Adventure
Settling in
For the Sake of Patience
~ Forenote ~
Sorry about the AN Update. And also for the hiatus. I've been making progress on new chapters since updating LATE Naruto.
The week following Tayuya's revival was a tense one. She could clearly feel the pain she had been through in her nightmares. Watching as she was cut open and her insides were taken out was a waking horror that she couldn't stop herself from returning to at near random moments throughout every hour of the day and night.
Then there were the nightmares she faced when she slept. The Sanin woman had actually scanned her brain when she was sleeping to tell her that the pain was very real.
The fact that she was going to live had brought joy to her for all of an hour before the first flashback slammed into her.
It seemed that just seeing the scars of the surgery had been enough to force her to relive the nightmare.
The blonde fucker, whose red chakra had saved her, had tried to help. He rushed towards her with his demonic red hand reaching out from his skin, but at the time she only saw her own blood spilling out of her.
She had lashed out.
And that began the first day of the week that she had endured. She truly was sorry for hurting the little princess with the weird eyes. She hadn't even realized the girl was there, shoving the bastard out of the way as her claws tried desperately to fend off attack.
She was told later that the girl had been healed and would only have minor scarring on her ribs. It wasn't as if she had meant to hurt any of them. And it wasn't her fault to begin with that her curse hadn't receded yet.
So the rest of the day she looked over her new form. Slightly put off by it's weaker build, she stroked the soft fluffy red down on her arms. They had easily figured out that she had one of those attacks whenever she saw the damage that she had been through. So they had dressed her. The only part of this new form left for her examination were her arms.
After a couple days of reliving the nightmare from unidentified thought triggers, she had lost her gratitude and began to resent them.
Even after she hurt the Princess, the shit-head seemed to forgive her and tried to help.
But as hours turned to days and hope turned to despair, her nearly constant fear of being torn open even if only in her head, led her to snarl at him when she saw him. She outright blamed him for the waking nightmare that she was forced to survive at least two to four times every hour.
And when she told him so, the look on his face was pure guilt. She had cut him deeply when she said it. But rather than accept her own guilt for hurting the brat who managed to keep her alive, she forced herself to lash out again. In hopes that he would just leave her alone and stop trying to help if she did. This time with words of hatred and malice as she would have against the other members of the sound four, she tore into him.
She wasn't sure which of the hateful remarks had done it. But he finally stopped visiting her without the blonde woman being present.
The pain of her body continued, being forced to heal parts it wasn't meant to be able to, as the next couple days passed. But on the sixth day after she had been woken up, she was brought out of a nightmare of being cut open and into one of being back in the trees where they had found her.
She wasn't near the pond, but she was out from under the heavy logs that had crushed her. She felt herself yanked backwards. A clear realization of what the yank was formed in her mind before she'd even stopped.
With abject terror in her chest, she turned back to her crippled legs to see a massive shadow of black fur. It's teeth gleaming red as her blood flowed around them from the flesh they tore into. It gave a yank of its jaw and with a rip the sinew deep in her leg was rend apart. She cried out from the pain and began to reach back for a hand hold as she had done before, but there was nothing but rotting leaves beneath her fingers.
She begged for help, as she looked back at the beast, realizing with a start, that it was a massive horse sized fox! It's fur was black and hackled, It's yellow eyes stared directly at her as it flexed its jaw, forcing it's teeth into the bone of her leg.
Another scream of agony erupted from her throat. Tayuya flung herself back and shrieked with everything she had. If she could make it loud enough maybe her body would scream too and bring one of the medics to wake her.
0o0o0
It had only been six days since she woke, eight since the final operation. Her body had continued healing at a slowed, but still extraordinary rate. The Otonin had been steadily recovering. Her body was still covered in wounds and scars from both the battles she'd endured and the operations. However, every time she performed a medical scan the girl had less and less of each. Even the crushed tip of her severed leg had healed nearly to the point that it looked born missing.
The thing that concerned Tsunade was the psychological damage the trauma had caused.
Her nightmares of reliving the operation wasn't unexpected. And fortunately Tsunade had prepared treatments for Naruto, anticipating him to endure the same once his operation had been completed. She put some of those to work now.
Easily Identifying the triggers and isolating the girl from them was the first step… That hadn't been enough. The next was to ensure she ate well, and slept often. Sedatives were used liberally to counter the fear of sleep that came from her nightmares. Unfortunately they would always return as the drugs effects thinned.
After that they had to ensure she was stressed as little as possible for a few weeks. Mental strain was going to be as tedious to recover from as the damage her body had taken.
If not for the recurring torment, Tsunade might have spoken up about the way the girl spoke, her foul language aside she was also extremely hateful. Her resentment was understandable. But there was little excuse for lashing out.
Hinata's wound had been a set of deep rends in her left side. But as deep as they were, they seemed to be clean and smooth. They had been easy to simply rebond with a minor medical jutsu. It hadn't taken more than five minutes before all they had to do was wash the blood away.
But what the girl had said to Naruto… She had called him a monster and said that his parents must have been the lowest scum and even told him that he might as well rape her for all the torment he was causing her. She went on and on with her hateful comments, but he didn't seem hurt by any of them. He said he understood why she was saying them.
But then the girl told him she that in her nightmares he was the one raping her and ripping her gut open, taking her insides out and eating them in front of her. She was afraid of him!
That seemed to have put him over the edge. As many hurtful things as she had said, it was his own guilt that finally broke him. He spent most of the week forcing himself to pop the water balloons much as he had when he thought Tayuya would die.
