A/N: Ah fanfiction….. This chapter did not go the way I wanted it to at all. But I just went with the flow. The italics are Naruto's thoughts.
Iruka's disclaimer: Okay so Kai-sensei has not done a disclaimer yet so I'll do it for her before she gets in trouble…. Kkins does not own any of the Naruto characters that appear in this fanfiction, but she does own the OC's and a time turner.
Kkins: n/n thanks Ruru-chan…
Iruka: Where did you hear that?
Kkins: n/n *giggles*
Iruka: That's it your forbidden to talk to Kashi.
Kakashi: I didn't know we were on nicknames with out formalities now Ruru.
Kkins: *giggles like a maniac and falls off seat.* I like it when mummy and daddy fight.
Iruka: Okay Kkins your grounded. No fanfiction. And Kakashi sensei don't talk to me or her.
Kakashi: Ruru your words cut me deeply.
Kkins: But but… Mummy I'll never survive.
Iruka: You should've thought of that before. And don't call me that it's kinda creepy.. O_O
Everyone had gathered at the gate to leave for their mission. Some still partly asleep, squinting in the breaking sun light. Others were hyper and raring to go and there was some that just couldn't care less one way or the other. Kotetsu and Izumo were on early morning guard duty. Kotetsu had his head on the desk and light snores were emanating from his hunched over body. Izumo was fighting to keep his eyes open as well. Sakura swaggered over to them and slammed her hands down on the desk almost breaking it. Kotetsu's head shot up and Izumo's chair fell backwards leaving his legs sprawling in the air and Kotetsu scrambling to help him up. Aoi was sleeping on Yamato's shoulder snoring in his ear. Kotori was standing day-dreaming beside Kakashi, Himeko was curled up with Kiba and Akamaru on the ground, Tsukiko was standing with a blank look on her face and Hotaru was talking over the plan with the other members of the team who weren't other wise occupied with sleep states. Naruto went over to wake Aoi up, he started shaking her violently until Yamato stopped him abruptly.
"Naruto are you trying to get us all killed?" He demanded. Naruto looked really confused and shook his head. "If you wake her too suddenly, she'll wake up as Black Aoi and it's a lot worse when in the sleep state. She becomes a better fighter." Yamato did that creepy face that Naruto hated. Naruto recoiled away from Yamato as far as possible. She must be like Lee when he's drunk…. Naruto walked over to Tsukiko and put an arm round her, she immediately stiffened to his touch.
" Good morninnnggg…" Naruto slurred, she turned around un-amused.
"Yeah? What's so good about it?" Tsukiko replied coldly and stalked away. What a bitch!... Naruto thought to himself. He just stood there waiting for something. Then he realised there was a lot more people here than originally he expected. Hotaru was standing talking to Shikamaru and looked like they were discussing battle plans and Ino was trying to talk to Tsukiko but failing. Tsunade and Shizune appeared some time later.
"Right are you ready to go?" Tsunade commanded. Everyone stood in line, sort of. Himeko was scrambling off the ground with Kiba, Yamato was holding Aoi steady as she sleepily rubbed her eyes. It didn't look as though Kakashi or Kotori had moved. Tsukiko was looking very awkward between Ino and Sakura and Hotaru, Shikamaru and Sai strolled forward from where they were standing.
"Yes ma'am we are ready to go." Hotaru replied calmly.
"Good. Now people remember what I said." She looked at Naruto "Don't do anything Hotaru doesn't tell you to do." She said rather sternly. Naruto gave an un-amused groan. They started heading out the gate waving at Kotetsu and Izumo, the people that weren't going and the village in general. They knew this was a dangerous mission.
It was being to get dark, the teams had been travelling all day. They got to the edge of Tenchi forest the place where the rouges were supposedly based. Hotaru called everyone in.
"Right guys we're here. We're going to do some tracking and once we have an idea of where the ninjas are then we'll make camp for the night." She said
"WHAT?" Naruto disapproved. "If we know where they are why don't we just attack them?"
"Naruto. We are no good tired and we can't just charge in there we'll be slaughtered. We need to find out what we're up against." Himeko dropped in sounding serious and scarily like Shikamaru.
