Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Way of the Jinchuuriki ❯ Arc 2, Chapter 8 - To the Eternal ( Chapter 8 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Zagger the Bloody Angel 
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Action / Angst / Suspense / Comedy | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 06.19.2011 | Updated On: 06.19.2011 | Pages: 3 | Words: 5.8K | Visits: 301 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Action / Angst / Suspense / Comedy | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 06.19.2011 | Updated On: 06.19.2011 | Pages: 3 | Words: 5.8K | Visits: 301 | Status: Completed
I Do Not Own Naruto
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Yugito was very worried. The fact that she was in the hospital more then a day was a bad sign, but the fact that Naruto had come back for a second day straight was even worse. What was even worse was that he was out for a whole day and this time his injuries weren't from a training accident.
He was wounded in combat as the Uchiha Clan came under attack from one of its own and an unknown assailant.
She had originally thought that Naruto had skipped out of her when it turned midnight. She wouldn't deny it; she was pissed at him and was going to give him a worse lashing then even what Anko could give him.
That was when a few nurses wheeled him into the room with half his body wrapped in bandages. To make things worse, the white haired man that was training Naruto was with them.
He alone had made her very, very worried. While he was hoping to talk with Anko about what happened, she was outside the village on a mission so he had no choice but to tell her what happened. The massacre was horrific on its own; however the damage that was done to the seal over shadowed everything else. And she had to be the one to tell him what happened to it. That made her day all so much better.
That was something she really, really didn't like. Anything that messed with his already severely weakened seal was bad. In fact, she was tempted to call in the nurses as it was bleeding through the bandages again in what seemed to be like that of an eye.
But it was doing that off and on and it seemed to be getting better now then it was a few hours ago. So she would do it herself as she steadied herself onto her feet and grabbed the bandage roll on the table besides her. Figuring the nurses knew that she wasn't going to call them unless something was horribly wrong; she limped towards the bleeding blonde.
With a little pulse of Nibi's chakra to her finger tips, she sliced the bandages off easily as her fingers turned into claws. Making sure she didn't accidentally catch him as her claws receded, she pulled off the bloodied wrappings before slowly beginning to apply a fresh set to his stomach, which was oddly fine as no blood was coming from it.
This made her wonder what was going on even more then before as the wound on his stomach was healed. However, the seal was in the exact shape of the blood stains on Naruto's stomach. She frowned, beginning to believe more and more that the white haired sannin was correct; she finished wrapping his mid section before limping back to her bed.
It was not going to be a pleasant morning as she knew the blonde would be waking soon as the sun was peaking over the trees. Picking up the set of clothes Anko left for her yesterday before heading out, Yugito only shook her head as she slipped her hospital gown off before slipping in her undergarments and pants before pulling on her shirt.
She thought about bounding her hair, but she had been wanting a new look for a while and the hair was what most girls her age normally changed their hair styles often. Grabbing a brush, she evenly combed her hair on both sides of her shoulders and thought what to do with it. As she was just ready to style it, her eyes caught movement from the other bed and instantly knew Naruto was waking. Deciding to leave her hair as it was, she turned to the waking blonde as she laid her legs over the edge of the hospital bed.
Naruto was really beginning to wonder if there was a God. As if there was one, he had a weird sense of humor as he still managed to end up in the same room with Yugito.
He had been hoping that he could avoid talking to her for a while and was the whole reason he went along with Miko before shit hit the fan. Of course he had to get injured trying to help her and her family and end up back in room three-seventeen with Yugito still occupying the other bed in the room. How he hated things always seemed to work against him. Figuring that he would get the yelling over with, he was about to sit up when pain shot through his entire body.
It was like liquid fire was erupting in his veins. His entire head pulsed as it felt as if his brain was melting. His skin was screaming as if it was being stabbed by thousands of needles. His heart pulsed painfully as every single beat felt like a sledge hammer was smashing against his chest from within. Then it came to a stop when he felt a hand on his stomach and even more pain before all the pain began to slowly fade away.
His eyes slowly began to open and he caught a blob of white in his vision. He instantly knew who it was as he closed his eyes once more and took a few breathes as the pain was still coursing throughout his body. Once it was bearable, he opened his eyes once more to see Jiraiya and Yugito looking over him. He wasn't quite sure why they were, but he had a good feeling it concerned his well being.
Slowly pulling himself into a seated position, cringing as the pain spiked from the movement, Naruto looked at both of them before speaking in an indifferent tone. "What do you both want?"
Yugito growled lightly at the boy's voice and was ready to pounce on him but was stopped as Jiraiya put his hand onto her shoulder. "Naruto, do you remember what happened to you yesterday?"
"Something very stupid and painful." Naruto merely shrugged causing him to wince slightly as a sharp pain went through his spine.
Jiraiya frowned as he noticed the boy wince in pain again. He knew it was the damage to the seal that was causing this. But before he could say anything, Yugito stepped up in front of him and growled lightly. "Good, then I don't have to worry about yelling at you being an idiot! Did you honestly think you could defeat a jounin that murdered the majority of the God damn Uchiha clan?!"
Both were quickly surprised as Naruto answered almost immediately with an apathetic voice. "Nope."
Yugito was thrown for a loop as Jiraiya simply looked at his student with a puzzled look. He had always known that the boy would go out of his way to protect his friends and family. It was just surprising he had done the same for a girl he had known for only a couple weeks at most.
The blonde just couldn't believe that Naruto had answered her truthfully and without hesitation. It was just baffling as the blonde she knew only did something if he knew he could succeed. She frowned and placed her hand on her hip, wanting an answer. "Then why did you help if you knew there wasn't a chance of winning?"
Once again, Naruto gave her a simple answer as he looked her in the eyes. "She is… a friend."
They both knew who that he had meant Miko. But once more, Yugito was thrown into confusion as Jiraiya merely raised his eyebrow. Yugito had known that Naruto really hadn't cared about the raven haired girl all that much but suddenly she was a friend. Something was up with that.
