That Which Cannot Be Seen

Chapter 4: Demon

(AN): Okay, so last chap I had a spoiler alert, and I'm guessing not many of you caught what it was about Mienai's heritage when it was revealed. I'll tell you now, it isn't said outright. A ninja must look underneath the underneath, am I right? So let me ask you a couple questions: What does Chitsuki mean, and what does it sound similar to? What power could he possibly hold? The answer to the first is Blood Moon, the answer to the second is what starts Shippudden. Figure it out yet? It comes into play waaay later, but part of the secret of his power is revealed. Oh yeah, there will be a time skip to the Chunin exams after the wave mission. I'm warning you now so you don't flame me later.

On with the Show!

"Well fuck." Tazuna said.

"If we play our cards right, we could take them down fairly easy. Sasuke, have you acquired your Sharingan yet?" Mienai asked.

"Yeah, but it's not complete," Sasuke said hesitantly.

"If my understanding is correct, you can complete it through traumatic experiences," Mienai continued.

"Yeah, that's right. There is also an upgraded version called Mangekyo Sharingan, but you have to kill you best friend to get it. My older brother got it, but Shisui is still alive, so I don't know how he got it," Sasuke explained.

"I think I know a way. Let's complete it first, though. I'm going to put you in a genjutsu now to see if we can complete it. Kakashi-sensei, catch him when he falls," Mienai said evenly.

Kakashi-sensei nodded, while Sasuke looked Mienai in the eye with his Sharingan. Sakura looked really nervous to let anything happen to 'her Sasuke'. Naruko just shrugged it off and went to watch over the Demon brothers.

Sasuke started to shake, panting lightly. His Sharingan altered from two comas on each eye to three. Mienai closed his eyes and Sasuke collapsed. Kakashi-sensei caught him before he could hit the ground. "Your Sharingan is now complete, but I suggest we hold off on the Mangekyo for a bit. Take a breather, then go over and trade places with Naruko. There's something we need to talk about."

'How dare he do that to my Sasuke!?' Sakura screamed to herself.

Sasuke nodded, still panting, before asking, "Is that really what happened to you? What you showed me?"

"That was a single day. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy," Mienai said evenly.

"If you need a place to stay when we get back, just ask. Nobody should have to go through that hell," Sasuke said, exhaustion lining his voice.

"I'll have to take you up on that sometime," Mienai said, scratching the back of his head.

Sasuke caught his breath after a minute and walked over to Naruko. Naruko came back with a questioning look on her face. Kakashi-sensei simply said, "New Sharingan."

Naruko nodded and looked at Mienai. "Naruko, can you summon out Kurama? There are some things that I want to ask him," Mienai said.

"Two things: How do you know his name is Kurama, and how the heck do I summon him out here?" Naruko asked with an incredulous look on her face.

"You say his name just about every time you space out. Summoning him is actually pretty simple. Do you know what your seal looks like?" Naruko nodded, not sure where this was going. "Well, draw it on the ground." Naruko did as she was told. "Put some of your blood on it and perform the summoning jutsu."

"That's it?" Naruko asked. Receiving a nod, she performed the requirements.

A puff of smoke appeared on the seal, revealing a small, rust colored fox. "What the…? Finally, I'm out of there. So Naruko, why'd you summon me?" The fox asked.

"Mienai wanted to speak with you, so he told me how to summon you," Naruko explained.

"Mienai? Oh, I see now. That boy with the tangible killing intent, right? Well, what do you want?" Kurama asked.

"I wanted to ask you if you would give Naruko some of your chakra without your will attached to it. Without having to do the whole life-or-death tug-o'-war thing," Mienai explained.

"Wait, what?" Naruko asked.

"How the hell do you know about that, boy?" Kurama asked in a threatening voice.

"Look into my eyes, Kurama," Mienai said, "and you will see."

