293Now things are going to get interesting. Tomorrow, I start training him. Sooner or later Mikuhasi you will try to strike and when you do, I intend to sit back and watch this kid beat the crap out of you…
Kyuubi sat and stared at the stars for around an hour before he addressed a problem he knew had been building. So Kyuubi, in a voice that was the downfall of angels (female ones anyway) said.
"You may as well come out now, I noticed you since you arrived."
He didn't shift his eyes not did he give any indication to whom he was talking but after a moment…
"How did you sense me?"
"Ahh Kakashi-san, I was fairly certain that was you. To be honest your method for hiding your chakra has always been fairly distinctive to me. You don't blend it in well enough with the natural background fluxuations, it's to stable."
"You seem to have the advantage sir, you know my name, but I don't know yours"
"Yes"
Kakashi waited for the stranger to continue, preferably giving a name, but the man just sat there in silence, saying nothing. Kakashi was good at waiting, but after an hour or so, he decided that this strange man could probably outlast him.
"So are you going to tell me?"
To Kakashi's annoyance, the stranger merely looked amused.
"Probably, but not tonight. Your kind are all so impatient. Everything that wasn't supposed to be done yesterday should have been finished last week in your eyes."
To say that Kakashi was disappointed in the answer would be like calling a mountain a molehill.
I pride myself on keeping my cool, on always being the person with the upper hand, but this guy… something about him annoys me.
"Pardon me sir, but would you look at me please."
The man turned his head and looked directly into the exposed Shringan,
"It happened about thirteen years ago, I was a young man, newly raised to Jounin and newly accepted as an ANBU. I had accepted a mission. My best friend and I had agreed to lead a strike force against an enemy encampment. Normally a job like this would have been given to someone with more experience, but we had recently been attacked, and the village was hard up for Ninja, especially those with any strength as the attack had killed most of our leading shinobe. In the early morning hours, we found the camp, and it was obvious that we had the advantage."
Through all this the stranger continued to gaze steadily into the exposed Shringan.
"My friend cautioned my to be wary, that to attack without properly scouting could be disastrous. I ignored him, it was close to sun-up and I wanted to strike the enemy before we could be discovered. Had I a little more experience I would have been suspicious of the silence, and of the fact that there was only a single guard, who was asleep at his post. We attacked in full strength at the breaking of the dawn. It was an ambush…"
Here Kakashi paused to take a deep breath, somewhere in the back of his mind a small voice was screaming for him to stop his story, but somehow the strangers eyes compelled him to continue.
"We were caught completely by surprise, the enemy wiped out half of my command in a matter of moments, my friend and I managed to escape, but we were both wounded pretty badly. We were however well enough to escape, and we would have made it back to Konoha, but I made my second stupid mistake. As we were resting, we heard one of the other men from our command screaming. Neither of us could stand the thought of leaving behind a comrade. Unfortunately the enemy was counting on that. We found him bound to a tree, some sick bastard had been torturing him, and he was barely hanging on to life. As Obito and I attempted to cut him down we were ambushed again. This time we fled in separate directions. We had been intelligent enough to set a waypoint in case we were separated. I made it there, but my left eye had taken a Kuni slash, there was nothing left of it. I waited for almost three hours before my friend arrived."
The screaming voice was louder now, now that he was reaching the end of his story. He was still unable to stop however. He knew what was coming; he tried to hold it in. No one had ever heard this part of the story, but under the gaze of this total stranger, he had no control over his mouth. The words flowed out like a poison.
"I could see immediately that there was no saving him. He had taken a katana to the stomach, a Kuni to the lung, and a shuriken had slashed his right eye. It was a good bet that only stubbornness and his training had kept him alive as long as he had been. As he lay there dieing, he motioned me to come closer, He, Mototachi whispered to me that I was to tell his father that he had died with honor. When he had finished speaking he did something totally unexpected. He used the last of his strength to swap an eye with me. Had I known what he intended I would probably have stopped him, but He had kept me preoccupied with his last request while he preformed the necessary seals. He took my ruined eye and replaced it with his good one. 'Now' he said 'I can rest easy knowing that my secretes are safe with you.' With those words he died of blood loss and chakra fatigue. That was the end of my best friend, Uchiha Obito."
