CHAPTER 20: Kaleidoscope

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Panic made people react in strange ways.

In this case, Toru froze completely. This night had simply been too much.

Naruto tried to figure out if there was a way they could escape. He came up short. Gaara, even when less than half-transformed, had had the reach to prevent them from leaving.

Sasuke thought. Fast.

"We need to seal it." He said, as if this were the simplest thing in the world.

"What do you mean? We have nothing that could contain it. This is a Tailed Beast, like the Nine-Tails that attacked Konoha!" Naruto shot back.

"Then seal it within me."

"The hell are you talking about?" Naruto asked. "This is the dumbest thing I've heard!"

Sasuke smiled a mirthless grin. "I don't think we really have a choice, actually." He looked at Gaara's seal. "Besides, I can't do it myself, you're the seals guy."

"I can't seal a fucking Tailed Beast!"

"Why not?" Sasuke muttered. "Copy that guy's seal. You're good enough."

Goddamn it.

He was even considering it.

Gaara's seal was unraveling already, and it would be easy enough to figure out how to copy it if he forced it open completely.

"You want to seal a Tailed Beast within yourself?!" Toru asked. "Are you completely mad?"

"I have the Sharingan. I think Itachi could teach me how to control the Beast." Sasuke added. "That's the only option.. There's only desert for the next few hundred kilometers. The Beast had control over sand. I don't think we're going to make it anywhere."

Toru said nothing. Which was as good as agreement, when it came to him.

Naruto palmed his face. He let out a long scream.

Then he popped a soldier's pill. He spoke, so nervous he felt almost calm again.

"Let's seal a Tailed Beast, then."

"This seal is faulty." Naruto said.

"What do you mean?"

"I think it was meant to let the host access the Bijū's chakra, but it's… shoddy. It lets the Tailed Beast through almost entirely. I think the only reason this holds is because the One-Tail is supposed to be the weakest of the Nine."

"Oh." Sasuke thought. "Can you fix it?"

"No way, this is way beyond me."

"Is there anybody who could?" Toru asked.

"The old man could, probably. If not, one of his former students is apparently a seal master."

"That's good enough for me." Sasuke nodded.

"…Sasuke, it could be days before we reach the village. That is… If we manage."

"Any better idea?" Sasuke snarked.

No answer.

"That's what I thought, too."

The seal, having been forced open by Naruto to copy it, was unraveling faster.

Beige chakra was leaking from Gaara's broken body.

Naruto and three of his clones sat around it, sealing matrix already drawn.

Sweat was pouring down their faces.

Sasuke stood in the middle of a hastily drawn sealing matrix. On his left shoulder, the same seal that had been drawn on Gaara's shoulder stood, burning red.

The matrix on the ground would be compacted into it once the transfer was over. The chakra leaking from Gaara was transferred at a steady rate into the seal on Sasuke's shoulder.

His only job was to open his tenketsu as wide as he could, to accommodate for the foreign nature of the creature that would soon be part of him… And pull the chakra inside him.

Toru was overseeing the chakra transfer, not heeding the strain his eyes were under.

They had started shortly before dawn had come.

Now… The sun had set again.

None of them could tell for sure for long they had been there.

But if they lost their focus, if only for an instant, death would ensue.

"Guys."

"…"

"Guys!"

Toru lifted bleary eyes towards him. His Sharingan was still on, and he had consumed more soldier pills than what was normally allowed.

Sasuke kept his eyes closed but answered him.

"…Is it done?"

"Yes. I think so. Gaara's seal is dull again, and there's no more chakra in the air."

Sasuke opened his eyes. They were still black, but Naruto could see a hint of something golden, and very inhuman within them.

'It must have worked, then.'

Sasuke stared at Gaara, and turned his Sharingan on. There were three tomoe spinning in each eye, now, and the red of it seemed brighter somehow, leaving a hazy red halo in the air.

"You're right. Gaara's seal is completely dead. There's nothing inside it."

"I think we did it…?"

Toru fell on his back.

"Oh, god. Oh god."

Naruto started to relax, as well. Maybe they could sleep. How long had they been up, again…?

Sasuke's instincts screamed.

"SOMEBODY'S HERE!"

A cold, low voice answered.

"My… what a warm welcome."

Two men had appeared out of nowhere.

A red-haired man with hair in a ponytail.

A man wearing an orange mask.

Both wearing black robes with red clouds.

'This is the worst night of my life.' Naruto thought.

Uzumaki Ryūjin was apparently back for them. And he had brought company.

The orange mask seemed familiar, somehow, but he couldn't figure out why.

His lone eye stopped on him.

