Nine

Author: princessgolux
Title: Nine
Fandom: Naruto
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and I gain no profit from this story.
Chapter Pairings: none
Chapter Rating: PG
Story Rating: NC-17
Chapter Warnings: AU/AR; suspense (scary), violence
A/N: A very grateful ‘thank you’ to all my reviewers. I’m very, very happy that you are enjoying the story. Ryu Earth – Sorry about the cliffhanger!! I hope you like this chapter despite it. micah.n 10 – Wow! I’m so very, very glad you like the story! Hope this part doesn’t move too slowly for you – I need a whole lot to happen to practically everyone.

Sorry for taking so long. Here’s the first of seven (I think) chapters to make up for it. I’ve got the next six outlined, and the next two partially written, so you should get another fix fairly soon. I wanted to write them all, but RL came down like a ton of bricks upon my poor, weary head. So you’ll get ‘em as fast as I can write ‘em. :)


Chapter Sixteen: Ritual I: Resolve


Kado City, Steel Country

Jiraiya sat back with a sigh. The Old Man would take care of tomorrow, so all he had to do was get the kids through today. Absently he noted that the streets were getting busy again. Whatever magic Akatsuki had done to keep people away was dissipating now that Orochimaru’s ‘horses’ had been ushered into the building. He found a comfortable position and watched the clothes shop through his spyglass, waiting for Tsunade’s tadpole to emerge.

He didn’t have to wait long. Barely ten minutes after his conference with the Sandaime the blonde man and his escorts exited the shop below. The tadpole now wore a fitted suit, dark charcoal with thin green pinstripes, and a crisp white shirt. Jiraiya watched as they made their way back to the Akatsuki headquarters.

He had to give the boy credit. From the easy swagger of his walk to the relaxed set of his shoulders, the casual observer would think the tadpole surrounded by bodyguards, not wardens. Jiraiya could read anger, though, in the set of his jaw, and a sniggering satisfaction in the eyes of the largest male flanking him.

Strip search, no doubt.

The group below disappeared into the building. Jiraiya shut his spyglass and squatted down, placing his palms against the gritty rooftop. He closed his eyes and extended his senses down through the brick and wood and iron. His inner eye followed the wall of the building he was on down to the asphalt and concrete of the street and over to the dilapidated structure currently housing Orochimaru.

He roamed around the upper part of the old building, scenting out flaws in the structure, weak joints, and brittle boards. Then he sent his senses down, tracing the outlines of each floor until he reached the flat-tasting metal of the lower levels. Dull red lines formed an intricate pattern through the iron and steel that supported the framework of the underground laboratories, magic, and jutsus protecting the organization’s investments.

Jiraiya didn’t touch the wards. He pulled his awareness back to his body. He was stiff and a bit hungry, so he stretched and went in search of food and a bathroom. Dismantling those barriers would take a few hours, and he would most likely have a fight at the end. Better to take care of his body’s needs and build his chakra up a bit more.

If he was going to battle that snake-bastard and his partner, he’d need all the energy he could muster.


Siroc Palace, Suna City,
Suna, Wind Country


“Is this information reliable?”

“Yes, Kazekage-sama.” Baki raised his head and looked his lord in the eye. “According to my sources, Akatsuki has successfully Collared both the Nibi and the Yonbi. What’s more, the Nibi was Collared six months before her seventh birthday.”

“Impossible!” breathed Yuura, wide-eyed.

“Apparently not.” The Kazekage said sourly. “What does this mean, Baki? What has Yashamaru said?”

“I haven’t given this information to Yashamaru yet. I’ve only just received confirmation. However...” Baki trailed off, looking uncomfortable.

“Say it.” the Kazekage ordered. “Go on.”

Baki took a breath. “Why did this information come from my spies and not from Yashamaru himself?”

“Perhaps he just didn’t know about it?”

Baki’s eyes dropped. The Kazekage’s narrowed.

“Baki.” he said, his temper obviously beginning to fray. “Tell me everything. Now.”

“Yes, Kazekage-sama.” Baki barked out. He took a breath. “According to my sources, six months ago Yashamaru was a part of the ritual to Collar the Four Tail.”

“What?”

“Also, there is speculation that a similar ritual will be held soon – within a day or so...”

Baki paused, lowering his eyes again, then finished quietly, “...to Collar Gaara.”

“I did give Yashamaru the order to Collar Gaara before bringing him back.”

“With all due respect, my Lord,” Baki said raising his eyes to meet his leader’s, “Given Gaara’s age we thought it would be years before that happened, not months. And also...Yashamaru is not in control of the ritual. Akatsuki is.”

“That traitor!” Yuura hissed.

“Be quiet!” snapped the Kazekage. “We don’t yet know the facts. There could be a reason for him to seem to go along with Akatsuki.”

Yuura pressed his lips together, visibly struggling with his temper.

“However,” the Kazekage said after a moment, “Suna’s ultimate weapon absolutely cannot be taken and brought under Akatsuki’s control.”

“Baki.”

“Yes, Kazekage-sama.”

