Chapter 10: Chapter 10 : The Kaima
As the sunlight began to shine through the opulent bedroom, one Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze began to stir. The first thing he noticed as he woke up was the weight that was on his chest, as well as the fact that it was breathing. Looking down Naruto's lips curved upwards in a content smile, as he gazed at the still sleeping form of Koyuki Kazahana who was nuzzling into his chest. He continued to lay there for a good while as he ran his hands through the woman's hair while admiring her nude form. A part of him could not believe just how lucky he had truly become within the recent years, to have not just one, but four beautiful women with whom he could share his love and happiness with. He knew that without them he would never be even half of the man he was today.
"Mmm… Naru-kun…" Naruto held in a snicker as Koyuki mumbled out his name, her face trying to borrow its way into his muscular chest. One of her hands came up and began to subconsciously message the left side of his chest, Naruto looked at the hand and noticed it was the one with the ring he had given her.
Like the other rings he had given to the women in his life this one was very similar, and yet looked fundamentally different in order to reflect Koyuki's personality. Like the others, it had all of the seals he had come up with, but it also had an additional seal that could allow her to actually use the Shinsei Henge in case she needed to hide her appearance. It worked the same way Naruto's anti-rape and escape seal worked, by storing the excess chakra that all humans and animals produce and releasing it when someone is feeling high levels of negative emotions. This also had an added seal to change her appearance into one of the people she knew from memory. She could also activate it on her own since Naruto had shown her how to use chakra. Though she only had a civilians amount so it was only enough to activate the seals in the ring, he hoped she would not actually need it.
As for the ring itself, the band was made out of white silver with alternating flower and snowflake motifs running around it. In the center of the ring was a Zultanite gemstone, a jewel that would change color depending on the environment. The jewel itself was cut in the shape of the Haru No Kuni national flower, with nine tails surrounding it in a protective fashion. On either side of the gem was a diamond, one cut in a blooming flower and the other in a snowflake. He had given it to her on the day he had come over to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Koyuki's ascension to Daimyo and the land's freedom of her uncle Dotou.
After a while, Naruto gently rolled them over and extracted himself from her from last night's… activities. He brushed some hair out of the beautiful Daimyo's face, before leaning down and kissing her cheek. Rolling over he got out of bed and put on the robe to cover his still nude form, the first time he had visited via Hiraishin they had not done that and a maid had walked in before passing out from blood loss; since then they always had a robe on hand to prevent such incidents. Naruto walked over to the door leading to the balcony, going outside Naruto leaned against the railing as he looked at the rising sun. It looked to be around 5:00 am here, which meant that he still had several more hours before he had to leave.
As he continued to enjoy the sunrise a pair of arms wrapped around his waist, and a set of definite feminine assets pressed into his back. Naruto smiled as he turned around in Koyuki's grip, wrapping one of his own arms around her. He brought a hand under Koyuki's chin and lifted her head up. Leaning down he placed a soft kiss on her lips, Koyuki moans into the kiss as she began to increase the pressure on their lips. She licked his lower lip to let him know what she wanted, making Naruto open his mouth to allow her entrance. Their tongues became intertwined as they began to dance, letting the two enjoy the taste of each other before breaking apart. When they did Naruto placed their heads together, as he gave the woman a smile.
"Morning Yuki-hime," Naruto said making the dark blue-haired woman smile, "how did you sleep?"
"Do you even need to ask?" Koyuki asked with an amused grin, tilting her head up to kiss him again.
"That good huh?" Naruto chuckled after they broke away again, "I'm gonna have to be careful from now on. With some of the things we did yesterday I might end up knocking you up, even with the seals on your ring."
Koyuki gave his chest a playful slap while mock glaring at him, "you shouldn't say things in such a crude fashion." Her glare however soon turned into a playful smile, "speaking of knocking me up… the council has been asking me questions about you and our relationship. They have been asking me if I have plans on marrying you, I believe they are hoping that I will produce a strong heir."
"We will announce how relationship soon, but you know that we can't do it right now…" Naruto said with an apologetic smile. He did not want their relationship getting out until he had taken care of Madara and the rest of Akatsuki, especially since out of all the women he loved she was by far the most vulnerable; being a civilian and all. Even though she had many samurai who offered her protection, none of them would even hold a candle to one of the Akatsuki members, much less someone like Pain or Madara.
"I know," Koyuki sighed as she leaned against his chest. They stayed that way for several more minutes before Koyuki broke away, "we should probably get something to eat."
"Alright, I could use a large breakfast right now anyway… what with all that energy we spent last night…" Naruto trailed off as he let his eyes roam over Koyuki's body, which even in the robe showed off her amazing figure.
"Perv," Koyuki muttered with a blush, as she turned around and walked back inside.
She only managed to get two steps through the door, before Naruto wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed her against his back. "You say that like it's a bad thing Hime," Naruto whispered in a husky voice as he nibbled on Koyuki's earlobe. Said woman gave a small shudder and a moan escaped her throat, "besides we both know who the real pervert here is."
That was true enough; while Koyuki did not have as large of a libido as say, Mei, the Daimyo loved to experiment. Often times Koyuki would have the two of them role-play out several fantasies she desired to do with him, they had done things like the naughty nurse, a schoolgirl, and her teacher, a master and his servant, and what seemed to be Koyuki's favorite. The hero and the princess, though he was sure it was her favorite because of how he really had saved her like in the movies, twice in fact.
"N-not fair," Koyuki stuttered as a blush spread across her cheeks, her entire body turning into putty due to the young man behind her.
"You know you love it," Naruto said with a grin, which widened as an idea came to him. "You know we're still pretty dirty from last night, why don't we go get cleaned up in the shower."
Koyuki gave a sultry smile, "I think you just want some more alone time with me."
"True enough, I can never get enough alone time with you." Naruto shrugged as he would never deny he greatly enjoyed spending time with the women he loved, "so is that a yes?"
His answer was when Koyuki spun around in his arms, stripped herself and him, before jumping on him and claiming his mouth with hers in a hungry kiss. Naruto grinned as he caught her by the butt, squeezing her cheeks to earn a low moan from the woman. She wrapped her legs around Naruto's waist as the blond made his way to the shower.
Breakfast could wait until they were done.
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Tsunade sighed as she sat back in her chair, having finally finished the paperwork which had been nearly triple what it should be thanks to a certain blond. She would have never expected Naruto to have done something so daring as to tell everyone about his Jinchurikki status, and risk the possibility of having everyone hate him for holding it. However, she could also not deny the effect it had on the younger generation, which as soon as Naruto left had turned angry eyes on their parents. Now they were questioning the older generation, not only for keeping something like this from them but for the way they had treated the blond. Everyone knew just how badly Naruto had been treated during his childhood to some extent, since most parents had told their children to stay away from him during that time, claiming that he was nothing but trouble. The way children had their parents keep them away from Naruto, treating him like he was the plague had not been missed by the kids. It was not until Tsunade had revealed Naruto's heritage that the older generation had changed, going from hating his guts to praising him as the last Namikaze. Unfortunately for them because they did that, they were unable to take it back after Naruto had revealed his status, unless they wanted to seem like liars in front of their children. Which they were already dangerously close to being seen as.
The busty blond Hokage shook her head of the thoughts, she had just finished the paperwork his speech had caused and did not want to think about it anymore. Instead, she opened her drawer and reached under her desk, she always kept a bottle of sake hidden under there for whenever she needed a drink; and right now, she needed a drink. She had to hold in a growl however when she found the drawer empty, no doubt Shizune had been in here recently and had taken the liberty of removing her sake. The blond's shoulders slumped a bit at the thought of not getting her drink, sighing she decided to instead put her head on the table to get some sleep.
Or at least she would have had a blast of lightning not appeared in the center of her room, scaring the living daylights out of her.
"Good morning Baa-chan!" Naruto chirped in a singsong voice, only to duck under a chair that was thrown his way. He looked behind him when he heard a crash, and saw that the chair had smashed through the door. "Now that wasn't very nice," Naruto said with a grin as he sat down in one of the chairs in front of the Hokage's desk. "What did that door ever do to you?"
Tsunade groaned, "It's too early for this gaki… I haven't gotten much sleep, and I don't have my sake so don't get started trying to get smart with me."
Naruto snickered, "So Shizune-nee-chan took your alcohol away huh? Well, you shouldn't be drinking on the job anyways baa-chan; it's bad for your health."
"Oh shut up you," Tsunade said with a glare, "so what do you want?"
Naruto shrugged off her slightly irritating nature, "I was hoping you could give me a mission."
