Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Reflection of Oneself ❯ Recipient ( Chapter 8 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

The Reflection of Oneself

Chapter 8: Recipient

Curse.

It means to call upon a supernatural or divine being to bring evil or harm to another.

We curse our enemies everyday, hoping to deter them so that we ourselves can succeed. We even curse our loved ones, whether we mean them harm or not. It is a tricky little evil that sneaks up on us at the best and worst of times; causing us to say things that eventual find they're way back to us.

It is, of course, our darkest intention to make another suffer and we unwittingly do this as much as we live and breathe. But always be wary in whom youdecided to curse today, for your curse will eventually come back upon you three fold stronger, making you wish you had held your tongue.

So be careful what you wish for, right?

Trapped.

Nanikato began to sweat slightly, feeling nothing more then a cornered animal under the fierceness of this red haired woman's gaze.

`Okay now,' he thought to himself. `Stay calm. What would sensei do in a situation like this? As if he'd get into a situation like this, not to mention that he'd probably freeze his enemies to death with the `Uchiha Death Glare - Ultimate Doom Versionâ„¢'. But Sasuke-sensei isn't here. Its only you…'

As she began walking towards him, the blonde began to devise a plan. He'd have to execute it perfectly, a single screw up and he's be toast. Waiting, he watched her grow nearer and nearer. It was almost time to act. Not once did it pass through his mind that his little plan would make this harpy lady even more pissed off at him - for whatever reason she was pissed off at him in the first place had had no clue.

`This woman is crazy, but no matter how psycho she is, she obviously underestimates you'

When she came to standing directly in front of him, a malicious smirk graced her face as she leaned close to gloat.

“You know, I thought you'd be better then this twerp. I've been told that you were powerful, a far cry from all other little piss-ants your age. I'm disappointed. While I'll commend you for having learned the Mansakebigoe, it's nothing unless you've had proper training with it. You're nothing of interest - my time here has been wasted”

“Is that so?” he asked with an innocent smile. “Didn't anyone ever tell you that it's bad to monologue?”

“Nani?”

The confusion on her face was too good to resist. With a cheeky grin and as much force as he could put into it, he delivered a massive head butt. The woman let out a shrill wail of pain at his head connected sharply with her unprotected face, causing her to stagger backwards whilst holding onto a now bloody broken nose.

Wasting no time at all, Nanikato allowed himself the chance to detach from his body and become an astral projection. While in his astral form, he took to canceling the jutsu that kept him bound to the tree and as his body dropped towards the ground, he reentered himself for a perfect landing.

The woman looked up at him, the lower half of her face covered in blood and her eyes glimmering with hellfire as she launched herself at him. “FUCKING HELL!! I AM SO GOING TO KILL YOU FOR THAT YOU FUCKING PIECE OF RAT SHIT!!”

And the fight began anew.

The blonde jumped, attaching himself to tree and started running up its length. She followed, burning with such killing intent it withered all the wildflowers growing nearby with a five hundred yard radius. As he reached the crown, he took a few deep breathes and then flipped, allowing himself to drop.

Landing in a crouch with the ease of a cat, Nanikato began to scroll through his mental arsenal of jutsu once more. For Fuuton jutsu, the Mansakebigoe had been defeated and the Kujiku wasn't mastered yet. When it came to other non-affinity jutsu, like genjutsu and other elements ninjutsu that took longer to master, he had a few that could work.

But he'd let her come to him first. After all, what person in their right mind wanted to be walking to the trap of a pissed of elite? And as expected, she came to him, consumed by a rage that would hopefully cloud her judgment.

She dropped from the tree herself moments later, her flute at her lips.

“Indou sano Waikyoku no Yuurei!”

All thoughts of a good counterattack went out of his head as soon as those words left her mouth. A haunting tune followed, flowing from the thin metal pipe like pure liquid sorrow.

Nanikato froze. It wasn't because of the music the red haired woman was making, but rather what came along with the music. In sickened awe, the young boy watched as a gray mist began to swirl around the redhead.

She was looking at him, unseeing of the mist herself.

`My powers…' he thought. `Kami-sama, what is she doing?'

As if to answer his unspoken question, the mist began to take shape, becoming wretched wraiths that cried and screamed for release. Nanikato gasped, clutching a hand to his chest over his heart, blue eyes wide with abject horror. He could feel they're pain, so much that it felt like someone had clamped a fist down upon his wildly beating heart.

Tears escaped his watery eyes. This was wrong, completely and utterly wrong. Steeling his resolve, the blonde chocked back a sob and launched himself at the woman. Although the shocked look one her face showed that she hadn't expected him to attack while caught in the snare of her jutsu, it wasn't as if she wasn't prepared for him.