“Take two teams of ANBU and go to Kado. Investigate this fully and bring Yashamaru back to Suna for questioning.”

“Yes, my lord.” Baki said. “And the boy?”

“If he’s controllable, bring him back as well.” The Kazekage’s eyes were clear and resolute.

“If not, kill him.”

Kado City, Steel Country

Kyuu-chan knew something big was happening. He wasn’t sure what it was, but Sensei had been taken away in the middle of their lesson and hadn’t returned, even though he’d promised.

Now the boy was being escorted down the big steel hallway. It had been a really, really long time since Sensei’d been taken away, and Kyuu-chan was worried.

And really hungry.

And kinda sleepy.

And he sorta needed to pee.

He was just about to ask the guard if he could stop and pee when they stopped in front of an unfamiliar door. The guard stopped and gestured him into the room. Kyuu-chan heard the door slam shut behind him as he walked warily forward.

When you enter an unfamiliar place, slow down. Sensei’s voice whispered in his head. Look at everything at least once – length, breadth, height, entrances, and exits. Take in the terrain for possible obstructions and/or weapons. Knowing your battlefield is essential to your survival as a shinobi.

The room was huge and white, probably one of the training rooms without the holograms of different terrain. It was mostly empty save for an ordinary table set against the far wall. There were a number of objects on it but Kyuu-chan couldn’t see most of them very well at first glance. The only things that stood out were two goblets, full of a liquid that gave off wisps of steam, and a bunch of kunai. Everything on the table glimmered silver under the harsh fluorescent lights which were inlaid at the juncture of wall and ceiling and ran around the circumference of the room.

There were marks on the floor, intricate symbols forming two distinct patterns.

One was a small circle, about six feet in diameter. The other was a much larger, maybe fifty feet across, and a pentagram was scribed inside it. The space where the lines intersected formed a small space right at the center, about the same size as the smaller circle.

There were five men waiting for him, standing in various places around the room. Two of them he recognized with a swell of anger.

First there was the stuck up old bastard who always made Kyuu-chan call him Mizuki-sama. And next to him was that creepy bastard teacher, Yashamaru-sensei.

Next to the table stood next to three men Kyuu-chan had never seen before. One was squat and ugly, looking like a big, masked toad, while the second was beaky and ordinary and wore a grey cape with a hood pulled back to hang loosely upon his shoulders.

The third man was tall and thin, with straight black hair and yellow-green eyes that were slitted like a snake’s. Kyuu-chan felt a shiver of fear just looking at him.

As usual, his growing fear only added fuel to the fire of his anger and he found himself yelling before he thought better of it. “Hey, you! Bastards! Where’s my Sensei!?!”

Yashamaru blurred out of sight.

“Where...?” Kyuu-chan said under his breath, then he was slapped across the face so hard he flew several feet. Stunned, he pushed himself up a little and touched his bruised face, his fingers coming away bloody from a split lip.

Yashamaru dropped his arm and blurred back into place next to Mizuki, who smirked.

“Watch your mouth, trash.” He said nastily.

“Now, now, Mizuki-kun.” The scary thin man said, his voice scratched and oily. “Don’t damage the brat. He’s our precious vessel.”

“Maybe.” Mizuki said, sneering.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean,” Mizuki said haughtily, “I’ve never seen any sort of power from it. It can’t control anything, like One controls sand. It has no increased accuracy or remembered skills like Two or Four. It’s unskilled and uncoordinated and frankly, dumb as a brick. Are you really certain that this stupid animal is the Nine-Tail Vessel?”

“You tell us.” The squat, ugly one rumbled. “You brought him to us. Did you sell us something fake?”

“No!” Mizuki’s eyes widened. “Absolutely not, Masters! This is the child the Yondaime was holding after the Nine-Tails vanished. He died with this child in his arms! I swear, I pulled him from the Yondaime’s body myself.”

Yondaime? Kyuu-chan thought. Who’s that?

“Shall we test him?” The thin man said to the squat man.

“Fine.” The squat man said. “But hurry up. I hate waiting.”

“No problem.”

The thin man’s torso began, impossibly, to stretch, elongating in front of Kyuu-chan’s eyes.

“AHHHH!” Kyuu-chan scrabbled backwards, getting about a foot before his sweating hands slipped on the polished floor and he tipped over, landing with a thud on his back. The scary, scary stretchy man hovered over him. He waved his hands desperately in front of his face, whimpering, trying frantically as if in a nightmare to ward off the unnatural thing chasing him.

“Go away! Get away from me you bastard!”

A crushing wave of saki -of killing intent- struck like a viper, venomous fear streaking through his veins. He quite literally felt his heart stop, crushing pain in his chest and along his left arm, and he clutched his chest as he aspirated, trying to breathe into lungs that refused to inflate. Above him the narrow face began to blur, black creeping around the edges of his vision as he began to lose consciousness.

I’m dying. he thought.

And from somewhere deep in his soul a dark, deep voice whispered.

Bastard.

