the usually optimistic boy turn this way when it was his turn to lead, not to mention his self-sacrificial tendencies. Of course, Shikamaru couldn't blame him, he understood the pressures Naruto was feeling, to be in charge of every decision, to be responsible for the lives of your teammates. It was an overwhelming role for anyone let alone a 14-year-old boy, and he was about ready to level with him until Naruto cut in first.
"Look Shikamaru you're a smart guy, if you say those guys look like a lot for us to handle, I'll trust you. But if anything goes wrong, I'm calling it off and blasting those guys before they can blast us," Shikamaru nodded, accepting this compromise.
"Ok enough you guys," came Ino's voice, "we need to get in place, he's only 20 feet away now,"
They nodded at each other and took their places, Ino and Shikamaru behind a bush, and Naruto up in a tree. The rustling of the leaves on the ground became louder as the rogue-nin got closer to them. He emerged out from behind a tree muttering to himself. Naruto observed the man for a moment, he was unable to find any headband to identify him. He was a tall, broad, dark-haired man, and Naruto knew if he wanted to take him down he'd have to be quick about it. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard Ino's quiet voice across the clearing, and suddenly the man's demeanor changed entirely.
The man looked up at him and gave him a thumbs up. Perfect, this part of the plan had gone smoothly. Now all he had to do was trail behind Ino and hope the other rogue-nin didn't spontaneously figure out she was an imposter and maim her before she could return to her body.
Ino stopped in front of the door to greet the frail lanky looking man standing in front of it.
"About time, c'mon we need to get whatever is left here and run. One of those villages knows about this place. Reckon it's the leaf," said the man.
"Yeah those. . . . uh. . . those leaf bastards," Ino replied in a failed attempt to sound normal.
Naruto jumped down from the trees as they entered the compound, quietly following them, kunai in hand. He crept into the compound, careful not to step on anything or trip, but it was difficult because the previous jounin had damaged the place and debris were everywhere. Despite most of the compound being in shambles it still happened to be huge and Naruto realized Ino was unlikely to find it anytime soon. As quietly as he could, Naruto summoned two shadow clones to his side, instructing them to look for the scroll. He continued following Ino and the other shinobi.
He watched as Ino and the other rogue-nin entered a room together. Naruto rolled down and knelt just outside the room, and was now in earshot of their conversation. He closed his eyes trying to focus on it. Wait, was that four voices?
"Well whoever they were, they left something here," said one of the voices, and Naruto heard the clang of what sounded like a scroll echoing off the table.
"Any idea what's inside?" came the voice of the man Ino was inside.
"No, we couldn't open it. Although I don't know why you're even bothering asking Kazura," Naruto held his breath, the air in the room had just dropped ten degrees.
"What do you mean?" Ino asked as calmly as she could through Kazura's body.
"Don't play stupid with us Kazura," came a voice Naruto hadn't heard yet, "We all know you're still working for the Sand. Don't think drawing a clumsy little line through your headband makes us instantly trust you."
Fuck. Just their luck, of course they had to pick the one criminal who was actually just really shitty at being a spy. Naruto cursed under his breath and dispelled the shadow clones he had previously conjured. Their memories came back and Naruto noted one of them had found an unused explosive nearby. Desperately trying to figure out how to save Ino, his thoughts were interrupted by the confusion of everyone in the room.
"He just passed out,"
"Do you think he killed himself?"
"No he's still breathing," Naruto let out a sigh of relief. Ino had gotten out in time, now he just needed a way out safely.
Conjuring up three shadow clones he set his plan in motion. He watched as one shadow clone went off in one direction, while the other made the best transformation of Kazura he could manage, the third one hiding in the shadows. The Kazura clone stepped in front of the door, revealing himself by throwing a kunai at the table, and in the ensuing commotion Naruto sprinted off, praying his shadow clone could run them in circles for long enough.
He sprinted off through the compound weaving in and out of the broken-down halls, careful not to trip over debris. The echoes of his shadow clone and the rogue-nin got more and more difficult to hear as he saw light again. Naruto made a giant leap and flew through the entrance, Shikamaru and Ino both looked relieved to see him.
"Naruto!" they both exclaimed in relief, but it didn't last long as Naruto grabbed them both and tackled them to the ground.
"What's the big idea?" complained Ino, but before Naruto could explain, an earth-shattering explosion drowned out all other noise. They dragged each other behind a tree in an attempt to shelter themselves from flying debris, and it took several minutes for the ringing in their ears to dissipate. When it finally did, Naruto smirked and materialized something from the smoldering remains of his jacket. Ino gasped in shock at the sight of the scroll.
