Twisted Bonds

Chapter 2: Convergence within the Shadows

Hello and welcome back! There isn't much for me to say, this time around, but please do enjoy! The main pairing, as promised, is listed below, followed by the confirmed, significant side pairings. It does provide a mild spoiler, though, so skip the list if you're not interested.

On another note, the Disclaimer and the General Content Warnings have been changed, since the original posting of this Fic, so you may wish to reread them, if you haven't, already. They are there for a reason, after all.

Pairings:

Uzumaki NarutoXUzumaki NarikoXUchiha ShizukaXHyuuga Hinata

GaaraXTemariXNi'i Yugito

Momochi ZabuzaXTerumii Mei

Mitarashi AnkoXYuuhi Kurenai

Uzumaki KushinaXNagisa

The tale continues…

Eight years and two months after the Kyuubi's attack

Exact location unknown

Darkness… That was all she saw. Then again, being bound, gagged, blindfolded, and chucked into a burlap sack made that rather obvious. But, how did she get here? All that Shizuka could remember was coming home from the Ninja Academe. Yes, that was it! She had stayed after school to improve her skill in marksmanship. Shizuka found that throwing kunai had been rather easy, but the kunoichi-hopeful also found that she had a harder time getting the shuriken to hit their marks.

It took a few hours, but Shizuka finally had it down. Utterly ecstatic, the girl in question practically skipped home. But, when she reached the gates to the Uchiha Compound, Shizuka… sensed something wrong. It was like a feeling of impending doom that she just couldn't shake. Rushing in, against her better judgment, Shizuka saw something that made her freeze up, entirely—blood. All around the compound, everything was dyed a deep, nauseating crimson. Dozens of familiar bodies and dismembered portions littered the bloody dirt road, but what pulled Shizuka out of her shock and filled her with utter dread was the young man standing in the middle of it all. There was no mistake; the man covered in red and holding a dripping sword… the man in front of her was Shizuka's big brother, Itachi!

Then, the moment that she had made this realization, Shizuka felt a sharp pain at the base of her skull and her world went black… Tonight was just not her night, was it? First her brother was standing in a makeshift Uchiha graveyard, stabbing their uncle in the chest right in front of her, now some random jerk clubbed Shizuka upside the head and stuffed the hapless child into a potato sack! Needless to say, she didn't like it in there.

On top of that, why was Itachi killing their family? Shizuka had to confront him! She needed to try and understand what was happening! She needed to see who survived! She needed to get the hell out of this old bag, before it gave her a rash! With that in mind, Uchiha Shizuka, daughter of Uchiha Mikoto and Uchiha Fugaku and heiress of the Uchiha Clan did the only thing an entrapped eight-year-old could do—she let out a loud squeal and squirmed with all her might!

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Shizuka, another girl—another heiress, one might add—shared her plight.

Hyuuga Hinata had been awake for some time, now. Never before had the helpless, white-eyed six-year-old been so scared. She just wanted to go to bed, but then, the big man with a funny mask popped up out of nowhere and hit her!

Now, she was tied up, blindfolded, tossed into a big, scratchy bag… and claustrophobic. In other words, poor Hinata wanted to cry.

Finally, the last party involved in all this came in the form of five people that seemed to fly through the shadows of the dimly-lit streets. With the cover of darkness on their sides, these intruders were easily capable of avoiding the nightly patrols of Konoha.

Each person within this standard infiltration unit was garbed in black cargo pants, white combat boots, a variant black shirt, a white armored vest, and black gloves. A blank, porcelain mask was also worn on each face, signifying their place within Anbu—the Elite Special Forces' Units that served as the guardians, hunters, and black operatives of whatever Ninja Village they resided within.

The masks had no distinguishing features, being completely flat and bone-white in color. A pair of thin slits rested where their eyes would be—presumably so that they could see—and an amorphous crest that vaguely resembled clouds was carved into the plaster surface of each mask, symbolizing that these ninja were from Kumogakure no Sato, the Village Hidden within the Clouds.