With one deft swift swing, Nanikato was decked upside the face with her flute. But while he had succeeded in ending the jutsu, the miserable forgotten wraiths still remained and it made a righteous rage burn within him for the first time.

“Shimata! Send them back! Don't prolong their suffering to miserable, selfish bitch!” he screamed, his throat become raw. It shocked him, as he had never spoke to a superior like such before. But he didn't care. Ever since he had received this power - this gift from Naruto-niisan - his sensitivity to that of that dead had been raised tenfold. He knew that as a shinobi he would be forced to killed and he would do so, but he would not sit back and watch such an injustice take place.

“What the fuck is you blathering about baka-yaro?”

“The souls! Release them now damn you!”

“Have you gone completely shit-for-brains? What spirits? It was a genjutsu for fuck's sake!”

“No it isn't!” Nanikato shouted, his eye taking on a silver hue as he channeled chakra into them. As he expected, the long dead souls that danced around the unknown woman were chained to the ground. Thanks to the advanced form of his spirit sight, the blonde could see ethereal chains binding the tormented ghosts to the mortal realm.

Seeing that there was only one thing he could do, Nanikato leapt at her again and snatched the flute from her hands.

“Hey!”

But he wasn't listening to her. Raising the cold metal to his own lips, he began to play. It was nothing like the tune she had played, but a sweet uplifting melody that had the opposite effect to the pervious one.

Tears still pouring freely from his eyes, he played his irregular not so music. There wasn't much too it, as his fingers just chose which holes to cover at odd times. It would be a piece that could never be recreated, as his fingers danced without knowing what they were doing. But it had the desired effect that he was looking for. The chains binding the spirits shattered in a magical burst of a million golden shards. It was nearly visible to the normal eyes, each soul flicker softly like fairy lights as they whirled around the field like a mini tornado, vanishing seconds later.

Free. They cried out with happiness - their sorrow ended.

As soon as the last one had faded into the morning light, Nanikato tossed the flute aside and collapsed to the ground. He had used a lot of chakra in order to free those souls - at least one quarter. That added to what he had spent for his first attack, the astral projecting and what he had infused into his muscles to keep one step ahead, he was now feeling the strain.

“Okay, now that was some trippy shit…”

He glance at the woman, how was looking at the place where the spirits had once been, a faraway look on her pale face. It was then, now that the second level of his eyes was active, that he saw her aura. Like everyone else, it had three layers.

The outer color, of course, was black. That meant this woman must have had some kind of a harsh life. The middle color was a bright green - the jealously. It represented spoilt dreams and everything that she always wanted, but could never have. And her inner color was a brownish yellow - the denial. It represented that there was something she was protecting herself from, but what?

Strangely, it had Nanikato wondering why she wanted to kill him in the first place.

She looked at him. “I guess Orochimaru-sama was right. You are interesting gaki”

He blinked, confused. “Nani? What does Orochimaru-sama want with me?”

The woman snorted and crossed her arms with a scowl.

“Orochimaru-sama is interested in progress, bozu. All this bullshit was a test of your abilities to see if you were worthy or not. Although I wasn't going all-out on you, you managed to survive a pair of my most powerful attacks when only a few jounin and most Anbu have that bragging right”

“So am I worthy?”

“What do you think?”

“Yes…”

She scoffed. “Just barely. Now bugger off, I've got report this `test' and then I'm going to take a nice long nap”

She turned then, walking over to where her discarded flute lay and picked it up. Dusting it off, her stuck it in her pocket and prepared to teleport when…

“Of course, old hags like you need their beauty sleep”

Whatever peace he had found in the last few minutes was shattered. She whirled on him with such a speed that caused the blonde to yelp. But before he could escape her reach, she had covered the distance in a flash, lashing out with one hand. She caught him and for good measure, dug her sharp fingernails deeply into in the flesh of his underarm, nearly breaking the skin.

“Old hag?” she hissed venomously into his ear, twisting his right arm behind back it till began to hurt. “Did you just call me an old hag?”

Nanikato bit back a whimper.

“Y-y-yes”

“Well I'll have you know that I am only twenty fucking seven years old. If you want old, take Orochimaru-sama for example - he's sixty-two! Now that is old”

She paused for a minute, as if deciding whether to throttle him to death or not. And even though he couldn't see it from the position he was in, the blonde knew she was smiling… and it wasn't a nice small at all. It was deadly.

