-1Naruto: My Way
Death Brings Us All Together
By Sweet Heavens
Chapter 1:In Death Life Starts Again
Disclaimer time: I own jack shit of anything to do with Naruto. If I did then Sasuke in the manga would be dead and Sakura would be spending all her time trying to come up with sexy ways to say sorry to Naruto for all the stupid things she has called him while recruiting every woman in the village (It appears to be a wondrous place where all the women even the old are fucking hot) to help in the deeds!!
SEE AND TELL ME IF YOU LIKE MY STYLE OR NOT? THIS IS A SAMPLE OF WORK I HOPEFULLY WILL SHOW YOU ALL IN THE FUTURE!
Member of "Otaku Town"
It was a suitable day for this saddest of occasions.
The cloud's were dark and moody. They leaked the drizzle of the coldest rain time and time again down upon the inhabitants of the green field like it was crying and was now making it boggy and hard to move on. Occasionally lightning would crash like the gods were wailing and reminding everyone how dangerous it was to be out in the open while a cold wind cut hard into the body of anything silly enough to be out in a day like this.
There was no discrimination between people. All walks of life from the very old to the very young, 20 people awkwardly stood circling a soaked nest of wood in their black funeral attire, wearing their gleaming forehead protectors showing the group to be all ninja of the leaf and carrying a simple white lily where a wooden coffin sat perched in the middle.
A woman with unique red eyes was holding onto a man with a cigarette in his mouth while clutching a sleeping baby boy. An old man with deep trench like wrinkles was comforting a boy with a scarf around his neck that reached to his feet and would make you wonder why he never tripped up on it. A man with a polished bowl haircut was being comforted by a smaller clone with the same clothing. Huddled around them was a demoralised pack of fresh faced shinobi of various ranks who looked no more than 16 it and all of them perhaps except for the older ones this was probably their first funeral.
Guarding the pyre was a trio of people with distinctive styles, personalities and attendants. One had a head of wild white hair like someone had taken a hedge and just painted over it with black marks like tears coming from each eye. He looked wizened and uncomfortable in his black robes. His forehead protector read the character for "Oil". He had no attendants.
Flexing her arms slightly was a blonde woman with her hair in one large ponytail that stood out from the trio as she appeared to be several years younger than the others and had a bust that made most women green with envy fighting and slowly winning a siege with the sash of her kimono. The woman looked down, almost defeated looking like she had felt this kind of pain before. She was being fussed over by a small dark haired woman with a worried look on her face and a pink haired teen who was obviously uncomfortable for she could not keep her hands still.
The last had a deathly pale complexion and was wearing a forehead protector with the character for "Root" on it and a strange sword, the only sign of anyone actually carrying a weapon at his hip. His mourning clothing was short sleeved so you could see the ravages of age on him as well as a mark like a snake on his left forearm. He was acting quite indifferent to the whole thing and reeked of professionalism. A young man with round glasses and grey hair was standing guard with a tanned faced man with two red dots at the centre of his forehead. He was slender and appeared to be quite agile looking while his counterpart seemed more like a support. They both wore the symbol for ROOT on their clothes somewhere.
In the centre was a pretty older woman with a bob cut of brown hair, a pair of purple stripes down each cheek and the most haunted pair of brown eyes swapped words with a man who was an Uchiha from the fan symbol on his funeral wear. He had some kind of visor sitting on top of his head and was gently rubbing the distressed female's shoulder gently.
"Rin-chan," he was heard to be whispering. "He wouldn't be happy to be seeing us doing something against the shinobi code."
"He was too young to die Obito-kun," she said, sniffing between words. She rubbed the freefalling tears out of her eyes and tried to smile but it only came out as fake. "If only he had waited for his team mates."
"We can say that now," Obito said, trying to reason with her a little, "Foresight is a wonderful thing but he was only doing his…"
All of a sudden the crowd stopped talking and from the direction of a clump of soaked trees came a powerful older man with flowing blonde locks with the signs of age setting in where grey strands were beginning to emerge. On his arm supporting the clearly grieved soul was a petite red head with long flowing locks tied at one side with a ribbon who held her head low and tried to keep warm by staying in close proximity to him. They closed the gap to the funeral pyre and stopped when they had the full attention of the party.
"We are gathered here today to say our final farewells to our dearly departed friend Hatake Kakashi. I ask you pay your respects and remember him as a student, friend or colleague and watch as his body returns to the ground from whence it came from." The blonde took out a tri pronged kunai with symbols down one side in one hand and placed it vehemently on top of the plain coffin. "He was a simple man in life and I ask that we respect that in death. May his memory never leave our hearts or our souls forever." The bowl hair cut man shouted "My greatest rival" at that last statement that made a couple of the people smile sympathetically.
Rin burst out crying and like a dying flower wilted into the arms of her supportive friend. Others cried too and with the help of some more balanced people they formed a line where each put down their flower onto the top of the simple grave. When the last one was sitting, Obito nodded to his sensei who nodded back for the man to continue and after leaving his distressed friend in the capable hands of his sensei's wife he walked over to the front and waited until he had all of the crowd's attention.
