A/N: Lots of interest in the clone concept for this fanfic. I was planning to wrap up and explain most of the theory behind it this chapter (and I will), however, some things should probably get cleared up before we delve into Chapter 6. Also, I'm planning to go back and smooth out Chapters 1-5 (I have probably missed out on a few errors).
Technically, I should be focusing on the Beast sequel. Weren't they dealing with some pesky Kage kidnapping drama..?
Zabzab: I have a terrible (?) tendency to string out hints throughout chapters, sometimes even multiple chapters, as to why I am including a particular mechanic in my stories. I suppose it's an odd twitch in the way my brain creates.
That said, in Chapter 2, I make the first allusion to the fact that Naruto can in fact create both these modified clones and the "normal" shadow clones we're accustomed to. Take for instance this excerpt taken directly from Chapter 2:
"For once in his life, Naruto Uzumaki wasn't totally alone anymore, and he had minions to support him in his future plans to rule the shinobi world. He just had to figure out what the hell was going on first and why they weren't all exact duplicates of the original… like the first couple hundred he'd blasted into being during the Great Mizuki Beat Down. Well, first things first…"
I do not specifically spell out how as that will be part of the clone wrap-up with Inoichi (have to leave something for folks to read as I tie it all together). I am also going to explain the "understood mechanic" behind the phenomenon and, believe it or not, this is a concept that grew out of the technical explanation I devised during Nature of the Beast when working through the jutsu's fundamental application.
I'll let Inoichi explain more in this chapter and briefly in the next (there's just too much to cover in this one).
Zabzab/ Kon: While I don't normally explain all of the twists in my sick head, I think it important to explain a bit of the clone's genesis and purpose to this one.
The idea for the "fragmented clone" is purely an exercise at dealing with emotional trauma and I never really accepted the fact that Naruto, despite the world of craptastical stuff in his life, emerged as an uber, well-adjusted teen equally capable of talking down S-ranked super villains as he was saving the day or killing with minimal emotional/psychological scarring. There are elites that have been doing this since…ever… and at best you have Asuma and Kurenai (the most well-adjusted killers in Canon) and at worse you have Gai and Itachi (one freakishly addicted to over-exuberance and the other a deranged mass-murdering nutjob now working with a group out to take over the world). The very notion is inconsistent and insulting on an intellectual level.
They were never intended to be a long-term story concept but a way to facilitate getting the jinchuuriki the necessary help to correct years of emotional and mental abuse/trauma. Let's face it, who on their own would be motivated to help the demon brat out of the kindness of their heart?
Furthermore, I refuse to buy in to that construct and have chosen to deal with repeated trauma and mental destruction to my hero through this odd application of the Shadow Clone Jutsu.
I get it that trauma affects everyone differently and the relative strength of the psyche varies from person to person, however, if that were the case then why aren't more and more shinobi/ kunoichi displaying more quirks than closet perversion (*cough Ebisu)? No, the clones are used as more than a plot device to move the initial story forward since I'm not going over the first 13 or 14 years of his life in detail. It's a mechanism I'm using as a means to heal his damaged psyche and help strengthen Naruto for his future career as a government assassin. After all, there is little chance that he's not going to repeat similar trauma or, best case, be the instigator of repeat trauma for others, something inherently more damaging to someone with Naruto's unique mental composition.
That's just my odd position on this spin. I'll leave the final clone explanation to Inoichi and the crazy-people experts in the story.
Oh, and I'll also try to explain in a coherent reason why some of his more aware doppelgangers are female vice male.
Enough (VERY) amateur psychology then. Back to the story...
~Siva'a-tasi
~III~
A/N: Updated Feb 22, 2019 to correct grammar and spelling issues. The goal was to clean up some of the transitions and attempt to better identify when the characters are speaking/ thinking/transitioning from one scene to another.
Chapter 6: Bloom Where You're Planted
~ Previously on No More…
Walking out with an easy smile on his face, and another shitty smirk in Ino's direction, he actually whistled a happy tune all the way home ignoring the hateful stares he passed along the way. His good mood lasted through the rest of the night much to the "gang's" surprise until he tried to summon Kemuri just before bed.
Instead he got a blond duplicate of himself, its eyes blinking in surprise.
Naruto dispelled the clone and tried again, this time focusing with everything he had on Kemuri's annoying buzzcut and rock-solid jawline.
He got another duplicate only this time it had slightly more chakra.
"What… the…actual…FUUUUUUUUUUCK?!"
~III~
~ Wednesday Evening, Week 1: Naruto's Apartment ~
What followed began as a comical tribute to Saturday morning cartoons everywhere. The overpowered clone Naruto summoned stood in the center of what passed as the living room with his arms calmly folded across his chest and one eyebrow raised in perplexity. An entertained pair of azure orbs tracked the golden blur as the original zipped all about the apartment flinging odds and ends about searching, and repeatedly calling, for Kemuri-kun to "stop playing and come out of hiding." The humor began to fade, and the clone's face began to flush with embarrassment, as he noticed the increased urgency of the original's increasingly panicked voice so, being a copy of the original, he naturally tried to help.
"Ano… Boss, shouldn't you ask that guy, Chimichanga clone? Maybe he knows?" Eyes startlingly wide with sudden recognition, Naruto made the cross-fingered seal and created seven clones, his mind clearly picturing the entire collage of images.
With less smoke than normal billowing about the now cramped quarters, the clone off-handedly mumbled something about, "he's getting better," before walking over to sit between the bookended blond and crimson haired females. When one looked questioningly at him, he merely shrugged away any possible explanation and instead focused on the original now frantically waving his arms and trying to explain his crisis to Chishiki.
Chishiki tried to calm the excited clone factory by gently patting the air to indicate that he should stop to breathe in the next few minutes before Naruto hyperventilated and passed out.
Neither appeared to be conveying their individual messages over the other but that didn't stop Naruto from trying.
"He's gone!" the original began at a near-roar.
"Who's gone?"
"Kemuri!" Chishiki blinked innocently.
"What? Did he not pay his share of the rent?" The flat stare on Naruto's face almost stopped the rampant snickering that followed. Apparently, he did not find the joking to be relaxing.
"Always a joke with everyone, even my own clones." Chishiki blinked reflexively, his own chuckling dying away when he noticed the unhealthy dose of quiet in Naruto's voice. This was a good thing, right? The original would be healthy again so… why didn't he understand that? He opened his mouth to ask about that particular point of logic when the original kept going, his voice growing even quieter forcing all the other clones not standing directly next to him to strain their hearing.
Something felt...off. Normally, even when annoyed or perturbed, the original radiated warmth and ease. He was a pleasure to be near and his aura was calming. This was different. There was a great deal of frustration and anger rolling off him and an unspecified danger pulsed outward from wherever he stood, or paced. Air all around him felt heavy, oppressive even forcing some of the clones to unconsciously back away with real concern showing on their faces. What's worse was while all of the clones were registering the difference in Naruto's presence, he had continued his rant about disrespect none of it sounding very promising.
"Why not? Been getting kicked around by the whole village… why not from my own clones?" His eyes were darkening, actually turning purplish. "Failures never earn respect. People step on them all the time so why wouldn't adults take advantage of me as well?" The unnamed clone seated between two of the girls was slowly standing up again…
"Gotta take care of this ourselves… gotta make them respect us." That last word actually made Chishiki flinch. "Yeah… if they don't fear me, they'll never respect me. Can't let him get away with this…"
The last part was a whisper as Naruto's head came up enough to show a pair of blood red eyes with black slits for pupils. The sheer malevolence rolling off him actually forced Chishiki back a step in fear before, just like the wind, Naruto burst from the apartment, leaped over the railing to the ground below, then bolted up the street back to the Market Quarter.
