Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Onigakure ❯ The Lady and the Mask ( Chapter 3 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
Kyuubi paced the inside of his cage, back and forth, his crimson nine tails sweeping behind him. A black flame suddenly engulfed him and vanished as quickly as it came, revealing a tall man with long messily spiked crimson hair and red slit eyes. He wore a red kimono style shirt with a black flame insignia on the back, black pants, and crimson ninja sandals. He let out a low growl, baring his sharp canines and making the whisker marks on his cheeks to darken. He turned around for the millionth time that day, headed towards the bars of the Seal. Slipping out between the bars once he reached them, the cage behind him was replaced by a dog collar around his neck as it dissipated like a mirage in a desert. He gave the collar an experimental tug before sighing. Not even weakened after the kit had drawn out some of his chakra. It was useless, after twelve years it hadn’t even weakened one bit, the only hope he had of being free might kill the kit. That is, unless- he immediately put an end to that thought. He was not going back to Onigakure.
He walked on through the ankle high water that lead throughout all of the maze hallways in the kit’s mind. He recognized those chakra signatures. He’d heard Kura’s offer to the kit and without meaning to he’d altered the kit’s response during his mind’s state of confusion. But that wasn’t the first time the Seal managed to change something in the kit to make him more like Zettai himself. Zettai, he hadn’t been called that in years. He smirked, what he wouldn’t do to see the kit’s sensei’s cycloptic face again when Kura said that the demon he’d always known as Kyuubi was actually called Zettai. He shook his head, calling himself nine kinds of stupid, he wasn’t out of his cage for that.
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Naru winced as he jumped up from the stone chair he sat on, a strong current of electricity pulsing throughout his body. He sloshed onto his knees into the puddle of water in Naruto’s mind. A girl standing a few feet from the three stone seats in the center of the room gasped and ran to help him up.
“Naru-kun! Are you ok?!” she asked in concern.
Naru nodded as he panted to catch his breath once the pain subsided. “I can’t believe it…” he panted heavily. “I just got kicked out…”
The girl with long blond hair in ponytails looked up from the spiky haired blond boy wearing an orange jumpsuit beside her to the spiky haired blond boy sitting in the middle stone throne. His dull blue eyes stared up at the black ceiling and his blond hair was a shade whiter than both hers and Naru’s. He wore a black fishnet shirt and tight low-rider black pants and ninja sandals.
“Naruto-kun is controlling his body all by himself?” she asked in wonder. He hadn’t done that since he was six, ever since he had first created his mask, Naru.
“Naruko-chan, has Kyuubi come here yet?” Naru asked.
She shook her head. “He’s not here yet, but I’ve sensed him leave his cage. He’s on his way here.” Naruko said.
Naru grumbled incoherently. “The bastard’s taking his sweet time isn’t he?”
“Shut up brat, I came to talk to Naruto, not you.” Kyuubi’s voice said sternly from the pipelined hallway as he came into the room.
“Zettai-kun!” Naruko squealed as she jumped and glomped Kyuubi in midair.
“Mfff!” Kyuubi yelped in surprise as he somehow kept from falling with Naruko’s well developed chest in his face.
“Quit raping the poor guy.” Naru said as he saw that Naruko’s breasts were cutting off Kyuubi’s air supply.
“Oops…” Naruko said innocently as she let go of Kyuubi who had somehow stayed on his feet, but had a perverted grin which remained.
“Ero-Kitsune!” Naruto yelled, throwing his sandal at Kyuubi’s face, only for him to dodge the thrown projectile. Once the sandal landed in the water it poofed from existence and reappeared on Naru’s foot.
Kyuubi coughed, regaining his composure. “Well, anyway, I have something to tell Naruto.” he said seriously.
Naru frowned and crossed his arms. “Hey, hey! Why don’t you ever tell me anything huh? Naruko-chan always seems to know more than me!” he whined.
