Fate, Destiny and Existence
Chapter 1: how it begins
Koomahana
I know I'm not supposed to say this but... I wasn't even sure if I should've posted this, please tell me your thoughts!
Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine; you want the real stuff get off this site
Thoughts
Paragraphs are flashbacks
…
…
He was eating lunch by himself in the top floor room that sat by itself in the eastern-most building, farthest from the classrooms and cafeteria of the academy. He was staring at the sky in boredom when someone planted booth feet into his face and pushed him into the room, before he could do anything they were on top of him with both hands over his mouth. He heard the door open and closed, tilting his head back he saw two familiar looking girls standing just inside the room; the taller blonde easily turned the lock on the room and stared down at him in an almost curious manner.
"Huh, Ino what is he doing here?" Sakura asked, looking at her friend curiously
"He's what we'll be practicing on," Ino answered, looking at her friend with a smile
"Our practice dummy?" the girl on top of him asked, pulling away from him so that the afternoon sun lit up her perfectly purple hair, "are you serious Ino? He's the class idiot."
"Which is why we can practice on him," Ino replied walking forward while the other girl stood up and walked towards the window, looking out of it as if to check for any followers.
"Uh… what are you three talking about?" he asked, pushing himself up and turned towards Ino, watching how she crouched in front of him and smiled peacefully
"How do you feel about being kissed?" Ino asked, in answer his face turned bright screaming red, "good, Ami close that window."
"Done," the purple haired girl replied, removing the stick and gently laying the heavy piece of wood down against the seal, "are you sure you want to practice on him?" Ami asked, turning to look back at the blonde, "I mean, we could practice on a different boy…"
"Nu-uh, Naruto is the only who fits the criteria," Ino replied, looking back at the girl, "I've done all my homework on this project. Trust me, Naruto is the only one we can practice on without any recompressions. I mean think about it this way, who would belief him?"
"Iruka-sensei," Sakura answered bluntly, "even you know he has a soft spot for Naruto."
"True," Ino smirked at the pinkette, "but I bet Naruto would never want to get you into trouble."
"I'm still confused here," Naruto pipped up, face still red, "What do you guys want with me?"
"We want to practice on you," Ino answered him, "but if anyone finds out we're all in big trouble, epically Sakura-chan."
"Huh, what do you mean?" Naruto asked, "How come Sakura-chan would be more trouble then you or Ami?"
"It's because of all the secrets Sakura-chan is keeping from her parents," Ino answered patiently, "They still don't know that she forged their signatures on the papers and entered the academy. Though I suppose it's a plus that they're merchants and are home about once a year anyways, so she's in the clear for now."
"What would they do if they found out she entered the academy?" Naruto asked curiously
"They'd move to another country," Ino answered, "Now don't you think it would be a good idea to keep this to ourselves? A secret between the four of us that no one else knows about, after all if someone else finds out then Sakura-chan is going to have to go away forever."
"Yeah," Naruto nodded, "What was it that you want to practice with me though?" Ino grinned and launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and smashing her lips to his, closing her eyes while she was at it. Naruto was too stunned to do anything more than stare wide-eyed at the blonde taking up his entire vision, before he knew it, Ino was pushing away from him and pouting.
"Humph, I bet Sasuke-kun could kiss me better than that," Ino huffed in disappointment, before Naruto could respond, Ino was scuttling back words and gesturing for one of the other two to go next. Sakura blushed brightly, staring at him in complete mortification. Ami rolled her eyes and crawled forward until she was inches away from Naruto's tomato red face, she cocked her head to the side curiously and then gently pressed her lips against his, like she was as unsure as he was. Ino counted to five before she tapped Ami's shoulder and smirked at the purple haired girl in approval, then they both looked at Sakura expectantly. The pinkette's face was a red as her dress, even her eyes looked like they were starting to spin inside her skull. Ino snickered at her friend and gently guided the pinkette forward until she got the hint, then Sakura leaned forward of her own free will and just as her lips were a hairs breath away from Naruto's—he feinted.
"Either you have the magic touch or he's just that pathetic," Ino drawled, "Come on, lunch is about over and we'd better separate before someone notices that we're all missing."
"Right," Ami nodded and headed for the window
"What are you doing Ami?" Ino asked curiously
"No way in hell am I being seen with you two," Ami answered, opening the window and glancing back at them, "it'll be suspicious if someone sees us three together. I'm supposed to hate you both remember?"
"She has a point," Sakura whispered, her face still bright red
"Alright, fine, see you later," they each went their separate ways, leaving Naruto alone in the room with a half-eaten lunch. Iruka would later find him in that room after school, waking him up with a shrill whistle in the blonde's ear and then scolding him for skipping as he walked him back to his apartment.
…
In the beginning he thought it was just a dream he had and he began to belief that it was as the days past and the girls continued to ignore his existence. Now it had been weeks since he last had contact with the three girls and he watched them flirt with Sasuke every day without getting any responses from him. One summer day he was eating lunch in the same room he fell asleep in the previous month, the one with really good dream, when someone decided to reenact the beginning of his dream. One minute he had his rice ball stationed at his mouth and the next he was looking at the ceiling with a pair of feet sitting on either side of his face.
"That didn't work out as well as last time," a familiar voice hissed, he looked slightly down and found himself staring up at a purple haired girl. The first thing he saw was a pair of nicely tanned legs disappearing into a short pink skirt, said skirt was hitched slightly to give the hint of something pale blue beneath. "Where are you looking?" Naruto's eyes snapped up and his face flushed three shades of red, Ami stared down at him with a raised eyebrow, still waiting for an answer.
"N-Nowhere," Naruto stuttered out fearfully
"Ami you're sitting on his chest," Ino hissed warningly as she entered the room and closed the door quietly behind Sakura, "Get off him before he begins to suffocate." Ami rolled her eyes and rolled off Naruto easily, straightening her skirt as she sat and turned her back to him, pretending he wasn't even there as Sakura and Ino both hurried over.
"Huh… what's going on?" Naruto asked curiously, trying not to think of what he was able to see for the first time
"What did you forget what we said last time?" Ino asked, "Our practice isn't over yet blondie."
"You're blonder then he is," Ami drawled
"Wait… you mean that wasn't a dream?" Naruto asked
"Yet she's smarter," Sakura sighed
"Touché," Ami shook her head with a smirk, rising to her feet she quietly walked to the window and examined the outside carefully. She silently moved Naruto's lunch onto the floor and carefully removed the stick holding up the large blind for the window and lowered it down the windowsill before placing the stick beside the window edge quietly. She turned around and froze, just behind her was Sakura and Naruto both laying on the floor with faces squashed into an accidental kiss. At Naruto's feet was Ino, hands covering her mouth as she tried to stifle her giggling at her well pulled off surprise attack.
"Ack!" Sakura gasped and pushed off Naruto hurriedly, nearly flying into Ino as she tried to scuttle away from the blonde boy.
"That wasn't nice Sakura-chan," Ino smirked at her, "you're bound to hurt his feelings."
"What wasn't nice was you pushing me into him," Sakura whined at her, careful to keep her voice low to avoid attracting attention. Ino rolled her eyes and moved to crawl over to the boy and kiss him herself but she stopped when she saw that he was out cold, face as red as a tomato, lips tilted up into a goofy smile and eyes spinning in his sockets.
"Oh nice one Sakura-chan, he's out!" Ino huffed, returning to her feet and helping her embarrassed friend up, "come on, no point in being here anymore." Ami watched the two leave silently, waiting for the door to close before she dared to move. When it clicked shut, she walked over to Naruto, kneeled and bent over him. She hesitated for a moment before finishing her intention and gently pressing her lips against Naruto's slightly parted mouth, her eyes popped back open when she felt his breath hitch. She pulled back and stared down into his wide eyes, she blinked and stood, walking calmly to the window she propped it back open and flipped over the edge, disappearing into the shadow of the building next door.
…
The next time Naruto was alone with the three leaders of the 'Sasuke fan-club' it was close to his birthday and Ino had brought a book about how to kiss. This time Naruto tried very hard not to feint when Sakura carefully pecked him on the cheek, following the instructions of the book. One by one, they each pecked him somewhere on his face, then on his lips, then when the book talked about opening their mouths and pushing their tongs into the their partner's mouths, Naruto couldn't stay awake and feinted anyways. Ino huffed in irritation and left the book hidden in the room's dresser, she and Sakura both left soon after. Ami shrugged, kicked Naruto in the leg and then left out the window again, leaving Naruto to stare at the ceiling in a daze. When he was ready to leave the room again, he quickly put the book into his school bag and took it home to read, the next time Ino decided it was time to 'practice' he would be ready. The next time turned out to be just before Halloween, three weeks later, Ino nagged him for taking the book and reading it first but was otherwise had nothing else to say.
"This time don't feint," Ino hissed at him, grabbing his ear and giving his head a good shake
"Ow! Okay, I'll try!" Naruto whined, she released his ear and snatched the book out of his hands
"Can we make this fast? It's cold," Sakura whispered, rubbing at her arms and staring at the white cloud of mist that formed with every word she spoke. "This isn't normal… maybe this is a sign that we shouldn't be doing this Ino."
"Sakura, its fall, is the beginning of winter and winter is known for being cold," Ino drawled unconcerned, "Alright, let's start with the 'innocent pecks', Sakura-chan you go first." The pinkette sighed and carefully put both hands on the floor next to Naruto's leg, leaned forward and gave his cheek a quick peck. "Again, that was lame," Sakura sighed, closing her eyes and bowing her head, "Come on Sakura-chan, the quicker you do this the faster we can get out of here." Pursing her lips, Sakura nodded and added three quick pecks to Naruto's forehead and cheek, one dangerously close to his mouth, before leaning back and pouting at her widely grinning friend. "Alright, my turn!" Naruto scrunched his face slightly as Ino put kisses on both cheeks and planted a long one on his forehead, as if she was mocking him. Next was Ami, who gave him one carefully placed peck on his cheek and another on the edge of his mouth before returning to her kneeling place to Ino's right.
"What's next on the list?" Sakura asked, shivering to Ino's left
"The next is the kiss to the mouth, basically the same as the pecking but a touch longer and on the lips," Ino said as she read the short inscription in the book, she turned a glare onto Naruto. "You're not going to feint again are you?"
"No," Naruto pouted at her, "I said I wouldn't."
"Good because Ami and I haven't had practice on this one," Ino huffed, "you feinted the last time because of Sakura-chan!"
"It's not my fault," Sakura huffed in annoyance, Ino rolled her eyes and leaned forward, not so gently pushing her lips against Naruto's, who didn't even appear to be impressed with the action. Again Ino pulled back and glared at him, irritation shinning her eyes as she grumbled under her breath as she leaned back onto her palms and gestured for Sakura to go. Sakura's face blushed brightly as she leaned forward again, wrinkling her nose before darting in quickly and pulled back almost before their lips could touch.
"That was lame," Ino drawled as her friend leaned back
"Bite me," Sakura retorted tartly, frowning at Ino as Ami took her chance to move in for her turn. Before Ino could retort to Sakura, they both heard a thump and turned to see Naruto laying on the floor past out and Ami hovering in her spot where his face should've been.
"First Sakura-chan and now you," Ino huffed, "maybe we should find a boy who wouldn't feint after every kiss."
"That or we could increase the frequency of the practices," Ami replied, sitting back on her knees, "the last time was in the middle of summer, that was weeks ago Ino. In order for any of us to get used to kissing we're going to have to do it at the very least of once a week, any more than that will create questions."
"I agree," Sakura whispered, "how are we supposed to learn for Sasuke-kun if we're getting next to no practice ourselves?"
"Fine," Ino huffed, "After Halloween break we'll hash out the days we'll do this so we won't get caught by our elders."
"Deal," Sakura jumped to her feet and hurried for the door, "now let's go, it's too cold here." Ino and Sakura quickly left without looking back at the other two, Ami rolled her eyes at them and grabbed Naruto by the ear, pulling him straight up even as he yelped loudly. Ami let go and headed for the window again, opening it and looking both ways she quickly jumped out and carefully let the blind set back down in place before she took off again. Naruto grabbed up his lunch again and finished eating on his way back to class, ignoring the scolding he received from Iruka about being late (again). After attending the last class for the day, more than happy they had a half day, Naruto hurried back to his apartment with a smile on his face. His plan was to change into warmer clothes and visit the nearest park to play with some of the other kids who still weren't scared of him. However, fate decided to hate that day. Just outside of his apartment building were several large traveling bags, just as he started to pass them his building manager stepped out with a small frog lamp in hand.
"Ah, hay that's mine!" Naruto shouted at the man
"Yeah? I didn't know that," the brunet drawled carelessly, "you didn't pay rent again this month, that's the sixth time brat. I warned you last time that if you didn't pay up again you'd be out on the street; I can't afford to have a free loader in the building, understand? You don't even help out around here, you just crash here and then you're off again."
"But I did pay! I swear I have been!" Naruto protested loudly
"Oh yeah? Then where's the money?" he asked, Naruto didn't answer, he fisted his hands and glared at the ground, earning a sigh from the manager. "Look, if you come up with this month's rent I'll let you back in deal?"
"Deal!" Naruto grinned widely, glad that there was still hope for his home, "I'll get you that money by the end of the day!"
"Just to make sure you don't steal it or kill yourself trying to get the money, make sure you get at least half of the rent by the end of the week," the manager replied dully, throwing one hand into the air as he walked away. "Be safe and avoid the death sector."
"… but we live in 'death sector'," Naruto said dumbly
"Oh ha-ha, very funny," Naruto smirked as the man closed the building door behind himself, frog lamp still in hand. at least he knew the rest of his belongs would remain untouched in his apartment, the manager would lock the door and double check it every morning like he's promised to do when Naruto entered the academy. Turning and reaching for the closest travel back, Naruto stopped when a small tan hand grabbed it first. Following the black sleeve up to the owner's face, Naruto found himself staring at a slightly blushing familiar looking girl.
"You know a safe place?" Ami asked, "I'll help you carry these there…"
"Yeah I know a place," Naruto said slowly, grabbing the other handle of the large bag, "but why do you want to help me?"
"I just felt like it," Ami replied sharply, "Want me to leave?"
"Ah no! I kina need your help!" Naruto back tracked quickly, earning a court nod from Ami
"Where are we going?" Ami asked as she tottered down the darkening street with Naruto
"Um… how about my secret base?" Naruto asked
"If it doesn't have running water or electricity then I'm reporting this to the Hokage," Ami replied with narrowed eyes
"I swear it has electricity!" Naruto replied hurriedly, "I promise!" Ami grew slightly doubtful at his lack of promise for running water but followed him through the streets anyways. They walked past the edge of the road and through a few allies before reaching the forest, following Naruto's reassuring smile, they both walked into the dark forest. Just as the paly gray-blue sky over head became awash in orange and pink, they came to a broken down wall where beyond it were a few dozen houses that appeared to be a large house seemingly waiting for them. Ami gave Naruto a warning look before following him over the rubble with the bag in hand, together they walked it further into the strange over grown yard and then onto the old wooden porch. Naruto let go of the bag for a moment and opened the two large sliding doors, he grabbed the strap and with Ami's help, waddled the large travel pack into the house.
