A Pair of Golden Eyes
Chapter 1
Operation Destroy Konoha was in full swing. Apart from the fact that Gaara was somewhere in the forest, the mission was going smoothly. Orochimaru was fighting the Third and seemed to be winning. At least, that's what the group of sand and sound ninja could gather from where they were. The group was an average chuunin group and thus were quite skilled. There were ten of them, five of them sand ninja and the other five sound ninja. The leader was a sound ninja, and it was obvious that they were all bored from their search. "Why? Why did we have to get stuck looking for one person in an entire village!" one of the sand ninja groaned.
"Quiet! Lord Orochimaru knows what he's doing!" one of the sound ninja reply.
The sand ninja rolls his eyes but keeps searching. A few minutes pass and then the sound ninja that had spoke earlier called them all to him. He pointed to the ground. Standing there, looking at a scroll he was holding, was a man. About 20 years old, he was wearing a black cloak that covered his entire body apart from the eyes upwards. His hair was dark and long. His eyes were in shadow and so the ninja group couldn't determine whether this person was the right one or not. They jump, and land lightly in front of the man. He looks up, and rolls the scroll back up before depositing it in a nearby pot.
The man looks up. The group smile. "I thought you were the one we were looking for" the sand ninja says, "and now all we have to do is capture you" with this, the ninja sprints towards the man, who just stands there and seems to smile. The sand ninja draws a kunai and…
"Where'd he go?" the sand ninja was confused. An object flies towards the ninja and then a sickening splat, and then an almighty crack is heard. Blood starts to drip down the ninja's body. The ninja falls, dead, a kunai stuck in his head. The other ninja watch in disbelief as the man jumps down from the roof of a house, takes the kunai out of the man's head, and throws it at the ground in front of the group of ninja. They are all slightly scared now but charge together as one.
"Humph" the man speaks, his voice low.
The kunai explodes with a golden flame and the ninja fall as one, their bodies burnt and on fire, except for one of them who flies towards the man. He reaches out to grab something to stop his flight, but the man grabs him by the neck and holds him there. The terrified ninja looks deep into the eyes of the man holding him and begs for mercy. He receives none. The ninja is dead before he hits the ground.
The last image the ninja had before his neck broke, was of a pair of eyes. A pair of terrifying, intense eyes. A pair of golden eyes.
Chapter 2
The fight between Naruto and Gaara had just finished, and the young ninja were heading home. The sand siblings were running as fast as they could from several ninja Konoha had dispatched to capture them. Temari was ahead and cleared the way for Kankuro (who was holding Gaara) to get through. Kankuro was starting to lag behind more and more due to Gaara's weight.
"C'mon, we've got to get out of here!" Temari called to Kankuro.
"You could help!" Kankuro calls back.
There is a rustle in the trees behind them. The three ninja stop and rest against a nearby tree trunk. Gaara falls to the ground, while the other two prepare to fight. The rustling continues. The two ninja throw kunai towards the sound. An ANBU charges out of the trees towards them. He speeds towards where they are standing when suddenly the ninja freezes. Out of the trees, a man dressed in a black cloak emerges and looks at the three. Without a word, he walks over to them, grabs the ANBU and hurls him back into the trees. More ANBU start to appear, but each time they get close to the group they freeze, and are thrown back by the Man. Once they stop attacking the man goes to Gaara and lifts him up. Kankuro and Temari look on in amazement as the man lifts Gaara up, props him against the tree and then makes some hand signs. A golden light surrounds the man, as the man continues to make signs. He stops, puts his hand on Gaara's head and then the golden light transfers from the man to Gaara. As the light moves, Gaara stands up straighter and seems to become stronger. The light is fully transferred, and so diminishes and dissipates into nothing. "What is this?" Gaara asks.
"A special healing jutsu I've… developed." The man replies.
"What is your name?" Temari asks as she steps towards Gaara.
"I don't want to tell you."
"We need a name from you. You helped Gaara. We might be able to help you later with a mission or…" Kankuro trails off.
"Fine. You may call me Torik." Torik answers.
"Torik. A strange name, but one we will remember." Temari says as she leaves Gaara's side.
"Thank you. And now I must go." Torik jumps onto a nearby branch, concentrates and then disappears into the trees.
The siblings continue their journey with the now revived Gaara, and manage to arrive at the sand village in a few days. The journey has tired them out, and so they go to their houses and rest. Gaara lays awake as he always does, and relives the day in his head. He remembers how Naruto beat him, and also why and how he beat him. He also thinks of Torik. Gaara wonders who he is and what he meant by the jutsu he "Developed".
