Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Shots in the Dark ❯ Star 1 ( Chapter 12 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: Jim Ohki 
Non Anime: Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Adventure / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 10.06.2014 | Pages: 3 | Words: 10.9K | Visits: 646 | Status: Completed
Non Anime: Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Adventure / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 10.06.2014 | Pages: 3 | Words: 10.9K | Visits: 646 | Status: Completed
Disclaimer: I make no claims at ownership of any copyrighted characters, places or events used herein. The only thing I make a claim to is this fic, which originated in my head and any original characters created by me herein. The following was made for public consumption at zero profit, and is not for sale except to the owning companies. Yes, I dream big.
SPECIAL NOTES: This story is an exercise in imagination, and as such is not part of my rotation. I'll be using it as a placeholder/break to give me time to think about where my other works are going. There will be instances of Adult Material within -this is Naruto, a ninja-world where people die and prisoners are subject to in-the-field procedures. If you find this offensive please use your browser's BACK feature and find something else to read. This is your only warning in this regard . . .
ALTERNATE TIMELINE/UNIVERSE WARNING: Because mid to late teenagers are more in touch with reality -when they stop substituting their own, at any rate- than pre/early teens, I have advanced canon by three years while holding to events. This means the Rookie Nine (Naruto's Class) are FIFTEEN while Team Gai is SIXTEEN. I'm of the belief that it's too much to ask for with a younger ninja-child to take their profession seriously . . . no matter who the Sensei is.
The Question: What would happen if Naruto stumbled upon a Stargate under Yuki no Kuni while the ice was being melted?
Star Sage by: (Driver) Jim Ohki
Under-ice Cavern, PX9-190
"Ice with a ninety percent chance of a dead planet," Jack O'Neill grumbled, taking his surroundings. Or rather, the lack of as the frozen water surrounded them on all sides. The group of explorers knew they were near the surface as filtered sunlight gave minor illumination. Fissures in the ice allowed air to flow from above, preventing excessive build-up of carbon monoxide and dioxide.
"You know that's not completely true Jack," Daniel Jackson sniffed, ruining his argument as the cold air interacted with his allergies. "This planet just hasn't been explored in ten thousand or so years. We wouldn't even be looking into the place if McKay hadn't found the address in the Atlantis database. The Ancients were doing something on this world that required them to 'forget' about it."
"Yeah, yeah," the General paid no attention to his resident bookworm, instead turning to his old Second in Command . . . and resident bookworm. 'Good thing Teal'c is around otherwise I'd feel stupid.'
Whatever question he was going to ask, complete with a request for the answer to be dumbed-down, never left his mouth as the cave they were in began to shake. The four glanced around in worry, especially at the ceiling to insure they weren't about to be caved in on. The chamber glowed with a yellow light and the temperature rose dramatically, spurring the General into action.
"Time to go campers!"
It was a sign of how well oiled of a machine his old team were when without further prompting Daniel started dialing the 'gate home while Sam and Teal'c packed up what little survey equipment they'd set out.
"O'Neill," barked the Jaffa, his gaze up and to the right of the Stargate. Turning to see what had gotten the attention of the resident muscle, he was greeted with a yellow and orange body tumbling out of a crevice that had opened up to the surface.
"This was supposed to be a cake-walk," Jack grumbled as the 'gate came to life, "pseudo-vacation to get me out of the office. But no~, nothing ever goes right even on a supposedly dead world!" Seeing that the boy -judged so by his features- was breathing, he tossed over his shoulder, "Let SGC know we're coming back with an extra that needs medical attention!"
Teal'c grunted as he threw the blond child over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, surprised at how much such a small boy weighed.
The four were gone within a minute, missing the ice melting revealing the once-chamber to the surface that now resembled a field of plants.
Surface, Yuki no Kuni (Minutes before)
"What madness is this?!" roared Doto Kazahana as the treasure he had sought began its' work. His answer was a Rasengan to the gut, sending him spiraling into the cliff wall resulting in a broken neck.
Naruto panted, having put everything he had left into that attack. Seeing his opponent down for the count -truthfully, dead if the odd angle of his head was anything to go by- he took in his changing surroundings. The ice underfoot was glowing a soft yellow as the heat generators performed their function.
The blond was unprepared for the ice to shift, making him fall on his right side. He could hear Princess Koyuki screaming for him, even as he managed to wave her and his team off. He was in a precarious situation and he knew it; thus he would be damned if anybody got hurt trying to bail him out of this mess.
Managing to stand with the shaking underfoot he turned, gave a thumbs-up to his watching team and charge, then took one step forward when the sheet of frozen water cracked right where he was going to put his left foot.
The crack took off in both directions, heading for the ends of the glacier as the stress from the internal melting became too much for the structure to handle. Within a second a fairly wide chasm opened up directly in front of him. He had time to throw a worried look in the direction of those watching -even the forgotten about camera crew that was still filming- before the ledge he was on crumbled.
He didn't have long to ponder this new issue as his head impacted with the ice, knocking him unconscious. The last thing he heard as his world went dark was his new friend demanding to be let go to try to save him.
Konoha, Hokage's Office; three hours later
"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune charged through the door, a look of panic and grief on her face. "Emergency message from Team Seven!"
"Give me that!" the blond woman roared, sending her desk out the window as it was in the way. Her niece, as she saw her, fell over from the sudden movement of the Sannin-turned-Kage, the message scroll flying through the air to land in the cleavage of said woman. "Not what I had in mind, but . . .," she grumbled, fishing the message out of her shirt.
Her expression varied from shock, worry, awe and back to worry as she read. The mission was a bloody S-Rank, an entire country just had a change in leadership, Naruto Uzumaki was Missing in Action, something strange and old had been found under the melted ice of the former Yuki no Kuni . . .
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Tsunade swung into action, knowing that there was going to be another interested party out there. She waited a moment for the smoke from her summoning to evaporate before looking at the messenger slug.
"How may I help you Tsunade-sama?"
"Message relay through the Toads to Jiraiya," her voice was harder than she wanted but one of her most precious people was in trouble. "I don't care what you are doing, get your ass to Yuki no Kuni ASAP. Naruto is MIA, and Kakashi has found something that might alter the balance of power in the Nations. If you are not there before me in five days I will ban your books in Konoha. End of message."
"Right away!" the slug bowed before poofing out of existence to do as requested. The tone of voice used was one that hadn't been heard by the Slugs since the Second War when Nawaki died. Somebody's head was about to roll, that much was for certain.
"Shizune!" the Hokage barked, before remembering that the young woman was still in her office. "Get me ANBU Team Four, have them ready to leave with me in an hour packed for a two week mission. While we are gone Asuma is to be in charge, the Council is temporarily suspended, and no S-Ranks are to be dispatched until I get back."
"R-Right away!" the poor brunette stuttered before fleeing from the office, knowing that her Sempai was in a foul mood. She hadn't seen her mentor this fired up in many years and wasn't about to try to talk her out of going. Even the Elders wouldn't dare try, not if they liked the ability to breathe on their own.
Tsuchi no Kuni, Unpopulated Area; Ten minutes later
"Message!" announced the small toad that just came into being, thankfully in the middle of nowhere. Jiraiya scowled at the summons before finishing his business behind a pile of boulders.
"Can't a man take a shit in peace anymore?" he grumbled, before sighing. If this was Naruto sending one more plea for training he was going to kill the boy, godson or not. "All right, give it to me."
His face paled to the coloration of a ghost when he was informed of the goings on. He knew his old teammate was serious to for she went for something he really cared about instead of just threatening him with bodily harm.
"We checked beforehand," the toad looked up at the older summoner. "Naruto is still alive but he is no longer within range for a Reverse Summoning. He might be able to bring us to him, depending on where his is . . . if he can. We have gotten permission from the Dogs to Reverse Summon you to their minion in Yuki no Kuni."
"Do it," was the immediate command, as the Sennin grabbed his belongings. Forget whatever it was Kakashi found, his godson was far more important. He had ignored the boy for thirteen years, wallowing in his own guilt and had just gotten to know him. There was going to be hell to pay for whomever took the son of his student.
Sunset, Yuki no Kuni, Daimyo Palace
"There are faint traces of footsteps leading up to the ring," Kakashi was saying before a cloud of smoke erupted next to his person. The next thing he knew was a fist impacted his face, sending him flying.
"Where is Naruto?!" boomed Jiraiya, having made his entrance in a style only he could. He noticed that Sakura and Sasuke were shivering in fear from his visage. He sneered at them, in no particular mood to put up with their usual shenanigans.
"We don't know," the leader of Team Seven managed to groan out, even as he massaged his jaw. His exposed eye widened when the Killing Intent let loose by his Sensei's Sensei made his displeasure known.
"Tell me what happened, and it better be good," the white-haired man growled. "Especially since Tsunade herself is coming."
"The Hokage . . . is coming . . . here?" Sakura squeaked, knowing that if Jiraiya was mad as a bull about the disappearance of The Dobe then the village leader would be infinitely madder. There was something about the blond boy that drew these powerhouses in and made them like him.
"Show me where he last was as you speak," the Gama-Sennin rumbled, hoisting Kakashi up by his Jounin vest. He turned to give the two Gennin the evil eye. "You two stay here and keep an eye on your client."
"Hai!" they came to attention, not offering any resistance to the look being given them. Better their Sensei take care of the man's rage than receive any more that they had.
Koyuki had said nothing, her own worry about the blond that had changed her views taking precedence in her mind. Hearing that the Hokage was en route made her worry for another reason as apparently this Tsunade was close to Naruto and cared greatly for him. Would she and her country get blamed for his disappearance?
Kami Above, she hoped not.
Earth, SGC Briefing Room
"So much for the cake-walk mission as a send off," Jack O'Neill moaned, face-palming in disbelief. In all of the Off-World missions he had ever taken, none had been a tasty treat. Something or another had always gone wrong at some point.
"You're telling me, I was in the middle of the move to Washington," General George Hammond quipped before taking a drink of his coffee. "So; a thought-to-be dead planet is in fact, not."
"No sir," Sam Carter agreed, looking sheepish while she did so. "The child that literally fell into our laps wasn't dressed for the climate. How he didn't have frostbite in those open-toe shoes I'll never know. What it does tell us is that the rest of the planet has life and a civilization of some sort. Even though a gaudy orange, he was dressed in the equivalent of a tracksuit and had metallic weapons on his person."
"Eastern Asian weapons, to be exact," Daniel Jackson took over seamlessly, as the team had done this song and dance many times before hand. "I find it hard to believe but we may have stumbled across a planet's worth of ninja. It took some research but the boy was armed with throwing knives known as Kunai complimented by the ever-popular stars called Shuriken."
"Well, stealth does not need apply everywhere," Jack quipped, thinking of how hard it would be to hide in that orange monstrosity.
"Indeed," Teal'c gave his raised eyebrow of humor, showing that he got the joke.
"The only place he'd have camouflage would be a pumpkin patch," Carter couldn't help herself, before moving along. "We didn't get to see much beyond the ice before it started melting at a rapid rate. I believe it was a fairly large machine that did so, since we appeared to have been inside of a glacier giving more credence to a civilization of some sort."
"Other than a bump to the head," one of the nurses from the Infirmary was giving the medical briefing as a change in CMO was supposed to happen shortly, "he is in very good health. His body runs a couple of degrees warmer than ours do but this appears to be natural. There is an abnormality though that cannot be natural in any way, shape or form."
From a folder a copy of an EEG graph was passed to each person at the table before the nurse continued.
