Chapter Thirty-Two - Hozuki Castle
Naruto smiled brightly as he sat in front of Kakashi again, but this time with a guest. The older man looked at him with wide eyes and a frozen rigid posture that almost looked as if he became a statue. His breath shook slightly, though in a subtle and well concealed manner. Naruto doubts he would have even noticed if not for his enhanced hearing.
"Naruto…"
The blonde tilted his head at the uncertain voice from his former sensei and raised his hand to the silent girl next to him that was looking back with sad doe eyes. "Kakashi, meet Rin. I believe you guys knew each other before."
"Naruto-sama," Rin sighed softly without looking at the boy. "Please let me handle this."
"Of course, Rin-chan," Naruto chirruped brightly with a grin.
"Rin-chan," Kakashi swallowed thickly before leaning forward slightly in his chair. "I don't know what to say. I can only assume how you're here, but why? When?"
"It's okay, Kakashi-kun," Rin raised her hands slightly to calm her former teammate. "I'll explain but you have to give me the chance. Okay?"
He nodded his head.
"Naruto-kun used the Uzumaki Resurrection Technique to bring me back to life about fifteen or so days ago. I've been getting used to being alive again and in this new time… even learning of sensei's death," Rin looked sad now and Naruto pointedly ignored the feelings he could sense through her chakra.
A sense of guilt and also heartbreak; the kind you get from a lost love.
She has shown a type of closeness to you due in part to your resemblance to your father.
Naruto rolled his eyes at the old Fox's words but he had noticed it as well after the first few times they'd been present together. A crush on my father that now transfers to me due to our similarities. I don't know if that's weird or flattering.
"He allowed time for me to come here and see you, but until I am able to take care of myself once more, I must reside in his clan's care. To experience death in its fullness and then breathe once more - I doubt any clan but the Uzumaki have extensive experience in treating the psychological issues that come with such a thing. I can stay here under the protection of Ichigo Kurosaki-san when Naruto finds it safe to do so but he believes, and I agree with him, that if I came back and someone from the Fire Capital finds out that the Uzumaki can resurrect anyone they want…"
"It will boil over into another invasion," Kakashi finished with understanding before turning to Naruto. "So why did you bring her back? Why not Minato-sensei or anyone else?"
Naruto hummed softly with a small smile as his eyes drifted out of focus. "I tried to bring back both my mother and father or even my old clan members for wisdom. But for someone to be brought back, they must desire to live again but everyone but my father were satisfied with what I was doing and how the world was."
Naruto remembered the rejection of the technique by his own mother, but after a brief reunion that still brought a pang of sadness he decided to leave her be. She was proud of him and what he was doing, bringing back the clan and forging his own path.
"My father was consumed personally by Shinigami-sama so without summoning the god directly I cannot call forth any souls in his possession." To summon the Shinigami needed an equal exchange per the Third Law and anything less than sacrificing one soul to summon the god then another soul to resurrect the one he wanted would be denied and his life would be claimed instead.
"And what made you bring back Rin-chan?"
"Because you needed closure; you're still so devastated about losing her and Obito twenty years ago that you're not at the strength you should be to lead the village." Naruto sighed at the astonished look on his former sensei's face. "Okay, let me elaborate. You have one of the the Three Sacred Eyes, while just one eye it is still a perfectly working Kekkei Genkai and you hide it all the time. You say it's because it drains your chakra but that's not true, is it, sensei?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean."
Kakashi stared at his student for a long moment, searching the blonde's eyes for an answer and what he found was the stubbornness of Kushina and the determination of Minato. A scary and very telling combination that made the older man sigh and lift up the headband he wore under the hat. His eyelid opened to reveal the three-tomoe Sharingan of his lost teammate and comrade.
"The Sharingan does not draw upon chakra unless activated. Even if you are not an Uchiha it stays active because that's how it was left when Obito died. You do not lose chakra in the base stage, but to use any special abilities requires a fraction more chakra to power because your body did not accept the eye as your own. Is that still true after twenty years?"
"No," Kakashi said softly without looking up at his former student and teammate.
"The eye is accepted by your body to the point that it is almost as if you are an Uchiha with only one eye. Yet you continue on as though this was not the case, not truly accepting that that is now your eye and in doing so you weaken yourself out of misplaced guilt. Our mission to Wave would have been different if you accepted your Sharingan and used it from the beginning. You would already be on father's level if you actively trained with it from Obito's death."
