Naruto : Path of Wind

I inhale sharply and my whole body tenses up against the will of my screaming muscles, but the pain I'm expecting never comes.

Instead, I hear the sound of displaced air around me and feel the hand holding onto my collar, and nothing I else. I reach up and strain against the hand on my shirt, but it doesn't budge. Maybe I could have budged a few fingers and wiggled free if I wasn't such a wreck.

And then what would I have done? My gaze flickers wildly, side to side, up and down, everywhere. Nothing but black. Worst case scenario, whatever it is that's making me slide through the ground like it isn't even there would disappear and I'd suffocate in the ground. Best case scenario... uh.

Suddenly my senses come rushing back to me all at once. The sound of sandaled feet landing lightly on stone, the smell of damp earth, a chill on my skin. It all rushes back to me in a single disorienting instant, and I don't even have a chance of recovering in time when my captor throws me forward.

My head slams into something solid, and I swear to god if this doesn't stop soon I'm investing in a helmet. I moan, the sound nearly overtaken by the persistent ringing in my ears and the nauseating taste of my own blood flooding my mouth.

A moment later a light comes alive, glowing blue and fierce and flickering like a flame over the sleek leather of my captor's gloved hand, clearly illuminating the bizarre orange mask covering their whole face aside from the crimson eye and the pitch black cloak covering the rest of thei body. Through the pain and confusion, something in the back of my mind starts screaming at me. Danger.

Chakra isn't supposed to be that bright. Pure chakra rarely makes it to a dim glow all by itself. That means one of two things. Either they're about to use a jutsu on me, or they're just that strong.

"Hello Naruto-kun," A smooth, male voice says. It reminds me of the old man, weirdly enough. All calm and confidence. "You have my apologies. Hurting children has never sat well with me, but this time it was necessary."

How? I try to ask, but only a pained gurgle makes the trip. Then he answers my question anyway, kneeling down beside me and dipping a finger in the little puddle of blood formed by the little stream trickling down my cheek. I try and jerk to the side, kick him in the balls, something. But my body is just too beat, and some frantic little twitches are all I get while he finger-paints on my forehead with my blood. A little shock erupts from his hand a few seconds later, and even twitching is taken out of the equation as my arms and legs lock, refusing to respond to my commands.

"There we go," he says, satisfied, and rocks back on his heels.

"What-?" I start, thankfully still in control of my tongue, but stop short as the answer hits me. "You sealed me," I breath. The mask bobs.

"Indeed. Another necessary measure, I'm afraid." Then he reaches out with his non-shiny hand and rips my shirt off with one short jerk, revealing my bruised stomach in all its glory. He places a hand on my navel, and another little shock runs through me. The seal comes swirling into being and my captor inhales sharply, his single eyes widening. He traces a finger over it, sending a couple more shocks of chakra through my skin at seemingly random intervals.

"There it is," he murmurs, almost disbelievingly. His finger spirals inward with the seal. "You can not possibly know how long I've been looking for you, Naruto-kun."

"I'd like to say I feel the same way," I say through grit teeth. He isn't putting any particular force on my stomach with his prodding, but it hurts. The man doesn't respond, but his eye crinkles in a gesture disturbingly similar to Kakashi. "You could at least tell me your name. Or buy me dinner first. 'S only fair," I mutter sourly.

The mask cocks, and the eye rises from my stomach to stare at me, the amusement gone. A single bloody orb stares unreadably at me. I don't even breath.

"Hirakazu," He finally says, turning back to my stomach and resuming his poking. "You can call me Kazu, though," he adds after a thoughtful silence.

Uh, okay then.

"So... is there any reason you didn't just, you know, ask to see my seal?" I ask, albeit hesitantly. Weird mask and creepy eye aside, I'm not getting an overly hostile vibe from the guy. He probably won't kill me for asking a few questions. Probably.

"It would have been far too complicated," he replies immediately. "I'm not affiliated with Konoha, and you were already injured. That teammate of yours wouldn't have let me within three feet of you." Finally he leans back again, apparently satisfied. "It's much easier this way."