The receding presence of that angry chakra did little to ease Chishiki's chakra brain. A blond ponytail whipped about as his eyes locked onto the emerald green orbs belonging to Fuu.
"Follow him! He's not pushing any information back through the tether, we need to stay on top of this, and you're the only one that can keep up." The dark-haired copy nodded once before slipping out of the still-open door and up to the rooftops.
Once airborne, it became child's play to keep track of the irrational shinobi during his youki-laced temper tantrum. All she had to do was follow the growing trail of house lights as they winked on along both sides of the street accompanied by the occasional sounds of small children crying and barking animals. Like a rapidly-growing snake in the smothering darkness, its trail wound directly through the heart of Konoha and back to the Market District. Streaking from rooftop to rooftop, the leather-clad shadow clone raced to catch up.
~ Two Blocks North of Naruto's Apartment Building… ~
Four pairs of soft eyes looked up from their circle of leftover take out, hooded robes, dusty tomes, and scrolls. They felt the dark caress of demonic youki wash over their bodies, bodies that shivered as delicious chills shot up four remarkably sensitive and curvy spines.
"His power grows," the sky-blue set of eyes chirped out happily. Luxurious locks of platinum blond hair spilled out of her hood as she hunched over her set of obscure literature.
"How long until the next batch is ready?" the crimson-colored pair responded from under the snow-white hood. Dark ringlets framed the heart-shaped face.
"The next delivery of foci is expected in just over a month from the Land of Tea," the hazel-colored pair responded.
"Excellent," the jade-colored pair crooned. She then glanced over at the last spring roll and asked the woman with red eyes, "You planning on eating that?"
~ While Naruto Was Still Running Through Konoha… ~
Sitting inside The Konohan, a well-manicured pub catering to prosperous guildsmen and women of the Market District, Koaru Aono sat cozied up to the bar with one meaty fist wrapped around a bitter western concoction called biru. It was the latest fashion among the well-heeled and, in his honest opinion, way overpriced despite its piss-yellow coloring. It's only saving grace happened to be the enormous variety of hues and flavors one could pick from. Even still, his nightly limit was one extremely pale variety affectionately referred to as "the blonde" served in a tankard with fresh slices of citrus fruit floating merrily around in the less bitter brine.
Saddled on either side by two of his more recent "associates," Koaru lifted his mostly-full tankard in preparation for more aftertaste-riddled scowling when the air pressure nearly flattened him to the bar. The sounds of glass shattering throughout the establishment as drink after drink smashed against the wooden floor rang out with the now panicked and screaming customer base who were moments before laughing and cavorting while trying to one-up each other. Even his drinking buddies for the night were shaking, sweating, and panting uncontrollably.
Some wept openly, whimpering things like, "It's back!" or "The demon is loose!" as that ominous feeling of dread seemed to draw closer. More than a few of the older patrons lost control of their bladders and bowels adding to the blossoming stench of human fear.
Sliding from the bar stool, Koaru staggered to the exit, his legs trembling as he weaved through wailing patrons. Cracking open the door just as the monstrous pressure weighing down on Koaru's body threatened to suffocate him, he peeked out in time to see a pair of crimson eyes shift to his face as the blond hair and fanged sneer of Naruto Uzumaki streaked by.
Everything happened as if in slow motion, his own heartbeat echoing soundly as he stood there dumbstruck. The blond ran in shinobi fashion, his arms laid out behind his body as he leaned forward into the horrendously quick pace. His eyes were slitted…like some animal… and glowing. As Koaru finally felt his knees give out, a hand snatched him back from the doorway and, with the popping suddenness of reality, everything seemed to return back to normal speed.
As his back slammed up against the wall next to the now closed door, Koaru looked up into the angry eyes of the doorman and grimaced at the throbbing pain in his back. Vaguely, he was aware of the demonic pressure in the air fading off in the distance as he accepted a lecture from more than one person about recklessly exposing them to the demon threat.
'What was I thinking?' He wasn't thinking… he was reacting. He was looking to flee like some terrified animal and that realization left a very bitter taste in his mouth.
'No more.' Those words raced through his mind even as his jaw set firmly in determination, the angry scolding lost to the background noise of recovering cowards. He would not be like the rest of them.
He had a plan. He had a destiny waiting for him. It was time to take matters into his own hands.
~III~
~ In the Heart of the Market District ~
Ino had just started to drift off to sleep, her favorite picture of her tragic love interest being the last image of the day as part of her normal bedtime ritual. Most often than not the enlarged profile of her favorite Uchiha, carefully taken so as not to overly annoy him during afternoon spars, often spurred the best dreams. Her face twisted up in annoyance briefly as her stomach suddenly became queasy.
Trying to shrug it off, she jostled around under her covers and even tried to fluff up her pillows again in order to get comfortable. 'Ugh, that's what I get for listening to mom and eating half a serving tonight. I'll have to go extra light for the next few days so that I don't get too fat for Sasuke-kun.'
She was a kunoichi now, so Ino kept telling herself that she'd have to brave through stuff like this despite the growing sense of unease. A nasty chill shot up her arms and she yanked the covers viciously up around her chin, her body curling subconsciously into a fetal position.
Despite this sudden sense of discomfort, most nights her dreams were Sasuke-laden bliss. She was hoping that tonight would be no different and, if she followed her sacred Sisterhood of the Sasuke-kun rituals, that it might lead to her being selected for his team. She ran through a quick set of meditation processes learned from her father to help quiet her mind, tonight a struggle more than any other, hoping that she could reach her inner nirvana of shirtless Sasukes lifting her up on their smooth backs. Her eyes had just fluttered closed as bare-chested Alpha Sasuke was sweeping in to carry her off to dreamland happy time when the first thundering booms down at street level sat her up in bed.
Then the fear hit her flush the moment her self-induced calm abandoned her.
~III~
Inoichi set down his paper and rose from his favorite chair as the first round of heavy pounding began to die away.
"Ichi-kun…" The worried voice of his wife drew his attention upstairs as his light blue eyes met her brown ones. He found it terribly hard to break the lock, his eyes softening at the concern on her face even as the door shuddered yet again under another assault. The angry sound made her jump, her eyes filled with fear, and she glanced through the walls in the direction of the door.
They could feel that angry mass of chakra at their front door, like pins and needles along their arms, legs, and backs.
To be honest, he was expecting this. Inoichi raised a hand as if to ward her away and keep her upstairs. With one last glance at his beloved wife, the director of Konoha's Torture and Interrogation Division tore away from the face of his most cherished person and approached the now cracking front door of his home through his closed flower shop.
There was an angry, almost inhuman sounding voice on the other side of that door. The pressure weighing down on his soul was becoming unbearable and he tried to flood the air with his own ki to keep his hands from shaking as he took out his keys.
"I'm coming! Give me a second to open up!" Unlocking and opening the inner glass doors to his shop, Inoichi (more calmly than he felt) unlocked the staying bolts for the heavy metal core doors used to secure the entry way. Taking a deep breath, he slid the dual security doors apart and paused at the sight of an extremely terrifying Naruto Uzumaki standing just off the small concrete step, his furious face backlit by the angry red glow of his demonic eyes.
Demonic eyes locked squarely on to Inoichi's face.
~III~
Ino, shivering terribly, slid from bed and hesitantly approached the left side of her bedroom bay window. She knew this would give her a clear view of the store entry below. What she saw standing on the short sidewalk approach to their store/ home made absolutely no sense when you factored in the wave after wave of angry, foul chakra pouring from what had to be its only source; Naruto Uzumaki was standing on the sidewalk snarling at the carefully approaching figure of her father, his hands held up in placation trying to talk down the angry youth.