“You know what gaki?” she finally said, her voice taking on a tone of nasty glee. “I'm actually old enough to be your sister. Obviously you've never had a female in your life or you would have known where limit was. So I guess I'll just have assume the role of `sister' myself. I think I'll like being your sister, `cause if you're my otouto, then that means I get to beat your foolish little ass into the ground whenever and wherever I like without getting into shit”

Nanikato swallowed. “Does that mean I have to do whatever you say”

“Abso-fucking-lutely kid!”

She was about to let him he go, only for the blonde to turn cocked his head to look at her inquisitively. “So… if you're my nee-san and I'm your otouto, is this this part where I get to tell you you're looking kind of fat?”

There was a moment of shocked silence before Tayuya's voice echoed throughout Oto.

“DIE FUCKER!!”

-.ooOoo.-

As it s happened, Sasuke arrived at that particular training field a minute later and was met by a sight in which he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. In the middle of the field was Nanikato, pinned to the ground by Tayuya of all people.

He remembered the redhead from the day he abandoned Konoha. She been apart of the team that had been sent to retrieve him for Orochimaru - that foulmouthed redheaded bitch with the flute. Since then, he never had many dealing with her during the last twelve years, having only associated the older woman briefly in passing.

He didn't like her - she swore too much and her breath stank. She also said she wanted to kill him.

But from what he knew of her, Tayuya had a reputation here in Otogakure that was very similar to that of Mitarashi Anko back in Konoha. The woman liked to beat on people - a true sadist if there ever was one - and was know for having once dismembered a pair of foolish chuunin. Civilian and shinobi alike would flee in fear when she came along, swearing up a storm worse then the harshest sailors from either Wave or Sea Country.

She was a woman known to kill a man for even looking at her cross-eyed.

She was a woman known to be a hormonal, violence prone bitch without a humorous bone in her body.

And here she was sitting on Nanikato's back, holding the blonde's arms behind his back with one hand and the side of his face into the dirt with the other while she taunted him, a rope of saliva dangling from her lips dangerously close to his whisker marked cheek. And Nanikato was gagging, struggling and shouting obscenities Sasuke didn't even know the boy knew(he was only five months old, after all), kicking up the dust with his feet as he tried to dislodge older woman to no avail.

The Uchiha simply stood there, staring at the bizarre display before him, his left eyebrow twitching.

He cleared his throat. “What are you two doing?”

The pair froze, turning to look at the Uchiha whom had just `snuck' up upon them. A spilt second later, the rope of saliva that Tayuya was dangling over Nanikato's face broke off and landed with a wet plop on the boy's cheek. Nanikato let out a cry of disgust and began to gag, this time throwing her off as he actually puked, whipping her spit furiously off his face.

As soon as the blonde was done, he harrumphed and looking away.

“She started it”

Tayuya snarled, slapping the blonde upside the head. “Shut it gaki! Wasn't I just teaching why you should respect your elders?”

“So you'll admit to being old now?”

Nanikato let out a squeak; bolting out of her reach just in time, else he would have been driven into the ground by her fist. Sasuke sighed, staring blandly down at the boy, whom was now conveniently using him as human shield.

He turned back to Tayuya.

“Why are you here?” he demanded coldly. “And attacking my student at that?”

The redhead curled her lip in a sneer. “Don't get your shit in a knot pretty-boy. I'm here on Orochimaru-sama's orders. I was to test the boy on a matter of worth. As you can see, the little snot past”

Sasuke bit back a grimace. He had been wondering for quite some time now when the old snake was going to get around to that. With Kabuto relaying to him all of Nanikato's achievements and newfound powers, he was sure that the man would be interested on exactly how far the boy had come. He had sent Tayuya, which meant the blonde had had a good chance of dieing rather then being pinned down in such a childishly manner.

“Fine then. You've got what you came for, now go away and don't ever let me see you again”

“Nope, no can do”

“And why not?” Sasuke hissed.

“`Cause I've just officially adopted the gaki as my otouto… right gaki?” she replied, baring her teeth at the boy.

Sasuke watched as Nanikato hurriedly nodded, as not to incense the woman farther, his voice strained. “Yep, she's my nee-san now”

“Onee-sama!” Tayuya snapped.

“Oh yeah, onee-sama” the blonde chuckled nervously. “How could I have forgotten something as important as that?”

She smiled sinisterly and patted the boy on the head, causing him to flinch.

“Good to hear. It seems you've learned something of use today after all. See you soon…”

And with that, the red haired madwoman turned and vanished in swirl of smoke. Sasuke waited a minute, making sure that he could no longer sense her chakra. When she was completely out of his range, which was incredibly large, he turned around and faced his young student.

