The beginning

Hi readers! This is ThePunnerLeJoueurdeMots081201, and here's my first fanfic! It's a modern/supernatural AU, and unlike other AUs I've read, I tried to change the titles and names of special powers to make them sound a bit less Japanese and fit better into the spirit of this fic (nothing against Japanese in particular, just found that it doesn't go well with supernatural AUs like this one).

The universe in this story is a bit inspired by "Beast!" written by Bianca Stitch, although the plot itself is, of course, my own creation. I hope you enjoy it. Like I said in my profile, reviews are really appreciated, since they help me understand your point of view on the story, but you don't have to leave some if you have nothing in particular to say. No insults or flames, please, although constructive criticism is welcome. Read on!

P.S: I will be basing myself on the English anime for all English Naruto fics, meaning no honorifics, and English names for jutsu.

Disclaimer: Naruto, as a work, belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, not me. I do not earn any profits, financial or otherwise, from the creation and diffusion of this story, nor do I seek to obtain any.


The plaza was eerily silent. Trees didn't rustle in the wind, night animals kept their quarries to themselves, and no cold gale rushed howling down the alleys. Darkness still covered the city, only slightly lifted by the street lamps' harsh pale light. But those only revealed the tarmac and the lower sections of buildings' façades, painting the stone and stucco shades of unhealthy yellows. The dark glass panels of windows and business towers reflected the scenery like mirrors, effectively concealing whatever might have gone on inside.

However, the lighting only reached up to two floors at the most. The upper sections of the buildings were still completely obscured, like dark monoliths hovering over the square. Shadows seemed to slither down the façades into the illuminated plaza, lurking between each light field, casted off from pipes and hydrants and the like. It was a phantasmagorical forest of black trees and undergrowth: long, dark limbs stretched on the walls, the sidewalks and the streets; where the lamps' range of light waned and then ended, a screen of pure obscurity took its place, so opaque one couldn't tell if it hid infinite emptiness or a solid wall.

Even with a source of luminescence, much of the environment was still hidden from view, shrouded in blackness or a half-light half-dark intermediary. The sights that were exposed came out looking old and rotten, devoid of any life or presence. All woven together, this created an otherworldly painting of an abandoned, unknown city.

As the clock in Namikaze Plaza turned to read 4:27 AM, the pocket of darkness in the space between two old industrial buildings moved.

The oily-black shade draped over the passageway shifted and undulated. It was a fortunate occurrence there was no witness to this scene who might have had a certain faintness of heart, for they would surely have lost consciousness at the sight. The dark silhouette sliding along one of the buildings' brick wall didn't look wholly unsuspicious either. As they progressed, they seemed desperate to avoid the street lamps' field of lighting as much as possible, slipping from each dark and narrow alleyway bordering the plaza into another.

The figure's vague outline was likeable to that of a human being, but their speed and agility were far superior to said species' physical abilities. The swiftness of their pace, the nimbleness with which they ducked, and the perfect coordination they maintained while executing these movements were too perfect to pass off as entirely human. However, those qualities soon proved meaningless.

While the unknown individual stepped out of the darkness for a mere moment, a blur dropped from a balcony on the façade of the closest apartment building, plummeting down two stories. Landing painlessly and soundlessly just a meter away from the silhouette in a agile crouch, the newcomer then pounced on them and dragged them into a dark corner within a second.

If the first newcomer was fast and nimble, the latest one put them to shame. There was something more animal in the way they moved: a certain ferocity to their motions, a spring to their step, a balance to their stance. That, in addition to their unaltered state after their three-storey jump and landing, also put their humanity in question.

In the semi-obscurity of the alley, not far from a flickering lamp post, the assaulted was thrashing wildly, attempting to escape from the iron grip their aggressor had on the cowl of their shirt. However, the latter cut these attempts short with a growled-out warning, slamming their victim's back harshly against the brick wall.

"Try and make a single noise, pal," the menacing individual whispered, face obscured by an equally intimidating mask, "and I'll rip your vocal cords out. Got it?"

The threatened one, apparently holding value to their voice, hastily nodded.

"Good. Now, you're coming with me.

"Yeah, you know what I'm talkin' about. Come on, don't gimme that look. You know what happens to those of you who go rogue. We hunt you down. You tried to betray your kind, and now you have to pay for it."

Suddenly, the speaker, now identified as male, sharply turned his head towards the alley his captive had emerged from. Eyes narrowed behind his mask, he turned back and addressed the latter:

"I'm gonna let you answer this question right now: who did ya piss off? 'Cause I'm sensing a few people heading toward us, and given their level, I'm smelling something fishy here."

Shaking their head frantically, the victim quickly stuttered a few words in a low tone, which made the captor's eyes widen.

"Damn you bastards! Why do you always have to go and stir shit up?" he cursed. "Ugh, can't fight those guys with you in tow, I have to get you outta here now."