"See? Told you it was a safe place," Naruto smiled at her, Ami rolled her eyes, letting go of her own strap
"Does it have electricity or running water?" Ami asked, stretching her arms out
"Ah! That's right, hold on a moment!" Naruto smiled and dashed towards the nearest entrance, seeing what appeared to be a large dark counter, Ami assumed that it was the kitchen. Shaking her head, Ami looked around herself, wondering where she should put the bag, seeing a closet nearby; she started pulling the large pack towards it. Hearing Naruto turn the faucet on, Ami nodded at the sound of running water, glade he wasn't lying about that, and carefully opened the closet door. Seeing nothing but perfect darkness, Ami fumbled against the nearest wall, searching for the light switch, she found one but she stepped too far from the entrance and just as she flipped the switch on she began to fall. She gave a startled shout, reaching out for something to stop her fall but her hand only came in contact with traveling bag and with her momentum the bag started to follow her down.
"Ami?" Naruto called as he walked around the corner with a cup of water in hand, seeing the edge of the bag fall into the space behind the small pantry door, Naruto set the glass down and hurried towards what he assumed to be the pantry. To his amazement he found that the pantry was actually a large staircase leading straight down and at the bottom of the staircase was Ami, head propped up against the bag. Eyes widening, Naruto hurried down the staircase, reaching the bottom he checked Ami's pulse and sighed in relief at the soft steady beat thumping against his fingertips. Looking back up the staircase, Naruto decided that he wouldn't be able to carry Ami all the way up, so instead he looked around himself and saw a nearby door that properly lead to a room of some sort. Pulling one of Ami's arms over his shoulders, Naruto carefully started dragging her towards the door; he opened the door and was more than a little relived to see a large bed sitting there. He dragged Ami towards it, laid her down on the bed and then went back to the door, patting the wall beside it for the light switch.
"Ow," Ami groaned drawing Naruto's attention instantly, she lifted one hand and carefully brushed her forehead as if she was afraid to find a bump from where she landed.
"You're not hurt!" Naruto nearly shouted in excitement, "you fell straight down the staircase Ami, you're lucky the bag didn't fall on top of you!"
"Lower your voice idiot," Ami squinted her eyes at him, "you're making the headache feel even worse."
"Oh… sorry," Naruto stopped beside her, staring into her eyes worriedly
"…did you find any water?" Ami asked, looking away from him
"Oh yeah! I made you a cup of water!" Naruto turned and ran out of the room, "I'll go get it!"
Does he know what a headache is? Ami wondered absentmindedly
…
The next morning Naruto found himself keeping a damp cloth on Ami's forehead and water in her system, he planned to skip school but Ami told him that the teachers would think it strange they were both gone on the same day. So to avoid trouble (for him and the girls) he did as she told him and went to school, though not before making sure that food and water were within reaching distance for Ami. during school a couple of people visited Iruka and then left shortly afterword's, his favorite teacher seemed a little worried but didn't let the students dwell on the strangeness for long. During lunch Naruto separated himself from the rest of his fellow academy-students and secluded himself in a tree that was split into three. Ino and Sakura found him easily enough and the sight of Ino's angry expression made the blonde sigh and slump in his seat, not daring to move as Ino tried yelling at him without raising her voice.
"Well? What do you have to say for yourself?" Ino hissed at him, both hands planted on her hips as she towered over him
"Why would I hurt Ami when the whole thing was your idea?" Naruto asked bluntly, Ino faltered for a moment, Sakura's snort made her back away slightly with a thoughtful look. "Who are you talking about anyways Ino? You never specified…"
"Uh there are only three girls in the secret dork and one of us is missing, who is that?" Ino asked sarcastically
"Ah, she's fine," Naruto dismissed their concerns easily, "We saw her yesterday. Why are you freaking out?"
"Because they have evidence of some caretaker selling kids to our enemies," Ino informed him, "His name is Kado Hashimoto." Naruto spat out his water and coughed harshly, ignoring the surprised looks on the two girl's faces as he slammed one fist into his chest repeatedly.
"Kado?" Naruto wheezed out with wide eyes, "Kado as in the caretaker of Kuramura orphanage?"
"Yeah, you know him?" Ino asked
"Are you sure it's him? How sure are you that they actually have evidence against him?" Naruto asked, leaning close to Ino, looking almost desperate
"I heard my dad talking about it," Ino answered, stepping back in surprise, "They have him in holding now, they just need witnesses… do you know him?"
"Know him?" Naruto sat back, his face twisting up in anger and misery, "I lived there three years. I know Kado better than anyone else. He's a monster." Sakura and Ino had no doubt about the truth in Naruto's words, the expression on his face was all but screaming at them about the cruelty of the man they heard of that morning for the first time. For now, they could only hope that the strange man making a fuss with the adults would remain in custody and hopefully never be set free.
…
"Ino-chan what are you—whaaa!" Inoichi jumped back as his daughter turned to face him with a curious expression, "What the hell have you done?!"
"What do you mean?" Ino asked, "Its Halloween, I'm dressed up as ghost. Is that so strange?"
"I'm a witch!" Sakura smiled as she popped out from behind Ino, smiling cheerfully up at Inoichi, "thank you for letting us use some of your paints." True enough, his daughter had dressed herself up in a nice multilayered snow-white kimono with a large ragged white wrap that she properly bought from the store. Ino's face had a fair dusting of white dust to accompany the ghost theme, her eyes shadowed carefully in black and charcoal to make her unusual teal-green eyes pop, she even wore the little white triangle tied around her forehead by a single white thread, leaving her shoulder length platinum hair to weave freely around her shoulders. Sakura looked more like a little priestess then a witch, she wore the white kimono top and the bright bloody red bell-shaped pants of a priestess and a pair of little wooden sandals on her feet, at least her hair pulled back with her normal crimson ribbon, making her appear a little less scaring looking then her ghostly counterpart.
"Please tell me you're talking about your mother's make-up and not my acrylic paint?" Inoichi said slowly, narrowing his eyes at his daughter.
"Like I'm stupid enough to use canvas paint on my face," Ino drawled, giving her father an annoyed look, "yes we used some of mom's make-up. I know there isn't much left so I used it sparingly." Inoichi sighed, his shoulder's slumped slightly in relief. The girls looked good but the bright red stain of spilt ketchup on Ino's side threw Inoichi for a loop, thankfully the smell soon caught up with his head and he relaxed at its familiar scent.
"What happened to your side?" Inoichi asked curiously, leaning against the bathroom doorway with arms crossed
"Oh, uh, we kind of had a mini-food fight," Ino answered sheepishly, Inoichi rolled his eyes and shook his head
"Don't wander too far without me," Inoichi ordered as he turned to leave
"Uh, we're going to a Halloween party in Oak park," Ino replied, laughter sounding in her voice, "You're not even dressed!"
"I'm on duty, I think I pass for the night," he shot back
"Yeah, no, come as a Zombi or something dad, then we'll match!"
"Uh, no," Inochi shivered as he walked away, electing amused laughter from his child. About an hour later, Ino and Sakura were ready to leave for the party in the park, Inoichi watched as they walked out his door and was sure he would follow them soon enough but as he went to leave his home he was greeted by a panty Anbu agent.
"What is it?" Inoichi asked courtly, straightening at the sight of a heavily bleeding wound on the agent's back
"Ka… Kado… es…escaped," the agent started to collapsed but Inoichi caught him and started running across the rooves almost in the same movement. "you…" The agent wheezed, "He… ven-vengeance…you… on you…" Inoichi gritted his teeth and double checked his surroundings, his daughter was still close and judging by the sudden stop in her signature she knew something was wrong. Hopefully she would take the hint to go back home with Sakura.
"Stay with me man," Inoichi ordered as he ran, "Come on, speak to me," no response from the agent, "we're almost to the hospital, you gotta stay with me!" He could feel the man's signature start to fade but he couldn't tell if it was too late to save the man who tried so hard to warn him of the dangerous monster gunning for him. He arrived at the hospital just as one of the best surgeons in the village started to head home for the night, the man saw him and turned back around to get ready for the surgery he would have to perform. Inoichi hurriedly put the man on the nearest gurney and readied to inform the nurse what happened when a village wide alarm went off, alerting all shinobi of the escaped prisoner. The second it was over Inoichi went into over drive to inform the nurse everything, who quickly handed him a cup of water while he was talking, then Ibiki arrived and Inoichi hurriedly repeated himself. When Hiruzen arrived just as he finished, Inoichi gave him a droll look before flying through a set of complicated hand signs and just giving the old man the memories.
"Ah, I see," Hiruzen frowned to himself thoughtful, "Hurry home Inoichi, I'm sure your daughter is scared right about now."
"Yes sir," Inoichi turned and took three steps before stopping dead in his tracks, Hiruzen blinked slowly as he stared at the young but powerful sensor.
"Inoichi-kun, what is it?" Hiruzen asked, drawing Ibiki's attention to his partner. In answer, Inoichi dropped his cup of water and started running out of the hospital in a blind panic, "follow him Ibiki-kun."
"Right," Ibiki hurried after Inoichi as fast as he could, sliding to a stop across roofs just Inoichi started running again however, instead of running amongst the roof tops like a ninja, the blonde interrogator was running on the ground, asking strangers hurried questions.
"Excuse me! Have you seen my daughters? They're ten years old and dressed as a ghost and a priestess!"
"Oh the giggling sisters? Yes I saw them," the young mother agreed
"Which way did they go?!"
"Down that road and to the right, towards Oak park,"
"Thank you!" Inoichi started running again, berating himself for not checking that place first but he knew the best place to search for someone was at the last place they were seen. Inoichi had gone to the corner he last felt Ino's signature, he already knew she hadn't gone home like he hoped she would, he just had to make sure she wasn't just hiding her signature to scare a few other kids. He skidded to a stop at the edge of the park, searched it for his daughter's signature and then in a growing panic searched for Sakura's—to his horror he couldn't find either one.
"Sir! Have you seen my daughters? They were dressed up as a blonde ghost and pink haired priestess!" Inoichi never noticed his verbal slip up but at that moment he didn't really care, he all but raised those two girls himself anyways
"Ah, yeah I saw them, they headed over there," the man pointed to the far side of the park, where the western forest began, "they looked like they were following a few other kids but I'm not sure."
"Thank you!" Inoichi took off running again, ignoring Ibiki's silent presence when he landed on the ground and started running beside him.
"What's wrong Inoichi?" Ibiki asked, "you never panic—"
"I can't feel her! Either one of them! I can't find them!" Inoichi explained in a panic, "Their signatures are gone!" Ibiki frowned to himself, only two options could explain the disappearance of chakra signatures. One is consciously suppressing one's own aura, the other is death.
Ibiki prayed for Inoichi's sanity that the girls were merely unconscious
The two men burst through branches of the western forest, soon joined Inoichi's two teammates (both still dressed in their costumes) and a team of Anbu. Together they all landed on the ground and stood in a lose circle, Ibiki turned towards the captain, ready to explain the situation but instead froze. Just behind the farthest agent, pinned to a tree by a sword, was a billowing white wrap stained in bright red, short platinum hairs still tangled in the cloth. Turning slowly to examine the area around him, Inoichi saw broken bead bracelet Sakura was wearing when she left his house, as well as her white ribbon, pieces of her red pants and a portion of her once long sleeve. The tree closet to the blood-stained wrap had crushed bark and splattered with blood, several thin lines marred its surface, as if someone practiced sword strikes on it. Inoichi walked forward numbly, staring at the two trees where in his mind's eye, he could see the bodies of the two girls he all but raised himself. He could see Sakura laying against the damaged tree with her head bowed as blood dribbled from her brow, her body littered with scratches and cuts. He could see Ino, his baby, pinned against the tree next to Sakura's, staring at him with familiar dead jade eyes, held up only by the blade sticking out of her chest.
Inoichi collapsed before the two trees, staring at them with numb eyes as memories circulated through his mind mockingly. Shikaku and Chōza wanted to comfort their friend but didn't have the faintest clue as to what to do first, they turned towards the captain beside them and the man simply turned away from them, as clueless and helpless as they were. Ibiki stared at the bloody wrap and pieces of cleanly cut cloth, he tried desperately to push the feeling of led settling in his stomach out of his mind but it seemed to do little against the sight of the devastated, destroyed, defeated expression his friend was wearing. Ibiki took in a deep breath and started to walk forward, carefully walking around Inoichi so his view wouldn't be distorted, Ibiki gently pushed the white body wrap up just enough to see what was on the bark. Beginning to hate his sixth sense for hidden messages, Ibiki gently laid the cloth back against the tree and silently walked to the tree that a small body had been thrown against. Observing the cracked and barely holding together bark, he saw something seemingly peeking out at him from just beneath the bark, on the flesh of the tree, nearly hidden by the blood soaking the trunk. Curious Ibiki gently pressed two chakra coated fingers against the surface of the bark and watched as bright teal colored seal expanding almost the entirety of the trunk from ground to first branch; soon enough other seals reacted to the first and Ibiki found himself standing nearly in the center of five large trees with elaborate, expertly created seals. The agents all moved to the edges of the trees, wiry of being caught in some kind of trap, leaving Shikaku and Chōza to lift Inoichi from the ground and pull him aside as well. In the center of the groove, there was a flickering of images, flashing too fast for any of them to see clearly, then there was static, like a TV searching for a signal but receiving only static.
"Ino!" Inoichi jerked at the familiar, panicked shout
"Run!" a hazy image flickered briefly into existence, remaining long enough for everyone to memorize it before it flickered back out again; Inoichi recognized his daughter's costume instantly. She was rising as if ready to sprint towards Sakura who was standing terrified nearby, between them was a tall man dressed in a long black cloak with ragged edges and a sword in hand, turned towards Sakura with his weapon held high as if he was ready to cut Sakura down.
"Ha-ha-ha-ha!" Dark, thick, foreboding, mescaline laughter filled the air, "vengeance… vengeance is mine!" another image flickered into existence, Ino was standing in front of Sakura, arms spread wide, surprise on her face, blood dripping down her chin; the man's sword was sticking out of her chest, sitting where her heart should be.
"What did you do to her?" an image of Sakura and Ino standing side by side, unharmed and angry looking, "We know you did something to Ami! She told us all about you!" his daughter stepped forward, as angry and menacing as a baby lion
"Oh really?" the man asked, his voice thick with amusement, he stood at the very edge of the groove, his head turned slightly back too look at the two girls who followed him.
