Thrice Cursed Criminal: Stick, Stone and Shawl:
Summary: The bingo book is full of criminals. Weak ones and strong ones, slow ones and quick ones, smart ones and dumb ones. But one thing they all had in common: they all had a rank between E and SS, but not him. Because for him it was never normal, never ordinary, "I hereby declare Hari Potter a SSS-class rogue-nin from Kirigakure", and never easy. Rated M (just to be save)
Auteurs Note: I should probably not be beginning a new story when I still have two others that need updating, but this has been going around in my head for a while now and I just had to put it on paper (or my hard drive in this case). I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in this fanfiction and they all belong to their original owners.
Chapter 1: Running and Ratings
…
Count the garden by the flowers,
never by the leaves that fall.
Count your life by smiles,
never by the tears that roll.
-Unknown
…
'Shit!' He thought as he once again felt one of their presences brush against the corners of his mind. They couldn't be far behind now, they never were. Wherever he went they would just keep following him, he could pass through the deepest caverns and over the highest mountains, but they would always be but a hairbreadth behind him. They didn't tire, never slept and just kept running, always running and always hunting him.
Hunter-nin they called themselves, ANBU and a variety of other names. He didn't know who they were, where they were from or how they always found them. He learned their titles by listening to the local gossip of the many small villages that he passed through. Shinobi, that was what they were, the sort of police of this world, the army and the last hope to many a man. But they were also the warmongers, the terrorist, the assassins and the last thing many a man saw. They were two sides of a coin, they were war and they were peace, they were life and they were death.
They used things that the local populace called 'jutsu's', their own kind of magic. With but a few movements of their hands they could heal the most atrocious wound and inflict them as well. They could breathe giant streams of fire and raise earth walls the height of houses with but a few movements of their fingers. Oh and one more thing, they were fast. Really fucking fast.
He didn't pack his supply's nor did he bother finishing the meal he had just cooked himself, he knew that he didn't have any more seconds to lose. The only thing he grabbed before running out of the camp was his bottomless bag. The rest of the items were either worthless or could just be replaced by transfiguration. He could better start moving, for they would not be waiting for him to start.
…
His leg muscles were aching, after having run for four hours straight from the shinobi that were hunting him he had near to no strength left in his legs. With what could only be described as pure power of will he kept moving, not once stopping. His boots had long ago become saggy and ragged by the muddy undergrowth of the forest but he paid no mind to it. Instead he kept his senses open using the little magic he had left in his system to reinforce his ears, enabling him to hear the softest of sounds as if they were strengthened a hundred times over.
It was this that saved him as he managed to dodge under the first kunai that was thrown at him, just neatly cutting off some of his long black locks of hair. This contraption of magic however didn't enhance his vision in any way. So when he spotted the yellowy piece of paper with black writing on it that was attached to the back of kunai he had just dodged, it was already too late and he could only raise a weak in time to save him from the explosion.
This shield only saved him from the blunt of the explosion, dimming the heat and nullifying most of the push behind it. The remaining power behind the blast was still enough to knock him off his feet, shooting him back a couple of yards and knocking him to the ground in the progress. Before he could fully come to his feet he could hear them, racing towards his position.
50 yards…
30 yards…
20 yards…
10 yards…
Here…
Eight figures dropped down around him, creating a perfect circle and leaving no room to escape. Each of them wore a bone white mask, illuminating their features from clear view. On each of the masks the face of an animal was drawn, he easily spotted the more obvious once: cat, wolf, panda and dog. The other four were harder to figure out, not that it mattered for they all had one thing in common: they were here to kill him.
"Hari Potter, SSS-class rogue-nin from Kirigakure we hereby give you a chance to surrender yourself to us, should you deny this offer we have been authorized to use lethal force." The man, were he to guess by his deep voice, with the dog mask stated. Harry gazed around himself, he was completely surrounded and if his senses were sound there were at least another eight shinobi in backup. In more civilians words, he was thoroughly fucked. His gaze landed on the spoke person of the group of shinobi, "I choose-" he started, taking note of the hand of the shinobi that was slowly creeping towards the kunai pouch on his hip, "- bombarda maxima!"