"There are two distinct consciousnesses within our guest. We checked with an MRI, there is no symbiote or any over type of parasitic creature in his body. One is always at the surface, believed to be the boy himself while the other is almost within his subconscious. Then there was this that we found when we ran a black-light over his body."
This time copies of a photograph were handed out, showing a nearly invisible swirl surrounded by odd writing that took off in eight directions.
"While we think this might be a tribal tattoo of some sort we are confused as to why it isn't visible at all times," the nurse shook her head. "Since Asian languages are part of Foreign Relations One-oh-One at the Academy, we are able to understand part of what the markings say. We aren't completely certain of the translation though since some of the katakana appear to be different from those found here on Earth. We have the computers chewing on this image, finding matches to what we can. But . . . we have no idea what this is."
"It's certainly strange," Daniel agreed, his mind reviewing the characters to try to make sense of them. He already found one that appeared to say 'Maintenance' but that couldn't be right. Another thing he noticed was that several looked like they were overlapped in a bizarre fashion, serving some function.
Three in particular caught his attention. Each had the word 'Containment' but what really piqued his interest was the numbers attached to them. Two were at one hundred percent while the last, and biggest, was at eighty-five and showing signs of degradation. This one had an identifier attached to it, which was doubly strange in that it translated to the number nine.
His felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as old myths from the Orient came to the forefront of his mind. Tales of massive beings of energy that could be only be contained in a certain manner. He had blown them off as strange tales -even stranger than his original belief of the Pyramids- but his years at the SGC had taught him differently.
"I need to see this in person," his sudden declaration had the attention of the room focus on him. "About five years before I focused on the Egyptian Pyramids I studied ancient myths and legends of the East. They spoke of Raijuu and Bijuu, gigantic creatures made of energy that had roamed the lands some six thousand years ago, at least as that was when humanity discovered record-keeping. The stories that tie into the beasts varied, from a benevolent spirit in the shape of a five-tailed Tanuki to a representative of Death in the form of a two-tailed cat."
He paused, staring down at the photograph before looking back up.
"One commonality was about a Nine-Tailed Fox. Warnings were given about the Kyuubi no Yoko being hatred, anger, malevolence and of all things chaos wrapped into one destructive package. I'll have to double check, but what the creature was said to be able to do . . ."
"What?" O'Neill pressed when his friend trailed off, looking pensive.
"Acts of God would be a comparison to a Kyuubi on a rampage. Not the good kind, either."
"You do that," General Hammond ordered, wondering just what they had brought into the mountain. "In the meantime we'll just have to wait until the boy wakes up so that we can talk to him, for such a thing might not even exist."
Naruto's Mindscape; SGC Infirmary
"I never thought I'd be back on this world," Kurama rumbled to nobody, having 'borrowed' the boy's senses to determine where they had been taken. Speaking of, the host needed to learn a few truths. "BOY! BOY! COME HERE!"
"What'do'ya want you overgrown rug?" Naruto groggily answered his tenant, rubbing sleep out of his eyes as he phased into being. "I was dreamin' of Ramen, being Hokage, Ramen, several girls, being served Ramen by several girls while being Hokage . . ."
"SILENCE!" thundered out of the cage, effectively waking the blond up. How a complete dumbass such as this expected to get anywhere in life was beyond the ancient entity. "You and I need to have a talk, boy. We are in a bit of a situation here, one that I find myself uncomfortable with."
"What the hell could make you uncomfortable?!" was rudely shouted for no reason. Really, his guest had ears the size of skyscrapers and could hear just fine.
"For fuck's sake," Naruto felt his jaw drop at the annoyance he could tell was coming from within the cage, "you have to be the dumbest person in the galaxy. Before you even open your mouth LET ME FINISH!" The last was bellowed out, as the host was about to lambast his tenant with the usual spiel of ruining his life etc et al. "I know those baboons in your village didn't educate you. It is not your fault nor is it mine. It is theirs for thinking that by keeping you weak they were weakening me. BAH! We are two separate beings, the only thing making you strong ensures is that I'll survive longer."
"Oh yes, I see you're intrigued," the Kyuubi grinned, just to show off the teeth. "As much as it annoys me, I'll clue you in. This seal is powered by the Shinigami, which took half of my soul the night I was put in here. When you die, what you see of me will go into the stomach of the Shinigami and remerge with the rest. Unfortunately, by that time, the Death God will be strong enough to contain me for all eternity. Originally, this wouldn't have been too much of an issue as at least I knew where I was going.
"When you fell down that crevice, you found something that hadn't been used in ten thousand years on your planet. You also found a group of humans -well, three humans and a humanoid to be exact. They, not knowing of me or our pasts, took us with them to their home . . . on a distant planet. One that I've almost forgotten in my long existence."
Naruto was confused, to put it mildly. He understood every word that came out of Kyuubi's mouth, but lacked the education to put it into the proper context. Some of that was nobody's fault for the stars were thought to be just that: random points of light in the night sky.
"Good," the massive form was impressed that the living prison didn't immediately go into a spiel or several. "It's good to see that you can think, even with the hindrances in your life. The truth of my kind is a strange one. We were once one, a Juubi of massive power and unstoppable ability. Before that though, we Nine had evolved into the various forms on a different world . . . this world, to be exact. An important fact you should know is that we started out in life just as you did."
"You were once . . . human?" the blond almost didn't ask, but was searching for the picture of what his tenant was talking about.
"Fifteen thousand years ago, we were human yes," the glowing eyes and reflective teeth sank back into the dark cage, confusing the boy further. Before he could voice his lack of understanding, the click-click of somebody walking in heels echoed out of the darkness.
Naruto about fell over at what entered the light from outside the bars. Crimson appeared to be her color of choice: from luscious hair that went to her waist to her pouty lips that had gloss to her eyes to the ears on top of her head to the nine tails calmly waving as she walked. Even her attire, which looked like a kimono that did nothing to hide her busty figure, was a deep shade of red. He chanced a glance down and sure enough, her shoes were the same shade as the rest of her ensemble.
"Like what you see?" she struck a pose, settling her weight on her right leg causing that hip to jut out as her right hand settled on said hip. Her left leg pushed out of the gap in the kimono, revealing her cream-colored smooth skin to his purview. "At any rate, this was the form I was born with. Well, minus the obvious animal traits. The Nine, in mortal life, were all female as a matter of fact. We were born on this world, in an island-country. All of us were actually friends back then, each looking out for the well being of others."
"When we reached twenty years of age," she sighed, drudging up old memories, "we were approached by a faction of a galaxy-wide race. The leader of the group sweet-talked to us about Higher Powers and the usual radical religious spiel that at the time sounded good. We should have known that not all of that race were benign or benevolent. They were trying to amass power without having to follow the rest of their kind into Ascension. The leader spoke of a plague that had begun sweeping the galaxy, killing everything it came into contact with. We, who at the time were more in tune with Nature than them, could be a way for them to save everybody."
"It was too good to be true," her shoulders drooped as she relived a time long gone. "They experimented on us in secret, away from the rest of their people. The first thing they did was fuse us with what you know as Nature Energy. When we lost cohesion as humanoids, they had the brilliant idea to meld us with animals. Once we stabilized, our new forms were massive. While we retained our intelligences, what defined use as human was lost. They, seeing us as a means to stop the plague, brainwashed us into being Destroyers of Worlds since they couldn't take in Nature Energy like we could. For four thousand years, we would be moved from planet to planet wiping out entire civilizations."
Her eyes focused on him for the first time since she'd started talking.
"We were discovered by the leader of the people when the plague hit their home-world. The one that had done this to us had tried to turn us loose which was what led to our outing. He and his faction were summarily dropped onto a heavily-infected world after every means of escape was taken from them. As for us, we had developed an immunity to the plague and a pseudo-immortality for nothing they tried could release us from this plane. We were taken to your planet, which had been isolated from the rest to prevent not just the plague from reaching it but as a place for us to live out our days."
She shook her head, knowing that she was being long-winded with her history lesson. "Eight thousand years ago, after two thousand years of relative peace, your world was discovered by a race of parasites. They . . . were evil incarnate. We defended the people that had taken to us as Guardians, since we never let violence and wars get out of hand. Shukaku lost her sanity on the fifth invasion, for she ate one of the parasites that promptly infected her with its' genetic memory. We're not certain who did it, either her or the invaders, but we were pulled into one enormous being: a massive ten-tailed beast of unimaginable power. The parasite infected the rest of us while we were merged, turning us from defenders into a single berserker that slaughtered everything in our path. We could kill the invaders before they even reached the ground, so eventually they just stopped coming. For seven thousand years we were lost in the madness, rampaging across the land until a single man rose up to stop us: the Rikudo Sennin. We had no idea until he sealed us within his person that he was one of the faction that had created us, Ascended then Descended to try to correct his error. He treated us like the individuals we once were, fixing what he could of our personalities before returning us to the forms that had been forced on us as he died."
"You . . . have feelings," Naruto deadpanned, wrapping his mind around the concept as it suddenly appeared in his mind. He had heard various emotions in her voice, even if her face betrayed nothing. Everything that he had learned about the various Bijuu was a lie, and this truth was one giant horse-pill to swallow. "Uh, we'll talk about that later. Is there anything else I should know?"
"Not until we get home," she shrugged, "since anything else I have to say pertains to the night I got sealed in here."
Five Days Later, Yuki no Kuni; 0800
While the intrepid hero was having a life altering discussion with what he found wasn't supposed to be the bane of his existence, the situation in the last place he'd been was fluid.
"What the fuck is this?!" Tsunade couldn't help herself, her eyes falling on the 'Ring' for the first time. Jiraiya was in her face within a heartbeat, looking as serious as she'd ever seen him.
"This thing is positively ancient," the white haired Sannin turned his head far enough to the right to look back at the device. "Neither the Toads nor the Dogs know what this thing is. At least, that's what they claim. I say that because both have mentioned that this thing was here before the Bijuu . . . long before."
Two of ANBU Team Four, which happened to be a combination Heavy Assault/Interrogation squad, moved from the sides of their Hokage to approach the at-a-glance stone ring. They were wary of any traps, even if the Gama Sennin had approached the object many times over the past few days.
The soil on the side they approached had a slight inwards curvature in line with the bottom of whatever it was, as if something large had scrapped the ground away. Within the scraped earth were footprints that originated from nowhere at the ring. What was strange was that the ground behind it was untouched, showing where the top of the ridge had been.
"This is easily defendable turf," Tsunade caught onto the scrutiny her ANBU were giving the surroundings, realizing that whatever it was she was looking at was on a rise. "No cover for half a click in any direction, uphill to the objective which would provide some cover for whoever was holding it . . . even that cliff a kilometer away would be good for an overlook to monitor the approaches."
"Well, regardless of whatever this thing is," Jiraiya huffed, almost pouting at a mystery that he had no clue how to solve, "Kazahana-dono and her people have nothing to do with it. I know you brought Ibiki and Anko along to verify it but I can tell you that the Princess is more concerned about Naruto than," he waved with his right hand at the ring. "The only person who might have seen it is long dead: the former Daimyo and Koyuki's father."
"Yes, I imagine that heat generator had to get down there somehow," the blond woman quipped, looking from the crest of the ridge to said device fifty meters away to the right down near the bottom. "Even if he saw it, he probably would have been just as confused as we are about it and left it alone."
