Omake : Kakashi the troll
Quite a walk away from Konoha (Shinobi standards) was mountains clearing where both Kakashi and Sasuke were training.
Garaa had just visited them.
The mountain air was crisp, carrying the scent of pine and wet stone. A thousand feet below, the distant roar of a waterfall was a mere whisper. Here, on the wide, flat plateau that served as their training ground, the only sounds were the rhythmic shink of a kunai finding its mark and the rustle of pages.
Sasuke Uchiha stood amidst a circle of pockmarked boulders, each one bearing the fresh, clean cut of a chakra-enhanced blade. His chest rose and fell in a controlled rhythm, a fine sheen of sweat on his brow. He wasn't looking at the rocks, though. His dark eyes were fixed on the treeline, where the distinctive, spiky silhouette of Gaara of the Desert had vanished moments ago, a swirl of sand disappearing into the shadows.
"He's getting stronger," Sasuke muttered, more to himself than to his sensei.
"Mm," came the noncommittal reply.
Kakashi Hatake was leaning against the largest boulder at the edge of the clearing, his posture a masterpiece of studied negligence. One hand held a small, orange book with the title Icha Icha Paradise emblazoned on the cover. His single visible eye was fixed on the page, a soft, contented curve to his mask where his other eye would be crinkling in amusement.
Sasuke finally tore his gaze from the forest and walked over, his irritation a palpable force. "He just showed up to… test himself. And you just let him. We're supposed to be training."
"We were training," Kakashi said, turning a page. "You got to see a unique kekkei genkai in a live, non-lethal exercise. Valuable experience. Besides, he brought Suna's special spiced dango. Very thoughtful." He held up a half-eaten stick of the sweet for emphasis before taking another bite.
Sasuke's eye twitched. He snatched his canteen from a nearby rock, taking a long drink to quell his annoyance. He was about to demand they resume their drills when he noticed Kakashi's gaze. It had shifted from his book. It was now resting on him.
Not a glance. A look.
Kakashi's eye was doing that slow, deliberate blink, the one that usually preceded either a profound piece of tactical advice or a truly infuriating non-sequitur. He let the silence stretch, the only movement the lazy turn of another page in his book.
"What?" Sasuke snapped.
"Hm?" Kakashi tilted his head, the picture of innocence. "Nothing. Just thinking."
"About what?"
"About you." Kakashi closed his book with a soft thump, using a finger to mark his page. He pushed off from the boulder, taking a slow, casual step toward Sasuke. "About your progress. Your… dedication."
Sasuke's instincts, honed by years of surviving both Orochimaru and his brother's psychological warfare, began to hum a low, warning note. This wasn't a tactical preamble. This was something else. "My dedication is fine. Let's get back to the Chidori control drills."
"In a minute," Kakashi said, his voice dropping into a lower, more conspiratorial register. He held up the orange book. "You know, Sasuke, a shinobi's growth isn't just about physical technique. It's about understanding the world. About the… nuances of human interaction."
Sasuke's glare intensified. "I'm not reading your porn."
"It's literature," Kakashi corrected, stepping closer. He was now well within Sasuke's personal space, a fact that made the younger Uchiha's hand twitch toward the kunai holster on his leg. "It's a study of the human heart. Of passion. Of what people truly desire." He held the book out, a subtle, insistent offering. "You're so focused on revenge, on power. But when you achieve your goal… what then? Do you even know what you want? What you need?"
The warning hum in Sasuke's head became a full-blown alarm. His mind, a tactical supercomputer, began rapidly processing the data. The lingering look. The invasion of personal space. The oddly intense focus on him. The pushing of a book filled with… "nuances of human interaction."
Orochimaru wanted my body. It was always about power, about possession. But this is… different. This is…
The accusation formed in his mind, cold and sharp. His sharingan, unbidden, flickered to life, spinning a dull, suspicious red.
"What are you doing?" Sasuke's voice was low, a blade being drawn from its sheath.
"I'm trying to help you," Kakashi said, his eye curving into that familiar crescent-moon smile. But it didn't reach his eye the way it usually did. It felt… different. "A sensei's duty is to guide his student in all aspects of life. You're a brilliant, talented young man, Sasuke. But you keep everyone at a distance. You're lonely." He took another step. "I understand loneliness."
He's always late. He always stares. He gave me a bell test that was about 'teamwork' but he singled me out. He's always trying to get me alone. To talk. To 'train.' To read his book about… desire.
Sasuke's jaw clenched. The final piece clicked into place with horrifying clarity. The man who was supposed to be his mentor. The Copy Ninja. The one who stood in for his father, his brother. The thought was a physical blow to his gut, a violation that made the air around him feel cold.
"You…" Sasuke's voice was a venomous whisper. He took a sharp step back, his hand now openly on a kunai. "You're trying to groom me."
The silence that followed was absolute. Even the distant waterfall seemed to hold its breath.
Kakashi's visible eye widened, a perfect picture of shock. "Groom… you?"
"Don't play dumb!" Sasuke's voice cracked, a mixture of fury and a deeper, more primal disgust he couldn't fully mask. "The book! The 'special training'! Always showing up late, always making excuses to be alone with me! The way you look at me! You're just like him! You want to use me, to—to possess me!"
