AN: So sorry for the false update last night! When I uploaded the chapter, I didn't realize that I lost part of my story when my computer crashed. My apologies, again, I tried to get this chapter up as fast as possible. The chapter is a tad shorter than I'd like, but I felt that it was a suitable place to end the chapter.
Naruto had long outgrown his unnatural fetish for orange. The sage, who was most certainly not obsessed with orange, peered into the mansion's closet that last belonged to the Yondaime; it was only rightfully returned to the son days before. He internally repeated his thoughts like a mantra. I'm not obsessed with orange. I'm not obsessed with orange… The blond flipped through the rack of clothes, noting that all of the garments had the Uzumaki crest emblazoned somewhere on them. Naruto grinned, he was always proud to be an Uzumaki.
Naruto mumbled to his self as he flicked through the attire, "White shirt? Nah, white's too bright, navy blue? Nope, don't want to look like all of the jounin. Pink…? No."
The mantra that was firmly locked into his mind came to a grinding halt when he came across a long, black sleeve shirt. The front was decorated with a large, orange Uzumaki swirl in the center. The inside was lined with thin, but durable, chain mail designed to block, or alleviate, the brunt of physical attacks. The excitable ninja couldn't stop from beaming at the shirt, it was perfect. Naruto let out a sigh. He couldn't lie to himself, he was most definitely obsessed with orange, no matter how much his friends tried to beat it out of him.
Naruto looked at the other clothes he laid out on his bed. On the left, he had pair of black ninja sandals, those were a given, he couldn't imagine wearing anything else. Next to those, he had a pair of khakis and a pair of black pants. He reluctantly put away the orange pants he had always worn. Sakura had always told him that he should wear more neutral colors, so the enemy ninja would have a harder time identifying him. Naruto had no doubt that he could avoid the enemy ninja, but he figured that he would have to make some compromises to mollify the fiery woman.
When his eyes reached the far right side of his large bed, he couldn't contain his smile. He had his blood red cloak that he had donned during his fight with Pein. It was made in a style similar to his father's, with black flames licking the bottom of the cloak and the word "guts" written on the back. After all, he was named after the main character in The Gutsy Ninja, andNaruto truly did believe that guts made a ninja. Naruto absolutely loved the bold cloak, as it gave him a chance to honor his father and Jiraiya.
Sporting his new, black shirt, khaki pants, and black ninja sandals, Naruto started packing for the mission Granny Tsunade had assigned him. Naruto sealed the remainder of his clothes, weapons, and other belongings into a scroll before placing it into the black pouch that was strapped onto one of his two belts. He had two black belts that hung around his waist. One was worn in the traditional fashion and had gravity seals that he had made imprinted along the sides. There were ten white kanji indented across his belt at even intervals, to an average person, they would appear to be a simple decoration. To a ninja, they wouldn't draw any attention unless the individual was familiar with fuuinjutsu. The second belt was only strapped on one side and hung diagonally across his waist. This belt had three pouches attached at the side to store his weapons, materials for fuuinjutsu, and other miscellaneous things.
Before exiting his mansion, Naruto examined his reflection in the mirror. He frowned as he ran his fingers through his hair, it was getting rather long. The hair in the back reached the bottom of his neck. In the front, his hair hung down the sides of his head to frame his angular face and his bangs grew to cover a portion of his black hitai-ate.
The hyperactive blond bounced out of his mansion and headed towards the Hokage's tower, he wanted to say bye to Granny Tsunade before he left for his mission. He reached the large window by her office and grinned, he knew that she'd detect him immediately.
Naruto was proven correct when Tsunade sharply swiveled to glare at him before narrowing her eyes and demanding, "Why can't you enter like a normal person?"
The boy gave a sheepish grin and held out his hands in a gesture to appease the woman. "Hey Granny Tsunade," he defended himself, "I just wanted to say bye one last time before I left." He gave the Hokage a wink, "You estimated that the mission would take a month, but just watch me! I'll finish it in a week!"
The Godaime Hokage hid a smile and teased the earnest boy, "There's no way you'll eliminate the band of ninjas in a mere week, even if you are one of the most capable ninjas in the village now. I'll wager that it will take you at least a month."
