Memories in the Mist
By Serradragon
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did why would I be writing fanfics. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the story. Just so you know this is my first story to be posted on-line.
There most likely will not be any pairings in this story. And no I will not be doing yaoi. Don't like writing it oh well. (If you squint you might see some sxn but not intentional)
Summary: Naruto vanished at the age of ten and everyone believes the blonde dead. But on a mission to Wave Sasuke encounters a strange ninja that looks identical to his missing friend. Is it Naruto? Or is the blonde really dead?
…………………………………….. point of view change
"Blah" talking
'Blah' thoughts
Blah dreams, memories, ect.
Well here you go! Enjoy!
Chapter 1: Forgotten Past
Standing in the center of a forest clearing without moving was the cloaked figure of a ninja. The moonlight was bright enough to light the whole clearing this night. His clothes were worn out looking, well what you could see of them from under the ragged black cloak, which gave them the appearance of a shadow. The sleeves on his shirt were frayed on the ends, as were his black pants, a result of his intense training. One could easily tell the clothes were their only set. Taking a deep breath, the ninja drew their katana from its sheath that was tied to their left hip. Then they launched forward into the mass of moving targets that had been set up as though some signal only they were aware of had been sounded.
Each target was a crudely made circle produced by cutting them from logs. On every one was painted an ideal strike zone as either a dot or ring of black ink. The first target was stationed near the northern edge and was sliced clean in half. The soft whooshing caught their attention and they leapt into the air to avoid the swinging log. His rotation gave him enough momentum to flip over the log and sever the cords holding it up. There was a thud as the massive log crashed into the earth and rolled a little ways to the side. Landing deftly on their feet the figure slid into a crouch as they ducked to avoid another low swinging target. Flipping the sword up to an inverted position, the blade cut clean through the log's length as it passed overhead. The two halves landed across the previous fallen log and formed a sort of ramp and barricade. Hearing no more logs he stood and leapt over the obstacle.
Running forwards he continued cutting down the pop up targets, the blade becoming no more than a flash of silver in the moonlight. The katana sliced through each one in turn with a frightening precision. Upon cutting the tenth one in half they snapped a hidden wire causing a rain of kunai to come from the trees above them. Bringing the sword up and jumping once again, they managed to deflect the lethal projectiles with sharp metallic clangs and thuds as the metal became imbedded in the surrounding trees and ground. Another log headed directly for the cloaked figure then, this one twice as fast as the other two. Spinning they planted their hands on the swinging pendulum and vaulted over it while corkscrewing in midair. He brought his sword down hard splitting the log in half. Hitting the ground and rolling they sprang forward to go at the last target, which was located back on the south side of the clearing. Like the others the target fell apart with only a slight flash of light.
After striking the last target the mysterious ninja flipped straight backwards and landed with one knee bent. One could tell by the rise and fall of the figures shoulders that they were slightly out of breath from the training exercise. He then sheathed his sword with a slight rasp and click as the hilt of the katana locked with the sheath. It was then the sound of applause permeated the silent clearing. A soft clapping that came from a single observer that was behind them in the trees. From under the cloak's hood, two piercing blue eyes became visible as their owner opened them, flecks of silver mingling amongst the blue. The said shinobi then turned around to see who it was watching him.
"You've gotten much better Fox. I'd say you have a new personal best." A masked ninja said from the shadows. They wore a dark green robe over loose dark brown pants that went to mid-shin. The white mask with its crude red spiral and their long black hair in a bun leaving their long bangs framing their face, were the only identifying marks on the shinobi.
"Zabuza-sama will be very pleased." They said in a cold voice reminding one of snow, while stepping forward. Fox turned to face the masked one head on, his black cloak falling into place around him, hiding nearly everything about him. It was as though they were a shadow come to life.
"Arigato Haku. Do we have another job?" the cloaked one asked coming closer to the mist hunter-nin. The first could sense that the masked one was pleased that he had caught on to his reason for seeking him out. He knew that behind that porcelain white mask was a smile reserved for when he accomplished something.
"Yes, it's for a man named Gatou…." Haku said explaining the details to his friend and partner. Fox listened with rapt attention, anything less could get them all killed.