He was poised for a fight, his chakra spiking. He would rather die than… than whatever this was.
Kakashi blinked slowly. Then, a transformation occurred. The shock melted away, replaced by something that made Sasuke's blood run cold. His one visible eye darkened, the pupil dilating. The casual slouch in his shoulders shifted into a predatory stillness. He took a single, deliberate step forward, his voice dropping to a silky, dangerous murmur that seemed to vibrate in the air between them.
"And what if I am?"
Sasuke froze, his hand shaking on the kunai.
Kakashi tilted his head, the very picture of predatory interest. He raised the book again, but this time he didn't offer it. He traced a finger slowly down its spine. "What if I've been waiting? For you to get strong enough. Strong enough to handle it. To handle… me." He let his gaze drift down Sasuke's form and then slowly back up to his eyes, a deliberate, consuming assessment. "What would you do, Sasuke? Fight me? You're strong, but not that strong. Run? I'd find you. I'm the best tracker in the Leaf, remember?"
He leaned in, his masked face inches from Sasuke's ear. Sasuke could smell ozone and old paper.
"I could teach you things Orochimaru never dreamed of," Kakashi breathed, his voice a low, insidious caress. "The kind of techniques that require complete and utter… trust. A bond between teacher and student that goes far beyond chakra control. I've been waiting for you to realize what you really need, Sasuke. I can give it to you."
Sasuke's brain had short-circuited. The kunai in his hand felt like a toy. This was Kakashi. Hatake Kakashi. The man who had a thousand jutsu. Who went toe-to-toe with S-rank criminals. Who was currently looking at him like a wolf contemplating the juiciest lamb.
His fight-or-flight response had one clear answer: Flight. Now. Maximum velocity.
"I… I'm leaving," Sasuke rasped, his voice not his own. He took a stumbling step back, then another. His face, usually a mask of cold indifference, was pale, his eyes wide with a primal terror he couldn't suppress. "Training's over."
"So soon?" Kakashi straightened up, a note of playful disappointment in his voice. "But we were just getting to the good part. The trust exercises."
Sasuke didn't answer. He was already moving, not running—he refused to run—but walking with a stiff, hurried gait toward the path that led down the mountain. His mind was a vortex of rage, disgust, and a cold, calculating terror. He had to tell someone. The Hokage. He had to… he had to get away from this clearing, this boulder, that man and his book.
He was ten feet away. Fifteen. His heart was pounding a frantic drumbeat against his ribs. He could feel Kakashi's gaze on his back, a physical weight.
Then, a chuckle.
It started low, a rumble in Kakashi's chest, and then it grew, filling the clearing with a warm, genuine, utterly unhinged sound. It was the laugh of a man who had just told the most exquisite joke.
"Oh, Sasuke," Kakashi called out, wiping a tear from his eye (the one not covered by his headband). "Your face!"
Sasuke stopped dead in his tracks.
He turned, very slowly. Kakashi was leaning against the boulder again, one hand on his stomach, the other holding the book up. His eye was curved into that familiar, infuriating, good-natured crescent moon. All traces of the predatory darkness were gone, vanished like a morning mist.
"Wha…" Sasuke's voice cracked.
"The look on your face when I leaned in!" Kakashi wheezed, shaking his head. "I thought you were going to use the Chidori to run straight through the mountain! Priceless." He composed himself with a visible effort, letting out a final, satisfied sigh. "And for the record? Icha Icha is just a stupidly successful series of romance novels. Jiraiya-sama's prose is overwrought and the plots are ridiculous. I read them because they're funny." He tapped the cover. "Not because they're instructional."
Sasuke just stood there, the color slowly returning to his face, replaced by a furious, burning crimson. His fists were clenched so tightly his knuckles were white. His sharingan was spinning wildly, not from combat, but from a cocktail of humiliation and murderous rage.
"You…" The word was a choked, strangled sound.
"I what?" Kakashi asked, all innocence. "I suggested you broaden your literary horizons. You're the one who jumped to the conclusion that your sensei, a celebrated jōnin of Konoha, was some kind of deviant trying to seduce you." He sighed, shaking his head in mock disappointment. "Honestly, Sasuke. With that kind of persecution complex, you're going to have a hard time trusting anyone. We should work on that. Tomorrow. Same time."
He flipped his book open again, returning to his page as if nothing had happened.
Sasuke stood there for a full ten seconds, the muscles in his jaw working furiously as he cycled through a thousand different retorts, a hundred different ways to attack. In the end, he just let out a sound that was half-growl, half-snarl, turned on his heel, and stalked off the training ground with as much dignity as he could muster.
Behind him, Kakashi turned a page, his eye crinkling in silent, profound amusement.
"Teenagers," he murmured to the empty clearing. "So dramatic."
_____________________________________
Paul has Naruto restrained on an earthen altar. The three bandits stand as acolytes. Inari is forced to watch. Tsunami is present but catatonic—her mind still shattered.
Paul bends down.
"Yuck I'm having to touch such a beast" his reaches for Naruto's stomach.
A head of chakra. One the bandits knew very well. It belonged to The food goddess, the stitches on her neck shimmered.
Then it spoke.
"Ah this boy, has been tempered with a seal of odd number on an even one, one made by the shinigami no less." She said though only the apostles and Paul were able to see the head yet the voice was heard by everyone.
