A/N
All right, my darlings, so this is another story that I decided to write. This one is going to be somewhat… darker, so if you don't like that kind of thing then check out my humour/romance story "The Naruto Truth or Dare". Anyway sit back, relax, grab a coke, and enjoy!
Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of that fine upstanding gentleman Masashi Kishimoto and TV Tokyo; I claim no right to the following characters.
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It was just a phone-call, nothing more. Just an innocent little phone-call that started the whole thing. It was scary how something so small could be so nightmarish.
*Ring ring*
*Ring ring*
SMASH!
There is no sound quite so terrible as the shrill peep of an alarm in the morning. Naruto Uzumaki was well acquainted with this fact, and was in no mood to hear that noise this morning.
*Ring ring*
The blonde boy dislodged his fist from the remains of what used to be an innocent alarm clock and blearily opened his eyes, searching for the true culprit of the noise. His gaze alighted upon a small vibrating object resting on his bedside table. Picking it up in the gloom of before dawn he found it to be a cell phone. Checking its screen he noticed the time to be 3:14 AM.
Wait a minute, since when did he own a cell phone?
Cautiously he pressed the 'call' button and put the phone to his ear in the same way that one might lift a tarantula out of its burrow.
"Hello?" he began.
Silence. Then:
"Hello Naruto, how are you?"
The Ninja in question jumped at the alien voice.
"Hey, Sai, if this is you playing another one of your stupid jokes then…"
"It's not Sai."
The voice was high and raspy, like someone who had just recovered from a severely sore throat and was still coughing up phlegm.
"Then who is it?"
"It doesn't matter."
"Look, pal, if you just called up to chat then I'm going back to bed. I'm tired and I want to get some sleep before I start training."
"I wouldn't hang up if I were you."
Naruto paused. "Why not?"
"There are currently several canisters of a deadly gas in the walls of your room known as potassium cyanide. They are connected to a remotely activated switch that is controlled by radio waves. When you pressed the call button, the switch was armed. If either of us hangs up, it will blow and you will be dead in approximately ten seconds. It's not a pleasant way to die. You more or less suffocate from the inside out. Now, of course, I don't like fancy traps like this, but I couldn't think of anything else that would work as well. Do you still not feel like talking?"
Naruto blanched. What was going on? This was insane!
"What is it you want?"
There was a sound like a sort of hacking laughter on the other end.
"Want? I don't want anything! However, you might be interested to know that currently there are similar traps in the houses of eleven friends of yours."
"Don't you dare hurt any of my friends!" Naruto snarled into the tiny receiver.
"Too late."
And with that, the line went dead. The ninja sat there in horrified silence, staring at the phone. It was at that moment that he heard the pneumatic hiss of gas being released.
Without even thinking he leapt through the window, smashing the glass completely and hurtling to the hard, unforgiving street below.
He managed to roll as he landed so as to avoid most of the impact, though that's not to say it didn't hurt.
Without pausing he leapt up to a rooftop and began racing through the night.
'Okay,' he thought, 'Time to think. Who's house is closest?'
Sai's was nearest to his own house; they both lived in the same crummy district of the city. Just as he was thinking this, he crashed into another figure heading in the opposite direction.
"Hey, watch it… wait, Kankurou?" Naruto stammered, looking up into the purple painted face. Kankurou, Gaara, and Temari were all visiting Konoha in order to view the Chuunin exams, which explained Naruto's seemingly random encounter.
"Naruto, did you get the phone call too?" asked the puppeteer, dropping a huge scroll onto the rooftop.
"Yeah, but we can't discuss it now. We have to get to the others' houses!"
Kankurou raised his hands in front of him. "Okay, calm down. Look, I have an idea."
Pulling out three more scrolls he spread them all out. Making a few hand-signs and laying his palms on each of the scrolls in turn, four wooden mannequins appeared.
"Crow, Black Ant, Salamander, and this guy." Kankurou ended anticlimactically, motioning toward a red-haired puppet, "I haven't come up with a name for him yet. I mean, his old name was Sasori, so I thought maybe scorpion but…"
"There's no time for explanations! Just do whatever you're thinking and I'll go get Sai and the rest of them!"
"Okay, just get in Black Ant."
"What?"
"Get in Black Ant."
"What?"
Kankurou sighed. "If I seal you inside of his stomach cavity then you'll be able to travel faster and straighter than you would on foot. When you get to someone's house just grab them from one of the holes in his sides here, okay?"
"Ok, let's go," Naruto climbed into the bloodstained interior of the wooden puppet, gagging at the stench of old flesh.
"K-Kankurou, how do you stand this?" he retched.
"Don't worry, it's not so bad once you get used to it."
Naruto then felt the mannequin leave the ground, soaring with a clacking and rattling sound through the air.