Hi everyone! Here's chapter 7. The only thing importent that happens is Naruto finds a translator, but other than that this is mainly filler. They'll probably start going round the places next chapter.
Reviews:
To all of you who are wondering about Batty and Bawa: These two are basically alter egos that developed their own souls and chakra signatures. Kyuubi thinks that this was caused by a bloodline (which cioncidentaly allows Naruto better control of foreign youkai and chakra). Bawa is the physical representation of Naruto's 'mask'. Batty is like his dark side. In my mind I have Bawa clocked as having formed around the age of six or seven, and Batty shortly after Kyuubi was introduced. That clear things up?
About the whole riddle thing: at the least one person guesed some of the riddle! I won't tell you who, though. You'll have to wait for that.
Please review. Constructive critisism is aways welcome. If you don't like any aspect of the story, please tell me how I can fix it or at the least be polite about it. If you do notice anything wrong with either me getting charcter personality or canon facts from before the VotE fight, please alert me so that I can either purposfully ignore it insted of accidentaly ignoring it, or correct my mistake. Please no flaming about pairings without suggesting a different one(and no flaming about the main pairing). Also, could you guys tell me of any side pairings you'd like to see?
Enjoy!
(within the town)
Koodori and Tsunami wandered around the shopping district of the town in Wave, dragging Hinata along with them.
Crash! They all spun around to where the loud sound had come from, searching the startled crowd. Hinata soon spotted the source of the disturbance and pointed it out to her comrades. There was a frail girl of about eight years being thrown out of a run-down store.
"Get out of here, demon! We don't need the likes of you around here!" he shouted at her. A crowd was beginning to form, and all three could see that they were on the edge of hurting her. There were several voices raised in agreement.
Tsunami bravely marched over to where the girl had collapsed and knelt down beside her. "Hello, dear. What are you doing out here all alone?" she asked. People glared at her for about half a minute before realizing that she was the daughter of the great bridge builder, Tazuna, and shuffled off.
The girl straightened and said proudly, "Tryin' ta get me some grub. People 'round 'ere ain't likin' me much, though." Then, as an afterthought, she added, "I'm an orphan, so I don't have no parents ta take care o' me."
Koodori and Hinata had arrived on the scene by now, and both nodded sympathetically. "Poor dear. Why don't you come home with me for now? We have room," Tsunami offered.
The girl was hesitant, though. "Don't know. Ya sure it ain't too much of a bother?"
"We'd be overjoyed to have another friend to talk to," Hinata said, trying to reassure the girl.
"Naw, your just sayin dat," the child replied sulkily.
Koodori sighed. "Well, first things first, you're going to have to learn how to speak properly," she said.
"No frickin' way in Hell am I goin' ta one o' dose school places, ya hear? I'm perfectly smartical enough!" she shouted, annoyed that they were thinking of sending her off to school. Imagine! There was nothing wrong whatsoever with her grammar, or, at least, that's the way she saw it.
Hinata smiled faintly. "Smartical? I don't believe that that's a word." The girl had the grace to look sheepish. "What's your name?"
"The name's Koneko!" she announced. "Don't have no surname, though."
"Well, we're pretty much done with shopping. Why don't we return to the mansion now to take care of Koneko?" Hinata asked, trying to get out of this embarrassing shopping trip as politely as possible.
Koodori rolled her eyes, knowing what Hinata was trying to pull. "Yeah, and it's getting kinda late. We'll have to finish tomorrow. Maybe we can get Koneko some clothes, too."
Koneko nodded, and gracefully got up off the pavement. "You guys live in a mansion?!?" she asked, astounded. These rich people wanted to take her in?
"It's only a small one," Tsunami said. Koneko didn't give half a damn how big of a mansion it was, a mansion's a mansion! It would definitely be bigger than the space under the Great Naruto Bridge that she shared with countless other homeless people.
Without another word the four started off back home, Koneko trailing cautiously behind. 'They're different from tha others. They're nicer. Ya think we can trust 'em?'
