The Samurai Ninja
Chapter 4: An Unwelcome Visitor
By: Zashire
The next morning came by all too soon for many of the ninja in Konoha. When the clocks hit three in the morning, almost everyone had returned home to get some sleep. Others stayed out for the rest of the night and returned home several hours later when they were positive that everyone in the village was safe. The hospital had become overcrowded very easily, and some people had to be moved to various parts of the village where medic nin could set up their equipment to treat everyone.
Sadly, some people weren't as fortunate. Because of the Kyuubi attack on the village, many of the ninja that Konoha had died defending their home from the evil being. Some died because the Kyuubi had killed them, while others died because of their injuries. Whenever the medic nin made it to a scene where someone had died from their injuries, they couldn't help but shed a few tears and mentally scream at themselves. They had been too slow to save someone's life. Everyone hated it when that happened because it was hard not to blame themselves for the person's death. It was heartbreaking to see it happen.
Many other people tried to focus on the positive, and how they had managed to save at least half of the people who had been severely injured in the attack. Every life counted. Even though they lost many ninja and civilians, they still managed to save a lot more than they lost. That was what helped them keep their heads up through the hard night, and was what made them look forward to a brighter tomorrow.
While many of the ninja spent countless hours awake, working on saving lives and helping the village, several others spent that time catching up on sleep because of how tired they had been from the day before. They had wanted to help the village, they really did... but they knew that they wouldn't be of any use if they fell asleep in the middle of helping someone to the hospital. That, and the loss of their sensei had hit them pretty hard.
Two of the aforementioned people were currently sleeping in a room that was part of the Sarutobi clan compound. One black haired, red eyed woman, and one black haired, brown eyed man. They had both immediately fallen asleep once they had made it to the room, and hadn't even bothered to change their clothes. Only one of them had made it through the night without waking up once. The other person hadn't been as fortunate.
She'd had to wake up multiple times during the night to tend to the needs of a certain blonde haired, blue eyed baby in the other room. The maid had been kind enough to put them in a room next to where the newborn would be staying in. They had thought that was a good idea. Oh, how one of them had regretted it. She soon found out that the baby could just not be quiet for more than an hour.
That's how her night had gone. Every hour on the hour it was go to Naruto's room to feed him or rock him back to sleep, and then go back to bed before the next hour came by. Finally, when the sun was only a few hours away from coming up, she had made it back to sleep for more than an hour. Naruto had either finally fallen asleep for a longer period of time, or a maid had helped calm him down. Whichever one it was, she honestly couldn't care as long as she got her sleep.
The next time the red eyed woman woke up, she saw that the sun was just peeking over the horizon. She glanced at the clock in the room and saw that more than two hours had passed since Naruto had called for her. The woman started to get a little worried, and decided to check on the baby. It was a little unnerving not having the child call out for anyone within those two hours.
She quickly got out of bed and made her way over to the door that had connected the two rooms together. When she opened it and walked in, she found something that made her turn around and run back to the bed as fast as she could. For what was in the room, was an empty crib and a broken window.
The dark haired woman ran back into her room and shook Asuma as hard as she could mange. Her boyfriend's eyes snapped open instantly to see her shaking him. He quickly sat up and asked what was wrong and what caused her to wake him up at such an hour. He could see the panic in her eyes, and that couldn't mean anything good.
"It's Naruto! I went to check on him and he wasn't there!" the woman said as fast as she could. Asuma sighed. She looked at him in confusion.
"Did it ever occur to you that a maid might have taken him to the kitchen to feed him, Kurenai-chan?" he asked her in an obvious tone. Kurenai shook her head quickly.
"No! It's not that! There's a broken window in his room! I know he's been kidnapped!" she shouted in response before Asuma could get anything out.
The man's eyes became wide. "Tell the maid the situation and that we'll be gone for a while. Then, meet me at the Hokage tower. I'm going to go inform dad about this." She grunted in response. As he was making a hand sign for Shunshin no Jutsu, she spoke up.
"Like hell I'm doing the dirty work." He looked at her in surprise and watched as she grabbed his arm, and before he could do anything, he found the both of them in the Hokage's office. He gave a sigh. Stubborn Kurenai.