Tsunade tilted her head in thought for a moment, before nodding, "I suppose I could do that. It will be good for you to integrate yourself with the other ninja again anyways." she began going through the scrolls looking for a good mission, "let's see we'll also need to find you a team and…"
Before she could say another word both her and Naruto leaped to their feet and crouched down, pulling out a kunai as instincts kicked in. A black ball of cloth shot through the window, which had been closed last night. As the glass shattered and sprayed across the room, the ball unfurled to reveal a woman Naruto had only met once; however, she had left an impression he could never forget.
"Anko Mitarashi! Reporting for a mission!"
As Anko went into a dramatic pose, Naruto took the opportunity to study the woman. She was just the same as he remembered, wearing a tan trench coat that barely covered her assets and went down to her knees. Her shirt was just a fishnet mesh shirt that did nothing to hide her body, allowing everyone to see a tantalizing view of her bountiful assets and slim waist, and toned stomach. Last and most definitely 'least' was the short orange miniskirt that barely covered her feminine parts, Naruto was sure that ran some kind of offense for indecent exposure; though most people were probably too afraid to tell her that.
Tsunade eyebrow twitched violently as she stared at the woman, "Anko… how many times have I told you not to come through the window?"
Anko rubbed the back of her head with a sheepish expression, "hahaha er, well let's see… I think this makes it somewhere around three hundred at least. Almost as many times as I caught the old man reading his porn, now about that… mission…" she trailed off as her eyes landed on Naruto and a grin spread across her face. "Hello, what do we have here," Anko walked up to him with a sashay to her hips, "it's that delicious-looking Namikaze."
"Uzumaki Namikaze actually," Naruto replied with a grin as he decided to play along with the woman. "And you Anko are just the same as I remember you, still a crazy, psychotic and sexy bitch."
"Oh such kind words," Anko replied with her grin still in place, as she trailed a finger along Naruto's jawline, "you know if I wasn't dating Iruka-kun I would take you right now for such a compliment."
Naruto raised an eyebrow in surprise, "you're dating Iruka? When or how did that happen?"
Anko grinned, "it's quite the story let me tell you…" she was just about to get into all the juicy details of her love life when a cough interrupted them.
Both turned to see a very irate Tsunade, who had both of her eyebrows twitching and several tick marks on her head. "If you two are not going to grab a mission, then take that 'discussion' of yours somewhere else!"
Naruto and Anko looked at each other with matching expressions as they blinked, they looked back at Tsunade and in unison said, "We'll take the mission!"
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Danzo paced back and forth as he tried to find a way around the most recent problem that had developed for his plans, problems that were once again caused by Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze. Who would have ever thought that the boy would have the audacity to let all of Konoha know of his Jinchurikki status, it was easily one of the most brilliant political maneuvers he had ever seen. Not only did it make the younger generation lose faith in the old, but it also made their respect for the blond that much more powerful and his position in the village that much more solidified. The fact that the older generation could not do anything without looking like hypocrites since they had proclaimed Naruto as a hero when his heritage had been first announced was just a bonus for the young Clan Head.
The boy was reminding him more and more of Minato, who despite always being a thorn in Danzo's side was a man he had respected. Unfortunately, it also made Naruto even more of a problem for Danzo, had the boy just been a loudmouth with no real sense for politics like his mother it would have been much easier to control him. However, Naruto was clearly more like his predecessor than Danzo would have ever expected, especially with all the trouble the man had gone through to subtly stunt his growth until he could get the boy into his ROOT. Now he was not sure he could do that, not without some kind of leverage over him.
Perhaps he could use the political pull he had left to get one of his ROOT on Naruto's team, which would allow him to keep an eye on the boy and find some kind of weakness to exploit. Now the only problem was to find someone who could perform this task.
He raised a hand and summoned one of his Anbu to him; he looked at the emotionless face of the person before him.
"Get me Tori."
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Naruto looked out over at the sea with a calm smile on his face, taking a deep breath of the salty air the blond let out a large breath. After being cooped up in the village going to council meetings and creating those seals, he had never been so grateful to get out and into the world again. Ever since his training with Ero-sensei had started, Naruto had developed something of a wanderer's spirit. And while it was nowhere near as bad as his sensei's desire to travel, Naruto still loved to get out and see the world.
Currently, he was on a B rank mission that had the possibility of turning into an A-rank mission, due to the unknown circumstances that concerned the mission. It seemed that ships were being attacked off the coast of Umi No Kuni (Land of Sea), by a Sea monster which was being called the Kaima by the local populace. Not much was known about this Sea Monster, which was why several merchant guilds had decided to hire Konoha shinobi to take care of the problem.
"Ugh…"
Naruto turned his head to look at the amusing sight of Ino Yamanaka puking over the side of the ship, the poor girl had gotten seasick almost as soon as the journey had started. It seemed like most of their time on the ship, she had been in the same spot she was now. Seeing the girl who had always been so loud vomiting over the side made the blond shinobi chuckle.
"It's not funny," Naruto blinked as he looked over at Ino who was glaring at him, right before she turned green and went back over the side.
"Sorry," Naruto apologized as he tried not to laugh at her predicament, "I just never assumed someone like you would get motion sickness." Deciding to be a good teammate Naruto walked over to the girl and gently rubbed her back in a soothing motion.
"Stupid Sea … stupid boat," Ino mumbled before heaving over the side yet again.
As this continued Anko Mitarashi walked out onto the deck, spotting the two she made her way over to them. "So I spoke with the captain and he said that we should get to the port within the hour…" she trailed off as she spotted Ino. A grin soon made its way to the woman's face, "aww is the poor baby sick," she cooed with a smirk that somehow looked both seductive and bloodthirsty at the same time; Naruto had to wonder if she just always looked like that. "You know Anko-chan can fix that right up for you, how would you like Anko Mitarashi's super-secret 'fix any ailment' treatment?"
"No… urp… no thank you," Ino said as she dry heaved, "I… know what… what your oh kami… treatment is. All you would… ugh do… was beat… the crap out urp… me… until you thought I was… cured."
Anko gave a pout before turning a seductive smile onto Naruto, "what about you handsome… any ailments that need curing?"
Naruto chuckled as he decided to play along, "well I do have this awfully odd muscle that seems a little Stiff, perhaps you could help me with that…"
"Aww now you know I can't do that," Anko stuck out her lower lip in a pout. "After all Iruka-kun would get mad at me… and you," the woman went into a thinking pose after she said that as if a brilliant idea had struck her. "Of course if you would like to join us…."
Anko looked over at Naruto and laughed when she saw him join his fellow blonde in throwing up over the side.
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Ino gave a sigh of relief as she stepped off the ship, "Finally I hated standing on that ship!"
"Technically you weren't standing, you were leaning," Naruto corrected, only to close his mouth when Ino glared at him.
"Alright gaki, Hokage-Sama says you're in charge, so what are your orders?" Anko asked as she stretched out, causing several of the men on the dock to pass out from blood loss as the trench coat she wore opened.
"You know I'm your superior in this mission Anko, do you really think calling me gaki is the best idea?" asked Naruto with a mock annoyed tone.
Anko smirked at him, "this coming from the man who calls the Hokage, baa-chan."
"Touché," Naruto said with a grin he was just about to speak when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye.
There was a young woman who looked to be about two or three years older than he was. She had an average height of around 5'5", with shoulder-length black hair and two bangs that were tied at the bottom and framed her face. She was wearing a faded blue sleeveless shirt that looked several sizes too big for her and went down past her knees. It was held near her waist by a white piece of cloth that she wrapped around her several times. Her shorts were a dull brown, which were fairly baggy that covered her calves and she was walking barefoot. There were also several bandages covering her around her forehead, left cheek, neck, right forearm, all of her left arm, and her right leg. Naruto noticed that if it were not for her dirty appearance she would be quite beautiful, however, it was not this that had gotten his attention.
It was the look she had in her eyes; they held a sense of hopelessness that he knew very well. The same look he had when he was younger, and suffering under the abuse and loneliness he had gotten from his village. But it was even more than that since he also took notice of the way people glared at her and the whispers they spoke. They seemed to go out of their way to avoid her and looked at her with utter hatred and fear like she was some kind of monster or plague. It reminded him a lot of his own past and was enough to make his blood boil.
"Watch where you're going you freak!"
Naruto's eyes hardened as he saw some teenager purposely bump into her, knocking her bag out of her hand and spilling its contents. Naruto resisted the urge to shove a Rasen shuriken up the boy's ass; instead, he walked over to the young woman. Kneeling down he began to help her put her groceries back into the bag, making sure nothing was broken and would fit well. The woman looked at him for a second; when Naruto looked up at her he saw a brief flicker of emotion before it left. When all of her groceries were back in the bag, the woman stood up and left.
"How rude," Ino huffed as she and the other two Konoha ninja walked up to him, "she didn't even say thank you."
Naruto ignored the platinum blond as he looked over at Anko, "did you see it?"
