Naruto: The Third Eye

Kyuubi Talking

'Thoughts'

Flashback

Chapter Thirteen: Stupid Cave…

Naruto wasn't sure why he agreed to go on a mission with Jiraiya, but he kind of wished he hadn't agreed. The old hermit was teaching him some stuff but he was also annoying him by going off to do his research. It was a waste of time he needed to use to train. If he had eyes he would've have rolled them several times at Jiraiya's antics. Despite all of that, the mission was what made Naruto agree to go along with Jiraiya. He wouldn't go into details, but he did say that it had to do with him.

It had been three days since the mission began and the mission would've probably been finished by now if it wasn't for Jiraiya who insisted on stopping in every town along the way. But finally they made it to their destination. It was a simple cave in the mountains.

"So…this where we're suppose to be isn't it?"

Jiraiya said nothing which was quite surprising. Instead he walked forward towards the cave and examined around it.

"Hm…this cave is not an ordinary one so we should be careful as we make our way through it." Jiraiya said. "There are plenty of traps along the way so we need to keep our guard up at all times."

So the two shinobi ventured forth into an unknown and as soon as they step in, the mouth of the cave is sealed shut by a rock wall and torches lighted up the path ahead.

"Well there's no going back now, even though I wasn't planning." Jiraiya said not panicked in the slightest.

A disturbance up ahead caused the two to focus up ahead. It was a clicking noise that Naruto knew he heard somewhere before. They stepped into a small cavern where the noise seemed to echo everywhere. Jiraiya noticed that the walls were covered with seals. What kind? He could not tell at the moment. Naruto felt chakra being built up around the area and knew that this was not a good sign. The seals began to glow and all exits were shut as the clicking noise got louder. A hand reached out from the floor and made an attempt at grabbing Naruto who quickly jumped out of its reach and into the reach of another. It grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and held on tightly leaving Naruto hanging there. He quickly squirmed out of his jacket and dropped to the floor as the figures with hands crawled out of the walls.

It was a swarm of puppets that appeared out of the seals! Each one looking deadlier then the next. Each puppet moved about surrounding both Naruto and Jiraiya.

"Looks like we're going have to fight in order to progress. Hopefully you're ready for this brat."

"Heh, likewise you old pervert." Naruto said pulling out his sword.

Jiraiya started by pulling out a few summons to aid in the battle. Naruto immediately used his Flash Strike to charge to the nearest one severing its head and arms. He continued hack away at the puppets as Jiraiya to a more cautious approached and used jutsu from a distance. He saw that the puppets would get up after falling and put themselves back together and attacking again. Jiraiya quickly analyzed the situation.

"Damn, why won't these things stay down!"

"Naruto listen. These are puppets right? How do you take a puppet out in a battle?"

"…Of course you have to get the puppet user." Naruto said remembering Kankuro back at the Chunnin Exams. "But how are we going to get all of them. It's clear that there's no one here controlling them."

"The seals are controlling them of course. We need to disrupt the seals in order for them to be deactivated. I'll send a few of bushins to deactivate the seals." Jiraiya said as five Kage Bushins were made. Each one ran off in a different direction. "While the bushins take care of the seals we need to hold them off."

One by one the puppets seem to lessen out as they dropped on the floor and retreated back to wherever they had come from. And eventually they all disappeared and the doors reopened.

"That wasn't so bad, heh." Naruto said smiling.

"I'm sure this is the easiest we'll get from here on out." Jiraiya said which turned Naruto's smile into a serious expression.

'Minato, you really were quite a seal master…'

A Couple Hours Later…

After a few more devastating traps of pit falls with lava, spikes emerging from seals in narrow passage ways, trick walls that got Naruto and Jiraiya lost, they had then finally made it to what they hoped to be the last part of the journey. A small room with a stone table greeted their sights…er…in Jiraiya's case.

"What the hell!? We came all this way just to find an empty room?"

