A/N: Hello everyone! Welcome to the rewrite of one of my very first stories, "The Sage of the 7 Paths". This was a fanfic i was very fond of a long time ago, but got kinda lost in the midst of many other ideas... I promised when i announced my rewrite that this wouldn't be too different from the original, but i kinda got carried away and changed a few things, but i hope you'll like it anyways.
Just so no one gets surprised, this fic will Not be a Harem fic, and, depending on which way i end up taking it, there might not be any main pairing at all. However, i do enjoy writing about few ships, and not all of them are straight, so if i end up including them, you have been warned. Please do not flame me, it'll just make you look like an Asshole. If it offends you that much, then just click out of this fic.
Other than that, please enjoy, and if you feel like it, review it, 'cause i get motivated every time i read someone's opinion.
Chapter 1
An ANBU, quickly jumping from tree to tree, fast enough to be nothing more than a blur to untrained eyes, rushed to Nami no Kuni, the Land of the Waves, rushing to the aid of a former fellow ANBU. His face was obscured by a white porcelain mask with black tiger-like features and broad, blood red stripes, identifying him as the ANBU codenamed Tora. His eyes, barely visible threw the mask that obscured them, were a pale purple-grey color marred by a black rippling pattern of concentric circles, darting around quickly as he systematically scanned the area. He was quite short in stature, with a lean, muscular figure, clad in standard ANBU gear. Long, almost mid-back length dark red hair flared out behind him, tied on a low ponytail at the nape of his neck. He was the one of the youngest ANBU Black Ops ever, having been only a bit over 11 years old when he joined, almost 5 years ago. He was also known for having eliminated more enemy ninjas in the last 3 years than most ANBU do in their entire career. He was Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, oldest and lesser known son of the current Hokage and wielder of the legendary Dojutsu, the Rinnegan.
Suddenly, Naruto stopped running, and allowed himself fall to the ground, landing silently on his feet. He had reached the place where Kakashi - formally his fellow ANBU Captain, Inu - had told him to meet him. He spotted the gravity defying silver hair of his mentor up ahead, training the new genin team he was in charge of in the simplest chakra control exercise, running up a tree. His Team 7, composed by Sasuke Uchiha, the 'last' loyal Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, the pink banshee, and a blond girl by the name of Mito Uzumaki-Namikaze, the Hokage's daughter, Kyuubi's Jinchuriki and Naruto's younger sister. Sakura had already completed the exercise, but the other two, due to their exponentially bigger chakra reserves, were having some troubles achieving the same. Naruto watched his sister repeatedly fall to the ground, landing painfully on her ass every time, and was having trouble stopping himself from chuckling. Her stubbornness even in failure was quite a contrast from her typically arrogant, snobbish behaviour. It was almost adorable, despite her downright foul language.
Soon, not wanting to scare his older ex-partner, he made himself known, coughing into his hand quietly, but still loud enough to be head. Team 7 and his sensei jumped and quickly turned around, kunai in hand, ready to deflect any attack or confront an opponent, before Kakashi relaxed, already recognizing the ANBU's chakra signature and mask alike.
"Ha, Tora-san, just in time" Kakashi said with an eye-smile, making his cute little genin relax a bit "I hope I didn't call you in bad time, my friend"
"No problem, Kakashi-senpai. Actually, I was having the most boring week" Naruto said, smiling softly behind his mask, before quietly almost whining "We were all out of assassination missions…" That was something entirely unheard of. Kakashi's single visible eye widened in shock. Never before had the ANBU, a band of assassination and infiltration specialized ninja, had been out of assassination missions. And that meant only one thing.
"Tora! Have you been doing multiple missions a week again?" Kakashi asked rather sternly. The scene seemed more like that of a father scolding to his son than a Sensei to his old student. Tora ran his fingers threw his hair in embracement, as he quietly sweat-dropped. Team 7 stared at the weird scene "Ah, right. Team 7, this is Tora-san, a friend from the ANBU Black Ops. Tora-san, these are Sasuke Uchiha, Mito Uzumaki-Namikaze and Sakura Haruno "
Sasuke couldn't help but feel that he had heard that name before 'Tora… where have I heard that name before?'. Sakura, however, did remember where she knew the name from "Tora? As in the Yūrei Tora, one of the best ANBU of Konoha?!" Mito's chin dropped. Sasuke assumed a look that was a mix of annoyance and mild interest, turning up his nose at the fangirl
Tora, however, completely ignored her, and instead focused on the snobbish genin that so greatly resembled his old partner, dear friend and teammate who once bore the Weasel mask, both in appearance and, to a lesser extent, in presence but would never have the same devotion and selflessness. Itachi, better known as Itachi Uchiha (the 3rd Hokage must have thought it hilarious to have his Codename be the same as his name), would be quite sad if he were to know that Sasuke was becoming more and more like the rest of his clan, so focused on hatred and his clan superiority that he refused to see anyone as his equal.
"So, you're Sasuke, huh?" Tora asked as he walked a bit closer to the genin, circling him once like the feline his codename identified him as, freaking him out a bit. "Damn, you really do look like him…" he added quietly with a smile, reminiscing on the past.
"I'M NOTHING LIKE HIM!" Sasuke yelled, outraged, bringing the ANBU back to reality instantly with a very well-hidden flinch. Both of konoichi stared in complete and utter shock at the violent reaction from their normally composed teammate. Kakashi was looking at Sasuke with a both sadness and anger in his single visible eye, before sighing and shaking his head disapprovingly. He was previously so sure he'd been able to get him to realize he couldn't focus his life on revenge, but now he clearly saw that he had failed, if only the slightest mention of Itachi made Sasuke lose all sense of logic.
"He was my teammate and a good friend for years before the 'incident'" The young ANBU said, his voice now cold and emotionless, releasing enough killing intent to completely freeze the Genins in fear "You're right, you are nothing like him. You rather remind me greatly of the elders of your clan." he claimed, not bothering to mention his absolute disgust towards the Uchiha Elders 'and you have way too much hate in you, to be like him' he added mentally as he began calming down "Kakashi-senpai, you have to work on his temper, or someone's going to off the kid sooner rather than later" he said in a cold, mildly threatening tone, turning his masked face to the former Capitan.