'I smell no hate or anger in their scents. The aura of the black eyed older woman is pure, untainted by lies and decite. The other two's aura's have the taint that comes naturally with being a ninja, though the older white eye's is more tainted than the younger. Both ninja are pure of heart, though, and the girl has one of the kindest souls I've ever seen,' the voice in her head answered.
'Thanks Noraneko. How 'bout we give 'em a chance. Livin' in a mansion, eatin' nice and sleepin' warm, and gettin' me a learnin' sounds mighty nice.'
'Yes, let's see where this all leads to.'
Naruto sighed. He'd ad no luck whatsoever in finding anyone who spoke Russian! I mean, how hard could it be to find someone who spoke one measly language? Apparently, it could be very hard.
'Hey, kit, the sun's beginning to set. You might want to be thinking of getting back to the house,' Kyuubi said.
'No! If we just look a bit longer, I'm sure that we will find someone who speaks this damn language!' Bawa protested.
'Kyuubi's right,' Naruto thought, 'it's getting late. We should head back.'
'But...'
'Hey, brat, stop whining. It's two against one. And I'm not planning on picking a side,' Batty snapped, peeved at Bawa's oblivious attitude.
"Mica, Naruto is going to go back to the place that Naruto is staying now, since the sun is setting. Is such an action okay with Mica?" the blonde fox boy asked his companion, who happened to be hitching a ride on Naruto's shoulder.
The gray fox kit answered, "Mica would be happy to go to a place of rest. Mica is getting tired from staying up so late. Mica also thinks that Naruto should leave the big sword where the big sword was left, since Naruto at the moment wouldn't be able to use the big sword." Naruto nodded in agreement. Her logic made sense. He turned towards the house, temporarily giving up his search. He'd have to remember to ask Tazuna if he knew anyone who could speak Russian.
Neji started to trudge back to the mansion when he noticed the sun setting. He had brought a white shirt and white pants, with a black belt/leg protector thing to go over it. (Imagine his part two outfit. Minus any hints of Hyuuga.) He had also brought colored nonprescription contacts to hide the fact that he was a Hyuuga.
When he arrived at the mansion, he found, to his surprise, that they had even more houseguests. Koodori was hugging and cooing over a gray fox kit. The poor thing looked like it was about to choke to death. Naruto was trying to get her to loosen her grip. Tsunami and Hinata were fussing over an underfed street child, while Inari kept on trying to cajole her into a conversation. Tazuna was nowhere in sight.
"Did I miss something?" Neji asked.
Koodori looked over, not concentrating on the kit for a few seconds, giving it time to escape. "Yeah! Tsunami, Hinata, and I found Koneko, the girl over there, while we were out shopping. We decided to bring her home. Naruto here came home with this cute little fox kit, Mica, ridding on his shoulder. Speaking of, where did she disappear to?" Koodori then began to look around for the vanished fox.
"Koodori scares Mica," Mica said from inside Naruto's pack. The others couldn't hear her, since she was, of course, speaking in fox.
"Koodori is just happy that Mica is with us," Naruto replied, fox grinning.
'Hey, kit, something smells off about that street kid,' Kyuubi said.
'What d'ya mean, off?' Bawa asked.
'She has two scents,' Kyuubi replied.
'Huh? Why? How?' Bawa questioned, confused.
'Bawa, your thick headedness never ceases to astound me. It means that she's either a Jinchuuriki or an Esemono. And her scent doesn't have the taint of an Esemono.' Naruto explained.
Bawa mentally tilted his head. 'What's an Esemono?'
'Someone who was born human but later in their life combined themselves with one or more demon spirits, turning themselves into a half demon.' Batty grumbled. How stupid could one person get?
"Hey, Koneko, is Koneko a Jinchuuriki?" Naruto asked, getting straight to the point. Koneko showed no outward signs of having heard him, but inwardly was in turmoil.
