Konoha's Masked Nightmare
Summary: After an incident in his younger years, Naruto is infused with the abilities of two souls by Kurama, using a small fragment of Hagoromo's power that was left to him. Upon awakening them in a rather sickening fashion, Hiruzen inducts Naruto into the ANBU, to protect him from Danzo. Later, he is forced to attend the Academy and join a genin team. How will the enemies of Konoha handle a shinobi powered by the souls of two of Horror's most iconic supernatural serial killers? Grey, Slightly unhinged Naruto.
Pairing: Naruto x Anko x Ino (won't happen until much later, after some de-fangirling) x Tenten.
Genre: Adventure/Horror (a few arcs will revolve solely around this one)
Rating: M for violence, themes and gore.
Prologue
Fire Country, 10km east of the border with Grass Country
The moon had risen high up above the elemental nations, letting its light shine down on what was lucky enough for it to rest upon.
One such place was a campsite in the forest, by a cliff side. The darkness yielded only from what little moonlight there was, and the fire the group of 5 Iwa Shinobi, one jonin and four chunins, had going.
"Is there a reason we got that fire going? If we're spotted-" one male chunin stated, only to be interrupted.
"Relax. The intel said that the patrols around here have a weakness that other places didn't. We've gotten under their radar. They'll probably assume that we're just some campers or some grass nin on their way home." A female one, dressed rather scantily in purple, remarked coldly. "Stupid tree-huggers."
"Can it, Kiko." Another male shot back, this one the sole Jonin of the group. "His question was reasonable."
"Or what? It's not like they're gonna find us. Or is the great Doku scared?" She shot back, condescending.
"Shut it." Doku growled. "Believe me, I have no problem reporting this to Tsuchikage-Sama. Your insubordination recently is not something to brag about."
The fourth member, another male chunin, turned to his fellow, the first one to speak. "I'm beginning to think Saeko had the right idea going to sleep first."
"You're telling me, Toru." Was the muttered reply. "We're just lucky that she has a silencing seal on the inside of her tent. Otherwise, we'd have to put up with their bickering and her snoring!"
The one who spoke, Takahashi, a rookie chunin, just looked at the arguing pair, palming his face. "It's going to be a long night."
He had no idea how wrong he was.
The final chunin of the group, Saeko, was indeed asleep as Takahashi had said. And she was having a rather nice dream.
Dream
Saeko strode down the path from the Tsuchikage office, a jonin vest on, smirking as she went. As she walked, several Shinobi looked and were congratulating her on her promotion. Something she had been trying to earn for the past three years. Entering her favourite bar, she celebrated it, with her old teammates. She kept on drinking and partying, enjoying the company.
Hours past, from what she could see on the clock, yet she felt little time had actually gone by. She didn't care much, though, she kept on partying the night away. As she did so, a rather handsome Jonin walked up, asking if she was alright with some more company. Not seeing a problem, she had relented, as her teammates by now had gone.
She didn't know when she first realised something was wrong. All she knew was that she had turned to ask the jonin if he wanted to come around to her place, he was gone. Turning to ask someone else, she discovered the entire bar was now deserted.
Frowning, she put down her glass and walked outside.
Look left. No one.
Look right. Same thing.
Look forward.
There was no one in sight. An eerie silence filled the air, Saeko wondering where everyone was. She was starting to feel uneasy.
THUD!
Whirling around, she turned to see that the bar door behind her had slammed shut. Trying the handle, she twisted it, only for it to stop mid turn. Locked.
Turning back around with her heart hammering, she walked away from the bar, to see if she could find some other people. The wind started to pick up as she moved across the street. Still not seeing anyone, which was extremely unusual, she took to the rooftops, wondering what was going on. There was no sign of any of the usual night patrols. And to her astonishment, she just realised there were no lights coming from inside any of the buildings.
"Alright, funny joke people, love the genjutsu, can we call it quits now?" She called out as she returned to ground level. She received no answer, greatly unnerving her.
As she thought this, the wind picked up, and she felt a slight... shift in the air. Turning to shield her face from it, she blinked in confusion as she found herself in a park. Which was strange as she had been in a suburban area only seconds before. Turning to double check her surroundings, she found that the village had vanished, leaving her in this new spot.