"My name is Obito Uchiha. Many of you know me for my efforts in ending the third shinobi war. But today join me as we celebrate the man who turned a tardy lazy ass of a ninja into one of the most celebrated shinobi of this age, my friend the "Black Fang" of Konohagakure Hatake Kakashi." Obito stopped to wipe a tear from his eye and after drawing a long calming breath he continued. "My first impression of him wasn't a very good one." A few scattered laughs indicated this was somewhat of an inside joke. "In fact I hated the prick when I was made to join his genin team with sensei and Rin-chan. We fought like cat and dog, had completely different ideologies when it came to being ninja and we were simply complete opposites. He followed the rules while I followed my heart. It would have stayed like that if it hadn't been for that day ten years ago when while under sustained attack from Iwagakure ninja we had to work together after our comrade was captured. We succeeded and it brought us together as friends. I shall forever by grateful to Kami-sama for bringing us together as friends."
There was nothing but silence for at least a minute at the speech. Then suddenly the blonde haired man clapped his hands and at the same time the rest of the party was clapping loud and hard.
"Thank you Obito," the blonde said gratefully, "That was a very moving speech."
"Thank you sensei," Obito said back, "I just hope it was good enough to honour him."
"You can be sure of that," the petite red head told him. "Hatake Kakashi is up in heaven right now in between organising the place to conform to shinobi law thanking you for the glowing and honest tribute to him and his life."
"Thank you Kushina-sama," he said with a slight tinge in each cheek. Rin was still crying into Kushinas shoulder. "Next we have Orochimaru-sama of the sannin to make a speech."
The pale man stepped over to the pyre and affectionately patted the distressed Uchiha on the shoulder.
"He was my number two in ROOT. He was at times my friend other times my drinking partner but most of all he was a man who would be happy to see that so many people cared for him to be here for his final day on earth so before we send his body back to the ground, I ask that we pray for a moment and let the cold weather help us to remember the man that was Kakashi Hatake, loyal shinobi of Konoha."
Everyone put their hands together and muttered in a desponded way the "Will of Fire" prayer this country was known for and one by one they finished.
"Now that is settled, Hokage-sama has volunteered to start the fire. So if you will Minato." Orochimaru stood back and took the blonde woman standing with him into a fierce hug while the white haired man looked on.
Minato prepared the hand seals, inhaled a great amount of air and exhaled a great fireball into the fire, setting fire to the body of Kakashi Hatake.
"This meeting is over," Minato said above the flames. "Everyone I hope will attend the chuunin exams. You are all dismissed."
His eyes were cloudy with tears and the rain. He grieved and wished he could stand and hold the people he cared for and left so long ago.
The fires danced and allowed him to recall the good times he had with Kakashi Hatake. Tears were his silent melody to his death and a celebration of his life in how he had moulded the man's life.
Lessons from long ago. How to track, to kill undetected and the important lesson that led him down his path to being an assassin who favoured trickery and meticulous planning to outright assaults or tracking. The one eyed man had even introduced him to his sensei who he had expected to be here at this gathering and was especially on alert for her silent vigil if she had been assigned to give one over this mournful gathering.
He was favouring his left leg as his right was numb from all the running he had been doing since dawn. He had taken hours to systematically bypass the security of the ANBU elite stationed in and around the village. Only a days worth of investigation and reconnaissance held up the observers course of action and miraculously the wanderer had succeeded. He had made it single-handedly deep into the heart of his father's estate from the outside perimeter wall of the village far away from where he now lived to see off his friend.
He himself was wearing a ragged desert cloak with the merest of hints to his skin colour and facial features covered by the dark shadow of the deep hood. All that could be seen was the slightest whisper of blonde hair indicating he wore it long and a tanned arm holding a battered wooden sheath to a long sword that was an unusual choice of weapon for a shinobi as it looked to be both bulky and bothersome to carry round in a concealed manner.
He waited until the party had begun to disband, pleased his chosen vantage point hidden in a clump of trees had worked out so well. This had been his childhood hang out point and with the continued expansion of the village he had been taken back for a moment the Hokage grounds still had such a large forest area put aside for recreation. His home village to his understanding had been undergoing somewhat of a golden age as the Yondaime Hokage ruled over the village and his mere existence brought prosperity and wealth.
The hidden shinobi flirted with the idea of visiting the fire himself and maybe drying himself off and making a simple prayer to Kakashi.
How long had it been since he went missing? Five maybe six years of wandering around the world had taught him a lot of things, accessed many cultures for him to taste and the number of people he had learned from or simply passed the time with… Those had been good times and he never regretted them.
But times like these… Kakashi and him could have been on the same squad and he might not be dead. Rin-chan, someone he himself valued in ways he sometimes thought he should not maybe would have had a lover once she rebuilt her courage to confess again. Obito-kun, mother and especially father would have a cherished person still with them. In the shinobi world you learned to love fiercer than a civilian ever could. Our world was here today perhaps gone tomorrow.