His progress was just as steady as last time. The five elements seal unbalancing his chakra only seemed to set him back to popping the balloon with one hand. Having easily passed through the other steps only to come to an abrupt halt when he tried to use his feet did nothing to affect his determination.
Tsunade could only guess how hard he was pushing himself based off the mild descriptions she'd been given from Hinata. The Sanin herself only ever saw her grandson when he wanted to visit the wounded redhead. He had yet to speak to her since the operation was finished. Instead he conveyed his wishes either by doing whatever the hell he wanted, or asking kindly of Shizune to provide what he needed.
This also included his escort into the room the otonin was occupying. He would politely ask Shizune to request the escort as discreetly as he was able to ask her. When she did Tsunade would simply open the door and wait for him to follow her in without a word.
Shizune recognised what he was doing and made every effort to support him by anticipating anything he might ask of her master before the request was needed. This turned out to be very little. However she did her best to ensure neither of them ever came to be in the same room unless absolutely necessary.
Hinata on the other hand had been the silent mediator. Or rather, the double agent. She was the one who would pass status reports between them. Whenever Naruto wanted to know what his grandmother was up to, he asked her, and whenever Naruto's mood changed or he made a new level of progress she reported it to the Sanin.
Both Yamato and Uzuki had decided to stay completely out of the drama and thus, held a silent "no comment" policy on almost everything.
The only one who couldn't seem to fit in their little pattern was Jiraiya. While he too was receiving the silent treatment, he wasn't barred from Naruto and Yamato's shared room. He would almost constantly be bugging the boy in attempt to weather his resolve. A lot of it happened to be stories of his team and Minato's upbringing.
It turned out that his desire to learn more about his father had degraded the young chunin's silence into near indistinguishable grunts and murmurs.
To his credit, the toad sage seemed to understand the wordless vocalizations seamlessly. Responding to every single grunt, sigh, and hmpf provided, as if they were full sentences. Oddly, the Sanin didn't once try to apologize or get Naruto to acknowledge him in any conventional sense. He would simply walk in, ask a few questions and begin talking.
That had lasted for four days after Naruto stopped talking to them. The next morning the Sanin was gone. Naruto didn't seem to miss him or even notice that he was gone. But Hinata was able to pass along the fact he had known the man was leaving that night.
For all Tayuya had said, there was still very little they could actually confirm using only what they already knew. It was likely her teammate had left to investigate some of what they had unearthed from the girl.
The medical legend had been studying one of Hinata's recent medical tests in the main room when she heard Tayuya begin to shift. Placing her eldest students handiwork down, the medic quickly and quietly strode into the room.
They had replaced the operating bed with one of the inn's regular mattresses and set up the necessities on one side of the room. Shizune made certain to keep a constant observation on the girl girl in case she needed to rise from the bed to make use of them.
Allowing Shizune to rest, Tsunade had taken the night shift. It served more than one agenda to do so, keeping her out of Naruto's way as well as allowing her to monitor Tayuya's actual sleeping patterns.
At this time in the morning, she was the only one awake. And though unpleasant, Tayuya's sleeping form had at least been deep in unconsciousness.
Tsunade hadn't yet reached the bed when the redhead began to scream in an unholy pain, not heard since the operation. Quickly closing the distance Tsunade reached the bed just in time for the girl to fling herself out of it, sending said structure slamming into the unexpecting woman. Tsunade out of reflex swept the bed aside so she could regain a line of sight on her patient.
The otonin was latched into an upper corner of the wall and ceiling with her intact leg and one of her arms, the other arm was slashing at the end of her severed leg as if fending something off. Her voice screamed in terror and pain alike without pause.
The commotion had roused all from their slumbers. The only one not awakened by it had been Uzuki who had been on a light patrol and wasn't present. The suddenly woken rogues rushed into the now disheveled room, and as they entered, Tayuya stopped swinging her arm so that she could swap it out with her good leg and began kicking at the flesh of the stump, which almost as suddenly ripped open on it's own.
Reaching up to the girl, Tsunade pulled her down from the corner of the wall and ceiling. Forcing her onto the bed, which Yamato had righted. The Sanin was surprised to find she had to enhance her strength nearly in full to keep the girl still.
From the tearing flesh, two white spikes slowly ripped their way out of her knee. Blood seemed to pool around the spikes, none of the blood would run down her leg or drip off, or even soaked into the fabric of the sheets. Instead it gathered and congealed at the end of the extending bone.
As it condensed it seemed to solidify and harden turning white as it fused into the growing spikes. Each time the blood added to the bone, the flesh of her leg began to creep forward. Slowly migrating down the newly formed skeletal path.
Naruto, having gone into his mind the moment he saw her leg, returned to the outside world once more. The boy drew upon the fox's chakra and focused it into the moving tissues. At that Tayuya seemed to wake. Her screams didn't stop, however they did take the form words once more.
She screamed her blame and hatred for the blonde, she screamed for the pain to stop, for it to just end. She screamed that she would kill him for doing this to her. She wanted to die. She was ready to die. But he had to put that evil red chakra into her curse seal and now she was being broken worse than death.
Everyone who watched saw the impact her words had on the blonde, yet the boy didn't stop pumping the foxes chakra into the bleeding leg.