"Well, we don't have that luxury," her old teammate rumbled, looking like he wanted a fight. "It makes no sense but from the center of the ring there are four sets of footprints going outwards. Three men: one, very muscular and heavy -definitely a fighter, another heavily trained in combat and the last confuses me. It looks civilian yet at the same time speaks of training or at least knowledge of being wary in unknown situations. The fourth was a female, also trained in mission operations. When they go back in towards the object the big guy was carrying extra weight like another person with him, more than likely Naruto."
It always amazed Tsunade that the once-Dobe of her graduating class had turned into such a magnificent Shinobi . . . when he was being serious at any rate. Of course, threaten or take something precious of his and watch the destructive mayhem that ensues.
"What about?" she shook her head slightly, shaking off the feeling of dread whenever Jiraiya on a rampage entered her mind. Her right hand index finger was pointing at what looked like a stone mushroom. The symbols on its' top surface matched the ring, giving away that it was not a naturally occurring formation.
"The melting ice washed it clean," he grumbled, knowing without elaboration what the question was, "so if that operates the device we have no clue which sequence to use. It looks like a combination lock to a safe, but without knowing the correct input order we could end up blowing up the planet or something."
He had no idea how accurate his words were . . .
"It's been five days since he disappeared," her voice softened, eyes glistening as tears threatened to fall even as her gaze settled back on the ring. "Damn that loud-mouth knucklehead, but he reminded me of the dreams lost and rekindled them. To be blunt, I'm keeping the chair warm for the gaki whenever he gets his act together and grows up. And damn it if he doesn't look like his father . . . a couple more years and he'll be beating the women off with a jutsu."
"I know how you feel," Jiraiya moved to stand on her left, right arm draping over her shoulders in a quasi-hug. "I just got to know the last link to my best student. I have many regrets, and almost all of them revolve around that dumbass kid. You and I . . . we're going to have to sit down with him when we get him back and find out why his is the way he is; at least, intelligence wise. I like his personality as it is."
"Part of that issue we can take care of right now," she turned her head to the right as Kakashi warily approached. He was well aware that his popularity with the two powerhouses was plummeting.
Seeing the look the pair were giving him he just knew he was in for another lambasting.
SGC Complex, Earth; 1000 Same Day
"This has got to be the dumbest idea you've ever had," General O'Neill deadpanned, giving Daniel the 'Why are you stupid?' look. His old friend had been in self-imposed exile, brushing up on his Oriental languages in an effort to understand the strange markings on their guest.
"Don't worry," the archeologist turned galaxy-explorer tried to assuage his old team leader, "I can do this, I think."
"Ugh, famous last words," Jack quipped, his own understanding of what looked like Japanese entirely too rusty for his tastes. "Just don't fuck this up Daniel. If what you say is in there and in fact does as 'myths' and 'legends' proclaim, and you release it . . . I'll kill you. Painfully."
"No stress," Samantha Carter smirked, knowing that her Commanding Officer wouldn't really go that far. The two would more than likely pull some miracle move out of their ass, save the world -yet again, such a common theme- then go for a few rounds in the boxing ring.
"Indeed," Teal'c delivered his private joke punch-line, internally laughing his ass off at the look on Jackson's face as he was ganged up on.
"Right, here we go," the man in question looked around the emptied storage room, save for the blond boy laying on the concrete floor naked as the day he was born. He did notice that Sam was trying her hardest not to look at said early-teenager. Daniel couldn't blame her; every time his eyes swept over the nude form of the boy his sense of inadequacy flared. Lucky bastard!
"Everybody to the booth," he continued, moving over to kneel next to their latest guest. Taking a deep breath, he sought out the part of his mind he had ignored after playing 'yo-yo' with Ascension. He had told nobody of this, but he could still utilize his internal energies to an extent. At the time the rogue elements of the NID had made him stay quiet; then as time wore on he just didn't have the chance to experiment to see just what he could do.
Part of the reason he had been incognito for five days was him getting in touch with said power. He couldn't do much, but if what was thought to be a tattoo turned into what he now believed it was then he should be able to effect some repairs.
Glancing at the lexan window of the temporary observation booth, he set to work. Operating on a hunch, he went to the place marked 'Maintenance'.
"Holy buckets!" Carter barked in surprise as the entire room -walls, ceiling, the door and all- were suddenly covered in the strange katakana. There were lines of text everywhere intermixed with bizarre symbols that had no basis in a language.
This was a case of the flagship team of the SGC messing with something they really shouldn't. At least, until they were well versed in its' operation and the consequences of tinkering with an unknown. Every eye was focused more on Daniel than the pair of Containment cells -conveniently located above their heads on the ceiling- that suddenly went from full to empty.
Mindscape, same time
"What the hell?" Naruto rubbed the back of his head, having just bounced it off of the floor after being knocked over. Glancing around for the source, he found a pair of people standing there gazing at him. The red-haired woman he had no clue about.
The blond-haired man in a white sleeveless trench coat decorated with yellow flames on the other hand . . . oh yes, he knew who this was.
"Something is wrong," the Yondaime looked around, expecting the Kyuubi snarling at him about escaping. Instead he was met with a rather calm situation, his wife, his son and . . . no giant fox.
"Kushina," Kurama recognized her immediately from their one meeting. Seeing that the parents of her prison looking at her in surprise she rolled her eyes. "If you had ever bothered to talk to me like your son is then you would be far more enlightened as to the goings-on at the time. But no~, the evil Fox must be treated like an animal!"
"Hey-hey-hey!" Naruto was having none of the attitude, even as he made a note to grill the pair in a moment. "You weren't in your right mind either! All that people remember is the rampaging death, thus their fear of you snapping for no reason in their eyes prevented them from ever talking to you!"
"That is true," the woman behind the bars of the cage admitted with a sigh, shaking her head from side to side. "It's the concept though; such arrogance to automatically believe that they are right without seeking proof. It's a universal constant amongst humans no matter what planet they're from. Trust me, I know."
"What?" the new arrivals were justifiably confused, not having any idea as to what was happening in the real world.
"It seems that your boy has gotten himself into a bit of a pickle," the human form of the Kyuubi smirked, amusement plain as day in her eyes. "While being on a different planet is one thing, whoever is messing with the seal has no clue what they're doing otherwise the two of you wouldn't have been released."
"I'd like to know why they're here to begin with and who she is," the blond child pointed at said woman, earning frowns from the adults.
"Sarutobi, you cowardly piece of shit . . .," the Yondaime grumbled, clenching his hands into fists then relaxing them again before addressing his son. "I can tell just from looking at you that the village dishonored my request. You look like you're twelve yet I know more time than that has passed. I guess I'll have to start from the beginning then."
"My name is Minato Namikaze," he had paused, gathering his wits, "Yondaime Hokage of Konoha, husband of Kushina Uzumaki and father of Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze."
As soon as the last word left his lips he folded over with a rush of air forced out of his lungs courtesy of the fist buried in his gut. He didn't have time to contemplate the pain as a knee rose up into his face, making him land on his back from the force of the blow.
"Fifteen years of hell!" Naruto raged, leaping on top of his hero to deliver punches to the head. "The scorn and suffering I have endured all because you had to choose me! No true friends, nobody willing to teach me, no idea if my parents abandoned me because you just had to use me as a storage container!"
"That's enough!" Kushina sprung into action, having seen her temper from the outside for the first time. She had discovered just what everybody else had whispered about when they thought she couldn't hear.
Uzumaki's lived up to their namesake.
Naruto truly lived up to his name, more-so than any of the fallen clan before him.
The boy had stood, panting from the effort of trying to control himself. His glare never left his father's face, making what he felt of the situation known without words or further actions.
"I deserved that," Minato coughed, getting his bearing back before sitting up. "I chose you not for the village to have a weapon or scapegoat nor for the world to be rid of Kyuubi. I chose you because, even as I looked at your minutes-old self, I knew you were destined for greatness and I believed in you. My instinct told me that not only would you make a name for yourself but that maybe, just maybe, you could even redeem a Bijuu or several along the way. I saw what you did to Suna's Jinchuuriki; not only did you beat the crap out of him but you also got him to change his outlook in life. That is the power I saw when you were born."
"You . . . believe in me?" Naruto went from angry to confused, having only heard those words from one other in his life. Not even the man he looked at as his Jiji had said that, although he may have hinted at it and it went right over his head.
"We both did, from the moment you arrived in the world," her words earned the attention of both blonds, showing they were father and son when they moved in sync, without trying, to gaze at her. "We still do, even though we only get flashes of the outside when you draw on your guests' power. That you do what is right over what is easy shows your character, even with all of the obstacles that have been placed in your path."
"Where have my manners gone?" she suddenly blinked owlishly, having gotten into the chance to talk to her son. "The name's Kushina Uzumaki, wife of the knucklehead Yondaime and your mother."
The reunion of the family that never got to know each other in life was interrupted when Naruto grabbed his head, yelling through clenched teeth at the sudden pain. Before either parent could find out what was wrong, they too gripped their heads from a sudden and massive headache.
"Oh fuck me," Kurama groused, seeing the seal that contained her shifting around. Whoever on the outside that was messing with it had just made an error. That's when the pain hit her, driving the ancient entity to her knees as her skull threatened to explode.
Whatever had just happened caused the four to blend in a way that under any other circumstance would be impossible. Not even the Yamanaka Mind-Walking Techniques could compare for the four for all intents and purposes downloaded into each other.
For Naruto who, until Iruka entered the scene, never had a decent teacher this was a boon. Everything his parents had known in life he now knew, at least in theory. Putting it into practice was going to take some intense training, not that he minded that. Some of the things he could do without, like the knowledge that his Kaa-san preferred to be shaven down below and what a female orgasm felt like.
He grunted then smirked, knowing that he was bigger than his Tou-san made his day.
Then the extremely long life of Kurama crammed itself into his rapidly filling skull, threatening to overload his psyche. Everything that she had ever seen, done and experienced made the life-style of his parents pale in comparison.
Outside the seal
"Damn it Daniel!" O'Neill barked, ducking as what appeared to be a glowing gold chain of all things whipped over his head. "Whatever you just did, undo it!"
"I'm trying!" the target of ire in the room grunted, leaning back as a hand holding a sphere of energy rose out of then fell back into the boy's stomach.
"Now would be good!" even Carter was miffed, which never led to good things for the archeologist. She yelped as a black-tipped tail swished by her face close enough to tickle her nose.
"How unusual," Teal'c was the island of calm in the Maelstrom, left eyebrow quirked upwards as a copy of the boy appeared to launch itself out of his torso before vanishing in a puff of smoke.
"Got it!" Jackson sounded triumphant when the sudden mayhem of appearing and disappearing body parts ended just as it started. He took a moment to gaze around the room, taking in the unhappy faces glaring back at him. The temporary safety booth had been the only true victim of the madness, laying shattered on the other end of the room.
"Right, finishing up," he turned back to his 'work', not even attempting to defend his position. It was only when the Seal returned to its' compact configuration did he notice that the pair of extra containment cells were empty.
"Uh, that uh . . . that can't be good," he mumbled, finally understanding the scope of the disaster he had just flirted with. "Somebody want to plug him back into the EEG? I have a feeling I did something I wasn't supposed to."
"No shit," O'Neill deadpanned, trying to calm himself after the near heart attack from the sudden explosion of activity from their guests' stomach.
"Y'know, one of these days we're going to mess with something we can't fix," Carter just had to get it out there, earning glares from her more expressive teammates and the patented 'Jaffa Deadpan Stare' courtesy of Teal'c. "Right, just saying . . ."
"Beyond the obvious, did your voodoo work?" Jack put the conversation back on track, even as his right eye watched the nurses that had been outside of the room fussing over the kid.