Her eyes flickered to the newly landed squads of ANBU standing on the small floral beds in front, on the street behind the boy, and on nearby rooftops, her eyes pausing briefly on a young girl dressed in black and not wearing a mask. Flickering back to the group in front of her house, her own shock registered as she caught the glowing embers, RED embers, that now constituted the Uzumaki's eyes, chakra so potent and malignant that it rose from his face like flames.
'What the hell is he doing here?! Doesn't he understand that people need sleep?!" Trying to shake off the increasingly heavy atmosphere, she clenched her jaw muscles and struggled to bring her hands together, the blond's aggressive stance centered in the frame of her fingers.
"One false move blondie and I'll roast your brain…"
She completely missed the shadowy figure retreating from the standoff to vanish into the inky blackness of the night sky.
~III~
"I know you're angry, Naruto. Just give me a chance to explain…let's go in and talk-."
"NO!" It was a hiss, an instinctive response that made the older man flinch. "There will be no more talking! No… more chances for you to screw me over!" Inoichi noticed the modulation of his vocal chords. Kami, he prayed the demon wasn't taking over right now. His family…Konoha…
"I trusted you!"
~III~
Ino jerked at that last bit. He was clearly angry at her father and was accusing him of something underhanded. This didn't make any sense. The boy was here earlier and had left seeming calm and happy with their session.
'Daddy couldn't have done anything sneaky, could he?' Her eyes narrowed dangerously. 'I knew it. He's completely off his meds. Boy has lost it!' She got comfortable in the semi-circular window, propping her feet up and bracing her arms as she sighted down at the threat to her father. It took a lot to hold this pose steady.
~III~
"I am only trying to help you… I swear, Naruto." Inoichi knew he had to be calm. No sudden movements… nothing to indicate he was a threat. Never taking his eyes off the jinchuuriki, he slowly, painstakingly lowered his body to the hard porch step. There on his knees he held out his hands palm up to show that he was unarmed.
Naruto, his face alternating between constricting in anger or confusion, rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, sometimes pacing from side to side all the while staring hatefully at the man that had told him earlier today that he could be trusted. The growling sounds coming from his throat were decidedly not human.
"You want me to be alone again! I can see it now!" Inoichi's face scrunched up in confusion.
"Why would I want that, Naruto?" He honestly didn't get it until… then it clicked. He saw the "special clones" they talked about earlier as…companions. Friends maybe?
"You think I don't see?! Look at them!" His voice came out in a growl, an animalistic snarl as his right arm swung out in an arc indicating the masked faces boxing the both of them in. "You think I don't see? You think I don't understand that they all hate me?" The boy's face was a masterpiece of agony and hurt.
"For years they've kept me down… driven everyone away." Inoichi twitched slightly. His voice was getting softer, but the malice was growing. "Now that I have something… someone in my life, you want to take them away!"His chest was heaving. "Give. HIM. BACK!" His hands were pressed to his temples as he raged. Those angry red eyes pulsed once.
Inoichi noticed more than one set of ANBU gloves tightening on weapons.
"All of them…civilians, shinobi, adults, children…they all hate me. The all despise me. They all want me alone. They don't want anyone to care…to help me… but I see it." His feet stopped pacing and turned the boy to face Inoichi squarely.
Upstairs, Ino stiffened as she watched the nails on his hands lengthen and turn an unhealthy shade of black through the frame of her fingers.
"Just like I can see you too." For a second, they locked eyes then the boy's knees flexed just a hair. Before anyone could move, a blur landed between the two and Inoichi looked up into the robes of the Sandaime Hokage.
"Wait! Hokage-sa-!" It was too late.
There was the sound of paper being slapped to flesh as the old man lifted his left hand and yelled out, "Seal!" Naruto crumpled to the ground like a rag doll. Once his eyes closed, the Hokage made another sign with the fingers of his right hand and two ANBU leapt down to carry away the comatose boy while the others spread out to send the gathering crowd of gawkers back to their homes.
The most powerful man in the village turned and spoke to his most senior interrogator. "You have tomorrow to convince me that I shouldn't seal him away for good."
Then he vanished in a swirl of leaves.
Ino, once she relaxed in a sweaty heap in her perch, stared into the quiet of her bedroom for the next few hours trying to sort through what she saw. Suffice to say, she got no sleep that night and determined right there to rise early with more questions that her father would most likely refuse to answer. She'd just have to ask them anyway until she found someone that would answer them.
~III~
It didn't take long before someone came running back into The Konohan claiming that the Hokage had captured the beast and taken it away using the ANBU. Everyone praised the ANBU, their silent protectors, and a palpable wave of relief shot through the common room.
Thumping his now empty tankard on the bar, Koaru turned to his two companions and tapped them on the shoulders. "C'mon. It's time." Three simple words.
Grinning like hyena, the two boys rose with him and strode out into the night with purpose. A few blocks from the pub, Koaru broke off from the pair and stepped into an alley on the far side of the street. Once hidden, he nodded back to his companions and one pushed aside the tarps blocking the entrance to a familiar ramen stand pulling back his hood to reveal a relatively new Leaf Hitai-ite.
"...and then that awful feeling just went away. I tell you, Teuchi, the old man swooped in and smacked him down like the rath of Kami!" The jabbering fool clearly did not take note of the worried concern on Teuchi's face nor the fact that it was quickly transitioning to annoyance. It took a lot to get on the ramen chef's bad side but badmouthing one blond Uzumaki was often the shortest route to success.
Teuchi started to roll up his sleeve before Akimi stepped in and redirected the gentleman to a side table away from the short bar. Ayame deftly stepped over to intercept her father.
"Let Kimi-chan deal with him, dad. We have two more new customers. Can't ignore them, can we?" He grumbled quietly, angry eyes cut sharply to the grinning old perv trying to sweet talk the young waitress attempting diligently to take his order.
"Hey guys!" Ayame cheerfully piped up so as to distract her dad and keep him focused elsewhere. "What can we do for you?" The first one through the door bowed but the leer in his eyes made her feel self-conscious, her order pad coming up to just beneath her chin. She had a strong desire to take a bath in order to scrub off something vile and slimy.
"We're here to escort Akimi-san home when her shift is over. Koaru-san was worried for her safety after that thing tore through the village a little while ago. We promised we'd make sure she got home without issue."
"See! I'm not the only one!" Now there were three faces glaring at the old man loudly slurping up noodles and Teuchi was wondering when it would be acceptable to toss the old bastard out of his shop.
'After he's paid... yup, definitely after!'
For her part, Akimi was torn. She didn't appreciate their attitude towards her wayward orphanage buddy but she did love Koaru-kun. They were to be wed after all, as soon as he could afford to get his own carpentry business and marry her. She'd seen these two around him often, especially when he came by to walk her back to the orphanage at the end of her shift. Not to go with them would have been seen as an insult and that was the last thing she wanted to do. Still, it troubled her that he couldn't come himself. The Aono shop had been closed for several hours now. Surely he couldn't be detained there this late?
As she was about to accept their offer and perhaps get them a bowl of ramen to tide them over, another voice spoke up, all six pairs of eyes turning over to take in the older gentleman just now setting his freshly-emptied bowl of miso ramen on the counter.
"Aah! That was excellent." He burped before embarrassingly excusing himself. "Don't worry about Miss Akimi. I'll make sure she gets home safe and sound. As a family friend to the Ichirakus, I would be honored to safeguard their precious employee." Something in the stern way he met the stares of the two Genin still standing in the doorway shut down the protests they were about to utter. It might have also had something to do with the large amounts of killing intent directed their way since he had a clear path to them without affecting anyone else.
