A/N: Hey all! New story...yeah I know I should be working on all those others you love but I had this idea after watching Desert Punk and decided to do it! So just know I'm working hard in college and at my job and I'll be sure to give you guys a nice zesty update!
Disclaimer: I do not known Naruto
Demolisher
By MountainWind
Chapter 1
The gates to Konohagakure no Sato rumbled closed for the evening. Sunlight cascaded through the tall ashes and oaks and gave all that basked in the light a blood red glow. The guard groaned as he hurried the last few stragglers, old people mostly, of the new visitors for the day. He noted one man was lagging behind, almost on purpose. He sighed.
"Hurry up sir! We have to close for the night!"
He waved and nodded. "Sorry, sorry." He scuttled through just before they ground to a trembling halt. The guard took a moment to look at him. He wore a thick and battered black cloak that covered his entire body. The hood he wore was ratty and seemed to have been torn or shredded by shrapnel or bullets. It wafted over his face blocking his features from view.
"Let me see your passport."
"Sure," he removed a small binder from his pocket and revealed it.
"Is that supposed to be a joke?" the guard asked as he pointed to the picture. It was the man, wearing his cloak and hood, equally blocked from view. "And Demolisher? What kind of crazy name is that?"
The man pointed to a small insignia at the bottom of the passport. It was 'ningen' upside down.
The guard gulped. "Uh…yes sir…sorry for the delay."
"No problem. Just direct me to the council headquarters and I'll be fine," he said returning his binder to his pants.
"Just down the main road, to the left of the Hokage tower."
"Thanks!" he waved and was off. Damn ninjas…he sighed mentally. He hated coming to ninja villages. He was either treated like a criminal or a bomb waiting to go off. Even though he was closer to the latter at least he knew when to blow up.
As he sauntered down the road, walking with an odd swinging gate that made him appear to be dancing, he noticed everyone in the village was a bit on edge. Even for ninja folk, as he liked to call them.
"I can't believe he's going to the academy."
"It's horrible I tell ya when a thing like that can go to the Hokage's office any time it wants."
"Well at least he'll be in a different class than my Toshio."
These people are talking like there's a plague around here. And that someone has it…oh well I can just go to the old guy and get cured. The man sighed and stopped in front of the Hokage tower. "Big thing…it would take…fifteen seconds," he muttered before he went to the left and walked past the guards. He noticed the radios they wore and the hesitant looks they gave him before allowing him to pass.
He walked in and asked to see Homura and Kotaru, who were apparently waiting on him. He quickly ascended the stairs and knocked on the door he had been told to go to.
"Come in," a slightly gruff voice called to him. He opened the door and saw three ANBU, no twelve according to his senses, and two old people. One woman, one man. The man, Homura was sitting on the right with Kotaru, the woman, on the left. The three visible ANBU were station at the two's left, right, and behind their shared chair. "Demolisher?"
"Yes sir," he bowed.
"Please," the woman motioned with a hand, "have a seat, some tea."
"Thank you." He sat down across from them. Before him was a small table with two kinds of tea and five types of snacks. Some spread they have. Well they did say it was a big job at the depot. He
poured himself a small glass and sipped it, enough to wet the back of his throat, and then cleared it. "I was told I was needed for a very large job. I must first ask, what is the size?"
"A neighborhood," the woman said quickly.
"How many blocks?"
"Twelve square blocks," the man answered, even faster.
Demolisher leaned back. "This area…why not get a construction crew to take care of it. My fee, plus expenses, is marginally more expensive than what it would take them to do the same thing."
"We considered that, but we need that area completely destroyed. And you are the only one who has the ability to do it in one night."
"One night?" Demolisher asked his hidden eyebrow quirking up, "That's even more expensive."
"We understand. We, the village," Demolisher took note of the quick change in the woman's choice of words, "need that place gone."
He crossed his arm and his leg. "Alright. Fifteen million ryou."
Homura sputtered. "How can you justify that?"
"Well other than that area of your village is rumored to have demonic chakra still in it. And the strange disappearances all over the village. Plus that story about a certain criminal who massacred his entire family…bad time to be in Konoha. Especially for guys like me who just destroy stuff for a living."
Kotaru and Homura stiffened as he recounted each failing in them to monitor their village's own news channels. How could a mere…mercenary know such things? Deciding to ignore it, in favor of getting what they really wanted, they nodded.