"Exactly." Hotaru backed up her team mate. "Kakashi we'll need your nin-ken."
"Right." Kakashi started making the summoning hand signs and a puff of smoke appeared.
"Aoi you too please." Aoi made the hand signs and the smoke dispatched soon after. A large white wolf with grey tips on the end of it's tail and ears stood next to Aoi. She smiled down at him and scratched his ears.
"Woah! I didn't know you could summon a dog!" Naruto looked on in amazement.
"Hey boss who's the brat? And can I eat him" The wolf spoke to Aoi in a gruff and growly voice and raised his big green eyes to meet hers.
"Afraid not Huyu. We'll probably need him at some point." Aoi chuckled towards the beast.
"Fine, but can I at least maim him." He looked at Aoi his eyes full of hope. Aoi just laughed, at this point Naruto was hiding behind Yamato using him as a shield with a terrified look on his face.
"It's alright Naruto. Just remember he's a wolf okay?" Aoi said in a re-assuring voice. She walked over to Naruto and patted him on the back, smiling.
"Kakashi? Aoi? You two head out and we'll be here waiting for your return." Kakashi and Aoi nodded at Himeko and shot off in opposite directions with their summons right behind them.
It was well into the night before the tracking team came back to camp. Kakashi and Aoi both landed at the same time at either end of camp. Aoi started laughing because of how perfect both their timings were. Aoi flopped down on top of Himeko who sighed and closed her eyes again. Aoi reached over to the bags, dug deep in hers and pulled out a bottle, an empty bottle. She rolled off a relieved Himeko and propped herself again a tree near the fire.
"Warm. Here. Now." Aoi demanded and Huyu strolled over and slumped himself down on top of her. She started making hand signs and a small bubble of water appeared in front of her, she burst it and all the water went in her empty bottle. She took a sip and sighed. Naruto could feel her chakra in the air. It didn't feel normal. If he were to compare it to colours everyone's would be blue and hers would be a violet purple colour. He found it very strange, but then again she was a strange person.
"Oh by the way Hotaru we got enough information to send it back to the villages." Aoi smiled over at her senpai. Hotaru just smiled and nodded. Aoi pushed Huyu off her who was not pleased, which he expressed in a growl, to Naruto's surprise Aoi growled back at him. He thought that was also quite strange. Aoi started scribbling on small pieces of parchment. After she had finished she made the summoning hand signs again. She's got more wolves? Naruto thought but he was surprised to see two swallows appear.
"Hey boss." One of them chirped and both saluted her. She wrapped a message round each of the bird's legs and lifted them both on her arms.
"Right, Tsubame? I need you to go to Konoha and give this to Tsunade-sama. And Kousei? I need you to go to Suna and give this to their Kazekage. Got it?" Both swallows nodded and she threw both her arms in the air, and with that the swallows were off on their journey. "Now we just need to chill here 'til we get some orders." Aoi said happily. She sneaked back over to Huyu and jumped on him playfully, biting his ears and pulling his fur. He started fighting back and they started rolling around in the dirt until they bumped into Tsukiko who shot them death glares, they both whimpered and backed away. Tsukiko was sat under an old oak tree. She wasn't doing anything in particular but the aura around her was so dark that mushrooms were starting to form around her on the tree. Himeko was rummaging around in her bag until she triumphantly pulled out a hair brush and started brushing her hair. Kotori also thought this was a good idea; she dug around until she found one as well. But instead of brushing her own hair she crept up on Aoi and attacked her, pinning her on the ground. She started dragging the brush roughly through Aoi's wild mane. Aoi started kicking and screaming.
"This wouldn't happen if you brushed your hair like a normal person." Kotori said smugly. For being at least a head shorter than Aoi she had her pretty well restrained. Aoi was kicking and screaming under Kotori.
"Huyu help me now!" She screamed.
"Nah this is pretty funny to watch boss." He said with a wolfy chuckle.
"TRAITOR!" Aoi spat in his direction. Kakashi started giggling next to Yamato who was also looking very amused. "OI! What you think your laughing at, eh?" She snarled at Kakashi. " I bet that sorry state of a hair cut on you head hasn't seen a hair brush in years!" After some time, Aoi calmed down and stopped thrashing around.
