Blood quenches the body
Love blossoms even under snow
Blood can't sate the soul
First he inhaled. His nostrils flared and he felt air and oxygen gushing, rushing deep into his chest. His abdomen clenched and he felt as if the air had went all the way down to his toes. As the used air fell back out of his throat and nose, mucus dribbled out and over his upper lip until he felt the cool liquid settle for a moment before it expanded across his lower lip. He sniffed and sniffed again and his fingers curled until he had them balled into angry fists. His hearing was shot, there was a ringing sound in his head like the noise one gets from a punch to the ear. It didn't quite sound like scratching or screeching, but something like vibration of a wire at an incredibly high vibration--maybe a humming sound. An 'Om' sound. He opened his eyes and saw that smoke and debris was in the air, and the calm forest path that he had stood in looked more like a site for mass slaughter.
Three bodies were slumped up against him and one was draped over him, and he only moved enough to check each of the faces of the shinobi lost to a cunning explosives expert.
He only recognized one of them, the woman on top of him: a woman he flirted with outside of the locker room at the ANBU faction's armory. Her clothes were singed and her hair was much darker than its normally cherry red color. Her name escaped him. The others were probably the jonin level chuunin that were admitted into the unit for peculiar reasons--three brothers. Their hair was singed off and the corpses were burnt beyond recognition. He met them when they were genin and helped them in their training after the first part of the chunin exams. They were part of a family that moved from the former hidden mist. Their rank no longer mattered after the attack to an outpost that maintained the main road out of the village and kept it hidden.
Orders were in. The massive genjutsu that was set around Konoha had cracked, and now Naruto and his group were the ones sent to recapture the outpost and remove the assailants and maintain camp until back up would arrive the next day to fix the genjutsu and the sensory chakra walls.
He looked around and saw two other bodies sprawled on top of one another. The area around them was devestated and drenched in black soot. The skies were dark like the ash on the floor, and the starlight was dim like far away candle light.
Naruto closed his eyes, and began to think.
On their way through the forest down the road, he had to wonder how a chunin had managed to get away from his foes to alert them when one attacker, on his own, was able to perform a coup de grâceon the shinobi that were in charge. That's what the frightened chunin claimed--and Naruto hadn't see any sort of deception in his pathetic eyes.
Then again, he wasn't a Hyuga.
He didn't like the idea of trying to sneak up on them, because he knew they would be waiting--and were probably expecting that sort of thing. He thought an unexpected violent attack would work much better, preferably one from the sky with the help of a few summon birds or Gamabunta, but his squad's leader was the one giving the orders.
Naruto really didn't like following orders.
He sighed and wrapped his arms around the woman's bare waist and formed a seal with his hands. "Ha."
The bodies blew up into large pumes of smoke, and in their place a team of ANBU were summoned to the battlefield around him, all prepared for the mission.
"Bear's been captured." He reported to his comrades.
"We need to hurry to keep any information from leaking out. We may have to select a new leader after this mission." Said a tall man in a tortoise mask.
"There's no chance that headquarters would allow us to decide on a replacement for the commander; moreover, this isn't a conversation we should be having just yet."
Naruto extended his arm out and held his palm flat. Each of his squad mates turned in the kunai he had assigned to them, which he gave to his shadow clones. They were normal kunai, but they were unusually worn and not fit for use as a shinobi's knife.
"We just became a squad a few weeks ago... we're a pretty big squad anyways."
Naruto looked at the man with the tortoise mask and saw that his eyes were blue. The tortoise was as sneaky as Kakashi. No one in their squad has ever seen his face, and he altered his voice on occasion--which threw off Naruto terribly. The man was not only a few heads taller than himself, but he was stocky like some of the men from the Earth Country's hidden village. Even Asuma would've been a head shorter than him, at least. His shoulder muscles were so defined that he wondered if he'd see swirls of flesh like in the gods and lion-faced ogres from the fables that were shown and read to him when he was much younger. Like his personality, his intentions and his face, his speciality was also unclear to Naruto. The man seemed to have an affinity to water type jutsu one day, and then the next he was using lightning techniques right after blowing flames into a crowd of enemies.