"I think it is time for me to leave," he said to himself. His watch was complete and he needed to report back in. Forming a single seal he puffed into smoke, his duty as a shadow clone was complete.
The man felt the sudden rush of memories and the horrible instant replay of the occasion made him shudder. He bit down on his lip to avoid crying instinctually.
"Hey Kaze," an old barman with facial hair that could be used to choke a man to death was wiping a glass wearing a white striped shirt prompted. The mourning shinobi had never asked what the bar tender's name was and was not in the habit of asking people for names. "Need another?" He was sat back behind a dank and dreary bar with a glass mirror covering one wall with several dusty bottles sitting in terms of size and colour. The tavern itself was constructed of old limestone from the days of the village's founding around 120 years ago. The sign painted on the mirror in brown traditional letters "The Sewer Pit" was proudly showing with a declaration "Been around since the first great shinobi war". The perpetual odour of sweat and cheap cigarettes had probably been here since that time too.
Kaze pushed himself off the polished wooden bar counter he had been leaning on and offered his empty wine glass. "A drop of the 92 this time please. I need to get drunk and fast."
Kaze was officially in a bad mood. The anticipated depressing mood had not been lessened by the early start to the drinking. Mixing drinks, drinking a huge amount of alcohol even drinking booze he knew went to his head quickly had not dulled the predicted depression his clone would bring.
He was sitting on his favourite stool at the far end of the bar in Amegakure to watch over the tiny rundown bar, consisting of several circular tables next to the ruins of the south gate perimeter wall and he was on a mission to get wasted. Very wasted. Today, on his 16th birthday too it warranted a massive amount of drinking and he intended to keep going until his associates came out to find him incapable of speaking or even seeing if he managed to evade them long enough to get legless.
Kakashi Hatakes death was hitting him hard. The old man was gone and a huge void was rapidly getting bigger in his heart moment by moment. He accepted the filled shot glass, downed it and motioned for another. The hit was welcome.
He was dressed in a sand coloured, desert shirt emphasising his considerable muscle by being sleeveless on the left side, exposing a summoning tattoo to some great beast of a summoning contract and the other side fishnet. Complimenting his upper body was a pair of matching loose shinobi pants that had two great metallic zips running down each pant leg. His trusty long sword and cloak was pooled on the chair he sat on and from the magnifying effects of his glass he had what appeared to be a set of seals tattooed on his palms. His most interesting part of him was the harness strapped to one side that housed a metal plate covering his heart from both the front and back. The same straps housed the belt that held his pants up and which of course carried a pair of pouches with a rectangle box in the middle marked with the kanji for "tools". Strapped to his shoulder was a hilt to what looked like an ancient translucent dagger almost completely hidden by a scarlet scarf wrapped round his neck for use in keeping the desert sand out of his rough face and assisted well by his shoulder length blonde hair.
"Shit day pal?" the barman queried. He was covered in barely visible scars and quite clearly had been tortured at some point and used the amazing facial hair to conceal it as best as possible.
"Comrade's funeral," Kaze answered, accepting the shot glass with some kind of glowing liquid inside. "Hey this stuff is more…"
"You need it kid," the barman said, waving his hand to cut off his protest. "Drinking some of the best stuff always helps lift your spirits. Better that or having your partner not being best pleased with your attitude. Call it a birthday present Kaze."
"Thanks," Kaze thanked, swirling the glass admirably at the strange liquid and then drinking the odd liquid in one hard gulp. The immediate hit relaxed him incredibly as he sat back to revel in the good fleeting feeling it gave. No wonder this moonshine was so expensive. "Sora-chan is the only person who will go the bar to fetch me and she won't be back till later tonight anyway. She's doing an errand for Hanzo-sama and Nagato-san knows I come here to be alone."
Suddenly the bar door creaked like nails running down a blackboard. To the regulars it meant a newcomer had entered as everyone knew not to push the door hard. The barman had once told him that it was his version of security. Only ignorant newcomers caused any trouble in this district. In Amegakure, the village (really a city nowadays) hidden in the rain, crime was nearly impossible as the very rain itself was a jutsu designed to monitor everything that went down in the high-rise stone built city. Constant surveillance kept a city mostly inhabited by missing nins with a sense of order that was cheap and efficient. They had Nagato-san to thank for that.
The few people drinking went for a weapon while Kaze did not care who had entered and ignored the newcomer(s) waving his glass instead for the old man to refill it again with the powerful alcohol. He made a silent toast to the barman, downed it again in one gulp and put one elbow on the counter. He was going to mope some more over the intelligence his clone had given.