"It did something," Daniel was entirely noncommittal, shrugging his shoulders for extra emphasis. "I'm not about to go poking that again, for the sake of all of our sanity."
"Whoa!" came from the other side of the room, earning the attention of the flagship team. They first looked to the nurse that had shouted before following her line of sight to see their guest clinging to the ceiling like a spider.
Fifteen feet off of the floor no less.
"How the hell did he get up there?" Carter's eyebrows made a bid for freedom by attempting to leap off of her face.
Her answer wasn't forthcoming as the blond started yelling at them in what sounded like a cross between Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Tibetan, Mongolian and of all things English. Then he noticed that he was naked and flashing the females in the room, causing him to fall from his perch only to land on his head before springing back up like nothing had happened. Faster than anybody could track he had the lower half of his tracksuit on, making all present wonder just where that came from and if he owned more than one copy of that monstrosity.
Naruto, for his part, was completely confused by his surroundings. When he had been forcibly awoken by being ejected from his mindscape by his guests, the first thing that had greeted his return to the real world was an attractive nurse attaching wires to his head. Having been plugged into a similar machine more times than he cared to count he kip into a back-flip over her head, before retreating to the ceiling when he noticed that there were a dozen people around him.
He used his shouting as a cover to his taking stock of the situation. Nobody was armed with anything he was familiar with yet he could tell by their stances that these people were trained in the art of hand-to-hand combat. It was during his self-check for his own weapon supply that he discovered his Mini-Me swinging in the breeze.
It was fortunate that the storage seal he had insisted his Jiji put on his right arm hadn't been tampered with. He had a spare pair of pants in that seal for situations such as this where he would find himself in female company without apparel.
The storage seals on his left arm he left alone for the time being, so as not to draw attention to the fact he had an Armory's worth of steel on his person. Listening to the people talk back and forth, he could only grasp every seventh word if he was familiar with the subtext of what they were saying. Hearing a mental grunt of exertion, he noticed that as the people around him talked the more he understood.
Apparently his tenant was a Universal Translator on top of being an engine of destruction and several other titles.
It was as he stood still that he felt a mental pull. For some reason he felt like he was being called back into the seal.
Naruto's World, same time
Eight individuals suddenly stopped whatever it was they were doing, each looking to the sky as their tenants had gone completely still. The hosts were only aware of this as they were far more in touch with their guests than the Ninth.
"She's done it," Matatabi, otherwise known as the Nibi, had slipped into the communal consciousness to talk to the other Bijuu. "Kurama's actually done it!"
"What is this?" the monotone of Gaara brought the attention of the eight onto his person before he noticed the other human representatives.
"Since when could the Bijuu talk to each other?" Yugito Nii looked lost, even as her head acted like it was on a swivel taking in her surroundings. Counting herself, she took note that there were a Tailed-Beast and Host missing.
"What have I done?" Yagura had fallen to his knees, clutching at his head. The young Mizukage had felt the Genjutsu he had been under break thanks to this sudden meeting of the minds.
"Damned Sharingan users!" Isobu, the Sanbi's true name, growled as the massive head shook side to side before focusing on the host. "Yagura, we are going to have to flee Kirigakure now that we are free. There's no way the people will accept us after all of the pain we've caused."
"What the hell is going on?" Fu demanded, bringing all attention onto herself. "Why are we meeting like this Chomei? How are the others even able to see us?"
"Whee! Kirabi is in da house!" never one to miss an opportunity to meet new people, the boisterous mountain of muscle announced his presence the only way he knew how.
"Bee, shut up," Gyuki, known more commonly as the Hachibi, smashed the host with one of the massive tails. "This is far more serious than you can image. One of our number has returned home after ten thousand years."
"There's more of you?" Roshi felt his jaw drop, unable to comprehend what a tenth Beast would be like.
"Oh goddamn it, that hurt," all eyes beheld a beauty sprouting nine tails with a set of crimson fox ears on her head. When she took notice of the entirely white surroundings did she know where she was. "Hello all!"
"Kurama, this is not a chat room," the giant Son Goku grumbled, four tails swishing in aggravation. "That is irrelevant however. Tell us, why have you gone back?"
"New people, awesome!" a recognizable character popped into being beside Kurama. Some knew him personally, others could see the resemblance between his parents and him. "Yo! Naruto Uzumaki is the name!"
"Still cheerful as ever, eh Naruto?" Gaara deadpanned while keeping an eye on the silent Shukaku.
"You doing all right there?" the blond fearlessly walked up to the new Kazekage, even as the giant Tanuki next to him whimpered. "Oh, I see you remember the last time we tangled Shukaku. You been giving your host a break or do I have to repeat my performance?"
It was hilarious seeing the three hundred foot tall Bijuu wave its' arms in front of itself in a placating gesture. "No, no; we're good! I've behaved! Please, don't spank me again!"
"We're getting off track here," Kokuo, the Gobi, loomed over the forms of Naruto and Gaara. "What have you done, boy? Why is it that we can sense Kurama has returned to the place we were banished from?"
"That's not how it happened and you know it," she was quick to defend her container. "Can you all get into your human forms? Craning my neck to look at you all hurts like a bitch!"
A blinding flash of light later and the males present were in awe of the beauty around them. The pair of female containers felt jealousy as they were suddenly ignored.
Each color of choice matched that of their Beast forms.
Shukaku favored shades tan. Her rounds ears perched on her head, the eyes of her larger self, the dirty-blond hair that cascaded down her back and the modified kimono she wore. Even her footwear, what would be a tennis shoe, was a shade of tan. The kimono looked to be a size too small, as it barely covered the firm-looking fairy large breasts while only going as far down as her mid-thighs. Even her skin was a tan color, giving her an exotic look.
Matatabi apparently liked sky-blue. Even though her larger-self had black splotches and stripes, when she was looking human she went with her primary coloring. Like her 'sisters' she had ears on the top of her head, cat ears in her case. Her hair was a lighter shade of sky-blue that traveled in waves down her back that matched her eyes, which looked like a cat's. Her attire earned a blush as she was in a sports bra and spandex shorts, both a darker shade of her favorite color. The bra, or as Naruto thought of it a 'one piece stretchy wrap', strained to hold itself together as the medium-large breasts underneath made their bid for freedom. The shorts showed off her hips, ending just above her knees. Her skin was alabaster, making her color of choice stand out even more.
Isobu was of the teal persuasion. Her hair was different in that instead of cascading down her back it was in a page-boy style with the right-side bangs covering the missing eye. Being that her alternate form was a tortoise, her ears were the more standard human variety on the sides of her head. Her clothing choice matched her personality, being a one-piece bathing leotard that hid nothing from the imagination. Her own breasts strained the material, even if they were only medium size. It was also a darker shade of teal. She chose to have bare feet, so if she went swimming in this form she could just jump straight in. Her skin was pale, a couple of shades lighter than Matatabi making her hair and remaining eye stand out.
Son Goku, obviously misnamed somewhere along the line, looked like she was a fan of the color brown and its' various shades. Her hair was shorter than Isobu's, making her ears appear larger than they actually were. Being that her Beast was a Great Monkey -thus, providing a hint at her name coming from a fan of a certain manga- her body was more muscular than her 'sisters'. Her clothing of choice was similar to Isobu's in being a one-piece body suit two shades lighter than her hair and eyes. Her breasts were the largest yet, almost the size of Tsunade Senju. She too went without footwear, so that any workout she undertook wouldn't be slowed down by getting them off.
Kokuo and Saiken shared color schemes, in that both of their bigger forms were white. The human-form of the Six-Tailed Slug made up for the similarity by having sea-foam green hair and eyes while her Five-Tailed Dolphin Horse compatriot had sea-blue eyes and hair. Even with skin slightly off-white, they were clad in white business suits and white business shoes. Their attire hid their figures, except for the flair of their hips and the outline of the outer sides of their breasts.
Chomei was an oddity. Her larger self had two colors: her upper half featured a blue exoskeleton while her lower had yellow wings/tails. In a fit of pique, she stuck to that scheme as her upper body had blue eyes, hair that went mid-back and a blue tank-top that might as well have not been there for all of the covering it didn't do. Her breasts were almost completely visible, showing that they naturally rode high and close together giving her a deep cleavage. Her lower half was a pair of sunflower yellow short-shorts and sandals, showing off her legs. Her skin tone represented her outdoors nature as it was a golden coloration, not as deep a tan as Shukaku though.
If Chomei was the oddity, Gyuki was downright boring. Slate grey was her choice of coloring, keeping in line with her other form. She even went so far as to have a pinstripe suit in her colors of grey and white. Her hair -that went down to her shoulders- was a lighter shade, nearing the white spectrum while her eyes were darker nearing the black. Like Kokuo and Saiken, her body shape was partially hidden under her choice of attire although it accentuated the flare of her hips and the sides of her breasts.
"Well damn," Naruto exhaled, shaking his head in disbelief at the human forms of the Bijuu. "Wow . . . just, wow. I thought I'd met some good looking women in my travels but the nine of you . . . yowza! Makes me glad Ero-Sennin isn't here otherwise I'd never hear the end of it."
"It's nice to be appreciated, no matter the form," Gyuki deadpanned, arms crossed under her breasts. "Completely irrelevant to the matter at hand but nice. Now, tell us just why Kurama is no longer on this world."
The other eight humans had no clue as to the topic of conversation. In all truth, they had even been unaware that their tenants even had alternate forms to use.
"At least we now know that the Communal Mind functions over interstellar distances," Saiken, the scientist of the Nine, had already produced a star-chart from nowhere. The hosts looked at it and noted that it was far more complete than any they had ever seen before. Although in the climate of constant wars and one-upmanship astrology had never really taken off. That looked like it was going to be changing rather quickly if the current happenings were anything to go by.
"I'm on the original world not by choice," Kurama cut into their thoughts. "It's not even the fault of my container. We just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The location of the Gate had undergone climate changes since the last time we were there. In fact, I'd say that the deceased Daimyo of Yuki no Kuni repaired the Ancient heat generators. There's no other plausible way that the rest of the civilization has the technological means to melt an entire glacier in five minutes."
"Naruto," Gaara corralled his friend, taking note that the other hosts were surrounding them having gotten lost in the techno-speak already.
"I know even less," he cut their line of inquiry off. "I wasn't aware when the people on the other side took us through. In fact, I woke up not too long ago after having a talk with my parents."
"Whoa there!" Yugito waved her arms side-to-side. "How could you have talk to your parents when you're not, according to them, even on this planet?"
"They died the night Kyuubi got sealed into me," he gave the half-lidded look at her, making her squirm a bit. "While they were dying, my father sealed bits of themselves into me as a secondary measure should anything go wrong with the seal. Somebody on this world messed with it, releasing both long before they should have been. They are still around . . .," he trailed off, concentrating on something before two new people came into being at his sides.
"You!" roared Roshi and Han, eyes taking in the sudden appearance of their worst nightmare.
"Flee for your lives!" Kirabi turned to run, wanting away from the woman that had nearly killed him the last time they crossed paths.
"They're echoes! For fuck's sakes, did I not say they were dead?!" Naruto bellowed, earning the attention of not just his parents and hosts but of the Bijuu in conference off to his left. "I carry their echoes in my seal, which I can access through my mind! Put two and two together already!"
Minato and Kushina hadn't so much as twitched since their sudden appearance in the white space that was the Communal Mind of the Bijuu. They were in fact too surprised from their appearance in a place outside of the seal to do much else for the time being. Their eyes were going back and forth, taking in everything in front of them though, showing why they had earned their ranks.
