Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Hidden Continent ❯ Meeting the leader ( Chapter 2 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Arigatomina 
Anime/Manga: Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Romance / Shounen | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 03.22.2006 | Pages: 4 | Words: 7.4K | Visits: 1.4K | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Romance / Shounen | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 03.22.2006 | Pages: 4 | Words: 7.4K | Visits: 1.4K | Status: Work In Progress
Naruto Notes: I don't write anyone out of character on purpose, but I have almost no experience with any Naruto characters, so there's no guarantee my interpretation of them will match other fics. I thought I should warn about that. Also, I'm assuming ninja aren't sexist when it comes to Anbu - I've never read of female Anbu in fics, but if they can have a female Hokage, it should be fine. Last note, I won't be having Naruto refer to Sasuke as 'bastard'. I'll be using the original 'teme', which is literally nothing more than a really insulting way of saying 'you.' It's like dobe or '-chan', I just don't think the original intention comes through in English.
YYH Notes: For those who don't recall, Bui is the only surviving member of Team Toguro in the Dark Tournament arc - the tall green-haired guy in ridiculously heavy armor who Hiei smeared the floor with by using his mastered kokoryuuha. All of the other surviving demons from that arc were later recruited by Kurama for the Makai tournament, so it always annoyed me that Bui got left out. I can only assume Kurama was still mad Bui helped Karasu play with his hair that time. ;p Still, Bui is the only opponent in the entire tournament that Hiei didn't kill, and he actually asked Hiei to finish him off. That should count for something. I've a fondness for the idea of him joining Mukuro's ranks after the series and working alongside Hiei. She'd need a number two in command with Shigure gone, anyway. There'll be more of this in the actual fic eventually, once I get Kurama on the scene.
General: This is a crossover-adventure fic with romance mixed in, and possible humor on the side. Don't hope for a wildly hilarious fic. I did some searching and there's already at least one very funny Naruto-YYH fic out there. I noticed our descriptions are very similar, but that was a coincidence, and it's the only similarity. I don't want complaints that my crossover fic isn't as funny - it's not meant to be. '.'
Category: Naruto / Yu Yu Hakusho crossover, Yaoi, TWT
Pairings: Naruto x Sasuke, Kurama x Hiei
Minor Pairings: KakaIru, SakuSasu, Kyubi-Hiei, Bui-Hiei
Warnings: language, shonen ai, possible humor
Author: Arigatomina
Email: arigatoumina (a) hotmail . com
Website: www . geocities . com / arigatomina
The Hidden Continent
Part Two: Meeting the leader
Two chairs sat empty and unwanted in front of the Hokage's equally abandoned desk. Thanks to the easily manipulated nature of genin students, there was no dust or cobwebs to show how rarely the room was occupied. It was the most empty and defensible room in the Hokage tower, far enough from Tsunade's real office to ensure no damage would be done to important scrolls and files if a guest happened to get out of hand. The room was reserved for especially suspicious and potentially dangerous guests, so it was rarely actually used. Still, the walls were marked to allow spying while still being thick enough to protect the nearby chambers. It might not have been used often, but it had been tested more than once by groups of junior ninja in need of chakra-control lessons. So far it had managed to survive without more than a few scratches and dents.
The Anbu had stationed themselves outside to allow the strange guests a chance to feel unobserved. They weren't, and they seemed aware of it. Instead of taking the less than comfortable chairs, they separated with one near the far wall, the other close to the door. They never moved or spoke from the time they were first escorted in, until Kakashi entered a few minutes later.
Although he'd retired from the Anbu force since taking the teaching position for Team Seven, Kakashi remained on good terms with the masked men guarding the chamber. He might have missed seeing the smaller of the strangers escape their guard earlier, but he could tell from the overly rigid way the white hawk stood that his old friend was smarting over the slip. That put him in a rather amused mood and made him smirk at the quick-footed stranger as soon as he'd shut the door behind him.
Sharp red eyes flicked to him for a brief shuttered look. Then they turned back to the wall. Kakashi was curious to note that the smaller male was leaning right where a window had been before the chamber had been modified into a potential holding cell. Not only that, he actually appeared to be looking out the no longer existent window. Yes, he was certainly a strange one.
He was quite possibly shorter than Naruto, with thick black hair swept back into a flame. White strands formed some sort of star shape in the front, and thicker black strands fell down to partially cover the white band wrapped over his forehead. He was dressed in a long-sleeved black cloak that made him look every bit as young and slender as Kakashi's own students. A baggy white scarf completed the look, making his face and too-wide red eyes appear even younger still. If he hadn't seen the guy leap out a three story window without being so much as winded, Kakashi would have dubbed him a strange looking child with age-old eyes.
The other stranger had stepped back when he entered, and was now standing a few feet to the left of the door. Aside from the fact that his short hair was pale green in color, and he had an odd grayish-blue mark on his forehead, he looked perfectly normal. He was tall and broad-shouldered, and appeared to be in his late twenties. His dress was slightly unusual in that his midlength coat was lined with diagonal straps and spiked metallic plates over his shoulders and forearms. It was strange compared to the smaller one's complete lack of armor or visible weaponry, but Kakashi had seen foreign guards decked out even worse than that. Nah, other than his unusual hair color, he was definitely the normal one of the two. At least he continued looking at him when he noticed Kakashi's one-eyed gaze. No learned shinobi would be so foolish as to turn his back to a stranger.
"The Godaime will be here as soon as she can," Kakashi offered, with a faint smile that was only really visible in his crinkled eye. "That little scene at the hospital wasn't a very timely distraction."
"Godaime?" the tall man repeated.
"The fifth Hokage," said Kakashi. A vague blink of pale blue eyes answered this, and he smirked a bit wider behind his mask. "You two really aren't from around here. I'm Kakashi, and the Hokage is what we call our leader. She's also the best medical nin we have right now, so she won't be coming over till she's done with Sasuke. From the looks of him, it might be a while."
"Bui," the man nodded.
The dark one turned away from that windowless wall and nodded as well, though he didn't look especially interested in the formalities. "Hiei. Is Sasuke the name of the youko's host?"
"No," Kakashi said slowly, his right eye narrowing as he raised an eyebrow. He sidestepped the issue of Naruto and his overly enthusiastic parasite and focused on the more peculiar detail. "From what I'm told, you two were the ones who brought Sasuke back here. You didn't get his name when you picked him up...?"
"He was unconscious," said Bui.
They didn't even know what was wrong with him, aside from the youki burns the fox demon had left. Those marks were what had drawn them to the snake, the nearest sign of demons they'd found. They'd immediately been accused of being more of 'Konoha's shinobi' hoping to 'take back' their young 'missing nin.' Bui knew he'd missed most of the threatening and mocking exchange that had followed, what with the strange words the humans had thrown in. But the basics were clear - they'd gone to the wrong place.
As for what had followed, he still wasn't sure. They could have backtracked the boy's scent without actually bringing him along. It wasn't like Hiei to voluntarily involve himself in ningen issues. He could only assume it was because of the snake. Neither of them had been particularly taken with the thing. Stealing his toy was the worst blow they could deal him since the Reikai forbid killing anyone who was even partially human. That was the trade that came from cooperating with Koenma. No killing humans. In exchange, they had a quick means of avoiding fights by simply switching realms.
Hiei glowered as he remembered how easily they'd found their own way once they'd reached the valley. The original idea was to use the boy, who was fairly saturated with youki from the recent clash, the same way a hunter would any item that reeked of the prey. Actually getting him had been a hassle, and, he now admitted, more trouble than they needed. He'd gotten some satisfaction from the snake's shocked face when they opened a portal to the Reikai, but it only lasted a few seconds. Now he didn't know whether they'd done a favor for these people, which would make them more cooperative in appreciation, or if they'd merely brought back a convict, who, since they couldn't be responsible for the death of a human, they'd have to protect from his own people.
Everything would have been so much simpler if Koenma had just put them down in the valley to begin with. Incompetent infantile godling.
