Naruto held up his forearm. On it was an armband of black cloth with an orange jewel. Sarutobi frowned and glanced at Hinata. She had no such armband, but he did spot a ring of orange metal with an opal glinting in it. “These are…what did you call them?”
“Intelligent devices,” Naruto said. “Gungnir.”
A deep, vaguely masculine voice answered. [Stand by, Boss.]
Hinata held up her hand. “Renard.”
A soprano answered her. [Ready, hime.]
[Set up. Device Mode.]
The Hokage had seen many strange things in his life. He was well aware of fuuinjutsu that sealed large weapons into scrolls; such tools were common beyond the point where they could reasonably be called impressive. So the fact that Naruto and Hinata had jewelry to do the same thing was unremarkable. That the jewelry talked was interesting. But the devices that came out were beyond his ken. Simply enough, they were both metal staves that looked made in sections that could be taken apart or perhaps move on their own.
Naruto’s was about a meter and a half long, black, with a flat, spade-like head bearing a large orange jewel where shaft and head met. The head was much too dull to call the device a spear, but Sarutobi surmised that getting whacked with it would hurt in the morning.
Hinata’s staff was a green to match Konoha’s flak jackets, two or three centimeters shorter than Naruto’s, with a clear grip midway on the shaft. A large opal was embedded just above the grip.
Had a Mid-Childan mage looked over the devices, they would have noticed several things. First, the jewels were a bit small for most devices. Second, neither had a Belka-style cartridge system…not that such an absence is particularly notable. Third, both devices were clearly based on Mid-Childan principles but had unknown structures, particularly in their magic processing and enhancement functions.
Not being a Mid-Childan mage, the Sandaime merely blinked. Both devices could be used as staves, but beyond that… “Impressive,” he said honestly. Which was not the same thing as useful.
“Most mages in Mid-Childa and the TSAB use devices such as these to focus magical energy and cast their various spells, which are similar to our jutsu,” Naruto explained. “They can talk and stuff, but they can’t really do much on their own.”
“So you have trained in these spells?” Sarutobi asked. That could be an interesting addition to their repertoire, if the spells proved useful.
Naruto shook his head. “A little. Chakra and magic don’t play well together. Some TSAB guys decided to help us figure it out and in the end we came up with what they call the Chakra System. Gungnir and Renard focus chakra rather than magic.”
Sarutobi looked over the devices with new appreciation. “Focus it how?”
“I’m not sure,” Naruto said. “They make it easier to use jutsu. And we can cast spells with them.”
“They help mold chakra into the right shape for the jutsu, Hokage-sama,” Hinata clarified. “They’re built on Mid-Childan basics, so they can also do spells.”
“Really?” Sarutobi murmured. “And what are your goals now?”
Naruto grinned. “Same goal it’s always been, old man.” He jerked a thumb up to his headband. “I’m a shinobi of the Leaf, even if I’ve become a mage along the way, and one of these days you’re going to name me Hokage. Dattebayo!”
[Believe it.]
Hinata blushed, smiled, and looked down. “I just want to be with Naruto-kun,” she said shyly.
[Well said, hime.]
Sarutobi looked amusedly at the two devices and their masters. He had little trouble surmising that the staff Renard had been responsible for Hinata’s confession to Naruto, whenever it had happened. He also had no problem believing Gungnir was built for Naruto. “Then I have no choice but to review the team rosters,” he said. “If you could provide details on your abilities to my office, that would be most helpful. You realize that you’re going to have to start as genin; the Chunin Exam isn’t for months yet.”
“Actually, we have something we should show you before you set teams,” Naruto said. He looked to Hinata. “Do you have the coordinates?”
“I think so.” Hinata raised her Renard. The Hokage looked on, mildly confused, when a beam of lavender light suddenly jumped from Renard to Gungnir.
[Download complete.]
[Coordinates received. On it. Dimensional Transfer.]
The Sandaime stared as a glowing orange diagram suddenly appeared on the floor, spinning slowly. “Kai!” Not a genjutsu, then. Unlike the Mid-Childan circle or the Belkan triangle, the Jutsu mandala was a complicated array of fuinjutsu that showed a skill few non-specialists could achieve. The Hokage recognized roughly half of it as an A-rank chakra enhancement seal, but the rest was gibberish. Making the mandala appear wasn’t that impressive though. Summoning contracts were means of quickly and accurately reproducing fuinjutsu in the field, and they were a lot more complicated than this. What was impressive was the effortlessness by which it was formed.
The mandala glowed brighter and columns of light shot to the ceiling at various intersections in the design. It flashed once and was gone…and standing there was another Naruto. An older version of the clone that started this entire mess by being female with fox ears and tail. She was wearing a fairly skimpy halter and shorts and had a collar with a leaf symbol for a tag. Sarutobi sighed, partly in relief. “That was a bit much for another clone, Naruto.”
“I’m not a clone,” the clone objected.
“Remember the bit I told you about familiars?” Naruto asked. “She’s mine. Sworn to my service and tied to my blood and everything. Her name is Kitsune.”
“And you chose a fox?” the Sandaime asked unhappily. “Naruto, you got into this because people were afraid your clones were the kyuubi. Now they’ll think she is the kyuubi.”
Hinata giggled nervously and looked away.
Naruto grinned sheepishly. “Well, see, that’s the thing. She is the kyuubi.”
Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Shinobi no Kami himself, blinked twice and fainted dead away.
“He took that well,” Kitsune said dryly.
[Smooth, Boss.]
The kyuubi turned to stare at Toltiir. “You turned me into a girl.”
“I did nothing.”
“You turned me into a girl.”
“She’s only part of you.”
“You turned me into a girl.”
“You don’t even have a gender of your own.”
“You turned me into a girl.”
“Fine! I turned you into a girl! Can we get past this, please?”
“You turned me into a girl.”
Toltiir sighed. Maybe if he just ignored her….
The Sandaime chugged an herbal mix of sake, asprin, and vodka to make the hurting stop. “Run it for me again.”
They were back in his office; this was way too big for an informal meeting. Kitsune was chained, in a fuuinjutsu barrier, and surrounded by the best ANBU had to offer. Ibiki Morino stood nearby, judging the girl’s every action, reaction, and stillness.
Naruto nodded. “The TSAB learned of my prisoner when I was first in the hospital. At first they thought to purge it, but they determined that it was parasitically integrated into my linker core – their term for part of a chakra coil. Removal would prove fatal without highly advanced medical magics, and even then only with great risk. When I began mage training, I learned about making familiars and realized that the kyuubi, as a disembodied spirit, could be used in the ritual. It was partly successful.”
Kitsune stepped forward, only to have a number of ANBU raise kunai against her. She glared at them for a moment but settled down. “I am one-ninth the power of the fox, or a single tail if you want to think of it that way. I possess only vague recollections of identity before Master Naruto summoned me into existence. I draw power from the kyuubi to sustain my life, through the link of Naruto. He is the one ultimately in control of my powers. I exist to serve him, I desire only his happiness.”
“And you summoned her how?” Sarutobi asked.
“That wasn’t a summons,” Naruto said. “Not exactly.”
“It was a teleportation spell,” Hinata added. “Naruto-kun is really good with them.”
Sarutobi sighed and looked over Kitsune and then to Ibiki. The interrogation specialist nodded calmly. It was a signal that meant that he saw no evidence of lies or deception. This…fragment of demonic power was genuinely honest about serving Naruto. Or she was the best liar Konoha had ever witnessed.
“Thank you, Naruto,” he said gently. “I think we’ll have a decision within the hour.”
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(Posted Sat, 09 Jul 2011 22:23)
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