A Mission of Shinobi and Demons
Ch. 1 "Hunted but Free, I will Protect You!"
It was a calm day in the Land of Fire. A team of ninja from the Village Hidden in the Leaves were heading back home from a mission. There were five walking the road together. One was lengthy with a spiked, short ponytail and wearing a green Chūnin vest. Another was slightly chunky wearing a scarf and a green coat. One had long hair, a beige shirt and nearly white eyes. Yet another wore a gray furred hoodie and had a white dog by his side. The last was blonde with an orange outfit and what seemed to be whiskers on his cheeks. It was Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi, Neji Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka and Akamaru, and, of course, Naruto Uzumaki. The five and the dog headed through the forest on their way back toward the village.
"*Sigh* I'm beat." Shikamaru sighed, "Thank god that mission is over. I just want to get home and stare at the clouds."
"Ah, come on, Shikamaru," Naruto piped in, "That last mission was too easy! I can't wait for the next one!"
"Speak for yourself." Choji groaned. "I'm starving." Kiba just rolled his eyes as Akamaru ran along ahead chasing the leaves as they fell from the trees to the ground below.
XxXxX
Meanwhile further into the forest…
"*Huff pant* Keep moving, kids!"
"I don't think you should keep pushing yourself with that wound, Miss. You've lost a lot of blood already."
"He's right Miss. We've left the Bad Guys' scent far behind now. We should stop and let you rest."
"*Sigh* Hate to admit it, but they're right. I'm at my limit… Even still, I mustn't let my guard down…even for a moment. I have to protect these kids…if it kills me!"
XxXxX
The Leaf Ninja team were making good time. They would be at the village within an hour or so. Suddenly Akamaru perked his head up, sniffing the breeze. Catching the scent he alerted his master with a bark. "Huh, what is it, boy?" "Arf Arf!" Kiba sniffed the air and turned his head towards the forest.
Shikamaru took notice of his comrade. "What's up with him, Kiba?"
"He's picked up the scent of blood." He replied not taking his eyes of the direction of the smell, "Judging by the amount, I'd say someone's in trouble."
The group stopped and looked at Shikamaru awaiting their Chūnin leader's orders. "As much as I find it such a drag, if someone's in trouble we might as well check it out." He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Hopefully we won't have to get involved." As he turned to Neji, the two nodded in unison and Neji activated his Byakugan.
Seeing through his bloodline, the Hyuga extended his vision through the forest. "Yes, there's a girl not far from here. She looks injured."
"Anyone else in the area?"
He paused before continuing. "There's five…no, six young children with her."
Shikamaru closed his eyes as he thought, "Just great. If this girl really is wounded, those kids are in real trouble if she can't protect them. Ugh, this is such a drag." He turned to the whole team, "Alright, we'll check it out and see if they need help. But watch yourselves; we don't know if they're being followed." The group took off into the forest, Neji leading with his eyesight and Kiba confirming it with his sense of smell.
After a short run, they found themselves in a grove of trees outside of a small cave. The Leaf ninja hid at the base of the trees and surveyed the area. At the entrance to the cave sat a young girl about Shikamaru's age. She had shoulder length, white hair that stuck out wildly at the sides (kinda like Tsume Inuzuka but tamer) and wore a ninja headband the same way as Sakura does, though at this angle the village symbol could not be seen. She wore blue jeans that showed her ankles, a white, furry belt tied at the hip and a purple hoodie with red, swirl-like flames on the sleeves and hood, trimmed with light brown fur. Around her neck, just barely visible, was a black studded collar. Her eyes were closed as if she was resting and from inside the cave the quiet conversations of children could be heard. Shikamaru gazed at their surroundings, analyzing the situation in his head. Suddenly, he heard the unmistakable sound of kunai flying through the leaves. "Behind us! Move!" he warned his teammates as the troop evaded the said weapons. Shikamaru looked back at the cave just in time to see the girl vanish in a puff of smoke. "Damnit, a clone. I should have guessed there'd be some sort of trap." The kunoichi appeared swiftly out of the surrounding brush and lunged straight at Kiba who was the closest. Chakra extending from above her fingers to create Wolverine-like claws, she swiped at him, growling in an almost animal like fashion. Kiba and his canine partner dodged the attack and her 'claws' struck the ground, crushing the earth with great force. She righted herself while keeping her battle stance, determination in her amber eyes, wincing only slightly at the wound in her left side.
Kiba eyes never left his attacker. "Wow, she's beautiful…wait! What the HELL am I thinking? She just tried to kill me! …And yet…"
The group readied themselves for a fight as Shikamaru thought about the team's next move, when suddenly, "Miss Inuchusei!" From behind the trees near the kunoichi appeared a little girl. She looked to be about six years old with mid length black hair and dark red eyes filled with fear. Her apparel consisted of a dusty blue long-sleeved shirt and a dark gray skirt with a cute red skull in the bottom corner. The lower half of her face was covered by a knitted, magenta and black striped scarf that hung neatly down to her waist.
The kunoichi snapped at the child without taking her eyes off the Leaf ninja. "Aggi, I told you to wait in the cave with the others!"
"Well…umm…" From behind the girl entered two more kids, another girl and a boy, roughly the same age as the first.
The female ninja hung her head slightly in annoyance, "Really?! Are you trying to get yourselves killed?", the symbol on her headband revealing itself as a Chaosphere. "Does time in captivity mean anything to these kids? At least they had enough sense to keep the baby safe!"
"We were worried about you." The one named Aggi said, fiddling with the end of her scarf.
"Just keep out of the way!" she barked, cringing from her wound once again.
Shikamaru spoke up. "If you think we're here to harm these kids, you're very mistaken."
"Yeah," Naruto chimed in, "We're here cuz Kiba and Akamaru smelled blood and we wanted to help."
The boy took a step forward. He was slightly taller than Aggi, with bright yellow eyes and a canine tooth sticking out of the right side of his mouth. He had short, scruffy, almost light creamy yellow hair with the sides shaved and dyed brown. He wore a tan short-sleeve shirt with the kanji for music on the front, checkerboard wristbands, dark green pants and a ruby earring in his left ear. He spoke in a calm and charismatic voice, "Ms. Kensha, I get that your protecting us, but I have a feeling we should listen to them. The organization that's after us didn't consist of Leaf ninja, so there's no reason for them to want to hurt us. Besides, you're injured and fighting will only make it worse. If they say they want to help… I strongly think we should hear them out."
The kunoichi thought for a minute before calming down. "*Sigh* I hate it when you're right, Konton." She turned to the Leaf ninja. "My name is Kensha Inuchusei, a ninja of the Village Hidden amongst the Demons…and yes, we could use your help."
AN: Finally! This took me months to write thanks to writer's block plus needing ear surgery. Damn, Shikamaru is hard to write for, but I have to thank SuperfluousKitty for giving me such good advice when it comes to dialogue writing. BTW defiantly check out her fic, A Real Inuzuka. I've read it 3 times, it's so good! Anyway, before I go and start ch. 2, here's a bit of trivia:
The main OCs name actually means Kensha (Doghouse) Inuchusei (Dog Loyalty).
The Chaosphere symbol, it's an 8 sided arrow that is the universal symbol for chaos.
Please don't look too into Aggi's name. It's nothing in Japanese; I just wanted a name close to Agatha since she's based off one of my older OCs.
Anyway, On to the next chapter! Hopefully it won't take as long as this one did! X3