The congealed blood had now completed the tibia and began to congeal where the talus would form. As it solidified the muscles and tendons of the calf began to grow downwards from under her knee. By the time the bones had reformed to the metatarsals, the ankle had began to flesh out as well and skin and fur had began to creep over the exposed flesh.
When it was over her leg and foot had fully regrown. The fur on this leg matched that of her other leg, however the skin on the soul of her foot was pink and uncalloused. Her toenails were a bright vibrant red and smooth as if they had been cosmetically polished.
Then the girl's curses and whimpering cut off as she seized, going rigid for a moment and then her body convulsed wildly. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as the full blown spasms wracked through her.
All over her body, the fox's chakra began steaming from her pores, wrapping itself around her like snakes or tails. It was almost twenty minutes before her body went still. Finally calming, her now motionless body seemed to visibly shrink as the fur receded into pale soft skin.
The shredded remains of her gown had fallen away, revealing that all the hair, save that on her head and navel, had returned to it's natural opacity. The horns were the next to recede, as her body continued to become slimmer and more delicate. By the time they had fully vanished into the redhead, the girl's body was little more than that of a dainty civilian teen.
Her skin was uncallused and unmarked, there wasn't even a slight blemish left anywhere. Her fingernails and the toenails of her once lone foot, had all turned the same polished red as her new foot. Her still developing bust, while fuller and firmer, had also receded by at least a cup size or two from what she'd had while under the influence of the kyuubi's cursed seal.
The muscle tone that had been recovered by the curse seal had nearly vanished without a trace, and while her chakra capacity had managed to increase from the ordeal, there was no visible evidence of chakra usage.
Or any training for that matter.
She had no tan lines, wrinkles, or even freckles. It was as if her teenage body had been restored to the semblance of infantile youth.
Checking the girls eyes found clear brown orbs looking back at her through her long eyelashes, as if seeing for the first time.
Tsunade immediately performed a deep diagnostic scan and found that there wasn't a single scar on or in her body, even her menstrual scarring had been reverted to prepubescent!
And not only that, the girl's chakra alignment had changed! Her cells were no longer attuned to the cursed seal. With a start, Tsunade realized there wasn't even a trace of the seal left on the girl's body. It was gone! Instead Tayuya's cells were actually producing a small amount of the Kyuubi's chakra on their own!
0o0o0
Rotation.
One direction, two directions, three… His face scrunched as the young Chunin focused chakra to his feet. The water-balloons attached to each of them began bowing outwards, their rubber shells stretched thinly over the rapidly spiraling water within.
It took more effort to send his chakra to his feet than anywhere else, and yet the spiral had become so exercised he could do it nearly without thinking about it now. The difficulty holding him back, was popping both of them at the same time.
He had managed it with his dual fist step quickly, however he simply couldn't seem to get it right on his feet as the last few days passed.
Once they knew that the fox was no longer needed to keep her alive after the operation, Jiraiya had the horse anbu put the Five elements seal on him and then he began to train. The man had been ready to remove it the moment anything went wrong, but nothing ever seemed to. At least, not until this morning…
They would remove it once he was finished training for the day and reapply it the next. Luckily they hadn't needed to remove it this morning as no one had even woken up yet.
Shaking his head, the blonde turned his mind away from that. It wasn't going to help if he thought about the otonin.
Taking a deep breath Naruto refocused on the task at han-foot… Feet? Whatever.
Once he was able to pass this step he would move on to the rubber balls. Ero-sennin had noticed that he had made enough progress that the few balls he brought this time around might not be enough to last until his next check in, and said he would go on a supply run.
He asked if there was anything else naruto needed, but the boy refused to give him a real answer and just huffed as he turned away from the man.
Naruto didn't need much. Shizune had gathered most of his things from his apartment while he was locked up in the hospital. They had all the food and soap and stuff they needed, his cloths and secret stash of memorables were safely tucked in a chest under his bed. That the woman had known where he stashed his most important things was only slightly surprising.
Everything he owned outside of his random supply caches littered throughout the village in case his apartment got robbed, had been brought along.
Although, his jacket had been lost somewhere during the mission, and he didn't know if it was even still fixable after the fight.
But he refused to mention anything in words to the jerk.
So the man simply pulled out a pad and paper, this one looked like an office pad instead of his pervy notebook, and began making a short list. "Alright boy, I'll make sure to get everything. I'll be back in a couple days." With that the man left out the window, his back already laden with a heavy pack.
The Sanin, his grandfather, had told Naruto many stories about his genin team. Naruto's father had been the main topic, but the man didn't focus too heavily on him during the early years of their missions.
Hearing about his parents over the last few days had earned the Toad sage passage in and out of his room. Oni-Baa-chan didn't get past the door the one time she tried.
He clearly understood why Jiraiya hadn't been there. He had looked out for him though and that was when he didn't know that Naruto was anything more than his student's kid.
It wasn't like he blamed her for being gone either, but Tsunade had been Hokage for months and hadn't said a word after she found out!
As soon as they knew the plan had worked Naruto assured them he was unaffected and promptly stopped speaking to either of them. Shizune helped out alot. She would distract her sensei any time he needed out of his room and often had whatever he needed ready before he had to ask. More balloons, a fresh bucket, dry cloths… She had been awesome.
Hinata was still eating with him every day. She didn't say much, but always asked how he was doing and listened intently as he described what progress he had made and how he was handling the truth. She even sat in on a few of the stories Ero-sennin told him.
