The Siblings

Chapter 8

Naruto came back to the village without his beloved Sasuke. As the group entered the village gates, all I could see was suppressed anger on Naruto's face and utter remorse on Sakura's. Akamaru had his tail between his legs and the other three were ashamed of themselves for being so easily fooled. They brought a red-headed girl, dragging her along all tied up.

"He slipped right through my fingers" the blond sobbed angrily later that day, clawing at the black fabric of my shirt. "I was this close..." he mumbled.

I patted his head and hugged him tighter. "Don't worry, brother. I doubt the enemy will make him fight in this war. As far as we know, Sasuke went blind after you two fought" I said.

Naruto sighed. "I really hope he stays put" his blue eyes now darkened with determination. "When this shit storm ends, I will knock some sense back into him"

I smirked. "You do that, but first, you have to get off of the Akatsuki's radar. If they catch Kurama, the odds will be in their favor"

"What about the Ten-Tails?" he cautiously whispered. "He's the most powerful, isn't he?"

"Kuronuma is a rational being that puts reason before impulse, thus he will remain in the shadows for as long as he pleases. We shouldn't worry about him right now. Kurama, on the other hand, is unstable and you need to control him if we want to win this war" I replied, standing up and leaving the tent I shared with a kunoichi named Ten-Ten, heading to Tsunade's.

She was still feeble, lying almost lifelessly on the mattress, her chest moving slightly.

"Will she come around soon?" I asked Shizune, who stood by the blonde's side day and night ever since the village was somewhat back on its feet.

"She might not make it" the black-haired woman softly said, sighing. "The Elders have already appointed Hatake Kakashi as the Seventh Hokage, in case she doesn't wake up in time"

"Maybe we can help, Naoto" Kuronuma suggested.

I raised an eyebrow at him, now conversing with him inside my mind. "Yeah, how?"

"The Karuigan has many uses, other than the one you are using daily" he said. "It can heal a severed chakra network and stitch up wounds..."

"So it's a glorified medical jutsu" I cut him off.

"...it makes the fusion of two opposite chakra natures possible, and with some training it may even give you the use of all five chakra natures and their derivates, such as wood, lava, sand and mist. You have some mid-class genjutsu abilities, such as some mild mind control and memory erasers, also granted by the Karuigan. And the most dangerous, yet the most handy of all, is the Dark Style, enabling the user to open up wormholes, break the time-space continuum for a while, then closing it and mending the continuum as if nothing happened" he continued solemnly.

"Why didn't I know of this sooner?" I asked gravely.

He sighed. "The enemy is planning on reviving the original Jyuubi, and the creature, despite the fact that it lacks the Eight, Nine and Ten-Tailes, can easily wipe out and entire country with the right Bijuu bomb. You using the Dark Style might just be the only thing that can stop it" he sighed again and laid his scaly head onto his front legs. "Now go and help the Hokage" he urged.

I nodded and found myself back in Tsunade's tent. Shizune noticed that I zoned out and now she was worried for both me and the Hokgae, but I ignored that and knelt down beside the blonde woman. She looked older, her skin looking almost mummified, the purple mark on her forehead gone, and her eyes sunk back in their sockets.

"Now activate the Kariugan"  Kuronuma advised.

I did as he told me, now noticing that the entire chakra network had been severed from the source near her heart.