In the Village hidden in the Leaves, another team was also meeting to get their assignment for their next mission. The first member was a boy near the age of twelve. His hair was darker than the night sky and his eyes a steely charcoal grey. He wore a royal blue t-shirt with a high collar. It was easy to see the boy had money, one of the blessed clan heirs of Konoha. On the teen's back was a red and white fan the symbol of his clan, a symbol known through out the shinobi world. The Uchiha. Also part of his ensemble was a pair of white knee length shorts, and a set of white arm warmers.
His partner was a female and had the most unusual hair color on the planet. It was bright bubblegum pink and the color was all-natural. On top of that it was long and free flowing, something not recommended for active duty ninja. She wore red oriental style type dress with white trim that would have to be difficult to move in on the field. Her forehead protector was currently being used as a hair band. She too was around the age of twelve.
The field contained a small body of water off to one side and trees surrounding three sides. Near the center were three posts reaching around five and a half feet tall. This was training ground 7, where their team name came from. The two were currently waiting for their sensei to explain the mission parameters. They couldn't for the life of them explain why they still showed up to the meeting site on time. Their good for nothing lazy instructor was never on time, in fact they truly believed if he ever did show up on time hell would freeze over. Still the whole shinobi creed kept them on time as tardiness was unbecoming of a shinobi.
At precisely three hours past the scheduled time to meet, the man poofed into the clearing. Their face was hidden by a mask that reached to right below his eyes, and his headband was tilted down over one eye. The mass that could be called hair was a silvery grey that defied all gravity.
"Yo." He said waving; his visible eye was shaped like upside-down u. It was obvious he was smiling even from under his mask. Neither of his students were amused at whatever was so funny. The rabid fan girl jumped up and like always began the morning tradition of yelling at their teacher.
"YOU'RE THREE HOURS LATE KAKASHI-SENSEI!!!!" the pink haired one screeched. Her other partner didn't say anything but it was obvious he was aggravated. It was almost possible to feel the wave of aggravation coming off of the boy.
"Sorry I got lost on the road of life." The jounin replied rubbing the back of his head sheepishly before he closed the small orange book that was in his other hand. It was a bold-faced lie. A blind man could tell he enjoyed messing with his students.
"LIAR!" Sakura yelled in her screeching voice. The boy, Sasuke winced slightly as the kunoichi's voice reminded him of nails on stone. Still he refused to show it, to show anything that could be seen as weakness. The air suddenly tensed then, as the jounin got serious. Since it was rare the man was ever serious or not reading his beloved smut, the two teens quickly paid attention to what he was going to say.
"Alright team, our next mission is an escort assignment. The client's name is Tazuna and we will be escorting him to his home in the land of the waves. It is a C-rank so this will be a little more difficult than previous missions. Bring your gear and rations to the main gate by 0800 tomorrow morning." Kakashi said briefing his team. 'Who's the greatest sensei now?' he thought wanting to see the looks of glee on his two student's faces. They'd been gripeing about lame missions for a month now and he'd delivered. Looking to Sakura he noticed she seemed to be pleased with the arrangement. The girl nearly had stars in her eyes.
He looked again at Sasuke only to be disappointed. The boy was still apathetic, even at the prospect of getting a tougher mission. Kakashi mentally sighed and ran a hand through his crazy silver hair that looked like he had never brushed it. Small animals could have been hiding in there and no one would have noticed. The last Uchiha just sullenly walked off towards his home without saying anything.
'I know they were close but that was 2 years ago, he needs to move on. Naruto wouldn't want him like this.' He thought watching Sasuke walk towards his home. Sakura followed after him like the love struck puppy she was. Still she did make sure he took care of himself, so he supposed it was ok not to say anything to the girl about it. Most likely it was a phase she'd soon grow out of, girls usually did after a few weeks.
'Besides, she stays out of my room, and Sasuke will kill her if she goes in his room or Naruto's.' With that thought, he went to do a little private reading as he walked off pulling out his small orange book, giggling the whole way to his home nearby. (Three guesses as to what.)
The next morning Sasuke observed the client with disinterest. 'He's a master bridge builder.' He thought skeptically. 'This is a joke.' He was thoroughly annoyed.
The old man was drunk and apparently believed that he and Sakura were worthless. It was a close call that Kakashi only just managed to grab Sakura as the screaming girl tried to stab the client for insulting her Sasuke-kun. Sasuke merely growled and glared at the drunk before ignoring the man entirely. Overall he only held Sasuke's attention for about…oh let's say 30 seconds.