Two people of note had been missing from the gathering. His old shishou Anko Mitarashi, one of Orochimaru-samas attendants and her little sister Ten-ten. He was aware they were hunter nins, Anko the special jounin and Ten-ten a chuunin but his information was at least a year old. The Uchiha presence or lack of was another concern. He had been two years below prodigal ROOT captain Itachi Uchiha in the academy and both were in the shinobi prodigy accelerated learning program but apart from that he knew nothing about him. His little brother, the ever arrogant Sasuke Uchiha was prowling around now as captain of an ANBU squad and worse of all the two pricks combined now had each other's Mangekyo sharingan eyes after undergoing the necessary rituals. Sasuke was nothing in comparison to his brother but with those freaky cheater eyes of his, his incompetence was covered. Both shinobi at some time had worked intensively with the legendary Kakashi "Black Fang" Hatake.
"What can I get ya?" the barman greeted the incomers. Kaze frowned at his melted ice and stuck his finger into his glass. In seconds the melted water had reformed into perfect ice cubes. Sometimes he loved his kekkei genkai, the Hyoton inherited from his mother's side for the little things it could do.
"I'm looking for someone," a female's voice stated, "But I already found him."
The bar come to life as all the shinobi in the place except of course Kaze cleared out or moved to a safer distance, disturbing tables and glasses sitting on them in their collective haste. The barman moved behind the bar and picked up a wakizashi.
"I don't want any trouble. If you have a bounty to collect take your fighting outside. I run a good bar here." Good was stretching the truth a little. This was the best of all the shit holes in this district, commonly known as "Stranglers Alley" for the high crime rate before the rain jutsu was discovered. Kaze calmly shook his head while motioning for him to put the blade away.
"We are not meant to be fighting in bars nee-chan." That voice he did recognise. Except it was the first time he had heard it without any whiny part to it. The more he thought about it the other older woman's voice was just as recognisable.
"I'll be quick," the woman assured her little sister. Kaze felt a rough hand put on his shoulder roughly and span him round. Kaze reacted like he always did by swatting the arm aside and blowing a hand of wind to knock the person off their feet. The person fell with a heavy clunk onto the stone floor.
Standing up a little unsteadily because of the booze he blinked twice and wondered what cruel god had brought the three together. It explained a few things.
Standing with her mouth open like a goldfish was Mitarashi Ten-ten. She had grown a great deal since he had last seen her moaning at Anko as a kid to let her train with them. Wearing a chuunin vest over a fish net shirt with matching fishnet stockings and pants, like her sister Ten-tens assets had grown to match her busty special jounin sister and on her back was a massive scroll possibly to show the weapon style her family had taught her in comparison to the talented Anko whom had learned everything from her shishou Orochimaru. Of course she lacked her forehead protector as all hunter nins did as a basic survival skill. Strapped to each thigh was coil of wire with shuriken and kunai on each designed for mass throwing and a rather specialised makeshift weapon. Her two buns in her brown hair was still there and the whole look gave her an alluring mixture of cute and sexy. If she were anyone but Ten-ten Mitarashi he would have asked her over for a drink.
Sitting on the ground and rubbing her sore ass was his old sensei, the violet haired seductress Mitarashi Anko. She had her legs parted to give Kaze a show of her blue panties she was wearing underneath her fishnet shirt and pants over a long black trench coat. In every sense she had not changed in any way. She was holding a kunai in one hand that was stabbed into the stone floor during her surprise trip to the floor. She still had not learned to carry a katana as she had been trained in kenjutsu by Orochimaru-sama. It was something he was convinced would get her killed some day. He noted the new summoning mark on her forearm. Only Manda could put that on her. The old belt wannabe had finally given her that respect. If she started on the sake she would not stop until dawn then she'll want to brawl and Kaze may have that amount of money on him to blow but he was more intent on self obliteration by himself than the desire to fight.
This was all he needed. He wanted to be alone and sulk while catching up on some serious thinking (drinking).
"Nee-chan," Ten-ten called to see if her elder sister was okay.
"I'm fine. I forgot he used fuuton jutsu." Anko carefully stood back up and entered a fighting stance. "I want the money on your head."
"So does half of Iwa," Kaze retorted, "But don't bother. Nagato-san would be on your ass in a second and besides I want to celebrate my birthday." Kaze ordered three shots with three fingers and pointed on the table where two of them was meant to go. "Want a drink before you continue? For old time sake shishou."
"Are you stupid or something?," Ten-ten asked with a flush in her cheeks. She opened her scroll and drew a mace out of its seal. She did not see Kazes movement but she ended up on the ground holding her bleeding nose, her dropped mace smashed a hole in the floor that had the barman shaking his head in disbelief. She pulled out a senbon needle stuck to the bridge of her nose which had caused her nosebleed. She picked up and swung the mace with one hand and no sooner did she do that Ten-ten did not have a mace at all when a blue sphere from Kazes palm shattered it into many pieces that clattered on the ground.
"I don't want to play today," Kaze groaned, sounding bored in between the mumbling from the other customers. "If I can't get rid of you then you can join me for a drink." He had left his stool and eyed up his drinks. "If you don't want them I'll…" Anko snatched hers and downed it in one. She smiled her familiar sadistic smile, one he knew was the one used when she was pleased with a situation. Kaze went for Ten-ten's neglected glass and swallowed it. Ten-ten was still trying to work out how the blonde had done it when he simply answered, "Rasengan."
