Chapter 12: Multi-Interlude 1
Kyoto Youkai Palace
(Late March)
The human city that was once the capital of Japan held a secret. This secret was simultaneously known by all of its residents, and almost none of its residents. This is because the secret in question is the existence of a second cityhidden in its shadow, practically a mirror image that exists in a separate space alongside the original. While the "true" city is populated almost entirely by humans unaware of the supernatural, "The Shadow City of Kyoto" is a place that is well known among the Moonlit World as the home of the Western Youkai faction.
The leader of this faction, a Kyuubi youkai by the name of Yasaka, frequently took the form of a beautiful woman with long golden hair, topped by similarly colored fox ears, and nine fluffy, well-groomed golden fox tails sprouting from her tailbone. Widely considered one of the most desirable bachelorette's among many different factions for both her looks and incredible power, Yasaka had plenty of experience dealing with all sorts of disruptions in her day-to-day running of the Shadow City.
From unwanted suitors trying to woo her, to challenges for the right to rule by those with delusions of power, to unexpected crises being brought to her attention by attendants and messengers, she'd seen it all.
Yasaka sighed heavily and brought a palm to her forehead as she stepped out of a meeting with her advisors, and entered her so-called 'throne room'.
In the center of the room sat a cheap, low to the floor wooden table, where two individuals knelt while cradling similarly cheap looking, beat-up tin cups. In the center of the table was a basic metal tea kettle.
"What's with that look on yer face, woman? An old man like myself might think you didn't want to see me, gehehe!"
"Is that any way to greet Yasaka-sama, Grandfather!? My apologies Yasaka-sama, please excuse his manners!"
An old man and a bird man were having a tea party in her throne room.
"It's fine, Yoru," Yasaka told the panicking tengu, forcing a smile she didn't feel as she spoke to her attendant. "In fact, why don't you go and join Akatsuki on break? You and your sister can have the rest of the evening off."
The avian youkai glanced from his kneeling position at the tea table to the smirking old man, then down to his own hands and the cup of tea held with them, then back to Yasaka.
"But I'm having tea with Grandfather," the guileless bird-headed young man said, as if that answered everything.
Her smile strained.
"Perhaps your 'grandfather' would like to drop the act, before I get genuinely mad and kick him out of my city?"
"Just take away all my fun, why don't you." The old man scoffed. "Fine."
A wave of confusion swept over the tengu's face, beak drooping open, before realization set in and he shot to his feet in a burst of loose crow feathers.
"A-a Nurarihyon?!" He squawked, "How did he–?!"
A golden tail and a delicate looking hand settling on either of his shoulders cut him off, the direct contact with his boss making his spine straighten nervously.
"Now now, I believe I gave you the day off?" Yasaka gently but firmly pushed her attendant in the direction of the palace doors. "I will deal with our uninvited guest. It seems he's here for confidential business, anyhow."
"Ma'am, yes ma'am! I'll text my sister now and go meet up with her!" This time, the feathered male instantly complied with his boss's directions with an enthusiastic salute, and quickly left the area.
When the large shoji doors finally slid closed behind the younger youkai a few moments later, and the privacy talismans activated, Yasaka gave the creature that continued sipping its tea a look of sheer annoyance.
After all, there wasn't supposed to be a tiny wooden table sat in the center of the room which served as her seat of power.
"Must you always play these annoying games, Nurarihyon?" She asked the 'old man'.
In reality, he too was a youkai, of a species known for taking the appearance of old men with heads elongated back in a gourd-like shape. They were particularly well known for the practice of sneaking into people's homes and mooching off of them, aided by their natural ability to seamlessly integrate themselves into others lives through unconscious mental manipulation.
The old man in front of Yasaka was the Nurarihyon, the original that the species itself was later named after, and the leader of the Eastern Youkai faction based in the Kanto region.
Despite every strange and outrageous event Yasaka has had to deal with, visits from Nurarihyon still maintained a high spot in her internal 'Top 5 Things I Don't Want To Deal With' list.
"Bah," he waved off her annoyance. "What's the point in being the person in charge if you don't abuse that power to fool around?"
Yasaka grudgingly kneeled down and poured tea into a third cup that hadn't originally been there, taking it for herself. She brought the beat up tin cup to her lips and knocked it back, not caring at all about propriety as she finished the drink in a few gulps and set it back down with a light grimace. She'd normally put a great deal more effort into her image and politeness, but her interactions with the spectre in front of her always put her in an unpleasant mood.
"So, what brings you around this time, oh Leader of the East?" She asked as she began to pour herself some more. "You only ever pull this trick when it's something serious. I believe the last time was around a handful of decades ago, when the human's second World War caused the formation of too many new gashadokuro?"
Gashadokuro were giant and indestructible skeleton youkai with a taste for human flesh, formed from the bodies of those who died on the battlefield. Every time war caused a massive death toll on Japanese soil, the vengeful creatures became an issue that needed to be dealt with.
"Straight to the point, eh?" The old monster chuckled, before his face turned serious. "Have you heard about what's happening in that town, Kuoh I believe it was called?"
Yasaka rolled her eyes. Of course it would be Kuoh.
"You'll have to be more specific," she drawled, lazily swirling the shitty store-bought green tea around in her cup. 'Of course the old bastard couldn't be bothered to bring his good tea to an unscheduled meeting with the leader of Kyoto,' she griped internally. 'Typical of him.'
She continued instead of airing her thoughts. "There's always something happening in Kuoh Town." She scoffed. "Those Devils have been making a mess of it ever since they began leasing it from Takamagahara."
"If those uptight bastards cared enough to actually manage their own land, then the devils mismanagement wouldn't be an issue in the first place." It was Nurarihyon's turn to scoff. "No, this ain't got anything to do with the damn Amatsukami."
Unlike Yasaka, who frequently played host to various Amatsukami– the so-called "Heavenly Gods"– when they descended from Takamagahara to roam Japan, Nurarihyon and his faction were practically considered barbarians to the pro-human deities of the Shinto faction, and not unreasonably-so. The dislike between the two groups was mutual.
There was a reason that most of the rowdier species of youkai tended to flock to the faction run by the head of the legendary "Night Parade of a Hundred Demons".
Yasaka couldn't help the curling of her lips in distaste. Even though he knew when to take things seriously, and had learned to curb his more malicious tendencies in the recent centuries, the creature before her still had a sense of reasoning that was almost alien to her, even as a fellow daiyoukai. If the Youkai under her rule were considered the norm, then he and his ilk were seen by her people the same way her people would be seen by the humans.
In fairness to him though, that was more than likely caused by the average Youkai becoming more similar to humanity over the centuries, rather than his people becoming more alien. After all, even his group had toned down their aggressiveness over the years.