"Yeah…" Anko trailed off as she rubbed her neck where the cursed seal was, "she had that hopeless look in her eyes."
Naruto nodded as he chose to ignore her holding the curse seal for now, "Shino did you put a bug on her?"
"Of course Namikaze-san," Shino replied.
"Just Naruto, Shino, I dislike titles," Naruto said as he came up with a plan. "Alright Shino I want you to follow that girl, don't make your presence known just tell me where she goes and what she does." When he received a nod he turned to Ino, "I want you to use your mind jutsu to discreetly gather information from the villagers. Anything you can find about the Kaima and that girl will be useful," Naruto then turned to Anko. "And I want you to question the sailors on what they know about the Kaima, make sure you're discreet."
"And when you say discreet what do you mean exactly?" Anko asked with a sly grin.
"I want them perfectly capable of walking," Naruto said, causing Anko to pout.
"What will you be doing Naruto-san?" asked Shino.
"Jiraiya has a contact located here, so I'm going to speak with that person and see what they know," Naruto answered; receiving a nod from Shino, he ordered the three to start moving. In the meantime, he would see what he could find out about this Kaima as well.
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Tsunade slumped in her seat as her eyes stared at the information she had just received, her eyes were able to see read the information but her mind seemed to be incapable of computing it. As she slowly began to think coherently her mind began to stray again as guilt took over, many thoughts and questions ran through her head. A part of her wondered if this was Kami's way of playing some kind of cruel joke, or perhaps just her bad luck with gambling at work. Whatever the case what she had just found out was almost enough to make her want to run away from Konoha again out of shame, especially since it meant she had done something that to her was unforgivable. A part of her wondered if Jiraiya knew. If he did then the pervert would get the most serious beating of his life worse than when he had caught him peaking on her in the hot springs. Yet at the same time, she knew that logically he could not know, however, this only compounded on her guilt.
She grits her teeth as she wiped away a few tears from her eyes, she could not face this right now.
She would deal with it later.
Hopefully several years later.
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Naruto stared out of the window in his room, as he reviewed the information he had received from the members of his team. Most of what he found out would seem useless to a lot of people, but for those who not only went by the old adage of 'look underneath the underneath' but also took that and looked underneath several more times, the information he had received was more than enough to put most of the pieces together.
The first piece of information he had was about the girl, whose name he had found out was Isaribi. Ino had gone through the memories of several of the people here and found out some useful information about the girl. The first one being that a lot of people hated her in the same way he had been hated in Konoha, its apparent cause was the irrational hate and fear most humans had of the unknown. Ino had discovered that Isaribi along with nearly forty other children had all one day disappeared, vanished with not even a trace of them being found. Many people here made up some superstitious claim about it being monsters, Naruto was sure that it was a monster who had done it; just not the type they were thinking of. Then about five years later Isaribi reappeared, much to the shock of the people around her; she had also been the only one to actually come back from where ever she and the others had been taken. This had led to the people coming into the belief that she had been transformed into a monster, and had come to somehow destroy the village. It did not help that upon her return several ships had been attacked.
This led to Shino's discovery when he had followed Isaribi, who lived in a shack on the northeastern coast near a peninsula. There the girl had shown off the ability to transform, into a creature that Shino described as very fishlike before taking off into the water. This confirmed that the girl was in all likelihood the Kaima; however, it also brought up more questions. Like why was this girl attacking ships? Naruto had seen in her eyes the hopeless despair and desire for acceptance, so he knew she was not a bad person. This gave him the idea that someone was using her for their own ends, which correlated with what Anko had found.
The ships that were attacked always had one of two things that were of value, the first was money or anything that could earn money. This made it rather obvious that someone had some desire to get some monetary gain for some purpose that was obviously illegal, and since Isaribi lived in a shack Naruto knew it was not her. The second thing that gave ships a high probability of an attack was based on the number of people on board, the more people who were on the ship the more likely said ship was to be attacked. It seemed that whoever wanted to attack the ships wanted one of those two things, the first was easily understandable. However, the second was harder unless one was able to look deeper into several other factors.
Factors he had discovered when he had done his own investigations when Naruto had contacted Jiraiya's informant he had found out some rather interesting and disturbing information. The first was that about eighteen years ago, one Orochimaru of the Sennin had passed through here with Anko. Apparently, Anko had been found in a shack on one of the islands located off the coast, with no memory of what happened here. The fact that Orochimaru had come here was cause for concern, and what had led him to the current conclusion on what was happening here. One of Orochimaru's laboratories was still here, and someone was using it. Naruto did not believe it was the snake Sennin himself, the man had not been seen in this country for over ten years so that ruled out the possibility of it being him. However, it could easily be one of the man's subordinates, someone who despite Orochimaru cutting off all ties with them had continued the work anyways.
All they would need to do now was follow Isaribi and apprehend the person responsible.
He was just about to get into bed when a knock sounded at the door.
"Come in!" Naruto called out, already knowing who it was thanks to his enhanced senses. "What can I do for you Anko-chan?" Naruto asked.
"Nothing just figured I'd let you know that I was unable to find anything else, except that another ship is departing tomorrow," Anko said as she rubbed her seal again.
"Has it been acting up?" Naruto asked in a soft voice, startling Anko.
Said woman narrowed her eyes as she realized what he was talking about, "how do you know about that?"
Naruto snorted, "Anko everyone knows who your sensei is, it's impossible not to know with the jutsu you use. Anyways I also remember that Sasuke used it during our fight before he went to go play hide the snake in the trousers with Orochi-teme."
Anko snickered a bit at his name before letting out a sigh, deciding that she had nothing to lose in telling him, "yeah it has been acting up recently."
"How long ago did this start?" asked Naruto.
Anko moved over to sit on the couch, drawing her knees up and wrapping her arms around them as she spoke. "It started around the time we got into Umi No Kuni, I… I don't know why but I think it has something to do with some of the memories that have been resurfacing…"
"What kind of memories?" Naruto asked as he moved over to sit next to the woman, in case she needed to be comforted.
"They're not much really, just flashes," Anko said as her eyes glazed over slightly. "Most of what I saw were the Silhouettes of people, however, I do remember being in pain…" Naruto rubbed the woman's back in a soothing manner as she continued to speak, "other than that I just remember seeing the teme in the dreams, he was telling me something but I could never hear what it was."
"I see…" Naruto trailed off for a moment as he gathered his thoughts, "it probably has to do with the fact that Orochimaru most has a base stationed here, or former base anyway. Since it does not seem to be acting up seriously, that probably means that the man himself is not here and it's just reacting to remnants of his presence in this land. If you'd like when we get back to Konoha I can take a look at the seal and see if I can't do something about it."
Anko's head twisted to look at him, moving so fast Naruto was surprised the woman did not break her neck. "What do mean do something about it?" she asked in a voice that was mixed between hopeful and guarded.
"I mean I could look at the seal, while a part of Orochimaru's jutsu is considered a Juinjutsu it is also part fuiinjutsu. That means that there may be a way to get rid of the seal, or at the very least counter its effects so that it seems negligible," Naruto explained.
"So you can get rid of the teme's seal?" Anko asked as she brought her hand back to her curse mark. She had always hated this thing, and not just because of how it acted up sometimes. She had always felt tainted by it like Orochimaru still owned her because of it.
"To be honest I'm not one hundred percent sure," Naruto said with a shrug. "However I am positive that if given enough time I can work something out, I know I can at least make a better seal than the one you have." Naruto was silent for a moment before sitting up and stretching, "anyways it's getting pretty late. We should get some rest since we've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow." Naruto moved over to his bed, "Good night Anko."
Anko stood up, "good night gaki, and thanks." Anko walked out of Naruto's room and moved into her own, lying down on the bed she let sleep claim her.
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The next morning the four had gotten up bright and early and had made their way over to the shack where Isaribi lived. Naruto made sure that they stayed within the tree line just off the beach so that the girl would not see them as she left. Because of how early they had gotten there it was a several-hour wait until the girl finally made her appearance. She walked out of her shack and went over to the ocean, which was when Naruto and the others got to see her transformation.
She looked like a cross between a human and a fish, in many ways she reminded Naruto of Kisame Hoashigaki. She had light blue scales all over her body, which Naruto saw had spread out from her bandaged areas. Her ears looked like small fins; they had small spikes at the end and looked webbed. Likewise, her hands and feet had the same webbed look. Her hair was like a giant fin that spread back, looking similar to hair but scaly and webbed. She looked every part of the sea monster, with the sole exception of her eyes.
Once the girl jumped into the water Naruto and his team shot off, following the girl. Naruto using his advanced senses and water affinity to feel the current the girl was making while she swam, allowing him to track her to a string of islands. Eventually, they got to one of the islands and the blond shinobi could no longer pick up the currents, he assumed she had gone through an underwater entrance of some kind. He turned to his team to give out orders.