Without another word, the two youths bowed to the scarred academy instructor and backed out of the eatery and rejoined Koaru in the shadows. He waved it off as they headed off to pick up the third member of their little group seemingly not all that concerned. They would just have to adjust the plan a little...
~III~
Naruto sat up soaked in water, the familiar sewer of his mind oozing its usually depressive atmosphere with every drip of water. Rising from the wet floor, he began the trek through the shadowy innards of his brain until he squared up and plopped down once again into the purplish-tinted liquid. With a heavy sigh, he glanced up into the surprisingly attentive eyes of the great fox, as it studied him like some wayward pet or science project.
This time he didn't speak first. With a huff of disappointment, Naruto's blue eyes took in the liquid soaking into his clothes as he picked absent mindedly at the material. If he was stuck here, he'd at least get accustomed to the idea and see if there were ways to clean the place up a bit. Maybe he could find a drain somewhere…
"Giving up already, meatsack?" Naruto's eyes came up first, then his head. The shock on his face was priceless and the Kyuubi chuckled, a deep rumbling "hurhurhurhur" that made the human's chest vibrate.
"Huh, you aren't mute after all." The left eyebrow on the multi-story tall fox began to twitch spasmodically.
"Mind your tongue, chew toy. You are in the presence of-."
"-the same jackass that ruined my life! Your point being?" The great and powerful demon roared and slammed into the heavy bars separating the two before grudgingly settling down into the thin layer of water on the ground.
His great red eyes stared balefully at the human just beyond his reach.
The annoyed mouse of a human stared back with a victorious smirk.
The bijou's eyes began to twitch again.
"Admit it, that hurt like a bitch, didn't it?" The Kyuubi's face stayed hateful for just a minute longer before his muzzle wrinkled up and a very human-like paw shot up to his right shoulder. Rubbing frantically to ease the burn, the great beast inhaled a double lungful of hissing air through clenched teeth muttering about being out of shape. Once the sting was gone, Kyuubi locked gazes with the annoying human once again.
"So, why are you bothering me this time, boy? Isn't it enough that I deign to look upon you? Embrace my magnificence and make me a rabbit sandwich!" Despite looking unimpressed by the haughty entity, a talking Kyuubi was still a novel idea to Naruto since this was still a recent discovery. He didn't know why the massive demon lord chose to stop pouting suddenly, but it had made the last two days very interesting.
"Hokage zapped me with some seal whammie and next thing I knew, I was here. Figured since you talked me into this crazy idea, I'd let you know before they locked us up for good." The fox became indignant.
"Me?! Wha- I did no such thing!" Pointing his snoot up into the air and closing his eyes in a snooty pose did nothing to otherwise convince the Genin outside his cage. Cracking open one eye, he could see Naruto clearly wasn't buying it. With a sigh, the demon turned back eyeball-to-body with the boy waiting to hear out his pathetic petition for aid.
"This isn't like last time. Hokage-jiji was angrier than any other time I'd seen him, even when I plastered geisha faces all over the monument. I'm not so sure there is an easy way out for this one." The great demon merely snorted in amusement.
"If you weren't so weak, this would not be a problem." Naruto's annoyance began to bubble to the surface.
"It's not like anyone else besides these odd clones has been helpful in getting my head on straight." He sneered dismissively up at the looming reddish-orange beast. "Not like you've been abundantly helpful." A disgusted snort of air was the immediate response.
"You don't rate my full cooperation, genius." Naruto understood the meaning behind that snide comment and tugged down one eyelid while sticking out his tongue. "Oh… that's mature. You think you're entitled to my power, don't you? That it's going to rain youki and suddenly you'll be able to rule the world?"
The indignant tone from the fox was clear. It was no great secret that he considered all humans weak and greedy leeches only seeking one thing from his kind. As far as the great bijuu considered humans, they were little more than walking take out snacks and the first one on his dining list happened to be sitting directly across from him…her…it.
"Do you even have a good reason to resist the older blond's attempt to make your brain whole?" When all Kyuubi got was a confused face back vaguely matching what he remembered human constipation resembled, he snarled in frustration.
"Begone, pest. You irritate me to no end." Kyuubi laid its massive head down fully expecting the boy to depart.
"Now hold on one fuzzy dust-rag moment! You owe me for all-!"
"BEGONE!" There was a blast of air knocking him off his feet and the sewer faded to black for Naruto. However, back in the mindscape, a certain blue-robed red head stepped out of the shadows and ambled up to the cage bars.
"I hope your plan works," Minato stated with a great deal of uncertainty.
"He can't become strong enough to survive the enemies you made for him as he is. If he's too stubborn a jackass," the bijuu pointedly stared down at the annoyed looking human, "to seek help, then it must be forced on him. Don't like my methods, find another all-powerful being to assist you."
With that, the cranky fifty-foot fox spirit settled down for nappy time and closed his massive eyes.
~III~
Akimi was enjoying the quiet walk across town. Her guest escort for the night was respectful, attentive, and easy to converse with. More often than not, he allowed her to chatter away happily even when she was venting about some of the more handsy customers that annoyed her. She was too young for that sort of thing, despite being unofficially engaged, but the number of old perverts coming to the store had increased by a scary amount. The fact that Umino-san was willing to escort her, him being a powerful shinobi (despite his modest protests) greatly eased her mind.
The fact that he was a great listener was just a bonus and she needed one as her conversation turned to the scarier moment of the night. She didn't want to believe that Naruto was the source of the awful feeling from earlier, that terrible pressure that made her shiver and sweat. She knew that Umino-san hadn't seen for himself, because he was at Ichiraku's hoping to meet up with Naruto, but he did promise to find out what he could as soon as possible. Hopefully she'd know something by tomorrow night.
With a happy smile and a quick nod, she fell into step next to the kind gentleman and felt a small burden lift from her heart. She hoped, with his help, she'd be able to catch up with her old friend and mend whatever broken bridges were between them. She was so happy she almost didn't notice Iruka stop and place himself between her and an alley just off to their right.
"Stop skulking like rats so we can get this over with. You two have been tailing us since we left Ichiraku's and it's quite insulting really." Iruka drew out a kunai and casually flipped it up into a reverse grip as the two brand new Genin from earlier stepped into view.
"Just hand the bitch over and you get to walk away with all limbs attached, Iruka-sensei." The two boys sneered with a bit too much confidence to suit the occasion. Surely, Iruka mused, they didn't think themselves a match for a Chunin, a high-level Chunin at that?
Above the alley, a shadowy figure glanced down at the burgeoning conflict and used two fingers to push dark sunglasses up against the bridge of his nose. 'I will have to address Riki's crass language later...'
"How often have I told you to be more respectful of women, Riki-kun?" The boy smirked arrogantly. "I see I'm going to have to teach you one final lesson."
Genin Riki charged as his hands flew through a short series of seals ending with his right hand bursting into flames, ending his sluggish attack with a muttered, [Katon: Houka Hira no Jutsu!]
Iruka swayed left, dodged right then planted his fist into the stomach of the frantically-swinging student, which sent him ass-over-elbows back into the alley. Watching the flame on the boy's hand set fire to his own clothes, an action that set him in a panic as he tried to put out the flames, Iruka caught the not-so-subtle glint of metal from the other boy's blade as he pivoted and blocked the tanto with his kunai.
The commotion blocked the sound of the shadowy figure descending into the alley and edging his way closer to the scuffle.
Iruka wasn't familiar with this other Genin but that wasn't necessarily unusual. There were dozens of students he never interacted with. Shoving off the common brown eyes glaring back at him and the muttered curses of "demon loving traitor," Iruka shoved the boy back into a pile of boxes before dodging the flaming fist of the returning Riki.