Kakashi smirked under his facemask, pulling out his little orange book from his back pocket and opening it where he had left off previously, before Tora appeared.
"Actually, do you mind taking over their training today? You know, teach them chakra control and stuff like that…" the Jonin asked "I think they'd really benefit from your methods, Tora-san"
"Sorry Kakashi-senpai, I don't babysit" Naruto answered, annoyed. His eye twitched under his mask, and he was trying hard to keep himself from burning the damned book to ash. The lazy pervert dared to chuckle amusedly, behind his porn.
That last sentence enraged Mito. Her long, flowing hair parted into 9 sections, and floated menacingly behind her, like the Kyuubi's deadly tails, in a perfect imitation of her mother when angry. "Shut up, Baka! I'm not a baby! I'm the Hokage's daughter! I DESERVE YOUR RESPECT!" she yelled, her face rivalling her mother's hair in color. Sasuke seemed even angrier at the ANBU, but wisely kept his mouth shut.
"Respect is earned, and right now, you have yet to give me any reason to respect for any of you, and all the reasons to dislike you." he said coldly, trying hard not to let his disappointment show in his voice. It disgusted him that their parents and village alike had spoiled her so much that she considered herself superior to everyone. Where once was a little girl that - if a bit of a brat at times - was gutsy, honest and kind to everyone, his little sister that he cherished above everyone else and had been proud to be a big brother of, he now barely recognized the spoiled-rotten princess that replaced her. She had come to rely on the demonic chakra of the beast sealed inside her too much, to the point where she never had learned to control her own, and mostly just overpowered every Jutsu in her small, overused arsenal.
Sasuke fumed angrily, glaring at the ANBU with so much hatred that Kakashi discreetly peeked behind Naruto just to check if Itachi wasn't somehow lurking around nearby. He opened his mouth to join Mito in her rant, but Tora just angled his mask towards him, and, for some reason, he felt scared enough that he opted to keep his mouth shut, settling on just snarling quietly.
Sakura, unlike her teammates, opted to not antagonize the deadly ninja and just accepted his insult quietly, turning all her anger towards the insult to her Sasuke-kun inwards and trying hard not to let it show on her face. The ANBU was her superior and much stronger than her, and it was generally a bad idea to piss him off. Besides, he gave off an aura that made her very hesitant to anger him in any way. Naruto noticed this, and his lips twitched up into a small smile behind his mask. Maybe she wasn't as useless as he had thought her to be.
Tora turned to look at Kakashi, with a smirk audible on his voice "The Pinky there, however, has very good Chakra control. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to teach her a couple things. Have you considered apprenticing her to a medic-nin?" he said, turning his head to look at the konoichi. Sakura looked very surprised, and blushed at the praise, tipping her head down to hide her smile from her teammates Kakashi nodded in agreement with an eye-smile "Of course, but I wanted to increase the size of her reserves first"
Mito and Sasuke stared disbelievingly, darting rapidly between Sakura, Kakashi and the ANBU. The useless fangirl had been picked over them?! To be taught by an ANBU?! It could only be a joke. Tora was probably too young to know what he was doing. Then their disbelief turned to envy. She was going to learn from a Konoha ANBU, and a rather feared one at that. Why was she chosen when they weren't?
Kakashi nodded his thanks to his old student, choosing to save the stern talking to he knew he'd have to have with the other two genin for later, rather than embarrass them – and himself – further in front of his cute little kohai "What do you say Sakura? Do you want to learn a few things from Tora-san?" he asked
"W-well, if you don't mind, Sensei…" she answered, blushing all the way up to her ears
Kakashi eye-smiled "Not at all, Sakura. Tora-san is one of the best people to teach you, other than a medic-nin." He turned his face away from his genin to look at the ANBU "He has impeccable chakra control, especially for someone with reserves as massive as his are, and he knows quite a few techniques that really benefit from good chakra control." He explained to the girl "Besides, he was my very first student" he added, his eye glinting with pride.
Mito, still fuming, opened her mouth to complain further. A very small sliver of chakra began slowly oozing out from the ANBU, coiling around him tightly as he let out small amounts of Killing Intent, not enough for his little genin to pick out as anything other than a slight chill, but just enough to warn Kakashi that, unless he'd like to his students to learn the harsh lesson of the sheer difference in power between them and this particular ANBU (by means of suddenly finding themselves on a gigantic crater that had once been a forest before it was levelled in a second's time, mostly unharmed but properly traumatized), it was probably a good idea to step in and diffuse the situation - quickly. The Jonin levelled Mito with a glare that promised pain if she didn't close her mouth immediately.
Her jaw clacked shut loudly, her teeth nearly hitting her tongue as she flushed up in anger. Hints of demonic chakra were visible in her more feral than normal appearance, of sharp canine teeth, long nails that resembled claws, the darkening of whisker-like marks (two on each of her cheeks, as opposed to her older brother's three, although his were much thinner and lighter, something that she greatly envied) and blood-red eyes with slit pupils. The two older ninjas ignored her, strangely too used to the feeling of 9-tails' chakra to be bothered.
"Let's go inside, Tora-san. We still have much to discuss about this mission" Kakashi urged. The ANBU nodded agreeably, still on edge, before turning on his heel to follow after his old Captain and father-figure. As they headed back to the house, Kakashi suddenly remembered something "Sasuke, Sakura, Mito, keep working on walking up trees" he added cheekily. The anger of the two pissed off genin suddenly turned to him, and the Jounin had to supress the urge to laugh evilly.
Once they were inside the house, the two older ninja made themselves comfortable, sitting across from each other on the wooden floor, as Kakashi gave him a brief report of the situation up until now.
"So, the Demon Brothers and Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Mist, huh…" Tora said contemplatively "This guy Gato must some serious money, to afford them" Kakashi nodded slowly in agreement.
