Yo! Fenrir7139 here! Sorry for the long wait. Anyway, prepare for time skips galore in this chapter! Why? Because I'm lazy, that's why! I don't feel like writing several more chapters of intro, damn it!
…Kitsune no Rekidaishi: Gaikai…Kitsune no Rekidaishi: Gaikai…Kitsune no Rekidaishi: Gakai…
Chapter Three
Judgement
"Judgments prevent us from seeing the good that lies beyond appearances."
…Kitsune no Rekidaishi: Gaikai…Kitsune no Rekidaishi: Gaikai…Kitsune no Rekidaishi: Gakai…
"And so, as of today, October Tenth, I hereby make this decree; that no one, regardless of rank or occupation, is allowed to speak of the events that transpired today, outside of the official version, which shall be printed as soon as the village is repaired. I had hoped it would not come to this, but it appears I have no choice."
Sarutobi, the now-reappointed Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato, sighed, before continuing.
"This is a Double-S-Class-Secret; anyone who speaks of this shall be put to death, without trial. Now, return to your homes!"
Of course, there was an uproar. Sarutobi was standing on a balcony of the Hokage tower, flanked by Nintai, who was in full ANBU regalia on his right, Naruto held in a sling across his chest, and Ryu Hayabusa, another ANBU member, on his left.
From the moment Sarutobi had revealed the truth, things had gone downhill. He had expected fear and anger, but the level of pure hatred was astounding, even after he had expressed the Yondaime's wishes for the blonde baby to be seen as a hero. But, unfortunately, that was not to be.
While Sarutobi may have been calm, Nintai was seething behind his mask, ice-blue eyes blazing. He wanted to draw Hanseki and skewer the ungrateful bastards, but he didn't. Instead, he simply turned on his heel and walked into the Hokage Tower, and sat in one of the chairs in his office, softly rocking Naruto, as he remembered his mother had once done, trying to calm him, as the shouting of the villagers had upset him, and he had begun to cry.
After several unsuccessful minutes of rocking, Nintai decided to try something else.
He pulled of his mask, and placed it on the armrest of the chair, before looking down at the crying blonde. He began to rock him in his arms a bit more, before he began to sing in a soft voice.
"Bless me,
With the,
Leaf off of the Tree..."
"On it,
I see,
The Freedom Reign..."
He grinned when Naruto began to quiet noticeably, though he was still wailing, just a bit less than before. Nintai continued.
"We are,
Falling,
The Light is Calling,
Tears in-side me,
Calm me down..."
"Midnight,
Calling,
Mist of Resolving,
Crown me,
With the,
Pure Green Leaf..."
"Praise to my Father,
Blessed by,
The Water,
Black Night,
Dark Sky,
The Devil's Cry..."
Nintai, finished with the strange, rather dark, lullaby, looked down to see that, to his relief, Naruto was sound asleep.
"It would seem Minato and Kushina were very wise to entrust the boy with you, Nintai."
The white-haired nin looked over his shoulder to see Sarutobi, a sad smile on his face.
"I guess... I still don't think I'm really cut out for this, though... I mean, I'd take him in, but how would I take care of him? I can't stop taking missions, or else he'll starve, but with how the villagers are acting, I can't just leave him here, even in the care of a friend! What should I do, Sir?"
Sarutobi sighed, and walked over to his desk, sitting in the high-backed chair that rested behind it.
"I am not sure... I would take you off of the active Shinobi roster, but with the huge amount of causalities we sustained today... I do not think that is feasible. I know that Iwa will take a strong interest in this; they may be our allies, but I do not trust them. "
"Course you don't! You can't trust a snake, and the entire Stone Village is filled with the scum!"
Sarutobi shook his head.
"I may agree with you on that, Nintai. Still, we must put on a mask of causality; we cannot allow the other villages, especially Iwa and Kumo, to know our true number of causalities."
Nintai nodded, a scowl on his face.
"Makes sense to me. Still, what about Kiri and Suna?"
Sarutobi waved his hand at him dismissively.
"They are of no consequence; Kiri is too busy helping the Water Daimyo deal with that uprising, and Suna barely has a force as it is, due to the budget cuts the Wind Daimyo has made. However, we must prepare for tomorrow, and the weeks, months, even years, after today; so much was destroyed... So many were killed."
The two were silent for a while, the only sound in the room being a small blonde baby's steady breathing and soft murmuring as he slept.
