CHAPTER NINE
The Calm Before The Storm
XXX
Naruto's eyes crept open to the sound of someone yelling. Was someone in danger? Was the fighting still going on? His senses slowly returned to him. The air was cold and crisp. He was in a bed. Wrapped like a burrito in warm blankets with a damp cloth on his forehead. He stared at his hand to see Hinata sleeping at the side of his bed. His eyes slowly moved across the room to see Han slumped over on a stool in the corner, still in full combat gear with his furnace and everything.
Naruto sat up. The warm cloth fell from his forehead as he rose. He was in a tiny room with a wooden end table sandwiched between two beds. There was a TV mounted on the wall opposite him, with the remote laid on the table beneath it. To his right was a slightly open door. To his left, a sliding glass door that led out to the balcony. Where were they? The yelling was coming from outside, but it wasn't a yell of distress or danger… it was the yell of someone advertising their shrimp business. He tried to get up, but a wave of pain surged through his body emanating from the right side of his chest. His flinching awoke Hinata.
"You're okay," she whispered before wrapping her arms around the Uzumaki. Naruto winced in pain. Hinata jumped back, "I'm so sorry… I'm just happy to see… that you're okay," she apologised.
Naruto was wearing a loose-fitting robe over his naked body. He looked down his robe to see what was upsetting his chest so much. He was covered in bandages. The memories returned to him. "Orochimaru…" was the first thing he whispered. "The Nine-Tailed Fox…" came next. "Where are we? What happened to you?" he turned his attention to the Hinata who was sitting, on a stool, shirtless with bandages around her chest and seals pumping chakra into her body.
She grinned, "Don't worry about me. Don't worry about anything. We're in a hotel in the Village Hidden in the Hot Water, also known as, the village that has forgotten wars. It sits between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning, but it has a pacifism pact with all five great shinobi nations meaning no shinobi is allowed to enter the country for business reasons. They can only enter for leisure or to pass through," she explained. "For once, we can rest assured knowing there's no one coming after us."
"How long are we planning on staying here then?" Naruto wondered.
"Han and Gaara were thinking that over all night. On one hand, if we take too long to get to the Hidden Cloud, we give them all the time in the world to set up their trap. On the other hand, considering how we almost got killed by Iron samurai, then by Orochimaru's bodyguards, if we enter the village with no time to plan or prepare, we'll be outmatched and outnumbered."
"All night? Is that why he's so exhausted?"
"No, Han has been in your room since we got here. He said he wasn't leaving or going to sleep until he was sure you were safe and awake… I guess he failed," Hinata giggled.
"What about you?" Naruto asked between chuckles.
"My room's about two doors down. I figured since I was all healed up, I should come to check up on you, but I fell asleep too-."
"Hey, you're not stuttering anymore," Naruto realised. He brushed her bangs aside to view her face in its entirety. "No stutter. No blushing. No fainting. You're getting more confident by the day."
Naruto bringing it up did nothing but remind Hinata of her proximity to her crush. His hand. It was on her face. Her face went red as a tomato. She fell over her stool as she passed out. Han's eyes cracked open. He awoke to Naruto scratching the back of his head and Hinata on the floor. He burst out laughing knowing more or less what had happened while he was asleep.
Fuu entered the room through the door to Naruto's right. Gaara was right behind her. "You're awake!" she yelled. The mint-haired jinchuuriki was covered in bandages and chakra seals too, but the biggest change Naruto noticed was the change to her wardrobe. She kept her short white apron skirt – with the addition of a pair of black shorts – but swapped her midriff shirt for a sleeveless orange top that matched her eyes and hairpin. She threw on a pair of mesh armour elbow pads to top it all off. "Just so you know, I was the one who rescued you from Orochimaru's clutches," she bragged.
"Mhm, I'm sure it was your presence that scared him off, not the thirty-metre-tall horse-whale standing over him," Han laughed.
"Whatever, I was the one who physically plucked him out of the water and brought him back to shore, so I should at least take half of the credit."
"Of course, we all get a share of the credit. Gaara for taking down those psychopathic twins. Hinata for taking down the spider guy. And you for keeping the potty-mouth redhead busy… then rescuing Naruto from Orochimaru's greedy hands," Han said.
"And then there's me, who charges into battle without thinking and almost gets himself and his teammates killed," Naruto's hands tightened into fists.