"You've been regarded as a prodigy from a young age. You made Jonin in the same timeframe as my father, you created your own technique based on the theories developed by him in the creation of the Rasengan, and you survived the Third Shinobi War despite often being sent to the frontline by those who wished to see my father fail. You have had the most potential of your generation to rise above where others fell but you hinder yourself out of guilt and maybe even fear linked to trauma. However, you are the closest to being a true Hokage this village has…after I left, of course."
Kakashi scoffed at the blonde's joke at the end though a small smile remained on his face as he looked to Rin to see how she was reacting to all of this. What he found was her smiling softly while looking at Naruto with very kind and wondrous eyes. He chuckled as those had been the eyes she looked at Obito with whenever the two of them got into it.
"Also, there is one thing you should know," Naruto said suddenly, his voice low and even with a seriousness that surprised Kakashi and Rin from the lighthearted tone he had before. "I tried to bring back Obito as well, if only to have two people to advise you eventually or some kind of reason for you to get better."
Naruto paused now as he said this, his mouth open and his eyes looked away with a level of uncertainty seen rarely on the blonde's face.
"What is it, Naruto-kun?"
Naruto grimaced as this was something he had not told Rin about since he wanted her to focus on acclimation rather than anything else but now he had to tell the two of them something that will likely have them denying or worrying over it. Especially since he knows the story from official reports and statements given on the death of Obito.
He sighed and folded his hands to fidget with. "I had tried to summon Obito, the specifics of the delicate process is not to be known by outsiders. What I can share is that it isn't so much summoning as more of a petition and that you get one of only a handful of possible responses. They are dead and want to be revived, in which case you are able to complete the technique and bring them back. They are dead and do not want to be revived, so you either let them be or in very special circumstances you can use a conduit to forcefully bring them back - of course this practice is highly restricted and used in the advanced training of special individuals. Or lastly, they are not dead and you are met with a voided dismissal. Obito was the last."
Naruto did not have to wait long for the response.
"WHAT?!"
Naruto winced at the shout from both Kakashi and Rin and he had to raise his hands. "Please calm down, I do not have any answers on why or how this result came about but I do know that the process' answer to your petition cannot be untruthful by its very nature, as a variant of this part of the technique is sometimes used to compel answers from the dead. My clan has used this resurrection method for many generations for many different types of people and individuals of varying powers, and even those who are not and never have been human, are not immune to its effects. Somehow, some way Obito still walks this world."
"B-but how?"
Naruto shrugged his shoulders at Rin's question. "I honestly have no idea and a million different theories, the most likely being amnesia, he is being held somewhere against his will or that for whatever reason he simply does not want to return. Whatever the reason, he's out there somewhere."
Outside the South Gate
"How'd it go?"
Naruto looked to see Tayuya and Karin waiting for him outside the village on one of the benches that served as respite for travellers who were waiting for their identification papers to be verified. Since the process usually took up to an hour or so, more on a busier day, the much needed sitting areas were installed during the Fourth Hokage's tenure. "It went as well as it could when you tell someone that a friend they thought died is still alive somewhere."
"It's their choice if they wish to go searching for the Uchiha," Tayuya told the blonde with her arms crossed. "Let's make our way to Hozuki Castle already, I want to see what kind of depraved facility could house the most dangerous people the shinobi world has to offer."
Naruto chuckled and shook his head at the girl's excitement, knowing that her dormant warrior spirit, one that lay within all those of Uzumaki blood, was awakening at the prospect of so many powerful enemies in one spot. "Well, it's a good thing I had one of the Flowers go and secure a destination anchor close to the castle. It would have been a pain to head there on foot."
The Flowers was the name given to the surviving Root operatives and staff that decided to work under the Uzumaki clan. Their new name, while giving homage to the original tree theming of Konoha, denoted them growing beyond the "trunk" that they once supported into something as beautiful and deadly as the poisonous flowers that grow along the beaches of Uzushio - a blossom infamous as it contained some of the deadliest poison in the world - an analogy made all the more impactful as the flower only opens for a few hour at every new dawn. The new head of the organisation was a former research specialist within a subdivision of the Third Division, Mayuri Kurotsuchi, and his daughter-slash-assistant, Nemu Kurotsuchi.
