39. A New Journey
In someplace far away from Konoha, inside a room devoid of any light a figure was lying on a stone bed.
"The Kyubi was sealed inside the fourth Hokage's son, the condition of the fourth hokage is still unknown, but he is not in the village." said a deep voice as a head poked out from the ground near the bed.
"Can't you sense his location?" asked the other figure slowly getting up from the stone bed.
"No, there is something suppressing the will I planted in his body." said the first voice, fully coming out of the ground, It's one yellow eye was glowing spookily in the darkness.
"Well, this will keep the leaf occupied while we move on with our other plans, keep an eye on the kid we fought with, he might be a problem for us in the future." said the figure walking towards the door of the room and opening it letting light enter the room as he exited it.
"He can sense us, being near him is dangerous as revealing ourselves so soon is risky, The mark on your back, we can lure the fourth with it and finish him off." said the creature but this time with a high pitched voice, slowly following the man who had a mask obstructing his face.
"He is not stupid to fall for such simple traps, it is a hidden danger, can you remove it?" asked the masked man looking towards the black part of the creature.
"No, the seal has merged with your chakra network, only a volatile chakra like the tailed beast chakra or someone with fine chakra control and knowledge about seals can remove it." said the creature in a deep voice as it came closer to the man.
"Find someone like that." said the masked man before a vortex formed from the single hole in his mask sucking him in.
.........…
"Naruto" muttered the red haired boy as he sat beside the cradle placed in the hospital room.
It had been two days since the incident and he was allowed to go out of hospital today, though he had no idea where to go or stay. He decided to visit Naruto as he was kept in the same hospital.
He saw a lot of people in the hospital, it was full and he heard that many other undamaged buildings were also used as temporary hospitals to treat the injured people from the Kyubi attack.
He had sensed a lot of strong presences hiding near Naruto's room and figured out they were guards placed there to the baby and they also did not stop him from entering the room.
Aiko looked at the blond haired baby who had three whisker-like marks on his cheeks sleeping peacefully.
'I have a little brother.' he thought, remembering his past conversation with Kushina. 'I will protect you until your mom and dad are back.' he added in his mind thinking how close he had come to breaking the promise he made that day and decided to never let something like that happen again.
Aiko was lost in thoughts as he sat in the hospital room when he felt a familiar presence come towards this room.
'Jiraiya san is still in Konoha.' he thought as the door opened and white haired man entered the room.
"Aiko-kun?, were you discharged today?" he asked, entering the room, a bit surprised to see the red haired boy in this room.
Seeing Aiko nod his head in response, he went silent for a moment as if thinking of something and asked "I am going in search of Tsunade, do you want to come with me?" surprising the boy.
"I will stay here and keep watch on Naruto and Kushina san." said Aiko shaking his head rejecting him.
"ANBU will keep watch over them and now with the increased security around the village they will be absolutely safe." explained Jiraiya trying to change the boy's mind.
"I want to train and increase my strength." said Aiko, frowning a little looking at the white haired man.
"Hahahaha, Kiddo you are in the presence of the great Master Jiraiya as you are requesting me so politely, I will train you during our journey." said Jiraiya in an unnaturally haughty pose, sounding as if he was doing Aiko a favour.
"I did not request you." said Aiko, confused by Jiraiya's behaviour.
"Ahem, no need to mind the small details, I was Minato's sensei you know, I taught him all the cool stuff he knows." said Jiriaya coughing a little.
Aiko thought for a bit and nodded his head agreeing to his suggestion, he had already planned to ask Kakashi and Guy to teach him some offensive jutsus as he was lacking in those. Now that someone even stronger than Kakashi was willing to teach him, decided it was a good opportunity.
"Thank you." said the red haired boy." who will take care of Naruto?" he added looking at the still sleeping blond haired baby. 'The injury and sealing must have caused a lot of fatigue.' he thought as he could already sense tiny wisps Kyubi's chakra slowly mix with the baby's, because of the seal, he had designed to facilitate the healing and repair damages caused to the body.
The strange chakra in Naruto's body at his birth and now combined with the Kyubi's chakra Aiko thought that Naruto might never run out of chakra in the future.
"Until Minato or Kushina are completely healed Naruto's heritage will be kept a secret from everyone, he will just be an orphan who lost his family during the Kyubi's attack, he will be taken care off by the people in the orphanage." said Jiraiya, infact the fact about Kushina surviving was also kept under the wraps from the public as without Minato present his enemies might target his family.
'You are the one in most danger.' thought Jiraiya looking at the boy, even though the council bought his story about what happened that night, the news of the Kyubi's attack would have reached other villages and they will try to get as much information as possible and what better way to get it, than from the boy who was involved in the incident.
Jiraiya also thought that keeping the next perfect vessel for the Kyubi away from konoha, the people thinking about removing Kyubi from Kushina would not act immediately, giving him time to find Tsunade.
"Ok we will start our journey tomorrow morning, the sooner we leave the better." said Jiraiya walking out of the room leaving Aiko alone with the baby.