"Naruto that was amazing. . . .how did you. . . ?"
"Well after I distracted them all it took was one shadow clone slipping back into the room and tossing it back to me," he said pleased with himself.
"That was brilliant Naruto," Shikamaru cut in, "but we got lucky. I'm assuming you used explosives left over from the previous explosion?" Naruto nodded in confirmation.
"We might not be so lucky next time," he remarked, "Ino said there were 4 others, are you sure you got them all?"
Before Naruto could answer he was interrupted by the sound of concrete debris flying far into the air and violently coming back down. The trio turned their heads and looked out into the remains where they saw the frail-looking man who had been sitting at the front of the compound.
"Seriously, he was the one that survived all of that? He looks like a ramen noodle," Ino remarked incredulously.
"Well apparently looks can in fact be deceiving," Shikamaru replied exhaustedly.
"I don't think he's noticed us yet," Ino pointed out, "Shikamaru, think you can catch him in a shadow possession?"
"I don't think that's the best way to go about this, we should just leave, after all, we have the scroll. Let's get out of here."
Before anyone could argue they heard the rogue-nin yelling in the distance, "I know you're still around here somewhere Kazura. Don't think I'll let you go,"
The trio grimaced and Shikamaru sighed in defeat, "So much for that. Fine, I'll try to bind him with the shadow possession, and Naruto will hit him with the Rasengan, you can use it now right?" Naruto nodded.
"Let's distract him first then," Shikamaru said, but Naruto had already conjured up some shadow clones.
"Naruto, wait!" Shikamaru cut in, "Transform them into Kazura, it's better if he doesn't realize he's up against a different group of shinobi,"
"Good thinking Shikamaru," Naruto replied as the clones transformed into Kazura and bounded off into the trees, hoping to catch the rogue-nin off guard from multiple directions. Narutos appeared out of a bush, kunai in hand striking at his heart, but the man dodged and weaved effortlessly. Naruto felt himself getting frustrated, not having seen someone move like this before, his movements had no structure and looked completely sloppy. However, each time he managed to narrowly dodge Naruto's slashes. Naruto jumped backward hoping to create some distance, but as soon as he did the frail shinobi changed directions and bolted forward striking Naruto in the gut and slashing his face.
It was at that moment Naruto's transformation fell apart. He landed on his butt looking up and realizing what had happened.
"What's this, you're not Kazura, you're just some brat," he snarled. Naruto's other clones had seen the opportunity and jumped at the man while he was still distracted, allowing Naruto to retreat back to Shikamaru and Ino.
"He's fast as shit Shika," Naruto said.
"Way too fast, he doesn't stand in one place long enough for me to bind him.
"I'll show him some speed if that's what he wants," Naruto replied as his breaths became deep and he focused inward, calling for the Fox spirit again. He found himself doing that more often these days, and he wasn't sure if it was a good thing to be so comfortable wielding the power of a demon.
"You again" came the voice of the Kyuubi from inside his head.
"Let's not make this difficult this time," he snapped back.
"And why not? Why should I help you at all? I could let you die, my chakra would come back together eventually," the Kyuubi replied in his booming voice.
"Then you would have let me die a long time ago," Naruto replied triumphantly.
"You're becoming a cocky-little shit, I'm not giving it to you,"
Naruto frowned and focused deeper; he'd learned over time that he could control how much he could pull out and started to force it.
"What the fuck are you doing?" the Kyuubi roared back, but Naruto ignored him as he felt the familiar warmth and flood of chakra emanate from his gut. Naruto sprinted forward, his movements sharper and stronger now, he re-engaged his opponent. Kunai clanged on kunai as the two traded blows. Naruto smirked a little as he noticed the other shinobi slowly but surely was being pushed back, but hesitated as he felt his body lose its vitality. He was punished for it and felt himself being swept off his feet. His opponent left deep and painful gashes on his body and proceeded to kick him straight into a tree.
"Fucking demon bastard," Naruto mumbled to himself as he once again forced the chakra out of the seal, making sure not to stop this time. He barely had enough time to dodge an onslaught of kunai, and when he had made it onto his feet his face twisted into horror as he realized his opponent had just performed a summoning.
Out of the smoke came a gigantic animal that Naruto recalled having seen only in books before. What was it called again? Rhinosusasomething? It didn't matter because it was barreling straight towards him at a completely unreasonable speed for something so large. Naruto bent his knees before engaging every muscle fiber in his lower body to flip his body over the Rhino in time.