"You're done, then? You got what you wanted?" I press. Some small part of me recognizes that reasonable explanation or not, I've still been kidnapped, and that my life is currently resting in the hands of a man that I don't know who has no affiliated with Konoha or presumably any of its allies. I should probably be thinking of some way to signal Kakashi and Gai, or break free of the restrictive seal on my forehead, or both. At the very least I should be scared half to death.

I'm not doing or feeling any of those things, though. I'm just tired, and if a look at my stomach is what's needed to get me back to the surface, and later a nice warm tent, then I say poke away.

"For now," Kazu agrees, not at all ominously.

"Could you be a little less violent about it next time, at least?"

He chuckles, placing the hand shrouded in chakra on his knee and pushing himself up. "I think I can try."

"Thanks." I fall silent, struggling to formulate the million dollar question in my head in such a way that might net me an answer, but Kazu beats me to the punch yet again.

"You want to know why I was looking for your seal," he states matter-of-factly. I nod mutely. "I don't suppose you know what it's for?" I shake my head no. He sighs. "Then I'm afraid most of what I'm doing would go right over your head."

"Try me," I challenge. His eye crinkles.

"Maybe some other time. For now, though, I suppose I can tell you this much." He raises a gloved hand, touches his fingertips to the area of the mask where I imagine his other eye might be, and his voice becomes solemn. "I seek peace."

"... For who?" I ask after a few seconds of expectant silence.

His hand falls back to his side, and he stares intently at me. "For everyone, of course."

And suddenly I feel very, very small. I'm not exactly the best judge of character, especially with my head smashed half to hell, but the man in front of me doesn't seem the type to make empty boasts. Or have unreachable goals. I take a moment to process his statement, consider the implications of it. And wonder just what the hell is with the seal on my stomach.

"Why?" It's the first thing that jumps to mind. Kazu cocks his head, and for a while it's just me, some dirt, and a few rocks as he considers my question.

"Why did you become a shinobi?" He finally retorts. I blink.

"Because. I, uh." Because why? "I..." I spent five years busting my ass to be one. There has to be a reason, right? "I..." The old man became a shinobi to protect his home. I have to be forgetting something. Some crucial bit of motivation. It can't have just been 'shinobi are cool', can it? Am I really that shallow?

"I don't know." For some reason I can't quite explain, those three words hurt to say. A lot.

"Figure it out," Kazu suggests. "And you might find that you know my reasons as well."

I groan in frustration, clenching my eyes shut. "This day sucks." Kazu chuckles again, the jerk. We lapse into silence, and I find that the ringing in my ears is still going strong as it rushes forward to overtake the stillness of the little underground cave. Kazu stares at his shining hand, apparently deep in thought, and I try to ignore the pain in my stomach and the questions pounding in my head.

I fail, of course.

"How?" My voice is quiet, but in such a small space it doesn't really need to carry too far. Kazu focuses an eye on me, which I take as a go-ahead.

"How are you going to bring peace to everyone? Is it even possible?" For some reason, be it the rock hard determination in his voice or the blood rapidly leaking from my head, I don't think there isn't a chance he could do it. But it doesn't make the idea any less alien to me. War and fighting and killing has been at the center of my life since, well, ever.

What would all the thousands of shinobi across the board do with peace? What would fill the gap?

"It is," Kazu says surely. "Anything is possible, with the means and the drive. Anything."

"But how?" I press. "You're just one person. You're not even a shinobi of a hidden village." It's a guess more than anything else. He's not wearing a headband, but that doesn't really mean anything in the long run. He could just be wearing it somewhere I can't see, or he may have stowed it before coming to nab me. It would be the smart thing to do.

But it turns out that I'm right regardless when his mask bobs. "It's true that I'm not affiliated with any village in particular," he agrees. "But I'm far from alone, and I think you'll find that quantity isn't always what makes the difference."

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