"The recorder was damaged," one of the agents whispered, "We're not watching in order…"
"Look out!" The image changed, the man was in the center, his sword swung down as if to cut someone but the two girls had darted to either side of him, avoiding the strike easily.
"Run!" the image shifted again, Sakura was holding two Kunai in front of herself protectively, blocking a strike from the man and protecting a wounded Ino, who was kneeling behind her with one hand wrapped around her bleeding arm.
"They fought," Shikaku whispered, watching the image change again. Showing the two girls standing side by side, weapons in hand and stances ready, they were battered and bruised but there was no sign of fear on their faces, just anger. "They didn't give up…"
The image shifted again to show Ino pushing Sakura out of the way and taking the hit herself, the blade of the sword sliding through her like a dull knife in warm butter. There was some unrecognizable flickering and flashing of images accompanied by shouts and screams and curses, then the flickering settled on a single image. Ino was lying in Sakura's arms, face tilted towards her friend but one hand raised up as if to stop something, their enemy was standing over them, his hand reaching out for Sakura, his sword was held in his other hand, low and ready as if he planned to grab Sakura and lift her into the air only to thrust the sword up under her ribcage. The image disappeared but the seals gave out one shrill scream before losing power and fading back into the trees from where they surfaced. Everyone was quiet as they listened to the echoing almost haunting silence of the forest; slowly the captain turned towards a quietly sobbing Inoichi and approached him as slowly as he could. Reaching the blonde, the captain crouched and waited patiently for the man to look at him but when he realized the master interrogator wouldn't be looking at him any time soon, the captain settled for placing a heavy hand on Inoichi's shoulder.
"You should be proud of her," the captain whispered, "She fought and died like a true kunochi."
A terrified scream filled the air, startling the team into moving like wisps through the dark forest without thinking
An hour earlier
Naruto struggled up the stairs with Ami tugged against his side, trying to help as they both waddled up the steep incline. At the top step Naruto filled two cups of water and they both took a short break, when the cups were empty, he easily put them back where he found them and lifted Ami back onto her feet. The walk to the porch was short, almost shorter than the walk to the broken wall were he helped Ami climb over the rubble before continuing their walk through the forest.
"Ah wait a moment," Ami said softly, pulling away from Naruto carefully
"What is it?" The blonde asked loosening his hold on her but not letting go
"I just realized I'm hanging on you," Ami pulled her arm out of his hold and stepping away, they both counted to ten before grinning at each other. "It doesn't hurt to stand," she whispered, her brown eyes lighting up
"And you don't look as sick as you did," Naruto smile grew, "maybe you were allergic to something in the house?"
"You mean like the house itself?" Ami asked dryly, however, Naruto was prevented from answering by the sounds of shouting. Sharing a curious look, the two cautiously moved toward the sounds, sticking close to the shadows just in case. Once they got closer to the shouting, they recognized the voices and nearly threw caution to the wind. However they made a plan to check out the problem first and interfere if they were needed, at which point Naruto would be the distraction and Ami would set up the trap if the person followed them. Being as quiet as possible, they separated, Naruto moving to help the two they knew and Ami to set up a quick trap. Naruto arrived in the field just in time to see Sakura scream as a man in a black cloak picked her up by her neck and throw her into a tree beside him. He quickly made a silencing motion with his hand but her only answer were teary eyes slipping closed and her body relaxing against the trunk. Fearing the worst, he looked back over at Ino, watching fearfully as the man made several swipes of his sword, cutting at her robe. When he stopped to kneel beside her, he assumed it was to remove the rest of her clothes but he only rolled her off something and then stood again, a large blood stained white cloth.
"I'll leave this behind to mock him," the man grinned as he walked towards Sakura, Naruto ducked lowly beneath the bush he was hiding under. The man lifted his sword and started slashing at the tree, Naruto looked back at Ino only to see her being lifted up by Ami. The two girls looked back at Sakura, one more drowsy then the other and they were shuffling quietly through the darkness. "Ha-ha, he'll never know what happened to you," the man turned froze, the blonde he wounded was missing, he turned slightly to look down at the pinkette laying against the tree not far from him.
"What happened to your little friend?" The man asked ruefully, crouching to put one finger under Sakura's jaw, lifting it slightly. "I see~ your hair color really is natural, that's good, you'll sell for more. Maybe more than your fr—" before the man could finish a rock flew out of the darkness beyond the trees and smashed straight into his face. Naruto had already been reaching forward to grab Sakura's wrist when the rock hit him, the only thing he did was guild Sakura's frantic scrambling away from the stranger.
"This way," Naruto whispered, tugging on Sakura's wrist, she followed him without question. They ran together through the darkening forest, Naruto unconsciously leading her to his safe place.
"Did we lose him?" Sakura asked, looking over her shoulder as they ran
"Doesn't matter, I now a place he won't be able to follow us!" Naruto shouted, Sakura gasped in a few sharp breaths, trying to run faster and get dragged less. Suddenly they heard a loud shout quickly followed by the echoing screams of curses, Sakura looked over her shoulder and herself staring at the furious man chasing them. She turned back around and tried to run even faster, adding a bit of chakra to her legs while she was at it. Only with the aid of her chakra did she begin to close the minor distance between her and Naruto. As they ran in what Sakura assumed to be blindly, she fought movement to her right and instead of seeing another man chasing them, Sakura saw a flash of a bright pink dress before it was swallowed by darkness. Not long after that she heard a cruel sounding snap of wood and the howl of pain from the man, the only thing she could think of was that someone else was in the forest with them. Someone who pulled a low branch as far back as they could before letting go and having it smash into the man, she could only pray they were smart enough to start running the second they let go.
"Don't worry we're almost there," Naruto panted, his hand tightening on hers, Sakura turned back around and saw a tall stone wall with a giant hole in it, as if someone made a clay wall and then smashed down the one section they didn't want standing. Naruto looked behind them, smiling at the person running after them, he turned back around and kept running, for a moment feeling as if the three of them could run for an eternity and never be caught. But that moment crashed at the sound of a started scream, Naruto stopped by Sakura didn't have his reflexes and ended up running past him only to start skidding when his hand slipped out of hers.
"Keep running!" Naruto ordered, "You're safe beyond that wall!" Sakura turned in time to see Naruto take off towards the person who was following them but tripped, along his dead sprint Naruto picked up a rock and threw it at the man, hitting him in the face again. The other kid took that chance to scramble up and run full strength towards Naruto; he waited until she passed before he followed her towards the wall where Sakura stood fearfully in front of it.
"Get to the other side!" Naruto shouted "Hurry! Get inside the house!" Sakura stood with shaky knees before the rubble, her wide teary eyes staring at the man gaining on Naruto and the girl she now recognized to be Ami. "Hurry!" Naruto screamed at her, "RUN!" Naruto stooped and snatched up another rock from the snow as he ran, he turned mid leap and threw it at the man but it missed his head by a few inches. Sakura ground her teeth together and reached into her left sleeve, grabbing the last of the senbon she had in it and then patted around her other sleeve only to remember in horror that it had gotten cut off and she was unable to use any of the needles hid inside it. Looking down at the three needles she had left, Sakura wondered if she was good enough to throw them and actually hit her target or if she was as bad in weapons as she's always been and end up missing him by a mile.
"Run!" Naruto shouted, glaring over his shoulder at the man still chasing them, Sakura grabbed one needle and prayed to Kami that it would hit the man where it would count. Taking in a deep breath, Sakura readied her stance and threw the needle at the same time she released her breath, Naruto and Ami both turned to watch the needle fly past them and land straight into the man's face.
"Ghyaaaaa!" the man stopped chasing them, cradling his face with both hands as he screamed
"Nice shot," Ami praised with a smirk as she passed Sakura, accepting Naruto's helping hand as he flipped over onto the other side waiting to catch her if she slipped. The pinkette turned to follow her lead through the hole in the wall but stopped at the feeling of pain exploding from her back. Sakura blinked at Ami, clueless and surprised as her world started to darken and she feinted into Ami's arms, revealing three sharp blades sticking out of her back. A dozen or so paces further away stood the man, his right hand clutching at his right orbit, grinning madly at them as he approached with another small blade in hand.
"Bastard!" Naruto screamed, chucking a piece of the wall at the man. Ami braced Sakura in her arms and leaped back words, trusting Naruto to catch her and Sakura as they fell through open air on the other side of the wall. Naruto did catch them, smashing himself against the frozen ground but he caught them, and then wasted no time in helping Ami pull Sakura over their shoulders and then hurried towards the house.
"Are you sure we'll be safe here?" Ami asked as she stumbled against Sakura, trying to follow Naruto into the house that was beginning to blur around her
"Yeah," Naruto answered tugging Sakura and Ami through the doorway into the house, where he then headed straight for the first door he saw, the opened one Ami had found the previous day. "You get sick being in here so I figured he can too."
"Naruto… I'm still standing," Ami reminded him, Naruto looked at her pinkening features then through the door way to the wall, a furious roar echoed through the air as if reminding them all of the monster following them. Naruto went to step down the stairs but found that they had shifted into a steep incline, making him slip and tug the two girls after him, sliding all the way down with wide eyes and stifled screams. At the bottom, Naruto pulled Ino up carefully and turned to look at Ami only to see that she couldn't stand by herself anymore. Ami waved him away and he quickly hurried down the long hall to the first door to his left and hurriedly put Ino down on the bed before running back out and doing the same with Sakura, Ami had crawled half way down the hall before he returned to carry her into the room as well.
"Did we make it in time?" Ami asked as he laid her down gently, "is he going to follow us down here?"
"I'll go make sure," Naruto whispered to her. Ami's eyes widened and before she could protest Naruto was out the door, racing through the dark hall with the door slamming shut behind him. Naruto darted up the stairs and shut the pantry door quietly before moving towards the back door and exiting the house as quietly as he could. He stuck close to the edge of the yard, hidden behind bushes and trees as he approached the broken wall. He peeked around the edge, worry of being seen by his enemy, seeing no one before the broken wall, Naruto carefully climbed over the edge. He turned around and faced the blood soaked earth, cringing his nose at the rotten scent in the air, and walked forward, looking at the pattern of blood on the ground.
"Kahahahahahahahaha!" The sudden laughter made Naruto jump, twisting midair to face the deranged man behind him. Kado was standing behind him, one hand still clutching his ruined eye.
"I can't enter," Kado told him, grinning at Naruto like a mad man, he reached out and slammed his left hand against the air over the rocks of the broken wall. Pinky sized hexagons burst into being, shooting out electricity and restraining Kado's hand from crossing that rubble strewn path.
"I couldn't follow you," Kado pulled his bloody hand back examining it with his single good coal black eye, "I couldn't get in. So I thought if I waited patiently you would come out. One of you, I didn't care who, just as long as one of you came out." He cackled, stepping forward and throwing both hands out to either side, drenching half his face in crimson and tossing his blood out in a wide arc around him. "I was hoping for the pinkette but you'll do fine boy! You'll do just fine! I'll take great pleasure in killing you as slowly as I can!" Kado approached and Naruto spun around, running for everything he was worth. Kado laughed as he chased him, making wide swipes with his short blade, cursing every time he swung but missed.
"My perception is off!" Kado laughed, "that little witch threw off my aim!" Naruto tripped and face planted the cold earth and screamed as a blade was thrust down into his left arm, pinning him to the cold earth. "Mahahaha! Your luck finally ran out!" Kado stood over him, ripping the blade out and laughing at Naruto's scream of pain, "you're going to die now little Kitsune and this time there's no one here to save you!" Naruto stared up at him in terror, his memories from the orphanage surfacing in his mind. Inside him the demon awoke to the smell of blood and terror, his host's fear vibrating his cage and filling the cavity with a sea of dark water. He looked through the boy's eyes, wondering who dared to threaten his host.
"You're going to die now little Kitsune and this time there's no one here to save you!" The demon snarled furiously, a puny human dared to call the sniveling brat his kit and then had the gall to threaten him. He was going to make sure that man regretted being born. In the outside world, Kado slow motion as his sward came down and the blonde's eyes flashed demonic crimson.
"Noooooooooo!" Naruto's scream was accompanied by a roaring torrent of wind exiting his mouth like a vortex, it surrounded Kado and threw him away from Naruto, it also made Naruto skid across the ground until he knocked over three trees and barricaded himself inside. The immense amount of chakra it took to create the torrent exhausted Naruto and made him pass out in the core of the damaged trees that wrapped around him like a cocoon. In his dream he was standing in knee deep water, standing in the middle of what looked like a water main tunnel, bright yellow light shining down from the grates overhead. A sudden burst of wind hitting him made him turn curiously towards the source but the tunnel lead forever more behind him just as it lead forever in front of him. A second gust of wind burst past him, stronger than the first, nearly making him fall into the water he stood in; then it was gone and the silence sounded like a whisper to him to find the source of the gusts. He walked forward slowly, watching the water pipes vibrate on the walls, strange how there were two sitting side by side, one almost looked blue in the strange yellow light and the other one almost looked rusty-red—wait a moment, that pipe is gray, why is that one different? He stared at the simple pip pulling out of the wall only to dive back in, there was no way for him to follow it so he followed the two strangely colored pipes, watching as more small red pipes began to appear. Some looking as if they pop out of the cement walls only to duck back inside them again; some red pipes appeared but ended abruptly a foot into the hall, like someone cut it off too soon. Suddenly there a change in the forever stretching on hall, to his left there was a large stone entrance, like the stone entrances he's seen on the really big buildings made to hold a lot of people. Seeing that the hall in front of him disappeared and the wall to his left seemed to merge with the new wall sitting in front of him, he turned and started to walk down the new hall. As he walked down the large new hall, he saw that the there was only one blue colored pipe, sitting all alone on the cement ceiling overhead. The walls were all coated in red pipes, dozens of them, all spanning widths and lengths, twisting together like the matted fur of a cat.
"Who dares to trespass upon my domain?" he stopped in his tracks in the open doorway to a new place, he found himself staring into the great hall before him, looking at the perfectly smooth cement walls and endless ceiling high overhead. "Do not ignore me boy, answer me!"
"Who are you?" he asked, walking forward to examine the room curiously, there appeared to be no one there, just a large sealed gate on the far wall. "Where are you?"
"In front of you, you little pesk!" the voice barked out in annoyance, making Naruto look at the gate curiously and then he saw the huge red eyes glaring down at him from beyond the gate. "How dare you greet me while I sleep! Tell me what you want boy so I can decide whether or not to kill you!"
"Nothing," he answered bluntly
"…What?"
"Nothing," he repeated calmly, "you have nothing that I want."
"How dare you! I am the great Kyōbi Yoko! Destroyer of lands! I am feared around the worl—"
"And that's why I want nothing to do with you," he interrupted the demon's rant
"Excuse me?" the crimson eyes lowered and glared menacingly at him, "what was that?"
"I said you have nothing that I want," Naruto clarified. "You claim to be the demon fox that destroyed my home and killed my parents. I may not know why you want to be something known only for distraction and death but that's your problem, not mine."
