Naruto
It was during the break for lunch that I realized I had made a terrible mistake.
…Okay, it was during the break for lunch that I realized I had made a mistake, OTHER than failing to set my damn alarm correctly. Even if they are related by cause and effect.
I stepped out of the classroom shortly after the bell rang and looked around trying to find a noticeboard on one of the walls. I vaguely remember the student handbook mentioning that the school would be posting maps of the campus on them for the first week or so, in order to help out the new group of students. Being an 'elevator' school, it took in the majority of its students in the early grades and as such most students already knew the layout of the school. Printing a map in every handbook every year was therefore considered a waste of ink and paper when a set of poster size maps could be made once and reused.
Spotting a map on the other side of the hall two classes down, I make my way over and join the small group loitering around the notice board and take a look.
Hmmm. It seems the cafeteria is on the ground floor next to the elementary division. Looks like I have a bit of a walk ahead of me.
I noticed a moment later that I was the only one at the board now and saw that the hall was beginning to clear out, some students heading towards stairs and others filtering back into their classrooms, presumably to eat. I quickly glanced back at the map and did my best to burn the campus layout into my memory for a couple seconds, then turned and began my quest for some food.
I'm seriously starving.
I looked around as I walked down the hall towards a staircase, taking in the sights and the sounds of the school. Keeping in line with expectation from my experience in the classroom, it was practically all chicks, with only a handful of other guys. There was an energy in the air, a feeling of not quite excitement, but something more like waking up in the morning and just knowing it would be a good day.
There was a group of girls hovering by a different noticeboard to my left, giggling about whatever girls talk about with their friends, while a masculine sounding burst of unrestrained laughter rang out from a classroom behind and to the right of me, slightly muffled by the wall. A pair of guys were leaning back on the stairway railing, bored expressions and quiet tones as they both looked down at their phones and chatted, ignoring everyone and everything else around them. And behind all of that was the constant noise of muffled voices and echoing footsteps acting like the background sound on a movie set.
It seemed like practically everyone was in a good mood, nervous or not, and even the students who are sworn enemies of going to school on a conceptual level like myself were enjoying the atmosphere.
I couldn't help the grin that clawed its way onto my face.
Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to get rid of it.
As I reached the stairs and started heading down, I put my hands in my pockets and pulled out my phone.
I then immediately froze in place as the realization hit me.
Phone in my right hand? Check. My right pants pocket is now empty.
My left hand is in my left pants pocket. That pocket is empty.
The grin vanished from my face instantly.
… Where the hell is my wallet?
My trusty Gama-chan who has never left my side through thick and thin?! Who followed me untouched even through the war?!
I quickly patted down my school jacket's pockets as well only to come back empty as well. I threw my head back and scratched at my hair with both hands in frustration. "Ughhh! Think Naruto, think..." I sighed and let my arms flop bonelessly from my head, moving one hand to rub the back of my neck
I traced my steps from this morning to try and figure out what I was missing.
Let's see, uhhh… I woke up and grabbed my phone off the nightstand, no Gama-chan. I also grabbed fresh pants from my dresser and the only thing on top of the thing was my deodorant, so that's not it. The bathroom counter? Hmmm… Nah, that only had some soap, my toothbrush, a cup, and mouthwash on it. So it must have been downstairs, either in the small living room area or… the kitchen… that I dashed right past.
Unbidden, a memory of the previous morning arose, of me walking back into my home after returning from purchasing my phone. I had entered the kitchen with the intent of grabbing something to snack on while I was engrossed in figuring out my phone's features, and had absentmindedly tossed my keys and Gama-chan onto the small circular dining table on my way to the fridge.
Oh yeah, I never did lock my front door behind me when leaving this morning did I? Ehhh, not like it really matters that much. I live in the closest thing this town has to a gated community, so there's no real risk of theft,
especially considering the fact that the complex actually does have a gate.
Wait, hold on… it literally is a gated community! I live in a gated community, what the hell?!
What is this sensation I'm feeling? Is this what it feels like to be part of the upper-middle class, to realize I'm no longer a street rat? It feels… actually, it's kinda painful. My stomach feels like it's twisting itself into a knot.
It was only when I heard a weird gurgling sound from somewhere below me that I snapped out of my daze and looked around, to see the two guys leaning on the railing glance at me momentarily before going back to their… whatever they were doing.
Oh. That sound was my stomach. That feeling was my stomach. I'm still damn hungry, shit.
I sighed once more and turned around to go up the stairs instead of down. Since I didn't have money on me to get some grub, I might as well go get some fresh air instead. Some light stretching should also help ease my hunger pangs, so the roof was a perfect place for some privacy. As popular of a spot as it was in fiction like manga and anime, in reality, most students would never actually go to their schools rooftops. In most cases, the roofs are off limits and the doors locked, not really used by anyone other than maintenance crews for things like the ventilation systems. In the cases of it actually having usable space, most students prefer to stick to the cafeterias, with the space being reserved for certain clubs and practical class activities, like the egg drop experiment.
Once I got to the top of the stairs, I tried the door handle and was only slightly surprised to find it was unlocked. I'd honestly expected I'd have to go find a paperclip or something to pick it open. Eh, I guess the academy is more lax about this sort of thing than most other schools I'd read about.
A moment later, I stepped into the light.
ᓚᘏᗢ
Koneko
After the bell let us out for lunchtime, I packed up my things and headed directly for the stairs while ignoring everything and everyone around me, one goal in my mind; the roof. That was fine, the other students won't hold it against me if I don't acknowledge their greetings. They usually just chalk it up to me acting like a stereotypical kuudere, which I leaned into for exactly that sort of social leeway. Despite the other students frequently making a big deal about my (young) petite appearance, they rarely ever actually tried interacting with me directly, while the ones that do tend to be the types who have no sort of verbal filter or sense of social shame. In fact, the other students usually tried to steer those ones away from me out of some weird sense of protectiveness. Annoyingly, while that made it easier for me to get around the school buildings unbothered, it also reinforced the other's image of me being childlike.
Just because my chest wasn't as big as Rias-buchou or that cow Akeno, doesn't make me childish-looking. Sona-kaichou's chest is the same size as mine, and nobody ever mistakes her for an elementary schooler!
