Ami stared across at the man in front of her, ravenously eating away at his skewered fish; it appeared that being a hermit did little for one's table manners. That, combined with her still fuzzy head and various body aches was making her feel a little green and her own fish-on-a-stick went largely untouched. She used the opportunity instead to try and glean anything she could about her rescuer.
His long, unruly hair made pinpointing his age a little difficult but he was definitely older than her, by maybe five or six years. He was handsome, as she had thought before, and for some reason a lot of his features reminded her of Sasuke. This of course led to her imagining said teammate with similarly long, messy hair only to nearly choke on her mouthful from laughter. She couldn't imagine the proud and, although he wouldn't admit it, vain Uchiha scion with anything less than his perfect hair.
The man was dressed rather plainly and a lot of his clothes seemed heavily worn and patched, but she supposed hermits didn't have a lot of motivation to go clothes shopping. Speaking of which, she thought hermits were supposed to be old, anti-social grouches with too much about the world to complain about. This young man in front of her didn't seem the type; for one he just seemed so… care free. There was an energy to his movements, beyond the fact that Ami could definitely feel the Chakra within him; it was surprisingly powerful and, even more shockingly, the only thing she could compare it to would be her sensei.
"So…" He finally spoke up, noticing her not eating her food and finishing up with his own "…what's going on in the world?" Seeing her blank look he elaborated, once again scratching the back of his head in a way that was so infuriatingly… Naruto. "Not a lot of news reaches this little part of the world." He smirked to himself as a chuckle escaped his lips, "Especially 'round my neck of the woods." He laughed, only to quiet as Ami continued to stare at him blankly.
"Oh… uh, that would have been funnier if you knew we were in the woods." He stated lamely, only to look down and grumble to himself when Ami didn't give him so much as a smile. "Nobody appreciates good comedy anymore." Ami actually found herself sighing at the almost pathetic sight before her; no grown man should be moping around like that.
"Is that why you became a hermit, to hone your comedy?" She offered dryly, throwing him a bone only to have him grin like a loon.
"Amongst other things." He evaded, still grinning. "Now come on, a think a bit of current affairs is the least you can do for dragging you out of that river."
Ami sighed before shrugging; the man seemed harmless enough, and he had saved her. "Well, I suppose you mean aside from the war?" Upon seeing his raised eyebrow she nearly dropped her fish in the fire. "You don't even know about the war?"
He simply shrugged, "I don't think you quite understand just how far into nowhere we are kid." Ami pouted at being called a kid before sobering.
"That's another thing, where exactly am I?" She was surprised when the man procured a map from seemingly nowhere, and not just any map. "Hey that's mine!"
He shushed her, waving his hand at her petulantly before pointing vaguely at a position near the river she had drifted down. "Just about here… more or less." Ami scowled at the man before her expression became more thoughtful; she had drifted nearly half a kilometre away from the cliffs, but more importantly from her teammates; she could only hope that she had bought them enough time to get away.
"So tell me about this war." The man spoke up, pulling her out of her worried thoughts and back into the present. "I assume Konoha is involved?" Suddenly Ami's muscles locked up as her entire form became defensive and suspicious. Immediately the man raised his hands innocently. "Woh, woh, calm down, I saw your headband." He quickly placated, the offending item suddenly hanging from his hands.
Ami quickly snatched the length of cloth and metal away from him, giving him as mean a scowl as she could manage with what felt like a half-dozen bruised ribs. "Stop stealing my stuff."
He just grinned innocently, "As a hermit, I prefer 'borrowed, hoping you wouldn't notice it was gone', it makes me come off a bit better right?" His form seemed to slump a little when Ami just narrowed her eyes.
"That's stealing." She muttered in irritation, only growing more annoyed when he shrugged nonchalantly.
"Koo-nai, Kun-eye, same difference." He shot back with a disarming smile.
After grumbling to herself for a few moments about hermits that couldn't respect personal property she acquiesced. "Yeah, Konoha is at war with Kusa, Taki, Oto." She admitted, before remembering the circumstances that brought her here in the first place. "And Kumo."
