Chapter 4 Start
"I have created a list for you. A series of tasks. Complete one, and I shall give you a tool required to complete the next. Take advantage of your long lifespans. There's no rush. But if you get impatient, then you'd best get to work. I will not teach you for nothing."
Orochimaru is a scientist, and by their Sensei's own admission, probably a better scientist and experimenter than even his unfathomable strength as a Shinobi.
But Sensei does not deal in 'might' or 'maybe' with their tutelage in Shinobi arts. He'd devised a reward system for them, one that allows them to earn his teachings. Essentially, complete a task for a reward, or provide something worthwhile for a reward based on their own research, something they had yet to delve into, opting to keep the scroll of the arts sealed on Naruto's chest until the time comes that they are ready to learn what is in it.
Orochimaru does give them a little help to start off with, providing them basic Shinobi equipment in the form of worn pouches and lets them watch him as he skins rabbits and deer, along with which plant foods they can find in the wild that won't cause them horrible bodily distress.
It works out for both Orochimaru and the Uzumaki's. Their three-man operation isn't in full-swing yet, not until Naruto and Honoka are up to scratch. Orochimaru told them to take advantage of their lifespans but Naruto's drive makes him want to be expedient, and through that impatience he learns lessons.
They start off with task twenty-three.
Unwisely.
But the reward Orochimaru offered for them both is listed as 'Suiryuudan' for this particular mission.
The task was titled simply as 'Acquire Jugo Clan Survivor'.
Naruto and Honoka fail miserably.
The pair of them with no intel or baseline information at all, spent a full two-months searching for this mysterious survivor. It would've been more worthwhile doing the easy ones first. Task One is to steal lab equipment and sterilization supplies. At least Naruto and Honoka both know how to seal an object into another already, and they could use that skill to discreetly take what was needed. That one skill, the one skill they have that doesn't need to be drawn out from fear and intense emotions, is all they have going for them at present.
Not for a second had they considered the logistics behind finding a needle in a haystack. Asking people about the supposed 'Jugo Clan' had led to many questioning looks, concerned statements about children being out and about on their own, and laughter in the case of drunk people.
So, with their heads dipped low, they trudge back to the cave Orochimaru built temporarily using Doton Ninjutsu and explain what happened to their Sensei, who proceeds to pick apart everything they did wrong.
"You return with nothing." Orochimaru doesn't look their way, choosing instead to toil over a tattered scroll while stirring a pale green mixture in a glass. He doesn't comment on how long they've been gone.
"We couldn't find anything." Naruto speaks up.
"That does not surprise me." Orochimaru seems amused, like he knows they wouldn't find anything at all.
"We'll rest and try again." Honoka doesn't want to disappoint their Sensei after he took them in.
"Kukukuku! How persistent, Honoka-chan..."
Orochimaru turns from his standing position at a rickety wooden table they'd found in a nearby town, and he presents the glass he'd been stirring the liquid in and another mason jar that Naruto recognizes as a used container for pickled eggs.
"Come. Drink. Then we can discuss your failure." Orochimaru is flippant and relatively uncaring, making Naruto think it's not such a big deal.
"What is it?" Naruto asks, taking the bigger jar and observing how the emulsified liquid swirls.
"Poison." Orochimaru smiles guillessly.
"You want us to drink poison?!" Honoka looks terribly betrayed.
"A small amount of various toxins. It will build up your tolerance to it in the long-term. It's quite a standard practice. It doesn't always work but the dosages have been calculated to your body type, weight, height, age, and your natural high-constitution. You're going to be drinking this much every week for a while."
"The whole thing at once?" Naruto inspects it again, accepting Orochimaru's reasoning.
"Now or later, it matters little. So long as you have all of it over the week."
Naruto immediately chugs the strange fluid, leaving not a drop behind. Surprisingly, it tasted very fruity.
"Just be prepared for a sudden onset of diarrhea." Orochimaru continues. Before Naruto or Honoka can exclaim displeasure, he goes on; "Now, tell me about your mission."
The children hand the jars back to Orochimaru and begin recounting their two months away.