Jiraiya quickly sensed another question coming from the blonde and placed his hand on her shoulder and shook his head at her. As her frown deepened, he turned to the blonde and looked solemnly at the boy. "Naruto, back to what happened yesterday… Do you remember when you were stabbed by that kunai?"
Naruto just nodded as he didn't feel it was worth wasting his time to say yes.
Sighing to himself, Jiraiya pulled out the kunai that was embedded into the blonde yesterday. "This kunai has a certain seal array on it, kind of like the ones we use to train. …There however is a major difference in what this one does."
"Just get to the point." Naruto commanded in a flat tone as he was getting annoyed by the pervert's stalling.
Jiraiya sighed once more before doing as the blonde asked. "The seals are meant to disrupt and make a certain other seal array malfunction and become utterly useless. …In this case, this one is designed to take out the limiter seals that keep Kyuubi's chakra from flooding into your system in great amounts."
Naruto narrowed his eyes at the sage's words before going to confer with his mother about this. 'Kaa-san, is what he said true?'
"Seems to be kit." Kyuubi responded as she wandered just outside of her cage, taking a careful look at the seal as she was slightly worried to why her chakra was healing her son quickly as it usually did. "It also seems that my harmful chakra will no longer be filtered out resulting in a more painful transformation in our four tailed state. It doesn't seem like it bothered with the purifiers that pass my chakra into your system safely, just the limiters."
Frowning at this development, Naruto moved a little to become more comfortable but stopped as pain spiked through his body. Gritting his teeth for a moment, he took a few deep breathes before looking at the white haired sage. "It also seems to have taken away kaa-san's ability to heal my wounds as quickly."
Jiraiya nodded at Naruto's assessment. He still hadn't gotten use to Kyuubi being his mother, but, in his opinion, the fox was doing a decent job of bring up the boy with some outside help. "Yes, her harmful chakra will no longer have any resistance and will cause extreme pain to use it from now on."
"He's right. My chakra can only be used as a life line from now on. I believe you can still use one tail of my chakra safely, but you'll be far more animalistic then you were before. I also can no longer regenerate you either unless you use a large amount of my chakra. The most I can do is heal you slowly when my chakra isn't in use." Kyuubi added on as the pervert was telling the truth and she wasn't one hundred percent sure about every seal as he was.
Naruto was livid at that and for once, others knew it as his face darkened and a low snarl escaped his lips. Taking a look at the kunai, he imagined the person that created it and began to mutilate him in various ways within his mind, pleasing Kyuubi greatly as it was quite entertaining for her to watch.
"Well this is just perfect!" Naruto growled loudly as he moved to stand up, ignoring the pain throughout his body. "I can no longer use her chakra unless it is absolutely necessary and I'll actually have to spend more days in the hospital as kaa-san can't heal me as quickly! Just perfect!"
Neither could blame him for losing his temper. After a few years of being able to depend on his tenant he was no longer able to use her power without it lashing out and harming him and possibly others around him.
But noticing the sudden influx of Kyuubi's chakra, Jiraiya's eyes narrowed before he calmly spoke up. "Yes, now calm yourself. You're drawing upon her chakra by getting worked up."
Sensing this, Naruto was perplexed as he could feel her chakra going through him at a higher rate then normal. It subsided as he returned back to his normal stoic self but this left him confused as it suddenly started and stopped for no particular reason.
Kyuubi sighed as her son couldn't see the connection between his emotions and her power. Thankfully, Jiraiya decided to speak up for her, even if he didn't know it. "It is as I thought… Your emotions will be in the determining factor of how much of the fox's chakra will be brought out. Basically, if you feel too strongly about one thing, you will begin to use Kyuubi's chakra."
"So he needs to stay like he is to avoid channeling too much of her chakra." Yugito said with her frown increasing ever more. She did not like the idea that he would have to remain emotionless to keep from going berserk from Kyuubi's chakra.
Jiraiya answered with a nod before a knock at the door brought everyone out of their own thoughts.
The door slowly creaked open to reveal Hayate and Yugao, he latter being in front. Seeing both, Jiraiya nodded before walking to the window as he had entered the room that way. "Naruto, there is no training for today. You need to rest."
Naruto frowned at this but couldn't argue as the sage was gone before he could say a word. Turning to the two that entered, he gave them a slight stare. "So what do you two want?"
Yugao ignored the bitterness in the blonde's voice as she was quite use to it. "I'm here to check both of you out. But seeing that you're going to be a little butt hole about it, I'll just take Yugito and be on my way."
"I won't be leaving then." Yugito countered as she gave Yugao a flat stare as she sat down besides Naruto and picked up his weapon pouch from the stand.
Groaning as both seemed to be in bad moods, Yugao pulled out a set of Naruto's clothes before tossing them to him. Both Yugao and Yugito blushed and turned away as Naruto automatically put them on after pulling off the hospital gown.
Hayate just shook his head and sighed. "Damn fox… It makes everything bigger… OW!"
Yugao back handed her husband and was tempted to strangle him as her face was beat red. The problem was no one knew if it was from anger or embarrassment.
Growling, she turned towards Naruto with her temper beginning to flare. "Naruto! If you strip naked in front of me again or any other woman, I swear on my mother's grave I will beat you to death with that... JUST NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!"
Naruto just blinked at her before nodding, not understanding what she was so angry about. Shrugging his shoulders, believing it to be an adult thing, he followed the hot headed Anbu and his jounin-sensei out of the room, wincing every once and a while as a sharp pain went through his body. How he hated that he was going to have to get use to feeling pain in the morning.
As they left the hospital and seeing that his wife was in a better mood, Gekkou smiled as he turned back towards Naruto. "Hey, I got some good news for you."
Hayate should have known that all he was going to receive was a grunt, but it was better then nothing. Shrugging his shoulders, he continued on. "After seeing how well all three of you did yesterday, I've decided I'm going to nominate the team to the chunin exams that will be held in Kumogakure in a little over a month."