'Should we trust 'im?' she asked her inner demon.
'He also smells like a Jinchuuriki. He is speaking in fox, and his second scent is that of a fox. Just make him promise that he will do nothing to bring you harm and you should be fine,' Noraneko replied.
"Yes. Does fox boy promise to do Koneko no harm?" she asked.
"Yes, Naruto promises. Naruto will not do anything to bring cat girl harm or that has a high chance of hurting Koneko." Naruto reassured her. He found it amusing that she spoke cat better than English. One bonus about speaking in animal languages was that you could always tell the species of the one talking by which dialect they used.
"Okay. Who's Jinchuuriki is Naruto?" she asked.
"The Fox Lord Kyuubi no Kitsune. He's being an ass so I don't know his real name," Naruto grinned, making Noraneko start cracking up in Koneko's head.
'That's just like him,' she said. Noraneko, though not one of the demon lords or ladies, knew Kyuubi personally. She had fought beside him in the Thirteenth Great Demon War, after all.
"My demon is the lower class neko Noraneko," Koneko said.
'I know her! We fought together in the Thirteenth Great Demon War,' Kyuubi exclaimed.
'Who the Hell has thirteen great wars?' Naruto asked.
'That's why there aren't that many demons around today,' Kyuubi shrugged.
"Is Koneko on a friendly basis with Noraneko?" Naruto asked. He knew that the Bijuu could be real bastards, like Shukaku.
"Yup! Nora is very nice to Koneko," she replied. "Is Kyuubi nice to Naruto?"
"He's an egocentric bastard, but over all he's not too bad. Most of my problems with him stem from his I'm-oh-so-much-better-then-you attitude. As far as jackasses go, though, he's fairly nice."
"That's good," Koneko said. By this time it was only the two of them in the room. Tsunami and Hinata had gone off to make dinner, while Neji was in the library, studying. Tazuna was in his home office, working on plans. Mica had slipped off when no one was looking and was now snoozing on Naruto's bed. Koodori was God knows where, looking for something to do.
"Hey, Koneko, what kind of seal do you have?" Naruto asked. The two then spent the next half an hour or so talking about seals, people they had met, places they had been, and all sorts of other things.
"Hey, everyone, dinner's ready!" Tsunami called out. Naruto and Koneko spun around then rushed off to the dinner table. Food! Mica came racing down the stairs, skipping quite a few. She settled in the chair on Naruto's left, looking like she belonged.
Neji and Inari came down from upstairs. Inari settled in the chair across from Koneko. Neji sat to his left, across from Naruto. Koodori came inside and sat to Neji's left, across from Mica. Tazuna sat down at the head of the table. Hinata and Tsunami brought in the food then went to sit down in their separate seats. Tsunami was in between Inari and Koneko. Hinata was having a bit of a problem.
"Uh, excuse me, fox-san, but I would like to sit there," the shy Hyuuga said, too polite to dump the fox on the floor. Mica just blinked at her.
"Mica, Naruto thinks that that is Hinata's seat. Mica could probably sit on Hinata's lap, though." Naruto said.
Mica yipped in agreement and jumped onto the floor. Hinata half bowed to her and sat down, only to discover the devious kitsune's plan when she had a lapful of wriggling fur. Koodori and Koneko started giggling, while everyone else grinned.
Mica settled down into a comfortable position in Hinata's lap, and put her paws on the table, yipping. Hinata, at a loss as to what to do, started petting the excitable kit, causing her tail to wag back and forth really quickly, hitting Hinata in the face, which caused Koodori and Koneko to start giggling, Neji and Tazuna to start chuckling, and Inari and Naruto to start laughing.
"Aw, so cute!" Naruto said, making Hinata invent a whole new shade of red. Tsunami just started shaking her head, grinning.