"Plus, there's an unknown Hunter nin allied with Zabuza. Uses Senbon with terrifying accuracy, and was able to fool me into thinking Zabuza was dead for a while" the Jonin added. Tora chuckled softly "You must be getting rusty then, Kakashi-senpai" Kakashi looked mildly offended for a second, but quickly came to chuckled in agreement "Perhaps"
"Anyways, I think the best course of action is to cut this problem at the root. I have reasons to believe this Gato guy is worse than you've reported. There's been a recent rash of missing girls in this general area, including the daughter of a minor noble" Naruto explained. Kakashi's face twisted in disgust at what he was implying "I'll be dropping by Gato's fortress tomorrow and eliminating him. I might leave a henged clone in his place, and see if I can find out who his allies are"
The Jonin nodded in agreement with the plan "When you're done, we could use the help against Zabuza" Tora chuckled quietly "As if I'd let you have all the fun, Senpai"
Soon, the sun began to set and Tsunami, the daughter of the Bridge Builder Tazuna, stepped in the room to call them for dinner. She did a double take upon seeing the unknown masked ninja in the room, but relaxed when Kakashi eye-smiled and thanked her, reassured that he wasn't a threat.
When all of the kids (the genin, as well as a frowning Inari) and Tazuna joined them on the dinner table, Kakashi took a brief moment to introduce the newcomer to their client "Tazuna-san, Tsunami-san, this is Tora-san, from our village's ANBU division. He's an old student of mine, and he'll act as our back up after completing his own mission" the masked ninja bowed his head in greeting. Tazuna seemed to relax a bit, feeling that his safety was in more competent hands than just 3 brats and their (admittedly very powerful) teacher. He had heard of the reputation of Konoha's ANBU for being effective, even if this one seemed to be quite young.
"ANBU?" Tsunami asked curiously, not sure what exactly it meant. Inari only frowned deeper, seemingly frustrated.
"A division of elite ninja that specialize in espionage, stealth and special assassinations. They are arguably the most powerful ninja in their village, after the Kage, of course" Kakashi explained briefly. Tora nodded in agreement at the accurate description.
"Espionage and assassination, such a young boy…" Tsunami mused "How old are you, Tora-san?" she asked, giving Naruto a sorrowful look as she softly placed a bowl of rice in front of him, already having done the same to all the other guests.
The ANBU thanked her, before answering "I can't tell you exactly – it's essential that very little is known about an ANBU, or we could be compromised - but I can tell you that I'm only a few years older than Kakashi-senpai's genins" he explained respectfully. This shocked everyone in the room other than Kakashi, who, as his old Captain and father figure, knew him personally. They weren't expecting him to be quite so young. Team 7 was the most uneasy, as it finally sank in that this teen, barely older than them, was a trained killer with a well-known reputation and probably had hundreds of kills to his name.
The rest of the meal was spent in uncomfortable silence, with the ANBU having lifted his porcelain mask just enough to sneak his chopsticks into his mouth to eat. The Genin team kept 'discreetly' trying to peek under his mask, like they'd once done to Kakashi – who was watching the whole ordeal with an air of amusement – and failing. Inari brooded heavily, barely touching his food. Tsunami and her father kept exchanging looks of barely concealed sadness, both due to Inari's behaviour and due to the thought of someone so young already being a killer.
Once all of the ninja were finished eating, and Tsunami took away their plates, Kakashi quickly brought the genin up to speed on the plan "Listen close, my cute little Genin! Here's the plan for tomorrow. We will all accompany Tazuna to the bridge and if Zabuza does indeed appear, I will try to hold him while Mito and Sasuke fight off his accomplice. Sakura, your job will be to protect Tazuna. I will leave a shadow clone here to protect Tsunami-san and Inari-kun, just in case. At the break of dawn, Tora-san will be departing to complete his mission, but he should be back by lunch-time, and he'll meet us at the bridge." The copy-ninja stated.
"Hai, Kakashi-sensei!" Team 7 echoed. Tora just nodded in agreement.
Finally losing his temper, Inari slammed his bowl on the table "Why?!" he shouted "Why do you guys bother to try so hard?! No matter how hard you train, you're still no match for Gato's men! No matter what glorious claims you make or how hard you work, the weak will only end up getting killed!"
"…" Everyone went quiet. Team 7 looked at the kid with anger and disgust clearly boiling in their eyes. His family looked saddened with his behaviour while Kakashi and Tora's body-language dramatically changed, turning from open and friendly to frigid and stiff.
Surprisingly, Sasuke was the first to break and angrily respond to his insult.
"I refuse to die before killing a certain someone" he hissed out coldly, letting out enough Killing Intent to cause all of the civilians to shake in fear "I am NOT weak."
Kakashi laid a hand on his shoulder to try and calm him down, but the last Uchiha shrugged it off and stormed away, going back to the forest to train, nearly tearing the door of its hinges when he slammed the door behind him. The Jounin sighed, allowing his hand to drop to his lap. Inari, Tsunami and Tazuna seemed shocked at the rather extreme reaction. Sasuke's teammates were quite surprised by his 'explosion'.
"… Most of us ninja have all faced some sort of hardship in our lifes" Kakashi explained, turning his eyes in the direction where his student had stormed off to "In Sasuke's case, it was witnessing the aftermath of the senseless massacre of his entire clan, of which he is one of only two survivors. He was only 6 years old at the time, and saw both his parents dead before his very eyes at the hands of someone he thought he knew."
Tsunami and Tazuna gasped, and tears began softly flowing down the woman's cheeks "the poor dear…!" she softly said, clutching a hand over her heart.
Inari however, stubbornly pushed away the heavy feeling of guilt that settled deep in his stomach and nearly caused him to choke up, and pressed further "H-he still has s-someone, then!" he tried.
Kakashi just shook his head. "The other survivor…" he said quietly, but coldly "… was the monster who did it: his traitor of an older brother." All those unaware of that little-known fact (at least for the younger generation, as it wasn't something anyone liked to talk about), which surprisingly included Mito as well as Sakura, could only widen their eyes in shock. Inari looked crushed at the mere thought of such thing, and he lowered his head in shame.
Tora silently grinded his teeth together, mentally reminding himself that only he, the Sandaime and, of course, Itachi himself knew the truth of what had truly happened that night. He carefully forced himself to calm down, hoping Kakashi was too distracted with his memories to noticed the slight changes in his body language. Luckily Mito's need to always be the centre of attention chose this time to make itself known, stopping anyone from noticing him.
"I have the Kyuubi sealed inside of me, and it's my duty to keep it from getting free and destroying everything" She said in a somewhat fake sad tone, clutching the fabric of her shirt, just over the location of her seal. The two older civilians' heads shot up to look at her in a mix of awe and pity, Tsunami's tears flowing harder, expressing her sadness at the burden this little girl had to shoulder, all by herself.
