Konoha's Assassin:
The Right Hand of the Hokage
Chapter 1
-X-
I own nothing
-X-
Living in a hidden village, one came to expect activity at all hours of the day, even more so at night. Blurs of movement shooting through the air, zigzagging through trees and around corners, from day one you had to get use to a sudden blur flying past your window or buy a good set of blinds to block the view. But when something was happening, people tended to know as activity picked up.
"After him!"
"Don't let him escape!"
Multiple ninjas flew from rooftop to rooftop in pursuit of another as he sped fluidly up and over walls, weaving around and through any tight spaces or objects in his way. The perusing ninja continued to give chase but what they had in being able to leap from place to place, they lacked the seemingly unnatural acrobatic talent their foe had as well as the ungodly dexterity.
Without warning, their target dropped from the rooftops and into an alleyway below, making them curse as they had been in mid jump and overshot it. Doubling back, the ninja followed only to come to a dead end with not a soul other then themselves around.
"Son of a bitch!" the first cursed as he kicked at the ground, "He got away!"
The second landed next to him a second later in a crouch, "Lord Tsuchikage will not be pleased,"
"No shit!" the first ninja sneered, "It's only the third time this assassin's got away."
"No, the fourth, some Chunin tracked him from the boarder but he vanished a mile from the gates. This is the third time he's struck."
"Who'd he kill this time?"
"Lord Tsuchikage's military adviser,"
The first ninja raised an eyebrow at the second, "Really? He'll be mad about that? I thought he hated the man, wouldn't he rather thank this assassin?"
The man sighed, "Maybe, but it's about saving face, three assassinations by the same man in one month? We'll be the laughing stock of the elemental nations." He scanned the alley one more time, making sure that nothing was a miss, he didn't feel a genjutsu but at the same time he wasn't a chakra sensor, so he couldn't track the persons chakra like some could, "It's too late, the assassin is gone, let's report in to Lord Tsuchikage,"
"Man… this fucking sucks, can't we look around some more?"
"I guess it couldn't hurt, we might get lucky."
With that both Iwa ninja leaped off to continue the search, holding off on their report to their village leader who would no doubt be pissed.
"Son of a bitch," whispered seemingly empty space between a dumpster and some stinking trashcans. The air rippled as a figure moved and came into view, holding his nose and moving away from the stench.
Stepping into the light, the man took a few breaths and crouched down, keeping silent as he made sure that no one was around.
His outfit strongly resembled that of the ninja monks from the various ninja temples scattered across the countries. But unlike the billowy white robes, his fit better and had a hood which covered his hair and shadowed most of his face. On both arms he had on a metal bracer covered in thin brown leather and a pair of fingerless gloves while his legs had similar protection. His pants were faded brown and around his waist was a hardened leather armor belt that held five small knives while a few pouches were attached to the back.
"My missions complete," the assassin muttered to himself while standing, but before he could go, he had to send confirmation via a summon.
Making a quick set of hand seals, the assassin was rewarded with a small plume of smoke before it cleared to reveal a brown and white eagle, "Deliver this to the Hokage," he instructed while presenting a white feather stained red with blood before wrapping it in a silk cloth.
It nodded and flapped it's wings, taking the cloth before taking to the sky.
Now all he had to do was sneak out of the village before they decided to lock it down, that is if they hadn't already done so. The thought made him smirk, even if they did, all the better, he'd enjoy the challenge.
Looking up at the moon, which was in the waning crescent phase, he hummed, "Soon the moon shall vanish and start anew… Like the moon, I too shall vanish and appear another day."
With that, his blue eyes flashed in the moonlight before he vanished, his body rippling in the air as he turned invisible.
-X-
Sitting at his deck, Hiruzen Sarutobi drank coffee and listened to his Jounin report on how their would be teams did on their 'test' to see if they deserved to be made real ninja. So far Asuma, his son had passed his team, Kurenai the rookie Jounin passed her team, and shockingly enough, the copy cat Kakashi passed his team and they were reporting on how. But in the middle of Kurenai telling how they worked together to track her down and see through her genjutsu, an eagle swooped down from a hidden opening in the ceiling, scaring those that didn't know of it which was pretty much everyone and screeching as it tossed a roll of silk on to his desk before leaving the way it came in and vanishing outside.
"Hokage-sama, what was that?" asked one ninja only to be silenced when the kage opened it and picked up the blood covered feather.
There were rumors about the village of the leaf employing an assassin of great skill, some even said that he was the best. But these rumors were pushed aside, after all, Konoha was a peace loving village and would rather go the peaceful way and talk things out, not send an assassin… right?
