Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any thing in it, just this story.
If there is terms here you don't know there is a dictionary at the bottom.
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"You have your orders! Pursue him immedietly!" barked the voice of the commanding shinobi.
"Uphold the honor of the Kirigakure Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai!"
The head of a Kirigakure ANBU squad had just given ten squad members orders to catch a just recently escaped shinobi.
He wanted him alive.
He wanted him before he arrived within another countrie's borders.
He wanted it to be as quick as possible.
Ten ninja may have seemed unnecessary, but if they were to catch a renagade ninja alive, they would to overwhelm him.
The ten men bowed and ran out of the gates of Kirigakure as fast as they could toward the sun rising in the distance.
They found the tracks of the man they were searching for leading east.
They soon entered the forest that surounded the village, bounding through the morning dew that had coated the grass.
They had soon began to jump from tree branch to tree branch, gaining momentum with every leap.
The forerunner suddenly immediatly ground to a halt and raised his hand as though he had a declaration to make.
The nine behind hime stopped almost as soon as his hand shot up.
The eyes that peered through the masks of the ninja seen a glint thanks to the morning sunlight.
It was steel wire.
The shinobi looked up to see the metal wire meshed throughout the whole forest.
"It must be trip wire..." the forerunner thought.
The ten unkowingly had simultaneously thought the same.
The leader, who seemed te be the forerunner, made a hand sign and the ten began to move with caution,
watching their every move.
They had to assume that it would'nt look good if the wire was touched.
Unfortunately, one of the ten had just made ANBU and wasn't quite used to these kind of situations.
Every step he made was a step closer to a nervous trip.
" I won't mess up, I won't mess up, I wont mess up, I can't mess up!" were the words that ran through his head.
The nine others were watching him with weary eyes, almost wishing that he would have come along on a different mission.
His steps were almost sloppy as he continued on, going from tree to tree until finaly, he slipped.
The other nine's head shot backward to see what would happen.
The ninja made a disgruntled groan as he slipped on a tree branch and began falling backwards, only to see a mask stare him in the face.
His heart was pounding uncontrollably as he came to the realization that he had been caught by the shinobi behind him.
The on that had caught him sneered behind his mask at the newcomer.
"Hmph, baka." almost came out of his mouth.
The caught ninja chuckled nervously as he began to stand up, relieved that he had been saved.
Almost as soon as he straightened up, his chest met the wire.
The man gasped outloud, but... nothing happened.
The gasp was soon followed by nervous laughter as the new ANBU chuckled to himself.
Was it a trick?
The laughter was cut short by massive chain of explosions as the two ANBU that had been standing on the tree branch were ingulfed in flames and splinters.
They fell to the ground to be crushed by toppling trees.
The eight remaining immediately ran eastward, now at full speed and disregarding any more steel wire, that one trip must've set off all of the explosives.
They made their way out of the inferno leaving their two probably dead comrades behind, not showing a sign of remorse.
The eight escaped the grasp of the flaming forest that could of been their grave to see that the sun was now in the middle of the baby-blue ocean that was the sky, it was now early afternoon.
They caught sight of a port that had a small ship.
He peered ahead at the ocean that meet his eyes to see a dot on the horizen.
"It must be him!" he thought.
He began ordering the others to get ready to set sail.
The time it would take to get the ship ready would definitely give the renagade more space, but they would make up for it with speed, after all, riding a ship was bound to be faster than running on water.
The eight had made preperation in a few minutes, knowing that time was not something they could waste.
The leader had taken hold of the wheel, himself being trained to sail.
As soon as he had adjusted the wheel, an explosion devoured the back of the ship and quickly sent the rest of the ship up in flames.
"More explosives!" he shouted aloud.
"How careless I was, I should've checked the ship for any traps or faults!", were his thoughts as he abandoned the vessel with six others.
He looked at the men that were with him.
One...two...three...four...five...six...seven...eight?
There wasn't an eighth?
They all came to the came to the bleak realization that they were missing someone after they finished their headcount.
He couldn't have been caught in the explosion could he!?
The leader thought of going in after him but the ship was already falling apart and time was of the essence.
He quickly thought about and pointed at his nearest lackey.
"You, go in there and get him out of there there, catch up with us!"
The squad member ran off into the fiery mess as the other seven ran on the surface of the water.
It seemed that they were in for the long haul.
They each threw a soldier pill into their mouths to ward off fatigue.
He didn't know how they were going to catch up to the other ninja like this, but he could'nt just give up.
After what seemed like hours of running, they had made it to the next island that was part of the archipelago that was the Water Country.