The mission of this team was quite simple; use the chaos ensued by Itachi to kidnap the Hyuuga Clan Heiress, Hinata. As an added bonus, they had also used this same opportunity to grab the Uchiha Clan Heiress, Shizuka. Despite their previous luck, however, there was just one issue getting in their way: they were lost!

"Damn it, Fundo!" one man screamed, "This is no time for your sense of direction to kick in!"

"You shut up!" the indignant co-captain shot back. Being the only one worth mention, Fundo was a plum-haired, dark-skinned woman, and as her namesake implied, she was very angry, at the moment. Upon her snarl, the woman's subordinates got the message and kept their mouths shut.

On a side note, the four in question were all male. Some of them had light skin, some had dark, and each of them was either blonde or a redhead. These traits were rather common in Kaminari no Kuni, so that came as no surprise.

Snarling again, this time at her surroundings, Fundo looked to each side as her team moved on. They were headed south, into the slum district, and every damn thing here looked the same! Then, just as the five Kumo Anbu ducked into what felt like the hundredth alley, their leader heard a pair of sharp, yet subtle whistles. Looking to her left, Fundo saw the leader of the extraction team, Yoshi.

Giving the blonde, light-skinned man a nod, Fundo and her team converged with Yoshi's unit and sprinted further to the south, where their captain and the second extraction team were waiting. None of the foreign ninja ever noticed the blurred silhouette floating above them, watching since they had left the Hyuuga Compound.

The form in question was rather small—merely the height of an average child. Then again, size was not always everything. Just as the hidden observer spied the two Anbu teams bolting off, a pair of orange flashes sparked out from where its eyes would've been and the person faded from sight, entirely.

Meanwhile

Criminal Detention Facility Number Thirteen of Konohagakure no Sato

As a large drawbridge came crashing down with a bang, Shoki casually crossed over the prison's imposing pit of lava. While this particular facility didn't "normally" allow visitors, the ninja forces of Konoha were explicitly ordered by the Hokage, himself, not to get in this woman's way when she wanted something and to comply with whatever demands she had. Granted, this only applied to those that were within reason, but letting a strange woman (with some type of obvious leverage over their leader) pay a few "visits" to "chat" with some of the worst criminals in the history of Hi no Kuni was far from extreme.

While many among them would've gladly argued with such logic, it was their job to enforce the rules; not to make them. In other words, extortion really was quite fun.

Waltzing past the guards, knowing that they could not legally get in her way, the disguised fox demon continued on towards her destination—the holding cell where she would meet up with one Semimaru Reiko.

In a dark chamber, a white-haired woman with dark, mocha-colored skin and… one crimson eye lay upon her bed, trying to get some sleep. Her right eye—or what was left of it—was covered by a simple, black eye patch, having been lost a long time ago. Her skin was mostly pure and unblemished, only marred by a number of black, swirl-shaped, tribal-looking tattoos that covered a large portion of her torso and limbs, and her long, once-well-kept hair was becoming rather tangled, due to her four years of incarceration.

Her name was Semimaru Reiko. By the age of sixteen, she had already become one of the most infamous drug lords in the history of the continent. Starting at fourteen, she had killed the original lord of a bandit group in Tanzaku Gai and inherited his leadership over the future-yakuza gang by killing everyone that had opposed her. This effectively served to make her double as one of the youngest drug lords in history.

Two years later, Konoha had sent three full Anbu units to apprehend Reiko and her lackeys, only to find that she had completely eradicated the entire cartel, including the team of double agents that were inserted by the Uchiha Police Force. This mass murder and the chaos that it ensued had earned her the name "Genocide Reiko" and effectively destroyed the majority of the evidence that Konoha had built up over Reiko's two-year reign.

While they did have her on two-hundred-fifty-eight counts of murder in the first degree, there was just one glaring setback that had kept Reiko from receiving the only fitting punishment for such a heinous act—at the age of sixteen, she was too young to legally receive the death penalty in Hi no Kuni, regardless of her crimes. This would not have been a problem if she was a kunoichi, but as a civilian, she was still not legally considered an adult until the age of eighteen!

