Sleepless D: It's bloody hard trying to change a story enough so that it's not exactly the same as the last one.
It has been almost a week since Naruto's recovery, on the day of his recovery, there has been a search throughout the village when Sakura, Ino and a few people of the village regained conscious, all reporting that a couple of cloaked intruder were discovered, but it was too late. Naruto however changed a lot since he regained consciousness; he was no longer the cheerful smiling guy everyone knew. He was more serious, less talkative. Everyone thought he would be even more loud and arrogant since he stopped a war and brought Sasuke back, not himself personally but stopped him moving long enough to be captured; everyone was concerned, not at first since he yelled and complained that he had a splitting headache. But it went downhill from there, everyone talked to him whenever they got a chance to, hoping to find out what's wrong, but he only seems to talk to his teammate's occasionally and is sometimes seen smiling around Hinata.
Naruto and Hinata were both eating quietly at Ichiraku Ramen, until Hinata broke the silence and asked him something. "A-Are you alright N-Naruto-Kun?" Hinata asks, sounding very concerned for him not being the care free man she once knew.
"Yeah." Naruto replied, trying to give her a reassuring small smile.
"Are y-you s-sure? You h-haven't been yourself s-since you re-recovered from y-your c-coma." She asked, very concerned.
"I'm fine, really." He says, as he placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it, reassuringly.
'Naruto-Kun's touching my shoulder.' She said to herself, since she was still embarrassed whenever he touches her, she always seems to get hotter and get wet down 'there', and she quickly tries to calm down. "I-I h-hope s-so bec-because I-I'm-" Hinata began.
"Naruto, Hinata, We're needed at the Hokage's office." Kakashi appears behind, and startling the both of them.
Naruto looked slightly confused at Kakashi. "Ok...how late are we since you're always late." Naruto asks.
"I'm early actually." Kakashi says, making them both confused, since everyone knows Kakashi is never early.
"What's the big deal then?" Naruto asked, knowing something is up.
Kakashi sighed a little. "Lady Tsuande has threatened me that she'll permanently remove every Icha Icha series from the land of fire." He said, sounding depressed.
"Fair enough, let's go." Naruto said as he paid for the both of him and Hinata and quickly left for the Hokage.
'I'm worried about you, because I love you.' Hinata finished in her head. 'Why haven't you said anything about the time I told you that I love you? And why can't I bring it up? It like I'm twelve all over again.' Hinata says to herself. 'I really do love you Naruto-Kun.' She sighs.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxx
In the Hokage's tower, the three stood outside the Hokage's office and knocked. "Come in!" Tsunade called, the three entered to see all their friends and Yamato in her office, and three men in worn or damaged battle armour, two in his mid thirties. One had untidy brown hair, while the other one was very tall and had black hair tied back into a pony tail, and a very noticeable neck wound bandaged up. The third one looked no older than Naruto, and looked utterly petrified, though he looked very much like the guy with brown hair, but had shorter hair, none of them have ever see these people before. "Alright now that's everybody, we can begin, I know that you're all probably wondering who these men are." Gesturing to the men, and they all nodded. "Well, these men's names are Mamoru*." She points to the long brown haired man. "Takeshi*." Pointing at the black haired man. "And Noboru*." Now pointing at the scared guy. "Mamoru, is a famous head bounty hunter, and he's given us an S rank mission that's payment could keep the village running for half a year alone." At this everyone's eyes widened. "The mission is-"
"The mission is to protect and escort a highly dangerous psychopathic killer." The man named Mamoru finished her.
"How dangerous can this guy be? I mean 'you' guys captured him." Kiba stated, and a few people nodded.
"That's because that 'thing' was heavily wounded before we got to him, and by the location of where we found him, he may have got caught between both sides of the war whilst taking a nap." He answered; everyone was slightly confused at what he said. "Plus this 'thing' was a supposed dead S ranked criminal and has a bounty on his head that could keep my family going for several generations, not to mention the thing killed 56 of my men before capture."
"How many men did you have?" Sakura asked.
"93 skilled men and woman." Everyone's eyes widened again.
"So we're assigned to guard you from him then?" Yamato asks.
"Yes and no...He is part of a gang, that's been mistaken for dead for awhile now and they want him back."