…
8 hours earlier:
Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage of the Village hidden in the Leaves slowly put down the scroll that he had been reading in, a serious expression etched into his old rippled face. He had just finished reading the latest update on a certain individual that had for a long time evaded any sort of detection and he was closer than he had ever thought, closer than he had ever hoped.
He stayed still for a moment, leaning back in his comfortable chair while pondering about the next course of action, usually such an important problem such as this would be discussed with the elders and the court of Shinobi, maybe even the Fire Daiymo would be warned. But there was no time in this case, he had escaped capture for too long, he was too much of a wildcard, someone with his sort of power could not be spared.
The Sandaime may be a Hokage that liked to make decision with his hearth, he wasn't without a brain. He had been a shinobi for over forty years, he knew the harsh truths, and this was one of them. "Bring Dog to me!" He shouted at the ceiling. There wasn't much time.
It wasn't long before Dog arrived, the ANBU that had to get him must have really explained the urgency of the situation, it wasn't often that Dog wasn't late. "Dog,-" Sarutobi started making the white masked ANBU look at him with an inquiry gaze "- I have a mission for you, you are to collect a total of 4 ANBU teams, more if you deem it necessary. What I am about to tell you is an S-ranked secret and you are not allowed to discuss it with others beside the ANBU that you choose to help you in mission. Furthermore, this mission will be viewed as an SSS-ranked one."
That last bit really got Dog's attention, as he and the rest of the Shinobi civilization knew what it meant to get such a mission. "The details of the mission are descripted in this scroll, leave immediately, there is no time to lose." Dog bowed before the Hokage and made for the door, just as he was about to pull it close behind him he heard the Hokage say a last few words: "Please be save Kakashi, I can't go into the afterlife telling him that I failed you." Dog froze for a moment, before nodding and softly closing the door behind him and disappearing in a swirl of leaves.
…
'So he is finally here-' Dog thought as he jumped from roof to roof to get to the ANBU headquarters as quickly as possible '-The Lord of Snakes, Wielder of the Wooden staff and Speaker of the language of Death has finally arrived.' He was nearing the ANBU headquarters now, he needed to be quick if he wanted to catch him, there was no time to lose. 'The murderer of the Mizukage has finally come.'
AN: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of 'Thrice Cursed Criminal: Stick, Stone and Shawl' Here is a little sneak peek into the upcoming chapter, have fun.
Sneak peek:
Chapter 2: Bingo books and the like
"You are all here because you want to be shinobi one day-" Iruko started "- being a shinobi means many things, most more gruesome than you'd wish." He looked around the class and wondered once again how these kids, for that was what they were, were ever going to graduate to genin this year.
"This is the bingo book-" Iruko stated as he tapped on the brown leather bounded book that he had resting on his desk "- if you were to become a shinobi, you would get your own page in this book, your own bounty, your own hunter-nin after your head." He gazed around the class, taking in the shocked the looks of most of the students.
"You will all learn how to work with this book, what the different classes of shinobi are and what sort of information you can get from this book." He continued once again gazing at the students, only to notice a certain yellow haired boy sleeping in the back of the class. With a single precise thrown he nicked the blond in the head with the book, waking him in the progress.
"As I said –" he started again but not before shooting a glare at the blond that was now busy scratching his head in pain. "- each of the shinobi in the bingo book have their own rank, this rank says something about their strength, their knowledge of ninjutso, genjutso and taijutso and their overall power. These ranks differ between a SS-class shinobi to an E-class shinobi. Yes Naruto?" He asked the boy that now had an open bingo book in front of him.
"If the ranks only go from SS to E, why does this Hari Potter have a SSS rank, who is he?" The class now all focused their gazes on their sensei, obvious eagerly waiting for an answer. "A monster" Iruko mumbled "Hari Potter is a monster"