The Fox and Boar

A/N: Read, review, enjoy.

Suijinheki – Water barrier

Kirigakure – Hidden mist

Meimei – divine


Another Place

Somewhere along the northern border of the Land of Fire, a man with silver hair sat in an underground floor of a hostile base. Said man shifted his glasses. He looked across the room towards another with a sheathed sword slung over his back. The second man with dark hair was looking over a printout of information near an identical machine, forty yards away. The first man cleared his throat then adjusted the settings of a console with the twist of a few buttons. His purple uniform was slightly crinkled along the midsection, so he adjusted it. In less than the time it took for him to raise his hand to pull the fabric, the other had appeared by his side. The second man’s onyx eyes leered at the flickering screen, reading the data that flashed back and forth across the screen.

The man with glasses put his arm down, continuing to work on the device before him. A minute passed before his voice broke the silence. “Orochimaru-sama only asked that you escort me here. I can handle it from here if you would like.”

“It’s fine,” the man with a lavender rope tied to his waist replied with an emotionless tone. It was important that he stay there.

“If you prefer…” Kabuto trailed off, now focusing entirely on his work. On a table in the middle of the bleak room was a man, strapped down so he couldn’t move. The silver haired man approached his subject, examining a chart. He placed it on a tray only to pick up a needle filled with a pink liquid. Kabuto tapped the syringe twice, ensuring that there was no air bubble inside before injecting the man in the neck. The liquid drained from the glass container.

On a small screen next to the table, the man’s vital signs were displayed. Suddenly they went out of sync, causing a red light to start blinking on the instrument. The man would have screamed had a gag not been placed over his mouth. His fingers cringed as he put pressure against the ropes that held him to the steel table. He opened his eyes to reveal two pale yellow pupils. Both showed pain, begging his tormentor to stop. Kabuto merely picked up another needle; this one filled with a blue liquid, and injected the man in the opposite side of the neck. As quickly as it started, the man stopped resisting the binds and closed his eyes as he entered a coma. His body relaxed as the new medicine flowed through his veins.

“Test subject #1655 seems to be immune to the side effects of the Meimei Seal after a pronged amount of time.” Kabuto shifted his weight, expecting a reply from the man behind him. He turned to place the chart away when there was none spoken. He turned to look over this surviving test subject. Kabuto lowered himself to get a better look at the seal developing on his chest. It stretched out from a single dot, where it broke into four parts, each revolving clockwise around the middle. It expanded from the exact center of the man’s chest four inches before stopping in an incomplete circle. “According to this now, the seal’s fatality rate is fifty percent…”

Along the back wall, ninety-nine other bodies sat, ten rows of ten, the front column had an open space. Each body was strapped down to their respective tables. Kabuto undid the wheel’s stoppers and carted the table into the line. Each had two injection spots on their necks, one on either side. A seal was inscribed on their exposed chests.

Both men went down the dreary corridor and climbed the stair case out of the bottom laboratory, passing by the room next to it that held one hundred cadavers. Uchiha Sasuke held a smile on his face, reveling in the fact that he would soon have even more power, no matter the cost.

---

Naruto was sprawled out on his back just outside of the cave’s mouth. He had been working on mastering a new water jutsu all morning and was currently taking a rest. Sometimes he wondered what took more out of him: actually learning the jutsu or all the mental stress from that kage bunshins made him deal with after being released.

He sat up, enjoying the breeze as it moved against his uncovered upper body. It cooled him off after spending more than five hours straight trying to master enough water to complete his newest jutsu. Naruto grunted to himself as he stood. There were puddles everywhere. That was as far as he had gotten as of today. It just wasn’t fair how much this jutsu needed!

The blonde walked over to a dry spot and made two kage bunshin. Each looked at the original before they put their hands in the center. Together they molded chakra into water. The liquid began pouring from their palms as they focused on increasing it. One got distracted and made a mess of things by spraying the other clone in the face, causing him to freak out. The second clone tripped and fell while the other was too busy trying to regain his composure. Yep…more mental stress….

The original Naruto bent down and popped the clumsier of the two over the head, his anger evident. Then he turned to the one who had disrupted their exercise. Needless to say, he was punished.

Naruto tried again after creating two extra clones, hopefully more competent than the last pair. Their hands glowed as more chakra was pumped from their palms. Water oozed from the center and fell to the ground, adding to the previous attempts sorry excuse for a technique. This continued for twenty minutes before Naruto had to give up in frustration. It was getting annoying having to use only a small number of clones.

Then he thought back to the time when he was training with Kakashi and Yamato. He was allowed to use hundreds of clones, as long as he split a waterfall several times that size. He gathered some chakra and made twenty kage bunshins. Each had a determined look on its face. They formed a circle, hands in the middle. Each one created water from chakra.

It wasn’t much, but it was substantial enough for Naruto’s next jutsu. He made the kage bunshins stand back as he prepared himself. Making the seals, he shouted “Suiton: Suijinheki no jutsu!” A wall of water rose from the meager amount of water around Naruto. The clones charged forward. Some tried to ram themselves into the blockade; others tried throwing explosive kunai at it. Each one of the clones physical attacks was repelled, no matter where it came from. The kunai evaporated water from the wall, but it was quickly refilled from below. Naruto sat in the middle of the circle, channeling chakra into the water to keep its shape from his mouth. This was his first attempt at a defensive jutsu. Even so, the wall was incredible.

From the outside, you could possibly see the shadow of a person inside the spiraling vortex, but that was it. More clones tried to combine their attacks at the structure. Some shuriken were fired at it, but they were washed into the current that was being maintained. Finally a clone threw another one into the water. It tried to break through headfirst. The result was a cloud of smoke as the replica was forced into being released.