She was standing next to a small lake, a path running around it next to her, with active street lights at certain points. Around her, she couldn't see any people, but there were one or two birds flying around. The wind calmed down, and she began questioning her sanity when she heard a strange rhyme echo from all sides.
"One, two, Killer's comin' for you..."
What? She thought.
"Three, four, better lock your door...
Five, six, ya can't pull no tricks...
Seven, eight, death'll be your fate...
Nine, ten, never wake again..."
Now well and truly spooked, she tried to determine where she was, moving down the path, also trying to take her mind off the rather disturbing verse she had just heard. As she did so, she failed to notice a blonde furred fox staring at her. Following her, the face slowly morphed into a human one covered by a mask.
As Saeko gazed over the small body of water, she was surprised to hear a voice.
"You look like you don't know where you are."
Startled, she whirled around. Sitting at a park bench was a teenage boy, she guessed, his height about five feet five inches. He was dressed in an orange and black striped shirt, a black coloured combat jacket, pants and shoes. On his head was a black fedora. His hat shadowed his face, so she couldn't see his eyes, but he had three whisker marks on his cheeks, and some spiked blonde locks poking out from under his hat at the sides.
He was smirking at her, his arms stretched over the back of the bench.
"Who are you?" she asked hurriedly, not wanting to stay here any more than she had to.
"Me?" the blonde asked as if amused. "Why, that's a difficult question to answer."
He jumped up, Saeko now seeing his blue eyes, placing his hands behind his back. "Some call me a demon, others a hero…"
His eyes started changing colour, to her astonishment.
"… but you can call me the man who is going to kill you."
Saeko just gaped to the boy for making such an admission. Then she scoffed.
"Nice joke, kid." She stated coldly. "Now could you tell me where I am?"
"Lost?" He asked with a raised eyebrow. "Well…"
He tapped his chin, as if in thought. "… I suppose I could lend you a helping hand."
He brought his right hand out. Saeko was surprised, as the hand was now covered in the strangest glove she had ever seen. It was made of black leather at the wrist and palm, but then had a dark metal plate covering the back of his hand. The same metal covered the rest of his hand, bar his thumb, with exposed joints for his fingers. What drew her attention was the four short sharp blades connected to each finger. Flexing the fingers, the blades rubbed together, making a 'shring, shring' noise.
Grinning madly, he raised his left hand. Then brought his right index finger to his wrist.
Saeko blanched in horror as the kid started sawing his own hand off!
"What the hell are you doing?!" she shrieked, taking a step back.
The hand fell to the ground, but she didn't look at it, staring at the stump the boy now possessed. To her disgust however, instead of blood, a nauseous looking yellow pus like fluid started flowing out, dripping onto the ground.
The kid, whom she really thought had a few screws loose, as he hadn't even batted an eye over his self-mutilation, just smiled.
"Lending you a hand. Look, it's coming to you now."
What the-? She thought. Then she felt something touching her right leg. Trembling, she looked down, only to shriek, as she saw the mutilated hand moving, crawling up her leg!
Screeching, she flung it off, backing away from the boy, no, monster. She didn't know what else he could be.
"Now, that's not nice." He grumbled in annoyance. Picking his hand up, he placed it back on his severed wrist. Twisting it a little bit, he let go, leaving it re-attached, as if he had never cut it off only a few moments ago.
"I was going to try and make this relatively painless." He continued, slowly moving toward her, flexing his gloved fingers as he went. "But now, I think I won't."
Saeko leapt back, forming a hand sign. But nothing happened. Trying again, she met the same result.
"Having problems?" the monster smirked, as she began to panic. She didn't even pay attention to what he said. Too concerned with her current situation.
For a third time, the young chunin attempted to access her chakra. There was no reaction. She looked back at him with a pale face, as it abruptly came to her, that she could not use her jutsus. Desperate, she threw a punch, catching him in the left cheek. His face turned barely, before stopping, hardly affected at all.