Han patted the top of his head to cheer him up, "Don't stress. Orochimaru is a manipulative and calculated son of a bitch. He knew that using Sasuke against you would force your emotions to take over. All that matters is that you're alive to fight another day and I promise when the time comes, we'll defeat Orochimaru and bring Sasuke back to you."
"Heh. Yeah… Sasuke… I guess I have the Nine-Tailed Fox to thank for surviving that," in the back of his head, Naruto knew the Nine-Tailed Fox was the reason he was so easy to emotionally manipulate in the first place. The fox had the ability to detect and amplify negative emotions, meaning any slither of anger Naruto felt would be increased tenfold, so the fox had served as both a blessing and a curse in this situation.
Fuu clasped her hands together, loud enough to stun everyone into silence and wake Hinata up. "Never mind all that! We're in the Land of Hot Water. Why are we sitting around moping when we could be out there relaxing in one of the many hot springs?" the jinchuuriki wondered. She made a fair point.
"Good idea," Han stood up to tower over the teenagers, "After everyone gets dressed in proper clothing, we can head into the city and find a private bath or something. We'll need it to relax our muscles after all the fighting we've been doing," he said massaging his shoulder.
"Speaking of proper clothing… what happened to my jumpsuit?" Naruto asked looking down at his new robes.
"You mean the jumpsuit you've been wearing for the past month, that'd been sliced up and torn apart by samurai swords and balls of lightning?" Fuu asked.
"Yeah, what happened to it?"
Fuu shrugged, "I have no idea. We'll just have to get you a new one, I guess."
XXX
Naruto strutted past the onsen receptionist with a foxy grin on his face. After months of wearing a drab grey Waterfall jumpsuit, he was finally wearing something with a spot of orange on it. He'd picked out a sleeveless orange hoodie, worn over a blue long-sleeve shirt and black pants.
"I don't think I've ever met a shinobi who willing wore a bright orange hoodie," Han said.
Naruto pressed his thumb against his chest, "Well, that's because you've never met a shinobi like me, dattebayo."
"You say that like it's a bad thing," Fuu replied.
"I think it looks nice on him," Hinata remarked.
"Of course you're going to say something nice about it, you paid for it," Han turned to the lady behind the desk and asked to book a private bath for himself and his team. The old lady handed him a key and directed them to an open-air bath large enough to accommodate all five shinobi.
"Did anyone else notice all the staring?" Gaara asked as soon as his body slid into the steaming-hot water.
Han, who was already shoulders-deep in the water with his back pressed against the bath's rocky exterior, nodded slightly before sighing and staring at the clouds gliding overhead, "Looks like the word got out of our little journey across the shinobi world," he said, "I knew it was bound to happen someday… I was just hoping it'd happen after we reached the Hidden Cloud."
"Why's that?" Fuu wondered.
"High-ranking shinobi knowing about our situation is bad enough. The worst that could happen is a highly planned-out ambush conducted by a few shinobi or samurai, as we saw in the Land of Iron…" Han began.
"Can it get worse?" Fuu interrupted.
"In terms of physical challenges, not really, but the Kage and high-ranking shinobi are easy to read. They'll choose locations which give them the greatest advantage… cliffs, mountain passes, small villages they can empty out beforehand, long stretches of beachfront… they won't attack in dense forest, they won't attack in places where innocent civilians could get hurt, they won't attack in places where we have the high ground. Since we're shinobi ourselves, we know how they'll think so we know what situations to avoid. When even the common citizen knows who we are and what we're doing, then we don't know who's willing to do what for what. We could be in a tiny fishing village and run into a group of bandits who are willing to cause as many casualties as they can to defeat us… then they'll probably sell us back to our villages or hold us for ransom or something. In cases like that, 'filling the battlefield with as much tailed beast energy as possible' becomes a moral challenge of who are we willing to kill to obtain freedom."
"Bandits? Why on earth would we be worried about bandits?" Naruto whined.
"Are you telling me the only thing you took from my whole speech was that we could be attacked by bandits?" Han asked.
Naruto sank into the water before replying, "Maybe."
The six-foot-tall jinchuuriki tilted his head back onto the rocks and groaned. "Never mind all that. We're in the Land of Hot Water. We have nothing to worry about, at least not for the next week or so. So, ignore the stares, ignore the whispers, and just… rest."
"Are we allowed to worry about the ambush you said was waiting for us in the Hidden Cloud?" Fuu asked.