Naruto stopped the jutsu, letting the water drop from around him. He was very much impressed with this new jutsu. Not only had it kept him safe, it also managed to harm someone who was stupid enough to assault it. ‘It’s definitely a useful technique to keep in mind.’ Now if only he could get around that whole thing about needing water beforehand…

Naruto walked back in the direction of his cave. It had been around two weeks of learning new water based jutsu. He now knew three jutsus, four if he counted the Kirigakure no jutsu, but that only required him to solidify the moisture in the air to make mist. It was still pretty useful, just not exactly the type of stuff Naruto thought of as a jutsu. Naruto began reading up on his next jutsu attempt. It looked a little complex for him, but it seemed so cool.

“All I need is a good amount of water then I just use chakra to create a whirlpool to suck the enemy in…that’s awesome!” Naruto kept reading on about the different uses for the jutsu. This one was created by Kushina herself from what the text said. It was supposed to be a chakra draining attack but at full power, it could subdue an entire army. According to the scroll, she couldn't ever fully use it in battle. The only thing she could do was finalize the technique on a full scale. That really excited Naruto. He wanted to be the one to complete this jutsu.

---

Naruto went into his cave. The ground behind him was riddled with swirling marks, the further away from the cave they were, the deeper they were. A heavy mist hung in the air. He was tired, again. So far that week he had made only a little progress, but at least he was improving on the jutsu. He slumped down next to the fire pit near his camp in the widest part of the cave. The large scroll sat next to him. Around him were the smaller ones with the information.

Naruto opened the large scroll. The only time he had was when he first found it. He got too distracted by the taijutsu style and elemental training to really look at it since then. He untied the lazily wound ribbon and began reading. Further in the coiled up paper was information. Most of it was history of Konoha, a time line told of some of its greatest moments. Naruto got bored pretty fast with that. He knew all about it from the Academy. There was no reason for him to read about it again, especially when he didn’t have to.

After unrolling the massive object onto the cave floor about twenty feet though, he found a smaller, more complex looking summoning circle. Unlike the other one that was written in black ink, this one looked to be in gold.

Naruto moved his finger over the letters. He couldn’t read them, but was entranced at how it looked. Whatever this thing sealed just had to be important. Naruto tried putting chakra into it like he did the first one. Nothing happened. He moved his finger in a spiral like the first, still nothing. Next he put his palm in the center and pumped chakra from it into the marking. Nothing.

He was about to give up when he remembered when Jiraiya taught him some stuff on seals during their training trip. Some seals require blood.

Figuring that it could work, even though it was unlikely, Naruto bit his thumb and pressed the bleeding digit over the scroll. A single drop fell in the middle. Nothing happened at first, but then a faint glowing emerged from underneath. The blood was being absorbed into the paper. Each of the characters that made up the summoning circle gleamed yellow, but then died down when two smaller scrolls popped out.

One of them had black characters up and down the sides. Along it was an imprint of a man that stretched out into nine lines, each encircling the figure. The top was locked by some metal contraption. It wouldn't open no matter what Naruto tried. The only thing that ensured him that it could in fact be opened was a small pin-prick sized hole in the top. The other scroll was completely gold. Even the string that held it together was gold thread. It was so nice to look at, like an heirloom or important artifact. There was a series of seals along it as well. It looked way too complicated to mess with. So Naruto didn't even bother. These two wouldn't be opened so easily.

---

Uchiha Itachi looked at Hoshigaki Kisame next to him. The two were traveling through the streets of Sunagakure no Sato. Both men wore dark cloaks while a lidded hat hung over their face to protect them from watchful eyes. The pair of Akatsuki agents walked down a wide street and turned into a sand coated building. Just inside the door was a small lobby that branched off into various rooms. Without speaking a word to the woman who sat behind a display booth, they strode into a room with a deep burgundy colored door. Inside they approached a man who sat at a lone table in the large room. The ceiling hung low, causing the taller of the two men to duck his head to prevent it from hitting his head.

The man wore a mask to keep his identity secret from the public. He sat low, his head resting against his own shoulder as if drugged. In the corner a man wearing a coat with red clouds imprinted on it watched the two men who just entered.

“This is the one you asked for, right?” he called in a calm tone.

“HE WAS ANNOYING TO GET!” he suddenly screamed.

“Shut up, it wasn't too difficult.” The man replied to himself.

“This is him.”

Itachi sat across from the man at the other end of the broad glass table. He still kept his hat on, concealing his blood red eyes. Kisame stood behind the Konoha missing-nin. He watched the scene unfold before him with interest. It was always fun to see Itachi do this type of thing.

Without any inclination, the raven haired man lifted his straw hat a couple of inches. He moved the strands of light cloth out of the way to reveal his Sharingan. Instantly the man who sat opposite of Itachi tensed up as he was pulled into a genjutsu.

Inside Itachi’s genjutsu, the opponent was left immobile, defenseless. Itachi on the other hand had full access to his enemy’s conscious mind. That was an asset for someone who needed to gather information. He was never one for questions and answers any way.

Itachi browsed through the man’s mind, examining everything he needed before he released the accursed jutsu. He stood up and left the man who was currently trying to gather his bearings. The two agents walked towards the exit of the dimly lit room.

“Thank you, Zetsu.” Itachi lead the way for his partner out of the room after that comment.

Outside of the building, Kisame glanced over at his partner. Itachi had an unidentifiable look on his face.

“Something wrong?” Kisame asked, his interest piqued at the expression.

“Yeah…it seems like my little brother is having some fun around here….Care to check it out?”

“Love to.”

Both men began walking in the near direction they came from. The next few days were bound to be fun.