He couldn't feel comfortable around a man who was so concealed like he was.
One of the brothers yelled out, 'Yatta!' while another said, "That was pretty cool, Fox. How were you able to summon us...?"
The name 'Fox' was a joke that represented the tenant that dwelled inside of him. It was also his codename, since ANBU never called each other by their real names.
"All of you agreed to add my seal to your ANBU tattoo. It's my technique." He grinned behind his blank mask and stood upright. He strung and placed the worn kunai away in a black holster at his hip and started walking.
"Bear'll stay alive, but we must act quickly before our mission is compremised."
"I do believe that was a well-thought-out tactic in your position to plan ahead for the possibility of an ambush, although it was somewhat unorthodox to leave the commander in the dark by coming to us each individually before the mission, but it would be unwise to underestimate your commander. Bear is a jonin shinobi decorated with a few hundred missions and several awards presented by the council. My research implies that Bear was an integral part in the defense of the village during the snake-nin skirmish." The Aburame spoke, matter-of-factly. Naruto rarely got along with Aburame shinobi other than Shino, and this one was no different. He wore an eagle mask.
"Nor would I overestimate an ally. Like I said, probably."
The man in the tortoise ANBU mask smirked and the Eagle furrowed his brows.
"Don't you have any faith in your squad?"
He chuckled and knelt back down on the floor and shook his head. Bear was his friend, but idiocy and loyalty could only hold hands for so long. "Let's not go there. And by the way, you're a little less anal than most Aburame. They usually do their research thoroughly." Naruto chewed out.
The eagle masked man's head lifted up a little more and he stared at Naruto for an explanation for the insult.
"We just want to know what your problem with being in this squad is..."
Naruto's nails scraped the dirt floor.
"... so that we can work it out together." This was the woman who wore a bug mask--the same one he flirted with back in the village. He still couldn't recall her name.
"I won't follow anyone blindly."
She stared at him and saw him peer through the ivory mask with one of his eyes while he went through a short seal formation and then set his palms back into the earth. His eyes were still for a moment... and then he blinked.
"And yet you'll blindly follow your own moral code. Sometimes perspective helps solve tasks better than one's own skill, Fox-san."
"My will can cut steel."
"Sure, and so can an armorer's apprentice crudely mend it, but only the master knows of the real work and detail that goes into building useful weapons and armor."
"Why bother me with this right now when we should be focusing on rescuing this idiot?" Naruto summoned a scroll with a paint brush and a small canteen. He dipped the brush in and then slapped the end of the brush onto the scroll, leaving a blue splat, and looked up to her. "This post is an important tactical position for Konoha and the tri-alliance. With Kusa's sudden violent reaction to the end of Akatsuki and the release of the great vine, the shinobi from Kusa have managed to take over both of its surrounding countries, and is spreading its influence into both the ground country and the fire country."
"The roots of Kusa are deep." She spoke as if she were reciting an old moral code. Naruto, we don't need a history lesson." The bug-masked nin mumbled.
Naruto closed his eyes for a moment and remembered his old team. He saw the pink haired Haruno Sakura, the red eyed Uchiha Sasuke and the copy-cat nin, Kakashi, whose eye gave away the smile that hid behind his mask.
He rebutted her argument with his own quotation. "History not only encompasses threads of the past, but its fabric is woven in our future."
His squad members stared at him for a moment in silence, and then he continued. This moment, out in corpus fields, would be one that they would recount with their children and grandchildren, if they lived long enough. "As a 'decorated jonin', Bear carries vital information about the weaknesses of the village and of our shinobi that some of the current generation do not even know, not to mention an index on most of the techniques that Konoha shinobi use, thanks to the Hyuga family's ancient knowledge of the weaknesses of each of our clans. Bear'll have to be secured before we capture the post."