Orochimaru sifts through the useless information like how many animals they ate and how mean a drunk man was to them, subtely teaching them what is relevant and what isn't.
"What have you learned from this failure?" Orochimaru doesn't sugar-coat it, it is a failure.
"That we suck at getting information?" Honoka provides, astute and cute.
"Very much so," Orochimaru agrees. "But what precisely is your problem?"
A few seconds pass with little more than blank stares before they start throwing anything they can.
"We probably went the wrong way..."
"Nobody we asked knew anything?"
"Maybe we asked too many people and the guy we were looking for knew and ran away?"
"We coulda tracked Chakra and footprints or something instead."
"Is this guy even real?"
Orochimaru clearly enjoys watching their futile guessing game.
"All are potentially, or fully correct. This person is likely to be in a completely different location than when you started, so it is little wonder why nobody you spoke to knew anything or even reacted with confusion. Presuming you were even in the correct location, being too overt about your desire to find this person may have caused them to flee, especially if they were finding refuge in such a place. The Jugo Clan possess a unique Kekkei-Genkai, tracking their Chakra would be simple and efficient, not to mention easy. And of course, this person may not even exist."
"My heeaad hurts~" Honoka whines.
"So information is the winner here?" Naruto asks, deciphering what wasn't said from their teacher. "We set ourselves up to fail because we didn't have any information to start with or any experience in tracking someone another way."
"Precisely. You bit-off more than you could chew. There is a time and place for fast action, but a predator strikes when victory is closest. You both were unequipped for this mission. You need more experience and skills before you are ready for such a task. What should you have done instead?"
"Do something easier..." Naruto answers in discontent.
"When you are ready, you will do this task for me." Orochimaru insists. "For now, take lessons from your defeat. You will receive no reward from me today. I trust that you will choose your next mission more wisely."
With flickering candlelight, Naruto and Honoka crawl under an itchy blanket on a rickety cot.
"My tummy hurts." Honoka holds her little hands over her pained abdomen.
"Mine too." Naruto is really tired of going to the... well, outside for severe and continuous bodily emergencies.
"Hey, Naru-chan?"
"Yeah?"
Honoka turns over to face him, basically nose-to-nose. Her breath smells from the lack of hygiene they'd had over the two-month journey, but Naruto cares little. He just wants her close by.
"What are we doing all this stuff for? Like, why are we training?"
"You don't have to if you don't want to." Naruto frowns, having thought they were on the same page.
"I like it," Honoka admits quickly. "It's... fun."
There is something about learning and working and generally keeping busy with goals that helps them not think so much about what happened. Naruto understands it well.
"But I dunno what we're doing it for." Honoka snuggles a little closer for warmth, wincing as a stab of pain goes through her stomach again.
"I want to get so strong that they can never hurt us again." Naruto answers from the heart. "I want them to be more afraid of me than they have ever feared anything or will ever fear anything again. I want them to feel the same pain we did. I want to be so strong that nothing can ever be taken from me ever again."
Honoka shuffles a little, looking pained but too tired to stay awake.
"I just want you, Naru-chan. Don't die."
She falls asleep next to him.
The words keep echoing in his head, in conjunction with the pain he feels.
Over the course of three-years, Naruto and Honoka stumble through their narrow-vision with the clumsy inexperience of children.
They learn with a voracious appetite for knowledge they acquired from their mentor. They train with meticulous processes and strong will, abandoning fear of failure only to replace it with perfectionism. They eat well and sleep well. They help their teacher in the pursuit of his goals and adopt his studiousness and desire for success.
When they learn to look past their old fears and pains, they learn to play again. They dance through forests and explore caves, they learn to smile again, they run away from time to time just to experience a festival or try new foods. They regain a sense of adventure through their missions, which they whittle away piece by piece. Most often while transformed. They do not wish to bring more suffering where they go. Orochimaru even encourages play, with a lecture reasoning that play is important for a child's development that goes over their heads.
Orochimaru keeps his word, always. He does not keep them leashed, he seems to find their development interesting and amusing. They draw from the wealth of knowledge their Sensei has at his disposal, accepting his biases but learning to criticize more than Orochimaru's own experiences for and against things. They learn to help him in exchange for more teachings, and together Naruto and Honoka devise formulae that even Orochimaru himself is impressed by.