"Isn't it a little early? I doubt Miko can really take it after what just happened." Yugao responded before Naruto could. She could see he was excited; the equivalent of excited for Naruto that is. But she really doubted that the young girl could handle something as big as the exams so quickly.
Gekkou nodded a little before replying. "I know, but she is adamant about going when she came by this morning. I think she just wants to leave the village and get away from it all for a while and I can't blame her. I'll have to go over this with her mother, but I'm sure she'll let her go. I'm not saying it is a sure thing, but I'm going to be testing her over the month to see if she is truly ready."
Yugao raised her eyebrow before giving in as Hayate had a point. It wasn't her decision on the girl and if she wanted to go even after what just happened, she wasn't going to stop her. "I still don't agree with it, but I won't argue."
Yugito frowned, not caring about the conversation and was waiting until they finished to state her point. "The exams are in the Cloud?"
Hayate nodded once more as he turned to the blonde, who he could see was livid at the thought. "Then I concur with Yugao in the point that you shouldn't be going. While we are neutral with the Cloud, they are friends with Iwa, Ame and other nations that I'm sure hate Konoha and I'm sure they've raised their young shinobi to hate us as well. Just wait for the next one in Waterfall before taking Naruto and the other two to the exams."
"No." Naruto countered as he stopped and looked her coldly. "I'm more then ready for the exams and if Miko is feeling up for it, there should be no reason why we can't. This team was built so it could compete in the Chunin exam immediately and show off to potential clients earning the village more business."
All three were shocked for a moment that Naruto had said more then five words in a sentence. Yugito was the first to recover before crossing her arms over her chest and glaring back at him. "Naruto, as much as you think you are ready, you aren't. I know Iwa shinobi will be there and they won't hesitate kill you on sight just for being a Konoha shinobi. As strong as you are you have to know there are others out there that are stronger."
Naruto kept his ground and his gaze before countering back. "And how is that different from here, huh? There will always be people here that will see me as the fox and try to kill me for it."
All three flinched as Naruto put up a valid point. No matter what was said or done, there would always be those people. But before any one of them could comment, Naruto had one last thing to say. "And what does it matter if they are stronger or not. Once I perfect the jutsu Jiraiya has been teaching me, there won't be a need to worry about me ever again."
And with that, he grabbed his weapon pouch from Yugito before heading into the forest leaving all three shocked, worried and wondering what the jutsu was. Growling as she wasn't finished, Yugito rushed after him leaving both Hayate and Yugao unsure what to do.
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Panting lightly, Naruto picked himself off the ground. He couldn't figure out why he couldn't increase the distance when he transferred himself to the grounded kunai and it was annoying him.
Walking out ten meters, he sat down and began to focus his concentration onto the kunai. However, his concentration was broken almost immediately as he was forced to open his eyes as his blonde haired jumped right in front of him.
Naruto sighed as he gave an uninterested stare. "What do you want as you can see I'm training?"
Yugito clinched her fist as she was ready to deck the young boy as she was getting fed up with him. She wasn't sure why as he wasn't acting too far out of the norm, but just with everything that had happened recently had made her worry. In fact, she was quite sure that something was wrong with her as she use to withstand his normal routine of not caring as she knew he really did care. It was just buried deep in his mind.
Calming herself, Yugito looked at the blonde before sitting down in front of him. "Naruto, I'm sorry for doubting you and your abilities… But it is reckless for you to be straining yourself like this."
"So, I do this all the time." Naruto responded as he continued giving her an apathetic look.
This made her twitch and want to strangle him. "You're kidding me right? Did you not listen to a word that Jiraiya-sama and Kyuubi said?! You no longer have the luxuries you use to because of what happened yesterday Naruto! You can die from the stupid shit you use to do as the fox can't fix whatever you fucked up the way she use to!"
As Naruto continued to give her the same look as before, Yugito felt like screaming at the top of her lungs. Her patience was running thin and she was ready to resort to an Anko tactic and hang him upside down in a tree and using him for target practice.
She was very close to doing it as well, but the rational part of her mind took over and she calmly spoke. "Look Naruto… I know you want to go to the exams and I won't stop you if you truly want to go and your sensei believes you are ready. But you have to realize now more then ever that you are more vulnerable then you were before. …And I don't want to see you get hurt."
Taking a slight breath and standing up once more as she crossed her arms over her chest, Yugito finished with a light, caring tone. "You've become very important to me after everything we've been through."
"What?" Naruto asked in slight, very slight, disbelief as the last part reached his ears.
While he did consider her one of his precious people and he knew she considered him as one of hers, the way she had said it had made it seem like it was something more. It was as if it was hinting at something that went beyond his comprehension.
A small blush adorned her cheeks as Naruto looked at her inquisitively. At first she was sure she had just worded it wrong as she meant he was someone dear to her. But hearing her own voice reply in her head over and over made her wonder if her feelings for the blonde went deeper then what she first thought.
But after her run in with the two from the Akatsuki had vastly changed her view on almost everything. Everything seemed out of whack for her and she just felt different then she was before. Maybe it was because of this that she was worrying that something bad would happen to Naruto if he continued to strain himself.
Kneeling down in front of Naruto, Yugito shook her head as she wasn't sure what to think at the moment before brushing her hand through his spiky hair. "I meant what I said. You are important to me Naruto. I'm just a little screwed up after what has happened and it will take me a while to figure everything out. But you being one that is always close to my heart will not change. …I just don't want to see you get hurt or something that happened to me happen to you."
Naruto flinched marginally as her hand went through his hair but at the same time he felt a warm sensation in the pit of his stomach before it slowly began to spread through his body. He was unsure what it was but it made him feel very, very odd. Almost like he was satisfied but it was more then even that.
For some reason that he could not explain, he smiled as he lowered his head lightly. "I know…"
Yugito smiled softly at Naruto before sitting besides him. "So, what are you working on that is oh so powerful that there will be no need for anyone to worry about you?"