Saeko looked at her fist, and then at his face, not believing what had just happened. The boy just looked a mix between amused and annoyed.
"You done? I've felt mosquito bites with more kick to them."
Saeko began backing away, terror starting to set in.
"Now where do you think you're going?" he said sadistically, moving after her as he spoke.
Throwing caution into the wind, she turned and ran. Blinking, her assailant stopped for a moment, before giving a slasher grin.
"Run, run, run as fast as you can…" he sang mockingly, giving chase as he swiped his hand across his face as a strange mask appeared over his face, under his hat. It was white, with a red triangular mark on each of the parts covering the forehead and both cheeks. All over the mask, at various points were small holes, mostly congregated around the mouth area. The eyeholes made him look more like a demon, his red eyes glowing out from under it.
She ran. How long she didn't know. All she knew was that she couldn't stop. That… thing was still chasing her. The park had disappeared, as she now ran past several buildings. She didn't have time to look at them though. Stopping meant death. Trying to shake him off, she started turning corners at random. His footfalls quietened a bit, so she took a risk. Turning another corner, she twisted down a nearby alleyway, taking cover behind a dumpster.
As she huddled in her hiding spot, she tried to control her racing heart rate. She wasn't having much success.
Hearing footsteps around the corner, Saeko held her breath. The being turned, and walked slowly, searching for his prey. As he walked, he raised his clawed gloved hand to the side of the building, running the blades against the side.
"Hiding, are we?" he called out, teasing. "Makes sense. One can only run and hide when facing a superior predator."
Saeko felt a slight surge of anger at that, but quickly forced it down, not wanting to give her position away. By now, he had arrived at the entrance to the alley. Saeko held her breath. Moments passed.
.
.
.
Turning away from the place she had hidden, the boy continued down the street, his footsteps getting fainter and fainter, until they faded from view.
Saeko let out a sigh. It was over. He was gone.
.
.
.
The boys gloved arm erupted from the wall behind her, making her cry out, reaching around to try and get her in a headlock. She rolled away but was too slow to avoid getting sliced on her right cheek. Four cuts now ran down it. Not having time to worry about it, she jumped on top of the dumpster, and up to the building's fire escape, as the boy's entire form came out of the wall. Once again, the chase was on.
Racing up the side of what she thought was an apartment complex, Saeko soon reached the top of the fire escape. She attempted to smash the window of the apartment joined to the escape, but to her surprise and horror, it didn't even budge. Looking down, she could see the teen was still chasing her. He was only a few floors away from her. Rapidly turning her gaze upwards, she judged and then jumped, her fingers snagging the edge of the rooftop.
Struggling, she pulled herself up to her waist, just as her pursuer reached the top of the fire escape. She barely pulled her leg all the way up before he took a swipe at them, cutting deeply into her left ankle with one of his blades.
Gritting back the pain, she forced herself to stand up. Reaching for the pouch at her side (and mentally slapping herself for forgetting about it earlier), she reached in and pulled out five shuriken. Moving away from the edge, as she had no doubt he'd be still trying to follow her, she looked for a way off the roof.
As she did so, she caught glimpse of a mountain in the distance, yet still within the village walls. She narrowed her eyes, then widened them as she dropped her shuriken in shock. This was impossible! She hadn't been anywhere near there before!
Into the mountain in question, were the carved faces of four people. It was the fourth one that scared her. How could she forget the most hated and feared face in all Iwa? Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage. Somehow, and she still didn't completely believe it, she had been transported into the village of Konoha.
Shaking her head, she reached down to pick up her shuriken, only to fall over, as her wounded ankle gave in. Grimacing, she picked up her shuriken as she got onto her knees.
"Like the tour?"
She froze, turning her head, to see the teen she had been running from, standing tall, staring down at her. She tried to get up, but the pain in her ankle was too much. She crawled forward, inwardly praying for a miracle.
"Did you really think I was going to let you get away back there?" he scowled, rolling his eyes at her. "Dream on, Bitch."