“That’s because if you knew as much as Naruko-chan, you’d ruin Naruto’s idiot image. It’s better if you’re left out in all this in case you end up being questioned. By the way, why aren’t you controlling Naruto’s body right now?” Kyuubi asked, his eye twitching. He really hated explaining things to Naruto’s stupid mask.
“Naruto kicked me out.” Naru said, shooting Kyuubi a glare as if it was his fault. Kyuubi ignored him and turned to talk to Naruko in a hushed tone so he couldn’t hear what they were saying. “Quit ignoring me you furball!” he yelled, but was still ignored. He growled in frustration and decided to walk away. See how they liked it when they were ignored. He went down the pipelined walled hallways, leaving Kyuubi and Naruko by themselves.
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“It could be dangerous for Naruto-kun to be controlling his body by himself. Someone could catch him when he least expecting it.” Naruko said quietly as she shot the Naruto sitting in the center stone chair a concerned look.
Kyuubi followed her gaze. “Maybe you should help him.” he suggested.
Naruko shoot her head. “I can’t. Naruto-kun’s not letting anyone else share control. He even went as far as stopping Naru-kun.” she said solemnly.
“Do you at least know what he’s doing right now?” Kyuubi asked, afraid Naruto’s cover could be blown. Everyone in his conscious agreed that Naruto should be seen as the idiot his mask, Naru was.
Naruto wasn’t the most mentally stable person existence. If fact, he had two other split personalities. Naruko, his female self, who was the manifestation of Naruto’s gentle, loving side. She was the most compassionate and understanding one out of all of them, though she did have a tendency to be slightly perverted, though it was mostly Kyuubi’s fault. There was also Naru, Naruto’s mask. He was nothing more than an act at first, but as the years progressed, he slowly manifested into a personality of itself. He was Naruto’s childish idiotic side, the prankster and the one who usually controlled Naruto’s body, but he wasn’t as permanent as Naruko’s personality was since he wasn’t really a part of Naruto, but something created to filter the affects of how cruel and unforgiving Naruto’s life really was from himself. In a sense, Naru was Naruto’s mental defense mechanism. As for Naruto… he was quiet and reserved. He hardly ever spoke or controlled his body, it was even a wonder he was controlling his own body right now. He hadn’t controlled his own body without at least having his mask on since he was six. Since the day he was only a few seconds from dying on the street’s of Konoha after being beaten and almost killed by the villagers. If it hadn’t been for Kyuubi, Naruto would be dead now. That October night, Naruko was first created so Naruto wouldn’t turn into a hate-induced creature.
Naruko looked up at the black ceiling and nodded slightly. “It’s hazy if I’m not partially controlling Naruto-kun, but he’s training by himself.” she said, visibly relieved.
Kyuubi sighed. “Maybe he just needs some time alone…” he said.
Naruko nodded. “I can explain things to him one he comes back, I know you can’t stay out of the cage with a collar for too long Zettai-kun.” Naruko said, giving Kyuubi a heartwarming smile that Kyuubi found contagious.
“I guess it didn’t take you very long to figure out what she said huh?” he asked.
Naruko snorted and started to twirl a lock of blond hair from one of her pigtails absentmindedly. “She only said it to everyone on the bridge.” she said sarcastically. “I still can’t believe Naru didn’t figure out that that cloaked woman was talking about you. I didn’t know your names a Zettai or that you had any siblings, Zettai-kun.”
Kyuubi nodded. “My name is Zettai no Kitsune. Kyuubi is only a title given to Kitsunes and their cousins who have reached nine tails, so I’m not exactly the only Kyuubi out there. The woman in the cloak is actually my sister-in-law Kura no Nozomi, she’s a Kyuubi as well, but she’s actually older than me. My younger sister Kimi no Kitsune is the one she was saying would take over our clan if I didn’t go back to Onigakure.” Kyuubi, or Zettai explained.
“Onigakure?” Naruko asked curiously.