"I'm talking about the region's natural energies." He continued on, either unaware or uncaring of her unvoiced opinion of him. Likely just the latter. "When even one of myboys from back in the old days decides to pack up his home of a couple decades and move back to headquarters, all because he's spooked by how the land is acting? Something ain't right."
She grimaced. That issue had come across her desk a few months ago, when there'd been a notable uptick of senjutsu-capable youkai entering the city looking for work and a place to live. She'd dismissed it at the time due to the whole 'Kuoh not being her responsibility' thing, but it seemed it was about to come back to bite her.
Still, for the sake of playing the devil's advocate (the irony was not lost on her), she'd act as if it wasn't an issue.
Yasaka had a feeling there was something he was still holding back, besides.
"I've known about that little phenomenon for a while now. I fail to see how it is in any way my people's problem, though." She declared imperiously.
Nurarihyon's weathered face finally began showing hints of his own frustrations, in the form of a deep frown.
"You know, despite them as a whole backstabbing us, not every member of the Five Principal Clans agreed with their decision." Instead of venting his annoyance, he schooled his expression and went off on a tangent. "Some even still keep in contact with my boys to exchange services."
Yasaka was aware of his past dealings with the human mystics, and the fact that the Clans all but immediately reneged on their side of things was honestly completely typical. Onmyoudou-adjacent groups throughout the ages had an annoying tendency of gravitating towards mindsets of human-righteousness, considering non-humans to be not worth any amount of polite consideration. It was for this reason that she kept Kyoto's interactions with them to a minimum.
Not all groups were like this, and not all of the ones that were took it far enough to be truly despicable, but the pattern was there. Notably, the Himejima clan had recently had a change in leadership, and the young new family head had a much more measured and relaxed stance on the topic than the previous old fogey, who only grudgingly respected his dealings with the Devils due to Takamagahara recognizing their position as the managers of Kuoh.
"Thing is, from what we've been told? The Clans are all preparing for something big, but no one seems to actually know what exactly that something is." Nurarihyon explained. "Now, you may not be aware of this since you city folk tend to steer clear of them, but the Five Principles have dealt with some dangerous things in the past. Those crazy bastards Otakemaru and Shuten-Douji. That crazy bitch Tamamo."
'Now those are some names I haven't heard in a long time.' Yasaka thought.
He leaned forward on the table for emphasis. "Point is, they ain't no strangers when it comes to handling us daiyoukai."
'Ah.' She saw where he was going with this. "Let me guess; you believe there's a new daiyoukai forming, and the clans are trying to prepare for it without causing a panic in the lower ranks?"
He shrugged.
"That's one of the possibilities I'm considering," he admitted. "But more than just a daiyoukai— beings like us are powerful, but not unbelievably so— this level of information censorship makes me think they have reason to believe it's a Kijin being born."
The word sent a shiver through her spine, the fur on her tails and ears stiffening in response.
"Oh," she said faintly. "That's… certainly not good. If it's actually the case, of course."
The word Kijin, literally translating to "demon god," generally referred to Oni that were so chaotic and powerful that they were more akin to deities of destruction than mere youkai. Otakemaru was one of the more famous examples, though his legend had fallen out of common knowledge among many shorter-lived species. It took truly absurd circumstances and countless blessings from the gods for that creature to finally be sealed away for good, not even dying when he was decapitated for the second time.
She could certainly defeat one single-handedly if the need arose– She was one of, if not the strongest Kyuubi to live in more than a thousand years, even without taking into consideration her connection to Kyoto's Dragon Veins– but, well, doing so would require her to be in Kyoto to be sure of her victory.
Needless to say, there likely wouldn't even be a Kyoto left in the aftermath. Her Sunshower Barrier wouldn't hold up for long against a being of that caliber.
"There was also another theory being thrown around, but given some of the grudges the guys talking about it hold against the sorcerers, feel free to take it with a grain of salt." The old man added. "'Way they see it, those secretive bastards in the Clans could be experimenting with some crazy new technique or sealing method in order to weaponize the planet's life energy against us youkai. You know, bring back their old glory through force."
"You're right, I don't believe it. That's an absurd idea." She chuckled. "While I don't doubt that is something they'd do if they could somehow obtain the knowledge to do so, they would never risk losing the favor of their patrons. Say what you will about the Five Principles, but no one can deny that they truly believe in their religious dogma."
Nurarihyon laughed. "Loyal attack dogs, through and through."
Yasaka restrained the urge to compare his description of the clans to his own followers. Now was not the time for verbal sniping.
"Regardless," she moved on "Am I to assume you've come to me with a plan in mind to deal with this, or was this just you making me aware of the issue's severity as a courtesy from one leader to another?"
The old monster lifted his wrinkled hands from his cup into an open palm shrug, pretending to weigh the two choices.
"A little bit of option A, a little bit of option B." He dropped his hands back to the table and chuckled in fond exasperation. "Can't exactly make a plan without more information, but my guys aren't exactly 'sage' material if you catch my drift. Even my practitioners just use what they learn to become bigger meatheads, gehehe!"
"So you just want to use my people for labor." She deadpanned.
Nurarihyon smirked. "Guilty as charged. I do have onetrusted contact capable enough to look into it, but pinpointing their location to get a message to them is the issue."
Yasaka gave an un-ladylike grunt in annoyance, twirling her cup around as she gazed into the swirling liquid.
"You do realize that unlike you, I actually have to go through the proper channels to send people into Kuoh, right?" She reminded him. "It will take weeks if not a whole month to not only contact the devils in charge, get a response, and iron out the details, but also to pick out a suitable agent and representative to go, and prepare their countermeasures for what they might come across." She listed the speed bumps she'd have to go through. "Surely it would be faster to just use my resources to find your contact quickly?"
"'Fraid not," he shook his head. "It usually takes around a month or two to find them, and the harder you look, the more careful they are to cover their tracks. The skittish sort, always on the move, you know the type." He grinned. "On the bright side, I'm certain that the moment they get word of the job location, they'd jump into it headfirst. It wouldn't be wrong to say they're fairly invested in the long-term safety of Kuoh."
She sighed, setting her cup down. "I guess that's all we can do at the moment, then."
The trickster youkai nodded in agreement. "While I try to reach my contact, you do what you need to do to send your own people. We'll keep in contact and trade info to come up with a more solid plan later, and hope until then that it's just an overreaction on our parts."
"Let's hope so," she agreed. "Luckily, I already have a duo in mind for this, so getting them prepared shouldn't take quite so long. You've actually already met one."
"Oh?" Nurarihyon leaned his large head on his hand in mild curiosity. "The tengu brat? That's surprising. They aren't exactly well known for their Senjutsu aptitude."
"They're on the younger side and a bit… odd," she admitted, "But, perhaps due to their oddities, they are abnormally skilled in the more intricate aspects of Senjutsu and the flow of the world's natural energies."
Yasaka pushed herself up from the table, as did Nurarihyon as he sensed the approach of the meeting's end.