Kurama looked into Mienai's eyes, just to humor the boy. To everyone there, they saw hi visibly freeze midsentence. Slowly, Kurama's expression changed from one of annoyance to one of shock. Mienai closed his eyes, and Kurama was released from his gaze. "Well… That does explain a lot. I was always curious about what happened to Gramps' little brother. This changes everything… Can you control them?" Kurama asked.

"Only the first three so far, but I have them all. I'm just glad they're separated, otherwise we'd have a huge problem on our hands. At least the guy who did me up didn't use my heart. That would have been messy. Although, I'm still not happy about the whole split personality thing. That's just frustrating," Mienai explained. "The Orders never were quite as stable as the tailed beasts, in any case."

"Okay, now I'm officially lost. What the heck are you two talking about?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, seriously guys. Tell us already," Naruko said.

"Bring Sasuke back here. The ANBU should be here to pick them up in a few minutes, anyway," Kakashi said, masking his interest.

"You rang?" Sasuke asked. Everyone looked at him for a second before he said, "ANBU already picked the brothers up." Everyone just nodded their heads in response. "So, what did I miss?"

"Not much, other than Mienai and Kurama saying something about Orders or whatever. We have no clue what's going on," Naruko said, slightly annoyed.

Mienai spoke up, "Let me explain. You all know about the Sage of Six Paths, right?" Everyone nodded. "Well, he had a younger brother. When the Sage died, he split the ten tails sealed inside him into nine parts, creating the tailed beasts in the process. That was only his half of the ten tails, though."

"What happened to the other half?" Sasuke asked, deciding to take what Mienai said at face value.

"Well, the other half was sealed inside the Sage's younger brother. When he was about to die, he performed the same feat as his brother, splitting his half of the ten tails into nine parts. However, the younger brother was not very stable to begin with. When half the ten tails was sealed inside him, he got slapped with the psychotic side. That affected how he split his half. Instead of tailed beasts, they were called Beasts of the Abyss. Each individual beast was referred to as an Order. Ironic really, considering most of them are insane. Instead of scattering them across the world, he cast them all into the same abyss.

"About a century later, a group of nine outcasts stumbled across the abyss, each of them a descendant of the younger brother. They all had heard of jinchuriki before, having witnessed the sealing of Kurama into Mito Uzumaki. They all had remarkable skills in sealing jutsu, having learned from the Uzumaki. When they felt the power of the Orders, they knew that the only way to survive was to become jinchuriki. They each took an Order, nearly dying in the process, and managed to escape. That was the night of the Bloody Moon. When they returned to civilization, they were unwelcome wherever they went. They decided to start a village in the abyss, they only place free from persecution.

"They named the village Blood Moon village, a token to the night they survived. When more people stumbled across them in later years, they welcomed them with open arms. And every year, on the night of the battle, a blood moon lit the sky. Since they knew they couldn't live forever, and the Orders were unstable, they asked for volunteers to carry the burden. They knew better than to force that hell on an unprepared soul. Eventually, when the population was declining, they were forced to ask people to carry more than one. Each time, the jinchuriki became more and more unstable.

"Before the village was completely gone, there was only three jinchuriki, each carrying three Orders. They, an elder seal master, and an orphaned new born were the last people to live in the village. The jinchuriki were dying, and the elder had little time to live. They could only hope that the child would forgive them for the hell they were to curse him with. All nine Orders were sealed inside the child, and the jinchuriki died. The elder, with his weekend body, carried the boy to Konoha. With his dying breath, he asked the Third Hokage that nobody know the boy was a jinchuriki, and to find his father, who disappeared before he was born."

"Well, what happened to him?" Sakura asked, for once not being able to connect the dots. Everyone else looked confused as well.

"You're looking at him," Mienai said, pointing at himself.

"…Ha! That was good. How long have you been practicing that story?" Sakura asked.

"Whelp, he's not lying. I looked into his memories, and to be honest, I find it amazing that he could remember that far back. It's a wonder how he's still functioning, even with split personalities," Kurama said softly.