"How can a puny little human like you not want anything that I have?" the demon asked, shaking its head and turning away from him, "you must be a fool to not understand the greed of human kind."
"If being a fool means I don't have to rely on a demon's power, then I'd rather be a fool for eternity," Naruto replied, turning away from him, "I don't know why you're here but I don't have the time to deal with you. There are others who need me right now and I have to figure out how to save them before they die. As a master of destruction, that makes you the most useless thing I could come in contact with right now."
"I am no thing!" the red eyes roared furiously, "I am the Kiyobi! The great nine tails! Respect me you little damned fool!"
"Why should I respect someone who's so content with destroying everything and everyone?" Naruto asked, silencing the fox, "if you'll excuse me I have to go find bandages." Technically he had to figure out how to get away from Kado and return to the girls before they bled to death but he figured the demon didn't need or care for such information.
"What good are those?" the fox snorted dismissively, "those useless pieces of cloth won't save anyone if the wound is deep enough." Naruto stilled, staring down at the rippling knee deep water, showing him nothing but his own miserable looking reflection. The girls were sick and in need of help, they were hoping he'd come back to keep them safe, relying on him, trusting him with their lives. No one's ever trusted him, no one's ever relied on him before, no one has ever sought help or looked at him the way they did. Fearing that he wouldn't be enough but praying that he could still protect them from the man they feared, they needed his help and yet they were scared he would be unable to save them.
"Even so," Naruto started slowly, "you chose the path of destruction and misery. That is your choice, not mine."
"Ha! You know nothing of your elders! They sealed me into you so you would be a master of destruction and misery! They sought to make you a weapon!" the blood red eyes lowered to his level, staring at him as if he was trying to see into his very soul, "and that is all you'll ever be to them, a weapon."
"Guess that's your fault too," Naruto said, stepping back and glaring defiantly up at the crimson eyes of the fox, unafraid of his power, "you chose to become a weapon of mass destruction and as such have made all others see me as they would see you. A creature of purest darkness, a creature of evil, a creature of death. This is the image you've left behind for humanity to see, this is the reputation you've built, this is the fate you carved for yourself."
"Those are some big words for someone who can't even spell them," the fox smirked at him, "this argument is almost amusing, I just might help you with your problem anyways."
"I don't want nor need your power!" Naruto shouted at him, "You destroy everything you touch! Every life that you meet, you end! You destroy and kill for the enjoyment of it! I don't want you power!" Naruto turned and ran down the hall, his last shout echoing in the great hall of the sealed demon.
"I need to save lives and you can't help me!" The demon frowned as he watched the boy disappear into the darkness of the hall beyond his cage; before he was sealed into a human being he was considered a healer, the most stable of his siblings, the strongest of his kind. Then the monster Uchiha decided to use him as a weapon against another healer and that healer chose to seal him into his wife to save their people. Mito refused to rely on his power too, just as this little boy had screamed at him. Though when she felt lonely she came and visited with him, daring him to remember the seals and inscriptions she was raised to know by heart. It was a way for her to keep her mind sharp, to make sure she remembered, by challenging his memory of the seals she showed him. She taught him everything she knew, her only apprentice, her only student, the only one of her 'children' she could teach—and the knowledge broke her heart. He knew it in her emotions, her memories, she wanted to teach her son and daughter and then she wanted to teach her grandchildren but she made an oath to her father and swore to never break it so long as there was one Uzumaki left living. She had wanted to teach his next container but she was dying and left him with all of her knowledge, requesting that he would teach the red haired little Cretan in her place. Kushina was a two-faced little genius with a short temper and a nasty left hook. He knew from her memories that she was sad and lonely and like her predecessor, often turned to him for comfort, pretending to not be alone because she had a constant companion. As a child she only wanted a friend and as the only bond she had left of Mito, she asked him to teach her what her elder knew and he did. For the sake of getting her to shut up while he slept inside her mind, glade the rain representing her misery slowly faded away. She too swore to never rely on his power, choosing instead to 'protect' him from 'their' enemies, the people who would rip him out of her and seal him into someone who would use his power to destroy and murder at the order of their commander.
Every Uzumaki he's met, shouted with their heart to never use his power, swearing upon their very lives to keep him safe from every battle they faced. Yet every human they met shunned and hated them, treating them like they were him, a monster in human skin. Still those Uzumaki's dared to smile at him, dared to pretend not to be in pain from his existence inside them, dared to say they would protect him.
...
"Hay Kiyobi-kun guess what? I'm pregnant!" she shouted the news before he could even answer her in his usual sarcastic way, not that she even needed to tell him, he knew about the pregnancy the second it happened.
"The seal will weaken and I'll escape," he replied in boredom
"Then promise you'll protect him," she smiled at him
"Excuse me? You're a petty human with a short life span, why the hell would I promise such a stupid thing?"
"Because you love me!" she answered cheekily
"Why don't you go die somewhere dark and secluded?" he huffed and turned away from her
"Promise to protect my son?" she asked
"No, now go away"
"Only if you'll protect him!" she insisted in that chipper tone of voice that grated on his nerves
"I said no puny human! Go away!"
"I knew it! You do like him!" she laughed, "You get to spend more time with him then I do, it's not fair… but I'm glade. You always seem to get the short end of the stick, maybe now you can be happy."
"The second he's out I'm breaking free, killing him and torturing you"
"I knew you liked him,"
"What part of 'killing him' did you not understand?" he asked, looking at her in disbelief
"You threaten the people you like! The more life-threatening the promise is, the more you like 'em!"
"Why don't you do me a big favor and go die?"
"Wouldn't you die too?" she asked, tilting her head to the side cutely
"No, I'd return to the earth and in a few hundred years return to my present form," he flexed his claws at her and grinned, "I'll destroy your precious little village then."
"Wow… your patient, strong and completely insanely morbid." She replied, unaffected by the threat or resulting snarl
"Do you want me to kill you now or when the brat is born?" She smiled at him, completely unaffected by his threat
"Don't worry Kiyobi-kun!"
"Die puny human!" He hated that nick-name, she said as if he wore some kind of pet cat or plushy doll she liked
"I know you'll like him," she smiled contently at him, as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders
...
It had been a long time since he last thought about that woman, an almost longer time since he thought about her request. The little boy's words rang in his ears, reminding him that it had nearly been a full century since he last healed another living creature and an even longer time since he last healed a human being. Sighing and looking up at the endless ceiling overhead, staring into its blinding golden glow, and let out a single echoing howl. It wasn't a roar of pain or frustration or even a cry of hatred; it was a howl of remembrance, a whistle of sorrow, a call to a memory long since forgotten. Half way down the hallway leading away from the demon, Naruto stopped running and looked back at the great hall he left behind, the sorrowful howling surrounded him, as if echoing his own loneliness. Shortly after the howling stopped, the knee high water glowed a bright orange tinted with jade streaks and swirls.
"Not everything is as they appear," the demon whispered to him, "remember that brat."
Naruto awoke in darkness, the cold fingers of winter crawled over his toes and ankles, shifting shadows danced in the firelight peering in from the hole he made. The first thing he remembered was Kado, his insane laughter, his promises of death, the pain in his arm from the blade plunging in and then ripping out. He drew back, pressing his body into the broken tree he laid in, flinching as someone stepped over the branches and dirt over his head, sending bits of dirt and pebbles down atop his head. He heard whispering, a man speaking low as if he didn't want someone to hear him, almost too soft for Naruto to hear through the thick bark of the trees between them. Suddenly a single tan hand slapped the earth just inches shy of his foot and he screamed, sending out another blast of wind, pushing the person away from him and nearly shattering his protective tree barrier around him. There were shouts, voices ringing in his ears, numbing him to what was really happening, telling him only that Kado was there and he was ready to kill him.
"Naruto!" A voice shouted, watching in heart clenching fear as orange mist started to swirl around the mound of earth and tree, depicting where a certain child hid. "Naruto! It's okay your safe!" Other shinobi in the village were beginning to react, their panic filling the air, their memories from ten years ago surfacing like waves in a storm. A man with spiky brown hair and a single scar running across his nose, turned to the swirling orange rotating into the air, filling it with the angry howls of a monster described only in nightmares. Like many others he went racing into the western forest, forgetting that he was not dressed in his shinobi attire and wore only his gray yukata for the festival centered for the children. He ran nearly faster than the Jonin's filling the trees with darkened forms, racing for everything he was worth and nearly draining his chakra reserves in his rush. He was in the first wave to arrive at the scene, terrified screams filled the air but none came from the four Anbus huddled close around a mound of dirt and trees, all shouting and screaming at the child hidden inside. They weren't angry with the child, they weren't going to hurt him, but the boy was scared, associating only fear with the adults of his village.
"Naruto!" Iruka screamed, landing in a sliding crouch just behind the Anbu team, "Naruto! Wake up before I come in there and smack you!" not the usual approach to a freaking out jinchuriki but the waver in rotating orange mist gave Iruka more courage to shout at his rambunctious student.
"Naruto!" Iruka screamed, bracing himself against a howl of harsh wind erupting from the mound, "Wake up!"
"I'm scared," the voice was almost hidden in the roaring of the wind but it was just loud enough to draw everyone's attention, "I'm scared." The orange mist shifted and a small form over the mound began to take shape, the familiar small form of a tiny child with nine fox tails stretching out behind him like shadows. "I'm scared," the child whimpered, hands raised to rubbing at his eyes, "what did I do wrong? I don't understand," Iruka felt his heart break at the sound of the child's whimpering, fear dripping from every word as he spoke, rubbing at his eyes as if the tears wouldn't stop falling. "I'm scared, I'm scared," Iruka took in a deep breath and approached the mound and miasma formed child, whimpering and scared as it repeated itself over and over, the true thoughts of the boy everyone feared.
"Naruto-kun," Iruka called gently, the child continued to whimper, "Naruto you're safe, I'm here and I won't let anyone hurt you." The small child lifted its head, his yellow eyes still dripping liquid energy as tears, the color of spring leaves, "I promise Naruto, no one here is going to hurt you." Iruka opened his arms out wide and smiled at him, "I'll protect you!"
"I'm scared," the child whispered, the miasma started to fall apart like dust, filtering towards the ground and disappearing into the darkness of the night. "I'm scared," Naruto stood inside the miasma form, curled up and crying like he was five again, afraid of the adults who hated him but wouldn't tell him why.
"You don't have to be afraid," Iruka replied, "I said I'll protect you, didn't I?" Naruto sniffed and nodded, slowly rising to get down from the mound, cradling his left arm while he was at it. Once he was standing on the earth he looked up at Iruka unsurely, tears still rolling down his cheeks, blood still rolling down his arm, but before he could register it, Iruka was in front of him, wrapping his gray sheathed arms around him.
"You don't have to be scared Naruto," Iruka whispered to him, "I'll protect you, no matter what." Naruto started crying again, burying his face into Iruka's neck as he started to wail in his teacher's arms, unconcerned with the army of shinobi surrounding them. Slowly, as if he was unsure, one of the Anbu agents steadily walked towards Iruka and Naruto, crouching a little further away from Iruka the man waved as Naruto looked at him with bright ocean blue eyes.
"Hello Uzumaki-san, I'm called Inu," The man said gently, "is it okay if you come with me for a little while?" Naruto ducked his face behind Iruka's shoulder, renewed fear consuming his glassy eyes, his head shaking quickly.
"I'm sorry Inu-san," Iruka said, patting Naruto's head, "I'm afraid he doesn't trust adults very much." The man didn't have to ask to know the reason, it would seem that civilians still didn't like him.
"I see," the man sighed as if disappointed, "will you follow me to the hospital then? We need to treat his wounds and change his clothes," the man informed him
"I understand," Iruka replied, looking down at Naruto and frowning at the blood staining his clothes. "Can you stand Naruto-kun?" The blonde didn't respond, a look at his face was all that was needed to see that he was fast asleep again. Shaking his head with a smile, Iruka adjusted his hold and carefully stood up with inu's help, Naruto sleeping soundly in his arms.
"We'll come with you captain," Inu turned at his second in command, "I'm sure Inoichi-san and Ibiki-san can investigate this area on their own."
"Alright then, let's go," Iruka followed the agents out of the forest and through the crowd gathering around the edge of the forest.
"Naruto-kun?!" Iruka looked up and immanently wheezes as a body slammed into him, nearly knocking him clear off his feet.
"What happened?" A young woman snapped out angry in Naruto's dazed blue orbs
"Uh, Ms perhaps you sh—"
"I'm a medic F-off!" She screeched at him, the agent looked at his commander as if he expected the gray haired man to do something. Naruto smiled welcoming at the woman and wrapped his arms around her neck, letting her take hold of him, her right hand hovered over his back and flared bright almost blinding green.
"Don't look at me kohai," the man drawled, "I warned you about pissing off medics, you're on your own."
"Iruka," the woman said slowly, her face paling, "run," she was suddenly on the roof, racing towards the hospital for all she was worth. She went to jump again but her foot slipped and to save Naruto, she twisted midair and landed on the lower roof. She hissed at the pain flaring in her ankle and then gasped as she felt herself beginning to fall back words. Her fall was stopped by two agents on either side, pulling her back up onto the roof and helping her stand.
"Thank you," the woman murmured, adjusting her old on Naruto and started to move forward again.
"What's your hurry Ms?" The young man asked her
"Naruto needs to be healed, that's what's wrong!" The woman snarled at him, "or did you not notice that he's still bleeding?!" She started running again, ignoring the pain in her ankle as she ran and jumped repeatedly until she reached the hospital.
"Nohara-san! We've got a red flag with internal injuries!" The woman shouted as she burst through the doors and tried to skid to a stop, but ended up landing on her rump and sliding straight into the reception desk denting it with her back. The man in question hurried around the desk and put two glowing green hands onto Naruto's back, frowning at the injuries that welcomed his 'sight'.
"Alright I got him from here Nao-san, tend to your own injuries," the man ordered pulling Naruto out of her arms and setting him down on the nearest stretcher
"But I can help!" Nao shouted as she pulled herself to her feet and started to follow him. The man snapped around and tapped her in the middle of her forehead, she blinked and collapsed backwards into the surprised arms of the Anbu captain who stayed on her heal all the way into the hospital.
"You can't even heal yourself," Nohara replied, walking away from the knocked out woman, "take her to an empty room and a nurse will tend to her injuries."
"oka~y," Inu said slowly, hefting the woman into his arms
In the western forest standing alone before a broken wall, Inoichi stared numbly down at a familiar light pink senbon with a cute little cherry blossom decal on the end. He got Sakura the practice senbon last year for her birthday, there were only ten in the set and he found five in the sleeve that got cut off and four scattered at the other scene where she and Ino fought together. Here two dozen feet from a broken wall, he found the last member to the set, sitting alone in blood stained mud, the feint touch of familiar chakra at the end beside the blossom was what called him so far away from the scene of Naruto's fight. They still didn't know who hurt Naruto or if that person was the same one who killed his daughter and took Sakura. It seemed as if they didn't know anything, like the man in the cloak was laughing at them while they stumbled blindly in the dark.