Taking the feather, Hiruzen, with a expressionless face, opened his drawer and placed both the feather and cloth inside before turning back to the Jounin, "Please continue with your reports,"
-X-
In the training grounds of Konoha, Team 8 led by Jounin Kurenai Yuhi waited for their sensei to show up. The first was a silent young man wearing a light blue-green coat with a high collar and a pair of round sunglasses over his face, he was Shino Aburame. The second was a timid looking girl wearing a tan coat with dark blue hair and lavender white eyes, she was Hyuuga Hinata. Lastly, there was a rather loud teen with a pup sitting next to him, he wore a grayish blue jacket with a hood lined in thick black fur, he was Kiba Inuzuka and the dog was his ninken partner, Akamaru.
"Man, Kurenai-sensei's never been this late before," Kiba complained as he waited in the clearing with his team, "Wonder why?"
"Must be important for her to take so long," Shino stated, surprisingly enough seeing as he didn't talk as much.
Hinata nodded, "I-I hope nothing b-bad happened."
As if summoned by them talking about her, Kurenai showed up, she was a pale dark haired beauty with red eyes wearing a strange dress that looked like it was made of wrappings.
"Sorry about the wait," she exclaimed before holding up a scroll, "The Hokage called me in and gave us a mission. Said it was an important on but not dangerous."
"Sweet!" Kiba cheered, excited that he was going on a important mission, clearly thinking that it was a higher ranked one, "So what is it? An S-ranked one, we saving the world?"
Kurenai shook her head, "Of course not, it's a low D-rank." she told him making him deflate, "In fact, we're delivering something to a place outside of the village,"
"How's that important!" Kiba almost yelled, "Man I thought we'd be doing some real missions, not playing delivery ninja,"
Kurenai twitched, "This is a real mission Kiba, but your still inexperienced so your doing these missions that don't involve much risk until your ready,"
"So Sensei," Hinata squeaked, her voice barely loud enough to be heard, "What a-are we d-delivering?"
Kurenai unrolled the mission scroll and looked it over, "That's just the thing, the Hokage said that he wants us to deliver a scroll to a nun."
"We're going to a church?" Kiba blanched, not liking the sound of the mission, thinking that it was going to be boring and nothing that he could brag about later.
Kurenai nodded, "It seems like it, now go home and pack enough for a two day trip just to be safe. Meet at the main gate in an hour and we'll run to Shukuba town,"
-X-
Shukuba town was not the kind of place you'd expect to find a church, much less a nun. It was a pleasure district in the Land of Fire a short distance away from Konoha filled with many hotels and inns, restaurants, bars, casinos, and brothels. It was one of the socially accepted evils to have due to it's high income due to the visitors and vacationers who came to gambol, have a good time, and get laid.
So in this small city of sin, you'd think that finding a church, a figurative beacon of light in the darkness would be simple… well…
"A church?" repeated the man working in the information kiosk near the entrance, to help new visitor by directing them to a suitable hotel or give them directions to where ever they needed to go, "The only church here that I know is the La Rosa della Virtu."
"Huh?"
The man scratched his nose, "It means 'The Rose of Virtue'," he explained, "You'll find it near the end of Fun-Fun Avenue, it's a fancy looking building with flowers and a red tent over the door, the owners name is Sister Teodora,"
Thanking the man, the four ninja made their way through the town and towards the street that they'd been directed to. Shino didn't seem to be effected by what he saw, his face mostly covered by the collar of his coat and the sunglasses, but his eyes did linger on a winking woman that waved to him. Hinata's face turned bright red when a woman made a kissing face to her as they passed by a brothel, so much so that Kurenai had been ready to catch her if she fainted, but she didn't and they continued passed. Kiba on the other hand didn't hide his perverse thoughts as they passed by said brothel, grinning dumbly with a bit of drool dripping from his mouth, he was slapped in the back of the head by Kurenai when she saw him stop in the middle of the road with a nose bleed to stare at the girls.
"I swear," she huffed, grabbing him by the ear and pulling him along, "When we get to this church, I'm gonna make you listen to them preach you little pervert,"
At the end of the street, they found the building, it was by far the nicest one there, not to mention the largest. Flowers grew in ornately carved stone boxed hanging from the window seal outside the windows on the ground floor while deep red banners hung from the windows on the second floor, leaving the windows on the third bare. Matching red cloth was draped over a circular toped tent above the door which was made of dark wood with a golden handle that was carved ornately with beautiful designs.
There was a closed sign on the door but the windows had light shining through so they walked up and knocked.
When it opened, a beautiful young woman wearing a strapless dress and a white veil over her brown hair greeted them. She had lightly tanned skin and long brown hair that stopped below her back, covering part of the chain that held a silver cross just above her cleavage.
