I welcome you all once again to the next act of New Life in Naruto. Before we begin, I have a question; the title was originally supposed to have both a question mark along with the exclamation mark. However, the question mark keeps disappearing, does anyone know why? With that out of the way, May the curtain rise and let the show begin!

Chapter Ten: Second Encounter with the Beast

3rd P.O.V.

The man stood back with his arms crossed as he watched his female companion continuously kick Kojiro in the gut as the six year old let out muffled screams of pain due to the cloth over his mouth and rolled into a ball to prevent her from kicking there again only for her to switch to his back. She then pulled out her daggers and started to randomly throw them down missing every time before one cuts the cloth off the boys mouth and one embedding itself into his shoulder making him scream in pain once more only it was louder than the other muffled screams with the absence of the cloth. Eventually, Kojiro ceased all movement as his eyelids slid shut and he could see that his chest wasn't rising or falling to indicate if he was still alive with the woman standing over the blue haired boy breathing hard with a sadistic grin on her face.

"Congratulations." The man said sarcastically uncrossing his arms glaring at the woman. "You just killed someone that could have made us a lot of cash Hanako."

"Shut up Kenji." The now named Hanako said giving the limp form of Kojiro another kick in the head. "You were itching to kill the kid too after that low blow he gave you." Kenji twitched at that as Hanako lazily tossed a dagger in the air and catching it repeatedly. "Besides, how much can a kid be worth if no one even knows what his clan can do?"

"We could have learned that if you didn't killed him." Kenji pointed out looking past Hanako to Kojiro before sighing in frustration. "But now that he's dead, he's excess baggage."

"Then we'll dump him overboard." Hanako shrugged and knelt down reaching to grab Kojiro's wrist. "Heck, he probably wanted to be fish food in the first place when he jumped out that window." Suddenly Kojiro's hand grabbed Hanako's wrist surprising both her and Kenji. Hanako was the first to break out of her shock and glared down to the boy. "You're still alive? Then I guess I'll to aim for a more lethal spot." She tried to wrestle her hand free from his grip only for him to tighten his hold on her. "Let go right now or you'll regret it!"

"Hanako!" Kenji shouted and the woman looked back to him with an irritated look on her face to see he was staring at the six year old with wide fearful eyes. "Look at his hand!"

"His hand?" Hanako raised an eyebrow. "Why would I look his ha-" She looked back to the limp form of Kojiro to see that his hand was covered in green scales that was slowly going up his arm. Her eyes widened at this as the scales continued to form over half of Kojiro's face who open his eyes for the two to see that they were completely yellow with no pupil or sclera. A crunch was heard followed by a scream as Hanako struggle to get her hand free with a fearful look in her eyes as the scales completely covered Kojiro's body. She pulled out a dagger and tried to stab Kojiro in the chest only for the blade to break and Kojiro using his other hand to grab Hanako's throat squeezing tightly. "Let go! Let go you freak!"

"Hanako!" Kenji ran over to them and kicked Kojiro in the chest forcing him to let go of Hanako's wrist and throat as he was pushed back and got in front of her while she fell to her knees coughing desperately to get air into her lungs. "You alright?"

"Yeah." Hanako replied breathing hard from all the screaming and lack of air holding her broken wrist. "Aside from my wrist being broken, I'll live." She then looked back to Kojiro who was getting to his feet. "What the hell is that thing?"

"I think we just found out why the boss wanted someone from the Kurosawa clan." Kenji muttered breaking into a nervous sweat bringing his fists up in a defensive stance. "Whatever that thing is, we need to do something about it."

"You saw how hard those scales are." Hanako growled out getting to her feet pulling out a dagger. "They're like literal full body armor, there's no way your bare fists can do that much damage to that thing."

"Only one way to find out." Kenji replied as Kojiro jumped towards them.

Kojiro P.O.V.

Once again I found myself in complete darkness and unable to move a muscle. When I opened my eyes and wondered why I even bother opening them if what I see is always going to be the same as when they are closed. My body felt cold and wet, my arms and legs felt like they were being weighed down by iron chains, and I felt like there was something tightening around my throat blocking any air from going in and into my lungs.

'I guess I died again?' I couldn't help the thought as I was slowly pulled downward. 'I guess I only had one more chance at life and I wasted it.' I closed my eyes resigning myself to my fate. 'Heaven or hell, it doesn't matter. Won't change the fact that I'm dead.'

