Chapter 2: A Different Life
"Naruto, you idiot, you're making a racket!" Sakura Haruno hissed through her teeth, as she crouched in the dense undergrowth of the forest. Naruto Uzumaki, her best friend and current hunting-partner, had tried to move from his position stealthily towards the target, but had unfortunately stepped on a dry twig in the process, causing it to snap with a loud crack.
"Sorry," Naruto whispered back. He usually wasn't so careless, but there happened to be a lot on his mind today.
In the middle of the clearing, the target's ears perked up, and its eyes scanned the surroundings warily. It had heard voices. It tensed, ready to run at any moment.
"Will you guys stop talking!" Kiba Inuzuka whined. Loudly. After all, those two had probably scared the target away. Why should he bother keeping quiet when they didn't?
The target bolted.
"Now you've done it." Sakura grumbled, jumping from her position on the ground. There was no point hiding anymore, since Kiba had so kindly given them away. From the corner of her eye, she saw Kiba and Naruto sprinting towards the target, just like her.
This time round, the target was a fast runner. That was why Naruto had proposed a stealth attack, so as to take it by surprise and save the running time. It was only the first hunt of the day, and they had a whole troupe to feed! Abruptly, Naruto stopped in his tracks, signaling both Kiba and Sakura to stop too.
Naruto then nodded at Sakura, who understood immediately. Balling up her fist, she concentrated as much chakra as she could into it, then slammed it into the forest floor before her, releasing the pent-up chakra at the same time. A large crack emerged, stretching from the base of her foot all the way to the deer running ahead and beyond.
The poor animal tripped as the ground beneath it gave way, and fell on its side, helpless. Naruto and Kiba were on it in a flash, with Kiba whipping out a kunai and slitting its throat.
"One down, nine to go," Kiba said savagely.
"Let's not waste time, then." Naruto hoisted the dead deer onto his back. "We have people to feed." The other two didn't need telling twice. All three took off again, jumping from tree to tree at breakneck speed as they tried to spot their next target.
The trees flashed past in a blur as Naruto sped ahead. He, Sakura and Kiba had agreed to split up so as to save time. It was getting late, and they didn't want to let the civilians go hungry. So right now, he was alone. Not a good thing. Nothing bad was going to happen, but Naruto was finding it especially hard to concentrate on the hunt today.
It was one of those days when he just felt that he wasn't accomplishing anything for himself or the people he cared about. It'd been four – no five years already, since the siege of Konoha, and the day the people had been driven from their homeland. Or rather, what was left of the people had been driven from their homeland. Fire Country was no more. Only a measly fraction of its population was still alive. The greatest country of the Five Great Shinobi countries was gone, torn apart by countless wars and social unrest.
Naruto, like any other typical Konoha shinobi, had grown up to love Konoha, to live for Konoha and breathe for Konoha. With it gone, it was like part of him was gone too. These past five years, he and the remaining friends that had escaped with him and their lives struggled to survive as best as they could, as well as keep the remains of Konoha alive.
It was the least they could do. But it wasn't much. If there weren't so many people depending on him for their survival, Naruto might have completely and utterly given himself up to grief. Well, that and the fact that Naruto didn't normally like to give up or give in to anything, not even to his own emotions.
It was in his nature to make the best of everything, in any given situation.
Naruto smirked as he saw another deer come into view. Time to get cracking. He had to get more kills than Kiba this time, or the brunette would never let him hear the end of it.
"Aw, you guys could have skinned them first!" Chouji Akimichi grumbled loudly.
It was only natural that the rotund redhead was put in charge of the kitchens, or rather the food, since there were no kitchens out in the open. He had the biggest appetite amongst all of them, as well as the most patience to deal with cooking. And they needed a shinobi to be in charge of cooking, because then the food could be cooked at a much faster rate.
The other shinobis hadn't been adequate. Perhaps it was due to their shinobi training, or maybe they were just all lacking in the culinary department. Ino, who was put in charge at the beginning, was so reckless and impatient that they'd had to deal with burnt or half-cooked food most of the time.