The man let out a long whistle, looking at the wall of a cave for a moment with wide eyes. "Damn, how did they manage that? That's the entire northern border." He didn't notice Ami's eyes narrowing a little at the observation. "Well what else is going on in the world? You're a Kunoichi right? What's going on in Konoha?" He asked suddenly, diverting the conversation.
"What does it matter to you?" Ami jibed defensively, nibbling at her fish as an excuse not to answer.
"I get curious about all you shinobi types you know, a lot of stories fly around about you guys." He shot right back with a grin, when she didn't answer he pressed a bit more. "What about teammates? Sensei? Must have been someone good for you to survive the injuries you had."
It was more like a reflex at that point for her to shout, "Of course Naruto-sensei is good, he's going to be the next Hokage!" In the heat of the moment she didn't even notice the man's eye widen in visible shock.
"He has a team?" He muttered, face cast into an expression of surprise, only to shake himself out of it when faced with Ami's curious and suspicious look. "I mean… Naruto Namikaze has a team? Even out here we get a lot of stories about that guy; from what I'd heard he didn't seem the type." Ami's eyes stayed narrowed as she took a bite from her fish, only to grimace; it had gone cold.
"Right…" Ami drawled before her curiosity overcame her. "So what exactly do you hear about Naruto-sensei?" At that the man gained an embarrassed grin.
"Oh you know, the usual stuff for you shinobi types, daring deeds, amazing powers, fastest man alive yadayada." He shrugged lackadaisically before leaning back against the cave wall, rubbing his stomach contentedly.
"Riiight, us shinobi types." Ami agreed slowly, finishing off her fish and placing it to the side; at least being a hermit seemed to do nothing to damper one's cooking skills. "Anyway, I should be going." She shifted, finding that her various aches and pains wouldn't slow her down too much; he had done a good job on the bandaging.
The man appeared to agree, nodding quickly as he lazily pushing himself to his feet. "Right right, you're teammate's are probably worried anyway." When Ami directed a pointed gaze at him he simply grinned, "You Shinobi do go about in team's right?" She only maintained the narrowed gaze at him for a moment before a twinge in her side forced her to look away. As she walked away he waved to her from beside the fire, the dancing light washing out his features for a moment as his visible eye seemed to flash red. But it was only for a moment and Ami played it off as a trick of the light.
"See ya kid, come back anytime; my cave's always open." There was a pause before the man began to laugh again. "Get it? Because it doesn't have a door?" The violette simply stifled a groan and strode on, suddenly feeling rather happy to be getting away from the strange hermit. However even as she walked, tracing her way back to the river to get her bearings, she considered some of the oddities she had noticed.
First of all he was able to read her map, it was encoded in a way only shinobi should have been able to decipher it. Then he used both pronunciations of Kunai; civilians did not do that, not ones that she knew of. Finally there was just something in the way he moved, with control and precision that non-shinobi just couldn't get naturally. However the kicker came when she realised she had never even asked the man his name; that was unlike her. She had been trained to gather as much information as possible in any situation; why had she ignored that training?
She winced, blinking rapidly as she stumbled forward a step. She was trying to think back, to try and discern anything else she missed, however even as she thought about it, it was becoming more and more difficult to even remember what the man had looked like. In a last bid she turned on her heel and jogged back the way she came… or, at least, she thought it was the way she came. For some reason she couldn't find the cave again; but she had only taken a few steps out of it right?
In fact, what was she looking for again? She couldn't remember, at least, until the sound of water reached her ears. Right, the river, she had been looking for the river to find her bearings; she needed to get back to her teammates. Shaking her head of the weird fuzziness that seemed to be clouding her thoughts, she set a determined look on her features and ran off upstream. She winced as her injuries protested the movement, but she had done a good enough job bandaging herself up that she was confident she'd make it back to Konoha.
The man watched silently from a nearby tree as Ami seemed to fight with herself before finally rushing off in the direction of the river. When she finally left his vision he nodded to himself once before cracking his neck and dropping to the forest floor. She had been a good source of information, the type of person he imagined he would get on well with; it was a shame. She actually reminded him quite a bit of him.
