Summary: The fairytale you've always known was a lie, because it all started with an orange hood. Once upon a time...
Warnings: Character death, blood, violence, graphic scenes, dark scenes, language
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
An Orange Hood Tainted Red
by Aesura
It was nearly midnight. A grinning moon shone down from a black sky pinpricked with stars. The forest had become a deep labyrinth of darkness, full of winding paths and malicious creatures that lurked just out of reach of the moonlight. Every so often a light breeze stirred the high branches and released a few dry autumn leaves onto the forest floor, where they were quickly trampled by a passing animal. This particular animal happened to be a bulky tiger, walking on his hind legs and glancing nervously at the surrounding trees. He snuffed at the air around him, breathing in the essence of the night. The scent was crisp like the leaves and clear like the sky, but every few steps the sharp smell of unknown danger jabbed his senses. He couldn't identify what it was. He could tell that he didn't want to know.
He trekked on, unaware that the danger was much closer than he thought. A thin form was following him, moving with total silence. It would have gone unnoticed for some time had the tiger not stepped into a pool of moonlight and thrown a nervous glance over his shoulder. When he caught sight of what appeared to be a living shadow standing directly behind him he let out a startled yelp and stumbled backwards, tripping over his own feet and tail. The shadow threw its arms out from its sides and a cloak spread out behind it like the wings of a bat. In its right hand was the glimmering blade of a sickle.
Before the tiger could take off into the forest the shadow threw the weapon. The curved blade spun in the air and caught the tiger around the neck, pinning him against a tree. He stood against the rough bark of the rotting tree, his feet stretched to the toes, eyes darting fearfully around him as the shadow advanced towards him.
It stood in the moonlight, the hood of the orange cloak disguising its face. The tiger realized by its movements that it was a human, though it was like none he had seen before. This one moved like it was part human and part darkness, and spoke with a voice that dripped malice and contempt. "I have questions for you, Mizuki. Answer them and I may let you free."
Mizuki pawed at the razor sharp sickle that held his throat to the tree. His voice came like it was clawing its way from his lungs. "It's awful hard to speak…"
With a light rustle of the cloak, the human raised an arm and leaned against the handle of the sickle. "Then I suggest you hurry up."
There was a moment of silence as Mizuki gazed into the abyss of darkness that masked the human's face. Suddenly his eyes widened in scared realization. "You…you! Uzumaki Naruto…the Kyuubi no Kitsune!"
Naruto chuckled lightly while slowly putting more pressure on the sickle blade. "I see you've heard of me…from your Boss, no doubt."
The humanoid tiger let out a gruff laugh that was quickly choked to silence. "Yeah," he rasped, "I heard of you. I bet you're after the Boss."
Naruto's hood dipped down in a slight nod. "Where is he?"
"Can't say," Mizuki replied, but as the blade began to dig into his skin he said hurriedly, "I mean, he doesn't tell anyone where he's going… he goes where he pleases and no one's gonna question him…last I heard he was traveling to the next forest…stock with the fancy sword, I'm telling the truth!"
The cold steel was pressed painfully tight against his throat. Naruto leaned forward and whispered into his ragged, pointy ear, "I don't trust trashes like you that work for him."
Mizuki was squirming against the tree now, pleading to her in a panicked voice. "I swear to you, I swear it! Kami-sama strike me dead, I swear!"
She let him writhe a little longer before wrenching the blade out of the tree. Mizuki fell to a crumpled heap and staggered to his feet. He cast a final frightened glance at the deep blackness of her hood and mumbled, "Crazy bitch." Immediately afterwards he made a mad dash for the thicker trees.
Naruto watched him stumble along, then raised her sickle and let it fly with deadly speed. There was a sickening squelch, followed by the thud of her blade as it was buried in another tree. She walked over to the now headless tiger and retrieved her weapon, then stepped over his body and walked back through the small clearing.
Naruto let the hood drop to her shoulders, releasing blonde hair that was so bright it seemed to have radiated the twilight. Her orange cloak fluttered around her as the breeze picked up again. She raised her sickle before her, admiring how the moonlight glinted off the blade and enhanced the dark blood that coated it. Her ruby red lips parted in a grin and she brought the weapon closer to her pale face. Her tongue flicked out against it, lapping up the blood of her most recent victim.