He smirked in satisfaction as he found his opponent on the other side, standing still, "Shikamaru!" Naruto yelled.
From the bushes behind, a shadow slithered rapidly until it met the man's feet, "Got you," Shikamaru said under his breath.
"So you are from the Leaf," the man sneered, "Doesn't matter, you're all dead now anyway," he said as the Rhino charged toward Shikamaru's hiding spot. Before Shikamaru even had a chance to be scared, Ino darted out and launched a set of shuriken at the beast, just narrowly missing one of its eyes. The rhino roared in anger and changed paths toward its new blonde target. Ino had already moved on, deciding to take it on a wild goose chase.
"She's faster than I remember," Naruto mumbled to himself.
"You know you're welcome to use that rasen-whatever anytime now Naruto," Ino yelled as she hopped off a tree that was promptly leveled.
Naruto formed his Rasengan, excited to use it for the first time in actual combat. He watched Ino's movements and after deducing where she would lead the Rhino, charged forward from the side, ready to dodge and weave around its horn and smack it in the face. However, just as he was only a few strides away from it he felt his hand burn and looked to see his Rasengan beginning to spiral out of control. Before he could figure out how to correct it he felt himself being launched to the right with far more power than he had put in his leg.
Tripping over his own feet, Naruto heard the Kyuubi's voice echo through his skull again, "What's wrong brat? Thought you needed all this extra power from me,"
It was at this point Naruto began to rapidly panic, he felt the demon's chakra burning his skin and through his blurry vision watched Ino step onto a branch that instantly collapsed, leaving her sprawled on the forest dirt. His ears were ringing, but he could vaguely make out Ino yelling his name again, this time sounding more like a scream of horror than one trying to grab his attention.
Naruto's mind betrayed him and he found himself deep in another memory. Lying in a dome of ice mirrors, his body screamed at him to move. Why was he seeing this? A masked shinobi teleporting through the mirrors launched a seemingly unending stream of senbon at him from every direction. This wasn't the forest . . . . . this was a different time. . . . still . . . how was he going to get out of this one? How did this memory end again?
Another shriek of his name, this time it was Shikamaru who yelled it and brought him back to his senses. His entire body burned as he desperately launched himself towards Ino. He was acutely aware that he had three tails of the demon's transformation already manifested, but he didn't have time to worry about that, Ino was about to die. Soon he was able to completely push down the feeling of his burning skin and just barely launched himself in front of the Rhino in time. Grabbing it by the horn, Naruto was able to narrowly lead it out of Ino's path, as he was taken on a ride.
Wait, how was he supposed to get off this thing? Was it just going to keep going? A horrible crack echoed throughout the forest as Naruto felt his back hit a tree and a deep stab in his stomach.
"I miss three seconds ago when I didn't know the answer to that question," Naruto thought to himself as blood began to gush out of his open wound.
"YOU ABSOLUTE BUFFOON" came the Kyuubi's voice once more.
"What's wrong demon? Realized you can't keep breaking the seal if I fall unconscious?" Naruto managed to just barely say as blood ran down his mouth, "Give me a little more asshole, we still need to kill this thing," Naruto added as he raised his arm and allowed a large Rasengan to form, using his remaining strength to drive it into the brain of the beast.
Naruto felt his body go limp as he entered a state of half-consciousness and half-sleep. "See, was that so hard?" Naruto asked the fox spirit.
"Stop talking to me," the Kyuubi said harshly as he worked on healing Naruto's wounds.
"Don't be such a drag, most people get closer after life or death situations,"
"Close with a demon?" the Kyuubi replied. Naruto was surprised, he had the expected sarcasm, but felt an underlying curiosity in the fox's tone.
"Why not?" he asked back, but no reply was given and Naruto decided to simply let the feeling of his healing body wash over him. He heard his name once again, it seemed to be coming from far away, and he felt his consciousness return to him.
"Ino?" Naruto said as he opened his eyes to see her sitting in front of him, tilting his head to the right he found Shikamaru leaning in front of him as well. A lump formed in his throat and an awkwardness filled himself as he noticed tears had welled up in his friends' eyes.
"Naruto, what the fuck, we thought you died," Ino said in a shaky voice.
"You wiped out, and then you started to glow red, you even had tails. Is there something you're not telling us?" Shikamaru added.
Naruto swallowed nervously as he heard those words, "C'mon guys, are you gonna interrogate the guy who just got impaled?"
"Your wound is almost completely gone now," Ino said in wide-eyed amazement.