Planting his left foot and pivoting clockwise, Iruka's heel snapped out to connect with Riki's jaw. Allowing his momentum to bring him around, Iruka ducked low to avoid the other Genin's looping decapitation swing shooting his own arm out and slicing the underside of the boy's tricep causing him to hop back with a hissing whine.
"Really, is this the best-" Kimi's scream caught him unawares and he turned in time to see a third Genin fade from the shadows and wrap one arm around her waist, pinning her left arm to her side, as the other shot up to try and stifle any more noise. Frozen in place, he watched as the other two set themselves between him and the now captive Akimi as if to form a blockade.
Appearing nonplussed, Iruka actually took the time to pop his neck and stretch his arms over his head as if preparing for a more strenuous workout. Glancing at each other, the two initial attackers looked back at the senior Chunin bristling at the blatant disrespect.
The shadowy figured mentally tsked, then cleared his jutsu once he was close enough with molded chakra while lunging out with his right hand.
The annoyance coming from Iruka's three opponents lasted until their adversary's eyes suddenly doubled in size and he shifted his body weight to one side seconds before a short blade pierced through his back and out the right side of his chest. Blood dribbled up from his mouth in frothy bubbles as the blade withdrew and Iruka Umino collapsed to the ground, his mind fading to blackness.
The three males kidnapping the ramen girl began to smile until the latest arrival cut them off ruthlessly. "Fools! Didn't you detect him flexing his chakra? He's summoned ANBU to this very location. You're lucky I was watching. Run! Run before they get here!" 'Hnh, I wonder if Iruka will survive the asphyxiant coating that blade?'
"What about you, sensei?" The figure pushed up the dark glasses on his face and glanced down to the unconscious and heavily bleeding Iruka.
"Don't worry about me. I'll take care of things. Now go!" As the three boys raced off trying to keep the girl from screaming, the scarf-covered shinobi tossed the borrowed tanto to the ground and made sure his gloves were on the ground about where Riki had set fire to himself. Mumbling a quick repeat of the Flaming Palm Jutsu, he set fire to the gloves and made sure the cloth material was solidly alight before taking out a kunai and jamming it into the meatiest part of his own leg. Falling to the ground, he left the blade in place and waited for ANBU to arrive.
~III~
Hinata collapsed on the polished floors of her clan's training dojo. Little more than an ornate sparring floor surrounded on all sides by wooden benches and large planters for small bushes and non-flowering greenery, a person would think it a place for meditation, relaxation, or peaceful recollection. A simple glance at the heavily bruised and bleeding female gasping for oxygen near the center of the wooden practice floor would readily debunk such ideas.
Towering above her, a male youth brandishing his own Konoha headband narrowed similar orbs of near translucent silver, the bulging veins around his eyes receding peacefully. His disapproval of her efforts this morning were clear in every facet of his posture. Rigid back, chin slightly raised, eyes narrowing further to slits, and his mouth pressed into a thin line all shouted thoughts he would not, could not express before the observing clan head overseeing this special training session with his "failure" of a daughter.
Neji Hyuuga was clearly not impressed.
His eyes shifted from the clearly wanting heiress to the impressive stature of Hiashi Hyuuga, the Hyuuga Clan head, and waited patiently while trying to hide his disgust at both of them. Without taking his eyes from the exhausted girl, the stoic leader nodded once, just the barest bob of his head, and Neji bowed at the waist (just enough to not be disrespectful) before spinning on his heels and striding away.
The battered and bruised heiress gathered herself as best she was able, struggling to her feet with a wince here...a cringe of pain there...before taking a steadying breath. Forcing all emotion from her eyes, she squared her shoulders, turned to face her father, bowed fully at the waist, then limped from the floor in the direction of her personal chambers. She would need to soak in the tub for a bit longer today. Neji had been extra "annoyed" this morning and she'd have the bruises to show for it later.
Once she was gone and the silence reigned, Hiashi Hyuuga released a quiet breath as he fought down the pain and distress at seeing his gentle daughter humbled for the sake of the elder's vaunted pride. Keeping his rigid posture and iron will, the man rose gracefully to his feet, one hand slipping habitually behind his back while the other rose up to flip his left hand free of his flowing kimono sleeve, before gliding silently to his office. He spent long hours of the day there tending to the important matters of his clan. With its seals to prevent snooping, it was also the best place to wallow in the many bouts of failure and depression associated with the untenable tension of his rather large family without judging eyes to condemn him.
'Hitomi...I wish I could confide in you now. Please look over her when I no longer can.'
~ An Unspecified Amount of Time Later, Location Unknown but Outside the Mindscape ~
When Naruto's eyes opened again it was to the accompanying thunder of a pulsating headache. He groaned, winced, then tried to pry his eyes open but the lights shining down on him were too bright and it only made the pounding in his skull worse. Blinking timidly, he began to slowly force them open so that he could take proper stock of his surroundings.
'Okay, at least I'm sitting upright…sorta.' His hands, ankles, and chest were strapped to a metal chair. The steep angle of his neck indicated that his head had been left free which meant that it lolled uncomfortably to the side leading to a string of drool falling down his chest to his lap. 'Wonderful. Just…wonderful.' Slurping up as much of the pooling slobber as he could, he managed to break off the tenacious liquid leech on his shoulder sleeve and slowly lifted his eyes to glance around the room ignoring the popping sound as his vertebrae realigned.
Cold metal walls greeted him matching the very sturdy table directly in front of his fashionably matching chair… if late-era prison décor was in fashion this year. To his left was a large mirror and, beyond the chair directly across the table from him, there was nothing else décor-related in the room. Unless you counted the two ANBU standing in the dim light just beyond the table and watching his every move.
Focusing on their masks, he noted a nearly matching set of purple hair, one slightly taller than the other, framing a Hebi and a Neko ANBU.
'Oh hell… they're bound to be pissed at me. Why'd it have to be them watching me?' He winced at the waves of displeasure rolling off of both assassination squad members. As if the Hokage bitch-slapping him into nighty-night world wasn't bad enough…
The door opened, and a heavy-set man wearing Konoha green shinobi attire and a red haori walked in stopping right before the metal table. Without taking his eyes off the tied down boy, his head pivoted marginally to the right addressing his attention to the two ANBU.
"Out. I need the room." Naruto tensed and Hebi stepped forward in Naruto's direction almost protectively. "I said OUT!" the large man thundered, his spiky mess of white hair swinging like a rope with his emotion. The two female ANBU quietly padded from the room, Neko pausing just long enough to glance back before closing the door on her way out.
~ 5 Minutes Before in the Adjoining Observation Room-Mini Flashback no Jutsu ~
Jiraiya of the Sannin stepped into the hidden room smack dab in the middle of an argument between the Sandaime Hokage and Inoichi Yamanaka. As shocking as that was, Inoichi appeared to be chastising the older man for the reckless damage he may have caused the Uzumaki child, a comment that narrowed his eyes noticeably in the direction of the older man while causing the Hokage to sigh heavily upon the latter's entrance.
Turning to address the newcomer, Jiraiya's next question got obliterated by a flurry of comments from the village leader.
"Not now, Jiraiya. I need you to confirm the status of the seal. No discussion, no introductions, nothing that could further jeopardize the boy's tenuous control over the Kyuubi. Do I make myself clear?" It wasn't really a question the way he said it and Jiraiya's eyes flicked between the two verbal combatants before settling once again on his white-bearded instructor.
"This is getting old, sensei. You owe me damn near fifteen years." The Hokage's gaze hardened the moment Inoichi's eyebrows wrinkled up.
