There are a few very, very specific things that didn't change with being a giant vulpine creature made of pure chakra.
One of which was how annoying it could be to have some stubborn food stuck between his teeth.
"Yeah, that whalebone is stuck in there nice and good," the Chunin answered, being the unlucky one posted to keep an eye on Naruto's beach while Naruto was having this specific problem. Naruto was currently lying down on the beach with his mouth opened wide for the ninja to get a better look at it."I...am not going in there, even if I thought I could get it loose."
"I wouldn't have asked you to," Naruto grunted in annoyance, sitting up to try and scratch it out. "Damn, this is so weird. This is so different than having a normal mouth with human teeth."
"Have you tried flaring your chakra, like you do to clean your fur?" he asked curiously.
"You don't think that wasn't the first thing I tried?" Naruto asked in annoyance as he wiggled his fingers around. "Wait, wait, I think I got- and it broke in half. Dammit!"
"Well, at least you still have thumbs and fingers?" he suggested helpfully. "I mean, I don't think all the Bijuu do."
Having met Saiken, Naruto agreed. "I wonder why any of them do? I mean, foxes and raccoons don't have any! And I know Tsunade's slugs and Orochimaru's snakes can do Jutsu without hand seals, so, you know, what the hell?"
"Your guess is as good as mine. I stopped questioning it after I saw you fighting an octopus the first time. How have you not killed that thing yet, by the way?"
Naruto glanced out to the sea with a glare. "I ask myself that almost every day. Wait, I think I got it!"
With a squishy snap, Naruto pulled the piece of whalebone from his mouth and threw it on the beach. Out of curiosity, the Chunin ran over to it and examined the bloody piece of bone. "Huh. I'm not a biologist or anything, but this bone looks pretty weak and brittle. I think you got a really old or really sick one."
"I thought it tasted strange," Naruto murmured to himself as he rubbed the sore tooth. "Thank Kami I don't get food poisoning."
"I'm pretty sure that would be like some kind of acid Jutsu. Just...unpleasant for you to cast," the Chunin said, partially joking.
Naruto decided he liked this watcher. Some of them kept to themselves entirely during the stay, and others got really annoying for one reason or another. But he liked ones like these, ones comfortable enough to talk with him.
Naruto's ear twitched. "Brace yourself."
Three of his tails struck out to bat away the giant octopus that had all but leaped out of the water to attack him. Naaruto roughly threw his aquatic adversary back from whence it came.
"You fucking ass! Can you at least wait for when I don't have company?!" Naruto yelled out in frustration.
The Octopus surfaced to give what Naruto assumed was a stink eye before swimming off.
"Well," the Chunin said, having leapt a short distance away at that sudden confrontation. "That was rather hostile. Is it normally like that?"
"No, usually he at least waits until I'm in the water," Naruto admitted in confusion. "I think I stole a whale he wanted to eat."
"How many do you even eat?" the Chunin asked curiously.
"Not as many as him! I only eat a couple a month as a treat. That bastard actually needs them for food. There's no way I'm moving in on his food supply that much," Naruto reasoned, scratching his head. "Well, enough about him. You mind giving me the beach so I can practice some?"
"Can do, I was about to roast up some food for myself," the Chunin said, heading off with a wave.
Naruto rolled his shoulders some as he moved his tails through the sand, the grains clinging to his fur. "I'm not going to do stuff like Gaara can, but I can definitely do something with sand at least," he said, snapping one tail like a whip and sending a blade of sand that struck the beach, making a small path in the sand. "How am I better at using my tails to hurl wind, something you can't actually touch, but I have trouble with stuff like sand?"
Naruto decided not to question it more as he continued his training.
While he was pretty sure it was impressive that he could use most elements, there was an issue. He could chiefly only use them for the technique that hurled a blade-like attack from his tails made of a given element. It was basically the same Jutsu or trick, just wrapped with another element.
More complicated stuff was...well, complicated.
He placed three of his tail tips in the water, channeling chakra through them as he tried something a bit different. He pulled the tails out with the intent to have a long whip-like end of water attached to the tail.
It worked, to a degree. But no matter how he swung around his tail, the "whips" just flopped around ineffectively, losing a lot of water with each attempt before all he had was a wet tail.
"Okay, let's think," Naruto said with a sigh. "Infernal Tsunami works because that is just me feeding the flames my chakra and sending it all in one direction. Canyon Burial is really just me making a giant hole in an instant."
He hummed in thought, trying to imagine what he could do with water. After all, he had an infernal tsunami Jutsu. Then he cringed at the image of him accidentally creating an actual tsunami and possibly flooding some poor island village.
"Right, let's not do that," Naruto said to himself as he continued to think.
Meanwhile
Sakura did not mind the idea of an all-girls mission in the slightest.
She was mildly uncertain about their sensei.
"Wow, foxy went this far, huh?" Anko mused as they continued their travels.
Sakura shared an awkward look with Hinata and Ino. They were given a mission to help map out all the paths Naruto had taken during his search for the Hakaju, so the Landscaping Department could start repairing the damage. It helped that Naruto tried to retrace his steps as often as possible. It was technically a B-rank mission, but only due to the scale of it.
