DISCLAIMER: Don't own Naruto
"What is the distance to the target?"
"5 meters. I'm ready anytime."
"So am I."
"Crackle fiz pop."
"Naruto? You're slow."
"Sorry sensei, was working on a plan."
Kakashi thought for a second. Should he let Naruto implement his plan? Ah why not? They'd learn the horrors of Tora soon enough.
"Ok Naruto go for it. We'll herd the cat towards you….Go!"
Sasuke and Sakura shot out of the undergrowth and made a bee line for the demon. Naruto tensed inside his cage made out of henged kage bunshin. He would have to be incredibly fast. The demon yowled and caught scent of the hunt and immediately bolted. Sasuke out of patience with the evil thing began the seals for a fireball but a senbon grazing his hand put that idea out of his head as he glared at the lounging Kakashi in the trees.
"It's getting away." Kakashi warned.
The demon streaked across the dry clumped earth too fast for the genin to hope to catch. But not too fast for Naruto's kage bunshin henged as a wire to dispel and warn the original that the demon approached. Sakura threw shuriken to stop it from bypassing Naruto and finally the demon entered Naruto's line of vision. He had done most of the seals already and he quickly finished the final seal.
Kawarimi.
The cat ran full tilt into reinforced layers of henged kage bunshin. It almost dispelled all the layers so Naruto hurriedly formed new layers around it to stop it from escaping again. It screamed inside the cage as Naruto grinned at it from outside.
"Aww isn't the little kitty cute?" A paw lashed out through the bars and mauled his cheek open. "Oww!"
"Don't taunt the Hanbunbi dobe." Sasuke commented wearily.
Sakura on the other hand, "Cute! What on earth is your definition of cute?"
Kakashi drawled into his receiver, "Are you sure it is the target, Tora?"
Sasuke replied, "Yeah, we're sure."
"Good. Lost pet Tora search mission … complete. Now get it back before it bursts too many layers and escapes."
…..
"NYAAAAAA!" The cat screamed as it was snuggled up to Madam Shinji's face. They even almost felt sorry for it.
"Oh my cute little Tora chan. I was so worried."
Naruto leant back to hiss, "See, she agrees it's cute." Everyone stared at him in disbelief. He couldn't in good faith call Tora a demon anymore.
The Hokage hmmed and pulled out a list of D ranks, "Now Kakashi's squad 7, your next duty is…hmm…babysitting an elder's grandson, shopping in the neighbouring village and help with the potato digging."
Naruto sniffed the air. A faint smell of sake, it was time for the C rank from hell. He needed to make a decision in the next five seconds. To go or not to go? Sasuke got his Sharingan which was the start of a whole lot of woe but it strengthened their resolves as ninja. Ah hell he liked Zabuza and Haku.
"Nononononono! Can't we have a better mission!? I mean genin can take C ranks too!" His team let out a sigh behind him.
"You idiot! You're just a rookie!" Iruka yelled, "All ninja start off low and work their way up."
"Yes! But how are we meant to test ourselves on D ranks? Time how long it takes to weed a flower bed?"
"D ranks are perfect for rookie ninja like you. They are sorted on difficulty levels after all!"
Kakashi bopped Naruto on the head, "I apologise for him. I haven't covered protocol yet." He sighed.
"I'm not the trouble making brat you think I am." Naruto said softly. Iruka closed his eyes in defeat as the Hokage slowly nodded.
"Ok since you want it that much."
Kakashi's eye widened, surely he wasn't giving them a mission outside the village! Their combat ability wasn't up to par yet! And the Kyuubi may be influencing Naruto! To be fair the Hokage had no way of knowing that…since Kakashi hadn't reported it like he should have.
"It's the protection of a certain individual."
"Who is it?" Sakura asked curiously.
"I'm about to introduce you…hey will you come in here?"
"What's this? They're all a bunch of super brats. Especially the shortest one with the super stupid looking face. Are you really a ninja? Hey!" Tazuna leant against the door with his familiar bottle of sake.
Naruto's smile strained. "Don't hate it cuz you can't have it." He borrowed one of Fu's expressions to quip back at Tazuna. The Hokage started wondering if he had made a mistake.
"I am the super expert bridge builder Tazuna. I expect you to provide me with super good protection until I get back to my country and complete the bridge." Tazuna ignored Naruto as did everybody else.
"Don't worry." Naruto couldn't help but dig, "We're perfectly capable of taking care of some bandits." From Tazuna's little squirm he hit the guilt dead on. "All right team meet up at the gate in an hour's time. Dismissed." Naruto turned to leave when suddenly the door flung open, nearly hitting him and Ibiki came storming in.