Neither of the anbu said a word about what was going on at first. They were both on guard most of the time but often enough the one in the horse mask would put a hand on his shoulder when he felt like everything was going to crush him. It was a small thing, but somehow, it always relaxed him and helped him breath until he could calm down.
Neko on the other hand had been doing patrols around the Inn's land and guarding Tayuya when she was in the suite. Since she didn't share a room with him like horse did, he hardly ever even saw her. But she had followed him into the bath one night. He had been particularly angry at the time and she appeared with a small log and a kunai. He was then told to stand on the log as it floated in the water, and throw the kunai to her.
After two attempts to do so, Naruto lost whatever modestly had been forcing him to blush and focused solely on the challenge as they tossed the lethal projectile back and forth.
He thought for a moment about his sensei kakashi, and how he had been the forth's student. He confessed resenting the man not only for knowing his father in a way he never would, but also for not ever talking about the man. He had to have known. But Neko quickly put that down. She told him in a very firm voice that the masked jonin had joined the anbu for the sole purpose that he could watch over Naruto without linking him to the fourth. Even after the Hokage had forbidden him from associating with his sensei's son, he had managed to watch over him.
And that wasn't all he had done. She didn't mention it, but but she couldn't completely hide her tone of voice when she thought over the many times the teen's doujutsu had been needed to 'fix' a few hours of the boy's life.
Naruto was still unaware of the editing, and didn't know why she suddenly went silent. Instead of prying though, he focused. By the time the night ended the Anbu Commander admitted she had been stunned at how quickly he improved on the log. Unlike water walking, he couldn't use chakra to maintain his balance and every time he moved the log would threaten to throw him back into the water.
Then this morning happened. Her leg had grown back, and the cursed seal disappeared. Tayuya was completely healed. Naruto was almost ready to simply let that be the end of the entire ordeal and let his grudges drop, but what she said stung.
It always stung when she spoke to him. That wasn't so new.
However, he needed to get his mind off it, and simply fell back into his routine. Horse applied the Five Elements seal and he began trying once more to Keep the water balloons spiralling the same way on both his feet.
He was determined to complete this step before the end of the day!
0o0o0
No one was aware he had come. The clan head ensured it.
Hiashi stepped into the sniveling advisor's office to find a man much different than the one he had observed previously sitting the office.
He was almost taller due to the now straightened spine, and his shoulders had spread as if he had puffed out his chest a bit.
This man was confident in himself in a way not displayed before.
Skipping the pleasantries, Hiashi would simply demand his explanation. "What was the meaning of that humiliation? Why did you put the Inuzuka up to such blatant behaviour?"
Without missing a beat or even looking up from his paper work, the man replied in a clear voice that had a notable lack of lisp.
"Simple, Hiashi-kun. While I am working behind the scenes, I need people working…" he chuckled "in plain sight. That means I need you to act certain ways. And the first thing you are going to do is vote with Danzo on the next cast to bring Tsunade back. And when that fails. You will vote to have the other Sanin retrieved."
"And why would I do any such thing? I chose my loyalties already, and I will not be manipulated."
"If you don't want to be manipulated then I expect I should just explain my reasons to you directly. Tsunade requested that you vote in her favor from now on, however voting for her is not always in her favor. I need you to get back on Danzo's good side in case I need an ace up my sleeve. You will be that ace. In order to do so I have decided to arrange a few public exchanges that will secure your good faith to the elders and ensure they let you return to their fold."
0o0o0
That had been almost two weeks ago. After about a month of waiting and putting it off, the council decided that Tsunade truly wasn't coming back. The next council session brought a large debate on how to proceed.
Most wanted to simply send a message to the Toad Sage informing him of his duties, However Danzo insisted it be a mandatory recall instead. The higher level of urgency would get the man back much sooner. Hiashi agreed. Though most were on the fence about it.
Hiashi had thought the Crippled elder would have at least tried to summon Tsunade back, but the idea was never even brought up.
The next few things they voted on, Hiashi responded exactly as his father would have suggested.
Including the cut to the Inuzuka's budget. Funds that Tsume had actually needed. The cost of the new generation of pups had been about 30% higher than expected and she wouldn't be able to budget the extra births with the available funds. Which meant that the additional ninken would go without training.
She was pissed.
His voting for the cut meant he was part of the reason some of those pups would have to be sent to civilian homes and treated as simple animals when they all had the potential of their breeding to perform jutsu.
She had been arguing off the cut since the invasion several months ago. It seemed that this last crisis was enough to avert many of the council members from extending her budget.
The moment they exited the council chambers, she turned him around and punched him out. He hadn't expected her to use full force, however as Teifu had predicted, Danzo sent one of his two cohorts to break the fight apart before Tsume did any real damage.
Then the part Hiashi had not been expecting came anguishing from her. "What happened last week is never going to repeat itself! We're Through!" She snarled and then turned and fled, her arm brought up to her face as if wiping away tears.
Picking himself off the ground, Hiashi realized the implications of what she just said. While nothing had happened last week, Hiashi understood what the sneaky little bastard had done by giving her that line.
"So it seems your … consorting with that base kunoichi has reached its passing." Koharu spoke.
"Yes. I expect that it has. But she was good for me. It is a shame she had to take this personally."
"I should ask, why would you vote the way you did even when you knew how it affected her?" Hamura asked.
"Because our disgraced godaime left the village in crisis and it is more important to keep our economy stable than to make sure every puppy is kept in the Inuzuka kennels. The village comes before personal matters."
Both of them seemed pleased by his answer.