Naruto was compelled to answer her at first but he was conflicted as Jiraiya had told him not to mention anything about the jutsu outside of the two of them. Still, he didn't trust the man all that well and Yugito was someone he would stand by even if she had been the one that had been murdering the Uchiha clan. Taking a deep breath, he pointed towards the grounded kunai before pulling out another from his pouch and handing it to her.
Seeing that she was examining the seals on it with interest, Naruto began explaining. "The kunai is essential for this jutsu… The seals are kind of like a Reverse Summoning in theory but it is far more complex in practice. Now, you notice the three prongs?"
Having Yugito nod as her attention turned to them, Naruto continued with his explanation. "Once they are grounded, it sets off a sort of alarm to the user, in this case me. Now once the alarm is going off and I have noticed it, the next stage of it activates and it begins to pull on my body and chakra trying to bring me to it. Now after all that, I have to apply chakra throughout my body in a perfectly even ratio before letting my chakra seep to the kunai, creating a tunnel to it."
"Now as the tunnel is created, I can finally use the jutsu and appear next to the kunai almost instantaneously if I have done it correctly. Supposedly, the longer I practice the tunnel step, the larger range I can have to appear next to the kunai until it reaches ten meters as that is, from what I've heard, the max range I can appear besides it." Naruto finished with a slight smirk on his face.
Yugito was rather stunned by his explanation, albeit a little irritated as it seemed that he had simplified it for her. From what he was telling her, it was like nothing she had ever heard of before. "That sounds useful, by why haven't I heard anyone else using this technique seeing as it sounds extremely useful."
Naruto shrugged as she handed him the kunai back. "I don't know. I know that you must have a lighting affinity for this jutsu, but I'm not sure about any other conditions. Jiraiya mentioned that it only reacts to certain people and didn't tell me why."
Nodding in understanding, Yugito shifted slightly before looking over towards the kunai. "So by guessing from what you said earlier you can use it but not at full capacity." Seeing Naruto confirm her by nodding, she smirked lightly as she looked at him. "So then, show me."
Once again, Naruto was at a dilemma as the pervert had told him not to use the jutsu until he had better control and he absolutely had to. But he also wanted to show Yugito as she wanted to see it in work after his explanation.
So once again, taking a deep breath he nodded as he closed his eyes. "Okay, but give me a few moments. …I'm not very proficient with it yet."
Yugito nodded and took a few steps back, wanting to get a full picture of the jutsu in work. She could tell it was nowhere near close to battle ready, she could tell that something was happening.
Naruto felt different as he evenly dispersed his chakra throughout his body. As it began to flow towards the kunai, he knew something was up and he wasn't sure this was a good or a bad thing. Still, he was this close and he could see the kunai as if it was right next to him as he entered the tunnel himself. Without warning, he was besides the kunai.
The only thing was that he wasn't right next to it. He was at least a few meters away from it.
He frowned at this. While it was an improvement, the feeling he got during it was off. Shaking his head, planning on asking Jiraiya about this later, he turned to Yugito and almost began laughing. The look on her face was priceless as her jaw was hanging off its hinges while her eyes were almost bulging out of their sockets.
Hearing snickering, Yugito snapped out of her shock and looked at the blonde haired boy in amazement. While the explanation had left her clueless, what she had seen was something she had heard before. She frowned a little before walking over to Naruto and shaking her head. "So what's it called?"
"Hiraishin." Naruto answered simply with a smirk plastered on his face before pulling out the kunai, feeling that he had made enough progress for the day.
Yugito stopped dead in her tracks as she heard the name. Oh, she knew it very well. That was the technique that had single handily took the world by storm and made everyone fear one man. And one she held very dear to her was learning how to use it. The thought sent shivers down her back. Naruto wasn't exactly the most stable person and giving him a jutsu as powerful of that could backfire and she knew it.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Snapping out of her trance, Yugito looked down at Naruto before quickly nodding. "Yeah, I'm fine."
Naruto frowned as he could tell she had forced those words out. Something was eating at her, but she wasn't going to come out and tell. He wanted to resort to one of Anko's methods, but he was rather tired and they had both just got out of the hospital. So he would let it go for now. "Okay. …But I have one thing to ask of you."
"Do not tell anyone about what you saw or heard hear today… If people knew I was learning this, our lives would be in further danger."
"I won't, you have my word." Yugito answered solemnly. She knew too well what the repercussions of people learning that a young boy, a demon vessel no less, was learning what was considered to be the most powerful jutsu ever created.
Taking a deep breath, she walked besides Naruto as they walked through the forest, heading for their apartment. While everything was nice and quite, something told her that things were not as they seemed somewhere nearby.
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In the hospital's morgue, Mikoto sighed softly as she looked down at her husband's now lifeless body. The medics had done everything they could, but they could not stop the bleeding. Something was obstructing their work and they couldn't figure out what it was.
It deeply saddened her that the love of her life, her soul mate, had passed on. But she would not let that stop her from caring out his last words and taking care of her children. She still had them and they were more important then anything else.
"Mother, why did you call me here?" She heard Itachi's solemn voice as the door slowly closed.
Miko closed her eyes and took a few breathes before turning away from her husband. It was still hard on her, but she would move on. There was just one last thing she had to do for him.
Before Itachi could move, Mikoto had plunged a syringe in his neck and a strange liquid was injected into his system. Falling to his knees, everything became a blur and looking up; he could see his mother walk over towards his father before pulling something out of his body with a sickening plop followed by another.
For one of the few times in his life, Itachi was frightened. He had heard it from her and other mothers that they brought their child into this world and could take them out, but he had always thought it to just be a saying. He had no clue what his mother was doing and he was afraid as he couldn't move a muscle and his vision was so blurry he could hardly make out anything in front of him when he heard her voice once more.
"Forgive me my son… But we must erase Madara from existence… And you are the only one that can do it… With these eyes."
Itachi couldn't understand what his mother meant. Who was this Madara she was speaking of and what eyes? As it dawned on him what she had taken out of his father, his body shivered before the liquid she had injected had finally taken affect and he had fell to the floor, out cold.