With a slight chuckle at his last comment, the boy strode forward, the roof starting to crumble around him as he did so. Saeko didn't notice this until it sped up, the effect racing past her until it reached the opposite edge. The building and the rest of the surrounding area rotted and collapsed down, leaving a few rocky pillars of varying heights lengths and widths, over a glowing red abyss. Saeko froze up for a moment, her mind unable to process what was occurring. She looked back, only to see that he was almost upon her!
Eyes wide, she fumbled and hurled one of the shuriken she had dropped. As he took a step forward, he tilted his head as it sped past his face.
Grabbing the rest, she crawled away stopping to throw one every few seconds. They all missed.
"You're making this too easy."
She suddenly felt nothing beneath her left hand. She had run out of the space, the now fiery chasm beneath the ledge. And she was down to her last shuriken. Rolling onto her back, she looked at him like a cornered mouse.
Please, let this hit...
The man was now so close to her, having taken his time.
Wait for it...
He was inches away, reaching for her.
Now!
She tossed her last weapon forward. This time her aim rang true, striking him in the stomach. Stopping for a moment, he looked down at the wound, then back at her.
Then to her horror, he reached over with his left hand and pulled it out, blood spurting from the injury as he did so. Tossing it aside, he looked at her, his expression unreadable by his mask.
Raising his left hand, he slowly wagged his index finger, as if he were chastising her for doing something naughty.
He advanced again, the blood now dripping down onto the remains of the roof. She tried to move, but she couldn't muster the energy.
Shaking her head, Saeko started desperately repeating a phrase, the only hope she had left.
"This is a dream, this is a dream..."
"Oh?" The teen had now placed his left hand over her mouth, stopping her mutterings as she looked up at his blue eyes in fear, drops of water all over his mask. "Well, aren't you a smart one."
A small glimmer of hope entered her eyes, thinking that she'd simply wake up.
How naive.
"You see, you can't kill a dream...," the masked teen whispered, raising his gloved hand above her. She looked at the blades, shivers going up her spine. Dream or not, no one would like to be stabbed with that.
", but you know something?" He crouched down to whisper in her ear.
"This dream can kill you."
Before she could scream, his gloved hand plunged forward.
Blood splattered the roof.
End Dream. *1
In the real world, for the past few minutes, Saeko had been sweating as she slept in her tent, tossing her head this way and that. She had also called out a few times, as wounds on her cheek and ankle appeared, but due to the silencing seal on her tent, no one heard her. Suddenly she let out one loud choking cry.
Slowly a red stain appeared on her sleeping bag, just above where her chest would be. Her body went limp.
The Iwa nin were under attack, and they didn't even know it.
Back outside
Doku and Kiko by now had finished their argument but were standing apart so they could calm down. Takahashi turned to his fellow chunin, Toru.
"I gotta take a leak. Back in a sec."
"Geez." Toru grimaced. "You didn't need to tell me that, man."
"Heh." He smirked. "Enjoy more time with the lovebirds."
With that, he strode off into the forest, not noticing his fellow give him the finger.
He continued walking for a few minutes, not wanting to be seen with his fly down.
Finally, he believed he had gotten far enough away. Finding a suitable tree, he got down to business.
He was about to finish up, when it happened. One second, he was alone, the next a shadow appeared next to him.
"Wha-"
He had no time to react as the newcomer grabbed him by the back of the head and then slammed it into the tree trunk with a sickening CRUNCH. The wood cracked at the speed and pressure, as did bone.
Not entirely satisfied, the figure repeated the process, as blood dribbled down the now dead nins neck. Tossing him to the side, having performed a rather macabre double tap, the figure disappeared as quickly as he had arrived. Leaving the nin with his skull caved in, bits of blood now staining the ground.
Back at the campsite, 10 minutes later...
Doku was getting worried. "Takahashi should have been back by now."
"Oh, come off it, he's just taking his time." Kiko grumbled, a little frustrated with her superior. Doku scoffed at her suggestion.
"Well in that case, you can stay here to keep watch on the site. Toru, let's go see what's taking him so long."
Toru merely nodded, getting up to join his taicho. The pair headed off in the direction Takahashi had gone, hoping to pick up his trail.
In seconds, Kiko was alone. Left to her own thoughts, she began poking the fire with a stick as she brooded.
