Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Enjoy.
Howl Heard Around the World
"How do you feel greenie?" asked Sergent Major Kenishiro Inuzuka. He and his team were on a one week mission to the border of Waterfall and Fire, who's leaders were on relatively good terms. Usually when put on border patrol, teams tended to view it as a vacation because the most that would plague the border were but a few bandits.
"Not to bad sarge." replied Private First Haru Inuzuka. The other two members of the group smirked as did the Sergent. This put Haru on edge. Had he replied wrong?
"Well thats good. Drop from the line and give me fifty then catch up. Don't try to shirk a few either because I'll know greenie." ordered Kenishiro. Haru looked hesitant which made his teammates laugh.
"You better do it kid." chuckled Reiko Harumi. "The Sarge wasn't kidding."
"You don't want to know what he'll make you do if you don't do this." added Go Ibukichi. "I remember what he made Akai do one time." he whistled. "Ouch." Reiko saw the gleam in his eye that Haru missed do to his apprehension and smirked.
"I didn't even know that was humanly possible." she said contemplatively as she gave a shudder for emphasis. They both watched as Haru made different, but mostly disgusted, faces at the thought of the different acts the Sarge would put him through if he hadn't complied. He immediately dropped from the tree line that they were hopping through and began his set of fifty push-ups causing the two to laugh openly once out of hearing range.
"So, what exactly did I make Akai do?" asked the Sarge. The two had the graces to look sheepish. The Sarge lifted an eyebrow. "If that wasn't as funny as it was, you two would be giving me a thousand right now." Go grinned.
"A thousand what, Sarge?" he asked. Kenishiro growled.
"You tell me Corporal." he replied. Reiko put her hands to her face mockingly and gasped.
"Oh Sarge! You're so kinky!" Both she and Go laughed when they heard the Sarge mumbling to himself about how it was frowned upon to kill subordinates. They continued moving forward towards the border town they would be staying at, Mizumachi. As they reached the inn, no more then fifteen minutes later, a thought crossed the Sarge's mind.
"Where the hell is the kid?" he asked. Realization dawned on the other two's faces before becoming sheepish.
"Guess fifty was too much?" asked Go jokingly. Reiko laughed. Kenishiro sighed. Maybe society would overlook murder just this one time? He had no time to contemplate his 'future' actions as he heard his name, or rather his title, being called out.
"Sarge!" yelled the Private as he ran towards the group. In tow were two other people, and from what Kenishiro could gather, they were ninja of stone. "Look who I found! They said they knew you sarge!" As he drew closer he recognized the faces. They were Corporal Kouji Ruei and Staff Sergent Kenshin Oogata. He had worked with both of them on separate occasions for similar missions. They were good men, and damn good fighters. Both were about high chuu-nin level and could be pretty damn stealthy during missions. Unfortunately, outside of missions they were...
"Holy shit! Look at that Sarge! It's the other, less fun Sarge!" commented Kouji as though Kenishiro couldn't hear him.
"Well fuck a monkey and call me his uncle, you're right!" said Kenshin. "How you doin' ya old stick in the mud?"
Quite Fucking Loud
"Could you guys be anymore loud right now?" their knowing grin, made him regret ever opening his mouth. Damn him and his uncontrollable sarcasm. They shared a look before looking at Haru who grinned alongside them. A grin which he then shared with Go and Reiko. Now the Sarge was really regretting he said anything at all.
"OH YEA WE CAN!" they all yelled at once. Kenishiro palmed his face. Cheeky bastards, he thought, but would never say.
"Cheeky bastards." or maybe he would. Their grin never faltered.
"YOU KNOW YOU LOVE US!" Goddammit. The grins finally left and the excited air calmed down a bit.
"So what are you guys doing all the way out here?" inquired Reiko. "I'm Reiko by the way."
"Nice to meet you, I'm Kouji and this is the Sarge... er... the other Sarge."
"Call me GOD."
"His name is Kenshin." input Kenishiro, not one to risk the wrath of the lord. Who knows when one's blasphemy could come up and stick lightning up your ass.
"So GOD, what are you and the other one doing here? Smiting blasphemers?" Damn you Go.
"Nah. Just a training trip for the greenie Uchiha who's probably off doing something somewhere that involves some stuff." replied Kenshin.
"Well that narrows it down." commented Haru, who was still fighting the urge to snort at his Commanding Officers fright of the lord. He was quite a devout follower and that was well known within the clan. So was his extreme... dislike of cockroaches. He shuddered. So much destruction.
"What a coincidence. Our greenie is on a training trip also. Mind giving him a bit of a go Kouji? He should be about mid-chuu but his ego is about high-kage so go ahead and give him a good whoopin."
"Haha. Mid-chuu. Funny." The Sergents glare suggested that it wasn't a pun. Oh. "Allright, allright. Don't get your panties in a bunch Sarge." he looked at Haru. "When I hit ten kid?" Haru smirked. First to ten then? He could play that game.
"You wont get more then one." and with that, they both took off into the forest eager to find a stealthy place with which they could plan and create a strategy, scout the area for traps to set and overall find some way to gain an advantage. Speed was the key. Speed of mind and speed of body. Ninja's weren't samurai, there were no special katas, no open combat and no talking. The greenest of ninja could kill a man without making a noise, the most hardened veteran could make a man knowingly walk into a trap. They were just that good. Haru would know, he'd seen the Sarge do it once. Shit wasn't pretty.
"Found you." said a voice from behind Haru, who felt the sharp sting of a knife biting into the skin of his neck. Haru smirked and slipped between the knife and Kouji, pulling a wire as he fell. This set off a trap that was easily one of Haru's favorites. It was a single kunai with a rip-timed explosive tag. Of course since it was a spar, the explosive tag used was more for stunning and blunt trauma then maiming and killing but the point would still be received. Unfortunately for Haru, Kouji did not rise to Corporal rank by sitting on his ass. He had been in his fair share of missions and even participated in a civil-war or two. Kouji had heard the rip in the silence like a stampede at night and had jumped away from the branch, disappearing back into the forest.
Haru had to think quicker. He knew he should have listened to his mom when she said he wasn't atten~ He quickly jumped off his branch as he heard the familiar sound of metal cutting through the air. Not a moment later, three shuriken found a home in the branch he was using as a thinking perch. The direction he forced himself proved to be a wrong decision as there was a trap waiting for him. A very ominous kind of trap. The one that goes boom.
Boom.
Haru was knocked out of the forest forcibly and tumbled across the ground. When he finally stopped, he was looking up at his CO, who was grinning like a loon. The Sarge bent down and picked up Haru by his collar and walked towards the edge of the forest.
"Round two greenie. Get back in there and don't make too much of an ass of yourself."
"No promises Sarge." he replied. The response he received was in the form of his battered, and mildly bruised body sailing back into the sea of trees. As he landed, he had a rather genius idea. One so awesome that he had no choice but to say it out loud. "smph hmph ooohh!" Too bad his mouth was full of dirt from the graceful landing. After spitting out the dirt and whatever else unsavory particles were in there, he gave what was quite literally a shit eating grin and got to work. Pulling out all of his fiber wire he began to tie it around the barks of certain trees in the area, every now and then attaching seal tags. Praise the research division for creating these things. Let it never be said he wasn't thankful.
"Whew. Finally done." he reviewed his handy work and sighed. "What a masterpiece." He felt the familiar feeling of a knife at his throat.
"You talk too much." Kouji didn't know why, but he could feel the grin on Haru's face and jumped back. Haru turned to face him while pulling up a mask and pulling out a pair of goggles. Smoke started to fill the air and Kouji looked in the general area where he was standing and found that Haru had purposely tripped the fiber wire he set up. He looked back up in time to see Haru jump into the massive smoke clouds that were filling his vision. "Oh fuck me sideways."
Meanwhile, a pair of red eyes were watching the situation with fear. Where was the CO and why wasn't he here helping out?
(:: WAR / Earlier ::)
Kaizen Uchiha was never a violent person. He was more of a nervous wreck. When he was younger, his father died to an enemy ninja who had infiltrated the village and had struck at the figure heads. Even though it was later proven that he had absolutely no ties to the village hidden in the leaves because the ninja had killed a konoha-nin and stole his hitai-ate, Kaizen could not let go of the fear and extreme apprehension when dealing with the leaf nin. So much apprehension in fact, that it could be called more of a paranoia and phobia of said nin.
When told that they would be visiting a border town of fire country, his nerves were set on edge. Much more so then usual because he was to be teamed with non-Uchiha for his first mission. Though having been a chuu-nin for quite sometime, this would be his first mission. The mission system in Iwa was fundamentally different from Konoha's, but to be fair, it was different in all countries. Once a passable gen-nin, a ninja would be given a schedule with which to follow. It was a training guide that if followed correctly should bring said gen-nin to chuu-nin level. There was then a test which if passed would grant the gen-nin chuu-nin status and entrance into the country millitary with the rank of private. Once in, the chuu-nin would receive more training and commence battle scenarios with veteran teachers. After everything is said and done, they would be allowed to partake in missions. A long system no doubt, but it made sure that only capable ninjas would be placed in the field. Less deaths equal better prestige which in turn equals more missions.
"Kaizen!" yelled Staff Sergent Kenshin Oogata. Kaizen immediately snapped to attention and Kenshin growled. "Are you gonna be alright soldier?"
"Sir! Yes, sir!" he replied. Kenshin nodded and put him at ease.
"Good. You can't blank out like that when we leave kid, you'll get eaten alive by the big bad world out there. Stay alert, savvy?"
"Yes sir." Kenshin sighed and turned to the person to Kaizen's left and spoke. "Help 'em out Kouji." Kaizen was surprised. Was he so inattentive that he didn't even realize another person was near him?
"Calm down kid. There's a reason I made Corporal and it's not because of my devilishly handsome good looks." said Kouji peacably as he resumed breathing and relaxed his body. This put Kaizen at ease because he could now feel Kouji's presence and let out a weak smile at which Kouji laughed at. "It's a start kid, but if you're gonna roll with me and the Sarge, you're going to have to chill the fuck out. You look like your gonna bust a vessel, cool it. Routine mission to hit a bandit camp on the outskirts of a village, no enemy nin or nothin'. Promise." Kaizen nodded and smiled a little bit more.
"Okay fruit cups, now that you had your moment, can we get the fuck moving? It's a long ass way and I plan to be back before next friday. Princess Fujikaze's newest movie comes out then and I intend to catch it." barked the Sarge.
"Talk about fruit cup." replied Kouji smoothly, as though insulting a CO wasn't out of the norm. When Kenshin just grumbled, Kaizen was stunned. If someone did that in basic, they would have a one way ticket to cleaning latrines.
"Whatever fuckface. Let's just go! Team Special K go!" Kouji palmed his face.
"Oh lord allmighty... smite me now!" he said, as he dropped to his knees.
"With pleasure." was the reply from his CO. Kouji's groan ended all conversation until they stumbled upon the bandit camp they were contracted to destroy, not even five miles away from Kawamachi. This elicited a genius idea from the Sarge. "Newbie!" Kaizen was at attention before Kenshin could even blink. Impressive.
"Sir!"
"This is your practical." he motioned towards the bandit camp before them, assessing the variables that would make silently killing the bandits a bitch. First of, it was day time. This meant that not all the bandits would be at camp, and those that were, were armed and alert. For a good ninja, this wouldn't be too much of a problem. The biggest problem was that the bandits were in an open field. Sucks to be the newbie.
"Permission to speak freely, sir?"
"Granted."
"Shit."
(:: WAR / Present ::)
"Greenie has been gone a long time." commented Staff Sergent Kenshin Oogata. Sergent Major Kenishiro Inuzuka scoffed.
"You're giving COs a bad image right now. Go do your job and find him, Haru and Kouji won't kill each other just yet." Kenshin nodded in thanks and jumped away, appearing as though he vanished in the air. "Fucking show-off. I could do that if I wanted..." he grumbled.
"Sure thing Sarge. Sure thing." said Go.
"Dreams are nice..." added Reika.
"Fuck you both."
"Oh..." started Go.
"Kinky." finished Reika. Dear lord, smite these two now.
Just as the Sarge was about to wish more death upon his subordinates, he felt a shudder. He hated the shudder. In all of his years of service, and whenever he shuddered things would go from status quo to all hell on earth within the blink of an eye. He then heard an ear shattering howl. Fuck.
Elsewhere, while looking for Kaizen, Kenshin sneezed. His blasphemy senses were tingling. Well... it was either his blasphemy senses or it was his, "shit is about to go down" senses. As per usual, he pulled out a knife and tensed in the case of the latter. Over the years Kenshin had found that whenever he or his gut feelings were confused or acting up in any way, preparing for a fight was always the answer. He was proven right when he heard a soul tearing howl. Always the right answer... hands fucking down.
(:: WAR ::)
Haru had Kouji on the ropes, so to speak. The man was extremely jumpy from the numerous close calls in the smoky area, and every time he attempted to escape, Haru would knock him back into the smoke. It wasn't good odds and he was about to give up when he heard an ear piercing howl from above him and felt blood hit his face. He hurried up expecting to see the private with a moderate size cut from being careless at the thought of having a CO on the ropes, not a knife to the chest courtesy of his teammate Kaizen.
"Kaizen! No!"
(:: WAR Chapter 1 / END ::)
A/N: Well there you have it folks. My first chapter to my first fic. It wont be only OCs the whole way through though, but there will be a lot. Familiar faces make they're way into the story next chapter, but for those who want Naruto to show up have to wait until later.
FOR THE SQEAMISH!!! There will also be character deaths. Deal with it. This entire story is about WAR. I will make characters that you will love only to rip them away from you without so much as a warning. Thats how shit works ladys and gents.
On a lighter note, I have a few chapters ready to be put up weekly for about a month and a half. Not bad I suppose but they're not too solid. Depending on how I feel I may decide to change direction (minutely of course) in the form of saving a character, or killing them off. Wait... shit. That wasn't lite. Ehh... every now and then i'll have a vote on whether or not they will. Happy? Awesome.