The next day, the three of them meet and discuss the events of the day before. They argue over who the man was and who he is sided with. Kankuro thinks he is a mercenary but Temari thinks he is sided towards the sand. Gaara remains silent throughout and just listens. Temari and Kankuro argue for the whole day and go back to their houses undecided. They do agree on one thing though. They agreed that he was a strange man. A strange but powerful man. A man with the most remarkable eyes. A pair of kind, brilliant eyes. A pair of golden eyes.
Chapter 3
Sasuke was having trouble. Despite the fact that he had regained enough chakra for movement and was not as exhausted as he was after using three Chidori, he was still struggling to drag Naruto's heavy weight around with him. Stupid Naruto, Sasuke thought. But the amount of chakra he summoned earlier was… inhuman. Sasuke was lost in thought and so didn't notice that someone was following him.
A while later Sasuke stops to rest. As he lays Naruto down and leans against a tree, the curse mark starts to flare up again and Sasuke falls to the ground. As he falls, he then notices the Sound Jonin. The sound Jonin that, as Sasuke now realizes, was following him for some time. As the Jonin approaches Sasuke he draws a kunai and smiles. "This is too easy!" the Jonin laughs. He throws the kunai towards Sasuke.
As the kunai gets closer and close, Sasuke sees his life flash before his eyes. His brother, his team, his enemies. He prepares for the end and is ready to meet his doom.
The kunai bounces away harmlessly. Sasuke is startled and wonders exactly what happened. The Jonin is instantly suspicious and starts to look around warily. He throws a bunch of shuriken at Sasuke but they stop in midair and then fall to the ground. The Jonin is severely worried now and starts to throw shuriken in random directions. A man dressed in a black cloak appears beside Sasuke and stares at the Jonin. Seeing him, The Jonin immediately disappears into the trees and starts to throw projectiles at the three ninja. Each time a weapon gets close to one of the group, a circle of gold light appears in front of the weapon with the point of the projectile sticking into the middle of the circle. The Jonin is getting really annoyed and starts making hand signs. The man grunts and leaps towards the ninja. The Jonin stops making hand signs and dodges, only to be blown to the ground by the shadow clone exploding in golden flames. The Jonin is unharmed and so begins making hand signs but is too slow.
"The Art of Decimation! Kunai!" The man shouts.
Starting from the man's outstretched hand, a wall of kunai start to form. The kunai appear out of nowhere but they all line up to create an impenetrable wall of spikes. The kunai all have a gold handle and are obviously of very high quality. The man is staring at the Jonin who has frozen at the site of this giant wall. He steps back and starts to run away.
"Too slow!" The man pushes his hand forwards, and as he does the wall of kunai rushes towards the Sound Jonin. As the terrified ninja and the golden wall of kunai disappear into the trees, the only sound that is heard is of a scream.
The man lowers his hand and looks at Sasuke. He is still lying on the ground but is looking up at the man in envy. The man shakes his head and makes hand signs.
"Curse Mark Temporary Seal!"
The curse mark recedes back to Sasuke's neck and Sasuke manages to sit up.
"Who are you?" Sasuke asks.
"My name is… Torik Ikuza" Torik answers.
"This man…So much Power… and his eyes? They're…!" Sasuke thinks to himself.
The man reaches down and presses something on Sasuke's neck. Sasuke falls unconscious immediately. The man pulls a whistle out of his cloak, blows on it a few times and then jumps off.
Meanwhile, Sasuke is laying there unconscious. When he wakes up the first thing he remembers will be a pair or eyes. A pair of powerful eyes filled with revenge. A pair of golden eyes.
Chapter 4
Torik was watching them. His eyes were closed, and his chakra was reaching out towards the pair. From what he could see and hear, the tall one with the white hair was called Pervy Sage while the little one in the orange clothes was called Naruto. Torik opened his eyes and made a hand sign. "Golden Eye: Analyse!" Torik's chakra level started to diminish rapidly but the information he was receiving about the pair was amazing. He stopped the jutsu and chased after the pair.
"So, what is this amazing jutsu you're going to teach me? Tell me please! Please!"
"Shut up Naruto!" Jiraiya was at his wit's end. Naruto had been bugging him for the entire journey so far and Jiraiya was thinking about using the jutsu on him just to shut him up. But he restrained himself and just imagined it. The pair was still walking along, except now they had an unseen companion following them. Jiraiya stopped.
"There's someone… or something following us."
At this, a blast of chakra slams into them both and pushes them forwards. They turn around and see a small creature looking at them. It was basically human in shape but had several rows of teeth and a tail. The creature also had symbols carved into the palm of his hands and these were glowing. The creature smiled, and thrust his hands forwards. A huge amount of chakra was suddenly rushing towards Naruto and Jiraiya.
"Shield!"
Golden Circles suddenly surrounded Jiraiya and Naruto, and the chakra slammed into these. The golden circles started to glow, until suddenly, they disappeared. A man dressed in black was holding the creature at arm's length, and looked thoroughly disgusted at what was clinging to his arm.
