293And so, with great difficulty Naruto, tried to focus again.
After about an hour of meditation Kyuubi had him start running, Normally Naruto would have found this to be either very tedious, or very freeing. Kyuubi however had added a bit of a twist.
"As you run, you will read this."
Kyuubi Handed Naruto a Book titled: Treaties of relations between Hidden sand and Hidden leaf. Naruto of course had protested that he needed to pay attention to where he was going. He was after all running through a forest.
"Kit, not only will you not stop running until that book is half-finished, but you will summarize it when you're done. If it's not a satisfactory summary, you will continue this exercise until it is."
And so, Naruto started running, Kyuubi could tell that this exercise would take him a while because every so often there would be a falter in his step as he tripped on a root or avoided a near miss from a tree branch.
You'll thank me for this later kit; it will help with your focus and concentration, as well as increasing your stamina.
Interestingly enough, although Naruto didn't notice it, No matter how many roots or branches Naruto Encountered, he never fell.
I'd say that Kitsune Grace is working as well Heh, you'll always land on your feet from now on kit.
Kyuubi was sitting on a rock next to the waterfall meditating on how he came to be trapped when Tsunade showed up.
Tsunade had just spent the last two hours tracking Naruto through the forest. Normally it wouldn't have been nearly as difficult as it was, But Naruto seemed to be very light on his feet, Even for someone his age. He left few tracks when he was trying to hide; it was a by-product of years as a trickster.
Alright, he jumped from that tree on the left to the one on the right… and that bush over by the boulder has a broken twig so… The waterfall, it's gotta be.
Tsunade continued forward toward the water fall noticing on the way various bent twigs and partial footprints. That and the charka trail. Most people wouldn't have noticed it. But Tsunade had made a special Jitsu years ago that allowed her to follow people by their Chakra trails. When she reached the falls, she stopped. Someone was their alright, but it wasn't Naruto…
Kyuubi was amused, having lived inside of Naruto for almost fourteen years with nothing to do tended to get boring after a while. Luckily for him Kyuubi had figured out the trick of watching the world through Naruto's eyes. In doing so Kyuubi had found himself able to listen in on Naruto's thoughts. Over the last couple of years, this had turned into a type of sixth sense, and on occasion he had noticed that he could read the emotions of the various Mortals that passed near Naruto. As he had been meditating, his mind was open, and he felt Tsunades Surprise.
"Don't bother hiding in the shade Tsunade, please, feel free to join me."
Tsunade was a bit surprised. She was certain that she had masked her charka trail, and she was positive that she had been silent. However As Hokage it was part of her duty to assess potential risks to her village. This odd stranger dressed in black certainly qualified as a potential threat… he wasn't acting menacing or anything; there was just something… odd … about him.
Kyuubi was pleasantly surprised to find that not all humans were as hot headed as that Kakashi Child. This Tsunade woman was the Model of self-possession as she walked out of the brush. In fact she managed to walk with an air that shouted "THIS WAS MY IDEA FROM THE START" and yet there seemed to be no arrogance, just self-assurance.
Tsunade was curious; an hour ago she was following a trail that she had thought to be Naruto's when she happened across this stranger sitting beside the falls. As Tsunade waited, she took the opportunity to assess this odd man. He was a tall man With Midnight black hair, and a black cloak trimmed in silver. He wore black pants, and a Black shirt inscribed with the fox sigil in red and with gold flames in the background. He had a narrow face that seemed more roguish than pinched. When they were open he had quick eyes that never stayed long in the same place, and a roguish grin that made him look like he was about to laugh. Tsunade found two things odd about him. The first was the fact that he seemed to be giving off two auras. The first made him seem to be firmly planted. Wise as the mountains and just as immobile. The second gave him the feel of a hunting predator ready to move in any direction at a moments notice, suddenly and, when necessary, lethally.
The two of them had been sitting side by side on the rock for the last two hours, just waiting for each other to act when a thought suddenly struck Tsunade.
He reminds me of a fox, and his aura feels a little like Narutos… that can only mean…
"You're the Kitsune, Kyuubi aren't you. You are holding to much power in check to be anything else."
Kyuubi looked amused.
"I assure you that there are other creatures that are nearly as powerful as I. However yes, I am the Kyuubi"
Tsunade sucked in a sharp breath, before asking
"What are your intentions toward my village. Know this before answering, if they are anything but Benign I will be forced to defend myself and my village."
"Heh like you'd stand a chance against me, the fourth and Gambunta were only able to distract me. Lucky for the fourth it was long enough for him to complete his death seal."
Tsunade was silent
"I see that you have a bit more patience that that Kakashi child. Good, this village is going to need an anchor."
"Why Kyuubi? Why are you here and what are your intentions?"
"I'm here Because of Naruto, He told you about our deal no doubt. I didn't hear what he said I was, out..."