"How drunk are you?" Anko enquired, asking him as if it was something to be proud about. Well this was Anko and really when she was socialising this was her version of saying hello. She congratulated everyone in a place if they were drunk and it was dark outside. It was just her thing. That and throwing random kunai for any hint of an insult. Wasn't she meant to be after the money on him? He forgot this was Anko. She was impossible to predict. Kaze would have a better chance of figuring out the origins of the universe. "Your rasengan looked a little wobbly." Ten-ten looked affronted that her weapon had been taken out by an imperfect ninjutsu.
"Ask the barkeep." Kaze dodged the question expertly. Sora-chan breathed down his neck all the time about this and was now a reflex. "I've been here since the bar opened about three hours ago."
"He's finished two bottles of Clear Meadow sake, had three shots of moonshine and is halfway through a bottle of 92 fresh water wine."
"Traitor," Kaze muttered. The old man did not have to keep count. It proved Sora had gotten to the old geezer again.
"Not bad," Anko said, sounding impressed. Her mood had changed entirely. She had that kind of bi polar attitude. One minute she could be wanting to kill you then the next moment she would be fucking you until next week. Kaze took the stroke of good luck in his stride. His mentor was wanting to play so he would play. Her sister was not as easy to pacify.
"Nee-chan! We don't have time for this. Yondaime-sama asked us to bring him in." So he needed to be taken in alive? Ankos bullshitting was being unravelled well by her blabbermouth imouto.
"Tell my old man I don't want to come home. He has Hatake to get over. I am not good at helping grieving people."
"Knew about that huh?" Anko said sadly. The pair of jounin had worked together and even the sadistic queen of scary people could be sad. "How are you holding up?"
"Like Maito Gai had spent a week giving me motivational speeches," Kaze admitted dryly, ordering yet another shot while putting down a large coin purse he had under his cloak on the counter. "Until they find me yah?" The old man nodded in understanding putting the purse under the bar and slammed a dusty red bottle on the counter.
"Bear killer," Anko said, wiping and reading the label. A 34 at that. That is a pretty good choice and its rare."
"Thanks," Kaze casually said with a smile. "I think there is a lot to drink to today. Our reunion, Hatake-san and my birthday." He tapped his finger off his glass to make a ping noise. "Does your sister sit down or do you have to command her like a puppy?" Ten-ten leaked some killing intent that the drunken shinobi yawned at while scratching his forehead. "Oh it does tricks too." Ten-ten opened her scroll again but was stopped again by a senbon needle, this time in her wrist. Her arm went limp and her scroll spilt on the ground. "The next one will have chakra."
"Sit down imouto," Anko ordered, pulling a stool and patting it. "You can have a drink with me and my student."
"Former student," Kaze corrected cheekily. He caught her hand intent on slapping him for his insult and none so gently squeezed it until she yelped. Pulling her wrist back she noticed red marks from sealed tenketsu points. The sadism just leaked off her like her "playful" killing intent for the act. He started to regret doing that.
Ten-ten found her seat and had her arms crossed and eyeing the old man manning the bar almost like the chuunin was daring him to pour her anything alcoholic. Anko cured that by sliding her stubborn sister her glass filled with some of the bottled wine and yanking the senbon needle out of her arm. Ten-ten wrapped the scroll around her arm to ready for action.
"Drink and be merry," Anko cheered, stealing Kazes filled glass for herself. "Oh let me have it Naruto-kun."
"Who?" Kaze said with fake confusion. "No Naruto here. My name is Uzumaki Kaze."
"Oh yeah I forgot you changed your name." Anko signalled for a new glass for Kaze and poured him a shot. "Now Kaze-kun we drink until you have no money left."
"Why am I not surprised its my money you can spend so quickly," Kaze muttered, downing another shot then pouring himself a second and third drinking them in succession.
"This is the first time we have ever shared a drink. You were too little when you left."
Kaze shrugged. "Made your point. Might as well get my share."
Five hours and four bottles of Bear Killer, two bottles of wine and numerous strange liquids, all of which were comparable to paint stripper in alcohol percentage plus conversation as diverse as fifty toasts to Kakashi Hatake to swapping old stories of life back in Konohagakure to more serious topics like Naruto admitting seeing the funeral through a clones eyes and general "What is everyone doing nowadays" chatter later, Kaze was leaning against the bar on his last legs. Anko was leaning on his shoulder whispering dirty things in Kazes ear in an attempt to embarrass him and Ten-ten was still stone cold sober, looking disapprovingly at her elder sibling drinking and cavorting with what they were supposed to be capturing.
"Nee-chan!" Ten-ten announced blushing. Kaze expected the clearly inexperienced girl was trying to pretend she had not heard her big sister say that. I mean that move would be impossible surely. Imagine the rope burns… Jiraiya-sama only put things in his books he had experienced himself and was blessed with one hell of a pain threshold if he could pull that move off but he did get beaten nearly daily by Tsunade-samas super strength and make it through the day walking about acting like nothing had happened. Kaze thought using wind chakra made the whole thing reduce the need to go to the emergency room afterwards.