Looking down at her son, Mikoto closed her eyes before kneeling over him and kissing him lightly on forehead. Taking one last look at the eyes she had taken from her husband and their kaleidoscope form, she whispered to Itachi as her hands glowed an eerie green. "For with these eyes, you shall become invincible and lead our clan to greatness."
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Yugito was very worried. The fact that she was in the hospital more then a day was a bad sign, but the fact that Naruto had come back for a second day straight was even worse. What was even worse was that he was out for a whole day and this time his injuries weren't from a training accident.
He was wounded in combat as the Uchiha Clan came under attack from one of its own and an unknown assailant.
She had originally thought that Naruto had skipped out of her when it turned midnight. She wouldn't deny it; she was pissed at him and was going to give him a worse lashing then even what Anko could give him.
That was when a few nurses wheeled him into the room with half his body wrapped in bandages. To make things worse, the white haired man that was training Naruto was with them.
He alone had made her very, very worried. While he was hoping to talk with Anko about what happened, she was outside the village on a mission so he had no choice but to tell her what happened. The massacre was horrific on its own; however the damage that was done to the seal over shadowed everything else. And she had to be the one to tell him what happened to it. That made her day all so much better.
That was something she really, really didn't like. Anything that messed with his already severely weakened seal was bad. In fact, she was tempted to call in the nurses as it was bleeding through the bandages again in what seemed to be like that of an eye.
But it was doing that off and on and it seemed to be getting better now then it was a few hours ago. So she would do it herself as she steadied herself onto her feet and grabbed the bandage roll on the table besides her. Figuring the nurses knew that she wasn't going to call them unless something was horribly wrong; she limped towards the bleeding blonde.
With a little pulse of Nibi's chakra to her finger tips, she sliced the bandages off easily as her fingers turned into claws. Making sure she didn't accidentally catch him as her claws receded, she pulled off the bloodied wrappings before slowly beginning to apply a fresh set to his stomach, which was oddly fine as no blood was coming from it.
This made her wonder what was going on even more then before as the wound on his stomach was healed. However, the seal was in the exact shape of the blood stains on Naruto's stomach. She frowned, beginning to believe more and more that the white haired sannin was correct; she finished wrapping his mid section before limping back to her bed.
It was not going to be a pleasant morning as she knew the blonde would be waking soon as the sun was peaking over the trees. Picking up the set of clothes Anko left for her yesterday before heading out, Yugito only shook her head as she slipped her hospital gown off before slipping in her undergarments and pants before pulling on her shirt.
She thought about bounding her hair, but she had been wanting a new look for a while and the hair was what most girls her age normally changed their hair styles often. Grabbing a brush, she evenly combed her hair on both sides of her shoulders and thought what to do with it. As she was just ready to style it, her eyes caught movement from the other bed and instantly knew Naruto was waking. Deciding to leave her hair as it was, she turned to the waking blonde as she laid her legs over the edge of the hospital bed.
Naruto was really beginning to wonder if there was a God. As if there was one, he had a weird sense of humor as he still managed to end up in the same room with Yugito.
He had been hoping that he could avoid talking to her for a while and was the whole reason he went along with Miko before shit hit the fan. Of course he had to get injured trying to help her and her family and end up back in room three-seventeen with Yugito still occupying the other bed in the room. How he hated things always seemed to work against him. Figuring that he would get the yelling over with, he was about to sit up when pain shot through his entire body.
It was like liquid fire was erupting in his veins. His entire head pulsed as it felt as if his brain was melting. His skin was screaming as if it was being stabbed by thousands of needles. His heart pulsed painfully as every single beat felt like a sledge hammer was smashing against his chest from within. Then it came to a stop when he felt a hand on his stomach and even more pain before all the pain began to slowly fade away.
His eyes slowly began to open and he caught a blob of white in his vision. He instantly knew who it was as he closed his eyes once more and took a few breathes as the pain was still coursing throughout his body. Once it was bearable, he opened his eyes once more to see Jiraiya and Yugito looking over him. He wasn't quite sure why they were, but he had a good feeling it concerned his well being.
Slowly pulling himself into a seated position, cringing as the pain spiked from the movement, Naruto looked at both of them before speaking in an indifferent tone. "What do you both want?"
Yugito growled lightly at the boy's voice and was ready to pounce on him but was stopped as Jiraiya put his hand onto her shoulder. "Naruto, do you remember what happened to you yesterday?"
"Something very stupid and painful." Naruto merely shrugged causing him to wince slightly as a sharp pain went through his spine.
Jiraiya frowned as he noticed the boy wince in pain again. He knew it was the damage to the seal that was causing this. But before he could say anything, Yugito stepped up in front of him and growled lightly. "Good, then I don't have to worry about yelling at you being an idiot! Did you honestly think you could defeat a jounin that murdered the majority of the God damn Uchiha clan?!"
Both were quickly surprised as Naruto answered almost immediately with an apathetic voice. "Nope."
Yugito was thrown for a loop as Jiraiya simply looked at his student with a puzzled look. He had always known that the boy would go out of his way to protect his friends and family. It was just surprising he had done the same for a girl he had known for only a couple weeks at most.
The blonde just couldn't believe that Naruto had answered her truthfully and without hesitation. It was just baffling as the blonde she knew only did something if he knew he could succeed. She frowned and placed her hand on her hip, wanting an answer. "Then why did you help if you knew there wasn't a chance of winning?"
Once again, Naruto gave her a simple answer as he looked her in the eyes. "She is… a friend."
They both knew who that he had meant Miko. But once more, Yugito was thrown into confusion as Jiraiya merely raised his eyebrow. Yugito had known that Naruto really hadn't cared about the raven haired girl all that much but suddenly she was a friend. Something was up with that.
Jiraiya quickly sensed another question coming from the blonde and placed his hand on her shoulder and shook his head at her. As her frown deepened, he turned to the blonde and looked solemnly at the boy. "Naruto, back to what happened yesterday… Do you remember when you were stabbed by that kunai?"
