A/N: Hey- it's Aileen :) this is a shared account with my friend Sophie fyi. Go read her story if you're interested in Minecraft or The Hunger Games. It's called Minecraft Battle Games.
Anyway, a year ago or so, I was pretty obsessed with the Akatsuki and maybe a certain Jashinist. So then I wondered if Hidan was the only Jashinist or if there were more. I decided to write about it, since I wanted to try out fanfiction. Then... After literally an entire year of inactivity, I read over that story again, and honestly, that idea seemed kind of weird to me. Who would be sane enough to defect from th it village secretly on a self appointed mission to infiltrate the Akatsuki of all people? But, I think I'll just go on with the plot and see what I can make of it. I edited it so much that I decided to publish it as a new story.
If you want to see my original version, feel free to check it out ;) it's also called A New Beginning. However, it's missing the second chapter since I lost it D:
I also drew the first scene, since I was going to make it into a doujin, but it took way too long. It's on Deviant Art, and the link to my DA account is on my profile page. You might have to scroll through some of my newer drawings and stuff to find it though.
Hope you enjoy! :)
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto.
Tsunade stared, dumbfounded at the masked woman in front of her. She stood obediently in front of Tsunade, who had no idea what to make of the situation. Here was one of her most trusted ANBU captains, a gifted med-nin with an unique Kekkei Genkai, Wolf. Wolf had been personally trained by Shizune, Tsunade's assistant. At first, it was only an attempt to increase knowledge of medical ninjutsu in the ANBU, but because of the promise that Wolf had shown, Tsunade had decided to let her continue her training with Shizune. After that, Wolf had gradually earned Tsunade's trust. However, that trust was all shattered like glass in a matter of moments. How could she act so calm? Tsunade thought horrified, Dammit, she left the village on an S-rank mission in a standard team of four. And now here she is, alone and covered in the remains of her comrades! Two of them were part of her former genin team on top of that!
"Is there anything wrong, Tsunade-sama..?" Wolf asked innocently.
"Repeat what you just said. I believe I didn't hear you correctly," Tsunade ordered through gritted teeth.
"I eliminated the bandits fortunately. They were very skilled, and had sensed our ambush long before we realized it. Since no one was expecting it, my team was ambushed instead. I now understand why it was an S-rank mission. Unfortunately, Fox and Badger were killed in the process. While they were holding the bandits down, I cut through them all."
"You... You have the role of the med-nin on your team. You're supposed to heal your comrades, not kill them!"
Tsunade tried to keep her tone calm, but disbelief made its way into her voice. Wolf still remained impassive.
"You said that I had to ensure the eliminate the bandits, or they could become a huge threat to Konoha. With Fox and Badger's sacrifices, I had successfully removed all potential threats."
"And there was no other option?"
"No."
Tsunade sighed, "We will talk again later. You're dismissed."
"Hai, Tsunade-sama," Wolf bowed her head slightly and disappeared in a poof of smoke. Tsunade thought she saw something flash in the eyes of the ANBU just before she left, but quickly dismissed it as her imagination and brought her hands to her temples. Wolf surely did not help lessen the headache from that morning.
A group of boisterous genin had barged into her office earlier that morning looking for a lost pet cockroach. After searching for 30 minutes, they had requested her help. Hell no! She was the Hokage, and was not going to search the entire village for some tiny bug. It could have been trampled on and squashed flat for all she cared.
Shortly after that, Kakashi had come wandering in with his nose in that perverted book of his, giggling at whatever was on the pages. Tsunade really did not want to know. She had also made a mental note to herself to kill Jiraiya for writing that shit he called his genius creation and for corrupting her shinobi's minds. Anyway, Kakashi had been summoned three hours ago. When she had reprimanded him for it, he had just laughed it off dismissively, coming up with another lame excuse that she could not recall. Tsunade was almost sure that Kakashi deliberately put effort into his tardiness.