… Okay, Sona's not a great comparison with the way she rules the school with an iron fist.
Reaching the top of the staircase, I pulled out the access key from my school bag, having asked Rias to get me one last year. Pushing the door open a couple moments later and walking a few steps out onto the roof, I was greeted with fresh air and warm sunlight. As expected, the early spring sun and breeze made the roof a perfect place to eat lunch and then take a nap. I turned back towards the roof access entranceway and did a quick hop up at it, easily grabbing its ledge and vaulting myself up to the highest level of the roof.
Heh. If someone came looking for me while I was napping, they wouldn't be able to find me up here to interrupt me.
I used a tiny burst of very basic fire magic to evaporate any leftover moisture in the gravel roofing before sitting down, and grabbed my bento out of my bag. I then used a small teleportation circle to summon my second bento from my secret stash in the old school building's kitchen. My first one was an actual meal made for me by Akeno, with a couple riceballs, breaded fish, and some veggies, all drizzled in a homemade sauce. As much of a degenerate pervert as she was in private, she was excellent at playing the role of a traditional yamato nadeshiko, especially when it came to her hobby of making food for the club.
My second bento was basically just a way for me to hide even more snacks than usual in plain sight so Buchou wouldn't make a fuss about my eating habits. It contained several types of mochi, a couple skewers of dango, and a bag of Swedish Fish that I got from a specialty sweets store that imports internationally.
I also grabbed my mp3 player and a pair of headphones out of my bag, settling the latter around my neck while I prepared my music to play. After I found the song I wanted to play (an English rap song from the west) and plugged in the headphones, I pulled them over my head and slid them onto my ears.
With that settled, I pressed play, opened my bentos, and started my meal
I picked out an onigiri with one hand while my other grabbed a piece of the fish with a pair of chopsticks and popped it into my mouth. I took a bite of the rice ball right after and began chewing. I sighed in contentment moments later at the mix of flavors. The rice was both fluffy and chewy, with a sweet paste-like plum filling, while the tender fish was a savory mixture of crispy breading and a buttery soy sauce. After savoring the first bite, I scarfed down the rest of the rice ball in seconds and started picking at the veggies. I almost didn't notice it when the door down below me opened.
It only took me a moment to silently shift from my sitting position to laying on my stomach, maintaining full access to my food without the risk of being seen. After immediately pressing pause on my music, I sneakily brought a sauce coated piece of broccoli into my mouth as the sound of the door closing reached me. I waited a couple seconds. No footsteps. I slowly shifted my headphones back to my neck, chewing the crispy vegetable ever so slowly to not make sound anyway, savoring the citrusy sauce.
Just because I hadn't heard any footsteps, didn't mean whoever it was actually went back inside. They could have decided to hang around by the doorway for some fresh air, or been a college student sneaking in a smoke break, though the latter wasn't likely with the lack of any smoke scent in the air. Still chewing, I chanced peaking my head up to confirm whether whoever came up here had left or not.
I immediately stopped and kept my prone position as another piece of fish was brought to my mouth, because near the edge of the roof some thirty paces away, was the new blond guy with those whisker tattoos. Fishcake or something. He had folded up his blazer and hung it over the railing, and was walking more towards the center of the roof.
How did he get over there without me noticing anything? I don't have my ears out, but even still, all of my senses are stronger than any normal humans. I should have heard the gravel shifting or his clothes rustling.
I continued to watch him as I ate, trying to figure out what was going on. He had begun doing fairly basic– if impressive– stretches, twisting and bending in ways most teenagers would get cramps from, and holding poses that would tire out even athletic adults for minutes at a time. At some point, I finished the fish and veggies and moved on to the sweets, leaving my other rice ball for later. About halfway through the lunch period, he began to throw out incredibly skillful punches and kicks against imaginary opponents, ducking and weaving through nonexistent attacks, and still hadn't even broken a sweat or run short of breath. Which wasn't normal at all, for a human that I could sense no magic or chakra from.
Not even any touki, the most basic version of chakra. I frowned.
Annoying. My lazy lunch plans were disrupted because some physical freak of nature decided to exercise on the roof instead of the exercise yard or gym.
My attention was snapped back to him suddenly when he performed a rising high kick and, moving with the motion, hopped off the ground with practically just a twitch from his remaining foot into a twisting backflip. For a moment, the world seemed to go by in slow motion as his eyes met mine and widened while he was still upside down, twisting in the air.
Then the world sped back up, the moment having passed, and he squawked as he failed the landing, scattering gravel around him with a thump as his momentum sent him rolling towards me.
It occurred to me that they were the first sounds he had made the entire time he'd been up here.
I pushed myself up into a stand from my position on my stomach and proceeded to plop back down on my butt with my legs hanging over the lip of the stairwell's roof. My cover was already blown, and he was clearly not up here looking for me, so I might as well get more comfortable.
I pulled a stick of dango from my box and started chewing one while watching the admittedly impressive weirdo slowly push himself back up. I could personally keep up with him in speed, stamina, body control, and flexibility, but going by the metrics of a half-devil yokai when talking about what seems to my senses to be a human? I'm pretty certain not a single human at this school, magician or otherwise, would be able to keep up with him.
On top of that, I'm not bad at close combat. Not the best in the school– that'd probably go to Yuuto or one of the kendo clubs members– and I should probably train more, but I'm not bad. That little showing though, was way beyond my skill level. If he had even half the strength and speed I have as a devil he'd definitely still beat me more often than not in pure physical combat.
He was now fully back on his feet, patting down his shirt and pants as he faced me, a strained smile and red cheeks painting his squinting face.
"Hi there, uhh… Toujou, right?" He finished patting down his clothes and rubbed the back of his head. "I, uh, didn't think anyone else was up here, heheh. I'm Uzumaki Naruto, if you didn't catch my name back in class."
I finished chewing the dango and swallowed before speaking the thought I had moments earlier.
"You move quietly." I pulled another dango off my skewer with my teeth after.
His squinty embarrassed expression shifted into one of surprise, eyes opened in reflex, and he took a step back.
Not a single shifted gravel stone, ruffled pant leg, or shoe squeak. "Just like that." I added through a pause in my chewing, pointing a finger downwards towards his lower half.