Inari looked confused, and asked a question almost in a whisper "What's that?"
Mito opened her mouth to answer, her nose already stuck up in the air as she glared down on the boy, as if offended he did not know such a thing, but Kakashi swiftly cut her off with his answer "The Kyuubi no Kitsune is a gigantic 9 tailed Demon Fox, the most powerful the Bijuu. A single swing from one of its tails can easily level a mountain." He explained briefly.
The civilian child turned to look at Mito with an awed but very frightened, almost terrified look, and unconsciously moved back a step, as if to get away from her, and fled out of the room in a near-panic state. His family move to stop him, but the door was slammed shut before they even had the chance to get up.
Silence reigned for a few minutes, as the father and daughter duo looked on in sadness, barely concealing their disappointment, their heads bowed in shame.
Tsunami was the first to recover, hesitantly turning to ask Kakashi a question "H-Hatake-san, I hope you don't mind me asking, but what about you?" Mito and Sakura looked curious, wanting to learn more about their mysterious Sensei. Kakashi's face went cold, and the air inside the house got heavy and almost stifling. Tora moved his hand to lay it on his old Captain's shoulder, kneading the muscles there softly, trying to calm him down.
Just as she was about to take back her question and apologize, the Jonin sighed, and began speaking "Unfortunately, I… lost both my teammates during the 3rd Great Shinobi War. We were only a bit younger than my team is right now." Kakashi said, seemingly lost in memories. Tazuna flinched, remembering the war well, but finding himself unable to imagine a group of such young kids having to fight in it.
"Obito… died saving us from an enemy trap we got caught in. Rin… was later kidnapped by the enemy and turned into a weapon against the Leaf. In the end… she chose to die at my hands rather than be used against the village… and jumped in front of one of my attacks…" he admitted quietly, shaking nearly imperceptibly. Tora's grip tightened on his shoulder, grounding him back to the present, earning him a brief thankful glance, as Kakashi took a deep breath and pulled himself together.
Trying to clear his mind, the Jonin pulled out his little orange book from one of his kunai pouch. For once, Tora let it slid, repressing his loathing of the disgusting habit of his Senpai with the knowledge he was using it as a distraction from his own thoughts and the guilt he felt over his teammates' deaths.
Mito and Sakura quickly left, with much to think about in their minds and bothered by the ruined mood. No one really seemed to notice or care, all too focoused on their own thoughts.
Soon however, the awkward, heavy vibe in the room began to ease, as Kakashi's mood began to lift and life resumed. A good helping of Sake curtesy of the Bridge Builder aided in this, although Tora politely refused, giving his already filled cup to Kakashi, which he accepted with an eye-smile and seemed to make his evening, sipping it as he read his dirty book.
Tazuna recognized the 'masterpiece' as a newly released Icha Icha: Violence, and scooted over closer to try and read it over Kakashi's shoulder, blood trickling down from his nostrils. Under his mask, one of Naruto's eyebrows twitched violently, and he began exuding cold waves of killing intent that transmitted pure annoyance. Kakashi ignored it with a perverted giggle, but pulled the book closer to himself as if to protect it from his possibly violent Kohai.
"…Pervert" Tora muttered in exasperation under his breath, while narrowing his eyes in a glare to the book, wishing it spontaneously caught fire. The Scarecrow acted offended, gasping in shock "Tora-chan, how could you accuse your lovely, virtuous Senpai of such vile thing?" he asked, despite the erotic novel he still held, cracked open on his hand.
"You are about as virtuous as Jiraya" The ANBU deadpanned, but Kakashi seemed to just ignore him, returning to his dramatic whining, which seemed to only get him a somewhat fond but still terrifyingly intense glare that would kill lesser ninja, or at least cause them to wet themselves.
Playfully, Kakashi brought a hand to his heart and fell over, acting mortally wounded "I have only one last request, my lovely Kohai" he said dramatically "Take over my ways and pass them on the next generation, don't let the way of the cool guy die with me!" he said loudly reaching dramatically for his student before 'dying' on the floor. The two civilians sweatdropped.
Tora's eyebrow twitched violently. Despite still wearing his ceramic mask, he couldn't resist the urge to introduce his face to the table with a loud 'thunk!'. The mask held up surprisingly well, remaining completely crack free, thanks to a fortification seal he had placed on the inside years ago, after breaking a grand total of 6 mask in a month while sparring, during his first year in the ANBU.
Suddenly, a truly evil idea popped up on his mind as he remembered something, and he had to stifle a villainous laugh, which seemed to mildly freak out Kakashi "Oh really, Senpai? What a shame you aren't a fan, because I got my hands on this and was going to give it to you…" he said, as he discreetly reached for one of his sealing scrolls, and unsealed a book from it, holding it out in front of Kakashi. Sunlight seemed to hit the book just right, making it seem like it was glowing golden. The scarecrow gasped and his single visible eye widened to comic proportions.
"I-is that…?" he asked in disbelief, still staring at the gift from the gods in his student's unappreciative hands.
Tora smirked, and it stretched to a degree that was quite unnerving "If you mean the only copy in existence of the unreleased 'Icha Icha: Harem', signed by the author himself, then yes. But since you're not a pervert..." Kakashi dove for it, but Tora simply moved the book so that it was just out of his reach, continuing with his taunts "… I guess I'll just have to give it to Hiruzen, then" this earned him an utterly pitiful whine from Kakashi, who tried to snatch the book from him, again. Naruto chuckled, pulling the book further away.
"C'mon, Senpai, you're not a pervert, right?" he asked in an exceedingly sweet tone "Why would someone who's not a pervert want something like this?" he asked as he cracked open his manipulation tool for a brief second. He stubbornly hid the slight gag caused by such disgusting excuse of literature, wishing, for once, that his eyes were not as inhumanly sharp as they were – the contents of the two pages his eyes had landed on were already engraved on his brain and made him want to go and ask Inoishi Yamanaka to pretty please take that memory away.
Kakashi went stone still, sweating nervously as his eyes darted back and forth between the book and his student. Tora smirked, waving the book around slightly.