"At least they're gaining a fucking personality now," Tayuya scoffed as she had a growing hatred for one member in particular. And it all started because he called her as flat as a surfboard.
"Stop hating on your comrades, Tayuya-chan," Karin admonished the girl lightly but she had a small frown on her face as well. The same agent had called her a blind four-eyed bat, for reasons Naruto does not know and is too afraid to ask.
"Okay, you two, let's focus on our mission." Naruto cracked a smile at the two girls and slid his right foot back and forth, summoning a space-time seal array.
With a brief flash, their vision was momentarily blinded before their vision cleared quickly to reveal their arrival on a worn out path through a forest. A Flower operative, wearing the white rose mask associated with the Krakenhold flowers, stood to the side stiffly as if waiting for their next instructions.
"Wait, you sent this bastard here?"
Naruto chuckled lightly as Tayuya threw her hands up to indicate the young Flower operative. "Sai is a good kid and I would appreciate it if you didn't try to instigate him."
"Listen to Prince-sama, surfboard-san," the boy said softly and with a telling smirk on his face.
"Sai, don't think you are free from punishment if you become the instigator," Naruto firmly warned the boy with a small glance.
"Of course, I apologise, Prince-sama," Sai bowed to the blonde as he gave his apology.
"Good, now go back to serving as Rin-chan's shadow until I return."
The boy didn't need another word before disappearing in a flurry of leaves that signalled his otherwise silent departure.
Naruto turned to look at the castle and his eyes caught the sight of a few individuals at the main gate. They were likely mobilising for their arrival as their teleportation likely alerted someone so long as they were competent enough to be watching for that. With a sigh, Naruto waved his hand to the two girls to follow him. "Come on, let's get this evaluation started."
Their pace was calm and slow, deciding that their arrival should be set with the intention that they will go at their speed and will not rush for anyone else. That was Naruto's main intention but it was also to gather his strength for what will be learned while at the castle. Karin was slow because of her personal knowledge of this horrible place. The place of her birth and home for six years.
"Who are you and what is your intention?"
Naruto looked above the gate wall to see a beautifully young woman with dark brunette hair and brown eyes addressing them. She wore a dark blue military uniform and white pants with black high-heeled boots. A belt rested on her hips over the uniform jacket that held her curved sword.
"My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I have been sent as the representative of the major Hidden Villages. I require entry and the arrival of Warden Lord Mui." Naruto told the woman calmly and professionally, his eyes never leaving hers.
"Is that so?" She hummed before turning to the gate guard. "Open it."
"Yes, Lady Makina."
Naruto filed the name away for later, assuming this one being high up in the hierarchy of the prison facility. The wooden gate creaked open to allow enough room for the three of them to make their entry and when they did they were met with an open courtyard, an unknown symbol in Naruto's eyes being drawn onto the ground. It was not a seal that his clan knew of and because they knew just about any seal made within the last few thousand years he had to assume it was not a seal. But the significance of having it drawn into the prison courtyard did not escape him and he made a reminder to send a clone back to the Uzumaki Library to research known symbols and their meanings.
"Lord Mui will be here in a moment, he is finishing a meeting with financial backers and needs to prepare for the next batch of prisoner arrivals." Makina told his with an analysing gaze that seemed to take in his appearance with rapid procession. "May I see identification papers for you and your companions so I may confirm who you are?"
Naruto nodded his head and reached into his back pouch and pulled out the identification card from Konoha and Uzushio. "I have both my old identification and my current, which I deem will be enough to verify who I am."
Makina took his identification and those of his companions, looking over his two with a cursory glance - her gaze settling upon his Uzushio ID that held his title and royal seal - and while giving Tayuya's Uzushio identification a cursory glance for the same royal seal she had stopped upon seeing the last girl's. She looked over the ID back and front before looking up at the glasses-wearing girl and stood close to Tayuya's side with an apprehensive gaze around the facility.
"Excuse me, Prince Uzumaki, but I believe there is now an issue with your group's arrival."
Naruto now raised an eyebrow as he looked at the woman, his eyes taking in the various guards around them now standing in a more active posture that denotes their preparation for a fight. "How so, Makina-san?"
"The identification of one of your escorts, Karin Uzumaki," Makina stated and held up the girl's identification. "She is a citizen of Kusagakure. I believe that taking the citizens of a neutral nation is against the Kage Summit, punishable by imprisonment."
