Caught Up In You

Chapter Four

"Come on Tenten we have to go!" I wine waiting by the door tapping my foot impatiently. Natsumi said to meet at the tree the same time as we did yesterday but that was five minutes ago maybe if Tenten actually had a sense of punctuality we wouldn't be late.

"Hang on!" Tenten shouts her voice echoing through the house, her feet hitting the wood as she runs through the house her body coming into view. Sometimes I forget I'm dealing with a child but I didn't want to be late today. "Alright let's go," Tenten says with a smile taking my hand leading me out of the house dragging me to the park.

Walking through the crowded streets Tenten leads me to the park stopping on the pathway holding both my shoulders.

"I'm going to be at the park playing with my friends if you and your friend need anything come and ask if not stay close if I can't find you I'll go get dad and he'll get mad at you. Ok?" Tenten asks seriously.

"Ok," I say simply as Tenten hugs me.

"Good, I'll come and get you when it's time to go home." Pushing me away Tenten gives me one last smile before running off to the park to play with her friends. Sighing I turn to the tree and begin my walk over sitting under the tree gazing at all the kids not seeing the blonde-haired girl. Looks like she's late as well. That makes me feel a tad bit better if there's one thing I hate: it's not being punctual.

"You're late!" I hear Natsumi shout, making me look up and stare at the young girl hanging by her feet, a lollipop in her mouth as she glares down at me releasing her feet flipping down landing softly in front of me. "Come on we should've been training ten minutes ago." Walking away wearing a red t-shirt and black pants I quickly stand and lightly jog to catch up with her.

"It's not my fault not all of us can have dead parents and freedom to do what we want." I quip back jokingly silencing my laughter.

"That's cold," Natsumi says with a snort. "Anyways there's a clearing through this forest we can train there." Following Natsumi's pointed finger I look through the thick leaves of the forest then back at the park where Tenten's playing. She'll be fine, probably won't even notice I'm gone.

"Hey, you said that Naruto is alive right?" I ask as I follow behind the girl making our way through the forest.

"Yup, what about it?" Natsumi asks curtly, glancing back at me.

"Why didn't you bring him with don't, you want him to become stronger? He could be a strong asset in the future." I haven't decided whether or not I'll be allied with Natsumi after we kill the old soul. If we are having Naruto as an ally would be extremely useful for both of us. I'd try and make Naruto an ally on my own but I think he would always choose Natsumi over me and I don't want to invest in something that may backfire on me.

"Don't worry about that, that's my problem, not yours," Natsumi says simply, making me nod in response. "You'd be surprised at how hard it is to change events that were literally written into existence and are created to happen." She says with an audible sigh as I hum lightly. I guess she's right we're in a world that was literally written into existence and certain events were made to happen so surely it would be hard to change that. "Alright, I'm going to practice my chakra control. I'd meditate and try to learn more about your soul you're obviously not human so learning the depth of what you are can make it easier to use your abilities. Unless your soul's powers are passive then I'd practice chakra control with me but that fire manipulation of yours can be extremely useful so I'd practice using that." Natsumi says while taking some leaves from a low hanging branch before walking into the center of the clearing sitting crisscross applesauce placing the leaves going up her arm.

"Shouldn't you try to learn the extent of your soul as well?" I ask while laying down in my most comfortable position staring up at the puffy white clouds.

"All the abilities my soul was able to absorb from the marvel verse were passive," Natsumi says simply closing her eyes, the leaves sticking to her skin.

"And what passive abilities did you gain?" I curiously ask trying to learn as much as I can to gain an edge if we ever battle.

"I know what you're doing and I hope you know that once we battle the other old soul we'll both know the full extent of each other's ability. Unless the thousand years that the soul has lived were spent in mediocre worlds where he absorbed nothing we're going to have to fight with everything we have to win. I already told you I can feel the power of souls and his soul is one of the strongest I've ever felt but if we work together we'll be able to kill him. All we have to do is stop his heart and he'll die. His soul will simply leave this earth and go back into the reincarnation process. As for my powers, you already know my soul sensing abilities but I was also wolverine's son so I inherited his regeneration and bone claws." She says while flexing her hand causing two bone claws to appear. A close-range fighter, with my fire abilities and her close-range fighting we should make a good team.

