Road to Hokage: Save the Hyuga Clan

The Fox and The Oni

The temple was silent except for the rattling of masks. Inside of Naruto's head, he could hear Kurama release a low growl in response. Naruto stood in the center of the room concentrating on trying to knead his chakra but he wasn't able to activate his sage mode again. He was used to commanding his large reserve of chakra with precision, but something about the being in the temple left him struggling for a reason. He couldn't activate his sage mode.

Suddenly, a thin streak of light raced into the temple and flew into a mask behind him. The mask was fashioned after a snake with a black horn in the middle. The sound of a roar echoed in the temple as the masks stopped moving. Naruto stared at the mask for a second before turning away. Kurama stopped growling in his mind.

"Which mask?" He said out loud to himself. He planned to use sage mode to help him detect the mask, but without sage mode, his sensing abilities were lowered.

I sense a strong presence straight ahead of us, Naruto Kurama said.

Naruto observed the wall in front of him. The masks on this wall were bigger than the others. As he walked closer to the wall, he could feel the presence Kurama spoke of.

Rage. Chaos. Death. Danger — all these warnings filled Naruto's head distracting him momentarily. Then he heard footsteps rushing into the temple room. He turned and smiled as Sakura and Sasuke appear in the doorway. They were both covered in dirt and scrapes but seems to be okay.

"I didn't expect there to be so many," Sakura said, in awe looking around the room. "Naruto, do you have any idea which mask?"

"No," He answered, frustrated. "But this wall..." He gestured behind him. "I'm sensing a strong presence there." Sasuke nodded, confirming.

"What happened to your sage mode?" Sakura said, suddenly appraising his face.

"I don't know. As soon as I stepped into the temple, I lost control of my chakra." He revealed to them. Sakura and Sasuke exchanged worried expressions. Sakura walked to Naruto's side while Sasuke walked past them to look at the wall with the bigger masks. Sakura closed her eyes and placed her palm on Naruto's chest trying to get a sense of the state of his chakra network. She frowned.

"Naruto, you're fine. You should be able to knead chakra," she said, shaking her head at him. "I don't understand.." She watched him try again and nothing happened. No sage mode.

"Perhaps, it's not his chakra that's the issue ..." Sasuke said turning away from the wall. "The Uzumaki temple is not just a sacred place. It seals demons...indiscriminately I'm assuming ..." Naruto frowned at Sasuke's words, but knew he was right. He felt Kurama move somewhere deep inside of him. Sasuke continued, "The last time I was here was before the war. Orochimaru unsealed the demon that held the Hokages' souls using the Reverse Reaper Seal and Edo Tensei... it almost killed him. Naruto, you can't unseal this oni in your current state." His delivery was direct and sharp but Naruto knew what he meant. Kurama rumbled in agreement.

Naruto closed his eyes and the darkness pull him into the plane of his inner mind. Then slowly, a dim golden light grew in front of him. He felt the presence of another chakra come closer to him. Kurama revealed himself to Naruto in fox form. Then the nine tail fix looked down at him as he sat on his hind legs. Kurama's gold and red eyes stared at Naruto expectantly.

"The Uchiha is right," Kurama said to him.

Naruto frowned up at him. "We agreed that I wouldn't do that to you again."

"Now, we both agree this is necessary," Kurama answered. He lowered his head down to Naruto. "I trust you, Naruto. If this is what it takes to save Hinata..."

A large wooden cage appeared behind Kurama with the door open. Inside, vast darkness beckoned to Kurama. Kurama's ears folded back and his tail twitched as he glanced at the cage behind him.

"As soon as this over," Naruto promised, he said raising his hand. His fingertips glowed with blue chakra, finally. "I will release you. I promise." Kurama nodded at Naruto and without hesitation, he walked into the cage. The doors swung shut and Naruto raised his hand and placed a seal as a lock. Kurama laid down as his eyes slowly closed, becoming drowsy.

Naruto opened his eyes. Sasuke and Sakura stared at him. Sakura smiled.

"Your sage mode is back," She said, relieved. Sasuke nodded. Naruto concentrated on the masks in the room. He could sense everything at once, but he had a feeling he still wasn't sensing the mask he needed. He concentrated his full focus on the wall with the larger masks. He felt the malicious presence again. He pressed his hand to each mask and frowned. He turned to Sakura and Sasuke.

"Something is here but what I'm sensing... isn't coming from these masks," Naruto explained to them. He leaned against the wall placing an ear to it. "There's something behind the wall...". Sakura and Sasuke helped Naruto remove the masks from the wall. Sakura ran her hand across the wall knocking dust and cobwebs away. Naruto moved to help her. He reached above him when suddenly his hand slid into an indented space in the wall.

In an instant, flashes of vision flooded Naruto's mind. He was in a field surrounded by ninjas running across large open space with weapons and scrolls. Off in the distance, a beast roared. A young man, close to Naruto's age, with bright red hair and piercing brown eyes running toward Naruto. On his vest, a large swirling symbol itched in red against his black uniform. Naruto stood frozen and the man seemed to stare right at him as he ran past him. His surroundings melt away. A new scene appeared.

Then, he was staring at an older man with white pupilless eyes and a crown. The man held a scroll in his hands and looked up at the back of something treading into the darkness. The man turned to face Naruto as he opened the scroll. The writing glowed red illuminating the man's face in a ghoulish light. Naruto felt the ground beneath him shift then he was falling. He hit the ground on his back before rolling to his side.

Suddenly, Naruto was watching from a distance the same man with red flaming hair rushing to a woman with long black hair. The woman fell before she could reach him. The man held the woman's limp body as he yelled out in pain toward the sky. The sky and ground flipped and he was falling again. This time he landed on his feet.

Finally, Naruto was back in the field. He jumped at the roar from behind him. A monster with fangs that hung out its mouth and past its chin. Horns extended out of the side of his head and one was broken. His skin was green and black and overlapping like snake scales. The demon was badly hurt and tried to escape into the nearby lake.

Naruto turned his head in the opposite direction as orange chakra chains flew over his head. The chakra chains filled the air and wrapped around the monster's arms, legs, and both tails. The chains pulled him to the ground. Naruto moved out of the way of the thrashing monster and looked in the direction the chakra chains came from. He turned his head to see the red-headed warrior with a furious expression on his face. His brown eyes blazed in fury as he raised a wooden henge mask to cover his own face. The chakra chains were coming from the man's chest. The warrior was weaving signs as the chakra chains drug the demon closer to him. The mask he wore began to glow brightly.

"NARUTO!" Sasuke yelled, snapping him back to the present. He roughly grabbed Naruto's collar from behind pulling him away from the crumbling wall. The wall fell revealing another hallway.

Naruto's chest heaved realizing that he received a vision of what he could expect to meet down at the end of the dark hallway.

Next Chapter Coming Soon: Support at Home