Arc One: The Fall
Chapter One: Blood is in the Air Tonight
Naruto woke up with a start, "What the heck is that?" Naruto yelled popping up from his spot on top of a box only to hit his head on the roof of the trailer with a bang. Naruto grabbed the top of his head and proceed to rub the pain away. That was when he finally noticed he was surrounded by pitch black. He had no idea where he was at the moment. He knew he had fallen asleep in the... trailer.
"Ahh shit." he groaned realizing where he was. 'I'm still in the trailer aren't I?' he asked himself rhetorically. He knew damn well he was in the very same trailer he had fallen asleep in. He could tell by the boxes he was sitting on. Well it would seem he was going to have to break out of the wall of boxes before him to get out of the trailer. Hopefully he hadn't been asleep very long- the trailer shifted as one of the wheels ran over a bump in the road. His eyes widened as he knew now that not only was he trapped in the package wall, the trailer was completely loaded and well on its way to its destination. Capital City, the seat of the Empire. A place that he was forbidden to go to by the elders in the council, and his parents, the Hokage and Uzukage. It was all for a good reason too. If the Empire had gotten their hands on him they would use him against his family and country. He would be a hostage and the Empire would have what they needed to bring Uzu to their knees.
You see if Naruto was just a prince, his father would most likely do what any good and caring leader would do, leave him. As sad as that sounded, it was the only thing that he could do to insure that Uzushiogakure stayed safe. He could not risk the nation's safety to save one person, regardless of who it was. That would have been the case, if he wasn't a Bijuu holder. Anyone with that title was way too important to let the Empire get there hands on. It was a good thing that Naruto was faceless to the Empire. They had no idea what the prince, himself, looked like which was a blessing at the moment. They also didn't know what any of the bijuu holders looked like either. Each Bijuu holder wore a mask of their respective bijuu. Naruto was fox or otherwise known to his enemies, Black Fox. That name was given to him because his mask was black. He had also put an orange human hand print over the masks right eye for decorative purposes.
Sure he could easily break out of the trailer, but there were problems with that idea however. Like the fact that the Empire would complain that some of their equipment was damaged, broken, and missing. Though that may sound like a small thing to worry about, but the Empire was just looking for an excuse to start trouble. The other problem was that if he tapped into his power, anyone in the surrounding area would know of him, and by surrounding area, we're talking about a twenty-seven mile radius. If he was anywhere near the capital or god forbid in the capital itself…'It would be the worst thing to possibly happen in the last twenty years.' he thought bitterly at the situation he was in. So that left him with one option. An option he disliked because he didn't want to wait for him to reach the plant in the capital, and then have the people unload the trailer to find him sitting there annoyed. He hated sitting in one place for too long, it was boring and uninteresting. That and the dumb as questions they'll ask him too.
Naruto sighed in displeasure before glaring at nothing "Ugh, this is going to take forever." Naruto moaned throwing his hands into the air and accidentally hitting one of the package behind him. That action had the reaction of one of the boxes shifting and falling from the package wall. It just so happened to be a 'lock in package'. For anyone who doesn't know what that is, a 'lock in package' is a package that goes usually to the right of the package wall and keeps the boxes in that level of the wall tight and locked into it. Since that packed had fallen it cause Naruto to turned his head at where he had heard the sound of the box landing. "What was that?" the boy questioned and squinted his eyes to try and see the what had fallen to no avail because of the lack of light in the trailer.
Then like a tidal wave, the boxes started to fall towards Naruto. Naruto's eyes widened as heard the shifting of the wall and knew what was happening, though sadly, there was nowhere to escape the falling packages coming to bury him. Naruto covered his head with his arms and hands and braces himself for the onslaught of boxes. "Crap-" the blond managed to say before the horde of boxes were upon him. Naruto was knocked out cold by a seventy pound package landing on his head. Naruto was covered by an avalanche of brown cardboard and metal boxes. His luck just seemed to be fantastic today.