"I would have thought your father's absence would have left you vulnerable."
"Not at all honored elders. Now that he has passed, I am free to stand on my own decisions. And while many of them will remain the same as he suggested before he passed, they will no longer simply be his suggestions and will instead be decisions I have invested myself in. Meaning I will stand firmer than ever. Although…" He pause as if considering something regrettable, "I may have to concede a few of our past disagreements regardless."
As he said it, he rubbed his jaw and look out the way the Inuzuka matriarch had fled. "It was my choice, and I will stand by it. No matter how right he was about her."
That brought a chuckle to Homura's throat and a look of disbelief to Koharu's face.
Through his peripheral vision Hiashi saw the miniscule traces of approval he had witnessed Danzo display for his father from time to time.
He was back in the man's good graces.
0o0o0
It would be at least a month before the residence of the inn received word that the village had dispatched someone to recall Jiraiya to the village. Given his profession, they had little to go on in finding him. The two sanin agreed the first place they would look would have to be the village he had last reported in from. So before they had even received word of it, the man made several obvious appearances in villages leading away from the capital and towards the land of lightning.
As he did so, he looked into the few locations Tayuya had provided them that followed his route. What he found was an assortment of abandoned or outright devastated bases. Not venturing any further into them than needed to confirm they were the ones they had been informed of, the spymaster wasn't even noticed.
After picking up a few items he was certain Naruto would need, and some others for the rest of the group, he switched from casual travels to a stealthy infiltration style of movement until he made it completely undetected back to the inn.
He had only been gone for a week and change, however it seemed he had missed something big. His silent entry into the suite they all shared went undetected by all but the two anbu, whom he had greeted with military silence.
From a brief intake of the occupants of the the several rooms, the spy deduced several things. The first being that Tayuya had a new leg and lost the curse mark. He was still sensing the kyuubi's chakra in her, and the two whisker marks on either side of her face made him consider that he might need to look into that later on.
Leaving a few gifts for her beside her bed, he silently made his way to his next target.
Naruto, had obviously began training with the rubber balls while he was out. This was obvious due to the discarded rubber shreds left in the bin. Tossing those, he replaced them with a sealed scroll full of them. Crossing his grandson's room, he hung the boy's replaced jacket on the bed frame. Then on the floor under that he set a few parcels he would explain to the kid in the morning.
Turning, he left a few items on Yamato's bed as well.
He left the supplies he'd gotten for the Hyuuga and the Ex-anbu-commander in two separate stacks by their door. A quick peek inside, told him the young girl was only lightly asleep and he didn't want to be in her room when he was caught. He told himself he would just have to ask Tsunade what had happened to the girl's hand.
On to his final target, the Sanin silently moved Shizune into the lounge area, waking her discreetly and ensuring she would stay silent, the man gave her the few supplies she had requested. Mostly medical supplies and sample for Hinata's training, the woman had also asked for a couple items for each of the others in the group, that she wanted to keep between the two of them.
With her assurance that she would stay out in the lounge the manliest of men slinked back into Tsunade's room and prepared to be discovered. For once he was actually able to get in the bed with her before finding himself embedded in the wall.
The impact had the anticipated result. Shizune called out to the others that it was only the Sanin and they all located his leavings where he had placed them. Naruto's shouts of excitement at his new jacket rang out next.
Pulling himself out of the destruction his flight and landing had created, he looked at his teammate with a smug grin. "Did you sleep well princess?"
Instead of responding, Tsunade stood and crossed the room he hands already glowing with medical jutsu to either castrate him, or fix his bleeding head.
0o0o0
Shizune was mildly surprised that her mentor didn't waste any time beating the pervert for his actions. Choosing to quickly fix him up and drag him into Tayuya's room to put him to work. The girl had been woken up, but was preoccupied by the items that had appeared in her room.
When the two Sanin entered, she leapt up and ran to embrace the man. Neither of them expecting the move, it took a couple seconds before Tsunade yanked her off him. "Did you like the dress that much?
"I couldn't care less about the fucking cloths!" She stated as she pulled the tools out of the small box and began carving on the first of many wooden blocks he'd provided her. Her statement was betrayed by the hat that had already been on her head when the pair entered the room.
Heading to Naruto's room, Shizune was surprised to see Naruto had received almost everything he had mentioned to either her or Hinata-chan. The first was his new jacket. Then there was a scroll full of rubber balls. And next was an assortment of sealed tags and training gear. Shizune was also amused to see some new cloths including a shower cap, and swimming trunks.
Maybe Naruto was going accept Uzuki-san's offered training.
There were several other items there, mostly scrolls, but Naruto had left those where they were.
Peeking in, Hinata summoned her out. The girl had been gifted with almost as many things as Naruto, but had simply moved them to her top bunk and followed Shizune to Naruto's room. Cradling her hand the Hyuuga gave the silent pleading look her senpai knew so well by now. Taking the hand in hers, Shizune metabolized the pain receptors and numbed the broken knuckles.
Even knowing what the younger girl was planning, Shizune had still been speechless when it happened. The day after Tayuya woke clawing at her leg, Tsunade had determined that the girl was as healthy as she could possibly be. Turning and stepping out of the room Tsunade had made a small spectacle of welcoming the estranged Hyuuga into the room.
If Tayuya expected what was coming, she stood her ground to take it. Not even raising her arms or moving to dodge the incoming fist that smashed the redheads nose, the otonin was sent head over heels, tumbling over her bed and crumpled into a heap on the other side.