As infuriated as they were, the people of the court—and the Uchiha Clan—were forced to settle for a sentence of natural life in prison without the possibility of parole. This meant that Reiko was stuck here until the day she died.

It wasn't so bad at first, as all Reiko had ever sought in her life was a simple means to survive. Now, she had food, shelter, and the clothes on her back—all for free, one might add. But, as was often the case in prison, she longed to be free, again. She wanted to live her life in a home of her own, not a cage. She wanted to feel the sun on her face, again, to eat a well cooked meal that she didn't expect to crawl off of her plate, half the time, and, perhaps even to fall in love, some day.

Needless to say, none of that was ever going to happen here. Recently, however, a small glimmer of hope came to Reiko in the form of a woman that sought her help; a woman named Shoki.

Immediately after the name had crossed her mind, a loud clank caught her attention. The distinctive noise was one that Reiko had come to recognize as the sound of her cell door opening. Sure enough, a small team of prison guards was standing there, waiting to extract her.

Seeing that his charge was awake, the man directly in front of the cell spoke.

"Your friend is here to see you, now," he said. Reiko could hear the barb in the man's tone as he referred to Shoki. It was clear that he was not a particular fan of the orange-haired woman.

With a nod, Reiko stood up and approached the trio of men, not saying a word. Calmly accepting the shackles, the white-haired woman was led down the hall and into an empty cell that served make-shift visiting chamber. It was there that she would meet her guest.

Shoki waited patiently, sitting in a small chair as Reiko and her escorts entered. Once the white-haired woman sat down and made herself as comfortable as was possible, all things considered, everyone's favorite fox demon decided to break the proverbial ice.

"So," she chirped, "how's Hell?"

Reiko replied with an unamused scoff, "Devil's on holiday. Without him around, my eternal damnation is getting pretty dull." With that, Reiko gave an overly-dramatic yawn, eliciting a small chuckle from her soon-to-be savior. "Humor aside, what's new?"

"I'll soon be calling in a few favors from some new friends in high places," Shoki said, putting on a more serious face, "if I could legally get you out of here, what would you be willing to do for me?"

Reiko gave a long pause at that one. 'Is she serious?' After a moment of thought, though, she gave her answer, "It depends on what you mean by getting me out of here. If you meant that you'd give me back my freedom, then, hell, I'd be willing to give you grandchildren, if you asked me to."

Reiko was no stranger to the harsh whispers that were spoken behind the disguised vixen's back. While she didn't know what to believe, in some cases, she did know that Shoki had adopted the children of the last "official" member of the Uzumaki Clan. Then again, she didn't really need to know much, anyway.

Meanwhile, the guards were not at all pleased to hear the conversation, though they did not voice it. While they could do nothing at the moment, due to the Hokage's orders, they had to tell him of this. Perhaps he could stop this woman? Surely, he knew that Genocide Reiko was far too dangerous to let out!

With the ninja from Kumo

Back in the slum district, the Anbu squads pressed on, still unaware of their ghostly stalker. Perched atop an old, rickety, black building, the now-invisible boy waited for his prey to stop again. Once the two squads ducked into another alley, the boy lifted his hand before himself. Then, almost immediately, a small, blue flame erupted in front of his palm and condensed into a perfect sphere. Once it was complete, the little, blue ball then shot forth.

On the ground, Yoshi, apparently not living up to his name, was the first to go. In a blue flash, he was he was incinerated before he could even feel the pain and cremated in roughly the amount of time that it took to blink!

"Form ranks!" Fundo screamed. Unfortunately, her first reply came in the form of three more members of her team being reduced to piles of soot. What made it even worse was that each fireball came from a different direction!

Grabbing the pair of now-wriggling sacs from the men that had held them up to this point, Fundo stood in the center of the protective ring formation that her remaining comrades formed, preparing to bolt the instant that the opportunity showed itself. With their swords drawn, the remainder of the extraction and infiltration teams stood ready to defend their co-captain. Sadly, neither of them would get the chance they sought.