"How many are we to expect to come rescue him?" Kakashi asks.
"At the minimum...two." Mamoru answers.
"And the maximum?" Kakashi asks.
"We're not sure; they have followers in every village."Takeshi tells them.
"Are you suggesting that any one of my people could be in league with the enemy and will fight for them?" Tsunade yells.
"You have no idea how powerful these men are, they say that the leader is an immortal as old as time itself." Noboru yells, sounding frightened.
"That's ridicules! Besides, this village has killed people that 'claim' to be immortal." Ino yells.
"Probably just a rumour."Mamoru reassures them.
"But that 'thing' is as powerful as any of the tailed beasts! Maybe more!" Noboru yells. "Who knows what his allies are like?"
"I don't care; lucky for us I have the Nine Tailed Fox in me." Naruto tells Noboru, grinning just like he used to do.
'Naruto-Kun, he's acting like the man I fell in love with again.' Hinata says in her head, smiling at him and gaining a smile back and put his arm around her. 'Naruto-Kun's put his arm around me!' She yelled inside her head, getting a nice feeling in-between her legs, and blushed when she felt a bit of dampness come from in-between her legs.
"Well that good, cause we'll need all the power we need." Takeshi says.
"So who is this tough guy?" Kiba yawns.
"The prisoner's name is Jackie of the Ikari** clan and he's been given the nickname War." Takeshi answers, making Hinata cross her eye brows, thinking that that sounded familiar.
"I've never heard of such a clan." Neji claimed.
"That's because they were all but wiped out of existence during the third Shinobi War." Mamoru claimed.
"War...interesting nickname, why was he given it?" Kakashi asks.
"Because wherever he goes, war comes!" Noboru cries.
"What's your problem?" Kiba yells, getting annoyed at the guy's behaviour.
"Don't mind my son, this is his first mission and it didn't go really well." Mamoru grins.
"This is his first mission?" Ino said surprised by what he said.
"Yeah." Mamoru simply says.
"Why would you give him such a mission in the first place?" Ino protested, gaining nods of agreement.
"It's a family business, my first mission I nearly literally piss myself, and Takeshi here actually pissed himself." Mamoru laughs and a few people looked at Takeshi.
"...Ok...what about the 'two' that you know are coming to rescue him? And what of their abilities?" Shikamaru asks, trying to change the subject.
"Those two...one is the current leader nicknamed Death, his real name is Dan...something."
At that Hinata's eyes widened in shock 'No...It must be a coincidence.' She thought to herself.
"Who was the previous leader?" Shikamaru asked, trying to get all the information on the enemy.
"That would be a man called Norio, said to be Dan's father, but don't worry, the man's long gone." Mamoru tells them.
"Very well then, what are this 'Dan' person's abilities that made him leader?" Neji asked.
"Dan's abilities are strange, from what information I gathered, whenever he makes skin on skin contact with people or animal, he gains their experience, their memory, their feelings and so on. It also violently tortures the person and if he holds on long enough, it kills you." Hinata started to panic, remembering when Dan touched Naruto's forehead he screamed in pain.
"The second man whose name we're not entirely sure about, but apparently calls himself S T D..." Takeshi says, and could tell some people wanted to laugh; Hinata at total panic mode tried her best to keep a calm face and listened. "His ability we are not sure about but apparently no one can touch the guy." Takeshi said, just realising what he had just said, could hear a few giggles. "Let me rephrase that, no one can hit the guy."
"What about the prisoner, Jackie Ikari? Just in case he escapes." Kakashi asks.
"If he does escape...put you can either put your head between your legs and kiss your ass's goodbye, or run away and hope for the best." Noboru yells at them.
"If you need to know his abilities, then you should know that he has unsurpassed taijutsu skills-" Takeshi began.
"Ha, then you haven't seen me and Guy sensei in battle!" Lee yells dramatically.
"Ok then...but his speed is beyond belief-"Takeshi starts.
"My beloved student Lee and I also have speed beyond belief, and Naruto's speed is perhaps faster than mine should me and Lee not use the Eight inner gates." Guy interrupts.
"Well...you may just hold out against him on that for a while. Visual Genjutsu doesn't work on him." Mamoru tells them.