"…What? T-Then what was that back in the classroom?" Sakura asked nervously.

"By myself, I have three separate personalities: one when I'm calm, one when I'm nervous, and one when I'm pissed. The one in the classroom was the one for when I'm pissed. I just store all my killing intent there. Each Order has its own personality, but I really, really don't like using them. They tend to be completely unpredictable. I can cooperate with the first three only because I have been able to calm them down somewhat," Mienai explained.

"Hey, Mienai. What are they, anyway? I mean, what do the orders look like?" Naruko asked.

"See for yourself," Mienai said holding out his first to Naruko. She touched it with her own and slumped over.

Naruko woke up in a rotunda, with Mienai and Kurama standing beside her. "Why are you here, Kurama?"

"I'm your demon, so I can tag along if I want," Kurama said.

"Anyway, let's start from the bottom," Mienai walked down a hall mark '#1', Naruko and Kurama in tow.

"This place is nicer than mine…" Kurama commented. The halls weren't foreboding, nor were they deliberately uncomfortable. Above them, they could see many different galaxies swirling in the night sky, dancing around each other. Below, they could see the blue sky, clouds passing by underneath.

"Well, the nicer the cage, the more accepting of it. At least, that's what the elder believed. So far, it's working pretty well," Mienai said.

Eventually, they arrived at a large cage, elaborately flourished. "Hey, Milliana. I've got some visitors for you," Mienai called out to the cage.

"Well, well. I don't think I've ever had visssitorssss sssinccce you came here. How can I be of ssserviccce to you?" As the words were spoken, a large, white snake came into view.

"I would like to introduce Kurama, the Nine Tailed Fox, and his jinchuriki, Naruko Namikaze," Mienai said.

"Kurama and Naruko, eh? Well, cousssin, it'sssss a pleassssure to meet you. To what do I owe thisss honor?" Milliana asked.

"We actually want to ask you what the Beasts of the Abyss are like," Naruko said.

"Very well, cousssin. I am Milliana, Sovereign of the Basilisks. I am known asss the Firssst Order. Goluth, the Sssecond Order, isss the Ruler of the Swamp. Cccerberusss, the Third Order, isss the Guard Dog of Hell. Hircccine, the Fourth Order, isss Massster of the Hunt. Anclediousss, the Fifth Order, isss King of the Icelandsss. Igneelana, the Sssixth Order, isss the Lady of the Lava. Et-tru, the Ssseventh Order, isss the Missstresss of the River. Jaeger, the Eighth Order, isss the Defender of the Plainsss. Kurotsssuki, the Ninth Order, isss Queen of the Sky," Milliana explained.

"Milliana, as you can see, is a white snake. Goluth is a wild boar, while Cerberus is a three headed dog. Hircine is a white stag, Ancledious is a wooly Mammoth, and Igneelana is a salamander. Et-tru is a crane, and Jaeger is a rhino. Kurotsuki is a dragon, and a damn sadist to boot," Mienai explained.

"Well, that's not fun. You said you only got along with the first three, right?" Naruko asked.

"Yeah, that's right," Mienai responded.

"Well, maybe Kurama and I could help you out. How much time do we have until sunrise?" Naruko asked.

"Outside, about nine hours. In here, about a month," Mienai answered.

"Kit, are you sure about this? He could become unstable at the slightest miss-hap," Kurama asked.

"Do it," Mienai said. Naruko and Kurama looked at him. "I need all the help I can get."

Naruko nodded and turned to the snake, "Milliana, I need you, Goluth and Cerberus to meet us at Hircine's cage. We're going to need your help."

Milliana nodded and shrank back into her cage.

(AN): So, I forgot to mention a while back what Naruko's seal does. It slowly takes Kurama's chakra out of Kushina, and places it in her seal. This allows Kushina to adjust to being without Kurama over time, letting her live through the extraction and raise her daughter. It has been going on since Naruko was born, and will continue until her 17th birthday, when Kurama will no longer be in Kushina.

Until next time!