Naruto just nodded as he didn't feel it was worth wasting his time to say yes.
Sighing to himself, Jiraiya pulled out the kunai that was embedded into the blonde yesterday. "This kunai has a certain seal array on it, kind of like the ones we use to train. …There however is a major difference in what this one does."
"Just get to the point." Naruto commanded in a flat tone as he was getting annoyed by the pervert's stalling.
Jiraiya sighed once more before doing as the blonde asked. "The seals are meant to disrupt and make a certain other seal array malfunction and become utterly useless. …In this case, this one is designed to take out the limiter seals that keep Kyuubi's chakra from flooding into your system in great amounts."
Naruto narrowed his eyes at the sage's words before going to confer with his mother about this. 'Kaa-san, is what he said true?'
"Seems to be kit." Kyuubi responded as she wandered just outside of her cage, taking a careful look at the seal as she was slightly worried to why her chakra was healing her son quickly as it usually did. "It also seems that my harmful chakra will no longer be filtered out resulting in a more painful transformation in our four tailed state. It doesn't seem like it bothered with the purifiers that pass my chakra into your system safely, just the limiters."
Frowning at this development, Naruto moved a little to become more comfortable but stopped as pain spiked through his body. Gritting his teeth for a moment, he took a few deep breathes before looking at the white haired sage. "It also seems to have taken away kaa-san's ability to heal my wounds as quickly."
Jiraiya nodded at Naruto's assessment. He still hadn't gotten use to Kyuubi being his mother, but, in his opinion, the fox was doing a decent job of bring up the boy with some outside help. "Yes, her harmful chakra will no longer have any resistance and will cause extreme pain to use it from now on."
"He's right. My chakra can only be used as a life line from now on. I believe you can still use one tail of my chakra safely, but you'll be far more animalistic then you were before. I also can no longer regenerate you either unless you use a large amount of my chakra. The most I can do is heal you slowly when my chakra isn't in use." Kyuubi added on as the pervert was telling the truth and she wasn't one hundred percent sure about every seal as he was.
Naruto was livid at that and for once, others knew it as his face darkened and a low snarl escaped his lips. Taking a look at the kunai, he imagined the person that created it and began to mutilate him in various ways within his mind, pleasing Kyuubi greatly as it was quite entertaining for her to watch.
"Well this is just perfect!" Naruto growled loudly as he moved to stand up, ignoring the pain throughout his body. "I can no longer use her chakra unless it is absolutely necessary and I'll actually have to spend more days in the hospital as kaa-san can't heal me as quickly! Just perfect!"
Neither could blame him for losing his temper. After a few years of being able to depend on his tenant he was no longer able to use her power without it lashing out and harming him and possibly others around him.
But noticing the sudden influx of Kyuubi's chakra, Jiraiya's eyes narrowed before he calmly spoke up. "Yes, now calm yourself. You're drawing upon her chakra by getting worked up."
Sensing this, Naruto was perplexed as he could feel her chakra going through him at a higher rate then normal. It subsided as he returned back to his normal stoic self but this left him confused as it suddenly started and stopped for no particular reason.
Kyuubi sighed as her son couldn't see the connection between his emotions and her power. Thankfully, Jiraiya decided to speak up for her, even if he didn't know it. "It is as I thought… Your emotions will be in the determining factor of how much of the fox's chakra will be brought out. Basically, if you feel too strongly about one thing, you will begin to use Kyuubi's chakra."
"So he needs to stay like he is to avoid channeling too much of her chakra." Yugito said with her frown increasing ever more. She did not like the idea that he would have to remain emotionless to keep from going berserk from Kyuubi's chakra.
Jiraiya answered with a nod before a knock at the door brought everyone out of their own thoughts.
The door slowly creaked open to reveal Hayate and Yugao, he latter being in front. Seeing both, Jiraiya nodded before walking to the window as he had entered the room that way. "Naruto, there is no training for today. You need to rest."
Naruto frowned at this but couldn't argue as the sage was gone before he could say a word. Turning to the two that entered, he gave them a slight stare. "So what do you two want?"
Yugao ignored the bitterness in the blonde's voice as she was quite use to it. "I'm here to check both of you out. But seeing that you're going to be a little butt hole about it, I'll just take Yugito and be on my way."
"I won't be leaving then." Yugito countered as she gave Yugao a flat stare as she sat down besides Naruto and picked up his weapon pouch from the stand.
Groaning as both seemed to be in bad moods, Yugao pulled out a set of Naruto's clothes before tossing them to him. Both Yugao and Yugito blushed and turned away as Naruto automatically put them on after pulling off the hospital gown.
Hayate just shook his head and sighed. "Damn fox… It makes everything bigger… OW!"
Yugao back handed her husband and was tempted to strangle him as her face was beat red. The problem was no one knew if it was from anger or embarrassment.
Growling, she turned towards Naruto with her temper beginning to flare. "Naruto! If you strip naked in front of me again or any other woman, I swear on my mother's grave I will beat you to death with that... JUST NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!"
Naruto just blinked at her before nodding, not understanding what she was so angry about. Shrugging his shoulders, believing it to be an adult thing, he followed the hot headed Anbu and his jounin-sensei out of the room, wincing every once and a while as a sharp pain went through his body. How he hated that he was going to have to get use to feeling pain in the morning.
As they left the hospital and seeing that his wife was in a better mood, Gekkou smiled as he turned back towards Naruto. "Hey, I got some good news for you."
Hayate should have known that all he was going to receive was a grunt, but it was better then nothing. Shrugging his shoulders, he continued on. "After seeing how well all three of you did yesterday, I've decided I'm going to nominate the team to the chunin exams that will be held in Kumogakure in a little over a month."
"Isn't it a little early? I doubt Miko can really take it after what just happened." Yugao responded before Naruto could. She could see he was excited; the equivalent of excited for Naruto that is. But she really doubted that the young girl could handle something as big as the exams so quickly.