“Its sort of us demons’ version of you ninjen’s hidden village. Though only the peaceful demons, or so they say, formed the village. The other demons prefer to keep to themselves far away from anyone so are farther west of the continent. Haven’t you ever wondered why the maps ninjen use never go farther west when it clearly shows that land is missing. Everything isn’t just a square you know. It doesn’t end where the map does.”
Naruko’s mouth made an ‘O’ shape as she suddenly realized that she’d never really noticed that about the maps she’d seen that depicted the nations and found that what Zettai said was true. “So Onigakure is somewhere west of where ninjens have actually mapped?” she asked in amazement.
“Onigakure is actually on the opposite coast. It would take a normal ninjen about a year of traveling for them to get there, if they could find it and if they don’t get eaten by then.” Zettai said as if being eaten was normal. “But then again, most ninjens can’t even forage any food there since their weaker stomachs couldn’t possibly ingest anything that grows in the giants forests which span out between here and there. And don’t even mention the small animals, they’re larger than horses! So having enough food for a year is also something that would be hard to carry with you without having everything in a five mile radius after you.”
Naruko’s face turned green and she looked sick. “And this is only the forests between ninjen civilization and Onigakure?” she asked.
Zettai grinned. “Once you get through there, you’re in safer territory, less ninjen and weaker yokai eating demons. From then on, the yokai are a little more civilized, though not many like ninjens, most won’t try to eat you. No one in Onigakure eats humans though, it’s a oath all yokai who reside in Onigakure make so they may stay in safety, protected by our own ninja.”
“There are yokai ninja?!” Naruko exclaimed in shock.
Zettai nodded and put a hand in his kimono sleeve and took out a black clothe headband, handing it to Naruko. She blinked and took it, examining the metal plate which had a swirling flame. “So you’re a yokai ninja?” she asked as she ran a finger over the engraftment. She didn’t have to look at Zettai to know he nodded.
“So why’d you leave?” she asked curiously.
Zettai turned his gaze away from her and coughed. “Well, you see…” he started in obvious embarrassment but blinked as he noticed Naru was gone. “Hey where’s Naru?”
“What? Don’t try to change the subject!” Naruko whined as she looked around for Naru. She groaned once she turned back to Zettai only to see he was gone too. She gave Naruto a sour look. “It looks like its just you and me bub.”
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Naruto kicked the tree furiously. He’d been training for about four hours now, even though he should probably be resting from the fight today. He’d sneaked out from the guest room he had been sharing with Kakashi and Sasuke so he could clear his mind. He wanted to clear his mind before he would confront Kyuubi. He knew he’d end up punching that damn fox in the face if he didn’t. Kyuubi kept too much to himself, that bastard. He should have told him there might be demons looking for him so he could have at least been prepared!
Naruto growled as he kicked the tree he’d been beating to a pulp for the past thirty minutes. The wood beneath his proceeding hits groaned as if the tree was in pain before it broke into a mass of splinters that crashed to the ground with a loud crash. He moved on to the next tree unfazed by the jagged stump that remained. He knew Kakashi knew something he wasn’t telling him too. The fact that Kakashi avoided him all afternoon had only pissed him off even more. Then Sasuke had to glare at him the whole time that Naruto was forced to listen and get beaten by that stupid pink bimbo as she screeched about how it was his fault her precious Sasuke got hurt.
After the third tree tumbling down, Naruto stopped to catch his breath as the wounds on his abused hands and feet started to heal. He slowly started to counted backwards from ten to calm himself. What was he doing?! He should be thinking about what he should do next, not ruining the forest and possibly get his cover blown. He sat down on the floor, running a hand through his short blond hair to help calm himself down.
Naruto-kun?he heard a soft female vice in his head.
Naruto growled. What do you want Naruko? he asked harshly.
I…I’m sorry Naruto-kun she stammered before Naruto felt her leave him alone.