"Damn tomato-head, you were supposed to take care of things while I was gone, only to go and throw yourself into a war." He sighed, glancing up at the sky and scratching the back of his head before letting out a long exhale. "I suppose it's time I stopped hiding huh?" He looked back to his cave and groaned; so much good food was going to go to waste. "When I had just gotten good at being a hermit too…"
His groan quickly flipped to a grin so fast it was though some invisible switch had been pulled. "Ah well, time to go see how much you guys screwed up the world without me." He chuckled as he adjusted his Oni mask so that his single Sharingan eye blazed steadily through the single eye hole, walking with silent footsteps out into the forest.
"Honestly, gotta do everything myself…"
Naruto stared at the full sake bottle sitting in front of him, just stared at it as he rested his head on one hand. The couch he was sitting on was his favourite as a child, sitting in his mother's lap as she tried to knit some abomination she called clothing or listening with rapt attention as his father would regale him with stories of shinobi, past and present. It didn't feel so comfortable now, not with the weight that seemed to have settled over his shoulders.
The only reason he hadn't touched the bottle yet was because a large part of him refused to believe Ami was actually dead. You only drank to memories and Ami was no memory, not yet. Hell Anko had been MIA for months before they had found her; he wasn't one to give up so easily. That wouldn't make telling Anko or, heaven help him, Yugao any easier though. So when he heard footsteps he immediately swivelled in place, catching Anko off guard as she paused at the foot of the stairs, clad in nothing but an oversized shirt.
"Oh, hey Naruto, what was up with last night anyway? You dump that girl off on me without warning then just run off?" Naruto found his words catching in his throat as he watched her suddenly shake her head, an excited gleam entering her eyes. "Anyway that doesn't matter, you'll never guess what!" She exclaimed brightly.
"Anko I…" He struggle to find the words for a moment; Ami had been like a little sister to Anko "…I need to tell you something; it's-" However he was suddenly cut off as Anko sprung forward, pressing a finger to his lips with a predatory grin.
"Uh uh, me first!" She grinned, taking a few swirling steps backwards; she seemed a whole lot… bubblier than normal. FInally she composed herself before taking a deep breath and brightly exclaiming, "I'm pregnant!" And just like that Naruto's entire world ground to an abrupt halt, his words dying on the tip of his tongue.
"Y-You're…" He just about managed, quickly earning a happy nod from Anko; in fact he had never seen her quite so… ecstatic. There really was no other word for it.
"Uh huh." She beamed brightly, he couldn't tell if it was from the news or if she was just enjoying the dumfounded expression on his face.
"I'm going to be a father…" That was the one, singular thought that was running around his head, as if on loop; however when he finally voiced it he couldn't quite believe his own ears.
"Yep." Anko nodded helpfully again, her grin only stretching even further across her cheeks somehow.
"A dad…" He managed again, quite eloquently as he would later recall.
"Mhmm." Anko agreed, seemingly losing amusement in his reaction at this point; it didn't seem to matter as much though when the gears in Naruto's head finally clicked together and meshed. His eyes brightened at the same moment he rushed forward, grabbing Anko around the waist, picking her up and suddenly spinning her around.
"We're going to be parents!" The joy was practically palpable in his voice, all other thoughts suddenly vanishing from his mind. He was going to have a son, or daughter… or twins; the thought briefly made him gulp before his previous happiness washed over him again. Anko seemed just as excited as he was, grabbing him tightly and wrapping her legs around his waist as she pulled him in for a searing kiss.
A million thoughts rushed through Naruto's mind as they just stood there, absorbed in each other's presence. However when they finally separated, Naruto's eye caught a picture frame on a nearby table. It was of him as a young child, his arms draped around the neck of his parents as they hoisted him between them. Cold reality came crashing down on him in the wake of his euphoria. He was going to be a father; there would be a tiny, fragile little life that would depend on him and Anko completely.
He was going to be bringing a life into the world; into this world. A world of war, and pain, and loss. Right at that moment, as his expression hardened and his eyes became icy with determination, he vowed to himself that he would always be there for his child; no matter what, nothing would ever tear his family apart, nothing... not again.