"Ah. Uh…" He seemed at a loss for what to say for a moment before seemingly getting an idea. He shrugged and opened his mouth.
"I'm a ninja?" He said casually with a questioning lilt at the end. His expression was relaxed.
That's… not what I was expecting. I'm not really sure what I was expecting. Definitely not an outright admission. It was easy enough for the supernatural side of the world to deflect and gaslight the unaware even without the use of memory manipulation, because it was easier for humans to believe in mundane explanations than to jump to something as 'outlandish' as the supernatural. Mundane secret societies on the other hand, they generally had to be super careful about that sort of thing.
Sane people don't believe in the supernatural, but only insane people don't believe shady organizations exist.
I was right, he is definitely a weirdo.
I finished chewing and swallowed while staring at him. He shifted on his feet a tiny bit. I snagged another dango and started chewing again, observing his features better now that he was standing in front of me and not moving around so much.
His hair was a darker blonde than Yuuto's, almost yellow, and his skin was a healthy and even looking tan, but lighter than a stereotypical anime gyaruo. His eyes were pretty noticeably blue now that he wasn't squinting like a fox. Speaking of foxes, those whisker tattoos make a lot more sense now. He probably got them to play into his stealth and the way his eyes look, to come off as a sneaky trickster or something.
He fidgeted a little more under my gaze as I finished the dumpling.
Honestly, he kind of stood out as a weirdo already, based on his behavior in the classroom. When any of the other students asked him about himself and his previous school, he chatted back with the same constant grin and squint, talking a whole lot while simultaneously saying a whole lot of nothing, things that could be understood just from observing him. When warned by the teacher to put his jacket on normally, he said he forgot he left it like that, as if that explained anything. Showing up to the first day of classes with his dress shirt unbuttoned and his blazer hanging off his shoulders like a cape– while not looking weird itself– mixed with his gaijin looks, just made him look like some sort of chuuni-weeb delinquent. Even his name sounded like it came right out of one of Rias' mangas.
If it were just one thing between the silent movement, the standout appearance, or his way of talking around subjects involving himself, I would have probably just put him out of my mind as just having a unique skill, being a weeb-delinquent, or being a very private person respectively. As it is though, all three combined just look to me like a person involved in the supernatural world trying (and barelypassing) to fit in with normal people. That being the case…
"I believe you." I said.
"Believe what you want, you asked and I gave you my ans– wait what?" He cut himself off, the aloof airy tone he was using dropping to something more plain and normal as he blinked in confusion and tilted his head. "You actually believe me?"
"Mm." I nodded.
He was almost certainly trying to double bluff me with the confession. The other students would have most likely dismissed his claim and mentally label him as an athletic chuuni or something, but I'm pretty sure he's just someone who's been living in a whole other world from normal people, whether that's literally or metaphorically speaking. There's no doubt in my mind that whether or not he's being truthful about being a ninja specifically, he's certainly no normal human. In which case, he very well may be a ninja.
"Huh." He scratched the back of his head again. Some kind of nervous tic maybe? "I'm not sure where to go from here, that trick usually works better in the movies."
Knew it. I called his double bluff. There was only one question remaining. Is he involved in the supernatural, or is he a regular old mundane ninja?
I mentally snorted at that. Mundane ninja. I didn't let anything show on my face though, it wouldn't do to drop my image in front of the new kid. That, and it's kinda fun putting people on the back foot. It's one of the reasons why I prefer to be so bluntly direct when I talk.
I calmly set the now empty dango stick back into my bento box and stood up from my perch on the ledge, then hopped the four meters or so down to the gravel roof, landing with barely a sound myself. It wasn't as quiet as he could probably do it, but it would be all but impossible for most normal people to do so. I didn't even bend my knees more than the tiniest bit on the landing even though I dropped a full story down. I started walking closer to him so we could talk to each other at a more convenient distance.
I could hear him just fine from my previous spot, but I could tell he had to strain a little to hear me earlier, and I didn't want to speak up louder. That would go against the image I set up for myself.
"Do you have ninja magic like in the stories?" I asked him with a tilt of my head.
I made a point not to acknowledge the absurdity of my own feat. It was an intentional showing. If I showed him that I wasn't quite a normal human myself, making it blatant that he and his potential clan weren't the only 'superhumans' in Japan without explicitly outing the more supernatural side of things, he'd be more willing to either confirm or deny the existence of 'ninja magic' rather than hide it from a potential threat or a 'normal'.
I stopped a meter away from him. I had to look up in order to meet him eye to eye, but not as much as I usually did. He was kinda short for a boy our age.
"Nahh, not really." He answered with a shake of his head. "Most of what I can do is just body control and mental focus. Stuff like parkour and freerunning, hand to hand, weapons throwing, stealth movement, and so on."
Well, that answered that. He would probably make a great [Pawn] if offered a place in a peerage, but Rias would prioritize a sacred gear user, like she suspected Hyou–
"–I haven't been able to do any ninjutsu for a while now." He continued with his hands raised in a shrug, grabbing my focus. If I'd had my other ears out he would have seen them twitch to attention. "I got injured pretty badly in a fight and almost died. I survived and recovered obviously," he gestured to his body with a wry grin at the statement, "but I wasn't able to fully recover, and lost my other abilities in the process."
I made a short humming noise in acknowledgement. Now that was interesting. So he did at one point have abilities, 'ninjutsu' he called it, that could probably be considered magic of a sort. How much he knew about the rest of the supernatural world was still in question, but he was at the very least aware that it existed to some degree. And if it was a lasting injury that took away his ninjutsu, but he seemed perfectly healthy physically, did that mean it was a unique internal organ that got damaged, a spiritual injury, or something else entirely like a curse that was causing his issue? Without knowing more about how ninjutsu was used, I had no way of knowing if he would gain back those abilities even if Rias offered him a place in our group.
Oh well. I'd tell her about him and she'd either offer him a spot or she wouldn't, and he'd either accept or he wouldn't, and that would be that. No need for me to put effort into recruiting him without her even knowing he existed yet.
"So, how about you, Toujou?" He shifted his weight to lean on one foot and slid a hand into his pocket. "You got anything like, uh, magical girl magic or something? Some body enhancing spell or magic reinforcement?" His free hand gestured lightly towards me. "Your little show over there should have strained your tendons with the way you landed, but I didn't see any of the signs of tension or pain in your legs when you walked over here super casually. Your body seems to be tougher than human biology should allow for."