(X)
Naruto's eyes fluttered open as he felt the weight on top of him move and hurriedly being thrown off of him. He could also hear voices. Naruto shook his head in order to clear his vision. Once it was clear enough to stop seeing stars and the outlines of what appeared to be two people. One was a male that was kneeling before him examining him, most likely looking for injuries. He was wearing what had appeared to be what a supervisor wore, much like Kasey but without the leather jacket. The man has light brown hair and green eyes with a mustache and was rather tall. He had his eyebrow raised at him, he was obviously curious.
The second was a female wearing an almost similar outfit like his except instead of wearing sweatpants she had on grey shorts with black gloves and brown boots with long black socks. She had on a pair of green circular glasses. She had a worried look on her narrow face. The girl has grey eyes with a bluish hue around her pupils, and short bobbed black hair. She was rather skinny and tall. Which made it all the more odd seeing someone like her working at a company like OPS. Normally females didn't work at OPS, you could probably guess why. The ones who did were a lot stronger then the ones that didn't. It was rough a job after all.
"Why hello there…" the man started and trailed off, silently asking for the male in front of him his name.
"Naruto, my name is Naruto." the teen said rubbing his head for the second time to day. "Where am I?" Naruto questioned the the male.
The man grunted, "You are at the Capital City Hub," the male informed the blond before standing up and crossing his arms, "So Mr. Naruto, care to explain why you are in this trailer?" he finished hardening his gaze which did little to affect Naruto. He had Kushina Uzumaki as his mother, no male could hope to match up to one of her glares. That made the blond shudder at the thought, he would receive one of those looks when he got back home. God help him. The male coughed seeing the blonde stare off into space.
"Sorry," Naruto apologized and scratched the back of his neck sheepishly, "I kinda fell asleep behind a package wall, and I guess someone locked me in the trailer." Naruto laughed embarrassedly. This whole situation was making him look like an idiot and a slacker. The girl behind the man seemed amused by his answer and giggled. The male didn't seem to share her amusement but rather rubbed his chin in thought. He was mulling over the blond's answer.
"That would explain everything," the man determined out loud, "Then the trailer hit a bump in the road which caused the box wall to fall." He summarized.
Naruto knew something else had happened but decided not to correct the man, "Uh, yeah...let's go with that." He agreed with his cheeks turning a light pink from embarrassment because of being the cause and the sole reason that the box wall to fall on himself.
His response caused the man's eyes to narrow as he looked at the blond. The girl with the glasses turned away from him with a smile on her lips. It seemed she figured out that something else had happened, that or he was too afraid or too embarrassed to say what really happened. She was quite observant. "Right," the man said easing up a bit, "I'm Misto Baskic, the supervisor of the 12. Behind me is Ami, she is the unloader that found you." he told Naruto.
"Thanks," Naruto grinned at the girl gratefully, said girl looked away from the blond with a light blush on her face at his smile. Naruto turned his head to the man, "It nice to meet you two. Now," Naruto stood up from his spot on the boxes and started to stretch before the pair, "It's been a long day for me and I have a long walk back home."
"I would say so," the man agreed, "coming from Cambridge after all." he said knowingly.
Naruto blinked and tilted his head at the man, 'Cambridge? What the hell is this guy on?' "Cambridge?" Naruto questioned confusedly by the place the man had said. This trailer was from Uzushiogakure, not Cambridge. He knew that as a fact. He was the loader for this trailer in Uzushiogakure. So that left the question, why the hell did the man say Cambridge?
The man became muddled by the blonds questioning tone and look, "Yes Cambridge." The man restated, "This dock takes in all arrival trailers from Cambridge, thus my reasoning you are from Cambridge."
Naruto looked at the man like he was an idiot, "This trailer is from Uzushiogakure," Naruto waved the man off but then saw the shocked looks from the pair. The girl put both of her hands to her mouth as she gasped, the man looked stunned, "This is from Uzushiogakure, right?" he questioned, now unsure of where it was from. He had never heard of one of the trailers stopping before they got to their destination. OPS was very specific about that crap. They had too many useless rules that didn't make sense, well to anyone who wasn't in the corporate side of OPS. Stupid paper pushers. They really didn't know how run their own company!
