"You lost the two-tails," Pein asked Hidan and Kakuzu. "Explain matters to me as to how this could happen."
"The two-tails host was killed by accident," Kakuzu said. "When the Lead interfered with our attempt to capture her."
"Ahhh, how was I supposed to know that was her blood on my scythe," Hidan protested. "I was trying to get the Leaf ninja with that was carrying her."
"Whatever the case," Pein said. "We'll have to slow down our plans until the Niibi reforms so that we can capture it."
This was disturbing and Nagato, behind the visage of Pein's face, wondered what their benefactor might think of this particular turn of events.
What did you do? Naruto's past consciousness demanded of the little black cat.
I tweaked things, just the tiniest bit, the cat said. After all, it's a cat, can't have it just turning into a non-issue.
Where did you put the Niibi? Naruto asked firmly.
Oh don't worry, Toltiir noted idly. She'll be fine, like I said. I tweaked it. And as a point of fact, Yugito did it.
She was dying and barely thinking. That was you!
Toltiir thought about it a little bit.
Moderately true.
"Is she going to be okay?" Naruko asked the presence in her.
A rumbling angry voice responded to her wordlessly before the typical visage of the Kyubi appeared out of the dank darkness of the seal's mindscape.
The Kyubi glared at the little blonde girl as usual and, as usual, wondered when the girl's past consciousness would remerge with her and spare him some of these conversations of things that the Kyubi knew that other version of Naruko already understood.
It may not have been much more than a force of destruction, but at least it still remembered the previous time-line. It would continue to do so until the lingering memories of Naruto's previous version decided to merge in. At which point Naruko would gain access to that knowledge over the course of several dreams and higher-dimensional types like him could cease being bothered by multiple event chains and figuring out which was the "real" one.
"It depends on the Niibi and how strong a seal that other jinchuriki was able to place," the fox said idly. "If the Niibi has forgotten its previous intellect when it was with Yugito, then it will be a hateful force as I was. If it blames us for its partner's death...it will also be a problem. And if the seal is weak, then Hinata will have no protection."
"In other words, you don't know," Naruko accused.
"I don't know, gaki," the kyuubi agreed irritably. "Go away if all you want is chatter. Come talk to me when there's a fight to be had."
Hinata was in a dark cave somewhere and she had no idea how she'd gotten here. The last thing she remembered was that dying Lightning woman kissing her full on the mouth and grabbing her...in front of Naruko even!
She felt herself blush nervously at the thought.
"Unfortunately it was apparently the only way to let me escape it you," a loud, sibilant voice spoke out of the darkness.
Hinata froze and swallowed nervously as she turned to look back at the source of the voice. Upon coming about she saw a cat's face the size of some boulders staring down at her from behind an ornate set of bars that she had not noticed at first.
It was regarded her carefully.
"You're the..." Hinata gulped again. "You're the Niibi."
"That's right, little one," the Demon Cat said. "So, now let's get to the deal."
"Deal?" Hinata asked nervously.
"Yes, the deal," the Niibi said. "The deal where I help you out and you help me get revenge for Yugito."
"Wait, you want revenge for your jailer?" Hinata asked.
"Yugito was a rare host," the cat noted. "But that is immaterial. We can work together, kitten, or we can resist each other. Of course, doing that will shorten your lifespan and eventually leave me a mindless beast in the outer world. Which do you prefer?"
"But I'm not strong enough to take those men," Hinata noted. "We barely got away."
"Yes," the cat said. "It will take some training for us to become true partners. For you to be able to safely take my form or to borrow my chakra without harming yourself. Of course, that will mean spending lots of time with other jinchuriki of your knowledge. Lots of close...personal...quality time."
Hinata flushed.
Naruko breathed a sigh of relief as Hinata started to open her eyes and start to sit up. Looking around she was in a dimly lit room that looked like it had been abandoned until very recently.
"Excuse me," Hinata said quietly. "Where are we?"
"No, don't get up," Shizune-sensei said quickly, gently pushing Hinata back down.
Jiraiya, of all people, was examining her and Hinata reflexively thought of her mace, but was too tired to reach for it. Plus, if he was looking her over while Shizune and Naruko were around it had to be for a serious reason.
"Oh thank goodness, Hinata," Naruko said, coming quickly to Hinata's side. "Are you alright. Did you..." she glanced around nervously "...did you see it?"
"Huh?" Hinata gasped then and sat quickly up. "The Niibi...I saw it! It's..."
She stopped as the world seemed to spin around her. Wavering she felt arms supporting her back down to the bed.
"It's confirmed," Jiraiya said. "She's got the Niibi, even if it weren't for her word. The seal's visible."
She glanced toward where he was pointing at her side, under the arm, where Yugito had grabbed her. There was, indeed, a black swirling mark there.
"And it left some other changes," Shizune said. "Like Naruko's 'whiskers'. Hinata's canines appear more pronounced."
"That should not be a problem, I don't talk loudly or much," Hinata said quietly.
"Looks like Konoha-Suna has gained a new jinchuriki," Kakashi muttered with a sigh from the doorway.
"Where's Kankuro-san," Hinata asked.
"Watching the approaches," Shizune said. "With Ibiki. He, Jiraiya-sama and I just got here an hour ago. We certainly didn't expect this."
"This is going to be a more than S-class secret," Jiraiya said grimly. "We don't even want certain people in Suna or Konoha knowing about this. For all intents and purposes, the Niibi died with Yugito Ni of the Clouds."
Jiraiya glanced around the room receiving nods from the others in the room.
"Which means you're in the 'no bikini for me' club with me, Hina-Hime," Naruko said with a smile.
Hinata flushed weakly and tried to sit up again, slowly this time. She felt much more refreshed then, though sad at Naruko's comment in a vague sort of way.
"Right, Naruko-chan," Hinata said quietly. "Who...who will we tell?"
"Tsunade-sama, certainly," Shizune said. "Probably the Kazekage. Gaara and Tsunade will decide from there."
"The rest of us will keep the events of this room completely secret," Kakashi agreed.
From that point, two more years passed before the hints of where the Niibi had actually ended up began to filter out of the Konoha-Suna alliance and certain parties began to renew their plots.
Of course, in that time, certain developments (encouraged by a particular Elder God or not) had developed.
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(Posted Sat, 04 Jun 2011 06:42)
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