Naruto grinned and gave a mock huff of indignation before he gave her one last hug and departed the office. Tsunade smiled as she watched her favorite blond dart off to say goodbye to his other friends. In her mind, she had no doubt that Naruto couldn't complete his own challenge. She knew that it would take any typical Jōnin a month to complete the mission. Years ago, he had taught her how far guts and determination could take someone, and she would never forget that lesson.
Naruto departed the village, exiting through the imposing green doors. After a quick wave and smile to the two Chūnin on guard, the blond headed north towards the Land of Lightning to carry out his mission.
The group of depraved ninja was highly skilled according to the briefing he had been given. They were all ranked as A-Class Missing-nins in the bingo book, but Tsunade was confident that Naruto could hunt and take down the ten of them single handedly.
Naruto's smooth journey was suddenly interrupted when he tripped on a tree branch. Out of nowhere, the shadow clone extraordinaire heard a voice beg, "I'm right in front of you. Why can't you see me?"
Perplexed, Naruto hastily reoriented himself, and after a close examination of his surroundings, he continued to hop limb from limb towards the outskirts of the Land of Lightning. After that bizarre occurrence, Naruto's journey was rather uneventful.
The restless blond sighed as he set up camp for the night. He hated not having anyone to converse with, as it reminded him of the countless nights he had spent alone as a child. After he finished nailing in the last stake, he crawled into the olive green tent and slipped into his cozy sleeping bag.
Naruto found a comfortable position and began to fall asleep. Unfortunately, his soon-to-be peaceful sleep was interrupted by the same female voice he had heard earlier, "At this rate, I really will die."
Naruto grimaced, he knew for a fact that no one was near him. It was even more frustrating that he couldn't help someone that was obviously in trouble. The negative thoughts plagued his mind and kept him tossing and turning until he finally fell into an uncomfortable slumber before he heard one last plea, "Why me?"
Kurumu heard her heart shatter. She couldn't take it. She couldn't take watching her Destined One look at another girl with so much love. Love that he had never taken the time to show her. Kurumu clutched at her chest and did the only thing she could. She turned around and ran.
Her steps echoed against the pavement as she sprinted as far as she could from the heart wrenching scene. With every step, she found it harder to breathe, harder to keep running, and harder to hold in her tears. Not long after, the broken hearted succubus collapsed against one of the buildings in the dimension that Touhou Fuhai had created.
Kurumu's mind reeled and her body shook with tremors. She found herself gasping for breath, barely remaining conscious. Her mother was right; rejection from a loved one was a million times more painful than any physical blow.
What was she going to do? She couldn't think of anything that would make her body stop quivering or her head to stop pounding. She crumpled into a fetal position, subconsciously trying to minimize the pain that coursed throughout her body.
As she drifted in and out of consciousness, a million thoughts and questions flitted across her mind. Painful questions that she knew she would never be able to ask him.
No one ever said that doing the right thing was easy. With a heavy heart, she did the best thing she could, for both her and Tsukune. Kurumu Kurono gave up.
Naruto groaned as he woke up and rubbed his eyes. He didn't sleep well at all. He grumbled to himself, "Where are these bizarre voices coming from? And what was with that odd dream I had last night? With all that white fog, I couldn't make anything out."
The ninja directed his thoughts to Kurama, "What do you think? Do have any idea about what's going on? Or am I just going crazy?"
The fox let out a bark of laughter, "Of course you're crazy, kit." After receiving a glare from the blond, Kurama turned serious, "I actually don't know what's going on. I couldn't hear the voice, and I normally stay out of your dreams. I don't need to witness the crazy dreams that you teenagers have."
Naruto murmured, "Whatever, I guess that I'll just have to figure it out later. I just need to focus on my mission now!"
The toad sage speedily hopped across the trees and reached his destination within the hour. He created a dozen shadow clones to search the border for the band of rogue ninjas. In mere minutes Naruto was able to locate the ninjas using his clones' information.
