Sage's Resurrection

Chapter 18

There were a lot of people here. Well, if ever any village got a medal for token representation, it'd go to Kumo. They had every major village. Some teams from Iwa, a sprinkling of Kiri, a few Suna teams, and mostly Kumo ninja.

Naruto instinctively tried to reach out with his chakra, find someone, somewhere, some kind of comforting presence.

All he got was cold dread.

Brat, Kurama called. You may want to hear this.

Naruto snapped to attention. Yes?

There are others. Naruto blinked.

How do you know?

Kurama rolled his eyes. We have the same chakra. Try and look.

Alright then. He glanced at a particularly likely candidate standing in the front, a man with dark complexion, shades, and a white scarf tied around his neck, along with the standard Kumo attire: a white two-part flak vest, black pants, and shin and arm guards. He wielded eight swords and had the kanji for "Iron" tattooed on his shoulder.

Sure enough, he had that same vermillion tint to his chakra that Naruto did. Jinchuriki.

The man in question looked straight at him and then grinned, a savage visage that almost felt like staring into the maw of a shark.

Naruto felt the pull that he always did whenever Kurama would drag him into his mind.

He followed the pull.

"Yo yo yo!" Naruto jumped.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Killer B, the man with the eighth-"

"That's enough, Lord B." A woman with blonde hair braided, onyx eyes, and red lipstick. She wore a black and purple blouse, black pants, beads around her left arm and a red belt around her waist.

"And you are?"

"Yugito Nii. You?"

"Uzumaki Naruto. And I guess you hold the Nibi?"

Naruto could see Yugito swallow thickly before she spoke again. Whether that was out of fear or out of physical limitations, he didn't know. "Yes."

"Well, unless it has a name, which I'd think it had considering that Kurama has a name and the Old Six Paths wouldn't name only one of them, would he?" Naruto babbled.

Yugito picked her jaw off the floor. "Stop. What? Are you saying that the myths are true? That not only the Sage of Six Paths existed, but that he also created the bijuu as well?"

Killer B nodded to himself. "Hachibi says so, it's true, whoa."

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "So, um, do your bijuu have names? And if so, what are they?"

"Matatabi. The Two-Tailed Blazing Cat." Naruto nodded.

"Pretty cool. I mean, sounds way better than Kurama's moniker of 'Nine-Tailed Demon Fox', doesn't it? But what about you, B?"

"Eight-o's real name is Gyuki, also that's Lord Jinchuriki to you, yo!" Naruto snickered.

"Come on, we're all equally jinchuriki."

Yugito turned. "I need to announce the exam to the rest. Farewell for now."

"Bye, Yugito!" Naruto called. She dissipated into blue chakra with black patterns within. B followed suit, disappearing in a haze of ink.

Naruto's eyes snapped open. "This'll be fun," He cheerfully exclaimed. He formed a hand seal.

Clone.

Two shrouds of smoke flowed around him, but under all the smoke was nothing.