...Kitsune no Rekidaishi: Gakai...Kitsune no Rekidaishi: Gaikai...Kitsune no Rekidaishi: Gakai...
A month had passed since that horrible night, and now, Nintai found himself shaking hands with Jiraiya, the Toad Sage, as he stood in front of the village gates. The man had been severely burned, but it was nothing a few medic-nins couldn't patch up; and now, the aged Shinobi even had managed to grow out his hair to nearly his ears.
"You don't have to go, dude. It's not like we would mind your help."
The Sannin sighed.
"I know, Nintai, I know... But, I need this. I need to be by myself for a while. Maybe work on a new novel; perhaps something romantic and soothing."
A young, white eyebrow was raised.
"What? Romantic? Soothing? What happened to Jiraiya, and who are you? The Jiraiya I know only writes smut!"
The hermit laughed.
"Yeah, it shocked me to... Hey... Mind if I name the main character... Naruto?"
Nintai shook his head disbelievingly and chuckled.
"Of course not, you old perv. Still, he might, when he gets older. Oh, well."
Jiraiya grinned, and reached into his pocket.
"Thanks, Nintai. And this is for you."
He pulled out a small, hard-cover book, with kanji on the title that read "Naruto: Shippuden". Nintai took the book, and, upon reading the cover, looked at the perverted author.
"Hurricane Chronicles? I thought you were going to write the book?"
Jiraiya nodded.
"I am. That's the first I ever wrote, literally. It's sort of an autobiography, with a few exaggerated bits, of course. It's how Minato and Kushina chose the gaki's name."
Nintai smirked, before pocketing the novel.
"Thanks. I'm sure he'll love it. I'll make sure to take good care of it, I promise."
Jiraiya smiled, and placed a hand on the white-haired shinobi's shoulder.
"That's exactly what I wanted to hear, Nintai. Exactly what I wanted to hear."
And with that, Nintai watched as Jiraiya walked out of the gates and down the dirt road leading out of Konoha, until he was only a speck in the distance. Nintai sighed, and turned away, walking back towards the center of the village.
Great progress had been made in the rebuilding process; the Hokage had hired an army of workers from the neighboring outposts and towns, and, with their help, a fourth of the village had been patched up; it wasn't perfect, but it was at least habitable, which was more than could be said for the majority of the village. Nintai was glad that the Bijuu had attacked during the summer; the Land of Fire was notorious for its hot summers, and the shade of the trees did little to cool off the area, but it was better than winter, where rain, fog, and a wet, bone-numbing cold that seeped through clothes were the norm. If the Kitsune had attacked then... Nintai doubted that many would have survived.
As it was, however, the majority of Konoha's population were packed into the small residential area that had been restored, while the hired workers either camped outside of the city's walls or returned to their homes each night, depending on how close they lived to Konoha. Sickness and disease were, thankfully, not commonplace in the village, despite the cramped living arrangements; most of the sick and infirm citizens had died in the attack, when several of the hospitals had been smashed to rubble. It was a rather gruesome, but still true, fact; their deaths had prevented any epidemics that may have occurred if they had been saved.
Nintai shook his head, trying to rid his head of those kind of thoughts, and tried focusing on something else... Like how the villagers and even some of the hired workers were giving him dirty looks when they thought he wasn't paying attention.
The snow-haired nin's ice-blue eyes narrowed, and he gave a bestial snarl to a man who had made a rude hand gesture in his direction, causing his eyes to grow wide and his legs to quickly move his body away from the angry Shinobi.
Within one week of the Hokage's Decree, known officially as "Amendment Thirteen of the Konohagakure no Sato Constitution", twenty men and women had been executed due to violating it; since then, the number had slowly dwindled, as the villagers, and some of the Shinobi, finally got the message, and now there hadn't been an execution so far that week. But, the law did not, and in all honesty, couldn't, forbid dirty looks or insults such as "Demon Brat", or "Hellspawn", when referring to Naruto; after all, it didn't technically violate the Third's Decree, and any attempt on his part to outlaw it would have been met with too much resistance from the Council; they had only one veto per year, but they would have used it for that purpose if they had to; and, if they did, it would prevent any law like it from even being discussed until the next year.
