Chapter 1: Thirst
(Forest in Nami No Kunai)
Naruto's luck was taking a turn for the worse, Kakashi had left team 7 with the instructions for the tree walking exercise spurring a competition between the blonde and his self proclaimed rival, a competition he was narrowly losing by only an inch but the constant cheers from his bbubblegum haired teammate for the Uchiha prodigies progress only served to dampen his mood even further.
"But Sakura-chan I had him by a whole foot a minute ago" Naruto whined pausing to catch his breath.
"As if, you'll never beat Sasuke-kun you like that!" she exclaimed rather harshly before continuing to ignore the blond and cheer the avenger on.
Naruto looked away as the stinging words left a pain in his chest, 'why was she so obsessed with the Uchiha bastard anyways' he thought glumly as he began to wonder off into the forest in hopes of finding a more secluded place to train and clear his mind of his depressing thoughts.
Food... she needed to feed. After 3 days of running from hunter nin exhaustion was starting to take its toll and her vision was blurry, deciding to finally drop the speedy pace she had adopted at the start of the chase she came to a stop in an open field before quickly taking cover behind a moss covered tree in hopes of getting some quick rest and eluding her pursuers.
"Ugh my head…" she groaned weakly stumbling for a split second as a pulsating pain streamed through her temple
Too reckless…so hungry…' she thought hazily as she recalled her last attempt at feeding
Dark spots started to cloud her vision as she rested in the shade of the tree, exhaustion and hunger overwhelming her
"Can't keep this up anymore…. what was the point of even running ?" she thought sadly as darkness overcame her vision. 'Food…' she mumbled weakly before losing consciousness as a orange blur appeared in the corner of her fading vision.
Naruto had just finished perfecting the tree walking exercise and had decided to try find his way back to the bridge builders house in hopes of lording it over his rival
"Crap its getting dark in this stupid forest, no damn idea where I am now' he thought groggily as he stumbled into an open clearing. Squinting he scanned the area in hopes of finding a landmark he recognized when he saw what appeared to be a slumped mass on the other side of the clearing below a tree.
Curiosity getting the better of him he decided to approach it.
"Wonder why its not moving, maybe it's asleep" he pondered
As he drew closer he realized it was a human figure, a fair pale skinned girl with shoulder length jet black hair wearing what appeared to be a short badly torn white combat yukata with strange red designs almost reminiscent of seals. She was covered in blood from various cuts and appeared to be badly injured
"Whoa she's hurt bad, who would do something like this ?" he wondered taking a knee and checking her pulse, her skin was freezing cold to the touch and her heart was beating rather slowly.
He gave her testing nudge to see if she would wake up
"Hey can you hear me ?" "Who did this to you !? "
Her eyes slowly came open, glazed over from the hunger
"….food" she mumbled
"Whaa… !?' was all the blonde had time to say as she pounced on him
Piercing his neck with sharp fangs and sucking his life essence away.
The panicked blonde began to try to knock her of to no avail as the strength quickly left his body
His vision started to swim as darkness clouded his mind
"Noooo I don't wanna go like this…I never even got to be Hokage" he thought in despair
A dark growl filled his mind as a bubbling chakra cloak of toxic red energy enveloped him and his would be attacker briefly before blowing her away and disappearing as quickly as it had come,
The red aura began flashing every few seconds as Naruto spasmed on the ground, his back arching as he twitched.
Not far from the pairs location a squad of hunter nin stopped in their tracks
"Anybody else feel that?" one asked the group
"Don't you see that red light ?" another responded
"Quiet! The targets trail leads in that direction anyway lets move" one who appeared to be the squad leader barked in a commanding tone before taking off full speed.
The Mizukage would reward them greatly for eliminating the last of that accursed clan, the girl would not escape deaths grasp this time he thought greedily
As they landed in the clearing they were greeted by a strange sight, there was their target crouched over a boy clad in orange who was having what appeared to be seizure on the ground, red chakra flashing around him every few seconds then disappearing.
Deciding to ignore the boy for now all eight hunters surrounded the clearing to prevent any escape while the leader of the squad stepped forward to make their presence known.
"Kohina Satomi you stand accused of possessing a cursed bloodline, by the orders of the Mizukage your punishment is death…prepare yourself' he exclaimed theatrically sword drawn slowly closing in on his target hoping to savor the moment of his triumph.
Said target however appeared to be in a world of her own ignoring her surroundings and instead continuing to stare at Naruto who by now had stopped twitching on the ground and appeared to be regaining consciousness.
Slitted blue eyes met pink before turning a glowing crimson, the waking blond let out an inhumane roar and charged at the head nin who had gotten too close to the pair. Newly grown fangs took a chuck off the unfortunate hunters neck in one savage bite, the man was dead before he hit the grass. Blood dripped down the blonds chin as he swallowed the chuck of flesh he had in his mouth.
No one moved for a second, shock setting in that a kid had killed their commander…..in one move no less.
The possessed blonds gaze left the newly made corpse and turned to the remaining men who by now had come to their sense and drawn their weapons,
"Lucky shot you little bastard you'll pa..gurrk!?"
Where the last words the unfortunate nin ever uttered as the blade he once held was used to decapitate him in the blink of an eye. As his head sailed threw the air he saw the demonic blond holding his weapon with his recently severed right arm still holding the blades handle…
"so...fast…when did he ?….monster" he gurgled during the last few seconds of his life.
Deciding to strike first instead of allowing the possessed boy time to attack again, the remaining six ninja sprang to action a plan already in motion to contain the new threat.
Four of the hunters from the squad started the hand seals for a combined water dragon while the remaining two engaged the boy in close quarter combat to buy time for the jutsus completion.