"Sounds like fun," Kaze slurred. "I'll get the rope. Or can I use wire? I got some on me."
Anko was playing along. "We could rustle some up and take it to your place. Ten-ten can go play guard the hotel room."
"Nee-chan!" the younger Mitarashi exclaimed.
"Is that all she can say now?" Kaze asked with a frown. "I'm not sure sometimes if you are really sisters or not." He gave Ten-ten's body a lingering appraisal. She pulled her arms over her chest in response. "She has your moms body."
"Stop checking out my sister." Anko drunkenly pushed Kaze a little.
"Okay then," Kaze grinned. He perversely grinned and groped Ankos buxom breasts instead and made honking noises with each squeeze.
"Nee-chan!" Ten-ten squealed, quite clearly at the end of her tether as she drew a sword from her scroll and swung at Kazes groping hand intent on protecting Ankos long since vamoosed honour. The blue eyed shinobi knocked her on her ass again, this time both knees had been hit with senbon. Ten-ten literally crumbled, careering the sword into the bar itself. "How are you doing that!" she gasped in frustration. Her clothing was covered in blood and it was now three times he had drawn a weapon without her noticing. Her flushed face was rivalling Kaze thought anyway, Hina-chans. That reminded him. He would have to make sure she knew Konoha nins were in town when he got back. Sora-chan would slay him if he did not.
Hinata was not Hinata anymore. Nobody knew she was here except the necessary authorities and it would stay like that if the blonde jounin could help it. Kurenai had risked a lot to get her away from Konoha and the old lady was a mom now too. She would not need the stress if Hina-chan was discovered.
"Put a volume control on her," he muttered, grinning and feigning a headache. "She could wake up the shinigami with that whiny voice of hers. At least I know for sure it is her."
"Are you going to pay for my bar?" the barman asked with a sigh. Kaze pointed to the money bag and the proprietor thanked him with a nod and took the necessary coins out of the near empty bag.
"What is the time?" Anko hiccupped. She was smashed and when she was drunk Anko turned unpredictable. "I want to pole dance."
"They aint no pole to dance on," the blonde declared, forming a set of clumsy seals. "Not yet anyway." He tried to stare at a clock in a shadowy area of the bar. "It's something o'clock. Now for that pole…"
"Stop right there," a man announced, swinging the irritating front door open with a chorus of "How many new people are coming in today?". He was not hard to recognise. The sword master, Hayate Gekko was a legend in the village of Konohagakure and was equally famous for training a successor that had already surpassed him with a position as head of the entire ANBU by the age of 19 but the missing nin had forgotten the details of who they were. Hayates light hair and rugged appearance meant he had a lot of female admirers. It was a shame his lungs were weak. Kaze could mop the floor with him.
When the hell did he become a hunter shinobi? Fuck this was not good. "Yo." Kaze raised his empty glass to him to try to not show his apprehension.
"Anko-san stop screwing around. You have had enough time." The swordsman took the moment to cough rather sickly. The missing nin thought it made his brave declaration rather anticlimactic. "And you Naruto Namikaze come with us." The blonde shinobi played up like earlier when "Naruto" was mentioned, ruffling a few of the man's feathers. "Yondaime-sama has ordered your capture."
"I never got round to the screwing part," Anko said, empathising the word "screwing" by licking her lips.
Kaze should have seen an ambush coming and one particularly bloodthirsty smile from Anko confirmed it without really needing to. She herself was a direct person. She had merely smiled to warn him of the situation meaning this had not been for her only a means to weaken him. He opened a pouch and popped a blue pill into his mouth. Immediately with a kick like a donkey had hoofed him in the face the nukenin was freed of his inebriation. Popping a green pill his headache was gone. He threw his medicinal pouch at Anko, rolled off his seat to the side and kicked the stool with an apologetic look to the barman at the swordsman.
"You all seriously thought I would drink with an enemy without any kind of insurance?"
Five minutes. That was all he had after his earlier frolicking. He was glad his chakra control was back to normal at least but he could not be sure how much excess energy he had expelled earlier when playing around with the senbon and the fuuton jutsu. Frantically Kaze rolled up his fish net sleeve and revealed what looked like a clock balanced on a sand timer that was tattooed on his forearm. Applying visibly blue chakra from his finger tips, the blue chakra began to flicker from the top and slowly cascading from one end of the sand timer to the other. It was flashy but it was only really a glorified countdown timer.
Hayate slashed the chair hurtling at him into two pieces, formed half a seal as the two thrown halves ricocheted off the bar, smashing a light bulb as one half bounced off the ceiling and created three copies of himself. Kaze saw Ten-ten pulling the needles out of her legs and surprised she had not done so already he took advantage of her slow thinking by summoning more needles from what looked like nowhere and threw them precisely into every joint of her body. Like a rag doll she hit the ground like a bag of potatoes with a hiss and could only watch on glaring at the damn accurate shinobi.