Stupid Doku. It's because of him that I'm even on this freakin' mission, not that he cares. I lost my promotion all because of his mistakes, not that he would own up to it, the bastard.
Hearing steps behind her, she assumed they were back. "So, was I right, or did he stub his toe?" She muttered, sarcastically.
A hand touched her shoulder, and she grew annoyed.
"Move the hand or lose it, asshole."
The hand let go. Shaking her head, she turned to talk to the person behind her.
"You got a-"
She choked on her words as she was instantly grabbed by the throat. Quickly bringing her hands together, she attempted to kawarimi herself out of her attacker's grasp. Only to still be left gasping for air, when nothing happened.
"You gotta love seals." A low, dark voice murmured softly at her. Her eyes bulged as the being lifted her off the ground, despite his smaller size, as she desperately tried to free herself. With one hand struggling with her assailant's arm, she reached down to draw a kunai with the other, from the pouch on her leg.
Pulling one out, she stabbed, hitting him in the upper arm. While he jerked back slightly, the attacker didn't let her go. Instead, he tilted his head, looking at her for a moment.
"Kiko Shibata. Iwa's Incinerator." He stated softly. He didn't raise his voice. That only made it scarier. Pulling her close, so that they were face-to-face he whispered one word.
"Burn."
Without wasting a second, he twisted her around and thrust her face into the fire, letting go with his hand, and placing his foot on her back as he did so to keep her in place. Struggling, Kiko's face was quickly overtaken by the flames, burning and suffocating her at the same time.
She couldn't even scream due to this. It took a few moments, but she soon went still. Pulling her out, he left her burnt body where it lay, it's face set in its final expression of agony. As he turned away from the corpse, he pulled the kunai out of his arm. Letting it fall, he was gone before it hit the ground.
With the remaining two…
The final two Iwa shinobi were still unaware of the fate their comrades all shared but were not far off discovering one of them.
Toru was an expert tracker and had soon picked up the trail of his erstwhile colleague. He looked at the ground, examining the tracks. He gestured in one direction, not looking up.
"He went that way."
Doku nodded and turned in the indicated direction. Toru took point jumping from tree to tree, while Doku followed just as quickly. Then Toru came to a stop, frozen, his face paling. Doku landed next to him.
"What's wrong?"
Toru didn't answer, his gaze firmly on whatever held his attention. Wondering what he was so frightful of, Doku turned to see for himself. Only to wish he hadn't as he blanched. Lying below them, was Takahashi's prone form, exactly where his killer had left him mere minutes earlier. Instantly, both men dropped to the ground.
Toru looked sick at what he was seeing. His comrades blood had stained the grass, and his face was in a nearly unrecognisable shape. That sickness soon turned to anger.
"What the fu-!"
"Shhh!" Doku raised a hand to silence his subordinate. Toru would have asked why, when a noise began echoing around them.
"Chi chi chi, ma ma ma…"
Looking around to find the source, they were unnerved to find it seemed to be coming from all directions. And it was getting louder.
Toru whirled around with a snarl. "Come out, you bastard!"
Doku remained silent but was just as pissed off as Toru was. He was forcing himself not to panic, he was a jonin for crying out loud.
Surprisingly, the noise died away. The pair looked for an enemy, searching for any kind of movement, before Toru relaxed his guard.
"You think we scared him off?"
Doku didn't answer, still uneasy. Turning back to his comrade, he answered.
"I'm not-"
SHLUCK!
Blood splattered against Doku's face, temporarily blinding him. Quickly wiping it off, his eyes went wide as he saw a blade sticking out of Toru's midsection. Then, the blade went upward with a quick set of vomit-inducing cracks.
Toru fell forward, almost split in half. Doku jumped back, getting into a fighting stance, as he glared at the being responsible. The same being responsible for Saeko and Kiko's deaths, not that he knew that. Instead of the glove, this time he wielded a machete, one that was rather oversized. If Doku had time, he would have wondered how this guy could have lifted the weapon.
"You got Toru and Takahashi. You won't get the rest of my team, asshole!"