"Hokage! Do you still have the wave mission!?"
"I just gave it to Team 7." The Hokage asked puzzled.
"Bump it to a high A rank. Orochimaru's been spotted in that area! Intel's just come in." Naruto's little dream world shattered with the sound of chiming bells. Orochimaru should be in the hidden Sound! Why was he in Wave? Sound was in the other direction! Something had gone wrong! He panicked mentally. Well good thing was if it was an A rank, Tazuna would get the protection he needed legally this time but what the hell! He hadn't changed that much to make fricking Orochimaru move across the world early.
"I'm sorry Team 7. I'll get you another C rank to do. Tazuna san we'll discuss payment options afterwards." The Hokage looked down at his list. Tazuna nodded and wandered away, with him the hope of a secure future. Naruto agonised over the development and what it meant for him. In the long term probably nothing but if Orochimaru was moving…
Kakashi picked up that something was causing Naruto distress. "You didn't get attached to that old man already did you? We'll just get another C rank." He drawled wheeling Naruto to face the Hokage.
"Well Team 7 you have a choice. There's reports of a wild animal by a small village near Tanzaki Gai or you can give Tora a bath?"
"Wild animal!" Team 7 shrieked.
"I thought so too. Here's the mission details Kakashi. Dismissed."
Kakashi scanned it, "Right my cute students, East gate at one hour. Pack for two weeks at most." He jumped out of the window muttering about something.
"Why do I even bother installing a door?!" The Hokage threw his arms up.
…..
Team 7 met up by the gates. Well most of Team 7. Their sensei was nowhere to be seen. Naruto sighed and turned to Sakura and Sasuke and thrust leaves in their direction.
"The exercise for fire is to burn one side while leaving the other side unburnt. The exercise for lightning is to cause the leaf to crumple. Have fun you guys." From the glint in his eye Sasuke and Sakura understood they were in for some trying times. He went back to trying to cut his leaf in half. It had a pretty decent shaped cut, more than half way since he already knew the trick. Where on earth was he going to find a waterfall after this?
"Yo!" Kakashi sauntered over, "Good you're all here."
"You're late!" Sakura shrieked.
"I'm not late, you're just ridiculously early." Kakashi sniffed. "You lot know which direction Tanzaki Gai is?"
Naruto pointed in the correct direction absentmindedly while trying to finish cutting the damn leaf!
"That's correct Naruto." Kakashi said cheerfully, "Right there's a mysterious animal yadda yadda we have to kill it, any questions?"
"Yes. How does it terrorise the villagers?" Sasuke asked.
Kakashi turned to him, "It kills their children." He said simply, "One every night. No one's seen it, just heard it…they described it as a cracking sound." He loomed over them, the light flickering on his face ominously.
"This is a C rank?" Sakura asked incredulously, "Mysterious monsters carrying off children."
Kakashi slouched back, "Maa don't fret Sakura, it's probably a wild bird of some sorts going after the smallest prey. Shuriken and kunai will bring it down and you'll have a chance to practise your dynamic aiming, since all of you are terrible at that."
Well Naruto thought, it was better than the training Kakashi drilled into them in the last week. High lights included strapping Sakura to a fan which randomly shot senbon, throwing her to fly on the wind currents then telling Naruto and Sasuke to shoot her down without hurting her. They mostly spent the time dodging their own missiles as they fell back to the earth after missing and listening to a swearing screaming Sakura. Anko really rubbed off on her hmm. Then Sakura crashed into a bird, how on earth was that possible? And went smashing down on the two of them.
Then there was blind man's bluff…with fricking land mines. All three of them wound up in the hospital with Kakashi lecturing them and generally terrorising the hospital staff. Training ground 7 would always have a barren spot in the middle of all the trees in memorandum. Then Kakashi thought it would be fun to set the ANBU trainees on them to see their speed under motivation. Konoha was treated to the strange sight of three rookie genin in crutches leaping out of a hospital window and hightailing it out of there while seven white blurs chased them with tantos. After that it was quite low level stuff with team work exercises…of course it had them all as taut as a wire wondering when and where the next attack would be from. They tiptoed everywhere, they didn't even dare to breathe too loudly and after the third day when they began to relax…Kakashi came after them with a battle axe (!?), while lecturing them on the shinobi code so they couldn't even run away and hide!
The last two days were absolutely terrifying. Kakashi had handed them off to Anko…enough said…
He really thought Team 7 had bonded this time around…
Kakashi clapped his hands, "Ok show me your packs people!"
