RedMoon

Naruto Fanfiction

By Perfect Psionic Soldier

Under The Red Moon Light

There Exists Nothing

Yet Everything

Ever Clear

Upon a Limitless Horizon

The One True Sun

May Enter

Find Eternal Peace

And Slumber

Stalk Under the Red Moon Light

Under A Limitless Sky

Where

Proudly

It Floats

On An Ocean Of Black

A

RedMoon

Where

Everything and Nothing

Exist

Under

The Gentle

Soothing Light

Of

RedMoon

Dreams Come True

Life Fades Way

Through An Ocean Of Stars

One May Smile

Under

The

RedMoon

…

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto but I do own the original creations in this fic.

-Prologue-

The Strength of One

Two figures leaped through the trees, flying through the air as they forced their bodies to move at their wills. Their bodies moving forward as fast as the wind allowed as they struggled forward.

Ragged breaths flowed with the rhythm of their movements as they concentrated on all that was around them. It was a game that boarded on insanity as the slightest mistake could and would spell their doom.

A thin low whistle in the air gave way to half a dozen shurikens as they imbedded themselves in a tree branch, were the foot of a person touched scant seconds ago. It was enough, more then enough to spur them on. They had a mission to complete.

The first in the lead was hurriedly leaping from branch to branch, focusing on simply moving forward as his left arm hung uselessly at his side, the smell of his own blood soaked his clothes, turning even the white headband into a splotchy red. His right hand was gripping his chest, over his heart as it painfully beat against his ribcage. His time was seemingly running out as he kept ahead of his teammate.

The second was watching her comrade ahead. Worry creased her bleeding brow for a few moment as she felt the full force of the predicament they were in, yet was unable to do anything but run. They had done almost all they could and still were being pursued, not that she expected anything less, but she could only hope that a break for them would come up soon.

The low whistle of shurikens once again sung its song as it studded the tree branch her left foot had just left, her angle getting grazed by a single edge of the thrown weapon. The danger was all but upon them!

Gritting her teeth in both pain and annoyance, she knew without a doubt that her pursuers were perfecting their aim against her and her imposed genjustsu. Soon the fight would become even, and that would mean that they were as good as dead…

Making an especially long leap from a rather thin branch, the second shinobi was able to catch up to her partner as he finished his string of seals, then raising his right hand, with only his thumb and middle finger touching in an 'o' shape before he blew into it, creating a blue haze in the air before he took off again.

Knowing full well at what was going to happen, the second quickly followed. What would happen was anything but good to both watch or as she had seen, experience.

The screams of a more then one person could be heard as, without a doubt, the poor soul had ran into the blue haze, the concentrated heat of the person's flesh igniting the haze around him, making the haze cling to his body like napalm… the warmth of the person's flesh then turning it into actual flesh eating flames…

Marking down another three targets, the second frowned as she totaled up a figure totaling up to thirty-three dead and still they no doubt pursued… these people were very persistent and reckless. The information that had cost her half the team was indeed important and she would not let her friends die in vain.

The first looked back, his eyes tired but determined as he showed her a rather large frown… proving the fact that they were only skidding on very thin ice that was currently melting into pools of misfortune…

She guessed that her partner could maybe do two or three more 'A' grade justsu and herself a maximum of four but that was useless again their pursuer. There was at least three jounins after her and over two-dozen chunnins since their great escape from Hidden Kosui Village.

They had killed the first two-dozen ninjas during their escape. Though in exchange they had lost a teammate there, as the good man sacrificed himself to buy them much needed time. Time that had graced them until this point, were it was a moot point since the two of them were already weary with fatigue while the hunters were most likely not.

She would have gladly performed one of those spectacular self-destruction techniques but she had a mission to complete and neither of them could risk their lives... But on the other hand, they were running out of time as their pursuers were practically breathing down their necks. This was at best, a close call were, if they were extremely lucky, one of them would make it to a leaf shinobi before they died.

The last vestiges of the setting sun disappeared from the ocean of leaves and bark, allowing darkness to engulf them as they ran. Shurikens continued to fly as they, with increasing difficulty, continued to move forward.

For what seemed like an eternity they ran. All that existed was their ragged breath and the whistles of shurikens. The darkness provided a measure of protection but the hunters would adapt to this change, the two of them expected no less.

Then like a pillar of hope, a small light glowed before them.

Moving towards the light in hopes that the sudden appearance of light would hinder their pursuers more then themselves, they moved towards it. The two of them found that they were hoping to quickly fly by without endangering anyone or thing around that fire… that was unless they were also the enemy. A trap of this sort wouldn't be beyond their attackers, but the had to take the risk.