I scoffed internally. Me, following in the Leviathan's footsteps? That would be the day. He was definitely way more perceptive than I expected though. Being able to read muscle tension so casually that I didn't even notice him looking? Maybe it's something he trained as a ninja?
I shook my head to the rest of his question though.
"Wasn't a spell or anything. Something else. I'm not a magical girl."
"Hmmmm…" He squinted and rubbed his chin with his hand. He suddenly stopped and snapped his fingers before pointing at me. "Secret Japanese government super soldier child experiment!"
"No."
"Damn, haha! Instant rebuttal!" He laughed. "Well, if it wasn't a spell or magic reinforcement, and it wasn't some secret drug or procedure by the government, there ain't a whole lot of other possibilities I can think of. It can't be a body technique, I know for a fact that the way you positioned your feet when you landed without absorbing the impact should have done damage. If there was only one thing I could claim to have learned during my forced and early ninja-retirement, it would be human biology with a focus on biomechanics. I–" I saw his eyes flicker to my hair for a moment.
He paused with his mouth open mid-sentence, before squinting in thought and turning away to look down past the railing at the rest of the campus.
"Eh? Could that-? No no no, that doesn't make sense… unless? Definitely not that, but maybe similar…?" He muttered to himself with his hand over his mouth. He lowered it and looked back at me. I tilted my head. "... Ah, Toujou-chan? Do you happen to have any non-human parents?"
Huh, didn't expect him to come to that answer so quickly, given how unaware he came off as regarding the wider supernatural world outside of his own ninja community. I wonder what it was about my hair that pushed him to that conclusion?
Regardless, I nodded. "I'm part devil." I didn't lie, I just happened to omit the fact that neither of my parents themselves were devils, despite that being the implication of my response.
He snapped his fingers again. "That'll do it. Non-humans and hybrids tend to have more efficient biology than humans if the hybrid in question survives until adulthood. I'm not familiar with devirs, but the term rings a bell. Are they some type of demon or yokai species?" He only stumbled slightly over the word. I preferred to use the English 'devil' instead of the more common 'akuma' among Japanese speakers, because akuma implied genuine evil in a way the English language couldn't fit into a single word.
I was only slightly surprised he didn't know the term. While not as common as in the west, English and Christianity were still relatively widespread in Japanese culture. We even have a church here in town, although it's been abandoned for a couple years. What surprised me more was his apparent familiarity with 'non-humans' without knowing about arguably the most well known (see: infamous) group of them.
I shook my head. "Sort of. Not really. Devils are the descendents of Lucifer, the first angel to fall from the Abrahamic god's grace. Sometimes devil and demon are used interchangeably, but they aren't the same."
"Abrahamic god?"
I clarified. "The Christian god. Capital 'G', God of Heaven."
He made an expression of understanding. "Ohh, like that Juses Chaps guy."
What.
I resisted the urge to show my bafflement and instead just nodded, not bothering to correct him. He will never know just how dumb he sounded at that moment.
He began to talk about some of the things regarding culture and religion that he'd read about in an attempt to acclimate to normal society that he didn't understand, making comments about how such and such story in such and such mythology didn't make sense to him for such and such reason. I could have told him that at least half of them were just stories early humans made up to explain stuff they thought they saw, but that would require talking, so I instead just let him ramble for a bit.
When he mentioned how funny and weird he thought the depictions of some youkai were– specifically kappa– I took a bit more active role in the conversation, considering the fact that one of my favorite rappers was a kappa. Maybe I was being uncharitable in how little I paid attention before youkai came up, but I felt justified considering he'd mixed up like ninety percent of the stories he read, getting all the details switched around.
Maybe it was my fault? Maybe I shouldn't have expected some weird hidden ninja-society guy to keep up with modern common knowledge. It's not like Christian missionaries made any impact at all on the Japanese people hundreds of years ago or anything. Not at all.
Once I brought up Salamander Tomita, the kappa rapper, he asked about what kind of music I liked most. He mentioned off-handedly that he wasn't very interested in music himself, but was friends with another ninja who liked to freestyle rap mid-battle, so wanted to hear another perspective on the appeal of it. I explained that it was about the story, emotion, and energy for me, how a song needs at least two of those three to match each other to be good. I could tell he only sort of understood what I meant by that, and that he was mostly just asking because he noticed that it was a topic I was interested in, so I decided to move the conversation along.
It was my turn to ask a question or two anyway.
"You brought up youkai and demons. Have you met any before?"
He shrugged. "Sort of?"
When he didn't elaborate further, I continued staring at him blankly. He stared back.
I tilted my head.
My strategy paid off, with him submitting in the battle of wills.
"I-I mean, i-it's hard to explain," he stuttered out while rubbing the back of his head again, confirming for me it was a nervous habit, "My home knew of nine particularly powerful and dangerous immortal creatures that we called demons, with some of them fitting the descriptions of certain yokai, but they aren't actually either of the two. Like, one of the nine was a flaming two-tailed nekomata. Another one is one of my closest friends, and he's a nine-tailed fox."
I couldn't stop my eyes from widening at the mention of a nine-tailed fox being his friend. While it's true that not all of them are amazingly powerful, since there are some kitsune family lines where every newborn has nine tails to begin with, the fully grown ones are always said to be equal to an Ultimate-class devil at the least.
That's not to say that they were all as strong as the upper echelon of Ultimate-class like the Satans, because they are not. The classes, when being judged by power instead of political status, were not linear. There's more of a gap between the weakest Ultimate-class devils and the Satans than there is between a base human and an Ultimate class, but that doesn't change that Ultimate-class is definitely not a low bar to reach.
He continued.
"But like I said, they aren't actually yokai." He shrugged. "As far as I was aware, yokai sightings back home were basically always just civilian superstitions caused by summoner-type ninja and the rare true demon. You confirming they exist with that Salamander guy is new territory for me."
I would have asked more– like what these beings were if not youkai, or maybe how he was friends with a kyuubi– but Naruto suddenly pulled his phone out of his pocket and grimaced.