"Who sa-said that?" Inari asked.
"Our beloved goddess, one of our beloved goddesses" Jinsuke said, his voice dripping with awe , worship and love.
"The voice is coming from his hands..." Tsunami noted with horror.
"If only you could be the beautiful goddess worm,"Goro said.
"My goddess please remove the disgusting seal so I may hunt this demon in thy name."Paul spoke, communicating his desire in words.
"It shall be done. We shall await him. Process him well for us." The head said as its tongue went out and licked Naruto's stomach tracing the tomoe—with each lick it bled chakra not that anyone was able to see it, Paul moved on each tomoe (') hovering it over yet close to Naruto's body.
Naruto's body twitched with every "comma" removed. A wave of red—visible chakra collected his chakra core—the neval it collected like viscose liquid drops.
Naruto's body arched against the earthen slab turned altar, a scream torn from his throat— of pain, pure pain. Every cell in his body remembered something his mind had known full well it was the corrosive chakra of the nine tails.
The Five Elemental Seal wasn't just removed. It was consumed. Each tomoe, licked away by Uke Mochi's tongue, bled chakra that dripped like viscous honey back into his core.
After a week of absence Naruto's body had healed Years of suppressed Uzumaki vitality—was finally given a break since being born,
newborns no matter how demonic they are—are fragile. In fact Naruto was the first ever jinjuraiki in history to have a tailed beast sealed in him as soon as he left his mother's body.
Naruto's body itself had adopted while in his mother the genetic template which was supposed to make Naruto Uzumaki the son of Minato and Uzumaki was brutally altered adding the nine essence itself to survive the on slot of Biju chakra.
But that all had changed and his body has adapted once more, restoring his very DNA —Kushina's & Minato's legacies were made into a new him.
But since now the chakra was back once more it was painful. Like a pain forgotten to the winds.
However Naruto wasn't the embryo who could resist this time, before Naruto's body was like a pipeline under construction yet the water flowed in so it adapted to it but now it's like a dam well made able to endure it without changing itself.
And the nine tails felt this change and didn't like this at all.
______________________________________
Inside, behind the gate:
The chamber of consciousness was stagnant water and rusted bars. It was alive.
Chakra—red, hungry—pulsed through the foundations like a second heartbeat. The great cage gate stood, with the seal upon it and purple rusted chains on top of that now already dimmed to near-invisibility. And behind it, a presence that had once been patient, waiting, counting days since Naruto encountered that grass nin who placed these chains.
While the new seal on top of the existing seal ensured Naruto would die to the nine tail's disappointment, Naruto didn't, to rub salt on the wound? His body which had been slowly losing its vitality did a one 180 and started healing itself faster.
The paw pressed against the gate."BRAT WHY CAN'T YOU JUST DIE!"
Well at least he could see the brat feel the pain now. But he knew he may win this battle—by seeing the k
Brat was tortured by his corrosive chakra but he lost the war.
______________________________________
Outside Naruto didn't change in terms of looks for his body being covered in smoking where red bubbling chakra spread,
His screams grow louder as he finally woke up all in pain he began expelling the red corrosive chakra out as it was just too painful now
Uke Mochi her head still protruding from Paul's hand, tongue flicking "Paul prepare him well I'll be waiting to break him, use him..."
She disappeared into the air.
Paul obeyed. He flexed the Earth demon's blade. Naruto's bindings released him.
And he trashed around like he was on fire which would've been better than this.
Paul didn't really wait for Naruto to recover in a burst of speed; he was on to Naruto ready to kick his lights out.
And he did just that, causing Naruto to ragdoll into the wall of whatever thing had come from the power of the sword.
Naruto's body hit the earthen wall with a crack that should have broken bones. But bones—Uzumaki bones, Naruto's bones—didn't break so easily anymore after all the training he did.
Of cracks did happen.
He slid down, leaving a smear of chakra-burned skin on the wall. The red bubbling chakra hissed as it touched the earth, eating small craters into it.
Paul transported himself quite a walk away from Naruto slowly unsheathing the Earth blade, satisfied expression shown bright on his face, "Still alive. Good. Dying now would be giving the gods an undercooked meal."
He walked toward Naruto's crumpled form. Each step is deliberate. Each step is savoring.
Naruto was fully aware of what's happening, well not Fully the pain did numb him a little he asked his voice a rasp"What... what did you do to me...?"
"Remove whatever seal was holding you back from using your demon. But it seems like you are bigger than that one.what a freak."
"And the woman? The boy?" Naruto asked his voice showing how pain he is in.
Paul glanced at Tsunami—still catatonic, still staring at nothing—and Inari—struggling against invisible bonds, tears dried to tracks on his face.
Paul made a face like he was about to laugh"They will watch. They learn. And when you are processed..." He smiled. "They become dessert. They're too corrupted by you to be left alive."
"You... you leave them alone..." Naruto's voice cracked.
Paul tilted his head, curious. "Or what? You'll fight me? In your state?" He laughed—soft, almost pitying. "You can barely stand, little demon. Your chakra is eating you alive no wait it's literally cooking you. And you want to protect them?"
"I'll kill YOU!" He made the familiar seal. Thousands of clones popped into existence.