He encourages them to lean into their natural talents before taking upon conventional styles of Ninjutsu and the like. Fuinjutsu is priority number one, and the groundwork for different Uzumaki-related disciplines. They identify the strengths of Uzumaki Chakra, to Orochimaru's fascination. The qualities of their genes allow them to use their own bodies as conduits for Fuinjutsu, proven with the extension of the rare Adamantine Sealing Chains, as opposed to using external surfaces. They discover an innate similarity between Fuinjutsu and Barrier-Ninjutsu, displaying that Uzumaki Chakra is strong enough to do on its own what should take at least a decade of refined Chakra Control for several people to use in conjunction with each other.
Replicating results for their innate healing proved to be difficult. It appeared that only life or death situations could draw out the need to heal. Small cuts and wounds were only marginally quicker to heal than that of a non-Uzumaki, but Naruto had once displayed the ability to completely heal muscle tissue from a kunai wound that went straight through his leg. Despite how often they get injured, neither Naruto nor Honoka feel as though their lives are at risk while training with Orochimaru. So, instead of giving an 'all-clear' to their teacher to pretend like he's going to kill them just to observe their capacity for involuntary self-healing, they put their heads together for their most ambitious project yet; the Shinka Suru Mokuji Fuin(Evolving Table of Contents Seal), a masterpiece that records information from a host body to one or more diagrams inscribed with Seals.
With Orochimaru's expansive knowledge on the human body and Naruto and Honoka's discovered talents, they learn to record isolated pieces of information from the body in order to determine the cause-and-effect of Chakra usage, where nutrients go, how to diagnose on a level previously unseen by medical specialists, and virtually any information required in pursuit of knowledge of the human body. And using this new Fuinjutsu tool, they effectively determine how to activate their healing capability on command. The discovery of the Seal-less Self Healing Chakra patterns is something anyone could theoretically perform, but is most effective and efficient using Uzumaki Chakra. Too basic to be called a Kekkei-Genkai, but the genetic enhancement such a technique gets from them is too great to not officially categorize it as 'Uzumaki Hijutsu'. They, with Orochimaru's help, had gone beyond the conjecture and reasoning of the Uzumaki of the past and given more concrete form to it.
But of course, the natural cure to the large amounts of Chakra their Jutsu uses is to not need to.
The healing does have downside too, particularly in regards to training purposes. If their bodies do not have the nutrients required in order to either grow or improve their muscles and energy systems through consistent use, then their healing ability would simply restore the muscles and systems back to what they were before starting their training session. In order to maximize the effects of their training or even basic resistance workouts, they need to be fed nutrients that promote growth. Such was already known in medical fields, but it gave both Naruto and Honoka more reason than the average Shinobi to stop their workouts part-way through to eat and drink, at regular short intervals, or their bodies would heal to their status-quo before healing to be bigger and stronger.
Orochimaru does give them well-earned praise, only where it is due. And, on the other side of the coin, he criticizes harshly with their shortcomings.
Naruto and Honoka, as Orochimaru describes them to their faces, are weak. They have gotten by thus far by sheer luck on their part and incompetence of those they have fought. Avoidance of combat would be the most optimal strategy for their survival, although saying such is stating the obvious and speaks for all people, Naruto's weakness clashes with his goals.
He wants it to be the other way 'round. He wants to get to the point that it's 'not optimal to enter combat with Uzumaki Naruto'. Physical skill is improved every day, Taijutsu form, accuracy with weapons, technique with weapons, physical strategy and the like, are all well-above a passing grade, but Shinobi are more than their bodies on the outside. The strength of one's Chakra directly correlates to the enhanced behavior of the Shinobi body, multiplying physical abilities of existing muscle tissue and cardiovascular endurance by increments that are not easily dismissed.
Learning about the nature of Chakra opens more questions on how humans are supposed to control it. As a part of the body, it should be easily accessed and used as the mind sees fit.
Orochimaru had already given them a good starting point with the method of learning about their healing ability. But... they need people to test their methods on...