"Shit, lunch break is almost over. We should probably head back to class." He sighed
I almost wanted to pout. Instead, I just nodded silently
He must have seen through my reluctance to end our conversation, because he grinned at me in that squinty fox-like way. "Well, despite the awkward start, it was pretty cool talking to you. You're the first person I've met in nearly a year with superhuman abilities. I was beginning to think that there weren't any others like us in the wider world until today, so thanks for being up front with me! We should totally hang out again some time, ya know?"
"Mm." I nodded once. I was still curious about these so-called not-youkai, and how an entire ninja society could remain hidden from the rest of the supernatural seemingly by accident.
With that said we headed back to the roof-access stairwell, him opening the door to enter, and me jumping back up to the upper level to clean up and grab my stuff. When I was back to being alone on the roof though, I had to wonder to myself.
If he was as good at fighting as his workout seemed to suggest without access to ninja powers, just how strong was he with them?
Chapter 4
With Sasuke having ditched us for Sakura and Kakashi, and leaving us all by ourselves with Super Granny, I felt a few conflicting emotions.
The first was annoyance. Because fuck him. He isn't the one who's being left alone to fight the literal goddess of chakra. Well, maybe not a literal literal goddess. Despite how powerful Super Gramps is, he was still a mortal dude who died of old age. Wait, Super Granny is immortal though, does that just mean Gramps was just a demi-god? Is she actually–?
"No, she is not a literal goddess, not in the way the Shinigami is. She's more powerful than actual gods in most ways that matter, but gods tend to hold domain over an aspect of the world in a way that power is usually meaningless against. Like, the sky is blue, and the shinigami manages the dead. It just is."
I blinked.
"Oh, okay. Thanks"
Moving on.
The feeling that conflicted with my annoyance was happiness and relief at the fact that Sasuke was not in fact dead, and that we do still have a chance to beat Kaguya. Not all hope is lost as long as he and I are still around and capable of sealing her away. While he nearly killed me like four times in the same fight back in the day, tried to kill Sakura a while back, and he's been a total asshat basically every time he's shown his face anywhere since he betrayed the village, he was still my rival, my first true friend, and my brother in everything but blood.
If he had been killed off by Kaguya on one of her empty worlds without any way for me to stop it, even if I managed to somehow beat her afterwards, I'd have felt something missing forever. A void at my back, an emptiness in my life, for the rest of my time on the mortal plane. I would have failed to save my friend from his darkness.
The third and final conflicting emotion, was of course, annoyance. Because seriously.
No, seriously.
Fuck that guy.
"Keheheh!"
I grinned and shook my head. The fox would probably always hate the Uchiha.
As I turned my attention back to Kaguya, the grin slid off my face. Unlike Sasuke, I could afford to be a bit more casual and have these little moments of lightheartedness whenever there was a break in the battle. Kurama and I can sense her negative emotions and intentions after all, so we could tell even before the moment she intended to attack. Even with the Sharingan, he could only react as an attack began, and she was fast enough that that was dangerous.
Some seasoned shinobi or those like Sai might be able to at least somewhat get around my ability by dulling their emotions to focus on 'the mission' or something, but Kaguya wasn't anything even close to a shinobi in mentality.
I sighed. I had noticed it a bit more and more as the fight went on, but as much as that ability had helped me pick out moments where we could afford to take a breather, there was a hidden downside to it. Or more specifically, there was a downside to using it in this particular fight.
I began finding it harder and harder to keep myself in a fighting mindset after each break in the combat.
Constantly feeling her particular mixture of negative emotions, I had begun losing the passion involved in fighting the good fight against 'the bad guy'. I understood that in her own alien mindset, she wasn't trying to be malicious. She truly felt like she had to do what she was doing despite her own sadness and frustration.
With my spirits dampening, all I was being left with was the grim determination to end this however I could.
I could feel her roiling emotions beginning to taper down. It seemed she was getting a hold of herself, getting ready to start this thing back up.
"Hey."
She stilled. Not just physically, but her emotions stabilized faster than she was managing herself.
"This probably doesn't mean much to you, coming from someone so much weaker than you, but this will be our last confrontation." I told her. "After this, You will either be sealed away again, or I will be dead. There will be no more moments where I allow the fight to stop. Every moment you are within my senses, I will be on the attack."
She didn't say anything in response or show any sign of acknowledgement , having already said everything she wanted to say to us earlier.
I clenched my fists around my staves.
"I wish I was stronger, strong enough for you to take seriously as a threat. If I were, maybe then you would have been willing to at least hear me out as equals. Given me a chance to show you there are other options, a different path." My mind flashed back to our genin days, that bittersweet ending on the bridge. Haku dying at Kakashi's hand, and Zabuza recognizing the strength of their bond before throwing himself at Gato's men and saving Wave.
The current situation wasn't anything similar, but the feelings the memory brought up were. I didn't hate my enemy despite what she'd done and was planning to do. I just felt sad for her, the fact that she would once again be completely alone, sealed away from the world that she was trying to 'save'.
Kurama stayed quiet, respecting my perspective despite disagreeing with me.
"I may not be strong enough now, but I promise you; I will become the strongest. One day, I will be strong enough to stop this cycle of hatred and save everyone. Including you."
Her expression remained unchanged, physically and emotionally.
I readied myself. Kurama's chakra, intertwined with my own, blazed brighter around me in a golden glow.
"Prepare yourself."
The air behind me shattered and burned away as I launched myself at Kaguya.
Elemental Nations, Team 7
(A few moments earlier)
"Sakura. Kakashi."
While the pink-haired girl jumped off her seat on the fallen log in surprise, the silver haired man just turned his head normally, having felt Sasuke appear behind them just a moment before he spoke.
"Sasuke, you're back! You guys–" She cut herself off. The smile dropped off of her face for a frown when she noticed he was alone. "Where's Naruto? What's going on?!"
"Calm yourself, Sakura." Kakashi's smooth toned voice cut in as he rose to a stand, then placed his hand on her shoulder to sooth her rising panic. "Sasuke wouldn't be here as composed as he is if Naruto was no longer with us. He's fine." Kakashi kept his eyes on Sasuke the entire time, both of Obito's Sharingan activated. "That being said, Naruto is probably still battling Kaguya as we speak, so why don't we let Sasuke explain the situation quickly."