"Demon Seal!"
The demon froze and started to disappear, as though he was blood being washed away by the rain. The man looked at the pair and smiled, his golden eyes clearly visible. Jiraiya looked the man up and down and then spoke.
"I know who you are. You've helped Sasuke, The sand trio and killed a group of ninja who came after you. If only I knew your name…"
"Torik Ikuza, at your service." Torik smiled at Jiraiya. "It seems I have become rather famous."
"Yeah. Anyway, what are you doing here? I've got someone to search to for."
"Tsunade?"
"Yes. How did you know?"
Torik looks straight at Jiraiya.
"Can you see my eyes?"
"Yeah. They're gold." Jiraiya inspects Torik's eyes as he says this.
"That is it. It's a bloodline, a kekkei genkai. The golden eye. It's the mark of the protector and allows me to gather information quite easily. That's all I feel like telling you about it for the moment. It does take an enormous amount of chakra though, that's why I had to use the demon seal when I was touching the creature."
"So that was a demon!" Naruto exclaims, "You mean that was an actual demon. I hope there's more around, I'll kick their…"
"No you won't!" Torik and Jiraiya shout at the same time.
"Naruto, why don't you go on ahead for a while? Torik and I have a few things to talk about."
Naruto groans and starts to walk ahead of the pair.
"So you're saying that that was a real demon? But I thought that your clan had…You know."
"Well, a few escaped the fold. Those ones were mainly greater demons, like the nine-tailed fox, or demons that had already been sealed or trapped, like shukaku.
"But that was a lesser demon. Care to explain?"
"A few lesser demons escaped as well. That's generally why I'm here. The demons have been moving towards something for a while and I want to find out what."
Jiraiya sighed. He knew about Torik and the Ikuza clan. Torik was the leader of the tribe, and was quite a powerful ninja. But because the Ikuza tribe didn't rate their ninja according to the Genin/Chuunin/Jonin rankings, the power of each member was unknown. Therefore, most ninja felt quite uncomfortable in the presence of on of the "Golden eyes" as they had come to be known. Jiraiya was sure he could handle Torik if he had to but…
Jiraiya was startled to realize that Torik had gone. He looked around but could not find him anywhere. There was something stuck to his back and Jiraiya reached round to get it.
Jiraiya, sorry to leave you like this but I've found another demon. Will se you sometime in the future. In the meantime, if you need a bit of help at any time (tracking down people who you need to find, or people who escape from you) then use this kunai. Just throw it into the air. Bye.
As soon as Jiraiya had finished reading the note, it floated out of his hand and folded itself up into a kunai shape. There was a flash of light, and floating in front of Jiraiya was a real kunai with a gold feather attached to the handle. Jiraiya grabbed it and put it away. He then realized that he couldn't see Naruto either and started running to catch up with him.
Chapter 5
Torik was resting. Having to use the golden-eye to locate several dozen lesser demons, fight them all and then seal them too took a lot of chakra. Torik thought he deserved a rest. As he waited he saw two figures, both dressed in long black cloaks with red clouds on, rush away from the nearby town. Torik was going to go after them but saw a ninja he knew from the Leaf village, Might Guy, using his headband to look round a corner. Torik smiled when he saw Guy, and remembered his 8th birthday. Torik's father had used a technique Guy was famous for that day…
Torik was studying. The book he was reading was fascinating. It was about the uses of the golden-eye and also how it worked. Torik had read most of the chapters and was getting towards the end of the book. The final few chapters were about the most powerful golden-eye jutsu. The book was very old and had clearly been read many times. The cover was faded and the title was barely legible. The book's spine was just a giant mess of cracks where it has been bent too much. Torik continued reading.
"Chapter 25: The Final Form of the Golden-eye."
This was the bit Torik was interested in. He had read about and mastered Form 1, read about Form 2 and was now onto the last Form. Torik was just about to turn the page when…
"Clan! Assemble!"
Torik raced downstairs and sat at one of the tables. The room was basic but had a homely touch to it. That and the fact that it was the size of a village hall. The clan had a communal kitchen and so every person in the clan would all sit down and eat dinner together. There was a wooden table, a sink and cupboards nearly everywhere. The only part of the wall that wasn't covered with cupboards was the door and even that was blocked if some of the cupboards were open. The main purpose of the cupboards was to train the young ninja in the clan. The cupboards were generally used for various ninja training and often held weapons or traps. Everyday though, as a chance for the young ninja to train some basic golden-eye techniques, they would have to use a jutsu to find certain items set by the people. They would generally use this as some form of entertainment before they would eat. Normally several young ninja would work together to find the items. However, some days were special.