"I think this is the first path he made," Hinata said as she looked over the map, pointing to a spot on the map. "To the village that Hakaju attacked when it first appeared."
"Yeah, definitely," Sakura agreed as she stood on the edge of the paw print. "I've seen what it looks like when Naruto walks through an area. This is different, because he was running."
"Oh, is that why it's deeper than the others?" Ino remarked as she looked down. Despite how upturned this piece of the forest had become from Naruto's trek, plenty of animals were amongst the logs, some drinking from a pool of water near the center.
"You never think about the aftermath of battles with large summons and wide-area Jutsu until you go on missions like this, "Anko said with a grin.
"Hey, Anko-sensei? I know you're not an infrastructure planner or anything, but I heard some talk about keeping the path Naruto made up to the Daimyo's palace," Sakura remarked with a frown. "But with that and the one to his beach, would that basically cut the country nearly in two?"
"Yeah, that would wreak havoc on trade routes. It didn't affect a lot down south but I doubt they'll keep one up here. They already have to make a lot of bridges on this path between Konoha and his beach," Anko mused out loud.
"You know a lot about the economy, Anko-sensei?" Hinata asked curiously.
"Oh, not really. But I went undercover once and this merchant talked my ear off while trying to charm me. Poor guy thought I was actually impressed with him for knowing how to make a steal on onions, "Anko explained with a chuckle. "But enough about me. Hey, Pinky? You're the expert on Foxy? You know how far away that first village was?"
"I'm not an expert on Naruto. Even Naruto isn't an expert on Naruto," Sakura refuted.
"You proved he has a tenth tail though," Anko remarked teasingly.
Sakura blushed and glared at the purple-haired woman.
"Umm, we should reach the village by tomorrow morning," Hinata informed.
"Oh? You know where it is? Sakura isn't the only Foxy expert it seems," Ino remarked playfully.
Hinata blushed as well. "I-it's just that some of my clan were t-trying to find a link between wh-where the Gashadokuro attacked and where N-naruto hadn't looked yet," she explained away with a stammer of embarrassment.
"Right, you didn't stand over those maps hoping you could help dear Naruto somehow?" Ino pressed.
Hinata blushed just a tad more as she hid behind the map.
"I'm going to like you, blondy," Anko decided with a smirk.
"You're both horrible," Sakura deadpanned.
"Hey, wait," Ino said with a frown. "If the Hyuuga Clan, and I'm guessing Konoha in general, knew all the places Naruto went, why are we doing this mission?"
"And I almost respected you," Anko said with a sigh. "How much of the mission briefing did you space out on?"
"I thought I heard all of it, what am I forgetting?" Ino asked in annoyance.
Anko shook her head at that. "Well, that map only marks all the rough locations where we know Naruto traveled too, but not all of them. More importantly, it just shows the marks, not the paths he took. Everyone was more concerned about figuring out where the Grave was, not all the paths Foxy took to where it wasn't."
"Ah. Right, that makes sense," Ino admitted.
Sakura looked up at the sky. "We should get moving if we want to make good time."
"Pinky is right. And this'll be good practice for tree hopping with less ideal terrain," Anko said as she leaped up to tree tops, right at the edge of where Naruto's path was. "Hop to it, ladies! If we're not at that village before noon, I'm putting you through Might Guy-style training."
"...You don't think she means the green suits too, right?" Sakura asked uncomfortably.
Ino and Hinata silently agreed with that sentiment.
Meanwhile
"NEPHEW!"
Naruto found that being hugged by a giant slug wasn't nearly as disgusting as someone might imagine. It was still very weird though, Saiken's six tails wrapping around Naruto, a couple of them patting him on the back. "Good to see you too, Saiken," Naruto admitted with an honest smile.
"I've been waiting for you to come back! I wanted to congratulate you on beating your first Hakaju!" Saiken explained enthusiastically. "Though, I heard a lot of other weird things happened?"
"Yeah, they did. And I'll tell you all about them because I have a lot of questions," Naruto said before frowning. "But I'll start with the important part. Someone was controlling the Hakaju."
Saiken nodded. "I heard. They also put a barrier around the grave. That's not normal, not at all!" Saiken answered, shaking his head for emphasis.
"I...wait, you heard? From who?" Naruto asked curiously.
Saiken stiffened before looking very sheepishly. "I suppose I should tell you now. All the Bijuu can communicate with each other across a shared mental realm we all have."
Naruto stared at him for a moment. "I have several more questions now, Saiken."
Saiken chuckled a bit. "I thought you would. We've been trying to contact you through it, but we can't for some reason."
"Huh," Naruto said with a furrowed brow. So his apparent long-range telepathy wasn't, strictly speaking, abnormal for a Bijuu. "Wait, was that how you knew that Ky-...Kurama was really gone?" he asked as carefully as he could.