'She's pretty today,' Naruto thought to the other inhabitants of his body. And indeed she was. Hinata had dressed in one of the outfits that Tsunami had brought for her. It was a purple V-necked shirt with translucent sleeves. The sleeves were a lavender color, and reached to Hinata's wrists, puffing out. The shirt itself was patterned with lowers and leaves. She was wearing low waist jeans. They were embroidered in an assortment of colored threads, and the patterns depicted cats frolicking happily. A decorative tri colored cloth belt complements the outfit. The girls had put a simple white headband on her, contrasting with her dark hair. She was wearing a pearl necklace and black pearl earrings. It wasn't the most stunning outfit ever, but it was a huge contrast from her normal attire.
"You look really pretty in that, Hinata-chan. You should wear stuff like that more often," Naruto said.
Hinata was blushing so much that she almost fainted. 'Naruto-kun thinks that I'm pretty!!!' she thought.
After Hinata had gathered herself enough that she wouldn't faint and had thanked Naruto for his compliment, the rest of the dinner proceeded without too much fuss.
After dinner was over, everyone trudged up to his or her respective bed. Koneko would be sleeping on the couch for the time being, since they were out of spare beds. Mica curled up next to Naruto in his bed, taking up about half of the space, despite the fact that she was an isty bitsy fox kit.
(the next morning)
"Hey, Tazuna, do you know anyone who speaks Russian?" Naruto asked.
"Why would you need someone who speaks Russian?" Neji asked. They'd all gotten up on time today, and were all gathered 'round having breakfast.
"I need some parts of a riddle translated," Naruto explained, showing them the letter.
'I can speak Russian, Ko,' Nora told her host.
"No, I don't know anyone who speaks Russian. Sorry kid," Tazuna said.
"I know some 'un," Koneko said.
"Really?" Koodori asked.
Koneko nodded. "Yup, one o' me friends." To Naruto she added, "Nora speaks Russian quite fluently apparently."
Naruto inclined his head. "Could you take me to meet this friend of yours sometime today?" he asked.
"Sure," she replied.
"Hey, Koneko, is it okay if we buy you clothes without you being there?" Tsunami asked. If she was helping Naruto with the translations she'd probably be busy for a while.
"No prob'," the neko's container answered.
The group all went their separate ways, Koodori and Tsunami to buy clothes for Koneko, Hinata and Neji to train, Inari and Tazuna to school or work. Naruto gave the riddle to Koneko to translate. She had it finished in about half a minute.
"Huh, cool," she said, inserting the meanings of words into the text. The final result was: Some will say do not sea, but that is where you shall find the first clue. The path will lead you to the snake'slair. The two leg fish will show you entrance, but beware of red herrings. Monsters they are called, though do not be deceived by the color of their scales.
'What the heck does that mean?' Bawa asked.
'Well, the first two lines probably mean that we will find it somewhere nearby the sea,' Kyuubi said.
'Snake's lair reminds me of Orochimaru, and two leg fish of that Akatsuki guy, Kisame,' Naruto added.
'There are many snakes in this world, and probably more than one two leg fish. The riddle also says to beware of red herrings. We can't jump to conclusions,' Kyuubi warned.
'Uh, guys, what does red herring mean?' Bawa asked.
'A red herring is something that's fake, stupid,' Batty snapped, irked by how utterly idiotic Bawa was. How the hell could you be a moron when both of your alter egos are incredibly smart?
'Don't call me stupid!' Bawa shouted.
Kyuubi growled. 'Shut up, you two!'
Koneko had been staring blank eyed at the piece of paper for about a minute now. "Nora says that there's a group o' fish demons dat live some'air close ta tha shore. Their rankin' is based on scale color. She ain't able ta remember where, though."
"Really? That could be what this is referring to. I'm going to go get a map," he said, climbing up the stairs. If he was planning on finding a map it would probably be in Tazuna's office.
Naruto came down about fifteen minutes later, having finally located a map. Koneko was sitting in the same position he had left her in. The only difference was that there was a previously full box of cookies lying emptily next to her hand. "Didn't save any cookies for me?" he asked.