"Interesting but zero times thousand is still zero, your demoness." With that Paul drew the Earth blade fully. The brown steel hummed, and the ground beneath Naruto's feet shuddered.
"How the hell can he make that many clones when we fought him he only used like one or two." Goro said out loud. Had he been holding back ?.
"Naruto... Naruto, don't listen to him—!" Inari's voice broke.
Earthen spikes shot up impaling all the Naruto's in different places.
"Listen?" Paul turned back to Naruto who hadn't popped impaled on a spike from his side, eyes bright with something that might have been joy. "He doesn't need to listen. He needs to watch. Because that's what this is, demon-boy. A lesson. The strong eat the weak. The gods eat the strong. And you? You're just meat that learned to talk."
"I'm not meat.. you are." With that Naruto lunged at him, ripping his body off the spike.
"So the Demon shows he wants human meat , who's surprised? Not me." He gestured to the bandits.
Jinsuke understood tossed the wind sword to Paul.
"MULTIPLE SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" Naruto's voice shouted.
A thousand clones covered not only the ground but the air too one caught the sword before throwing it to another clone—before Paul's hand was through his chest, the clone passed to another—also before getting killed by Paul, that clone made twelve clones.
Paul's eyes went wide.
Half of the clones had the sword in their hands and they drew the swords at once, the other half holding the cover.
And they slashed, pouring all the chakra they had into the swords.
Six different mini hurricanes shot from the swords.
Paul clapped his hands together. A flash of golden light. The Avatar of the gods—Amaterasu, her long golden hair streaming, her eyes like molten suns—manifested around him. Her arms spread, catching the wind blades, absorbing them into her golden form.
The Avatar of goddess was back and the rest of the clones didn't wait either. All of them rushed forward with kunais and fists.
"What the hell is going on?!" Saburō shouted, backpedaling.
The three clones moved in silence.
They were made by the real Naruto using the fact that shadow clones don't have any particular range. If you can send your chakra there you can make a shadow clone there — one from the shadows of the earthen cart they were like the original smoking too. Saburō had his back to them, too busy watching Paul's golden avatar tear through the clone swarm. Goro was laughing at something Jinsuke said. Jinsuke was counting, always counting, his wrong-sized teeth clicking with each number.
None of them saw the kunai.
Saburō muttered something about pig meat being cooked somewhere.
The first clone struck Saburō from behind—not the kill shot yet. The blade sank into the back of Saburō's knee. He went down screaming, the Water blade clattering from his grip.
The second clone hit Goro low, driving a kunai into his calf before rolling away. Goro was too busy howling. As Naruto kicked him to Saburō , the larger man who had been on his knees clutching his calf fell without resistance.
The third clone went for Jinsuke. But Jinsuke was already turning, his empty eye socket somehow seeing, his hands already forming seals.
"Genjutsu: Hell Viewing—"
The clone's fist connected with his jaw before the words finished. Jinsuke's head snapped back. His teeth—too many, wrong-shaped—scattered across the ground like spilled dice.
Saburō, bleeding from his knee, grabbed for the Water blade. His fingers closed around the hilt.
And the clone was there, foot pressing down on his wrist. He dropped a kunai with force and it snake through Saburō's hand and into the ground.
"You know I should have killed you three," the clone said, and for a moment it wasn't a clone at all—it was Naruto, the real one.
Saburō's eyes widened. "What?"
The clone grinned. It was a terrible grin. Too wide. Too hungry.Too much like something that had been caged too long and had just found the door open.
"Shouldn't have come for the people I love." The clone makes more clones while carrying the water blade.
The two existing clones had already moved. One had Tsunami over his shoulder, her catatonic body limp but alive. The other had Inari under his arm, the boy too stunned to struggle, tears still tracking down his face.
Across the clearing, Paul saw none of this but knew what happened due to the bond of slavery he had attached to them.
He was too busy fighting an army.
The clones with the Water blade moved. All of them. A wall of orange and black between Paul and the fleeing clones carrying Inari and Tsunami.
Paul raised the Earth blade. The ground heaved. To block the tsunamis which had come without the ocean.
The clones moved. Water blades drawn, they slashed in unison. A wall of water—real water, drawn from the moisture in the air?, or perhaps from the blade itself the clones didn't know and they didn't care—rose to meet the earth.
Stone met water. Steam exploded through the clearing.
When it cleared, the clearing was empty. Inari and Tsunami were gone.
The golden avatar of Amaterasu blazed around him like a second skin, her arms moving with his, her power flowing through the Earth blade in his hands. Every clone that came near was crushed, impaled, burned to ash. But for every one he killed, two more appeared.
"Naruto Uzumaki," Paul breathed, almost admiring. "What are you?"
The real Naruto leaned on the earthen spike, his side torn open had healed, his chakra bleeding into the air like smoke. His eyes—blue, red, blue, red—watched the battle with a focus that shouldn't be possible for a dying boy let alone one who is literally burning alive.
"Get up," Paul said to the recently dead. "All of you. The hunt isn't over. It's only just begun."
He turned to the golden avatar still shimmering behind him.
"My lady," he murmured. "Did you see? Did you taste it?"
The avatar's lips curved. Her eyes—molten gold, pupil-less—fixed on the tunnel where Naruto had killed the bandits.
