Chapter 19 - Naruto and Misunderstandings

I ran as fast as my legs could carry me. My split self was already halfway there, but it could already hear the destruction between the two fighting Shinobi.

People from the town were screaming. The random pillar of stone that had suddenly pierced through the two had fallen, and carved out its own scar on the nearby buildings. I could already see that a thick basin of fog had coated the inner sections of the town.

Those chirping bird were really getting on my nerves at this point, too.

Spectral Byakugan vision found Hinata standing on top of a room, crying out into the fog. She was yelling something for the two of them to stop, but she was too weak from exhaustion to actually intervene with her own body. Instead, she clutched Nuibari in her hands and threw it every now and then into the thick fog.

Her own eyes, as well as mine, were able to pierce the veil of milky white that surrounded the two fighters. Itsuki, with his single arm, was swinging around Kabutowari with a sort of reckless strength that didn't really match his wounded form. I had no idea where he was pulling his energy from, but I planned to stop him before he took things too far.

On the opposite end, a man in varying shades of grey and black was wielding a shortsword with the intent of cutting down my friend. He was wearing an animal mask, but that didn't stop my Byakugan from peering through and finding one eye of lifeless black and a blazing, spiraling eye of blood red, three tomoe spun hypnotically within the iris. He was rather handsome under his mask, too.

However, he was much younger than I actually thought he would be. I remembered him from the original Naruto as a man who would become the teacher to the freshly minted Shinobi. Briefly, I also recalled that he had a single, red eye on his left side: the notorious Sharingan.

Kakashi had joined the fray, and apparently he was intent on killing our current travelling companion.

I knew not why they were fighting, nor did I particularly care to know. Itsuki was in no state to actually fight, and his stump, which had started to bleed again, wasn't helping him in any way. Hinata was exhausting herself again from trying her hardest to help as well. Everything was a couple steps away from falling apart again, and I desperately needed to fix it.

So when I materialized in between the two, I hadn't had more of a plan than to just stop the two of them. My indestructible knife met the edge of Kabutowari as I was still wary about the exact details of the weapon's effects, and my left hand met the blade of Kakashi's short sword, knowing that I could heal any gash that it caused.

Apparently, no matter how many fights I had been in, I hadn't gotten into the thought process that I was physically still four. Sure, I was strong, but these Shinobi were no slackers either. They definitely had more time to mature into invincible weapons of mass destruction.

As such, it was with only a little surprise that the arm that had met Kabutowari was snapped clean in half in a sickening crack. The arm that Kakashi cut into was also not faring well. He had the reflexes to not chop my limb off on the spot, but it meant little when the blade buried into my forearm with a bloody squelch.

My scream of shear agony was perfectly reasonable in this situation even when I felt the fox's regeneration kick in. I let the Kyūbi's Chakra start dealing with the worst of the damage as I switched my my knife to my unbroken arm; I could still move my hand to hold the blade, so it was the better option of the two.

Everyone in the battlefield went silent on my arrival. Kakashi was silent, but I could feel a slight measure of wariness and terror flash through him as he backed off, taking his sword out of my arm. Itsuki was a little more hands on with his actions.

He immediately jumped to me, throwing Kabutowari away to make sure I was okay. I swayed a little into his hold as the pain from my two ruined arms healing was almost as horrible as getting the injuries.

"Naruto, what the hell are you thinking?!" He yelled, his single arm trying to pull me behind him as he glared at Kakashi.

Kakashi made no move other than to dodge as Nuibari came very close to impaling him. I frowned up at Hinata. She was trying to help, but I was trying to diffuse the situation, not escalate.

"Hinata-chan!" I yelled through clenched teeth. Blood was beginning to seep into my knife's handle, and a headache was building up as I remembered what I needed to say. "It's okay, he's not here to hurt us!"

I could see the tense from of Hinata on the building pause as my words. Luckily, she accepted my words with ease, and began to silently make her way towards us. Nuibari's string was still tightly held in her hands.

Of course, I had no idea if Kakashi was here to hurt us or not. For all I knew, he was an assassin sent to take us out before he mellowed out in the original Naruto. However, I was willing to hope that he was here for Hinata and I, and, most of all, I was hoping for a way to settle this without everyone getting injured again. Saving a town from being used as another battleground was a plus.

"What do you mean, Naruto?" Itsuki whispered angrily into my ear, his words were slowly being stretched out. "That's a damn Konoha Anbu! They don't get sent out to find a couple of kids! Are you sure you didn't do anything that bad?!"