"Sensei!"
Orochimaru doesn't turn when Naruto and Honoka come dashing in. Probably begging for money he doesn't have.
"We need money!" Naruto states, as if by divine prophecy.
"I do not have money, Naruto-kun. I believe you will simply need to find it on your own. What is it that you need it for?" If Orochimaru finds the answer satisfactory, perhaps he can assist another way.
"We need to buy test subjects!" Honoka reveals with wide and innocent eyes.
"What." Orochimaru does turn this time, gaining full interest.
That was something he did not expect to hear.
"We're gonna find a town and pay people to be test subjects for our Chakra Control experiment!" Naruto partially crushes his hopes.
Orochimaru does want to know more however. How had they come to the conclusion they needed test subjects?
Honoka puts a stack of papers with hastily drawn diagrams and graphs onto the rickety desk. Orochimaru obliges their excitement to show him and moves his scope to the end of the desk to give them room.
"We're gonna test how stress, confidence, fight-or-flight, contentedness, and success and other stuff affect how well you can use your Chakra!"
"Intriguing." Orochimaru praises honestly, but he hopes they've thought more on the logistics
involved. He can see they've put much thought into the survey itself. A prototype questionnaire with numerous, vague allusions to how the person feels about their circumstances, their age and gender, how they see themselves socially and numerous others, as well as a practical exam on teaching them how to use basic Chakra Control exercises such as leaf-sticking, tree-walking and water-walking, along with a repeat exam the next week with the same questions to see if something has happened in that week to shake them up or if they'd found success in any way.
Along with a few plots to deliberately shake them up. Aiming a weapon at a small control group in the first and second week to see how their control changes.
He'd never needed to worry for the logistics involved in finding test subjects externally before.
Danzo had always provided fresh supplies for him. Orphaned children, war criminals, citizens that needed to go 'missing', he had a steady flow of humans to use in his experiments. But now, he no longer has the terrifying umbrella of Konohagakure over him, masking his movements to those that would hunt him down. Orochimaru knows he is powerful but not yet immortal. He must be more careful in the long term if he wants to achieve his own goals.
He wonders if paying test subjects would be less conspicuous than simply kidnapping them. His interest in this test has expanded, not for the results of Chakra Control like his little apprentice's desire but for the most effective way to experiment without drawing attention to himself. If it proves worthwhile, then he shall see to it that arrangements are made for... 'ethical' avenues of experimentation. Kidnapping is easier in the short term but the long term benefits could prove more useful.
"Come with me, little Uzumaki." Orochimaru stands up, shuffling Honoka's papers back in order.
"You're gonna help us?" Naruto asks hopefully.
"In a way. You should know by now that I will not hand things to you."
Orochimaru walks slowly to the exit of their cave, giving the children enough time to run and grab their gear.
"Where are we going?" Honoka looks up and asks.
"I'm going to teach you how to hunt Shinobi to make money."
He'd shown them once. Only once. Kill someone with a bounty on their head, and take the corpse to the nearest bounty station for a payout in cash.
Orochimaru gives them no further advice. He has already told them long ago, deception is key in covering one's own weakness.
They know what to do, but...
Honoka doesn't think that she can do it. Not like Sensei did. Not like-
She has watched Naruto kill before. In the past three years, a naive part of her wished she wouldn't have to see him do it again.
It's not something they talk about. Talking about it makes her feel uncomfortable, she shuts down and leaves Naruto guessing and begging for days to get her to open up again. Naruto eventually learns to shut up and figure out it's not something to talk about with her if he wants her to be open with him.
And maybe some of blame is on her. Maybe she's not trying hard enough to put herself in his shoes, but if she tries to rationalize it, she is in his shoes. She doesn't want people to suffer the same way they have. The unnecessary cruelty they'd been put through at the hands of the selfish, the hunger pangs she would never forget, and the terror that had consumed them for all this time, are things she has no desire to inflict on others.
She hasn't forgotten anything. She could never forget what happened. But is it really worth it? Naruto's goals make sense in the end, but the she feels that the means can be altered.
