Ascending (Sequel to Rock Bottom)

Chapter 20 - Two-Quarters Of The Soul

"Alright so here's how we're gonna do this. Naruto, you're coming with me to get firewood. And before you start, no, you can't go with Sasuke." A small groan escaped said blonde's lips.

"But Kakashi-sensei!"

"No buts! Sasuke and Sakura, you two will start on the tents. I think you two could use some more time to further sort things out." Gaara looked at the jounin expectantly,

"And me?" Kakashi smirked under his mask.

"It's not my place to order you around Kazekage-sama," Kakashi replied, stressing the syllables in Kazekage, "How about you just sit there and enjoy the weather? Maybe try to figure out why those two ANBU Orochimaru sent with us didn't make it out of Kumo?" Gaara sighed and nodded, and then everyone parted ways.

Naruto followed Kakashi as he walked through the trees. They stopped every few feet to pick up firewood, but aside from that the trip was silent, that is, until Kakashi spoke up.

"Is everything alright, Naruto?"

"Yes," Naruto quickly replied. Kakashi said nothing for a moment.

"...You know you can talk to me right? I may be the crappiest role model in history, but I think I'm a pretty good confidant." Naruto hesitated for a moment, there had been something bugging him.

"Well, there's this one thing," The blonde began, "It started back before our hiatus. Whenever I was alone there would be this voice in the back of my head." Naruto chuckled slightly when he saw Kakashi's expression.

"I know, I thought I was going crazy too at first 'ttebayo. But then one night the voice was especially incessant, and was asking me repeatedly, 'do you remember?' and stuff like that. And then it said something like 'this body is not only your own. At first, I thought I was being possessed by a demon or something,"

"But then one night something happened. Even Kurama can't explain it exactly, but somehow that voice managed to make a physical manifestation of itself. And you wouldn't believe who it was. Kakashi, my tou-san's alive! He's sealed inside me like Kurama is 'ttebayo!" Naruto waited for Kakashi's response.

Kakashi said nothing for a moment, still processing what his student had said. Could Minato actually still be alive? That shouldn't be possible, he died. Kakashi saw his lifeless body himself. There was no plausible explanation for Naruto's story except that it was a hallucination, though the jounin didn't know how he would break it to the blonde.

Wait a minute...No, he was missing something. There was a small detail dancing around in the back of his head. Now if only he could remember what it was. It was something to do with Kurama and the seal, and of course Minato as well.

Kakashi forced himself to recall every detail he could from the Kyuubi attack, even the most painful ones. There was Hizuren Sarutobi and his sensei fighting the nine tails, and Kushina still recovering from childbirth, and of course, baby Naruto.

Kurama was sealed away by Hizuren, who sealed a quarter of the Bijuu in himself. He later passed away due to the strain put on him from both containing Kurama and the sealing process. And after, Kakashi remembered the village was put through a massive heatwave, and he didn't see Naruto in Ichiraku's during that time at all. It didn't seem like anything significant at the time, but it could have been related. Naruto must've been so sick he couldn't leave his apartment, there was no other explanation for the blonde not to be in that ramen store.

Call him crazier than Tsunade's bets, but couldn't that mean that heatwave had been caused by that quarter of the Bijuu returning to the largest piece of the soul? That would explain Naruto's behavior back then, and also the heatwave when he thought about it. Though, he had no idea what temperature a soul was.

And then the other quarter of the soul was sealed in Minato. So when he died, if Kakashi's previous theory was to remain true, the remaining quarter of Kurama's soul must've merged with the three-quarters that Naruto already contained. But there was no heatwave that he knew of. Although, Naruto left Konoha and went to Suna, so he doubted that the heat from the Bijuu soul would have impacted the Sand Village as much as it did Konoha.

So the only other explanation for the voice in Naruto's head being Minato would be that when Kurama's soul merged with Naruto, so did the Yondaime's. But then that raises the question as to whether Hizuren's soul was in the same predicament...

"Kakashi-sense! Kakashi-sensei!" Kakashi blinked as he was brought back into reality.

"What is it, Naruto?" Said blonde huffed,

"I've been calling your name for the past ten minutes that's what." Oh.

"Gomen. I was just thinking about what you said." Naruto's expression fell slightly,

"You think I'm crazy then?" Kakashi waved his hands in response,

"No! No! Your story actually makes sense!" The jounin then began explaining his theory, with Naruto nodding every so often as he listened to the reason why he wasn't going crazy.

"So then all we need to do is get a physical vessel for him?"

.

.

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Sakura and Sasuke had finished setting up all three of the tents and were talking quietly when Kakashi and Naruto returned. The sky was already dark, so fairly good timing on all four of their parts.

Sasuke was the one who first noticed their arrival. "About time. We already decided the sleeping arrangements before you got here, but I don't think you'll be complaining." Sasuke turned so that he could point to the tents, "Naruto and I will take the tent in the middle, Kakashi and Sakura will be in the one on the right, and Gaara will sleep in the one on the left."

Sasuke mumbled something after that sounded like "if he comes back," but if anyone had heard him say that, they didn't think too much about it.

Kakashi raised his one visible eyebrow, "Why isn't Sakura sharing a tent with Gaara?" He immediately regretted his question when he noticed Sakura's slightly bloodshot eyes. Sasuke sent a small glare to his sensei as he wrapped an arm around the pinkette to comfort her.

"You can ask Sakura later if she's willing to share."

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Another Chapter!! Sorry no Minato yet...but we're getting there!!

Do you think Kakashi's theory is correct?

What do you think happened between GaaSaku?

Will SasuNaru finally happen for real this time?!?!?

I'll update super soon I promise!!