Edited: Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Of Monsters and Shinobi
Chapter 1: The Wave
"Come on you old jerk! You're not gonna win!"
A certain blond knuckle-head had just about lost any patience he had for the Hyuga elder he couldn't remember the name of. The 'old jerk's face twisted in rage, his hands shaking from holding each-other in the activating sign for the Caged-Bird-Seal, but he still didn't channel chakra. For despite his ardent defiance of the ANBU, even a fool would balk at goading the two most powerful ninja in history. Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha had come to assist the new head of the Hyuga clan, Hinata Hyuga, in removing the Caged-Bird-Seal from the Branch-clan members.
It would have gone smoothly, as while the Head-clan was loath to give up their caste-system, they bent to the will of the united front the other Clans had presented, along with support from the Legendary Team Seven. And it had been going smoothly until one of the elders took a young civilian Branch-clan member hostage.
"The idiot's right you know." The Uchiha drawled, "Your Clan's already in enough hot water as is."
Hinata glared at the elder, "Are you quite done dishonoring our Clan, yet?" she asked coolly.
The man was open and closing his mouth, vitriol on his tongue held in place by a thread of self-preservation. Finally he seemed to gather himself-
*BWWWOOONNNGGG*
-when a sound unlike any-other rang-out.
In an instant, near everyone in sight flinched or doubled over, disoriented and feeling as if their skin was a size to small. Naruto and Sasuke clutched their heads as their senses were overwhelmed with feelings they couldn't identify, the Nine-tails roaring something about intrusions from within his seal. Several ANBU in hiding fell from the trees and walls they were concealed on.
'My chakra-it's going haywire!' Naruto yelled in his head, rousing the Fox from his rage, he growled, "I'll sort it out, but be careful, there's something new in here!"
Naruto felt his chakra wretch then snap back in place, that done he returned his attention outward, saw the elder was still dizzy, and wasted no time. He called up his Sage Mode and charged, knocked the man out, and carried the civilian back out of his reach.
Hinata walked, slowly as not to fall, over to him as he set the boy down, "Naruto, what's going on?!" He shook his head, "I don't know, I didn't sense anything before-"
"Naruto! Seal my eyes!" Sasuke suddenly shouted, still clutching his head.
"Wha-Sasuke what are you talking about?!"
The Uchiha growled at him, "They're evolving rapidly! It's overtaxing my chakra network!" Hinata grabbed his arm, "Naruto-kun, do it! Then I'll get him to the hospital." The blond grimaced, but started rifling through his pouches for his sealing supplies.
He worked quickly, constructing a seal to restrict the flow of energy to Sasuke's eyes on a piece of rice-paper, and applying it to the side of his head. As he was putting his brushes away, an ANBU walked up, notably walked rather than appeared,
"Uzumaki-san, you are needed at the Hokage Tower."
Naruto frowned, looking at Hinata. She nodded, "I'll take care of this." she said, he then smiled, "On my way!" With that he took off.
"Naruto!"
The blonde skidded to a halt just outside the entrance to the Tower and looked for the source of the shout, when he spotted her he broke into a wide grin.
"Karin!" That grin slid from his face when he got a better look at her, badly staggering and disheveled as she was. Of course she wasn't the only one who seemed unsure of their footing; a lot of people on the street were leaning against walls or walking with someone else's support.
No-one that he could see were injured though so he'd put it from his mind, but it seemed whatever this was, was having a more profound effect on his cousin. He of course rushed over to help her hold herself up,
"Karin, are you alright?!"
She grimaced, "Fine enough, it's fading at least, but I need to talk to the Hokage."
He smiled again, glad that his cousin was alright. "Good! I was headed to see Kakashi-sensei too."
A minute later, after being waved in by the Hokage's secretary, they stood before a haggard looking Copy-nin Kakashi, Sixth Hokage of Konoha. He held up a hand as soon as they walked in so as to allow him to finish the report he was reading. When he was done he started speaking as he put the scroll down, "I'll cut to the chase you two, why wasn't whatever this was sensed coming?" He demanded, his eyes un-narrowed but focused.
Naruto sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, "That's the thing; there was no ill-intent so it got past me, like Sakura said could happen."
Kakashi nodded and turned to the red-headed Uzumaki and quirked an eyebrow, she huffed and crossed her arms.
"As big as it was there was no build up, it came out of nowhere. And that's not all." Her cross expression became disconcerted, "It wasn't chakra."
Kakashi's head shot up at that tidbit of knowledge, "What?!" He exclaimed.
Naruto frowned and mumbled, "So that's what the Fox meant…"
"Naruto?" Kakashi asked of the blonde. Said blonde jolted, and looked back at his teacher, "Oh yeah, yeah! Kakashi-sensei, when Kurama fixed my chakra he said 'there's something else in here!'"