"Anyway," she said with a nod of professional respect, "I believe that should be everyth–"
The shoji doors slammed open.
"Yasaka-sama, Yasaka-sama! I came as fast as I could when my brother texted that he was having tea with our grandfather!" The culprit was another crow-headed tengu, with a slightly slimmer beak and features than the previous young man, but a much more noticeable difference in the chest and hips department. She also had her large black wings extended, apparently having flown directly to the palace from her previous location.
"We don't even have a grandfather!" The clearly female tengu cried out. "I believe a powerful Nurarihyon has infiltrated the–!" She cut herself off. Her head tilted, beak slipping open slightly in confusion. "Eh?" Black eyes blinked at the sight in front of her.
Yasaka and Nurarihyon had their heads turned and were staring blankly at the young woman.
Yasaka, eyebrow twitching, spoke up with a forced calm.
"Akatsuki-chan… Did you, by chance, not get your brother's follow up message?"
"Eh?" She blinked again, head still tilted. "Ah, no, I accidentally dropped my phone in the Kamo river when I realized the palace had been infiltrated." She explained promptly.
It was Yasaka's turn to be confused. "How in the world did you manage to drop your phone in the river?"
"I was taking selfies while doing barrel rolls over the river, ma'am." Akatsuki said simply. As if that was perfectly reasonable.
Yasaka opened her mouth to try responding to the absurdity, but was cut off by the sound of shouting from another, familiar, aged voice.
"Yasaka-sama!" The owner of the voice rushed past the tengu into the throne room while he panted, and hastily dropped to a knee with his head bowed and fists planted on the floor in deference, drawing everyone's eyes. He was a gray-furred, seven-tailed kitsune getting up in the years, with crows-feet and glasses decorating his eyes. He also happened to be one of her daughter's primary caretakers when Yasaka herself was busy with managing the city.
"Kunou-sama has skipped her lessons again, and escaped into the city!" The aged instructor informed her in a tightly-controlled panic.
Yasaka held back a familiar groan at the near weekly occurrence, and was about to instruct Akatsuki to retrieve her wayward daughter, when yet another voice interrupted her for a third time in the same minute.
"Yasaka-samaaaaa!" The fact that this particularly cheerful voice was one she'd dismissed not even an hour ago was just the icing on the cake. Yoru casually landed in the entryway next to his sister with a burst of wind and gentle flap of his wings. He was carrying a small bundle of light-blonde fur in his arms, which he proceeded to proudly hold out for presentation. "My sister hasn't responded yet, but I found this really cute fox kit in my search for her! Look, she has fur just like yours and Kunou-sama's!" He was utterly oblivious to his sister standing right next to him. "Actually, now that I think about it…" He tilted his head.
He turned the creature around in his hands, holding it from below the forearms and leaving its lower body hanging limply. Said fox blinked once and tilted its own head in mimicry. He blinked back. "Doesn't her chakra feel way too similar to Kunou-sama's?" He tilted his head even further. "Eh? Kunou-sama, is that you? Blink once if no, twice if yes."
The fox that was absolutely her daughter blinked once and tried to wiggle out of his hold.
Yasaka's face dropped into her palm with an exasperated sigh while the daiyoukai next to her laughed hysterically at the comedy show in front of him.
"Bwahahahahahaha!"
Kuoh Town Outskirts
(Sunday, April 15th)
In a forest far from the city proper, there was a clearing surrounded by swaying trees and rustling bushes. The chirping of birds and footfalls of deer, carried on the wind, reached no intelligent ears in this empty and peaceful place.
The sun shone high in the sky, not a cloud in sight on this bright yet dry day.
None of this prevented the open space from darkening as a blanket of dense fog began to form, reducing the vision of any animal unfortunate enough to be caught in it to mere inches.
If this fog happened to be a deep purple in color, well, no one was around to witness the unusual phenomenon.
Two apparent young men of similar heights stepped out of the fog and into the center of the clearing, one after the other.
The first, with brown eyes and short, swept back, light reddish-brown hair, wore ornately decorated armor similar in style to that which was used in ancient China's 'Three Kingdoms' period. With the deep red and gray plates trimmed with gold accentuating his muscles, the thin golden circlet decorating his brow, and the twin lengths of decorative black cloth trailing down from his shoulder guards, he looked every bit the fierce warrior that he truly was.
This intimidating appearance was slightly ruined by the easygoing smile on his face, along with the way his arms hung lazily by the wrists over either end of his red wooden staff, the golden-capped weapon resting slung across his shoulders and behind his head.
The young man took a moment to look around the clearing.
"...Oi, Georg. This is a forest." He deadpanned towards the other male, black-haired and clad in a feather-caped mage robe overtop a barely visible Japanese school uniform. "I thought you were bringing me to some Japanese town for this."
The bespectacled young man showed no outward reaction to his temporary companion, fixing him with a serious look and gesturing forward.
"Kuoh is just a couple miles that way, Monkey King. I'm dropping you off here so you can take note of where the edge of the effect begins during your approach." Georg explained patiently. "My sources in Kyoto have told me that they have gained permission to send their own agents to investigate the anomaly. The more complete a picture you can get for us, the better we can predict whether or not their leader will decide to personally involve herself at a later point, and make a mess of my group's plans." He shifted his glasses, light bouncing off of the lenses momentarily. "A couple run-of-the-mill Senjutsu users can be easily accounted for, but the same can't be said for the 'Strongest Kyuubi' herself."
The two young men were the second-generation King of the Monkey Youkai and Senjutsu expert, Bikou, and the descendant of legendary magician Johann Georg Faust, Georg, who is also the current wielder of the Longinus-class Sacred Gear: Dimension Lost.
Bikou rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah. You keep doing your scheming type shit," he drawled, "As long as you guys follow through with your ends of the deal, I couldn't care less about the specifics. I'll get you that info you're so desperate for."
Georg's eyes narrowed coldly at the youkai in front of him.
"You do the job we hired you for, and you'll get your payment in battles just as promised. If you betray our agreement though…" He warned threateningly.
Instead of feeling put off, Bikou grinned at the promise of violence.
"Keheheh, you shouldn't tempt me with a good time, you know?" He laughed. "Takes away the entire purpose of threatening me!"
The magician's glare darkened.
Bikou tamped down on his amusement and addressed his temporary client.
"Geez, no need to take everything so seriously man," he waved his hand lazily from its place across his staff. "I'm a man of my word. Besides; as fun as it'd be," he smirked, "I get the feeling that I'll see more interesting things during this job than if I decided to shoot my shot against you Heroes for real, just yet. If I'm understanding everything right, it seems like this place is beginning to become a hotbed of activity."
Georg clicked his tongue at the battle junky he'd hired.