The woman regarded them with sharp, yet alluring blue eyes for a moment before smiling softly, "May I help you?"
"We're from Konoha, we were told to deliver a scroll to a Nun here at-"
The woman cut her off by holding up her hand, "Ah yes, I know… please come in,"
She stepped back and allowed them in, shutting the door behind them, "I am Sister Teodora, I was suppose to hold the scroll for another person until he returned but since he's already here, you can hand it to him yourself."
The front room was small, about ten feet from the door was a desk with a set of stairs next to it. Off to the side there were some couches and end tables with vases full of exotic flowers while other held unlit candles. Behind the desk there was a doorway covered with two dark red cloth curtains.
It confused them, especially since they'd never seen a church like this
Sister Teodora gracefully walked passed them and headed to the curtain covered doorway passed the deck, "Come with me, I'll take you to him."
Following, they passed the doorway and came to a complete halt.
The room was like a large living room with couches all along the wall divided by a low wall, in front of each couch was a small table with candles for light and coasters for drinks. There was artwork and statues decorating the walls and various places around the room, paintings of barely dressed females posing with barely anything covering their modesty, statues of the same. It was more like one of those hostess bars/brothels where men and sometime women came to flirt and get laid.
"W-what the-" stuttered Kurenai as she looked around, seeing the artwork before noticing that there was a few other women in the room, all sitting close to one man and enjoying his presence. "What kind of church is this?"
Sister Teodora chuckled lightly, "I've come to expect such reactions by now, but you are correct in assuming that this isn't exactly a church,"
"So your not a nun?"
She shook her head, "Oh I am indeed a nun, I spent five years of my life in a convent."
Kurenai felt so confused, "A Nun… running a brothel?"
"Quite the paradox isn't it?" Sister Teodora mused, "I was drawn in by the church as a young teen, but I found myself disillusioned by the so called 'believers' spewing the Lords word of tolerance and peace then turning around and persecuting others for being different."
She then smiled sweetly, "And I find that men are much more… open, to religious change when it comes to women like me,"
Kiba openly drooled, "Is it too late to convert to your church?" he asked dumbly, eyes locked onto the valley below her silver cross, that is, until Kurenai slapped him in the back of the head.
The woman turned to the young teen with a smile and slowly approached him, causing his face to turn redder and redder with each step. She was taller than him and leaned forward a bit, letting him get a better peek at her cleavage before she took her finger and raised his chin up to look at her, making him stand ramrod straight at her touch, "Aw… you're a little too young for my congregation… try again when you a little older sweetie…" she leaned closer and whispered something in his ear.
Turning with a small laugh, Teodora walked away, leaving Kiba standing there like a statue with wide, unblinking eyes. He continued to stand there as a drop of blood fell from his nose until his sensei nudged him, causing him to tip over and fall back onto the ground, nearly landing on Akamaru who'd been behind him.
"What'd you say to him?" The red eyed Jounin asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Not much… it's just that I find that men hold god as an idea in their heads, not in their hearts and bodies. Men must know how to love in order to reach salvation. My girls and I provide that to our congregation… I simply told him that we'd be able to teach him that." She then turned, "Ok, now follow me, I'll bring you over to the one your suppose to give the scroll to."
Telling Shino and Hinata to take Kiba out to the front desk and to wait there for her, she followed the Nun over to the group of females and the man.
"Girls!" Teodora called out while clapping her hands to get their attention, "Give us a minute will you?"
They pouted but left, heading upstairs while Teodora approached, giving Kurenai a clear view of the man sitting on the couch. He wore faded brown pants and faded brown closed toed boots made of what looked like leather while he had on a white tank top showing off some muscle while parts of his body and arms were wrapped in bandages. Laying over the back of the couch was what seemed to be a white trench coat, a red sash, and a large brown belt of some kind. But the man himself was handsome, clear blue eyes that you could lose yourself in, wild blond hair that seemed to brighten the room itself, and a smile that made her insides heat up and heart speed up.
"Teodora-chan, I was wondering where you ran off to,"
She smiled at him and then gave him a look, "We can play later, but first things first, you got another scroll."
The blond lost his smile and grimaced, "Another one?" he exclaimed before muttering, "Why so soon?"
As if noticing Kurenai for the first time, he regained his smile, "Why hello there… are you the messenger that the Hokage sent?"
She nodded and handed him the scroll, where their hands met for a moment.
"I see that he sent his most beautiful ninja this time," the blond mused while standing up from his seat, "A much better improvement compared to the ones I usually get."
Holding out his hand and giving her a devils smile that made her burn, his blue eyes met hers, "I'm Naruto… Naruto Uzumaki, may I know the name of this divine beauty?"
To be continued…
-X-
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