It's a fundamental difference in opinion that neither really wishes to change. And of course, from each others perspective, neither are really 'wrong'. She understands Naruto, she really does. But that doesn't change the fact that she doesn't want to be like that. She wants to be supportive, she wants to bring survivors of the clan back together, and have a home that they don't need to be scared.
She thinks though, that there is one thing they can agree on. Fear can be a valuable tool, but what Naruto does not see is the detriment. Fear, she thinks, is half the reason why Uzushiogakure was attacked in the first place. People were and are afraid of them, that's why they try so hard to hunt them down, every last one of them.
Naruto's way of thinking is to make them fear him so much that they do not dare to tempt his anger, that fear of retaliation will subdue them so that they fear the death of themselves and all they hold dear.
Honoka believes that kind of fear brews ambition, a reason to grow stronger, an opposite effect in a never-ending cycle of fear.
But she has felt fear. She has felt what Naruto felt, under the same circumstances, and knows the value of fear.
She feels the same anger, but not the desire to end lives over it.
No, there are worse fates than death.
Fear is a valuable tool.
Honoka looks at her forearms, pulling up a tan sleeve to look at the left.
Similarly to Naruto, she bears an ever-growing mark. A seal, with the permanence of a tattoo. A decision she did not make lightly, the sigil of a summoner to the same clan as their Sensei. It grows as they grow. It will remain there for their lives and their deaths. She enjoys the company of them, as does Naruto, although for somewhat differing reasons.
A great part of her wants them to suffer as Honoka and Naruto have. But...
She just doesn't have the stomach for it.
Orochimaru insists that such things take time. That some people don't awaken such behaviors until they learn more about the world, or at all, and that it would be her choice to consolidate that.
She can't imagine wanting to be so violent or cruel.
Not like...
Looking over at Naruto, who pets the head and brands a seal on a tiny, cute snake's head, she sees the viciousness in his oceanic gaze. He is reveling in this opportunity, for the sake of not just learning but being able to put cruel teachings into practice.
Snakes are creatures that instill fear, very much aligning with what Naruto desires. But they also represent rebirth, medicine and even love in some cultures. Some of them enjoy being held, others enjoy being active. They're very much complicated creatures, not unlike them.
"He's worth more alive," Honoka reminds her fellow Uzumaki.
Naruto nods, "I know, we'll bring him in."
The man in question was once an Iwagakure Shinobi. They'd chosen him after careful deliberation. He was a good distance away from their hideout, a good few weeks of travel on foot, so they wouldn't have to worry about leading anyone back in case he'd made friends. A former Genin, meaning at least on paper that his skills are sub-par. And more prolifically, wanted by Takigakure authorities for crimes of a sexual nature against a citizen living just inside their border.
But the main reason? This man had been marked as an active criminal roughly three-years ago. The same time that Iwagakure had been marching through the nations, arming to destroy their home.
He's still an active Shinobi. Not a Missing-Nin. Just another piece of Iwa filth that's waiting for justice to be enacted upon them. It's his chance to experiment. It's his chance to prove that might is right, and that some things are not forgiven.
Make them fear being alive.
Not being dead.
Suffering will help them understand.
Death means nothing to Shinobi who are willing to die for what they believe in.
She doesn't feel the same thing that Naruto does, the burning desire for vengeance. But regardless, she will still be here for him as he was for her.
"We should probably head home when the sun rises."
Ittanji listens with fading attention to their Chuunin Team-Leader.
They'd been out of the village for a month already. An escort mission, for an upstart businessman that calls himself 'Gato'.
Gato is a pain in the ass but he appeals to what they want. Money, booze, women. What kind of man could go wrong with that?
The mission is really just being bodyguards while the midget goes around collecting debts, enforcing his will on the people that he'd loaned money to and if they fail to return the sums with exorbitant interest, they get things taken. Fingers, toes, their property... their wives and daughters.
Little fatty will contact them if he needs further extortion enactors.
For now, they set up camp in an open and rocky plane, using whatever dead wood they could to get a small fire started just long enough to cook something.
The sun is setting anyway. Best get to bed soon and head back, as their team-leader suggested.
He feels something brush his sandalled foot and looks down.
"FUCK! Fucking Snake!"