"Tch. It's like talking to a second Heracles…" he muttered in annoyance. He schooled his expression to address the Second Monkey King one more time. "You know how to contact me when you're done. The phenomenon has been occurring for nearly a year and it is only just now that other groups are beginning to act, so you should have plenty of time to make your observations before any overt moves are made. Needless to say, but we would prefer having this info sooner rather than later."
He turned away from the human-looking youkai and disappeared back into the purple fog without waiting for a response.
"We will be waiting." His parting remark echoed out in the clearing.
The Fog of Extinction dissipated into nothing moments later, leaving Bikou's form standing alone in the clearing.
"Man," he said out loud with a thin smirk on his lips, "what an up-tight jackass."
"I knyow, right?" A female voice spoke from his side. "If he wasn't such an obvious virgin, I would have said he had a copy of your staff hidden all the way up his ass, nyahahah!"
As a student and successor to the original Sun Wukong, Bikou's staff was also a near-perfect replica of the Victorious Fighting Buddha's Ruyi Jingu Bang, weighing multiple tons and able to extend its length near-limitlessly at will.
The joke, therefore, was that the Longinus user had a really long stick up his butt.
Bikou turned to the source of the comedic genius, lifting a hand off his staff and twirling it around his neck to plant one end into the grass at his feet. "So, how much do you want to bet that he doesn't realize we were gonna be in the area for a while anyways?" He asked the open space, while leaning on the replica legendary weapon like it was a walking stick.
As if forming out of nothing, a beautiful golden-eyed young woman broke her illusion and shimmered into existence right before his eyes. Her long raven hair was styled into twin loops that hung from behind and below the two cat ears sat atop her head, with shoulder length bangs that framed her face perfectly.
"Nyo bet," she said with a shake of her head, the motion causing her chest to sway in her kimono, which she wore hanging below her shoulders. "He never nyoticed me tagging along, even when he moved us through his personal dimension, so there's nyo reason he'd suspect Vali to have taken any interest in the town, nya." Her two cat tails swished around each other playfully behind her. "As far as he knyows, his is the only faction that's asked a member of Team Vali to take on this job."
Bikou laughed.
"Right, right. And I'm sure you only accepted the 'job' because it was the old man who asked you," he smirked knowingly, "and not for other reasons, I'm sure."
"You said 'I'm sure' twice, nya." She pointed out. She then pouted and crossed her arms under her chest. "Also, you shouldn't tease a lady about her family life like that, you knyow. It's totally unattractive of you."
He rolled his eyes. "And you should quit talking like that, Kuroka. It's totally annoying. Speak normally, woman."
"Nyever!" She declared while childishly blowing a raspberry, before turning and speeding off into the woods towards Kuoh.
"That one didn't even follow the same pattern!" He yelled after her rapidly disappearing form. He saw her flip him a middle finger just before the trees swallowed her up for good, and chuckled to himself.
She was moving so quickly, she didn't even bother trying to get a feel for the edge of the draining effect, her priority undoubtedly being spying some more on her little sister. That, or she was simply at a level where she didn't need to slow down and acquaint herself with the land to pick up on details like that. Either of those were entirely possible options with her.
He may be known to be very skilled with Senjutsu himself— he wouldn't have been hired by those holier-than-thou Heroes if that wasn't the case— but Kuroka was a once in a generation master even at her young age. Born to a species with an exceptional affinity for it, with her own personal knack for it stacked on top, she even compared favorably to a few of the Old Monsters that spent centurieslearning what she was able to figure out from scratch within a single decade.
The SS-ranked Stray Devil may not have as much sheer direct combat power as a few of the others on the team, but he honestly believed she could be the most dangerous if she wanted to, with her wide array of useful skills.
He chuckled to himself again. 'Guess I should get started on my end, then.'
He began walking in the same general direction that Kuroka did while focusing on feeling the flow of life through the earth and air around him as he went.
It didn't take all that long, maybe about half an hour of jogging, before Bikou realized that the natural energy around him was noticeably thinner than it was in the clearing he started from. Given that there was a known drop in the natural energies of the region, it was extremely unlikely for the difference in density to be due to natural variance. The shift apparently occurred gradually enough for him to not even notice when it began.
'Guess I'm gonna have to try more seriously then.' He thought with a sigh as he stopped moving. He plopped down onto the forest floor in a cross legged position and rested his staff across his lap. Closing his eyes and clasping his hands together in front of his chest, he focused his chakra around and outside of his body, and expanded his senses in all directions around him until the clearing was within his range, as well as a decent chunk of Kuoh proper.
Observing the energy levels this way let him know that his first thought was only half-right. The thinner energy at his current location wasn't natural, but he also hadn't actually crossed the range limit of the effect yet. The actual edge of the effect was as noticeable to his senses as flashing red warning lights would be to a person's eyes, nearly a mile ahead of him; it was a little ways into the town, just past an area where he felt the presence of a bare few youkai of the stronger variety.
Kuroka's presence was nowhere to be found, either because she'd already left his range and was further in the city, or because she'd pulled in and hidden her aura from detection.
"..."
Bikou's eyes opened and stared blankly ahead of him in the direction of the city.
"Yeah, screw that," he commented out loud to himself. "Kuroka's a big girl, she can handle herself for a little while. I ain't touching that with a ten-mile long pole without a bit more prep."
He used his staff to push himself to his feet, turning to walk in the opposite direction.
The reason the energy in the area was getting thinner as he approached town, was because it was all drifting closer to the town almost unbearably slowly this far out. The closer you got to the edge though…
It was sucked into a gaping maw, an empty space to his senses, the only spots of light being the life force of each individual living creature who called Kuoh home. An otherwise yawning pit void of ambient energy, that greedily tore at the edges of it's range, hungrily sucking in any wisps of the planet's free floating life force that drifted too close, rushing further into the effect and out of his range, causing the surrounding aura to slowly drift closer in a cycle similar to a low-pressure system sucking in evermore air.
If he was being frank, it was ominous as fuck.
Bikou whistled to himself as he walked in the opposite direction and contemplated his next move.
'Maybe I should make a quick stop at the mountain, see if any of the old ancestors have some tips to share.'
He paused in consideration. He came to a conclusion.
'Nahhh,' he summoned his flying nimbus with a grin and hopped onto the golden cloud with extra pep in his inner monologue. 'I'll just hit up some arcades in Akiba instead. I'm sure something will come to mind eventually, hahah!'
(With Kuroka)
The black haired Nekoshou giggled to herself as she approached the eye of the storm, having felt Bikou's aura wash over her and metaphorically double-take, before he went the other way and skipped town. He didn't focus his senses on the town as a whole, so he didn't realize that the off-putting 'dry' zone she was currently moving through was more or less shaped like a donut, with a small central region where the energy density is much greater than normal.