"Now why would you want to worry about such a thing," Han moaned. He lifted his head slightly to side-eye the mint-haired jinchuuriki. "If we can escape the Hidden Cloud with the Two-Tails and Eight-Tails, we should be home free. We should be able to keep going east until we hit the Land of Water. I doubt there will be any resistance in the Hidden Mist Village, so once we get the Six-Tails and Three-Tails, hopefully, all will be well."
Naruto's eyes widened as he rose out of the water and pointed at Hinata, who was sitting on the edge of the hot spring, whole body covered in white towels, with her feet in the water. "The Hidden Cloud Village! They were the guys in white who tried to kidnap you!" he realised.
Gaara glared at the Uzumaki, "You're only noticing that now?"
"Oi, leave me alone. I didn't even know other ninja villages existed until I was in the academy," Naruto said before returning to Hinata and getting confirmation in the form of a nod. "In that case, hopefully, we'll run into those chumps again, so I can pound them into the dirt for trying to hurt you."
"No, no… it's okay. You'll only make things worse," Hinata replied.
"Make things worse… what do you mean?"
"The Hyuuga clan and the Hidden Cloud Village… that's a rivalry you're probably too young to even know about. I mean, I haven't even heard about it in years," Han chuckled. Naruto still had that confused look on his face, so Hinata sat up to educate the blonde.
"Ten years ago, on the day of my third birthday, the Hidden Leaf and the Hidden Cloud, who had been at war for years, decided to meet in Konoha to sign a peace treaty. But Kumo used the treaty as a smokescreen to abduct me one night while I was asleep, in an attempt to acquire the Byakugan. My father, Hiashi, managed to save me that night by killing the shinobi who tried to abduct me… but Kumo somehow managed to spin the story around and accuse the Leaf of breaking the peace treaty, and demanded my father's head as compensation. Obviously, it was a ruse to try and get his Byakugan, but Konoha had no choice but to oblige. Luckily, Hizashi, my uncle and Neji's father, was an identical twin to my father. He was able to go in my father's place and with the Caged Bird Seal on his forehead, his Byakugan could be sealed away forever before Kumo shinobi could get a hold of it. Although officially the affair is over, numerous attempts have been made by Kumo shinobi to break into Konoha and steal either me or my sister and if we purposely kill Kumo shinobi without them attacking us first, it could put my father or, worse, my sister in danger."
Naruto slapped the water with his open palm, splashing both Gaara and Fuu with steaming-hot droplets. They protested as Naruto barked, "So, you're telling me Kumo tried to have both you and your sister killed multiple times and Konoha did nothing about it? And after all that, you still don't want me to destroy every Kumo shinobi who crosses our path?"
Hinata couldn't respond. Seeing Naruto so fired up to vanquish her foes left her too flustered to even speak. Fortunately, Han was there to speak on her behalf, "As much as every ninja village brags about how powerful they are, no one wants to be the one to start a war… especially one they might lose," he explained. "Kumo is a powerful village, and Konoha today is the weakest version of Konoha there has ever been. At the moment, it has no jinchuuriki; unless Lady Tsunade returns to become Hokage, it has no Senju; it only has one or two trained Sarutobi; no Uchiha; a broken Hyuuga clan without an heiress; it's just been hit by two consecutive invasions. It's in no shape to go up against the second strongest ninja village in the world, especially considering how easily Kumo could turn the other three shinobi villages against it."
"Blah, blah, blah, what does all that have to do with me punching the stuffing out of the dudes in white?" Naruto asked.
"Every action has consequences you might not foresee. Every figure has ulterior motives you might not know. When your decisions can cost people their lives, you should probably consider it a bit more before going 'blah, blah, blah'. This is the type of shinobi politics you'll need to worry about when you're in charge of the jinchuuriki paradise, Naruto."
"When I'm in charge of the jinchuuriki paradise, I'll be a strong and powerful shinobi that everyone around the world acknowledges and respects. The only shinobi politics I need to care about are these…" he said raising his fists.
"A sharp tongue can kill just as many people as a sharp sword," Gaara stepped in, "One doesn't become acknowledged and respected by many because they are a leader. Instead, you should aim to become a leader because you have been acknowledged and are respected."