Anko seemed to sense his sudden shift, pulling back with a concerned frown, "Is everything okay?" Snapped back into the present by her shaking voice he quickly realised how he might have worried her and smiled warmly. He pulled her closer and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead before wrapping her up and simply holding her against him for a long few seconds.
"Everything's fine, or at least… it will be." He pulled back away from her and began to move upstairs, Anko rushing after him.
"Where are you going?" She called from the bottom of the stairs, causing the redhead to turn and look down at her from the landing.
"Don't worry, there's just something I have to go do real quick." He smiled disarmingly. "I'll be back in time to share a drin-" He paused, glancing down at her stomach quickly, "-to celebrate with you." With that he turned and swept into his office, causing Anko to pout as she moved herself back over to the couch and plopped herself down, arms crossed under her chest in a huff. When she saw him again it was in a bright red flash as he reappeared in the hallway, already making for the door.
"Where are you going now?" She demanded from her place leaning over the back of the couch.
He simply waved a hand at her, already striding out the door, "Be right back, I'm going to go end a war before it starts." He shouted back in an indecipherable tone. Anko just huffed, before blinking as she remembered something.
"Hey, what was the thing you wanted to tell me?" She called out too late as the door slammed shut.
The scratch of a pen on paper broke the shallow silence of a small, hidden grove just south of the border between Kaminari and Shimo. A dark-skinned, bulk of a man dressed in a heavily-modified version of the Kumogakure uniform sat on a log to one side. His sunglasses-covered face was screwed up in concentration as he mused out loud, writing in a tiny notebook every so often.
"Yo, yo that's my flow, ya' know." He paused, finger against his chin as he stared at the page before frowning and quickly scratching it out. "Naw man, that's amateur stuff; not wor-thee of the Kill-er Bee! Whee!" His ears perked up as someone else suddenly invade his little sanctuary, a tall red haired man he had never seen before but looked oddly familiar.
"Wasup my man, you come with a plan? Are you here to see, the one and only Killer Bee? Those Autographs ain't free, ya'mean?"
The man stopped, an eyebrow quirking in what might have been amusement if his expression wasn't so otherwise serious. "Sorry, not here for an autograph." It was then that the light caught the man's headband, tied around his bicep over the rolled-up sleeves of his Jounin uniform. "You're Kirabi? The brother of the Yondaime Raikage?"
The man in question simply grinned as he launched himself to his feet, quickly pocketing the little notebook. "The one and only, of the legendary A and B."
The man simply observed the muscle-bound man for a few more moments before nodding to himself. "Alright."
The next few things happened faster than most would have been able to follow but it culminated in Naruto pressing his wind-infused tanto up against two crossed swords practically buzzing with electricity as Kirabi held him back, muscles visibly straining from the sudden assault. Before Naruto knew what hit him he was sent flying back across the clearing, only to flip and land on his feet. He faintly saw something pink slip back behind Kirabi but wasn't sure what it was.
"Woh man, you gotta chill out, I ain't sure what this is all about; In order to clear this fog we gotta start up a dialogue, whee!" Kirabi rapped quickly as Naruto shot toward him again, tanto drawn and shimmering with vicious green energy. The man was visibly nervous as he dodged back from the initial swing, deflecting the next and ducked under the third. When he swung back up for a vicious uppercut Naruto simply flashed to the other side of the clearing. It had only taken Kirabi the initial burst of high-speed movement for him to recognise the bloody flash from the bingo book.
"Why's a guy like the big bad flash, wanting to go all smash and crash, fool ya' fool?" He started up during the brief reprieve, only to have the redhead glare at him.
"I didn't start this; I'm just ending what you're brother started before anyone else dies, unfortunately I need you to do that. We might have been freinds under better circumstances." With that he flashed forward again, however in the lull in combat he gave Kirabi time to collect himself and suddenly found the air around the man littered with swords, seven in all. In obviously well-practised and deceptively ridiculous movements the Kumo Jinchuuriki caught them all across various places in his body. It gave him the look of a metal porcupine with them all sticking out at odd angles.
"Aww mam, whap's big bwo done mow, I pake a sabbapical and he goes 'n sparps a row." Kirabi grumbled through the sword held in his mouth. Naruto eyed him hesitantly for a few moments; the sword style may have looked laughable but the way the man held himself spoke of countless hours in training. The number of blades alone made him cautious enough to sheath his tanto and instead bring out two of his kunai; something told him he would need the extra manoeuvrability.