Pulling his cloak up, an invisible force caused the dusty cloak to rise up, wrapping itself around the long sword and throwing it up into the air. Kaze used a two handed palm strike to blow the billowing covering into the path of the original Hayate while catching the long sword between both hands as it descended. The sword shinobi with his clones prepared to shred the cloak then him to nothing charged forward and as they tore the material to shreds, a localised purple smoke cloud blew out of nowhere into the swordsman's face and Hayate went down like a falling tree coughing up blood as his clones dispelled faster than someone could shout "timber!". When the smoke cleared, Kaze was armed with two kodachi, one with a hand guard and the other without. On the ground in front of the discarded cloak was an odd wooden block with two fine slots at each side.
"Kodachi swords disguised as a long sword." Ten-ten's first worthwhile sentence was strained as she was straining pointlessly against the needles embedded into her pressure points. "The middle section is a trap rigged to release a pressurised container containing the gas." Now she had said two useful things. Go girl! Kaze thought if she could move she would be hiding her head in shame as she was supposed to be the weapons expert.
"Not bad kid," Anko joked. She was struggling to take the pills Kaze had provided as she was so drunk.
"See you around shishou," Kaze declared, waving goodbye. "If there is any cash left after you make bail have a drink on me. Sora-chan and Konan-chan will not be pleased I had to use these. I got a headache coming when these pills wear off." A tree root shot out from outside tearing the front door and wall off before he could deal the final blow to Gekko. "For fucks sake what god did I piss off today?"
Naruto side stepped the wooden branch, scowling at how a wooden barrier adjoining was blocking any obvious means of easy victory from the attacker based outside and slashed the offending projectile. Ice rapidly smothered the wood, stopping its growth, spreading the intense cold to even where the barrier stood and kicking his leg high into the air, a blade of ice shot off in the direction of where it had come from. A cry of pain followed sharply after the brittle substance crumbled from the projectile meant Kaze had hit his target and using it as a general marker for his next move, started spinning rapidly like a top generating a full miniature tornado that shot out, taking every table and chair it could when it exited. Dropping his two kodachi Kaze formed a set of seals and coughed up a stream of water to complete the tornado that refused to let a single drop escape. The whirlpool for lack of a better descriptive word collapsed when Kaze after forming one last seal flooded the wooden defence line in a high velocity water flash flood and debris from the resulting collapsing tornado.
A few local bars and some of the back streets were partially submerged except for the building they were in as all around it a thick ice sheet had stopped the flood before it could enter. The old guy inside had lost some rivals anyway. Insurance was banned in Amegakure because of all the crooks that lived here. He might get some free drinks for doing it without resorting to crime.
"You have just enough cash to pay for the damages," the bar keep shouted shaking the empty purse bag at the skirmishing shinobi. No this was this particular old man Kaze was thinking of. His generosity only stretched to pathetic cases like he was earlier. This battle was better than any booze at forgetting that funeral. His mom's crying face had been haunting him even when drunk. "Get out before I start charging you for more breakages!"
Kaze saluted cheekily at the fallen trio, pulled up his scarf over his face and sheathed his kodachi into his zipped pants legs where they stood immobile.
"See you and sorry you have to pay your own bail," Kaze said cheerily. He gave a little wave and nearly ran smack into a glowing palm of chakra. Kaze acted like he had foresight, parrying the palm without even seeing his attacker while forcing them back with a kick augmented by wind chakra. "How many of you did you bring shishou?"
Where in hell was Nagato-san? The powerful future leader of Ame knew the local nins stopped attacking him years ago. He had to know foreigners were on his case and good ones if his chakra was still flowing. The rate the Konoha ninja were popping up everywhere they would need to soon rename Ame, Konoha. He would settle for a genin squad at this point. They could make good human shields.
The newest annoyance trying to kill him was a Hyuuga likely to be a branch member specifically from the headgear covering his forehead and wearing a white kimono with haori and hakama had his bulging kekkei genkai eyes, the byakugan activated and the usual look of contempt all of their clan seem to drill into their members. Kaze smirked at the brief thought of how this might be a sign of too much inbreeding as all the Uchiha seemed to have a scowl on their faces as well. After all Hinata did not scowl and her mother was a distant relation to Hiashi. He wondered if Hanabi, her younger sister was as fucked up. He was carrying a back pack inscribed with five storage seals. It explained why Anko and Ten-ten had no cases and the other guy with the Mokuton bothered him. He thought nobody in Tsunades family including her dead brother Nawaki had shown any sign of possessing the Shodaimes kekkei genkai.
"You will desist these activities and come with us!"
Kaze looked at him as if he was insane. Come on talk about overly dramatic. How did this guy ever get laid? I mean all Hyuuga did was use the byakugan and the Juuken. Yeah right he was going to "desist activities" just because a jumped up arrogant kid like this guy was said so. His clan were all two trick ponies. This was why he thought the sharingan was the better power to have next to his own of course. They could be as unique as they wanted. Their shinobi were all different as they all lived and fought in separate ways. They were the ones who made Konohagakure incredibly diverse by teaching the various clans jutsu they copied from the various wars.
