The Fox 🦊

Chapter 3: The Secrets of Uzushiogakure

Ishual had almost- no he had, he was sure- drowned when he had been 9, no one in the library had taught him to swim. So when in the cold winter months of the Sá Qin city he had slipped and toppled feet over head in to the half frozen waters that lapped at the streets and buildings during summer months he had not been able to pull himself out.

Drowning was an overwhelming feeling of clarity yet not. It brought panic and peace, fear and the irrational sense of relief one feels when their two steps away from the Reaper's arms. In that moment Ishual had experienced the oddest of things, drowning brought with it a heightened awareness of - well everything. Something that Ishual hadn't and quite frankly still didn't want to share with anyone. It made years worth of information resurface after years of them floating around in his subconscious. But it came at the cost of feeling like the information recieved and reviewed was mute. There was just no reason to remember all that he had learnt when he was going to lose it in any ways.

Drowning was gasping, flailing. Or at least that was how most said it was. Then why did he just....float?

The instant Naruto stepped in to the seal it felt like he was drowning. It brought such an overwhelming feeling of panic because Ishual knew how to swim, damn it! So there was no logical reason for him to suddenly be drowning but that wasn't quite right.... He wasn't physically drowning. He wasn't struggling to draw breath in to his lungs, he didn't feel like kicking and flailing.

His mind though,felt like it was being drowned. Too much information pored from nowhere in to his mind. It was worse then receiving Naruto's memories.

He caught several instructions that made absolutely zero sense for all the wealth of knowledge that he held as the information flowed by him faster then any river ever possibly could. Some made sense in a way. Like shifting his mindscape to improve it for the kyūbi. Or using the kyūbi's power to call forth the element he rules over. Fire, Wind and Water.

But others still didn't make sense, not completely. There was maps of secrets that spun delicately across normal blueprints of clearly beautiful buildings. Seals that had no meanings no significance to him, since he had no idea as to how he should go about reading them in the first place. Mountains of history that bounced of his head like a ping pong ball. His head ached badly when the onslaught stopped and his mind could breath and sort through the masses of words and symbols.

Naruto dropped to his knees, blood dripping slowly from his nose and ears.

Kit? What happened? The Kyūbi sounded distinctly like he was trying not to pace and shout. Naruto winced as the pain from his newly formed migraine increased.

Shhhh!! I've got a massive bloody headache here! Naruto whisper yelled inside his own mind. Flinching when his head gave a nasty throb in retaliation. He so did not want to deal with any headache! He hadn't had any since he was really young. Mostly because he knew what had been his limit and what he could logically therefore handle while reading.

Naruto paused when his mind finally assembled all the information that had been dumbed so suddenly on him. Some still didn't make sense.

Hey,sorry for shouting, Kurama-sama. But I ended up with information that I hadn't had before. Can-can I share it with you?

Yes sure. Don't worry about it. Naruto sighed and quickly sent everything to Kurama. Even as his head gave a nasty throb.

As the overwhelming amount of images and words passed over Kurama gave a small grunt. Before the only thing that remained between them was Naruto's thoughts and the constant drip drip of the water that seemed to come from the-