Becoming Human
Chapter One; Mission Gone Awry
Summary: Naruto Uzumaki, code name, "Fox." is the youngest ANBU member in Konoha history and one of the most decorated Ninja in the village. His years of service turned him into a cold cynical inhuman force of death, but when the Hokage demands him to join a Genin team under his best friend Kakashi Hatake he slowly realizes that there is a lot in life that he's been missing.
Bold: New setting, end of chapter, or physical sound.
Italics: Internal thoughts, quotation of other characters, and emphasis of word.
Chapter One.
Fox stood with his arms crossed outside of a tavern, his face was scrunched up in a scowl: his damn age had him playing look out for Dog who was currently inside trying to lure their target, Mitsuki Naomi, an rank A missing-nin who had turned to attacking merchants moving across the border into the Fire Country. The Third Hokage wanted his best duo to take care of the problem due to the fact that it would soon become an international crisis if they did nothing to protect foreign merchants from nations that had strong diplomatic relations with Konoha.
Her band of pirates were easy enough to take down as they had gathered up into one camp outside of the town which made them quick and easy targets. It had been an unforeseen obstacle to have Naomi take a smaller band of her men out into the town to drink and harass. Her pyschological profile listed her weakness to seduction as a useful tool that could be used to change the setting into their terms.
Dog had ten minutes to lure the lot of them out so they could spring his trap. Time was running low, soon he might have to engage within the tavern, stealth had been a prior priority but with his comrade possibly at risk they might have to be loud. Four more minutes until he made an offensive move.
Crshhh!
Fox felt a strong jet of air as Dog was propelled through the wall of the tavern. He looked to see a pissed woman with brown hair and brown eyes dressed up in clothing that he would expect from a pirate of the seas, her eyes looked down at Dog who was sitting on his ass, still transformed to avoid cover. "Show your mask you perverted ANBU!" She screeched at him, and within moments the jutsu wore off leaving Dog with his mask on and his silver hair blown back.
Naruto knew very well about her elemental affinity for air blades. He began to process his next move before a gruff voice interrupts, "Give it up you Konoha scum! You make one more move and the bartender gets it!" a Pirate spoke loudly with a blade held to a young woman's throat. Fox looked to his partner, "Fox, you handle the hostage situation and any other Pirates scattered throughout here, some are amongst the townspeople. I have Naomi." he nods before taking a glance at the hostage holder. It wouldn't be the first time someone took a hostage and tried to bargain. Dog took off away from the town and the enraged woman made chase. It would be simpler now that he didn't have to worry about stray air blades decapitating him when he tried to take down this fool. He knew there would be time to meet up once he took care of this and the stragglers left behind.
It would only take a simple sleight of hand and if he could cause a momentary loss of focus he could easily replace the hostage with a shadow clone and swiftly take the bastard down. He scanned the inside of the bar noticing three unconscious men lying on the floor next to the bar stools where they had likely been sitting before Dog attacked.
"Look; this ends one of two ways. You leave in a body bag or you let hostage go and I might only break those teeth out of your head." Unbeknownst to the hostage holder he had made the hand signs to form his clone which stood directly behind him and quickly darted behind a nearby pillar and gradually creeping closer until he took the form of one of the unconscious Pirates.
"Big talk from a small runt, your village must be truly pathetic if they consider you an elite Shinobi." Fox knew that the swap had already been made. His clone had used the replacement jutsu alongside his transformation jutsu in order to swap the girl from the clone who was now on the floor, unconscious and away from the mad man. He took a step forward, the thug drew his sword closer to the throat of the clone, "Watch it! I know you can move fast but if you even move her from my blade now you might as well have killed her yourself."
Naruto vanished from sight of the Pirate, who knew all too much that his leverage was of no use, "You're killing her kid!" he drove the sword into the neck of who he thought was the bartender, but within seconds a puff of smoke blinded him as a fist collided with the cheek of the Pirate sending him into the wall behind him, a loud audible crunch could be heard as the Pirate hit the wall, signifying the instant kill.
The girl awoke to the sound and looked to his emotionless mask that hid an emotionless face; he was all too used to being looked at as a monster in his very short civilian life before he'd begun training for his role in the service under the Hokage. This wasn't the first time he'd killed, and it almost certainly wouldn't be the last time he killed, after all in a brutal world like this one the good people needed monsters to fight the battles that they never could to allow people like this girl to continue on living with a clean conscience. Dog had told him on the very first mission they had together after he completed his training that the path of a Shinobi like him would be one of committing some of the most henious acts in the name of a greater good. It was that motto that he lived by and after his very first kill on that same mission, which much like this one involved a hostage situation in which the person they were protecting had been captured.