Behind his mask, the figure just stared at him blankly. The idiot clearly had no idea he was the last man standing. Staring impassively at the enemy, he advanced.
Doku quickly ran through hand signs. "Doton: Tobi Tsubute (Earth Release: Flying Thrown Stones)!" he roared, slamming his palms onto the ground.
The ground shook as a massive multitude of large rocks erupted from the ground, flying toward the enemy.
Setting his jaw, the enemy nin ducked under the first few, weaving through the next lot, before disappearing in a puff of smoke, leaving a log behind when the next set threatened to overtake him. *2
Kawarimi! Doku snarled internally. The masked boy emerged again to his right, his machete now covered in a blue form of energy, that seemed to increase its reach and sharpness.
Shit, a futon (Wind release) user! Moving to his left, he ran through more hand signs. "Doton: Iwadeppo no jutsu! (Earth Release: Rock bullet technique)" Rearing back his head, he spat a bullet sized rock from his mouth, that slowly began to get bigger. It hadn't gained much size, when it slammed into the figures chest.
Seeing what appeared to be a success, Doku fired a few more Iwadeppo's, each hitting its target in the chest, stomach and forehead. At the last one, the figure fell over onto its back.
Breathing out, Doku approached his fallen foe, shaking his head at him as he did. Kneeling over him, he taunted.
"Shouldn't have tried to challenge an Iwa jonin, boy."
The figure's eyes snapped open. Gasping, Doku jumped back, but received a slice to his abdomen, when his thought deceased foe swung his machete at him at high speed.
Looking at the teen in disbelief, Doku couldn't believe his eyes. Impossible! He should be dead from that!
The masked assailant had by now gotten back to his feet and had re-coated his machete in futon chakra. Reaching back, he looked as if he were going to take another swing.
Despite the fact, that such a swing wouldn't reach him, Doku's instincts roared to dodge. His enemy swiped forward, and he instantly performed the kawarimi.
He chose a good time to listen to them. A blade of wind erupted from the weapon, slicing apart the log he left behind, as well as several trees behind it.
Looking at the destruction wrought by that technique, Doku quickly returned his attention to the attacker. He just stood there looking at him. As if to gauge his reaction.
Doku narrowed his eyes. "You'll have to do better to intimidate me."
Squelch!
A strange feeling came over him. A feeling of numbness. Looking down he saw a hand emerging from his chest, clutching his still beating heat in its hands! Looking up, he saw the figure in front of him dispel in a puff of smoke. A clone. *3
"Who knew you had a heart?" a voice whispered to him. And with that, the hand crushed his heart. Doku fell forward, dead before he hit the ground. "Well, now you don't."
The masked boy let him fall, paying more attention to the blood stain on his jacket sleeve, as he wiped more of it off his hands. As he did so, two more figures appeared, both in the uniform of a Konoha ANBU.
The first was a female wearing a cat mask with long purple hair. The second was a male in a bear mask with spiked brown hair.
"Efficient as always, if a little messy, Killer." Bear remarked, looking at the remains of the three Iwa nin around them.
The no code-named Killer turned to him, simply choosing to stare at him for a second. "As long as the job was done, I don't see a problem."
Bear was about to reply, when Cat cut in. "While there wasn't one tonight, if we had been closer to a settlement, this fight could have drawn attention."
"We were not near one and it didn't." was the dismissive reply, but he nodded in understanding.
Cat relaxed, glad her message had gotten through. "Now get back to Konoha. Hokage-sama wished to see you about something. We'll make sure you get any money owed to you."
Killer inclined his head, before simply vanishing.
Bear turned to Cat. "I'll never get how well this all comes to him."
Cat sighed. "Truth be told, I wish he hadn't needed to be inducted at such a young age. It was the only way to protect him, though."
Shaking her head, she turned to the bodies. "Now then, let's see if there's any bounties in this lot."
A day later, Konoha, Hokage's office…
13 years. It had been that long since Hiruzen Sarutobi had been forced to retake the hokage hat, after the Kyuubi had ravaged the village. Since then, much had changed for the old man, but one thing remained the same. A thing the Sandaime utterly despised.