They both looked up to see the Hokage staring down at them with a questioning look on his face. The two ninja brushed themselves off and nodded to the Hokage as they stood up. The Hokage nodded back, but still had a 'What the hell is going on?' look on his face.
Asuma ran up to the desk. "To the point, Naruto's been kidnapped." The Hokage stared at them for several seconds. Who in Konoha would want to kidnap Naruto? Almost everyone had no reason to because they didn't know about the Kyuubi being sealed within him. So, who would want to pull that off? The old Hokage honestly had no clue.
Hiruzen stood up and walked around his desk. "Asuma, tell my secretary to have a bird sent out to summon all of the Jounin and ANBU ninja in the village. I don't know who kidnapped Naruto, but I also don't know where they are taking him. For all we know, he could be halfway out of the country right now!" Asuma nodded and used Shunshin to get downstairs because it was a lot faster than taking the stairs. Hiruzen turned to Kurenai. "I honestly do not know what to tell you. Unless you have a trail or something to follow, I am afraid that you will have to wait until the other ninja get here so they can help you."
The red eyed woman nodded sadly. If there was one thing that Kurenai hated the most, it was not being useful. She didn't experience it too often since she could usually come up with something to do on the spot, but this wasn't one of those cases. What she could do now for her sensei's son was only next to nothing. She sighed and stared out the window, waiting for the ninja assembly.
That was... until she thought of an idea. She pivoted on one foot to face Hiruzen. The older man looked up at her and tilted his head sideways in a questioning manner.
"Hiruzen-sama," she began. He sighed. Kurenai was a far too polite woman in some cases, and he was surprised how Asuma hadn't picked up anything from her yet. He ignored the thought and focused once again on the red eyed woman. He gave a short nod, and she took that as a signal to continue. "Who knows about the Kyuubi true location right now?"
He responded immediately. "The council and the people who were at the cave. That is all." She looked down for a minute while she thought about the list of people. That narrowed down who could have kidnapped the baby by a lot. She turned her head back up to the man.
"The only people who I can think of who might have done this are several on the council and some of the ANBU in the cave that night. I know none of the medic nin did it. You saw how all of us reacted to the beast being sealed within Naruto," she crossed a few off the list with that statement. Hiruzen nodded. He hadn't even thought of trying to accuse any of the medic nin of doing it because they all had good hearts and had his total trust. Seeing their reactions at the cave had made him completely cross them off the list.
That only left the council. The two main people that he could think of that could possibly even want to do it were Danzou and the Uchiha clan. None of the others seemed to even be inclined to do anything for the child, whether it be help or hurt him, at least until they managed to fix their own clans. He spoke his thoughts to Kurenai and she couldn't agree more with him.
"I just honestly don't see why the Uchiha clan would want to kidnap Naruto. It doesn't make any sense," Kurenai thought out loud. Hiruzen nodded. "It's hard to understand why Danzou would want to, too. I mean, yes, you've told us that he is trying to rule Konoha to make it more military themed, but why would that make him want to take a defenseless child?" she asked, in slight confusion.
Hiruzen sighed. "I honestly don't know why either of them would want to do any of this, but I would still count them as our greatest suspects." Kurenai sighed, but gave a nod. She was about to speak up when she saw Asuma go running past the window outside. She looked at Hiruzen.
"I'm sorry, but I have to go. Asuma just took off that way." He would have told her to wait, but before he could even glance back at her, she had completely disappeared. Now where did she go? She said Asuma had disobeyed his orders meaning that the ninja wouldn't be there. Damn Asuma. He walked over to the door and was about to open it when it was opened from the other side by the last person he had expected to see then.
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It took Kurenai a few minutes to get within a good range of Asuma. She was jumping as fast as she could, but with each jump she took, it seemed like he got farther and farther away. Maybe he was onto a lead! Maybe he knew where Naruto was! She was going to call out to him, but decided to let him focus on where he was going so he could get the little blonde baby back. She would help him if he needed it, but other than that, she would stay behind him.
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Hiruzen's mouth dropped open when someone opened the door from the other side and walked in. He had not expected to see that person after what had happened with Kurenai only minutes prior. The person walked up to the Hokage quickly.
"The ninja have been assembled and are outside waiting for you to give them orders, dad." The mysterious person turned out to be Asuma. He looked at his father who was still somewhat startled. "Hey, are you alright?"