"Why?" Sakura asked.
"He may have a visual Kekkei Genkai that makes him immune; we're not 100% sure." Mamoru stated.
"What does his Kekkei Genkai allow him to do?" Neji asks.
"It may be a Kekkei Genkai, or it could be an effect of the demon in him-"
"You didn't mention a demon involved!" Tsunade almost yelled.
"I'm paying you so much just to escort a prisoner just to be cashed in quickly, so I didn't think that it would matter." Mamoru told her.
"The demon in him gives him a boost on everything, and his Kekkei Genkai or whatever allows him to see in the dark***, but it's permanent, so light is his weakness. The prisoner also has expert aiming." Takeshi says.
"I also have an expert aiming." Tenten says.
"Fine, if you'll think you lot can take him, fine! The prisoner will be here in two days so prepare for the worst."Takeshi warns them before storming out of the office.
"Sorry about that, my brother gets a little emotional whenever he nearly dies." Mamoru says. "That 'thing' nearly tore out his throat, but he got lucky...Noboru." He yells.
"Yes father?" He asks, still sounding nervous.
"You're staying here until our group gets here." Mamoru tells him.
"Very well father." He replied, seeing his father leave.
"Alright everyone, get ready and rest up until they come back, I'll be preparing the other Shinobi to prepare for this." Tsunade ordered. "And Noboru, I want to have a chat with you." She said.
As everyone left the room, Naruto and Hinata walked together. "It is good to see that you're much better after your near death experience." Said a voice next to them, Naruto turned to see it was Sai who was talking to him, with Sakura walking next to him.
"It wasn't a near death experience." Sakura told him.
"Correct me if I'm wrong Sakura, but wasn't it you say that Naruto was perhaps brain-dea-" Sai was about to finish, but Sakura punched him, leaving him on the group, holding his cheek in pain.
"I don't know what he was talking about." Sakura stated as they walked along.
"I'm sure." Naruto was giving her an evil look, but had a grin a few seconds later, to show he was joking.
"But still, it's good to see you back to normal." Sakura smiles.
"Yeah...maybe I needed some excitement after being asleep for a week." Naruto smirks. "So what do you think about the mission?"
"Well...it sounds dangerous, but I'm sure they were just over exaggerating." Sakura tells him. "What about you Hinata...Hinata?"
But Hinata mind was elsewhere. 'Why did those two help us when they were going to rescue their companion from us? They said Naruto-Kun could stop War for a time, but they were the enemy, so why did they help us with Naruto-Kun? Should I tell the others?' she was asking herself.
"No." A voice came in her head.
'N-No? W-Who s-said that?' She started to panic and demanded.
"I am the voice of the contract that you made with, and I will only tell you this, do as I tell you, and if you tell anyone about them or the contract, yours and Naruto's life will be endangered." The voice warned.
'Contract? I didn't sign any...' She then remembered Dan taking her blood and saying something about a blood contract. 'Oh...so I can't talk to anyone about them?' she asked, but didn't get a response from the voice.
"Hinata?" Naruto shook her a little, bringing her back to the real world. "Oh good, we were getting a little worried about you." He said.
"W-What? S-Sorry, where y-you saying s-something?" Hinata blushed.
"Yeah, I asked what you thought of the mission." Sakura told her.
"Oh...i-it s-sounded dangerous." She simple said.
"So you don't think he was over exaggerating?" Sakura asks.
"You n-never kn-know...h-he could h-have been telling t-the t-truth." Hinata answered, walking on, leaving the other two confused at her behaviour.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
About a full day's journey away from Konohagakure, two certain cloaked guys were arguing with a third cloaked person in the centre of a small village. "You stupid nutter! I told you to find and inform with those that I was looking for them, and I specifically told you not to kill anybody!" Dan yelled, gesturing everywhere, showing massacred corpses everywhere.
"Yes! We only kill when we have no choice!" S T D agrees.
"Hey, some of these aren't my doing; those two wouldn't stop until they finished their last job before they'll join us. I just helped get rid of any witnesses, it ain't my fault that people come to investigate." The third one says in defence.
"You didn't even let the children live! You even killed the deaf blind war veteran" Dan yells.