Nintai, however, didn't like it one bit; if it wasn't for the fact that the Council, and the Villagers in general, were looking for any sign of criminal or violent behavior outside of his job as a Shinobi, he'd have beaten the daylights out of half the village population by now. But, as it stood, he had to curb those urges; if he didn't, Naruto would be taken away from him in moments, if the Council got its way, and, as the Hokage had little jurisdiction over civilian matters, it most probably would. So, he ignore the looks he was given as best as he was able, and began searching for one of the few grocery stores that were still running; the selection wasn't exactly gourmet, but it was better than starving, and no matter what, he wasn't going to let a child of his former teammates go hungry, ever.
After about an hour and a half, Nintai had finally found a store that was open and didn't outright refuse to sell to him. He knew he had been overcharged on the items he had bought, but prices had risen due to much of the stock having been destroyed, anyway, and it wasn't nearly as bad as some places charged him. Regardless, he had bought enough formula for Naruto and food for himself to last at least two weeks, so long as Naruto's appetite didn't suddenly skyrocket like it had two weeks into Nintai taking care of him; the infant had begun to consume about two time his body weight a day.
'And all the dirty diapers...'
Nintai shuddered at the horrible memory, but then continued to reminisce. After about four days of that, the blonde had suddenly returned to normal, and hadn't had another episode like that again. Nintai wasn't sure what to make of it, and neither was the Hokage; they were slightly afraid that it had to do with the Kyuubi no Kitsune, and even more worried that it meant something had gone wrong with the seal.
Still, nothing like it had happened since, so Nintai was beginning to feel that it had been a one-time thing.
'Besides, it's not like me or Sarutobi know jack about babies; he may have fathered Asuma, but being Hokage doesn't leave much time for childrearing...'
His thoughts trailed off, however, when he felt a presence behind him, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.
He stopped moving, and heard a soft thud, as if someone had suddenly stopped as well, and then hid behind one of the newly-erected electricity poles behind him.
Blue eyes narrowed, and Nintai began to slowly reach for the hilt of his zanbatou. Others had followed him before; usually, for the sole purpose of killing, or otherwise harming, Naruto. Nintai had no more patience for them.
Then, in a sudden burst of speed, his blade, Hanseki, was drawn, and its edge was being held against the throat of his stalker, while his unoccupied left hand held the assailant against the wooden fence.
"What the hell are you... Wait... You're a Genin... Anko Mitarashi? Why are you following me? I don't want to kill you, but I won't hesitate to do so if you give me the wrong answer!"
The violet-haired girl was obviously frightened, and Nintai felt a twinge of guilt, but he supressed it; there'd been others her age that'd wanted Naruto dead.
"Well, answer-"
"I saw you!"
Nintai was taken aback by her loud outburst, and stepped back, letting her fall to the ground on her backside.
"You saw me? Well, obviously... "
Nintai sighed, shaking his head sadly.
'Great, I'm dealing with some crazy Genin... I don't have time for this... the ice cream's gonna melt, and then there goes my sundae...'
He was brought out of his daydream of delicious vanilla ice cream covered in equally tasty strawberry sauce by Anko, who had began to speak once again.
"No, I mean... I... I saw you when you were a monster!"
Nintai's blood ran cold at that statement, but his face showed no signs of his inner fear.
'Does she... She couldn't have...'
"What are you talking about, girl?"
Anko looked down at the ground, and spoke.
"Well... I saw you when you broke through the side of the monument. And I saw how you changed from that black thing to the body you're using now... And I just, I wanted to know... What are you?"
...Kitsune no Rekidaishi: Gakai...Kitsune no Rekidaishi: Gaikai...Kitsune no Rekidaishi: Gakai...
That had been three years ago.
Since that time, Naruto had grown into a healthy toddler, normal in every way, except, of course, for the fact that a demonic beast was sealed inside him... And not just the Kyuubi.
"He's got the appetite of a small bear!"
Anko watched the little boy eat as if he hadn't seen a shred of food in years, devouring a meal larger than most teenage boys could stomach.
The violet-haired kunoichi had become a regular visitor of Nintai and the blonde, and, at the age of fifteen, she had been a Chunin for more than half a year; there was even talk amongst the leaders of the Recruitment Department of the ANBU about picking her up for training; she was found to have a very repetitive history of being rather sadistic when it came to dealing with captured enemies.
Still, you wouldn't have thought that when you saw her with Naruto; it was as if her personality just shifted, changing her from an angry, violent teenager to a gentle, loving woman.