Tsunade's intellect was off. There were only six ninja in the entire area. Naruto scowled, he was hoping that he would at least have a challenge, now that he wasn't working on rebuilding the village. The boy shrugged and said to himself, "Might as well finish this quickly and get back to the village!" before entering sage mode.
The ninjas were split into three uneven groups, no doubt planning to raid the village separately. Naruto flashed a grin and decided to take the lone ninja first. That way the lone ninja couldn't alert his friends and receive help from the other ninja
Naruto startled the enemy ninja by suddenly appearing in front of him with a smirk. The trained enemy ninja didn't show his surprise though, calmly flipping away from the blond and whipping out a kunai.
The blond showed the thief no mercy and created two rasengans, one in each hand, and lunged at his foe. The enemy ninja redirected Naruto's arms with a swipe of his kunai, avoiding the brunt of the boy's attack. The bandit grunted as one of Naruto's rasengans grazed his stomach, tearing his black garb and tan flesh.
The bandit, named Hiroki, clutched his stomach and examined his foe. The boy stood still with his arms crossed, calmly observing him with his strange toad-like eyes. Hiroki's eyes narrowed as he saw the boy produce a shadow clone. He watched with confusion as the clone began molding chakra into the boy's hand.
Hiroki quickly grabbed his hefty blade and swiftly appeared behind the blond, attempting to interrupt the indubitably deadly jutsu the blond was preparing. In one fluid motion he kneed the clone, effectively dispelling it, and made a wide, fierce slash at the boy's neck.
Naruto dropped forward, landing on both hands, and aimed a sharp kick at the man's stomach. Naruto grinned as he felt it connect and flipped away from the bandit, readying himself to fight him with Frog Kata rather than jutsus.
Hiroki coughed as he watched his blood hit the ground in front of him. How was this… teenager beating him? Hiroki smirked as he noticed his opponent was weaponless; this time he would be the one unscathed. He readied his blade and charged at the boy.
Naruto leapt into action and dodged the bandit's heavy swings. Naruto knew that one hit from the blade would probably lose him the battle, unfortunately for Hiroki, he was far too slow to keep up with Naruto's sage mode.
The ramen-loving ninja was disappointed. After his intense battle with Pein, all of his battles seemed boring. Effortlessly dodging another blow from the bandit, Naruto thought, "I guess missions aren't made to be fun."
Naruto turned serious, watching his opponent's eyes widen as his thrust hit his throat. With that, his adversary fell to the ground gasping for breath. "What… was… that? I… k-know I dodged it," he gasped.
Naruto offered a wry smile, "Frog Kata," he simply stated. Naruto leaned down close to his fallen enemy and held a kunai against the man's neck. The man looked at Naruto with cold eyes, not even attempting to resist. "The name's Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto whispered as he ended the man's life, "Don't you forget it."
Hiroki was obviously the leader of the group, as the other five went down easily. Naruto took out the other two groups with his varied rasengans. They never even saw him coming.
Naruto groaned, "How am I going to tell Granny that the A-rank mission was practically a joke? I can't come back to her within two days! Oh well," Naruto decided, "I guess I'll stake out the rest of the border and eliminate any other threats I come across."
The search yielded no results. The biggest threat he found was the lone squirrel that crossed his path. Naruto grumbled, "I suppose I'll just head back to Konoha. I wonder what Granny will say."
Naruto found the odd ripple in the air as he made his trip back through the barren forest. Falling through the dark sky, Naruto took note of the strange, unfamiliar surroundings. Landing safely on the floor, Naruto cautiously proceeded through the new area allowing his sharp senses to guide him to the voice that had been infiltrating his mind.
Kurumu regarded the blond with a frigid look, mentally preparing herself for battle. Unfortunately, she could not seem to halt her sobs, nor could she stop the quivers that coursed throughout her body. The palpable rejection of the person she loved the most, even though he never plainly stated it, was too much for her frail body to take.
The normally feisty succubus was completely and totally aware of her vulnerable position. She knew that a fight with the unannounced stranger would be hopeless in her current condition. She absolutely hated feeling weak, especially since she had trained so hard in an attempt to match the elegant Moka. Stifling her sobs, Kurumu continued to glower at the approaching man. There was no way she was going down without a fight.