Infinity

Chapter Two

Mount Koryū was a good spot for dragons. And since you'd be insane to try fighting or robbing a dragon, it was a safe place for Hitomi's body to be laid to rest. The grave was crude, as was the marker of a pair of logs tied together to make a cross, still...even though burying the dead in the ground was a human custom, she felt that Hyūga Hitomi deserved a place where her grave would be undisturbed. Though why humans felt like sticking their dead in a box and lowering them into the ground after turning them into some chemically stabilized exhibition after they were embalmed seemed strange and wrong to her.

Then again, she wasn't human—merely in the shape of one. And dragons incinerated their dead so not even the bones were left. And a draconic burial rite would leave nothing left. Naruto at least deserved to know his "nee-sama" had a proper grave. She wasn't allowed to resurrect the dead, and had only been able to change Kushina into a dragon because she had still had some life in her.

In the four years, since her initial interference, Ophis had taken the time to study up on this dimension, and one of the things she'd found out was that in spite of these lands all having a universally agreed upon law where to defile the dead was to earn a grave of your own, Konoha was hardly even up to being sub-par with enforcing those laws. In fact, Ophis suspected that when the grave of the Shodaime Hokage was defaced by Orochimaru, it was done under orders of the Sandaime to develop a way to allow there to be further Muton-users.

While Ophis, and anyone that knew her, would have to wonder why she was so concerned about Hitomi, the dragoness assumed it was because the woman mattered to her eventual mate.

Dragons themselves were fierce and proud (some of them even arrogant) species, and answered to no one and nothing, took whatever pleased them, and bore no thoughts of kindness or concern for any except kith and kin. That said, kindness was a universal concept that even dragons could respect, and the dead woman had been kind to Naruto.

With that task fulfilled, Ophis had to wonder how those two were doing.

Naruto followed Ibiki, he knew the scared adult worked for the bad man his kaa-chan always told him about. And just by looking, the four-year-old didn't doubt it. Guy certainly looked mean enough on his own to prove it. But he couldn't understand why everyone around them was looking at him as if he were the bad one.

Kushina growled at the villagers that they passed, daring them to try anything to her baby. Her presence was enough to ensure they didn't. An obviously predatory reptile that had skin made of barely cooled molten rock and riddled with cracks, both large and small, showing off it's glowing lava insides, with vicious fangs, deadly claws and a thrashing whip-like tail, as well as vicious looking wings, not to mention it let off heat like lava from a volcanic eruption, accompanied by the noxious fumes that accompanied said catastrophic event? No one was at all willing to try their luck and risk being mauled by it.

Which suited Kushina just fine. Seemed that strange girl actually had done her a favor beyond allowing her to simply continue living, after all. No one would be able—or willing—to harm her sochi as long as she could protect him, and this volcanic dragon body was so intimidating that it got the point not to even try hurting him at all unless you were eager to die across perfectly.

Noting this, Ibiki made a mental note of how protective the creature was. Scowling at the thought, the tokubetsu jōnin that served as the commanding officer of the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force made one clear, inevitable conclusion: that animal had to go. Shinobi were supposed to be suspicious and untrusting. To rely only on themselves and their own strengths. The world did not belong to the weak. It belonged only to the strong. Love was nothing but a comforting illusion for those that were soft...and soft things die easily, hard things could endure.

That creature would only hinder teaching this brat that lesson, keep Ibiki from honing the raw material tailing behind him into Konoha's ultimate weapon, as were the instructions of the Hokage.

Before long, the unlikely trio reached Ibiki's home. Turning, Naruto gave his kaa-chan a smile, glad she was with him. He didn't know what would happen now, but as long as she was there, he knew it would be ok.

"Get inside." Ibiki growled to his new charge, aiming to use how he was such a large, imposing figure, complete with a rugged head and face covered with old wounds and scars, to scare the child into compliance. For extra effect, he removed his bandanna-like hitai-ate to expose a collection of burn marks, punctures from where screws were used, and long slash marks all over him.

All he got for his trouble was Having to dodge a blast of molten rock from the beast with him as it glared at him for treating the twerp like that. Shooting it a glare, he then rounded on the young weapon-to-be, "That thing stays out here." the tokubetsu jōnin said, pointing at Kushina. She narrowed her eyes and hissed at him, but she would've smirked if she could at what Naruto did. The four-year-old, not liking how the man had referred to his mother, landed a palm strike under the adult's rib cage with all the strength he could muster. And added onto that, Ibiki felt a burning sensation where he was struck. One that felt unwelcomingly familiar.

'Damn that Hyūga Hitomi!' the scarred man thought. It was inevitable, he supposed, that the woman had taught the twerp the basics of jūken?! No wonder the Sandaime ordered her assassination! Granted, he wasn't a Hyūga, and therefore lacked the Byakugan, so he'd missed any of the tenketsu that ran along Ibiki's Keirakukei...but it still hurt like a bitch! As soon as he doubled over, Kushina pounced and pinned the man under her, the next moments were a blur of snapping fangs, ripping claws, blasts of flame and pain for the torture expert.