"Inoichi," he turned at the sound of his name, Shikaku stood beside Ibiki, both with down cast eyes.
"What is it?" Inoichi asked, slowly Shikaku lifted his hand, showing him the ragged crimson ribbon with the sowed on white cherry blossom sitting inside a white circle on the end
"I'm sorry," Shikaku whispered as Inoichi slowly took the ribbon from him and stared at the red liquid that stained his hands as he stared at it. They found Ino white wrap stained red, they found Sakura's hair tie dripping with red, what else would they find drenched in red?
"We also found a shoe," Ibiki said lifting up the mentioned item, "we think it's—"
"Someone else's," Inoichi interrupted, staring at the blood marring its edge, "Sakura-chan and Ino were both wearing white wooden sandals with red straps. That's a boot" Ibiki stared at the little dark boot with little purple flowers wrapping around its edge, then looked up at Shikaku with wide eyes.
"Another girl!" Ibiki nearly dropped the boot as they both took off back to where they found it, searching for more clues about this newest possible victim.
…
…
At some point after Naruto's departure, Ami pushed herself up into a slightly higher position then the other two girls laying between her and the door, Sakura was laying on her belly and Ino on her back, both as pale as new snow. Ami tried to keep her eyes open and on the door, tried to keep awake so she could listen, tried not to fall asleep for the sake of seeing Naruto return. But when the bright red room was suddenly glowing in malevolent orange and filled with a strange haunting laughter, the kind that came from nightmares and horror movies, she began to fear she had fallen asleep to dream about the man wanting to kill them. she felt a presence enter the room, felt the soft brush of skin cross the expanse of her neck like feathers, it then trailed slowly down to her hand and then further down to run across her legs. Ami turned her head slowly towards the person who entered the room without passing through the only door into the room, she found herself staring at a boy, a boy who appeared to be a red haired, red eyed version of Naruto; except he didn't have a single scar on his face. The boy's smile turned predatory, revealing inhumanly sharp canines and making his haunting crimson eyes dance like firelight.
"Don't be scared," The boy murmured crawling onto the bed to tower over her, "I won't hurt you." Ami felt like a rabbit caught in the jaws of a wolf, the boy lowered himself until his mouth was brushing the sensitive skin of her neck, his hands moving to support his weight over her.
"Well… much," he bit her neck and her reaction was instantaneous. Ami screamed, something like fire consumed her entire body from the boy and she knew by the soon joined screams from Sakura and Ino that they too were soon consumed by the fire that the boy gave them. The feeling was indescribable at first, the pain so strong that Sakura's screams lasted the shorted, feinting soon after she started. Ami could feel the boy still hovering over her, still smirking against the rapid pulsing of her heartbeat in her neck, still laughing demonically in her ear.
Ami didn't know what the boy was doing to them but she knew their drowning in an ocean of endless pain was his doing
…
…
Iruka stood in front of the class, they were silent and curious, watching as other classes entered the auditorium for the unexpected school wide announcement. It was just after Halloween break and some of the kids were still on sugar highs, but knew that the expression on their always smiling teacher's face was cause for concern, all because he never frowned in front of them. Once all of the classes were present and everyone was silent, the principle stood from his seat and addressed the entire academy population.
"Now I'm sure all of you have already heard the news during break, I'm here to clear up some misunderstandings about the rumors." The old man coughed to clear his throat, "the rumors that three of your fellow students have died during Halloween break..." Everyone stilled, straightening in their seats and focusing on the old man addressing them, none of the children present had ever paid do much attention to the soft hearted old man before, "Are unfortunately true." The silence was broken by hundreds of rushed, hurried whispers. Iruka took in a deep breath and turned to the table beside him, reaching out for the edge of the nearest black cloth.
"The victims are as follows: Ino Yamanaka, Sakura Haruno and Ami." Iruka removed the black cloths over each of the photos, revealing the smiling faces of each girl as their names were called. He knew without speaking that his students were the ones who were silent, quiet enough to draw the attention of the other teachers. He didn't need to look to see that they were slowly breaking, the information slowly seeping into their minds, their realities slowly cracking as they tried to fight back with their own excuses. But soon enough, one of the girls broke and she started to cry, leaning against a friend who was still to numb to do anything more than pat her back. Then, like a crack in a dam turning into a fissure, the rest of his students slowly began to realize that it wasn't a joke, that this wasn't some test they were expected to pass.
This was reality and the two bubbliest girls they knew were no longer there to make their classroom light up with sunlight
"Victims?" One of the older kids shouted, jumping to his feet, "are you implying that they were murdered?"
"Unfortunately that is a possibility," Mizuki answered evenly, "Ino-san and Sakura-san both tried to protect Ami from a very bad man, unfortunately we have no way of knowing if they succeeded."
"Mizuki," Iruka hissed, "they don't need to know that."
"You want to keep that from them?" Mizuki asked with a frown
"Iruka is right, Mizuki," the principle interrupted the fight before it could begin, "you've over stepped your bounds again. Remain silent or pack your things."
"...Yes sir," Mizuki bowed his head and took a retreating step back
"Who did they fight against?" Iruka recognized an older Yamanaka, rising to her feet with trembling fists
"The man who hurt them has already been taken care of," the principal answered, "none of you have to worry about him." The girl didn't look convinced, she continued standing, glaring at him defiantly. Her neighbor soon tugged on her wrist and she sat down, still trembling even as he wrapped one arm around her shoulders.
"To make sure this doesn't happen again, we've enlisted the aid of a Jonin," the Principal continued, "his name is Maito Gai, he will be in charge of your gym classes from now on. We've also enlisted the help of several therapists to coop with this lose, feel free to see them whenever you wish. That concludes this announcement." Iruka noticed imminently that as the students all started to shuffle off towards the exit leading to the rest of the school, one little blonde turned away from the crowds and left the auditorium through the doors leading outside. A glance at the principal reassured him that he could go after the oddly silent boy and leave the rest of his morbidly quiet students to the old man. Taking in a deep breath, Iruka turned and hurried out the door, following his illusive student into the nearby grove where most of the kids went to have lunch during summer.
"Naruto!" Iruka shouted, "Naruto slow down!" The boy slowed to a jog and then stopped running all together, his whole body trembling as he stood in the shadow of a tree. "Naruto… I know you saw what happened to them, so I know you know she f—"
"She's not dead," Naruto murmured, interrupting Iruka, "She's not… I saw her that night…" Naruto started scrubbing at his face, trying to get rid of the tears rolling down them "She… she was laughing!" Iruka slumped slightly, regret filling him as he steady walked forward and reached out to him.
"Naruto—" Naruto spun on his heal and slapped Iruka's hand away, for a moment top stopped. Iruka found himself staring into bright bloody red eyes, filled with tears and misery, a form of agony that couldn't be described in words.
"She's not dead!" Naruto screamed at him, not noticing the change in eye color, "she's not! She can't be dead! I saw her! She was hurt but not dead! She could sti—" Iruka wrapped his arms around Naruto, cutting him off as he held on tightly to the blonde, careful not to agitate his casted left atm. Iruka didn't understand why the Kiyōbi suddenly decided to not heal Naruto but the blonde would now have to learn to live with his sore and itchy arm for a few months. The boy was actually out for a day and a half due to his injuries, no one understood why he wasn't healing; even Hiruzen began to worry. But then suddenly, the medics were able to heal Naruto's internal organs, reporting back that the Kiyōbi was carefully inserting his power into Naruto's body and healing him slowly. Once Naruto's life was out of jeopardy, the demon retracted his power again and let the medics continue tending to his injuries. The only thing they could think of was that the demon decided to only heal Naruto's body if his life was threatened, but not heal the scrapes and bruises, or even broken bones.
"Sensei," Naruto whispered slowly, tears welling up in his bright red eyes
"Halloween night was two days ago Naruto," Iruka whispered, his hold tightening on the red eyed boy, "I'm sorry Naruto, you shouldn't have been forced to watch that happen, not to someone you loved. No one deserves to watch that happen to someone they care about but please remember that she didn't just lay down and give up. She fought back, she tried her best to survive; you saw that. Her effort alone that night should be how we remember her; joyous and cheerful, fighting back when it was time to stand her ground." Slowly, little by little, as Iruka spoke softly just for Naruto to hear, his eyes faded back to their normal summer blue, still over flowing with a sea of endless tears. Iruka pulled back and whipped one tear of Naruto's cheek, smiling softly at the welcoming sight of his summer sky blue eyes.
"Everything will get better, we have to believe that if we want to keep her smile bright and warm forever," Naruto hick-upped and before he knew it he was sobbing loudly, clutching Iruka like a life line. Iruka patted the blonde's back, smiling and relived that demon inside didn't take control, that the demon had been suppressed.
Even after so many years had passed, his mother's words still range true
Words really can change people's lives for the better
Not too far away from Iruka and Naruto, was another young child hiding behind a tall tree and a thick bush, watching Iruka smile fondly at one uncontrollably sobbing Naruto. She heard every word spoken and had seen the secret Naruto carried inside, the secret Iruka just kept hidden even from the container. She watched them for a moment longer, her heart breaking as she realized that there was nothing she could do for the boy who's rescued her several times already and yet didn't remember her. He was kind and warm and it broke her heart see the sunlight of the village become dim and over shadowed by misery. She looked down at the small white bag held in her hand, the bright red scarf she's had now for three years was finally repaired enough to be returned to the rightful owner but she was scared to do it now. He was with Iruka, crying over the loss of the person he loved most, perhaps she should wait until another day, when he wasn't so overwhelmed by grief. She looked back at the two kneeling on the cold ground, then turned away and hurried back to the auditorium; she snuck back into the crowd of her classmates without being missed by anyone. As she and her class began to follow the principal back to their classroom, her class walked past the three blown up images of the deceased girls sitting on the large table for the school to see. Like many others in her class, she stopped and stared at the images, only she didn't stay long. She found her eyes moving from the image of Ami looking curiously down at something in her hands, to Ino smiling at a bouquet of brightly colored flowers, to Sakura smiling at the camera man. Her eyes locked onto the bright red ribbon sitting in Sakura's hair to dropping down to the bright red scarf sitting in her white bag, then back up to the red ribbon.
"Hinata-chan," she felt someone tug on her hand and she looked up to see Kiba smiling sadly at her, "come on, we'll be left behind." She nodded numbly and followed him past the black table and out the doors of the large gym room, the hall was crowded and they stopped several times to wait for a group of kids to move far enough apart to squeeze themselves through. Along the way back to class, Hinata and Kiba passed the open doors of the library, she stopped for a breath of a moment, her eyes widening as she found herself staring at the image of a pink haired girl sitting at the nearest desk with a book in hand. Then the girl was gone and Hinata was down the next hall, just paces away from their classroom door, where they would wait for Iruka to return with Naruto in hand. Entering the room with the rest of their class, Kiba and Hinata both went to their normal seats in the back, watching the rest of the class silently. Most of the girls were crying, they were friends with Ino and Sakura, almost none of the boys were crying because they were friends with the girls but not close enough to know how to feel about them being gone from their lives. Towards the middle of the room, close to the window, was a single desk, empty of anyone daring to sit in it. Hinata looked at the desk and saw a memory of Sakura and Ino giggling together, Sakura with a book in hand trying to do her assignment and the blonde using the book as some kind of shield to not get caught by their teacher. Even Ami's normal seat, right behind Ino, was void of anyone's presence, the two girls sitting on either side of Ami's seat, were crying softly, trying to be quiet. When Hinata looked at that seat, she could see Ami staring in complete boredom down at the black board, her face held in one hand while she tapped her pencil annoyingly against the desk top with the other.
At the front of the room, the principle watched all of them silently, as if trying to decide something. It looked like he tried to continue the lesson Iruka had set out for the day but decided against it, he listened to the students try to contain their heartache but eventually sighed heavily. He stood up from the front desk and opened his mouth but before he could speak, he was interrupted by Iruka opening the classroom door with one blood-shot, puffy-eyed little blonde beside him.
"I'm sorry sir," Iruka apologized, "it took a while for Naruto calm down enough to return with me."
"I see and no need to apologize," the principal replied, "I was just about to dismiss the class for the day."
"Huh?" Iruka blinked at him, watching the old man bob his head in thoughtful consideration
"Yes perhaps I should excuse all classes for the rest of the week," the old man said as he moved to leave the room, "Go ahead and let your students leave Iruka-san, there's no point in trying to teach them in that kind of state."
"Ah, yes sir," Iruka agreed, stepping aside to let the old man pass. He turned to address the rest of his class and was surprised to see that all of them had already grabbed their bags and were slowly making their way down the ails to line up in front of him, waiting to be excused for the day. At the other side of the classroom, Iruka watched as Naruto put on his jacket, through his bag over his shoulder and jumped out the window, running for all he was worth away from the academy.
Inoichi sat calmly in his seat, staring coldly at the young man sitting across the table, staring back at him. They've been having the staring contest for a few hours now, the only reason Inoichi wasn't walking through the man's head was because Inoichi didn't trust himself to not destroy the young man in the process.
"We've been here all night," the young man said suddenly, "are you going to charge me with something or stare at me to death?" Inoichi continued staring at him, remaining silent, which only served to unnerved the young man further.
"Why did you do it?" Inoichi asked suddenly
"Do what?" He asked tiredly
"Why did you kill three ten year old girls?" Inoichi elaborated, setting three pictures on the table before him. The young man pulled pictures closer to him and separated them to get a look at three smiling girls staring up at him with sparkling eyes.
"Never seen them before," the man answered, leaning back in his chair
"Never seen them smiling or you don't recognize them without the blood splatter?" Inoichi asked calmly, tossing another picture onto the table, the man grabbed it and lifted one eyebrow at the two smiling girls, one dressed like a priestess and the other as a ghost.
"Still not ringing any bells," he set the picture down and stared back at Inoichi dully, "are they supposed to mean something to me?" Inoichi hummed, not moving from his place as his eyes flickered to the door. The young man looked at it dumbly, his eyes widening when the door opened and a young woman walked in with two files in hand.
"Sorry for interrupting sir," the woman said bowing slightly in the doorway, "I know you don't like to be interrupted, especially before things get bloody but this is important." She ignored the look the young man gave her, his dark eyes sliding back and forth between the two as if he wasn't sure to take them seriously or not.
"It's alright, what did you find?" Inoichi replied, holding his hand out expectantly for the files.
"The DNA match came back from the needle we found at scene," the woman answered, "there are traces of iodine and coralline, as well as saline tissue and blood."