Zabuza was at a meeting with Gatou to go over the more specific details of the assignment and more importantly the…benefits…of finishing it. Fox stood off to the side of Zabuza listening to everything that was said and waiting for his orders. Those orders included analyzing their…employer, to put it best. He was a short little fat man and very oily looking in Fox's opinion.
'Who wears sunshades in a dark room?' he wondered looking at the sunshades and the man's cheap tacky suit. He was very much like a fat, spoiled cat.
If necessary, he was also there to back up his boss in the even that Gatou was dumb enough to sell them to the enemy. It had happened before and they had seemed much smarter than this idiot they were currently taking orders from. Even though nothing was going on, Fox was a little excited. Normally Haku went. Still he couldn't let that get in the way.
'Maybe he's too stupid to try it.' Fox thought eyeballing the short fat man. Snapping out of his thoughts, he returned his attention to the discussion at hand.
"This is who I want you to take care of." Gatou said sliding a picture across the desk. Zabuza picked up the picture and looked at it immediately finding a problem.
"You hired me to kill an old man?" Zabuza said looking at the picture, agitated that his skills were being wasted on something so trivial.
'There had better be a good reward for this. It's a total waste of my time.' Zabuza thought in annoyance. He looked across the desk to where the fat man sat with his chin resting on the back of his hands propped up on his elbows. The man seemed calm considering who he was dealing with. His hand itched to grasp his sword's handle that sat over his right shoulder and bring the massive blade down on the arrogant bastard. He stayed his hand on the grounds it was bad form to kill clients. Unlike Zabuza Fox could smell the distinct smell of sweat with a hint of ammonia.
'He's scared shitless of Zabuza!' Fox realized and stopped the smirk before it made its way to his face. He wasn't supposed to draw attention to himself, and if he allowed himself to chuckle, Zabuza would…remind him not to as that would draw attention.
"Yes. Currently they are on route here. That's not the problem; the problem is that he has Konoha ninja acting as his body guards." He said pushing up his tacky glasses that he didn't need and were too small. "My informants tell me at least three ninja." Gatou noticed the demon of the mist was getting agitated, a very bad thing to let happen if you were partial to your life. "Of course the reward is substantial." He finished quickly.
Zabuza smirked
'Konoha, huh. This might get interesting.' Zabuza thought glancing at his young accomplice. He threw the picture at his partner who caught the photo and stared at it intently. He then looked up to find out what he was needed to do.
"Fox, you know your job." And the cloaked shinobi nodded and walked out without asking any questions. Gatou was surprised at this.
"You're letting a child handle this?" he asked suspiciously. Zabuza smirked and followed the boy to the door. He chuckled to himself, which unnerved the small man even more.
"That boy is far from normal, but no. I'll be taking care of the old man, Fox has a different job." He said going out the door. Gatou wondered just what was so strange about the kid.
Fox jumped down to the clearing and looked around trying to sense the other ninja in the area. Feeling something to his left the cloaked form returned to the trees and continued searching. 'Let's see they should be somewhere in the area if the informant's information is accurate.' Fox thought scanning the path. He could hear the sounds of a battle nearly half a mile away due to his enhanced senses. He grinned excitedly since there weren't many others out here.
'I bet that is where I'll find those Konoha ninja.' He thought running in the direction of the fight. He slowed reaching the tree line, careful to conceal himself.
'No sense in getting involved in a fight that's not my business.' Zabuza had warned him to be especially careful with these ninja, though he never said why.
'Why does that name sound familiar?' he wondered turning the name around in his mind examining it. Fox quickly squashed those thoughts and focused on the scene in front of him. 'This isn't the time to figure things out.' He told himself. Ninja who were distracted died quickly; Zabuza had proven that to both him and Haku many times.
He immediately recognized the two attacking ninja as two of Zabuza's former comrades from the mist village. They attacked in their trademark tag team and used a chain and claw set unique to them only. That wasn't exactly a good thing since shinobi didn't need to draw attention to themselves or leave calling cards.