Ittanji leaps up, stepping back and away before he realizes that his team is laughing at him.
"Naww, look at lil Ittanji! Scared of a little grass snake! Bwahahaha!"
Their Chuunin leader isn't laughing. He's looking at the snake, inspecting it with shrewd eyes.
Ittanji lowers his guard and looks at the tiny thing, feeling annoyed that it scared the shit out of him. It's barely as long as his foot. It's kinda cute.
There's a suspicious marking between it's eyes. The fuck? Looks like Kanji.
He looks closer, finding thin black markings that seem to denote a word.
Silence.
The tiny snake opens its mouth. A little bell drops out from teeny fangs. The bell only clinks when it touches the firm ground.
It takes him a second to realize that it's a bell from one of the wires they put up to tinkle whenever something enters the boundary of their camp.
Their fire suddenly goes out, pitching them in darkness.
"Get back, you fucking amateur!" The Chuunin roars at him, pulling out a kunai.
But it's too late. The mouth of the snake glows bright, and a massive crimson chain launches out of it and surrounds his three comrades, glowing so ominously that a spike of fear shoots straight through him.
He realizes that there's more than one snake, more chains wiggle around and clatter against themselves, forming a dome-like prison. A semi-transparent shield splatters into life between the chains, as though water droplets had been splashed on paper.
Some kind of trick! An illusion of chains from the underworld!
"I remember these." The Chuunin looks on with dark recognition.
Ittanji reels back when he feels something pierce his thigh.
The little snake from earlier strikes fast, sinking its fangs straight through his pants and through his skin.
He slaps it away, and the little creature can do nothing but disappear in a small puff of smoke.
"A summon?!" Ittanji realises just how fucked he is.
He should release the others quickly by killing the snakes holding up the barrier.
Running towards the snakes, he grabs a kunai from his thigh pouch and slashes away at them, chopping their heads off one by one.
But the chains stay up, still suspended out of the open mouth of dead reptiles.
The sphere decreases in size.
"Do something!" The Chuunin howls.
Ittanji slams his kunai against the not-quite-invisible barrier between the chains. It sails through it, not connecting with the barrier but instead, stabbing straight into the Chuunin's eye.
He's dead before he can chastise even the slightest bit.
The sphere condenses rapidly, turning the three trapped within into a gory mess of blood.
He can hear the popping of their bones. The sound plays on repeat in his head.
Ittanji suddenly finds himself sinking, or rather getting smaller. His body shape changes, becoming something more feminine.
"What the-" Panic overwhelms him.
His environment changes as he blinks but once. He finds himself looking at a wooden door in a quant home. There's rumbling coming from outside, heavy marching footsteps. He opens the door, tired of continuous bashing and knocking.
He finds himself looking at himself.
"Ohoho, well look at you pretty young thing-"
Terror that does not belong to him fills his soul.
For what feels like hours, he is beaten and violated and left stranded next to his(her?) husband, who'd been pinned down and thrashed so brutally that he couldn't walk anymore.
"You're gonna pay for this, every fucking last one of you!" Her husband screams.
Ittanji reels back when he feels something pierce his thigh.
The little snake from earlier strikes fast, sinking its fangs straight through his pants and through his skin.
He slaps it away, and the little creature can do nothing but disappear in a small puff of smoke.
"A summon?!" Ittanji realises just how fucked he is.
"Are you... afraid?"
He blinks, and finds himself on his knees with his forehead touching a cold, stone floor.
"You have brought disgrace to our home. Shame and indignity." A torture specialist tells him. "Death would be too great a kindness for you, traitor."
Hours pass. His fingers broken and nails torn off, his knee caps had exploded long ago, his eyes had been shaven piece by piece as one might peel an apple. His dismemberment is slow and each second he wishes he is dead.
All that remains of him is his head, thrown into a wicker basket and left for eternity in darkness, no tongue left to speak and no lungs to scream, he feels only pain as his head melts over much time into nothing more than an amorphous blob.
He is truly in hell.
Ittanji reels back when he feels something pierce his thigh.
The little snake from earlier strikes fast, sinking its fangs straight through his pants and through his skin.