"Get on with it, Jiraiya." Without a word, the Sannin turned around and stormed out of the observation chamber.
~ Current Time in the Holding Room-Mini Flashback no Jutsu Kai! ~
The white-maned man took the three paces necessary to stand in front of the boy's chair so that he could spin him ninety degrees and away from the table. Squatting down to get a better look, he lifted the tee shirt and placed two fingers on the boy's stomach.
"Channel some chakra for me, kid." Nothing happened right away so he looked up frowning at the hateful glare being sent his way. "C'mon, gaki. I ain't got all day."
"You do if you expect me to mold chakra. Old man sealed me up good and tight."
Jiraiya's own hateful glare shot over the boy's shoulder to the mirrored glass on the other side of the room. With a disgusted tsk, he added a thumb to the boy's skin and pushed some of his own chakra in around Naruto's navel. With practiced ease, the black ink of an enormous seal faded into view.
Naruto was familiar with this old geezer as this wasn't the first time he'd come to inspect the seal. The only difference was he knew what was going on this time despite everyone pretending to be stupid about the whole ordeal.
If they wanted to keep pretending that this guy was responsible for inspecting his chakra network to make sure he stayed healthy, then who was Naruto to burst their delusional bubble. He was checking the seal. That meant someone was worried about the Kyuubi getting loose.
Either way not his problem.
Two minutes later, the white-haired hermit twisted his chair back to the table then walked out without a backward glance. What he didn't know was that the Sannin kept walking right out of the building.
'Let them stew for a bit. Turn about's fair play.' Jiraiya groused as he kept walking all the way to the nearest bar.
~ Back in the Holding Room ~
When the door opened again, it was to re-admit both female ANBU and the Yamanaka clan head. Naruto scowled in disgust and turned his face to the mirror.
"Hello again, Naruto. Mind if I join you?"
Silence.
"Ahem…I understand that you might not want to talk with me so how about I just talk while you listen?"
Silence.
With a heavy sigh, Inoichi pulled out the other chair and slid into it, one hand setting two healthy sunflowers onto the table's surface. Naruto's eyes saw the objects on the metal surface in the mirror before glaring at his own reflection and whoever was on the far side watching the sideshow.
"Naruto, I understand why you think you're alone but I'm here to tell you that you're not."
No visible reaction.
"There's Iruka Umino, your instructor. He cares for you very much from what I hear and have seen." Inoichi tried to catch any emotion, the tiniest flicker in the boy's face. Nothing.
"What about your surrogate sister, Anko Mitarashi? Are you saying she doesn't matter?" Naruto's eyes closed and one of the ANBU behind him shifted ever so slightly.
"They can't be there to watch over me all the time. It's not fair that they have to be tethered to me because you all are too chicken-shit to leave me be." Inoichi's eyes perked up just a hair. It was a start.
"I get it, it's not the same thing as coming home to a loving mother or sister but it's something, isn't it?" When the boy's face snapped to snarl at him, Inoichi reflexively leaned back in his chair expecting to see those same red eyes again.
"Clearly…Inoichi-san, you don't know what it's like to live at least twenty three out of every twenty-four hours a day on your own, even when you're in a room surrounded by dozens of people. Do you?" The cold comment stung the older Yamanaka. He clearly could not relate even though he'd rooted around in the child's head and felt the cold loneliness of abandonment. This boy had been abandoned by an entire village.
"These clones are NOT real people, Naruto! What about Ichiraku, Ayame and-."
"DON'T…finish that one." Inoichi sighed heavily. Clearly that little piece of information needed to be updated. Something had gone terribly wrong there.
"Oooookay. Moving on then." He wracked his high-powered brain looking for another significant connection.
"The Hokage then?" Naruto's face crumpled.
"You mean the guy that put me here? The guy that left me to those angry mobs every year on my birthday? The guy that left me in the orphanage that tried to poison me at least four times a year each year that I lived there then told me I needed to be more careful what I ate because those old biddies couldn't watch me every hour of the day? That Hokage?"
Behind the glass, Hiruzen flinched at the rage in Naruto's voice. How had he missed the anger behind those eyes? How had he not connected the dots over the years? 'Have I really been that disconnected?'
Back in the room, Inoichi-figured he dug a deep enough hole and tried to change tactics. The current one had been a dismal failure since he never realized how truly alone the child had been over his relatively short existence.
"Alright, Naruto. Clearly you've won the shittiest draw award." Inoichi drew in a deep breath. "I clearly had no idea how bad it was."
Naruto could see the pain in the Yamanaka's eyes, but he tried not to let it soften him. So long as he sat in that chair, he could not afford to show weakness, or they'd break him.
"Then why are you here?" Naruto's question drew the older man's eyes up from the table and the two flowers.
"To help you," he returned in a near-broken voice. Naruto scoffed unwilling to release his anger.
"You mean like you helped me earlier? No thanks!" Inoichi leaned forward with his hands on the table.
"You think I hurt you?" The boy nodded. "On purpose?" Again, with a nod.
"Naruto, when I'm not here," he motioned to the room they were in, "…what is my day job?"
The boy guffawed. "You're the plant man. You sell flowers. Nice gig for the number one mind jacker in Konoha." Inoichi tried not to smirk.
"Yes, flowers are my life oddly enough." He pointed to the first sunflower. "I've sold you seeds before for your personal garden. You're aware how flowers function right? How they grow, live, thrive?" The boy nodded as if it were an obvious question.
"You're talking about photosynthesis and crap like that, right?" Inoichi smiled just a bit.
"Yes, exactly like that." Without hesitation, Inoichi lifted one of the sunflowers and began pulling off its petals causing the outraged Naruto to squawk.
"Hey! Don't do that!" Inoichi paused about two thirds of the way through removing the leaves.
"Oh, and why not?" He absent-mindedly plucked one of the green stem leaves. "It's still a flower, right? I mean, if I did this to one of the plants in my family garden, it'd still grow…wouldn't it?"
"Maybe… maybe not! Flowers need their leaves to absorb sunlight and other things needed to grow. They draw in water to feed the plant through more than just their leaves. The plant may survive, or it might wither and die. You don't know until you see how it reacts to you plucking it like a chicken about to get cooked!" Inoichi tried not to let his smile grow too much bigger.
"Soo… what if I do this…" He picked up one of the spear-shaped leaves and pressed it to the flower bulb. Using chakra in his fingertips, he reattached the green leaf to the stem and took his fingers away showing that it was indeed semi-attached.
Naruto scoffed. Loudly. "C'mon! That's not foolin' anyone. Once your chakra fades that is gonna fall off and the flower won't be any better than before. It's not actually part of the flower anymore!" Inoichi leaned in again and smiled.
"So… if this whole flower," he pointed to the un-mauled one, "is me and this one," he held up the nearly destroyed one, "…represent your mind, both our minds as they are right now, which one do you think is better off?"
The light came on in Naruto's mind as he looked back and forth between the two plants.
"I'm not a plant. You can't just glue a leaf on me and call it good."
"True," the older man acknowledged, "…but our clan techniques can reintegrate your fractured psyche so that you stop wandering around like this," he swept his arm across the table pushing the destroyed flower to the floor and held up the whole one, "…and start resembling this again."
"C'mon, you erased Kemuri! He's gone and I can't get him back!" Inoichi's head cocked over to one side.
"Did I?" Naruto's incredulous stare gawked back at him. "What makes you think he's not in there?"
"I tried to create a clone with him when I got home. Nothing happened, and the others couldn't find him!" The ANBU behind the Yamanaka Clan Head were twitching uncomfortably but Inoichi ignored them.