She had began coming over almost every day since she and Nintai had first spoken. She felt a certain kinship with the now-Captain of the ANBU. Both were shunned by the majority of the village; Nintai, due to being Naruto's foster-father, and she, because of her time being an apprentice of Orochimaru.
He had told her the truth about himself, he had even proven his half-devil heritage via a quick transformation. She had taken it surprisingly well; she'd even managed to stare at him for a few moments before fainting.
But, that was the past. The present was much more interesting.
Naruto had just finished his lunch, which included white rice, some yellowtail, milk, and, of course, ramen. The three-year-old blonde was downright addicted to the stuff, and, seeing as he didn't seem to gain unneeded weight, ever, Nintai felt it was okay to let him have it every couple of days.
He would've let the little guy eat as much as he wanted, but the Hokage, and, surprisingly, Anko, were both adamant that he didn't simply eat noodles... a point which, unfortunately, Anko had driven home quite violently.
Nintai sighed. Why was it that everyone he knew was insane?
...Kitsune no Rekidaishi: Gakai...Kitsune no Rekidaishi: Gaikai...Kitsune no Rekidaishi: Gakai...
Unfortunately, all good things eventually come to an end.
For Nintai, this was exactly five years after the Kyuubi's attack. He had become Captain of his own ANBU Squad, who were officially known as "Squad 6-B", though they were more commonly known by their nickname; The "Devil Squad".
Even Nintai, a man known to make quite a few annoying puns from time to time, had wanted to slap himself after the name stuck. It was completely lame, unoriginal, and... well, silly.
However, stupid nicknames weren't the cause of his woes. What the Hokage had told him was.
"Nintai, there has been a surge in Youkai Activity recently."
Now, some people might not get the sheer suckage of that statement; those that didn't understand how Youkai operated fall into that category.
Youkai usually stayed in the Underworld, where they belonged; it wasn't like they didn't like it. Hellfire, brimstone, human souls to feed on... It was actually pretty cozy down there.
Unfortunately, that's where a jackass named Yochi comes in. Yochi was, basically, Emperor of Makai, more often referred to as "Hell".
Now, due to said Emperor status, it should be fairly obvious that Yochi isn't exactly your run-of-the-mill, bloodthirsty and stupid demon. He was pretty bad-ass. But, he had had his eye on the human world for a long, long time; even before humans could speak. But, of course, he was usually foiled; mostly due to the fact that several alternate dimensions filled the rift between the mortal and demonic worlds; some were home to summons, some were simply alternate universes, but the majority of them were the tiny pocket-dimensions made whenever a Shinobi used a sealing scroll.
Youkai, especially weak Youaki, who are used as canon fodder by the rest of Yochi's army, can sustain major damage from traveling from dimension to dimension. This meant that, for all Yochi's eyeballing, it was unlikely that he'd ever set foot on the planet Nintai occupied.
Unfortunatly, there were ways around these constraints; as the Bijuu had shown, there were loopholes that let demons through. The official, religious term was "Hellgates", but Nintai liked to think of them as "Annoying Portals that Demons use like Public Transportation".
Yeah, long name.
Anyway, several Hellgates had been opening up across the mainland; so far, none had reached the island nations. Luckily, the majority of the Youkai were the small, weak kind, easily taken out by a decently-trained Samurai or rookie Shinobi. However, it was only a matter of time until bigger baddies started showing up, which would mean Nintai would have to put in a lot of overtime.
And, to top it all off, today was Naruto's first day of school at the Shinobi Academy.
Nintai shook his head, adjusting his ANBU mask slightly.
"This is gonna suck."
…Kitsune no Rekidaishi: Gaikai…Kitsune no Rekidaishi: Gaikai…Kitsune no Rekidaishi: Gakai…
So, what did you all think? Please, leave a review. I think it's kind of half-assed, but I needed to get on with the story, and this helps to push the plot. Lame, I know, but whatever. Also, I apologize for the final bit after the last break; It was 2:44 am when I wrote it, so it's rather... strange, I think. Anyway, stay tuned for the next chapter; it'll come a lot sooner, I swear! It'll probably be about... Two, maybe three chapters before Naruto becomes a Shinobi and heads to Wave, but trust me, it'll be worth it.
So, be ready to be amazed when "Chapter Four: Insert One Word That Summarizes Chapter", reaches your eyeballs!
...Yeah, I know. Weird.