Killed by foreign shinobi, so there was debate about putting her name on the Memorial Stone. Eventually it was decided not to do so.
Many attended that funeral. Some Sekirei, Naruto, her parents, a number of friends.
That the body wasn't actually hers wasn't known to anyone present. Suspected - oh yes. Definitely suspected. Ibiki had informed the Hokage himself that he was 80% sure that was a fake. So the investigators would keep an eye out for new leads and otherwise keep the pretense that they were fooled because there were obviously spies involved.
Then people went on with their lives, not knowing that she would eventually return.
"Final check," called out Naruto, going over the sets of scrolls in case there was anything he was missing.
"I don't know about this," said Matsu, adjusting her glasses. "You could use some extra reinforcement on the search branch. And a couple more limiters."
"We've only got a month before the exam, we should be working on your taijutsu, Naruto-sama," said Kaho.
"Hmph," said Tsukiumi. "There is no need for Naruto to put himself in such danger. Foolishness!"
"I've got to do this," said Naruto, standing up and looking completely serious. "If I'd been stronger. If I'd been faster. Sakura might still be alive."
"To protect someone, some ideal, you become stronger," said Kaho. "Is that not part of the Will Of Fire?"
"Yeah," agreed Naruto. "Nobody else dies because I'm not strong enough. Activate!"
Circles within the scroll glowed with foxfire and sent pillars of light up. Red, blue, green, amber, purple, white, and a flickering orange extended out as pillars of light.
"It's not supposed to do that," noted Naruto before he was suddenly yanked off his feet and vanished into an oval of silver light.
"Well, this is unexpected," said a voice that was many voices all spoken at the same time. "Must be that pandimensional entity that was poking around earlier who did this. You aren't half clever enough to have worked this out."
Naruto looked around. Featureless white in all directions. He couldn't even see what he was apparently standing on. "Hello?"
"Ah. Ritual for encountering an individual who is not self. Hello."
"Uhm, where am I?" Naruto decided to try.
"Nowhere. Everywhere. You attempted to grab something and pull it into your space/time/limit/shadow. As the something you grabbed was rather larger than yourself, you ended up being the one that was moved instead."
"Like tug of war against Choji?" asked Naruto. Okay, he got the basic idea of THAT. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki."
"I am an aspect of reality."
"So, can I call you 'Asp' for short?"
"No."
"Oh."
A door faded into view.
"This door represents an insight into the basic fabric of reality. What you do with it depends on you. Once through the door you'll be back where you started."
"Does it matter that I have damn little idea what you just said?"
"Door. Exit. Go back home."
"Okay, got that much," admitted Naruto.
Poof!
"He's back!" declared Matsu, leaping forward.
"Naruto!" said a half-a-dozen Sekirei as they dogpiled him.
"Ugh. Breathe?" managed Naruto.
"Hmph. Of course he returned safely," said Tsukiumi, un-glomping and recovering as much of her dignity as she could. "Not that I actually cared but you should have more sympathy for those Sekirei who might have worried about you disappearing."
"I hadn't expected to get pulled into a summoning jutsu," noted Naruto. "I'm still not sure what all that meant."
"Ah," said Tsukiumi as the crowd gradually let go.
"Huh, I got the syntax wrong," said Naruto, looking down at the fuuinjutsu as the scrolls caught fire. "So that's what that was."
Mizuki checked the records again, just to be sure. He wanted to have everything possible when he was ready to go.
Names, scores, abilities, alliances. At this point if he got the kinjutsu scroll - it would just be icing on the cake. Just this information he'd collected already would be enough to get him in with just about any Hidden Village.
The demon fox was still a trusting, naive, fool. No matter what he'd accomplished so far by some cheat. He could be manipulated into being a pawn.
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(Posted Thu, 11 Dec 2014 18:36)
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