With these words, the attacker raised his hand in a strange gesture: palm axed horizontally, edge of the hand facing the ground, his thumb, pinkie, ring and middle fingers half-flexed, with his index raised upward.

The night air around both individuals rippled, humming with energy as their silhouettes became distorted, like a nocturnal mirage. Suddenly, harsh red light flashed into existence, and a vortex of crimson radiance engulfed them in a spiral of power. The glowing red plasma whirled furiously, its liquid-like flows churning like a maelstrom, but hot enough to leave a blackened pattern on the tarmac around the area of formation. All round, street lamps' bulbs exploded into showers of glass fragments, smoke rising from the husks and sparks falling to the ground.

When the vortex finally dissipated, red light sediments floating out into the night and dissolving shortly afterwards, no trace of the pair besides the lamps remained; the scorch mark evaporated into nothingness.

A few seconds later, four silhouettes stepped out of the alley's shadow. They inspected the spot where the two previous characters had discussed, looking in every direction. Much frowning happened when they examined the broken lamps and the spiraling scorch mark on the tarmac; they remained longer about Not a word was uttered during this investigation, which majorly consisted of simply... staring at every nook and cranny of the street, as well as occasional sniffing.

Finally, one of them raised their hand, stopping the search. They regrouped under an intact street lamp, the lighting tinting their pale skin an unhealthy shade of yellow.

"Enough for now. Has any of you discovered a clue regarding his trail?" the leader asked in a stern, masculine voice.

His long brown hair, visible in the lamps' light, reached between his shoulders, and he was the tallest of the foursome.

His subordinates all shook their heads. One, with short black hair, chose to answer first.

"Sorry, I can't seem to smell the direction he went in. His scent leads here, where there's a spike in its intensity, but doesn't extend any further after that. It's like he simply vanished into thin air."

"I didn't catch anything with my eyes either," the next one added - a male with spiky, swept-back hair. "Only saw that these," he nodded toward the destroyed lamps, "blew up because of a surge that fried their circuits."

"Well… I might have seen something," the last one declared, catching the rest of the group's attention.

She was the only female present, with long, blue-black hair. She was also the shortest, forcing her to raise her head to meet the others' eyes, which made her squint against the harsh yellow light.

"Really? What is it?" the leader questioned.

"I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I believe there are some traces of another energy here. It's faint, but it looks like it's from a powerful source. I think…" she paused for an instant before continuing, "I think it's demonic."

The others didn't make a sound, but their eyes widened ever so slightly. The one in charge started examining the area again, a slight change in his own orbs. After a moment, he stopped, and his gaze returned to normal.

"You're right," he affirmed. "I had dismissed it at first because I thought it was part of his trail. But now that you've pointed it out, I can see that there are sediments of another energy all around us. There is a cluster of them around the mark."

This time, the spiky-haired one reacted.

"Are you sure, Neji?" he inquired. "It could be just a wizard trying to fool us."

"No," the leader countered. "I'm positive it belongs to a demon. Which means our target was probably caught by one of their rogue hunters. They are most likely the ones detaining him now."

"But I thought only our species knew about his betrayal," the shorter-haired individual intervened. "Wasn't the whole point of this mission to capture him before anyone else learned about it?"

"The demons always seem to know everything before anyone else," Neji responded. "Their clans have information networks all over the world, especially in cities like this one."

The female lowered her head and sighed quietly.

"I suppose there is no point in trying to continue this mission now."

The spiky-haired one grunted.

"What a pain," he dropped. "All this agitation and griping for nothing. Let's just leave already."

"I'm sure you want to eat before your stomach growls and you embarrass yourself in front of anyone, Sasuke" the other black-haired male said in a friendly tone. "This would most likely damage your reputation, wouldn't it?"

Sasuke just scowled and sent a murderous glare at his offender, his eyes suddenly turning scarlet, which immediately shut the other up. Only he had that effect on him.

"Sasuke, Sai, please don't start again," pleaded the woman.

"Hinata is right," cut Neji. "You are both acting like children. Let's report to Lord Hiashi and the Council first."

The four vanished into the night, so fast one could have sworn they had teleported. No evidence of the events that had just taken place remained. The only witness was the still slumbering city, its human inhabitants blissfully unaware. Unaware of the creatures that lurked in the darkness of nights, unaware of the conflicts between them, unaware of the dangers that could befall them any day. And which might very well befall them soon.


"You're back early, Nine. I take it you got the target?"

The speaker was a tall, imposing man clad in a black trench coat, a headkerchief covering his skull. His square, scarred face was locked into a menacing frown, but his most intimidating feature was his piercing black eyes, so dark they seemed pupilless. His gaze held a kind of intensity, a sort of fierce cunning and intelligence only found in a certain type of living beings.