He slaps it away, and the little creature can do nothing but disappear in a small puff of smoke.
"A summon?!" Ittanji realises just how fucked he is.
Ittanji blinks a few times.
"This is some fucking trick, some sick game! A Genjutsu!"
"The fuck are you talking about?" The Chuunin rolls his eyes, sitting by the campfire still.
"Youyouyou- you are not real! Kai!"
Ittanji tries to release the Genjutsu to no avail.
"Gone off the deep end, huh? Took you long enough." The Chuunin sighs. "We've been kinda hoping for an excuse to get rid of you. You're no good to Iwagakure like this. Don't worry, we'll keep your head, but the rest... well, we're getting-"
"HUNGRY~"
The faces of his comrades change in the light of the fire. Their teeth become long and jagged, eyes white and glassy.
Lunging across the ground like rabid animals and drooling and frothing at the mouth, they strike fast and take tiny chunks at a time from his skin while pinning him helplessly to the ground.
The Chuunin watches from inside the barrier as Ittanji screams again and again, nonstop. His voice becomes hoarse and his throat so dry he coughs blood on screaming more.
"Looks like the prototype was a success."
He's caught off-guard by a young voice. A boy, barely old enough to be a Genin, slinks out of the darkness and stands next to the chain dome, visage lit from its eerie glow.
"Red hair-" The Chuunin breathes in harshly with a pit forming in his stomach.
The boy turns to face him, wearing a wicked smile, and the Chuunin knows his time has come.
Evidently, this boy has been broken by the actions of their village. There is no hope now.
"That Juinjutsu you see there, spreading on his skin? I made that." The Uzumaki announces proudly. "Much harder to break out of than regular Genjutsu. This Juin attacks the Chakra Network. You can break out of a Genjutsu if you're good enough at control, but you can't break out of a Juinjutsu unless you have really strong Chakra. He's gonna be stuck in a Genjutsu until that seal wears off. And you know us, don't you Iwa Shinobi? Our Jutsu are a little... different. He's gonna be stuck in that Hell-Viewing Genjutsu for a while. It won't expire for a long time."
This kid... Fear shoots through him.
"I take it you're gonna do the same to us?" The Chuunin asks, ready to stab a kunai into his own head to not have to experience that.
"Aha, well no." The kid answers sheepishly, and it sets off some kind of primal instinct to wish to die instead of proceeding. "My Sensei... he's a very, very smart man that I admire. And simply put, it's really hard for him to find people that are willing to undergo a few enhancements for the sake of progress. I'd like to convince you that maybe letting yourselves go through some tests might be beneficial for you in the long run. I mean, we could try maybe fusing your bodies together, maybe replace your legs with arms and see if you can walk, or just testing out a few poisons that should theoretically enhance your reaction time... we haven't gotten that one figured out yet, our subjects usually just get their nervous system pruned and they kind sit there like jelly until the die. But I'm sure we can make progress with you!"
"You're fucking with us." The Chuunin accuses.
"No! I think Orochimaru-sensei will be interested in you~!"
The two Genin in the dome instantly slice their own throats on hearing that name.
"It'll be a cold day in hell before I become that sick bastards' test subject."
"Suit yourself. Die then."
The Chuunin examines the boy, holding a kunai to his own throat as he does so.
"You're gonna bite off more than you can chew one of these days, boy."
"You gonna keep talking? Hurry up and die already."
He hesitates again.
"Chuunin." The boy states calmly. "Why do you stop? I don't have much use for just one subject, I need more. When I'm big and strong, maybe all of Iwa can be my test subjects?"
"You're broken, boy."
"I am what you all made me."
Before he can end it on his own, the barrier disappears and the chains tighten so quickly that his body is torn to shreds.
Naruto watches on silently as pieces fall to the ground.
"Got a name kiddo?" The bounty handler asks.
It's pretty rare for someone so young to turn in a bounty. Rare, but it has happened. Younger, even.
"Uzumaki Naruto." The boy answers proudly, a large snake spitting out the paralyzed Shinobi onto a morgue drawer. The kid touches a strange Seal along the man's body, causing it to burn away and vanish.
