A Messenger's Life
A lighting fast sword movement. Slicing of flesh. Blood pours out onto the cold hard ground. The moon sat high in the sky, surrounded by the stars. A shadow stood above the man.
"Please, let me live! I-I didn't do anything wrong! I sw-wear!" the man struggled to say, his blood pouring out of his throat. "I-I don't wanna die!" he screamed out as his hand clutched at him, trying to slow the bleeding.
The shadow simply glared with hate filled vision before bringing his sword up, and then down again, ending the man's life.
"Then you should have never crossed me, The Bloodied Messenger does not forgive." The shadow stood there, before disappearing into the shadows.
It was a quiet day in Konoha, the sun was out, people were dealing with their day to day lives, and everything for the most part was fine. Naruto sat up in a tree near the outskirts of the village with his eyes closed. He was wearing his typical orange clothing and his new headband was firmly on his head. He had just become a genin, and had passed Kakashi's bell test with ease. He was quite aware from the start of the test that it was nothing more then a test to see if Team 7 could work together, but he acted like he always would. The hyperactive knuckle-head ninja was a good cover for the time being, and in a way, it was kind of... relaxing.
Irritatingly though, now that he was a genin, it meant doing the insulting D-rank missions. Such missions were below him, as were his two other squad members. Sakura was nothing but an empty headed, idiot, fan girl, while Sasuke was little more than a self absorbed ass who thought the world revolved around his quest to kill Itachi. Kakashi was a decent ninja and Naruto respected his skill, but he had come to rely on his Sharingan whenever things got tough. This reliance was slowly killing his ability to adapt to new situations and change strategies. He wasn't too bad but the other two though were nothing but pests to the likes of him but he was forced to deal with them anyway. Luckily, the Shadow Clone Jutsu (Kage Bunshin no Jutsu) allowed him to chill out for today while the clone dealt with his squad as well as the farm work they had gotten assigned to for today. Naruto however was lost in thought. Ever since that day...
Suddenly, a trio of young teenagers approached. It was Team 8 who seemed to be out for a walk. Naruto ignored them, he had nothing to say to them, especially since Kiba pissed him off with his self centered attitude, one similar to Sasuke.
"Hey loser, aren't you meant to be out on a mission?" Kiba asked, a smile on his face.
Naruto just ignored him, he was used to his pathetic attempts to goad him into fighting back.
"Awwww poor little baby, sulking like a little baby! Did you get kicked out of Team 7 already? That was fast!"
"Naruto, please don't let Kiba bother you on a sunny day like this," Hinata said with her quiet little voice.
Naruto slowly opened an eye upon hearing this and looked at her intently.
"Don't stay in the sun too long Naruto, we wouldn't want you to get a bad skin tan from it," Shino said as calmly as ever.
Naruto's eye moved to Shino for a second, and then he closed his eye again.
"Naruto is just no fun today, come on guys, lets go," Kiba said, and then chuckled. "Later loser!"
Naruto just ignored it as they walked off. "So... tonight I'm heading out again," Naruto thought, and decided that it was probably best to go get some food now and then go have a nap, for the coming night would probably take away any time he had to sleep.
Heading off towards Ichiraku's Ramen Shop, he saw Kiba looking back at him with a sneer. But Naruto ignored it as he headed to the shop.
Night had fallen upon Konoha as a figure raced stealthily through the city to an old storehouse near the edge of the village.
The figure was not a typical looking person for Konoha. The figure wore loose black pants and a loose black shirt. Bits of dark red arced all over the clothing in strange patterns while the figure wore a blood red mask with two big black eyes on it where the eye slits were. Gloves were warn, both a dark red with silver spikes where the knuckles lay and holes for the fingers and on the back of the hand. Black and red sandals were worn as well.
On the figure's back rested three swords. The one in the middle was an elongated black blade with weird spiral engravings in the blade with a hilt that seemed to have one end sticking up along side the blade while the other end went down along with the grip. Both seemed to have tri-pronged points and some weird engravings on them. The grip seemed to have something like bandages wrapped around it as the end of it lazily flew around in the breeze. The left sword looked something like a big butchers knife. The blade itself was dark blue with a hint of red curving through the blade that connected to black hilt. The final blade on the right seemed around about the same size as the butchers knife but instead was much like a dagger. It was completely black save for dark blue wrapped around the strange blade. It had what appeared to be a number of wires coming from the top of the hilt that sat very close to the blade itself and joined at the very end of the blade at the point.
Heading inside the storehouse, he stood in a little depression in the floor and began to channel chakra downwards. As the chakra seeped through the floor, the hidden reverse summoning seal activated and he appeared in a dark hall. The walls were made of rock with only a few torches around on them. Various people sat around tables that were barely visible in the mostly dark hall, but it didn't bother him even slightly. He was used to it, this place was almost a second home. He began walking towards the door labeled "SA-4". Channeling his chakra into it, another hidden seal unlocked the door as he stepped inside. When the door closed, a genjutsu surrounded the room that prevented anybody from listening or seeing what was going on. As he stood there, a man was sitting in a chair at the far end of the room. He approached slowly as the man turned around and looked at him intently.
"Well, if it isn't the Bloodied Messenger, you certainly took your time getting here," the man said calmly.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," the figure dubbed 'Bloodied Messenger' answered, sounding almost bored.
"You certainly look more intimating in person. Here you are all covered in black and red with hardly any skin showing, hell if I didn't know better I'd think you were from hell itself!" the man said, chuckling at the sight knowing that this figure was here for only one reason. Bloodied Messenger didn't even so much as move, as he waited for the man to get to the point.
"Straight to business eh? I can work with that." The man moved to pull out something from his coat and pulled out a photo of a man.