"Yes, " Amaterasu's voice whispered, a sound like sunlight breaking through clouds. "And I want more."
"Your wish is my command" Paul weaved some hand signs inside the protection of his goddess.
The circle Naruto's clones had formed the non blade welding clones had long since vanished as the bladed clones kept on the elemental onslaught of attacks.
Paul's body bulged and an arm shot forward from his body then another arm both were very feminine in looking, then a female face with red hair—long red hair, her blue eyes dazed she moved without a thought a red visible chakra chain connoted her to Paul.
"Fūka I chose you to be the vessel of my goddess, let's hunt your own kind." With that Paul jumped out of the golden avatar which was now becoming visible to the naked eye.
Naruto's eyes went wide."What the hell kind of jutsu is THAT-is that what we've been firing at ?!"
In mid-air Paul saw Naruto, the real one, gaining another sword, the water one. Courtesy of the clone who delivered it.
Naruto's eyes met his. "Wha!? Who's inside the chakra thing?!"
In mid-air, Paul clapped his hands again. Another golden light flashed through the clearing. The goddess of food—Uke Mochi—stood on the earth once more, wielding different kinds of cooking utensils.
Paul weaved more hand signs without waiting, his bulged from another side again a feminine arm shot from his body and then another followed by black hair, a pretty face dazed eyes.
"Fuen, be the vessel for my goddess." With that Paul jumped from on top her head without regard to her well-being —jumping even higher. Fuen too had a chain of chakra green connected to Paul, As the chakra form of the food goddess becomes visible.
Every Naruto's eyes had just witnessed the old puke, a woman full grown from his side and they didn't like it. The fact that said woman was nude and Paul used it like a trampoline was disturbing enough.
The real Naruto stood in the center of the chaos, the Water blade in one hand, wind in his other, the blades themselves were whispering to him.
The wind broad sword was too heavy to use one handed due to his short form but with the nine tails chakra giving his nine tails enhanced strength back so he didn't need to worry about that. He put the swords in their covers and wore them.
And then with a mighty scream he shouted "multiple shadow doppelgangers technique!" Using the shadow clone jutsu again.
A thousand clones covered the whole land armed with swords. The real Naruto sighed in relief that almost all of the nine tail's chakra had left his body. More was flowing in his body from the seal and it still burned a lot.
The clones didn't wait, some of them joined the clones in fighting the "big chakra women" as they have been dubbed by Naruto. While others gave some attention to Paul.
"You see, little demon?" Paul's voice echoed from above, from everywhere, from the very air itself. "You are not the only one who can make copies. The difference is—mine are real."
"Like I Care if you get help from some old women." Naruto—the real one shot back.
Paul landed on the ground, two chained—red and green still connected to the two women under his control.
"Oh but you should be little demon, both of them are related to you." Paul said his laugh began—a rumble of victory that'd put the clouds to shame.
The words hung in the air like a blade waiting to fall.
Both of them are related to you.
Naruto's mind, despite the pain still crawling through his veins like molten iron, latched onto those words. His eyes—still flickering between blue and red—locked onto the two women standing in the aftermath of Paul's grotesque birth.
Fūka. Red hair. Blue eyes. Dazed. Empty.
Fuen. Black hair. Pale features. Just as hollow.
They didn't look like him. But something in the way they stood, the way their chakra pulsed in rhythms he didn't recognize yet somehow knew—
His stomach turned.
"You're lying." Naruto's voice came out rough, scraped raw by screams he refused to let out again.
Paul laughed. It was a wet, hungry sound. "Am I? You think you're special, little demon? The last of your kind?" He stepped forward, the chains of chakra connecting him to the two women dragging behind him like umbilical cords. "The Uzumaki scattered when their village fell. Some died. Some... were found."
Fūka's head lifted slightly. Her blue eyes—Kushina's eyes, Naruto realized with a jolt—stared at him without recognition. Without anything.
"Found by who?" Naruto's grip tightened on the Water blade.
"Some sold on the black markets kept as breeding stock in many villages perhaps? I don't really know ." Paul gestured to the golden avatars still blazing behind him. "The gods take many forms. They take many vessels. And when they found these two... well." He smiled. "They were already broken. Easy to repurpose. Easy to use."
"You're not answering..." Naruto's voice was steadier now. The burning was still there, but it was... changing. Becoming something else. Something that hummed in his bones rather than screamed in his nerves.
"Yeah it's more fun this way, you know what let me tell you something, Fūka here is related to your mom, Fuen here is related to your dad."he said, gesturing to the aforementioned women.
He looked at Fūka again. At the red hair. At the eyes that should have been warm but were glass. Dead.
Paul tilted his head. "Family? You've never met them. You didn't even know they existed until five seconds ago." He stepped closer, the chained women following like puppets. "Why do you care, demon? They're nothing to you. Just more Demons meat to be—"
"I care because they're NOT NOTHING."
In front of Paul, the clones felt it. Every single one. A ripple through the network of shared consciousness, a command that wasn't words but will.
Paul was surrounded mostly, his back was covered with many clones and in front of him was Naruto.
"You know demon brat, I'll kill you quickly now so I don't need to deal with your clones—"
"Multiple...SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" Naruto shouted again, and as per usual a thousand more clones appeared.