"You told me during our first session that you had…black out periods, remember?" Everyone in both rooms listening to this snapped to rigid attention. Naruto merely nodded back without saying a word. "When I walked your mind, I found empty gaps of time ranging from a few minutes to a few hours, mostly centered around pranks you allegedly committed."
Naruto snickered.
"I remember you being blamed for sabotage at one of the morning food carts, but the owner could never prove anything and no one could find evidence of wrongdoing when T&I inspected your memories for the alleged crime."
Naruto grinned back. "It's easy to be found innocent when you have no recollection of doing anything."
"That's true. T&I is still trying to figure out how the culprit got the entire cart to spoil overnight." Naruto started laughing out loud.
"That's easy! All you need is an already rotten apple or two. Bury them under all the others and just like that the apples go bad super quick. Bury six or seven under the pile and you can destroy a whole batch." His eyes got big as his laughter died off to a sickening cough. "…or so I'm told." It was too late though and Inoichi's smile was now two-fold.
"So, that explains why nothing out of sorts was ever found. They were just more bad apples among an already rotting bunch." Naruto tried to look away but inside he was stunned. He remembered. He actually remembered, and it wasn't the only case. Lots of other incidents were coming back to him now. Also, his mind was running through all of Kemuri's…no, his recent notes on the physical training plan.
It was all there in his head.
Naruto's face tracked the older man as he stood away from the table. "You know Naruto, you can't join ANBU with a class one mental handicap like this," he opened his palm and sprinkled the plucked sunflower petals onto the table top, "...not since Itachi Uchiha left, you understand that, right?" The boy's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. He never thought he'd lose a chance at his second dream as well. It made sense though...
"So, you basically have two choices. You can keep fighting my help and end up like the sunflower on the floor, or…" he pushed the healthy flower forward and directly in front of the fresh Genin, "…or, you can let me help you put the pieces back together again." The clan head walked to the door but paused before stepping out.
"If you want my help, your appointment for next Wednesday is still on my calendar. Why don't you bring one of them with you? You can choose the next one you want me to reintegrate into your psyche and we can go from there." Naruto stared at the closed door for several minutes after Inoichi left before settling his gaze onto the bright flower.
'Can't join ANBU…Most likely won't get a team…Back at square one…' Those thoughts rattled around in his head until they eventually let him go an hour later into the Thursday morning Konoha sun under the condition that he now had to have ANBU minders until he agreed to resume the medical appointments.
He was damned if he did and damned if he didn't. Life sucked sometimes.
~ Time Skip to Wednesday, Week 2: Yamanaka Flower Shop ~
Inoichi Yamanaka had been a ball of nervous energy all morning. From being forced out of his flower shop by an annoyed wife-daughter combo to wearing a path through the floor rugs covering the wooden floors of their flower shop living spaces, he'd been chewing nervously at already frayed fingernails and muttering to himself about the positives of the past six days.
'He didn't storm over again, that's good…isn't it?" It only made logical sense. If they boy was still angry, he would have raised another stink like he did last week, wouldn't he? It was a positive but a couple of worrisome things were also bouncing around in his head after sitting down with the Hokage to discuss the shadow clone construct in depth and he wanted a chance to flush out a few theories before coming to a conclusion.
Just about every senior shinobi understood the construct. Heck, even Inoichi knew how to generate one and he'd spent the better part of the week utilizing one or two clones around the flower shop and the office to flush out his understanding.
They were chakra constructs shaped and compressed to resemble their creators. Despite having free will, they were obediently tied to the owner via a chakra tether very similar to the strings used by Suna's puppeteers. The one difference being that the tether did more than just feed the clone life-giving chakra from their source.
Each tether provided the obligatory two-way mental leash back to the jutsu user. This leash was most likely the direct path for imprinting these alternate personalities into Naruto's clones. The problem nagging the back of Inoichi's mind was which personality had control the night Naruto nearly tore down his door? And how would they deal with that one when time came to reintegrate it with the host?
He flopped into his recliner and immediately felt antsy. Fingers nervously tapping on the padded arms only to hop up the moment he heard the shop's front entrance chime a greeting only to sag in defeat as Ino greeted another customer. He was about to try and get comfortable again when the chime rang out once more and his wife called out this time.
"Ah, welcome back Naruto-kun and who is your friend?" Inoichi's eyes slowly tried to swallow his face as he took a hesitant step towards the swinging door closing off the shop front. He couldn't hear the response and he desperately wanted to burst through the door, but he restrained himself. He promised his wife that he'd wait.
"Just a moment, Naruto-kun. Let me see if my husband is available." He smiled at the sound of her voice. It was so calming, and the stressed child would no doubt need that before they got started.
"You break it, you buy it Naru-turd!" Inoichi winced at the harsh sound of his daughter's voice.
'So much for calm,' he thought wryly.
Sumiko Yamanaka stepped through the door wrapping up her admonishment of their daughter before turning to face her husband. "He's here."
With a heavy sigh, Inoichi stepped through the door behind her and put on his most disarming smile as his eyes landed on Naruto and what appeared to be an older brother dressed in ochre-colored robes, his long blond hair tied up into a topknot with two long bangs framing his face. He appeared to be a few years older and considerably more composed than the younger troublemaker.
"Greetings, Yamanaka-san. I am Chishiki and I have looked forward to meeting you face to face for some time now.'
Motioning them into the back past his currently gobsmacked daughter, Inoichi took a deep breath and prepared to work another miracle.
~III~
Omake: Step Into the Sun
Naruto exited the Yamanaka flower shop and paused on the stoop as his eyes adjusted the to the incredibly bright afternoon sun. Despite the momentary flash of discomfort to his sensitive orbs, the smile on his face at Ino's apparent confusion warmed the cockles of his miserable heart. He could still visualize in his mind's eye the thorough confusion on her face as he walked through the shop without the admittedly handsome face of Chishiki Uzumaki.
Selfishly he hoped she spent the next hour scouring their home looking for him. A dose of humility would do her some good in his opinion.
Focusing forward instead of to the past, Naruto's deep blue eyes scanned the busy street taking note of more than a few soured glances in his direction. Surging up from his own recent dose of humility, he accepted that a lot of those disparaging faces were well earned after his recent display of public insanity.
No matter what anyone told him, he'd let his anger rage and now had to bare the burden for those actions. No matter the reason behind it, all that mattered was the face he provided to the public and his, no matter how bitter the pill associated with the reality, was now the stuff of nightmares. Control had to be the outward word of the day and it started right now.
Tugging forward on the familiar black and orange jacket he sported around town, Naruto thrust his hands into the pockets of a black cargo short set. An ocher-colored tee shirt (in honor of Chishiki's passing) hung out and low across his body. With a deep breath to clear his lungs, a much more relaxed looking Naruto Uzumaki stepped off into the Market District heading nowhere in particular, his black open-toed sandals scuffing softly against the smooth cobblestones of the street. He let the hateful stares roll of his shoulders long since used to them. Besides, so long as he wore the hitai-ite snapped snugly to fresh inserts in his right sleeve, there wasn't anything they could do to him. The shiny plate announced clearly what he was - he was untouchable by these fox-hating scum.
Without giving his destination a second thought, he found himself stopped in front of Higurashi's. Standing stone-still in the street as he gazed adoringly up at the green anvil and hammer, the warm familiarity billowing in his heart pulled up an even larger smile as he casually entered the shop front to the pleasant chime of the tiny silver bell above his head. Instantly Tenten's head whipped around and her eyes began sparkling in welcome.