"Alright! I admit it, I'm a pervert! Now gimme!" the Jonin said quickly, nearly tackling the ANBU to the ground as he tried to snatch the book. Tora laughed evilly as he dodged out of the way, throwing the book up in the air. Kakashi jumped to catch it, cradling it like it was his firstborn.
The maniacal laughter from his student made the ex-ANBU Captain freeze up like a deer in the headlights, and curse violently when the younger man reached back into his back pouch and pulled out a recording device from behind his back. "Neko and Ookami are gonna love this" he said with a strange glint in his eyes. "Don't you dare" Kakashi threatened with a low growl and a narrowed glare.
Before the scarecrow even had the time to wrestle the compromising tape away from Tora, the red-headed ANBU had already smacked his palm into the ground in front of him with a hurried 'Kuchiyose!'. With a poof of white smoke, a metallic green Hummingbird with a tiny, black metal rod that pierced its chest appeared before him, its Rinnegan eyes nearly unnoticeable due to its small size. Without so much as a command, a benefit of being a Rinnegan Summon, the little bird - whose wings flapped so fast that they blurred and made it seem like it was hovering – zipped to the recording device and grabbed the tape in its almost disproportional, surprisingly eagle-like talons, and quickly flew off threw a slightly cracked open window, carrying the tape with surprising ease and elegance, for something that was almost the same size as the bird itself.
Kakashi stared. Somehow, he already knew he'd be ANBU's laughing stock for weeks. Tora was still having fits of maniacal giggling, splayed out on the ground. Absently, he wondered if anyone would blame him for throttling the little asshole.
Konoha – 2 am
The Village Hidden in the Leaves was, for once, peaceful and miraculously quiet, everyone was asleep, other than a couple ANBU squads uncharged with patrolling and protecting the village. The 4th Hokage and his beloved wife were also sleeping, after a long day of dealing with the worst nightmare of any Kage, the only beast they had yet to conquer, Paperwork. Luckily, he had help in the form of his predecessor, the 3rd Hokage, who was currently his advisor and very experienced in dealing in the matters of the village, and even allowed Minato to relegate some of his duties to him. The Yellow Flash was more than glad to allow the old workaholic to deal with the Clan demands and just about everything to do with the ANBU for him, saving himself from the utter madness that were the politics revolving around either of those. But Paperwork was something that the Sandaime absolutely refused to deal with, claiming he was officially relieved from its clutches, laughing almost evilly. But for now, the nightmare was over, at least for today. The Yondaime sighed happily in his sleep, enjoying the peace and quiet, in his fluffy bed, with his head resting on his favourite pillow that was just right, next to his beautiful wife Kushina. Yep, peace and quie-
Minato's lovely thoughts of peace and a world devoid of all paperwork were quickly shattered by a cacophony of hysterical, somewhat deranged laughter (the likes of which could even terrify that old snake, Orochimaru) coming from the ANBU Black Ops 'hidden' headquarters. How the laughter managed to echo all the way across the village to be heard on the Namikaze compound, the Hokage did not know, but it probably managed to wake up most of not the entire village. In quick succession, lights began being turned on all across Konoha, as a collective thought sounded on the minds of all of its inhabitants.
'What in Kami's name are they doing this time?! '
To other villages, the ANBU of Konoha were known for their incredible stealth and sheer power. But anyone that lived in the village for more than a few years learned, sooner or later, that they were a bit of a mad bunch. A mad bunch that, amongst many other notable examples, enjoyed having what they called 'comedy nights' with T&I (Torture and Interrogation) personnel, every so often – the less anyone thought about that the better, for their own sanity's sake – and well known for it's members generally having weird habits and personalities (or absolute lack thereof, in some cases).
The laughter eased soon enough, and the village collectively went back to sleep with only a few grumbling complaints. The Yondaime sighed in relief, glad that he was not the one that dealt with all those somewhat deranged ninja on a daily basis (beyond the 4 that served as his protection in his office, and those were always incredibly quiet). But then again, he also had to deal with some very 'eccentric' ninja too. Just thinking of Maito Gai and his mini-me coming in for a mission usually made him want to retire right then and there.
With a nod (more to himself than anyone else), Minato decided to collectively send all the ANBU to therapy. A few of the things he had come to hear from Kakashi had made him quite sure that there was not a single, entirely sane person in the entire bunch. One of the more frequently mentioned by his old student was the mysterious Tora, who was appointed by the Sandaime a few months after the birth of his successor's youngest son, and well known for being arguably the most promising ANBU since Kakashi despite his usually gentle if somewhat boisterous demeanour and propensity for mood-swings. He was known for being one of their best infiltrators and an expert in reconnaissance, and had thus earned the nickname of "Konoha's Yūrei Tora" and an impressive bounty on the Bingo Book, based almost entirely on hearsay – a true testament to his skills. Another few that were frequently mentioned were Neko and Ookami, usually in the form of a whined complain about how the duo tended join forces with Tora to 'bully' Kakashi, along with Usagi and Kuma, to a lesser extent.
With a mental promise to budget more funds for Sarutobi to use on the therapy he was sure the ANBU needed, Minato dozed back to sleep, lulled by his wife's comforting warmth and the distant, soft snores of his 6 year-old son, Menma.
Nami – Next morning
Tora was peacefully sleeping on top of the highest branch of a random tall tree, his mask still on, but, realizing the sun was about to rise and that he should probably get going to start his mission, he got up, brushed any dust from his outfit, and simply jumped, slowly gliding down to the ground and settling on his feet, thanks to his ability to control gravity. That was one of the many reasons he loved his Rinnegan. It made dramatic entrances very easy.
After stretching a bit to work out all the kinks on his muscles from sleeping on a tree, Tora took off in a blink of an eye, rushing to track down his prey. Silent like a shadow (well, more accurately, a ghost), he zipped about until he found a suspiciously nervous civilian that seemed very twitchy, and it took only a bit of 'convincing' to get him to break. Afterwards, he was then more than willing to lead him straight to the business man's little hide-out.
With a carefully placed blow to the back of the head and placing a very well-hidden memory seal on the civilian, who'd wake up later with no memory of ever meeting him, Tora successfully infiltrated the mansion, weaving from shadow to shadow threw corridors, carefully mapping out the location before he finally decided on a plan of action.