"There's more in tha kitchen," she replied.
Naruto shrugged and sat down, spreading the map out in front of them. "The likely looking places are the Sea Country, Water Country, Moon Country, Tea Country, and Wave Country. We should look to see if any of these places have snake Jinchuuriki, fish Jinchuuriki, native snakes, fish hybrids, fish demons, or ninja that are fish or snake orientated."
"Okay," Koneko agreed. "I'll ask some o' the uh-tha kids if dey've 'eard anything."
"I can't do much right now, so I'm going to go train," Naruto said. Koneko nodded.
The two then split up, one heading to town, the other to a secluded clearing. Naruto took with him the scroll that he'd sealed the other scrolls into. He arrived at the very clearing that he and his team had trained in last time they were here in a matter of minutes. He figured that this was out of the way enough.
Naruto formed a few seals and called out, "Gizensha Bunshin no jutsu!" causing Bawa to form outside of his body in doppelganger form, before solidifying into an almost exact copy of Naruto. This one lacked the whiskers, though. "You practice the Hyoton. I'm going to look through these scrolls," Naruto said. Bawa nodded and walked away a bit.
Naruto then opened the scroll and drew some blood across the seal that the Forbidden Scroll was held behind. When he had it in his possession, he summoned nine shadow clones, making for a total of ten of him. He told each one to create their own clones and have each group learn a different jutsu. He ended up having close to a thousand clones spread out around various clearings in the forest in groups of a hundred, working on their separate jutsus.
The sun had started to set when he dismissed all of his clones. A battered and bruised Bawa regrouped with him. "How far did you get?" Naruto asked, curious.
"I can make the water a lot colder, and hold that for an entire minute now!" Bawa boasted. It didn't sound like much, but Bawa wasn't very good at copying bloodlines and then mastering them yet, and any progress he made with Hyoton was shaky and hardly worth the effort. If he actually managed to master it, though, that'd be a whole other story.
"Let's head back," Naruto said. Bawa nodded and dismissed the jutsu.
'You two do know that tonight's the night of the new moon, right?' Kyuubi reminded them.
'I'd been hoping that you'd forget,' Naruto said. He knew that that was extremely unlikely, of course.
'Yeah, right. Like I'd forget something as important as freedom, as temporary as it may be,' Kyuubi snarled.
'I can dream, can't I?' Naruto asked. Kyuubi just shrugged. The fox boy then set off for the mansion, looking forward to dinner, seeing as how he'd managed to forget to eat lunch.
'I'm hungry,' Bawa whined.
'Yes, and that's why we're going to get some food, baka,' Batty replied.
'Stop arguing, you two,' Naruto scolded.
This continued for the rest of the run back, the two alter egos not shutting up until they arrived home and smelled food. This dinner went pretty much the same way, with everyone talking and Mica acting cute. Koneko told Naruto that she'd found a couple of rumors, but it was nothing certain yet. It would take a few more days to confirm anything worthwhile. Naruto didn't mind overmuch, though. He could use the time to train. He still hadn't managed to master any of the techniques found in the Forbidden Scroll, after all.
Oh, and Kyuubi was sure to remind him before he went to sleep of their deal. So, therefore, the fox got one night to run around pranking people. Yup. A millennia old fox was pulling quite childish pranks. Though, if you think about it, that is typical fox behavior.
Translations:
Koneko- kitten
Noraneko- stray or alley cat
Jinchuuriki- literally 'power of human sacrifice'. someone who has a demon sealed in them
bijuu- tailled beast. basically a demon
Esemono- fake, conterfeit, that kind of stuff. like Naruto said, this is someone who started out as human and then combimned themselves with demon(s) later on, turning themselves into a half demon. In my story people who do ths are considered evil
neko- cat
kitsune- fox
kyuubi- nine tail
Gizensha Bunshin no Jutsu- fox in a lamb's clothing clone technique. Naruto uses this to bring out his inner selves and temporaril give them physical bodies