"Cutting the throat would keep that Hyuga from talking. I wouldn't have a problem with that." Said the tall man. Naruto just stared, his eyes and posture baring no emotion. The insect woman shook her head in shame.
"And here I was, defending teamwork."
The tall man knelt down in front of Naruto and the three brothers quickly followed suit, silent as he began evaluating their situation. Each of them looked up attentively at the blank mask of the fox, trying to soak in and understand as much of the plan as they could.
It was funny how much they adored him.
The Aburame and the bug woman stood behind them to watch over their shoulders.
"Excuse me,"began the Aburame, whispering to the woman standing next to him.
At that moment, Naruto briefly looked over toward the tower and muttered 'how did they do it?' to himself. The Tortoise tilted his head back a bit and leered down at the blond who looked like he had lost track of thought.
The fox shook his head and swiped the flat of his palm against the dirt.
"OK. Let's start. We came here to take the post back, not to lose anyone from our ranks. It's a large facility, so I have to make sure that none of you are going to get lost. I will break up the group into two teams. The infiltration team: the three of you and myself, and the sweeping team, the Miss'es, the Aburame and the tall guy. We have one-way communication with the outside through the microphones on our person, but once we're inside there's almost no way to call for help through these little receivers. Now, I'll tell you why." Naruto spoke well over the tone of voice that the Aburame with the eagle mask spoke in.
"Yes?" She asked without turning to look at him.
"OK. Here's how it's going to go..." Naruto began by drawing a small diagram of the post, which was a small fortress designed as a war post back during the last great war. It looked small from first appearances, but it's true bulk was covered in dirt and a barrage of ancient trees that made up its surrounding forest. The "post" was its nickname and at the same time an underhanded blow, because it made the giant shinobi armory and training ground sound like it was three chunin in a short, two story building. Thanks to the elevation in the area, Konoha was able to convincingly hide a three story fortress underground, directly underneath the "post", and it once seemed impregnable and a testament to the hidden leaf's power and authority. Except, now it was captured by a team of unknown shinobi who literally destroyed the commanders that were stationed there.
The scary part was that a single man had infiltrated and killed the head shinobi in charge, and then his comrades came in and swept up the rest. He still wasn't sure that he believed the chunin that had escaped, and a seed of doubt had planted in Naruto's mind as he left the village that flirted with treason and betrayal in his head.
The Aburame could still see and hear Naruto, but that's just because the man's voice was so loud. He glanced briefly at the woman with the bug mask and whispered,"By thoroughly, what did he mean?"
She was silent for a moment as she organized her thoughts. While Naruto emphasized the brothers' role as the most important of his plan, she quietly shuffled backwards a few paces and responded in a whispering voice, "Fox-san is the first genin to join in the ANBU service in or outside of war time. He's never passed his chunin exam, although it would be pointless to go back and attempt it now. If there were a rank above jonin and below Hokage, he would be it. I don't know all of the details, but I know that the class type of the missions that he went through to get to where he is now was of a much higher level than the commander's."
The Aburame was silent for a moment, mauling the information over.
"He's a sweetheart, really. I think he's just upset because he probably went to the commander with his plan in the first place, and more than likely he was just blown off. Insulting the fox is a foolish thing to do."
"I didn't mean to insult him."
The insect glanced at the Aburame with some curious interest to his reaction."Acting nonchalant about a superior of his who shows him no respect is definitely up in that category. He probably doesn't enjoy hearing about others accomplishments in reference to his own misconduct, especially since few under the Hokage level have experienced and accomplished as much as he has. Don't you remember the destruction caused by the man from that Akatsuki organization?"
"The total destruction of the village. I remember that Naruto's clones filled ground zero and were helping with the reconstruction of many of the buildings in the area."
"He fought that man from hidden rain--the man who caused us all of our grief back then."
They listened quietly for a while as the Aburame tried and sort out his thoughts. "So why is he only in ANBU? Why isn't he at least leading his own team?"