Karin cut in, "That sounds right," She fixed Kakashi with a sharp look, "The air is full of a bunch of new energies that I can't interpret, it's in people to. I don't know how but they're filling out what look like pathways, seems like they've always been there, just empty till now."
Kakashi 'hmmm'ed, "We'll likely need your help to look into that, but first, can you tell from what direction it came from?"
She nodded, "That's what I was coming to tell you, it came from behind the Monument."
Twenty minutes later…
With the village being on full alert you'd think it'd be hard to get an appointment with the Hokage. And for those outside of the close-knit Team-Seven that was true. But for a serious-faced Sakura, it was as simple as waiting for Kakashi's previous appointment to leave, and then walk in.
"Maaaa, Sakura, come to deliver more work for your poor overworked sensei?" The Hokage wailed childishly when he saw her expression, which soured further at his whining.
"Oh, cram it you old looking pervert."
Kakashi gasped and held his heart, "My cute little student, how could you be so mean?!"
She merely rolled her eyes at his antics then cleared her throat. "I'm here to report a rash of strange injuries the hospital has seen to recently,"
Kakashi snapped to attention and motion for her to sit down, "What kind of injuries?"
She sighed as she settled into the chair, "The wounds themselves vary, but it's the stories attached to them that caught my attention. The injured are all civilians, and they seem to have hurt themselves during The Wave, by doing things they shouldn't be able to."
"Elaborate please Sakura."
"To give some examples, someone jumping clear into their ceiling, putting their hand through a door they were trying to knock on, and one case I had to treat, where an old woman had crushed a cast-iron mug in her hand and got stuck in it. And before you ask, all their chakra networks were rigid from lack of use."
Kakashi 'hmmm'ed and held his chin, "Obviously you've looked for similarities between these people, and found…" he let the thought hang.
"Nothing, most of them live in separate districts from each-other."
The Hokage sighed, "Well that's problematic, first, have Naruto scour the village for people who might be hurt similarly and can't get to help. Keep them for observation for a week, I'll assign some genin to take care of their houses." He pause to stare out the window of his office, at the Hokage Monument, he turned back to the pinkette. "Has Sasuke recovered yet?"
Sakura nodded, continuing. "He can use his eyes again, but can't figure out how to access whatever they gained from the Wave, if they did gain anything that is."
Kakashi tapped his desk three times causing an ANBU to appear by the corner of his desk, "Inform Sasuke-kun that he's part of the investigation team, tell them that they leave in ten minutes."
Sasuke came out of a shunshin at the meeting place for the away-team three minutes later, startling Rock Lee. His surprise quickly turned to joy though at the sight of the Uchiha, as he started a speech about 'Youth' that Sasuke listened to with one ear, having learned his lesson by now to listen to loud idiots. The Uchiha quickly scanned over the squad he was being sent out with, Neji, Lee, and… Kiba. He sighed internally; the Inuzaka had been belligerent with him in the past about his desertion, although Naruto had apparently 'talked' to him. He'd still rather to not talk to the dog-nin, and from the set of the Inuzaka's shoulders he had something to say, but just as he opened his mouth Akumaru walked over to nudge at the Uchiha's hand. Sasuke sighed but began to pet the massive nin-ken, he flicked his eyes back up to Kiba, the dog-nin was tilting his head to the side with a thoughtful look on his face.
Finally he spoke, "Look Uchiha, I don't like you, but it's not my place to forgive you, I'm not the one you hurt."
He met his eyes challengingly, "Naruto has good instincts, don't you prove him wrong."
Sasuke simply bobbed his head in acknowledgement.
Neji walked over from where he'd been talking with a Jounin from another team, "If you two are done, we're ready to move out."
Their team took the closest most direct route around the mountain, being the team most likely to be able to handle things should they meet whatever caused the Wave, the other teams searching the forests in a grid with smoke signals at the ready. They moved at moderate pace, less concerned with getting there quickly then they were to not miss anything, which is why Sasuke and Neji were on point.
"Hey, hold up," Kiba signaled them to stop, he closed his eyes in concentration and Akumaru with his ears perked up.
"Voices, seven adults, and three kids. There's something weird about the grown-ups and one of the kids, like someone weaving chakra into their voice, one of them really tinny."
Sasuke frowned, "Do the children sound frightened, and have the adults noticed us?"
Kiba opened his eyes, "No to both. Oh! One of the kids has a Konoha accent, and from their footsteps, academy training." He said pointing ahead and east.
They set off as soon he got the last syllable out, with the village on alert all academy students should be at home, meaning even if the child wasn't afraid they'd likely been abducted. They moved quickly but silently through the trees, to a clearing, and what they found there caused Sasuke to wonder if it had been the best idea to head off on a mission without fully understanding the effects of the Wave on his eyes.
Because in the clearing along with two human children, he saw what looked like a fish woman, a small chubby upright walking lizard with glasses, three goat-people, what seemed to be a living calculator, and two fucking skeletons!