"Right," Torik's father shouted, "Everyone settle down!" Torik's father was the current head of clan and Torik would be expected to follow in his footsteps.
"To mark my son Torik's 8th birthday, he will find what we need today. Also, if he can find the correct cupboards in less than a minute, he will get a special present that will be presented to him in front of everyone after we have eaten. Now, Torik!"
The clan cheered as Torik walked to the podium in the centre of the room. The podium was raised above all the tables and had a barrier around it that also doubled as a note table for mission reports. Torik could feel all the clan's eyes looking at him. Most of the eyes were normal colours, but most of the children's eyes were gold. They had activated their golden-eye to see if they could pick up any tricks or techniques from Torik.
Torik breathed deeply, shut his eyes and waited. When he opened his eyes again, they were gold.
"Golden Eye: Locate!"
Torik started to spin rapidly, looking at each of the cupboards.
2 seconds.
Torik had located one. "Mark!" A golden cross appeared on the cupboard in question.
5 seconds.
Torik knew from his previous tries that there were generally ten cupboards. However, when his father had set the record of one minute, there were 15 cupboards. That meant that there were provably 15 cupboards here as well.
10 seconds.
Torik found another two, as well as a fake one.
Torik's mind drifted slightly to the description of this particular jutsu in the book.
"The Golden-eye: Locate jutsu can be used to find an item. The user has to think of the item or items in general and then look around. He or she should see a golden cross in the point where the items are. However, the golden-eye can be fooled. Genjutsu can be used to trick the golden-eye and therefore deceive the person using it. To counter this, the user can use another jutsu. This is called Golden-eye: Truth. This sees through any and all Genjutsu and can reverse it if you use the reversal technique as already described earlier. In order to use the reversal, you have to first see through the jutsu, and then take control of your opponent's jutsu as detailed earlier in this book. However, the amount of chakra required for such a feat is immense for high level or bloodline Genjutsu like the Tsukuyomi, although reversing the Tsukuyomi would require chakra levels only shown by Greater demons such as the Nine-Tailed Fox."
20 seconds.
Torik's mind snapped back to the present. He concentrated and then shouted.
"Golden-eye: Truth! Mark!"
5 golden crosses appeared on separate cupboards, and then Torik was spinning again.
30 seconds.
"Mark!"
40 seconds.
"Mark!"
50 seconds.
"Mark!"
55 seconds.
"Mark! And stop!"
The timer stopped at 57 seconds. Torik was exhausted. Several clan members rushed to the cupboards to see if he was right. The first cupboard was opened and…
"Correct!"
After that first one the cupboards were opened one at a time. Each time it was correct until…
"Wrong!"
The ninja looked inside the cupboard. It was empty. Torik had made a mistake. A clan member approached the cupboard.
Splat. The ninja was run through with a kunai that had been launched from the cupboard. One of those that were still seated jumped up and ran towards the exit. Torik's father instantly dashed after him, with Torik hot on his heels. The ninja ran through the village very quickly and was starting to lose them. Torik broke off and ran in a different direction. Eventually he met up with the ninja and they both stopped.
"You can't beat me. You're just a kid. What power could you have?" The ninja laughed at Torik. "All you can do is see the truth and you couldn't even see my Genjutsu!"
At this Torik smiled. "You obviously haven't seen more of the golden-eye than that. If you think the golden-eye is just a visual bloodline then you are wrong. Very wrong."
The ninja makes hand signs and shouts "Fire Style: Fireball jutsu!"
A fireball engulfs Torik which lasts for 20 seconds. When the smoke clears from the fireball, Torik is till standing there. The ninja is scared. "No way…"
"Golden Fla…" Torik starts.
"NO!" Torik's father shouts. "Do not use that jutsu after you've tried to locate so much. It will kill you!" Torik's father jumps down from the roof of a nearby house.
The ninja takes advantage of this distraction to run away.
"Oh no, you don't" Torik's father yells. "I wanted to try this technique out. Leaf Hurricane!" Torik's father leaps after the ninja and kicks him twice. Hard. Things break, but they aren't a part of Torik's father.
"Are you o.k.?"
"I'm fine. Thanks dad." Torik sits down. His father sits with him.
"Here. This is the prize I was going to give you." Torik is handed a scroll held together with gold string.
Torik opens the scroll and starts to read. His eyes grow wide with astonishment and then he runs off towards his house. As he runs Torik thinks to himself "Finally, I've got that scroll. I wanted to know why we lived here instead of joining with one of the main villages like the leaf village! Now I will know about what happened 200 years ago!"
Torik's father stands up and walks off, leaving the dead ninja's body on the ground.
Torik shook himself out of his daydream. He notices that he has been lost in his memories so long that Guy is leaving with the unconscious Sasuke across his back. Torik stands up, stretches and starts heading towards Guy.