"...which means what?" The young man asked
"It means that little pinky there took out her murder's eye before he killed her," the woman answered
"Ah, well since I still have both eyes, I think I can leave now," he meant to sound sarcastic but Inoichi stopped him before he could get up all the way
"Not quite brat, sit down," Inoichi ordered
"She just said I can go—"
"No I didn't," she replied, insulted that he would even try to use her as an excuse, "I said the murder is missing an eye."
"You remember the DNA she found on the end of the needle?" Inoichi asked, "It's an almost perfect match to yours."
"Almost perfect?" The man asked, raising an eyebrow at Inoichi
"Where's your twin brother?" The woman asked, the man stiffened looked between her and Inoichi, before sitting back down with an understanding sound escaping his mouth.
"Thank you Moriyama-san, you can go now," Inoichi said as he straightened in his seat, "where is your brother Kado?" The man didn't look like he wanted to answer but he was weighing the pros and cons of keeping his mouth shut. "Kid, do you know who I am?" The man looked up at him, still remaining silent, he slowly shook his head. "My name is Inoichi Yamanaka," he watched as the man's face drained of color, "this one is my daughter." He tapped the picture containing both Sakura and Ino in their Halloween costumes but didn't specify which one. If the man's face was any indication of emotions, he was ready to pea himself in sheer terror. "Why did Kado kill my girls?"
"He... He wouldn't kill them," the man answered slowly, "they're worth too much."
"Worth?" Inoichi repeated with narrowed eyes. The young man flinched, closing his eyes as if expected to be beaten, "care to clarify?"
"Listen if my brother didn't vouch for me, I'd be one of his many corpses hidden somewhere," he replied
"I'm about to turn you into a human vegetable," Inoichi replied calmly, the man paled further
"Alright but you didn't hear anything from me," he said quickly, Inoichi raised an eyebrow and leaned back in his seat. "okay, you see these two here? The sisters?"
"They're best friends," Inoichi drawled, "They're not blood related."
"then why did you—never mind, the point is that they have green eyes, less than five percent of people on this content have green eyes," he paused and tapped Sakura's image carefully, "and this one has naturally pink hair. That's a trait not even a single percentage of people on this land have and those few who do have pink hair all have brown or blue eyes. Her eyes are green, that makes her a one in a million find. She alone would make Kado rich enough that you couldn't get within three clicks of his person."
"Human trafficking," Inoichi said slowly, a dangerous tilt to his voice
"Yeah..." He shrank back slightly, as if expecting to be beaten
"Continue," the blonde ordered
"Blondie, uh, your daughter... She would be worth a few hundred thousand too," he said slowly, as if expected be killed soon, "you don't find platinum blondes every day, I mean look at her, her hair is almost white."
"I'm aware," Inoichi drawled
"And her eyes," he hesitated, swallowing slightly, "they're green and blue, multi-colored, that's even rarer then pink hair." Inoichi frowned at the young man thoughtfully. He raised Ino by himself, he never noticed anything strange with his daughter's eyes before, he always assumed they were blue like her mother's. Curious, Inoichi picked up the school photo and the last picture of his daughter, in the school photo her eyes were bright baby blue, in the last photo she had almost teal looking eyes.
"Its the lighting of the pictures," Inoichi dismissed him and returned the pictures back to the table, the young man sighed and shook his head.
"Dude, your kid has color changing eyes," he said, "most people's eyes don't change all that much with their emotions. Your girl goes from icy blue to spring water green. Not even pinky's eyes change that much, they stay in the green range at all times. Apple green when she's calm and jade when she's happy. That's fairly normal color changes for most people," he tapped at Ami's picture just to draw attention to her, "even this girls eyes remain coffee brown until she's mad, then they turn black. But that's not what Kado likes about her, she's just as rare as the pinkette."
"How do you know?" Inoichi asked
"How many people do you know have naturally purple hair?" He asked back, "I bet you can count them on one hand and I bet every single one of them has brown eyes. These three girls could make Kato richer then the Daimyo, hell, they could literally buy himself the title."
"Who are your buyers?" Inoichi asked, eyes narrowing
"I don't know," he answered, leaning back in his seat
"Who are your contacts?"
"Kato only has me do surveillance on his targets, I'm not allowed to have any contact with the others," rubbed at his neck in irritation. "When he's off for a sell or meeting, I take over the orphanage until he comes back. He usually has a new target for me to follow by then and the pattern repeats."
"So your literally expendable," Inoichi drawled unimpressed with the information, "what did he do with my girls?"
"If he has them, then you're never going to find them," he answered, one hand rubbing against his face, "and I seriously suggest you start praying that he doesn't find them."
"Why?"
"Because pinky took his eye," he answered bluntly, as if he thought Inoichi should take that into consideration, "before he left, Kado swore to make her life a living hell for the rest if eternity. If he finds her, he'll never let her go, he'll take enjoyment out if torturing her daily."
"Why do you work for him?" Inoichi asked slowly
"...He's my brother," he shrugged helplessly. Inoichi knew in that moment that despite the young man's loyalty to his brother, Kado would leave him to the wolves in a heartbeat and the man knew it. Inoichi left the interrogation room with the knowledge that his child was missing, a monster was lose, and he still had to talk to Sakura's parents. Speaking of which, they were the first people he met when he left the staircase and entered his office courters shared with Ibiki, Shikaku and a dozen other investigators. They were standing in front of his desk, waiting patiently for his return and the second the mother saw him, terrified hope shinned in the woman's eyes. He took in a deep breath and started to walk towards them, drawing the father's attention instantly. Something on his face must've given away the bad news because the mother collapsed into the nearest chair, trembling uncontrollably with both hands wrapped around her mouth as if to contain her barely held back screams.
"Do you have news of my child?" the pink haired man asked, turning dagger sharp, icy blue eyes onto Inoichi. His too controlled tone of neutrality gave the blonde man the impression of a seasoned shinobi with one too many brushes with death, that or a really stubborn business man. Inoichi glanced down at the woman, staring into her heartbroken watery jade orbs partially obscured by shoulder short curly white-gold hair.
"I'm afraid we've been unable to find your daughter," Inoichi answered the man slowly, "We believe she's still alive."
"Oh thank Kami," the woman breathed, relaxing like jelly in the chair
"Once winter comes there will be no certainty of that," the man replied courtly
"Dear," his wife said softly, almost as if she would scold him
"That is the truth Tsubaki, the sooner we accept that the less disappointment we'll have to face when they find the child's body," he replied, his wife slumped, fresh tears filling her jade eyes
"You're talking as if she's already dead," Shikaku spoke up, frowning at the man, "Don't you have hope for her survival?"
"There is no point in hoping for the unavoidable," he replied
No wonder Sakura-Chan slept over so often, Inoichi thought, frowning at the man thoughtfully
"Why haven't you said her name yet?" Ibiki asked, turning in his seat to look up at the tall father standing across from his seat, "you keeping saying 'child', not even 'girl' or 'daughter', why?" Tsubaki looked down at the ground sadly, refusing to look even at her husband. Her reaction was enough to pique the interest of Inoichi and his teammates, curious about the world this small bubbly little girl lived in.
"She is my child," the man replied courtly, "it goes undisputed her relation to me. It does not matter what I call the child so long as I acknowledge that she is mine."
"She's not a vase," Inoichi said without thinking, sounding as insulted as any normal father would be, "she's your daughter and she has a name, why don't you use it?"
"Are you going to stand there all day and interrogate me or are you going to find the man who took my child?" he asked, staring dully right back at him, "if you have no further information to give us, then we'll take our leave now."
"Dear," Tsubaki whispered
"Now," he ordered walking away without seeing if she would follow
"I'm sorry," Tsubaki said as she rose and began to follow her husband
"Why is he like this?" Inoichi asked before she get too far away, "he acts as if she's some kind of object to be retrieved."
Tsubaki sighed and shrugged with a sad look on her face, "Atsuhi-kun wanted a boy."
Naruto ran through the streets as fast as he could, terrified that he nearly lost it in front of Iruka, almost telling him everything he swore to keep silent about. He ran through the streets of the village, taking confusing routs and last minuet turns, until finally he was alone long enough to use the transformation jutsu, being engulfed in white smoke before he exited the next ally. Then he slowed his run down into a walk, trying to even out his paces to appear calm and collected. When he started to pass a glass store front, he paused to look at his reflection and stopped to stare, amazed that his rushed technique came out so professionally. Staring back at him was a perfectly white-gold almost platinum haired girl with snowy white skin with positively liquid amethyst eyes. He didn't even have his scares on his cheeks, they were replaced with a light dusting of pink because of the cold air nipping at them. He almost looked like a normal ten year old girl with his thick black pants, navy blue woolen coat with the high collar and black gloves, even his dark bag looked perfectly normal sitting calmly against his hip, its long gray strap neatly tucked in place between his arm and large unmistakable feminine chest. He blinked slowly at his reflection before signing heavily and turning to walk away, as if he was disappointed with something. He didn't get far before he accidently bumped into another person, he stepped back, hands raised peacefully.
"I'm sorry!" He started, his voice high and squeaky, like a mouse learning to speak the human language.
"It's okay," an older woman was standing in front of him, smiling softly at him as if her smile could distract him from the sadness in her soft jade eyes. "What are you doing out here all alone little girl, shouldn't you be at home?" He looked nervously up at the tall imposing figure of a man beside the woman, his hair may have been a dull pink but he still looked ready to clean someone's clock.
"Oh... Uh, I'm on my way now, school let out early for us," he answered, blushing a little and stepping back
"Are you attending Konoha Culinary Academy?" The man asked, his voice low and cold, as if he was an ice carving that got painted to appear human.
"Oh uh, yeah," he answered, figuring that would end the conversation, he didn't even know the village had one of those. "How'd you know?"
"Do you know a young girl there named Sakura Haruno?" He asked instead, Naruto now realized these two adults were probably Sakura's parents and that the culinary school had been her reason for remaining in the village. It was a good thing he said yes, he could cover for Sakura still.
"Y-yeah... She's been missing from school for a while now," he answered, he didn't have to act to look down with teary eyes. "Are you her parents?"
"Yes," the woman agreed, almost eagerly, "do you remember the last time you saw our girl?"
"Uh-huh," he answered honestly, "two nights ago during the Halloween celebration. I saw her at the ice cream stand with Ino Yamanaka, they were supposed to meet me in Oak park to watch the puppet play there but they never showed up."
"Did she seem happy?" The man asked, his voice didn't sound as cold as before, he almost sounded like a normal father
"She was laughing," he answered truthfully. The woman wrapped her arms around him suddenly, hugging him tightly, as if in thanks for his words.
"Thank you," the woman whispered to him, "thank you so much..." she pulled away at the soft touch from her husband and the couple watched him bow politely before walking down the street, being greeted easily by another girl about her age, the two exchanged a quick hug and continued down the road.
"Ino Yamanaka," the woman whispered thoughtfully, "the man we spoke to just now… his name was Inoichi Yamanaka."
"Yes, I noticed as well," he said evenly, walking forward again
"Officers aren't supposed to work on cases that are directly related to them," she whispered, leaning into her husband as they began walking back to their hotel, "his daughter is missing too. Our children were friends…" he could say nothing that wouldn't be stating the obvious, so he settled for kissing her temple.
"Thanks Kiba, how'd you know it was me?" he asked as he ran, looking at the equally disguised boy in confusion
"You can't hide from this nose," Kiba answered, grinning mischievously at him, "hay, how hard is it to run with extra weight?"
"Shut up!" Naruto hissed, glaring at him, "At least I'm not extra flat!"
"Hay it's not my fault this is as close to sis as I can get!"
"You're mimicking your sister? Dude that's sad,"
"Shut up!"
"Later!" Naruto laughed, dodging the punch easily and taking off in a new direction, disappearing into the crowds like smoke in mist.
"Ch, idiot," Kiba pouted turning on his heal to run in a new direction but only ended up spinning into someone's chest, "Ack! I'm sorry!" Kiba shouted in a high squeaky voice, only to pale at the sight of two familiar looking females.
"Son," the older woman greeted
"Ototo," the younger teen greeted
"What the hell is this?!" they screamed together, slamming fists into his head before he could escape.
"Hm?" Naruto turned around at the sound of angry female voices, seeing no one targeting him, he shrugged in his feminine disguise and started again in his previous direction. After dropping his disguise in an ally way he quickly ducked into his apartment building and knocked on his apartment manager's door to hand over a small bag with a bit of money in it only it was his manager's brother how opened the door. Naruto paled at the sight of the older man and quickly dropped the bag at his feet before running out the door before the older man could curse at him. Once he was back in the hall, away from the man who's threatened his life more than once, he quickly moved through several hand signs and re-disguised himself as another girl. The hall mirror across from him, told him that he was a midnight haired girl with watery green eyes and ghostly white skin, dressed in a black kimono with a simple satchel over her shoulder. Deeming the disguise adequate, he walked out of the apartment building and flinched back at the cold of the air hitting him, he then hurried away from the building, hurrying towards the nearest set of trees to block out the wind. In almost no time he quietly slipped into the forest without anyone noticing him and as soon as he couldn't see the road, he released a part of his disguise, revealing his previous dark outfit but still remained in his dark haired green eyed plane looking girl disguise he had when he left the apartment building. Double checking his clothes, he rolled his shoulders to even out the weight of his bag and started running through the forest, agilely avoiding low limbs and raised roots.
Soon enough he was racing towards the broken wall and as soon as he saw it he was jumping over the rubble and racing into the house. He released his disguise the same moment he jumped through the doorway to the stairs leading down into what he guessed to be the basement and not a moment later did he hit that bottom was he slamming open that door and darting in just to close the door again. He leaned against the door, panting heavily, sliding to the floor and resting his arms against his bent knees, bowing his head as he tried to breathe evenly.
"You're back," a whisper soft, sickly weak voice called, he whipped his head up to see Ami smiling sleepily at him, "What happened at school? Does anyone know we're here?" Naruto stood up and hurried to the edge of the bed, his expression enough to answer to silence Ami.
"I'm sorry," Naruto whispered to her, bowing his head in shame, "They said you were missing… and there was a possibility of you being dead."
"…what of Kado?" Ami asked softly
"He got lose that night I tried to take you out of here," Naruto answered, he whipped his nose against his sleeve and looked miserably at her, "He's still free and missing…"
"Then we'll have to stay here," Sakura whispered, making Naruto jerk at her soft whisper, having not realized that she and Ino were both awake, weak like newborns but awake. "We don't have a choice, if we reveal that we're living now, then he'll hunt us down again and this time he won't miss our vitals. He'll kill us for sure."
"So our lives rest in the biggest idiot of our year?" Ino asked weakly, "I certainly feel safe, do you?"
"He's the only one who can protect us now," Ami reasoned, laying back down, "if you want to take your chances with Kado, be my guest." Ino had no response, she just closed her eyes and breathed slowly in acceptance, even Sakura smiled at him unsurely.