He made it to the very epicentre of Gato's empire, his luxurious master bedroom, passing past a few dozen fodder goons – although Kakashi would probably scold him and tell him to call them 'bodyguards' - without anyone being none the wiser. The security in this place was absolutely pitiful compared to many other places he'd had to infiltrate before.
His target was currently absent, probably taking his morning shower, he guessed from the pitter-patter of water he could hear nearby. Tora waited patiently, leaning against the barren wall next to Gato's bed, until, only a few minutes later, the sound of the water stopped. Shortly afterwards, he heard the creak of a door opening and closing, and tensed, his hand flying to his kunai pouch in preparation. By the door, was a short, fat man with a wet mane of brown hair, with only a towel warped around his loins. Apparently, the man had yet to notice his visitor, so Naruto decided to made himself known.
"So, you're Gato, huh?" he asked quietly, looking over at Gato, who was quite startled by the presence of someone on his bedroom. He opened his mouth and attempted to say something, suddenly finding himself tripping over his own words. The ANBU was uninterested to hear him, however, and just took out and threw a kunai that buried itself deep into his head "Honestly, your type disgusts me to the core" Naruto admitted to himself. Gato wavered once, shakenly bringing his hand to his head, before he fell to his knees, and then tipped over, dead.
Tora allowed himself a small smirk, as he produced two shadow clones without any hand signs, blinking slowly to adjust to now being able to see threw 2 other sets of eyes, but quickly recovered. The clones gave him shallow nod, as the original decapitated the corpse and sealed it in a scroll, and grabbed the headless body to dispose of later. One of the Bunshin then assumed a henge, perfectly mimicking the now dead man, waving goodbye to the original as he disappeared in a soundless Shunshin, leaving only a shadow of a ripple where he once stood, that quickly faded to nothing.
'Gato' then proceeded to quietly locate all of 'his' things he considered interesting and sealing them away in a single scroll, to claim later. Amongst these things were an immense amount of wealth, several good-quality weapons, quite a few papers of Gato's contacts and allies, just to name a few.
Meanwhile, the other clone sneaked to locate and free the kidnapped girls. The pitiful, traumatized state in which he found most of them made all 3 Narutos wish he had been much more vicious when he eliminated Gato. Women of all ages, from girls as young as 12 or 13 to women that looked to be in their late 40, beaten severely, with deep bruises in many stages of healing littering their bodies. Quite a few hung chained from the walls of the chamber that held them, while others were handcuffed to bed posts and other furniture. Most had signs of having been starved and raped, and were completely terrified of him at first. A quiet reassurance that he was here to free them, and he managed to get them to hesitantly follow him out of the hide-out, which seemed to give them a tiny bit of their confidence back. He slowly lead them all to a nearby village, which happened to be the one from where the noble's daughter had disappeared from. The nobleman and his wife were more than glad to have their daughter back, quickly pulling her crying form in for a tight hug and even offered to allow the other kidnapped girls to stay with them until they recovered and it became safe for them to go back to their families, after Gato's influence was gone.
Once all the girls were safely away from their kidnappers, the clone simply allowed himself to dissipate.
As the original Tora sprinted away, back to Tazuna's house where he and Team 7 were currently stationed, his mind wandered back to one of the goals he'd had since pretty much the day he unlocked his Rinnegan.
He had noticed rather quickly that he could see through the eyes of his shadow clones, and that they all shared a field of vision. He often used this to his advantages both during fights and as advanced recon, which gave his team a massive advantage by letting him know where everyone was in real-time, which gave him the idea of using a network of clones with this ability to watch over the village, almost like some sort of surveillance system.
It didn't take him too long to come across a few problems, namely, the headache of epic proportions that he got the first time the clones he had placed all around the village dispersed, almost at the same time, from running out of chakra. The Rinnegan had enormous chakra requirements, and clones, who were incapable of regenerating chakra, just couldn't handle it for more than a few hours.
Blood clones had a very similar problem, and, although a bit sturdier than Shadow Clones, they were still much too flimsy. A bit after this failure, he'd had the idea of a more permanent solution, which was only further encouraged when he found a hidden scroll in one of Orochimaru's old spots, containing a certain forbidden technique by the name of Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei, which allowed one to bring someone back to life, and made the reanimated person near indestructible, with pretty much infinite chakra reserves.
At first, he thought this would be the perfect solution, allowing him to both see and fight any intruders, but when he went to see how the technique was preformed, he almost changed his mind, having damn-near thrown up in his mouth a little. Still, he was an ANBU and he couldn't allow himself to be picky, so he memorized the technique anyways, thinking that maybe it could come in handy later, before burning the scroll.
Still somewhat stuck on the idea of using corpses, he was quite happy when a few months later he discovered a brand-new ability of his Rinnegan that allowed him to do just that. By using the black Chakra Metal rods he could form easily from his palms and stabbing them on a dead body (a small animal, in this case) and forcing his chakra threw it, he could control it with just a thought, almost like some sort of flesh-puppet (which was mildly disturbing, but he'd take it over Edo Tensei any day).
It was not too long after that that he stumbled across another Rinnegan ability during a long solo mission. He had been trying to simply push his chakra into another – animal – corpse, without using his chakra metal trick, merely out of curiosity, when he began felling distant, and like he was half asleep, no longer entirely aware of what he was doing, an all too familiar feeling. His mouth moved on his own, and he distantly heard himself say "Gedo: Rinne Tensei no Jutsu". He snapped awake immediately afterwards, just in time to watch in complete disbelief as the rabbit corpse he had been experimenting on – and was supposed to become his dinner later - suddenly jerked awake like it had simple been asleep, looked around, and took off deeper into the woods. He felt utterly exhausted, completely drained, and a while later he noticed that his dark red hair had lightened to a slight washed out shade of red from overexertion, a sign that the jutsu had actually drained enough chakra to slightly affect his life-force (and would have probably killed him, were he not a Uzumaki – who were known for having incredibly strong life-forces). It took him a soldier pill and several hours of meditation before his own reserves stabilized and slowly began to return to a somewhat normal level, and a few days before he recovered enough that his hair returned to his normal blood-red color.
He still wasn't quite sure exactly how to create his Rinnegan surveillance system, but he had a feeling he was very close to achieving it, in a perfect balance of these two abilities, as the first ability was way too dependent on him and his chakra, and the second was entirely too dangerous, unpredictable and could possibly kill him.