Naruto always took a back seat from then on out as the boy who had been one of the most bright hearted individuals had to become something...inhuman to complete his duty and live within his mind without falling into insanity. The very spirit within him became the inspiration for his mask; the symbolic face of the monster he had been born with took control when he became Fox. To him Naruto only existed as his true mask, a cover that would protect the knowledge of his work from anyone who knew the blonde haired prankster that is a nobody at the Academy.
A arrow soared towards Fox, aimed directly at his head, but moments before it hit a fatal shot he took a side step as the arrow loged in the ground by his feet. Several men stood in front of him. "Hold it kid! We've got you surrounded, if you give us your mask we might not main you. After all it's safe to assume that you have quite a bounty on your head, a killer like you must have many enemies who have a heafty bounty on your head."
"In order to make an enemy that means I would have left someone alive." The Pirate stepped back as he felt the intensity of the last word the child spoke. It was unnatural to see a child act so...cold. Boss had told him that the men after them were some of the most effective killers on the planet, but to think that a kid would be one of them was nigh incomprehensible.
"Before you make a decision you might regret, do know that you will have a hard time stopping all of us from ending that girl that you killed one of our best men over. Despite your power you are still human, and as far as I know no human could stop every single arrow we've got from ending her life."
"I stopped being a man when I put on this mask. Try me, and I will kill you all with your own arrows." A bluff, sure, but they just needed to feel a little bit more fear. Scare tactics were used heavily against civilian-level targets, after all when they could barley understand what was happening the mean man in the mask seemed like a god like figure that made the legends of the ANBU seem like ungodly dealers of death.
Fox estimated that he could have all these men disarmed in ten seconds and dead within the next ten. He flung a storm of kunai in all directions. This act caused the Pirates to attempt to release their arrows in a swarm meant to kill everything in the broken husk of the tavern, but the strings from every single bow had been cut. With a second wave of kunai the men lay dead or dying. One tried to look up, "Save me...please. I could open the secret box where we keep all of the money the gang has, just let me go." Fox tilts his head. "You cannot buy me out."
"Every man has a price. There is plenty saved, you can have anything."
"Like I said; when I wear this mask I am no man." He walked down to finish the man off with a simple burst of chakra to the forehead, killing him instantly. The eyes of a terrified town were all drawn on him as they looked on with the same eyes that he'd been used to seeing his entire life. They looked at their savior with terror, he was okay with that, he was content with being the necessary evil to do good.
He trusted that Dog could handle Naomi on his own, but Fox knew that if the two worked together that it would be a cleaner take down. He turned in the direction that Dog had directed the fight in and left in a blur, leaving behind the chaos of what should have been a stealth take down.
When he happened upon them the results were not good. Fox watched as Kakashi stood in front of not one, but two Pirates with his clothes slashed and small scratches across his body. "Fox, the second one is her brother, Atari Naomi, also A-Ranked Missing-nin. He has an affinity for water based attacks. Proceed with extreme caution."
Behind the mask Fox narrowed his eyes; this was more than a simple coincidence. The gangs movements had been tracked consistently since reports of raids began and they never had any report of two A-ranked Missing-nin traveling together. This indicated two things: one that there was a traitor who had funneled information to the enemies so they could prepare, and two that this mission had become immensely more dangerous.
"Really? That's what you call back up? A brat?" Atari laughs, "I got the kid, Naomi, you can clean up the hound." Fox knew that their overconfidence gave him an immediate advantage. Most people were downright terrified of him, while others didn't take him seriously enough. The advantage of the mind was a key advantage in every engagement, by treating any opponent with the respect their skills have earned, while making them underestimate him he could gain that advantage.
Kakashi nodded to him before sizing up against Mitsuki, "Time to die you damn mutt!" the Copy-Nin smirks as he does several hand signs before touching the ground, which immediately crashes the ground in beneath her.
Mitsuki had thought the attack little other than a distraction until something took hold of her ankle and clamped on tight. Kakashi took the opportunity to jump down to her level and look her in the eye. "Tell me who you got your information from. There is no way that you could have called for your brother without a rat tipping you off to our presence."
"Fuck you!"
"Oh, he likes that you said that!" The dog's bite grew even tighter. "I am specialized in the art of torture, it was one of my greatest strengths back in the war when I had to get vital information out of captives, maybe I will paralyze you with one simple blow to the back of the neck. Your only way out is to tell me what I want to know, now."