Kakashi took a long rattling breath. Kyuubi then finally spoke.
"Do you feel better?"
Kakashi was angry, Kakshi was FURIOUS!
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME? NOBODY KNOWS THAT STORY! NOBODY! HOW DID YOU MAKE ME SPEAK AGENST MY WILL?"
Kyuubi looked at him again.
"You child." (And He said it with contempt in his voice) " You attempted to use the Shringan to force information out of me that I didn't want disclosed yet. I do not like being trifled with, so I reversed the procedure to draw out your best-kept secret. (Now his voice softened a little) You shouldn't keep things like this bottled up child. They are like poison; they eat at you from the inside. This particular one had nearly destroyed you until you took Uzumaki Naruto, and Uchiha Sasuke under your wing did it not?"
Kakashi dropped his eyes, this odd stranger with the ability to reverse the Shringan now knew his darkest secret, and oddly he felt strangely free. Of his own violation this time he answered…
"Yes"
"Good now that you've told your story, and I've listened patiently to it, it's time for me to go. Don't dwell on the past, you can either mourn the dead or protect the living, you cannot do both effectively."
Kyuubi stood up and made ready to depart. When Kakashi saw this he too stood up.
"Regardless of your odd ability to counter the Shringan, I cannot allow you to leave, you may pose a danger to this village, and there is something about you that makes me uneasy."
Kyuubi looked at him stoically.
I could have just blown him away or intimidated him into leaving… why did I listen. Unconsciously Kyuubi fingered a tattoo on the back of his hand.
It's got to be that kid. This is one of the few people he respects. If the kid can see something good in him… that must be why I helped instead.
For neither the first nor the last time Kyuubi thought to himself
Kit, you better be happy I took a liking to you.
Aloud he said,
"I really doubt you could stop me, but I assure you that as long as Uzumaki Naruto finds something to like about this village you have nothing to worry about from me."
"That's not good enough, what is your name?"
"Tomorrow night perhaps Kakashi. Perhaps I'll tell you tomorrow."
With those last words Kyuubi disappeared in a puff of cold red flames. Kakashi sat and watched the sunrise as he though about this strange man and his apparent connection to Naruto.
Hyuuga Hinata awoke with the sun; She had been having such pleasant dreams. She had been practicing in the forest when she had fallen from a tree, just when she had been certain she was going to hit the ground Naruto-kun had appeared and caught her in his strong arms. After he had placed her gently on the ground he had asked her if she would go out with him… and then, she suddenly realized that he was in only his Boxers! His tone muscles rippling slightly as he breathed. THEN she realized that she was in a VERY revealing nightgown and…. Hinata brought her hand up to her nose, and wiped away a small streak of blood that had formed. … And then she had woken up.
Why! The stupid dream was just getting to the point where he would kiss me, tell me how good I looked and then… 'sigh' I don't know what then. Besides, it will never happen, I'm to weak to ask him out, and Naruto-kun just sees me as a dark timid girl. He'd never ask me out. However a little voice spoke up (that's not entirely true either, he said you were cute yesterday. And he carried you to the hospital bed…) But then he left, He didn't even wait for me to wake up! (You saw the note, Hospitals make him uneasy) Be silent.
"Hinata- Sama? Hinata are you awake?"
It was one of the servants, a woman named Lini who had been watching her since her mother died.
"Your father would like to speak with you at your earliest convenience"
Hinata knew already that this meant she was summoned to her father immediately. There was no 'earliest convenience' unless it was life or death. Hinata sighed,
At least I might get to see Naruto-kun later today.
Across town somebody was pounding on the door of a certain blonde shinobe.
Blearily he opened one eye..
(Knock Knock Knock)
Slowly he forced open the other eye
(KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK)
He staggered to the door and opened it.
"Naruto! Nice to see you're up already!"
"What do you want Tsunade?"
"I thought I had better bring you breakfast and be certain that you didn't die in your sleep"
At the word 'Breakfast' Naruto seemed to wake up a bit more
"What did you bring?"
Tsunade Held out her hands, there in sat a BIG bowl of Raman. Naruto Smiled at her,
"Come in Ni-Chan It's a bit messy, but you are welcome here at any time!"