"Hey, Naru-kun! Miss your big sister so soon?" He felt too good to get annoyed by her light teasing. Strolling past a few customers to the weapons displays, he waved in greeting and resisted the urge to pinch her dimply cheeks. He learned the hard way earlier in the week that such actions were a quick invitation to a beat down by the tomboyish apprentice.
"Ha...ha... I just came to pick up my order and maybe do some window shopping." Naruto had purchased another round of A-rank supplies to finish filling his arm seal and the holster seals in his thigh-mounted carriers, all except for the "special additions" he was picking up today. The cheeky smile on the slightly shorter female erupted all across her face as her hands smacked loudly together in delight before turning to jog back into the store.
Her exuberance was catchy but he tried not to stare too much at Tenten for fear that she'd catch him ogling her. The young lady took good care of herself, unlike most of the girls in his final class, and it showed in her toned body. More than once Naruto had to catch himself from focusing on her curvy figure rather than on the other items of interest in the store.
A sturdy shake of his head and his eyes wandered down to the collection of armor-plated items in the illuminated case his palms were resting on. Bucklers of various metal composites, a spiked ball and chain mace, oh... that looked interesting.
Leaning forward with his face nearly pressed against the glass, a black gauntlet caught his eye. Thinking it was dyed to get such a rich hue, his keen eyes noted the back half of the gauntlet, that part stretching from the elbow to the back of the fist, was too well polished to be painted. The dye appeared to be part of the metal itself and, as he looked closer, there appeared to be phantom flames etched into the segmented plates laying horizontally across what would be his arm. It looked like the overlapping plating of an of armored neck-piece called a tare, except the metal plates were more closely overlapped and interlocked to form a nearly seamless yet flexible section. That section flowed into the hand sleeve, the back of which completely protected the back of the fist, the knuckles, and up to the first knuckle of the fingers. Underneath and holding all of this together was a synthetic weave mesh of extremely fine material forming the complete gauntlet.
It was a thing of beauty and it stole his breath away, so much so that he never noticed Tenten's return as she stood aside with a box in her arm while observing his open admiration.
"See something you like, Naru-kun?" She liked teasing him and seeing the radiant blush that streaked across his face. If only she knew the truth behind that blush. Fortunately, for him, deflection was a simple matter with the weapon obsessed maiden.
"How much is this?" Tenten knew without looking down into the case what he was looking at but she never got worked up over the glove selling. Tons of people came by and asked about it but very few wanted to pay the two hundred thousand Ryu to actually buy it. Most just goggled, sputtered or dashed away so it intrigued her when Naruto merely nodded in contemplation after she told him.
"Anyway," she chirped out deftly switching the subject, "these are finally ready." She set the box down on the counter blocking his view of the metal glove and smiled up at him. "I was so intrigued by your design that I convinced dad to make me a couple to practice with. She was bouncing up and down excitedly now brandishing one of her very own Stingers as he called them.
Naruto pointedly focused on one of the shiny ebony items inside the box avoiding her healthy bouncing figure.
It was shaped vaguely like a kunai only its total length matched the bladed front end of its larger cousin minus the handle. The body was slimmer, about one-seventh the total width of a kunai blade and tapered in a similar fashion but that's where the similarities ended. The back end of the throwing weapon cut back in to make the bladed front shaped like an oddly-stretched diamond and a tiny metal tab at the back it extended just long enough to ensure a sturdy one-handed grip. Being a bit meatier than a senbon, it provided a bit more stopping power. Being as long as a kunai blade, it gave easier reach to critical organs in a strike. Being smaller than a full kunai increased the carrying capacity for an enterprising ranged fighter.
It was perfect for what he needed and Tenten seemed to approve. A lot.
"These things you designed are freaking awesome!" Her twitchy energy came down a little as to used her blade to scrape soot from under her nails. "Dad says if you ever want to come work for us designing weapons he'll take you in." Naruto nodded thankfully as he reached into the box and pulled out the wooden model he'd made to help shape their molds. "He also says that since you're the guy that designed these things, he has to - by Konoha law - ask for your permission before he can offer to sell them in the store."
She looked down suddenly saddened as her normally sparkly brown eyes studied the shiny throwing blade in her hand. "Technically, I should not have asked for my dozen copies without your permission." She was laying on the Puppy Eyes No Jutsu extra thick at this point and Naruto was doing his dead-level best to ignore her so he decided to get even.
"That's okay. I suppose you can just slave yourself to me for a year to pay me for them then we can call it quits." He didn't even look up to see her jaw completely unhinged as she squeaked unintelligibly.
"What? Did I say something strange?" She squeaked once more before hiding the exposed blade behind her back, which only proceeded to push out her developing chest underneath her pink, sleeveless qipao-style shirt.
"I'm kidding Tenten." He flashed a really crappy smirk her way. "If your dads wants to sell these, he can do so as long as I get a fair cut of the profits."
"Twenty-percent!" she offered quickly... a little too quickly. It told him that people must have already been asking about them and he caught several stacked neatly behind a nearby locked display case.
"Fifty-percent," he countered, which made her gasp in outrage.
"Twenty-five!" she rebutted and back and forth they kept going until they reached an accord at thirty-five percent plus ten free lessons with the cute brunette to fine tune his shurikenjutsu.
"Done!" The petite-framed girl with tightly packed buns on top of her head spit into her palm and extended his way immediately. Naruto, initially disgusted by the action, repeated it. Almost immediately a gushing Higurashi-san emerged from the curtain leading to the workshop brandishing a fresh contract, a couple feather quills and a jar of ink. Deftly writing thirty-five percent into a blank space, he rapidly signed the bottom on one side before spinning the parchment around to face him.
Reading quickly through the document to make sure he wasn't signing over his soul or agreeing to a secret marriage of some sort, Naruto signed his name in the space provided to the right of the elder Higurashi and they proceeded to repeat the symbolic handshake. They told him that he'd get a copy of the agreement in a few days after it was filed in the Hall of Records but, until then, the big guy slapped a fat envelope onto the top of the box with a sheepish grin.
"Huh? What's this?"
"Oh...hehe, that's just your cut of the advance paid for all the orders we've received on the Stinger you designed. Should be about four hundred thousand there. I can't thank you enough for this." Naruto waived it away seeing this as an opportunity to pay back the Higurashi family for all the business he knew associating with him cost them...then he remembered the metal gauntlet he'd been ogling not three minutes earlier. Naruto blinked once, then twice before opening the envelope and counting out half of the money and slapping it back down onto the counter top.
"I'll take it!" he declared with gusto. Tenten blinked in return before his grin spread across to her face and she happily unlocked the case to reach in and grab the plated arm sleeve. Reverently wrapping it in a leather sheet, she gently tucked it into its new home - Naruto's box of Stingers.
She got fifteen percent on all sales as commission after all.
~III~
[Jutsu Used In This Chapter]
[E-Rank] Ninpo: Bikou Ninjutsu (Shadowing Stealth Technique): Bikou Ninjutsu is the technique ninjas use to follow their targets covertly. The manner in which the ninja shadows their target can differ, from the basic hiding under a nearby object, to using a jutsu to turn oneself invisible while stationary. The shinobi attacking Iruka (I'm sure I gave enough hints to identify him), while not verbalizing the jutsu's name, uses it to gain the element of surprise and take him out allowing the successful kidnapping of Akimi.
[D-Rank] Katon: Houka Hira no Jutsu (Fire Release: Flaming Palm Technique): A more advanced version of the Katon: Tanebi no Jutsu, this jutsu allows the user to make and hold a spark in their hand. They then amplify it with their chakra until it is a small flame about the size of a torch. By mimicking the gentle fist style, they push the flame into their opponent, causing clothes to light, or minor burns on the body.
~III~