The Village of the White Tiger
Naruto fanfiction summery: Naruto's team go to a village that seems to be having one problem after another. They're in the middle of a drought, there's a wedding being prepared and the village is being invaded by an enemy they cannot touch. On top of all that now Sai's acting strangely. Even for him! Could everything be connected in some way? If you liked Curse of the Dragon's Pearl, you may like this one, too. R&R plz.
Oh, yeah! I don't own Naruto or any of the characters from the anime/manga. That right goes to Masashi Kishimoto. So there's my disclaimer.
Chapter 1:
It had been two days since they had left the Leaf Village for their new mission. Even if the mission wasn't that urgent, Neji wanted to get there quickly. As team leader, he got to call the shots and could have them move as quickly as he wanted to. However, knowing the village was far away and that they could take their time if they wanted, Neji allowed them to make camp and rest for one night. Now that they were so close to the village, Neji would not allow them to rest. No one seemed to complain about this. That is, except for one blond ninja with a pebble in his shoe.
Naruto hopped up and down, trying to get it out while following the rest of the group. He knew he could have stopped at any time and then catch up with them, but he didn't want to get yelled at by either Neji or Sakura. He knew Sai wasn't the kind to complain but smile politely and keep everything bottled up inside.
When they received their mission, Lady Tsunade assigned Naruto into a group consisting of Sakura, Sai and Neji. Neji was appointed team leader instead of Sai for a couple different reasons. One was the fact that he was a Jonin. The other was, according the Lady Tsunade, he was better suited for the position on such a mission. Naruto could have sworn there was another reason but he had started to daydream after that.
They weren't given too many details about the mission. All they knew was that it was ranked as a B mission based off what the village had described. Their village was being invaded on a nightly basis but so far no one had been attacked and nothing had been stolen. With only that to go on, Naruto and the rest of the team were sent out to investigate.
Again, Naruto had been daydreaming through part of the briefing so there may have been more details than that. He didn't mean to space out, he was just bored and wanted to get going as quickly as possible.
"We're close," said Neji. "The village should be just up ahead."
"Good!" Naruto called from the back. "I'm starving. And we've been walking all day. I could use a break."
"Didn't you bring something to eat on the way?" Sai asked him.
"Yeah, but Neji won't let us stop."
Sai turned his head to look at him. "You need to stop to eat?"
Sakura sighed and waved her hand in the air. "You know what they say... Some people are just too stupid to walk and chew at the same time."
Sai nodded his head. "Oh, I see. That makes sense."
"It has nothing to do with that!" Naruto snapped. "I need to boil water! That's why I can't do it while walking and need to stop."
Sakura groaned loudly. "You brought ramen again, didn't you? I can't believe you. Why am I not surprised?"
"You can still eat it," Sai said with his usual smile. "It'll just be more crunchy and no broth."
"Shut up, Sai."
Neji looked over his shoulder. "You can relax. The village is just on the other side of these trees."
The woods became less dense and Naruto could feel the sunlight on his face again. The trees seemed to go on endlessly through the woods. He was happy to see them open up and show them the way out. The group stepped out of the woods and into the open air. Naruto took in a deep breath. He smelled water. Sure enough there was a narrow river in front of them with sparkling clear water. Neji led the way across the wood and stone footbridge. Naruto kept his eye on the water the entire time. He was so thirsty and the clear water looked so inviting, he wanted to jump right in and swim around for a bit. Sakura was looking at the water, too, and Naruto wondered if she was thinking the same thing.
As soon as they stepped off the bridge, Naruto's feet hit the ground with a crunch. He looked down. The grass was a dead yellow color and the ground was hard as stone. He looked back the way they came at the green trees. Not wanting to fall behind, Naruto followed after the others, the dry grass crunching under his feet like straw. He wondered why the plant-life was so different on this side of the river.
