Author's Notes: Welcome, readers! I'll keep this short and sweet. In general, this story is an experiment on my part, but I've definitely enjoyed writing this so far. Comments, constructive criticism, and reviews are always appreciated. Feel free to point out any inconsistencies or plot holes; this story's universe is partially of my own design, and I'm prone to forgetfulness. That is all. Enjoy!

Summary: Humans have always hunted foxes. For Uchiha Sasuke, however, hunting means much more than survival—it means revenge. But now, a deadly encounter leaves him stranded, alone, in the middle of their territory, the Forest of Death. AU.


44

Chapter 1: In Hell


Uchiha Sasuke crouched underneath a thin film of brush, eyes fruitlessly scanning his surroundings for any hint of movement. No matter how hard he tried, however, his gaze could not penetrate the surrounding thickness. No extended line of sight existed; every direction was blocked at some point by another broad trunk. The clearing in front of them glowed slightly brighter than the crevasses of the twisted, age old roots, despite the canopy of massive trees above them, which is why they'd chosen this place. The forest seemed almost undead; the shadows coiled between the trees and shifted as though alive, but the eerie silence precluded the thought that life could flourish in a place as empty as death.

Beside him, his partner Inuzuka Kiba shifted uncomfortably. The slight rustling of his camouflage outfit and the clink of his crossbow caused Sasuke to scowl. He would have reprimanded Kiba if that didn't involve more noise, which was out of the question at this point. Kiba had proven himself more than capable in the past, and he was the only one Sasuke moderately trusted to back him up. Still, they had been waiting for too long to let anything jeopardize their hunt, especially not one as important as this.

Sasuke and Kiba were hunters, and their hunting ground was Area 44, more famously known as the Forest of Death.

As hunters, their job was simple; track, kill, and bring back the wildest creatures the Forest of Death unleashed onto the world. It meant survival, it meant fortune, it meant fame.

And for Sasuke, it meant revenge.

Ten years ago, the greatest demon spawn to ever emerge from the forest, the Nine-Tailed Fox, decimated Konoha. Two days before the attack, Uchiha Shisui carried what was left of his older brother, Itachi—the finest hunter of his generation and the man Sasuke hoped to one day become—back into the village. He was unrecognizable, brutally mutilated. There was no time for a funeral; the next night, the Nine-Tailed Fox rose up out of the Forest of Death, demonic tails lashing the landscape, and descended upon the village.

Among the countless dead was his entire family. Sasuke alone, a terrified ten-year-old boy, had been spared because a smaller fox attempting to carry him off had been stopped by Danzo. However, the rest of the Uchiha, the protectors of the village and the greatest hunters ever known, were wiped from existence in one night. It was only through the combined power of the Uchiha clan, Sarutobi, Danzo—who succeeded Sarutobi after the Third Hokage was killed in the attack—and the other elite hunters of the village that the giant fox was finally brought down. The price they received for his hide could never pay the village back for what it had lost.

And with the death of the Uchiha clan, the village began to spiral down into ruin. Expert hunters didn't come along every day. The current Hokage, Danzo, was working desperately through his private Root division to churn out new hunters as fast as possible, but the forest was growing. No one understood exactly how, but the Forest of Death was alive—much more alive than any other forest he'd heard of—and it seemed to grow every day, matching even the Hokage Tower in height and starting to strangle the outer edges of the village. If nothing was done soon, the Village Hidden in the Leaves would become the Village Smothered by the Leaves.

The Forest of Death, previously bordering the village only on the right side, was beginning to encircle it. The forest grasped outward, attempting to drag itself beyond its previous limits. The fences encircling the perimeter were overgrown as soon as the village looked away, so new fences had to be built frequently in order to provide some small protection for the average villager. Soon, everyone feared that the main road out of the village would be absorbed. At that point, there would be no safe way to travel into or out of the village, and all commerce might grind to a halt. Hunting was their main livelihood, and their prizes were valued throughout the world, but not many would risk their life to obtain what many considered only a commodity.