Predators.

Apex predators.

"Yup, he's right here with me," the target of his question answered, hiding the tremor in his voice.

It was the attacker from the plaza. Hoisting his unconscious prisoner on his shoulder, he turned to face the speaker. For once, he was glad the mask was hiding the beads of sweat running down his forehead. The teleportation had taken a bigger toll on him that he was comfortable admitting.

He was dressed in a black commando outfit: combat boots, trouser pants, a sleeveless bulletproof vest, leather gloves, and a harness over it all. His mask looked like a cross between a kitsune (fox spirit) and an oni (demon or ogre): a canine snout, fox ears and revealed fangs combined with red color and horns procuring from the forehead.

"Guess he passed out from the trip," he then noted, his tone more stable. "Man, vamps are slacking off if they allow idiots like him to serve under the Council. That dumbass let himself wide open. Honestly, I'm surprised to be the first one to have caught him. By the way, the seeker-vampires almost caught up to us."

"We'd warned you the council would send people after him," his interlocutor replied. "Did you kill them? You know, you're going to spark a war if you keep this up."

"Oh come on!" the other complained. "When are you gonna let that go? I beat up a werewolf team once, Ibiki. Once! And none of'em died! They were just pissing me off, acting all cocky..."

"Straying off-topic, Nine. What happened?"

"Had to retreat before they could find us," the one named Nine admitted. "This guy right here," he went on, pointing the passed-out shape on his shoulder, "told me the Hyūga lord wanted him gone before any other race knew about this, so he decided to send out one of his best teams after him. I think they kinda went overboard for a guy like that."

"Who?" Ibiki demanded, eyes narrowing.

"The Soul Stalkers," Nine revealed. "Those guys are usually the ones who complete the executions or elite recons. 'Course, I don't know who they actually are, but I've heard they're on a whole other level than the rest of the seekers."

Ibiki's face retained the same unshakable expression, but his eyes darkened. He turned his gaze to the unconscious rogue vampire the hunter had captured.

"Which means this guy here probably escaped with something very valuable to the vampires," he mused.

"Uh, isn't that good for us?" Nine inquired, obviously confused at his senior's reaction. "I mean, finders keepers, right?"

"Still as dense as ever, kid," Ibiki commented, ignoring the outraged exclamation he received in response. "I'll have to talk to the emperor about this, but it means the vampires are going to do everything in their power to get him back ASAP."

"What can they do?" the hunter asked, shrugging. "They can't access this place on their own, and if they wanna keep this a secret, they won't ask anyone else for help."

"No, but they'll start drowning us in diplomatic threats and try to intimidate us into releasing him. They might even take this to the Head of Leaftown, say we captured a loyal vampire in order to obtain information about them."

"But they know it's our job to hunt down rogue supernaturals!" Nine protested. "The Assembly will figure out the vamps are telling bullshit!"

"Language, Nine!" his superior reprimanded. "The Head may be on our side, but we're not exactly popular with the rest of the species. Their representatives will jump at the chance to gain an advantage over us."

The younger demon sighed.

"Why does it have to be so complicated?"

"Because this is how the world works, brat," Ibiki replied tersely. "Everything's related to some political power play in some way. Besides, other species have always feared or despised us. Since they aren't too pleased with the fact that we're more powerful than them, they'll try to weaken us whenever they get the opportunity."

"Bastards," Nine muttered, almost growling.

"Enough with the self-pity. Throw the prisoner in Cell Zeta 369" the other ordered. "I don't trust the guards to do it themselves, and we need a secure cell. I'll report to Emperor Ashina about this. Afterwards, go home. Don't you have school tomorrow?"

"Why did you have to remind me?" the younger demon groaned, his palm coming to rest on the forehead of his mask. "I got an assignment in Physics, and I'm not even half-done!"

"Do I look like I care?" Ibiki inquired. "Now scram!"

"Fine, fine," Nine mumbled.

For the second time this night, he made the strange hand sign, and the whirling red aura surrounded him and the captive.

A few seconds later, they had disappeared.


There you have it. The first chapter of my first story. What did you think? Did you like it? Please point out any error I may have made in the reviews, or PM me if you're signed in. I know it's kinda short, but as the title suggests, it's just the beginning. Don't worry, chapters will get longer. There will be more action later on, for those of you that were disappointed, as well as explanations.

For future chapters: if you think some elements could be better, please describe them precisely and give reasons in the reviews. I'll consider them, doesn't mean I'll change everything put into question. No flames or insults, please, or I'll block anonymous reviews and signal offending non-guests. Remember, this is my first fanfic, so please be considerate.

Hope you enjoyed it. I'm gonna try to stick with this to the very end, since I really want to finish it. Until the next update, then, which I promise I'll make as soon as possible. R&R, please!

ThePunnerLeJoueurdeMots081201