“Okay,” he said, looking sternly down at the boy. “Now I want you to tell me exactly what happened while you were waiting for me and leave nothing out”

Nanikato nodded hesitantly and began to recount his tale.

-.ooOoo.-

“So, how did it go?”

Orochimaru sat at his desk, his hands clasped before him as he gazed at his redheaded subordinate. Only a half an hour had past since he had seen her last and Tayuya had returned to him dirty, sporting a few new scrapes and bruises, not to mention that there was dried blood flaking off of the lower half of her face.

The redhead grinned savagely.

“It was the best fuck'n time I ever had!” she laughed wickedly. “That gaki might not be anywhere near my level, but he stood up to what most chuunin and jounin would wet their pants from. That kid's got balls, I tell ya! You were right when you said he had potential - shit, that little bastard even managed to break my nose at one point. Thankfully I was well versed in a few medical jutsus to keep from being slowed down…”

The Snake Sannin listened on with growing interested as the younger woman continued to rant about what had happened as she had engaged the boy in combat. She had seen the boy perform a powerful B-rank jutsu, which meant he had good control over the second chakra he had received from Naruto and Kyuubi. When he had been caught, he had tricked her into getting to close, breaking her nose with a well-placed head butt and then demonstrated his spiritual powers when she had used a genjutsu upon him.

The fact that the woman seemed to like the boy made it even better. He knew as well as everyone that Tayuya wasn't a trusting person nor did she think `fondly' of other people in such a fashion, which was perfectly described in the incident before Sasuke had turned up on the scene.

“So… will you be giving him the Curse Seal?”

Orochimaru nodded. “Yes, I think I will” he replied with a thin smile. “The boy has shown promise, which can only be doubled with the power of my seal. I can only dare to imagine what he would be like once he has achieved the second stage”

“But are you sure he'll even survive it?” she asked.

He nodded again.

“Nanikato-kun, like Naruto-kun before him, is a survivor”

Tayuya snorted at that last part. “A survivor?” she echoed dryly. “If he was such a survivor, then why was he killed by the Uchiha huh? Seems to me that little cockroach had his days numbered from the start”

“Perhaps. Then again, the boy survived twelve and half years of unadulterated torment before his death. One would have thought they'd have treated him like a prince - seeing as Naruto-kun was the only child of Konoha's Yondaime Hokage. But Konoha was and still is a collection of bigoted fools. They had the power of a god in their hands and they cast it away. Even though the majority believed the boy was the reincarnation of the Kyuubi no Kitsune rather then the innocent human babe, they should have realized it would have been in their best interests to raise to boy as a weapon…”

He paused a moment, looking Tayuya in the eye.

“Thankfully, none of that ever came to pass and now all that remains of the Namikaze clan is a clone - one that belongs to me…”

And then he laughed.

-.ooOoo.-

When Nanikato returned to his apartment later that night, tired from a long day of training, he was shocked to find a scroll laying in wait for him on his bed. Interested, the boy ventured over and picked it up, noticing that it bore a blood seal upon it.

Biting his thumb, the blonde whipped a trail of the crimson liquid upon it. The second the seal become undone, he unfurled the scroll. It the graceful scrip of that followed like a moving serpent was a letter from none other than Orochimaru.

Startled and more then a little interested, the blonde began to read.

Nanikato,

Congratulation for passing your test against Tayuya-san this morning. I had confidence in you that you would succeed in earning her approval and I am not disappointed. Due to your `victory', I have decided that you deserve a reward. Come to my office tomorrow night after you finish training and I'll allow you to take a look through my personal scroll vault. You'll be allowed to choose two jutsu in which you would like to learn.

I will see you then.

Orochimaru

Excited, Nanikato rolled the scroll back up and stashed it in his nightstand drawer. Stripping out of his dirty, sweat stained clothes, the pre-teen rushed off to have a nice long shower before he went to dinner tonight. In his excitement over the fact that he would be receiving two new jutsu to learn, he didn't bother to look beneath the underneath to see if Orochimaru had other reasons for seeing him tomorrow night.

If he had, he could have saved himself from a lot of grief to come…

-.ooOoo.-

Translations and Original Jutsu:

Indou sano Waikyoku no Yuurei/Requiem of the Tortured Ghost - upper B-rank genjutsu. This technique causes the person it is used upon to experience the undeniable pain and suffering of a cursed spirit. After hearing this deadly melody, the victim becomes so distraught that they can do nothing but wallow in the misery that has been cast upon them. Unbeknownst to anyone but those with the strongest physic gifts, the user is unknowingly summoning to them the actual tormented spirits, thus not giving them the chance to move on.