Aside from the forest beginning to encircle them, the village was backed by a sheer cliff towering even higher than the forest. It had probably been a good idea at the village's founding; if you were backed against a wall, that was one less direction from which an enemy could attack. But now the enemy was nature itself, and nature was a force greater than any human enemy.

However, rumors were circulating that Danzo was working on some secret, village-saving project. The Hokage had always been tight-lipped about his work, but the villagers were beginning to panic. Something had to be said to keep the average citizen from packing up and getting away from the impending disaster zone. However, Sasuke knew Danzo wouldn't lie about something like that, and if it had the potential to control the forest—and the foxes—Sasuke was fully on board.

As Sasuke thought about this, he forced himself not to grind his teeth. Foxes: the scourge of the earth, and the reason he was completely alone. He wasn't completely alone, on the outside. The entire village revered him as one of the greatest hunters of his generation, if not all time. His girlfriend, Haruno Sakura, treated him like he was a god. But he didn't know anyone he truly respected or could actually talk with openly. He respected Danzo as the Hokage, but that was in a purely professional manner. What Sasuke really didn't have was anyone he could really call his friend.

Foxes. He hated them so much. Out of all the creatures the Forest of Death allowed to fester in its shade, foxes were the most devious and the most evil. They preyed on the weak and enjoyed tormenting their prey before they killed it. They also possessed demonic powers, allowing them to wreak havoc with a great deal of impunity. The worst part was that their powers manifested in alarmingly different ways, so a hunter could never be sure what tricks a fox could pull until, quite often, it was too late. There were even rumors of such deadly, underhanded abilities as shape-shifting and invisibility, but those were reserved for only the most powerful foxes.

Humans didn't have powers, or at least not to the extent that foxes did. Humans had chakra that they could control to slightly enhance their physical abilities, but they couldn't perform magic. If they could, if there was no secret power tipping the scales in the foxes' favor, Sasuke was sure there would be no foxes left in the world, and he would be leading the hunt. All they had were kunai crossbows that operated using a spring-launcher mechanism, the kunai themselves, and their bare hands.

From what knowledge they had, the number of tails a fox possessed seemed to correlate with its size and determine its overall strength, to an extent. There seemed to be only one nine-tailed fox—which was beneficial, considering it had towered as tall as the trees—and there had never been even a legend of any foxes with more than nine tails. Even seven-tailed and eight-tailed foxes were incredibly rare. Sasuke knew of only one eight-tailed fox, and the golden-furred terror had been slain by Danzo himself on the night of the Nine-Tailed Fox attack.

They also didn't have much information regarding how foxes interacted with one another or with the other creatures of the forest. Most smaller foxes were singled out from a group that tried to flee together, but the larger foxes had been found both with a group and without. It was always more convenient when they were alone. They had no evidence of any larger social structure, and Sasuke doubted one could ever exist. Foxes were cunning, malicious demons, especially the more powerful ones. The smaller ones stuck together simply for survival, but the larger ones didn't have that reason.

A slight rustle made him tense. Stupid! Focus on the hunt. He glanced around, senses on edge. After a few moments, however, nothing leapt out of the darkness, and he looked out at the trap they had set up in the clearing in front of them.

Only a recent trophy of his had made this hunt possible. He had been incredibly fortunate to stumble upon (not literally, of course) a lone four-tailed fox with Kiba a few days ago. It seemed to realize they were there, but displayed no outwardly dangerous powers. It didn't flee immediately, either, so they descended upon it and took its life before it had time to move.

Sasuke had recognized an opportunity as they traveled back to the village: use the slain fox's scent to attract another one, maybe even a greater-tailed one. Even if foxes didn't have kin to look for them, something was bound to investigate the scent at some point, and they were ready. They had rubbed the scent onto fake fur, though they didn't have time to match the exceptionally rare pale lavender color of the original on such a short timetable.

So in front of them lay the fake pelt. They had attempted to make it as innocent looking as any strange object could be in this forest, but they were counting on the curiosity or the stupidity of one of the forest's creatures. Not the safest bet, but they were prepared to defend themselves should they be immediately discovered. Aside from the crossbows they both carried, they had rigged several other crossbows with wire to go off should anything step close to the pelt. Those were hidden away in the numerous dark fissures in the tree roots, all pointing inward at the clearing.