Sakura glanced at Kakashi for a moment before taking a breath to compose herself and nodding.
Sasuke's mismatched purple and red eyes faded to his regular coal-black as he stared at them and started talking.
"Kaguya is quickly increasing in skill and battle instinct as the fight continues. Even with Naruto and I getting better with our new abilities as well, it's gotten to the point where we can't realistically catch her with the two of us fighting her directly unless she makes a massive mistake at exactly the right time. Another issue is that I just don't have the chakra or stamina to continuously fight at my peak as long as either of them."
He involuntarily clenched his fist so minutely that neither of them noticed. "At the moment, Naruto and the Ninetails are keeping up well enough that she can't beat them, but are struggling enough that she doesn't see them as enough of a threat to try erasing her worlds again. This is where my plan for you two comes in."
He glanced at Sakura, black staring into emerald. "Sakura. I need you to transfer a third of my remaining chakra to each of you, and then use your portion as a buffer between ours when we start the plan. Kakashi." He turned to his old teacher. "I'm going to show you how to use my version of Obito's space-time breach into Kaguya's dimensions with my Sharingan, then I'll feed you info on where to look for Naruto's chakra. Once you lock on to him, open the breach just enough to let us observe the fight without Kaguya taking note. Even if she notices though, she should only sense your chakra and likely ignore it. I'll handle the rest."
To Sakura's perspective, the world shimmered briefly before Sasuke was suddenly standing right in front of Kakashi and her with his Sharingan and Rinnegan still active.
For Kakashi, it was expected. After all, he had noticed from the moment Sasuke arrived that they were placed in a genjutsu. It was why he activated his Sharingan for the encounter, just to make sure he'd be able to see through it in case Sasuke tried anything, like when he'd tried to kill Sakura. His caution was unneeded though, because Sasuke instead used his ocular technique to give them a sort of 'mission brief' in under a second of real world time.
Sakura nodded and reached out to place her hand on his stomach, now coated in fiery green medical chakra. Her eyes widened slightly and she quickly activated her Strength of a Hundred seal.
"Jeez Sasuke, even when you're at under half of your reserves, just a third of your chakra is too much for my body to handle all at once without my seal active." She shook her head in disbelief before turning to Kakashi. "Alright sensei, your turn." She gestured for him to come closer, and placed her other hand on his stomach when he did so.
As she was managing their chakra levels, Sasuke locked onto Kakashi's– or rather Obito's– eyes, and began imparting the experience and sensation of using the technique via a genjutsu. Once that was done, he spoke up.
"Are both of you ready? We can't afford to make a single mistake."
Kakashi nodded, eyes filled with a grim determination
"Not just yet, I'm still forming a barrier around you. It's not too dissimilar to what I do to create my seal, just a different application of the skill than I'm used to." Sakura said, frowning in concentration. "Almost finished. Aaaaaaand… done. We're all set."
She looked up at Sasuke. "After this is all over, you have a lot to answer for," she stared into his eyes for a moment. "... So you have to make it back, both of you."
He held her gaze for a couple seconds, not revealing anything with his expression, before turning to look at Kakashi and nodding.
"Let's begin."
Sand hung in the air above the world, creating a tan haze that obscured all around. Even through the haze, the glow of two colors shone brightly through the curtain of crystalline silica grains. One was a distinct singular source of golden light, constantly in motion and frequently changing directions, while the other was a near omnipresent blue, shining from countless sources all moving in one direction; straight towards and past the golden entity as it flitted around the sky, avoiding them.
There was a continuous, near deafening thunder of sound shaking the air and keeping the dust afloat with shockwaves, as each and every one of the blue lights lanced down and blasted the surface of the desert away, all of the nearby sand being relocated to Not There, and the sandstone beneath it worn away to reveal cratered, smooth, blackened stone.
"Get us above them, you need to get me a better sightline to get the perfect timing."
The illusory sound of Sasuke's voice inserted itself into Kakashi's brain, while he in turn fed his visual into Sasuke's.
He ignored his every human instinct screaming at him to run far away from the battle between titans, steeling his nerves to follow through with his part of the plan. He may not have been much of a teacher when it came to the power his three students now possessed, but it was still his duty as their first true shinobi role model to do his best to support them, even if it came at the cost of his life.
The miniscule wrinkle in the fabric of space disappeared without a trace.
It was almost like trying to dodge rain, I felt. There were a few key differences, of course, like the minor issues of these 'raindrops' being the size of a carriage, and them packing enough of a punch to destroy Sasuke's Susanoo in one hit.
You know, the little things.
Maybe saying it was like trying to dodge rain was wrong. I'm easily fast enough to do that pretty casually now, so it wouldn't be fair to Kaguya to say that this was easy for me. I still occasionally had to deflect the chakra fists with my orbs, or blast paths into the onslaught with a Bijuudama or two.
Despite the crazy pace of the current state of the battle, I watched almost casually as my latest shield shattered into fragments of chakra that would re-enter the natural world. I must have miss counted how many blasts it had deflected, or maybe Kurama had taken control of it at some point, because I had expected it to hold up to at least two more of Kaguya's attacks. That brought me down to two remaining Gudoudama.
Kaguya was still hovering in the air above us, just watching with her Byakugan. Not in the same spot she'd started this barrage from, every Bijuudama aimed at her had made sure of that, but still at the same height she'd risen to when she started. Her hands were held palm-forward in front of her, the unending blasts of chakra leaving her with a constant scream of rushing air.
Before the fragments had even finished dissipating, Kurama was already bringing our chakra together behind me to create a replacement, while at the same time gathering up and converting more of the constantly replenishing natural chakra from the world. At this point, I had felt Kurama do this so many times that I might even be able to copy him and double our production. Even with him near-constantly pulling double or even triple duty with our chakra management, orb-making, and occasional defense, we were still losing them at a rate just a little faster than he could make them.
Launching myself out of the way of another fist larger than my body, I zig-zagged through the artificial dust storm while keeping to the path of least resistance. Least resistance still being a ton of resistance. There were still plenty of attacks that I had to fully block or deflect with an orb, but not nearly enough to justify the sudden chakra expenditure of a bijuudama.
I felt the third Truth-Seeker finish forming just before I was forced to block another unavoidable attack, immediately shattering the oldest orb I possessed. Kurama was once again already starting a third.