Footprints in the sand made it evident were he was heading as they came from a small boat and lead into another dense forest.
They knew better than to walk right into this man's footprints, he had already proved himself as a worthy opponent so he had probably set a trap in his wake.
They saw a glint in the entrance of the forest, instantly recognizing it as steel wire.
He was so sick of it.
He stood a good distance back and threw a kunai at it and severed the wire.
A volley of shuriken and kunai flew at the group, intent on killing.
They deflected the metal objects with kunai of their own, avoiding fatal injury.
The seven approached the forest edge with caution, each imagining what kind of trap had been laid before them.
Their curiosity was soon answered as one ninja was struck by a kunai in his side that sliced the air sending him to the ground.
The other six looked behind them to see their comrade lying on the ground with a weapon protruding from his side.
The ninja lying on the ground silently cursed to himself as he pulled the kunai out of his side and began applying a medical jutsu on himself.
This particular squad had been acquired to learn decent medical jutsu incase of a situation like this.
What was it that threw that?
Had he activated a trip wire?
Or was someone throwing it?
He looked at a thin wire on the ground that was coated in green paint.
Considering that the thick canopy had blocked most sunlight and the dark color had blended in with the surroundings,
he wasn't suprised that he didn't see it.
He stood up as he finished the jutsu and spoke outloud with the wire in hand.
"Do you see this? It's a special wire, camoflagued."
He turned to his superior as the others observed the wire.
"Captain, it isn't safe down here, we should travel higher."
The rest nodded in agreement, murmuring to themselves.
The captain merely nodded and jumped on a tree branch, know more catious.
The rest his example and began leaping from branch to branch.
It wasn't too late that the scenario replayed itself with another ANBU, displaying that the forest wasn't safe anywhere.
They all kept a lookout for more wire, wich was quite difficult and from time to time narrowly dodged a kunai flung from seemingly nowhere.
They eventually made their way out of the forest to see the sun falling down on the horizen.
They were losing time!
They made their way through the clearing that appeared before them and through the next jungle.
They had to catch this man, failure was not an option.
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"Hokage-sama! We have an urgent problem!" said the voice of a chunnin that normally stood gaurd at the gates of the village.
Sarutobi, the current Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village, looked at the man with a relaxed, calm gaze from his desk in his office in the mansion that was to be home and the work place for Hokages.
The Hokage never liked to be interupted in the middle of paperwork, wich he was just recently filling out with the smallest amounts of enthusiasm, but he was known for his patience.
"What is it?" he calmy answered back in a gruff, old voice.
The gaurd approached the elderly man ready to announce what the case was.
"We have a ninja from the Hidden Mist here to see you."
"What does he want?" Sarutobi pondered outloud.
"He says he has a problem to discuss." the gaurd plainly said.
A problem to discuss?
Why a ninja, why not an emissary, why not by messanger bird, and why did he have to go straight to the Hokage himself?
This spelled trouble.
"Hokage-sama, what would you do?"
"All troubles have to be dealt with eventually, might as well do it now." Sarutobi thought inside his head.
"Did you let him inside the village?"
"No sir, he is waiting at the gates as we speak."
Good, he could be a spy or an assassin.
Sarutobi sat there for some time, thinking the situation over carefully.
"Bring him here." he finally replied.
"Gaurded?" the man asked.
"Of course." the Hokage replied.
The gaurd ran out of the room to go fetch the ninja after bowing in respect.
The Hokage cleaned his already neat desk to make his large office tidier, readying himself for a conversation that would probably be very time consuming.
After seating himself at his desk he waited several moments until a knock at his door recieved his attention.
"Come in." was the old shinobi's reply to the knock.
The door opened to reveal five ninja walk in with a boy that looked to be 16 or 17.
He looked him up and down sizing him up head to toe.
He had dark brown hair that reached down to the blue and white plaid jacket he wore over a red shirt that had sleeves that reached to his wrists, he noticed the katakana on the left wrist of his red shirt.
He took notice of his hands, being wrapped in bandages;he also saw a small plate of metal protruding from the bandages at the very bottom of his wrists,
that would prove very effective for the open palm taijutsu.
His eyes were somewhat narrow with misty colors, it seemed he had hazel eyes.
The hair covered his forehead and the top of his ears, making it slightly difficult to really see his face.
He wore his headband protector around his neck, its color complimenting his plaid jacket.
He wore regular blue pants that had pouches and holsters with a seathed katana at his hip.
Sarutobi managed to catch a glimpse if the blade that was slung over his back also.
His attire was different than that of your regular Hidden Mist shinobi; Sarutobi liked variety though.