"I hope that makes up for the scratch I gave you earli—" She began as she stood, before she could finish what she'd began, Hinata put another fist into her gut. Slamming her into the far wall With her shoulder, the meek little medic-to-be began a beating that only her master's hand on her shoulder prevented her from stopping.
When the girl was done she spoke, panting from the exertion, to the bleeding and shaking girl curled into the floor. "If— that first punch— made you even— for the cuts on my side, then the rest— of this wasn't even half— as bad as you deserve for the way you've been treating Naruto-kun!" She gasped out as her exertion forced her to back away so she could drop to the side of the bed behind her.
"This served several purposes, you little bitch!" Tsunade announced. "The first was saving your life, as if it had been me to punish you, you would have died."
Striding back into the room Tsunade grabbed a fist full of red hair, and pulled the girl's face level with her own.
"The second was to punish you. The way you've been treating Naruto is unforgivable! Not only is he the only reason I even tried to save your life, but he was the means through which we actually managed to do it. The personal risks he took in helping you are beyond you simply owing him your miserable life! Not only that, but he is my grandson! Did you think you would get to treat him that way without pissing me off?"
When the girl shook her head in terror and tried to shrink in on herself, Tsunade dropped her to the floor.
"You will change your attitude. As of Now! And we can move on from this little correction as if your behaviour was never an issue. But I will expect you to make it up to him directly on your own." With the wrath fading from her voice Tsunade pulled the girl up by her nightgown and set her on the bed next to Hinata, the Hyuuga flinching to make room between them.
"Another reason for this beating is to verify the fox's presence in your cells. At the moment Naruto is with Neko-chan training with the Five Elements seal in place. This should help prevent the fox's chakra from directly transferring into you as your body heals. We have evidence that you body itself is now creating the fox's chakra type as it once did for the cursed seal."
With that explanation, the medic began scanning the girl's body as Shizune rushed to check Hinata's cradled fist. With her very first punch, the chunin had nearly crushed her own hand.
As they continued to study Tayuya for the next couple days, Tsunade had fully confirmed the production of the Kyuubi's chakra.
At the same time Naruto had passed onto the next stage of his training. Pushing enough chakra into the initial rotation to rip a single hole in the rubber ball. First He did it without the seal, and when he was able to do all but his feet in the first few hours, finishing those the next morning, they started him over with the seal. Which as it turned out was vastly harder than it was before. He was still on his left hand when the toad sage returned.
Other than that, there was a single other issue that had them all concerned. This had happened only yesterday. Mere hours ago in fact.
0o0o0
Rubbing his sore butt, Naruto made his way out of his room to see Hinata getting her hand fixed some more. His own wound was gone, but he still felt the pain where he had been wounded… if that actually counted as a wound. Shizune's insistence that as it had drawn blood, it counted aside, he didn't ever want it getting out.
It happened when Tayuya asked to speak with him. She was still a little bruised up from her sparring match with Hinata. But most of it had faded.
It turned out she had wanted to apologize for the way she had treated him. She admitted that most of what she said was due to the way she had interacted with her old teammates. And she honestly didn't know how she was supposed to say how sorry she was. She told him that she had been hurting and her nightmares were more than justification for the resentment, but she should have admitted to her fear and pain instead of lashing out as she did.
Though Naruto now understood what she was saying, and why, he was still very much hurt by everything she'd said. It was his own fault that her words turned into an attack as he flat out told her she would have to do more than say 'sorry'. He was going to leave it at that and give her the same treatment as he'd been giving Oni-baa-chan, but she lashed out again.
"God damnit you motherfucking little bastard! I'm trying!" She shouted at him. "Do you have any idea how long I have been going over that apology in my head? I know I fucked up, but you are as much at fault as I am!"
Looking over his shoulder he said it. The words that caused all this mess. "Bite my ass!"
With that he marched out of her room and even as she tried to stop herself, the otonin flung herself at him. Her teeth sank into his butt.
With a yelp Naruto ripped himself from her jaw and leapt across the room. In that same instant, Tayuya was pinned to the floor by Tsunade, Hinata and Neko-chan, while Shizune-nee rushed to him.
After ensuring he was okay, they began questioning her. Demanding to know whether they needed to have her restrained. Though she was still being held down by the three kunoichi.
"I don't know what the fuck happened! I swear I don't. The fucker said to do it and I was doing it! I didn't have any control over it!" She pleaded from her position on the floor.
It was clear to all of them that she was telling the truth. Deciding the best thing to do was keep her in her room and him out of it, they dropped the matter until the other sanin could return.
Now that his grandfather had returned, the chunin was certain he wasn't going to like what came next.
0o0o0
The look on his face was as grave as he could make it. Hard, cold, serious… not at all the emotions going through his head behind the stoney face. On the one hand, the girl had drawn blood, shortly after her leg re-grew out of nothing it seemed, on the other… this would make one hell of an icha-icha!
From what he could discern, Orochimaru's cursed seal had been dissipated completely. However it seemed some facets of it somehow remained in her cells themselves. Though the seal master could find no trace of the seal on her, she was still bound to the frame of the seal as if it remained.
The good part was, that instead of serving his lost teammate, the framework of the seal seemed to be forcing her subjugation to his grandson. A few quick attempts proved that she was forced to do anything he directly told her to do.