Naruto now understood what the woman was saying and nodded his head. "That is true, but it is also that she is an Uzumaki first and the very same Kage Summit gave clans power to call on any branch family to come back to the main. Once upon a time when the Uzumaki Clan was still crippled we may have been 'encouraged' to forgo our right to call on our families that were elsewhere by certain parties but now that I have taken the headship and my clan has reclaimed their lost power Uzushio is once again a prospering and formidable nation, and thus these suggestions have become ones I have elected to ignore when I brought Karin back into the Uzumaki Clan."
"We have her stated as KIA in official records," Makina continued professionally. "Now that we find her alive, the issue will need to be resolved as she holds the secrets of Kusagakure."
"She was a newly-minted Genin when I met her, used as a healing meal by her teammates in the Chunin Exams," Naruto stated slowly and very angrily. "Do you know that if I find the mistreatment of a clan member plausible enough, I can seek reparations and punishment to the Hidden Village that allowed such conditions to persist - especially on a clan as noble and rich as the Uzumaki - who count as both a Village Founding Clan and a Ruling Daimyo Clan by the definitions outline in the Kage Summit? Add to the fact that her parents had been unjustly imprisoned in this prison, forced to perform duties that ultimately lead to their death while this prison used them as some type of batteries and that as a consequence of both these charges Karin was therefore birthed in unsafe conditions and I can easily make the case that this shady prison is both guilty of lineage theft, enslavement of a sovereign founding clan and summary execution of a Ruling Daimyo Clan without due cause, any of which is punishable by eradication?"
Naruto paused at the last word and smirked at the woman. "I say eradicate but that may be too harsh. Indebted servitude is more of what the Kage Summit states but you know what they say about unknown and unprovable deaths… they're inconsequential."
The courtyard is quiet as Naruto stared down the calm Assistant Warden, Tayuya already prepared to protect Karin as the bespectacled girl clung to the older girl with fear in her eyes when she clued on to the prospect of being demanded to return to Kusagakure - or worse, the Blood Prison. It was tense as orange chakra began wafting off of Naruto, causing an intense dread to fill the area as if an otherworldly demon had taken it's true form yet they were unable to witness the implications. His eyes darkened to a bottomless black abyss that spelled eternal damnation to those who opposed him, the guards that looked directly into his eyes feeling something unspeakable constricting their breathing into ragged huffs.
Makina was not immune to the effect, finding her hand gripping her weapon intensely in obvious fear of Naruto attacking her or her guards. She knew that neither she nor them could fight this man, and if anything happened to his companions she knew that it would spell the destruction of the prison. Is this what those major villages were hoping for with sending the Butcher to them?
"There is no need to be so hostile to each other," a new voice spoke and everyone turned to see an older man arriving.
"Lord Mui," Makina now bowed upon noticing the man.
"Uzumaki-dono, it is a privilege to meet you finally. I have heard alot about you and had hoped to make your acquaintance at some point." Mui looked at the blonde with blank emotionless eyes. "Please accept my apologies for Makina-san, she takes her job very seriously and only wishes for the safety of the nation and the prison."
Naruto stared at the man for a few short moments before releasing the chakra mist that he had developed around himself. He gave a brief bow to the man. "No need for apologies, I understand the need to be protective of what one holds dear, I certainly will not be giving one for doing the same. Are you ready for the inspection?"
"We are always as ready as any efficient prison facility should be," Mui answered with a stiff nod. "After you see the intake of new prisoners and a tour of the facility, I will have you and your companions shown to your rooms for your stay here."
"Only one room will be needed, so long as the bed is large enough," Naruto answered with a teasing and disarming smirk.
Mui hesitated on how to answer such a response but settled on nodding his head. "As you wish."
Naruto nodded his head before continuing. "I will be conducting the inspection in my own way rather than via any of the standard formats for the time I am here - I feel too much standardisation in inspection procedure and methods leads to the dishonest coming up with specific countermeasures to protect themselves. I will be looking at each and every procedure done here by your staff, I will note every encounter between guards and prisoners, and I will also be interviewing people here at random. That includes staff, guards, financial backers, and prisoners. In order to do so I will require full access to said personnel and I expect there will be no pushback on this or I will assume someone is hiding something and that will go within the report to the five major villages. Do you have any comments or concerns about what I have said so far?"
Mui shook his head but Naruto could see the knot in the man's jaw from clenching hard.