As they moved closer, it became obvious that the fire was man made and fairly small at that. The second knew that the light would wreck her night vision but she also knew that it would hinder both her and her pursuers… unless her followers went around… and this was once again, a set up to lure them in…

Gritting her teeth in frustration she found herself slowing down as she landed on a nearby branch along with her partner, the all to familiar whistle of shurikens following them. Did the enemy have no limits to the amount they could continue to throw?

She turned to dodge the ritual half dozen shurikens. Hoping to move away enough so that she could return fire and keep a few of them at bay with a few well placed kunais and perhaps a jutsu or two.

But this time was different from the rest. She should have just leapt away…

Realizing her mistake to late, the second barely had time to raise her arms to defend her vitals spots when a haze of shurikens slammed into her and her partner. The pain was deafening. What had to be over two hundred shurikens flew by her and no less then twenty smashed into her body.

Her body constricted and convulsed. This was not a natural reaction. A single thought flashed through her mind as she began to fall backwards… Poison!

The force knocked her off the branch while the poison prevented her from moving. Tensing what parts of her body she could move, she prepared to hit the ground hard. After all they were at least eight meters above the forest floor.

With a muffled thump, she found herself able to open her eyes as the poison began to quickly lose its potency, her trained body already beginning to reject the foreign substance, like it was trained to do.

Wondering why the fall was so… soft… the second looked down and her eyes widened. Below her was the body of another person, a black cloak covering the body as a muffled "Ow" faded through the fabric. Her being embarrassed was an understatement since she hadn't done anything this foolish since her genin and chuunin days.

Unable to do anything spectacular as the poison still afflicted her body, she however, found that she could at least move, if not frustratingly slow and clumsily. So she foced her body to slowly stretch up and get off the lucky person she had landed on.

With the dramatic and sudden weight of another person lifted off, the human landing zone with a crushed body slowly got up. The cloak ruffled with movement as the person turned around to see who had so gracefully blessed him with their presence. His face gazed impassively at the woman before him.

The second's eyes widened in disbelief and fear. Recognition struck her like lightning and it was quickly followed by both awe and terror with an overwhelming wave of guilt. Her mind lost all details of the person. Only two things registered.

The first was a small coin like tag at the person's neck. It was perfectly round as it gleamed in the firelight, hanging from a collar and sporting the icon the hidden leaf. Nine perfectly distanced slashes radiated from the center of the leaf emblem.

For those who did not know this man or of the shinobi world, they would have been confused as to why there were slashes to the universal icon. To those who knew however, it mean only one thing. Tazunebitonin Missing Ninja.

The second thing caught her attention and held it. Where once the person's right eye was, what would have been normally eye with a colored pupil, was instead nothing more then a hue of milk white. There was also perhaps a slight hint of an unknown color formed within that once a normal pupil, but few have ever dared to take more then fleeting glances at the eye.

It would have been only slightly interesting had it been someone else, some other blind person perhaps. But this person… this person was not blind, far from it, and was at the very lest be feared if only by reputation had caught her attention and held it.

His impassible gaze gave off nothing yet held her eyes as well as his iron grip could have at her throat. As she stared into his eye, she felt her will weaken until it was all but stripped from her mind and soul.

Realizing that they were surrounded she somehow was able to instinctively break his iron gaze and looked around until she saw where her partner had fallen. Seeing his silent form, still and unmoving, she feared that she was alone. Then she saw the fluttering rise and fall of his chest. She then let her worries over him dwindle, if only by a hairsbreadth. They were still in great danger and with the man before her; perhaps she would have been better off with the angry shinobi of Hidden Kosui.

There was a brief rustle of leaves, a unnatural wind moving them in a swirl and then gave way, revealing a dozen ninjas. Three flat ovals, two at the bottom touching while a third simply floated on top signified their village while their eyes gave away their target.

Throwing pride into the four winds, she fell to her knees and bowed her head. Her voice did not tremble as she thought it might have. There was no longer any anger of the past… or even the sorrow of the present in her voice… to which surprised her and the person before her.

"Please… I beg you! Help Us! We need to give this to the Hokage! It involves all of Leaf! Please…" a tear welled up at her right eye. The man before her was staring down in slight disbelief and slight anger. It was a reaction that came so naturally to the man.

Frowning at the kneeling person before him, he found that he was actually considering it. He looked at the kneeling woman's forehead protector, worn so that the forehead protector sat on top of her head, facing the undying skies. It hadn't changed, he noted, since those days of his youth. It seemed that some things would never change…

However, as he opened his mouth to say no, a kunai came whistling towards his head. With a single motion he tilted his head, allowing the single weapon to fly by him and stick itself into the trunk of a tree. Being attacked at was something he didn't quite look down fondly on.