"Just be glad I did it now when half the village went to sell their harvest." The cloaked person sighed, sitting down on the remains of a cart.
"Fine, fine, where are they?" Dan asks.
"In the tavern." The Third figure said, getting up and walked towards it.
"I'm sorry! Are we done with the issue now!" S T D yells, kicking at the closest corpse.
"What's done is done, now hurry up! We may have all the time in the world but we've got a deadline!" Dan tells him, entering the tavern.
"'sigh' Fine, do ya want me to get rid of the bodies?" S T D yelled.
"If you want!" Dan yelled back.
S T D closed his eyes, focusing on the remains of the bodies around him, brought his hand up, mumbled something and clicked his fingers, and a second later he coughed up a lot of blood. Breathing heavily, he looked around to see the bodies gone, other than the blood they left behind; he stood straight and quickly went into the tavern.
When he entered, he saw Dan sitting across the table from two men in their mid fifty's wearing purple kimonos and matching fedoras and a large wrapped up object attached to both their backs. And he saw his other companion stand guard next to a highly angry snake looking guy, that his boss captured a week and a half ago.
"Hello Norio, I see you have a new body." The older and larger one of the two said purple clothed men said.
"Good of you to notice Gon, at least you noticed." Dan smiled staring at the other.
"Now that is unfair, you know very well that Gin is blind." Gon says.
"Oh sorry, I forget every time." Dan laughs.
"Apology not accepted you bastard." Gin says.
"I was having an interesting conversation with your prisoner Kabuto; apparently he served Orochimaru and Sasori of the red sand for a time, did you know this Norio?" Gon asked.
"Please, call me Dan now, and I knew he served Orochimaru, that bastard still owes me for giving him immortality." Dan replies.
"I'm sorry to inform you but my former master, Lord Orochimaru is dead." Kabuto says.
"He isn't dead; he's alive somewhere and I can't find the bastard, if he died then I would know." Dan tells him, making Kabuto's eyes widen in slight fear. "Now back to business, I need you two to help me recapture War."
"Ah, so he's alive? Where has he been all this time?" Gon asks.
"We're not sure, but he's twice as powerful now then he was then, from what I gathered, it was because of his body of choice." Dan says.
"So who did he choose?" Gin asked, sounding interested.
"Over two decades ago he chose an unborn child of a woman in the Ikari clan." Dan says miserably, making Gin and Gon eyes widened in shock.
"That wasn't a wise decision." Gon mumbles.
"What's the big deal? I've never heard of the Ikari clan." Kabuto says.
"That's because they were nearly wiped out during the Third Shinobi war, because of their power." Gon tells him.
"And what is their 'power'?" Kabuto asks in interest.
"They could breed warriors with demons in them that allowed them to fight head to head with a Kage before they hit their teens." Dan answers him.
"If they were that powerful, how were they wiped out?" Kabuto asked.
"They may have had power, but they lacked numbers, if you singled them out and with a large enough force they could be dealt with. It also helped that they weren't allied with anyone, they were enemies with everyone and it didn't help them during wars, but War still was stupid to go for one of them." Dan says.
"Why?" Kabuto asked.
"Because he already has a demon of mass destruction in him, and that one alone is what some people would call the apocalypse." Dan tells him.
"So you're telling me that this man now has two demons in him?" Kabuto laughs. "That's impossible; no human can have two demons in him."
"That's the thing...War is perhaps more animal then man now." Dan answers him. "So, will you work with me?" Dan asks Gin and Gon.
"We have been friends since you saved both me and my brother's lives during the Second Shinobi War...We will always be there, where is War located?" Gon asks.
"He'll be in Konohagakure in two days, that's why I chose you to come along." Dan smirks.
"Good, you still know we want vengeance against Tsunade." Gon says happily.
* If you wanted to know, the names meaning, Mamoru it means 'Protector' In Japanese. Takeshi means 'Warrior'. And Noboru means 'Ascend'.
** Ikari means 'Fury' or 'anger' in Japanese.
*** I may have taken that from somewhere.
Sleepless D: I hope this is ok; I tried my best to change this scene as much as possible so that it isn't a copy and paste from the last one and I added a bit more stuff to it.