Gekkou nodded a little before replying. "I know, but she is adamant about going when she came by this morning. I think she just wants to leave the village and get away from it all for a while and I can't blame her. I'll have to go over this with her mother, but I'm sure she'll let her go. I'm not saying it is a sure thing, but I'm going to be testing her over the month to see if she is truly ready."
Yugao raised her eyebrow before giving in as Hayate had a point. It wasn't her decision on the girl and if she wanted to go even after what just happened, she wasn't going to stop her. "I still don't agree with it, but I won't argue."
Yugito frowned, not caring about the conversation and was waiting until they finished to state her point. "The exams are in the Cloud?"
Hayate nodded once more as he turned to the blonde, who he could see was livid at the thought. "Then I concur with Yugao in the point that you shouldn't be going. While we are neutral with the Cloud, they are friends with Iwa, Ame and other nations that I'm sure hate Konoha and I'm sure they've raised their young shinobi to hate us as well. Just wait for the next one in Waterfall before taking Naruto and the other two to the exams."
"No." Naruto countered as he stopped and looked her coldly. "I'm more then ready for the exams and if Miko is feeling up for it, there should be no reason why we can't. This team was built so it could compete in the Chunin exam immediately and show off to potential clients earning the village more business."
All three were shocked for a moment that Naruto had said more then five words in a sentence. Yugito was the first to recover before crossing her arms over her chest and glaring back at him. "Naruto, as much as you think you are ready, you aren't. I know Iwa shinobi will be there and they won't hesitate kill you on sight just for being a Konoha shinobi. As strong as you are you have to know there are others out there that are stronger."
Naruto kept his ground and his gaze before countering back. "And how is that different from here, huh? There will always be people here that will see me as the fox and try to kill me for it."
All three flinched as Naruto put up a valid point. No matter what was said or done, there would always be those people. But before any one of them could comment, Naruto had one last thing to say. "And what does it matter if they are stronger or not. Once I perfect the jutsu Jiraiya has been teaching me, there won't be a need to worry about me ever again."
And with that, he grabbed his weapon pouch from Yugito before heading into the forest leaving all three shocked, worried and wondering what the jutsu was. Growling as she wasn't finished, Yugito rushed after him leaving both Hayate and Yugao unsure what to do.
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Panting lightly, Naruto picked himself off the ground. He couldn't figure out why he couldn't increase the distance when he transferred himself to the grounded kunai and it was annoying him.
Walking out ten meters, he sat down and began to focus his concentration onto the kunai. However, his concentration was broken almost immediately as he was forced to open his eyes as his blonde haired jumped right in front of him.
Naruto sighed as he gave an uninterested stare. "What do you want as you can see I'm training?"
Yugito clinched her fist as she was ready to deck the young boy as she was getting fed up with him. She wasn't sure why as he wasn't acting too far out of the norm, but just with everything that had happened recently had made her worry. In fact, she was quite sure that something was wrong with her as she use to withstand his normal routine of not caring as she knew he really did care. It was just buried deep in his mind.
Calming herself, Yugito looked at the blonde before sitting down in front of him. "Naruto, I'm sorry for doubting you and your abilities… But it is reckless for you to be straining yourself like this."
"So, I do this all the time." Naruto responded as he continued giving her an apathetic look.
This made her twitch and want to strangle him. "You're kidding me right? Did you not listen to a word that Jiraiya-sama and Kyuubi said?! You no longer have the luxuries you use to because of what happened yesterday Naruto! You can die from the stupid shit you use to do as the fox can't fix whatever you fucked up the way she use to!"
As Naruto continued to give her the same look as before, Yugito felt like screaming at the top of her lungs. Her patience was running thin and she was ready to resort to an Anko tactic and hang him upside down in a tree and using him for target practice.
She was very close to doing it as well, but the rational part of her mind took over and she calmly spoke. "Look Naruto… I know you want to go to the exams and I won't stop you if you truly want to go and your sensei believes you are ready. But you have to realize now more then ever that you are more vulnerable then you were before. …And I don't want to see you get hurt."
Taking a slight breath and standing up once more as she crossed her arms over her chest, Yugito finished with a light, caring tone. "You've become very important to me after everything we've been through."
"What?" Naruto asked in slight, very slight, disbelief as the last part reached his ears.
While he did consider her one of his precious people and he knew she considered him as one of hers, the way she had said it had made it seem like it was something more. It was as if it was hinting at something that went beyond his comprehension.
A small blush adorned her cheeks as Naruto looked at her inquisitively. At first she was sure she had just worded it wrong as she meant he was someone dear to her. But hearing her own voice reply in her head over and over made her wonder if her feelings for the blonde went deeper then what she first thought.
But after her run in with the two from the Akatsuki had vastly changed her view on almost everything. Everything seemed out of whack for her and she just felt different then she was before. Maybe it was because of this that she was worrying that something bad would happen to Naruto if he continued to strain himself.
Kneeling down in front of Naruto, Yugito shook her head as she wasn't sure what to think at the moment before brushing her hand through his spiky hair. "I meant what I said. You are important to me Naruto. I'm just a little screwed up after what has happened and it will take me a while to figure everything out. But you being one that is always close to my heart will not change. …I just don't want to see you get hurt or something that happened to me happen to you."
Naruto flinched marginally as her hand went through his hair but at the same time he felt a warm sensation in the pit of his stomach before it slowly began to spread through his body. He was unsure what it was but it made him feel very, very odd. Almost like he was satisfied but it was more then even that.
For some reason that he could not explain, he smiled as he lowered his head lightly. "I know…"
Yugito smiled softly at Naruto before sitting besides him. "So, what are you working on that is oh so powerful that there will be no need for anyone to worry about you?"
Naruto was compelled to answer her at first but he was conflicted as Jiraiya had told him not to mention anything about the jutsu outside of the two of them. Still, he didn't trust the man all that well and Yugito was someone he would stand by even if she had been the one that had been murdering the Uchiha clan. Taking a deep breath, he pointed towards the grounded kunai before pulling out another from his pouch and handing it to her.