"This . . . is different," the Yondaime groused, left arm reaching up so he could scratch the back of his head.
TBC
A second pilot fic I've been working on (and off) over the period of six months. This one will either go on or be scrapped depending on how well it is received.
A big shout-out to all the readers/reviewers. You people make writing fun, even those that have bad things to say.
Until next time, Ja Ne.
SPECIAL NOTES: This story is an exercise in imagination, and as such is not part of my rotation. I'll be using it as a placeholder/break to give me time to think about where my other works are going. There will be instances of Adult Material within -this is Naruto, a ninja-world where people die and prisoners are subject to in-the-field procedures. If you find this offensive please use your browser's BACK feature and find something else to read. This is your only warning in this regard . . .
ALTERNATE TIMELINE/UNIVERSE WARNING: Because mid to late teenagers are more in touch with reality -when they stop substituting their own, at any rate- than pre/early teens, I have advanced canon by three years while holding to events. This means the Rookie Nine (Naruto's Class) are FIFTEEN while Team Gai is SIXTEEN. I'm of the belief that it's too much to ask for with a younger ninja-child to take their profession seriously . . . no matter who the Sensei is.
The Question: What would happen if Naruto stumbled upon a Stargate under Yuki no Kuni while the ice was being melted?
Star Sage by: (Driver) Jim Ohki
Under-ice Cavern, PX9-190
"Ice with a ninety percent chance of a dead planet," Jack O'Neill grumbled, taking his surroundings. Or rather, the lack of as the frozen water surrounded them on all sides. The group of explorers knew they were near the surface as filtered sunlight gave minor illumination. Fissures in the ice allowed air to flow from above, preventing excessive build-up of carbon monoxide and dioxide.
"You know that's not completely true Jack," Daniel Jackson sniffed, ruining his argument as the cold air interacted with his allergies. "This planet just hasn't been explored in ten thousand or so years. We wouldn't even be looking into the place if McKay hadn't found the address in the Atlantis database. The Ancients were doing something on this world that required them to 'forget' about it."
"Yeah, yeah," the General paid no attention to his resident bookworm, instead turning to his old Second in Command . . . and resident bookworm. 'Good thing Teal'c is around otherwise I'd feel stupid.'
Whatever question he was going to ask, complete with a request for the answer to be dumbed-down, never left his mouth as the cave they were in began to shake. The four glanced around in worry, especially at the ceiling to insure they weren't about to be caved in on. The chamber glowed with a yellow light and the temperature rose dramatically, spurring the General into action.
"Time to go campers!"
It was a sign of how well oiled of a machine his old team were when without further prompting Daniel started dialing the 'gate home while Sam and Teal'c packed up what little survey equipment they'd set out.
"O'Neill," barked the Jaffa, his gaze up and to the right of the Stargate. Turning to see what had gotten the attention of the resident muscle, he was greeted with a yellow and orange body tumbling out of a crevice that had opened up to the surface.
"This was supposed to be a cake-walk," Jack grumbled as the 'gate came to life, "pseudo-vacation to get me out of the office. But no~, nothing ever goes right even on a supposedly dead world!" Seeing that the boy -judged so by his features- was breathing, he tossed over his shoulder, "Let SGC know we're coming back with an extra that needs medical attention!"
Teal'c grunted as he threw the blond child over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, surprised at how much such a small boy weighed.
The four were gone within a minute, missing the ice melting revealing the once-chamber to the surface that now resembled a field of plants.
Surface, Yuki no Kuni (Minutes before)
"What madness is this?!" roared Doto Kazahana as the treasure he had sought began its' work. His answer was a Rasengan to the gut, sending him spiraling into the cliff wall resulting in a broken neck.
Naruto panted, having put everything he had left into that attack. Seeing his opponent down for the count -truthfully, dead if the odd angle of his head was anything to go by- he took in his changing surroundings. The ice underfoot was glowing a soft yellow as the heat generators performed their function.
The blond was unprepared for the ice to shift, making him fall on his right side. He could hear Princess Koyuki screaming for him, even as he managed to wave her and his team off. He was in a precarious situation and he knew it; thus he would be damned if anybody got hurt trying to bail him out of this mess.
Managing to stand with the shaking underfoot he turned, gave a thumbs-up to his watching team and charge, then took one step forward when the sheet of frozen water cracked right where he was going to put his left foot.
The crack took off in both directions, heading for the ends of the glacier as the stress from the internal melting became too much for the structure to handle. Within a second a fairly wide chasm opened up directly in front of him. He had time to throw a worried look in the direction of those watching -even the forgotten about camera crew that was still filming- before the ledge he was on crumbled.
He didn't have long to ponder this new issue as his head impacted with the ice, knocking him unconscious. The last thing he heard as his world went dark was his new friend demanding to be let go to try to save him.
Konoha, Hokage's Office; three hours later
"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune charged through the door, a look of panic and grief on her face. "Emergency message from Team Seven!"
"Give me that!" the blond woman roared, sending her desk out the window as it was in the way. Her niece, as she saw her, fell over from the sudden movement of the Sannin-turned-Kage, the message scroll flying through the air to land in the cleavage of said woman. "Not what I had in mind, but . . .," she grumbled, fishing the message out of her shirt.
Her expression varied from shock, worry, awe and back to worry as she read. The mission was a bloody S-Rank, an entire country just had a change in leadership, Naruto Uzumaki was Missing in Action, something strange and old had been found under the melted ice of the former Yuki no Kuni . . .
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Tsunade swung into action, knowing that there was going to be another interested party out there. She waited a moment for the smoke from her summoning to evaporate before looking at the messenger slug.
"How may I help you Tsunade-sama?"
"Message relay through the Toads to Jiraiya," her voice was harder than she wanted but one of her most precious people was in trouble. "I don't care what you are doing, get your ass to Yuki no Kuni ASAP. Naruto is MIA, and Kakashi has found something that might alter the balance of power in the Nations. If you are not there before me in five days I will ban your books in Konoha. End of message."
"Right away!" the slug bowed before poofing out of existence to do as requested. The tone of voice used was one that hadn't been heard by the Slugs since the Second War when Nawaki died. Somebody's head was about to roll, that much was for certain.
"Shizune!" the Hokage barked, before remembering that the young woman was still in her office. "Get me ANBU Team Four, have them ready to leave with me in an hour packed for a two week mission. While we are gone Asuma is to be in charge, the Council is temporarily suspended, and no S-Ranks are to be dispatched until I get back."
"R-Right away!" the poor brunette stuttered before fleeing from the office, knowing that her Sempai was in a foul mood. She hadn't seen her mentor this fired up in many years and wasn't about to try to talk her out of going. Even the Elders wouldn't dare try, not if they liked the ability to breathe on their own.
Tsuchi no Kuni, Unpopulated Area; Ten minutes later
"Message!" announced the small toad that just came into being, thankfully in the middle of nowhere. Jiraiya scowled at the summons before finishing his business behind a pile of boulders.
"Can't a man take a shit in peace anymore?" he grumbled, before sighing. If this was Naruto sending one more plea for training he was going to kill the boy, godson or not. "All right, give it to me."
His face paled to the coloration of a ghost when he was informed of the goings on. He knew his old teammate was serious to for she went for something he really cared about instead of just threatening him with bodily harm.
"We checked beforehand," the toad looked up at the older summoner. "Naruto is still alive but he is no longer within range for a Reverse Summoning. He might be able to bring us to him, depending on where his is . . . if he can. We have gotten permission from the Dogs to Reverse Summon you to their minion in Yuki no Kuni."
"Do it," was the immediate command, as the Sennin grabbed his belongings. Forget whatever it was Kakashi found, his godson was far more important. He had ignored the boy for thirteen years, wallowing in his own guilt and had just gotten to know him. There was going to be hell to pay for whomever took the son of his student.
Sunset, Yuki no Kuni, Daimyo Palace
"There are faint traces of footsteps leading up to the ring," Kakashi was saying before a cloud of smoke erupted next to his person. The next thing he knew was a fist impacted his face, sending him flying.
"Where is Naruto?!" boomed Jiraiya, having made his entrance in a style only he could. He noticed that Sakura and Sasuke were shivering in fear from his visage. He sneered at them, in no particular mood to put up with their usual shenanigans.
"We don't know," the leader of Team Seven managed to groan out, even as he massaged his jaw. His exposed eye widened when the Killing Intent let loose by his Sensei's Sensei made his displeasure known.
"Tell me what happened, and it better be good," the white-haired man growled. "Especially since Tsunade herself is coming."
"The Hokage . . . is coming . . . here?" Sakura squeaked, knowing that if Jiraiya was mad as a bull about the disappearance of The Dobe then the village leader would be infinitely madder. There was something about the blond boy that drew these powerhouses in and made them like him.
"Show me where he last was as you speak," the Gama-Sennin rumbled, hoisting Kakashi up by his Jounin vest. He turned to give the two Gennin the evil eye. "You two stay here and keep an eye on your client."
"Hai!" they came to attention, not offering any resistance to the look being given them. Better their Sensei take care of the man's rage than receive any more that they had.
Koyuki had said nothing, her own worry about the blond that had changed her views taking precedence in her mind. Hearing that the Hokage was en route made her worry for another reason as apparently this Tsunade was close to Naruto and cared greatly for him. Would she and her country get blamed for his disappearance?
Kami Above, she hoped not.
Earth, SGC Briefing Room
"So much for the cake-walk mission as a send off," Jack O'Neill moaned, face-palming in disbelief. In all of the Off-World missions he had ever taken, none had been a tasty treat. Something or another had always gone wrong at some point.
"You're telling me, I was in the middle of the move to Washington," General George Hammond quipped before taking a drink of his coffee. "So; a thought-to-be dead planet is in fact, not."
"No sir," Sam Carter agreed, looking sheepish while she did so. "The child that literally fell into our laps wasn't dressed for the climate. How he didn't have frostbite in those open-toe shoes I'll never know. What it does tell us is that the rest of the planet has life and a civilization of some sort. Even though a gaudy orange, he was dressed in the equivalent of a tracksuit and had metallic weapons on his person."
"Eastern Asian weapons, to be exact," Daniel Jackson took over seamlessly, as the team had done this song and dance many times before hand. "I find it hard to believe but we may have stumbled across a planet's worth of ninja. It took some research but the boy was armed with throwing knives known as Kunai complimented by the ever-popular stars called Shuriken."
"Well, stealth does not need apply everywhere," Jack quipped, thinking of how hard it would be to hide in that orange monstrosity.
"Indeed," Teal'c gave his raised eyebrow of humor, showing that he got the joke.
"The only place he'd have camouflage would be a pumpkin patch," Carter couldn't help herself, before moving along. "We didn't get to see much beyond the ice before it started melting at a rapid rate. I believe it was a fairly large machine that did so, since we appeared to have been inside of a glacier giving more credence to a civilization of some sort."
"Other than a bump to the head," one of the nurses from the Infirmary was giving the medical briefing as a change in CMO was supposed to happen shortly, "he is in very good health. His body runs a couple of degrees warmer than ours do but this appears to be natural. There is an abnormality though that cannot be natural in any way, shape or form."
From a folder a copy of an EEG graph was passed to each person at the table before the nurse continued.
"There are two distinct consciousnesses within our guest. We checked with an MRI, there is no symbiote or any over type of parasitic creature in his body. One is always at the surface, believed to be the boy himself while the other is almost within his subconscious. Then there was this that we found when we ran a black-light over his body."
This time copies of a photograph were handed out, showing a nearly invisible swirl surrounded by odd writing that took off in eight directions.
