Chapter 17
Naruto, in her mind, was greeted by something she should be used to by now.
'You are not helping so stop annoying me!'
All. Nine. Bijuu.
Arguing.
Like children.
'Just let us help!' yelled Shukaku, trying to get past Kurama in order to do whatever the hell Kurama was doing.
'Shukaku. Leave him be. He knows what he's doing.' Replied a very calm Matatabi.
'He clearly doesn't or we wouldn't be in this situation!'
'Enough. You will give her a headache if you carry on arguing here.' Replied Gyuuki and Naruto could have kissed him, whenever they had a meeting in her head, she was left with a killer migraine that not even her longevity nor Kurama could heal.
'Do any of you care to explain what you're doing here today?' she asked in a sickly sweet voice causing bijuus 1-8 to freeze and look at her like naughty children to were caught with their hands in the cookie jar.
Kurama snickered having heard her thoughts, 'I live here. They have no business here and are here to annoy me.'
'Okay, Kurama, you think everyone is here to annoy you.' She rolled her eyes and reached out to pet his fur. 'Now, what are you doing here? Most of you have jinchuriki to annoy.'
She heard someone whine and looked up to see a very young and very skinny Killer Bee. 'So. You're the nine tails host eh? I'm killer B, Gyuuki talks a lot about you. A lot. In fact, he practically sings praises about you all day long and I come all this way just to see a little brat.'
Naruto had to blink and shake her head before giving a reply, but it wasn't to him. 'Now- Now Kurama I can be mistaken… but is this is same rapping idiot who lives in Kumo? The one that taught me in turtle-back Island?'
'His chakra signature is the same so I will have to say yes.'
'Huh. If this is what B looks like I demand to know what A looks like right now. Hell I wanna know what the hell Onoki looks like, because this- this is gold.'
'Mother, instead of being funny why don't you talk to Killer B about your plans?' suggested Kokuo and Naruto begrudgingly obliged.
It took Naruto roughly an hour and a half to explain to B what they all needed to do and he looked thoughtful. Or at least, she assumed he did, it's hard to judge what a person looks like when you can't see their eyes.
'So your plan revolves around getting all nine jinchuriki to have full control over their bijuu? You know the Island will be needed for that right?'
She nodded as she leaned into Kurama's fur, 'I know in most cases that the Island is needed but not in all. I could be mistaken but Yagura and Utakata had good- not complete mind you- but good control over Isobi and Kokuo. An understanding between bijuu and jinchuriki is key. Kiri has no current jinchuriki I'm sure. And Chomei has none either but I am pretending to be her jinchuriki for now.
'I've already dealt with a few… issues in Konoha such as Danzo. I need to deal with Hanzo next. Once those two are out of the way then I need a word- personally- with Akatsuki. As of now I can say Yahiko will live but with me being in the past and changing things… anything could happen.'
He nodded and Naruto felt a shift in her mind. Looking over she saw Han and Roshi had joined them so she simply waved, continuing the conversation she was having with B.
'If I understand this well… then Madara and Obito Uchiha are both problems as well, yes?'
'Yes. And no. Yes Obito was angry over Rin's death slash suicide but the main issue was the brainwashing he went through, through black Zetsu and Madara. I can't seal away Black Zetsu without Indara's soul so all I can do is deal with Madara. That will of course take time and effort because even if he old- he was on par with the God of Shinobi.' She massaged her head, thinking about it like this was giving her a headache.
Everything panned down to the same problem. Her body wasn't strong enough to deal with what she needed to do. She didn't even have full control over her chakra.
'Don't think too hard, Naruto. Go back to your people and we will deal with the rest' said a very calm Kurama who wrapped her in his tails, lulling her out of her mind-scape.
.
.
.
Naruto heard grumbling as her eyes began to open. The first thing she noticed was she was cold, the next thing she noticed was a very familiar chakra signature that had her on edge.
Her eyes darted opened as she glared at the sennin in front of her. Despite how long she had been in Konoha with Orochimaru she hadn't gotten used to his presence. This had been the same in her old Konoha as well. Orochimaru had been forced to remain in the village so she and the hunter corps could keep their eyes on him, however his presence only severed cause her emotions to turmoil.
She hated him. Not because of his betrayal, not because he killed the sandaime, not because he experimented on children, and not because he made Sasuke defect. Those she could overlook. However she would never be able to overlook the simple fact he had betrayed Jiraiya. The pain he had caused her godfather was immense and for that, had her friends not told her otherwise, she would have had the man executed.
"Glaring will get you nowhere little girl." The snake sennin replied, his voice causing her to sit up hastily. A bad decision as it caused her to feel dizzy yet she refused to let him see.
