Hamura Estate — Training Ground
Ryu thought, "Shit... what have I done?"
Ryu had been circulating his chakra through Naruto's chakra pathways. Naruto's reserves were nearly dry after training. Ryu had only meant to show him how the flow was supposed to feel. He wasn't expecting the Nine-Tails' seal to loosen and leak chakra.
The red chakra did not surge. It seeped slowly at first, like bleeding through a cracked wall. Then, all at once, it was simply there. It coiled through Naruto's pathways in thick, scalding tendrils. The air above the training ground turned amber. It was visible to anyone with trained eyes.
The ANBU hidden in the treeline felt it before they saw it.
The captain raised his fist. The three-man detail froze where they stood. The junior ANBU already had the mobile device in hand, his thumb on the call button.
"I am calling Lord Hokage," the junior ANBU said.
"Stop," the captain said. "The Lord Hokage is in a high-level meeting. If you call him now, the information that the Nine-Tails seal has weakened will leak to the entire council."
He watched the red chakra thicken around Naruto's small frame, while Ryu's expression sharpened from calm to urgency.
"Leave the Lord Hokage a secure message instead," the captain said. "Then call Dan Hamura. He is right here in the estate, and his fuinjutsu skills are even better than the Lord Hokage's. He is the closest one who can handle the situation properly."
"Yes," the junior ANBU said as he messaged the Lord Hokage, mentioning that they were also seeking Dan's help.
The captain then said, "The rest of you, prepare a barrier formation!"
Before the squad could weave a single hand seal, Ryu had already acted.
Ryu jumped back and formed a single-hand seal. Barriers snapped into place across the estate in rapid sequence. The outer perimeter formed first, then a tighter ring around the training ground, and finally a close formation around Ryu and Naruto.
The red chakra hit the innermost layer and held. A secondary lattice ran along the ground. It was as thin as paper and as dense as steel, sealing the ambient leak before it could reach the perimeter walls.
Ryu thought, "I don't know how many sensors felt that but I think it is contained for now... at least from sensors outside and far away... those ANBU must have sensed this... and Grandpa too..."
The ANBU captain lowered his hands.
The captain thought, "I was wasting time calling for a barrier. But can a barrier made by a kid, even a genius, hold the Nine-Tails?"
Ryu then extended his palms and the gold-yellow chains appeared from his body. They crossed the distance to Naruto in a single motion and drove into the boy's back.
Naruto did not react. The connection was not a wound… The chains, instead of tearing flesh, just dived in. It was like a USB finding its socket. Immediately, the leak decreased in speed... however, the chakra cloak remained.
"[Uzumaki Sealing Chains]," the captain said. His voice had changed its register entirely. He stared at the chains pulsing with slow, warm light between Ryu and the boy. "Those are [Uzumaki Sealing Chains]. We have a chance now."
As an ANBU captain, he knows about the past jinchuriki and also the special traits of the Uzumaki clan. He knows it is contained for now thanks to chains but that is not a permanent solution.
"Did you call Dan Hamura?" the captain asked.
"He is not answering," the junior replied.
Hamura Estate Main House
Inside, Dan had stopped mid-step.
He was in the corridor between the kitchen and the study with a scroll in one hand. The air changed, and he stood still.
It was a weight without a source. It was a pressure that pressed inward from no particular direction. He had last felt it decades ago, standing behind Mito Uzumaki in the hall of the old Hokage residence, when the seal weakened and revealed to him what was inside it when she was in labour. Dan felt the power of Nine Tails that day. He also felt the same the day Naruto was born.
Dan thought, "Nine-Tails chakra… The seal has loosened… I need to go check the seal …"
At that exact moment, the mobile phone near him began to vibrate. It was the ANBU emergency line. But he ran towards the training ground without any attention to the phone.
Inside Naruto's Mindscape
The water was black and calm. The floor was all the way up to the ankles. The hallway itself went on in both directions without a clear end. There was a gate at the end of one direction. It was as if the place had no idea of physical limits when it came to lengths; it was more like a representation, an imaginative equivalent. There was no light source, but he could clearly see around him as far as his sight allowed.
The door was made of golden bars from floor to ceiling, with bars as thick as old trees. A single sheet of paper rests at the centre. The kanji for 'seal' was written. Behind the gate, there was darkness.