"Fuck how much chakra do you have ?!" Paul asked genuinely scared.
"I'M NOT EVEN HALF EMPTY YET!"
The words exploded out of him. The Water blade in his hand flared—a mix of Golden and orange chakra bleeding into the steel, the kanji for water glowing like a beacon. The Wind broadsword strapped to his back answered, a keening whistle rising from its sheath.
Paul clapped his hands again. This time it was a male looking chakra construct which formed. "Let's show this demon your might... Moon god...Tsukuyumi"
The words echoed across the clearing like a death sentence. The male chakra construct took form—a little smaller than Amaterasu, colder, its face a mask of serene cruelty. Tsukuyomi. The Moon God. His eyes, pale red with no pupils, swept across the battlefield with the lazy disinterest of a predator deciding which prey to eat first.
Naruto's clones felt it before they saw it. A pressure, immense and silent, pressing down on their shared consciousness like a thumb on an eyeball.
"So this is the food the Sun has been playing with, " Tsukuyomi's voice was soft. Too soft. The kind of soft that preceded avalanches.
'Another voice without anyone.' Naruto thought
"He burns bright. I'll give her that." As he picked up the dead body of Jinsuke, the body fell in Paul's hands bridal style.
'WhatTHE—WHAT is happening? Is that dead body flying? And it landed in that old man's hands.' Naruto noted.
"I use your body for the gods...my eternal servant." Paul said as the body jerked once and opened its eyes they were red and glowing. Before it dissolved in the chakra avatar.
And now Tsukuyomi's form was visible to all.
'He just fed his own dead comrade to that.' Naruto's face twisted in disgust and morbid interest.
"What the hell are these chakra things you keep calling on ?"
"These are my gods. They found me lost. Thanks to your father." Paul said his love until he said "your father" then his voice was pure venom.
"When I beat you I'll get you to talk about everything that you know about my father and mother."
"Oh ? Let's see" Paul said as two new eyes appeared out of the neck which span slowly turning red with comma-like patterns.
Naruto registered them at once the sharingan like Kakashi's and Sasuke's.
"You—" Naruto's voice cracked. "You have an Uchiha eye with that thingy."
Paul's laugh was soft, almost gentle. "Seriously?" The eyes on his neck spun faster. "No, little demon. Kakashi has a borrowed eye. A gift from a dead friend." He touched the eye on his throat, his fingers tracing the comma patterns with something like reverence. "These are mine. Taken. Earned. Fed." He tossed the Earth demon's blade to Fūka, the Two women chained to him like livestock.
He made hand signs rapidly his body bulged two arms clearly different from each other shot from it and soon again two more bodies popped out of his body both again females black and grey hair with onyx eyes which seemed dazed, before both women's eyes spun into three tomo sharingans they look too much like Sasuke.
"What the fuck dude. How many more women have you got in you?" Naruto was genuinely horrified.
"Just one more demon boy." Paul pointed at the eyes of his neck "who do you think these eyes belong to ?"
Naruto's blood ran cold. His eyes—still flickering between blue and red—locked onto the eyes on Paul's neck. Those weren't just any Sharingan. They belonged to a person and a woman in that man's body—
"You just have people—real humans with family trapped inside of you?." Naruto's voice was barely a whisper. Then louder. His mind flashed with Sasuke's faces whenever he mentioned his clan and their demise and yet here it was his clan. He was not the last Uchiha anymore."Those are SASUKE'S FAMILY YOU HAVE AS DAMN POKEMONS!"
Paul tilted his head. The eyes on his neck spun lazily, three tomoe each, drinking in the light like black holes. "Oh? And ? Are You any different? Ever thought maybe that fox in your belly has people who think it's dead?"
The eyes on Paul's neck stared at him. Unblinking. Accusing.
'Ever thought maybe that fox in your belly has people who think it's dead?'
Naruto never thought about it like that.
Naruto's mouth opened. Closed. The words wouldn't come. Behind him, the clones shifted, restless, confused, their shared consciousness buzzing with the same question he couldn't answer.
Paul smiled. "There it is. That look. Every jinchuriki gets it eventually. That moment when they realize they're not so different from the monster inside them." He gestured to the four women —Fūka with the Earth blade, Fuen with nothing but her empty hands, and the two new ones, black-haired and grey, their Sharingan eyes spinning lazily. "The Uchiha women were strong. Fierce. They didn't break easily. But everyone breaks, little demon. Everyone."
"You're wrong." Naruto's voice was steadier than he felt. "I didn't choose to have him sealed in me. He didn't choose me. He's trapped. Just like them." His hand tightened on the Water blade. "You trap people. You use them. You eat them. That's not power. That's just... being a coward."
"Say that again." His voice was soft. Too soft. "Call me a coward. After everything I've built. Every god I've fed. Every village I've burned." He took a step forward. The women followed, their chains dragging through the dirt. "I will-"
"I think we can talk after kicking your ass!" one of the clones who was fighting Fūka said as he tugged at the chain which connected Fūka to Paul.
One of the clones fighting Fuen copied it too they both pulled Paul with a mighty pull —with a tug they bounced Paul like a string toy, then the chains tightened.