Naruto rolled his eyes before lying back and sinking deeper into the water until only his spiky blonde hair was sticking out. He was exhausted. And not the type of exhaustion that could be cured by a long rest. He needed peace. He had so much on his plate at the moment. He needed to find this jinchuuriki paradise he'd spoken so romantically about. He'd just gotten out of a fight with hundreds of samurai. A fight that was swiftly followed by a battle with his best friend, Sasuke. Oh yeah, Sasuke. How was he going to save Sasuke from the darkness? Was he allowed to save Sasuke from the darkness? Unfortunately, Naruto didn't have much of a choice in that matter. There were only two paths that lay ahead of him. Either he loses his jinchuuriki abilities and pulls Sasuke out of the darkness, or he becomes a perfect jinchuuriki by killing his best friend.
He lifted his head slightly until his nose was just above the water's surface again. He hated this existence. Why couldn't he have been born to normal, living parents? Naruto wanted friends he didn't have to kill, a family he didn't have to create… Naruto wanted to be normal. Naruto wanted to sleep in his bed in Konoha. If only he was a bystander, a citizen of Konoha who had to hear about the adventures of the jinchuuriki in their quest for freedom instead of an active participant.
Well, there was no use crying over spilt milk. What's done was done. The die had been cast. This was his life.
"Do any of you know what we can expect from the remaining jinchuuriki?" Hinata wondered.
Han racked his brain for information before admitting, "The only remaining jinchuuriki I personally know is Yugito Nii of the Two-Tails, but that's mainly because she's a fierce warrior and I'd argue the most skilled jinchuuriki alive. All I know about the Eight-Tails is that he's closely related to the Raikage. The Kirigakure jinchuuriki are pretty much a mystery."
"I heard the Six-Tails abandoned his village years ago," Fuu added, "I read in a textbook that the Three-Tails was released into the waters surrounding the Hidden Mist to act as some kind of water guardian."
"That water guardian theory might not be too far off. Wherever the Three-Tails goes, bad luck seems to follow… but if we can get it to agree to join us, perhaps we can seal it away before the Hidden Mist even gets the chance to act," Han thought aloud.
"Seal it away?" Fuu cocked an eyebrow, "In who?" Naruto, Gaara, and her already had their demons to fight and none of them was having children anytime soon who could inherit the title of 'Three-Tails jinchuuriki', so finding someone dumb enough to take on such a burden would be a mission on its own.
"I know someone who might be able to bear the burden of being a jinchuuriki," Han's eyes locked onto Hinata. Fuu's eyes followed suit.
Fuu exploded out of the water to wrap her arms around the Hyuuga heiress in a protective hug, "There's no way you're putting that thing in our Hinata."
"Huh?" Hinata's eyes lit up. She'd stopped paying attention after Naruto's fiery outburst.
"How else are we supposed to move a hundred-metre-tall turtle, Fuu? You want us to put it on a leash, throw some fake fur on it, and give it a pair of cat ears, and hope people believe us when we say it's just an overgrown cat?"
"No! There has to be another way! You, of all people, should know how terrible it is to be a jinchuuriki. It was bad enough for us and we've had the little shits since we were babies… I can't even imagine how hard it would be to cope with having an entirely new, separate entity within you when you lived the first thirteen years of your life as a normal human being, ssu!" Fuu turned to Gaara, "Help me convince this psychopath not to put that demon inside Hinata."
After a moment of thought, Gaara folded his arms and said, "We're in the Village Hidden in the Hot Water… I say we stop arguing about ifs and buts and focus on relaxing both our minds and our bodies. For all we know, your textbook could be outdated, and the Three-Tails could have a living, breathing jinchuuriki already, who's sitting somewhere in Kiri waiting for us to liberate them."
Han rested his head on the hot spring's rocky exterior again before replying, "Fine. But we can only kick the can so far down the road before we have to pick it up and examine its contents."
"Now then… Uzumaki, would you like to share what's getting you down with the team, or should I?" Gaara asked.
Naruto had disassociated himself from the entire conversation by floating over to the edge of the hot spring and keeping his head barely above water, so he didn't have to hear what the team was talking about. Gaara mentioning him directly finally brought him back from whatever plane he was existing on. He took a moment to process Gaara's question before raising his right eyebrow and wondering how Gaara even knew something was getting him down in the first place. When did Gaara discover emotions?
Gaara informed him that Hinata had been teaching him how to be more social before repeating, "Now, would you like to tell everyone what's getting you down, or should I?"
"Go ahead."
"Sasuke Uchiha… I'm sure the conversation you had a few minutes ago with Han reminded you of the fact that you couldn't brute force your way into saving him from Orochimaru. He was one of the people you deemed most precious to you, so seeing him fall so deep into the darkness must really hurt you here," he said pressing his hand against his heart. "The fact that Sasuke is in danger means that a new objective has been brought to the table. Save Sasuke from the darkness."