"Alright we'll be splitting into two groups," Naruto began as he looked at them. "Shino and I will make one group, while Anko and Ino will form another. Be sure to keep your headsets on and inform the others when you find the entrance do not try and enter yourselves. Chances are high that this place will have a lot of traps, so it would be better to do this as a group."
Anko and the others nodded as they adjusted their headsets, "knowing the teme I would not be surprised if this place had loads of traps." the snake mistress looked at Ino, "come on girly let's head out."
As the two females left going around the eastern side of the island, Naruto and Shino headed around the western side, moving at a slow pace. Shino was in the front, sending bugs ahead of them to make sure there were no traps or shinobi waiting for them. For a while neither shinobi spoke, preferring to keep their senses on alert and their thoughts focused on their mission. After several minutes Shino perked up.
"Naruto-san, my bugs have located an entrance on the northern side of the island," Shino said. "It is several meters inland."
Naruto nodded his thanks as he thumbed his headset, "girls, Shino's bugs have found the entrance. It's on the northern side, if you get there before us be sure to wait. Over."
"Gotcha," came the somewhat staticy voice of Anko, "we're almost there so we'll wait for you. Over."
Naruto turned off the headset and the two continued on their way, eventually, they reached the northern side where Anko and Ino were waiting for them. The three made their way inland and moved up to the door. Said door was large, at least 15' tall and 10' wide. It looked like it was made out of some kind of composite grade steel, and was most likely very thick, at least a foot if Naruto's estimation was correct. There was also no handle but Naruto did notice what looked to be a grate on the bottom, meaning that the door lifted up, rather than swung open. From what he could see there were no trap seals of any kind, but that did not really mean anything. Especially since he noticed that there was a camera currently focused on the group.
Anko gave the camera a wave as she tossed it a cheeky grin, "so how are we gonna bust this thing down?"
Naruto frowned as he thought the same thing; he had several techniques that might work. Deciding quickly he came up with the one that sounded the best to use right now, "I want you three to stand back by the beach," Naruto ordered.
The other three looked at him for a moment, before shrugging and moving back. When they did Naruto formed a single reinforced Kage Bushin and had it hold out its hand, making it form a perfect Rasengan within it. when it did Naruto began to infuse the spinning sphere of destruction with his wind element, further increasing its power. He had yet to really master this jutsu as he wanted that being to find a way to throw the jutsu. However, he had come up with an alternative for the moment, if the need to use it ever arose. By using a clone Naruto could have it use the jutsu, while he just stood back. Of course, there was a small weakness in this, since the clone did not have as much chakra as he did it would not be anywhere near as powerful as the original's attack. About half power would be there all told; still, it should be more than enough for the door.
A bell-like screech soon filled the air as the Rasengan suddenly turned pure white, and the wind began to pick up around it. Four wind blades formed around the white sphere, spinning rapidly and making the entire jutsu look like a large Fuma Shuriken. As the wind began to pick up even more, Naruto's haori was whipped around wildly. The other three ninjas looked at the jutsu in shock, having never seen such a powerful and deadly-looking jutsu. The Rasengan was of course well known to everyone, but what they were seeing was utterly ridiculous.
When Naruto finished pumping his element into the technique he stepped back, moving over to where Anko and the others were. Once he reached them he gave his clone the mental command to go, which it did as it launched itself off the ground on a one-way collision course with the door. Once the clone reached the door it thrust out his hand, connecting with the door and causing an immediate reaction.
BOOM!
Anko and the others were forced to close their eyes as the area with the door was suddenly engulfed in a large dome; the said dome was at least 20' in radius. Large amounts of debris and dust was kicked up, as violent winds threatened to throw the ninja out of the area. They were forced to apply chakra to their feet while listening to the fierce winds howl. When it was over the ninja who were with Naruto uncovered their eyes, and gaped at the sight.
Not only was the door completely gone, but so was everything else within a 20' foot radius. A large and perfectly round crater was where the door stood, with the side of the mountain even being round where the attack had hit. As Naruto walked up to survey the damage, the other three simply followed dumbly as they tried to figure out what had happened.
"What the fuck was that!" Anko said as she finally found her mind rebooting from the shock.
Naruto, who had been looking over the damage, looked back and shrugged. "That was the complete form of the Rasengan," Naruto said.
"Complete form?" questioned Ino.
Naruto nodded, "it was only known to a few people but the Rasengan is an incomplete jutsu. When my father first made it he had wanted to add his elemental affinity to it, combining the ultimate shape manipulation with the ultimate attack chakra." Naruto made a sweeping gesture, "That is what this was, I call it Fuuton: Rasenshuriken."
Anko gaped at the boy for a minute before speaking, "that's got to be the most overpowered jutsu I've ever fucking seen! The amount of power a normal Rasengan does on its own is enough to cause some serious damage, but adding your element to it…"
Naruto shrugged, "meh, this wasn't even half of the power behind the actual jutsu."
With that said, Naruto walked into the building, not even waiting for the other three gobsmacked Konoha ninja were following.
Anko, Ino, and Shino looked at each other, before moving quickly to catch up to Naruto.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
"You stupid girl!"
Isaribi fell to the ground as the scientist known as Amachi smacked her, having grown used to it over the years she merely got back up.
"How could you let those pesky ninja follow you!" Amachi screeched in an angry voice. Amachi was a very short man, standing at about 5'3" in height. He was wearing brown pants, a grown shirt, and a white laboratory coat. He had beady-looking black eyes, and the top of his head was bald with only a little hair around the sides. Altogether he looked like your stereotypical mad scientist.
"I did not let them follow me," Isaribi said, "I didn't see them near me and had only met them once in the city."
"I don't want to hear any of your excuses!" Amachi yelled at her, before moving over to a computer terminal. "Now I've got to deal with these insects," he mumbled as he typed in keys. "Can you handle them?" he asked seemingly to thin air.
"Of course," a voice answered as a figure stepped out of the shadows; he was wearing purple clothing, sunglasses, and a bandana covering his face.
Amachi then turned back to Isaribi, "come on you stupid girl, we have to go catch a ship. And don't mess up this time; if you do I will never give you the cure to turn you back to normal."
Isaribi followed the man, with a single tear falling down her cheek.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Naruto frowned as he, Anko, Ino, and Shino walked along the hallway, moving slowly just in case there were several traps along the way. The hallway was exactly as he had expected something belonging to Orochimaru to look like; the place was dank, dark, and wet. The walls had cracks running along them, and the entire place looked completely run down. However there was something that had been bothering the blond shinobi since they had entered, not once had they run into any traps. Given who this base had once belonged to and the fact that it was still occupied; Naruto would have expected some traps or enemy shinobi at least. Yet so far nothing had happened to them, which made Naruto assume that there would be an even more dangerous trap waiting for them at the end.
"Man this place is so creepy," Ino said with a shiver.
Naruto resisted the urge to roll his eyes, "What did you expect from a place like this. Bright colors on the walls, and cute fluffy bunnies."
"No!" Ino said as she glared at the blond, "I'm just making a comment."
"Yamanaka-san you may want to keep your voice down," Shino said, "as we are in enemy territory it would be unwise to speak so loudly."
Ino huffed but remained quiet, as they continued to walk. They eventually reached the end of the hallway and found out that their path was blocked by yet another door. This one was the exact same as the one outside, after checking the door to make sure there were no traps Naruto tried to figure out which jutsu to use to get past. He could not use the Rasenshuriken for this, if he did the whole laboratory might collapse if there were any important support structures in the wall. Making a decision Naruto unsealed Susanoo and got into a batoujutsu stance, with his knees spread slightly apart and bent. Taking a deep breath Naruto unsheathed the blade and made several slashes, all the other three ninja could see were flashes of light. When finished Naruto sheathed his blade with a resounding click, the door then fell into sixteen even cuts.
Naruto looked back at his companions, to see them gaping at him as he resealed his sword. "The wonders of wind chakra," Naruto said in answer to the obvious question of how he had cut the door down.
"Wait," Ino said as her mind kicked back in, "if you could have done this, why didn't you do that with the other door?"
Naruto blinked for a moment, "that's a good question…" he shrugged, "to be honest I didn't even think about doing things this way until just now." With that said, Naruto walked in ignoring the two face-faulting females, and the buzzing noise coming from Shino.
Stepping into the room Naruto let his enhanced vision scan the area, it was still too dark to see everything but what he did see was not good. All around the room was what the blond assumed was standard laboratory equipment, several computers were located throughout the room. Monitors held above them, showing various sets of data on what looked to be the same experiments as Isaribi. The thing that Naruto noticed the most and got his blood boiling were the tubes that were behind the computers.