"Out?"
"Arranging for part of his training if you must know."
"Ahhh"
The two sat in silence for a while before Kyuubi spoke up."
"Would you believe that his 'deal' with me was unnecessary? I'm the guardian of your village, self appointed. I have been so for thousands of years, however over time your people forgot that."
Tsunade interrupted "So you attacked to remind everyone that you were still here?"
"no, I attacked because... a man found me."
"You attacked because you were found?"
Kyuubi ignored the interruption
"The fool reminded me of a snake, I believe he said hi name was Orochimaru. He was fairly persuasive, but he wanted me to attack the village, I refused.
"Then why…"
"He used 'Word of the dead' on me."
Tsunade sucked in her breath
"Ah! You've heard of it. Good, that saves me the trouble of explaining it twice. It doesn't work on demons the same way as it does on Humans. We aren't driven Insane, we are driven mad.
Tsunade opened her mouth to speak but Kyuubi cut her off, sharply.
"There is a difference, Mad is when you foam in the mouth, it can be defeated by anything with enough strength of mind, Insane is when you foam at the brain, and there is only one thing that can bring you back from that..."
"Angel's Voice" Said Tsunade in a Breathless tone "I thought that was only legend"
"Legend? No, I wish it were. You see, to Learn Word you need the corresponding part of Voice. Quite a problem you see."
Tsunade was silent, her mind working frantically, finally she spoke.
"You know them?"
"Yes"
Again Tsunade was silent for a time, this time it was Kyuubi that broke the silence.
"Do you know the true pattern? I know that you have part of it, you used that small piece to completely heal yourself when the Kit was bringing you back to this village."
Tsunade appeared not to have heard for a moment, but finally she answered
"Shortly after your… imprisonment. I left the Hidden leaf village, I traveled the land, all Three of us did… the Sennin that is. Orochimaru betrayed leaf openly two days after your capture, and he spent the time snaring the minds of powerful children from various villages. Jayiria spent the time traveling the land and Keeping track of the Atsuki and writing his dirty books, and I… I just wandered, looking for Healing Jitsu's."
Again there was a silence while Tsunade collected her thoughts.
One night during my wanderings, I was caught between villages. It was out in the wilderness, and night was falling. To be honest, I used to have excellent luck in everything. But on this night I found a ruined Village, I was happy; Once again I was lucky enough to have a roof over my head for the night. While I was sleeping, I had an odd dream. In this dream I was walking in the woods, near an abandon outpost when I happened to glance up in a tree. In the tree, directly above my head there was an old leather scrip, it was cracked in places, but it looked more from blade then from the weather. When I woke up in the morning I left the village, and, as in my dream, I found the ruined outpost. When I approached I saw the tree. True to my dream the leather scrip was hanging their. Inside were two pieces of parchment, both old and brittle. One Said Hidden… the rest was unintelligible the other I slid out more carefully. It said "True" and had an Illustration of that symbol on a human face and a description of what it did and how to activate it… the rest of it had gone to dust."
Again both sat in silence. This time it was Kyuubi's turn to speak.
"I knew it once, Long ago. But when the Chaos Demons attacked most of the protectorate demons turned to war, each of us retained a section of the whole… But it is lost to us now. Too many of our kind died in that war… this was before the coming of your race of course."
Once again there was a silence, and Kyuubi, who was listening to Tsunades thoughts caught,
Damn I need a drink…a drink and a card game.
Kyuubi smiled to himself
So predictable, but then again most of us demons feel the same way.
Tsunade stood up.
"Well, I'm going to take you on your word, if the legends hold true the demons cannot go back on their word once given. I have a final question however…"
Kyuubi arched an eyebrow
"What are your intentions toward Naruto?"
"I intend to train him."
"In?"
"All aspects of a ninja's life, he has the potential to be one of the greatest ninja to ever live, but that Kakshi child spent most of his time favoring the dark young man with the unstable mind."
"Sauske?"
"Yes, how's the child doing?"
"Mostly he just stares into space, occasionally he mutters something about 'Killing the Dobe' but as far as I can tell, he's in shock. Interestingly his muscles twitch enough to give him the equivalent of running a marathon."
Kyuubi sighed
"I suppose I'll have to talk Naturo into visiting him sometime. He seems to have a stabilizing effect on the minds of … Various beings."
With that Tsunade took her leave, and Kyuubi was left alone with his thoughts.
In another part of the forest Naruto was resting. He had just finished the first Quarter of a VERY dry book. All it talked about was the various agreements between leaf and sand.
"If I ever get insomnia I could use this book to put myself to sleep."
Naruto didn't realize that he had spoken aloud until he heard a giggle behind him. Whipping around (and pulling out a Kuni as he did so) he froze. There were three girls behind him. By the baskets he carried they had been out picking flowers… One of them was Ino.