A suggestion didn't do it, neither would it work if he wasn't directing her specifically. As they experimented, he suggested that she go to her room, then ordered everyone in the room to go to her room, and finally directly addressing her, commanded her to go to her room. As she resisted, the gathered shinobi could visibly see the pain her disobedience caused her. Finally, straining against her own muscles, the girl was forced to her room.
They found that if he was just saying it out to the world nothing happened. If he asked her a question nothing happened. If he was making a suggestion nothing happened. It was the intent behind his command. If he didn't mean it as a command, then no matter how he phrased it, it wouldn't force her.
He automatically objected of course, as he held his butt, that he hadn't intended for that at all!
"No you probably didn't," Tsunade stated. "But it was a fully intended command, even if you didn't believe it would be carried out."
A small part of her had begun to bask in the strain of the situation. Naruto recognized the seriousness of the discussion and had set aside his silent treatment. This was the most direct communication she'd had from him in weeks.
Unlike her teammate, she wasn't even granted the gruntese that the author had so naturally adapted to. It seemed that the man wasn't simply faking it either, as Naruto went over the supplies the toad sage had collected for him.
When all had been settled, they decided it would be best if the two of them interacted as little as possible to avoid any unwelcome slips of the tongue on the blonde's part.
Jiraiya left again, once they received word that the recall message had finally been sent. The messenger would likely be searching for him for a week or two before deciding that he had gone into the land of lightning, which would require a bump in mission rank. The plan was that they would hit all of the oto bases they could before the village would be able to utilize the Uchiha's stolen intel.
They would only have three months after the coronation to do so, as the mission cap would be lifted then, and as such they wished to postpone the coronation as long as they reasonably could.
With the man gone, Naruto faded back into silence. He spent his time trying to completely shred the rubber balls as the last half of the second step required. And every night he would head out to the baths with Uzuki for taijutsu training, in and on top of the water.
With his chakra control so far advanced it was a simple matter to teach him chakra augmentation, which allowed him to enhance his speed and strength by channelling his chakra first, through his limbs as a whole, and then as he advanced, toward more specific and diverse targets.
With each level of finesse in the augmentation, he went from whole limbs, to muscle zones such as upper arm or lower calf, then into muscle clusters and specific groups of muscles.
Tsunade was certain that he would eventually be able to enhance individual muscle strands as only she was currently able to do. It was the first half of her legendary strength. The second half being reinforcing the individual strands and the durma layers to withstand the enormous enhancement.
The sheer complexity of the enhancement on that level would require control that only a dozen or so others she knew of could muster. And that was only the enhancement. To reinforce herself at the same time was something no one else would be able to replicate without her very specific training on how it' was done. Without the reinforcement however, the sheer power created from a strand level augment would out right shred every muscle involved.
Something she wasn't certain would be an issue for Naruto. His healing ability had only grown as the fox recovered from its defeat at the hands of the Uchiha. On another note, the sheer volume of chakra Naruto was able to channel, a mere fraction of his total capacity, already made him far stronger than her when fully augmented. Not only was his capacity greater than hers, but his chakra pathways were extraordinarily large as well.
Most jonin didn't have chakra paths half so large. Added to that was the fact his healing rate allowed him to fully flood the pathways without serious damage or chakra burns as would be cause to any normal shinobi.
It was only thanks to the healing of the fox and his mother's blood that stopped him from being crippled from it. Not only was the strain of the chakra usage severely damaging, but the augmentation pushed his undertrained body well past its natural limits. After most training sessions his entire body would begin to bruise as his flesh recoiled from the useage. Only to heal up again the moment the five elements seal was removed. And as such Uzuki trained and honed the boy's body without the augmentation in order to make it more durable.
Tsunade gave a brief chuckle as she recalled the time Naruto had attempted to find out just how fast he could run and sent himself through a thicket of dense trees unable to stop his own momentum before he had even built up any real speed.
While he was able to reach such speed theoretically, actually doing so would require years of training before he could even see that fast. And that is where the toad sage's gifts truly became appreciated.
The boy had anchor seals that would lock him in place if he didn't stream a constant flow of chakra into them, gravity seals that would prevent him from taking an augmented step forward and finding himself flying through the air. And resistance seals that prevented the individual limbs from being forced to move faster than his ligaments, tendons, and bones could survive.
Not only that, but when they were used without the augmentation, they provided an extreme form of strength and endurance training.
Once more Tsunade resolved to have Hinata begin Naruto's medical training the very moment the boy completed the chakra control training they had developed for him. If she could teach him enough of the right medical knowledge and jutsu she might be able to train him in the reinforcement technique she used and finally pass on her legendary strength.
With a sigh the elder woman turned to her youngest pupil for the moment. Tsunade wasn't certain if she could pass her jutsu to the Hyuuga. Certainly, the girl had talent and determination. But… the Hyuuga clan held several of those who could potentially have the control for duplicating it. And so far the girl was the only one of them she would be willing to allow its use.
She couldn't risk the other Hyuuga obtaining it. Just as well that the girl was as much an outcast in her own clan as Naruto had been in the village.
0o0o0
It was Hinata who figured it out first, although the others had suspected it might be possible. While they had all decided it was for the best to have Naruto and Tayuya kept separate, they oddly ran into eachother more than expected.
They seemed to get hungry at the same times, become restless at the same times, and as it was embarrassingly discovered, the needed the facilities at the sae times too. The incident with the bathroom was one of the few things the redhead seemed truly the victim of.
The girl had been helpful in anyway she could be. She cooked and cleaned, and when she wasn't doing some form of chore, she would be in her room carving into those blocks of wood with the tools the Sanin had gifted her.