She round-a-bouted that question and warned him. "I wouldn't pester him. He doesn't trust many people, but--"
"The reason why I don't is because my friends don't stop blabbing about me. Now shut up you two and come pay attention. Your roles are coming in and I can't hear myself think." Naruto grumbled.
Startled at his impressive hearing, the insect and the eagle stood side by side to listen to Naruto speak. He drew a basic diagram of the main entrances into the tower, and then mentioned that he needed Eagle's kikai bugs to sneak in and tag each of the enemies, then he would use his bugs to dig underground and climb in through the vents to get some information on the enemies while Naruto and the brothers started breaking into the underground fortress by digging underground through where Naruto remembered the armory was located using one of the brothers' ground techniques.
Bug was to rig each of the windows with explosives and cast a genjutsu over the main entrance after the brothers rushed in through the front. Each of them were given a kunai, except these were all deadly and well taken care of. Naruto wasn't sure if he should call them by their code names, but he couldn't really tell what type of masks they were wearing anyways. He thought one of them looked like a dog, and the other was probably a rat, or a rabbit. He didn't bother trying to decipher the image on the third brother's mantle.
Whoever painted these masks was retarded.
Naruto looked up at the giant tortoise, even though he was kneeling as well. "I've got one more thing for you to do while you're waiting for us to flush them out..." He looked back toward the tower that was engulfed by the large trees and the brush. He then turned back to the squad and nodded to them.
Naruto repeated in more detail that the fortress was made up of a tower, an armory, a large living quarters and a war/briefing room, as well as a few bathrooms, prison cells and other equipment rooms.
"After that, your job is simple. I'm going to take care of the night watch and replace them with my clones. I need you to be the final attack for when they all come rushing out and then guard the main route with your oil and fire traps. Bug will assist you with her ground affinity to build a prison for the stragglers."
"Actually, I'm a beetle. Should the trap cave be over or underground?" She asked, sweetly.
Naruto turned to start moving in a crouched position. "Under." He said. He moved a few more feet and his squad moved into position behind him. "I think there may still be a small incline as we get to the post, I can't really see it from here with all of those trees, but you might be able to hide it pretty well that way. Anyways, do what you think is best, Beetle."
Naruto lifted his left arm up and signaled them to hault, and while holding that hand up he extended his other arm out and signaled again to move. His squad looked confused until five shadow clones split up into a group of two on the left and a group of three on the right.
Naruto turned his head and nodded toward the Aburame. "Oi. Eagle. Get up here."
"Hai, Fox-san?"
Naruto looked up into the dark sky and muttered, "Just how high can those kikai bugs of yours fly?"
"And still remain under my control?" He asked, his brow furrowed in a slight quizzical manner.
"Didn't know you could lose control of your colony. But yeah, how high?"
"... Two hundred meters, exactly. They can continue flying high, more than ten thousand or so meters, but at that point I lose my reign over them and they usually swarm back to their normal climate."
Naruto looked curiously for a moment, "Not like it's that important to me, but what's their normal climate?"
"They originated from very arrid locations. I suppose Suna would be the closest place to attain more kikai bugs, but we are currently in full speed in breeding production. It is highly improbable that the clan will have to procure more specimen to continue our breeding projects. There are also reserves--"
"Shino would have stopped at 'arrid locations'. I suggest that you take care of the Aburame secrets more around other people--even those in your squad."
Eagle stared at him, but said nothing. Naruto nodded. "Here's the point: I need your kikai to fly up high enough so that they're not visible by our enemies. Then they should come down on the top of the tower and plant themselves there. I can reach a radio and break into our frequency once I reach the top of the tower. Come. Look..."
As Eagle followed Fox to a partition in forestry, the fox used his palm to push aside some tall blades of wild grass and wiry shrubs to show him the tower.
Eagles eyes widened.
They ducked, the rest of the squad leapt backwards and hid behind the bushes as a revolving beam of light passed over them. The walls on the top floor of the tower were made of glass, but there was a plateau that provided a blind spot close to the tower. The moonless night gave the ANBU squad an advantage. They could break in by dodging the spot lights that were on four sides of the tower, and use the blind spot to start building their traps. If need be, they could destroy the search lights and set up even outside of the blind spot.