"That is not possible…" the girl spoke up for the first time looking at the Misto with fear. Misto broke out of his shock and got in front of the girl protectively. Naruto's danger senses were screaming at him. Something wasn't right about the way they were acting. He knew very well that the two places never really got along, but their reaction to the usage of the name of Uzushiogakure made it seem that they had been enemies rather than allies for the last twenty something years. "You're not from Uzushiogakure...are you?" she asked fearfully backing away from Naruto.
Naruto had no idea what was going on at the moment but decided that honesty was the best policy, "Yes?" His answer caused the two's eyes to widened at his statement. Naruto knew at that very moment, he had fucked up big time. Well that was the last time he will ever use that saying again! Honestly was the best policy his ass!
"He's an enemy of the state! Ami get security now!" the man beckoned of her in a hurried tone. She quickly turned on her heels and went to run and get the security force. Naruto pulled out a kunai from his deep pocket and threw it at the man. Naruto had chosen the male for the sole reason that the girl would be easier to get information out of rather than the male. The girl appeared to be shy while the man seemed more reserved.
The man had no military training or experience as a fighter so he fell quickly to the projectile. The kunai sunk deep into the man's neck as blood poured out from the wound, though that didn't matter. The man was dead and the girl was making a break for the exit. He could not let her get away or he was a dead man. In a burst of speed that made his father famous he appeared before the girl, much to her horror. She let out a shriek of terror at seeing him in front of her.
Naruto lashed out at the girl with a kick that sent her flying backwards past the dead body of Misto that was now laying in a pool of its own blood. She smashed right into a row boxes and was covered by them as they fell on top of her. Naruto quickly slammed the doors closed and locked the doors from the inside. Leaving him, the dead body, and Ami locked in the trailer. If she wanted to get out of the trailer, she was going to have to get past him, and from the looks of it she wasn't a fighter. She had no chance of escaping. Naruto was going to get answers, something big had happened by their reaction, something that was very important that he need to know. Something that had to do with Uzushiogakure, his home.
The man had declared him an enemy of the state which only meant that the Empire saw someone from Uzu as an enemy.
Had the Empire attacked Uzu? Or had his mother finally talked his father into fighting against them and help the Revolutionary Army? Whatever the reason was, he was going to find out what the heck was going on.
Naruto heard the girl scream from behind him. He turned his head to look at her and saw she was looking at the dead body on the floor of the trailer. "I wouldn't scream again," he warned her getting her attention, her eyes were wide and fearful as they lock with his, "These trailers from Uzushiogakure are sound proof, no one will hear you scream." The girl froze like a statue at his words. Then he realized just how dark what he had said sounded, and waved his hand defensively, "Not like I'm going to do anything that would cause you to scream! I just need answ-"
Naruto was cut off by the girl who started crying, she was completely terrified by what she was seeing. Naruto's mouth dropped as he looked around for something to stop the girl from crying, "Wait don't, don't cry!" Naruto started walking closer to the girl, which he found out was a mistake. She only cried louder as he came closer to the girl. Naruto knew he didn't have much time before someone found the closed door trailer, so he was pressed with time, playing the nice guy card wasn't going to get him anywhere. So he steeled himself and strolled up to the girl with purpose, even against her protests and screams to not kill her. Naruto pick up the fearful girl who tried to scream and struggle her way out of his grasp, "I need answers, and I need them 'now'." he emphasize now to show his seriousness.
"Please don't kill me." she pleaded stuttering over each word as tears rolled down her cheeks. Naruto didn't like what he was doing. He was a nice guy by nature but this had to be done.
"Then answer my questions," she nodded rapidly so he started, "First question, what day is it?" he interrogated.
"March 12, 1024!" she answered hurriedly with tears falling from her eyes.
Naruto's eyes widened, "What?! I've been in that trailer for six days?!" The blond practically shouted at her, he couldn't believe that he was knocked out that long by a fucking box! His voice rising caused the girl to close her eyes and look away from him. Her motion showed that she was used to being hit. That made Naruto feel worse about what he was doing. It seemed that she was abused at some point.
"Second question, where in capital city are we?" he asked not losing the tone of voice he had chosen.