"Good. I will also be inspecting all facilities of the prison both with or without an escort depending on the needs and specifics of what I am looking for at the time. This will include but may not be limited to the medical wing, the guard barracks, the staff barracks, and the prisoner blocks. I will also be looking into your personal offices and rooms as well, Warden Lord Mui and Assistant Warden Makina. That will be done at random times and will be done at any point of day and night. I will also require all paperwork done by every single staff and guard in this facility, this will also include any paperwork done by either of you or your backers. If I notice anything out of the ordinary or not making sense, there will be consequences."
"I do not think you have the power to go to this extent," Makina said at this time, gaining a bit of courage to speak up now that Mui was there.
"Who's going to stop me, Makina-san?" Naruto now gave a shark smile that filled everyone with dread and even Mui had gone much paler at the question. "The villages are not satisfied with the death reports nor of the official communiqué's they have received from this prison facility. You operate at the mercy of the major Hidden Villages of the world, being given the most dangerous and unsafe individuals they have to offer for only as long as they have confidence in your ability to hold them to the standards they expect, and when things start going wrong they will start questioning your efficiency and motivations. You are lucky that when it was found that Kusagakure was buying individuals from the prison, an act of slavery that is internationally recognised as illegal, and then releasing them without permission into the world at large as part of a newly organised Penal Legion, that this place and your host nation were not destroyed by myself in retaliation as opposed to a mere inspection."
Naruto took a moment to let his words sink in and his eyes now held a red sheen to them as he looked at each of the guards that were frozen in their spots. "I can destroy all of you with only an exhale if I wished. I know your ability to restrict chakra, Mui-san, but I do not require my chakra. I didn't use a drop of my vast reserves when I subjugated Yukigakure, I won't need to here either. So pray to the Heavens and the Sage that I will leave here satisfied but be warned… I am also listening."
We are now in the Blood Prison! Also, Makina is not a spelling error as I had almost been saying Makima. While Makima is from the Chainsaw Man anime, Makina is from Deadman Wonderland and is the Warden of the prison. With that, you can already tell I will be tying that anime in as well and you will see how.
Also, the story of Naruto is actually about halfway done. I do not plan to stop after that and my beta and I are already planning future settings for this story.
Anyways, thank you for enjoying and I'll see you next chapter :D
PraetorXyn: They are not a Shin Megami Tensei reference but instead are adding different occult and religious beings. Samyaza, Beelzebub, Samael, Agrat Bat Mahlat and Lilith being from Abrahamic religions; Yaldabaoth being from Lovecraftian fiction. The Masks are an actual thing for the Uzumaki clan (a process of sealing and binding powerful demonic/angelic beings into masks for them to be used in battles) but the 10 (actually 9) were promised to Konoha to train them in a special unit of soldiers.
WindCitySlayer1: Yes, yes, as you can see it is on the table xD
Fredward1: Considering the culture differences, it would be weird if Naruto met Ciri and did not use an honourific. It will likely not happen again.
Evil-Sage: The adding crossover characters to this extent was not intended but it is fitting well and I can thank my beta DualEquinox for helping me. Thank you for enjoying the story :D
MarquisShax: Your string of reviews were a rollercoaster and I dont mean that in a good way. First, with crossover characters I'm not adding every character I see. Second, you and a few people have this weird problem with genderbent characters. Whether I choose to add male, female, anything in between, is up to me and my beta since they are as invested in this fanfic as I am. Third, your comment on Erza was answered in later chapters. Fourth, the location of filler episodes and movies have NOT been confirmed to be anywhere on the map as the "official map" does not show their locations. The map you can find on the naruto wiki about Land of Demons would show it near the Land of Swamps and the Land of Lightning but the official map shows their location to be in the water. So I am using a different map. The only country you mentioned that is not on a different continent is Fang. Fourth, your last comment on chapter 13 is the only comment not insulting my story. That is not a plus. In future comments, if you continue to do so, refrain from being so aggressive. Thanks ;D
Mr. Nobody: As I said with MarquisShax, do not try to insult me with some flimsy word as gay. This is my story, whether I have Naruto with a boy, girl, futa, or whatever have you is my choice. Kurama has been stated as male plenty of times, same as Gaara and the Ichibi. So try again :D
WhateverPlus, OBX reader: Thank you for enjoying the story :)