Surprisingly it was Kirabi who made the first move, launching himself forward right at the redhead with considerable speed; well above a normal Jounin at least. There was a reason he was considered the second strongest man in Kumogakure. That didn't matter though; If Naruto couldn't defeat him then nothing he was doing right now would matter. So instead he dived right at him, kunai shrieking with energy and eyes darting about frantically at each of the swords, keeping track of them all in their high-speed frenzy.
Kirabi was genuinely surprised at the first ever opponent to rush him, especially considering his veritable buzz-saw of a body. That moment of ever-so slight hesitation cost him as Naruto suddenly appeared within his guard, somehow managing to parry three different blades at once with his two kunai. What looked like a fourth, although Kirabi knew that to be impossible, suddenly struck out at him. He leaned his head to the side and only received a light scratch along his cheek for the trouble; or he thought so until he heard something snap and his vision became considerably lighter.
"My shades…" He lamented softly as his sunglasses fell to the ground in two pieces, his dark eyes narrowing instantly. "Yo mam, mow ip's persomal!" Anyone that knew him personally would have been surprised when he stopped rapping and understood just how serious he had become. His limbs suddenly came in as a blur of whirring blue light as his swords appeared to multiply right before Naruto's eyes. Suddenly the air around the two became a maelstrom of steel, lightning and displaced air.
There were no openings in the man's guard and the sheer number of weapons he was able to bring to bear at dizzying angles actually managed to go a long way in neutralizing whatever advantage Naruto's superior speed and reflexes would have given him. It was stalemated for them, Naruto could block, parry or divert all of the man's attacks but land none of his own. At this rate it was becoming a battle of attrition and between the containers of the Hachibi and Kyuubi that was going to be a very... very long battle of attrition.
Suddenly Naruto dived backwards to escape the melee of sharp steel, hands already cycling through seals. "Wind release: Shearing gale." As he exhaled, five long scythes of lethally-sharp wind lanced out at Kirabi, forcing the man to bring around five of his blades to destroy them. But then, the plan was never for the jutsu to hit; the millisecond Naruto's feet touched solid ground he was already pushing Chakra through his toes. He rocketed forward in a blur of red, right on the tail of his own technique.
His eyes tracked Kirabi's weapons, five of them locked down in defending against his technique. One of them was in the crook of his right knee, behind the man and useless. The last was suddenly knocked out from his mouth as Naruto flicked his wind-enhanced Kunai at it, the prongs of the small blade catching the tsuba and wrenching it out from the Jinchuuriki's teeth. Suddenly Kirabi found himself staring at the business-end of Naruto's knee, in what was sure to be a move that would knock him out or at least disorient him, with no humane way to defend against it in time.
Naturally Naruto's surprise was immense then as he suddenly found what looked to be an eighth sword interposed between Kirabi and himself. It forced him to bring around his kunai to prevent his head being cleanly separated from his shoulders. The two clashed and in a contest of strength that, with his superior build and Naruto's lack of leverage in the air, Kirabi quickly won, flinging the redhead back across the clearing.
"Man mister Nine, that move was too damn fine, ya fool!" Kirabi exclaimed energetically now that his mouth was free, the previous insult against his shades apparently forgotten in his excitement. Naruto quickly grasped why his plan had failed as he saw a long greyish-ink octopus tentacle holding a sword defensively in front of Kirabi, apparently the very same one he had knocked out of the man's mouth. It emerged from the man's back but quickly slithered back after replacing the displaced sword.
"I see I goppa mock ip up a few pegs!" The Kumo shinobi shouted, once again muffled by the hilt he was biting; however Naruto didn't get to ponder the ludicrousness of the situation as a foul pressure began to invade the air. A familiar and noxious Chakra began to bubble up from Kirabi's skin, finally enveloping the man in a sickly orange layer of surprisingly crisp and controlled bijuu Chakra. Four tails waved lazily behind him as he grinned through the sword in his teeth.