After Kakashi had been given his mission and dismissed, Tsunade had sighed and looked out the window in frustration, just to see Shizune stumbling precariously towards the Hokage Tower with an extravagant pile of paperwork. She had sighed once more and hoped that the paperwork would be the end of her crappy morning. It wasn't. Just at that moment Tonton had burst through the door that Kakashi had forgotten to close. A cat followed, hissing. Frightened to death, Tonton had leaped onto Tsunade, burrowing deep into her arms, trembling. Two chuunins had appeared, out of breath, diving after the cat. Papers had flown everywhere. Tables and chairs had been turned over. Tsunade had sat in the midst of the chaos, barely containing her anger. Finally, the cat had escaped the room, with the chuunin in pursuit. Who the hell had sent two chuunin to catch a cat of all things? Tsunade now wondered how the heck they had passed the chuunin exams. Even some idiot genin could catch a cat. Now she had Wolf to deal with also.
Tsunade fumed. When had Wolf become like this? Sure, she used to be from a rash clan of overly suicidal and religious people, but she had proven herself a powerful and loyal shinobi by joining the ANBU at the age of fifteen. Wolf had always put her comrades in consideration before attacking, believing strongly that people who abandon their comrades were absolute trash. For a second, Tsunade wondered if it was an imposter, but promptly shook her head free of that thought. The chakra signature earlier definitely belonged to Wolf. Maybe her clan elder had talked her into following her religion for once. They were the damned Jashinists, killing whatever that got in their way. They never planned ahead. They were only loyal the 'wonderful Lord Jashin-sama.' Tsunade glared daggers at the floor. Why the hell had her grandfather let these idiots into her village? They were loyal to an evil god. Surely that fact alone proved their inability to be rational.
A realization struck Tsunade. She frowned. Why hadn't she noticed before? Wolf had been acting odd recently. The other day, she had even refused to treat a hospital patient in a dangerous condition, claiming that it was incurable when it was obvious to Tsunade that he could have been saved. She had ordered Wolf to let her take care of it, but Wolf had snapped back, insisting that she was fine. Tsunade sighed. She would watch Wolf closely for a few days. Suddenly, a knock on the office door disturbed Tsunade from her train of thought. She sighed again, "Come in."
Wolf jumped from roof to roof, careful to remain invisible on her way home. She was covered in blood and was not a pretty sight to take in. Plus, her identity and location were supposed to be confidential. Seeing her apartment complex ahead, Wolf breathed a sigh of relief. No one had seen her. Quickly, Wolf slipped through the opened window and flopped down tiredly onto the floor. Wolf glanced around once, taking in the untouched traps she had set before taking off her mask and leaving behind the identity of Wolf.
She was now Haruka. She was no longer the stoic, merciless tool known as Wolf, but Haruka, an average looking kunoichi. There was really no distinguishing feature about her, as she could easily pass off as a civilian with dull brown hair that was tied up messily in a bun (Except for the fact that it was currently matted with dirt and blood). However, Haruka's dark magenta eyes set her off from the others. People had always commented on her hypnotizing eyes and their endless depths, but Haruka hated them. Every time she looked at her reflection through the mirror, she did not see the beautiful orbs that others saw, but death. They were characteristic of her family, reminding her too much of her past, the Takimoto Clan.
Once upon a time, Haruka would have proudly declared herself a Takimoto, but as time passed, she had seen the darkness that lingered the shadows of her clan. Haruka wished she could go back to the blissful ignorance of her childhood, when her family seemed like any other shinobi clan. However, when she threw away her childhood to become a shinobi, everything changed. She was taught about Jashin, the god of evilness, and how her family worshiped him. They were granted immortality along with a special Kekkei Genkai. It was connected to a gruesome ritual, where the victim would be granted a slow and painful death by the user. After being exposed to the horrors of her clan, Haruka didn't know what to do with her life anymore. Her entire clan, including her, technically were not completely immortal, but could withstand almost any injury possible. Sure, this gave her an advantage over enemies, but it still hurt like a bitch to be cut. She had never been stabbed through the heart or had her head severed, luckily, because only few could survive that. Even their supposed immortality would wear off, eventually giving in to old age, but sometimes, Haruka still wished that she could die sooner and be spared from the nightmare that she was forced to live with.