"...Ok...forget I said that..." he said after five hours and the angry animal had gotten off him. His already-scarred face was now bloody with claw marks, both his shoulders had been bitten nearly all the way through, and his torso was a mess of cauterized slash marks and burns, what was more, he felt sick from the noxious fumes emitted by the animal's body.

Kushina snorted smoke and marched inside the house, Naruto smiled and followed his Kaa-chan.

The Morino sighed. He wasn't looking forward to having to tell his leader some lizard-thing was going to be mucking up his leader's plans...especially since the Sandaime had made it clear he wanted the two assets as a shinobi/animal fighting pair, much like the Inuzuka and their hounds. But how could he do his job with that thing alive, or at least around? He sighed, this would take some thinking. He rubbed where the kid's jūken had struck him...it was a step in the proper direction that he already had some mentoring in self-defense under his belt, and he hadn't even gotten down the basics of reading and writing yet, unnecessary luxuries as those were to the plans the Sandaime had for the asset—weapons were supposed to be dumb. You give a weapon a mind, and all of a sudden, you had to convince it to do what you wanted, that wasn't what Konoha needed—but it didn't mean that dealing with a jūken blow was enjoyable, nor was being attacked by that lizard-thing...the runt would be paying for those injuries first thing tomorrow, Ibiki was going to make sure of that.

But what was this feeling of being watched he had?

Meanwhile, Ophis and Great Red were observing things from the Gap using Ophis's light orb again, the female dragon having returned after giving Hitomi her funeral.

Great Red howled with laughter. "Bakas! They're all COMPLETE BAKAS! Trying to get between an angry, protective, mother dragon and her hatchling like that! Especially a catastrophe-class breed like a volcanic dragon you turned that woman into! There's safer, easier ways to kill yourself! I had no idea ANY race could produce something THAT STUPID! Ha! Humans are such fools!"

The Ouroboros Dragon nodded. "Well, the old man, his old comrades from his generation, and his unquestioningly obedient followers are. But not all are as foul or foolish." the lolita commented.

"You know...I'm surprised you didn't take that woman's body to the Elysium Realm to have her brought back to life by being changed into a devil or angel." Red told her.

Ophis sighed at that, feeling horrible.

"I would have, but the clan she belongs to...they have a very warped code of treating their family members as servants. Even include a cursed brand that destroys the cerebral nerve to render the ones with it unable to rebel. And while that devil, Ajuka, made Evil Pieces to repopulate the devil species, there are those who use it to get servants and force people into harems, and if the reincarnated individual rebels for any reason, they're labeled a criminal regardless of how they were treated by their masters and hunted down. All things considered, Hitomi-dono would've hated that for the similarities between the two systems.

And the angles are too withdrawn to accept those who aren't fanatically loyal to the point that they bleed the tenants of the christian pantheon or they increase the number of "Fallen" angels...and the black-winged angels are seen as traitors to be executed by Heaven, and devils ignore the "fallen" and see only the "angel", so they seek to kill them for that, so not only do fallen angels have nowhere to belong, but they suffer aggression from both of the other sides, it's why many of them go insane. There was no good choice."

Red looked at Ophis, she truly was depressed. Not that he could blame her, the situation and circumstances were horrible. She was right about what she had pointed out as the issues that kept her from seeing to the restoration of her eventual mate's nest-guard. And all that having to happen simply because of one corrupt human! It was sickening!

"Better to be free in death, then to be subjected in life, is it?" Red snorted, "Humans...they truly are fools. Ultimately, they only excel at causing harm."

"True as that may be, humans are the shortest-lived and most fragile creatures in existence. They can't obtain or understand true wisdom that comes from the experiences accompanying longevity. The Devil Civil War was an example of that, it pit those whom understood the horror that comes spending a near-infinite life in a pointless genocide war and understood the wisdom and necessity of peace against those who mistook senseless death and destruction as glory." Ophis pointed out.

"Hmm...true, short lifespans are too problematic when seeking to hone one's wisdom enough to make an impact. There are those who can achieve such wisdom in spite of that, though, but they are dangerously few and far between."

Ophis nodded. Why did she feel so uneasy? Looking at the orb again, she couldn't help but wince. Something told her that she'd want to just say "Screw it all" about the laws of the cosmos that said she couldn't get directly involved again and just torch Konoha with pure antimatter to erase the village and everything about it from the world soon...and the reason for it was a certain blue-eyed redhead!

A/N: Okay, I admit it: this chapter is mostly a mood-setter and a bridge. I hope that covers everything about giving a general idea of what Naruto's life is going to consist of, as well as why Ophis CAN'T do as much as she WANTS to in the coming chapters. Rest assured, I WILL give Naruto good moments in this, but remember: Konoha is corrupt in this under Hiruzen Sarutobi. Now, I'm NOT going to say that a different person as Hokage will magically fix everything. If I did, it'd be a lie. People can easily get set in their ways, so if Konoha followed Hiruzen long enough, they wouldn't see any real problem with continuing to follow his example. There will be some good apples in Konoha, though, but mostly, it'll be a bad bunch and most of Naruto's good experiences will come from OUTSIDE the village.