"While we think this might be a tribal tattoo of some sort we are confused as to why it isn't visible at all times," the nurse shook her head. "Since Asian languages are part of Foreign Relations One-oh-One at the Academy, we are able to understand part of what the markings say. We aren't completely certain of the translation though since some of the katakana appear to be different from those found here on Earth. We have the computers chewing on this image, finding matches to what we can. But . . . we have no idea what this is."
"It's certainly strange," Daniel agreed, his mind reviewing the characters to try to make sense of them. He already found one that appeared to say 'Maintenance' but that couldn't be right. Another thing he noticed was that several looked like they were overlapped in a bizarre fashion, serving some function.
Three in particular caught his attention. Each had the word 'Containment' but what really piqued his interest was the numbers attached to them. Two were at one hundred percent while the last, and biggest, was at eighty-five and showing signs of degradation. This one had an identifier attached to it, which was doubly strange in that it translated to the number nine.
His felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as old myths from the Orient came to the forefront of his mind. Tales of massive beings of energy that could be only be contained in a certain manner. He had blown them off as strange tales -even stranger than his original belief of the Pyramids- but his years at the SGC had taught him differently.
"I need to see this in person," his sudden declaration had the attention of the room focus on him. "About five years before I focused on the Egyptian Pyramids I studied ancient myths and legends of the East. They spoke of Raijuu and Bijuu, gigantic creatures made of energy that had roamed the lands some six thousand years ago, at least as that was when humanity discovered record-keeping. The stories that tie into the beasts varied, from a benevolent spirit in the shape of a five-tailed Tanuki to a representative of Death in the form of a two-tailed cat."
He paused, staring down at the photograph before looking back up.
"One commonality was about a Nine-Tailed Fox. Warnings were given about the Kyuubi no Yoko being hatred, anger, malevolence and of all things chaos wrapped into one destructive package. I'll have to double check, but what the creature was said to be able to do . . ."
"What?" O'Neill pressed when his friend trailed off, looking pensive.
"Acts of God would be a comparison to a Kyuubi on a rampage. Not the good kind, either."
"You do that," General Hammond ordered, wondering just what they had brought into the mountain. "In the meantime we'll just have to wait until the boy wakes up so that we can talk to him, for such a thing might not even exist."
Naruto's Mindscape; SGC Infirmary
"I never thought I'd be back on this world," Kurama rumbled to nobody, having 'borrowed' the boy's senses to determine where they had been taken. Speaking of, the host needed to learn a few truths. "BOY! BOY! COME HERE!"
"What'do'ya want you overgrown rug?" Naruto groggily answered his tenant, rubbing sleep out of his eyes as he phased into being. "I was dreamin' of Ramen, being Hokage, Ramen, several girls, being served Ramen by several girls while being Hokage . . ."
"SILENCE!" thundered out of the cage, effectively waking the blond up. How a complete dumbass such as this expected to get anywhere in life was beyond the ancient entity. "You and I need to have a talk, boy. We are in a bit of a situation here, one that I find myself uncomfortable with."
"What the hell could make you uncomfortable?!" was rudely shouted for no reason. Really, his guest had ears the size of skyscrapers and could hear just fine.
"For fuck's sake," Naruto felt his jaw drop at the annoyance he could tell was coming from within the cage, "you have to be the dumbest person in the galaxy. Before you even open your mouth LET ME FINISH!" The last was bellowed out, as the host was about to lambast his tenant with the usual spiel of ruining his life etc et al. "I know those baboons in your village didn't educate you. It is not your fault nor is it mine. It is theirs for thinking that by keeping you weak they were weakening me. BAH! We are two separate beings, the only thing making you strong ensures is that I'll survive longer."
"Oh yes, I see you're intrigued," the Kyuubi grinned, just to show off the teeth. "As much as it annoys me, I'll clue you in. This seal is powered by the Shinigami, which took half of my soul the night I was put in here. When you die, what you see of me will go into the stomach of the Shinigami and remerge with the rest. Unfortunately, by that time, the Death God will be strong enough to contain me for all eternity. Originally, this wouldn't have been too much of an issue as at least I knew where I was going.
"When you fell down that crevice, you found something that hadn't been used in ten thousand years on your planet. You also found a group of humans -well, three humans and a humanoid to be exact. They, not knowing of me or our pasts, took us with them to their home . . . on a distant planet. One that I've almost forgotten in my long existence."
Naruto was confused, to put it mildly. He understood every word that came out of Kyuubi's mouth, but lacked the education to put it into the proper context. Some of that was nobody's fault for the stars were thought to be just that: random points of light in the night sky.
"Good," the massive form was impressed that the living prison didn't immediately go into a spiel or several. "It's good to see that you can think, even with the hindrances in your life. The truth of my kind is a strange one. We were once one, a Juubi of massive power and unstoppable ability. Before that though, we Nine had evolved into the various forms on a different world . . . this world, to be exact. An important fact you should know is that we started out in life just as you did."
"You were once . . . human?" the blond almost didn't ask, but was searching for the picture of what his tenant was talking about.
"Fifteen thousand years ago, we were human yes," the glowing eyes and reflective teeth sank back into the dark cage, confusing the boy further. Before he could voice his lack of understanding, the click-click of somebody walking in heels echoed out of the darkness.
Naruto about fell over at what entered the light from outside the bars. Crimson appeared to be her color of choice: from luscious hair that went to her waist to her pouty lips that had gloss to her eyes to the ears on top of her head to the nine tails calmly waving as she walked. Even her attire, which looked like a kimono that did nothing to hide her busty figure, was a deep shade of red. He chanced a glance down and sure enough, her shoes were the same shade as the rest of her ensemble.
"Like what you see?" she struck a pose, settling her weight on her right leg causing that hip to jut out as her right hand settled on said hip. Her left leg pushed out of the gap in the kimono, revealing her cream-colored smooth skin to his purview. "At any rate, this was the form I was born with. Well, minus the obvious animal traits. The Nine, in mortal life, were all female as a matter of fact. We were born on this world, in an island-country. All of us were actually friends back then, each looking out for the well being of others."
"When we reached twenty years of age," she sighed, drudging up old memories, "we were approached by a faction of a galaxy-wide race. The leader of the group sweet-talked to us about Higher Powers and the usual radical religious spiel that at the time sounded good. We should have known that not all of that race were benign or benevolent. They were trying to amass power without having to follow the rest of their kind into Ascension. The leader spoke of a plague that had begun sweeping the galaxy, killing everything it came into contact with. We, who at the time were more in tune with Nature than them, could be a way for them to save everybody."
"It was too good to be true," her shoulders drooped as she relived a time long gone. "They experimented on us in secret, away from the rest of their people. The first thing they did was fuse us with what you know as Nature Energy. When we lost cohesion as humanoids, they had the brilliant idea to meld us with animals. Once we stabilized, our new forms were massive. While we retained our intelligences, what defined use as human was lost. They, seeing us as a means to stop the plague, brainwashed us into being Destroyers of Worlds since they couldn't take in Nature Energy like we could. For four thousand years, we would be moved from planet to planet wiping out entire civilizations."
Her eyes focused on him for the first time since she'd started talking.
"We were discovered by the leader of the people when the plague hit their home-world. The one that had done this to us had tried to turn us loose which was what led to our outing. He and his faction were summarily dropped onto a heavily-infected world after every means of escape was taken from them. As for us, we had developed an immunity to the plague and a pseudo-immortality for nothing they tried could release us from this plane. We were taken to your planet, which had been isolated from the rest to prevent not just the plague from reaching it but as a place for us to live out our days."
She shook her head, knowing that she was being long-winded with her history lesson. "Eight thousand years ago, after two thousand years of relative peace, your world was discovered by a race of parasites. They . . . were evil incarnate. We defended the people that had taken to us as Guardians, since we never let violence and wars get out of hand. Shukaku lost her sanity on the fifth invasion, for she ate one of the parasites that promptly infected her with its' genetic memory. We're not certain who did it, either her or the invaders, but we were pulled into one enormous being: a massive ten-tailed beast of unimaginable power. The parasite infected the rest of us while we were merged, turning us from defenders into a single berserker that slaughtered everything in our path. We could kill the invaders before they even reached the ground, so eventually they just stopped coming. For seven thousand years we were lost in the madness, rampaging across the land until a single man rose up to stop us: the Rikudo Sennin. We had no idea until he sealed us within his person that he was one of the faction that had created us, Ascended then Descended to try to correct his error. He treated us like the individuals we once were, fixing what he could of our personalities before returning us to the forms that had been forced on us as he died."
"You . . . have feelings," Naruto deadpanned, wrapping his mind around the concept as it suddenly appeared in his mind. He had heard various emotions in her voice, even if her face betrayed nothing. Everything that he had learned about the various Bijuu was a lie, and this truth was one giant horse-pill to swallow. "Uh, we'll talk about that later. Is there anything else I should know?"
"Not until we get home," she shrugged, "since anything else I have to say pertains to the night I got sealed in here."
Five Days Later, Yuki no Kuni; 0800
While the intrepid hero was having a life altering discussion with what he found wasn't supposed to be the bane of his existence, the situation in the last place he'd been was fluid.
"What the fuck is this?!" Tsunade couldn't help herself, her eyes falling on the 'Ring' for the first time. Jiraiya was in her face within a heartbeat, looking as serious as she'd ever seen him.
"This thing is positively ancient," the white haired Sannin turned his head far enough to the right to look back at the device. "Neither the Toads nor the Dogs know what this thing is. At least, that's what they claim. I say that because both have mentioned that this thing was here before the Bijuu . . . long before."
Two of ANBU Team Four, which happened to be a combination Heavy Assault/Interrogation squad, moved from the sides of their Hokage to approach the at-a-glance stone ring. They were wary of any traps, even if the Gama Sennin had approached the object many times over the past few days.
The soil on the side they approached had a slight inwards curvature in line with the bottom of whatever it was, as if something large had scrapped the ground away. Within the scraped earth were footprints that originated from nowhere at the ring. What was strange was that the ground behind it was untouched, showing where the top of the ridge had been.
"This is easily defendable turf," Tsunade caught onto the scrutiny her ANBU were giving the surroundings, realizing that whatever it was she was looking at was on a rise. "No cover for half a click in any direction, uphill to the objective which would provide some cover for whoever was holding it . . . even that cliff a kilometer away would be good for an overlook to monitor the approaches."
"Well, regardless of whatever this thing is," Jiraiya huffed, almost pouting at a mystery that he had no clue how to solve, "Kazahana-dono and her people have nothing to do with it. I know you brought Ibiki and Anko along to verify it but I can tell you that the Princess is more concerned about Naruto than," he waved with his right hand at the ring. "The only person who might have seen it is long dead: the former Daimyo and Koyuki's father."
"Yes, I imagine that heat generator had to get down there somehow," the blond woman quipped, looking from the crest of the ridge to said device fifty meters away to the right down near the bottom. "Even if he saw it, he probably would have been just as confused as we are about it and left it alone."
"Well, we don't have that luxury," her old teammate rumbled, looking like he wanted a fight. "It makes no sense but from the center of the ring there are four sets of footprints going outwards. Three men: one, very muscular and heavy -definitely a fighter, another heavily trained in combat and the last confuses me. It looks civilian yet at the same time speaks of training or at least knowledge of being wary in unknown situations. The fourth was a female, also trained in mission operations. When they go back in towards the object the big guy was carrying extra weight like another person with him, more than likely Naruto."
