Friendly Ninetails
AN This fic now has some cover art. It's just a picture of Kurama's sad gaze with the colors changed to look like Naruto, but I like it all the same.
Gamabunta didn't mind a fun spar every now and again.
He wasn't having fun though.
The giant toad leaped across the beach, dodging great slashes of sand and water. "Dammit, Jiraiya! Why didn't you tell me he had elemental attacks!?" Gamabunta yelled in frustration as he cleaved through a slash of water.
"Complain later! Here he comes!" Jiraiya warned from atop the toad's head.
Gamabunta didn't need the warning, raising his blade to block Naruto's claws from giving him any new scars. The sheer force of the attack made Gamabunta skid back on the beach.
Naruto was grinning, just a little bit. He had missed the rush of truly training, sparring, and fighting. Mass of chakra or not, he still felt as though his blood was starting to rush now.
"Don't get cocky, Brat!" Jiraiya exclaimed as he went through hand seals. "Needle Jizo! Needle Hell!"
Naruto let out a roar of pain as needle-like hairs were shot directly into his eye. Gamabunta used the chance to jump back once more. But this time, he used the gap between them to go on the offensive, leaping towards Naruto at full speed and full force, his blade poised to stab into the Bijuu.
A single tail blocked his blade.
The appendage, despite what it might look like, was unyielding. Gamabunta felt like his sword was locked with another blade rather than the tail of fur. But how could he expect anything less from a Bijuu?
Speaking of which, he jumped up just in time to avoid another of Naruto's tails slamming into him from the side.
"Hehe, he's certainly got better at using those tails," Gamabunta remarked, smirking despite himself, just before he descended. "Water Style: Liquid Bullet!"
Naruto, now having both his eyes again, eyed the single water Jutsu...and batted it away with one of his many tails. "What are you up to...?" Naruto grumbled as he watched Gamabunta land. His eyes went wide as he realized that Jiraiya was no longer on the forehead.
"Earth Style! Dark Swamp!"
Naruto instantly found the sand beneath him turned into a giant pool of mud. The chakra in the Jutsu made it nearly impossible to do anything like water-walking, causing him to rapidly sink into it.
"Told you not to get cocky, Naruto," Jiraiya said from Naruto's back.
Naruto just looked over his should at him with a blank look. "Pervy Sage? You're an idiot," Naruto said bluntly.
Jiraiya blinked, and that was the only warning he got before he felt a tremendous wave of chakra expelled from Naruto's body. From point-blank range, it hit with all the force of a hurricane.
Jiraiya found himself going flying through the air and barely managed to land in a tree instead of being launched away from the beach, giving him a perfect view of Naruto. He was still flaring his chakra, so intensively that it flung away all the mud and left a new crater in the beach.
Naruto casually stepped out of the remains of the Dark Swamp Jutsu, before he charged full speed at Gamabunta. This time, when the toad moved to block, Naruto caught the sword with his mouth.
Gamabunta was honestly surprised the blade didn't shatter against Naruto's fangs.
With his hands free and Gamabunta surprised for a moment, Naruto took the chance to punch the toad, his furred fist embedded in the stomach. Gamabunta gasped in pain, falling onto his back as Naruto tossed the blade into the waves.
Seizing the moment, Naruto reeled his other arm back high, preparing to strike with all that he could.
"Water Style: Toad Oil Bullet!" Gamabunta exclaimed, unleashing a stream of toad oil directly into Naruto's face. His opponent now blinded and shocked, Gamabunta managed to dodge out of the way before Naruto's fist made impact.
Gamabunta paled severely as he felt the shockwave of the attack and saw the huge column of sand that erupted from Naruto's strike.
Naruto growled in his throat, unable to wipe the thick oil away. "I can't see or smell you, Gamabunta, but I can damn well hear you," Naruto stated, looking in the toad's general direction as his ears twitched. "Are we still sparring or not?"
Gamabunta was tempted to call it quits. He was barely able to keep the summoning Jutsu from coming undone after that last attack. Still, there was one last thing to try.
A paper bomb on a kunai exploded after being through at Naruto's side, igniting the oil and setting Naruto on fire, just as Jiraiya body flickered back on top of Gamabunta's head.
"I'll take that as a yes!" Naruto growled out, feeling the flames spreading over his fur, engulfing his body. "Wait a minute...this doesn't hurt?" he noted in surprise, looking down at his flaming hands and body.
"...Seriously? You're fireproof?" Jiraiya asked, not sure if he was annoyed or just surprised.