Mitsuki began to laugh at his threat; this fool really thought his pooch could keep her down for long? A jet of expelled from her body as she shot up from the crater. Kakashi followed suit as he pulled down his mask to show his Sharingan. The woman shot a solid blade of air out at him, almost instinctively he dodges the lethal attack. Soon multiple were fired off at him as he avoids every single blade. "She shouldn't have much chakra left. For an A-rank she is very careless in her approach."
In that moment he fully understood the trap that had been played as Kakashi felt a deep pressure within his body. "You fool! The blades were merely a decoy! I knew that you dodge each of my attacks using that eye of yours, but you never realized that you were breathing in air with my chakra in it."
A small smile played across Kakashi's face, despite the pressure. He began to heat up the extra air within his lungs as he exhaled a giant fire ball at Mitsuki who stood with a look of shock at what she saw, the ball sending her back as her clothing burns from the extreme heat of his attack. "Your air only made my fire more powerful." Mitsuki glares at him before forming a ball of condensed air in her hands before releasing a fierce cyclone at him.
Dog dodged the initial attack with ease, but within seconds it made a sharp cut back in his direction, which lead to Kakashi flipping over the attack. "I see it's tracking me." the cyclone came to a stop and began returning to him at a fast pace, but this time when tried to dodge he couldn't move! A quick glance down to his ankles revealed to have frozen in place. He tried to crack the ice, but the mark he made had almost completely vanished before he could make another move.
Atari stood smiling at his sisters attack as it grew closer to the troublesome ANBU operative. His own battle had been put on pause as he had spawned a mass of clones to keep the boy busy. He had been surprised by the boy's lethality and cunning, an opponent that he quickly realized he could no longer underestimate when a kunai had been put into his stomach, but he saw how his sister was failing against the older ANBU agent and knew that if he provided no help that she was almost certainly dead. Her razorwind jutsu when used in combination with his permafrost jutsu had been a valuable quick kill technique that they used to dispose of Shinobi who tried to stop them in the past they had no chance to break his permafrost as it stole chakra from those it bound.
"Don't forget about me." A kunai plunged itself into Atari's side as he broke focus on his jutsu as Fox pulled the blade out before jamming it back into his side. The Pirate howls in pain before using his chakra to form razor water droplets they were partially sharpened into sharp points and slashing the boy across the chest as blood began to leak from the long scratches his attack made. "H-How many damn kunai could this kid be keeping in that uniform?"
Kakashi felt the chakra hold from Atari break as he then broke out of the ice just as the wind slashed the ground and grass into pieces. He then vanished before reappearing behind Mitsuki and grabbing her arms as the attack began to return to the source. "Let go of me! You're killing us both!"
His grip on her arms only increased before a loud snap was heard. "You're not going to avoid this, enjoy your final moments." Her eyes widen as the cyclone races towards them at a brisk pace, and within seconds it was right on top of them as she felt a kick in the back which propelled her directly into the cyclone.
The Copy-nin flips completely out of the way as the chakra tornado began to dissipate as it's user left the world of the living. Before he could do anything else, his body became caught within a fierce globe of water which within seconds froze up to his neck. "You will die for that!"
Fox, who was gripped by a rough torrent of water saw an opportunity in the man's loss of focus, he then began to struggle to no avail against the water around him as it grips even tighter against his resistance. "I take it the kid might mean something to you? I will pierce him through the heart for killing my sister while you stay there and wait to die."
The younger ANBU loosens up and begins to think; if he wanted to break free he would have to somehow break his opponent's concentration and chakra flow with an attack, but the distance he was held at was too far away and his arms were held. He could always use Dog's special technique...but that would likely fry them both considering the water was in contact with them both and it would be hard to survive such a shock. He looked over at his comrade and began to think of all the missions they'd been on together since he picked him up off the street that one fateful night after he'd been beaten to a bloody pulp. You gave me a purpose...and a friend. I wish you well, Dog.
A ball of electricity formed in his hand as the water began to freeze and move towards his body at a frightening pace. Fox struggles to reach the water with the pressure on his body heightening, but he gets close enough that his attack makes full contact with the water and travels both directions of the stream, into Atari and Fox, tearing the ice into pieces as both fall to the ground within seconds and Kakashi then breaks out of his icey prison and immediately turns his focus onto his partner. He puts an ear to the boy's chest and hears no traces of a heartbeat. "DAMN IT! You knew that would kill you, didn't you? You shouldn't have done that..."