"You're not dead yet." The sound of something made of metal breaking and the tightening feeling around my throat left causing me to cough desperately getting air in my lungs. I tried to open my heavy eyes to see who the voice belonged to but they refused to open which frustrated me when I was suddenly feel like I was being lifted and placed on a hard surface. "You're safe now Kojiro." I was confused as to how the voice knew my name and my eyes finally felt light enough for me to open them to see a few spikes surrounding me.

"Aaaaah!" I screamed shooting up into a sitting position and looked around for me to see that I was sitting on some kind of rock formation in the middle of a black ocean. The thing I was sitting on started to shake before rising revealing a head surfacing and I looked behind me to see three wide flat tails surfacing as well. 'I know those tails.' I look back to the front in shock to see that the head belonged to a certain three tailed turtle. "Isobu?"

"Nice to see you again Kojiro." Isobu greeted in his timid tone of voice and it was then that something burst out of the dark water ahead of us to reveal a silhouette standing on the water glaring at us with it's glowing yellow eyes and my body started to shake when the creatures eyes fell on me. I could see blood lust in those pupilless eyes and I could feel its intent to kill as fear welled up inside me.

"W-what is t-that t-thing." I stuttered out holding myself to stop my shaking body and I couldn't tear my eyes away from the silhouette as it slowly walked over to us. I could clearly see it had webbed hands and feet along with long spiky hair and when it was finally visible I couldn't believe my eyes at what I was seeing.

"Kill!" Standing on the water was me, the only difference was that my lookalike had green scales covering its entire body and that it has yellow eyes with no pupil or sclera that was filled with blood lust and murderous intent leaking out of its body. It stopped walking then pointed towards me causing me to flinch. "You weak, you no worthy of Kurosawa name." My eyes widened when my lookalike suddenly jumped with tremendous force and was suddenly standing over me with one arm raised. "Die!"

I couldn't move when my lookalike brought its clawed hand down to kill me when one of Isobu's tails struck it sending it flying off his back. When my lookalike hit the water, it was suddenly surrounded in a cage of coral and it started to thrash inside trying to break free only to not leave a scratch which resulted in it letting out an inhuman scream of fury striking the coral harder only to lead to the same result as before. "It won't be able to get out of that." Isobu placed one of his tails on his back next to me gently nudging me with another to get on which I did and it placed me down on a flat piece of coral in front of Isobu. "You're not hurt, are you?"

I shook my head before looking back to the coral cage where the inhuman screams were still heard. "W-what is that t-thing?"

"I don't know." Isobu replied making more coral around the cage completely blocking all sight of my lookalike. "It was already here when I arrived."

Chills went down my spine and my body started to shake again in fear when I processed Isobu's words. 'It was already here? If this is a dream I want to wake up now.' I looked back to Isobu when realization struck me. 'Hold on, if this isn't a dream, why is Isobu here? Shouldn't he be sealed in Yagura right now?' My eyes widened in remembrance and dread followed when the memory of my dead parents popped in my head. 'No way, was it during that time? Did the people who killed my parents seal Isobu inside me? I can't remember.'

"Kojiro." Isobu's voice brought me out of my thoughts. "I think you should wake up now." Isobu looked to the coral cage and I followed his gaze. "While you were passed out, that thing took over your body and was going berserk."

"It what?" I muttered under my breath with wide fearful eyes. I started to feel cold as a chill went down my spine at the thought of that thing using my body to go on a killing spree.

"It didn't kill anyone yet." Isobu said reassuringly which didn't help when he said my body hasn't killed anyone 'yet'. "Right now your body is in a fight with those two attackers from before but it won't last for much longer." I jumped when the inhuman screaming of my lookalike got louder and I looked back to the coral prison. "Don't worry, I'll make sure he doesn't escape, you should hurry back."

"B-but how?" I asked looking around the black ocean that seem to be endless before looking back to Isobu. "I don't know how I got here or how to go back." Then I remembered the fact that the people trying to abduct me were full grown adults while my body is that of a defenseless six year old. 'Not only do those two have age and fighting experience, but they also have the advantage of two against one.' I clenched my hands into fists so tightly that my nails were close to breaking skin when I thought about my defenselessness. 'To make matters worse, they barricaded my cabin's door so I'm stuck with them with no help coming any time soon.'

"Would you like some assistance Kojiro?" Isobu's question brought me out of my thoughts and looked up to him. "I can help you get back... that is, if you want my help of course." I can tell by his voice that he was hesitant and I can't blame him, I know that I wouldn't want to be stuck sealed away inside another person because of what I am.