Their stalker had expected this reaction, and with his next attack, they would all be dead, just as swiftly as their allies before them. Raising his arm one last time, the boy prepared his final assault. Sensing his chakra flow, the ninja on the ground went into a frenzy. Their reflexes were not enough to save them, though, as when the boy gave a wave of his hand, there was an explosive swirl of blue fire that could be clearly seen from the Hokage Tower.

Meanwhile

Just outside the walls of Konoha, a loud blast and a plume of smoke made themselves known as cries of panic and outrage rang through the night. In the center of it all, a third team of Kumo Anbu fought desperately to defend their base camp.

Their opponent was the black silhouette of a two-tailed fox with glowing, flame-colored eyes that resembled a pair of smoldering coals. It was just as small as its ghostly comrade in the slums; the size of a mere child, but the sheer malice that it secreted was nearly tangible. What only made matters worse for the ninja squad and their two leaders was that this thing seemed to have brought friends, if the hail of flaming arrows was anything to go by.

'So it's true,' thought the captain, a man named Gashira, 'the Kyuubi really does have a new vessel.' The man in question was the only one present had any remotely distinguishing features.

More specifically, his mask—rather than being completely blank—was molded in the form of a demon's face, horns and all. It still had the cloud crest between the eyes, though, and marked him as not only a member of Kumo's most elite Special Forces, but also the leader of the currently-invading forces. In other words, it was a lot like having a dartboard plastered to his forehead.

His attire was also very unique amongst those of his comrades, being completely black in color and resembling a kabuki outfit. That, however, was of little importance, as the demon fox… thing that stood before the man in question was beginning to get impatient.

Snarling at the shocked ninja before her, the Youki-veiled intruder reared her head back and let loose a vicious roar. Being startled out of their own little stupors, two of the seven ninja leapt forward and engaged their assailant head-on as a third decided to be a wise-ass and attack her from a distance. As the demon fox dove into the ground like it was made of water, two of the attacking ninja were rewarded for their efforts with an arrow to the chest as the other felt something grab his ankle. Then, the man was immediately dragged down into a giant vortex of lava that gushed upwards from beneath his feet and, once its victim was swallowed whole, the swirling deathtrap was then sucked back into the earth like water down a drain.

Upon seeing such a nasty technique, the co-captain, a blue-haired woman named Aoi, tried to warn her superior to leave. That had to wait, though, as she spun around and the ground behind her shattered. A hot pain flared in her chest, just after she had used a Kawarimi to switch places with one of the corpses and avoid a claw swipe to the neck. The culprit behind the sharp sensation was a black arrow with a smoldering piece of hot coal applied to its head.

Yanking the offending projectile from between her lung and heart, the fair-skinned Anbu was not going down without a fight. With that in mind, she charged forth, yanking out her ninja-to and slashed at the two-tailed fox with a roar. Unfortunately, her target ducked back into the ground and two more arrows found home in her back.

As yet another Anbu was killed by the swirling lava technique, Aoi fell to her knees. "Captain," she screamed, "get the hell outta here! We've obviously been compromised!"

Gashira didn't have to be told twice; the instant that he was prompted to, he vanished in a flash of light, leaving only a few electric sparks in his wake.

She was all alone, now. The rest of her team had left with her captain and the archers had stopped firing. As far as she could tell, it was just Aoi and the beast. Taking her chances, hoping that another arrow wouldn't plant itself in her skull, the weary co-captain rose to her feet, wishing to at least die with dignity. Hearing a growl from behind, the blue-haired woman slowly faced her assailant. Removing her mask and going into a lowered grappling stance at a steady pace, her blue eyes met blazing orange.

Then, the black fox seemed to calm itself as it snarled at something in the trees.

Sensing a multitude of hidden figures taking their leave, Aoi took notice of a redheaded male pausing for a moment, before leading his friends away. 'He's tracing the Shunshin,' she mused, 'that doesn't bode well.' The fox-brat was the only thing that stood between the Anbu woman and an attempt to attack the young, shady-looking man.

Once the fox's "buddies" left, it started to snarl, again.