It always amazed Tsunade that the once-Dobe of her graduating class had turned into such a magnificent Shinobi . . . when he was being serious at any rate. Of course, threaten or take something precious of his and watch the destructive mayhem that ensues.
"What about?" she shook her head slightly, shaking off the feeling of dread whenever Jiraiya on a rampage entered her mind. Her right hand index finger was pointing at what looked like a stone mushroom. The symbols on its' top surface matched the ring, giving away that it was not a naturally occurring formation.
"The melting ice washed it clean," he grumbled, knowing without elaboration what the question was, "so if that operates the device we have no clue which sequence to use. It looks like a combination lock to a safe, but without knowing the correct input order we could end up blowing up the planet or something."
He had no idea how accurate his words were . . .
"It's been five days since he disappeared," her voice softened, eyes glistening as tears threatened to fall even as her gaze settled back on the ring. "Damn that loud-mouth knucklehead, but he reminded me of the dreams lost and rekindled them. To be blunt, I'm keeping the chair warm for the gaki whenever he gets his act together and grows up. And damn it if he doesn't look like his father . . . a couple more years and he'll be beating the women off with a jutsu."
"I know how you feel," Jiraiya moved to stand on her left, right arm draping over her shoulders in a quasi-hug. "I just got to know the last link to my best student. I have many regrets, and almost all of them revolve around that dumbass kid. You and I . . . we're going to have to sit down with him when we get him back and find out why his is the way he is; at least, intelligence wise. I like his personality as it is."
"Part of that issue we can take care of right now," she turned her head to the right as Kakashi warily approached. He was well aware that his popularity with the two powerhouses was plummeting.
Seeing the look the pair were giving him he just knew he was in for another lambasting.
SGC Complex, Earth; 1000 Same Day
"This has got to be the dumbest idea you've ever had," General O'Neill deadpanned, giving Daniel the 'Why are you stupid?' look. His old friend had been in self-imposed exile, brushing up on his Oriental languages in an effort to understand the strange markings on their guest.
"Don't worry," the archeologist turned galaxy-explorer tried to assuage his old team leader, "I can do this, I think."
"Ugh, famous last words," Jack quipped, his own understanding of what looked like Japanese entirely too rusty for his tastes. "Just don't fuck this up Daniel. If what you say is in there and in fact does as 'myths' and 'legends' proclaim, and you release it . . . I'll kill you. Painfully."
"No stress," Samantha Carter smirked, knowing that her Commanding Officer wouldn't really go that far. The two would more than likely pull some miracle move out of their ass, save the world -yet again, such a common theme- then go for a few rounds in the boxing ring.
"Indeed," Teal'c delivered his private joke punch-line, internally laughing his ass off at the look on Jackson's face as he was ganged up on.
"Right, here we go," the man in question looked around the emptied storage room, save for the blond boy laying on the concrete floor naked as the day he was born. He did notice that Sam was trying her hardest not to look at said early-teenager. Daniel couldn't blame her; every time his eyes swept over the nude form of the boy his sense of inadequacy flared. Lucky bastard!
"Everybody to the booth," he continued, moving over to kneel next to their latest guest. Taking a deep breath, he sought out the part of his mind he had ignored after playing 'yo-yo' with Ascension. He had told nobody of this, but he could still utilize his internal energies to an extent. At the time the rogue elements of the NID had made him stay quiet; then as time wore on he just didn't have the chance to experiment to see just what he could do.
Part of the reason he had been incognito for five days was him getting in touch with said power. He couldn't do much, but if what was thought to be a tattoo turned into what he now believed it was then he should be able to effect some repairs.
Glancing at the lexan window of the temporary observation booth, he set to work. Operating on a hunch, he went to the place marked 'Maintenance'.
"Holy buckets!" Carter barked in surprise as the entire room -walls, ceiling, the door and all- were suddenly covered in the strange katakana. There were lines of text everywhere intermixed with bizarre symbols that had no basis in a language.
This was a case of the flagship team of the SGC messing with something they really shouldn't. At least, until they were well versed in its' operation and the consequences of tinkering with an unknown. Every eye was focused more on Daniel than the pair of Containment cells -conveniently located above their heads on the ceiling- that suddenly went from full to empty.
Mindscape, same time
"What the hell?" Naruto rubbed the back of his head, having just bounced it off of the floor after being knocked over. Glancing around for the source, he found a pair of people standing there gazing at him. The red-haired woman he had no clue about.
The blond-haired man in a white sleeveless trench coat decorated with yellow flames on the other hand . . . oh yes, he knew who this was.
"Something is wrong," the Yondaime looked around, expecting the Kyuubi snarling at him about escaping. Instead he was met with a rather calm situation, his wife, his son and . . . no giant fox.
"Kushina," Kurama recognized her immediately from their one meeting. Seeing that the parents of her prison looking at her in surprise she rolled her eyes. "If you had ever bothered to talk to me like your son is then you would be far more enlightened as to the goings-on at the time. But no~, the evil Fox must be treated like an animal!"
"Hey-hey-hey!" Naruto was having none of the attitude, even as he made a note to grill the pair in a moment. "You weren't in your right mind either! All that people remember is the rampaging death, thus their fear of you snapping for no reason in their eyes prevented them from ever talking to you!"
"That is true," the woman behind the bars of the cage admitted with a sigh, shaking her head from side to side. "It's the concept though; such arrogance to automatically believe that they are right without seeking proof. It's a universal constant amongst humans no matter what planet they're from. Trust me, I know."
"What?" the new arrivals were justifiably confused, not having any idea as to what was happening in the real world.
"It seems that your boy has gotten himself into a bit of a pickle," the human form of the Kyuubi smirked, amusement plain as day in her eyes. "While being on a different planet is one thing, whoever is messing with the seal has no clue what they're doing otherwise the two of you wouldn't have been released."
"I'd like to know why they're here to begin with and who she is," the blond child pointed at said woman, earning frowns from the adults.
"Sarutobi, you cowardly piece of shit . . .," the Yondaime grumbled, clenching his hands into fists then relaxing them again before addressing his son. "I can tell just from looking at you that the village dishonored my request. You look like you're twelve yet I know more time than that has passed. I guess I'll have to start from the beginning then."
"My name is Minato Namikaze," he had paused, gathering his wits, "Yondaime Hokage of Konoha, husband of Kushina Uzumaki and father of Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze."
As soon as the last word left his lips he folded over with a rush of air forced out of his lungs courtesy of the fist buried in his gut. He didn't have time to contemplate the pain as a knee rose up into his face, making him land on his back from the force of the blow.
"Fifteen years of hell!" Naruto raged, leaping on top of his hero to deliver punches to the head. "The scorn and suffering I have endured all because you had to choose me! No true friends, nobody willing to teach me, no idea if my parents abandoned me because you just had to use me as a storage container!"
"That's enough!" Kushina sprung into action, having seen her temper from the outside for the first time. She had discovered just what everybody else had whispered about when they thought she couldn't hear.
Uzumaki's lived up to their namesake.
Naruto truly lived up to his name, more-so than any of the fallen clan before him.
The boy had stood, panting from the effort of trying to control himself. His glare never left his father's face, making what he felt of the situation known without words or further actions.
"I deserved that," Minato coughed, getting his bearing back before sitting up. "I chose you not for the village to have a weapon or scapegoat nor for the world to be rid of Kyuubi. I chose you because, even as I looked at your minutes-old self, I knew you were destined for greatness and I believed in you. My instinct told me that not only would you make a name for yourself but that maybe, just maybe, you could even redeem a Bijuu or several along the way. I saw what you did to Suna's Jinchuuriki; not only did you beat the crap out of him but you also got him to change his outlook in life. That is the power I saw when you were born."
"You . . . believe in me?" Naruto went from angry to confused, having only heard those words from one other in his life. Not even the man he looked at as his Jiji had said that, although he may have hinted at it and it went right over his head.
"We both did, from the moment you arrived in the world," her words earned the attention of both blonds, showing they were father and son when they moved in sync, without trying, to gaze at her. "We still do, even though we only get flashes of the outside when you draw on your guests' power. That you do what is right over what is easy shows your character, even with all of the obstacles that have been placed in your path."
"Where have my manners gone?" she suddenly blinked owlishly, having gotten into the chance to talk to her son. "The name's Kushina Uzumaki, wife of the knucklehead Yondaime and your mother."
The reunion of the family that never got to know each other in life was interrupted when Naruto grabbed his head, yelling through clenched teeth at the sudden pain. Before either parent could find out what was wrong, they too gripped their heads from a sudden and massive headache.
"Oh fuck me," Kurama groused, seeing the seal that contained her shifting around. Whoever on the outside that was messing with it had just made an error. That's when the pain hit her, driving the ancient entity to her knees as her skull threatened to explode.
Whatever had just happened caused the four to blend in a way that under any other circumstance would be impossible. Not even the Yamanaka Mind-Walking Techniques could compare for the four for all intents and purposes downloaded into each other.
For Naruto who, until Iruka entered the scene, never had a decent teacher this was a boon. Everything his parents had known in life he now knew, at least in theory. Putting it into practice was going to take some intense training, not that he minded that. Some of the things he could do without, like the knowledge that his Kaa-san preferred to be shaven down below and what a female orgasm felt like.
He grunted then smirked, knowing that he was bigger than his Tou-san made his day.
Then the extremely long life of Kurama crammed itself into his rapidly filling skull, threatening to overload his psyche. Everything that she had ever seen, done and experienced made the life-style of his parents pale in comparison.
Outside the seal
"Damn it Daniel!" O'Neill barked, ducking as what appeared to be a glowing gold chain of all things whipped over his head. "Whatever you just did, undo it!"
"I'm trying!" the target of ire in the room grunted, leaning back as a hand holding a sphere of energy rose out of then fell back into the boy's stomach.
"Now would be good!" even Carter was miffed, which never led to good things for the archeologist. She yelped as a black-tipped tail swished by her face close enough to tickle her nose.
"How unusual," Teal'c was the island of calm in the Maelstrom, left eyebrow quirked upwards as a copy of the boy appeared to launch itself out of his torso before vanishing in a puff of smoke.
"Got it!" Jackson sounded triumphant when the sudden mayhem of appearing and disappearing body parts ended just as it started. He took a moment to gaze around the room, taking in the unhappy faces glaring back at him. The temporary safety booth had been the only true victim of the madness, laying shattered on the other end of the room.
"Right, finishing up," he turned back to his 'work', not even attempting to defend his position. It was only when the Seal returned to its' compact configuration did he notice that the pair of extra containment cells were empty.
"Uh, that uh . . . that can't be good," he mumbled, finally understanding the scope of the disaster he had just flirted with. "Somebody want to plug him back into the EEG? I have a feeling I did something I wasn't supposed to."
"No shit," O'Neill deadpanned, trying to calm himself after the near heart attack from the sudden explosion of activity from their guests' stomach.
"Y'know, one of these days we're going to mess with something we can't fix," Carter just had to get it out there, earning glares from her more expressive teammates and the patented 'Jaffa Deadpan Stare' courtesy of Teal'c. "Right, just saying . . ."
"Beyond the obvious, did your voodoo work?" Jack put the conversation back on track, even as his right eye watched the nurses that had been outside of the room fussing over the kid.
"It did something," Daniel was entirely noncommittal, shrugging his shoulders for extra emphasis. "I'm not about to go poking that again, for the sake of all of our sanity."
"Whoa!" came from the other side of the room, earning the attention of the flagship team. They first looked to the nurse that had shouted before following her line of sight to see their guest clinging to the ceiling like a spider.
Fifteen feet off of the floor no less.