"I am not a nin of Konoha so pardon me if I say no," the blonde taunted, forming a series of hand seals. Around them all of Amegakure could tell what this jutsu was. Various sheets of ice floating in mid air formed a sort of cage around the opposition. Kids started chanting the techniques name while up ahead others chanted Pein, Nagatos assumed name he went by now. Kaze had been inspired by the shinobi to change his name ergo change his course in life. Help was coming!
"Hyoton jutsu are pointless to my Juukens absolute defence the Kaiten! You are destined to be defeated and brought back to Konoha." The weirdo with the long black hair started spinning on one spot like Kaze had done but instead of a tornado, a great barrier of chakra resonated brightly similar to the blue sphere he had used to destroy the Mitarashi brats mace earlier. How conceited he was. The Kaiten lasted a minute if that.
There goes the cool move he had planned. He did not have a minute to waste and Nagato was not getting all the glory if it all went south for him. Admiring the burning seal on his arm, he was cursing at how little time he had apparently left. Next time he went drinking he was bringing a friend. Solitude did not help you when you were drunkenly messing with jutsu. Forming one final set of seals the gleaming almost window like ice formations shattered, forming floating petal like sakura blossoms. showering the complete surrounding area. The sight was breathtaking to everyone that watched shivering at the drop of temperature. Even Ten-ten gasped in wonder from her face down position in the bar even if he was meant to be the target.
"You perfected that jutsu then," Anko cried out from behind him, making the blonde nearly fall on his face. Distracted it seemed she locked him into a shoulder lock with the blade pressing into his back. How did she sneak up on him? Of course she was once his shishou. He should have neutralised her as well. "Sorry but I can't have you kill my sisters boyfriend."
Anko speared a kunai into Kazes back, just under the rib cage that turned out to be a replacement with a stone block that was commonplace from the crumbling buildings around them with no sign of him popping back up anytime soon. The blossoms continued to descend until like they had been given a life of their own, the wondrous sight turned to be a deceptive beauty as they amassed together and tore away at the Kaiten wave with what seemed like a never ending cornucopia of slicing particles until the Hyuuga completed his technique before he made himself ill from the intense rotation. The blossoms remaining from above few in number just dropped like gravity had just been doubled, turning the ego-boy into a pincushion. The last dance of the Hyuuga was to fall to his knees then fall face first onto the ground dead. Oh well he had not wanted to kill him really but that was what happened. He could smooth things over with Hinata later.
"Neji!" Ten-ten was free from her binding and loudly declaring it to the world. What kind of kunoichi gets this overly emotional. This Neji was her boyfriend (Anko never misspoke titles) still the first rule of any shinobi is the ability to sneak up on the opposition quietly, attempt to neutralise them or use the time to retreat.
His new vantage point, standing on the wall of a bank hidden under a Hyoton jutsu he also had invented himself, the light energy around him being refracted so none bounced off him rendering him invisible, he was feeling the time it had taken to defeat them. His timer had burned out a few seconds ago and Anko was still ready to go. Nagato was likely moments away but the Mokuton user had left a wood clone behind and scarpered while the swordsman had slipped away too after inspecting the bar with only a puddle of blood left. Anko was pulling her distraught sister away while keeping her head in the situation, a trait he himself was known for while snarling and trying to intimidate people against throwing things disrespectfully at the corpse.
"I win," Kaze shouted smugly although Anko had clearly not heard him over the cheering spectators. He dropped the jutsu hiding him and played up for the crowd watching. He did a small jig on the wall, finishing with a back flip. There was Nagato now with his distinctive tattoos on his nose and lower lip. Soon the Konoha shinobi team sent to take him in would be…
Kaze covered his horror expression on his face as he heaved blood like he had a fatal wound. It acted like a geyser as his body seized up. Oxygen meant for his body was unavailable and his body simply shut down. Not now! Why had he been so careless?
"Uzumaki!" Nagato cried. The rain stopped all of a sudden. Nagato only did that when Konan was with him. Where was she?
"Showboating kills every idiot who forgets to run when the timer finishes," Kaze said berating himself for getting caught up in the excitement. He dropped like a stone until a large paper crane caught him in mid air and with its little wings on the side gently guided him to the ground. Anko and Ten-ten had vanished with leaves flying around the metropolis's streets indicating a hasty retreat via teleportation leaving the Hyuugas corpse bleeding out on the cobbled walkway.
"Konan," the desert dweller mumbled, knowing she was nearby.
"What is it?" Her voice was muffled. He was already moving to stage 2.
"Don't tell Sora…"
He never found out her answer to that. His voice, hearing and his other senses shut down except for his eyes. Until he was brought to the hospital and patched up the best the Amegakure doctors could manage, Namikaze Naruto a.k.a. Uzumaki Kaze could do was watch Nagatos scarlet robes carry him with occasional glimpses of Konans extravagant silver with blue flower designed kimono through the streets.
The ice lung had struck again.