"Oi, in a couple cycles we'll be down to one. We'll have to back off in a moment." I couldn't spare the energy to put any fire into my voice, having to put all of it towards surviving the onslaught. Also, the situation had become weirdly boring in a way. I'd never been in a fight as dangerous as this, and yet my heart rate and adrenaline production had begun to go down a bit from doing the same thing over and over again. Dodge, dodge, dodge, block, repeat. "Got any idea how to close distance? She's only managing to push us this hard with this strategy because of the distances involved."
The closer we got to her, the denser the array of attacks, the less room there was for me to go between them. If we backed off we could get some more breathing room to build back up some Gudoudama, but that would give her more room to work with bigger, more indiscriminate attacks that I won't be able to fully dodge or block, and she had a ready-made instant delivery method by using her portals, so the distance wouldn't actually matter to her offensive capability. It was a trade-off we were reluctant to make. Ironically, the slow whittling down of our resources in the faster paced danger zone was the option that was least likely to instantly kill us.
"I do, but we'll have to get some distance for a bit first. We don't have nearly enough Gudoudama."
Just after he finished speaking, one of the two remaining shattered while deflecting a blast that I wasn't quite fast enough to get around completely.
In a fraction of an instant it was replaced by Kurama finishing the creation of another, but that was enough time that the single remaining one had been forced to take double duty and deflect four other attacks, leaving it at about half its remaining life-span.
I continued dodging the giant blue energy fists, waiting for the right one. After a moment that felt like an eternity, I found myself staring down a fist directly blocking sightlines between Kaguya and I, inches from my skin. I flared our chakra as powerfully as possible in an instant.
'Time to go!'
I launched myself backwards, matching my pace and trajectory perfectly to the attack, sticking as close to it as possible while suppressing our chakra cloak as much as I could. It wouldn't exactly hide us from her Byakugan for long, but what it would do is make her lose track of us for a moment. The closest comparison would be like if you were watching someone walk towards and then behind a tree, your eyes would naturally continue tracking to the other side of the tree under the assumption that they would continue past it, but instead they just stop directly out of sight.
During the time that our little misdirection gave me, I took a tiny risk… and focused all of my senses inward to observe the process Kurama used to remake my orbs, rather than watching the battlefield. There was absolutely no way this could backfire, not a chance!
From what I could tell, the process was extremely similar to both the way I balance nature energy for Sage Mode, and the way I mix Wind into a Rasengan. Just… a lot more complicated. Instead of balancing the two parts of my chakra with a third energy, or converting my chakra into an element while also maintaining shape manipulation… I just need to do, like, six times that! Creating all five basic elements, plus pure Yin and pure Yang, while keeping them in balance, while mixing them together in a perfect blend, while shaping them!
Ahem. While it definitely made me internally gulp, the truth was I had somehow managed to gain such an immensely precise control of my chakra in the last few days, that I could probably make enough Rasengans to cover myself head to toe all at once from every tenketsu, without the use of a single clone. It was super crazy.
I could probably make one on my own before Kaguya noticed what was up. Maybe a second one before she reacted and took action.
I carefully took control of the portion of our reserves Kurama sent my way and began to work. My first attempt almost fell apart- transforming part of my chakra into Yin was hard!- but Kurama paused his progress on the one he was making to take the reins and nudge my chakra into the right motions, making sure I didn't have to start over again before going back to his.
Creating the Yin chakra properly gave a feeling that was difficult to describe. It felt like my entire body was being lightly tugged on in a direction that didn't exist, but with no actual force.
The moment I'd successfully finished mine, he'd already started on a third, and my senses extended back out to the battlefield just in time to feel Kaguya's chakra start gathering again.
My vision was still filled with the blue light inches from my face, and I could tell we were nearing the ground, so I decided it was probably time to get a direct line of sight to Kaguya, just in case she tried pulling something new out of her ass again. It was a shame I didn't have enough time to make a second orb, but now we were sitting at a nice count of five soon-to-be six thanks to the time my maneuver bought Kurama.
As I pushed my body away from the attack with my chakra, I couldn't help but grimace when I caught sight of Kaguya in between flashes of blue, far off in the distance. I knew Kurama had a plan to get close, but it would have been so much easier if we could have used my usual strategy of 'make a ton of clones to confuse my opponent'.
It really did suck that my clones couldn't actively control my Gudodama outside of my range, Kaguya would always know where the real me was in a general sense as long as I had the overpowered orbs.
It seemed- based on what I felt when making them- that they were connected to me on a deeper level than just being made by my chakra. My best guess is that it had something to do with my soul, since my clones were exact copies of me in every other regard and could use everything that I could, including equipment.
It had been over three years since I read the Forbidden Scroll and learned the technique, but I think I remember it saying something about 'imparting pieces of the spirit' or whatever to each clone. That was probably what made me remember the things my clones did when they dispelled. If that was true, then my clones probably didn't have enough of my soul to control the orbs on their own. If I was right about the soul-thing being the–
"Enough getting sidetracked Naruto, focus up." Kurama rumbled in my mindscape, interrupting the thought.
Right.
As far from the source and target zone for the attacks as I'd gotten, I only had to put in a casual effort to dodge a couple strays while she started to adjust to our change in positioning.
"So, what's this plan of yours to get close to her?" I spoke within my mindscape, just in case she could read my lips.
"First things first, make a clone and send him a good distance to your left."
I mentally shrugged and a copy of me appeared, already moving in that direction.
"Next, we need to charge up the biggest attack we possibly can, on your right."
I felt a massive grin form on my face.
"Alright, now we're talkin'! Let's do a Truth-Seeking Super-Ultra-Big Ball Bijuu Bomb Rasenshuriken!"
"..."
Kurama took a few moments to respond for some reason.
"... Sure kid, let's do that. Also, please never say that out loud. Ever. I would never live it down if my siblings caught wind of it. Or anyone for that matter."
"Huh?" I tilted my head in confusion. "Live what down? What the hell are you talking about, fuzzbutt?" Even as I questioned him, I held my right arm out to the side with my palm facing away, enormous amounts of chakra gathering around the Gudodama I placed there.