The energetic zone wasn't actually spherical, so maybe 'donut' wasn't the right word for it after all. It was shaped more like an oval and stretched a relatively short distance between the school she knew Shirone attended, and the area she believed to be the residential district, based on her original stakeout of the area when she'd first heard her little sister's peerage had moved into the area.
Observing this section of town with her senses was an almost perfect mirror of the outer bounds of the draining effect. Wisps of energy that accelerated faster and faster as they were pulled streaking through the ocean of emptiness, in turn began to slow as they approached the central island of unclaimed life, but never fully stopped in the journey towards the center.
While her range and sense for details were far greater than Bikou's own, it still wouldn't be a simple matter for Kuroka to pinpoint exactly where the central point was. Due to how slow the energy moved further in, she would have to focus and dedicate a significant amount of time to observing multiple sides of the effect in order to come to a conclusion, and she had much more important things on her mind at the moment.
Like the fact that Shirone-chan's untapped aura was currently inside the field of energy, and she was at her school on a non-school day!
'I wonder if she's somehow involved with what's going on?' Kuroka idly thought as she flew invisibly over the town towards the academy with her bat-like wings. 'Forget that! It's been almost a year since I last had the time to check on her, I can't wait to see how she's grown!'
She doubled and redoubled her speed, using Senjutsu to split the air ahead of her, making a vacuum tunnel to fly through so that she didn't accidentally cause a sonic boom and announce her presence. It only took a few more moments before she was hovering directly above the old school building. Given the fact that her sister's aura was a short distance into the forest behind it, with what felt like an extremely weak human in close proximity, Kuroka decided to change into her cat form before approaching to be on the safe side, just in case something unexpected broke her illusion.
Upon alighting on a tree branch overlooking the clearing the two were in, Kuroka found out just how much her little sister grew.
The answer? Basically not at all.
She'd gotten a tiny bit taller and lost some baby fat, but hadn't gained any size 'up top.'
Kuroka didn't focus on that for long though, because it was what her sister was doing with the blond haired human teen that truly caught her attention once she got eyes on them both. When she first felt the two presences together, she'd thought her sister had just brought a boy her age to a secluded place to fool around. After all, the short boy's weak aura had no signs of possessing any form of magic or Sacred Gear, and her cursory check of his life force just now showed her it was practically a barely flickering flame, if even that.
It was the only logical conclusion in her mind.
'So why is my sister getting lessons on chakra instead from the sounds of it? And from a human boy a step away from death, at that?'
The black cat laid down on her branch, getting into a comfortable position to observe the two teens sitting across from each other in the grass. She'd stay there for as long as she deemed necessary.
It seemed there was more to the boy than met the eye, so to speak.
Sacred Gear Research Laboratory, Grigori HQ
(Thursday evening, April 19th)
The Governor General of the Fallen Angels, Azazel the Scapegoat in the olden days, stood hunched over one of his workbenches in his brightly lit lab. He was currently trying to work out the kinks in one of his longer running projects, this one being his most complete Artificial Sacred Gear. It sat on a makeshift two-pronged stand, in the shape of a medieval golden lance with the size and proportions of a dagger, and a spherical purple jewel for the pommel.
"How's the flow feeling now, Faf?" The man with a black goatee and blond bangs asked of his creation.
A golden glow radiated around the device in question, extending its aura to create solid golden barriers of many different shapes and sizes above it and rapidly increasing speeds. Despite a few minor hiccups here and there, moments where clearly defined straight lines and edges became wavy blurs, everything seemed in functioning order.
[Everything feels fine, right up until I start picking up speed.] Fafnir, one of the Five Dragon Kings, answered inside his mind. [The moment I try to make too many changes too quickly, it misses some of my intent and loses detail.]
"That so?" Azazel stroked his chin with one hand, "Other than that though, everything else is fine? Not too cramped in there, your power flows smoothly, response time is good?"
[Yep.] The dragon replied telepathically.
"We're getting pretty close, then. Now it's just a matter of increasing how much throughput it can handle. Hmmm…" He drummed his fingers on the workbench surface for a moment in contemplation.
The soft sound of a piano, drums, and triangle leading into a catchy saxophone tune came ringing from his pocket.
"Excuse me for a second," Azazel sighed and pulled out his phone, knowing from the "Pink Puma" theme song he'd set for the number that it was someone from the Espionage Department calling.
He answered the call.
"Talk to me."
"General Azazel, sir. We've gotten word back from one of our teams, led by Agent Raynare and originally sent to Kuoh in Japan to evaluate the potential of a human Sahariel believes to be in possession of Sacred Gear."
The calm and professional-sounding female voice on the line tickled something in the back of his brain, in that "familiar cashier you never bothered learning the name of" kind of way.
"Oh? Alright, what have you got for me?" He asked, interest piqued. 'Isn't she that four-winged chick? The one with the mile-high club fetish?'
"Agent Raynare has only just made contact with the target for observation so there's no news on that front yet, however, she has reported that a member of her team came across some potentially troubling news involving the Youkai during his familiarizing himself with the town."
Azazel groaned internally to himself. 'And to think I'd hoped it would be something interesting for once…'
"According to Raynare's report, the Western Youkai faction and the local Devils have been in talks about cooperating in the area, in order to investigate the potential formation of–"
"Yeah, hey," Azazel spoke over the woman, "I don't really care about that stuff. If it doesn't involve Sacred Gears or the future of our faction as a whole, take it to Shemhazai or Penemue 'kay?"
"B-but Lord Azazel, you're the most knowledgeable researcher we have on the topic of energ–"
"Ap-bap-bap!" The twelve-winged Fallen interrupted her flustered response. "Listen, I know that you're just trying to do your job and all, but I really don't care," he stressed his apathy. "Now, repeat after me: 'Unless it's an emergency or involves Sacred Gears, I won't interrupt Big Azzy's research time.'"
"... Unless it's an emergency or involves Sacred Gears, I won't interrupt your research time." The lower ranked angel grudgingly returned, in frustrated humiliation.
"Attagirl!" He praised her with patronizing cheer, "Anyways, I was kinda in the middle of something, so I'm hanging up now." He pulled the phone away from his face and tapped the red 'end call' button on his screen before she could get another word in, then slipped the device back into his pocket. He turned back to Fafnir's temporary artificial home.
"Sorry about that, where were we?"
Chapter 13: Apogee 3
"Six Paths: Planetary Devastation!"
Sasuke and I pulled away from Kaguya as her Rinne Sharingan was sealed away by our sun and moon marks. Within moments, the very dimension around us shook as the distant ground cracked and shattered, massive amounts of rock and sand racing up through the air to imprison Kaguya once more. As the shell of a new moon began to form around her swelling and mutating body, the rest of the Tailed-beasts forms– including Kurama's other half– escaped her body at last, shooting down to the planet's surface.
"Naruto!"
Before I could turn my head to celebrate our victory with Sasuke, I was already jerking to the side on instinct as Kurama warned me, our negative-emotions sense picking up on the downturn Sasuke's mood had taken.