"You were rights sis, He is cute," the youngest one said in a falsely loud voice whisper
"You be quiet or I'll pound you so hard that you won't sit easy for a week."
"Nuh uh, Les will protect me! Won't you les?"
The middle aged girl grinned she then turned to Naruto.
"So, who are you?"
Naruto, who had been watching the exchange with some intrest, was wondering who they were talking about.
"Me? I'm…"
Naruto was cut off by a women's voice
"Girls! If you're done picking those lilies, there are some snow blossom I'd like to get to."
"Well," Said Naruto Diplomatically "It seems that the three of you have places to go, and I really need to get back to my training. Goodbye!"
With that Naruto picked up his book and ran off into the forest again. The last thing he heard before he started reading again was
"And he's Polite too. I'd say we have a Keeper!"
Hyuuga Hinata's day just kept getting more odd. After finding Tsunade standing next to a big hole in Naruto's room, she had been enlisted to Pack up and carry all of Naruto's things to an old house on the outskirts of town. It was a bit dusty, but it was fairly obvious that it had been taken care of over the years. It appeared to have been part of a much bigger complex at one time, in fact if Hinata had been asked to guess, she would have said that it could have been as big as the Hyuuga Manor at one time. Now all that was left was a single house. Hinata had cleaned up the master bedroom on the main floor and had placed all of Naruto's things in one corner. She had then gone out looking for her Missing hero to tell him. She had been looking for almost an hour before it occurred to her to ask the gate guards if he was still in town.
"Um ex-excuse me"
"Yes Hyuuga-sama?"
"Has Uzumaki Naruto left recently?"
"Yes Hyuuga-sama, He left toward the forest about three hours ago."
"Thank you"
"My pleasure"
Well Naruto-kun, if your not here, I may as well try to find you.
Hinata was about to leave toward the forest when the guard spoke up again
"Pardon me Hyuuga-sama, but have you spoken to Hokage-sama recently?"
"No, I haven't"
"Hokage-sama left word that we are not to allow you past the gate until you've had a word with her, the message she left said to…"
But Hinata had already started walking toward the Hokage's tower.
Naruto, exhausted and bored had just finished giving Kyuubi a summery of the book up to the half-way point. Dark was falling and Naruto was looking forward to going home and going to bed, Kyuubi on the other hand had other plans.
"Well, I see that you can at least complete simple warm-up exercises (Naruto gaped at this comment) Now that you're through with your warm-ups we'll begin training."
"B-but K-Kyuubi I've been running all day! I'm tired, sore, and ready for bed, with or without a meal."
Kyuubi grinned to himself
This exercise was a success then, heh, kit you have NO idea what you've gotten yourself into.
"There is a rabbit cooking on the fire over there" Kyuubi waved his hand toward a small blaze off to his left. "Sit and eat, when you're done we will start today's training. Know now that when I train you, you will be expected to work between twenty four and seventy two hours without sleep. Depending on your progress, I may give you Twenty-four to forty eight hours off thereafter."
Grumbling, Naruto started toward the fire. Kyuubi couldn't help it, and allowed himself a small smile.
Now it begins kit, Now it begins.
Me: Alright people Just so everyone knows, Thats a wrap. I have decided to end this book right here, for those of you who are interested I'll be starting "Return of the lost 2" by Tomarrow, no later than thursday.
Naruto: you're stopping here?
Me: If this were a book it would be like ending the chapter. The nextSection will most likely start at about a week after this incident, and the first chapter should include enough flashbacks to tie up the loose ends that I've left.
Just so you all know, and I'm certain some of you were beginning to wonder this is DEFINATLY, POSITIVALLY, and ABSOLUTLY a Naru/Hina Fic. I know that some places have given you reason to wonder, but I assure you that it is.
Now without furthor delay, the responses to your questions and comments.
Byuu128: Yes you'll find out about Naruto's Night training, if you keep reading that is ;-) and as for the Demon corruption idea, I've always felt that it's a bit overplayed, I may give him a pet or two however, we'll see.
Hisoka316: As I said, I lost the use of my computer to some glitch that I'm certain will annoy the hell out of me later. Tsunade's plans have kinda gone on the back burner, cause I got a MUCH more evil Idea that I think should work out. You will find out about them eventully however.
Dragon Man 180: Jiraiya is going to play a MUCH bigger part in the upcoming second part. -SPOILER WARNING- Naruto's going on a trip, and his new Teachers may have some conflict of intrest.
To everyone: Thank you all, it's been wonderful to get your input. I had considered posting chapter 1 of the new Fic as well today, but I feel that it would probably be slipshod work, and I refuse to lower my standards. (Such as they are :-) ) I truly hope that all of you will continue to follow the story into the second part.
Sincerly,
Manatheron