"Your naming sense sucks!" He roared in my head, a golden claw of chakra reaching out from our cloak to stabilize and add power to the orb while I added wind and even still more power. "You can't just keep tacking on more words to the name every time you make a change! Idiotic! It sounds idiotic! The great and mighty Kyuubi, feared across all the lands, using an attack that sounds like a particularly stupid child named it!? Absolutely not!" He ranted. "You didn't hear that mad Uchiha call his jutsu Super-Duper Big Hot Fire, it was Majestic Destroyer Flame!"
"…" The Truth-Seeking Super-Ultra-Big Ball Bijuu Bomb Rasenshuriken was now about the size of a large house with wind-blades starting to noticeably form.
"… You're pouting."
I turned my head to the side. "Am not."
Because I definitely wasn't pouting.
"You're not hiding your face from anyone, idiot, I can literally feel your face muscles pouting."
"I'm not–"
"Duck in three, two–"
It clicked in my head what the clone was for. I flung myself downward, letting our attack destabilize and burst in a directed explosion–
"–One."
–Right as Kaguya's hand speared through the space where my head had just been, a long spike of bone jutting out from her palm.
I'd noticed she liked to only partially go through them, staying on the other side with her lower body in order to pull back if her attack failed. The world lit up around us, searing my senses as all that chakra blasted us at point blank, knocking Kaguya out of her portal and preventing that option.
While it also pushed me, my sudden downwards movement took us out of the direct blast cone. That was great, because it meant we didn't take a tumble and get too disoriented, but it was also not great because it increased our distance to Kaguya at the moment when she was at her most vulnerable, and probably temporarily blinded by the flash of that much chakra thanks to her Byakugan.
My sight was mostly fine, if a bit blurry from the flash, but it would heal in moments. I turned and rocketed towards the only chakra in the area that wasn't ours at my max speed, using the ambient chakra to form a clone next to me moving at the same speed.
My clone grabbed and then threw me towards her with a chakra arm, almost doubling my speed while halting his own. My hand stretched out towards her rapidly approaching figure as my eyes finished recovering, her form sharpening into view right in front of my first clone as I got closer.
A lot happened in the next moment.
Sasuke's body and chakra were inserted into the world, replacing my clone at her back, and already lunging at her.
Kaguya grew an ash bone spike on her palm faster than any she'd made before and began turning towards Sasuke for a stab.
Mid turn, her other hand swung in my direction, an impossibly black tear in space, a void to my senses, ripping itself open across the sky in front of me, further away from her body and extending many times further than any other portal she's made in the entire fight; it practically blotted out the sky.
She had stopped playing around
There was no time to think complex thoughts. I understood intuitively at that moment the chain of events that would occur if I didn't reach Kaguya in time.
At the speed I was going, we would have made contact with her at the same time. I couldn't dodge the portal, I was going too fast. If I didn't reach her by the time Sasuke made contact, then he would grab Kaguya, just to either be cut down a moment after he made contact, or replace himself with my clone, and then our chance would be gone along with her final self-imposed restraint.
There was no time to think complex thoughts.
'We needed to make palm-seal contact with Kaguya at the same time.'
'Shadow Clones don't have the mark.'
'Shadow Clones can't control Gudodama.'
'Shadow Clones don't have enough of my soul.'
I didn't think, but these vague impressions flashed through my mind all at once. The image of that mummy shinobi who could split himself into two perfect bodies appeared immediately after.
There was no time to think. Only act.
I banked on finishing the fight, one way or the other.
Besides, I've been making perfect physical clones of myself for as long as I've been a shinobi, I'm sure everything will turn out fine!
As I approached the portal at a speed faster than I had ever moved in my life, from close enough to reach out and touch it, I forced every bit of chakra in my body, titanic amount that it was with both mine and Kurama's, out and passed the portal, creating a clone with three differences from the usual.
First of all, I was using all of our chakra on this clone, not just splitting it.
Kurama, bless his rage-and-chakra fueled everything, understood my intentions possibly before even I did, and transformed and molded the Yang needed to turn the clone body into an actual flesh and blood body, another me.
Secondly, instead of just doing what I've always done and making the clone with a small piece of my spirit as intended, I'd give the new me much more.
I took hold of my spirit– my Yin– and with an almost painful level of that previous tugging sensation, split my inner self into two even parts, sending one half with our chakra to help make my new body and feeling my sense shift to my new state.
… Maybe not entirely even halves. I couldn't really tell at the time, I was new at the whole "soul awareness" thing. The brief feeling of existing in two places with two minds let me better compare my selves, before the connection broke and we truly became two different Narutos.
I threw in a little bit of all-of-Kurama's-soul while I was at it, for good measure. I could tell from his lack of resistance that he didn't expect that. He might have fought me on it if he did, regardless of the time crunch.
Most of my body had already crossed through the portal at this point, my senses telling me nothing of the place Kaguya had baited me into.
As my momentum carried me the rest of the way into the void, my chakra network empty and hurting with exhaustion on a level I couldn't describe, I chuckled to myself.
Kurama was going to be so pissed at me, and other-me would have to be the one to deal with it.
There was a sudden warmth that shot through my system that I wasn't expecting before it disappeared, and with its just as sudden absence, I found myself in an intense and nearly all-consuming pain.
Then the portal crashed shut uncontrollably and left me in the darkness of the void, cutting off the lingering remnant of my connection to my second self. I could tell we'd succeeded.
Wouldn't stop Kurama from being upset at me, though.
It's not like I'd planned on going off to my death. If that were the case, I would have shoved as much of my soul into the new me as I could without immediately killing myself and screwing up the process. It's just, I wanted to be sure that if the portal was going to send us to death, at least one of us would escape fully intact, and if it wasn't a death sentence, then I would be more comfortable with my chances at survival the more of my soul I still had.
Just ask that bastard Orochimaru. Having a physical body could keep a soul alive through a whole lot of bullshit. Kurama was basically just a mass of solid chakra layered around a soul, he needed his soul intact much more than other-me would.
… Probably. I think.
I wasn't exactly an expert.
I felt my thoughts drift more and more into random topics as my body was slowly being torn apart by the nothingness around me.
Soon enough, I stopped even feeling pain at all, and close behind that, my consciousness left me.
The last thought I had alongside the sensation of falling, was how strange a thing it was to feel in an empty world without gravity.