I wasn't fast enough. With how close we were and how quickly he acted, it was honestly lucky I had even reacted fast enough to escape his sword with only the loss of my right arm, the limb tumbling through the air in its rapid descent.
With teeth clenching to hold back a reflexive scream and blood pouring from my severed bicep, I barely had time to notice the recently freed Bijuu being captured in miniature moons of their own, before Sasuke's chakra surged immediately after.
"THIS DAMNED UCHIHA SNAKE!" Kurama raged in hatred. "CAN'T HE GO ONE MOMENT WITHOUT BETRAYING HIS ALLIES!?"
"Sasuke!" I screamed through gritted teeth as I clutched at the stump where my arm used to be, fingers covered in the red liquid. Kurama had begun to stop the bleeding, but this was becoming a dangerous situation really quickly. "What the hell is your problem, bastard!?"
"You are my problem." Sasuke bit back with narrowed eyes, irritation mixing into his rage as he lowered his extended sword arm, throwing his free hand to the side as if telling me to look around us. "This world is broken and diseased, all the way down to its very roots! From the Kage to the village system, and the Daimyo who support it all!"
The purple glow that was a telltale sign of his Susanoo began to surround him, so Kurama and I responded in kind, the golden glow of my cloak intensifying.
I winced heavily and suddenly, something deep within me aching when our synchronization stuttered and our chakras ground against each other roughly for a moment.
"Naruto-!" "I know." The alarm was plain to hear in Kurama's voice. I came to the same realization he did; It seemed there were going to be some side effects from the split after all.
"You of all people should understand what I'm talking about, Naruto!" Sasuke yelled, glaring at me with his mismatched eyes. Eyes full of anger, desperation, and despair. "And yet you're too weak-hearted to actually do what needs to be done! Things can't be allowed to go back to the way they were! This world… it needs to be reset." Sasuke declared. "I'm going to fix this world, and ensure that nothing like the atrocities committed by its past leaders can happen again."
I bristled, rage filling me at what he was implying. "Do you even hear yourself right now, Sasuke!? There are other ways, ways that don't need any more bloodshed! We can stop this cycle of hatred, if we all work together!"
"Naruto… You have your methods, and I have mine." Sasuke stated coldly. "That's what this is. We will decide who's method will win, right here and now. And for my plan to work… I need to kill you." The low rumble of Kurama's growl echoed in the back of my head as I held eye contact with my first true friend and rival.
"You're the only one who… the only person that I can't…" He trailed off. His eyes, filled with bitter and grim determination, stared back, and I understood.
"So…" The Susanoo's head formed around him, its body stretching hundreds of meters downwards as its wings grew from its back. "If you truly still wish to 'save' me…" Kurama formed his own avatar around me in response, his vulpine muzzle snarling at the Susanoo's bird-like face.
"Then for the sake of the world, the peace you so desire… why don't you just give up on me and die already, NARUTO!" Sasuke howled, voice on the verge of cracking from his emotions.
"I already told you before, Sasuke!" I shouted right back, voice firm in my determination. "Give up-!"
The Susanoo swung its purple sword, wings spread wide.
"-on me giving up!"
Kurama swung his golden fist, tails splayed behind us.
"NARUTO!"
"SASUKE!"
They met in the middle, Kaguya's artificial world shaking again from our two titans clashing above it.
Konohagakure no Sato, Late December
(One year later)
Head tilted back, I stared up into the sterile white lights of the sterile white room, while sitting on the sterile white exam table, contemplating how much trouble I would be in with Baa-chan if I just jumped out the window right now and booked it.
'On the one hand, she might break my legs to keep me here the next time I have a checkup scheduled…' I thought to myself in boredom. 'On the other hand, that sounds like a problem for future me, and current me really doesn't want to be here right now… possible broken legs later, or stay mildly uncomfortable right now? Which do I choose?'
I seriously hate hospitals.
Not their existence as a whole of course, but the act of being in one.
I turned my head to look at the large bundle of burn-orange fur sitting patiently on its hind legs at my side. Unlike his true full-sized form, his current body was shaped like a mostly normal fox, if you were to ignore the massive size, the nine tails, and his unique ears.
"How about you, Kurama? Should we make a run for it?" I asked the wolf-sized chakra construct. "I heard Koyuki's shooting a new movie over in Iron; We could make a day trip of it, fly over and get a live behind-the-scenes viewing, maybe mess around with some samurai guys. Whaddya say?"
"I say you're an idiot," The fox grunted. "You can go ahead on your own and piss off the Senju woman, I'll stay right where I am, thank you very much."
I scoffed. "Coward."
He scoffed right back. "Just because I can easily make a new avatar to inhabit whenever I want, doesn't mean I won't feel the pain of that gorilla woman breaking this one's legs. I'm not an impatient dumbass like you are, I can handle a bit of waiting."
"It's decided then." I slid off the table to my feet and walked over to the window. "I'm going to escape while I can, while you sit around like a fat and lazy cat."
"Why you little-!"
I was halfway through lifting the window with one foot already on the sill, when the exam room door slid open with a slam that shook the room, visibly cracking the doors frame and part of the wall surrounding it.
Tsunade-baa-chan stood in the doorway with a clipboard in hand and wearing her usual green jacket, an angelic close-eyed smile on her face despite the visibly bulging vein on her forehead.
"Oh my, who went and opened the window on such a chilly winter day?" She asked with the most obviously faked concern I've ever heard from her as she walked in. "Someone could catch a cold."
"I have no idea, it was like that when the nurse brought us here." I lied out of my ass from my seat next to Kurama on the table, the hidden wisps of golden chakra already fading underneath my clothes.
Baa-chan walked over to the window and gently placed her free hand on top of the open frame.
"That's funny," she said, her back towards us. "Because, maybe it's just my ears being wrong, but I could have sworn I heard talk of one of my subordinates trying to waste my time, after I so graciously took said time off from my duties as Hokage, to personally give them their routine checkup." I began to sweat as I tried to ignore her glaring wrathfully at me from the corner of her eye.
"I must have been mistaken though, since you're still here." She turned her head to more fully face me, both eyes shut in a chilling smile once more.
CRAAASH
"Much better now, wouldn't you agree?" The demonic woman asked with the same smile, as she twisted the window lock into place.
You know, the window that was now little more than a cracked and bent metal frame, all of the glass and a decent chunk of the wall itself having shattered into rubble with the force she used to close it.
I gave a shaky thumbs up with my bandaged arm.
And people wonder why I'm scared of going to my doctor's appointments.
"Excellent. Let's get started."
A strong gust of frigid air blew through the hole, knocking loose one of the few remaining shards of glass with a clink.
After running some tests on blood and skin cells taken from the area where my body and replacement arm met, Baa-chan stepped away from the little blood vial-spinny device with the results printout pinned to the clipboard in her hand, eyes skimming over it as she turned my way.