"Are you going to sit nicely for me now?" Kotori said in a motherly voice. Aoi just nodded in defeat. Kotori let her up and she sat cross legged in front of her team mate. Huyu crawled forward submissively, with his ears flattened out and laid his head in Aoi's lap.
"Don't think I haven't forgotten. There's a river just up from here and you're getting a bath when I get up tomorrow." Aoi gazed down at her best friend with a smirk on her face. As soon as Kotori said she could go Aoi jumped up and ran behind Yamato and hid behind him, peeking over his shoulder occasionally. There was no way she was coming out of her hiding place with Kotori still wielding a hair brush. Everyone just pottered around, talking about anything and everything.
"So it's Halloween soon isn't it?" Aoi looked at Kakashi.
"I suppose it is." Kakashi replied going into deep thought.
"So do you guys like have a party and stuff?" Aoi asked rather excitedly.
"Yeah I think we do actually…" Kakashi still not really paying attention.
"Do you smell that?" Aoi said sniffing the air. She looked over at Huyu who nodded at her. "Danger…" She whispered. "Hotaru kill the fire!" She barked. A whoosh of cold wind and the place was dark.
"Everyone come towards me." Hotaru whispered. There was little circles of light coming from where Hotaru was sitting. Everyone edged closer towards her. Little fireflies were floating around Hotaru. "Everyone dull your chakra. Now." Hotaru commanded.
"I can't do that!" Naruto whined. Naruto was actually the only one who hadn't been on ANBU apart from Sakura who had very good chakra control and medical nin-jutsu skills. Yamato put his hand on Naruto's back and nodded at the team captain. "Thanks Yamato. Now we just need to keep quiet until it's all clear, alright?" Hotaru said in a hushed tone. "Himeko, Tsukiko and Kotori? We need your summons for surveillance." Each nodded and bit their thumbs and made the hand signs. A large puff of smoke appeared and in front of each person was their strange summon. Kotori had an owl, Himeko a lemur and Tsukiko had summoned two bats. The lemur reached up to Himeko and hung himself round her neck. They sent their animals out and settled back down in to their make shift seats.
"While we're hiding, now might be the time for Tsukiko to give everyone their stuff back." Aoi looked round smugly at Tsukiko who was glaring right back at her. Tsukiko got to her knees and tipped her sleeves out, a whole wave of items fell out of her sleeves, more stuff than looked humanly possible to get in them. Hey is that my necklace? Naruto felt around his neck and realized it was indeed his.
"What the hell is that about?" Naruto said rather loudly which earned him a slap on the back of the head from Kotori.
"She's a klepto…" Kotori explained. Naruto had a very puzzled look on his face. "Right," Kotori said with a sigh. " Tsukiko is a klepto maniac. It's means that she can't help herself stealing stuff."
"But she shouldn't be allowed to be a ninja then if she steals. It's wrong." Naruto complained.
"You like to argue a lot don't cha?" Aoi said with a smile. "She knows it's wrong. It's a sort of mental condition. She can't help herself no matter how much she tries. But if you think about it, it's helpful as a ninja we can get stuff off the opposition. You didn't realize she took your necklace and that's pretty hard not to notice…" Aoi went on happily.
"Urgh, but she's stealing from us! That's not right!" Naruto moaned.
"You like hearing yourself talk, don't you?" Aoi laughed as Naruto continued. "By the way Tsukiko where did you hide my sai's?" Aoi looked at her team mate with worried eyes. Those weapons were as much a part of her as her wolf and birds were. Tsukiko crawled over to her bag and pulled out the two weapons, glinting in the firefly light and set them down in front of Aoi. Tsukiko threw her arms over Aoi's neck and head and hugged her. She mumbled a sorry and retreated back to her seat.
"Argh! Aoi you're a complete disgrace." Kotori whined. "I only brushed your hair about an hour ago and now it looks worse than what it was." Kotori was looking very depressed. Everyone looked at Aoi and indeed her hair was flicking out in every possible angle.
After sitting in the cold darkness for a while the strange summons returned.