"This man is the head of the local Hyiigar clan, the clan of ninja that could no longer stand being a branch family to the Hyuuga and secretly developed a way to counter the unofficially named 'Caged Bird Seal' from being put on any member over the age of three. Although it's mostly due to a bizarre DNA mutation from the founders of the clan that is passed on. Unfortunately although a bonus for them, they lose Byakugan." The man sighed, and took a few breaths before continuing.
"The clan has recently become a little too bothersome for the majority of the village as they are trying to gain more power and are stepping on a lot of toes while doing so. They are restricting business and pushing people around far too much. Now it's time they were taught a lesson, and the head of the beast cut off the pathetic spin off clan. This is your target, Mozok Hyiigar. Make it look natural, but leave a calling card to the Hyiigar. After he dies, place a Caged Bird Seal on his head. Although it is meant to seal away Byakugan on someone when they die, you can still put the seal on a corpse, and I know you are aware of how to perform the seal. If you see any guards or anyone else of some importance in the clan, feel free to take them out as well but make sure to dispose of them."
Bloodied Messenger took a good look at the picture and took in all the information, and then spoke in a rather unemotional voice. "130,000". The man paled a little, this was more then he expected.
"How about 115,000?" If he could bring the price down even a bit, it would be worth it.
"Push me if you wish, but this is your first and final warning, if you try and bargain with me anymore, my price will go up." The man sat there for a few seconds, debating his options. Finally, he sighed in defeat, this was too important to mess around with.
"Alright, agreed," he spoke.
"The deed will be completed before sunrise," replied Bloodied Messenger before leaving the room.
Sighing after he left, Bloodied Messenger walked back to the depression in the floor where he first appeared and once again sent chakra into the ground below him. Tonight was going to be a boring night, but at least it wasn't going to take long.
As the figure approached the compound, a few guards stood outside the entrance. Although they were less than needed now since they had lost the Byakugan, the foolish leaders still felt like they needed themselves watched. "Self important filth," thought Bloodied Messenger as he threw some senbon from up his sleeves at them, all hitting each of the guard's hearts. As they fell to the ground, now no longer moving, he walked up to them. "Fire Style: Running Fire (Katon: Hibashiri)." he spoke quietly as a small fire formed in front of him before it raced to the bodies, consuming the remains and leaving nothing left.
Jumping over the wall and heading towards Mozok's main quarters, he began to pull out another senbon, just in case anybody else saw him. Thankfully nobody was seen and Bloodied Messenger continued to Mozok's quarters. Upon reaching the doors, he slowly parted them and took a peak inside. He was sleeping soundly. "This really is too easy," he thought as he approached him... only to have him jump out of bed and take a stance rather similar to Gentle Fist. Although they could no longer use Byakugan, the Hyiigar had learned to use Gentle Fist to fill their target with chakra that disrupted bits of the body temporarily by attacking the muscles and bones themselves. Although they couldn't seal chakra points since they couldn't see them anymore, their Gentle Fist style was still dangerous to enemies.
As Mozok charged, a senbon went flying towards his throat. Mozok dodged it and then hit the intruder, or so he thought. As the figure disappeared into smoke, Mozok felt a senbon enter his heart from behind. "You really are nothing but a useless clan if you can't even see through such a simple move," the intruder said coldly.
"The... Hyiigar... we'll get the... place... we deserve!" Mozok struggled to say before his body went limp.
Healing the wound he had left as so nobody would be able to tell how he died, Bloodied Messenger laid him back onto his bed and performed the Caged Bird seal. Mozok's head began to glow an intense green and a shape took form on the forehead. After it was completed, he left the same way he had came, through the front door as he began heading back to his employer.
The man paid him and Bloodied Messenger doubled checked it to make sure it was all real. After confirming it was, he turned to leave when the man spoke.
"That was a marvelous job my dear Bloodied Messenger, but I have a question. Why are you called that?"
The figure paused for a second, and stood still before answering.
"I'm the messenger for the devil himself. I end lives and I am blood soaked. Those that cross me die, the innocent who know me live and fear me while the guilty who see my shadow cower and die." He turned ever so slightly back to the man. "Haven't you heard? I've got the devil within me and I'm his Bloodied Messenger."
A/N: Yep. My Naru fanfic I've been touching off and on. Here is the first chapter! I was originally going to leave this and not upload it till I had a fair few chapters, and probably worked on it a bit more (not 100% happy with the Naruto bit but anyway), but I decided I'd just upload it and see what everyone's reactions are instead. I'm really curious if people will like this, so people, leave reviews and tell me!...please if you don't mind anyway = ). If people want more of this, I'll aim to cater, if not, then it won't get a whole lot of attention and I'll focus on other things. Regardless, updating will probably be sporatic anyway along with everything else I'm attached to at the moment. I've got school and other real life stuff taking A LOT of my attention currently, but I'll try and update if I can help it. Also, with jutsu, as you can see I'm using the dub version for jutsu but sticking the sub version after it in brackets for those who prefer it. The reason for this is because chances are I'll create my own jutsu later on, and it's going to be easier having the dub version as the main for me. With that said, any jutsu that the dub hasn't covered yet (such as the jutsu used in this chapter), I will use for the most part the sub translation and just make the changes needed to it such as changing Fuuton to Wind Style. Obviously I wouldn't change Rasen-Shuriken to Spiraling Shuriken though but you get the idea. If you got complaints with that, then sorry, all I can say is deal with it unless you've got a good alternative. Oh and I spose I better do the "right" thing and stick a disclaimer in. I don't own Naruto, yeah, I'd love to but you know, so would a lot of other people.