He sighed. Knowing Naruko, she’d probably be crying right now. He groaned and palmed his face as he suddenly felt a pang of guilt from being a jerk to her. He looked around at the destroyed trees. He was a real jerk. He really should find a better way to release all the pent up anger he felt for everyone. Maybe Naru’s idea about becoming Hokage wasn’t that bad. Naruto quickly discarded that idea, no way was he going to do paperwork for the rest of his life! Naru was an idiot, why didn’t he just say he was going to be an ANBU or something? That was realistic right?
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A/N:
Onigakure means demon village
Kitsune means fox
Kyuubi means nine tails
Ninjen means human
Zettai means absolute
Kura means treasure house
Nozomi means full moon
Yokai means demon
He walked on through the ankle high water that lead throughout all of the maze hallways in the kit’s mind. He recognized those chakra signatures. He’d heard Kura’s offer to the kit and without meaning to he’d altered the kit’s response during his mind’s state of confusion. But that wasn’t the first time the Seal managed to change something in the kit to make him more like Zettai himself. Zettai, he hadn’t been called that in years. He smirked, what he wouldn’t do to see the kit’s sensei’s cycloptic face again when Kura said that the demon he’d always known as Kyuubi was actually called Zettai. He shook his head, calling himself nine kinds of stupid, he wasn’t out of his cage for that.
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Naru winced as he jumped up from the stone chair he sat on, a strong current of electricity pulsing throughout his body. He sloshed onto his knees into the puddle of water in Naruto’s mind. A girl standing a few feet from the three stone seats in the center of the room gasped and ran to help him up.
“Naru-kun! Are you ok?!” she asked in concern.
Naru nodded as he panted to catch his breath once the pain subsided. “I can’t believe it…” he panted heavily. “I just got kicked out…”
The girl with long blond hair in ponytails looked up from the spiky haired blond boy wearing an orange jumpsuit beside her to the spiky haired blond boy sitting in the middle stone throne. His dull blue eyes stared up at the black ceiling and his blond hair was a shade whiter than both hers and Naru’s. He wore a black fishnet shirt and tight low-rider black pants and ninja sandals.
“Naruto-kun is controlling his body all by himself?” she asked in wonder. He hadn’t done that since he was six, ever since he had first created his mask, Naru.
“Naruko-chan, has Kyuubi come here yet?” Naru asked.
She shook her head. “He’s not here yet, but I’ve sensed him leave his cage. He’s on his way here.” Naruko said.
Naru grumbled incoherently. “The bastard’s taking his sweet time isn’t he?”
“Shut up brat, I came to talk to Naruto, not you.” Kyuubi’s voice said sternly from the pipelined hallway as he came into the room.
“Zettai-kun!” Naruko squealed as she jumped and glomped Kyuubi in midair.
“Mfff!” Kyuubi yelped in surprise as he somehow kept from falling with Naruko’s well developed chest in his face.
“Quit raping the poor guy.” Naru said as he saw that Naruko’s breasts were cutting off Kyuubi’s air supply.
“Oops…” Naruko said innocently as she let go of Kyuubi who had somehow stayed on his feet, but had a perverted grin which remained.
“Ero-Kitsune!” Naruto yelled, throwing his sandal at Kyuubi’s face, only for him to dodge the thrown projectile. Once the sandal landed in the water it poofed from existence and reappeared on Naru’s foot.
Kyuubi coughed, regaining his composure. “Well, anyway, I have something to tell Naruto.” he said seriously.
Naru frowned and crossed his arms. “Hey, hey! Why don’t you ever tell me anything huh? Naruko-chan always seems to know more than me!” he whined.
“That’s because if you knew as much as Naruko-chan, you’d ruin Naruto’s idiot image. It’s better if you’re left out in all this in case you end up being questioned. By the way, why aren’t you controlling Naruto’s body right now?” Kyuubi asked, his eye twitching. He really hated explaining things to Naruto’s stupid mask.
“Naruto kicked me out.” Naru said, shooting Kyuubi a glare as if it was his fault. Kyuubi ignored him and turned to talk to Naruko in a hushed tone so he couldn’t hear what they were saying. “Quit ignoring me you furball!” he yelled, but was still ignored. He growled in frustration and decided to walk away. See how they liked it when they were ignored. He went down the pipelined walled hallways, leaving Kyuubi and Naruko by themselves.