Naruto Uzumaki stood in the water, looking at his feet.
He did not know how he had arrived here. One moment he had been on the training ground with the familiar grass under his knees. Now there was this cold water, no sky, and a gate at the end of the dark that was doing something to the air.
"This must be a dream," Naruto said aloud. "I fell asleep during training again, like that funny guy at Ichiraku who fell asleep randomly, even with his mouth full."
He looked around without alarm.
"Brother Ryu is going to make me run laps again when he finds out," Naruto muttered.
Then a voice came from behind the gate.
It was sweet, low, and carefully coaxing, like a kidnapper trying to lure a child with chocolate.
"Hey, kid. Come near. Come near the gates," the voice said.
Naruto looked toward the darkness. Something vast moved behind the bars.
"Who's there?" Naruto asked. "Where am I?"
The Nine-Tails spoke, "Come near and I'll tell you."
Naruto considered the situation for a moment. He stepped forward, then paused.
Naruto thought, "I don't think so."
He crossed his arms instead.
"That's what bad guys say," Naruto declared.
The voice went quiet, and a moment later the dark water began to move. The red chakra moved like fog under Naruto's feet and grabbed him. It wrapped around his ankles before he could step back, climbing swiftly to his knees and then his waist.
"What is this?" Naruto shouted. He struggled against the grip, which accomplished nothing. "Leave me! I'm not scared! Show yourself!"
The chakra pulled him forward, dragging him closer to the gate while he kept shouting.
"I am not tasty! I taste very bitter!" Naruto yelled.
The gate loomed closer. The bars grew. Behind them, an enormous silhouette formed. Red eyes opened. A jaw parted to show teeth like white boulders.
The fox lunged to eat Naruto, but the chains hit Naruto before he got too far past the bars.
They came from behind Naruto. The gold-yellow chains wrapped around his waist and pulled him backward along with the red chakra's grip in one clean motion.
Suddenly, a suffocating wave of killing intent rolled out from the cage. The sheer weight of the Fox's pressure crashed into Naruto. His eyes rolled back, and he passed out, collapsing toward the black water.
A footstep on water echoed behind him.
"Luring kids now?" Ryu asked. His voice was dry and almost bored. "Is that what you've come to?"
Ryu analysed the corridor, the black water, and the depth of the seal construction before shifting his focus to the unconscious boy. He assessed him in a single glance: elevated heart rate and minor chakra shock from the killing intent, but otherwise uninjured.
Ryu thought, "Just in time. A few more seconds and worse might have happened."
The Fox's red chakra transmitted through the still-connected gold-yellow chains and reached Ryu from unconscious Naruto.
Ryu thought, "This chakra is so potent and strong and ... violent... angry."
After Ryu had sucked out all the chakra… which was not small by any means… He shifted the chains holding the unconscious Naruto. The gold-yellow links loosened, softened and changed… shape… reformed into smoothly constructed rings of chakra that caught the boy before he hit the water.
The gentle cradle lifted him slightly off the surface. Naruto slowly retreated down the corridor, carried away from the gate to a relatively safer location. Ryu noticed the small bubbles of chakra were still going towards Naruto. Ryu thought of them as remnants, leakage of nine tails' chakra. Ryu looked at one bubble floating slowly towards Naruto and put his hand forward, and it changed direction to reach Ryu.
Ryu smiled to know that Ryu has one backup plan in this place.
Ryu thought about the possibility of this happening. "Maybe because of the my physical body… which is still connected to naruto and our chakra system is in sync… or maybe my chakra is very much compatible with Nine-Tails… whatever it is at this moment, it's good news for me…"
Ryu turned towards the gate and stared right in the eyes of the beast.
The Nine-Tails watched him with absolute stillness. Before the ninja villages existed, adults and children had sometimes wandered near its resting place, and the fox remembered their expressions of absolute terror. This one was different... wrong... and very unbelievable.
Ryu was too small, too calm, and carrying himself like someone who had already decided how this conversation would end.
The Fox thought, "This child... there is no fear in him at all. Just who is he?"
"Who are you, boy?" the fox demanded, its voice a deep, reverberating growl.
Ryu gave a gentleman's bow.