They walked through the village, looking around and hoping someone could give them some direction. No one seemed to take notice of them at first. Then a small child pointed at them and said something to an old woman. She looked up at them and so did the man standing beside her. The man patted her shoulder and came over to them. "Sorry about that," he said to them. "I didn't think you would be here so early, but I'm glad you are."
"It's not that early," Naruto said. "It's the middle of the afternoon."
The rest of the group pressed close together as if trying to block him out and started to introduce themselves.
"My name is Neji Hyuga, and I am the leader of this team."
"I'm Sakura, sir. Let me know if anyone is in need of medical assistance. I've been trained by the best."
"My name is Sai."
Naruto pushed his way forward. "And I'm Naruto Uzumaki. Nice to meet you."
The man nodded to them all. "I'm the innkeeper of this village. We don't have a headman or anyone like that here. I'm the one who sent that message to you but several other people in this village had a hand in it as well."
Naruto was a little confused. A village without a leader? Then who would they answer to? He assumed this man would be their main client.
"Please come with me to the inn and I'll explain."
Naruto, Neji, Sakura and Sai followed the innkeeper to a large wooden building. As he opened the front door, Naruto noticed that there were two stone lions perched on either side of the door facing out toward the street. Their stone mouths were open showing their clipped fangs and frozen roars. Naruto grinned at the lions and patted one on the head. "What's up?" he playfully asked one of the statues.
Sai stood beside Naruto staring at him and the statues. "Are you talking to that statue?" he asked.
Naruto frowned, taking offense. "No. I was just messing around."
They joined the others inside. The inn was very well kept and welcoming. The innkeeper took them into one of the main rooms. Looking around, Naruto figured that this was used as a sitting room. On the other side of the rice paper wall was the dining area. This room, despite being a sitting area, wasn't very furnished. There was only one armchair which sat beside a large bookcase. The only other chair in that room was a wooden one which sat against the back wall, leaving the floor wide open. Naruto wondered if this was because they had just cleaned the floor and had to get everything out of the way.
The innkeeper pulled the wooden away from the wall and sat down facing them. Neji and the others sat on the floor in front of him. Naruto didn't mind too much as long as he got to rest. His legs were tired from their constant walking. "So how much do you know about your mission?" the innkeeper asked.
"Only what our Hokage has told us," explained Neji. "That your village is being invaded on a nightly basis."
"That is true. Every night around the same time these people show up and walk the streets and then leave after a few minutes and don't come back until the next night. So far, they haven't done much more than that. No one's been attacked, nothing's been stolen, no damage to the village whatsoever."
"Then why'd you call us?" No sooner had Naruto asked the question, Sakura leaned over and elbowed him in the ribs.
"They must be invading for a reason," said Neji. "It's our job to find out what that is." He looked at one of his teammates. "What do you make of this, Sai?"
"I would say that these invaders are casing the village. They're getting familiar with it and seeing if there's anything worth taking," he said. "However, their behavior is all off."
"What do you mean?" asked Naruto, rubbing his aching side.
"Normally if someone is casing a place, they are careful not to show themselves and are quick about it," Sakura answered. "These people have been doing it long enough that everyone in the village is aware of their presence and they're still doing it. Normally it's case the place then come back and steal something. Not looking around the village every night and do nothing. It's like they're trying to be caught."
"Exactly. It's not consistent with a normal raid," Sai continued. "They don't seem to care if people know they're here or not. Usually a village attack happens much quicker than this. The object of casing a place out first is to first see if there's anything worth taking. Then it's to map out all their escape routes and make sure they can get away without being caught. You don't dawdle. It's in and out, just as Sakura said. And casing a village shouldn't take more than one night. And this is a small village in comparison to others."
"True," Neji said. "These people must be amateurs if they keep coming back and making themselves known. That's one option. The other is that they want people to know what they're doing. Or maybe this whole thing is a distraction to keep us from finding out what's really going on. Either these people are smart or clumsy."
