A child's scream tears through the air but is almost immediately drowned out by a massive clap of thunder.
Lightning flashes over head as two cloaked figures race towards the sound of distress.
Standing atop the buildings, the figures look down into the crowded alleyway. Almost twenty villagers had crammed themselves into the alleyway. Even with the massive downpour of water the figures could still smell the reek of sake coming off of the group.
One of the villagers turned and briefly caught a glimpse of a cloaked figure standing on top of the roof until it disappeared in another flash of lightning. Shrugging the villager turned back to his apparent show.
A four year old child lay in the center of the villagers. If you could call the broken form a child. His once bright blonde hair was now almost black with clotted blood. His body now a twisted mass of bloody flesh and bone.
Naruto could only wonder what he had done to deserve this. He could no longer feel the pain of his grotesque injuries as one of the blows had cut off his nervous system. He could not run or even say a word. He could only gaze at the world around him through the swollen lid of his right eye.
A person detached himself from the surrounding villagers and walked up to the broken form of the child.
Naruto looked up at the figure and for an instant was relieved. A flash of lightning had illuminated the man's headband, marking him as a shinobi. But a glint drew Naruto's eye and he saw a kunai, poised to take his life.
Naruto's eyes closed as the kunai descended, but the bliss of death never came. He only felt that the rain was now being prevented from falling on him.
Cracking open his eye once again, Naruto saw that the man who was about to take his life now clutching vainly at a hand that was wrapped his throat.
The owner of the hand, was hidden within a black hooded cloak. Another figure garbed in the same fashion was now leaning over Naruto inspecting his horrific injuries.
As Naruto watched the shinobi was lifted off of the ground as his savior straightened.
"Have mercy." The shinobi pleaded as the edges of his vision began to turn black.
"Would you have should him mercy?" And icy male voice questioned in return.
Before the man could reply a sickening crack echoed through the air as the man tightened his grip around the shinobi's throat.
The surrounding villagers could only gape in horror as the cloaked man dropped the corpse of the shinobi and turned his hidden gaze at the villagers.
"This is none of your. . ." A villager started.
A whisper of steel was their only warning before the figure seemed to vanish and reappear next to villager. The villager's eyes went wide right before he fell to his knees and his head rolled off of his shoulders.
The rest of the crowd watched as the man's head bounced against the pavement before coming to a stop under the foot of the hooded man's partner.
"Their judgement is death." Came an icy feminine voice as she crushed the head with ease.
Her partner nodded and vanished again. The woman turned back to Naruto as the screams of dying villagers filled her ears.
Kneeling down to Naruto she gently paced two of her fingers at the base of his skull and pushed some of her chakra into the small child.
Naruto felt the grip of unconsciousness beginning to claim him as the woman's voice reached his ears.
"Fear not, small one. Your days of suffering will end." The voice told him as he was pulled into the blackness of his own mind.
Hiruzen Sarutobi was surprised to find a bundle wrapped in a large black cloak lying on the sofa in his office. Pulling back a fold, he was relieved to see the whiskered face of Naruto, sleeping peacefully.
His ANBU had told him that they had found evidence of twenty of the villagers had been cut to pieces in an alleyway. They had found Naruto's blood at the scene and he was worried that the Kyuubi had taken over Naruto. (A.N. While Hiruzen is necessary for plot development for now, he will not be spared my wrath.)
Opening the cloak Hiruzen saw Naruto's body to be completely healed. A small note fell out of the cloak when the Hokage replaced the cloak over Naruto.
Picking up the note, he opened it a almost gagged at the picture that was placed inside. It must have been what Naruto had looked like last night.. Steeling himself, Hiruzen looked at the message scrawled across the photo.
Next time, we take him.