"How the hell did he get up there?" Carter's eyebrows made a bid for freedom by attempting to leap off of her face.
Her answer wasn't forthcoming as the blond started yelling at them in what sounded like a cross between Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Tibetan, Mongolian and of all things English. Then he noticed that he was naked and flashing the females in the room, causing him to fall from his perch only to land on his head before springing back up like nothing had happened. Faster than anybody could track he had the lower half of his tracksuit on, making all present wonder just where that came from and if he owned more than one copy of that monstrosity.
Naruto, for his part, was completely confused by his surroundings. When he had been forcibly awoken by being ejected from his mindscape by his guests, the first thing that had greeted his return to the real world was an attractive nurse attaching wires to his head. Having been plugged into a similar machine more times than he cared to count he kip into a back-flip over her head, before retreating to the ceiling when he noticed that there were a dozen people around him.
He used his shouting as a cover to his taking stock of the situation. Nobody was armed with anything he was familiar with yet he could tell by their stances that these people were trained in the art of hand-to-hand combat. It was during his self-check for his own weapon supply that he discovered his Mini-Me swinging in the breeze.
It was fortunate that the storage seal he had insisted his Jiji put on his right arm hadn't been tampered with. He had a spare pair of pants in that seal for situations such as this where he would find himself in female company without apparel.
The storage seals on his left arm he left alone for the time being, so as not to draw attention to the fact he had an Armory's worth of steel on his person. Listening to the people talk back and forth, he could only grasp every seventh word if he was familiar with the subtext of what they were saying. Hearing a mental grunt of exertion, he noticed that as the people around him talked the more he understood.
Apparently his tenant was a Universal Translator on top of being an engine of destruction and several other titles.
It was as he stood still that he felt a mental pull. For some reason he felt like he was being called back into the seal.
Naruto's World, same time
Eight individuals suddenly stopped whatever it was they were doing, each looking to the sky as their tenants had gone completely still. The hosts were only aware of this as they were far more in touch with their guests than the Ninth.
"She's done it," Matatabi, otherwise known as the Nibi, had slipped into the communal consciousness to talk to the other Bijuu. "Kurama's actually done it!"
"What is this?" the monotone of Gaara brought the attention of the eight onto his person before he noticed the other human representatives.
"Since when could the Bijuu talk to each other?" Yugito Nii looked lost, even as her head acted like it was on a swivel taking in her surroundings. Counting herself, she took note that there were a Tailed-Beast and Host missing.
"What have I done?" Yagura had fallen to his knees, clutching at his head. The young Mizukage had felt the Genjutsu he had been under break thanks to this sudden meeting of the minds.
"Damned Sharingan users!" Isobu, the Sanbi's true name, growled as the massive head shook side to side before focusing on the host. "Yagura, we are going to have to flee Kirigakure now that we are free. There's no way the people will accept us after all of the pain we've caused."
"What the hell is going on?" Fu demanded, bringing all attention onto herself. "Why are we meeting like this Chomei? How are the others even able to see us?"
"Whee! Kirabi is in da house!" never one to miss an opportunity to meet new people, the boisterous mountain of muscle announced his presence the only way he knew how.
"Bee, shut up," Gyuki, known more commonly as the Hachibi, smashed the host with one of the massive tails. "This is far more serious than you can image. One of our number has returned home after ten thousand years."
"There's more of you?" Roshi felt his jaw drop, unable to comprehend what a tenth Beast would be like.
"Oh goddamn it, that hurt," all eyes beheld a beauty sprouting nine tails with a set of crimson fox ears on her head. When she took notice of the entirely white surroundings did she know where she was. "Hello all!"
"Kurama, this is not a chat room," the giant Son Goku grumbled, four tails swishing in aggravation. "That is irrelevant however. Tell us, why have you gone back?"
"New people, awesome!" a recognizable character popped into being beside Kurama. Some knew him personally, others could see the resemblance between his parents and him. "Yo! Naruto Uzumaki is the name!"
"Still cheerful as ever, eh Naruto?" Gaara deadpanned while keeping an eye on the silent Shukaku.
"You doing all right there?" the blond fearlessly walked up to the new Kazekage, even as the giant Tanuki next to him whimpered. "Oh, I see you remember the last time we tangled Shukaku. You been giving your host a break or do I have to repeat my performance?"
It was hilarious seeing the three hundred foot tall Bijuu wave its' arms in front of itself in a placating gesture. "No, no; we're good! I've behaved! Please, don't spank me again!"
"We're getting off track here," Kokuo, the Gobi, loomed over the forms of Naruto and Gaara. "What have you done, boy? Why is it that we can sense Kurama has returned to the place we were banished from?"
"That's not how it happened and you know it," she was quick to defend her container. "Can you all get into your human forms? Craning my neck to look at you all hurts like a bitch!"
A blinding flash of light later and the males present were in awe of the beauty around them. The pair of female containers felt jealousy as they were suddenly ignored.
Each color of choice matched that of their Beast forms.
Shukaku favored shades tan. Her rounds ears perched on her head, the eyes of her larger self, the dirty-blond hair that cascaded down her back and the modified kimono she wore. Even her footwear, what would be a tennis shoe, was a shade of tan. The kimono looked to be a size too small, as it barely covered the firm-looking fairy large breasts while only going as far down as her mid-thighs. Even her skin was a tan color, giving her an exotic look.
Matatabi apparently liked sky-blue. Even though her larger-self had black splotches and stripes, when she was looking human she went with her primary coloring. Like her 'sisters' she had ears on the top of her head, cat ears in her case. Her hair was a lighter shade of sky-blue that traveled in waves down her back that matched her eyes, which looked like a cat's. Her attire earned a blush as she was in a sports bra and spandex shorts, both a darker shade of her favorite color. The bra, or as Naruto thought of it a 'one piece stretchy wrap', strained to hold itself together as the medium-large breasts underneath made their bid for freedom. The shorts showed off her hips, ending just above her knees. Her skin was alabaster, making her color of choice stand out even more.
Isobu was of the teal persuasion. Her hair was different in that instead of cascading down her back it was in a page-boy style with the right-side bangs covering the missing eye. Being that her alternate form was a tortoise, her ears were the more standard human variety on the sides of her head. Her clothing choice matched her personality, being a one-piece bathing leotard that hid nothing from the imagination. Her own breasts strained the material, even if they were only medium size. It was also a darker shade of teal. She chose to have bare feet, so if she went swimming in this form she could just jump straight in. Her skin was pale, a couple of shades lighter than Matatabi making her hair and remaining eye stand out.
Son Goku, obviously misnamed somewhere along the line, looked like she was a fan of the color brown and its' various shades. Her hair was shorter than Isobu's, making her ears appear larger than they actually were. Being that her Beast was a Great Monkey -thus, providing a hint at her name coming from a fan of a certain manga- her body was more muscular than her 'sisters'. Her clothing of choice was similar to Isobu's in being a one-piece body suit two shades lighter than her hair and eyes. Her breasts were the largest yet, almost the size of Tsunade Senju. She too went without footwear, so that any workout she undertook wouldn't be slowed down by getting them off.
Kokuo and Saiken shared color schemes, in that both of their bigger forms were white. The human-form of the Six-Tailed Slug made up for the similarity by having sea-foam green hair and eyes while her Five-Tailed Dolphin Horse compatriot had sea-blue eyes and hair. Even with skin slightly off-white, they were clad in white business suits and white business shoes. Their attire hid their figures, except for the flair of their hips and the outline of the outer sides of their breasts.
Chomei was an oddity. Her larger self had two colors: her upper half featured a blue exoskeleton while her lower had yellow wings/tails. In a fit of pique, she stuck to that scheme as her upper body had blue eyes, hair that went mid-back and a blue tank-top that might as well have not been there for all of the covering it didn't do. Her breasts were almost completely visible, showing that they naturally rode high and close together giving her a deep cleavage. Her lower half was a pair of sunflower yellow short-shorts and sandals, showing off her legs. Her skin tone represented her outdoors nature as it was a golden coloration, not as deep a tan as Shukaku though.
If Chomei was the oddity, Gyuki was downright boring. Slate grey was her choice of coloring, keeping in line with her other form. She even went so far as to have a pinstripe suit in her colors of grey and white. Her hair -that went down to her shoulders- was a lighter shade, nearing the white spectrum while her eyes were darker nearing the black. Like Kokuo and Saiken, her body shape was partially hidden under her choice of attire although it accentuated the flare of her hips and the sides of her breasts.
"Well damn," Naruto exhaled, shaking his head in disbelief at the human forms of the Bijuu. "Wow . . . just, wow. I thought I'd met some good looking women in my travels but the nine of you . . . yowza! Makes me glad Ero-Sennin isn't here otherwise I'd never hear the end of it."
"It's nice to be appreciated, no matter the form," Gyuki deadpanned, arms crossed under her breasts. "Completely irrelevant to the matter at hand but nice. Now, tell us just why Kurama is no longer on this world."
The other eight humans had no clue as to the topic of conversation. In all truth, they had even been unaware that their tenants even had alternate forms to use.
"At least we now know that the Communal Mind functions over interstellar distances," Saiken, the scientist of the Nine, had already produced a star-chart from nowhere. The hosts looked at it and noted that it was far more complete than any they had ever seen before. Although in the climate of constant wars and one-upmanship astrology had never really taken off. That looked like it was going to be changing rather quickly if the current happenings were anything to go by.
"I'm on the original world not by choice," Kurama cut into their thoughts. "It's not even the fault of my container. We just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The location of the Gate had undergone climate changes since the last time we were there. In fact, I'd say that the deceased Daimyo of Yuki no Kuni repaired the Ancient heat generators. There's no other plausible way that the rest of the civilization has the technological means to melt an entire glacier in five minutes."
"Naruto," Gaara corralled his friend, taking note that the other hosts were surrounding them having gotten lost in the techno-speak already.
"I know even less," he cut their line of inquiry off. "I wasn't aware when the people on the other side took us through. In fact, I woke up not too long ago after having a talk with my parents."
"Whoa there!" Yugito waved her arms side-to-side. "How could you have talk to your parents when you're not, according to them, even on this planet?"
"They died the night Kyuubi got sealed into me," he gave the half-lidded look at her, making her squirm a bit. "While they were dying, my father sealed bits of themselves into me as a secondary measure should anything go wrong with the seal. Somebody on this world messed with it, releasing both long before they should have been. They are still around . . .," he trailed off, concentrating on something before two new people came into being at his sides.
"You!" roared Roshi and Han, eyes taking in the sudden appearance of their worst nightmare.
"Flee for your lives!" Kirabi turned to run, wanting away from the woman that had nearly killed him the last time they crossed paths.
"They're echoes! For fuck's sakes, did I not say they were dead?!" Naruto bellowed, earning the attention of not just his parents and hosts but of the Bijuu in conference off to his left. "I carry their echoes in my seal, which I can access through my mind! Put two and two together already!"
Minato and Kushina hadn't so much as twitched since their sudden appearance in the white space that was the Communal Mind of the Bijuu. They were in fact too surprised from their appearance in a place outside of the seal to do much else for the time being. Their eyes were going back and forth, taking in everything in front of them though, showing why they had earned their ranks.
"This . . . is different," the Yondaime groused, left arm reaching up so he could scratch the back of his head.
TBC
A second pilot fic I've been working on (and off) over the period of six months. This one will either go on or be scrapped depending on how well it is received.
A big shout-out to all the readers/reviewers. You people make writing fun, even those that have bad things to say.
Until next time, Ja Ne.