Hiruzen snapped himself out of it. "Yes, I am fine, but that's not important right now. What is important is that Kurenai just left saying that she saw you out the window a few minutes ago, and now you are here," the Hokage explained to his son. Asuma's eyes widened slightly, but quickly went back to normal. The Hokage put two and two together. "That means someone is disguising themselves as you, and that they have Naruto."
"Which way did she go?" the ANBU asked while getting ready to head out at a moment's notice. Hiruzen responded by pointing in the general direction. One that would quickly lead to the forest. Asuma nodded. "Tell the ninja that the kidnapper looks like me, and to make sure it's not me before they strike the person down. Their way of telling that will be if I attack them back." The Hokage nodded at his son's logic and watched as Asuma disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
Hiruzen used Shunshin like his son just had to get to the roof because he knew it would be a lot faster than climbing the stairs, and now, every second they had counted. He still couldn't believe how lucky they had been that Naruto was still in the village. The old man almost grinned. As long as Konoha's ninja were quick enough, they would make it and save Naruto on time.
When he arrived at the roof, he saw no less than one hundred ninja all prepared and ready to go. He was slightly surprised by the sheer number of people that had made it out of the attack only hours prior unscathed, but quickly shot that thought down. His main concern now was getting his grandson back in one piece. He almost chuckled at how he had thought of the boy as his grandson already when the adoption papers hadn't been totally filled out yet. It was going to be some adventure... that was, as long as they made sure the child was rescued.
All of the ninja turned to see the Sandaime Hokage appear in a swirl of leaves. Asuma had explained to several of the ANBU that the Sandaime had been reinstated, while others had heard from friends at some random points throughout the night. They all nodded their respect and awaited further instruction.
Hiruzen nodded back. "Thank you all for coming here this morning on an emergency call. We need to move as quickly as possible for this to succeed. To make a long story short, you are all being sent on a search and rescue mission." Some of the ninja gave him questioning looks. "You are being sent to find a small blonde haired, blue eyed child by the name of Sarutobi Naruto. He is my grandson and from what we can gather, he was kidnapped less than half an hour ago. He is either in the village or on some outskirt right now, and his kidnapper is disguised as Sarutobi Asuma. Please take to your usually pairs or groups and fan out into your patrolling sectors. We need to bring this child back, alive and well. Find him!"
The Hokage dismissed all of the ninja with a wave of his hand, and watched as all but two left and took to the roofs. He was about to yell at the two that had stayed behind when he saw them walking up to him. Hiruzen gave them a questioning look that asked why they had disobeyed his direct orders. When they reached him, one of the two spoke up.
"We are sorry for not leaving immediately, Hokage-sama, but we would like to know why you have called our top ninja together to search for one infant. What is so important about him that requires so much attention?" he asked. The man had apparently thought this through while the Hokage had been talking. The Hokage grunted.
"Did you not hear? He is my grandson. He is also the heir to the Sarutobi clan." The Hokage made a lie up on the spot. He would do anything to get those two to get moving. They looked at each other, and the second one shook his head.
"Why did you not send a few groups of ANBU out then? What requires the attention of both Jounin and ANBU?" They both knew something was up, and they wanted answers. The two saw the Hokage's distress and answered. "You may not tell us now, but many of the others are curious as to why you did this, too. They will also come to you for an explanation. Come on, let's go, Kimiko," he addressed his partner at the end. They both nodded to their Hokage and left.
Hiruzen was about as pissed as any man like him could get. Just after he had gone and made the law with the council to not tell anyone about the Kyuubi's sealing, he'd almost done it himself, even though he was the one exception. He could still possibly have to do it, all thanks to the nosy little ninja. The Hokage sighed. He really couldn't blame them for their questioning, though. They had looked underneath the underneath, like any good ninja should do and had found him out. He probably would have done the same thing if it had been the Shodaime or the Nidaime ordering him to do that. It still didn't make the situation easier for anyone.
He sighed once more. He could only hope that things would turn out alright in the end, and that if he really did have to tell the ninja population about what had happened, that they would understand and wouldn't treat Naruto any differently. He would tell the ninja about the Kyuubi if it meant getting his grandson back alive and well. There I go again, he thought with a small smile on his face. He was positive that the child would be rescued.