"A sharingan?!" he averted his eyes, but it was too late. He had already been caught.

His body froze entirely.

"So… Little Sarutobi is more than what meets the eye, then?" The masked man asked, in dark amusement.

The Uzumaki laughed. "Apparently, yes. And it seems the three of them are moving up in the world. Killing a jinchūriki… If an unstable one, at the age of thirteen?"

He whistled. "And then sealing it immediately thereafter. It's a good thing we're not leaving you to your own devices, I guess. Who knows what you could have done with more time."

"Enough talking, Uzumaki. We're here for a single reason. The Fourth's legacy. We'll come for the other one later, he shall be the last."

He started moving toward Naruto.

Toru stood up on shaky legs.

He stood there defiantly, just like Kurenai-sensei had done.

Sasuke wanted to scream, but found himself so low on energy that he just managed to fall forward.

What he wanted to say, he didn't know.

'Leave us?'

'Protect us?'

Nothing would help here.

The masked man moved so fast that Naruto thought he had dreamed it.

His kunai cut through Toru's throat smoothly. He then disposed of it by letting it fall in the bloodied sand.

Toru choked on his blood, eyes wide.

He died like this.

Naruto felt Sasuke's chakra spike, but the Uzumaki did something to him. Sasuke stayed on the floor, silent tears running down his face.

Naruto was sure the same thing was happening to him.

Then the red-head picked him up, carrying him on his shoulder as if he weighed nothing. He was still unable to move, or even see Sasuke.

"I'm kinda sorry for you, little Uchiha." Uzumaki said. "This one is about to die, too." He said, pointing at Naruto, who felt his insides turn cold.

The man with the Sharingan shrugged.

Uzumaki continued. "Maybe it would be a mercy to kill you too."

"No." The other man declared.

"… And why not take him now, boss?"

The masked man laughed, it was a sinister sound.

"His seal is much too unstable; I do not want to deal with a Beast blowing up in our faces. And... I just don't feel like killing any more family tonight. Let him live for now. We'll be back for him."

The Uzumaki snorted, and disappeared with Naruto's body in the vortex.

The Uchiha traitor stared at Sasuke.

"I will see you around, little Uchiha."

He then disappeared.

Sasuke would not forget this rogue Uchiha.

Sasuke thought of Naruto. Captured. Soon to be dead, for reasons he didn't understand.

He thought of Toru. Dead at thirteen. His own cousin, who had been his brother in all but blood.

Both dead.

By his fault.

If he hadn't brought them here…

If he had been stronger…

If they had left earlier…

The Bijū inside him laughed. It was a shrill sound, full of the same madness Sasuke was feeling echoing within him.

He felt like screaming.

His emotions burned.

The Tailed Beast mirrored him, roaring at the world.

His eyes bled.

He felt them change, get stronger, darker.

Sasuke was ready to let the world burn. His chakra manifested his will, and even sand was set ablaze.

Except…

Somebody was calling him.

He knew this voice. He called the flames back, wrestling for control.

It took everything he had.

He lifted his tired eyes, not believing what he was seeing.

Toru, alive. And crying.

He had survived…?

Where was the wound that had killed him…? There was nothing there but a small nick along his throat.

One of his eyes was entirely blank. Without even asking, Sasuke knew this one was blind.

Toru said nothing. He just put both of his arms around him, holding onto him for dear life.

Sasuke did, too.

They cried.

Of Naruto, there was nothing left but his bloody necklace.

No… That was not it.

He could not explain how, but Sasuke felt the blades that Naruto had summoned rest inside him.

Sure enough, he could manifest them both, by using his chakra.

This was all that was left of their teammate. He had died because they were not strong enough.

Two times had been enough.

Sasuke had learned his lesson.

He would have to become the strongest ninja of this era.

Then he would not have to lose anyone else.

Sasuke had given him the shortest sword, separating the daishō in two.

How that worked exactly, neither of them knew for sure, but in exchange for a very slight chakra drain, Toru could keep the wakizashi manifested.

If he stopped feeding it chakra, it went back to Sasuke.

That was Naruto's.

He had no chakra to spare right now, but he would change that soon.

He would get strong enough to keep it close, as a memento.

And strong enough to never again feel as useless as he did today.

Once they swirled out of the vortex, Naruto was dumped unceremoniously on the floor.

"Tobi. Suijin. I see you've succeeded." A man said, his voice raspy and tired.

'Suijin..?'

So the man who had carried him here was not the same as last time?

His chakra felt just as powerful, befitting an S-rank ninja… but it did have a slightly different feeling to it..

"Yes." The man named Tobi replied.

"Bring him to me. I will extract the Nine-Tails right away."