"Do all of you hear me?" He said, taking on a quieter voice.
"Hai." He heard the Aburame next to him say.
"Yeah!" All three of the brothers responded gleefully.
"Shh! We hear you." The woman wearing the beetle mask chided the three, while the tall man gave a thumbs up.
"Hm!"
"Alright, alright. Listen, my doubles will move into position soon. I need you all to move quickly. Tortoise, you'll have to find a way to conceal yourself long enough for your part near the end. If need be, I'll need you to help me knock down this tower."
Everyone's breathing hitched.
"Remember our secondary objective? The enemy must not have this post. I don't know if I can explain that any clearer than the Face said it, but you are top rated shinobi whose mission is to follow orders first and not ask unnecessary questions." Naruto was silent for a moment. He continued after the light passed over them again. "Bear needs our help. If we don't complete this mission, then a comrade will die. A hyuga is a prize posession for any enemy of ours--especially their eyes."
"This mission would be so much easier if we had those eyes on our side..." The aburame agreed. He looked at his arm as more of his kikai bugs left their nest in his body. Their little wings flapped and they jittered about for a while before shooting up high into the trees and away from the light's imposing grasp.
"Right. I can only plan ahead so far. I know how to get us in and what we have to do if we get out. I have no idea what's going to happen in there. Just keep in mind that they killed some of our superiors, not including all of the chuunin and genin squads that were stationed here. This is a certified training camp, not just an elaborate war room."
"Forget the unexpected... we're in a whole 'nother shit storm from here on out." One of the brothers whispered back in an odd tone.
"Right. Anyways..." The spot light passed over them once more and suddenly Naruto bolted away from the shrubs and followed the revolving light in its quick, predictable pattern around the base, with two clones on his tail.
Naruto's voice broke out over the radio, "Begin step one."
After the light passed over them again, the squad saw the other group of three blonds follow the second beam of light, staying just out of its path like their original had. The squad had to force themselves to move after the third beam had crossed over; they were so surprised by the speed that the fox was capable of that they nearly forgot to move. The first to get up was the tortoise, and the brothers soon followed him.
Eagle was surprised when they arrived at the base of the tower and the clones had already henged into the patrol walking around the entrance and had them all knocked out, tied up and gagged. They wore no hitai-ate, but they all wore konohagakure's symbol, tattooed on their arms. Naruto had managed to get every detail of their clothing just right, including the dense chest plates and armor material around their forearms and shins, as well as the way they tied their hair and probably even the color of their eyes. He couldn't quite see clearly enough in the dark, but beetle was gawking at them.
"They are wearing the hidden leaf on their shoulder... what does this mean?" Eagle asked.
"I... I don't know." She looked back at their other team mate, who looked down upon them quietly.
The trio of brothers looked confused, and one eventually spoke up.
"Oi, I thought that we were supposed to--"
"Zzsht~c'mon you three. You're supposed to go through the front door, remember? I won't be able to give any more orders once I go in, so you guys better remember what you're supposed to do~zzt!!"
The three brothers formed several seals in unison and suddenly their chakra could be felt among the rest of the group. "We're ready."
"Just wait for us, onii-chan."
"Let's go!"
"You're too loud!" Chided the beetle woman again.
"What an awful sound, that radio." Eagle complained.
"It's better to have some way of communicating... I see that hill that he was talking about. It wraps around the edge of the clearing over there where those trees peak high above the rest. The light shouldn't be able to spot me if I work fast enough and raise that hill up just a bit..."
"I have something I have to do... make sure you get those windows, like he said." The tortoise started walking toward the wall of the tower and suddenly he disappeared.
"I will, thanks." She said, pulling out a roll of explosive tags from her kunai pouch.
"My kikai have already begun to infiltrate the base. It will take three minutes for them to reach the second basement floor."
"Zz~Sounds good. I'm going in...kshhh..."