'The demon brothers? Why are they here?' Fox thought frowning at his observation. It was strange that they were attacking someone when they usually only attacked someone they were hired to kill. His attention then went to the other shinobi, which by the symbol on their headbands identified them as the Konoha ninja he was looking for. He also recognized the bridge builder from the photo who seemed to be cowering behind a girl with freakishly pink hair that had to be a genin. He couldn't stop his eyebrow from raising at that site.
'Does she want to be killed? With hair like that it seems like it.' He thought looking at her. There was not one thing about her that said she had any skill at being a shinobi. She had no muscle definition that any kunoichi had and he could smell a faint cherry blossom scent that he knew wasn't native to the area. Even her out fit, a Chinese style red dress with leggings, pointed out that she wasn't serious about her job. It was impractical and did little in the way of camouflage. Add in the long hair and you had the weakest link in the team.
Fighting off the demon brothers was a boy about his age who was also a genin. His dark shirt and white shorts were better suited for the job. He was from a clan too, judging by the crest on the back of his shirt. The small red and white circle seemed like it should ring a bell in his mind. Knowing time was limited he scanned the area. Judging by the sliced log the remaining member of the team had done a substitution jutsu. Clearly they were skilled, more so than the other two. That meant there was a teacher, a jounin most likely, meaning the two around his age would be genin. Fox could find no trace of their chakra anywhere. They were good, whoever they were. It only confirmed his suspicion that the last was in fact a jounin.
'Where are you?' he wondered continuing his search. About that time a silver haired man clothes lined one of the brothers and planted his foot in the other's face knocking him out as he crashed into the ground.
'Most definitely a jounin.' Fox thought with a nod as he continued watching the man. The ease with which he took out the brothers was insane. 'The two were chunnin. When working together they ranked jounin easily, since they worked in tandem perfectly. Anyone who could take them on with no problem was on Zabuza's level….or higher.' Because of the facemask, Fox couldn't even tell what the man looked like, so there went IDing the man from the bingo book. The jounin's forehead protector was also pulled down over one eye.
'Zabuza will want to know who this man is.' He could feel the ninja looking for something and decided that it was time to leave. Fox tensed and pulled further back into the surrounding forest growth as the jounin's visible eye settled on the growth where he hid.
'I don't think Zabuza is going to like this.' He thought blurring from existence as he ran back the way he came.
Zabuza waited in a clearing lounging against a tree seemingly content. 'Fox is late. He'd better have a good reason.' Moments later a shadow jumped from the trees and revealed itself to be the boy from earlier. Fox took a knee and prepared to deliver his report on the target's progress. And a few other…..unpleasant developments that he discovered. Zabuza's relaxed stance shifted and he was suddenly all business.
"So what did you learn?" he asked crossing his arms, giving his subordinate leave to deliver his report. Fox's response was immediate.
"Two genin and a Jounin, a very good Jounin. We weren't the only ones hired by Gatou either it seems. The demon brothers were hired as well and were just dispatched, easily by the jounin and his students." Fox replied without looking up. Zabuza smirked and chuckled something that was odd for him to do.
'Why is he laughing?' Fox wondered without moving. He knew better than to do that. The kiri-nin could tell his two underlings were slightly confused and since he was in a relatively good mood, he'd explain it to him.
"I expected that lying bastard to do something along those lines. What is the jounin's name?" he asked wanting to know the identity of a possible challenge, more importantly whether or not it was someone worth money on the black market. Fox hesitated in his answer slightly knowing it would…irritate Zabuza. The large man noticed the pause as well.
"I don't know sir. I couldn't get close enough without getting caught." He said wincing as he waited for the disapproval. Fox didn't have to look up to know that Zabuza was irritated. The clearing was silent for a moment.
"Haku." The ex mist-nin called suddenly. There was a small whirlwind of leaves then and a masked ninja appeared kneeling next to Fox.
"You called Zabuza-sama." They asked without glancing either way.
"Go with the back up plan should all else fail. Don't show yourself unless absolutely necessary." Zabuza ordered lifting his sword to his back. The masked one nodded and disappeared like they had arrived.
"Let's go. We'll get them on the other side of the water." Zabuza said going into the trees.
The cloaked ninja then followed after him.
There you have the first chapter I've written. Please no flames they aren't appreciated. I hope you enjoyed the story I will update in a few days. A week at the latest while I'm on holiday. Thanks to my betas. Peace.