"I'll definitely protect you guys," Naruto said with a bright blush on his cheeks, "that's a promise of a life time." Sakura gave a relived sigh, sinking into the bed contently, a smile on her lips as she slipped into sleep.
"Alright then mister guardian," Ino said sarcastically, "what are you going to do now? In case you haven't noticed we're all pretty sick right now, none of us are going to be able to stay here long in these conditions. What are you going to do about our colds?" Naruto blinked at her in surprise, tilting his head to the side curiously, blinking big blue eyes at her.
"What's a cold?" Sakura's eyes popped open, joining the silent the silent staring of disbelief. Naruto just stared curiously back at them, seemingly not understanding the problem.
"...Naruto have you ever been sick before?" Ami asked curiously
"No," he answered honestly, earning a sigh from the purple haired girl
"alright, look around the room for anything that might look like medicine," Ami ordered, "maybe this is a kind of storage room."
A storage room housing an empress bed fram with a double wide king size bed? Ino thought doubtfully, staring at the bright red sweeps of cloth hanging from the four large posts, surrounding them in an almost perfect crimson bubble. Naruto didn't question Ami as he hurried to the nearest wall and started to examine every nit-knack he came across before putting it back where he found it and moving on. Eventually the girls fell asleep and Naruto kept searching for anything that might be considered medicine, he was mostly looking for anything with a red cross on it. At some point in the night, Naruto rounded his way around the room to the wall farthest from the door but closest to Ami. He looked every book and scroll sitting on the huge bookshelf spanning the entirety of the wall, only this one portion closest to Ami and the bed, there was an un-barricaded section that was almost bare of anything. There were a few books and scrolls here and there, as well as a few other small items, but what caught Naruto's attention the most was a single large red leather bound book with a bright white carving of a circle on its spine, three more smaller circles residing inside it. Curious about the strange book, Naruto reached out to it and tugged gently on its top, only it didn't want to move and remained sitting in its place. Tilting his head to the side, Naruto grabbed the book with both hands and tugged, it still refused to move. Placing one foot on the shelf wall where it wouldn't give out, Naruto adjusted his grip higher on the book and tugged on it with all his weight. Instead of coming off the shelf the book moved just enough to make a clicking noise and before Naruto knew it, he was laying flat on his back and there was an empty space where the shelf was before he fell.
"Ow," he hissed, rubbing at the back of his head, glaring at the revealed room hiding behind the bookcase. Naruto climbed to his feet and stepped into the new room, to his surprise the room appeared to be huge, with a large carving on the floor. Curious, he bent and tried moving the dust off the floor, trying to read the thick scratches carved there. His efforts seemed unneeded at first; the strange lines suddenly flared bright blinding violet, alighting the room and revealing the pattern of the lines instantly. The most interesting thing about the network of lines and swirls was what appeared to Naruto as a small plus sign, like the ones he's seen on little emergency health boxes in the nurse's office. Deciding that this might be a form of medicine for the girls, Naruto turned and sprinted out of the huge room and ran hurried to shake Ami awake.
"Ami, Ami wake up," Naruto said, shaking the girl
"N-Naruto?" Ino whispered, waking up enough to glare sleepily at him, "What is it?"
"I think I found some medicine," Naruto explained, "but I have to carry you guys to it."
"Alright, show me," Ino said, pushing herself up, "I'll decide if it's real medicine or if I have to smack you." Naruto nodded and hurried around the large bed to help lift Ino up, then carried her around the bed and into the room. Ino stared at the large seal with a frown on her face, not sure what to make of it she agreed with Naruto that it might be able to help them heal. Close to the center of the large integrate knot work of lines and swirls, were three large ovals with triangular points at each end and filled with perfectly straight lines sweeping evenly from side to side. Naruto grinned at her and carried her to the large cylindrical shape to the far left side and laid Ino down as carefully as one would lay a glass doll. He watched with wide eyes as the lines in the shape flared brighter before appearing over Ino's skin, as if they formed a tight net right over her.
"I feel better already," Ino whispered in amazement, lifting one hand and looking at the delicate violet lines in amazement, "Quickly get Sakura and Ami in here." She ordered but Naruto was already halfway to the door, running as fast as he could to lift Ami off the bed and bring her in, laying her down in the cylinder shape closest to the exit. Then he hurried back out and carefully rolled Sakura onto her back and just as carefully pulled her onto his back and hurried into the room again and this time ran to the last strange shape at the other side. Backing away from Sakura, Naruto watched worriedly as her pale complexion slowly increased into a slightly warmer look. Deciding that she wasn't as sick as she was before, Naruto hurried to look at Ami and saw that she had regained her healthy tan complexion.
"I don't know what this is but it feels great," Ino said, pushing herself up and giving Naruto a big grin, "Did you find anything about what this thing is?"
"No, as far as I can tell it's some kind of seal," Naruto answered, "like the ones you see on explosive tags or storage scrolls."
"This is not a storage scroll," Ino snickered
"No its way cooler," Naruto agreed, smiling brightly and feeling sky high as the girls began healing faster than he could've hoped. Suddenly, just off to his right, a violet rectangle appeared; curious Naruto walked over and examined it closely. Just as he crouched look at the rectangle, a smooth line split the shape nearly in half and on the left side several glowing words appeared.
"Wha-what is… your… order?" Naruto read the inscription aloud, tilting his head to the side dumbly
"Write in perfect health," Ino snorted, giggling to herself. She was being sarcastic but Naruto took her seriously and slowly wrote the characters for 'perfect' and 'health' into the clear square. When the written side appeared with another question below the first, asking if he wanted the three people inside the seal to have 'perfect health', he wrote in yes. He didn't stop to ask himself how the seal knew there were three people inside the seal; he just figured it was designed for that number of people. The rectangle's glow brightened and dimmed several times before flashing and merging back into the large circle, disappearing from sight.
"Ack!" Ino shouted suddenly, nearly scaring Naruto as he jumped back up, "I forgot the book! It's still at school!"
"You left it at school?!" Naruto shouted in disbelief, Ino turned wide eyes towards him
"It's in the room we all met in last time, in the drawer of the dresser beside the door!"
"I'll go get it!" Naruto said, turning and running out of the room hurriedly.
"When he's in a hurry he sure can move," Ino murmured to herself. She sighed and twisted around to look down at Sakura, worried that her weaker body would take longer to heal then normal. For a ten year old, Sakura was still pretty small as compared to everyone else their age; even the Hyūga girl looked healthy in comparison. She knew that Sakura got sick easily, especially with spring colds, that was why she was so worried; they out in the October cold for so long Sakura could've gotten a really bad cold or something worse. Groaning softly, Sakura's face scrunched up with what looked to be a sneeze, making Ino snicker in amusement at her face. When Sakura opened her eyes sleepily, staring up at Ino curiously, the blonde was beyond relived.
"Hay there sleeping beauty, how're you feeling?" Ino asked, smiling down at her friend
"Sleepy," Sakura answered, "Where are we?"
"Naruto found a secret room in the one we were hiding in," Ino answered, "he says we're in a giant seal and as far as either one of us can tell it's designed to heal. So you should be feeling better any second now," Sakura blinked slowly before raising her hands and looking at the strange glowing violet lines covering her skin. "Don't worry about that," Ino said quickly, "its apart of the seal. I bet they'll go away as soon as we leave the seal."
"Okay," Sakura yawned and looked to her other side, her hands flopping down on top of her stomach, "Is Ami hurt too?"
"As far as I can tell it's just a cold," Ino answered her, "though she does look better now than she did when Naruto brought her in."
"Oh yeah, where is Naruto-san?" Sakura asked, looking back up at her friend
"He's off getting the book I kinda forgot to grab last time," Ino answered with a light blush
"What are we going to do with that?" Sakura asked sleepily, "We don't need it here do we?"
Ino shrugged, "We'll have plenty of time to practice."
"On Naruto?"
"Who else?"
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Sakura frowned at her, "I mean… don't we kind of have more important things to worry about right now then learning how to kiss a boy?"
"Sasuke is not just any 'boy'," Ino chided lightly, "he's the rookie of our year. Not to mention dashing, mysterious, handsome and—"
"Completely alone?" Sakura interrupted
"Not after we learn everything in that book," Ino grinned, "then we can prove to Sasuke that we're willing to be his."
"Ino, he only wants baby-makers," Sakura sighed, her face pinkening, "I'm all for restoring a clan but I don't want to share my future husband with someone else. Especially if he's going to prefer a normal haired girl with normal haired children, then it would be kind of useless to be with him, don't you think?"
"Relax Sakura-chan," Ino laid back down on her belly, smiling brightly at her friend, "Sasuke-kun might want to marry one of us and the other will be his mistress. Not much difference between the two anyways." Sakura sighed heavily, closing her eyes and breathing softly. Ino watched her friend slowly drift asleep and when she was sure there wasn't a waver to Sakura's smooth signature she curled up in her little area and smirked at the lock of pink hair sitting in her vision.
"Don't worry, I don't mind being a mistress," Ino whispered, "he'd marry you for sure. Who wouldn't want someone like you anyways?" Ino drifted off in sleep, never noticing the bright crimson stain on Sakura's cheeks. By the time Naruto returned, the girls were soundly asleep, leaving him bored and with nothing to do but reading a strange book. In the morning Ami was the first to wake up, Naruto greeted her with a plate of pancakes covered in syrup.
"No thanks," Ami said smiling sleepily at Naruto, "I'm not hungry."
"Oh, okay," Naruto sat on the edge of the seal, staring at the plate, lost in thought while Ami still tried to wake herself up.
"Ah, I just realized something," Ami straightened where she sat, her eyes widening, "they'll be looking for us right? It's been two days since the night we 'died' without a trace of our bodies being anywhere."
"Yeah, what about it?" Naruto asked
"Naruto, they'll be checking the forest for us," Ami reminded him, "they'll find this house and us inside it! We have to figure out how to get them away from the forest, search somewhere else!"
"Our clothes," the two blinked and turned to see Ino and Sakura pushing themselves up, rubbing at their eyes sleepily. "Our cloths contain our scent," Ino continued, "we have to change cloths and get rid of these ones..." She stopped and frowned, her face pinching in thought
"We could dump them into Nakao river," Sakura suggested, "it comes from the mountains from the east side of the village. The water will get rid of our scent and any other evidence of where we might be."
"Good idea Sakura-Chan," Ino grinned, "we could even put them into a bag or let them follow the current on their own."
"I suggest using a bag," Ami replied, "it'll float at first but sink after a while. From there the water will destroy any evidence still on them."
"I couldn't find any clothes!" Naruto shouted as he ran back into room, surprising the girls.
"When did you leave?" Ino asked him
"When I realized you'd be needing new cloths," Naruto answered with s nervous smile, "I couldn't find any."
"Try to see if you can't find anything in a neighboring house," Ami suggested thoughtfully
"What?" Naruto asked as he walked forward into the seal, he didn't notice that his foot brushed the edge of a line that separated Ami and Sakura, making the lines between each of the three central 'petals' flare brightly. Naruto yelped as he was tossed towards Ami, the flash of light blinding him temporarily, forcing him to listen to the startled shouts of the girls. Naruto counted to three before lowering his arms and looking up at Ami in confusion, wondering what happened and how his head ended up in her lap.
"Are you okay?" Ami asked worriedly
"Yeah," Naruto answered slowly, Ami sighed in relief, her shoulders slumping slightly.
"We're cut off from Ino and Sakura," Ami sighed, turning to look at the nearest stone wall between them and Sakura, "Whatever you did, you created those walls."
"But I can see Sakura and Ino just fine," Naruto said slowly, his head turned slightly towards Sakura's direction, watching her pat at something in the air fearfully
"It must be because you created them," Ami whispered thoughtfully, "what are they doing right now?"
"Hello? Sakura? Ami? Naruto? Where are you?" Ino's voice answered, Ami sighed and ran a hand through her hair, the blonde's panicked shout answering her question.
"I've got an idea, play along," Before she could say anything to Naruto, he sat up and tackled her to the stone floor, his lips landing on hers demandingly.
"Hello?!" Ino called loudly, looking at the two walls that replaced her friend and classmate suddenly and without warning a section of the wall in front of her cleared up like glass and she found herself gapping openly at the sight that greeted her. She watched as Naruto pulled Ami into his lap, his hands wrapped around her back to reach under her jacket and started tugging her coat down. Then he pinned her arms to her sides briefly, making her moan and roll her hips into his as he traced nips up her neck. Ami's voice was thick as she moaned, rolling her hips up as Naruto tugged on the string tied at the back of her neck, making her backless dress slip down to her waist. He laid her down on the stone floor and traced kisses down her front, teasing her ruthlessly as his hands wrapped around the edge of her dress and tugged it down to her ankles.
Wait till I tell Sakura, Ino thought, staring wide eyed at the scene
Wait till I tell Ino, Sakura thought, blushing madly as Naruto tossed Ami's dress aside, quickly followed by her dark purple coat. Then Naruto pinned Ami's hands to either side of her head, his face lowered to her chest as he kissed and nipped at her, making her arch and moan. Eventually something appeared on the floor and wrapped itself around Ami's wrists, allowing Naruto to move his hands down her body, teasing her with ghost-soft touches and butterfly kisses. Then without any warning he started removing his jacket and shirt, tossing them to the side before working on his pants. Ami whimpered and squirmed, when Naruto moved to push his pants down she spread her legs and planted her feet on the edges of his britches, pushing them further down as he crawled on top of her, kissing her from entrance to belly, to teasing her breasts and then nibbling on her neck before finally kissing her lips deeply. Naruto ran his hands down her body and carefully tugged at the last piece of clothing still attached to Ami's body, rolling it down slowly, smirking in the kisses as she whimpered and rolled her hips against his.
Before Ino or Sakura knew it, they were watching Ami through her head back and scream loudly, the blush staining her face was enough to make both girls realize that the other girl was enjoying the treatment. Naruto bit her collar bones and thumped his hips into hers almost uncontrollably, as if he didn't realize that she was screaming in pain and ecstasy. Soon enough Ami's screams turned into shouts that soon turned into whimpers and pleas, rolling her own hips towards him as if begging for more of his attention. They watched mesmerized as Naruto trailed kisses down Ami's front then gripped her hips tightly, adjusted himself a little and then backed up before slamming down into her again, electing another scream from her. Naruto repeated the process of exiting and slamming in her several more times until he gained a rhythm and then he started adding power behind his thrusts, making the intervals between exits and entrances shorter and shorter with each powered thrust. Just as Ino licked her drying lips, the image started to fade from the wall, showing her nothing but giving her plenty of noises to hear. Making her realize what she was doing and wrapped both hands around her burning face in horror. She never once thought that she was the type to watch couples do such things to each other, it didn't matter if she was surprised and stupefied at the scene, she should've turned away once she realized what they were doing.