Seeing that she was examining the seals on it with interest, Naruto began explaining. "The kunai is essential for this jutsu… The seals are kind of like a Reverse Summoning in theory but it is far more complex in practice. Now, you notice the three prongs?"
Having Yugito nod as her attention turned to them, Naruto continued with his explanation. "Once they are grounded, it sets off a sort of alarm to the user, in this case me. Now once the alarm is going off and I have noticed it, the next stage of it activates and it begins to pull on my body and chakra trying to bring me to it. Now after all that, I have to apply chakra throughout my body in a perfectly even ratio before letting my chakra seep to the kunai, creating a tunnel to it."
"Now as the tunnel is created, I can finally use the jutsu and appear next to the kunai almost instantaneously if I have done it correctly. Supposedly, the longer I practice the tunnel step, the larger range I can have to appear next to the kunai until it reaches ten meters as that is, from what I've heard, the max range I can appear besides it." Naruto finished with a slight smirk on his face.
Yugito was rather stunned by his explanation, albeit a little irritated as it seemed that he had simplified it for her. From what he was telling her, it was like nothing she had ever heard of before. "That sounds useful, by why haven't I heard anyone else using this technique seeing as it sounds extremely useful."
Naruto shrugged as she handed him the kunai back. "I don't know. I know that you must have a lighting affinity for this jutsu, but I'm not sure about any other conditions. Jiraiya mentioned that it only reacts to certain people and didn't tell me why."
Nodding in understanding, Yugito shifted slightly before looking over towards the kunai. "So by guessing from what you said earlier you can use it but not at full capacity." Seeing Naruto confirm her by nodding, she smirked lightly as she looked at him. "So then, show me."
Once again, Naruto was at a dilemma as the pervert had told him not to use the jutsu until he had better control and he absolutely had to. But he also wanted to show Yugito as she wanted to see it in work after his explanation.
So once again, taking a deep breath he nodded as he closed his eyes. "Okay, but give me a few moments. …I'm not very proficient with it yet."
Yugito nodded and took a few steps back, wanting to get a full picture of the jutsu in work. She could tell it was nowhere near close to battle ready, she could tell that something was happening.
Naruto felt different as he evenly dispersed his chakra throughout his body. As it began to flow towards the kunai, he knew something was up and he wasn't sure this was a good or a bad thing. Still, he was this close and he could see the kunai as if it was right next to him as he entered the tunnel himself. Without warning, he was besides the kunai.
The only thing was that he wasn't right next to it. He was at least a few meters away from it.
He frowned at this. While it was an improvement, the feeling he got during it was off. Shaking his head, planning on asking Jiraiya about this later, he turned to Yugito and almost began laughing. The look on her face was priceless as her jaw was hanging off its hinges while her eyes were almost bulging out of their sockets.
Hearing snickering, Yugito snapped out of her shock and looked at the blonde haired boy in amazement. While the explanation had left her clueless, what she had seen was something she had heard before. She frowned a little before walking over to Naruto and shaking her head. "So what's it called?"
"Hiraishin." Naruto answered simply with a smirk plastered on his face before pulling out the kunai, feeling that he had made enough progress for the day.
Yugito stopped dead in her tracks as she heard the name. Oh, she knew it very well. That was the technique that had single handily took the world by storm and made everyone fear one man. And one she held very dear to her was learning how to use it. The thought sent shivers down her back. Naruto wasn't exactly the most stable person and giving him a jutsu as powerful of that could backfire and she knew it.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Snapping out of her trance, Yugito looked down at Naruto before quickly nodding. "Yeah, I'm fine."
Naruto frowned as he could tell she had forced those words out. Something was eating at her, but she wasn't going to come out and tell. He wanted to resort to one of Anko's methods, but he was rather tired and they had both just got out of the hospital. So he would let it go for now. "Okay. …But I have one thing to ask of you."
"Do not tell anyone about what you saw or heard hear today… If people knew I was learning this, our lives would be in further danger."
"I won't, you have my word." Yugito answered solemnly. She knew too well what the repercussions of people learning that a young boy, a demon vessel no less, was learning what was considered to be the most powerful jutsu ever created.
Taking a deep breath, she walked besides Naruto as they walked through the forest, heading for their apartment. While everything was nice and quite, something told her that things were not as they seemed somewhere nearby.
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In the hospital's morgue, Mikoto sighed softly as she looked down at her husband's now lifeless body. The medics had done everything they could, but they could not stop the bleeding. Something was obstructing their work and they couldn't figure out what it was.
It deeply saddened her that the love of her life, her soul mate, had passed on. But she would not let that stop her from caring out his last words and taking care of her children. She still had them and they were more important then anything else.
"Mother, why did you call me here?" She heard Itachi's solemn voice as the door slowly closed.
Miko closed her eyes and took a few breathes before turning away from her husband. It was still hard on her, but she would move on. There was just one last thing she had to do for him.
Before Itachi could move, Mikoto had plunged a syringe in his neck and a strange liquid was injected into his system. Falling to his knees, everything became a blur and looking up; he could see his mother walk over towards his father before pulling something out of his body with a sickening plop followed by another.
For one of the few times in his life, Itachi was frightened. He had heard it from her and other mothers that they brought their child into this world and could take them out, but he had always thought it to just be a saying. He had no clue what his mother was doing and he was afraid as he couldn't move a muscle and his vision was so blurry he could hardly make out anything in front of him when he heard her voice once more.
"Forgive me my son… But we must erase Madara from existence… And you are the only one that can do it… With these eyes."
Itachi couldn't understand what his mother meant. Who was this Madara she was speaking of and what eyes? As it dawned on him what she had taken out of his father, his body shivered before the liquid she had injected had finally taken affect and he had fell to the floor, out cold.
Looking down at her son, Mikoto closed her eyes before kneeling over him and kissing him lightly on forehead. Taking one last look at the eyes she had taken from her husband and their kaleidoscope form, she whispered to Itachi as her hands glowed an eerie green. "For with these eyes, you shall become invincible and lead our clan to greatness."
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