Not too long later, he finally reached Tazuna's house, landing silently on the forest behind it as he shoved his thoughts to the back of his mind. It took him mere moments to notice that there was no-one still alive nearby, easily recognizing that not only was it too quiet, but there were no chakra signatures visible to his eyes. However, there was enough chakra residue in the air to tell him a fight had taken place here only a while ago. He easily recognized the chakra signature of Kakashi, along with two unknown others, that left very little residue, leading him to believe his opponents had small chakra reserves, perhaps chunnin or even genin level, so he wasn't too worried for Kakashi's fate. A quick glance of into the inside of the house confirmed his suspicions, finding disturbances typical of a fight having taken place and blood-splatter on the floor and walls, but no signs of a corpse. After a quick but thorough look over the house, finding no corpses anywhere on the house that might indicate that its inhabitants had died in the attack.
A nearby tree caught his eye as he was preparing to leave the premises. Ninja thread was wound twice around the bottom of its trunk, nearly invisible to anyone other than him, and above it was a series of fresh notches engraved in the bark, in a familiar pattern. It was a typical ANBU code, obviously engraved by his old Captain, with a rather simple message and a clear meaning, simple stating 'Meet me at the agreed location'.
Without further hesitance, Tora shot off towards the bridge at breakneck speeds, already preparing for a fight. His hand fell back to the handle of the tantō (Japanese short sword) that was strapped horizontally across his lower back, although he refrained from drawing it just yet.
As he approached the bridge, Tora took note of the thick, chakra infused mist covered the entire area, becoming denser and denser as he rushed towards the bridge until it was hard to see anything all around him, an obvious sign of the Kirigakure no Jutsu. Even his Rinnegan, which gave him to have a much sharper eyesight than any other human as well as the ability to see chakra, couldn't pierce threw the mist further than a few feet, but that, combined with his sensory abilities, was more than enough for him to make due.
He allowed himself to slow down a bit as he got closer to where he could feel Kakashi's chakra, focusing on sneaking in unnoticed. He could feel the battles already taking place, but opted to quickly stake out the situation before engaging any opponents. He silently made three Kage Bunshin, adding 3 new fields of vision to his perspective which he seamlessly forced himself to adjust to, and had them position themselves on various hidden vantage-points around the area, to cover his blind-spots. Kakashi and Zabuza were decking it out nearby, and seemed pretty well matched, so Tora turned to the other fight. Mito and Sasuke were battling Zabuza's apprentice, the fake Hunter-nin who apparently managed to drag the fight quite a bit away from the Jonin's, in what seemed to be a dome made of half-destroyed Ice Mirrors. Briefly, the ANBU wondered if this was the work of a Hyōton user, but he had previously believed they had been whipped out. But, looking closer at the sheer perfection in it's chakra build, he wondered if perhaps one had managed to somehow survived the 4th Misukage's bloodline purges, admiring it's ideal balance between the two chakra natures.
Tora discreetly sneaked into the dome, just in time to see Mito - covered in an all too familiar coat of malevolent orange chakra, two tails flicking dangerously behind her – howl loudly as she prepared to finish off the Hunter nin, her eyes animalistic and blazing red, clearly being influenced by the Kyuubi. Sasuke was unconscious beneath a cracked mirror, his body stabbed with dozens of Senbon, in a false death state. The gender-ambiguous ninja was already badly hurt, their skin covered in severe burns caused by the boiling chakra of the Kyuubi, and nearly unconscious, almost dead due to a fist-sized puncture wound to his abdomen, held tightly by the neck by a hand tipped with long, razor-sharp claws that slashed into it shallowly and drew a bit of blood that seemed to boil in the hate-filled orange chakra.
The Jinchuriki quickly noticed his presence, and jumped back, putting some distance between them, growling in anger at the interruption. Without anyone to hold him in place, the half-dead fake Hunter nin, barely clinging to consciousness, tipped forward like a puppet cut from it's strings, crumbling down to the ground – but before his knees had even hit the dirt, the ANBU was already behind Mito, laying a swift chop on the back of the neck that knocked her out instantly. He caught her before she could fall, holding her tightly against his chest, watching carefully as the red chakra recede back into the seal until it was completely gone. Then he crouched down, carefully laying his sister out on the ground and brushed a straggling strand of her hair away from her face in a silent apology.
Suddenly, there was a dramatic shift in the Chakra balance of the area, the familiar smell of ozone and the feel of electricity in the air – Kakashi was done playing around and was about to finish off Zabuza with one of his assassination techniques. The lack of the characteristical chirping screech told him it wasn't a Chidori, but probably it's perfected version, the Raikiri. Tora just turned his head slightly to that location, not really feeling the need to interfere.
But at the very last second, something caught his eye. The Hunter-nin, whom he previously thought would be dead or close to it, began fidgeting, desperately trying to get back on to his feet, his eyes gleaming with steely determination. Naruto could barely hear him as he whispered something to himself "I- I … have t-to save Zabuza-sama…"
Miraculously, the young ninja actually managed to steady himself up, and take a couple of steps forwards, out of sheer determination. He tried to keep going, but suddenly he nearly lost conscience, tripping over his own feet, and would have fallen were it not for the Konoha ANBU suddenly appearing besides his to steady him, slinging one of the arms of the dying nin over his shoulders for better leverage.
"Why do you want to save him?" Naruto asked quietly, his Rinnegan meeting the quickly dulling black orbs of the mercenary, indulging him as he began moving towards the fight. The Ice-user smiled, even as blood began spilling out of his mouth, and managed to choke out "Because… he's important to me… he s-saved m-me when I-I needed it the most…".
That somehow tugged on Tora's heartstrings, despite not knowing the boy at all "Alright, then" he whispered to himself, shifting around slightly so that the Hunter-nin was moved around until he was solidly on his back, before picking up some speed, even as he had two of his clones pick up Mito and (after stabilizing him) Sasuke, and take them to Tazuna's house.
They were quickly approaching the area where Zabuza and Kakashi were fighting, from the area while the hunter-nin had managed to drag the two genin of to, when Tora looked over his shoulder, feeling his temporary companion and charge did not have much time left "… What's your name, kid?"