"Everything seems to be in order, as expected." She casually tossed the clipboard behind her to land on the counter as she said this. "There have been no signs of your body rejecting the limb. I didn't think there would be, but it never hurts to double and triple check after some time has passed, especially with something like this. Now we just need to check on your other condition."
I groaned in exasperation. "The soul thing, right?" Baa-chan nodded "Like I keep telling you guys, I'm fine now, you can stop running your tests! Kurama can even confirm it for you, right buddy?"
"Forget it, brat." The fox snorted at my side. "No matter what we say, the rest of these stupid humans are going to want to confirm it for themselves. The faster you realize that and let them get on with their silly little tests, the sooner we can get out of here."
The vein in Baa-chan's forehead pulsed again as he said that, and she turned his way with a glare. The sight of the great Kyuubi no Kitsune scrambling backwards on the exam table had me trying to suppress a smirk, but it was the sound of his paws and claws scraping and sliding around clumsily for grip that had me barely holding back my laughter. It was only the threat of Tsunade-baachan turning her annoyance my way that let me succeed.
She chalked that up as her victory and walked over to me, her hands glowing blue with what I assumed was a yin-based medical ninjutsu from the feel of it. "I still haven't quite perfected this one yet, but I've developed it enough to be confident using it on you after my testing on Orochimaru." She said his name with distaste, and I couldn't agree more. On the bright side, now that she had her own way of diagnosing soul stuff, that meant I no longer needed to go to the snake freak for these 'soul-checkups' on the off-chance that an issue Kurama and I couldn't deal with on our own did crop up.
Monitored twenty four-seven or not, I wouldn't trust that guy to not do something fucked up even if all he had was just a single drop of my blood.
Baa-chan placed her hands on me, one on my stomach and the other on my forehead, and closed her eyes to concentrate. I did her a favor and met her half way, pulling my Yin to the forefront and connecting to her with Ninshu. She barely paused for less than a second when she realized what I'd done, smoothly rolling with it and continuing with her scan of my spirit.
"Sooo…" I began after a minute or so of awkward silence, eyes looking around the room after feeling weird for staring at Baa-chan's face. "How's that mental thing you're working on with the Yamanaka's working out for Sasuke?"
She grunted, her chakra radiating disapproval. I could practically already hear what she wanted to say, but chose not to. 'I don't understand how you can still care for him,' or something along those lines. We'd already had this argument multiple times before, so both of us were aware of how pointless it was trying to change the other's mind.
Instead of retreading now-old disagreements, she chose to answer the question.
"He's doing alright. Not the best results we've seen, not the worst," She replied. "Even though he never shows up for the optional sessions, he does fully cooperate during his mandatory ones."
"At least I was able to convince him to take the arm." I sighed. "Guess I'll go talk some sense into that jackass after this. If he doesn't put any effort into it, what's even the point?"
Tsunade-baachan shook her head. "Don't do that. Forcing him to go to more sessions won't noticeably help him, and is more likely to backfire. He's still doing much better than he was before, so just be happy with that," she said. "This isn't the sort of thing you can just brute force, Naruto."
"What do you mean?" I blinked in confusion. "I literally brute forced this exact thing on the big turtle island. Faced my inner darkness at the Waterfalls of Truth and found balance and acceptance with my past experiences and negative emotions."
I could see Baa-chan rolling her eyes underneath her eyelids.
"Yes, you did. With the permission of the Raikage," she said dryly. "Whose brother Sasuke attacked with his team and tried to capture for the Akatsuki." Oooh, yeah. I could see how that might be an issue. "Even ignoring that little detail, based on what we know about the Falls of Truth and Sasuke's mental state, it's more likely that attempting that method would just break him further." She shook her head. "No, as much as I hate to admit it, the best thing for him right now is to keep spending time with his teams. Both your old Team 7, and his current team, Taka. I'll give you his files to read for yourself next time you come to my office for your administration training. He recently picked up a coping mechanism that, while not exactly encouraging a healthy mindset, is better than just quietly brooding all day, everyday. But I'll let his file explain that one to you, if you don't notice it first the next time you see him."
I hummed in acceptance.
After Sasuke and I fought each other at the end of the war and I convinced him to come back to Konoha, things had been alright for a few days. Despite the metaphorical cracks in his behavior, and the strained relationships when our classmates learned he'd cut off my arm and tried to kill me seconds after we beat Kaguya, he'd functioned.
Until he didn't, and the full weight of what he'd tried to do to me became too much for him.
He didn't break down and cry, he didn't freak out and try to leave the village, he didn't actually do anything. That was the issue. He got quieter, not talking unless spoken to. He stopped interacting with people, only going into the village when his routine required it or someone dragged him from the old Uchiha compound. In a messed up but funny way, the most jarring of it all was that he stopped insulting me when I tried getting under his skin.
After a few days of that, the rest of Team 7 and I had collectively enlisted the help of Tsunade-baachan to figure out how to help him. A week later, and she had set up a new department of Konoha's medical services dedicated to "mental therapy," to be primarily run by the Yamanaka clan, with Sasuke and a few other especially dysfunctional people being the initial 'test subjects' for treatment. The plan was to get proven results, and then open it up as a resource to the general populace, being free for normal shinobi, and mandatory for those working the more stressful missions like the ANBU.
"I'm curious," Kurama joined in the conversation. "I don't remember many of your human customs since I never cared to pay attention, but one of the few modern ones I know is that medical records are supposed to be kept between the patient and the doctor. Is there a reason you plan on showing the Uchiha brat's to Naruto?" The fox asked with a tilt of his furry head.
"Just who do you think invented doctor-patient confidentiality in the first place?" Baa-chan snorted at that. "Those rules stop applying when the patient in question has proven that they can not be considered of sound mind, or are a threat to themselves or others. In those cases, we share what we need to share with the patient's family and the relevant authorities." She opened her eyes and smirked, pulling her hands away from me as she ended her jutsu. "In the Uchiha's case, both of those would be Naruto here, since he's training to become Hokage a few years down the line. The Leaf's official stance on Sasuke is that he's Naruto's personal responsibility now, and keeping him mentally stable is considered a matter of national-to-international security."
Kurama grunted, curiosity satisfied.
"Regardless, you're all set," Tsunade-baachan said as she turned and walked back over to the counter.
I blinked.
"I couldn't find anything too concerning," she said as she picked up a pen and began to write on her clipboard, "and what I did find, we already knew about and it's all stable, so we'll just have to give it some time and revisit the issue during your next checkup."
My eyes widened, before squinting with my grin.
"You're free to le–"
I didn't stick around long enough to hear her finish.
I yelled out in victory as I literally flew through the window empty of glass.
"FREEDOM!"