I remember reading on the wiki that Isobu and Yagura got along well with each other before Yagura got killed. I bit the inside of my cheek as I thought over what I should do about Isobu's offer. On the one hand, I could get out of this place and possibly get away from the people trying to either kidnap or kill me. But on the other hand, that thing Isobu trapped might break free while Isobu's sending me back and try to finish what it started. I looked back to the coral cage noticing a few cracks in the cage that were getting bigger by the second and saw a single glowing yellow eye glaring through one of the bigger cracks that brought the fear I managed to dial down back with more intensity as my body began to shake again. Isobu probably noticed I wasn't thinking about his question anymore cause when he followed where I was looking, the cracks on the cage were covered by another layer of coral blocking the eye from view which calmed me a little.

"You don't have to worry about that thing." Isobu said and I nervously looked back to the giant three-tailed turtle. "I'll make sure that thing doesn't escape, you should focus on staying alive Kojiro."

"How can I possibly focus when I know that thing is here?!" I shouted frantically pointing to the coral cage behind me. "I won't matter since I'll be dead the moment I go back anyway!"

"I told you, I'll make sure that it doesn't get out of there." Isobu said reassuringly and as if to prove his words true, the coral cage behind me got covered in even more layers until I couldn't hear my lookalike's screams anymore and sink under the pitch black water we're standing on. "As for you dying when you go back, if you will let me, I can lend you a bit of my chakra."

My eyes widened to the size of bowling balls when I processed what Isobu suggested. He wants to lend me his chakra? But we only met twice now and the first time was interrupted by that thing from earlier, why would he help me? "Why would you do that?"

"Because I feel I can trust you." I was surprised by Isobu's response and he continued before I had the chance to ask why he trusted me when we barely know each other. "When we first met, you didn't try to control me or my power, you didn't show an ounce of fear when you first saw me, and you actually asked for my name like I was a person instead of beast." Isobu lowered himself into the water so he was at eye level with me which I'm grateful for as my neck was starting to feel sore from looking up for a while "My previous host was like that too, that is until he was killed and I got sealed in you."

'He must be talking about Yagura.' I thought lowering my head silently mourning the death of the mizukage. 'It's too early for him to die, maybe my being reborn here changed something and someone else killed him? But why seal Isobu inside me?' I shut my eyes closed tightly trying desperately to remember what happened to me only for the image of my dead parents with green spikes coming out of their backs to pop up in my head. 'Why is that the only clear image?!'

"Are you alright Kojiro?" Isobu's timid voice broke my train of thought and I looked up to see what I think was concern in his one eye. "You look like you were lost in thought."

'Wait, maybe Isobu knows who did this.' I thought my eyes widening in realization. 'Isobu had to be there if he was sealed inside me, so he should know!' Swallowing the lump in my throat I took a deep breath to calm my nerves before speaking. "You're inside me, aren't you Isobu?"

"I am." Isobu nodded his tails swaying along the water's surface making ripples. "I was ripped out of my previous host, the fourth mizukage, and was sealed into you for a reason I am not sure of."

'The moment of truth.' I could feel my heart pounding against my rib cage as I braced myself to ask my question and hear Isobu's answer. "Do you know who did it?"

Isobu remained silent giving out a thoughtful hum. "Yagura was attacked from behind and didn't had enough time to fight back when they knocked him out. I couldn't see his attackers as I too lost lost consciousness during the attack." I hung my head in disappointment at hearing Isobu doesn't know who did this to us. "I'm sorry I couldn't be of some help Kojiro."

"It's fine Isobu." I said reassuringly lifting my head to give the giant turtle a small smile. "I guess I'll have to find out who they are for the both of us." I held out my hand with my palm facing up. "Since we're stuck together, do you wanna be friends?" I continued to smile when I heard a surprised sound coming from Isobu as I waited for his answer.

After what felt like hours of waiting, Isobu raised one of his hands and gently placed a claw on top of my outstretched hand. "I would like that, Kojiro."

I could feel my smile grew bigger at his answer and tried to hold back my urge to jump in the air shouting in excitement. If Jason was here he would probably call me insane for making friends with a giant turtle that could literally make me as flat as a pancake with a single slam of his hand but I didn't care as I was too excited of the fact that I not only met a tailed beast, but became friends with one. 'All my Naruto fan friends would be so jealous if I could tell them what's happening right now!' Isobu removed his claw from my hand and I lowered it as we continued to look each other in the eye. I then realized something and gave Isobu a sheepish smile. "Um, can you help me get back Isobu?"