He looked to be 5'10" and was somewhat muscular, he didn't see any fat on him.
Overall, he looked to be a well fit ninja.
The ninja in the middle of the five spoke up to the elderly shinobi.
"Hokage-sama, should we leave the room?"
Sarutobi looked at the boy once more.
He didn't look to have any malicous intent, in fact, he looked almost timid if it were possible.
He looked into the boy's eyes.
"Yes, but stand gaurd outside the door." he commanded cooly.
"You never know what could happen." were the thoughts that rang out in his head.
The five ninja bowed respectfully and walked out of the room.
Sarutobi's voice soon followed that of the door closing.
"What is your name?" he asked calmy.
The noise that came afterwards was almost a mumble, his voice being slightly deep.
"Kuroshin." he answered quietly.
Sarutobi barely caught what he said, but continued.
"So Kuroshin, what is it that you have come to talk with me about?"
The boy leaned into the Hokage's face, he knew that he mumbled sometimes,
so he wanted to make it easier on him, that and what he was about to say would best not be heard by any gaurds.
"I've come from the Village Hidden in the Mist."
"Yes, I've been told." Sarutobi answered back.
"I've decided to leave the Hidden Mist Village and come to the Village Hidden in the Leaves."
Sarutobi's face immediatly tensed.
"You're saying that you have ran from the Hidden Mist Village to join this Village"
the now serious Hokage asked.
This meant that they would be getting some kind of message from his village soon.
Something about missing-nins.
"Yes." Kuroshin said.
He immediatly dropped to his knees in a begging position.
"Please..., Please, let me stay! I'm willing to give you information on the village, I'll work for you village for the rest of my life, just please let me stay!"
Sarutobi's serious face slowly faded away and his frown turned into a slight smile.
If this boy was an assassin or a spy, he was a good actor.
He grabbed the boys hands and gently pulled him up.
He didn't know what he had gone through at the Mist Village, but if it was bad enough to risk getting caught and sentenced to death, he surely could'nt turn him down.
"You said you would work for me hmmm?" he said as the boys eyes met his.
"Yes sir." he almost whispered.
"How does becoming a Hidden Leaf shinobi sound?" he said smiling.
"H-huh?" was all that managed to come out of Kuroshin's dumbfounded mouth.
"You must have amazing talent if you were to outwit Anbu, survive for days journey, and find your way to this village.
Their is no doubt you used to be a ninja with that headband around your neck."
The boy stood up with a face of hope.
"Does that mean your going to let me stay?" he said excitedly.
"Only if your willing to be a member of this family."
"Family?" he said confused.
What did he mean by family?
"Yes, family." the red and white dressed man said.
"This village is one big family to me.
As Hokage I am the father, so it is my obligation to protect this family I love, as it is with every other ninja here."
The boy stood there pondering over what this whimsical old man just said.
Family..., he couldn't remember what it was like to have a family.
He finally came to a conclusion after much thought.
"I-I accept." he answered.
The Sandaime merely chuckled.
"Welcome to the family." he said with a broad smile.
He wasn't expecting the village to welcome him with open arms,
but to actually have the Hokage do so was the last thing he expected.
The Hokage looked out the window with its amazing view over the city that was called a village.
"But before you become a shinobi for this nation, tell me how you got here."
"Well..." he said as he reached for a chair.
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This ninja was a defector of the Village Hidden Mist who left the village of his own violition,
a ninja that had supposedly pledged loyalty to a village until death part him from his oath.
The ninja had been heading east towards Konohagakure, or rather the Village Hidden in the Leaves.
He had left the village at 5:00 in the morning while everybody save the watchmen and gaurds were sound asleep.
He had studied the schedule for the shift change of the of the aforementioned;
he knew that the watchmen would notice that someone had left soon after his attempted escape, even if he left while no one was watching, but even a single second extra would be worth the studying.
He had invaded the storage shed soon after he had woken sometime around 4:00,
taking a fair share of weapons such as kunai, shuriken, senbon, explosive tags, steel wire,
and so on from the surplus of tools and items.
Some might ask how he had gone about doing so, since any smart Kage would adequetly guard such valuables.
Luckily, this shinobi had been trained to pick locks and was versed in many stealthy approaches along with knock-out techniques.
The gaurds didn't stand a chance.
He hid the unconcious bodies in whatever he could find, dumpsters, alleys, holes etc.
He wouldn't take long, if he did, the ninja's platoon leader's request for a status report,
via wireless headset, would go unanswered for to long, only to attract the attention of more ninja.
That would ruin everything.
He soon left afterwards, leaving no trace of him being anywhere other than his apartment.