The silver-haired man with the cloth mask was looking at him again. He probably thought they didn't notice the energy radiating from his hidden eye. Why else would he keep looking directly at him when his turned back should have made it clear he wasn't interested in talking? Hiei glared a little and turned to face him. "We didn't know there was a clear trail from the valley to the walls of this village. Why do your people leave tracks over the ground when you can teleport?"
Kakashi blinked. A funny expression took over his face to the point where even his mask couldn't hide the wide smile. He couldn't decide if Hiei reminded him of Sasuke or Naruto, and that was just funny. Funny, like a 'flying shadow' taking out a shadow-manipulator. Ironic didn't begin to cover it.
"Ah," Kakashi breathed, beaming at Hiei as if he were a confused and belligerent genin too new to know better than to ask him a question. "Teleportation is very limited, you see. If the chakra control isn't just right half the village would be picking shinobi strips out of their hair. That's assuming there's an invitation to arrive at all. There was this missing nin one time, who tried to teleport into Konoha in secret, and he arrived with his foot in a cat. Wouldn't have been a problem since it was a stray, anyway, except the rest of him ended upside down in the roof the cat was sitting on. They had to take the whole roof off, and you just know those kids had nightmares for weeks, seeing that head poking down over their beds like that."
Hiei blinked.
Kakashi nodded sagely. "Then there's the departure itself. I remember this one kid, had an invite and the hand seals, but I guess his heart just wasn't in it. Actually, I know it wasn't, because he left it behind. I hear they managed to put it back in him, but between you and me, I think they just said that so the rest of us wouldn't get discouraged. After what happened with the woman who tried to bring her nin dog with her, there were a few walk outs during the training. Now that was a sight. It takes some real skill to teleport with a passenger. There was this one time-"
Outside the room, looks were exchanged between the Anbu members standing watch. Tsunade had certainly picked someone who could keep the visitors occupied until her arrival. Whether or not Kakashi was the best someone to do the job was another matter. The Godaime was known for her age-defying endowments and medical skills, not her decision-making. Anyone who'd send a newly advanced chunin and a handful of genin to face a squad of Orochimaru's best fighters couldn't be expected to get to know her subordinates before assigning tasks. Unless she'd just wanted to torture the visitors with Kakashi's lie-laced storytelling. Tsunade was a little sadistic for a Hokage.
.-.
Naruto woke to the soft sound of a damp finger running lightly over stretched cloth. The first thing he noticed was the silent calm coming from his literal inner demon, as if he'd fallen asleep after Shikamaru's visit and just had a strange and vivid dream. Somehow he didn't think he'd be that lucky. He avoided any thought that might rouse Kyubi and slowly opened his eyes to the familiar hospital ceiling. Well, somewhat familiar. He was in a different room. A room, he quickly noticed, without a window.
"Awake, then?" the man writing on the floor asked, without glancing up. "Don't sit up too quickly, or you'll disturb the wards. You can wear this once I'm done."
"Iruka-sensei?" asked Naruto.
He lifted his head a little and blinked dumbly at the scroll draped over his shoulders. The writing was strange. And smelly. He panicked a little when he realized why.
"Ack! This is blood! Is it yours? Ne? Iruka-sensei! What happened? Are you binding me? Why! Did I do something? What-"
He'd leaned as close to the side of the bed as he could without disturbing the draped scroll, hoping to catch his old teacher's attention. He blinked when he caught sight of the person sitting against the door behind the brown-haired chunin.
"Oi," Naruto blurted. He was immediately glad he hadn't asked about Kyubi. But judging from the way his friend was scowling at him, he had more things to worry about. "What happened to you?"
Shikamaru scowled over Iruka's head, the older chunin being currently occupied on the floor between him and the bed. He might have been angry about his bandaged nose, but considering a faint scowl was his normal expression, no one could tell.
"I tried to help," Shikamaru muttered. "My mistake."
Iruka finally looked up from the vest he'd been writing on. He sent a sympathetic smile to Shikamaru. Then he stood and gestured for Naruto to sit up slowly so he could slip the vest on the boy without the scroll slipping down too far.
"You had a visitor," Iruka told Naruto. "According to Kakashi-sensei, it was a very unusual visitor. The - er, your chakra...reacted badly and you...well...it seems you..."
"Fell out the window," Shikamaru finished.
Naruto gaped at them both.
Iruka gave a weak shrug. "This seal should keep your...chakra...from getting out of control again. I understand Kakashi-sensei designed something similar for Sasuke once. It relies on you, your determination to keep your 'chakra' from consuming you. Since this shouldn't be a problem once the visitor leaves, we thought a removable seal would be best. You're relieved of missions for the time being, so it shouldn't be a problem."
"Uh...okay," Naruto said slowly. "So...how'd I fall out the window? The last thing I remember is this weird guy showing up on the window sill."
His former teacher glanced back at the chunin sitting by the door. Shikamaru sighed at having to describe the event yet again. He'd already had to tell Kakashi and Tsunade, and then Iruka, and he'd probably have to tell Ino because he knew Chouji would tell her as soon as she visited him and she always had to get the direct scoop on any gossip. He was really wishing he hadn't decided to tell Naruto about Sasuke's return. He should have known there was a reason the Anbu were looking at the door to Naruto's room instead of keeping watch on the hall.
"I was stopping by to give you some news," Shikamaru said reluctantly. "As soon as I opened the door, your chakra hit me. It was worse than that purple-black chakra Sasuke used during the exam, except it looked more like fire. Someone must have put a seal on your room, by the way, because I couldn't feel it at all from the hall. Anyway, I came in just as you were jumping for the window. I didn't know there was someone else in the room. I used shadow bind to stop you before you could fall out. Then something moved. I thought it was a shadow, but I couldn't catch it. The next thing I know, I'm in here and my face hurts like hell."
Iruka nodded and took up the story. "According to Kakashi-sensei, the visitor thought you were being attacked. He was planning to hit Shikamaru from behind and knock him out, but he turned into the blow..."
"I think he broke my nose," Shikamaru glowered. "I still don't see how he thought he'd be protecting you by letting you fall out the window. If you'd hit your head, you would have died."
"Don't worry," Iruka said over his shoulder. "Your nose will heal just fine. The swelling should go down within the hour. The nurse who looked at you said you could come back if it doesn't and they'll fix it immediately. Your quick action was entirely appropriate and appreciated."
"Yeah, yeah," sighed Shikamaru. "I already got that from Genma-san. Commendable, if entirely pointless action befitting a chunin. Good for me. My nose still hurts. And Naruto still ended up falling out the window. Who caught him, anyway?"
"Another of the visitors," said Iruka. He turned back to take the scroll from Naruto, since he was wearing the vest in its place. "They were being escorted to Hokage tower when, and I quote, 'the little one lit up like a black lantern and shot off,' with the other holding the Anbu back before following after. Apparently, the one you two saw was too fast for the Anbu to catch, and the other formed some sort of green chakra barrier they couldn't penetrate. They followed them here just in time to meet the Anbu who'd been stationed over the operating room."
He gave a faint smile to Naruto, who was gaping at him again. "You can expect Sakura to get wind of this and come to check on you. When she does, I'm sure you'd like to tell her the good news."
"G-good?" Naruto demanded, in a voice just shy of an outright wail. "What part of this is good? Visitors holding back Anbu? Anbu! I fell out a window, Shikamaru got beaned in the face, and that f-"
He bit off the last part, though he was dying to tell Iruka that the fox had warned him there were demons in Konoha. He couldn't say that in front of Shikamaru. But...demons! He hadn't gotten a good look at the red-eyed guy who'd jumped to his window, but they had to have looked human if the Anbu were taking them to see Tsunade. What kind of demons looked like people? What? Were they carriers like him and Gaara? Kyubi had gone on about them being 'pure', so he'd imagined giant animals stomping through the woods the way Shukaku had. Now he didn't know what to think.
But...if the fox were right about the demons, that meant...
Naruto straightened and leaned toward Iruka with his eyes wide and gleaming as if he'd just spotted a steaming bowl of free ramen. "Ano sa! Ano sa, Iruka-sensei! Sasuke's here, isn't he! That's the reason the Anbu were in the hall, right? Ne? Is it true? That those visitors brought him back here? Well?"