Naruto's side of clones moved forward and two of the thousands grabbed the chains connecting to female Uchihas.
And Paul was dangling like a fly on spider web—or a stupid spider who had built his web where he shouldn't have.
The women and the chakra avatars of course weren't sitting and watching it. After the initial shock of the ordeal. They broke on the clones and the original.
They'd pop the clones who dangled Paul but another would replace them.
Paul's condition wasn't ideal to be in. Each time was rammed into the ground something broke down, his normal blade broke its cover and stabbed in his side and with each crash to the ground it cut deeper and more.
He went through the same cursed hand signs Tsukuyomi's form disappeared and reappeared around Paul's body, the giant's hands went to where Naruto had killed the bandits picking up the remaining bodies and putting it in his giant mouth.
A scream filled the air from Tsukuyomi's mouth . Goro was alive.
Tsukuyomi's lips twisted into a smile. Then the mouth snapped shut.
Screams were still heard as the dead body and alive one dissolved.
The effect was instant Tsukuyomi's form which had almost become transparent and regained visibility.
'I need to re-absorb Fūka and Fuen to be able to use those swords again' Paul thought as his wounds began healing under the protection of Tsukuyomi.
Tsukuyumi had hardened it would seem as Naruto and clones could no longer pull Paul away using the chains.
He felt four massive tugs on the chains. The real Naruto along with three clones had just unleashed a giant wind on his exposed chains.
Paul would be lying if he said it didn't hurt like hell. But he can't let the brat know.
"HA! IS THAT ALL DEMON?" Paul shouted.
Naruto didn't respond with an answer, he just made those damn demonic seals and shouted back "MULTIPLE SHADOW CLONES NO JUTSU!"
A thousand more clones appeared and all ready , The Water blade flared brighter. The Wind broadsword screamed. They hit the chains one after another with the water and wind attacks.
The attacks were so heavy that all but zombie women couldn't fight properly, Fūka and Fuen were lucky they were grabbed by a chakra hand in the chakra avatars of goddesses.
The Avatars used a bunch of things really, Amatarasu were fire style, Uke Mochi used water , Tsukuyomi used earth style all trying to kill as many of Naruto's clones as possible and hoping to kill Naruto.
Fuen was using genjutsu. The Uchiha women weren't being the nice zombies either they were with force using fire, Lightning and wind in conjunction making combos which killed hundreds of clones not to mention the genjutsu they were trying to put on every Naruto that made eye contact with them.
And Naruto—the real one -- maintained a very good distance from the genjutsu users.
Paul's laugh cut through the chaos—wet, desperate, but still defiant.
"You think chains can hold a god's vessel?" His hands moved inside the avatar's protective shell, fingers weaving patterns that made the air itself scream. "I have eaten in villages, demons. Burned bloodlines. Watch gods feast on the screams of your kind. And you—" The eyes on his neck spun faster, faster, until they were blurs of red and black. "You're just a child playing with power you don't understand."
The chains connecting him to the four women went taut. Then slack. Then pulled.
Fūka's body jerked toward him like a fish on a line. Her eyes—those blue, empty, —flared with something that might have been awareness. Might have been fear. Her hand tightened on the Earth blade she'd been given, the brown steel drinking in the morning light like it was hungry.
"No—" Naruto's voice cracked. He was moving before he knew it, the Water blade cutting through the air, the Wind broadsword screaming on his back. "YOU'RE NOT TAKING THEM BACK!"
The clones moved with him. A wave of orange and blue, a tsunami of fury and hurricane and the desperate need to protect. They threw themselves at the chains, at the women, at the avatars blazing in the morning light.
"Multiple Shadow Doppelgangers Technique!" Narutos screamed and all of them multiplied by two.
The new clones moved to the chains.
Amaterasu's flames cut them down in swathes. Uke Mochi's blades carved through them like wheat. Tsukuyomi's rock bullets turned clone after clone to screaming, dissolving smoke.
But for every one that fell, two more took its place.
Narutos doubled their efforts in breaking the chains — four clones would attack on one chain in rapid hits one after another should they get hit with any of the attacks from Paul and company they were replaced quickly.
"Paul, you might have to let that last Uchiha woman go. You know how much chakra you need to hold these women inside you, right? Chakra that'll be better used to fight." Tsukuyomi's voice was ice yet had a softness for him.
"Fine my lord. I shall do it as your wisdom commands." Paul went through hand signs and the eyes on his chest disappeared.
His body bulged two arms shot from his back and a head full of spiky brown hair appeared, her eyes light green glazed as usual. The woman soon pulled herself out of Paul, even dwarfing him; the woman was half a foot taller than Paul's own 6ft build.
"Man, I feel light now." Paul said stretching his back cracked, and a new orange chain connected the new woman to him.
Her eyes spun into the form of sharingan
The new woman's head lolled on her shoulders, spiky brown hair falling across her face. Her light green eyes—now spinning into the familiar comma pattern of the Sharingan—were empty. Hollow. A vessel with nothing inside but borrowed power and stolen blood.
Naruto's stomach turned. Again. Always turning now. Always finding new depths of horror to sink into.