"The enemies have gone master." The owl hooted at Kotori. She smiled and the owl disappeared. The lemur hung itself on Himeko's neck and nuzzled into her. The bats hung themselves on a near by tree and went to sleep. Tsukiko got up and restarted the fire with a jutsu Naruto had never seen before. Everyone huddled round to get some warmth since they had been sitting with out it for ages. Kotori started digging in her bag again and this time emerged with a large tub. It looked bigger than her actual bag and Naruto wondered how big that bag really was on the inside.
"Aaaaoiiii….." Kotori whined pleadingly.
"Kotori, I can't believe you brought that crap with you." Aoi looked serious then laughed. "Give it here." Kotori passed the strange tub over to her team mate. Aoi sat it between her legs and pulled off the lid. There was a pink creamy liquid inside. Aoi pulled a face and started making several hand signs. She touched the surface of the liquid and it immediately froze and crystallised. She passed it back round to Kotori who pulled a spoon out of her pocket and attacked the frozen substance.
"Y'know? You could've left the lid on it. But you just like showing off don't you?" Kotori sneered through mouthfuls. It finally clicked in Naruto's head what the stuff was. Kotori had brought a tub of ice-cream and it had melted on the journey, so she had got Aoi to re-freeze it for her.
"What can I say….. I'm a 'show off' kinda person." Aoi retaliated in a calm voice. "At least I'm not the one getting cavities from eating at least six litres of ice-cream a day."
"So uh, Aoi do you really not like ice-cream?" Sai spoke up. The most he'd said all day perhaps? Sakura had been quite quiet as well.
"I don't really care much for sweet things." Aoi smiled. And on that note everyone decided there was nothing better to do but sleep.
Everyone was woken suddenly by screaming.
"STUPID BIRDS! What did I freakin' tell you? I don't fucking wake me up!"
"Aoi shut the hell up! They were only doing their job!" Kotori shouted at 'Black Aoi'
"Your right. I'm sorry birdies." Two swallows were cowering behind Kotori who was standing with her hands on her hips towering over a ball of white, grey and brown hair and fur. The lump shifted with a groan and Aoi appeared looking more bedraggled than usual. She coughed and went to pick up her birds.
"Mornin' boss." They both saluted.
"Right, Hokage-sama and Kazekage-sama have talked it over." Tsubame the girl swallow chirped.
"And they want you to eliminate them." Kousei the boy swallow added.
" And the Kazekage is sending one of his best as well." Tsubame and Kousei seemed to always end each others sentences.
"He should be here any minute now." And sure enough Aoi's ears picked up trees rustling under movement. She turned round and pointed at some bushes and trees.
"3,2,1" She said and as she predicted a body came flying through the foliage and landed in the spot she was pointing at.
"Kankuro!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly. Naruto ran over to his friend and glomped him.
"Hey, you big idiot. Get offa' me." Kankuro pushed the blonde to the side. "Right who's in charge here?"
"That would be me." Hotaru strolled forward. She put her hand out for Kankuro to shake. Squad Stella all introduced themselves to him and shook his hand apart from Aoi who bumped his knuckles and gave him a man hug. "Right people, team huddle. We're going for the kill today. Alright. Let's discuss the plan of action. Himeko?" Hotaru waved her hands gathering everyone in. Huyu the giant wolf had been sent away, with a "I'll call if I need you right?"
"Right, the plan of action is that Aoi is going to be our bait." Himeko started drawing in the dirt with a stick she marked a circle representing the enemy base and a cross to show Aoi infiltrating it. " Assuming that this goes to plan, Kakashi? You'll go in next followed by Hotaru. Kankuro? You and I will be guarding the perimeter in case any come from behind. Sai you'll be defending Sakura and Kotori we'll need medics no doubt." She threw a glance towards at Aoi who returned the gesture by sticking her tongue. "I'm guessing there is going to be some sort of ninja protection before we get there. So be on your guard and ready for a fight."
"You guys are so organized." Naruto said in awe.
"We were born for this." Aoi winked at him.
The teams were leaping through trees, bushes and vines. Kakashi and Aoi at the front as they knew where to go. Kakashi stopped abruptly on a tree swiftly followed by Aoi and the rest of the team. They all held their breath waiting for something. Suddenly Aoi jumped on Naruto pulling him to the ground just before a kunai with an exploding tag hit the tree where his head had been. They landed in an opening with Naruto flat out on his back and Aoi hunched over protecting him from the blast. She rolled off him and on to her feet. Suddenly the pair were surrounded by human and animal hybrids. Some with the top half animal and the bottom half human or the other way around. The sight of them made Aoi sick. Naruto jumped to his feet.