"I don't expect you to trust me fully but if we want to win this battle then we have to know each other's abilities to build teamwork and work together." Natsumi says seriously as I continue to try to concentrate on my soul trying to find the "depth" of it.

"You already know my fire abilities the rest of the powers my soul gives are passive," I say honestly as images of the Phoenix Dragon begin to flash in my mind the long beautiful serpent-like creatures covered in flaming scales, wings made of burning feathers, the head of a dragon, and long talons carrying a sea serpent.

"Well, I guess that's progress," Natsumi says with a sigh as more images begin to flash in my mind these ones of the Phoenix Dragon in battle, the night sky lit by waves of flames crashing against a giant turtle.

"How are we supposed to even kill this old soul if they're in the village and not only in the village but the Uchiha compound?" I ask while I watch more images of the Phoenix Dragon in battle destroying continents and sinking islands.

"The Uchiha Massacre, when Itachi murders his clan we will strike. If the old soul survives they might be weakened, whether they decide to join Itachi or survive Itachi we will go in and finish the job." Pausing on an image of the Phoenix Dragon swallowing a moon I sit up and stare at Natsumi still focusing on her chakra control. "I'm not saying we battle Itachi and Obito, I'm saying we run in and make sure he dies, and if not we finish the job. I'll be monitoring the souls that are nearby. I'll make sure we are in and out before anyone notices we're there." Natsumi clarifies before I have a chance to ask.

"Alright, that makes sense but what happens if we're not able to kill him?" I don't know about Natsumi but I want to milk as much knowledge as I can from the Leaf Village and killing an Uchiha in cold blood would be a problem. "If we're not able to kill the old soul and they find out our appearance we're at a disadvantage," I say honestly watching another scene in my mind as the Phoenix Dragon creates fire from nothing.

"If that happens then we'll just have to wait till they leave the village. Chances are the other soul is trying to learn as much about chakra as we are and if they're the same age as us we'll be in the academy together but if they're older we can ambush them when they go on a mission." Natsumi says the leaves on her arms falling to the forest floor as she reaches down putting them back.

"Good, then that means we have four years to prepare." Forming a fireball in my hand I try to manipulate it into a cube using all my will to change the chaotic flame. Bending it to my will I grip the fire cube in the palm of my hand trying to change it once more this time changing it to a pyramid.

I have to practice my manipulation it's easy to create fire but when I manipulate it I use too much energy and it takes too long. When the images of the Phoenix Dragon were in my mind I saw it manipulate the flames with ease so that means that I should be able to do the same. My goal in these next four years is to master fire manipulation, chakra control, and learn how to use as many weapons as I can in the story. If Tenten can do it I'm sure I'll be able to as well.

"Yup four years to prepare ourselves for a battle with a person who has lived over a thousand years," Natsumi says dryly, making me laugh.

"Come on you have to be more enthusiastic than that," I say with a laugh. "I can leave at any time and go to a different village, whether they'll take me or not is a different story but you're stuck here. I'm helping you because I like it here and our chances of killing this old bastard are better if we're together but you having low morale lowers our chances of winning. Put on a fake smile, put some enthusiasm behind your voice, and let's prepare to kill this guy." I growl while changing the shape of the fire once more. Blindly following this girl isn't smart but making an enemy out of her isn't smart either so I'll go along with her for now.

"You're right!" Natsumi shouts, jumping up facing me with a broad smile pointing at me. "We can't lose because losing goes against my Nindo my ninja way!" Giving Natsumi a blank stare her smile slowly disappears into a resting smirk falling back onto the grass. "Come on, you were supposed to laugh!" She shouts, throwing a small pebble at me which I easily dodge with a tilt of my head.

"Is this how it usually is, fighting for your life as soon as you're born in fear of an older soul-killing us?" I ask genuinely curious-looking up at the sky. I wouldn't mind it'll be a struggle but I should be able to fight through it and gain power but if I just killed as a child each time I'm born.

"Sometimes, if you're born in a world with a soul that's like me and can sense people's powers or has some type of recon ability that's able to sense reincarnation then yes you're going to have to fight for your life unless you make a truce with them as we did. When I was reincarnated in the marvel world it was worse than this. If it wasn't for my teacher I would've been killed within the first year of my life." Humming lightly I lift up my fist manipulating the fire to wrap around my hand.