Seeing her opponent's obvious intent, Aoi scoffed. "So you want to deal with me yourself, do you? That's fine by me."

Soon after that was said, a green glow rose from the wounds in Aoi's back and the arrows buried in her were pushed out, the holes they had made closing up, soon after. Then, not once taking her eyes off of her opponent, the Kumo swords woman stretched her back, retrieved her weapon of choice—the ninja-to that she had dropped, not long ago—and spoke, again. "One way or another, this ends now."

After a brief silence, Shoki seemed to suddenly flinch and her expression darkened. 'My kits need me,' she thought. Regaining her composure, she stood and addressed Reiko, once again. "Well, I believe we're almost done, here. I just need one last question answered."

The red-eyed woman nodded and spoke. "Fine by me, fire away."

"This is an important one," Shoki warned, "answering wrong or dishonestly could very well make me change my mind in letting you free." Seeing Reiko's remaining eye widen, the fox knew that she got her point across. "Why did you kill your entire drug cartel?"

While she already knew the answer, Shoki wanted to hear it from the other woman's lips.

Reiko took a soothing breath, taking a moment to gather her thoughts. She knew by her tone that the orange-haired woman was deadly serious. Looking Shoki in the eye, she vividly recalled the day that the Ninja Forces of Konoha had arrested her.

"Well, first off," She explained, "my relations with them were strictly based on business. I didn't know any of them on a personal level, but I did know that I was being stabbed in the back…"

"…And so, you 'burned the haystack' to find the needles," Shoki finished in a questioning tone. Her expression, however, was unreadable.

Reiko visibly squirmed at her own words being used against her. She remembered saying just that, all too well. "In most cases, I'll admit. But, there were a few that I did trust and I had originally intended to spare them. Unfortunately, when I sensed the Anbu approaching, I knew that I was going to be caught, so I had to kill the rest and destroy the records. If Konoha knew what I was doing in other nations…"

"I know," Shoki cut in, speaking softly. "You would've been tried by their laws and sentenced to death." With one last look at the white haired woman, she walked off. "That's all I needed to know."

As she passed by the guards, the veiled demoness then addressed the leader of the team. "You can take her back to her cell, but if she is harmed in any way, I will find out, and I will make you all pay. Am I clear?" Seeing each of the men nod, she then smiled and began to fade away, like a lifting fog. "Good. Make sure to spread the word."

Unfortunately for Reiko, she didn't hear that last part, so it was understandable that her nervousness lead to very little sleep, that night.

Some unknown amount of time later

It was quiet; too quiet. The only sound that Shoki could detect was someone's shallow panting. Looking to her side, she could see that Naruto was worried, but rather calm. That put Shoki a bit more at ease, as if Nariko was harmed or in danger, then her brother would be having a fit. The twins always did have a powerful—though mysterious—link between them, so there was little to worry about, in the physical department. Still, first kills were never easy. If anything, the girl was likely scared out of her mind (among other things), so finding her was the mother vixen's very first priority, at the moment.

Nariko wasn't hard to find; she was the only living human in the area, after all (aside from Naruto, of course), and she was far too distressed to even consider hiding. The girl in question was sitting on the chest of a blue-haired woman, when Shoki found her. Tiny, trembling hands were still wrapped around the fresh corpse's windpipe, as Nariko stared into the set of glazed, blue eyes that stared back with a look of acceptance. It had seemed almost laughable that a ratty-looking, eight-year-old girl could possibly take on an elite, foreign kunoichi, but Nariko wasn't just any little girl; she was Shoki's little girl.

Approaching the quivering blonde, careful not to alarm her, the mother vixen pulled her kit into a warm, comforting embrace. Nariko didn't so much as blink, when Shoki draped an arm around her, but once she found herself in her guardian's hold, the blonde girl let loose a loud whimper, trying hard not to cry.

"It's okay," Shoki cooed, "let it out."