Each tube was filled with some kind of liquid that was glowing a dark green color, as well as what Naruto knew was a human. Or at least what had been human's, now they were beings that had been experimented on and twisted to the point that they were only recognizable as humans by the standard bipedal shape. Many of the creatures looked similar to Isaribi, with scales of varying colors, clawed and webbed hands and feet, fins running out of their backs, and on their forearms. Seeing something like this was enough to make Naruto sick, and judging by his companion's expressions they felt the same way.
"Spread out and look around," Naruto ordered as he shunted aside his anger, "however do not touch anything, we have no clue if any of these things have traps on them." As the other three took a look around Naruto went over to one of the tubes, looking at the creature inside he could see that it looked the closest to Isaribi. Naruto looked at the monitor that had the information scrolling down; he could not understand half of what was on there but hoped that Tsunade could. Naruto placed a hand on one of the seals on his chest and channeled some chakra through it, there was a small puff of smoke and in his hand was a small rectangular device.
It was a new form of technology that had not even reached the markets yet, he had gotten it from one of the scientists that Koyuki had working on producing different technologies; one of the many benefits to being secretly engaged with the beautiful Daimyo. It was called a U.S.B. drive and worked by cracking, downloading, and compiling knowledge found on computers such as this. Naruto had no clue how the thing actually worked, but he knew it was designed to easily download and access data, or transfer it to another computer. Plugging the device into one of the slots on the computer, the blond watched as a bar appeared in the center of the screen and slowly filled up.
"Watch'a doing gaki?"
Naruto turned his head to see Anko looking over his shoulder; turning back to the display monitor he shrugged. "I'm downloading the data from this computer, this," Naruto pointed to his drive. "Is some new technology I got when I was in Haru No Kuni and is designed to download information so that I can look through it later. Hopefully, we'll be able to find out something useful about whatever the hell the person working here was trying to achieve, maybe even some information on Orochi-teme."
"So you got that in Haru huh?" Anko asked with something of a lecherous grin. "Was this before or after you made that porno with the Daimyo? You know I've got to hand it to you gaki; you've got some pretty big balls to do something like that. I've also got to thank you for all the material you gave me and Iruka-kun…"
"I really don't want to hear about your sexual life with my brother figure Anko," Naruto said with a sigh. The device gave a soft chime to let Naruto know it was done; he unplugged it and turned to the others in the room. "Alright you guys, it's obvious whoever was here has left for the moment so let's get out of here and plan our next move."
Ino and Shino came over to them and they began to walk back towards the entrance, before they could even get within two feet of the exit the floor dropped out from under them.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Naruto groaned as he stood up, while the fall was not enough to kill any of them it had still hurt quite a bit. He looked over at the others to see that unlike him, they had not been able to land on their feet. The blond sighed as he walked over to Anko and kneeled down next to her, "Anko," Naruto said as he shook her awake.
"Uh… ugh… what happened?" Anko asked as she blinked her eyes open to see Naruto standing right above her. "Gah!" she rolled away getting on her feet with a kunai in one hand and another on her chest. "Don't do that Gaki! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
Naruto snickered as he stood back up, "sorry I didn't think you would get so scared."
"I wasn't scared!" Anko protested, "Just startled is all…"
"Right…" Naruto drawled as he went over to help up Ino, who had just woken up. "You ok?"
"Yeah, I mean I only have one of the worst headaches ever but I'm fine," the platinum blond replied sarcastically.
"At least you don't have seasickness," Naruto said with a grin that while Ino could not see, knew was there.
"Shut up," Ino mumbled.
"That was a most unpleasant experience," Shino said as he took got up, brushing himself off as he looked around. "It seems that we fell for some kind of trap."
"The only question is what kind?" Naruto said as he looked around the tunnel. There seemed to be only one way to go, with the other end blocked. "Looks like we don't have much of a choice but to go this way, so let's head out but keep a sharp eye out for any more traps."
The other three nodded, as they got into a triangle formation with Naruto in front and Anko covering the rear. Several minutes later they found themselves in decent-sized room, Naruto could not get the exact proportions right since he could only see about twenty feet in front of him. But judging from the way his chakra bounced off the walls when he flared it, he would have to say it was at least a 30' by 30' space. As they continued walking both Naruto and Anko felt their instincts kick in, grabbing one of the other two they jumped out of the way just a several kunai were launched at them.
"Your reaction times are quite impressive," a voice reverberated through the room.
"Who are you! Show yourself?" Ino yelled out.
"Now why would I do that?"
Naruto frowned as he tried to locate the source of the voice, however, due to the acoustics of the room, it was bouncing around too much for him to find. He flared his chakra again and frowned when he could not detect a human shape aside from the three next to him. However he could see a door on the other side, someone would need to deal with whoever this was if they wanted to get to the door.
"Shino?" Naruto whispered, "Can I leave this guy to you?"
"Of course Naruto-san," the Aburame heir replied, "you three may go on ahead while I take care of this."
Naruto nodded and had the other two members of his squad follow him, as he made a dash towards the door.
"Don't think it will be that easy to get away!"
Several kunai were launched at the retreating trio, however, a swarm of bugs appeared behind them and stopped the attack.
"Your opponent is me," Shino said in his monotone voice.
"Very well, after I kill you I'll get them," the voice laughed, "that is if 'they don't get them first."
Shino did not respond as he sent his bugs out.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Naruto cursed as several traps activated, launching kunai at them as they ran. Without warning, Naruto picked up both Anko and Ino, before using one of his own original speed techniques to beat the traps. The jutsu was called Shunpo (Flash Step) and was designed to surprise an opponent; it was very similar to the Hiraishin. However, unlike the famed thunder god, this technique was based on pure speed. By using a combination of lightning and wind chakra, Naruto was able to move at speeds that could match the Hiraishin's teleportation. By creating a current of air in front of the user and channeling lightning chakra into the bottom of the feet, Naruto was able to 'skate' across the surface in a burst of speed that left a yellow streak in its wake.
He deposited the two surprised females on their feet, as he took a look around the room. This room was a large cylindrical room; Naruto could tell it was a fair bit bigger than the one they had left Shino in. the lighting while still low, was enough for him to make out the door at the other end. As well as several gates located along the walls, this gave the blond shinobi a bad feeling about this place.
"What the hell was that?" asked Ino as she looked at Naruto with an expression that demanded an explanation.
Naruto looked over at his fellow blond, "what was what?"
"That thing you did to get us over here so fast!" Ino practically shouted, causing both Naruto and Anko to wince.
Naruto sighed, "It's a family technique, that's all."
Naruto walked off before Ino could question him further, forcing her and Anko to follow him. When they were about halfway to the exit, the three heard a slight screeching sound as the gates began to open. The Konoha ninja quickly went back to back, waiting to see what would happen. Naruto began to channel chakra into his eyes, to increase their perception. He was able to make out the outlines of several bodies that looked the same as the creatures back in the lab; Naruto knew what they were even before their eyes opened to reveal bulbous fish-like eyes that glowed with a light green color.
"W-what the hell are these!" Ino screeched as she saw the eyes staring at them.
"Most likely the experiments of Orochi-teme's, or whoever owns this place now," Naruto replied, preparing for what he knew would be a long fight.
"There's quite a few of them and with whoever caused this not here means we don't have time to play around!" Anko growled as the creatures started to move in, revealing they were indeed like the experiments they had found on the upper floors of the lab. "Gaki! Get out of here and let the girly and I deal with this!"
"You sure?" Naruto asked, "we don't even know if this is all of them."
"Yeah we'll be fine," Anko said, though Naruto noticed that Ino looked like she wanted to disagree.
"Fine, here catch," Naruto pulled something out of his pouch and tossed it to Anko. Said woman looked at it for a moment before her eyes widened, "if you need help don't be afraid to call." With nothing left to say, Naruto shot off the ground in a burst of speed. Moving towards one of the creatures that were blocking his path, in less than a second he had formed a Rasengan in his hand and shoved it into the creature's head. He ignored the explosion of gore as he ran through the opening, heading out into the tunnel.
"Now that the gaki's gone let's have some fun," Anko said as she flicked a kunai in her hand, moving it to her lips and licking it.
"What do you mean fun! Can't you see we're surrounded!" Ino yelled, she was seriously beginning to regret going on this mission.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Naruto jumped and spun his body in mid-air, allowing the kunai that was launched at him to fly past. Landing on the ground he rolled to his feet, before putting on a burst of speed just as several kunai shot out of the walls. This entire corridor was a death trap; it seemed that whoever owned this place had put all of his traps in one spot. No doubt hoping that if someone managed to get past the creatures, they would be too tired to get past these traps. Naruto jumped and flipped onto the sealing as the spikes shot out of the ground, jumping back down just as more came out of the ceiling. Naruto was close enough now that he could see the end of the tunnel, which was once again covered by a door.