Gaara hit the nail on the head, "You only got one thing wrong…" Naruto corrected him. "I can't save Sasuke anymore… according to the Nine-Tailed Fox. If I ever want to use his power again in the future and become a perfect jinchuuriki, there's only one way this can end. I have to kill Sasuke."
The onsen descended into silence as Naruto's words sank in. Fuu slid into the water. She was the first person to verify what she'd just heard. "Can you repeat that?"
"The Nine-Tailed Fox… he said freedom comes at a cost, and the price that I have to pay is hatred towards everyone that wronged me… everyone except the people around me. When I asked him how I can show that I 'hate' the people who wronged me, the people of Konoha, he said I can start by killing Sasuke."
"Then it's exactly as I feared. You've reached the point where I was before I met Roshi… that fox. He's crafty. He knew Roshi would be able to train you into making a compromise with him as he did with Shukaku and me, so he waited until the first night after we left Roshi's hut to back you into a corner and force you to accept his conditions," Gaara massaged his temples. "We don't know where Roshi is, and we can't turn back now and risk running into another trap… even I don't know what to do."
"I do," Han stood up to tower over the Uzumaki. Fuu and Hinata looked away with red hues forming across their faces. "The next time we see Sasuke Uchiha, you're killing him. In the meantime, train your body, practice your tailed beast abilities, and master the technique Roshi gave you. No matter what, the next time Sasuke and you cross paths, he has to leave in a body bag. Do you hear me, Naruto? We need the Nine-Tailed Fox, so you do whatever he says… whenever he says it."
Naruto could feel the tears lumping in his throat, "I know," he whispered.
XXX
A few hours later, the sun setting on the Land of Hot Water meant the team had to make their way back to their hotel. The Hot Water Village's cobblestone streets had begun to empty as the sun disappeared over the mountains surrounding the ninja village. Walking through the city's streets without having to worry about who was saying what or looking at him how gave Naruto more time to look around and appreciate the tiny city.
Much like the Hidden Stone, the Hot Water Village was surrounded by a mountain range on all sides, but unlike its battle-hardened counterpart, the village's mountains were constantly churning out thick columns of steam that blended with the cool, cloudy skies overhead. The village itself had a charming appeal to it. Every corner was dotted with hot springs and ryokan onsens, but you could tell the village didn't want its hot water to be the only source of revenue, so they had the standard residential areas, suburbs, marketplaces, training grounds, and entertainment zones. The village's greatest feature though was a river that cut through the centre of the village before splitting in two and meandering through the suburban districts. The only reason Naruto even cared about the river was that it was boiling hot. More steam was constantly emanating from the blue-green water's surface as it steadily moved through the centre of the village. This place was unique, to say the least.
"What are all these about?" Han asked, bumping his head against a low-hanging lantern. A string of them was being hung up from one building to the next.
"I've been wondering the same thing," Fuu said as peered down one street. She looked across to the other. Lanterns everywhere. Red and orange ribbons hanging from buildings and streetlamps. Stalls being built on the sides of roads. What was going on?
Almost as if she heard their cries for answers, a young woman dressed in a beautiful yellow kimono dress stopped in front of the jinchuuriki and handed them a pamphlet before walking away. Han handled the piece of paper. He gave it a quick read… Han turned to ask her, "What is this?"
The woman paused. She glanced at their headbands before returning to the group to explain, "Well, tomorrow night is the Heiwa festival. An annual festival held in the village to honour the day we signed a peace treaty with the five shinobi nations to inform them we'd never take part in their wars again. It's also a chance to get all dressed up like me and celebrate peace, love, fertility, and the prosperity of the shinobi world." With that, she bowed her body slightly and made her way down the street, handing more pamphlets out to the few citizens strolling through the village's streets.
Fuu clapped excitedly, "I love a good festival," she squealed. "Can I please go! Please! Please! Please!"
Han covered her mouth to shut her up, "We're all going. After all, we have nothing better to do tomorrow, so rent out some kimonos and enjoy the festival. We'll see if we can meet up somewhere before we go to the event, but either way, I'm not going to stand in the way of a chance to relax and calm our nerves," he explained. Only then, did he remove his hand from Fuu's mouth. He had to wipe it on his armour because Fuu insisted on aggressively licking his palm.
Fuu pumped her fist in the air and yelled, "Let's go!"