She began staring off into space at random times. Hinata had been tasked with discreetly observing the otonin with her byakugan or no one would have caught it. At first no one understood what was going on, but a few times they even heard her mumbling to herself.
Embarrassingly her assigned target wasn't the only one she spied on this way. But due to her careful watch over Naruto as well, the Hyuuga noticed the connection.
Whenever Tayuya stared off into space like that, her eyes would somehow always point in Naruto's direction. And every time the girl mumbled to herself, the amount of demonic fox chakra in her system increased almost insignificantly… but at the same time Naruto's attention span dropped horribly. It was as if he were trying to hear something that wasn't there. Not unlike the times when he spoke to the fox, but no where near as involving.
As he tried to pop the rubber ball, he would get extremely bored and want to talk. Which was how Hinata figured it out.
Tayuya was talking to the Kyuubi! It was because Naruto would get the urge to talk to someone, anyone even, that Hinata knew he wasn't speaking to the fox.
When she told Tsunade of her deduction they decided to investigate. As it turned out, the redhead could hear the fox sometimes and even talk to him, but not often. However she could always tell where Naruto was because of the connection.
Once that came out, the two finally seemed to make up. The closer they were the better the connection. It was as if they could tell what the other was feeling. There was no direct communication between the two of them, and Tayuya could only barely speak with the fox, but she was fully able to discern what mood the blond was in even without the fox chiping in.
With that new found skill, Tayuya was fully able to convey her guilt and understand the guilt Naruto felt for her pain as well. After only an hour of talking with this new understanding, they were on good terms and Naruto had grown attached to her only a matter of hours later.
Not that Hinata was worried because she had Tsunade's blessing and the woman was actively helping her get Naruto affections. Every time Hinata felt a bit of envy she crushed it with venom.
0o0o0
Tayuya had gotten much closer to Naruto, granted she was practically forced to do anything he told her to, so she tried to stay away from him when he wasn't fully alert in case he forgot about it again.
The first time he had forgotten was humiliating enough. Not as bad as biting his butt had been, but not something she'd ever tell anyone about. He'd told her to hurry up and get out of the bath already, because he needed to use the toilet. So there she was, butt naked, half her body soaped, standing in the hall as he tried to figure out why the hell she didn't dry off first.
Alternately, her relationship with the fox had improved. Once the connection had been discovered they began spending time together. She playfully called him names as she knew he would understand that she thought she might like him and was embarrassed about it. Naruto acknowledged his understanding and settled the issue by commanding her to only call him Naruto, but that didn't mean she couldn't suggest them to someone else.
This was someone she could get on with, he was grouchy and stubborn and had even adopted some of her names for Naruto. More and more she found herself enjoying their discussions. Although some of them never got anywhere.
She asked how old he was and he said he never counted. She asked what he liked to do and he refused to tell her more than napping.
She had tried to find out what the fox's name was too… since they had gone through so much effort deciding what to call naruto, it occurred to her, he had to have a name other than fox or nine tails. So for a week straight she would enter the seal and start guessing, then she got and idea and chose one specifically… and the result was that he got angry.
"Scout…" she tested the word in her mouth.
His eye twitched
"Your name is scout!" She coed.
"It is not." Came his matter of fact reply.
"Yes!" She shouted both in her mind and with her voice. Her victorious announcement only seemed to irritate him at first. "I know your name now! It's scout!"
"That's not my name, it doesn't even make sense." The fox had somehow managed to stand in her mind. Not that she could enter the seal as Naruto did, but she somehow knew what position he was in.
"Yeah it does." She quickly retorted. "I think it suits you perfectly! Scout the pyro, fits you almost as good as kyuubi does."
"That is not my name, and I have nothing to do with fire, that's the ne—"
"Are you sure scout?" she interrupted him. When she had tried finding out his elemental affinity incase she could use it in her jutsu he had turned away as he had with his age and likes.
"Stop calling me that."
"But Scoooout," her pouting voice pleaded, "Isn't it your name?"
"No it is not my name!" The fox had actually began getting angry now.
"Well it must be your name because you haven't proven you even have another name and if you don't have one... then that means I get to call you whatever I want and so I'm going to call you Scout!" she declared her logic to him with a knowing confidence.
"Yes, Scout the three hundred and sixty year old pyro!"
"I do too have another name, I just don't want to tell you!"
"No you don't Scout, you just don't want to admit that I'm right!"
"I do too, and that isn't it!"
"Yes. it. is! Scout! Or you would have another name instead! What don't you get about that Scout?"
She knew she had finally won, even before his bellow into her head. "My name isn't Scout! My name is Kurama!"
The fox actually gasped at his big mouth. And then, both of his massive paws covered his mouth. Before she could grin in triumph, she felt the connection between then snap! She had been forcibly cut off from her link to the fox, and by extension, Naruto.
~ Note ~
Congrats go out to scout360pyro who guessed it in his review of chapter 5.
Sorry again for the AN Update. For more frequent progress reports and in depth discussion, Please Friend or follow me on FB. ~ Jordan Tesla Painsake.
While T8: Retroversion will be my main Fic, Five others are on my list to work on at the moment: LATE Naruto: Life After the Ends; Uzumaki: A Lone Fox; The Thousand Ninja; Village Hidden in Plain Sight; and Wisdom of Chance. Also take a look at my newest Naruto Fic, Shrodingher's Fox!
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