"Lep's see how 'ou handle bis!" He growled in a mildly distorted voice before rocketing forward at alarming speeds, the ground cratering in his wake. Naruto's reflexes easily moved his body to the side, Kirabi was still slower than him, however the lance of pure energy was a bit harder to dodge and he was rewarded with a light burn across his arm. Despite being a Jinchuuriki himself Naruto had never had all that much exposure to his own Bijuu's Chakra. That stuff would be just as dangerous to him as it would be to others, perhaps not toxic, but just as damaging.
He had grown tired of engaging the Jinchuuriki directly anyway, quickly throwing out a handful of kunai that rapidly multiplied into fifty with a few well-placed had seals. Before Kirabi knew what hit him the tables had been turned yet again and he was swiftly assaulted by what looked to be an army of feet appearing out of red flashes that were gone before they were even fully visible. Even covered in Bijuu Chakra the sustained assault, with no way to block it, couldn't be endured for long.
With a roar that shook the trees around them Naruto was suddenly blasted back by a surge of particularly dense and foul Chakra. In the center of it all stood Kirabi, swords gone only to be replaced by eight blood-red appendages of pure energy. Instead of the semi-translucent coverage the four-tailed state had provided, Kirabi was now shrouded in an opaque red layer that looked more like blood than anything else.
Naruto didn't get a lot of time to admire it though as suddenly the Chakra-shrouded beast was blasting towards him, creating a small shockwave from his speed. One arm was outstretched and in a blink a full Ox skull imposed itself across the bicep, that was level with Naruto's neck.
"Lariat!" Was all Naruto heard as he bent his body back, allowing the charging arm to pass straight over him. He was glad he didn't attempt to halt the raging Jinchuuriki as it took around four trees to finally halt his momentum. He turned, revealing soulless white voids that seemed to ass for eyes and a mouth full of jagged, misaligned things that Naruto supposed were teeth.
He sighed before cracking his neck, settling back into a loose, comfortable stance as he motioned at the transformed Kirabi with one hand. "Mistake number one: Fighting a seal master as a mass of Chakra." Kirabi seemed to grin at that, although it was hard to tell. With a grunt he lined up for another charge, what passed for muscles in his strange form tensing. With a growl he shot off again, this time even faster as the Ox skull created velocity rings in its wake.
"Mistake Number two:" Naruto called out as he span to the side at the last moment, allowing the charging beast to fly right by him unscathed. "Giving up the advantage your blades gave you." Kirabi snorted angrily at that, looking even more the picture of a bull facing a matador. He never even noticed Naruto's smirk as the Namikaze ushered him forward once again. "And mistake number three:" Kirabi noticed the gleam in the redhead's eye when it was already too late and he was a few feet away, unable to halt his own momentum.
"Thinking this clone was actually me; boom." The explosion that followed rent the trees around the clearing back violently, sending smoke and ash high into the sky that could be seen for miles around. It was enough to say that Naruto had not held back on Kirabi's account.
Marui was, for all intents and purposes, having a fairly boring day. Despite guarding one of Kumogakure's more entrenched camps, nothing was happening and likely wouldn't for a while. They were in the tundra of Shimo no Kuni, right on the border with Kaminari where it was just far enough away to not be home, but certainly cold enough to feel like it. He watched the campfire flicker pathetically, not really holding up against the snowy winds all that well. For a second he could have sworn the fire turned red for just a moment but passed it off.
Or at least, he did until he noticed the sudden silence that had descended over the camp. He looked up only to see a man standing right in the middle of the clearing, at his feet a very recognisable kunai. It wasn't just any man though, it was a man most would recognise as quickly climbing his way to a flee on sight order in the bingo books. Slung under his arm was a man all the Kumo shinobi would recognise even in the most bruised and bloody state; which was good because he wasn't far off from it.
Naruto threw Kirabi down roughly, placing a foot on his back and his tanto dangerously close to the Hachibi Jinchuuriki's neck, so much so that the fluctuating wind Chakra actually sliced a paper-thin line into his skin. He glanced around at the assembled shinobi pointedly, as if summing them up with his gaze alone.
"One of you go message your Raikage, tell him the Godaime Hokage wants to talk to him."