"Huh, thought your kind were all gone." The Handler states with surprise. "Anyway, you brought him in alive so here's the bonus too. You gonna be doing some more work? I can give you a current Bingo Book."
"I'll take it into consideration."
"Alright, don't spend all that money on sweets, young man."
The kid leaves after sealing away the stack of cash into a small scroll.
The Handler marks down one 'Uzumaki Naruto' as the Bounty Hunter responsible.
Ittanji comes to with blurry eyes.
"Dream?" He slurs.
"I've been waiting for this you fucking Iwa scum."
The husband of the woman he'd... taken, stands before him with a dull-blade in hand.
Ittanji is stuck, hands bound and unable to use hand-signs.
"I'm gonna enjoy this!"
'No, not again! Not AGAIN!'
Konohagakure no Sato, three years after Uzumaki Massacre.
"So, you want the good news or the bad news first?" Jiraiya asks somberly.
"The good news." The Hokage answers promptly.
"The Uzumaki kids are alive." Jiraiya states, to the relief of The Hokage. "They've officially been registered as Bounty Hunters. Orochimaru apparently hasn't killed them or experimented on them with any permanent detrimental effects. It really does seem like he's just training them."
"At least they're alive. Perhaps not safe, but alive. There is hope for the Uzumaki yet."
"That's where the bad news comes in. I'm not sure if they will turn to us for anything going forward. I know how the Uzumaki Massacre came to be."
The Hokage leans in, chin behind clasped fingers.
"Uzushiogakure thought they were coming to help us. I don't know if they were force-fed false intel or not, but one thing is certain. The leader of the Uzumaki Clan believed that the three nations that attacked weren't going for them, but making a move on Konoha. Kushina's status as the Jinchuuriki isn't a secret anymore among the nations, they are under the impression that the Seal broke and the Kyuubi was released, destroying Konoha. They thought that the mobilizing nations were coming to strike us while we were weak when in truth, the only occurrence was Sarutobi-sensei figuring out why all the disappearances were happening and tried to arrest Orochimaru."
"Are you suggesting foul play?"
"I am." Jiraiya confirms resolutely. "The Uzumaki Clan truly believed our destruction was imminent, and they paid the price for false information. This was definitely a deliberate and calculated move. Years of planning in the making to make it appear like there was no other choice. I don't know if Orochimaru has told them anything yet, he could be under the same impression they are. He left on the exact same day that this supposed Kyuubi Attack happened."
"I... see."
The Hokage leans back, tapping his finger on the desk in contemplation.
"You will be going back out?"
"Yeah, I'll kick back for a bit here and gather myself again before I go looking for the kids."
"Thank you, Jiraiya-sensei. Even if those children are difficult, try to convince any Uzumaki you find to take refuge here."
"You got it, kiddo."
As Jiraiya leaps away, Minato remains deep in thought.
"How do I explain this to you, Kushina?"
Chapter 4 End
AN:
Been a while since I've chatted with you guys! Hope you've been well.
If you read Crafting a Legacy, you'll probably have noticed that chapter length isn't quite as long. From my notes in the previous story, you've probably figured already that I have limited time to write, edit and publish.
I wasn't really keen on the idea of doing an Uzumaki-based fanfiction but the challenge presented was something I was eager to tackle, if only to test myself and what I could do with this kind of setting.
As with the last story, updates will be eternally slow. I cannot disregard the happenings of real life to focus on these cute little fanfictions. I am very grateful that people are eager for more chapters. It helps me have a bit more confidence in myself as an author, but understand that at the end of the day, this is still just a hobby to me. Something I enjoy with a bit of spare time, but ultimately my attention is needed elsewhere for more important things. My work and my partner.
Always, I encourage people to enjoy some sunlight, eat well, exercise and never ignore your problems, or else they grow into things that become more difficult to resolve.
In response:
Will Thomas: I appreciate that statement greatly, although I know it isn't true :)
Lilthug: No no, no hair-dying shenanigans will occur.
The Knowledge Priest: A Jinchuuriki Naruto story will come much, much later. This is not that story.
And bye bye! Until next time. Stay safe everyone!