First and most importantly: If any of my friends in real life are reading this, congratulations. You found me. I'm talking to you, Abdu, Lucie and Tesni. :P
Behold! My first Naruto multi-chapter piece. I've had this plot bunny in my head for a while and I've know begun to piece some ideas together. This first chapter, however, reveals little clues to what the next chapter's gonna be. Also: it seems despite all my practice, my ability to write longer chapters hasn't improved. Dang. Sorry about that. I'll keep trying. Promise. I hope you enjoy this one.
AND FINALLY: (Sorry, last point!) This first chapter was originally what chapter two is now. I published the second chapter as the first and then decided to put a little bit more of a complex beginning into it. So, this chapter is new, but you may have already read the second one. Sorry about any confusion. My bad.
Disclaimer: I don't own the masterpiece that is Naruto or Naruto Shippuden.
Full summary: Set after Pein's attack on Konoha in Naruto Shippuden. Team Seven had been sent on a mission. As with everything, though, things always aren't as simple as they appear. A new discovery is made, one that threatens to rewrite some of the rules about what should be possible. As friendships are formed, enemies may emerge.
Rated T for violence in later chapters.
Thump thump.
He inhaled a shaky breath, wincing slightly at the dulled, throbbing pain in his chest.
Thump thump.
His eyes remained closed, all he could see behind his eyelids were countless white spots.
Thump thump.
All his limbs seemed unnaturally heavy. It took all his strength to just move his arm a little.
Thump thump.
His heartbeat was unusually erratic. After a few seconds of concentrated breathing, Naruto managed to pull himself up from where he had lay, face down, on the cold ground. His striking blue eyes finally opened, if only half-lidded. The white spots danced over his vision, and in a frankly feeble attempt to clear them away, he wiped the back of his sleeve across his eyes. Feeling his bare forehead, he noticed that sometime while he was out the knot of his headband bearing his village insignia had become undone; it lay in the mud next to him. With a shaking hand he picked it up, wiped the grit off the surface of the cool metal plate and retied it back around his head with the ease that came from years of doing so each morning.
Remembering his comrades, he looked around the area, searching for a sign of their presence. At the opposite end of the clearing, his eyes fell onto the unconscious forms of the rest of team seven. He had, he realised, recovered before them – he guessed he had the kyuubi within him to thank for his fast rate of healing.
He shifted his body a little so he could lean with his back against the tree. Naruto was never one for rules – he'd always been known for his recklessness, having a great talent at running into the fray without assessing the situation, but it was now that he felt it necessary to take a step back and follow the training drummed into all ninja. First, check the coast is clear. Then and only then help teammates and possible casualties.
He took a deep breath in, and held it. The clearing fell hauntingly quiet once again, the only noise being the gentle, steady breathing of his team. The forest around them seemed empty – he could sense no wildlife, or more importantly, chakra signatures, and hoped that his instincts would be proven to be correct and there being no enemies nearby. He didn't feel as if he was being watched. He released the breath as a sigh of relief.
Using the tree as an anchor he pulled himself up from the ground. The bark of the tree was damp and slightly scorched. The dampness suggested it had been raining, and it was only now that a cold shiver ran down Naruto's spine. He then noticed his clothing, and the ground for that matter, was wet. It'd been raining just a short time ago. Looking for an explanation to the scorch marks, a few metres from his position he saw what looked to be the remains of a small explosion. The ground was blackened and charred, with a near circular hole in the centre sunk a few centimetres deep.
What the hell had happened? What couldn't he remember?
His legs suddenly buckled underneath him. Falling to his knees, Naruto called out to his team mates, who remained unconscious. It took a few tries for his voice to come out more than just a raspy whisper. Receiving no reply, and despite his increasing dizziness, he managed to crawl over to where they lay. He reached Sakura first. She too, like he was, was lying face down. He rolled her over onto her back gently, and immediately checked her vitals like she'd taught him. She seemed fine, just knocked out. He repeated his checks on Kakashi and Sai, and breathed another sigh of relief when he found them to be fine as well. No one appeared to have any lasting injures, just a few bruises and scrapes from being knocked out.
It was then when Naruto's attention snapped to his sensei, whose eyes twitched a little before opening. He groaned when the head ache hit him with full force. Brushing off Naruto's attempts to keep him laid still, he quickly tried to stand, reaching instinctively for his weapons pouch strapped to his thigh, and wobbled a little on his feet. His student caught him before he fell, and after a few seconds helped to steady him again.
"Slowly, Kakashi-sensei."
"What happened?" Kakashi asked groggily.
"You tell me." Naruto replied in a nervous tone.
Within an hour, Sakura and Sai had also regained consciousness. Sakura had repeated the health checks on each of them, not trusting Naruto's judgement on their health, but soon came to the same conclusion. They were all frozen by the rain that they couldn't remember falling. It was relatively early, as the sun was low in the sky to the east. The air was fresh and still held the moisture of the night. The forest around them still seemed to be asleep – the birds should have started their choruses long before now.
"We need to warm up. We're in no position to defend ourselves like this." Sakura said in a stern voice.
The cold had caught up with Naruto, the strange sound of his teeth chattering echoing through the trees.
The three teens and their sensei sat side by side on the remains of a fallen tree in front of the small fire. They'd quickly collected some firewood, and after a few failed attempts at getting the damp wood to light, Kakashi had resorted to using a simple Katon jutsu to get the fire going.
"I feel like my nuts are going to fall off." Naruto said out of the blue inbetween bouts of teeth chattering.
A vein appeared on Sakura's forehead almost instantly and grabbing his collar roughly she held a clenched fist to his face.
"A girl is present! Keep saying stuff like that and I'll make sure they do!" She growled.
Naruto immediately swallowed, mumbling an apology before subtly edging a little away from her, only to suddenly glare at Sai when he remarked that he had nothing to lost in the first place.
Kakashi had said little since they'd recovered, and chose instead to ignore the noise of his students arguing. He kept his gaze on the low flames of the fire, occasionally moving to poke at its base with a stick. He didn't think now was the right time to read Icha Icha Tactics. Not because he could recite any and every page by heart (that could be quite awkward) but because he knew he'd simply find himself staring blankly at its pages. The flames danced like they were filled with life – they crackled every now and then.
"It's too quiet." Kakashi remarked unexpectedly.
All three of his students stopped speaking abruptly to look at him.
"What do you mean, sensei? Dickless here," Sai said as-a-matter-of-factly, gesturing to Naruto, "is shouting his head off."
Said ninja lunged to punch Sai but was jerked back by Sakura's hand grabbing the back his jacket collar with her unusual strength, preventing Naruto from getting within two feet of the smiling artist. Kakashi smirked a little under his mask, but continued.
"Why can't we remember what happened?" Kakashi asked, not looking from the fire.
"It's not uncommon for a person to lose their memories of a traumatic event." Sakura said, her inner medic emerging.
"But how was it traumatic? We were just knocked out, right?" Naruto said, finally having chosen to stop his attempted assault on Sai.
Kakashi raised a gloved hand to point in the direction of the small crater a short distance away.
"I'd say it was a little more than that. We can't remember anything, but the scene only has that sign of a small explosion, nothing else. It shows no signs of us attacking." Kakashi said.
"…So…?" Naruto questioned.
"So, it means we were caught off guard. We didn't expect to be attacked." Kakashi replied, pausing to pick a twig from his wild hair. "We need to piece together what we can remember before this happened, as close to the time we were knocked out as possible."
"But all I can remember…" Naruto whispered.
"…is making camp…" Sai continued, his eyes widening slightly when he realised.
Kakashi nodded. "With her."
TBC