A long sigh sounded by the door. Shikamaru frowned deeper and shoved himself to his feet. There was one more reason he shouldn't have bothered opening Naruto's door. He should have known someone else would have told the boy. He'd had to run a few errands before he got a chance to come back to the hospital, so it only made sense that someone else would have gotten there to spread the news quicker than he could. It figured. He didn't know why he kept setting himself up for troublesome and pointless endeavors. He'd never figured himself for a masochist.
"There goes my news," he sighed. "I'm leaving now. I still have to write a report about this. It's a good thing Sasuke's back so you can get out of here, Naruto. Visiting you in the hospital is troublesome enough without it being dangerous."
Naruto barely paused to watch his friend leave. He'd already latched onto Iruka's shoulder, almost shaking the man in his excitement.
"Then it's true? Come on, Iruka-sensei! You don't even have to say yes, just nod or something!"
"Yes, it's true," Iruka laughed. "He's here and under careful watch so he won't be slipping off again. But before you get too excited, he's in pretty bad shape and we still don't know if he was brought back willingly or not. He hasn't woken up, yet. I'll see if I can get Kakashi-sensei to sneak you and Sakura in to see him as soon as possible. In the meantime, we need to talk about what really happened today."
Naruto sighed and let go, his excitement fading the same time as Iruka's expression grew sober. He rubbed a hand over the gray sleeveless vest his teacher had put on him and wondered if the blood writing inside had dried enough that it wouldn't stain his white shirt. Even if it did, it was probably worth it if it meant Kyubi wouldn't be howling in his head and making him do crazy things like jump out windows. Sure, he only owned two shirts, but it wasn't like anyone really saw them beneath his jacket. What was a shirt in exchange for silencing a psychotic fox, who was apparently gay as hell and in rut to boot?
"Those visitors were both guys, right...?"
Iruka blinked at the random question. "Yes, as far as I know. Why do you ask?"
"Erm, no reason," Naruto said, waving a hand. "Just curious. I think...I think they're like me and Gaara. It's kinda funny, if you think about it, how it's only us guys who end up like this."
Neither of them was particularly comfortable discussing Kyubi, but Iruka found it especially difficult. He'd been told things since Naruto's failed chunin exam. Kakashi had told him about the eruption in the wave country, and the chakra signature that had blazed during his fight with Sasuke. Even Jiraiya had taken the time to tell him a few things about Naruto's seal, notably the fact that Orochimaru had countered it and effectively kept the boy from advancing for months without anyone noticing. That last detail had struck him the hardest. He'd asked Kakashi to be tactful when addressing Kyubi's presence in Naruto, so he blamed himself for the fact that the teacher hadn't noticed the sudden change. Naruto shouldn't have had to rely on a stranger to help him, just because his own teachers were too shy about Kyubi to ask him if anything was wrong.
"It's okay, you know," said Iruka. "To talk with me about Kyubi. It's okay. You don't have to hide things. Especially if you're...using his chakra in battles...or having him use you. You really don't remember trying to jump out the window. That was him, wasn't it?"
Naruto shied away, squirming a little and wishing there were a window he could look out instead of a blank wall. He knew he'd get caught after that crazy chakra the stupid fox had been putting out. But why did it have to be Iruka asking about it? Kakashi should have been there, or maybe even Jiraiya. Yeah, like Jiraiya could actually be found and called in as easily as a stationary shinobi. Scrap that idea. It was all Kakashi, being lazy as usual, pushing the dirty work off on Iruka. He was probably standing on a roof somewhere reading that book of his. And people thought Shikamaru was lazy. He was downright ambitious compared to Kakashi.
"Naruto," prodded Iruka. "This may be informal, but I do need a report on your side of the incident. Since your handwriting is barely legible on the best of days, that will require you actually talking to me."
"There's not much," Naruto sulked, squirming a little further from the edge of the bed. "The stupid fox smelled something, threw a fit about demons in Konoha, and then that guy was in the window. I fell off the bed and...I don't know. I thought I shut him up for a second there, but then that stranger said something. At least, I think he said something. He made some weird fast sounds like he was talking, but it didn't make any sense to me. I had my eyes closed from falling off the bed and yelling at the fox. and when I opened them I was here. It's like I blinked, or it was a weird dream. It's like I said, not much. The only thing I really got is that he said those guys were demons and they brought Sasuke back. Really, that's it."
Nothing, not even torture at the hands of an experienced Anbu like Ibiki, was going to make him tell anyone that Kyubi had wanted to screw the living daylights out of the guy. After pinning him and getting a good taste of his blood. The imaginings the fox had sent him before he zoned out were seriously fucked up. There was no way he'd describe them to anyone, especially not Iruka. Just thinking about them...
Naruto lunged off the bed, ducking past his startled teacher. He managed a garbled apology on his mad dash for the adjoining bathroom. Additional seal or no seal, Kyubi had woken up at his sudden remembrance of those images. He didn't know if the fox's interest was making him sick or aroused. Either way, he didn't want to be in that state with Iruka right next to him. There was only so much humiliation and emotional turmoil he could take in one day.
There was no chakra this time, but he could hear the fox as clearly as ever, ranting away in his head. He crouched down by near the toilet and hissed back at it, very aware of how thin the wall was.
'Shut up - shut up! I wasn't taunting you, I swear! I just remembered. It's not like I wanted to think about it. It's your own fault for putting stuff like that in my head. I'm...I'm too young for this. Yeah! You're totally perverting my innocence. You're worse than Ero-sennin! I've never even kissed and you want me to-"
Kyubi immediately called him on that lie, complete with a vivid recollection of the event. Naruto jerked back and whacked his head on the wall, more from the painful beating he'd gotten from the girls in his class, than the horror he'd felt at having accidentally kissed his rival.
'A girl! I've never kissed a girl! God, why do you have to bring that up? I didn't even think you were aware of things back then. Besides, even if you count Sasuke, which you can't because that was totally an accident and it wasn't even my fault - but if you did, that still wouldn't make me perve enough to let you use my body to rape some guy. Maybe if it were a really hot girl who was all over me anyway, and you just wanted some sex, then maybe. But you're into that bondage shit and weird-looking demons - guy demons, even! Why can't you be a normal pervert like everyone else? And what's with the biting? What? You want him to bleed to death so you end up doing a corpse? How sick can you get? Wait... Yeah, on second thought, don't answer that. Don't say anything. Just go back to sleep before Iruka-sensei thinks I died in here.'
Naturally, the fox demon ignored his belated order. 'Your cute little seal may keep my chakra in check, but that's all it does. Don't think you can defame me like this without reaping the consequences.'
Naruto sent a worried look at the door before closing his eyes again. 'Defame? What the hell are you talking about? You're the one who sent me the pictures! Are you trying to take it back?'
'To steal, dominate, and claim is not the same as rape. Even an untouched kit like you should know that. What I want is no different from you and your boy. How long have you spent trying to bring him to his knees? Since the snake sank his fangs into him first, your only thought was to steal him back. This is no different. That demon reeks of one of my kind. He came to me, knowing what I am. He dared to mock me because of this childish container I'm trapped in. Me! I've outlived him a dozen times over! When I find the pathetic excuse for a youko that allowed him to keep that taunting tongue of his, I'll-'
The latter half of the rant was lost on his host. Naruto's brain had ceased functioning at the idea of Sasuke on his knees. He'd imagined that scenario so many times, his rival falling and him playing the part of hero. It was stock footage for his imagination to pull out any time he needed a reminder of why he trained so hard. Surpass Sasuke, impress Sakura, surprise Kakashi, and make his rival thank him for saving his life. It was a sacred image, his favorite daydream. Kyubi had managed to desecrate it in a matter of seconds.
Deaf to the ranting that continued unabated in his head, Naruto stumbled out of the bathroom. He jittered a little, like he had to go to the bathroom and didn't realize he'd just come out of the room he was so desperately seeking. Iruka met him halfway.
"I need to sleep," Naruto blurted, everything in his body language screaming nervous energy. "If I poke my head out the door, you think that ugly nurse'll drug me up again? Or maybe you could just hit me, huh? I really need to stop thinking, like right now. 'Cause if I don't stop thinking, I think I'm gonna end up chewing on the bedframe."