As for Sakura, no one dared to let her handle anything edible since the last time they'd sampled her curry. It was weird how she could prepare truly magical medicinal remedies, and yet fail so thoroughly when it came to food.
The other guys were out of the question, so that left Chouji. To be fair, the rest did hunting and patrolling. Although those were admittedly tougher jobs, every one appreciated a good, hearty meal at the end of a long day. And so, they were grateful to Chouji.
"Do you have any idea how difficult it was just to get ten deer in one day while you sat on your fat behind doing nothing at all?" Kiba asked, waving his hands at the heap of carcasses.
Naruto and Sakura leapt at Chouji and pulled him away from Kiba, as the redhead made strangling motions in the air. "Let me go! Let be go! He mentioned the word 'fat'! I'm going to kill him!"
"Stop this, Chouji." Naruto growled, as Kiba stalked away, Chouji still struggling wildly. Despite being a cook, Chouji could be dangerous when let loose. He hadn't lost his touch one bit on the battlefield. Both Naruto and Sakura released him from their grip only when Kiba disappeared out of sight.
"You know he's like this because of what happened to Akamaru," Naruto stated dryly. "You need to be more understanding towards him."
"Yeah, yeah whatever," Chouji grumbled again, seeming to have gotten over the insult. "Still, if he does it one more time…" He turned his back on them, walking towards the pile of deer. "Get lost, the both of you, I can't cook in peace with you two hovering around."
"Yeah okay, Chouji, we wouldn't want to spoil the broth," Naruto called, as he and Sakura left 'the kitchens'.
"I thinking hunting in the forest reminds him of the times he trained with Akamaru," Sakura remarked as she walked beside Naruto, staring worriedly at the blond. "Maybe you should put him fully on patrol duty."
"You know we can't do that! We need Neji's byakugan to look out for enemies when we're not there, and Ino's totally useless when it comes to hunting. She has to stay in patrol. And Kiba can't teach, so he can't take over Lee's job." Naruto scratched his head furiously. He knew about Kiba's problem too, dammit! He just couldn't do anything about it!
Reading Naruto's expression, Sakura wisely kept her mouth shut.
Walking at a leisurely pace, the pair approached the beginning of the Resting Area, where the main bulk of the civilians lived. Numerous tents were pitched all over the grounds, which served as a small domain for each unit or family to sleep.
The people were basically free to do anything they wanted during the day, provided they didn't stray too far from the Resting Area and returned before nightfall. However, most of them chose to stay at their tents, amusing themselves with whatever they could get their hands on.
Naruto and Sakura parted ways as Sakura made her way in the direction of the makeshift school, being the only other shinobi that could teach somewhat effectively. Naruto walked towards his tent. He had a few things to prepare before he headed off for patrol duty.
"Hey Naruto, what's for dinner today!" a young boy called as Naruto walked past the tent the boy was sharing with his parents.
The boy's mother immediately reprimanded him for being rude. "It's Uzumaki-san, not Naruto!" To Naruto, she said, "Please forgive him for being so rude. You must be tired after the hunt."
Naruto grinned and scratched his head. "Actually, Naruto's fine. And we're having deer tonight!"
"Again?" the boy pouted. This time, he got a smack from his mother for the remark.
"Stop complaining, Naoto! Naruto-san and his friends have so kindly obtained food for us! Without them, we wouldn't have anything to eat!"
Naruto squatted down next to the boy. "Naoto, was it? What would you like to eat, then? If you don't like deer?"
Naoto frowned. "I don't hate it. But I miss chicken!"
Naruto sighed. "Unfortunately, there aren't any chickens running wild in the forests around here, kiddo. I miss chicken, too. Especially the bits in cup ramen… but that's another story. I'll try my best, though. If ever I see a chicken, I'll catch it and reserve it specially for you. Meanwhile, you'll have to deal with deer. Is that okay?"
"Yup!" Naoto grinned.
"Great." Naruto stood up and ruffled the kid's hair, while his mother smiled at him for placating the boy.
