Black Aria

IV

“Are you afraid?” Sakura asked Naruto that morning. He hadn’t replied, instead looking toward Kyuubi who reclined so regally in a chair.

Months had gone by, and while Naruto’s memory wasn’t any better, he seemed to be back to normal. For him. His friends had all been informed of Kyuubi’s apparent physical existence, but for Naruto’s sake he never appeared during Council meetings. And, also for Naruto’s sake, Tsunade had quietly ordered all the secret-keepers to keep their traps shut or else.

An ‘or else’ coming from Tsunade was like a horde of killer bees seeking out a specific baby. It was damn scary.

Naruto had looked at Sakura and adjusted his flak jacket, silent for a while. “…Yes.”

She had sat with the pair then before Kyuubi kindly escorted her out the door. Then he turned to look at his jinchuuriki, moving finally to pull off that irritating vest and help the blonde into his customary orange and black jacket. “You’ll be fine. And besides, they’re only twelve.” Kyuubi said, looking at Naruto’s reflection. The boy’s blue eyes were cold, concentrating, and only when he looked up at Kyuubi did some warmth return to his eyes.

“They still outnumber me.”

“Pull a Kakashi. Do that stupid bell test.”

“I have a different idea. And anyway, if I did that, I’d be cited for plagiarism.”

“He would, wouldn’t he?” Kyuubi asked grouchily. Naruto laughed.

“Any chance to get into Iruka’s pants will be sought after like a rabid dog.”

Kyuubi shook his head. “Hurry up and go meet your students, sensei.”

“Shikamaru’s gonna be so jealous.” Naruto said after Kyuubi had settled in his brain again. Kyuubi’s raw amusement made him smile on his way to the Academy where the jounin-senseis were able to spy on their teams. He wasn’t surprised to be joined by several of his friends, each wearing the uniform Naruto was supposed to be wearing.

However, considering it was Naruto, ‘normal’ was whatever Naruto decided it was.

So Hinata sidled over to her friend and cocked her head at him, trying to smile. “Going against the machine?” she asked.

“All the time.” Naruto replied. “How are you doing?”

“I’m going to change after I see who my team is and then I’m going to find Hanabi and kill her.”

“Now, now. You’re sisters.”

“All the more reason then.” Hinata sighed. “She’s been a pain ever since she made it to chuunin.”

“Weren’t she and Konohamaru…?” Naruto railed of. Hinata just looked at him, and the blonde quickly decided his toes were interesting.

“Changing the subject,” Hinata said with a smile, “what do you plan to do after seeing your team?”

“Find a hole and hide in it.” Once Hinata had finished laughing up a lung, Naruto shrugged. “Test them, I guess. Tsunade will probably try to get us the hell out of the village.”

“Why?”

“Save herself a headache. Besides, I haven’t been able to leave the village unless it’s under armed escort.”

Hinata only nodded, for she’d been part of that ‘armed escort’ when Naruto’s ANBU squad went for training.

“Hey, here they come.”

Hinata and Naruto turned to look at the emerging genin, all holding up brand new hitai-ates to misty-eyed parents. All the jounin-senseis only had to look or a specific mark on the hitai-ate to find their team, and upon finding his, Naruto felt like he was going to be ill. He fled before Hinata could ask him what was wrong.

- Red eyes, the colour of blood, glaring hatred and fear and loathing -

Naruto clutched at his head, his brain pounding against his skull, wanting out. He felt Kyuubi holding onto him, trying to talk to him, asking him to calm down but he couldn’t because his memories were flooding back with astounding clarity and –

Kyuubi’s lips were rough against his own, the demon pressing Naruto back against a tree trunk, biting at his lips to get entry and begin a series of small tears, smearing blood between them. Kyuubi only pulled back when Naruto stopped struggling and stared at him, panting.

“Sasuke.” Naruto whispered, tears slowly sliding down his cheeks. “I forgot Sasuke.”

Kyuubi hissed. “That bastard doesn’t deserve to be remembered. You may not remember that day, but I do, as does everyone else who loves you. He tried to kill you Naruto. He almost succeeded.”

Naruto just simply looked at Kyuubi. The demon fox enfolded Naruto in his arms and let the young shinobi cry.

Kyuubi could only wonder what the hell was going on, why it had to be Naruto going through this pain, and just what really happened to make Naruto’s memory come back so suddenly. He felt his jinchuuriki relax against him and gave the boy a few more moments to compose himself.

“Everyone knows,” Naruto whispered, “that you can manifest. Everyone knows what happened that day. No one will tell me and that’s okay. But don’t let them find out that I remember Sasuke.”

Kyuubi blinked. “Why?”

Naruto looked up at him, his blue eyes subtlety different somehow. Kyuubi could only grin maniacally when he saw the difference, the nearly invisible white tomoe.

“Itachi planned for every contingency, didn’t he?”

Naruto smiled, straightened, and blinked once to dismiss Itachi’s gift to him. “He was a genius, after all.”

Kyuubi could only shake his head. It all made sense now. He’d only seen the technique before – once, when he was very young – and the receiver hadn’t survived through the memory loss. It was a technique that was so rare barely anyone knew it existed, which had allowed Itachi to get away with it. Essentially, the giver transferred an ability to the receiver that the receiver normally wouldn’t obtain. In Naruto’s case, a Sharingan for jutsu only the Uchiha clan could use. But it was a gamble. Memories were taken in exchange for the ability, but there had to be some innate ability to be able to use the offered technique.

Which meant wither Naruto had Uchiha blood in his veins or he was simply that determined to live.

But it was a double-edged sword. The Sharingan Naruto now possessed had stolen his memories, had given them back, and it seemed so ridiculous that it couldn’t possibly be true. However, as Kyuubi reflected, the signs had been there all along. The coma, the hermit period, the emotional distancing, memory loss – these all pointed to that special jutsu. And Naruto had survived it.

The thing was that while everyone knew of Kyuubi and had come to accept it along with the realization that Naruto would still be unable to remember certain events, if they knew Naruto remembered Sasuke and had this Sharingan, he would become the study of every village’s head medic.

Not to mention he’d have an even bigger target on his back for his enemies.

“Are you going to name it something?” Kyuubi finally asked.

Naruto muttered something pithy and then sighed. “Eventually. For now, let’s go get my odd genin and start a few training exercises.”

“Like?”

“You’ll have to wait and see, now, won’t you?”