"You had a mentor?" I question as I shape the fire to a thin needle floating it in the air before rocketing it to the trunk of a tree, the needle exploding in a burst of flames catching the tree on fire.

"What are you doing, put that out?!" Natsumi shouts as I stare at the burning tree feeling the connection to the fire that begins to rage easily lighting the dry grass and wood. Taking a deep breath I hold out my hand closing my fist causing the flames to quickly extinguish. Exhaling with a sigh I look down at my hands I feel a smile come to my face. My soul showed me what my powers could do but watching and doing are two different things and feeling that power come from me was exhilarating.

I've created fire before. It's what I spent the first four years of my life doing learning how to create fire from nothing but I haven't been able to experiment with it as I am now.

"Are you an idiot?!" Natsumi shouts, shaking me out of my thoughts making me look up at the young girl stomping out the last of the embers on the grass. "I said to learn the depth of your soul like view the images that pop in your head not try them out here dumb ass! We're right by a public park and you openly use your fire manipulation on a tree, you must be an idiot!" Natsumi growls while glaring daggers at me before turning and walking back towards the park.

"I didn't think it'd explode!" I shout with an annoyed sigh looking up at the black smoke cloud rising in the air.

"I don't care! Who do you think would get blamed for this me the child with a demon inside of her or you the son of a popular blacksmith?" Natsumi growls, stopping in place, turning around to face me bone claws popping out from her knuckles. "Let's make one thing clear Hoshi we may have a truce and hopefully that lasts but if you expose me I will make sure you go down with me." Feeling my eyes narrow I flip my hands making my palms face her as fire begins to form above them.

"Let's calm down. I'm still learning how to use my powers. If I wanted you gone I'd simply fire a blast in the air and draw the whole village here. Don't forget we're on the same side." I growl watching the young girl close her eyes taking a deep breath, her face formally masked with anger now no different than it was before with a broad smile on her pink lips.

"You're right, sorry sometimes I can't control my anger," Naruko says sheepishly scratching the back of her head. Turning back around Natsumi begins to walk through the forest going a different way than we did before.

"One last question if one were to die could their soul be reincarnated into something other than a human?" I ask ducking below a low hanging branch.

"Well from what my mentor has told me whenever we reincarnate we usually reincarnate in a family of significance in the world so it's extremely rare to reincarnate into a body that's not human. I've seen a single other person who was lucky enough to reincarnate into something other than human and their soul evolved keeping the soul of that legendary beast. Your soul reminds me of theirs." Natsumi says, making me nod my head.

"So it's all luck?" I question curiously staring at the back of Natsumi's head.

"Yup, I've heard people who were lucky enough to be born as the direct descendant of a god. One thing that you should always keep in mind is the fact that your soul will always choose its most powerful form and the more powerful the soul the more abilities it is usually able to absorb." Humming lightly I continue to follow behind Natsumi until we make it out of the forest a short distance away from the park.

"My father is entering me in the academy next year and if you say that the soul is in the Uchiha clan compound and they're the same age as us they should be entering the same years as us," I say while spotting Tenten still at the park.

"Yeah, I was planning on that. It'll be easier to find them if we know their face." She says making me sigh while looking towards some of the parents walking towards the forest and the plume of black smoke in the sky.

"Then we'll train until then," I say firmly while nodding my head.

"Yup meet under the tree again tomorrow at the same time I'll find a more secluded spot to train for tomorrow." Watching Natsumi walk away I sigh while pinching the bridge of my nose. If this soul is as old as Natsumi says then we should assume that they're a master at hand to hand combat, have some sort of magic and possibly be a master at it, and any other knowledge they learned from living over a thousand being transported to fictional worlds. If Obito and Itachi don't weaken him we could quite possibly be walking into our deaths when we go to kill the old soul. I don't like dying but if I'm positive we can kill a powerful threat who is of no worth to me I'll do it.

The only thing I can do is train my fire and be able to make it so intense that it'll be able to disintegrate him before he has a chance to react. Either that or think about switching sides, as kind as Natsumi has been we're simply tools for one another to use in our fights and she needs me more than I need her. Her knowledge has been useful to me but I can learn that on my own and at the end of the day survival is key.

Sighing once more I begin to walk back to my tree. We have maybe four years until the massacre and we should meet the old soul next year which means I have four years or less to decide my allegiance.