Iruka blinked slowly. "...the bedframe is made of metal, Naruto."
Naruto blinked back, his eyes wide and far too dilated. "I know."
.-.
Konoha's fifth Hokage was a beautiful blonde woman in her midtwenties with a body like a ningen supermodel, all hungry curves and unrealistic augmentations. The first thing Hiei noticed about her, besides the would-be provocative appearance, was the strange odor she let off. She didn't smell like a ripe woman in the middle of her life. It wasn't a strong or foul scent, it just struck the demons as being off, being wrong. If Hiei didn't know better, he'd have sworn her appearance was some sort of illusion. He could see through illusions, so it had to be something else, just one more of those strange abilities these humans seemed to use so casually. He'd already heard more than he wanted to about their 'teleportation' skills, without actually learning how they used them. He didn't bother to ask why their leader looked like a young woman and smelled like a grandmother.
Tsunade took her seat with a terse frown pulling her eyebrows together. She was tired from her time with Sasuke, who seemed to have reached a new level of stubborn ignorance. The seal he'd been drawing on had definitely reached a new level or two. Just like Naruto had returned with considerable cell deterioration from using the Kyubi's chakra so much, Sasuke's use of the seal had threatened to destroy his entire future as a shinobi. And she didn't understand that at all. Orochimaru wanted his body strong and intact, so why had he gone and given him a seal that would destroy his body if he dared to use it? They'd recovered what was left of his other followers and seen firsthand the destruction those seals caused. She knew Orochimaru had no problem sacrificing men to get what he wanted, but she'd never pegged him for an absolute moron. He couldn't exactly use Sasuke's body if he had to sacrifice Sasuke's body in order to get it...
She shook her head in exasperation and leveled a still-frowning stare on the two visitors. "It's hard to believe you two have only been here an hour, with all the trouble you've caused already. If you hadn't brought Sasuke to us, you'd be treated as enemies."
"About that boy," said Bui, who had deigned to take the seat across the desk from her. "Is he a victim or an enemy to you?"
Tsunade raised an eyebrow, curious that the man was asking that now, after he'd already handed over the bargaining tool. "Possibly both. We haven't made any decisions regarding his case and we won't for the time being. Regardless, we do appreciate having him brought back. That's why I'm having this meeting with you. What do you want? And what village are you from?"
Hiei was still standing near the former window since he'd refused to sit where he'd have two Anbu standing guard directly behind him. Bui glanced at him before answering the woman's questions. Until Hiei decided he was taking too long, he'd do the talking.
"We aren't from one of your villages," said Bui. "We're doing reconnaissance from a place you probably don't even know exists. That's why we're here, because until the clash in your valley three days ago, we weren't aware of your existence."
"I've heard of hidden villages before," Tsunade said, in a somewhat annoyed tone. "You're hardly the first to show up out of nowhere."
Bui shook his head. "That's not what I mean. This entire continent is isolated to the point where it can't be reached. What's beyond the ocean and glacier land that surrounds your villages?"
"More water and ice," said Tsunade, "and a few island countries. Are you saying you're from an island no one on the main continent has visited?"
"Something like that. This entire region you've inhabited is unreachable from the outside, nonexistent. We don't know how you've managed it, but there is a barrier that prevents demons from entering or even locating this region. Take the glaciers. If you walk toward this area from that side, the moment you step into the barrier you walk right out the other side - meaning an abrupt ocean. It appears entirely natural, no wards we could identify. It was the explosion of youki - your 'chakra' energy - that made us aware that something was here besides what we could see. We're here to learn more about this region - how long your people have inhabited it, how you've isolated it, and what sort of human civilization has grown here."
The woman was staring at Bui with a strange look on her face, as if she didn't know whether to laugh or try and make sense of his words. Hiei left the wall and moved to stand near her side. He was careful to stop when the Anbu tensed, leaving a few feet between them. When he spoke, it was slowly and sarcastically, the same way he spoke when he was forced to explain something to Kuwabara.
"These villages of yours and the continent they sit on are in the middle of the Makai. All humans were relocated to the Ningenkai centuries ago. The fact that you are here is in violation of every rule the Reikai has. Now that we know you're here, we may be forced to relocate every single one of you. If we can establish that the barrier you have in place will never come down, you may be allowed to remain. To do that, we have to know more about you. In exchange, we'll tell you about the worlds you've isolated yourselves from.
"You are intruders, trespassers, hidden in the middle of a world that belongs to demons," Hiei simplified.
Tsunade stared at him for a long while before leaning back in her seat. If her expression was a little more annoyed than usual, she couldn't be blamed. "I take it you don't consider yourself insane for saying any of that."
"No," Hiei deadpanned.
"I didn't think so," she sighed. "This has to be the most farfetched thing I've ever heard of." She glanced at Kakashi, who was holding quiet, smiling, vigile in the corner nearest the door. "And I've heard some wild ones."
"We can prove it," offered Bui. "The fact that you have demons here, even if it's only three that we've noticed, means this region was once open to the rest of the Makai. They had to have been here when it was originally sealed, so they would remember the details."
That sparked a reaction from the woman. She turned on Bui with a glare that was actually a bit daunting. "Are you suggesting we would take the word of Kyubi on anything? Even if there was a way to communicate with that monster, no one here would believe a word it said."
"You don't need his word," Hiei shrugged. "We need his word, as well as the memories of the other demons we've sensed in this realm. All you need is a trip outside this bubble of yours. Currently the only realm this region is connected to is the Reikai. It seems the humans who've died here have been slipping in unidentified for centuries. Now, that connection goes in both directions. We can take you to the Reikai, a spirit realm, and from there to the Ningenkai - the world you humans should have been living in. We could show you the demon world your villages are planted in the middle of, but...I don't think you'd like it."
Whatever fantastic stories the pair had to tell, Tsunade admitted the little one demanded some attention. He grinned with that last sentence, a dark sneer that was far more worrisome than anything Orochimaru had in his collection. And he flexed his chakra just enough for it to be noticeable. The color was too similar to one of those cursed seals for comfort.
"I like adventures," Tsunade said casually, "when they have the chance of proving profitable to me. Unfortunately, I'm currently the leader of this village. I can't go gallivanting off at the moment. I'll have to take a raincheck."
Hiei scowled at the sarcastic smile she shot him. He'd never liked females. Even the snake had given them more benefit of the doubt than that, and he'd only been interested in marking them for his own use.
"I'm not doing anything," Kakashi offered from the corner. "I'll go."
Tsunade opened her mouth to shoot him down, but she hesitated a second later. The little one, Hiei, had tensed at the offer. Everything on his twisted face said he didn't want to take him anywhere. Ah. Her decision to have Kakashi entertain the two had been right on the money. They hated him already. Perfect.
"Good," Tsunade nodded to Kakashi, her brown eyes glinting with amusement that was echoed by the masked man. "Consider it a mission and report back to me with your findings."
She turned back to Hiei and let the smile reach her face. It came out a little more smug than she realized, but that was fine. "If his report is compelling enough, I'll reconsider what you've told me. In the meantime, I must insist that you avoid contact with Uzumaki Naruto until further notice."
"Who?" Hiei scowled.
"The boy you accosted in the hospital," explained Kakashi, with a wry smile. "We're not very receptive to people who ditch their escort to knock injured boys out windows. But we can talk about manners on our way to these worlds of yours. I'm curious, though. Don't you have to be dead to go to the spirit world? I hope you weren't planning to kill our Hokage just to prove a point to her. That's hardly the best way to convince someone."
Hiei's eyebrow twitched. Bui shot him a look, and he forced himself to stop clenching his hands. He couldn't kill the gray-haired man, no matter how much he really, really, would have liked to. He gave one more glare to the smug-looking woman. Then he sighed and turned to join Bui next to the smiling Kakashi.
The Anbu members proved themselves by darting in front of the Hokage the moment the air began to shiver around Hiei. They were the same members who'd once watched, helpless, as the Third Hokage opened a portal to the spirit world and gave up his life to seal Orochimaru's hands. The portal Hiei opened was very similar in shape, but more fluid and natural. He had Reikai approval, after all.