Shit, this wasn't something he could play off, he knew this would happen, sooner or later people would find out. "I promise I'll tell you . . . . if you pay for our ramen after this mission," Naruto said and laughed in spite of himself, but he was relieved when he heard his teammates laugh back.
"You're really something Naruto," Shikamaru said as he and Ino helped Naruto onto his feet, and helped him walk over back to the clearing.
"What happened to that guy we were fighting?" Naruto asked.
"Let's just say we have a souvenir from this mission," Ino replied as they made it back, and Naruto found him on the floor, tied up with a piece of cloth over his head, "T&I is gonna have fun with him,"
Shikamaru sighed as he handed the report to Jiraiya, and his team left the Hokage's office. Usually, after these several-day missions he would go home and pass out for 24 hours straight, but the confusion around Naruto kept his mind wide awake. As far as he could tell there was only one explanation for Naruto's behavior; he was the boy the Fourth Hokage sealed the fox demon in. The strange red chakra, his change in appearance, Shikamaru had even heard the boy point-blank mutter 'Kyuubi' in his sleep several times, not to mention the literal seal Ino had seen painted on the boy's stomach. (She swore she wasn't spying on him)
Yes, figuring it out had frankly been the easy part, the hard part was how would he confront Naruto about it? He had prodded when Naruto had woken up but was deflected quickly. Naruto did tell them he would tell the truth at Ichiraku's afterwards, and whether he meant that or not, Shikamaru didn't plan on wasting such an opportunity.
"Naruto," Shikamaru cut immediately after Ino had closed her door behind her. (Teuchi had made it a point not to serve them after missions until they had showered.) Naruto turned in confusion as he felt Shikamaru's hand grab his arm.
"I really don't know how I'm supposed to bring this up, but I at least figured you would prefer if no one else would be here to listen to this," Shikamaru continued.
Naruto tilted his head in confusion, "Shika, what are yo-" but Shikamaru cut him off, lowered his voice, and pulled Naruto in so nobody would hear. "I know you have the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed inside of you."
Naruto's expression was simply one of shock, so was Shikamaru's when Naruto turned to face him and grabbed his shoulders, "Please, don't tell anyone Shika,"
"Naruto I–," Shikamaru began to reply but was cut off again by Naruto's shaky voice.
"Please, you don't understand, the villagers always treated me like shit. Calling me a demon, spitting at my face, refusing to sell to me, even at the orphanage the caretakers hated me. Iruka came around eventually, and the old man didn't mind, but if everyone else started to find out they might. . . "
"Naruto," it was Shikamaru's turn to interrupt, "Don't worry, I just wanted to know for sure. I don't think you're a monster, and I wouldn't tell anyone unless you were comfortable with it,"
Naruto's expression slowly calmed down and he let go off Shikamaru's shoulders, "I guess it makes sense you put it together with that brain of yours." he said in nervous laughter.
"For the record, Ino and Choji wouldn't judge you either. I know we weren't friends as kids, and you were sort of an outcast back then, but that doesn't mean we won't accept you."
Naruto smiled in response, "Thanks Shika, but I still don't know if I can tell them yet,"
The lazy voice of a masked shinobi cut in, "It might be wise to tell them soon Naruto,"
Naruto and Shikamaru both jumped back in fear, "How the fuck do you do that every time?" Naruto asked.
Kakashi smiled and spoke again, "Well I heard you guys discussing an S-rank secret, It's my duty to make sure it wasn't too audible,"
Shikamaru narrowed his eyes, "Hold on, what did you mean by that Kakashi?"
"Well, since we're discussing S-rank secrets, I thought I'd let you guys know that you might be in on a big one soon, and Naruto, you might be assigned a mission where your comrades need to know about something like that."
"C'mon Kakashi, what's that supposed to mean?" Naruto pouted.
"I'm sorry Naruto, but that's all Jiraiya is letting me tell you guys for now. I hear you guys are going to have ramen, Sasuke and Sakura just got back from their own B-rank, I think you should tell them there."
Shikamaru smiled, "Yeah Naruto, you've been on some pretty wild missions on your team as well as ours now. We won't judge you for something you had no control over."
"That. . . . really means a lot, Shika," Naruto replied with a smile.
Naruto almost didn't make it out the door. For awhile he just stood there and watched his reflection in the mirror, his body had changed quite a bit in the past six months. He had grown several inches, no longer shorter than Sakura. Jiraiya had taken what little time he had off and taught him the Rasengan, he was learning wind release from Asuma. Other than that Kakashi and Asuma had mostly focused on building up his strength and brushing up on the basics he had missed in the academy. As a result, he filled in his clothes much better than before, even opting to wear the flack jacket on missions. His headband was affixed to his thigh as Ino and Sakura had both insisted he looked better with his hair down. Naruto put an inoffensive blue shirt on and walked over to his door, his hand shaking as it went for the knob.