Isobu nodded and held out a fist. "Please bumps fists with me and close your eyes Kojiro." I nodded and did as was told as I felt something surge through my body.

I opened my eyes to see I was back in my cabin, if it can be called that anymore when I saw that there were claw marks and destroyed furniture everywhere. I then remembered that I wasn't alone in here and frantically looked around until my eyes fell on the man and woman who tried to kidnap me on the other side of the room breathing heavily with their clothes having tears all over and bleeding claw marks on their arms. I saw that the woman was holding her wrist and I could see from where I am that it was broken which confused me as I was sure that it wasn't broken when she was torturing me when I remembered what Isobu told me about my lookalike and shivered.

"Looks like the brat finally snapped out of it." The woman's irritated voice brought me out of my thoughts and quickly jumped to the side when she threw a dagger at me. I heard her click her tongue as she pulled out another dagger. "Damn, I missed."

"Careful Hanako." The man said warily as he carefully eyed my every movement. "Don't forget what happened last time."

"I know Kenji." I now named Hanako growled out. "How can I forget when I have a broken wrist because of whatever that thing was?"

'I'm so dead.' I thought as I looked around the destroyed cabin to see there was still no way out. I tried to find the window only for dread to settle when I saw that it was behind my kidnappers. 'Why does my chakra have to be unstable? I could really use it right now!'

'Perhaps I can help with that.' I jumped at the sudden voice but relaxed when I realized that it belonged to Isobu.

'Isobu?' I noticed a broken leg that most likely came from a destroyed chair and slowly reached for it. 'How can you help?'

'I know what caused your chakra to be unstable.' I paused reaching for the broken chair leg as my eyes widened at that. 'I'll tell you later, for now you should try to escape.' I nodded in agreement and continued to slowly reach for the chair leg while keeping my eye on the bickering duo in front of me.

'Almost.' I thought risking a side glance to see how close I was to grabbing the wooden object that would be my weapon. I was mere inches from grabbing it when a dagger whizzed between my hand and the chair leg embedding itself to the wall behind me and I looked back to the duo to see that Hanako had her good hand outstreched while Kenji stood beside her. 'Crap, I was so close!'

"You didn't honestly thought a piece of wood was going to help in this situation did you?" Hanako questioned mockingly at my attempt to get something to protect myself. "Look kid, I don't know what that thing you turned into is and I honestly don't care, but I do care for the fact that you broke my wrist and that you're too much trouble to keep alive." She pulled out another dagger holding it at eye level to inspect it's sharpness. "So I'll just kill you so you're out of our hair."

"Hanako, I said it once and I'll say it again." Kenji gave the woman a side glance scowling at her which she ignored giving her dagger a few test swings. "The boss wants a member of the Kurosawa clan alive, he spent six years looking for the last surviving member." He then looked to me and I involuntarily flinched at the cold look in his eyes. "Though it's strange, I remember the boss saying that the last surviving member should be a man in his mid twenties, not some child."

'Is he talking about my dad?' I wondered as I slowly backed away until my back was against the wall. 'What does he mean Kurosawa clan and last surviving member?'

"Looks to me the brat doesn't even know what the hell you're talking about." Hanako commented putting her dagger away and rested her eyes on me that looked like she wasn't interested in the conversation and just want to get things over with. "My guess is this little shit is the kid of the guy boss was after and didn't tell him anything about his clan or whatever."

"If that's the case then we can still use the kid as bait to lure out his father." Kenji muttered and I flinched at what he said. "Apparently the Kurosawa clan had a some secret that the boss was interested in." He slowly walked towards me until he was towering over me and reached for me. My body wouldn't stop shaking when the big hand was inches from my neck before I felt something hot run through my body and I noticed wisps of steam coming out of my body. Kanji backed away when he saw the steam as it started to started to cover the whole cabin.

"What the hell is this?" Hanako asked looking around holding her dagger defensively. "Is this some jutsu from the Kurosawa clan?"

'She's wrong.' I heard Isobu's voice in my head as the steam continued to cover the cabin till I saw nothing but white. 'By using my chakra, I am capable of making a mist that traps the enemy in a genjustu confusing them into attacking each other.' The sound of shouting and breaking wood is what I heard as I carefully looked around to see if I could find a way other than the window to escape. Sadly, I couldn't see much because of this mist and quickly tilted my head to the side when a stray dagger almost went through my head.'The door is to your left, there's nothing blocking it now.' I nodded and mentally thanked Isobu as I slowly approached the door keeping my back to the wall so I wouldn't have a blind spot.