"Fifteen million…yes."
"Good. Now are there any people in this area?"
"All have been cleared out. Just do your job."
Demolisher laughed, "Don't get testy just because your village is going to shit!"
"Watch your mouth you merc piece of-" the ANBU to Kotaru's left had made the move to attack but suddenly his mask shattered. He froze and shook.
Demolisher lowered his outstretched hand and put it back into his cloak. "Don't. I'm allowed to say what I want. Now I'll do the job. But know this," he stood and righted his cloak, "If the money is not delivered in the next five days after completion of the mission the Ura-Ningen Association will make you pay. In one form or another." With that he made his exit. As he opened the door he turned his head just enough so the light reflected his eyes, "And if any of your damn ninja decide to try and copy my techniques you'll find yourself in need of new ninja."
And he left.
Homura clenched his fists. "How can we just sit here and let that…"
"Enough. The consequences were agreed upon. And we must do this. For the village. And the legacy of the fourth Hokage!"
Xxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxX
Demolisher grunted as he saw the warning tape. "Well at least I know this place is deserted. The last thing I need is someone to die. Mugenya will kill me if I have to make a claim on my casualty insurance again!" He whined and rubbed the back of his head. "Time to get to work."
He entered the area and put his hand against the nearest building.
KIGOU(Mark)
A seal in the shape of the kanji symbol Zou, or cross, appeared on the stone. He crossed the street and did the same thing to that building. He continued like that for an hour, marking each of the outer perimeter buildings. Once he had returned to the place he began he entered the area.
TOBI KIGOU (Flying Mark)
From his hands discs in the shape of the symbol flew out and attached to each building he passed. Some even shifted through already marked buildings to land on ones that weren't. He made sure to mark each and every building he went by, as well as all lamp posts and fire hydrants. When he had made it to the center of the neighborhood he stretched and looked at the sky.
"Barely nine. Good time. I've gotten much better at the flying version. Better than marking each one piece by piece." He looked at the center of the area. A lone, badly run down building that stood over five stories tall. There were recent and, in places, badly rewritten graffiti marks.
DIE!
Demon!
Piece of hell bullshit!
Wriggle my canary poindexter!
Demolisher gaped at that last one. "This village is fuckin' weird…" he walked into the building and found an old and very unstable looking elevator. Part of him wanted to take it, and another part wanted to not break his legs. He sighed heavily and went to the stairs. "Sometimes I wish I was more adventurous…" he said softly.
Little did he know, such wishes almost always come true.
At the pinnacle of the rotten piece of concrete and morter he stood. He could see the entire village of Konohagakure from this vantage point, and it set off a small hint of regret in him. At one time his abilities, as powerful and dangerous as they were, could have been used for something much greater. But in these times of unrest following the war of Ninja he had no choice but to be what he was, a mercenary. Lower than a ninja and most notably less skilled.
Well…in some cases less skilled.
He raised his right and left hands into the air. A dark, almost black, energy encased his entire body. He took several deep, rumbling breaths. Each one seeming to take in more and more air. "Time to live up to my name…"
He slammed his hands down onto the roof and roared.
HAKAISURU (Demolish)
He waited on his knees for a few scant seconds. Then he stood. Almost at once a crack appeared in the stone. He hurriedly dashed to the edge and leapt off of the building and landed hard on the ground. His body shook terribly after the fall, but he barely had time to contemplate it as he made to take off back to the more lively part of town.
As he was about to move he heard a scream. His body froze. He whirled and saw it, a shock of blonde hair, a pair of deep blue eyes. "HELP ME! IT'S BREAKING! EVERYTHING'S BREAKING!"
SHIT! Demolisher ran back to the entrance just as an explosion rocked the building next to him. "What the hell?!" he nose picked up a subtle and metallic scent on the wind. Gasoline?! Those bastards! They planned this! Are they after me?!...No they could kill me anytime could it be someone living-
He stood still. His eyes rose up to the boy and a dark fear filled his heart. "The child. They wanted to use me. To kill a child?!"
Rage filled him. He punched the wall in front of him and a hole big enough for him was blown in. "I'm coming! Get out as fast as you can!"
"OKAY!" the child answered.
Xxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxX
The child pushed his meager bed out of the way and then opened his door, it buckled under the weight of the crumbling walls and left him with barely four feet to crawl through. He tried to get to the front door, but it had already been bent. Fear crept into his belly, and his ears were assaulted by not
only a second powerful explosion, but also the sound of hundreds of fallen stones and rubble. Looking around he saw one of the weapons he had 'borrowed' from the Hokage's office and picked it up.
It was heavy and hard to swing, but it only took two or three swings to demolish the door.
He threw himself out into the hall way and went as fast as he could. His small feet and short legs could only propel him so far. When he found the stairs he was able to get down the well just before the first of the five floors collapsed and crushed what was once his home.
"I'M COMING KID!" he heard from down below.
"Maybe a floor or two!" the child cried, almost excitedly, before moving again. Stones and rocks pummeled his head and shoulders, but none of the bigger ones had hit him yet.
Yet.
Below him Demolisher faced an impasse, specifically a wall, or two, of an impasse. He roared and punched the mass. It cracked. "Damn I used too much!...FINE!" he removed his cloak and wrapped it around his right arm. "DIE WALL!" he punched it again, this time shattering it completely.
The shaking of the building and the cracks in all the walls stilled for but a moment, before coming back nearly twice as strong as before. "Dammit! That was an unlucky support wall! God this sucks!" He hurried on, "Kami-sama I swear if I live through this I'll pay off all my debts, stop calling Mugenya's wife fat, stop labeling whorehouses as 'charity' on my taxes and I'll feed a kitty every day!"
His whining was heard by the kid who called to him. He looked around and found that the stair well had been, for lack of a better word, bent by the last shock.
"PLEASE! I'M BACK HERE!" he screamed.
"Where?!"
"BY THE FIRE!"
"…Fire?" a third and fourth explosion caused him to lose balance. "I'm getting sick of this happening!" Demolisher roared. Fire. Explosions. Too many coincidences. This kid is wanted dead in a village full of assassins! I'll have more time to appreciate the irony if we live!
"Alright kid I'm coming stay put!"
"THE FIRE'S GETTING BIGGER!"
He listened to the kid's last call and found the barrier between them. "Kid you there?"
"YEAH!"
"MOVE AWAY FROM THE WALL!" he reared back his arm and charged more of the black energy into his arm. "Find something to hide behind!"
"I'M HIDDEN!"
Kid's sharp. Even when he's screaming his head off he keeps his cool. Wonder why they want him dead…oh well..!
HAKISURU (Cancel)
He struck the wall, but instead of it being destroyed or broken instead it seemed to become the same black energy that he had summoned. "I made a door! It's the black stuff move through!"
The small scared voice of the kid reached his ears, barely, "Is…is it safe?"
"Yes, now hurry!"
"But it's dark…"
"It's like a…" God what could make this kid calm down…uh…"It's like a ninja technique! Come on!" he roared.
"A ninjutsu?"
"YEAH! FIRE! RUN!" he bellowed. He was thankful that the kid's footsteps finally echoed through the cloak/portal and after a moment one spiky haired, blonde, blue eyed kid flashed into being next to him. He ripped his arm free and furled the cloak around his shoulders. "Come on kid we gotta run!"
"I…can barely breathe!" he gasped as he sat on his hands and knees.
"Sorry the portal is a bit oppressive," In fact I'm surprised you even made it through on your first try. Nice going kid. "No choice then." He bent down and picked the kid up ran as fast as he could. "WHY DO I ALWAYS END UP RUNNING AWAY FROM FIRE?!" he screamed as he skidded to a halt just outside of the neighborhood whose destruction was well underway. "This is insane…all this crap for one kid," he gulped setting the blonde down. He fell on his butt and wiped his brow. "What the hell did you do kid? Kid?" he looked over and saw the kid was on his back, spread eagled staring at the sky. "From the look on your face…it seems you were expecting this."
He was silent for a moment. Demolisher wondered where all the people were in that same moment. Surely five, no seven, huge explosions like that would attract someone.
"Everyday…" he heard. He turned his head and looked at the kid. "Every day they beat me up, break my stuff and do shit to my house." Demolisher was silent. "The moms of the other kids tell them to leave me alone and never go near me," his breath hitched, "the ninja and military police never help me when I ask, and no one even says 'hello' anymore."
Demolisher stood up and brushed the dirt from his rear. "So…they demolished it…"
"What?" the kid asked.
"Your life. Your pride. Your very humanity. This is why I hate ninjas."
The kid's brow furrowed and he sat up. "You're not a ninja?"