When she was satisfied she swiped the rest clean on the mesh sleeves that covered her arms and hooked the weapon through her belt. She stepped back up on the narrow path and started walking. She knew where to find the notorious Boss, the snake that controlled all the beasts in the forest. For years they had been preying on countless creatures, causing death and grief throughout the land. Naruto had begun taking out beast by beast, but that had not been enough. She had to go straight to the source. The Boss, of course, had predicted that she would, and ordered his minions to murder her closest friends and family.
Naruto's fist tightened around the handle of the sickle as she remembered what had happened. Her father was the first one the monsters went after, and they succeeded. Now the Boss was targeting her grandmother, and Naruto wasn't about to let him get there first.
The night was beginning to fade by the time Naruto reached the small cottage deep in the woods. Her cloak settled around her as she swiped strands of hair out of her eyes. She reached back and pulled her hood over her head, concealing her grim determination. Her boots crunched against the dead leaves in front of the house as she walked up to the door and raised her hand to knock. When she found that the door was already partly open her heart flooded with dread. She reached into her cloak and thumbed the cool blade of the sickle, pressing it until her skin split and a small droplet of blood oozed out. Blood, yes, there would be plenty of that.
She pushed the door open while calling in a sweet voice, "Baasan?"
To the right, set back against the wall, was a large bed. The room was dark except for the flickering light of a candle that sat on the bedside table. The covers on the bed were in disarray, obviously concealing something. Naruto smirked beneath her hood. How stupid did the Boss think she was? She walked towards the bed, readying her hand on the sickle. "Baasan?" she asked again.
The shape beneath the covers she suspected was the Boss Snake didn't stir. Why wasn't he moving? She took a few more steps, then reached out and closed her left hand over the covers. In one swift move she yanked the blankets off the bed and whipped her sickle from her belt.
The snake wasn't there as she had expected. The shapeless lump beneath the covers had been a few pillows…and her grandmother's headless body. The closet door directly to her right sprang open and the Boss leapt out, neck stretched long, fangs and tongue dark and wet. Naruto swung the sickle and he dropped to the floor, howling in pain. He recovered faster than she could register and came at her again. She could see the deep cut she had made across his face as he knocked her hood away, slashing wildly at her eyes. Naruto fell to the floor with a thud, feeling a warm liquid seeping into her cloak… the cloak Baasan gave especially to her…
The Boss's long sword tore at her flesh until she blindly stabbed upwards with the sickle. Another cry from him told her she had dealt him another deep wound. They backed away from each other for a moment, breathing heavily. Naruto swiped blood out of her eyes and held the sickle ready. The livid man crouched low, panting heavily. "You're the first one to come looking for me, Kyuubi," he snarled. "Some may think of you as brave. I think of you as foolish."
He threw himself at her again and she fought him back. "Creatures that think like humans shouldn't kill humans, Orochimaru," she growled.
He laughed cruelly and sprang again. His fangs went for her throat but met the sickle instead. They stood locked for a second before Naruto ripped the sickle sideways. Orochimaru pushed away from her, nearly screaming from anger and pain. His severed tongue splashed to the floor in a puddle of blood. Without hesitation, Naruto reached over and hauled the snake into the air by the collar of his yukata.
She pressed the sickle to his stomach as he kicked feebly in her grasp. "Your days of terrorizing the forest are over, Orochimaru. I hope you enjoyed what you did to Baasan." Slowly, agonizingly, relishing every second, Naruto drew the blade across the snake's stomach. "It was your last."
He convulsed and flailed, helpless and screaming, teeth grinding until they shattered and eyes bulging from sockets as the contents of his stomach spilled onto the floor beneath him. At last his death throes slowed and stopped, and with a few final twitches of his body the snake shuddered and fell limp.
Entwined in the intestines and organs that now littered the floor was the head of Naruto's grandmother. In spite of its current state, the bodiless head still retained somewhat of a peaceful composure, blonde hair sprawled out around her young face, despite of her age. Naruto dropped the body of the snake and gathered up the head of her relative. She tenderly replaced it in the bed, then leaned over and blew out the candle. The room was thrown into pitch blackness, and the runaway shadow with the now red cloak slid out the door.