Her right hand clenched and unclenched quickly as the mark heated up. Most likely Zetsu was nearby but she knew better than to try and go against him without her soul brother- Indra.
"That's where you're wrong." She replied cheerily as she smiled, a cold mirthless smile, "It shows my clear unadulterated hatred for you."
His smile in return would send shivers up the spine of anyone who wasn't the Rokudaime hokage. "Are you sure you don't mean fear? Beca-"
"I don't care why you think I'm afraid of you, but I'm not. I hate you due to pure ethic." She noticed she had drawn the attention of the rest of her teams but she didn't care, she needed to tell him she wasn't afraid of a pedo-hebi. "You experiment of people and you don't care who gets hurt in the end. Everyone is a little test subject to be put under a microscope if they catch your attention and if they don't, they're like dirt on your sandals. Everything about you disgusts me."
Everyone blinked, the genins and chunins mouths agape and Kushina looked like she was both laughing and yelling at her in her head. Naruto could also hear Kurama's laughing in her head as he wagged his tails behind him.
Naruto chose to ignore everyone around her and got up, not surprised when she didn't feel anything from her already healed wounds. It, however did, make her wonder how long she had been out. When she had been this age previously she would take time to heal from large wounds.
She left the tent and was joined by Shisui, both of them perching on one of the middle tree branches. She sighed as soon as they were somewhat alone, "How long have I been out?" she asked as she leaned against the bark on the tree.
He didn't answer her immediately and she became concerned. Perhaps she had been out for a long time?
"About six hours. Orochimaru-sama, Chouza sensei and Kushina sensei arrived a half hour after what happened with the Kumo forces and they handled the remaining ninja in the area. We carried on travelling and stopped here. Apparently we're near the base the others are at but because you and Ebisu needed medical attention and proper rest, we stopped."
Naruto knew he wasn't giving the whole story but felt too tired to give a full inquisition, "How is Ebisu?" she settled for asking.
He gave her a tight smile, "Thanks to your blood which you gave him, he's healing up a lot faster than he would have otherwise. Nothing like your healing but he'll be able to carry on his career with both arms in tact thanks to you."
She sighing as a feeling of relief flooded her. She would never be able to forgive herself if Ebisu-sensei didn't get a chance to be the annoying but likeable sensei she had known as a child.
She would have stopped there, really, she would have, however there was something bothering her and it was the pain in her right eye. "Shisui… what about you?" she asked cautiously as she twiddled her fingers.
She could hear Shisui's heartbeat from where she sat, a whole meter from her and she could hear how erratic it was. Instead of answering her he raised his head, his usually obsidian eyes were red, three tomoe in each eye.
As soon as she saw it her heartbeat matched his own. She felt a stabbing pain in her eye and she clenched it shut, trying to focus on his eyes. She knew she shouldn't, the sharingan had a lot of control over her and Kurama.
Her throat felt dry when she asked her next question, "Doesn't the sharingan only have one tomoe in each eye as the first stage?" she asked confusedly. She was sure that was how it usually was, but then again she was sitting in front of Shisui No Shunshin, the man whose sharingan was legend across the nations.
Sharingan rules didn't apply to him.
Kurama withheld a snort, he knew full well sharingan rules didn't apply to this boy.
She reviewed her question when he didn't reply and she felt like smacking herself, how could she know that if Shisui hadn't told her?
Shisui shrugged and sighed, "Your right… but that isn't always the case. In some cases, like mine…"
She furrowed her brows and raked her brain for a reason for this to happen and didn't recall any. "I don't follow." She stated as her hand unconsciously went under his eye and she began to rub it. It was the same eye that she had.
Shisui fidgeted where he sat and looked to where the others were resting. She nodded in understanding, he didn't wish to reveal clan secrets- kekkei-genkai secrets- with so many people around.
"Are you alright? That was a nasty cut on your hip…" he raised a brow and looked at where she had been cut.
She gave him a smile and a small chuckle, "I'm fine. That rest did me good. All healed I'm sure."
He didn't give a smile back, "Kushina-sensei said your healing was beyond normal Uzumaki standards… I know I'm not meant to mention this but is it because of… your orange chakra?"
She withheld laughing at him. Orange chakra was a pretty tame way of mentioning her bijuu chakra and she simply nodded to him and took out a scroll, motioning for him to join her.
They spent a total of five more minutes of peace before an indignant yell caused them to look down, "Hey! You guys can't keep leaving me out of this stuff!"
They both knew the voice immediately. Iruka.
"Well Iruka, if you didn't constantly blow us off in the village them maybe you wouldn't be left out of these things." replied Shisui with a raised quirked as was the side of his lip that his piercing on.