Spurred by her mother's words, Nariko did just that. A huge sob wracked her tiny frame as the guilt and self-loathing of killing another human being slowly poured out of her. It was no different when the orange-haired woman found Naruto, and she was glad; it proved that despite them being raised to think like demons, they had not become monsters. Even demons had morals, contrary to popular belief, but monsters did not, and the guilt that the twins felt was proof that they didn't lose their sense of right and wrong.

Despite the sadness in knowing that she'd have to leave, soon, Shoki felt comfort in the fact that her kits would make her proud, as they grew and developed. All she needed, now, was for someone to pick up where she left off, and the demonic woman knew the perfect candidates for the job.

With that, we have the end of Chapter Two. It is also my first attempt a writing any kind "combat" scene (though the term is used rather loosely, in this case), so if you have any advice, please do tell me what you have to say. I'm still learning, after all, so it goes without saying that learning from my mistakes is made immensely easier, when I can actually identify what I did wrong.

IMPORTANT!

In regards to Naruto and Nariko's little skirmishes with the Kumo Anbu, let me get this out, before you start badmouthing me about them being overpowered. Let's look at how they did it and start with Naruto, shall we?

Did he fight them directly? No, he concealed himself and attacked like a fucking ninja should; from the shadows! In causing them to panic and using it against them, Naruto fought like an assassin, not a fucking Super-Saiyan Fifty-and-a-fucking-half GOKU ON CRACK! I've seen Fics with a five-year-old Naruto beheading an elite, scary-assed Jounin in direct, close-range combat with his forefinger! Honestly, people, considering some of the utterly ridiculous shit I've seen on this site, be glad I'm avoiding it. I'll admit I'm probably skating on thin ice, with this one, but it could be a hell of a lot worse.

In Nariko's case, I took the more tactical approach of having her serve as a distraction with a few archers in the shadows, picking off the Anbu like Naruto did. While my chibi version everyone's favorite Ninja Centerfold did end up hafting to fight one directly (a co-captain, no less), Aoi knew she was fighting a midget. As such, she was, in fact, very susceptible to underestimating her opponent, especially since the extent of Nariko's skill was—and still is—unknown, for the most part. On top of that, I left the details of this clash to the imagination, so I could avoid any real Mary-Sue bullshit. If anything, I'm on thin ice with this fight, not Naruto's. To each their own, I guess…

On a lighter note, no, Hinata and Shizuka were not killed by Naruto's swirling vortex of doom. Considering the parameters of the second challenge and the main pairing, is that really much of a spoiler?

Right…

Two years after Naruto becomes Hokage, the ghost of Hinata approaches…

"You killed me when I was six," she said, "let's fuck!"

BULLSHIT! That is not happening!

Trivia: Anbu Identities and the Hyuuga/Kumo Fiasco

For the record, Gashira is the unnamed, presumably one-eyed Jounin that tried to kidnap Hinata, in canon. Apparently, Kishi, himself didn't even feel the need to name him, as he is listed on the profile site I use as Shinobi Gashira, which means something to the effect of "Shinobi Commander". Don't quite remember the exact meaning, mind you, but I do know that it was a rank, not a name. Also, I didn't really give enough of a shit to give him a name, myself, so I decided to be fucking lazy!

At the very least, I'm honest enough give you a heads up, when I feel the need to be a half-ass, so be happy about that, will ya? On another note, I make an effort not to be lazy, when it comes to something that's actually important.

As for the whole "Anbu teams being sent in to seize the brat and say 'rawr'" thing going on, here, well, I figured this was a much more convincing scenario than the one in canon (at least in my opinion). On top of that, it's part of the second challenge that I mentioned for Hinata and a Fem Uchiha (Shizuka) to be saved by Naruto. The details, fireballs, and aftermath of the boy's Predator-inspired ambush will be covered Chapter Three: A Vixen's Departure.

Actually-Named Anbu

Aoi—OC, Name Meaning: blue or green

Fundo—OC, Name Meaning: anger, frustration

Yoshi—OC, Name Meaning: lucky (actual Japanese name)

Hope you've enjoyed my writings, thus far! Next chapter, I'll be covering the sad conclusion to Shoki's visit. T_T

Until then!