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Kurenai grinned slightly as she continued to follow her boyfriend. She was about to let him know that she was behind him by about ten meters when she saw him enter the forested outskirts of the village. Where was he going? She had only been tagging along for a few minutes, and he had seemed to have had a lead, but now, he seemed to be headed toward a completely unknown place. He seemed all too focused, like he was trying to get somewhere in particular. And why the hell hadn't he noticed her yet? Her Asuma was an ANBU and he should have been able to pick up on something like that.
Just when she started to become suspicious of something, she realized that they had come to a clearing in the forest outside the village walls. She started to slow down when she noticed that Asuma's pace had drastically decreased within the span of a few seconds. She eventually stopped high up in a tree and watched as Asuma slowly went to the ground, seemingly to take a break. He was breathing hard. Is Asuma really that unfit? she asked herself. He never became tired that easily.
Her eyes widened when she heard a 'poof' and no longer saw what her Asuma looked liked. In his place was a somewhat tall man. She couldn't see too many of his features because he was in the shadow of a tree. She could make out that he had what looked like a backpack on... a very large backpack. She placed a hand over her mouth when she watched him sit down against the tree that he was under and open the bag he was carrying. When he pulled out the object in the bag, she glared at the man with murder in her eyes and began to form a plan.
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The mysterious ninja carefully took the object out of the backpack that he had been carrying under a powerful Henge. It turned out to be a small baby... with a ruffle of blonde hair on top of his head. He placed the baby in his lap and began to dig for something in a pouch in the backpack. He was sure the coast was clear, so he pulled the object out.
The object in question turned out to be a piece of metal... a very sharp piece of metal. The kind that ninja's used in battle. The object that the man had pulled out was a kunai, and he had placed it at the young child's neck. He removed a layer of cloth so he could talk out loud. He spoke in only a whisper to the young child that was asleep in his lap.
"Forgive me, young one, for what I am about to do to you. If you were older you would understand that you cannot go against the direct orders of your village leader, even if you do not want to do what he has ordered. I am sorry that it had to come to this, but our village leader cannot have two of your kind running around the shinobi nations. One of you will be enough. I'm sorry to say that the one I speak of is not you. Good bye, young one." The man tried his best to think of his dead sister to cause enough hatred in his heart to go through with the deed without feeling any regret.
As he brought the kunai down, his only thought was surrounded by the intent to kill the child. When the knife was inches away from the baby's throat, he felt his hand stop. He glanced down at it in surprise because he had been so focused on completing his mission. He saw another hand overlapping his. He turned his head around to come face to face with a dark haired woman that had red eyes. When he turned back, he watched as her hand grabbed the kunai out of his hand. She quickly turned the pointed object around to face the kidnapper and drove it into his rib cage.
What surprised the red eyed woman was when instead of blood, a different colored liquid came out of his wound. Her eyes snapped open when she saw her hand was covered in sand rather than a dark liquid and watched as the man before her crumbled away into a pile of dust. Naruto fell to the ground and hit his head on the ground rather hardly, which caused him to start crying.
Kurenai broke the genjutsu instantly and jumped away as five shuriken landed in the spot where she had been. She picked up Naruto along the way and jumped back up into the trees. When she landed on a somewhat high branch, she turned and threw the kunai that she still held at the place where the shuriken had come from.
The unknown ninja jumped out of his hiding place and sent three kunai in her direction, each surrounded by a familiar glow. Oh shit! She applied a decent amount of chakra to her feet and jumped up onto a higher branch and watched as the kunai sailed through the branch below her. The woman watched as the branch fell to the ground in several pieces. She was right; the glow of the kunai had been wind chakra. She mentally thanked her boyfriend for showing her some of his attacks when he used wind chakra to empower his weapons.
She cleared her mind and focused back on the situation at hand. She couldn't do much with her adopted son in her arms. All she could do was defend herself and the baby and hope that his cries would attract some kind of attention. She shifted the baby to her left arm so she could make her right arm free since she was right handed. The woman reached down to her kunai pouch and pulled out several of the sharp weapons. It was all she could do to buy herself some time.