He waited long enough for the formerly smug woman to look alert and shocked. Then he darted through, leaving Bui to latch onto Kakashi and pull him along. His eagerness to get this over with made him miss out on seeing the copy-ninja's smile get replaced by a suddenly wary and serious expression. He still heard the man's yelp when the portal closed behind them and Kakashi found himself in a seeming freefall above a foreign landscape. It wasn't as satisfying as killing him, but it was something.
.-.
TBC
YYH Notes: For those who don't recall, Bui is the only surviving member of Team Toguro in the Dark Tournament arc - the tall green-haired guy in ridiculously heavy armor who Hiei smeared the floor with by using his mastered kokoryuuha. All of the other surviving demons from that arc were later recruited by Kurama for the Makai tournament, so it always annoyed me that Bui got left out. I can only assume Kurama was still mad Bui helped Karasu play with his hair that time. ;p Still, Bui is the only opponent in the entire tournament that Hiei didn't kill, and he actually asked Hiei to finish him off. That should count for something. I've a fondness for the idea of him joining Mukuro's ranks after the series and working alongside Hiei. She'd need a number two in command with Shigure gone, anyway. There'll be more of this in the actual fic eventually, once I get Kurama on the scene.
General: This is a crossover-adventure fic with romance mixed in, and possible humor on the side. Don't hope for a wildly hilarious fic. I did some searching and there's already at least one very funny Naruto-YYH fic out there. I noticed our descriptions are very similar, but that was a coincidence, and it's the only similarity. I don't want complaints that my crossover fic isn't as funny - it's not meant to be. '.'
Category: Naruto / Yu Yu Hakusho crossover, Yaoi, TWT
Pairings: Naruto x Sasuke, Kurama x Hiei
Minor Pairings: KakaIru, SakuSasu, Kyubi-Hiei, Bui-Hiei
Warnings: language, shonen ai, possible humor
Author: Arigatomina
Email: arigatoumina (a) hotmail . com
Website: www . geocities . com / arigatomina
The Hidden Continent
Part Two: Meeting the leader
Two chairs sat empty and unwanted in front of the Hokage's equally abandoned desk. Thanks to the easily manipulated nature of genin students, there was no dust or cobwebs to show how rarely the room was occupied. It was the most empty and defensible room in the Hokage tower, far enough from Tsunade's real office to ensure no damage would be done to important scrolls and files if a guest happened to get out of hand. The room was reserved for especially suspicious and potentially dangerous guests, so it was rarely actually used. Still, the walls were marked to allow spying while still being thick enough to protect the nearby chambers. It might not have been used often, but it had been tested more than once by groups of junior ninja in need of chakra-control lessons. So far it had managed to survive without more than a few scratches and dents.
The Anbu had stationed themselves outside to allow the strange guests a chance to feel unobserved. They weren't, and they seemed aware of it. Instead of taking the less than comfortable chairs, they separated with one near the far wall, the other close to the door. They never moved or spoke from the time they were first escorted in, until Kakashi entered a few minutes later.
Although he'd retired from the Anbu force since taking the teaching position for Team Seven, Kakashi remained on good terms with the masked men guarding the chamber. He might have missed seeing the smaller of the strangers escape their guard earlier, but he could tell from the overly rigid way the white hawk stood that his old friend was smarting over the slip. That put him in a rather amused mood and made him smirk at the quick-footed stranger as soon as he'd shut the door behind him.
Sharp red eyes flicked to him for a brief shuttered look. Then they turned back to the wall. Kakashi was curious to note that the smaller male was leaning right where a window had been before the chamber had been modified into a potential holding cell. Not only that, he actually appeared to be looking out the no longer existent window. Yes, he was certainly a strange one.
He was quite possibly shorter than Naruto, with thick black hair swept back into a flame. White strands formed some sort of star shape in the front, and thicker black strands fell down to partially cover the white band wrapped over his forehead. He was dressed in a long-sleeved black cloak that made him look every bit as young and slender as Kakashi's own students. A baggy white scarf completed the look, making his face and too-wide red eyes appear even younger still. If he hadn't seen the guy leap out a three story window without being so much as winded, Kakashi would have dubbed him a strange looking child with age-old eyes.
The other stranger had stepped back when he entered, and was now standing a few feet to the left of the door. Aside from the fact that his short hair was pale green in color, and he had an odd grayish-blue mark on his forehead, he looked perfectly normal. He was tall and broad-shouldered, and appeared to be in his late twenties. His dress was slightly unusual in that his midlength coat was lined with diagonal straps and spiked metallic plates over his shoulders and forearms. It was strange compared to the smaller one's complete lack of armor or visible weaponry, but Kakashi had seen foreign guards decked out even worse than that. Nah, other than his unusual hair color, he was definitely the normal one of the two. At least he continued looking at him when he noticed Kakashi's one-eyed gaze. No learned shinobi would be so foolish as to turn his back to a stranger.
"The Godaime will be here as soon as she can," Kakashi offered, with a faint smile that was only really visible in his crinkled eye. "That little scene at the hospital wasn't a very timely distraction."
"Godaime?" the tall man repeated.
"The fifth Hokage," said Kakashi. A vague blink of pale blue eyes answered this, and he smirked a bit wider behind his mask. "You two really aren't from around here. I'm Kakashi, and the Hokage is what we call our leader. She's also the best medical nin we have right now, so she won't be coming over till she's done with Sasuke. From the looks of him, it might be a while."
"Bui," the man nodded.
The dark one turned away from that windowless wall and nodded as well, though he didn't look especially interested in the formalities. "Hiei. Is Sasuke the name of the youko's host?"
"No," Kakashi said slowly, his right eye narrowing as he raised an eyebrow. He sidestepped the issue of Naruto and his overly enthusiastic parasite and focused on the more peculiar detail. "From what I'm told, you two were the ones who brought Sasuke back here. You didn't get his name when you picked him up...?"
"He was unconscious," said Bui.
They didn't even know what was wrong with him, aside from the youki burns the fox demon had left. Those marks were what had drawn them to the snake, the nearest sign of demons they'd found. They'd immediately been accused of being more of 'Konoha's shinobi' hoping to 'take back' their young 'missing nin.' Bui knew he'd missed most of the threatening and mocking exchange that had followed, what with the strange words the humans had thrown in. But the basics were clear - they'd gone to the wrong place.
As for what had followed, he still wasn't sure. They could have backtracked the boy's scent without actually bringing him along. It wasn't like Hiei to voluntarily involve himself in ningen issues. He could only assume it was because of the snake. Neither of them had been particularly taken with the thing. Stealing his toy was the worst blow they could deal him since the Reikai forbid killing anyone who was even partially human. That was the trade that came from cooperating with Koenma. No killing humans. In exchange, they had a quick means of avoiding fights by simply switching realms.
Hiei glowered as he remembered how easily they'd found their own way once they'd reached the valley. The original idea was to use the boy, who was fairly saturated with youki from the recent clash, the same way a hunter would any item that reeked of the prey. Actually getting him had been a hassle, and, he now admitted, more trouble than they needed. He'd gotten some satisfaction from the snake's shocked face when they opened a portal to the Reikai, but it only lasted a few seconds. Now he didn't know whether they'd done a favor for these people, which would make them more cooperative in appreciation, or if they'd merely brought back a convict, who, since they couldn't be responsible for the death of a human, they'd have to protect from his own people.
Everything would have been so much simpler if Koenma had just put them down in the valley to begin with. Incompetent infantile godling.
The silver-haired man with the cloth mask was looking at him again. He probably thought they didn't notice the energy radiating from his hidden eye. Why else would he keep looking directly at him when his turned back should have made it clear he wasn't interested in talking? Hiei glared a little and turned to face him. "We didn't know there was a clear trail from the valley to the walls of this village. Why do your people leave tracks over the ground when you can teleport?"
Kakashi blinked. A funny expression took over his face to the point where even his mask couldn't hide the wide smile. He couldn't decide if Hiei reminded him of Sasuke or Naruto, and that was just funny. Funny, like a 'flying shadow' taking out a shadow-manipulator. Ironic didn't begin to cover it.