Iruka simply puffed his cheeks before walking up the tree and sat on a branch just a bit lower than theirs, "Now that's hardly fair. Whenever I try spending time with you, Bakashi or your baka cousin glare at me!" he whined and she laughed, recalling the many times she had seen the two boys do that whenever Iruka was around.
"They just don't like you spending time with Naruto since-" Naruto covered Shisui's mouth with her hand, not wanting him to tell her sensei exactly why Kakashi and Obito didn't like him.
"Instead of why, Iruka, why don't you just ignore them. Let me tell you, Obito may be and Uchiha but he doesn't have the Uchiha glare. Imagine if both of them were glaring like Kakashi does, then you'd be screwed." Naruto saw her teammate shiver and she could see in his eyes he was slightly afraid. "Show them you don't care what they think about you and you'll be good to go." She gave a large smile- fake as it was, but once again, no one managed to tell.
Well no one but the guy with 50-50 vision and spent a lot of his time with Naruto. She really hated when people stared at her, it made her think of times she much preferred to forget.
'He's not going to hurt you. He's not going to touch you unless you want him to or let him.'
'I think there's something wrong with me.' she replied warily.
'What do you think is wrong with you?' he asked, concerned and ready to physically or psychologically heal whatever was wrong with her.
'My hearing. I thought I just hear you defend an Uchiha.' She said, dumbfounded.
Kurama blinked before he growled and threw her out of his mindscape, tails wagging into a tree causing him to grumble. She laughed at the sight causing both her male teammates to look her with concerned gazes.
She shook her head and pointed to her stomach, Shisui understanding whereas Iruka looked between them confused what she was referring to.
She felt bad for him. In her own time Iruka had been the first person to give a damn yet she had also kept so many secrets from him. He had never been made aware of the life she lived, the division she was really in and he didn't know how she felt- how she teetered on a very thin line to keep her sanity in check.
And here it was the same. Iruka was so kind, warm, welcoming- the exact opposite to her- and she couldn't bear to let him in, couldn't watch him crumble what she managed to salvage of herself.
She received a tail to her head for her thoughts curtsy of Kurama before she went over for a hug from Shisui. He reminded her so much of Itachi, the man she looked up to and helped her through the years of pain. Which was understandable, Shisui was practically an elder brother to the most loyal shinobi.
Shisui hugged her back as they carried to studying the scroll in front of them and Naruto stiffened when Iruka joined the hug, muttering about how he was always being left behind by the two of them.
.
.
.
"We travelled all this way, got attacked by foreign shinobi for this?" asked an irritated Iruka.
Naruto understood him, but was professional enough to not let it bother her. She had thought over long and hard and it made sense that they were going to this location.
"I mean, Minato-san has the hiraishin! I'm sure he could've gone to Konoha and back at least forty times over with the amount of time we spent!" he waved his hands in the air and no one felt the need to correct him.
Minato couldn't have done that because doing that would have alerted the enemy of their presence which was exactly what they were trying not to do.
Shisui placed a hand over Iruka's mouth and whispered for him to shut up before the two males of team Minato heard him and came over.
'Too late.' Kurama said and he got him popcorn ready to eat for any ensuing drama.
She mentally sighed at his antics and smiled on the outside, happy to see team Minato in one piece-
"Kakashi are you bleeding?" she asked the chunin, eyes squinted and nose inhaling the scent of his blood.
She received a pat on her head and her hair getting ruffled, "Just a minor flesh wound Naruto." Spoke Minato before he picked her up and put her on his shoulder, large smile on his face as he also received a kiss on the cheek from Kushina.
"I assume you all got here alright?" he asked them as his eyes swept over each of them only to become concerned when his eyes landed on Ebisu whose arm was still heavily bandaged.
"We got caught up to with some Kumo ninja. Naruto took out a few of their jonin but was severely injured when she went to the aid of our teammates. Ebisu here was really injured but he's good enough to fight, which isn't really necessary here right now." Genma reported is a tight voice. Seeing in the state they had been in before she passed out must not have been easy.
"Naruto was injured?" asked team Minato at the same time and the two Uzumaki's rolled their eyes.
"Ebisu was hurt as well. And he's still injured." Naruto stated as she huffed. Rin immediately got to action, hands glowing green as she began to heal Ebisu's arm more than they had been able to. She looked down and grinned at Shisui, "Wanna tell 'im?" she asked as she gestured to Obito.
Shisui's eyes were practically gleaming when he shook his head and Naruto knew he had a plan to rub it in his cousin's face. They were both sadists like that. It made her mentally sigh wistfully, her childhood would have been so much fun if she had someone like Shisui in her life, joining in on pranks and learning deadly techniques together.
"Tell who what?" asked Kushina.
They both grinned innocently and said together, "Nothing." Her face screamed that she didn't buy it but she didn't press, deciding instead to get them all to help around the base where they could.