"No, I…" I paused remembering the fact that I did rob several business blind. "Well, what I did probably shouldn't have someone sent to kill me."

"That's not a vote of confidence, Naruto." Itsuki groaned from in front of me. Now, I was beginning to lose focus on what was around me, but I remained calm through trying to steer the conversation to calm.

"Hey!" I yelled to Kakashi. My arms were feeling slightly numb as they healed "Could we all stop fighting? We obviously don't need to, okay?"

Kakashi was ever silent, probably still assessing the way the situation was flowing. I had no idea what he was thinking, and splitting now would probably be seen as a threat as the situation was so tense. Instead, I waited for him to respond.

And I waited as seconds turned to minutes.

The world tumbled and flipped as I grew, and I continued to wait.

I realized what was happening after a couple of minutes of the Konoha Anbu just standing there. It wasn't as fast as last time, but everyone was ridiculously slow again.

Through the Byakugan imbedded in my palm, I was able to witness as silver-haired one's eyes widened at my physical changes. I was equally confused as I now had a fresh set of thin, almost skeletal arms that sprouted from the nubs that had originally been set up on top of my shoulders; more nubs were wriggling on my back. There was also a much smaller arm was growing from my neck such that its palm covered my left most eyes. I still had a plethora of other eyes that could make up for the loss, though.

My face was still a tad elongated into a wolf snout, and my one, uncovered eye was a deep, abyssal black from iris to sclera. I was cloaked in my loose white gown that was marred with the blood that had been spilling from my injuries. White hair spilled from my scalp, jutting from spikes to curls to straight in an amalgam of panicked locks.

My knife was carefully clutched in my hand, and I stared out at those that dared to fight in front of me.

I took in the changes in my accelerated perception, and it only took a few long minutes for me to come to terms with my monstrous form. There were already several guesses to where this sudden growth spurt had come from. Most of the were drawn from the sheer volume that I had consumed from that delicious guy from before.

At first, I feared for what was happening. I had changed, but I didn't feel that different. Something inside me was telling me that everything was wrong. The only thing that conflicted that was that everything felt so right.

It was like something had been liberated from the chains that held me down. I felt more… me. Slowly, I realized that this was me, and that everything was exactly as it should be.

I smiled happily in the slow world.

With my acceptance came sounds around me. The Shinobi who smelled of solid earth, Itsuki a part of me said, was scrambling back to his weapon of molded destruction. Hinata had discarded that which pierces and stitches in lieu of arriving at the field of confrontation faster, her gestures suggested panic and fear.

Seeing that she wasn't in any danger, I turned back to the one who wielded the eye of suffering, and tried to tell him to cease fighting, again. My vocal cords seemed to also be altered along with my physical appearance. A full biological change perhaps? I didn't see anything wrong with me besides the extra hunger now, so maybe it was something I should look into later.

The weapon of molded destruction was flying at me while I mused. An eye that should not be his was locked onto me, and had paired up with the wielder of earthen protection. They were saying something, but it was too slow to reach me.

Idly, I realized that I was much faster than I was before. Despite the world being faster than when I first flipped, I was moving closer to what I expected my body to.

If there was any chance that they could have hit me, there was none now. I realized that they were afraid. Of whom, I did not know.

Still, they were coming at me rather threateningly. It was in my best interest to stop them before they hurt themselves more.

I reacted quickly to their attacks, weaving through their arms to better position myself. It was literally slow goings as I still had to wait for myself and everyone to move even as I already knew the plan. The ones who I wanted to stop were also not making this any easier.

They were more experienced than me at fighting at high speeds, and their reaction speed reflected that. I could only find solace in the fact that the closer I got, the slower they would react to me. The slow stalemate lasted until the one who had a barrowed eye overextended, trying to cut me in two.

I ducked under a slash from the silver-haired one, sending a fist from one of upper arms into his diaphragm. It winded him, allowing for my knife to deliver a follow up strike to the same spot. He collapsed in a fit of wheezing hysteria.

He would be up soon, but his body followed some semblance of human biological reasoning enough that a similar tactic would work again.

I focused on the one-armed guardian who was several parts afraid and confused. There was no way for me to say something comforting to him, but I guess that could be rectified when I calmed the both of them down.

My newer arms were long enough to snake into a fairly strong hold on his free arm, and I twisted in a way he taught us to deliver a textbook throw. Apparently, my new strength didn't really translate well to me as instead of giving him a small trip through the air, my target of protection was sent careening into a nearby building.