Saiken nodded sadly. "Yes. He didn't use it often these days, none of us do. But we could tell when he was just ignoring us and suddenly he just...wasn't there," he explained, having a moment of silence for his brother. "But Shukaku told us all about your fight! If that had been a normal Hakaju, you would have dealt with it a lot faster. Still, we never knew Hakaju could be made and controlled like that. Some humans were able to direct them, but not puppet them like yours was."
Naruto crossed his arms in thought. "What I don't get is why someone did that at all? I mean, they had to be going after me, right? If not, they could have gone after any country."
"This is true. I don't think it was a coincidence," Saiken agreed. "Nephew, I heard you had to fight someone or something else?"
Naruto frowned. "You know about the Akatsuki, right?"
"Somewhat," Saiken answered, giving him a wary look. "You found them?"
"Their Leader, a guy that calls himself Pain," Naruto answered, looking down. "Bastard nearly sealed me away."
"Alone? He was that powerful?" Saiken asked in concern. The number of humans that could rival a Bijuu was far and few in between.
"Yeah, he had a lot of weird powers, like having multiple bodies and being able to revive them," Naruto explained. "The main issues were these Jutsus that I think controlled gravity? He nearly sealed me inside a giant ball of earth he made! It was like being trapped in-"
"A moon?" Saiken interrupted sharply, leaning forward.
Naruto blinked and saw the uneasy body language on Saiken's form. "Yeah, a small moon. Do you...know something about this?"
"Nephew, his eyes? Were they a grey or purple color with a lot of rings?" Saiken predicted.
Naruto's wide eyes were confirmation enough.
"To think, someone with his eyes would emerge, and be trying to capture us," Saiken said in an almost sorrowful tone.
"His?" Naruto repeated prompting.
Saiken sighed. "The world knows him as a legend now, the Sage of Six Paths."
"Never heard of him," Naruto admitted readily. "But I was...kind of a dumbass in school, so that might just be me."
Saiken barely even seem to acknowledge that. "Time might have forgotten him by now. Most considered him the founder of the Shinobi, the first to master chakra into various Jutsu. But the Bijuu knew him by a different name."
Naruto stared intently, curiously.
"His name was Hagoromo, but we called him Father."
Naruto nearly fell over at that. "Your...father?!"
Saiken nodded slowly. "He created us, not long after he created the moon."
"The moon?! Are you serious!? Was this guy a god or something?!" Naruto couldn't help exclaiming.
Saiken seemed to smile a bit at that. "Some called him that. But our father, Hagoromo, was...hard to explain, by and large. I will tell you the family story one day, Nephew, but it would take too long right now."
"Right, right, just got to try and wrap my head around the whole "Father of the Bijuu" thing," Naruto said, rubbing his eyes.
"You said he had multiple bodies? Like Clone Jutsu?" Saiken asked curiously.
"No, like he was one person with many real bodies. Each one looked like a different person and had a different power. But they all had the same eyes and orange hair," Naruto explained before thinking. "And a lot of piercings, for some reason."
"Huh. Father didn't have that power, but maybe he just never showed us," Saiken remarked.
"Well," Naruto paused. "I was fighting six of them, but I could sense a seventh nearby. I thought it might be for a sneak attack, but in hindsight, I'm pretty sure that might have been his true body."
"Huh. Shukaku told me about his vessel's brother having a knack for Puppet Jutsus. Perhaps this is similar but with bodies?"
"Great, I found an entirely different kind of undead asshole than the one I was looking for," Naruto remarked dryly. "So...it's not going to be a problem for anybody if I end up having to kill him, right? Since he's a descendant of your Dad?"
Saiken shook his head. "Unlikely. I would have liked to have met someone like him in better circumstances, but such is the world sometimes. Still, back to my original thought, could the Akatsuki and their leader be connected to the Hakaju? Tire you out and weaken you?"
"I've been wondering that too. That guy did want to kill me or seal me," Naruto agreed with an unconvinced look. "But whoever controlled the Hakaju could bring in the cloud cover to summon it wherever. Why wouldn't this Pain guy have done that? The Hakaju would have given him an edge if he controlled it, or controlled someone that did."
Saiken nodded. "You are right...are you sure he's the Leader?"
"I mean, he said he was?" Naruto answered.
"Humans can say a lot of things they don't mean, Nephew. You know that too," Saiken said softly.
Naruto silently conceded that and sighed. "We're getting nowhere with that. Moving on?" Naruto prompted.
"Yes, what's this I heard about a giant flaming bird?" Saiken asked, very confused and curious.
Naruto cringed. "Right, so... I got a goose stuck up my nose..."
End of Chapter
Well, Sakura is on the all-female mission as they map out Naruto's paths, and the expected antics happen from having Anko and Ino around to team up against Hinata and Sakura. Naruto meanwhile is training some, getting along with his current watcher, dealing with the octopus, and had a long talk with his self-appointed Uncle Saiken.
Had a lot of fun with that talk. Saiken is fun, and this is a lot of interesting information for them to discuss- their musing on who might be behind the Hakaju and why, Naruto finding out about the Bijuu having a father that created the moon, annnnnnd now he has to tell Saiken about his nose-goose that turned into a pheonix.
Early viewing of chapters 34-35:
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