Naruto's mouth compressed into a thin line as he continued to dodge traps and swiftly decided on what jutsu to use. He began to channel chakra into his hand, forming the Rasengan once again. However, rather than go with a standard one he began to increase the chakra output, making the jutsu much larger than normal, at least three times the size of a standard Rasengan.
Acting on instinct Naruto formed a Kage Bushin behind him, who shot out his hands and launched a blast of wind at the blond who had jumped into the air. Forming an air current in front of him Naruto stuck out his hand, allowing the Oodoma Rasengan to hit the door. Blowing the entire thing off its hinges and flying several feet away, hitting the water outside with a loud splash.
Naruto sighed in relief as he got outside; turning his head he noticed that he was on another island entirely. It did not look like there was a way out, as all he could see was a large coral reef. Naruto walked onto the water and moved towards the farthest point, he soon dove down in the hopes of finding an exit. Luckily it looked like there was one at the bottom of the reef. Swimming down to it, Naruto exited the area and swam back up. He got back on his feet as he stood above the water, as he looked around he realized he did not have a clue on where to go to find whoever they were looking for. With a sigh, Naruto put on a burst of speed and decided to head back to port.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Shino used his Kikai bugs to block the kunai that came his way, when the barrage ended he sent them out to attack whoever threw them. Only to find that no one was there, right as another barrage of kunai came at him. This time rather than use his bugs, Shino took out his own kunai and began to block and dodge the attacks. At the same time, he sent his bugs over to where the attack originated, only to frown as he once again came up with nothing. The Aburame heir knew there was no way this person could be fast enough to escape his bugs like this, which meant that all the places he was sending them to never had his enemy from the start. The logical conclusion to this meant that whoever his enemy was, had some way to activate the traps without actually being there. However he was sure his enemy was still in this room, the man had been taunting him for a while now to try and make him lose his cool. Shino decided it was time to use a different approach.
As he continued to dodge and block the kunai, the bug user called all of his Kikai back to him. Then Shino sent out his female Kikai beetles, ordering them to spread throughout the room in the hopes of finding the location of his attacker. For a few minutes they continued to search but found nothing, it was seventeen minutes later that one of his kikai began to emit the powerful pheromones that sent his male bugs into a frenzy. He soon let them loose, allowing them to swarm over to one area. A scream began to emit from that spot, as the bus found who Shino had been looking for and began to suck him dry. Shino did not even pay attention as his enemy dropped to the floor dead; instead choosing to head towards his companions had gone.
XXXXXXXXXXX
Naruto stopped his run as his enhanced senses heard what sounded somewhat like explosions, channeling chakra to his ears Naruto tried to pick out the location of the noises. They seemed to be coming from the southwest, looking over Naruto channeled chakra into his eyes. When he did he saw two transformed fish-like people attacking a ship, Naruto recognized one as Isaribi who was actually just standing there. The other he did not know but was going to go with the assumption that he was the scientist who made Isaribi what she was.
Not wasting another minute Naruto shot off towards the ship, leaving a crescent wave in his wake.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Amachi grinned as he shot another cannonball-sized water bullet at the ship, sending wood chips everywhere as he destroyed more of its hull. Who knew that this form would feel so exhilarating? He had never felt so powerful in his life, knowing that he was easily a god of the sea while in this form. He could do whatever he wanted, it was all so easy. Had he known this the man would have started to use this form a long time ago, rather than just have that simpering little girl do this. Speaking of her, the bitch wasn't actually helping him.
"Hey you stupid girl, start doing your job and help me destroy this ship!" Amachi yelled out.
Isaribi looked at him and bit her lip, "wh-when are going to give me my cure? I've been doing this for four years now, and you still haven't given it to me."
"Cure?" Amachi said with an incredulous expression, right before it turned to anger. He stopped what he was doing and swam over to Isaribi, before grabbing onto her throat and choking her. "You stupid girl what makes you think I ever bothered to make a cure!" the man laughed as the girl's eyes widened. "I'm the one who made you what you are, why would I want to unmake you! Your only purpose was to do the job I gave you until I collected enough data and then disposed of you! And since you're not doing your job and I feel I have enough data, I think I'll just get rid of you right now!"
The man laughed as Isaribi began to tear up as she tried to get out of the man's iron-clad grip; he was just about to crush the girl's throat when something he had not expected happened. An invisible blade of wind cut right into the man's arm, slicing it off at the elbow.
"AAHHH!" as the man began to scream out in pain another voice spoke up, falling back into the water as he held the stump where his forearm had once been.
"You know I'm not sure what you said, but I do know it's not polite to make a woman cry."
Isaribi turned to the source of the voice and saw herself staring at the man who had helped pick up her groceries.
"W-who the fuck are you!" Amachi yelled, gritting his teeth as he tried to ignore the pain of his lost hand.
Naruto tilted his head to the side as he re-sheathed Susanoo, "I thought it would be obvious. I'm the guy who is here to kick your ass."
Amachi grit his teeth, "That's not going to happen! Now you'll have to face my greatest creation!"
Naruto narrowed his eyes at the man before they widened as he saw what was rising out of the water.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Anko snarled as her kunai continued to bounce off of the ugly creatures she and Ino were fighting, "damn it why the hell are those hides so tough!" Anko yelled. Her arms shot up as several snakes came out, latching onto one of the creatures before her. Spinning on the balls of her feet, the snake mistress swung the creature into a horde of its brethren, knocking them all down. Unfortunately, they just got back up a moment later, the things while slow and easy to dodge were nearly impenetrable to anything less than high-level jutsu and exploding notes. Unfortunately for her, they were also resisted fire and mud jutsu, which were her specialty and she wanted to save her exploding tags for later.
Over to her left, Ino was engaged with a few of the creatures, weaving her lithe body in and out of the monsters while she tried her best to beat the things. However, unlike her friend Sakura who had gotten Tsunade's strength technique down, Ino was only able to increase her strength by about half, and that only knocked the creatures back. She had tried other methods, such as a Kunai to the neck, base of the skull, or temple but none of that seemed to work. She jumped back towards Anko, who had just finished tossing another creature away and was about to ask what they should do when a gurgling noise interrupted her.
Turning they saw one of the creatures being swarm by a cloud of bugs, which were draining it of its chakra. The thing thrashed around for a bit before its body lay on the floor twitching as it died. "It seems that even with their tougher skin, they are still susceptible to being drained by my Kikai," Shino spoke as he materialized in front of them.
"Shino!" Ino shouted; glad to see her companion safe.
Shino nodded to her, "I suggest we think of a plan to get out of here."
Anko nodded as she came up with a plan, "well now that you're here we don't have to worry about running out of weapons. We'll launch a barrage of kunai with exploding notes attached to them into the ones blocking the exit, and then we'll make a run for it."
The others nodded as they reached into their pouch, pulling out kunai and exploding tags. They wrapped the tags around the kunai, and on an unspoken signal activated them and threw them at the horde in front of the exit. As soon as the explosions went off, the three ran for it. Not even paying attention to the body parts and gore that was being thrown around the area, they soon reached the tunnel and ran for the exit. Thankfully Naruto had activated all of the traps when in there, so they had not been subject to any as they ran. Soon enough they shot out of the tunnel and into the open air.
"I'm… never... Ever doing… that… again," Ino huffed as she bent down and put her hands on her knees, trying to regain her breath.
"Yeah, I know what you mean girly I- AH!" Anko was interrupted from her speech as a searing pain shot through her body, originating from the curse seal.
"Anko-sensei!" Ino shouted as she and Shino rushed to the woman.
Anko fell to her knees as she grabbed her mark, the last thing she saw before darkness claimed her was Ino shouting something at her.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Acting fast Naruto released his gravity seals as he grabbed an unresponsive Isaribi, before jumping out of the way of a giant watery tentacle. Naruto created a clone in midair and handed the girl off, landing on the ground he unsheathed Susanoo. Dodging another tentacle, Naruto channeled wind chakra through his blade and sliced the watery appendage off. However, the… thing since that's all Naruto could use to describe the amorphous blob of water with tentacles and a red orb in the center did not seem to be affected by the loss of its appendage. A new one merely seemed to take its place and begin attacking him.
"HAHAHA!" Amachi laughed in his mad scientist voice, "there is no way for you to defeat my greatest creation! Even lightning is ineffective against my ultimate creation!"
Naruto listened to the mad man speak with one ear, like all evil people this one seemed to have a desire to monologue. Telling him about his creation and how it was unstoppable, of course this just gave the blond more knowledge to analyze the creature with and hopefully find a way to kill it.