He felt himself get picked up again.

Naruto couldn't speak.

'Nine-Tails…? What the hell were they talking about?'

Naruto could see some of the people in the room.

Besides the man carrying him, there were two other people with the same shade of red hair.

One was definitely Ryūjin. Now that he saw the face he hated so much, — and saw him wink — he wondered how he could have mixed Kurenai's killer, the one who had maimed Sakura, with the guy currently carrying him.

They looked similar enough, but the differences were there.

Brothers. Twins, maybe.

And then there was the other red-head.

This one was so emaciated he looked like a corpse.

His chakra was terrifying, though. It dwarfed Gaara's… even Fū's in intensity.

His purple, ringed eyes stared at him the whole time.

Naruto was afraid.

The man — someone had called him Nagato — completed a long series of hand signs.

A statue rose up from the ground.

"It is time." Nagato said.

Other people sat in a circle around Naruto's body.

"Sarutobi almost fooled us, but this is undeniably the boy. The Nine-Tails is ours, now. ."

Naruto felt something pull from deep behind his navel.

He felt indescribable pain, and lost consciousness soon enough.

Naruto was floating in what seemed to be space.

There was something that seemed to be light, but he knew it really wasn't.

He felt as if he were falling.

He felt as if were rising.

He was in pain.

He felt free.

Then the incoherent jumble of feelings stopped abruptly.

He woke up in the water.

Where he was, he could not say.

There was something calling to him.

He was stuck in a maze. A maze of sewers.

He walked along the path, entirely dazed.

After what seemed like minutes, he reached a gate.

There had been a seal on it, but it had been ripped.

There seemed to be nothing inside the cage but darkness.

He moved closer.

"Naruto."

Naruto stopped moving. Somebody was here with him.

A man with blond hair. A white coat.

He had seen this face before on the mountain.

"Lord… Fourth?" Naruto asked, in wonder.

The man nodded. "I worked this failsafe into the seal in case the Nine-Tails ever got close to freedom. It seems the time has come."

"What..?"

"And I was looking forward to seeing my son, even if now seems like a bad moment."

"…What the hell are you talking about?!"

Nagato nodded in satisfaction.

By his estimations, they had extracted around seven tails of the Nine-Tails chakra. It had taken close to two entire days, with all of them here, but they were close.

They'd be done soon.

The Fourth seemed surprised.

"You are my son, Naruto. I'm the one who named you."

"That's impossible!" He said vehemently.

"…Why would that be impossible?"

"Because I'm a Sarutobi!"

"…What?"

"My Father, Sarutobi Ren died before I was born. My mother died giving birth to me."

"…Well the second part is true enough, I guess. But Sarutobi Ren..? What are you talking about?"

Namikaze Minato knew of Ren, but he couldn't figure why his son was convinced the man who's biggest claim to fame was his high alcohol tolerance had anything to do with him.

"That's right, the clan told me about him. And they told me my mother was a whore. What does it even matter?"

Minato stood there, dumbfounded.

A quiet chuckle reverberated from the back of the cage.

One single opened, as big as a man. Teeth that could break through a house gleamed in the dark.

"This is probably the most amusing thing I have heard in years."

Minato ignored him.

"…Who told you all of this? Is Hiruzen still alive?"

"Of course he is. HE told me about it."

Minato looked as if he had been punched in the face.

The creature in the cage laughed, harder and harder.

"This is what tends to happen when you trust humans, little Hokage."

Why had the Third done this…?

Even in his mindscape, Naruto had brown hair and eyes. That was how he saw himself.

Adopting his son, he would have understood.

But hiding… everything from him and having him grow up as the son of a prostitute and a drunkard?

Was Hiruzen trying to make his son dependent on him…?

It was not unheard of for the village leader to make sure the Jinchūriki were loyal solely to them.

The same thing had been done to people with strong abilities, if in a different way.

Iwa, for one, after having participated in the sacking of Uzushio, had stolen some of the children, and had them grow up in specific homes, erasing all traces of their heritage. They would grow up loyal to their new clan… and their village.

Brainwashing them, basically.

He had never expected the same to happen to his son.

"Set me free, little Hokage. Your son will die soon enough, anyway. This way, I will avenge both of you. You have my promise."

He ignored the Nine-Tails.

Minato felt terrible about what had happened with his son. He wished he had more time.

He wished he could explain everything.

But he did not have the time. Not if he wanted his son to live.

Maybe if Kushina managed to speak to him, she could do it.

"Hear me out, Nine-Tails. I will strike a bargain with you."

"Hear me out, Nine-Tails. I will strike a bargain with you."

So the creature behind the bars was definitely the Nine-Tails, then.