"We're in the Northern district closest to the castle." she answered his question as she weeped. Naruto grit his teeth, he was very far from home indeed, and most likely the deepest you could be in enemy territory. Fantastic.
Naruto pulled Ami closer to himself, an action that made her even more fearful, "What of Uzushiogakure?" he demanded of her heatedly. The girl started to shake at the look he was giving her. She was so scared she couldn't speak. She knew very well he would not like the answer she would have to give him. "Answer me!" He yelled shaking her.
"Their gone!" she wailed completely horrified about him snapping on her. She knew he was going to killing her in a fit of rage. Especially so when he found out the truth.
Naruto narrowed his eyes at her not completely understanding what she had meant, "What do you mean by 'their gone'?" he hissed.
"They were completely wiped out by the Empire!" she screamed at him. At that very moment, Naruto's world had been rocked and shattered. He was thunderstruck.
Naruto dropped the girl as he stepped back from her. He was not prepared for that answer. He had not expected for his country to be completely wiped out. He had only been out for six days...how could Uzushiogakure fall so fast? It didn't make sense. 'This is a dream, right? This can't be real.' the blond thought sadly trying his best not break down. Right now he didn't have all the facts of what had happened, so he would have to piece it together as best he could and find out more.
Ami landed on her rear end on the cold, wet floor of the trailer. She had landed in some kind of liquid. Her eyes trailed downwards and saw the dark red color of blood she was sitting in. The blood from Misto had inched its way all the way over to them. It had splatter against her legs, her lower back, hands, and arms when she fell into it. Seeing herself covered in her boss's blood made her sick to her stomach. She threw up knowing she was covered in blood and that she was possibly next on the chopping block.
Naruto was using the wall of the trailer as support keep himself upright, 'Okay let's do this…' he thought as he began to brainstorm, 'I know I have been in this trailer for six days... so that would mean the Empire would have attacked on the... seventh.' Naruto's watery eyes widened as he realized what day that was before he clenched his teeth and closed his eyes, "The festival of Uzu…" he whispered darkly to himself. They had attacked when almost the entire nation was celebrating. It was a great plan catching the enemy napping, especially one that believed they were in a time of peace with the nation that would attack them. It was a great plan, if you were on the attacking side that is. That and since he was not there to help out in the fight, they would be at a severe disadvantage. 'Yes but even then it would take more than four days to take down Uzu, so what happened?'
Naruto tossed a glare at the girl that was now throwing up on the floor, 'She wouldn't know anything about the military matters, though she might know something about what happened at Uzushio.' "Ami…" he called to her but she didn't respond to him and proceed to upchuck once again. Naruto frowned at her, "Don't make me say your name again." he warned in a less than serious tone. God he felt like an ass. She turned to look at him weakly. She was covered in blood and her own bodily fluids, seeing this, Naruto walked towards her, picked her up out of the mess and sat her down on a couple of boxes. "Is there anything, anything at all you can tell me about Uzushiogakure?" he asked softly. The girl couldn't take much more mental stress by the looks of her. She looked ready to pass out in fact.
Ami had reasoned to herself, that the more helpful she was, the less the man would want to kill her. So she would continue to answer his questions as best as she could, "The Empire wiped out most of Uzushiogakure within four days," she said weakly and hiccuped a couple of times as she spoke to him, "The rest of the fleeing people from the nation are being rounded up by the Empire and the Revolutionary Army. All citizens loyal to the Empire are supposed to turn in anyone from Uzu to the authorities as soon as they are discovered or they will become an accomplice and trialed the same, execution." Ami finished by taking her glasses off and wiping her eyes of tears, but more seem to follow after.
Naruto's hands had tightened so much that his knuckles were white and his nails were digging into his skin drawing blood. Oh how he hated the Empire more and more as Ami talked to him. They were hunting his people to the brink of extinction, while the Revolutionary Army was most likely trying to save as many people as they could while getting new recruits for their cause.
Naruto growled at the thought of his people being rounded up by both parties, one for death, and the other to help fight in a hopeless war. So death no matter who had picked them up! There wasn't much he could do at the moment to help his people either. He was stuck behind enemy lines, and unless he wanted to be discovered and killed which would make his people despair more so than they already were, then he might as well not try something. This all happened because had fallen asleep in a fucking OPS trailer. The gods must love him.