There was no time to think as Kakashi formed his own version of the Chidori and lightly pressed it to his chest, giving his heart a necessary jolt. He quickly put his ear to the boy's chest again and breathed a deep sigh of relief when he hears a faint heartbeat. "I never thought I'd be thankful for that demon in his stomach, but it should take care of much of the damage done."
He felt an urge to kill that son of a bitch, Danzo who had influenced the Hokage into allowing a ten year old into ANBU. Kakashi could remember clear as day when he picked the boy up off the street and brought him to see the Hokage, and how Danzo cared soooo much about Naruto's safety that making him into a warrior just like Itachi and Kakashi before him was the only way for him to ever be able to survive in a village that hated him.
The heavily influenced vote amongst council members made it hard for the Hokage to say no lest he risk descent amongst the ranks within the council if they viewed him incompetent and moved to replace him at the head of the village. Everyone knew the true motive was to provoke to Hokage into such a move so that the cowardly scum that was Danzo could make a play for the position.
The council had been ruled by their emotions and had hoped that making the boy a forced conscript in ANBU would eventually get him and the Kyuubi killed while keeping him out of the village as much as possible.
The Hokage knew that it was a trap and decided to compromise as opposed to fighting back and being deposed, so the decree had been made that it would be an S-ranked secrete that a boy like Naruto was serving in the ANBU and that the boy would be trained by the only one he could trust: Kakashi Hatake. It was from that moment on that Kakashi had taught the boy much of what he knew and with a whole year of training he got the boy up to par with some of the best in the ANBU, with of course having the chakra of a demon to bolster his already natural talent.
"Dah..." The now conscious thirteen year old weakly exclaims as he looks into his red eye. "Wha happend?" the older man sat in silence for a second. "You died, I restarted your heart and the Kyuubi did the rest. We need to leave before any more of them crawl out of the wood work, I'll take care of confirming our mission success."
The boy's vision became hazy again and within moments he fell back unconscious. Kakashi sighs; things might be worse than he realized. "What have they done to you."
Konoha
1 Week Later
Naruto awoke with a stiff feeling all over his body, quickly noticing the flow of air touching his skin he raises his hand to his face. "Where is my mask?" He internally asks and almost as if Kakashi had been reading his mind the older man speaks, "It's gone, you're in a hospital back in Konoha." the boy shrieks. "How long have I been out if we're already back here?"
"One week...I have something important to talk to you about, with an order directly from the Hokage himself." Naruto nods to him before Kakashi starts, "Your career in ANBU is over, as is mine. Lord Hokage ordered it to be so on the account of an unforeseen heart defect as a result from an unhealthy amount of stress that lead to heart failure on our last mission."
"WHAT? I have no heart defect, do I l? The Fox would never let such a thing happen." Kakashi shakes his head, "You're done because it's the perfect time for you to be done. You've outlived our expected life expectancy several times over and now you've had a medical incident that should please the sadistic bastard Danzo into letting you off the hook...for now. Frankly, I agree because you should have never had to live such a life in peacetime, you shouldn't have to be the man who has the blood of at least a hundred men of different backgrounds on your hands."
"No...They need us more than ever; why do you think they sent the best team in the ANBU to handle a missing-nin who was doing nothing but raiding border towns? Because everyone else is looking for an excuse to invade and kill us all! War is right here and I can tell it's always a matter of time before the whole thing will blow up, and when it does they will need us more than ever."
"Your logic might be true, but that doesn't change that in order for you to serve in a military war you need to understand what you are fighting for and why you're killing. Otherwise you might crack under the pressure, and then you're no help to anyone. If you have nothing to live for then you won't."
"So then what do you want me to do? Try and make friends in a village that hates me?"
"The Hokage and I have talked about the matter and we've already come to an agreement on what you need to do: soon you will take the final exam at the Academy and when you pass—which should be easier than breathing for a Shinobi of your level—then you will be placed on my Genin team and be a cute little student and help old ladies walk dogs and repair houses for flood victims!"
"What? I'm already way past that!"
"Sure you are, but that isn't the goal: you're supposed to be making new friends. I'll tell you what: you can have one pick of anyone in your class to be our third team member."
"Anyone but Sasuke."
"Okay other than that one."
"You got him, didn't you?"
"Had too; I'm the only one with a Sharingan eye who can train the boy."
"So I'm going from assasinations and espionage to making friends with a bunch of borderline civies and a Uchiha with an ego that's bigger than his body?"
"Yup, it's gonna be great."
"Kill me."
"Why would I do that when I tried so hard to bring you back?"
"..."
"Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday, have fun and if you bomb the test on purpose it just means that I'm gonna have make up an embarrassing lie about how you passed."
"Shit."