As Naruto turned away from them, the smile dropped right off his face in a flash. He didn't like the way people treated him. In a way, he had gotten what he wanted. Or used to want, anyway. Ever since they'd moved to this place, everyone in the small settlement treated him like their leader, the shinobis included. They trusted his decisions and listened to everything he said. It was like being hokage, except it wasn't. It was different. This place wasn't a village, and the people's lives were worse off than before.
Naruto hadn't wanted it to become like this.
He didn't deserve to be looked up to. He didn't, because he couldn't help them gain back what they had in Konoha, no matter how hard he wished he could. He could only protect them as they were now.
Naruto was only about ten minutes into his patrol duty at the North end when he got an urgent message from Neji Hyuuga, in the West End.
"Guys, there's a huge one coming from the west. I need backup right now, ASAP." Neji's chakra signature said, sounding calm despite its urgency. Naruto wasn't fooled. He could tell the guy was jumpy. Chakra signatures didn't lie.
The chakra message jutsu had been Ino's invention. By forming a complicated blood pact with her, the four guards, namely Naruto in the North, Ino in the South, Kiba in the East and Neji in the West could communicate to each other via chakra any time they wanted. This was a necessary invention against the Monsters, demons which had mysteriously appeared ever since the Northern Empire Army started its conquest.
Naruto had a few suspicions about their emergence, but he had never discussed it with anyone. The vile creatures were dangerous, and the four guards usually fought against them together.
Naruto flew as fast as he could towards Neji's location, hoping he would be in time. When Neji said something was big, it usually was. He wasn't the type to exaggerate. Putting on speed, Naruto emerged from the trees just to Neji's right in a few minutes, and alighted on the branch next to him.
"Neji, what is it?" Naruto asked, breathing harshly.
"Keep your voice down. This one looks like it used to be a giant centipede." Neji stated. "It'll be on us in a few minutes."
Seconds later, Ino alighted on Neji's left. "Kiba's coming soon." She informed them in a whisper. "What is it this time?"
"Giant worm." Naruto muttered.
"Great. I hate creepy –" Ino cut herself off.
There was a rustle of leaves, and the next moment, a huge, elongated, brown slab of muscle with twin blood red eyes had launched itself at the trio. All three of them jumped off the branch in different directions out of the way, putting some distance between themselves and the Monster.
Naruto had landed on a branch further away to observe the Monster. It was something akin to a centipede all right, the million pairs of legs growing from the length of his body told him that. But its skin was covered in ugly brown boils, and weird deformations protruded from its various parts. Like all Monsters, its movements were choppy and erratic, as if it didn't have complete control over its mobility. All in all, it wasn't a pretty sight.
It gave a roar, and all the birds within a ten-meter radius took to the skies in a hurry. Naruto started forming the seals for his kage bunshin, already preparing to form numerous rasengans. Kunais wouldn't even pierce the creature's thick outer covering.
These monsters were brainless, but they were powerful, and fed on anything living in their path. Physical attacks that killed them were the only way to stop them.
Neji had already begun his attack on the Monster, using his hakke hasageki. The numerous blows were delivered at high speed, and were quite effective in causing the monster to be temporarily disoriented. Ino manifested chakra in her legs, and joined him in the onslaught of blows, delivering powerful kicks to its body.
The Monster writhed on the ground, roaring in pain and confusion, trying to slice them with its many claws. Neji and Ino dodged them easily. Poison dripped from its fangs. Naruto surrounded it with approximately a hundred of his kage bunshin, and started forming as many rasengans as he could between them. When these were ready, Ino and Neji jumped back, and Naruto slammed the ransengans into the creature's body, puncturing so many holes in it it started to look like swiss cheese.
A few clones melted at the spray of poison that ejected from the monster's mouth on the impact.
"Guys! I need help here! East End, there's a Monster!" Kiba's chakra signature screamed into Naruto's brain. Shit. Naruto chanced one last glance at the monster as it toppled with a resounding boom to the forest floor, satisfied it'd been defeated.
Then he took off in Kiba's direction, Neji and Ino already ahead of him.
Two monster attacks in a day! Was this a mere coincidence, or was there something more to it? Gritting his teeth, Naruto cursed the Northern Empire to the pits of hell from the bottom of his heart.
-to be continued-