His vision went red, as if a tide of blood was rising over his eyes. He felt alien strength surge through his body, breaking the grip on his heart and lungs. He threw the hardest punch he could, straight at the face above him.

His fist smacked into the man’s palm. Long white fingers, cold as ice, curled around his small fist. Although the man seemed to exert no effort at all, Kyuu-chan couldn’t move.

“There, you see?” The man said, smiling wide. “Easily proven.”

Kyuu-chan glared at him through a red haze.

“Oh, don’t look at me with those eyes.” The man above him purred. “Eyes like that excite me.”

His tongue uncurled out of his mouth. It extended all the way down to Kyuu-chan’s face and licked the blood gently from the corner of his mouth.

“Augh! Gross!” Kyuu-chan squirmed, twisting his head away in disgust but keeping his eyes on his tormentor.

Wet and shiny, the tongue slithered back into the man’s throat like a serpent re-entering its lair.

“Mmm.” The man said, closing his eyes to savor the taste of the boy’s blood. “You taste divine, brat.”

“Perverted bastard.” Kyuu-chan ground out, locking his gaze onto those sick yellow eyes and refusing to look away. Instinctively he knew that if he averted his eyes now he’d be conceding. And this perverted snake-bastard was never, ever going to make him back down. Not ever.

“Where’s my sensei?” He demanded again, furious blue eyes boring into the poisonous eyes hovering over him.

The man laughed and let him go, his body shrinking back to its normal size.

“We imprisoned him, of course.” He said off-handedly.

“Bastard! Let him go!”

“But Nine-kun,” the man said lightly, “it’s for your protection.”

“What do you mean by that?” Kyuu-chan said harshly, climbing to his feet and scrubbing the back of his hand across his face.

“The man’s a spy, obviously. He infiltrated our organization to kill you.”

“That’s a lie!”

“The demon in you knows it. That’s why it hasn’t shown itself.”

”Liar!”

“One has no problem accessing his demon...”

”Shut up!”

“...around Yashamaru-kun, does he?”

”Shut up, bastard!” Kyuu-chan spit out the words, stalking forward. “Sensei’s my friend! He’s not a spy! He’s not...”

A loud, clear tone, like a bell, rang through the space as Kyuu-chan’s feet crossed over the lines of the small circle. The symbols around the edges of the circle began to glow, blue light shooting up to the ceiling. They got so bright Kyuu-chan raised his arm over his eyes to shield them and rose off the ground, swirling around the boy in the center. The sound increased as well, the clear note sustaining, getting louder. Kyuu-chan closed his eye so he could put his hands over his ears.

The light and sound became unbearable. Kyuu-chan crumpled to his knees and began to scream.

For long, agonizing minutes he held his head and wailed, until the light and sound snapped off suddenly, leaving him panting behind a shimmering blue wall that wrapped seamlessly around him. The wall stretched from the symbols on the ground up to a matching set of symbols that seemed to have been carved into the ceiling by the explosive light and sound he’d endured. It pulsed with light, alive, emitting a small humming noise.

Kyuu-chan touched it, half expecting it to shock him. It didn’t. It was cool to the touch and hard, like it was made of stone instead of magic. Kyuu-chan looked up, seeing the man in the grey cloak lowering his arms, a smug smile on his face.

“Bastard.” Kyuu-chan muttered, resting his hand on the cold blue wall.

There was no way out. He was well and truly caught.

Jiraiya sat up, pulses of magic lapping at his senses. He checked his watch.

Fuckers started early. he thought, disgruntled and a little scared. Orochimaru is taking no chances.

Leaping to his feet he began to attack the wards, hoping with less finesse and more brute strength he could get through them all in time.

Orochimaru sensed the assault on the wards. He smiled a little. Jiraiya would be getting a little surprise when he got through the first layer of wards.

Oh, yes.

His smile faded a little as he rubbed his hand against his side. It stung and throbbed, far more than it should after absorbing a blow from a six-year-old. Even a six-year-old Jinchuuriki.

So much power. Far more than any of the others.

I didn’t think he’d have that much power this soon.

I wonder if Collaring him is truly wise. It may be smarter just to kill him now.

Briefly he considered the repercussions.

As I am now, I can’t fight both Sasori and Jiraiya. Better to go along. I can watch him for the next few months and arrange for his death later, if need be.

“Orochimaru-sama.” Amachi said unctuously. “Please pick up your instrument and take your place in the pentagram. The other Vessel approaches. I can feel him.”

Orochimaru glided to the table and picked up a silver kunai, then took up a position on one point of the star on the floor. His senses picked up the first ward breaking above him.

Surprise, Jiraiya-chan.

A wash of angry saki emanated from the ceiling.

That should keep you occupied for a while. Orochimaru smiled happily. Oh, you’ll get through that shield, I’m sure. And the one under that. And the one under that. Maybe even the fourth one, the one right above us.

But can you do it before I control two of the Bijou?

Can you reach us before I Collar your precious godson?”

He laughed out loud.

Life was good.

There was a knock on the door.

Oh, no, Jiraiya. Orochimaru thought smugly. You won’t get here in time.

You’re already too late.