ᗰOᑎᔕTEᖇ [🧡 ᑎᗩᖇᑌᕼIᑎᗩ 💜] [Ɱҽէąʍօɾքհօʂìʂ] Bσσƙ Oɳҽ

Congratulations

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Congratulations

April 19, 2010

Sunlight bloomed within the vast navy sky. Beautiful shades of blue melded into violet streaks and intertwined with burning scarlet and bright tangerine. Below that exquisite backdrop, three men and a dog ran towards the open gates leading into Konoha.

"Is that...?"

Izumo squinted, trying to make out the features of the man at the forefront.

Blonde hair, cerulean orbs that shinned even from a distance, bright orange pants. There was no mistake. Turning to the man beside him, he elbowed the snoozing figure hard enough to jar his body.

"Wake up! It's him!"

With a half snore, half snort, Kotetsu awoke, his eyes glazed and confused.

"Who's here?" he wondered with a loud, carefree yawn.

"Naruto-san." Izumo clarified.

Just as he he spoke, said jonin race by the check-in desk without so much as a greeting. Though it was a bit odd that he hadn't even raised a hand in greeting, that none of the group did, they could tell from the focused look on his face he probably had something urgent to report to the Hokage.

"Well, why are you still sitting there?" Izumo questioned, "Hurry up and tell everyone."

"Eh? Why me?"

"Because someone has to watch the gate and you can't be trusted not to doze off again."

Though he sighed and rose from his chair reluctantly, Kotetsu offered no rebuttal. They both knew, the moment that Izumo left he'd be back to sleep in less time than it took for the carefree chunin to blink.

xxxxxx

Nearly an hour after he'd arrived and following a very lengthy, very detailed debrief, Naruto stood silently as the white haired leader sifted through the digital images uploaded to his computer. Though his expression was calm, impassive, a silent aura of deep disquiet suffused his form the more that mouse clicked. After a moment, he sighed and his hand left the mouse.

"Do either of you have any idea what this...residue consisted of? Where it came from? Why its something only you and Kurama were able to discern?"

Naruto shook his head.

"We're not sure what it was. Just that it was really terrible, 'ttebayo. It hurt to feel, but at the same time, it wasn't..." he struggled to find the right words, "it felt like it was outside of everything...like it was there but it wasn't. It's hard to explain exactly how it felt. It was like some alien sensation that felt...wrong. Like it wasn't something humans were supposed to experience, I guess. When we reached the office, that tree started to effect Kurama. I could hear something in my head, some kinda weird buzzing but that's all. Kurama was able to make it out though, he said it was a song."

"Can he replicate it's melody?"

Again, he shook his head.

"He said its' not something you can express with music notes."

"Then Shukaku..."

Naruto nodded.

"We think it's the same sound Shukaku heard before he disappeared though we didn't see any sign that he'd been down there, but that village, its dug out far enough that the lab is directly under the Desert of No Return. Whatever's down there, it doesn't seem like its there anymore, but if it was when Shukaku was there we think it may have done something to him. It could be why he isn't responding anymore."