As he continued lopping off limbs that just re-grew, Naruto began to devise a way to defeat it. Let's see that guy said lightning was ineffective, if I go by what he said then that means the elements don't really work the same way as normal. This means that the creature isn't really alive, or at least not enough to be affected by things like pain. That would mean the only way to kill it would be to evaporate the water and attack its 'core' hmmm… I should be able to destroy it that way. That would mean I need a powerful fire jutsu to work, unfortunately, I don't know any fire jutsu above C rank since it's not my affinity. And I can't summon toads since their freshwater amphibians and I don't want to be on their bad side like Ero-sensei… Naruto began to think of ways he could evaporate the creature when an idea came to mind.
'Hey, Kyuubi!' Naruto gave a mental shout in his mind.
'You need my power Ningen?' came the demonic voice of Kyuubi.
'Yeah, I need your power to fry this creature and evaporate him.'
The great fox remained silent for a moment, 'very well I suppose I did offer to help you… for now at least. However, I expect you to make this battle amusing, and try not to embarrass me!'
Naruto did not respond to the foxes parting comment, as he felt Kyuubi's chakra run through his system. The fox cloak began to form around Naruto in less than a second; stopping at three tales that Naruto believed would be enough. As the next tentacle came after him, two of the tails shot out from behind the blond. As they grabbed the appendage and kept it in place, the other tail ran straight through the water, evaporating it as it made its way to the core. Soon enough the red chakra tail pierced the core and shattered it, causing the creature to screech and flail. Channeling all of Kyuubi's excess chakra through the tails, Naruto released it in one go. The result was the entire creature exploding in a shower of steam.
Amachi who had been watching in glee, now stared in shock as his creation died. He turned around trying to get away, only to see another Naruto right behind him with a spinning ball of chakra in his hand. Said ball soon smashed into the scientist, tearing his skin and muscles away. As the man let lose an anguished scream, he was blasted back by the energy and sent skipping across the water, before stopping as he lay face down. The clone Naruto went over and grabbed the man by the cloak, throwing him over his shoulder in an uncaring manner.
Meanwhile, the real Naruto walked over to the clone holding a crying Isaribi, he put his hands on the girl causing her to nearly jump out of her skin. "Hey, are you ok?" Naruto asked only to wince as the girl turned her now bloodshot eyes on him.
"How can I be ok! That man lied to me! Now I'll never be turned back to the way I was! Now I'll never be human!" the girl shouted as tears streamed down her scaly face.
Naruto frowned, "you know there may be a way to cure you," the girls looked up at him in shock, before they narrowed in suspicion.
"And what would I have to do to receive this cure?" she asked saying cure as if it was some kind of poison.
"Well you would have to come back to Konoha with me," Naruto replied with a shrug. "Unfortunately the woman who I'm sure can cure you, is also the leader of our village. So she can't just leave whenever she wants. However, after that, you can just leave if you want, or stay there as a citizen and start a new life. I'll leave that choice up to you if you want to come to Konoha that is."
Isaribi looked at Naruto, trying to see if he was lying, she had already been tricked once and did not want to have her hopes dashed again. After several minutes her shoulders slumped, even if he was lying she did not really have much of a choice but to go with the blond man. "Ok, I'll go," she said in a soft tone, as she changed back to her normal form.
Naruto nodded, "right well now all we have to do is wait for my comrades and…"
"Naruto!"
Both Naruto's and Isaribi turned their head to see Ino and Shino running towards them, the blond frowned when he did not spot Anko. He soon realized that the reason for this was because she was being carried on Shino's back, unconscious. Naruto ran towards them, stopping in front of the two he looked at Anko, who was muttering incoherently in her sleep.
"What happened?" Naruto asked in a worried tone.
"We don't know!" Ino said, "We had just managed to get out of that creepy place with the fish people when Anko just started grabbing her neck and passed out!"
Naruto looked over at Shino, who nodded in agreement. Sighing Naruto gave them his orders, "alright I want you Shino to head back to the hotel and get Anko to the bed, Ino you can escort my clone and Isaribi to the hotel as well. If they deny you access you may threaten them since I have placed the girl under my protection. I'll go over to the dock and tell the people there about this ship and that they need assistance, after that, we'll leave. Understood?"
"Yes/ ok!" the two said as they moved off.
Naruto cracked his neck as he too headed off, glad that the mission was for the most part over.
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Pain. That was all she felt as she lay there face down on the floor, it was like an acid dripping through her entire body. She felt as if it was eating her from the inside out, no matter what she did it would not go away.
"Well, it seems one survived," despite the agony she felt, she looked up and spotted him. The pale face and snake-like yellow eyes were unmistakable, she knew that face anywhere. It was the same face as the man whom she had admired most, the man who had taken her in and taught her everything she knew. The same man who had been like a father to her and the same man who had taken her trust and betrayed it. "Kukuku, I'm surprised you survived Anko-chan, but then again you are my apprentice…" the man hmm'd for a moment before shrugging, "still it seems as if your usefulness is at an end."
He turned around to leave but stopped when a hand gripped his leg. "W-wait," Anko said as she grits her teeth, the man turned around and looked into Anko's eyes as she spoke. "W-why?" she asked as she tried to understand why this man would betray her so. "Why are you abandoning me?"
"Kukuku," Orochimaru laughed at her as he leaned down, gently caressing her cheek as if nothing bad had happened between them. "Because my dear Anko-chan you lack the desire for power," the man paused for a moment before he smiled. "Still the fact that you survived is impressive, maybe you're not so useless after all." He stood up and offered his hand to Anko.
After a minute of staring at the hand, Anko growled and knocked it away. Now that she knew what this man had done, she wanted nothing to do with him.
Orochimaru just gave his snake-like laugh, "very well Anko-chan, if that's your choice." He turned around and walked away; shutting the door and casting out the light as Anko let darkness claim her.
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"Ugh…"
Anko slowly opened her eyes, adjusting to the light as she tried to find out where she was. It was obvious she was in a room on some kind of bed, and judging by the swaying the room was making she was in a boat. She was just about to sit up when a voice called out to her.
"I'm glad to see you awake," turning to the voice she saw Naruto writing in a folder. Writing for a few more seconds he snapped the folder shut, and looked at her with a smile. "You've been out of it for a while now, how do you feel?"
For one of the few times in her life, Anko smiled, "I feel good…"
Naruto looked at her for a moment with a raised eyebrow, noticing that she seemed much calmer than before. He shrugged it off, whatever it was was not any of his business, "that's good to hear. Anyway, we should be reaching Hi No Kuni (fire country) in a few hours; you might as well get some more shut-eye." Anko nodded as Naruto stood up and left the room, no longer finding a need to be in there now that he knew Anko would be alright.
As the door closed behind the blond, Anko shut her eyes again. Smiling as she had one last thought before falling asleep again, I left him by my own choice, it was my decision…
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Naruto frowned as he gave his report to Tsunade, listing off what had happened during the mission in chronological order. The moment he had entered the room he had noticed that something was different; something felt 'off' would be the best way to describe it. Aside from the obvious fact that Tsunade had not thrown anything at him for calling her baa-chan, which was definitely an oddity in and of itself, there was something else that seemed wrong. The busty Hokage also refused to even look him in the eye, again that was something that had never happened before; even when the woman was angry at him.
"… and so I was hoping that you would be able to find some way to help Isaribi here," Naruto gestures to the scaly teenage girl as he finished his report. "I figured since you're one of the best medics around you would be able to find some way to get rid of her scales…"
"Very well," Tsunade said, still looking down at her paperwork and refusing to meet his eyes. "If you come into the hospital tomorrow at noon, I'll be able to check you over and see what I can do. Ok, Isaribi-san?"
"That's fine Hokage-Sama," Isaribi said with a small bow and hopeful look.
"In the meantime, I'll have Shizune help you find a place to stay, after I check you over and see what I can do about your 'scaly' problem you can decide whether you want to stay here in the leaf or leave. Shizune!" Tsunade called out, getting the woman to walk in through the door.
"Yes, Tsunade-Sama?" Shizune asked as she looked at her boss.
"I want you to help Isaribi-san here find a hotel for the night; Naruto has told me that he will be paying so you don't need to worry about cash," Tsunade said as she filled in a few papers and gave them to the dark brown haired woman. Said woman bowed and gestured for Isaribi to follow her, the fish girl looked over at Naruto and seeing his encouraging nod left with Shizune.
The other three ninjas left after them, now that the report was over, leaving just Naruto and Tsunade. For a moment Naruto said nothing before deciding to take the plunge, "Tsunade is something wrong?"
Tsunade hid her wince at being called by her name, Naruto only ever called her Tsunade when he was being serious or heartfelt; she knew which one it was right now. "No, nothing's wrong. Why do you ask?" Tsunade asked as she continued working.