Demolisher looked at him and removed his hood. Naruto blinked as he saw an older man with sharp, almost dangerous eyes, and no forehead protector. "I'm an Ura-Ninja. A mercenary. I do what ninja don't for people who can't afford them or who don't want to choose between two big ninja powers and risk being attacked by either."
He crouched down and held out his hand.
"And I want you to come with me."
The blond gaped at him. "What?"
"No offense kid but what do you have left? You want to stay in a place that just hired a guy to make the most flagrant and in very many ways arrogant murders I've ever seen."
The kid lowered his head and let his hands fall to the ground.
"Let me explain kid. I'm asking you to be my apprentice. Today is just one of many mistakes I narrowly avoided. If you had died it would have been not only a real shame, you seem nice, but a terrible burden of paper work and fees for me. It would be part of a life I'm almost ready to leave behind. However, I have my pride in what I've learned and mastered in my life being what I am and of all the people who have come to me and I've searched out, you are the first to do pique my interest."
"What?" Naruto asked looking at him.
"When you walked through that portal I made you should have, by all rights, passed out or died. The usually I can make an easily passable portal, but I was low on my energy and was rushing so it was haphazard and dangerous to ask you to do it. But you did, and you were still able to talk afterwards. That's pretty amazing kid." The boy looked at him. "I want to teach you how to do what I did today. Why I do it. And…" he stood, his hand still outstretched, "how to become stronger and more well known than any ninja who was ever born."
The child's head shot up to look him in the eye.
"Ninja are powerful, but they are still assassins and arrogant pieces of shit. If you come with me, and I'm not lying, your life will be shit. On a good day you'll stagger home with a minor wound, a big payday and either get some cheap food or watered down liquor. On a bad day you'll limp from village to village until you either pass out from blood loss or are knocked out to be robbed. You'll lose some of your rep and lose both jobs and professional courtesy.
"When you work with another merc you aren't doing it for your village you're doing it for money, and so are they. They'll keep you alive only as long as you are a help on the job, mess up or drag
them down and they'll put a knife between your ribs. Off the job they'll make fun of you, knock you down and rag on your skills, but if you did the job the words they say are meaningless.
"No ninja can afford to have too much known about him, but as a merc you can scream and shout and proclaim how badass you are all you want, and as long as you can back it up with skill and a record, no one will do anything to challenge you on it. Ninja will look at you like you're shit on their sandal or a bomb waiting to go off.
"Being a merc, and even more so a merc's apprentice, is the worst, most degrading, grueling, and terribly dangerous job there is. When you die you'll nothing behind because you'll be buried in debt. You'll have no family because no woman wants you, and any kid you may have won't want a mercenary father.
"But, despite all of this, you'll be free to do what you want. To say what you want. And, if the job turns to shit, you can always run away. Tell me any ninja who has that kind of freedom."
The boy stood, slowly, as Demolisher assumed he had some injuries or had inhaled some smoke. "So…I'll have a harder life?"
"Yeah."
"I'll have to work hard to just survive day to day?"
"Yeah."
He clenched his fists, Demolisher saw a tear slide down his face, reflecting fire as it trailed, "Will you help me to be strong?"
Demolisher wiggled his hand a little. "Yeah. But only if you think you can handle it."
The two piercing blue eyes glared into the sharp ones, "I can handle it!" he roared.
Demolisher smiled. "Good thing to know kid. Now come on if you're coming, I'd hate to be around here when they realize you're alive," he snorted.
The boy took his hand and the two dashed through the village. The ninja ignored them as they made their toward the fire. Among those who dashed on were a certain silver haired ninja and a certain scar marked teacher.
The world of Konohagakure no Sato was in flames, a great bonfire that was seen by some to be a cleansing, and others a hellish rite of punishment.
But to one man and his nameless charge, those bursting flames were their cover to escape, and enter a new, and certainly brighter, world.
"So what's your name kid?" Demolisher asked as he dashed toward a secret entrance and exit Mugenya had told him about before his departure.
"Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto."
"Maelstrom eh? Nice name for the kid who will inherit the title of Demolisher. I hope you like blowing things up kid, the next thirty years of your life will be devoted to it."
"As long as there's ramen I'll up anything!"
Demolisher grinned, "Kid you and me are gonna get along just fine!"
A/N: If you have any questions just ask in a review, but only about this fic thanks!