He flew slowly, and I was about to run and retrieve him before his crashed, but the one who had only knew loss was blocking my way.

I felt a slight amount of rage as he stood there. My winds around me swirled in rage as well. And, for the first time, I could truly feel them. I only had the time to wonder what changed before they acted upon my cause.

The man with a given eye was blasted from above by a burst of supersonic air molecules. I created pockets of pressure that sent more and more air into his prone body to keep him there, and I strode forwards, blasting debris out of my path.

When I got close enough, I realized that I couldn't make it to my companion physically. My winds were preoccupied with holding down the Shinobi who dared to stop me, but I couldn't dedicate more wind to help. It was like I was trying to use a single system to do two completely didn't tasks.

Ah, a system! That's what changed; I could finally understand Chakra better.

I was happy to figure out that little tidbit as I wondered how I would save my friend. Then I spotted Hinata trailing into the scene. She was yelling at me and the one who was flying.

Pools of liquid were trailing down her face. Tears, a part of me answered. For some reason, I didn't really like her having tears.

All parts of me rebelled, and the world sped up by a couple seconds.

I was still me, but I felt less. And I felt guilty.

What was I doing? Why had I acted like that?

Immediately, I felt a bit more clarity as the world began to speed up again. I was beginning to shrink down, and the winds were no longer wanting to follow my command. However, I needed them to act one more time.

I took off the invisible prison I had erected around Kakashi, and sent all of my wind to slowing Itsuki's fall. He landed in the cushion of hard wind with a small stagger of breath then drifted softly to the floor. At first I was terrified when he wasn't responding, but I quickly found that he was still breathing.

Taking a slight sigh of relief as I watched his chest rise and fall, I realized that he was only unconscious.

The world was snapping back in place as a sharp edge reached my neck. I looked behind me to the bloodied form of Kakashi.

His breathing was ragged, and his attire was torn in several places. I flinched as I noted that my winds were probably more akin to a wall of sharp steel than actual airwaves. There were only several places that weren't cut up and bleeding on Kakashi's body.

I idly noticed that his mask was no longer on his face, cracked pieces littered the area where he came. His eyes were staring at me with a slurry of different emotions, and I honestly was terrified of what was about to happen.

"Who are… you?" He rasped between staggered breaths.

I must have looked as frightened as I felt as the sword eased up from my throat ever so slightly as I responded, "Naruto…"

"I see…" Kakashi said solemnly with the slight narrowing of his eyes. He collapsed on top of me the next moment, succumbing to the fact that he had lost quite a bit of blood. I caught him with slight difficulty as my injuries were only healed somewhat.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata's voice run into the scene the next second. She was pensively watching me and Kakashi as she took stock of Itsuki. He didn't look too bad, but I only had a vague idea what happened when the world slowed.

"Hey, Hinata-chan…" I said, still numb from what happened. "Sorry about all this… I really... don't know what happened."

Hinata was flashing me a soft, reassuring smile. She was getting better at faking her thoughts enough that was actually comforted by it. "It's okay, Naruto-kun. Let's just get Sensei out of here, and get out."

"Right," I answered easily, taking a moment to adjust Kakashi in my much smaller arms. "Let's take Kaka- this guy with us, too. He's from Konoha, so it would be nice to get him to take us home."

Hinata didn't seem too convinced at that, but just nodded along. We were out of the destroyed town before any of the civilians showed their well earned bias against us. With the extra medical provisions, we made rather good time towards the border of Fire Country.

Kakashi hadn't woken up in the two days that we traveled, nor had Itsuki, but that didn't really matter when we finally made it to the border.

It wasn't that big of a change. Just increasingly dense stretches of forests, and a more humid climate. We had finally made it close to home. After a grueling two years on the move, trying to get back to some semblance of home, Hinata and I began to tear up a little.

"Naruto-kun." Hinata started as we officially made it to the Fire Country.

"Yes?"

"We would've already been in the academy right now." She stated as we traveled with our comatose company.

Her words weren't really meant to be sorrowful or anything, but they hit me rather hard. We were now five, and would've been sent on our merry way to the Shinobi academy to begin our journey. After everything that happened, I wondered if the academy really had anything left to teach us besides the essentials. We were obviously no longer the children that we once were, and from everything I had seen on our trip, I was having second thoughts on the morality of Shinobi.

I began to wonder how I would've turned out if none of this ever happened. Eventually, I figured that thinking over a future that couldn't be was an effort in futility. Instead, I focused on the fact that Kakashi was waking up.

And I had a huge misunderstanding to clear up.