With those words Naruto gestured Tsunade inside. After Breakfast Tsunade Insisted on checking the wounds again
Hmmm he's healing faster than most people, but not demonatically fast… Just like his father…
"Well Naruto you seem to be healing quite well, but you and I need to talk a bit."
It was situations like these that Naruto Usually tried to avoid, but he could feel that there was no chance of avoiding this one.
"Alright Ni-Chan, I'm going to go shower first however. Please, make yourself at home."
Having said this Naruto grabbed the spare set of cloths he picked up the day before and walked into the bathroom to shower. As Naruto cleaned up Tsunade surveyed his room. Overall it was a pretty tidy place, He kept it neater than most boys his age would.
I wonder?
Tsunade opened the door to his room. It was quite a bit messier in there than it was in the rest of the house, clothing scattered on the floor, scrolls in haphazard piles all over the place. Tsunade couldn't help but notice that most of his orange clothing had been pulled out of the closet, and was now sitting in a pile beside the door. Tsunade hardly had a chance to wonder about it when she heard a voice behind her speak up.
"They're to small."
Tsunade turned to see Naruto dressed in slightly small orange pants and a loose white shirt.
"Pardon me?"
"The clothing"
Naruto gestured to the stack of cloths on the floor
" I came back last night to find that my pajama's and most of my other clothing no longer fit me." ( He shrugged) " I intended to donate it to the shelter later today. And then go shopping with whatever you paid me for bringing back that Bastar… errrrm Sasuke."
"Well, now that you're done with your shower… Have you looked in a mirror lately?"
"No, some-one broke in and smashed mine years ago, I never had it replaced."
The curt manners were throwing Tsunade off a little bit, especially since he usually had a smile for anyone and everyone.
"Alright, I'll give you a brief summary of what's happening then, your hitting puberty at a much earlier rate then most boys your age, your likely to start going through rapid growth spurts, so you may want to by as few articles of clothing as you can until you hit roughly your adult height."
"And when will that happen?"
"If you follow in your fathers footsteps, about three weeks. Your family was known for hitting puberty young and taking a VERY short time to get through it. You may have noticed already, but you've grown almost six inches in as many days. If your father was any measuring stick, you'll stop growing when you hit approximately Kakashi's height."
"Alright"
So, she knew dad huh? Hmmm I'll have to ask her who he was sometime.
You already know kit, you just won't let yourself believe it.
What do you want now you Baka Kitsune?
Get rid of the old women, you and I have training to do.
Training?
If I'm going to teach you some of the things I feel you should know, you are going to have to be stronger, both physically and mentally.
All right then!
Tsunade had quit speaking when Naruto got a glazed look in his eyes.
"Were you just tuning me out or do you have a legitimate reason?"
Naruto had a brief moment of panic, Tsunade had seemed to double in size and begin cracking knuckles the size of small boulders. No small trick in a house the size of his.
"I HAD A GOOD REASON I SWEAR!"
Tsunade calmed down a bit.
"I won't ask what it was… but I need something clarified for me."
"Yes?"
"The other day when you told me that Kyuubi wasn't a threat… what did you mean. No lies or evasions Naruto, I need to know the ENTIRE truth."
Me:Alright, Another one down. I'm sorry I took up so much space with Kakashi's story, But Once it was started, I couln't find a good place to stop it short of the end. Besides, I think it works well for explaining how Kakashi got his Shringan eye.
Naruto: YAY! Tell me another one!
Me: (Ignoring Naruto) Unfortunatly I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to post again, Rest assured It'll be as soon as possible.
Naruto:?! Your Leaving us!
Me: Hopefully not for long... Hopefully. BUT on the the reply's
Byuu128: of course
Dragon Man 180: nope, that's Kyuubi in a human-shaped body. The second deal provided Kyuubi the Permission he needed to create one of his own. In return He agreed to teach Naruto.
Sleepy Kitty: what does This ".>" mean?
TimeShifter: what "new guy?"
hikaru tsukina: not alot, a year or two
Zhuyou & heaven's judgement : I'm writing about one a day at the moment... dunno how long thats gonna last though, I move back to my college town tomarrow (monday) and I may be without Net access for a couple of days.
To everyone: As Always thank you for the reviews, I'm doing the best I can, so I hope that I'm not boring you to badly. Any comments, suggestions, or corrections are always appreaciated.
Thanks,
Manatheron