"Ah," Kakashi breathed, beaming at Hiei as if he were a confused and belligerent genin too new to know better than to ask him a question. "Teleportation is very limited, you see. If the chakra control isn't just right half the village would be picking shinobi strips out of their hair. That's assuming there's an invitation to arrive at all. There was this missing nin one time, who tried to teleport into Konoha in secret, and he arrived with his foot in a cat. Wouldn't have been a problem since it was a stray, anyway, except the rest of him ended upside down in the roof the cat was sitting on. They had to take the whole roof off, and you just know those kids had nightmares for weeks, seeing that head poking down over their beds like that."
Hiei blinked.
Kakashi nodded sagely. "Then there's the departure itself. I remember this one kid, had an invite and the hand seals, but I guess his heart just wasn't in it. Actually, I know it wasn't, because he left it behind. I hear they managed to put it back in him, but between you and me, I think they just said that so the rest of us wouldn't get discouraged. After what happened with the woman who tried to bring her nin dog with her, there were a few walk outs during the training. Now that was a sight. It takes some real skill to teleport with a passenger. There was this one time-"
Outside the room, looks were exchanged between the Anbu members standing watch. Tsunade had certainly picked someone who could keep the visitors occupied until her arrival. Whether or not Kakashi was the best someone to do the job was another matter. The Godaime was known for her age-defying endowments and medical skills, not her decision-making. Anyone who'd send a newly advanced chunin and a handful of genin to face a squad of Orochimaru's best fighters couldn't be expected to get to know her subordinates before assigning tasks. Unless she'd just wanted to torture the visitors with Kakashi's lie-laced storytelling. Tsunade was a little sadistic for a Hokage.
.-.
Naruto woke to the soft sound of a damp finger running lightly over stretched cloth. The first thing he noticed was the silent calm coming from his literal inner demon, as if he'd fallen asleep after Shikamaru's visit and just had a strange and vivid dream. Somehow he didn't think he'd be that lucky. He avoided any thought that might rouse Kyubi and slowly opened his eyes to the familiar hospital ceiling. Well, somewhat familiar. He was in a different room. A room, he quickly noticed, without a window.
"Awake, then?" the man writing on the floor asked, without glancing up. "Don't sit up too quickly, or you'll disturb the wards. You can wear this once I'm done."
"Iruka-sensei?" asked Naruto.
He lifted his head a little and blinked dumbly at the scroll draped over his shoulders. The writing was strange. And smelly. He panicked a little when he realized why.
"Ack! This is blood! Is it yours? Ne? Iruka-sensei! What happened? Are you binding me? Why! Did I do something? What-"
He'd leaned as close to the side of the bed as he could without disturbing the draped scroll, hoping to catch his old teacher's attention. He blinked when he caught sight of the person sitting against the door behind the brown-haired chunin.
"Oi," Naruto blurted. He was immediately glad he hadn't asked about Kyubi. But judging from the way his friend was scowling at him, he had more things to worry about. "What happened to you?"
Shikamaru scowled over Iruka's head, the older chunin being currently occupied on the floor between him and the bed. He might have been angry about his bandaged nose, but considering a faint scowl was his normal expression, no one could tell.
"I tried to help," Shikamaru muttered. "My mistake."
Iruka finally looked up from the vest he'd been writing on. He sent a sympathetic smile to Shikamaru. Then he stood and gestured for Naruto to sit up slowly so he could slip the vest on the boy without the scroll slipping down too far.
"You had a visitor," Iruka told Naruto. "According to Kakashi-sensei, it was a very unusual visitor. The - er, your chakra...reacted badly and you...well...it seems you..."
"Fell out the window," Shikamaru finished.
Naruto gaped at them both.
Iruka gave a weak shrug. "This seal should keep your...chakra...from getting out of control again. I understand Kakashi-sensei designed something similar for Sasuke once. It relies on you, your determination to keep your 'chakra' from consuming you. Since this shouldn't be a problem once the visitor leaves, we thought a removable seal would be best. You're relieved of missions for the time being, so it shouldn't be a problem."
"Uh...okay," Naruto said slowly. "So...how'd I fall out the window? The last thing I remember is this weird guy showing up on the window sill."
His former teacher glanced back at the chunin sitting by the door. Shikamaru sighed at having to describe the event yet again. He'd already had to tell Kakashi and Tsunade, and then Iruka, and he'd probably have to tell Ino because he knew Chouji would tell her as soon as she visited him and she always had to get the direct scoop on any gossip. He was really wishing he hadn't decided to tell Naruto about Sasuke's return. He should have known there was a reason the Anbu were looking at the door to Naruto's room instead of keeping watch on the hall.
"I was stopping by to give you some news," Shikamaru said reluctantly. "As soon as I opened the door, your chakra hit me. It was worse than that purple-black chakra Sasuke used during the exam, except it looked more like fire. Someone must have put a seal on your room, by the way, because I couldn't feel it at all from the hall. Anyway, I came in just as you were jumping for the window. I didn't know there was someone else in the room. I used shadow bind to stop you before you could fall out. Then something moved. I thought it was a shadow, but I couldn't catch it. The next thing I know, I'm in here and my face hurts like hell."
Iruka nodded and took up the story. "According to Kakashi-sensei, the visitor thought you were being attacked. He was planning to hit Shikamaru from behind and knock him out, but he turned into the blow..."
"I think he broke my nose," Shikamaru glowered. "I still don't see how he thought he'd be protecting you by letting you fall out the window. If you'd hit your head, you would have died."
"Don't worry," Iruka said over his shoulder. "Your nose will heal just fine. The swelling should go down within the hour. The nurse who looked at you said you could come back if it doesn't and they'll fix it immediately. Your quick action was entirely appropriate and appreciated."
"Yeah, yeah," sighed Shikamaru. "I already got that from Genma-san. Commendable, if entirely pointless action befitting a chunin. Good for me. My nose still hurts. And Naruto still ended up falling out the window. Who caught him, anyway?"
"Another of the visitors," said Iruka. He turned back to take the scroll from Naruto, since he was wearing the vest in its place. "They were being escorted to Hokage tower when, and I quote, 'the little one lit up like a black lantern and shot off,' with the other holding the Anbu back before following after. Apparently, the one you two saw was too fast for the Anbu to catch, and the other formed some sort of green chakra barrier they couldn't penetrate. They followed them here just in time to meet the Anbu who'd been stationed over the operating room."
He gave a faint smile to Naruto, who was gaping at him again. "You can expect Sakura to get wind of this and come to check on you. When she does, I'm sure you'd like to tell her the good news."
"G-good?" Naruto demanded, in a voice just shy of an outright wail. "What part of this is good? Visitors holding back Anbu? Anbu! I fell out a window, Shikamaru got beaned in the face, and that f-"
He bit off the last part, though he was dying to tell Iruka that the fox had warned him there were demons in Konoha. He couldn't say that in front of Shikamaru. But...demons! He hadn't gotten a good look at the red-eyed guy who'd jumped to his window, but they had to have looked human if the Anbu were taking them to see Tsunade. What kind of demons looked like people? What? Were they carriers like him and Gaara? Kyubi had gone on about them being 'pure', so he'd imagined giant animals stomping through the woods the way Shukaku had. Now he didn't know what to think.
But...if the fox were right about the demons, that meant...
Naruto straightened and leaned toward Iruka with his eyes wide and gleaming as if he'd just spotted a steaming bowl of free ramen. "Ano sa! Ano sa, Iruka-sensei! Sasuke's here, isn't he! That's the reason the Anbu were in the hall, right? Ne? Is it true? That those visitors brought him back here? Well?"
A long sigh sounded by the door. Shikamaru frowned deeper and shoved himself to his feet. There was one more reason he shouldn't have bothered opening Naruto's door. He should have known someone else would have told the boy. He'd had to run a few errands before he got a chance to come back to the hospital, so it only made sense that someone else would have gotten there to spread the news quicker than he could. It figured. He didn't know why he kept setting himself up for troublesome and pointless endeavors. He'd never figured himself for a masochist.