"At any rate, they're up to something. Most people would have run by now if they were found out. Something's happening," Sakura added.
Naruto nodded. "Yeah, ok... But if they're doing this every night and then leave and they're not doing anything but walking around, not even trying to be sneaky, what's the problem? I mean, why bother calling for help if they're not doing anything?"
"I do suspect that they may be waiting for their chance," said the innkeeper. "We do have a major event happening this week. We're going to be holding a wedding between a couple locals."
"A wedding?" Sakura couldn't hide the sparkle in her eyes. Even if it wasn't hers, she loved weddings. They were always beautiful and she got more ideas for her future one.
"Yup," the innkeeper nodded. "It's between a local boy and a girl who hasn't been in the best of health until recently. She's always been so sick and frail. Now that she's doing much better, they want to have a wedding as soon as possible in case she takes a turn for the worst."
"You don't suppose these people, whoever they are, have been roaming the village waiting for this wedding to happen?" asked Neji. "They could be walking around trying to find evidence of a wedding. Maybe they disapprove or hold a grudge against the family or know they have something worth taking during the ceremony."
"That is possible. We have very strict traditions we must follow to the letter in order to ensure a successful marriage and good fortune. For example, on the wedding night, the bride is not allowed to leave her bedding chamber."
"Not allowed to leave?" Naruto said. "What if there was a fire or something?"
"She cannot leave the bedroom until dawn for any reason. It's tradition. It's been that way for generations. I don't know why, but it's tradition nonetheless."
"That would make her vulnerable," said Neji, his eyes narrowing seriously. "She could be the target. Or her groom. Perhaps these intruders are waiting for a wedding to take place. That is their goal."
"How long have these people been coming to the village?" Sakura asked.
"A little over a month or two I would say. Maybe. I'm not exactly sure when they started coming here. I only noticed them a few weeks ago."
"Did you get a good look at them?" Neji asked.
"I'm sorry, no. It's dark and their faces are covered."
"But you say they show up at the same time every night and then disappear?
"Yes," the innkeeper nodded. "About 10:00 I would say. They leave after a few minutes."
"Alright." Neji turned to the others. "I say we should use this time to walk around the village and map it out. We should get familiar with it just as these people have done. We'll set up from there and place people where I think we would have the best advantage against these intruders." He looked at the innkeeper. "If possible, I'd like to ask you to tell all the villagers to stay inside after sunset so there's no mistaken identity and so everyone will be out of harm's way in case a fight ensues."
"In case?" Naruto snorted. He had every intention of throttling these people the first chance he had.
As they left the inn, Naruto passed by the stone lions again and gave one of them a pat on the nose. They were amusing.
"You shouldn't do that," Sai told him. "You don't want to break it."
"It's stone, Sai." Naruto knocked his knuckles against the lion's head. "It's not that easy to break. I'm careful."
Sai smiled at him. "You should apologize to the lion for hitting its head. The way you were talking to it before..."
Naruto frowned. "Are you making a joke? Come on! I wasn't..." He felt someone at his back and turned around. It was the innkeeper.
"Do you like them?" he asked with a smile. "I brought them here from up the hill. I found them on the other side of the river by a cave. It seemed too good to pass up and I brought them here. I think they add a nice touch to the inn don't you think?" The Innkeeper polished the side of the lion's head with his sleeve. "They've been here ever since. Granted, this was years ago. They've become like pets to me."
"Ah." Naruto looked at the lion's face. For a pet, it didn't look too friendly with those glaring eyes and open mouthed roar. But the innkeeper was right. They did add something the the front of the inn.
Naruto turned and followed Sai down the street. Just when he wanted nothing more than to rest his tired legs, now he had to walk around the village with the rest of the team. In addition to that, it sounded like they were also going to being up tonight fighting off these intruders. It seemed that old saying was true about no rest for the weary.
The end. Just kidding! This will go on for a few more chapters.
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