"I have to do this," he thought to himself, "One day when I'm Hokage, everyone will have to know what I am. I can't hide from this forever." and walked out of his run-down apartment. Opting to release some of his nervous energy, Naruto hopped from rooftop to rooftop rather than traveling along the street. He finally made it to his street and slid down the edge of a building and into an alley, appearing from seemingly nowhere.
"Oi Naruto," came the voice of Sasuke, who was waving at him from across the street. "We've been waiting for you," he continued as Naruto made his way across.
"I never thought we'd be waiting on Naruto when it came to ramen," Sakura remarked as the group filled the seats of the little stand. Sasuke, Sakura, Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji all ordered their ramen, deciding to catch up on each other's recent missions. Naruto was sitting between Sasuke and Ino, he felt himself coming back at ease as he laughed among his friends.
"Ino was seriously moving from that rhino Sasuke, you should have seen it, she might be giving you a run for your money," Naruto teased, digging his elbow into Sasuke's side.
"Naruto, you do remember Ino is the one we swapped you for right? We've been seeing her speed up for months." Sasuke replied.
Naruto scratched the back of his head and he laughed along with everyone in embarrassment.
"What did you do with the rhino then?" Sakura asked.
"She fell in front of it," Shikamaru replied.
"How are you even alive?" Chouji asked.
"Well you know, Naruto jumped in front of it instead," Ino continued.
"She had to scream his name twice though,"
"Did you really need that much convincing to save a pretty girl like me?" Ino asked playfully.
"I was sort of unconscious, to be honest," Naruto replied bashfully.
"Is that why you woke up so scary looking?" she replied.
Sasuke cut in, "What do you mean by that Ino?" he asked with narrowed eyes.
"Shit" Naruto thought to himself. Ino had played dumb, but had meant to bring the conversation here the whole time. He couldn't blame her, it was strange and he would be curious too, but he couldn't help the cold sweat that was building up. His eyes glazed over to Shikamaru who was at the far end of the table; his face expressionless, but eyes glued to Naruto as the situation unfolded.
"Well maybe I was delirious from almost dying but, Naruto's chakra was kind of scary, it was also all red and coming out of his body like crazy." She paused, tapping her chin as she tried to recall any more details, "Oh and his whisker were more. . .whisker-like?"
"Say Naruto, why do you have whiskers anyway?" Choji asked.
"C'mon Choji they're not real whiskers," Sakura replied, "Real whiskers aren't just lines on your face."
"But they're so perfectly aligned!" he exclaimed back.
"Naruto," Sasuke began, speaking directly to him making it difficult for the others to catch his exact words, "the same thing happened when we were fighting Haku and Zabuza. After I saved you from his senbon and passed out, I thought it was just a dream. I watched that red chakra come out of you, and you beat Haku."
Naruto closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting it go slowly. His heart rate quickened once again and he kept his eyes locked on a random spot on the wall as he began, "Since their inception, hidden villages have sealed tailed beasts inside of one of their own. 14 years ago, when the Kyuubi was released and attacked the village, the Fourth Hokage sealed it into an orphan."
Naruto turned his head to face his friends, "I'm sure you can fill in the blank. . . ." he finished quietly.
"That was a real lousy reason for half this village to treat you like shit," Ino said, and Naruto looked at her in surprise, "I asked my parents once when I was little, and they wouldn't say anything to me."
"So Gaara of the Sand was like that too then?" Sakura asked.
"Oh him. Compared to him I was treated like royalty," he replied solemnly.
"So your demon is stronger than his? Is that how you beat him?" Sasuke asked.
"Well I didn't really beat him. In the end, we were both exhausted, he couldn't understand how I was able to stand up to him. I told him it was forming bonds and wanting to protect you guys. I don't know if he bought it but he calmed down after that."
"I get it now," Sasuke muttered, "so that's why Itachi was here that day. . . ."
Nobody said anything for a bit and the silence was awkward, but Ino decided to break it, "I'm sorry Naruto, I was pushing you hard and didn't think it might be something uncomfortable as that,"
"It's alright Ino, I can't blame you for wanting to know what was up, and I would have had to tell you guys sooner or later," Naruto replied, looking back down at his food again. He lost the current of the conversation as he felt something new deep down inside him. The anxiety from his potential rejection washed away and he realized he had been accepted.