The creature quieted, his eyes bright with intelligence. This was nothing like the One-Tail had been.

The Fourth turned to face him.

"The Third lied to you about many things. He also hid who you truly were. Why, I don't know for sure, I can only surmise."

"…"

"But I can assure you of one thing." He said, his blue eyes staring deep into his. "Just as sure as I am Namikaze Minato, you were born as Namikaze Naruto. Though me and my wife, Uzumaki Kushina, considered having you take the Uzumaki surname."

"…"

'I don't think he's lying.'

It felt like his whole world was turned upside down.

He was the son of the Fourth Hokage, not a Sarutobi.

He was an Uzumaki, not related to the Third at all.

He was a Jinchūriki. The jailer of the Nine-Tails.

He wondered who knew. He wondered who else had lied to him.

And he wondered why.

Naruto felt anger brewing inside him. He would find out the truth.

The Fourth continued. "Somebody tightened the Nine Tails' seal. It is burrowed deeper inside you. That's likely why you were never able to access its chakra, like you were supposed to."

"…"

"The people who captured you are almost done extracting the Nine-Tails from you."

"…What do I do?"

Minato smiled painfully. "Let me help you. Saving you is the least I can do for my son."

"Speak your terms, Fourth Hokage."

"I know you're fading out. What will happen to your consciousness once their plan comes through, I do not know."

"…"

"If you help us… Then I will help you."

The Nine-Tails snorted.

"Bah. There's nothing you can do. You've been dead for years now."

"Lend us your remaining power. With it, I can free Naruto. He will get you out of here, as soon as he can."

The Nine-Tails paused.

Then it started laughing.

"Insolent human. Were it not for this cage, I would devour you."

Minato stood still, waiting.

The Beast stared at him for almost a minute.

"…There is no guarantee the child will survive."

"No." Minato said, closing his eyes. "Maybe he won't."

"So why should I even bother listening to you?"

Naruto stood with bated breath.

The Fourth answered. "Because if you do nothing, you're guaranteed to stay trapped in this statue until these people are done with you. With this way, you at least have a chance."

"…"

"So…. What will it be? Do you prefer being trapped with your nine tails for the rest of your existence..."

The Nine-Tails closed its eyes.

"Or will you take a chance on us…? Seven tails of your power is already more than you know what to do with. You would only sacrifice about a fifth of your power. For a chance at freedom."

"This is why I hate you humans so much."

"Do we have a bargain, Nine-Tails?"

"I have one condition."

"Tell us."

"I want my freedom. When your son frees me… And he will have no choice but to, as he needs my chakra to survive… I want him to let me go."

"No. That will kill him."

"Then I won't agree to your terms."

"Then you will die."

"So will he."

They stared at each other, neither budging.

"…Upon his death. Upon his death, he will set you free. You won't be trapped into any other human, you have my promise."

The Nine-Tails stared at him.

"On the condition that you never harm any other human."

The Beast grunted.

"No. There is a certain human I plan on devouring. And I won't stand still if humans ever come looking for me again. I know they will."

Minato let out a sigh. This was likely true.

"Then leave them alone, as long as they leave you alone. Besides that masked man with the Sharingan - and that's him, I assume." His smile was hard. "This one you can have. If my son doesn't get him first."

The Nine-Tails grunted in vague approval. "Then I'll leave them mostly alone. I want nothing to do with your kind anyway."

Minato nodded.

"And there is another matter at hand. You have sealed half my power away. I want it back."

"This is beyond me. It is sealed in the Shinigami's belly, and I am dead."

"Then have your son find a way."

"I can't promise you this."

"You're not the one I was asking."

Minato sighed. This was a hard bargain. And who knew what breaking a contract with a Bijū entailed.

This was the best he would negotiate today. He looked toward his son.

"Naruto, do you agree?"

"Tell us your answer, human."

Naruto closed his eyes. "I've managed my whole life without the Nine-Tails' power. I'll just have to figure out how to reach this Shinigami thing, then."

He opened them.

"Yes."

Nagato noticed the flow of chakra stopped, a bit earlier than expected. The Jinchūriki was dead then.

The statue was seemingly full.

Such a rich chakra that was, too.

Konan helped him walk up to it. He felt Tobi's eyes on him.

He wasn't sure what was going through the man's mind, but whatever it was, he didn't try to stop him.

Nagato summoned the Preta Path.

He reached with his hand to the statue and started taking in the Nine-Tails's mighty chakra.

A few instants later, and he looked like a man decades younger.

More importantly, his legs, just like the rest of his body, had healed entirely.

Power flowed through his body, more than he had felt in years.

He was whole again.

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