WHY DO YOU NEVER END!? He roared mentally at the massive stack of paperwork cluttering his desk. Sighing in exasperation, he continued to work through it, making certain to read all of it. He had simply skipped through a few papers in his first months, which he regretted. As doing so had given the civilian council a bit more power.
Looking out of his window at the village, he sensed a presence coming from the ceiling. Smirking, he pushed the paperwork to one side.
"Get down from there."
Killer dropped from his hiding spot into a kneeling position. "Your ANBU are getting rusty, Jiji. They didn't even realise I was there, even after I snuck in."
Hiruzen frowned for a moment, mentally noting to up the ANBU's training regime (Several masked figures suddenly felt a shiver go up their spines). Looking at the masked boy, his eye twitched.
"You may as well unmask yourself, Naruto."
Reaching up, Killer rearranged the mask so that it was now hanging around his neck, revealing the grinning face of one Naruto Uzumaki.
Smiling down at his surrogate grandson, Sarutobi turned serious.
"Report."
"We waited to see if a group would turn up. We were right, Iwa has been getting through that point of the border."
Again? That's the third time in the last month that we've had reported sightings of Iwa shinobi in fire country, near key locations at that. Onoki is getting a little bolder. Hopefully, he'll back off, when he doesn't hear back from them. Sarutobi thought, as he lit his pipe. Taking a puff, he motioned for Naruto to continue.
"Once we'd discovered their camp, Cat-nee ordered me to deal with them, while she and Bear stayed back to step in if necessary. After taking out their sleeper, I took down two more after they had separated from the main group. The remaining pair kept together. I killed one in a surprise attack, but I had to engage the last. It took a little while, but I eventually succeeded."
"I had no doubt." Those abilities you gained that night really are something.
Closing his eyes in thought, Hiruzen stayed silent, taking a puff from his pipe every few seconds. Opening them, he shook his head.
"It appears we have a leak. I will have someone look into it."
"What do you want me to do, Jiji?" Naruto asked, curiously.
"I actually have a task in mind for you, Naruto." Bending slightly, the Sandaime opened one of his drawers, and pulled out a set of papers.
Recognising them for what they were, Naruto stood bolt upright, a snarl starting to emerge on his face.
"NO."
Sarutobi placed the academy pages down on the desk, looking a little forlorn. "You knew you would have to do so eventually."
"That was then. Times change. And I'm happy where I am."
"I know you are." Hiruzen admonished, sternly. "But if you don't appear there, Danzo will begin to wonder why aren't. Your doppelganger has done a good job of keeping up appearances, but this was unavoidable, and you knew that. You have to attend for the final year."
Naruto grit his teeth. "Why not just send my clone?" It had been helping to keep up appearances for a reason after all!
"Your clone would dispel if hit too hard in a spar. We can't take the risk."
Calming down, the boy took on a resigned look. "Guess I'll have to use my idiot mask and move back to that shit hole again." He grumbled, not liking the idea of sitting in a room full of noobs for the next year. Oh well, at least he'd be able to crack the prank bag back open.
Sarutobi honestly didn't like this either, but there was more to it. "I actually need you there for a few other reasons as well."
Looking confused, and slightly intrigued, Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Eh?"
Beckoning him closer, Hiruzen pulled out two personal files and laid them on the table. One had a picture of a boy Naruto's age, with black eyes and matching coloured hair, styled like the rear end of a duck of all things. The second was of a chunin instructor. He wore a bandanna styled version of the forehead protector, had shoulder length white hair, with a hint of blue in it, and a pair of green eyes. Naruto believed he looked shady.
"I'm sure you know the first one."
"Sasuke Uchiha." Naruto stated, remembering the little brother of one of his teachers. He looked at the Hokage inquisitively. "What appears to be the issue here?"
"I have a belief that his psyche evaluation was faked. The report states no issue, but from what I hear, he has become obsessed with killing him. He also isn't socialising with others, which could very well mark him as a flight risk, if he forms no bonds with the village. And if you hadn't interfered that night, it'd probably be worse, not that he knows that."
"You want me to approach him?"