"Heh, should have let that hit you. You woulda have had a quick death. Unlike now…" A voice stated in a sarcastic apology as the man swayed with amusement.

With a frown, the young man looked up at the ninjas, knowing full well how he would deal with the man who had thrown the single weapon.

Then in a single, swift motion, the young man threw out his arms at his prey. The annoying ninja who had thrown the kunai barely took a single breath before he fell from his branch, dead. A single kunai stuck through the man's heart as blood blossomed around the thrown weapon. The dead man's comrades instantly tensed, fear and surprise mixing in their faces.

With awe the young second watched in amazement as the body smashed onto the forest floor. She barely saw the kunai leave the man's hands!

With a yell another ninja of Hidden Kosui jumped into the air, his left leg raised so that it would crush the man who had killed his comrade. Keeping his form small and compact, he had the advantage of going down prepared whilst his opponent on was on the ground and still fixating his eyes on his first strike.

Moving to the side smoothly, the young man dodged his opponent's strike and countered. His cloak bellowing in motion as he shifted his weight slightly in preparation for what was to come.

The attacking man smashed his leg onto the forest floor, were the cloaked person was and turned as he threw a punch, using the momentum of his fist in addition to the momentum of the turn to increase his attack, increasing the power and speed of the strike.

The cloaked man simply deflected his fist and with only two outstretched fingers, the pointing finger and middle finger, he tapped the heart. The young man then watched as his opponent fell to the forest floor dead. The poor idiot didn't even release what had happened, as his blank face told nothing of his final moments.

A small grin lit up his face. If anything these stupid idiots were amusing.

The second watched in fascination as the person who she had begged for help killed the first two pursuers so effortlessly. She had known this young man once. Long ago… They weren't what one could have called close. Heck they barely made it across as acquaintances. They had never known each other and she had always regretted that.

But… he had always seemed stronger then what everyone had said. And when he had left, she had heard the stories as everyone else. They told stories of a legendary assassin who could wipe out a small village with an amused smile and during the limits of a single moonlit night. They said that he was a demon in all but flesh.

But she never believed them. They had no truths as thought the person was strong, but he couldn't have been that strong… right? The person she knew was loud, obnoxious and carefree. Not this smirking figure who killed so effortlessly against trained ninjas.

Right? she asked herself as she watched in disbelief as the young man killed another two pursuers with a single fire jutsu. The flames licked around the bodies for a few brief moments before they died out, revealing charred and smoking forms.

It was then that she recognized one of her pursuers. The one who had been throwing shurikens at them all night long. How could she not remember him? He had been dogging her team since the chase had started. Her body unconsciously twitched as she still felt the imbedded shurikens at the front of her body. Though she was still too weak to remove them, yet, she would do so when she had the energy, they were beginning to become very irratating.

The Kosui jounin simply started things off by throwing a dozen shurikens, which the young man simply sidestepped and dodged. Which the jounin then countered by preformed a strings of seals that she instantly recognized as being part of a specific sense dulling genjustsu. She new a few and knew that they could practically cripple an opponent during combat. Losing one of the five senses was an absolute handicap.

It most likely wouldn't have affected her, but she wasn't sure of the young man. The jounin then silently leaped to a tree as he finished his jutsu and created a secondary clone out of mud.

The clone then attacked. Lunging forward with slower strikes, they were still very powerful if they could connect. The young man on the other hand, quickly countered by ripping out the clone's neck, instantly reverting the clone into featureless collapsing mud.

The young man grinned as he looked up. His eyes fixated onto the exact location of where the jounin was. It was so easy for him that it was all he could do while holding back his amused laughs at the man's pathetic attempts at deception.

Quickly attacking, the young man then whipped out his right arm to the side, the dull sounds of metal biting flesh floated to her ears as she turned to see three other Kosui ninjas fall to the forest floor. Their blank eyes telling what had happened to them, the single kunai sticking out of their heads helped tell how they were killed.

With a hop, the young man dodged a small batch of shurikens. Landing off the side gracefully as he once again grinned at the Kosui jounin. "You're an amusing guy… throwing all this pointy things at me… should I throw something in return?"

There was a small snicker as the jounin leaped from the tree and out into the open air. The jounin's arms were crossed before his face as he began to move, his hands blurring in a chain of seals. Then, lashing his arms forward, he threw out a haze of shurikens. "Shuriken Mizu Bushin no jutsu!" The man roared out, followed by the sounds of over a hundred objects hummed in the air.