"No, no, I'm definitely on fire," Naruto said, holding out two of his tails, coated in flames. "It just doesn't bother me."
"Huh. I suppose conflagration doesn't mean as much against a body made of chakra," Gamabunta mused as he sheathed his sword. "How about we call it quits there?"
"Sure, sure, just let me try to put these out," Naruto said, trying to wipe the flames off. This resulted in a wave of flames washing over the sands near him, charring and scorching the beach.
"...You know, in hindsight, I would have almost expected that to turn glass," Naruto stated idly as he flung his tails, the flames coming off in an instant. "Thanks for the fight, Gamabunta."
"Just don't expect me to do that too often," Gamabunta said, forcing a grin while rubbing his stomach with a wince. "It's crazy to think, just how powerful you are now."
Naruto had no comment for that.
Watching above from the edge of the pillar, Shikamaru had a look of deep thought and consideration, glancing up at the dust cloud formed by Naruto's punch. "This is the power of the Bijuu," he murmured in thought. 'I thought him having trouble with the octopus was a bad sign, but it was just a case of the environment and situation working against him. On land at least, I'm not sure much can stop Naruto short of other Bijuu or an army of giant creatures.'
He scratched the back of his head, thinking about the situation as objectively as possible. Naruto had the raw power and he was getting creative with how to use it. But Naruto was still Naruto. He wanted to grow and improve, he always had. But he had very little idea of how powerful or skilled the other Bijuu were, let alone how Naruto would compare to the original Kyuubi.
"Well, Shika? Any bright ideas?"
He started, finding it almost eerily how Naruto casually looked directly at him from such a far distance away, acting as if they were right next to each other. He supposed having his kind of hearing had that effect. "You throw punches more like an old man than a fox," he stated flatly.
"You try doing Taijutsu with these legs!" Naruto marked out, glancing down at his hind limbs. Despite having humanoid hands, his body was definitely built for walking on all fours instead of two.
"If giant toads can figure out how to do it, you can too," Shikamaru countered.
Naruto glowered but didn't deny the point.
"Hmm, and who is this punk?" Gamabunta questioned idly.
"A Nara, and a friend of Naruto," Jiraiya explained.
"Nara, Nara. It escapes me, are they the ones with the Shadow Jutsu or Expansion Jutsu?" Gamabunta questioned with a hum, picking up his pipe from the sandy beach. "Great, I'll need to clean this out now."
"Shadows. They also tend to be incredibly intelligent," Jiraiya answered.
"Another thing," Shikamaru continued. "How long have you been able to use the elements with your tails?"
"A couple weeks," Naruto answered with a shrug. "Since I can use sand, I've been trying to figure out how to use the others."
"You should probably focus mostly on mastering one element for now while practicing others," Shikamaru suggested. "After you stop sucking at water-walking."
"That part's valid, I accept that," Naruto agreed without shame. "Any idea why I can't use regular Jutsu yet?"
"Hell if I know," Shikamaru said with a shrug. "That's probably not what you want to hear, but it's the truth. The finer, scientific parts about how chakra functions aren't something I randomly studied. But I'll see if I can't look into it when I get back to the village."
"I'm not trying to sound whiny, but I'm half surprised you didn't try to figure that out already," Naruto mused.
"Eh. It's you, so I thought there was a good chance you'd accidentally stumble into the answer on your own once you had some time and space to yourself," Shikamaru answered causally. "If you had, it would have been a waste of effort."
"Shika, do remember I can sneeze away the clouds if I want to," Naruto reminded blankly.
"Naruto, if you could, you'd paint the clouds just to mess with everyone," Shikamaru countered with an eye roll.
"Now you're just being-" Naruto suddenly stopped.
Everyone looked at him uneasily.
"I...just gave you an idea, didn't I?" Shikamaru said with a pained look of resignation on his face.
"Maybe?" Naruto answered uncertainly.
"Me and my big mouth," Shikamaru groaned, face-palming.
"Naruto, whatever you're thinking, don't even try it," Jiraiya instructed warily.
"You don't even know what I'm thinking yet!" Naruto protested.
"I'm not sure we want to," Gamabunta countered bluntly.
Naruto rolled his eyes. "I was just wondering if you could cast a Genjutsu on a cloud."
"A cloud?" Jiraiya repeated, cupping his chin. "But you can't do Genjutsu."
"I know that, but Shikamaru said "paint the clouds" and that was where my brain went," Naruto explained.
"Why would you put a Genjutsu on a cloud when you could just make a Genjutsu of a cloud?" Gamabunta countered.