I know I said practice but I meant kissing only! Ino thought to herself, she never stopped to think that things could get that serious between them and him, certainly not to that extent.
"Ino-san," she stilled at the soft voice, turning slowly she stared at her crush disbelieving, "what are you starring at?"
"N-nothing!" Ino answered hurriedly, "what are you doing here?" Sasuke ignored her, his attention turned towards the wall she had been staring intently at.
"Oh, were you watching those two?" He asked, smirking at her knowingly, Ino's face flushed bright red, staring at him in surprised horror. "Heh, I knew it," Sasuke drawled, stooping a little to look into Ino's crimson face, "you wanna give it a try?"
Ino's heart nearly stopped, her face flushed so brightly it glowed in the dim light of the room—then she feinted
Sakura looked at the wall directly in front of her, tilting her to the side, wondering if something would appear on Ino's wall as well. She leaned back, sitting between her knees, and was going to stand up but felt something warm press against her back. She froze, her eyes widening in fear as she realized that someone had been in the room with her the entire time and she never noticed them. Slowly the person wrapped their arms around her, tugging her to their chest, their head tilted to lay on her shoulder. Sakura tilted her head to the side, away from the stranger touching her, and began trembling when he gently pressed his lips to her neck, right over the vein that was carrying her speeding heart beat through her skull. He dropped his hands down from her shoulders to the knot sitting on her stomach, his fingers sliding through the knot easily, as if he's done it before. Sakura gulped as he pulled the cloth apart slowly, letting it fall into a wrinkled lump around her waist, appearing to be three sizes too large. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders again and kissed her neck teasingly; her hands rose and gripped the edges of her top in a panic. He moved his hands from the opposite shoulders to cover her hands and gently tugged them down, inch by inch, until the cloth was lowered down to her waist. Her hands tightened on the cloth, keeping her arms leveled with her stomach, making her swallow thickly as he slowly uncurled her fingers from the cloth and let it slip the rest of the way down to her waist. Then he slipped his hands slowly up her body, tracing the gooseflesh and curves with ghost like finger tips. Then the male carefully wrapped his arms around Sakura's chest, crossing over her small bust tightly and with no warning, he rose to his full height, lifting her with him so the clothing would slip down to the floor, wrapping around her ankles in endless layers. He knew full well that she was trembling, not knowing what to do, and carefully set hrr down on her feet, guiding her back down to the floor so she wouldn't collapse. Once they were both kneeling on the ground, he let go of her and pulled back far enough to pull his shirt over his head and gently tugged his black T-shirt over her head.
"I can't wait till you're ready," he whispered in her ear, pulling away and rising to his full height, towering over her. He smirked down at her, turned and picked up her clothes, leaving her panting heavily on the floor wondering if what happened was real or not. He walked away from the pinkette and walked straight through the nearest wall, walking towards one very unamused version of himself.
"I can't belief how cruel you are," the other version of him said, his form engulfing in white smoke to reveal a purple haired girl with narrowed brown eyes, "Warn me the next time you come up with a crazy plan like that."
"But your face was so amusing," He replied, letting go of his transformation and grinning at her with bright summer blue eyes, "how are your illusions?"
"Ngaa!" the shout echoed through the air, making him arch an eyebrow at her
"Still going," she replied tartly, "are you going to apologize to Sakura for that?"
"Nope," he adjusted his hold on the clothes, straightening them out over his arm before looking expectantly at her, "how'd Ino do?"
"I asked the question like you said and she feinted," Ami drawled, holding out the large white outfit the blonde was wearing, "Seriously, that sucked."
"At least she didn't say 'yes' and tackled you," he replied, grabbing the layered white Yukata, "hay my jacket fits you." Ami threw her shoe at his face and walked back to her place in the giant seal, tucking her hands behind her to keep the jacket from rising up the back. Ami released the two illusions from her petal shaped stone bed and laid down, turning her back to the snickering blonde as he walked out if the room. The second the door closed, the walls lowered back into the ground, revealing to dazed looking girls.
"Was any of that real?" Sakura asked Ami slowly, her cheeks pinkening lightly as if she was embarrassed for asking the question
"Where did..." Ino looked around in a daze, mumbling under breath too soft for Ami to hear. Slowly the blonde turned to look at her, "where's Sasuke-kun?"
"Where are your clothes?" Ami asked in return. Ino looked down at her bare form, staring dully at her limbs for barely a second, then everything clicked and she screamed furiously into the air.
"HE'S DEAD!"
"By the way Sakura, no,"
Ibiki grunted as he helped guild his two friends to their rightful beds, Ibiki and Shikaku both agreed that they should go to Inoichi's place and have a drinking night just to unwind a little, they had the next day off anyways. It was a little strange being in his friend's house, typically he would be forced to leave Inoichi on his backyard doorstep for his kid to find in the morning because Ibiki wasn't allowed into the house and Shikaku was typically left on his apartment front door awaiting his wife's wooden spoon wake-up call. After plopping Inoichi into his bed upstairs and ditching Shikaku on the couch with a trash can next to him, Ibiki stretched and shook his head ruefully. He seemed to be the only one sane enough to not to get completely plastered as such he was the only one with a half way functional brain. Currently he was using that brain of his to examine the inside of his friend's house, every wall was coated in dozens of pictures, some without frames, and had nearly as many plants. At first the pictures were of just Inoichi's girl but as she steadily grew older and older, there more of the two of them together, smiling blindingly bright into the camera. Then when ino was about five or six, she started appearing in pictures with a shy little pinkette he knew to be Sakura Haruno. As far as he could tell the two friends were nearly inseperatable, acting more like a couple of un-identical twins then two friends. The hundreds, almost thousands of pictures littering every available counter space and gap on the wall, even coating the refrigerator, were like a story book of the two girls lives. The older they got, the more confident Sakura became, the more boisterous Ino got, the closer the two became. Judging by the pictures on the the living room, Inoichi practically raised Sakura and Ino by himself, spoiling them rotten if he had anything to say about it. Still, as he wandered from picture to picture, he saw one common denominator in all of the photos, something he found a little strange when he first met the Haruno couple that evening.
There wasn't a single image of Sakura's parents, not even in the back grounds of the images
"She died giving birth to Ino," Shikaku said suddenly, nearly startling Ibiki, "that's what you were frowning at right? The lack of Ino's mother?"
"I thought you were asleep," Ibiki drawled, turning to look at his friend, the clan head only smiled thinly back at him. "I noticed that too, I also know he keeps a picture of her on his desk and on the fireplace mantle."
"Ah, so you were thinking of Sakura's parents," Shikaku grunted as he turned himself around to sit on the couch instead of lay on it, he still held his head in his hands. "Can you believe that man? I wanted a girl but you don't see me treating Shikamaru like that."
"To a big merchant family like the Haruno's, if the first born isn't a boy then she's only a bargaining tool," Ibiki replied calmly, "I've met many powerful merchants that acted similarly as Atsuhi-san."
"So have another kid," Shikaku reasoned, "no harm done in having one or two more brats running around calling out for 'daddy' and 'mommy'."
"In a manner of speaking they can't," Ibiki replied, "the more kids a merchant head has, the more he'll be forced to split up or abandon one child in favor of the other."
"That's messed up," Shikaku coughed, "how do you know that anyways?"
"Let's just say I know a guy," Ibiki answered, smirking at his friend
"Uh-huh," Shikaku gave him a disbelieving look, "you see him often in the mirror?" Ibiki wrinkled his nose in disgust
"I'm married but not to my own family, uncle can piss-off in that regard," Ibiki answered with a green expression
"Nice for the complicated family update," Shikaku shot back sarcastically
"Go back to sleep, your drunk," Ibiki snorted and collapsed in the nearest chair, settling in for the night
"Don't tell my wife," Shikaku retorted, flopping back against the couch and passing out instantly. When morning came so did the aching, pounding drums from hell. Ibiki watched numbly as Inoichi carefully walked down the stairs and straight into the kitchen, not long afterwards the smell of pancakes and bacon filled the air, making his stomach rumble loudly. Sighing in mild irritation, Ibiki steadily rose to his feet and walked into the kitchen, plopping down on the nearest seat and cradling his head in one hand.
"What cha cook'n dad?" Ibiki asked sarcastically, he was answered by a plate spinning into a stop right in front of him. The plate had a single pancake looking like a strawberry shortcake with red syrup, two waffles covered in small tomatoes, and two sausages and four pieces of bacon. Before Ibiki could comment on the design of the plate, a children's cup of milk was set in front of him.
"How old was your kid?" Ibiki asked dully
"Ten," Inoichi answered, "I made it without thinking." He added softly, "that's Ino's spot..." He turned back to his cooking, seemingly lost the habits developed over so many years of cooking for two little girls.
"Smells good what's for breakfast?" Shikaku asked as he walked in and sleepily sat down beside Ibiki, he looked down at Ibiki's plate and was suddenly wide awake. "What the hell are you eating?"
"A habit," Ibiki drawled, watching Inoichi spin a plate across the counter at Shikaku, having it stop perfectly in front of him. Shikaku's plate was of two blueberry pancakes covered red syrup, one waffle bathed in small fruit and one piece of bacon. Before either man could blink, Inoichi set down a large glass green cup of milk.
"If these plates are indications of their personalities then the world is doomed," Shikaku drawled
"Why does he get more pineapple then me?" Ibiki asked Inoichi as he dished himself up with the left overs
"Seriously, that's your problem?" Shikaku asked him, a raised eyebrow and smirk twisting his face
"Ino likes cherry tomatoes, Sakura is malnourished," Inoichi answered evenly. "Sakura-Chan is also allergic to some meats so she sticks close to fruits and vegetables just to be safe because she can't pronounce the thing in meat she can't consume. Pineapples are her favorite fruit, she hates tomatoes and she drinks two pints of milk every day so she can avoid taking the medicine that boosts her iron content in her blood."
"She's anemic?" Ibiki asked, stiffening in his seat
"She hasn't had a seizer since she met Ino," Inoichi reassured him, "it typically only happened when she didn't eat for a day or longer and got stressed over something, like her parents coming home."
"Anything else you forgot to mention in the report?" Ibiki asked, using his fork to easily steal one of Shikaku's pineapples when he was looking
"I've added all medical conditions I know of in my report," Inoichi drawled calmly, "I thought favorite foods and colors were properly unneeded."
"It doesn't sound as if Sakura is very close to her parents," Shikaku said thoughtfully, easily stabbing Ibiki's hand when he tried for another piece of fruit
"No, they're always traveling," Inoichi agreed, "Sakura-chan once told me that it feels like she's welcoming strangers into her home once a year then her actual patents."
"If they're that dedicated to their profession how did she get them to agree to get her to go to the academy?" Ibiki asked
"She didn't convince them," Inoichi answered, "she tricked them with a small genjutsu. Being civilians they didn't notice the difference or even suspect that something was odd with the contract."
"So what school do they think she attends?" Shikaku asked curiously
"Konohagakure's culinary academy," Inoichi smirked
"How do you know this?" Ibiki asked curiously
"I'm a Jonin and they're gossiping little girls," the blond answered blandly, "not that hard to ease-drop on them." His friends shook their heads and started eating their breakfast, Ibiki tried stealing a piece of pineapple a couple of times but Shikaku blocked him easily.
"Are you sure of this Moriyama-san?" Hiruzen asked, straitening in his seat, "and you sure it's theirs?"
"Yes sir," she answered courtly, "the clothes inside are a perfect match to the girl's last seen outfits. Plus the tears and rips are all accounted for from the video surveillance lady Uzumaki experimented with before her demise."
"How badly damaged is the evidence on the clothes?" He asked, "can we triangulate their location from anything?"
"I'm afraid not sir," she sighed, "the water wiped away all traces of scent and the backpack we found them in was full of mud and sand from the river, it could've been dumped anywhere."
"What about the strap? Can you get anything from that? DNA maybe?"
"Sorry sir, they melted the strap in some areas, doused it in alcohol and wore black leather gloves when they dumped it," she lowered her eyes and bowed her head in shame. "I've also reconstructed their injuries from the video and their cloths... I'm afraid the news isn't good."
"Are they living?" He asked tiredly, beginning to feel too old for the job
"Highly doubtful sir," she answered regretfully. "According to the cuts and blood stains still remaining on the clothes, I can say that Ms. Yamanaka died the swiftest, Ms. Haruno drowned in her skin and Ms. Ami... I believe that at some point they might've done internal damage. I can't tell from her clothes but it's a fifty-fifty chance that she's still living."
"So one might be living," Hiruzen sighed heavily, "where were their wounds?" The young woman handed her findings over to him silently.
"I believe that Kado put his sword in Ms. Yamanaka's heart, she would've died in seconds," she turned away when Hiruzen looked at the image of the tattered priestess uniform. "Ms. Haruno was stabbed in the back repeatedly. Based on her height, weight and the angle of the cuts and blood pool-stains, I believe that at least one of the blades punctured her lung. As well as the blood stains from both Ms. Yamanaka and Ms. Ami present on her clothes, I believe that both Ms. Ami and Ms. Haruno were together at one point."
"Could Sakura-chan have been stabbed trying to protect Ami?" Hiruzen asked, running one hand over his old withered face
"Anything is possible sir but I'm afraid that without their bo—remains, without their remains, I won't be able to know what exactly happened at their time of death. There is something else sir," Moriyama added, turning away from the door to address him fully, "the blood staining Naruto-kun's clothes, eighty-five percent of it is Ms Ami's, mixed in with a splash pattern from Ms. Haruno. I belief he was standing beside her when she was stabbed, and I found smears of Ms. Ino's blood mixed in with Ms. Ami's, as if it was transferred there by the later."
"I understand," Hiruzen sighed, "Thank you Moriyama-san, you can go now."
"Yes sir," she started to leave but stopped at the door, turning slightly she asked one last question, "Sir… about Ms. Ami…"
"There is only so much we can do before winter comes," Hiruzen told her, "if we don't have anything containing her scent then we can't send out trackers and sadly, eventually other cases will come, eventually she will be forgotten."
"…they got rid of her clothes," Moriyama said slowly, "the other two are certainly dead. Given that information it would be understandable if she was an accidental death. That would explain the lack of extensive damage to her clothes like there were to the other two girls. It is possible for her to be dead… but I would need her body to confirm that."
"Thank you Moriyama," he whispered, closing his eyes and sighing heavily
…
…
I wasn't originally going to make this more then a one shot but I already have a second chapter in the making
I'm gonna do some fine tuning before I post it though, plus I'm not so sure if I want to use it anymore... there are a lot of time skips and I don't think it flows all that well... I don't think this is gonna be one of my better works and it already isn't my favorit so any possitive reviews would proberly help out with my lack of confidence in this one
Who knows it might end up like another 'There Is A Reason' :)
Thoughts are helpful
Opinions are Wonderful
Helpful criticism is lovely! Just don't cripple me okay?
And don't forget to rate and review
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