Chiyo's Return To The Leaf Village

Chapter 17

Hearing Granny Chiyo's words, Sakura looked back at the old woman as Team Seven got continued making their way through the trees.

"What's this "Tailed Beast" that you were talking about?" The pink-haired girl asked, green eyes flickering with both confusion and concern. Granny Chiyo was quick to respond, giving Sakura a surprised look in return. 

"What? You're Tsunade's disciple and you don't even know that?! The Leaf Village had a Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit..." The woman explained, glancing over at Naruto for a short moment, the blond boy's eyes widened for a moment, and after a brief pause, Kakashi spoke up. 

 "The Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit is treated as a top secret amongst the Leaf Village..." he said in a hesitant tone, Chiyo looked over at Naruto as she launched herself off of yet another branch, a look of sympathy on her face. She could only guess how he was feeling right now. 

"Well, that's not surprising, I guess... A Tailed Beast refers to Beast Spirits with tails. Long, long ago, the Sand had a one tail. That's the Shukaku sealed within Gaara." Granny Chiyo told the group, 

"One-Tail?" Sakura mumbled under her breath, 

"do you mean that there are other beasts besides the Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit? The pink-haired girl asked out loud as the group began jumping across a river, the trees passing by them like a blur. 

"That's right...There are a total of nine-tailed beasts in this world...Tailed beasts have special characteristics." The old woman clarified, 

"Each of them has a different number of tails. The One-Tailed has one tail. The Two-Tailed has two. And up to the Nine-tailed, as the name suggests, each name represents the number of tails the beast has. The Tailed Beasts have immense Chakra and in the world of Ninja, they were used for military purposes by Hidden Villages around the world. They competed to get their hands on them." Granny Chiyo told the group, after a moment, she continued. 

"But no one was able to control that power which surpassed human intelligence. I don't know why the Akatsuki is after it, but that power is too dangerous... But in this new peaceful age, the Tailed beasts apparently...still exist, having scattered all around the world..." There was another pause, Chiyo noticing that Naruto was becoming more upset. She frowned, wishing she knew how to make him feel better. 

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Finally, Team Seven, as well as Granny Chiyo jumped down from the tree tops and landed on the ground. None of them spoke as they continued running forward, that is until Kakashi held his arms out. The group skidded to a stop as the white-haired man's eyes went wide. Chiyo could feel her heart racing, she had a feeling that they were getting close to their destination, so she had no doubt that they were going to encounter someone from the Akatsuki, and sure enough, as the black-haired girl peaked over Kakashi's shoulders, she was proven right. Blocking their path was a familiar face, one of the men who had attempted to kidnap Naruto during their journey to find Tsunade. 

"Who is that?" Sakura asked in a quiet voice, however, Kakashi didn't give her an answer. 

"Out of the blue huh..." he mumbled to himself. Glancing over at Naruto, Chiyo could see that he remembered the man as well. 

"You're..." he started to speak in a low voice. There was another pause as a tense atmosphere surrounded the group until it was broken by Naruto speaking again. 

"Itachi...Uchiha!" He called out the man's name, hearing this Sakura let out a quiet gasp. 

"Itachi..." Granny Chiyo spoke as she stepped forward,