"That's five," he said. His voice was quiet. Almost calm. The calm before the storm. The calm that comes when something inside you breaks so completely becomes something new. "You have five people inside you. Women. Uchiha. My—" The word caught in his throat. Family. Could he even call them that? He didn't know their names. He DIDN'T know their faces until today. But they had eyes. His mother's eyes?. His father's ? But the chance was that they were blood, his own blood."How many more?"
Paul stretched, the new chain connecting him to the brown-haired woman clinking softly. "More than you can count, little demon. Less than I want." He rolled his shoulders, and the women around him shifted in response, their chains dragging through the dirt. "The gods are hungry. They've been hungry for a very long time. And your kind—the bloodlines, the old names, the ones who remember what chakra was before the villages turned it into weapons—you taste like nothing else."
"You're sick." Naruto's hands were shaking. Not from fear. From something hotter. Something that had been building in his chest since he woke up on that altar, burning alive, watching a man he'd never met tear open his own flesh to pull out women who should have been free. "You're sick, and I'm going to—"
"What? Kill me?" Paul laughed. It was a wet, ragged sound. One of his ribs was broken—Naruto could see it pushing against the fabric of his clothes, the wrong shape under the skin. "You can't even touch me, little demon. You've thrown everything you have at me. Thousands of clones. Two of the swords. Your fox's borrowed power. And I'm still standing. My gods are still standing. My vessels are still standing."
He gestured to the women around him. Fūka, with her red hair and empty blue eyes. Fuen, black-haired and pale. The two Uchiha women with their Sharingan spinning faster and faster. The new one, brown-haired and taller than all of them, her eyes still adjusting to a vision she was never meant to have.
"They're not standing," Naruto said. "They're puppets. You're holding them. Controlling them. The second I cut the chains—"
"You'll what? Free them?" Paul's smile was sharp. Sharp as the Earth blade still clutched in Fūka's dead fingers. "They've been inside me for years, little demon. Decades. Their minds are gone. Their souls are worn thin. There's nothing left to save. Just meat. Just power. Just—"
"You're wrong."
Naruto didn't know he'd spoken until the words were already in the air. They hung there, heavy and certain, and for a moment—just a moment—something flickered in Fūka's eyes.
Paul saw it too. His smile faltered.
'observant little fucking demon' Paul cursed.
"She's in there," Naruto said. His voice was steadier now. Stronger. The burning in his veins was changing again, settling into something that hummed, something that pulled. "I saw it. When I cut the chains before. She looked at me. She saw me. They're not gone. You just locked them away."
"Locked them away." Paul's laugh was hollow now. "I fed them to the gods, you stupid child. They're not sleeping. They're not waiting to be saved. They're digested. Everything they were is gone. Their memories. Their names. Their faces. All of it, broken down into chakra, into power, into—"
"Then why are they still here?" Naruto took a step forward. The Water blade in his hand pulsed with light—not orange, not red, but a deep, pulsing blue. The color of the sea. The color of the whirlpools. "If they're really gone, if there's nothing left, then why do they still look like people? Why do they still blink? Why do they still breathe? Why did Fūka turn her head when I said I'd save her?"
Paul's mouth opened. Closed. The eyes on his neck— now gone.
"Because something's still in there," Naruto said. "Something you couldn't burn away. Something you couldn't eat." He raised the Water blade. The blue light caught in the steel, caught in the kanji, caught in the eyes of every woman standing in that clearing. "Something that's still fighting."
The clones surged forward with a new resolution burning in their shared consciousness. Not just to win. Not just to survive. To free them.
The first Uchiha woman—black-haired, her Sharingan spinning faster and faster still maintaining that dazed look—she'd raised her hands the fire balls in growing bigger as she threw them on the hode of clones.
The second Uchiha woman—grey-haired one didn't wait, her own Sharingan spinning faster and faster still maintaining that dazed look she spat two big balls of wind which hit the fire causing big explosions.
The women put a genjutsu on two clones causing them both to hit two other clones and themselves too making all of them pop in a puff of smoke.
Meanwhile Fuen had started using earth clones and spikes with genjutsu to fight as many clones as possible.
Paul's mouth opened. Closed. The eyes on his neck—gone now, gone to the woman who they belonged to—left only smooth, unbroken skin.
"You think they're fighting?" Paul's voice was soft. Almost gentle. "You think there's something left in there that hasn't been burned away?"
Naruto didn't answer. He was watching Fūka. Watching the way her fingers twitched around the Earth blade. Watching the way her chest rose and fell with breath she shouldn't need it if she was truly gone.
"I know there is."
Paul laughed. It was a different laugh this time. Softer. Almost sad. "Then let me show you what happens to things that fight."
He raised his hands. The chains connecting him to the five women hummed—red, green, orange, magenta and cyan. They pulsed like veins, like arteries, like the beating heart of something ancient and hungry.
The tall Uchiha woman jumped from Paul's side joining the two Uchiha women in fighting the clones.
The battlefield was a mess, the giant avatars were getting hit with Tsunami after Tsunami and the clones riding those waves. The water was so much now that almost everywhere it was a good 2 meters deep. The Uchihas used this using lighting style to take out the clones who were too slow to jump but the ones who managed to jump , literally jumped on them.
The Uchiha woman with lightning style didn't even care about her own fellow zombie comrades—many shocks were shared with clones and the rest of the Uchiha women the— black haired and brown ones.