"It appears as though our mission is a failure. Someone has gotten here first it seems." Jiraiya said placing his hand on the place holder for the item they came to get.

Naruto began to feel around the table and his hands came to an imprint of something that was around the place holder.

"Ero-sennin what's this that's on the table?"

Jiraiya scowled a bit at the name, but said, "They appear to be imprints for objects to be placed in them…"

"AHA!" Both Naruto and Jiraiya cried out at the same time. Then they looked at each other curious to find out what the other figured out.

"What'd you find out?" They asked each other at the same time.

"You first." They said at the same time.

"Fine I think that I have the object that must be placed in each imprint." They said again at the same time.

"Okay, stop saying the same thing I'm saying."

"Why don't you? You were saying what I'm saying because you seem to know that we're suppose to do the same thing that I was saying."

"I know and I was saying what you were saying when you kept saying that I'm saying what you were saying about what to do when you insisted on saying what I was saying all along."

"Well if you knew what I was going to say that, then why didn't you stop saying what you knew I was going to say since you seem to know that what your saying is what I'm saying when you kept talking about what to do about what we're saying when we're trying to say that we both know about what to do about the imprint."

"I'm just saying…you know what never mind. We're getting off topic here." Jiraiya said holding his head. "I have this three-pronged kunai here and it seems to fit exactly right in this imprint.

"I do too. A friend of mine named Kenshi gave it to me a couple of years ago and said it was a good luck charm or something. So what does this mean?"

"Well we're going to place these in the imprints and see if anything happens." Jiraiya said as he and Naruto placed them in the slots.

"Hm…well I don't think anything is going to happen seeing as there is another slot that needs to be filled you know." A new voice said. Naruto and Jiraiya quickly turned around to see a figure with a dark blue cloak.

"Who are you?" Jiraiya and Naruto both asked at the same time.

"Damn it, not this again." They said at the same time.

"Then why don't you be quiet." They said at the same time again.

"Well I would but as your teacher and elder you should listen to me."

"Well I never did before and I don't really care…"

The figure in the cloak began to twitch at the display between the sannin and genin.

"Will you shut up already!" the figure said twitching visibly.

"Oh right sorry about that." Naruto said sheepishly before heading back to a serious expression. "Now who are you again?"

"My name is Hiko and that's all you need to know for now. I believe you met my sister, Yuki?"

"Oh so you're her brother."

"Yes and I believe this is what you need to complete your little puzzle." Hiko said pulling out a three-pronged kunai.

"How did you get that?" Jiraiya said. "I never knew how many of those Minato made…"

"You should be able to tell that these kunais are not the same he used on the battlefield. They are separate keys that are brought together by that seal on the table."

Hiko stepped forward and placed the kunai in the last slot. The seal began to glow as the room began to rumble a bit before a wall nearby opened up letting in sunlight from the outside. The top of the table began to shift and it slid to reveal it was a lid that was covering a hole in the ground. Inside were a few documents as well as a medium-sized scroll. Jiraiya reached in and grabbed it. He put it away in a small bag he was carrying.

"Aren't you going to open it?" Naruto asked.

"Not until we see the Hokage about this."

"Well I was hoping to see if it was true about him or not." Hiko said looking in Naruto's direction. "Well I'll most likely find out later. Just know that we're not enemies unless you give me a reason to make you one. My sister seems to trust you a bit after your short encounter. I'll be seeing you then." He vanished out the door.

"Well mission complete. We should head back to the village now right, Ero-sennin?"

"Of course, of course, but first let's stop by that town we stayed at yesterday. I was going to run an errand there."

"Agh you suck." At least teach me something on the way back."

"How about that technique I used to stay hidden back at that hot spring?"

"A technique like that is useless for peeking for me. I can't freaking see."

"Heh, sucks for you. You're missing out on the finer things in life. Like that one lady back in that town…"

Well it's done. If any of you were really hoping to keep reading this story, I apologize. I was somewhat busy, but mostly lazy. Well until next time.