"If you deem it wise at a later point. What I want you to do then, is to get your own opinion of him, and report back. From there we'll discuss what to do next. I've also roped Inoichi to help us with this."
Understanding, Naruto turned to the next photo.
"Who's he?"
"That would be Mizuki Tojou. He's a chunin sensei at the academy."
Naruto flicked through the file. "Suspected links to-" he broke off, eyes wide.
"Yes." Hiruzen replied softly, a phantom pain crossing his face. "I want you to see if you can discover any proof of that. Keep an eye on him. In both dream and reality."
Naruto returned his gaze to his leader. "You do realise that she'll have our heads if we don't bring her in on this."
"That's a risk I'm willing to take." Sarutobi shuddered at the thought. "If we do tell her, I don't think she will be capable of going into this with a clear head, which may result in mistakes later."
Naruto grimaced, but accepted the reasoning. "Anything else?"
"While I'm already asking a lot of you, I want you to evaluate the academy. Are its methods up to scratch, merely sub-par, or woefully incompetent?"
Wincing slightly, Naruto looked back at his leader, grinning evilly. Hiruzen froze, recognising that grin.
"I'll do it on one condition."
"Y-yes?" Hiruzen tried to keep his fear out of his voice and failing miserably.
"You explain to Anko-nee why I'm moving out, if only partially."
With that, Naruto disappeared, sniggering.
Sarutobi looked out the door, blanching with a pale face.
I think I had better go over my will…
End.
And done! WOW, this took a little longer than expected, but I think it turned out well.
First, the footnotes:
By now you've probably figured out whose ability Naruto is using here. And wondering why Saeko couldn't use chakra there. The answer relates to how chakra is formed. It is made my mixing both the physical energy of the body, with the spiritual energy of the soul/mind. In the dream, you don't have your physical body, so you can't gather physical energy. If one could figure out how to use only the spiritual side, they could possibly fight, but that's a moot point now. While some may argue that that's a bit OP, there are some drawbacks that Naruto has that Freddy doesn't which will become apparent in future chapters.
While Naruto does have Jason's durability, a rock that size would have most likely torn a hole through his torso, which would have been a bitch to heal up.
Naruto switched with his clone when Doku took in the damage his seal-less kazekiri (wind cutter) did. It wasn't a clone fighting him the entire time.
So, what do you think? Kindly drop a review, FLAMERS WILL BE VISITED BY FREDDY IN THEIR SLEEP!
Next time, we'll look at how Naruto gained the abilities of Freddie Kreuger and Jason Voorhees, his origin story if you will. And how he first met Anko.
Next up, I'm announcing a new segment to my stories, the MALICIOUS HERO AWARDS section.
Basically, I'll choose a franchise one of my fics is either based on or has a character from that franchise in it. Then I choose a few categories from it and then choose the best, runner up, second-worst and the worst, usually. I'll either add more or remove some depending on how I feel
To start with, next time I update, I'll be giving awards for the Friday the 13th franchise. The awards will be:
THE MOVIE AWARDS
The Gold Hockey Mask: Best movie of the franchise.
The Silver Hockey Mask: Runner Up
The Bronze Hockey Mask: Third place
The Regular Hockey Mask: the middle one out of all of them
The Potato Sack: Second-worst
The Tombstone: Worst.
THE KILLS
Bloody Machete: Best kill of the franchise. Be advised that this may not come from the best ranked movie, or any movie given an award.
Dull cleaver: Worst kill.
OTHER AWARDS
Jason statue: which actor played Jason the best.
After each one is awarded, I'll also be giving an explanation why this is the case.
I already have some in mind for these award victors, but If I get a very convincing argument from you as to why a certain movie, kill or Jason actor should be given the award, I may just change my mind. So, with that said, how would you all divvy these awards?
Please note that I won't be counting the Freddy vs. Jason movie, as it's part of two franchises, not just one. I can already tell you that it didn't win any of them anyway.
Finally, when I do release these awards, please understand that these will just be my opinions, so there is no need for any flaming or threats toward me for not ranking your favourite movie or kill higher. And for those who get bad marks, I'll still try to point out some good things about them.
Till then,
MH out!