"I am Ryu Hamura," Ryu said. "Next heir of the Hamura clan. Director of Technology at Hamura Industries. Eldest adoptive sibling to Naruto. I am also the youngest medical apprentice and soon-to-be youngest medical ninja in the village."
He paused, his expression hardening. "I would prefer if you did not bully my little brother, Mr 9… and definitely do not try what you did just a moment ago."
The Nine-Tails listened, completely dumbfounded. It was being reprimanded like a misbehaving child. The last time someone had spoken to it with such authority was in the era of the Sage of Six Paths.
Then the fox laughed. The booming monstrous laugh moved through the corridor like a pressure wave, sending ripples from one wall to the other. But Ryu faced those winds and the pressure of the monstrous laugh like it was nothing.
"You are mad," the Fox said. "I see no fear in you at all. Not even trace amounts. Something is wrong with your head, kid."
Ryu tilted his head. "That's actually an interesting question," he said, adopting the clinical tone he used when explaining something to Masato Nakai. "Lipoid proteinosis disease. It is caused by a single mutation in the ECM1 gene found on chromosome one. It causes a calcification of the amygdala, leading to impaired recognition of danger cues, a loss of consequence assessment, and an absence of normal fear responses in the face of danger."
The Nine-Tails glared at him dumbfounded. The massive beast was visibly annoyed by the sudden barrage of human medical jargon.
Fox thought, "This kid is crazy… is he diagnosing himself?"
Ryu flashed a sharp, mocking smile. "But… I don't have this syndrome. My amygdala is perfectly functional. My lack of fear is just.... lack of fear. Simply put, you don't scare me."
The fox stared at him for a long moment.
"If that is the case," the Fox sneered, "then come near me."
Ryu stepped forward and stopped a short distance away. Instantly, a massive paw came through the cage bars. It crossed the distance in a fraction of a second and stopped inches from his face. The displacement of air pressed against his skin and his clothes fluttered.
Ryu did not flinch. He did not even blink.
The paw withdrew.
"You are stupid," Ryu said, in the same tone he would use explaining a basic concept to a slow student. "This is a mental plane. My physical body isn't here. I understand well that nothing is going to happen to me except for mental and chakra backlash. And I genuinely doubt you can manage even that, considering my high-functioning mind."
Fox thought, "Or maybe due to an already broken mind."
The Fox laughed again, thinking Ryu was insane. There was something different in its voice now.
"I have never seen a kid like you," the Fox said. "Are you even a kid?"
The beast pulled back, giving Ryu room. The enormous bulk receded into the dark until there was vast open space behind the gate. Its amber eyes watched him closely.
"If you're so confident," the Fox said, "then step inside the cage. I will put fear inside you. Let's see what kind of backlash you are going to get. Just come inside if you think nothing is going to happen."
It was a taunt. Ryu knew it was a taunt. It was also a genuine offer…to invite Ryu to a dinner…and Ryu was on the menu.
Ryu started thinking; his [Fast Thinking] and [Parallel Thinking] activated.
The mindscape reacted to the calmness. The red chakra at the edges of the corridor went still. The dripping water at Ryu's feet stopped moving entirely. He thought through every implication of what he was about to do. He ran the probabilities until he had an answer he was satisfied with.
Then Ryu moved.
Ryu did not slow at the gate. He simply walked past the bars of the cage, the boundary that had held the most destructive force in the world. He stepped through without fear or doubt.
Ryu had calculated possibilities for how things might go wrong because of this stupidity. But Ryu knew the risks and advantages this place has for him.
The Nine-Tails stared at Ryu.
A/N:
Thank you,
El Gordo, Zarassa van Cresh, Nova Gamer555, David Jenkins, Carlos Barker, Auzzo, Some guy, Dalton Harris, Toyo, McCallister Wilson, Timothy cordelle, Mason Erickson, Eymi Lopez, อวิรุธ อนุรัตน์, Vernan Stapleton, Monkey D. Murda, R3vo, for supporting me on P@treon.
Please support me on P@treon. and leave a review on WN if you liked the story.
Latest chapter on P@treon: Chapter 368 ~ Two hidden Uzumaki
A few free chapters for everyone are available to read on p@treon. com/PageTurnerPJ.
Your support is what gets this story going, so please like share and review the story and add it to your library.