"I mean, wouldn't it be easier to change how a real cloud looks than fake an entirely different one?" Naruto asked, scratching his face.
"Why are we having this conversation?" Shikamaru questioned in annoyance.
"Because you all freaked out over me having a random thought!" Naruto retorted with a huff.
Gamabunta chuckled at the exchange. "Well, as thrilling as this has all been, I must be going, Naruto. That fight took a lot out of me."
"Before you go, can I flick Pervy Sage off your head?" Naruto asked curiously. "I feel like I deserve that for the hair needles to the eye thing."
"Oh, don't act like it was that bad! I doubt it was worse than dust in your eye," Jiraiya said in annoyance.
"And if I did flick you off, I doubt it wouldn't be a clone," Naruto stated factually.
"Of course, it would be! I don't know if a flick from you is worse than a flick from Tsunade, and I don't want to find out firsthand!" Jiraiya pointed out.
"Regardless, times up," Gamabunta said before promptly vanishing, causing Jiraiya to fall through the smoke- and into Naruto's palm.
"I can land on my own, Naruto," Jiraiya said factually.
"I mean, do you want to be walking in sandals on the scorched sands?" Naruto pointed out, looking to where Jiraiya would have landed.
"Not really, but I've walked on worse," Jiraiya assured, jumping off the palm to a less burnt part patch of sand. "You were enjoying that, weren't you?"
"Obviously," Naruto answered, stretching his arms with a small yawn. "Cutting loose while training is a lot different from fighting or sparring with someone. I was almost worried I'd have to regrow an arm before the end of this fight, seeing as the Toad Chief took off Shukaku's arm once."
"About that," Jiraiya said, stoking his chin. "You can make your tails hard enough to block Gamabunta's sword. Can't you make...all of your fur like that?" he asked, motioning to Naruto's torso and abdomen.
"Not really. I've tried, but..." Naruto trailed off, glancing back at his tails. "I'm not sure if it's because there's more chakra in the tails or because there's more fluff in them than anything."
"Given what we know, I'd have to assume it's the chakra. Not all Bijuu have "fluffy" tails," Jiraiya pointed out, a bit amused by Naruto's use of the word.
Still, Naruto knew that fact well after he met with Saiken.
"Mmmm," Naruto rolled his neck and yawned. "Okay, I'm taking a nap after all of that. Shika, you are clear for cloud watching."
"Finally," Shikamaru muttered as he left the edge, prepared to find a good spot.
"Really? And here I thought you'd jump right into training," Jiraiya said, half amused and half observing.
"I will. After my nap," Naruto answered dismissively, finding a spot to curl up on the beach.
The few days passed into a steady rhythm. Naruto awoke and practiced his water-walking and dabbled with his elemental abilities. He'd occasionally go out for a swim, bringing back a whale once. Shikamaru and Jiraiya commentated on Naruto's training, but mainly just observed.
That changed as the sun began to set on the third day.
Jiraiya was settling in for sleep while Shikamaru kept watch, lamenting the lack of good clouds to watch.
Without warning or sign, the ground shook thunderously, knocking Shikamaru onto his side as Jiraiya was instantly up. "What was that?" Jiraiya asked, looking around for any sign of battle.
"I don't know, earthquake!?" Shikamaru suggested, still alarmed as he ran to the edge of the pillar, looking down on the beach.
"Oh no," Jiraiya said in concern and alarm.
The last rays of the sun were still peering over the horizon, falling on the beach to reveal a disturbingly vacant beach.
"...Naruto's missing," Shikamaru realized, still feeling the rumbling of the ground, growing fainter and fainter. "Naruto's running away!?" he exclaimed, turning to look north, racing to the other side.
There, plain as day, were Naruto's footprints, tearing through the forest and landscape. In the few minutes they took to realize what was going on, he was already no more than a golden dot on the horizon.
"Not away! Towards! He's heading to the village!" Jiraiya realized, biting his thumb. "Summoning Jutsu!"
A large green and blue toad appeared with a pair of swords on his back. "Jiraiya? Why have you summoned me?" the toad asked curiously.
"No time to explain, Gamarotsu! Just follow that trail!" Jiraiya answered as he and Shikamaru jumped on top, the Chunin kneeling to have a better grip on the summon.
"Hmm?" Gamarotsu glanced at what they meant. "That intense chakra, is that...?"
"Yes," Jiraiya answered grimly.
"..." Gamarotsu instantly took off in a series of long, speedy hops.