"There goes my news," he sighed. "I'm leaving now. I still have to write a report about this. It's a good thing Sasuke's back so you can get out of here, Naruto. Visiting you in the hospital is troublesome enough without it being dangerous."
Naruto barely paused to watch his friend leave. He'd already latched onto Iruka's shoulder, almost shaking the man in his excitement.
"Then it's true? Come on, Iruka-sensei! You don't even have to say yes, just nod or something!"
"Yes, it's true," Iruka laughed. "He's here and under careful watch so he won't be slipping off again. But before you get too excited, he's in pretty bad shape and we still don't know if he was brought back willingly or not. He hasn't woken up, yet. I'll see if I can get Kakashi-sensei to sneak you and Sakura in to see him as soon as possible. In the meantime, we need to talk about what really happened today."
Naruto sighed and let go, his excitement fading the same time as Iruka's expression grew sober. He rubbed a hand over the gray sleeveless vest his teacher had put on him and wondered if the blood writing inside had dried enough that it wouldn't stain his white shirt. Even if it did, it was probably worth it if it meant Kyubi wouldn't be howling in his head and making him do crazy things like jump out windows. Sure, he only owned two shirts, but it wasn't like anyone really saw them beneath his jacket. What was a shirt in exchange for silencing a psychotic fox, who was apparently gay as hell and in rut to boot?
"Those visitors were both guys, right...?"
Iruka blinked at the random question. "Yes, as far as I know. Why do you ask?"
"Erm, no reason," Naruto said, waving a hand. "Just curious. I think...I think they're like me and Gaara. It's kinda funny, if you think about it, how it's only us guys who end up like this."
Neither of them was particularly comfortable discussing Kyubi, but Iruka found it especially difficult. He'd been told things since Naruto's failed chunin exam. Kakashi had told him about the eruption in the wave country, and the chakra signature that had blazed during his fight with Sasuke. Even Jiraiya had taken the time to tell him a few things about Naruto's seal, notably the fact that Orochimaru had countered it and effectively kept the boy from advancing for months without anyone noticing. That last detail had struck him the hardest. He'd asked Kakashi to be tactful when addressing Kyubi's presence in Naruto, so he blamed himself for the fact that the teacher hadn't noticed the sudden change. Naruto shouldn't have had to rely on a stranger to help him, just because his own teachers were too shy about Kyubi to ask him if anything was wrong.
"It's okay, you know," said Iruka. "To talk with me about Kyubi. It's okay. You don't have to hide things. Especially if you're...using his chakra in battles...or having him use you. You really don't remember trying to jump out the window. That was him, wasn't it?"
Naruto shied away, squirming a little and wishing there were a window he could look out instead of a blank wall. He knew he'd get caught after that crazy chakra the stupid fox had been putting out. But why did it have to be Iruka asking about it? Kakashi should have been there, or maybe even Jiraiya. Yeah, like Jiraiya could actually be found and called in as easily as a stationary shinobi. Scrap that idea. It was all Kakashi, being lazy as usual, pushing the dirty work off on Iruka. He was probably standing on a roof somewhere reading that book of his. And people thought Shikamaru was lazy. He was downright ambitious compared to Kakashi.
"Naruto," prodded Iruka. "This may be informal, but I do need a report on your side of the incident. Since your handwriting is barely legible on the best of days, that will require you actually talking to me."
"There's not much," Naruto sulked, squirming a little further from the edge of the bed. "The stupid fox smelled something, threw a fit about demons in Konoha, and then that guy was in the window. I fell off the bed and...I don't know. I thought I shut him up for a second there, but then that stranger said something. At least, I think he said something. He made some weird fast sounds like he was talking, but it didn't make any sense to me. I had my eyes closed from falling off the bed and yelling at the fox. and when I opened them I was here. It's like I blinked, or it was a weird dream. It's like I said, not much. The only thing I really got is that he said those guys were demons and they brought Sasuke back. Really, that's it."
Nothing, not even torture at the hands of an experienced Anbu like Ibiki, was going to make him tell anyone that Kyubi had wanted to screw the living daylights out of the guy. After pinning him and getting a good taste of his blood. The imaginings the fox had sent him before he zoned out were seriously fucked up. There was no way he'd describe them to anyone, especially not Iruka. Just thinking about them...
Naruto lunged off the bed, ducking past his startled teacher. He managed a garbled apology on his mad dash for the adjoining bathroom. Additional seal or no seal, Kyubi had woken up at his sudden remembrance of those images. He didn't know if the fox's interest was making him sick or aroused. Either way, he didn't want to be in that state with Iruka right next to him. There was only so much humiliation and emotional turmoil he could take in one day.
There was no chakra this time, but he could hear the fox as clearly as ever, ranting away in his head. He crouched down by near the toilet and hissed back at it, very aware of how thin the wall was.
'Shut up - shut up! I wasn't taunting you, I swear! I just remembered. It's not like I wanted to think about it. It's your own fault for putting stuff like that in my head. I'm...I'm too young for this. Yeah! You're totally perverting my innocence. You're worse than Ero-sennin! I've never even kissed and you want me to-"
Kyubi immediately called him on that lie, complete with a vivid recollection of the event. Naruto jerked back and whacked his head on the wall, more from the painful beating he'd gotten from the girls in his class, than the horror he'd felt at having accidentally kissed his rival.
'A girl! I've never kissed a girl! God, why do you have to bring that up? I didn't even think you were aware of things back then. Besides, even if you count Sasuke, which you can't because that was totally an accident and it wasn't even my fault - but if you did, that still wouldn't make me perve enough to let you use my body to rape some guy. Maybe if it were a really hot girl who was all over me anyway, and you just wanted some sex, then maybe. But you're into that bondage shit and weird-looking demons - guy demons, even! Why can't you be a normal pervert like everyone else? And what's with the biting? What? You want him to bleed to death so you end up doing a corpse? How sick can you get? Wait... Yeah, on second thought, don't answer that. Don't say anything. Just go back to sleep before Iruka-sensei thinks I died in here.'
Naturally, the fox demon ignored his belated order. 'Your cute little seal may keep my chakra in check, but that's all it does. Don't think you can defame me like this without reaping the consequences.'
Naruto sent a worried look at the door before closing his eyes again. 'Defame? What the hell are you talking about? You're the one who sent me the pictures! Are you trying to take it back?'
'To steal, dominate, and claim is not the same as rape. Even an untouched kit like you should know that. What I want is no different from you and your boy. How long have you spent trying to bring him to his knees? Since the snake sank his fangs into him first, your only thought was to steal him back. This is no different. That demon reeks of one of my kind. He came to me, knowing what I am. He dared to mock me because of this childish container I'm trapped in. Me! I've outlived him a dozen times over! When I find the pathetic excuse for a youko that allowed him to keep that taunting tongue of his, I'll-'
The latter half of the rant was lost on his host. Naruto's brain had ceased functioning at the idea of Sasuke on his knees. He'd imagined that scenario so many times, his rival falling and him playing the part of hero. It was stock footage for his imagination to pull out any time he needed a reminder of why he trained so hard. Surpass Sasuke, impress Sakura, surprise Kakashi, and make his rival thank him for saving his life. It was a sacred image, his favorite daydream. Kyubi had managed to desecrate it in a matter of seconds.
Deaf to the ranting that continued unabated in his head, Naruto stumbled out of the bathroom. He jittered a little, like he had to go to the bathroom and didn't realize he'd just come out of the room he was so desperately seeking. Iruka met him halfway.
"I need to sleep," Naruto blurted, everything in his body language screaming nervous energy. "If I poke my head out the door, you think that ugly nurse'll drug me up again? Or maybe you could just hit me, huh? I really need to stop thinking, like right now. 'Cause if I don't stop thinking, I think I'm gonna end up chewing on the bedframe."
Iruka blinked slowly. "...the bedframe is made of metal, Naruto."
Naruto blinked back, his eyes wide and far too dilated. "I know."
.-.