Haruka had almost given up on a shinobi path, guilty of her clan, but decided that it would have been cowardly of her to do so. Despite climbing the ranks at an impressive rate, she lived in fear of herself. It all changed when medical ninjutsu was introduced to her. If she learned it, not only could she heal herself after performing the damn ritual, she could heal others instead of killing. Killing reminded her too much of the rituals. Of course, she was in the ANBU then and still had no choice but to kill, but at least it was a way to pay off some of her guilt. At first, her reason for learning it was just a selfish one, but she quickly realized the importance of being a med-nin and fell in love with it. It gave her the will to live.
She stopped performing the rituals. She stopped sacrificing living beings. She was a med-nin and would not kill unless it was necessary for protecting others. Not all the time at least. There was no way she would cut herself up on a daily basis.
The elders were not pleased. They kicked her out as soon as they found out what was going on.
Haruka glanced distastefully at the floor tiles in the kitchen. It was splattered with blood from one of her past rituals that she had neglected to clean up. Although she hated her clan's religion, she still felt some need to maintain that connection with them. Seeing she was already covered in gore, she decided to clean up before taking a shower.
She hummed sadly as she filled a bucket with water. A few years back, Haruka had requested to infiltrate the Akatsuki as a Konoha spy. She loved her village and wanted to help eliminate the evil organization of S-rank criminals. Of course it wouldn't be easy, but she was the best choice. She was known well around the ANBU for lying and acting, making her the perfect candidate for an infiltration mission. Tsunade said no. She refused to send Haruka on a suicide mission. Despite the Hokage's decision, her friend, Akio believed that she could do it despite the danger. He was one of the many geniuses from the famous Nara clan. It was given that he was a lazy ass, but he could still come up with the most brilliant plans ever. They had already spent months making preparations together, getting more and more nervous as the date of departure drew closer. Haruka had been acting out of character on purpose, so that the village would have a reason for her disappearance once she left.
Tonight's the night.
A dark shadow darted between the buildings. An untrained eye would have missed it completely. Slinking out the front gates of Konoha, it passed the chuunin guards who were dozing off on their late night shifts. It jumped into the trees on the side of the road and disappeared. Deeper in the woods, far from the guarded walls of the village, a lone ANBU with a sparrow mask waited above in the branches. The shadow appeared behind him, a kunai held up to his throat. Unfazed, the ANBU vanished. Not a second later, the clang of metal against metal reverberated through the trees.
"Who are you?" the ANBU questioned threateningly, slowly drawing out his tanto. It had managed to sneak up on him, after all.
"I don't feel obliged to answer," the shadow whispered behind him, barely audible.
The ANBU whirled around, swinging his tanto in a neat arc, but sliced through nothing but air.
"I'll ask one more time: Who are you?" he repeated. He was answered with silence. Unsatisfied, the ANBU immediately located his target and attacked, refusing to let it get away.
"Will you leave me alone?" it whispered once more, fending off the incoming attack. The ANBU ignored its words.
"Leave now, please."
"Why should I?"
"Soon you'll find out."
The ANBU had the mysterious shadow pressed up against a tree, ready to deliver the finishing blow, but paused. He recognized another message beneath the whispered words. I will leave soon.
"For what?" he responded.
"A1437-7858."
The ANBU lowered his weapons, acknowledging it, "Wolf."
"Sparrow."
The shadow dropped its Henge. At the same time, the ANBU lowered his sparrow mask. Gleaming magenta eyes met the weary gaze of a Nara.
Haruka grinned at Akio.
A/N: I don't know if Hidan's immortality is a Kekkei Genkai of some sort or the result of some screwed up experiment. I also made some stuff, but lets just go along with it for the sake of the story. And I didn't go into the details of the ritual thing, since I'm assuming you all know about it already. Plus, I'm not sure if I know it well enough to explain it...
There were sections in there where they're recalling things (Like Tsunade with the cockroaches & stuff and Haruka with her past). Since I wrote this entire chapter in past tense, I wasn't sure how to write it without using "had" 1000 times per sentence. Would anyone be kind enough to help me improve it? Also, if you see any errors, please tell me. Thanks!