"Damn, I didn't realize Naruto was this fast," Shikamaru said, unable to even see the giant, golden beast anymore. "What do you think happened!?"
"Nothing good!" Jiraiya answered with a frown. "Naruto can be an idiot, but he's been careful about not scaring the village more than necessary. If he took off like this, then I have to assume..."
Shikamaru grimaced. "The village is under attack.."
Gamarotsu let out a breath. "As serious as this is, I was worried I was going to have to fight this new Kyuubi. After what he did to the boss in a spar, I'd rather not take him on in a fight."
Jiraiya chose not to dwell on that topic. "Damn, I wish he had at least yelled something at us first before taking off."
"Whatever is going on, probably woke him up. He didn't have time to think, just react," Shikamaru reasoned, trying to think like Naruto.
The rest of the journey was in silent contemplation, wondering and preparing for whatever had drawn such a reaction from Naruto. And the worry grew in the back of their minds increasingly, wondering what state the village would be in when they got there.
They didn't expect it to be fine.
"What the hell? He kept on running right passed the village?" Shikamaru realized in disbelief, seeing how the path continued in a straight line, missing the village by over a mile.
"Jiraiya!" Tsunade exclaimed with a glare as she body flickered onto the toad's head. "What the hell is going on? Naruto about gave the entire village a panic attack!"
"Lady Hokage," Shikamaru addressed.
"We were hoping you knew," Jiraiya answered with a furrowed brow. "Naruto just took off all of a sudden. We thought he was running here. He didn't stop?"
"No, he did. For about two seconds," Tsunade answered with a scowl. "Just long enough to yell out: "Tsunade! Send help to follow me! And medics!" Then he ran off."
There was an uneasy silence. "He called you Tsunade. Not Old Hag," Jiraiya repeated carefully.
Tsunade just nodded slowly.
"...Shit," Shikamaru summarized, looking north. "Lady Hokage did you-"
"I already sent a team after him," Tsunade answered bluntly. "It took time to get them together. Kakashi, Guy, and Shizune went on ahead."
Meanwhile
Tracking Naruto wasn't a difficult thing. If anything, it was the opposite. It was hard to miss the trail of massive footprints tearing through the trees of Fire Country.
Guy leaped high into the air, scanning the area before descending back to the tree branches, running alongside Kakashi and Shizune.
"Any sign of him?" Kakashi questioned with a frown.
"Not even a speck on the horizon," Guy answered grimly.
"The moon is empty tonight. With only the stars for light, it'll be hard to see him from too far away," Shizune said, glancing to the side at the toppled and broken trees that Naruto had left in his wake. "What could have gotten this kind of reaction from Naruto?"
"I have a few ideas," Kakashi answered. "Nothing good. If Naruto was calling for medics, someone is already hurt."
"But Naruto was at the southern coast! We're heading to the northern border. Could he have really sensed something that far away without us noticing it as well?" Shizune asked, amazed and disturbed by the prospect.
Silenced reigned as they considered that, until they all came to a halt, leaping to the top of the trees.
"Naruto's chakra is spiking," Kakashi noted, seeing a small golden flash on the horizon. "...He's attacking something."
"Let's hurry then! Before your youthful student claims victory without his sensei to witness!" Guy encouraged with a thumbs up to Kakashi.
"Fluffy student, thank you very much," Kakashi mock corrected.
Shizune just sighed at their antics, following after all the same.
At their speed, it was only a few minutes before they reached their next stop. Naruto was nowhere to be seen, but...
"By Kami," Shizune whispered in shock as they saw a village, parts of it destroyed and flattened. And there was a heavy scent of blood in the air. "Did Naruto-?"
"Let's look for survivors, find out what happened," Kakashi said bluntly, glancing at his self-proclaimed rival. "Guy, scout around. See if you can find a sign of Naruto or anything else."
Shizune silently went along with the plan, not wanting to dwell on that thought either. They entered the village and were unnerved by the quiet. There was no screaming, no crying, nothing. Only the sound of creaking wood, a wooden sign tapping against a wall as it swung in the breeze, and the occasional snapping of debris.
Shizune put her hand up to her mouth. "Hello?! Is anyone out there?"
Silence greeted them.
The two ninjas shared a look before separating to quickly investigate the ruins for survivors. But they found none.
"But where are the bodies?" Kakashi wondered as he kneeled down next to a large blood stain.
Shizune had similar findings and questions in her own area. "This is far too much blood for the average person to walk away from," Shizune deduced.