"Well aside from the fact that you did not try to throw something at me, for calling you baa-chan. You also refuse to look at me, instead opting to do work, which you always complain about doing." Naruto answered as he crossed his arms, waiting for the woman to answer him.
"Nothing's wrong," Tsunade said again, putting on her poker face as she looked at him. "I'm just a little tired is all, and I want to get this work done before I get another batch."
Naruto's frown deepened as he tried to figure out what could be wrong with the woman he thought of as a mother/grandmother. "Did you get the results of my Kekkei Genkai test?" Naruto asked. His eyes narrowed when he saw the small display of emotion that flitted across her eyes, it was not much, in fact, Naruto was sure that most others would have missed it. However Naruto was an expert on reading people through their eyes, and he knew the emotion she had displayed. Guilt. Now the question was what could she be feeling guilty about.
"… Your test did come in," Tsunade said eventually, bringing her eyes back to her papers so she did not have to look at him.
After several seconds of not getting an answer, Naruto began to get impatient. "And?"
Tsunade resisted the urge to bite her lip as she looked back up at him, keeping on her best poker face so he would not see her guilt. "It came up positive; your ability to combine two elements to create sub-elements is a bloodline."
"Do you know who I got it from?" asked Naruto.
"The strand with your bloodline was found in the DNA that you got from your father," Tsunade answered quickly.
Naruto closed his eyes for a few moments before speaking again, "do you know why I have it and he didn't?"
Tsunade sighed as she spoke, "I can only assume that the Kyuubi's chakra may have somehow jumpstarted your bloodline, it has been theorized that all bloodlines came from them so…"
Naruto nodded, "and you're sure you're alright?"
"Of course, as I said I'm just a little tired from all this work," Tsunade answered.
Naruto looked at the woman for a moment longer, he knew she was lying. One of Naruto's abilities was that he always knew when someone was lying, and he knew right now that Tsunade was hiding something from him. Yet he knew that he could not question her, or demand answers since she was the Hokage. For now, he simply nodded his head, "I can see how it would be tiring, I guess I'll leave you to it baa-chan." with that Naruto disappeared in a swirl of water.
As Tsunade looked at the spot where Naruto had been a single tear ran down her cheek.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Naruto found himself wandering around Konoha, as he tried to clear his mind from his conversation with Tsunade. He knew that there was something important he was not getting, but he also knew that right now he would not get anything out of it by thinking about it. Shaking his head Naruto looked up and blinked as he found himself standing at the gates to the academy. He smiled as a moment of nostalgia hit him, walking towards the academy doors Naruto decided to see if Iruka was in.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
"… and that is how the Shodaime Hokage…" Iruka trailed off as he noticed that none of the kids were paying attention to his lecture. Most were talking to each other, whispering about whatever took their fancy, while some were even sleeping. Several tic marks appeared on Iruka's head, "QUIET DOWN AND LISTEN YOU BRATS!" Iruka yelled out as he used his Oni Hitsu no Jutsu (demon head jutsu). All of the kids instantly shut up, staring at him wide-eyed. Iruka nodded his head in satisfaction; he was just about to restart his lecture when another voice spoke up.
"Tsk tsk Iruka-sensei, it seems your lectures are as boring as ever."
Iruka and the class turned as one, to see Naruto looking at them with a smirk as he leaned on the door frame. Naruto grinned as he got up and walked into the room, noticing how all of the kids there had stars or hearts in their eyes, depending on their gender.
"You should make your lectures more fun sensei," Naruto said with a grin, "that's why everyone never pays attention in your class."
"And I suppose you're an expert on teaching?" Iruka asked with a tick mark on his head, though truth be told he was happy to see Naruto. The scarred Chunin smirked as an idea came to him, "well then since you're here, why don't you answer a few questions? That way the students can learn what it's like to be a real ninja of Konoha."
Naruto tapped his chin in thought before grinning, "All alright then, that sounds cool."
Almost as soon as he said that several hands shot into the air, with almost every child shouting for his attention. Iruka tried to calm the class down, and get them to ask their questions one at a time to no avail. He was just about to use his jutsu again when Naruto decided to quiet the kids himself.
"Quiet."
Naruto had not even raised his voice when the words were spoken, yet every child there had heard it as clear as day. The tone of voice and presence that single word projected, was so commanding that none of them could help but obey him. Iruka stared at the quiet kids and Naruto in shock; he had never been able to get them to be this quiet so fast.
Naruto grinned, "alright if you have a question simply raise your hand, I'll call on you to ask."
Every hand was raised into the air; Naruto looked at the kids before eventually picking a young boy in the front row. Said boy put his hand down as he asked his question, "Was it true what you said about your dad sealing the Kyuubi inside of you?"
Iruka stiffened at the question and was about to lash out at him, however, Naruto merely raised a hand to stop the scarred Chunin. He gave the young boy a small smile, "yes it is true because Kyuubi cannot be killed due to the fact that it's simply a mass of chakra with a conscience, my father did the only thing that can defeat such a creature. He sealed inside of me, his own son who had just been born only a few hours before."
This time Naruto chose a girl in the back row, "but why did he seal it inside of you?" she asked.
Naruto ran a hand through his hair as he spoke, "to be honest I don't know. I am unsure if he just chose me because I was the only child available, or if there was some other purpose. But if you were the leader of your village, could you really ask someone else to sacrifice their own child in such a way? A Hokage's job is to protect the village, even if it means sacrificing yourself and the things you hold dear to protect it."
He looked at chose another boy, this one sitting over by the window. "Does it bother you that he chose you?"
"For a while it did," Naruto replied with a shrug, "you have to understand that until I had turned twelve I never even knew about the Kyuubi. It was only when a traitor had tricked me that I found out, he had told me about the Kyuubi being inside of me and how a law prevented anyone but me from speaking about it. In fact if not for Iruka-sensei here that man would have killed me," several of the kids looked over at Iruka as Naruto spoke. "For a while after that, I did blame my father, how could I not. I had no clue why he had chosen me; in fact, I did not even know he was my dad until a year and a half later. But it doesn't affect me anymore; I know that if there was another way he would have done it. To be honest I'm glad he chose me since it means no one else has to suffer as I did."
Many of the kids stared at him in awe, while some of the girls were actually crying. Naruto smiled as he chose another child.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
"Ah!" Naruto said sighed as he finished gulping down the broth from his Ichiraku ramen. "Now that hit's the spot, eh sensei?" Naruto asked as he turned to Iruka.
Said man just looked at Naruto and the thirty-two bowls in exasperation, "you know despite how much you've obviously matured, it seems that some things never change…"
Naruto gave the man a grin, "well you know the old saying, 'if it's not broken, don't fix it'. Besides I don't eat ramen nearly as much as I used to, I've got to make up for lost times."
Iruka simply laughed as Naruto inhaled another bowl of ramen, "I suppose it does…"
"Now," Naruto said as he set his last bowl down, thanking a blushing Ayame before turned a mischievous grin on Iruka. "Why don't you tell me how you and Anko got together?" the blond asked in an innocent tone.
Iruka choked on the noodles he was eating, causing Naruto to laugh while he blushed in embarrassment. "Well I… you see it was… uh…"
Naruto chuckled at seeing the man with a beat red face, as he stuttered over his worse than a certain Hyuuga use to. "Wow Iruka-sensei, I don't think I've ever seen you so flustered."
Iruka scowled for a moment before sighing, "I suppose I could tell you… it actually started when I found her at the bar completely drunk…"
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Omake: Repercussions of a writer pt. 1
Naruto sighed as he exited the council chambers; he was seriously beginning to regret taking his clan position. Having to sit through these meetings was so boring, seriously why did he and the other shinobi have to put up with listening to whiny, bitching council members who don't know their head from their ass. The blond sighed as he made his way home; if this kept up he might just go missing ninja since at least they had freedom…
The blond shinobi paused in his walk as he heard an odd rumbling sound, turning around Naruto paled at the sight before him. Running towards him was what Naruto could only consider being a horde, but not just any horde. No this was a horde of rabid, raving fangirls. Women ranging from the ages of 12 to 35 were stampeding towards him, a look of absolute lust in their eyes. Naruto even saw some of them quite literally foaming at the mouth, as they neared him.
"THERE HE IS GIRLS!"
"LET'S GET HIM!"
"COME HERE NAMIKAZE-SAMA!"
"PLEASE SIGN MY BOOK!"
"SIGN MY CHEST!"
"LET ME HAVE YOUR BABIES!"
It was that last sentence that snapped Naruto out of his fear-induced stupor, knowing what awaited him if they caught him, the blond did the only thing he could do. He ran like a bat out of hell, disappearing in a cloud of dust with the fangirls in hot pursuit.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone