I'll admit it now, this is a pretty pointless one-shot. But the idea has been hounding me for a while so I figured I'd write it. For those of you who read These Old Folks; I have written about 2,000 worlds of chapter 3. I will try to get more, but I am a huge procrastinator XD Warning: This is unbeta'd and not really proofread so there will probably be typos.
They were close. The Hunter team had picked up the targets trail somewhere near Komui village, just within the Hi no Kuni border, two days ago. Their target was a tricky one. He could appear and disappear in the blink of an eye leaving not a single trace that he had even been there. The three man ANBU team carried on none the less. He was their target and they would carry out their job like they were taught to do.
Fish pushed off the thick tree trunk and coasted in the air along with her team. She wore the standard grey cloak and katana of an ANBU operative. Her mask was that of her call sign, a Fish. She hadn't been called by her real name in years, not since her Chuunin days. Not even her team mates knew her real name, or the ANBU Commander for that matter. The only person who knows the identity of an ANBU is the Kage of the village.
It had rained in the early morning so the forest was slick with moisture. In order to compensate for the extra slippage Fish made sure she applied more chakra than was necessary each time she touched down on a tree trunk.
The leading Hunter-nin came to a sudden halt. He was covering in a white cloak signifying his rank as team leader. Fish and her other team mate stopped next to their leader, crouching down on one knee.
"What's wrong, Eagle?" Fish whispered to the leader in a hushed tone.
"My partners indicate that the target is less than half a klick from here," Eagles' whispered monotonous voice answered. Fish and her other partner, Rabbit, knew that Eagle came from the Aburame clan from his use of bugs. They could have attempted to find out his identity through that, but to do so would be considered high treason.
"What's the plan?" Rabbit asked.
"Our target is not to be taken lightly," Eagle warned, "we are the third ANBU team sent after him since his flight. We must proceed with extreme caution."
Fish suppressed a shiver despite having already been told this beforehand. Everyone knew how powerful their target was. He could easily take down an entire village with one or two jutsu if he so desired. It also didn't help that she knew the mark for many years beforehand.
The three ANBU split up into three directions; Eagle would keep on the current course, Rabbit would loop around and take the left and Fish would loop around and take the right side.
Fish could feel the acids in her stomach doing a small dance as she neared her destination. Never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined having to kill him; the young, exuberant boy from the academy that got on everyone's nerves. Fish never said it, but she always thought he was kind of cute when they were Genin, but her parents' opinion of him rubbed off on her so she never took any special interest in him.
She quickly found herself hiding in a tree that outlines a small circular clearing. Their target was easily spotted. He was sitting down by a small fire carelessly reading a small orange book. Upon closer examination she noticed it to be one of his old teachers' books. If she were her old self she would have attacked him for reading such smut, but she was a trained killer now. Her mission was to end his life, not lecture him on reading unscrupulous fiction.
She scanned the tree line for team. She quickly spotted the three outlines of her team mates. The movement was slight, but the signal from Eagle to attack reached her and with amazing precision the three ANBU leapt at the man sitting in front of the fire.
Fish's body was in a free fall as she descended from the sky. She unsheathed the sword on her hip, and noticed in her peripheral her team mates doing the same. Slowly he came closer; time seemed to slow down as she got within striking distance. She tightened her grip on the pommel of her sword. She raised the sword over his head.
The blond haired man on the ground slowly turned his heard to her. For a split second she caught a glimpse of his sad blue eyes. Memories started to flash before her; of his pranks, chivalry, his loud proclamations about being Hokage so many memories. And yet, one thing always stood out in them, the deep sadness his eyes carried. The same eyes she glimpsed for a split second. Fish closed her eyes and hardened her mind. Just do it!
"DISAAA," she yelled as she brought the sword down in a devastating chop.
Odd, she thought. It felt as if she had cut through nothing. She cracked open her eyes and bit back a scream. The area where he had just occupied was empty as if he had never been sitting there. She looked at her two partners. Eagles had gone for a thrusting stab and Rabbit had decided to use a horizontal slash; all three missed.
"Where . . .," Rabbit whispered.
"Not bad," a voice called out. Three heads snapped in the same direction to find their target sitting cross legged on the same tree trunk Fish had just occupied seconds before.
Eagle stepped forward. "Missing-nin: S Ranked, Uzumaki Naruto," he said, "You have been charged with fleeing from active duty and betraying your village. Your sentence is to be carried out immediately."
Naruto gave a mocking yawn, patting his mouth in the process. "Yada, yada yada. You think I haven't heard that one before? Do yourselves a favor and go home; and make sure to tell the Rokudaime," he spat the word, "that I will be seeing him soon."
Fish shifted uneasily at the words. It was no secret as to why Naruto had fled the village. In fact, she couldn't blame him. If it weren't for her parents she would have fled too, rather than serve in the new administration.
"Very well, have it your way," Eagle said angrily. He flung open a portion of his cloak allowing thousands of tiny bugs to swarm out from the nest strapped to his back.
Fish watched as the bugs swarmed down on Naruto's position like a tidal wave. He just sat there unmoving as they flew in closer. The bugs finally converged on Naruto blocking out him out from sight.
"That was easy," Eagle said.
She didn't respond, instead keeping her eyes on the swarm of bugs. There was no way in the world that Uzumaki Naruto was beaten so easily and without a fight. She knew better and told Eagle that much.
From somewhere deep in the forest a terrible roar boomed out in all directions. The three ANBU stiffened as a gale force wind unlike anything they'd ever felt came crashing into the surrounding area; so hard was the wind that trees were uprooted, but more importantly the bugs were all cut into pieces by the razor sharp wind.
"Is everyone alright?" Rabbit asked shakily. Fish noticed he had his hands placed in a seal. A containment field surrounded the three of them. Fish swallowed a lump in her throat. She had come within smelling distance of death and was only protected by a thin layer of chakra created by Rabbit.
"That bastard," Eagle spat.
Fish saw what caused his reaction. Naruto was still sitting cross legged in the tree, having never moved from his spot. Even more infuriating was the shit eating grin on his face.
"That all you got?" Naruto yelled.
"Get him," Eagle yelled to his two partners. The three of them charged Naruto's position in a pincer formation, Eagle taking the middle charge.
Naruto stood up and made an act of brushing nonexistent dirt off of his pants. "I guess you won't leave," he whispered to himself, "I'm sorry." In one quick motion a tri pronged kunai shot out of his sleeve, into his hand and ripped through the air. The last thing ANBU member Eagle ever saw was a flash of yellow hair.
Rabbit and Fish stopped mid run when the noticed Naruto wasn't in his spot anymore.
"Eagle, do you see-" Fish stopped midsentence as she looked back at her team leader. Naruto stood over his body with a bloody kunai clenched in his hand. Eagle was on the ground with a gaping hole in his throat. There was no way to save him.
Rabbit's reaction was much less restrained than hers. "You son of a bitch," he yelled. Rabbit flipped through a series of hand seals and blew out a medium sized fireball at Naruto. She didn't see him make a move, but there was a think streak of yellow and Naruto was behind Rabbit. Everything moved as if in a daze. Her legs moved automatically, moving faster than she'd ever moved before. She got there the second the kunai ripped into Rabbit's throat. She threw her arms out and wrapped Naruto in what looked like a big brotherly hug, but in reality was a last ditch effort.
"Shintenshin no jutsu," she whispered. She felt her mind detach itself from her body and enter Narutos'. Everything became wobbly for a second before it reoriented itself. She found herself looking down at the top of her own head. She looked at her hands and noticed that was had successfully changed bodies with Naruto. She pushed her real body away which fell to the ground with a loud thump.
The tri bloodied tri pronged kunai was still grasped in Naruto's hand. She placed the point of it against this throat. "I'm sorry Naruto," she whispered as she plunged the kunai handle deep into this jugular.
Ino felt relief flood her. Her mission was finally over. She was about to disengage the mind transfer technique when her whole world disappeared in an instant. Right before her mind evaporated into nothingness she was able to berate herself one last time; a fucking shadow clone!
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The real Uzumaki Naruto watched the entire fight under the cloaking technique Jiraiya used to spy on public hot tubs. He sighed sadly as he watched his Kage Bunshin disperse with the mind of the ANBU Yamanaka still in it.
He dropped the concealing jutsu and walked over the battlefield. The ones with the Eagle and Rabbit masks were dead. It was the last one he fixed his sights on. He recognized the Yamanaka family jutsu that was used and felt a knot in his stomach form at the thought that Ino may be under that mask.
He knelt down on one knee beside the Fish masked ANBU. He could see her eyes through the holes of the white ANBU mask. They were empty; the eyes of someone without a mind. The ANBU would survive, but they would live the rest of their life out as a vegetable.
Naruto placed a finger under the mask and made to take it off, but stopped at the last second. Did he really want to know who was under the mask? Could he live with himself if the girl he had just killed were in fact someone he considered a friend? He shook his head of the thought and removed his hand away from the mask.
"I'm sorry," he whispered into her ear. He pulled out a normal kunai and placed it against her throat. He couldn't let her live on in this state. Let me end your pain.
That's that. This idea came up on A Demon's Desire Naruto forum, and I wanted to write a fanfiction about it. What would happen to a Yamanaka if they were to use their mind switching technique on a kage Bunshin that dispersed? Like I said, pointless one-shot for such a small idea, but I couldn't resist. If you want to talk more or share your ideas you can find me at http : / / ademonsdesire . com / Forums / or click the link in my profile.