"Himeko! Do something!" Aoi screamed at her team mate.
"Right." Himeko shut her eyes and furrowed her brow. Aoi drew her sai's from their holsters. The hybrids started moving forwards.
"Sometime this century would be nice Himeko!" Aoi shouted stressed.
"ARGH! Kakashi, Sakura, Kankuro and Tsukiko. Go and fight. It's the only thing we can do at the moment." The ninja's jumped down from their trees to face their opponents. Kankuro summoned 'The Crow', Tsukiko brought out a number of weapons and Kakashi and Sakura got in to the fighting stances. The ninjas got through the first wave of hybrids fairly quickly, Naruto could see why Aoi was the best at Tai-jutsu. She was so good he was beginning to doubt if bushy brow could beat her or even worse bushy brow's sensei. The second wave of hybrids was a whole different ball game. They could use complex jutsus that many of the team had not seen before.
"Well I guess I'll have to use it." Kakashi sighed. He started pulling up his head band to reveal his sharingan.
"Hey! Kotori? Since he gets to use his funky eye. Can I use mine?" Aoi shouted pleadingly towards her team mate in the trees. "C'mon we could use it right about now?" Kotori rolled her eyes and sighed.
"Fine!..."
"YAASSSS!" was the energetic call that was heard echoing. Aoi put her sai's away and raised her hands into the rat or Ne hand sign. Suddenly large whirls of air blew her hair up and her jacket was swirling about. The air around everyone was filled with powerful chakra. Her hair changed colour from subtle brown to shocking white and the part of her fringe that was previously red was now grey. Like her wolf's. Her eyes had also changed to shining emerald green. Naruto felt that there was a shift in her chakra and it had turned from violet to the colour of her eyes. Something had definitely changed about her being.
"Bring it on boys!" Aoi ran towards a large crowd of the enemy and used a combination of nin-jutsu incorporating both of her chakra types. The fight continued for not long after, many of the hybrids had been slaughtered and the rest had re-treated. After Naruto had finished ripping the last hybrid to pieces he turned back to his team mates. Aoi's form had shifted back to her normal self again. She was hunched over leaning against a tree with Sakura kneeling beside her. Aoi was holding her left arm and blood was seeping out from between her fingers. Naruto ran forward to see his damaged friend.
"Please Aoi, let me fix it. Look it's bleeding heavily." Sakura was pleading Aoi holding her hands out towards Aoi, who was just smiling and shaking her head. Aoi removed her hand away from where it was bleeding, and Naruto couldn't believe what he was seeing. The last of the gash was sealing itself up. Naruto blinked furiously and when he looked again it was just a pink scar beginning to fade. What kind of jutsu was she using? She could recuperate faster than Naruto.
After all the bumps and scratches were healed up Himeko cleared her throat and started her new battle plan.
" Right so now we have an idea of what we're up against. From what I've seen the one's with the human tops and animal legs are stronger than the others. It's those ones we have to watch for. We're going to stick with the old plan but instead of just Kakashi going in after Aoi, Sai and Naruto are going in too. Got it?" Everyone nodded. They started up their journey again, heading straight in to the heart of the enemy territory. The teams stopped in some near by bushes and watched a huge swarm of the hybrids go about in a make shift camp site. Aoi took a deep breath, smiled towards Naruto and headed straight towards the abyss. She was half way there when she went ridged and fell to the floor in convulsions and spasms. Kotori screamed Aoi's name and ran towards her team mate. Himeko screamed at Kotori and went to grab her. Just as Kotori reached Aoi her body did the exact same, the same with Himeko.
"Aoi!" Naruto screamed but Hotaru grabbed his wrists before he could go to her.
"No, Naruto you can't help her now. We have to retreat. They're lost in a gen-jutsu now and I'm not risking anymore lives. Everyone retreat now!..."
So their bait, their brains and one of their medics were left on the forest floor to meet their fate…..
A/N: Haha I finished it. Review please….