No one saw his almost flawless escape, as he had left the gates stealthily at the time of the shift change at 5:00.
As he entered the woods, he put the steel wire and explosive tags to use, spinning tangled webs of steel throughout the forest, parts of the wire under explosive tags.
If any one were to trip them, the tags would explode, leaving an inferno in his wake.
It would take quite a ninja to get out of it.
He didn't like killing people, but this was the way it had to be.
If he were to encounter someone, he would try to avoid combat, since wasting his time fighting would only slow him down and get him caught.
The rogue ninja made his way through the woods and as he expected, a veritable chain of explosions met his ears.
They were coming.
He was headed toward a port that wasn't but a few hours away.
If he could get a boat going quickly, he could get a head start along with the one he had just recieved, making it almost impossible to catch up with him.
He would boat his way to one island then run to the next and the next and then finally, the peninsula.
To most, that escape plan would have been suicidal, unless they had a soldier pill.
He fished a soldier pill out of his pocket, popping it into his mouth as he was moving.
A few hours later, he had found the beach and his boat.
He had thought ahead and tied steel wire on the tiller of the only other boat remaining.
The wire led to an explosive tag, meaning that if anyone were to steer this boat,
the tiller would rip the explosive tag and activate it, sinking the ship.
He leapt on the boat and began rowing right away; he couldn't let down his gaurd a second.
What was like hours of rowing rewarded him with the thud of wood hitting the shoreline.
He immediatly began running southwest, fatigue barely scratching him,
thanks to the soldier pill.
He left traps in his trail, since any decent ANBU member could walk on water and get to any other island, that is if there was any left after a burning forest and exploding ship.
He purposly left his trail in the sand, wich was leading into some woods.
His footprints ended right next to a tree, wich is where he put his trap.
The forerunner would get pop the wire and have a volley of kunai and shuriken fly into the air to stop him in his traps.
But any ninja that made ANBU would'nt walk right in into somebodies' footprints.
So he made another trap following it.
Since he was runing low on wire, he only used it in small amounts.
He made trip wire inbetween tree stumps and limbs.
These wire were quite thin, so if it were tripped it would break.
There were small strands of thicker wire on the other sides of the thin wire with kunai and shuriken on them.
So breaking them would fling the sharp projectiles at the ANBU following.
The speed that he made these traps was amazing.
His natural talent and soldier pill combined made the traps easy to make.
He was glad that he had practiced making them before he left...
He was done with backhanded tricks, now he was just going to focus on getting to Konoha.
He made his way across the island and began running on the surface of the water to the next one, but not before he caught the presence of trackers still following.
"These guys are stubborn..." he thought to himself.
He had to push himself harder!
He swam to the next island in an hour, his wet clothes weighing him down.
But this wasn't going to keep him from running.
If it weren't for the soldier pill, he probably would'nt have made it this far.
He did this again running from this island also.
Finally, he made it to the peninsula that protruded from the Fire Country.
He was so close!
But he couldn't let his gaurd down yet, you never know what could happen.
He dove into the dense forest that was the Fire Country, panting and heaving.
He had lost them it seemed.
He would push himself to his death if he had to, he would be sentenced to die if he were caught anyway.
He made his way to his salvation at last...
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Sarutobi had been listing intently to the whole story, amazed at what the boy had told him.
Such elaborate traps in such a short amount of time...
"You have been through quite an ordeal, Kuroshin."
"Yeah, it took alot of planning and time to do it.
I feel blessed that I made it here in the condition I did."
Sarutobi looked at the boy's condition, it didn't look to good.
In fact he looked horrible, his eyelids were slowly falling up and down and his stomach growled ferociously as he sat there.
Kuroshin chuckled while clutching his stomach.
"I'll get you something to eat and a warm bed to sleep i- huh?"
Kuroshin was already fast asleep in the chair he had pulled up while telling his story.
Maybe he could get him something to eat after he slept...
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Kirigakure The Water Country, its village being the Village Hidden in the Mist
Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai ANBU, its a disambiguation, like An from Ansatsu and Bu from Butai, like the SWAT teams.
It means Special Assassination and Tactical Squad.
Konohagakure The Fire Country, its village being the Village Hidden in the Leafs
Hokage The leader of the the Hidden Leaf Village, it means Fire Shadow.
Sama A Japanese honorific suffix.
Kunai A Japanese throwing knife, originally a farming tool with a leaf shaped blade.
Shuriken What some people call a throwing star, a small star shaped blade for throwing.
It means hand hidden blade.
Senbon Iron throwing needles mad for peircing.