With a viscous smile, the young man quickly threw out one small kunai. Then performing a string of seals of his own, he announced his technique in triumph. "Seikitai Tsubasa Kunai! Astral Body Wing Kunai"

The young second watched in disbelief as the single kunai passed through the haze of shurikens slowing them down midair before it began to drag them after itself for a short distance before they bursted into small pocket of water.

Seeing as how his attack failed and a counter attack was coming, the jounin's eyes widened as he reacted, as he performed seals in rapid succession. "Hanran Aoiro Shouheki! Overflowing Blue Barrier" The jounin yelled as he created a single thirty-centimeter wide shield of water centered on his outstretched palm. At an inch thick, it was a jutsu that had saved his life many times.

The second frowned as she wondered what would happen after the kunai was stopped. After all she knew for a fact that that technique was equal to thirty-centimeters of solid steel… it was a hard jutsu to pull off, though not difficult, it just required lots of concentration to pull it off with no major supply of water near by…

The kunai met the water barriers, seeming to halt for a brief moment before it ripped through the jounin's shield and continued through the jounin's hand and chest, as it flew into the skyline of leaves. A trail of blood followed the kunai briefly, before gravity took hold and brought it, body and all, back down to earth.

The second found her breaths becoming shorter and haggard as the moments passed and the air seemed still, punctured by a few sounds of screams, explosion and the strikes of metal on metal.

Her eyes became drowsy and she suddenly found herself falling forward. She wanted to put out her arms to brace her fall but she couldn't muster the strength to move them… what was happening to her…

Yet, before she fell face first onto the ground, strong arms embraced her body and she found herself carefully lifted into a pair of warm arms that rustled while she was being lifted up. Knowing full well that she was in good hands, she allowed herself to begin to fall into slumber as she felt relief as something prickly was removed from her front, then she felt herself being carefully moved somewhere else.

Before her green eyes closed in sleep, she saw the aftermath of the battle. The small area was slightly scorched and marked. The fire that was burning was put out, a few wisps of smokes curling from the dead logs and branches. Death hung in the air.

Her final view was that of over a dozen bodies scattered around the clearing. They didn't move but were easy to identify. Twelve skilled ninjas killed by a single man. Sleep claimed her then, and she felt as though she had said a word… a name… but she wasn't sure… all that mattered was the gentle sleep that rasped against her mind.

Looking down at the young pinked hair woman now settled on his right shoulder, he thought that he had heard faint words reaching his ears. It sounded as though she had stated his name… a name that meant one thing to her and another to him…

'Naruto'

It was a name that she said again before she nodded off, muttered so softly and with gentle longing…

With a frown, he picked up the young woman's comrade and began his journey back to the village he had abandoned so long ago… No. It was a village that had abandoned him. He no longer had any feelings for that hellhole. He was now different from the boy they knew all so long ago, so very, very different.

Taking a small breath, he felt weary. The fight was enjoyable but it wasn't anything remarkable. There were a few special jounins here and there with two handfuls of pathetic chunnins. It seemed as though his days were only filled with idiots trying to fight and kill him.

Taking the first step towards Konoha village, Naruto sighed as his mind settled again on the woman on his right shoulder. She was someone he knew so long ago. The young man on his left, however, was someone he didn't recognized and he couldn't have cared less if it was the young woman's lover…. But…

But… even after all this time… Naruto sighed as he still felt the same. Those feelings that the young woman with pink hair, who was sleeping so snugly on his right shoulder, still deserved the best, those feelings had not changed. Which also currently mean that she belonged back at her home village.

"Why can't I get over you… Haruno Sakura…" the young man stated sadly as he continued his journey through the night and into the unyielding darkness. There was more to him then the shadows of the night air, and they would continue to plague him as there was but one salvation. It was a desire that could only be realized by passing through the darkness.

(" ) ( " ) ( ") Author's Corner!

Hi Hi! If your wondering why the heck I released another series. Well this is a side project that most likely will be updated a lot more often then any of my main fics, so this is actually meant to let you know that I am still alive and allows you to read something!

Bruised Or Healed by SpiritGoddess Was the inspiration for this and I have no clue why.. It just gave me some inspiration and I did have a few extra ideas laying around... so here it it is!

SpiritGoddess This Prologue is Dedicated to you!

Does this matter to anyone at all? Nope. This fic is just here so that I can let loose a few stray ideas and whatnot. . I Never ever know what to put into these things. So I guess that's all I am going to have here P

Lates peoples, I chat to you in the next chapter! Or update of this Chapter!

Update: Well I feel that I have changed this prologue for the better and can now rest more easily now that I have touched up this once poor excuse for a chapter. I basically doubled the size of this sucker, adding lots of extra and more thorough paragraphs to describe the story more. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did!