I raced towards the closest rooftop in order to roof jump the rest of the way to anywhere-but-the-hospital.
'You left me.' Kurama's deadpan voice echoed in my head as I landed.
Eheheh… Oops?
'Idiot.'
The next evening found us gathering at Yakiniku Q with the rest of my team and classmates, along with Lee, Tenten, and team Taka. Officially, we had all planned to meet up to have an early New Year's celebration, specifically because it would have been a hassle to find a place we could book a reservation for over a dozen people, if we waited until it was actually the evening of the new year. Unofficially, a few of my friends had decided behind our backs that it would double as a congratulations party for the one-year anniversary of me asking Hinata out, since I had taken her to last year's celebration as a date.
Considering the approaching holidays, the place's general popularity, and fact that we had fifteen people– sixteen if you included Kurama, and seventeen with Akamaru– Yakiniku Q was absolutely packed and our party had to split into three smaller groups to be seated, though the owners did make sure that our grill tables were all back to back.
Whether it was a coincidence or intentional, the seating arrangements for our tables ended up sorting us from rowdiest to calmest, with me, Kurama, and Sasuke sitting across from Karin, Sakura, and Hinata in the middle booths. I sat in the middle directly across from Karin, with Sasuke to my left and Kurama sitting on his haunches next to the window on my right, this time with his more usual human-like hands in order to use utensils. Hinata sat across from Kurama, and Sakura across from Sasuke, the two taking the aisle spots. Karin and Sakura having similar hair-trigger tempers, me intentionally teasing and getting on Sakura and Kurama's nerves, and Sasuke and Hinata's relative quietness, our table was a firm middle ground.
Looking a little further past the girls showed Ino talking animatedly to Tenten about something, but with an indoor voice, with Sai and Shino periodically getting involved with a comment or two on the topic, while Shikamaru just leaned back in his booth seat and pretended to be looking at clouds.
On the other hand, in the booths behind me were the other guys who, aside from the gentle giant Juugo, were going absolutely wild. Between Akamaru barking like crazy over Choji's cooking skills while transformed as Kiba, and the actual Kiba cheering on an impromptu arm-wrestling match between Lee and Suigetsu (who had his arm transformed into a mass of pure bulging muscle), they had half of the restaurant looking over at them like they were a bunch of morons.
Which made a lot of sense because, well, Kiba, y'know?
Collective IQ, straight down the drain.
Kurama snorted in my mindscape. 'Pot, meet Kettle.'
I physically turned to give the fox-bunny mutt next to me a glare.
"Oi." My voice came out in a low deadpan. "You want to run that by me again, funny-ears?"
"Hey, knock it off you two," Sakura interrupted Kurama's returned growl with a glare of her own directed across the table at both of us. "If you aren't gonna bother sharing the whole thing with the class, then shut the hell up!"
"..."
"..."
Kurama and I glanced at each other, before looking back at Sakura.
We pointed at each other. "He started it." x2
Hinata giggled while a tick mark appeared on Sakura's forehead, though she restrained herself from lunging across the table. This time, at least.
She's done it before.
"I still can't believe I was nervous around you idiots when I first met you," Karin snorted, red eyes glancing at Kurama from behind her glasses. "Your chakra is super scary, but you're just as much of a goofball as Naruto when it comes down to it."
"I will eat you."
"Oooh, scary." Karin waved her chopsticks dismissively with a poorly concealed smirk, before reaching out to snag a strip of beef from the grill.
"No making threats at the dinner table, Kurama-kun," Hinata chided gently, adding a couple of carrots and sliced peppers to her plate.
I glanced to the side and noticed Sasuke only using his right arm to eat, his bandaged left hand laying limply in his lap. I nudged him in the side lightly with my elbow, as he ate with his closed eyes and head tilted slightly down.
"How's your arm holding up?" I asked him. "You having issues with it?"
He grunted, finished chewing his bite, and swallowed. "Not particularly." He turned his head slightly to glance at me from the corner of his now-opened eyes. "I've decided that I don't want to become comfortable using an arm I did nothing to deserve for trivial tasks." He closed his eyes again, reaching out and plucking a slice of tomato from the grill as he did so. "If it's not for fighting and I don't need to use two hands for it, then I'll use my right from now on."
Ohhhh, so that's what Baa-chan meant. I told him what I thought of that.
"That's a stupid decision," I pointed out, "you're literally left-handed."
Sasuke scoffed with a scowl. "Good thing it's my decision to make then, idiot."
I could sense the mood of the table beginning to turn downwards at the topic, so I acted quick to salvage the situation.
"Why is everyone ganging up and bullying me?" I complained with a pout. I turned towards Hinata, clasping my hands together in a pleading gesture. "You won't hurt me too, will you, Hinata-chan?"
She brought her jacket's sleeve up to hide her smile, but the crinkle of her eyes gave it away anyway.
"Would you like a hug to make you feel better, Naruto-kun?" She asked with an uncharacteristically sly tone of voice. "It'll be like that one time you asked me to have breakfast with you, but forgot your wallet. You were so embarrassed, it took you a whole hour to calm down."
"-Hrk!" I clutched my chest where my heart was.
'Critical hit,' the stupid kitsune commented within my mind.
I saw the ghost of a smirk cross Sasuke's mouth as the other two girls giggled at my behavior
"And I'm mostly ambidextrous in the first place," he corrected, back to his default expression "The only real inconvenience so far has been relearning how to write. Other than that, I–"
The moods of the rest of us sobered up quickly when Sasuke cut himself off with a serious but questioning look, and began glancing around tensely with his Rinnegan active.
"What is it, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked seriously. "Should we prepare for a fight?"
After a moment of ignoring the question, his eyes slid over and landed on me, widening for a fraction of a second before they narrowed.
"What did you do?" He deadpanned.
"Huh? Me?" I asked dumbly, totally confused. "I have zero idea what you're talking about, Sasuke. What's going on?"
"You haven't been experimenting with time/space techniques recently, specifically involving your clones, have you?" He asked seriously. I shook my head in the negative. I'd figured out the Hiraishin with the help of Genma's advice months ago. "Then why the hell did I just sense another you, through the barrier between dimensions?" He demanded.
My eyes widened, and I traded glances with an equally wide eyed Kurama.
Sakura chimed in. "Now that I think about it, you never did explain to us exactly how you 'teleported' past Kaguya's portal, or why it ended up mangling your spirit the way it did, did you, mister uses-clones-for-everything?" She accused with a glare, sounding suspicious
With a pair of Byakugan, a Sharingan, a Rinnegan, and– worst of all– Sakura's demonic green eyes all intensely scrutinizing me, I looked to my fellow clan member for support.
Karin shrugged and went back to casually eating her food, the traitor.
"Well, uh, you see…" I began, with a drop of sweat dripping down my neck.
'Busted.' Kurama so kindly put it.
"... Shit."