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The unknown ninja shrank back into the shadows and searched around for where the woman had gone. He had seen her leap away, just not where to. He was going to complete his commander's mission no matter what. That was for sure. He glanced around until he saw her dark figure just a little bit up higher than where he had thrown the kunai. He had to end this quickly. He was sure that back up would be coming for the woman, and he couldn't let that happen. Not when he was so close.
He weaved multiple hand signs and prepared one of his most dangerous jutsu. This would end it for the both of them, but it was the quickest and most efficient way to do it. The woman had a knack for genjutsu, so it would be useless to sneak up on her. So, he did the only other thing he could think of... taking her out with a mid range jutsu. It would take a good portion of his chakra, but it was well worth it if it meant completing his mission.
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Kurenai was ready to throw the kunai or use them defensively at a moment's notice. She had also taken the precaution of sending chakra to her feet to jump away if need be. She crouched down a little bit, resembling a cat ready to pounce on something. There was no way the mysterious ninja was going to take them out. She would hold him off at least until back up came because she had to protect her adopted son.
The red eyed woman was broken out of her thoughts when she heard the cry of something that was enough to almost make her blood freeze over. The attack that her opponent called out shocked the hell out of her because she hadn't imagined in her wildest dreams that someone would use an attack like that in that kind of situation. Unfortunately, she had never met the unknown ninja before. The frightening attack name she heard happened to be a fairly well known one in her village, so she knew something about how to stop it...
"Fuuton: Kaze no Yaiba!"
That something that she knew about how to stop it would only work if she had both hands free. The other option she had was to get out of the attack's line of destruction. She went with it.
Kurenai formed a one handed hand seal and called out 'Kawarimi no Jutsu,' but opened her eyes to find the attack still coming at her. She hadn't known why her escape jutsu didn't work, so she tried to jump off the tree branch instead. That one failed too. All she could do was watch as the attack came closer and closer. The woman crouched down, still with Naruto in her arms, and held the child protectively to her chest with her arms wrapped tightly around him, but just loose enough not to suffocate the baby.
The blade of wind never came. Long after the attack should have hit, Kurenai glanced up to see a tall figure in front of her. Before she said anything, she looked down because she felt something around her feet and ankles. The red eyed woman grimaced slightly when she saw some sand fall back onto the ground below her. What the hell was that doing there? All she could assume was that it was what had been keeping her in place during the Kaze no Yaiba attack.
She looked up to see who had stopped the jutsu from reaching her and Naruto when she saw the person pivot on one foot and lift her up before jumping out of the tree. She watched over the person's shoulder as another wind based jutsu soared overhead. Damn... would had that much chakra in store to do all of those attacks? She focused again once they landed on the ground.
"You okay, Kurenai-chan?" the shadowy figure asked as he set her down. She nodded quickly and watched as the figure before her called out to another person. That person turned out to be an ANBU. The man that had saved her asked her to give Naruto to the ANBU.
"Why?" was all she asked in response. He made a grunt. They didn't have time for this.
"Come on, Kurenai-chan, I need your help to take this guy down! No one else here has a fire affinity like you do! The ANBU is just going to watch Naruto so you can actually make some hand signs!" he explained as fast as possible in a slightly raised voice.
"All you had to do was say so, Asuma-kun," she snorted. "Fine, take him, but so help me, if he gets one scratch on him while in your care." She left the threat hanging and the man known as Asuma gave a slight grin at how protective she was of their adopted child. The other ANBU nodded quickly and leapt away, all the while making sure the child didn't get hurt, because he was in no mood to handle an angry Kurenai.
Asuma turned to Kurenai. "Two of my partners are taking holding off the enemy ninja. We can take over whenever. I assume you know the plan?" he asked her with a small smirk on his face. She nodded.
"The usual?" she asked, returning the smirk. His smirk became wider, and she took that as a 'yes.' "Try to keep up." Just as she finished her sentence, she was off into the trees. He smiled at his girlfriend before he too took off after her. This was going to be fun.
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Weird to be updating on a Tuesday, but whatever. We have the whole week off, so I'm going to enjoy it.
I know it's a little shorter than the other chapters, but I think this might become the regular chapter size from now on. I really don't know. I just go where the story takes me, and end the chapters whenever it ditches me on the side of the road.
Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it! (I do, so I'm gone on Thursday.)
See ya next update! R&R!
Zashire