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“It could be dangerous for Naruto-kun to be controlling his body by himself. Someone could catch him when he least expecting it.” Naruko said quietly as she shot the Naruto sitting in the center stone chair a concerned look.
Kyuubi followed her gaze. “Maybe you should help him.” he suggested.
Naruko shoot her head. “I can’t. Naruto-kun’s not letting anyone else share control. He even went as far as stopping Naru-kun.” she said solemnly.
“Do you at least know what he’s doing right now?” Kyuubi asked, afraid Naruto’s cover could be blown. Everyone in his conscious agreed that Naruto should be seen as the idiot his mask, Naru was.
Naruto wasn’t the most mentally stable person existence. If fact, he had two other split personalities. Naruko, his female self, who was the manifestation of Naruto’s gentle, loving side. She was the most compassionate and understanding one out of all of them, though she did have a tendency to be slightly perverted, though it was mostly Kyuubi’s fault. There was also Naru, Naruto’s mask. He was nothing more than an act at first, but as the years progressed, he slowly manifested into a personality of itself. He was Naruto’s childish idiotic side, the prankster and the one who usually controlled Naruto’s body, but he wasn’t as permanent as Naruko’s personality was since he wasn’t really a part of Naruto, but something created to filter the affects of how cruel and unforgiving Naruto’s life really was from himself. In a sense, Naru was Naruto’s mental defense mechanism. As for Naruto… he was quiet and reserved. He hardly ever spoke or controlled his body, it was even a wonder he was controlling his own body right now. He hadn’t controlled his own body without at least having his mask on since he was six. Since the day he was only a few seconds from dying on the street’s of Konoha after being beaten and almost killed by the villagers. If it hadn’t been for Kyuubi, Naruto would be dead now. That October night, Naruko was first created so Naruto wouldn’t turn into a hate-induced creature.
Naruko looked up at the black ceiling and nodded slightly. “It’s hazy if I’m not partially controlling Naruto-kun, but he’s training by himself.” she said, visibly relieved.
Kyuubi sighed. “Maybe he just needs some time alone…” he said.
Naruko nodded. “I can explain things to him one he comes back, I know you can’t stay out of the cage with a collar for too long Zettai-kun.” Naruko said, giving Kyuubi a heartwarming smile that Kyuubi found contagious.
“I guess it didn’t take you very long to figure out what she said huh?” he asked.
Naruko snorted and started to twirl a lock of blond hair from one of her pigtails absentmindedly. “She only said it to everyone on the bridge.” she said sarcastically. “I still can’t believe Naru didn’t figure out that that cloaked woman was talking about you. I didn’t know your names a Zettai or that you had any siblings, Zettai-kun.”
Kyuubi nodded. “My name is Zettai no Kitsune. Kyuubi is only a title given to Kitsunes and their cousins who have reached nine tails, so I’m not exactly the only Kyuubi out there. The woman in the cloak is actually my sister-in-law Kura no Nozomi, she’s a Kyuubi as well, but she’s actually older than me. My younger sister Kimi no Kitsune is the one she was saying would take over our clan if I didn’t go back to Onigakure.” Kyuubi, or Zettai explained.
“Onigakure?” Naruko asked curiously.
“Its sort of us demons’ version of you ninjen’s hidden village. Though only the peaceful demons, or so they say, formed the village. The other demons prefer to keep to themselves far away from anyone so are farther west of the continent. Haven’t you ever wondered why the maps ninjen use never go farther west when it clearly shows that land is missing. Everything isn’t just a square you know. It doesn’t end where the map does.”
Naruko’s mouth made an ‘O’ shape as she suddenly realized that she’d never really noticed that about the maps she’d seen that depicted the nations and found that what Zettai said was true. “So Onigakure is somewhere west of where ninjens have actually mapped?” she asked in amazement.