'Good thing those two aren't ninja's.' I thought in relief when I could still hear my would-be kidnappers continue their assault on each other. 'Problem is that once they realize what's going on they'll be after me again and there's nowhere for me to run on a ship.' I shook my head deciding to save that thought for later as I got close enough to the door to open it and quickly ran out frantically not daring to look back as I made a sharp right turn.

'Kojiro, I think you should, as you humans would say, jump ship.' Isobu suggested as I continued to run around the ship not staying in one place fearing I would get caught.

'But I can't swim.' I admitted mentally reaching the back of the ship looking around for a place to hide only to see that it was empty. 'I'll drown if I jump.'

'Trust me.' Isobu said pleadingly and I looked behind me when I heard a couple of rapid footsteps rapidly getting closer then looked back to the water. I swallowed the lump in my throat and climbed over the railing before closing my eyes to take a deep breath and holding in as I jumped overboard into the water. I opened my eyes and looked up to see the ship continuing on with my would-be kidnappers looking over the railing shouting at each other.

'Good, they didn't see me jump.' I thought as I watched the ship quickly got out of sight and I tried to surface when I remembered something and quickly started to panic flailing my arms and legs helplessly. 'I'm such an idiot! I just said literally forty seconds ago that I couldn't swim!' I saw something red on my arms and looked to it to see it was covered in some kind of bubbly red aura. 'What the hell?' I looked over my body to see that the bubbly aura was covering me from the neck down before it covered my head as well.

'You can stop holding your breath now Kojiro.' Isobu said which confused me, why would he tell me to stop holding my breath when I'm still underwater? Deciding to trust him, I let out the air I was holding waiting for the sensation of water entering my mouth drowning me and I blanked in surprise when there was no feeling of anything going down my throat. 'You'll be fine as long as you are covered in that cloak of my chakra. But with your body not use to it, I can only hold it for about ten minutes, so I suggest that you find dry land soon.'

'Alright, thank you Isobu.' I mentally thanked the turtle tailed beast and looked around to find a clue of how close land was when I saw a single small flat tail of red chakra waving behind me. 'I wonder...' I concentrated and the tailed started to wave up and down propelling me forward. I turned my attention to the front so I can see where I was going while trying to keep my tail waving when it stops or acts on it's own. 'I hope I can find land soon before this disappears.'

Now onto my favorite part, replying to your reviews.

SilverDragon1218: Threw you for a loop huh? I'm glad too, now no one can take advantage of what's inside. I believe there is a misunderstanding, which I apologize for, I didn't specify who the voice belonged to. I wish I can help you, but this kind of conflict can only be resolved by you. I hope you are satisfied by this chapter and I look forward to hearing from you again.

oshietenaruto: I'm not sure if my work is worthy of being on the big screen, but I'm flattered you think so. Glad you liked this chapter. No, Kojiro is not reincarnated as Haku, interesting thought though.

Luckyshot8: There have been a misunderstanding, Isobu was not the voice. Though he did protect Kojiro by making that mist and covering him in the chakra cloak.

CriticalFanatic: I hope it does, it's because of everyone's positive reviews that I am able to get my fanfics off the ground. Hope you can handle more suspense for the future.

guest reader: Hmm, an interesting idea, I'll keep that under consideration as I brainstorm.

Blueowl: Glad to hear that you think it has potential. Thank you for pointing that out, I'll try my best to get it polished as I write my fanfics to the best of my abilities. I agree, but to be fair he is an old man so a few things are bound to be forgotten such as children pushing themselves. No need to apologize, it's reviews like these that tell me that there is something bothering my readers or I need to fix or improve. I kinda felt like slapping him too when I finished writing that chapter. Thank you, I try my best with the descriptions, he couldn't defend himself because of the following two. He is just a child facing against a full grown adult with a weapon and he was still weak from just regaining consciousness after unknowingly throwing himself overboard. Life and death indeed, but Kojiro didn't want to get any possible nearby innocents involved. As for Isobu suddenly being blood thirsty, I deeply apologize for the misunderstanding, I completely forgot to inform that the voice wasn't Isobu. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I look forward to hearing from you in future reviews.

With that done I now bid you adieu until we next meet.