Konoha's fifth Hokage was a beautiful blonde woman in her midtwenties with a body like a ningen supermodel, all hungry curves and unrealistic augmentations. The first thing Hiei noticed about her, besides the would-be provocative appearance, was the strange odor she let off. She didn't smell like a ripe woman in the middle of her life. It wasn't a strong or foul scent, it just struck the demons as being off, being wrong. If Hiei didn't know better, he'd have sworn her appearance was some sort of illusion. He could see through illusions, so it had to be something else, just one more of those strange abilities these humans seemed to use so casually. He'd already heard more than he wanted to about their 'teleportation' skills, without actually learning how they used them. He didn't bother to ask why their leader looked like a young woman and smelled like a grandmother.
Tsunade took her seat with a terse frown pulling her eyebrows together. She was tired from her time with Sasuke, who seemed to have reached a new level of stubborn ignorance. The seal he'd been drawing on had definitely reached a new level or two. Just like Naruto had returned with considerable cell deterioration from using the Kyubi's chakra so much, Sasuke's use of the seal had threatened to destroy his entire future as a shinobi. And she didn't understand that at all. Orochimaru wanted his body strong and intact, so why had he gone and given him a seal that would destroy his body if he dared to use it? They'd recovered what was left of his other followers and seen firsthand the destruction those seals caused. She knew Orochimaru had no problem sacrificing men to get what he wanted, but she'd never pegged him for an absolute moron. He couldn't exactly use Sasuke's body if he had to sacrifice Sasuke's body in order to get it...
She shook her head in exasperation and leveled a still-frowning stare on the two visitors. "It's hard to believe you two have only been here an hour, with all the trouble you've caused already. If you hadn't brought Sasuke to us, you'd be treated as enemies."
"About that boy," said Bui, who had deigned to take the seat across the desk from her. "Is he a victim or an enemy to you?"
Tsunade raised an eyebrow, curious that the man was asking that now, after he'd already handed over the bargaining tool. "Possibly both. We haven't made any decisions regarding his case and we won't for the time being. Regardless, we do appreciate having him brought back. That's why I'm having this meeting with you. What do you want? And what village are you from?"
Hiei was still standing near the former window since he'd refused to sit where he'd have two Anbu standing guard directly behind him. Bui glanced at him before answering the woman's questions. Until Hiei decided he was taking too long, he'd do the talking.
"We aren't from one of your villages," said Bui. "We're doing reconnaissance from a place you probably don't even know exists. That's why we're here, because until the clash in your valley three days ago, we weren't aware of your existence."
"I've heard of hidden villages before," Tsunade said, in a somewhat annoyed tone. "You're hardly the first to show up out of nowhere."
Bui shook his head. "That's not what I mean. This entire continent is isolated to the point where it can't be reached. What's beyond the ocean and glacier land that surrounds your villages?"
"More water and ice," said Tsunade, "and a few island countries. Are you saying you're from an island no one on the main continent has visited?"
"Something like that. This entire region you've inhabited is unreachable from the outside, nonexistent. We don't know how you've managed it, but there is a barrier that prevents demons from entering or even locating this region. Take the glaciers. If you walk toward this area from that side, the moment you step into the barrier you walk right out the other side - meaning an abrupt ocean. It appears entirely natural, no wards we could identify. It was the explosion of youki - your 'chakra' energy - that made us aware that something was here besides what we could see. We're here to learn more about this region - how long your people have inhabited it, how you've isolated it, and what sort of human civilization has grown here."
The woman was staring at Bui with a strange look on her face, as if she didn't know whether to laugh or try and make sense of his words. Hiei left the wall and moved to stand near her side. He was careful to stop when the Anbu tensed, leaving a few feet between them. When he spoke, it was slowly and sarcastically, the same way he spoke when he was forced to explain something to Kuwabara.
"These villages of yours and the continent they sit on are in the middle of the Makai. All humans were relocated to the Ningenkai centuries ago. The fact that you are here is in violation of every rule the Reikai has. Now that we know you're here, we may be forced to relocate every single one of you. If we can establish that the barrier you have in place will never come down, you may be allowed to remain. To do that, we have to know more about you. In exchange, we'll tell you about the worlds you've isolated yourselves from.
"You are intruders, trespassers, hidden in the middle of a world that belongs to demons," Hiei simplified.
Tsunade stared at him for a long while before leaning back in her seat. If her expression was a little more annoyed than usual, she couldn't be blamed. "I take it you don't consider yourself insane for saying any of that."
"No," Hiei deadpanned.
"I didn't think so," she sighed. "This has to be the most farfetched thing I've ever heard of." She glanced at Kakashi, who was holding quiet, smiling, vigile in the corner nearest the door. "And I've heard some wild ones."
"We can prove it," offered Bui. "The fact that you have demons here, even if it's only three that we've noticed, means this region was once open to the rest of the Makai. They had to have been here when it was originally sealed, so they would remember the details."
That sparked a reaction from the woman. She turned on Bui with a glare that was actually a bit daunting. "Are you suggesting we would take the word of Kyubi on anything? Even if there was a way to communicate with that monster, no one here would believe a word it said."
"You don't need his word," Hiei shrugged. "We need his word, as well as the memories of the other demons we've sensed in this realm. All you need is a trip outside this bubble of yours. Currently the only realm this region is connected to is the Reikai. It seems the humans who've died here have been slipping in unidentified for centuries. Now, that connection goes in both directions. We can take you to the Reikai, a spirit realm, and from there to the Ningenkai - the world you humans should have been living in. We could show you the demon world your villages are planted in the middle of, but...I don't think you'd like it."
Whatever fantastic stories the pair had to tell, Tsunade admitted the little one demanded some attention. He grinned with that last sentence, a dark sneer that was far more worrisome than anything Orochimaru had in his collection. And he flexed his chakra just enough for it to be noticeable. The color was too similar to one of those cursed seals for comfort.
"I like adventures," Tsunade said casually, "when they have the chance of proving profitable to me. Unfortunately, I'm currently the leader of this village. I can't go gallivanting off at the moment. I'll have to take a raincheck."
Hiei scowled at the sarcastic smile she shot him. He'd never liked females. Even the snake had given them more benefit of the doubt than that, and he'd only been interested in marking them for his own use.
"I'm not doing anything," Kakashi offered from the corner. "I'll go."
Tsunade opened her mouth to shoot him down, but she hesitated a second later. The little one, Hiei, had tensed at the offer. Everything on his twisted face said he didn't want to take him anywhere. Ah. Her decision to have Kakashi entertain the two had been right on the money. They hated him already. Perfect.
"Good," Tsunade nodded to Kakashi, her brown eyes glinting with amusement that was echoed by the masked man. "Consider it a mission and report back to me with your findings."
She turned back to Hiei and let the smile reach her face. It came out a little more smug than she realized, but that was fine. "If his report is compelling enough, I'll reconsider what you've told me. In the meantime, I must insist that you avoid contact with Uzumaki Naruto until further notice."
"Who?" Hiei scowled.
"The boy you accosted in the hospital," explained Kakashi, with a wry smile. "We're not very receptive to people who ditch their escort to knock injured boys out windows. But we can talk about manners on our way to these worlds of yours. I'm curious, though. Don't you have to be dead to go to the spirit world? I hope you weren't planning to kill our Hokage just to prove a point to her. That's hardly the best way to convince someone."
Hiei's eyebrow twitched. Bui shot him a look, and he forced himself to stop clenching his hands. He couldn't kill the gray-haired man, no matter how much he really, really, would have liked to. He gave one more glare to the smug-looking woman. Then he sighed and turned to join Bui next to the smiling Kakashi.
The Anbu members proved themselves by darting in front of the Hokage the moment the air began to shiver around Hiei. They were the same members who'd once watched, helpless, as the Third Hokage opened a portal to the spirit world and gave up his life to seal Orochimaru's hands. The portal Hiei opened was very similar in shape, but more fluid and natural. He had Reikai approval, after all.
He waited long enough for the formerly smug woman to look alert and shocked. Then he darted through, leaving Bui to latch onto Kakashi and pull him along. His eagerness to get this over with made him miss out on seeing the copy-ninja's smile get replaced by a suddenly wary and serious expression. He still heard the man's yelp when the portal closed behind them and Kakashi found himself in a seeming freefall above a foreign landscape. It wasn't as satisfying as killing him, but it was something.
.-.
TBC