Some rubble moved near her, and she instantly turned, kunai in hand, to see-
A little girl with blue hair looked at her with hollowed green eyes. "A child?" Shizune whispered with a frown, concerned yet suspicious.
The little girl put a finger to her lips. "Shhh. You need to be quiet," she said softly, her tone almost sounding broken. "It'll find you."
"It? What do you mean, it?' Shizune asked, lowering her kunai just a bit.
"The giant monster," the girl answered slowly. "Momma said we needed to play a game. We had to be quiet. We had to hide. If the Monster lost, it would leave us alone. Momma and Papa didn't win the game though..." she whimpered, still obviously in shock at what happened.
Shizune felt her heartache for this child, moving to approach her, kneeling in front of her. "Don't worry, I'm here to help. What's your name? Do you know where everyone is?"
"Mikata. Everyone else is either still hiding, ran far away, or already lost the game," Mikata answered hollowly.
Shizune felt an uncomfortable knot in her gut forming. She didn't believe Naruto had knowingly or intentionally attacked this village, no, but had he just...stepped on it, by chance?
"Shizune! Over here!" Kakashi called out.
Shizune grimaced before making a shadow clone. "Listen, Mikata? My clone is going to watch after you while I go talk to my comrade, okay?"
"Okay," Mikata whispered. "Try not to lose."
Shizune nodded before she dashed away, following Kakashi's voice until she saw the familiar bit of silver hair, standing on a building near the edge of the village. "I found a survivor," Shizune said with a frown. "A little girl. She says a giant monster attacked the village."
"And you think Naruto called us all the way up here, just to see him attack a village, for no reason?" Kakashi asked neutrally.
"Of course not!" Shizune answered quickly, harshly. "I know Naruto would never try to do something like that! But if he did this by accident..."
"This wasn't by accident," Kakashi said, pulling out a flashlight and shining it down below.
It was a bit hard to see, the light only illuminating so much, but there was a large patch of ground that looked like it had bulled over, as if something had crashed and skidded along it. "This is...?"
"Naruto attacked something, whatever was here. He pounced on it and dragged it away. After that, I have to assume Naruto either fought or chased it off," Kakashi speculated, before glancing back, to a spot on the roof. Shizune followed his gaze and saw there was another large spatter of blood, in a roughly human-shaped blotch. "What could have done this though, that's the real question."
Shizune frowned. "I need to check the village for more survivors. Maybe someone saw what attacked them. You should go on with Guy."
Speak of the Green Devil, and he appeared, landing next to them. "I've found Naruto," he informed instantly. "He's far away, but he's not running anymore."
"Good. We might actually be able to find out what the hell is going on," Kakashi said firmly before he and Guy took off, leaving Shizune to her own duties.
Shizune sighed, almost feeling guilty for fearing that Naruto might have been responsible for this destruction.
Meanwhile, Kakashi and Guy made their way through the forest at their top speed- or Kakashi's top speed at least. They reached the top of a large hill, coming to the tree tops as Guy pointed out Naruto's golden form in the distance. "There he is, Kakashi. Though, I get the sense that Naruto is not waiting for us," he said with squinted eyes to glance at Kakashi.
Said man was using one side of a pair of binoculars. "You're right," Kakashi agreed as he watched Naruto.
He was aglow with chakra, the only reason they could fully see him from a distance at night. His vulpine body was tense, fangs snarling as he looked around, sometimes slowly, other times erratically until-
Something blocked Kakashi's view, just for a moment. He pulled the binoculars back in shock but saw nothing out there to the naked eye. "What is that?" he said, giving the binoculars to Guy.
The Taijutsu master grew concerned as he began searching for anything. "I don't see anything, Kakashi. What did you see?"
"I'm not sure," Kakashi said as he pulled his headband up and revealed his Sharingan. With it, he scanned and studied for anything around or near Naruto... "Shit."
"What is it? What did you spot?" Guy asked.
"Chakra, a lot of it. I can't sense it, but I can see it. Barely," Kakashi informed. "Whatever Naruto is fighting, it's blending in with the darkness."
Guy steeled his shoulders. "Then perhaps your fluffy student requires some help bringing this unyouthful foe into the light."
Kakashi nodded, the roars and growls of Naruto echoing through the night as they sped toward him and whatever he was facing.
End of Chapter
Start the chapter with a giant spar, end it with a new mystery foe that sends Naruto running acorss the map to find. Hope you all enjoyed this, as the actuion has officialyl started to pick up.
Not much else to say, can't give much away. Until next time!
Early viewing of chapters 18-19 avaliable on my pat-reon:
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