Then Sasuke heard it—a faint rustling. Beside him, Kiba tensed. Good, they were on the same page. They both double-checked their crossbows, ensuring that their margin for error was as small as possible.

The rustling was coming from the front, so they lifted their crossbows to their shoulder, preparing for the incoming threat. However, the rustling soon turned into a loud crashing sound, as though large and small branches alike were being torn from their sockets.

Sasuke and Kiba exchanged glances. Whatever was coming was big. Very big.

Then the creature's form appeared in the blackness, and Sasuke had to stifle a gasp. This thing wasn't big, it was monstrous.

Before Sasuke could say anything, a gigantic snake burst into the clearing. Or at least its brown, scaly head; the rest of its body trailed into the darkness. Sasuke didn't even want to consider how long it was. Its head was definitely bigger than his entire body. He had encountered many snakes in his career, but never one as large as this one. He had no doubt that it could swallow him whole, and suddenly he realized that the likelihood of that being his fate was far too high.

The snake paused for a brief moment, tongue tasting the heavy air, as it seemed to consider its options. Its slit eyes roved the clearing, but Sasuke knew that their undoing would be the tongue (and the mouth, for if the digestion didn't kill them, the venom certainly would).

It was at this point that Sasuke wished their crossbows could fire more than one kunai at once. He also came to a chilling realization:

They were in hell, and no one had bothered to tell them until it was too late.

The snake made up its mind. Forgoing the pelt in the middle of the clearing, it lunged across, possibly aiming to eat both of them in one gulp. But before it could reach them, the snake tripped the rigged crossbows in the middle of the clearing, sending kunai flying at lightning speed directly into both of its eyes. Its screech deafened them, but they both managed to fire kunai into its mouth as well before diving out of the way.

Sasuke barely had time to consider the luck of the rigged crossbows' positions before the snake whipped around, running into trees as it attempted to pursue them. The loss of its eyes didn't seem to have much effect on its ability to locate them, though it did appear to be in a great deal of pain. Unfortunately, they had been forced to dive in opposite directions to avoid the snake's initial lunge, so now they were separated by its massive body.

Sasuke attempted to reload his crossbow as quickly as possible as he leapt up onto an oversized root in the clearing to get a safer vantage point. He realized far too late, however, that the snake wasn't aiming for him; it had turned toward Kiba, who had stumbled and was attempting to recover.

Sasuke watched in horror as the snake lunged again. Kiba had reloaded his crossbow, but he too realized too late what was coming. The snake's jaws clamped down on his body, one of its jagged fangs sliding right through his stomach. Kiba let out a bloodcurdling scream before raising his crossbow and firing it directly into the snake's upper jaw. Then he was gone; the serpent opened its mouth wide and he vanished, swallowed whole.

Shit. Kiba was gone. Dead. No, no time to think about that now.

Sasuke forced himself to focus as the snake swung around wildly, searching for its other prey. It only took a moment for it to pinpoint Sasuke's location, but its movements were frenzied as it lunged one more time.

But Sasuke was ready. The snake was almost finished. He blocked out everything that had just happened, ignoring the pain and fear of losing a comrade in such a horrible manner, and brought the crossbow up to his shoulder. As the snake opened its mouth wide to engulf his entire body, Sasuke fired, and the kunai lodged itself right next to the one that Kiba had fired earlier.

The snake screeched, but its momentum could not be stopped. Sasuke moved to jump out of the way, but the giant form clipped him as it soared past, sending him flying into the air. He saw the snake crash into a tree with a sickening crunch and realized that they might share the same fate. The ground was too far away and a tree was getting closer by the second. If he had been travelling feet-first, he might have been able to cushion the impact enough with chakra to not break anything. As it was, he was set to hit the tree on his side.

He could do nothing as the tree rushed toward him except hope that he could still make it out of this alive. But that hope was looking more dubious by the second. He only felt pain for an instant on impact before the world burst into blackness before his eyes.