The response was so low that the ANBU had a hard time hearing it, but he still caught that whispered name "It's… Haku… wh-what's…yours?" he said weakly, half-mumbling it onto his now blood-stained ANBU gear.
"I'm Tora" he said automatically, before hesitantly adding "… but you can call me Naruto" on instinct alone. Haku chuckled softly, but it quickly faded to silence as his body began going limp. The ANBU could feel the cooling blood beginning to seep through his own clothes.
With a quiet curse, he sped up further, already spotting Kakashi only a few meters away from his target, Raikiri blade bathing his surroundings eerily in light blue light. In front of him, Zabuza was seriously wounded, both his arms rendered useless by kunai while Kakashi's ninken held him in place.
Just as the missing-nin was about to be impaled by the blow, Tora suddenly appeared beside Kakashi with a Shunshin and caught his attacking arm by the wrist, just as it scrapped Zabuza's chest, instantly bringing the blow to a complete halt. Haku's dulled eyes landed on his master, and the corners of his lips tweaked up into a small, strained smile. Both Kakashi and Zabuza's eyes widened at the sudden interference, with the missing-nin taking one look at the ANBU and cursing under his breath, stumbling back due to his injuries and the sudden disappearance of the hounds that had pinned him in place.
"Enough Kakashi. Your opponent is already defeated." He said quietly, ignoring the look that his Senpai gave him. Gently, he got Haku off his back and laid him out on the ground, noting that he was still alive, if barely. The missing-nin watched with an undecipherable expression, that seemed to somehow soften when he locked eyes with his dying companion, whose smile did not falter despite his imminent end.
"You raised a fine Shinobi" Tora said quietly to the missing-nin "Even nearly dead, he got up to his feet and was prepared to take that blow for you. You really are important to him"
The ex-member of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist said nothing, but even Haku's eyesight – despite it quickly going dark from the bloodloss – could see in his eyes what he wanted to tell him but couldn't. 'you've done well. I'm proud of you'. His smile turned nearly blinding despite the blood running down his lips, and he finally let go, allowing himself to succumb to the bloodloss and pass away. Zabuza closed his eyes for a second, a tear streaking down his face as mentally apologizing to him for not having been able to protect him and wishing him a better afterlife.
"Besides, Zabuza-san, your paycheck…" Tora continued, dragging the mourning ninja's attention to him, just as 'Gato' and a large crowd of his thugs, strutted over threw the mist armed to the teeth and faces set on mocking grins, as if on cue (it totally was).
Some of the goons began mocking "Demon of the Bloody Mist? I don't think you could even scare a kitten!" "So the girly one died, huh? Shame, I'd like to have gotten some 'use' out of him" another said lecherously. His companions chuckled in agreement "Yes, he'd have made an excellent boy-toy"
Zabuza full on growled, a rather terrifying sound. But his gut told him to pay attention to the red-haired Konoha ANBU that was now besides him, noticing he had yet to finish his sentence.
With a rather nasty smirk but an otherwise nearly flat voice, Tora finished "… is already dead" and with that, 'Gato' smirked widely, decapitated one of his bodyguards with a short sword that hadn't been there a second ago, and allowed Henge dissolved right before the shocked eyes of the thugs around him, leaving a clone of the ANBU in its place.
Without a word, the clone dispelled, and Tora took a step back, turning his mask to look at the missing-nin as he slowly unsheathed his tantō "Would you like to help me deal with them, Zabuza-san?" The ex-mist ninja gave him a savage grin "Don't interfere. These guys are mine" he told the ANBU (who promptly re-sheathed his sword with a nod) before asking him to borrow him a kunai. Tora complied, digging out one of his sharpest chakra metal kunai and flipped it in the air. The missing-nin jumped, catching it in his mouth to grip it by the handle with his sharpened teeth, the bandages that once hid the bottom half of Zabuza's face having already been torn apart. After briefly adjusting the kunai's balance on his teeth, and looking with surprise at the ANBU when he noticed the ridiculously high quality of the extremely chakra conductive weapon (who just smirked under his mask and shrugged), Zabuza turned his eyes to the thugs on the bridge, freezing them in place with just a withering glare.
What followed was nothing short of a massacre. Even with both his arms rendered unusable, the Demon of the Hidden Mist made due on his moniker by single-handedly killing all the thugs that had followed the false Gato to the bridge, shrugging off the multiple stab wounds and growing number of weapons that were beginning to pile up on his back. Normally, no civilian, thug or not, would be able to touch, never mind injure the ex-member of the 7 Swordsman of the Mist, but severely wounded and secretly mourning the death of his apprentice and adoptive child, he just couldn't bring himself to fully concentrate on the fight.
Only once the bridge was bathed in the blood of the thugs - and all the ones that were still alive were ran off by the sudden arrival of the civilians of the Wave, armed to the teeth and done with their shit, thanks to the encouragement of young Inari - did Zabuza finally collapse to the ground from a mix of bloodloss and exhaustion, both emotional and physical, dozens of weapons of all kinds piercing his back. Tora appeared next to him with a silent shunshin, kneeling besides him.
In nothing more than a whisper, a small mercy to try and save what remained of the Kiri-nin's pride, he quietly asked the quickly fading man if he had any last words. In an equally as quiet tone, the mortally wounded man nearly begged the ANBU to bring him to Haku, to which he nodded in acceptance, as he dragged one of Zabuza's disabled arms over the bloodied armour on shoulders and helped the much taller nin cross the few feet to were the slowly cooling body of the Hyōton user.
The missing-nin shoved him away and tried to move closer on his own, but ended up falling forwards with a quiet curse, adjusting his body so that he crashed onto his side rather than face first, coughing up some blood from the sudden impact to his punctured lungs that were quickly filling up with the life-giving fluid.
Side by side with the young ninja he considered his child in all but blood, Zabuza finally allowed tears to run down his cheeks, gently caressing his cooling cheeks, quietly admitting out loud for the first time, his pride on Haku and wishing to be besides him in death too, and asking him if they could go to the same afterlife, together. Pressing his forehead to Haku's forehead protector in what could be seen as a comforting motion, Zabuza, the Demon of the Hidden Mist, closed his eyes for the last time, a smile visible on his bloodstained lips even as death finally took him.