Naruto looked at the black haired girl. Nevertheless about what he felt and thought at the moment, the girl in front of him was most helpful and had given him the answers he had wanted without incident, so for that he was grateful. He bowed to her, "Thank you for your answers," Ami was stunned to see someone who had just killed someone right before her, someone she had feared was going to kill her, bow to her. It made the whole situation feel...odd. Maybe he wasn't going to kill her? So her helpfulness had saved her?
"I apologize that this ended the way it did." He said sadly gesturing to Misto, "You forget a thousand things daily, make sure this is one of them." he quoted not knowing from where either. She tilted her head at the male not seeing that coming but quickly found sleep as he hit her in the back of the neck knocking her out cold. Naruto sighed to himself as he laid her down. Well he was in the Empire's territory now.
Naruto walked to the body of the man he had killed and knelt down to his level. He sighed regretfully at taking the life of a civilian. He reached down and pulled out the kunai that was buried into the man's neck. He cleaned the weapon with the back of the man's shirt that wasn't bloody and pocketed the weapon. Afterall, the kunai would be a dead giveaway that someone from Uzushiogakure had breached their borders and was among them. Only people from Uzu used them and were efficient enough to make them deadly.
Naruto would also have to get a new get up as well. The back of his shirt had the name Uzumaki on the back for lord's sakes! He would have to find/steal a jacket. Naruto gave one more glance at the girl before opening the trailer. He poked his head out of the doors to make sure no one was around. Hopefully Naruto hadn't been discovered by the night sort team, if not he would have a lot less problems. Night sort was the time between ten PM to three AM. Not many people worked during night sort, only a select few so he might be able to sneak away unnoticed.
Naruto thanked god that he was lucky enough to have not been discovered by night sort, because no one was in the general area. Naruto hopped out of the trailer and went for the supervisor's desk, because at all OPS, the coat rack was always next to the supervisor's desk. Naruto was happy to see that jackets were hanging on the rack. He took a black one and quickly threw it on. It was a little big, but nothing that would make him stick out. Naruto put his hands into his pockets and causally walked out of the OPS building.
He was glad that the company was still around and not completely destroyed. OPS was a company that had started in Uzushiogakure, but the main headquarters was located here in Capital City. That was thanks to the Empire by making a large financial deal with OPS. The current Prime Minister of the Empire, really liked their services. Naruto couldn't help but be amazed by the sight of the capital. It was huge and looked beautiful. Well the part he was in anyway. The castle or capital building was massive, and awe-striking. He couldn't tell what it looked like completely because of night-time sky. Sure this was his first time outside of Uzushio as civilian, but he couldn't be happy. This place, after all, was the cause of his home's destruction.
The first thing he had to do at the moment was find out as much as he can about the attack. He was most likely heading to a bar, to listen in on the soldiers of the Empire. He then had to find a place to stay. Thankfully both the Empire and Uzushio used the same currency. He also had to change his last name and find some new clothes, having his last name on the back of his awesome orange shirt, was not going to help him at all. Naruto walked down one of the many streets of the Capital City looking for a den of lions that had attacked his home. It was information gathering time.
Thankfully he had some skill in this field thanks to his godfather, Jiraiya. Thinking more about his godfather made him think about everybody else. He sure hoped that his friends were okay and they made it out of the city. He had already lost enough by the sounds of things. What Ami had told him was enough to send him to his knees with despair and anger, but he was strong and had an unbreakable will. He would have faith that everything would work out. Maybe this attack wasn't really over and was only propaganda to make the citizens believe that their Empire was stronger than Uzushio. That had happened many times in war. He didn't really have much to go on, but he would soon find out the truth. How good or bad it really was.
One thing was for sure though, Naruto Uzumaki was in a hostile state surrounded by the enemy. He had better watch his back while he was here, who knows what this place had in store for him. Hopefully, there wouldn't be anymore bloodshed tonight.
(A/N: Alright another chapter updated. I wonder if I can them all done before I can go to work? Probably not.)