Their plan seemed to be working as the boys miraculous strength and speed seemed to be fading away tipping the scales of battle in their favor. The blond was slowly being pushed back by the coordinated assault.
However their plan suffered one major flaw, they had ignored their initial target... the recently identified Kohina, eyes still glazed over from the feeding, seeing her new interest being attacked rushed the four nin who were still busy preparing the jutsu. She proceeded to unleash her demonic fury upon them in the form of ghoulish green fireballs she spat.
The initial blast killed two of the ninja making the seals, and a third when the other two who had made it away from the flames stopped, thinking the danger was over only for a geyser of the unholy blaze to erupt below them.
Fast reflexes honed through years of combat in the civil war were the only thing that saved the last hunter nin as he dived out of the way of the flames, his partner however who had been caught in the middle of the deadly geyser was reduced to a smoldering heap, his skeletal remains still striking the position he had been in before succumbing to gravity in a pile of blackened ash.
The infuriated nin frantically scanned the field for the girl that had claimed the lives of his comrades but only saw the remaining two black ops still fighting the boy, without the support of the water dragon they had taken heavy damage engaging the blond in close combat, his strength although waning was still enough to almost dislocate their shoulders every time their blades rose to block his claws.
One of the hunters assigned to attack the boy went to parry another strike when something abnormal happened, the incoming claw phased through his sword as if it belonged to a specter and entered his chest, the man felt nothing for a split second and wondered if it had just been a genjutsu when the hand seemed to materialize again.
With a swift tug the nins heart was liberated from his chest, red droplets of blood flying through the air, his features contorting in shock and horror. Blood pulled from the newly created hole in the mans chest as his body crumpled the possessed boy taking chunks by the mouthful from the bloodied organ like an apple.
His partner was in a state of shock too stunned to do anything as he witnessed the horrific scene, deciding to make a hasty retreat he called out for the only other remaining hunter to regroup on the other side of the field, both men looking back just before they made their escape wondering how two children decimated their ranks.
The glowing eyes of the demonic pair in the dark of the forest were their only answer as they leapt into the thick forestry.
They raced onward for a good minute before landing on the opposite side of a clearing….the very same one they had just left, the dead bodies of their comrades still strewn across the bloodied field, 'what the hell ? wait genju-ahhhhh" the man screamed as Naruto savagely ripped a chunk of the mans neck with his teeth.
The men had never truly left the field, their fates were sealed when they made eye contact with the demon container, simply standing in place the whole time they had been given visuals of an escape that never was, a subtle hypnosis.
The bloodthirsty demon container proceeded to rip the two men to shreds, showering both him and his new companion in a rain of blood.
As the fluid pooled and both corpses laid in unrecognizable pieces the blond boy dropped to the ground, darkness taking finally taking him as the last of his new found power faded away. Two strange tattoos began to materialize on his shoulder and neck where two puncture wounds were still clearly visible.
Kohina proceeded to lay next to his prone body snuggling close, "Master" she mumbled in a haze, eyes still cloudy and unfocused as a black swirl similar to a whirlpool appearing on her neck as well.
"Ah..my head" Naruto awoke with a groan.
He felt cold…and sticky but he sensed a presence on top of him, with great effort he opened his eyes and sat up a bit alarmed that the girl that had attacked him earlier was now laying on top of him, he backed away slowly but his retreat was hindered by a wet pile of something
"what the….?' He whispered as he looked at his hand completely soaked in blood, his eyes widened in surprise as he looked further down to see what was left of a human torso.
He started to panic as he surveyed the scene taking note of the carnage before him, similar sights with different body parts laid strewn across the field everywhere, crimson liquid staining everything in sight, he looked at his hands and clothes, loose flesh and cached blood filled his fingernails.
"I…I did this?!" he cried out in shock
He began to gag as he noticed a metallic taste in his mouth, dropping to his knees he started to hyperventilate as a tiny piece of red pulp he forgot to swallow fell out of his mouth.
Kohina awoke once more noticing her new companion was gone she surveyed the field before spotting the demon container and making her way over to the distressed blond, still in her trance like state, she sat next to him and laid her head on his shoulder whispering "master".
Naruto let out a blood-curling scream ignoring the mesmerized girl as something inside of him snapped.
All he could hear was a dark chuckle in his head as his screams echoed throughout the forest.
(The next Morning)
Kakashi woke up with a sense of foreboding, he hadn't seen his loudest pupil since he had stormed off into the forest and the blond had failed to return before nightfall
"I'm overthinking this, the kid probably just got lost, he's downstairs getting breakfast right now" he tried to rationalize as he made his way to the kitchen hoping to find all his young charges.
The scene that greeted the copy nin as he walked in however was enough to put all the oddities he had witnessed during his long career to shame.
Present at the table where Sasuke, the bridge builder and his daughter all staring at the last member or members at the end of the table.
There sat Naruto, signature orange jacket browned with copious amounts of caked blood, eerily silent, his red eyes ? seemed be unfocused, glazed and hollowed, gazing past everyone present.
The major oddity in the room however seemed to be the unidentified girl sleeping on his students lap her head resting on his shoulder.
"AIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEE!"
The last member of his team chose to make her entrance with a blood-curling scream upon seeing the state her teammate was in.
"This mission couldn't get anymore complicated…." the seasoned jounin sighed warily rubbing his temples.
(Author's note)
Hope you liked it, got some ideas with where i'm going with this but i'm open to suggestion and feedback. It was an idea I submitted to actionliker a long time ago but i'm finally ready to write it. Feedback and reviews would be appreciated, parings recommendations will be taken into consideration. (No Yaoi) Also looking for a beta, updates might be a little slow because of course work so sorry in advance.