Chapter 159 Mental Barrier

Sasuke shrugged, the water rippling around him as he moved.

"I have my reasons." He tried to keep his tone calm.

Naruto snorted:

"Yeah, don't try to get away with it."

Sasuke sighed and turned his head to glare at him angrily, holding his chin and resting his elbows on the edge of the pool.

"Do you really want me to put it so clearly?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow and narrowed his eyes, as if he was actually considering doing this.

But he didn't, he turned around, facing Sasuke, sitting cross-legged on the ground, his hands on his knees.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes slightly, but he never said an apology.

From this angle, Sasuke could see the sealing technique revealed under Naruto's high-collared shirt, the geometric patterns and scriptures drawn in soft black ink, the lines complex and mysterious.

They were constantly changing, modified whenever Naruto found a more effective pattern or a more powerful scripture.

The only thing that remained unchanged was the blank skin around it, which was the edge of the Nine-Tails' chakra seal, like a painting in negative space.

The Nine-Tails' presence was so strong that it repelled the energy of any sealing ritual that might be drawn upon it, like a drop of water falling into a boiling pot of oil.

As such, Naruto didn't have many seals on him; there were some sutras across his collarbone, a mandala pattern on the back of his shoulder blade, and some parallel geometric patterns in the space below his ribs.

The only exception was the Void Chain Matrix, which stretched along the edge of the Nine-Tails Seal, almost touching the all-consuming edge and filling all space.

His skin was like an experimental canvas - covered with prototypes and unfinished works that Sasuke knew Naruto would one day imprint permanently on his body.

"The risk of fighting Neji is probably only one-tenth of that of fighting Gaara."

"Humph."

"So," Naruto drawled, "what did you find out?"

Sasuke lowered his head, looked at the water, and closed his eyes briefly.

"There's something wrong with his mind."

Naruto raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Yeah, even from that distance, I can tell," he muttered.

Sasuke shook his head and opened his eyes again. His wet hair fell down, covering his cheeks and forehead.

"No, what I mean is that there's something fundamentally wrong with him there." He turned to Naruto and let the power of the Sharingan emerge from his eyes.

As the kaleidoscope pattern spun, he observed every detail of Naruto's sealing technique: the ebb and flow of energy, the flow of chakra.

The patterns were etched in his mind, clear and accurate - now, he could tell at a glance which parts were Naruto, which parts were the Nine-Tails, and the connection points between the two.

He reached out and traced a thin line in Naruto's sealing jutsu, first with his eyes and then with his fingertips, lightly touching it through his shirt with his nails.

Naruto followed his movements with his eyes but didn't shy away, tilting his head curiously when Sasuke found what he was looking for, between two powerful scripture lines.

"Is there any structure in your sealing technique to separate the Kyuubi's consciousness from yours? I don't think there is such a structure in his sealing technique." He explained.

Those words clearly meant a lot to Naruto - his eyes widened and his mouth opened slightly as he inhaled sharply.

"What do you mean?" he demanded. "What did you see?"

Sasuke recalled that moment clearly: Gaara's aggressive expression had twisted into some kind of creepy, bloodthirsty monster. When he closed his eyes and recalled the scene, Sasuke could almost see the other personality emerge in Gaara's eyes, like a sick sun, blood red and full of madness.

"It's like the One-Tail's consciousness is... huddled together with his," Sasuke whispered, trying to explain what he saw and felt in a way that Naruto could understand, "and it's not just too close, it's distorted, like metal melting and deforming under high temperature and pressure."

He removed his hand from Naruto's stomach and rubbed his temple with his knuckles, remembering the creeping feeling of wrongness, the twisting pressure, the will that seemed to destroy itself.

"I think there was a third thing mixed in with the whole mess, and I think it only came into play when I first attacked and made him bleed. That's the real reason."

Naruto bit his lip, his eyes fixed on Sasuke, and it took Sasuke a moment to realize that the look on his face was one of sympathy.

"Damn it," he cursed under his breath, rubbing his forehead with the knuckle of his thumb, thinking.

Sasuke asked, straightening up and moving closer to him.

Naruto swallowed hard.

"It sounds like someone removed his mental barrier. That's the part of the sealing jutsu used to separate the consciousness of the Jinchuriki from the tailed beast."

Sasuke frowned in confusion. That sounded... bad wasn't even a word that could describe it. It was a disaster.

"How could someone do that?" he asked quietly. "Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of the sealing technique? Wouldn't that give the tailed beasts the opportunity to control the Jinchūriki?"

Naruto closed his eyes and fell into deep thought, the wrinkles around his eyes deepening.

"In theory, weakening the mental barrier could allow a Jinchūriki to better control the tailed beast's chakra, but removing it? That's so-so stupid!"

Naruto's frustration began to awaken the Kyuubi; red chakra began to seep from the edges of his irises, and black chakra spread around his eyes like eyeliner.

His nails began to grow longer and turned into sharp claws, the sealing technique gradually darkened and turned light gray, and a pungent chakra began to erode Naruto's soft wind-attribute chakra.

Sasuke instinctively stretched out his hand, and water splashed out of the pool due to his movement.

He grabbed Naruto's wrist and cupped his cheek with his other hand, forcing him to look him in the eye.

Amber eyes met obsidian ones and Sasuke's fingers were firmly clasped under Naruto's chin, perhaps a little too hard, but Naruto's attention was completely focused on him.

When Sasuke had completely attracted Naruto's attention, he softened his force, pulled Naruto closer to him, and gently pressed the back of his head, and Naruto responded to him without resistance.

Their foreheads were pressed together.

Sasuke had never been able to describe the feeling that welled up inside him when they did that, an electric jolt that ran from his spine straight into the capillaries in his fingertips.

It is a ritual, a reminder, a touchstone, a truth, and a connection that is unique to them.

It was a force that could not be defined by reason or words, a magnetic force that drew their souls together, and it - well.

It's like a puzzle about gravity.

Sasuke shifted slightly, changing his angle so that the eye contact between them would be softer, and Naruto automatically adjusted his position to match his. Sasuke's hands rested on the muscles of Naruto's throat, and he could feel the tension there.

Calm down. This simple touch was as clear as if Sasuke had said it out loud. Maybe even clearer.

Naruto was a man of integrity - he could easily get angry at things he considered unjust, but that also meant that he would sometimes let his anger get the better of him and let his emotions control his thinking, and right now, they couldn't act rashly.

Sasuke could feel the burning power of the Nine-Tails beneath his hands, every heartbeat hitting his fingers like a shockwave.