A strange new life

7.13

“And then Hinata-chan, the bone freak said: ‘You’re too important and amazing Naruto-kun; I’m taking you somewhere nefarious to do horrible, horrible things to you.’”

I had already met with Kakashi-sensei and invited him for dinner at Sasuke’s. I wasn’t sure if he would attend. His response left me more confused than anything else. He just nodded, patted my head, gave me a sad eye-smile, spouted one lame excuse or another, then fled. Yes, fled. 

What did I do to scare off Kakashi-sensei?

Now, Naruto, Karin, and I were at the brat’s favorite ramen stall, slurping down tasty noodles while the sunshine brat told the details of his mission. This was the same day after I crafted the new weight seals. Karin had hers, and I often caught her fiddling with her bracelets between giggles. Was it still too heavy? Should I craft a set for Naruto as well?

I was somewhat skeptical about the whole story. It might be just a hunch, but I think Naruto was exaggerating things—just a little bit.

Before the retelling started, I had told Naruto about dinner at Sasuke’s. To no one's surprise, Naruto was more than happy to attend. Given how he was obsessed with Sasuke in the original story, it was a miracle that nothing more than friendship developed there.

Was this obsession because of that whole fate thing? The Curse of Hatred and Will of Fire? Naruto was the latest iteration of Asura, while Sasuke was Indra’s.

That reminded me that I still had to talk with Sasuke about many things: the person he wanted to kill, making sure he’s not suffering too much because of the seal, and maybe just trying to see him as a person instead of the character I didn’t like in the show.

Naruto’s story took me back to the present.

“My clones and I plummeted the bone freak like we did with Gaara. You should’ve seen Hinata-chan. My super powerful combo attacks – the Uzumaki Naruto Nisen Rendan! I was about to send him packing when the young-obaa-chan and the black-haired one arrived.”

It was hard to take Naruto’s story seriously. By my side, Karin was in a constant state of giggles. Given how much the stall owner rolled his eyes at every new development, it was fair to assume he also didn’t believe it that much.

Young-obaa-chan was Tsunade, right? So, Naruto fought Kimimaro, and the slug princess and Shizune arrived to help? Where was Jiraiya?

“Where was Jiraiya?” I wrote my question with threads. Karin stopped giggling just enough to read it.

“Ehh, ah, right! The Ero-sennin was getting his butt kicked by that other freak, the shark dude.” Naruto slurped more of his noodles. “You see, Karin-chan, the Ero-sennin might like frogs, but he can’t swim! Shark dude somehow transformed the whole area into a huuuge lake, and If I wasn’t there to pull the Ero-sennin out, he might have drowned.”

Jiraiya getting beat up by Kisame? The stall owner shook his head.

“Wasn’t you busy with the bone guy, Naruto-kun?” Karin read my other question out loud. I had to keep Naruto’s focus. Learn what happened with Kimimaro.

“Right, so, yes, obaa-chan arrived and was like: Imma gonna kick your ass, but then got her ass kicked instead. I had to save her and the Shizune lady. That was when I mastered my new awesome jutsu, the Rasengan.”

Naruto’s hands flashed with seals, and a clone appeared by his side. He went through the whole song and dance of creating the ball of chakra.

“Cool, right? It’s super powerful!”

Ayame, the stall owner’s daughter, covered her ears. I had a brief moment to wonder why before I learned of the reason.

Naruto lost control of the jutsu. At least he had the sense to hurl it away before it exploded on us.

The impact shook the whole street. It was almost as good as an explosion.

“NARUTO!”

The bellow was deafening. A bit late, I also covered my ears—not that it helped. Ayame gave me a sympathetic look. While the locals crowded around Naruto with angry glares and gestures, I stopped to think about the whole situation.

Kimimaro and Kisame teamed up. Was Orochimaru still part of Akatsuki? In the original story, he left after losing to Itachi, but Itachi never joined Akatsuki due to my meddling. What about Kimimaro’s disease? Wasn’t he supposed to be on death’s door? Why was he going about and picking fights with legendary ninjas?

And now that I think about it, what about Itachi? Wasn’t he sick as well? Is he still sick? Should I try to find out?

The commotion died down, and Naruto returned, somewhat ruffled and slightly banged up. His face was still full on with a smile.

“What happened next? And no demonstrations!”

“Ah, right. The bone freak went even more freakish, with black lines crawling his face and chest. He created a huuugee and deadly forest of bones. I managed to fend them off near me, so I was safe, but the obaa-chan and the other couldn’t.”

Ok, so at some point, Kimimaro used part of his cursed seal. Not the second stage, I don’t think; otherwise, Naruto would have talked about Kimimaro shifting into a monster-like thing.

Naruto sat down again and looked at the food, part of his enthusiasm gone.

“Then the other dude arrived. And was like: You can’t defeat this magnificent Naruto? We need to flee for our lives.”

“A lot of people died, Hinata-chan,” He said, now without the early fervor. 

That… took a turn?

“The young-obaa-chan turned into an old-obaa-chan trying to save Shizune, but Tonton still died.”

What? The piglet died? Shit. She was so cute.

“Tsunade left after telling us to bring Shizune back. I don’t know where she went.”

Tsunade’s alone now? Shit, that was a bad outcome. Somehow, I think Shizune was a bigger part of why Tsunade hadn’t fallen even lower, but now, the slug princess had isolated herself even more.

Naruto looked forlorn, sad. I could deal with those details later. I didn’t like seeing Naruto like this. I got up, walked to the brat. Hugged him. He looked a bit startled. I pinched his cheeks.

“You did your best, right?” I asked.

He nodded. His eyes were a bit misty.

“Then all you can do is train harder and do better next time.”

He nodded again. I pinched his cheeks harder. Let go of him and returned to my stool.

Wrote on my board. “How did the bone guy fight?”

Naruto perked up, the heavy mood from earlier gone.

“It was like fighting two of you and Sasuke at the same time. He was fast and good at taijutsu.”

Naruto pushed the empty bowl of ramen aside.

“I tried doing like you always tell me to do, send in the clones and attack from behind, but it didn’t work at the start. It was like the guy had eyes in the back of his head.”

“How so?” It was Karin who asked now.

“Eh, no idea. Like I said, he was creepy.”

I mulled over things. Naruto hadn’t said anything about clothing, but if Kimimaro had joined Akatsuki, he would be wearing the black robes, right?

“What did he look like, Naruto-kun?”

“Older than us, younger than Iruka-sensei. Dressed in black robes.” The brat paused, one hand at his chin. “White hair, red marks on the forehead. One eye green, another white.”

I blinked. No, it wouldn’t be, would it? White eye and seeing things behind his back. I knew about a dojutsu that matched those descriptions. I even knew there was one eye yet to be found.

“White eye?” I wrote.

“Yeah, creepy,” Naruto said.

“Did it look like Neji’s white eye?” I wrote again.

Naruto stopped, scratched his head. Then he nodded like he had just understood something that had been bothering him for a while.

“Yes! I knew I had seen white eyes like that somewhere; I just didn’t remember where.”