“Onigakure is actually on the opposite coast. It would take a normal ninjen about a year of traveling for them to get there, if they could find it and if they don’t get eaten by then.” Zettai said as if being eaten was normal. “But then again, most ninjens can’t even forage any food there since their weaker stomachs couldn’t possibly ingest anything that grows in the giants forests which span out between here and there. And don’t even mention the small animals, they’re larger than horses! So having enough food for a year is also something that would be hard to carry with you without having everything in a five mile radius after you.”
Naruko’s face turned green and she looked sick. “And this is only the forests between ninjen civilization and Onigakure?” she asked.
Zettai grinned. “Once you get through there, you’re in safer territory, less ninjen and weaker yokai eating demons. From then on, the yokai are a little more civilized, though not many like ninjens, most won’t try to eat you. No one in Onigakure eats humans though, it’s a oath all yokai who reside in Onigakure make so they may stay in safety, protected by our own ninja.”
“There are yokai ninja?!” Naruko exclaimed in shock.
Zettai nodded and put a hand in his kimono sleeve and took out a black clothe headband, handing it to Naruko. She blinked and took it, examining the metal plate which had a swirling flame. “So you’re a yokai ninja?” she asked as she ran a finger over the engraftment. She didn’t have to look at Zettai to know he nodded.
“So why’d you leave?” she asked curiously.
Zettai turned his gaze away from her and coughed. “Well, you see…” he started in obvious embarrassment but blinked as he noticed Naru was gone. “Hey where’s Naru?”
“What? Don’t try to change the subject!” Naruko whined as she looked around for Naru. She groaned once she turned back to Zettai only to see he was gone too. She gave Naruto a sour look. “It looks like its just you and me bub.”
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Naruto kicked the tree furiously. He’d been training for about four hours now, even though he should probably be resting from the fight today. He’d sneaked out from the guest room he had been sharing with Kakashi and Sasuke so he could clear his mind. He wanted to clear his mind before he would confront Kyuubi. He knew he’d end up punching that damn fox in the face if he didn’t. Kyuubi kept too much to himself, that bastard. He should have told him there might be demons looking for him so he could have at least been prepared!
Naruto growled as he kicked the tree he’d been beating to a pulp for the past thirty minutes. The wood beneath his proceeding hits groaned as if the tree was in pain before it broke into a mass of splinters that crashed to the ground with a loud crash. He moved on to the next tree unfazed by the jagged stump that remained. He knew Kakashi knew something he wasn’t telling him too. The fact that Kakashi avoided him all afternoon had only pissed him off even more. Then Sasuke had to glare at him the whole time that Naruto was forced to listen and get beaten by that stupid pink bimbo as she screeched about how it was his fault her precious Sasuke got hurt.
After the third tree tumbling down, Naruto stopped to catch his breath as the wounds on his abused hands and feet started to heal. He slowly started to counted backwards from ten to calm himself. What was he doing?! He should be thinking about what he should do next, not ruining the forest and possibly get his cover blown. He sat down on the floor, running a hand through his short blond hair to help calm himself down.
Naruto-kun?he heard a soft female vice in his head.
Naruto growled. What do you want Naruko? he asked harshly.
I…I’m sorry Naruto-kun she stammered before Naruto felt her leave him alone.
He sighed. Knowing Naruko, she’d probably be crying right now. He groaned and palmed his face as he suddenly felt a pang of guilt from being a jerk to her. He looked around at the destroyed trees. He was a real jerk. He really should find a better way to release all the pent up anger he felt for everyone. Maybe Naru’s idea about becoming Hokage wasn’t that bad. Naruto quickly discarded that idea, no way was he going to do paperwork for the rest of his life! Naru was an idiot, why didn’t he just say he was going to be an ANBU or something? That was realistic right?
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A/N:
Onigakure means demon village
Kitsune means fox
Kyuubi means nine tails
Ninjen means human
Zettai means absolute
Kura means treasure house
Nozomi means full moon
Yokai means demon