Sasuke went first, "Two changes of clothes, kunai, shuriken, sleeping bag, tent, some food, some utensils and a med kit."
Kakashi raised an eyebrow, "Med kit?"
"I'd rather not come back in pieces and Sakura's too busy with her scribblings." Sakura looked a bit sheepish. Kakashi had introduced her to sealing the week before as a way to seal explosions, it was the primary reason they weren't all dead from blind man's bluff. Since she was too busy with sealing, Sasuke had been forced to pick up the slack with the medical knowledge. Naruto had offered but Sasuke had almost snapped his head off in refusing.
"Fair enough, Sakura?"
"Two changes of clothes, wire, senbon, a sealing book, sleeping bag, food, rudimentary poisons kit and some utensils."
Kakashi held up the make-up box. "Rudimentary poisons kit? Nice. Anko's work?"
"Yup, she also gave me this." Sakura pointed to the glittery butterfly brooch in her hair. Everyone had winced upon seeing it.
"…Anko gave you that monstrosity?" Kakashi repeated slowly, was the sky still blue? In response Sakura pulled on the body revealing it to be a small blade. "It's for a last ditch protection apparently, I didn't get what she meant by that." She admitted.
"I'll get someone to explain afterwards." Kakashi quickly changed the subject, "Naruto?"
"Two changes of clothes, kunai, sleeping bag, food, exploding tags, every type of bomb I could get my hands on and some utensils."
Kakashi gingerly held up some dynamite. "Isn't this going a bit too far?" Naruto snatched it away and hugged it like a teddy bear, "It's protection."
"Well, let it be known I am not always not nice. Who am I to take away your protection? Ok team pack back up again and we'll move out."
Kakashi was watching their reactions carefully, this would be their first times of stepping outside Konoha. It was quite sweet to watch the rookie genin's expressions apparently.
Sasuke was as blank faced as ever and glaring at a leaf. Ok…that was in profile. Sakura was clasping her hands together and glaring at them. Was she praying? And Naruto…looked five seconds from using his dynamite on whatever was in his hand. Note: Put in Naruto's profile, the title 'Most unpredictable ninja' really, really suits him.
Another tick in the 'all Jonin are liars' column.
He sighed and resigned himself to a quiet trip all the way there, he pulled out his book and flipped to his favourite chapter. Note: When the Toad Sannin came over, ask him about any new releases.
BANG. He whirled around, kunai at the ready. How had an enemy snuck on them? His students! He'd kill them al-
Sasuke and Sakura stood stock still with shocked expressions and singed faces. Naruto was rolling on the ground with laughter. He sighed and drooped, tucking away his kunai he asked if they were planning to give away their location to everyone in a mile's radius.
"Elemental practice?" He asked amused. "You do know that's a Chunin level skill?...All three of you are trying?"
"Yes." Sasuke spoke.
"In what elements?" Kakashi wasn't proud, pssh who would be? His genin working hard on their own to develop a skill.
"Fire for me, Lightning and fire for Sasuke and Wind for Naruto." Sakura answered.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow, "Dual natures…that's rare. Wind's also rare in this parts of the world…We're a very offensive orientated team seeing I'm Lightning. At least no element can overpower all of us, well if you work out the basic exercises…"
"Can you tell us about elemental natures sensei?" Naruto asked curiously, he never had the full version explained before.
Kakashi kept reading and started to drawl in a bored tone, "The five basic elemental natures are Fire, Water, Earth, Lightning and Wind. There are two more Yang and Ying, those are involved in the non-elemental jutsus but it's rare for non-clan kids to have them. The order I said is the wheel of chakra domination but wind beats fire. That's only if they're of equal strength, otherwise a stronger fire can beat a weaker water, understand? And so forth. The Lands of Fire, Wind and so forth are named for the most populous chakra types, so most common in Konoha is Fire. They tend to accumulate in the areas they are most dangerous, in a forest fire is un-paralled in destruction. In the desert, wind can strip meat from bones in seconds, you get the idea. Most shinobi master only two elements with a passing ability in a third. A mastery in four elements is worthy of an S rank title." He took a breath and started talking about combining two elements to form other elements.
"Like Hyouton and Mokuton?" Sakura asked.
"Exactly."
"Sasuke can you combine your two natures?" Sakura asked curiously.
He shook his head, "Could do at a higher level." He murmured thoughtfully.
"Hey! Between us we have Scorch, Blaze and Magnet release!" Naruto exclaimed happily.
Kakashi bopped him lightly, "If you can get your chakra transformations to work." He stressed the 'if'. In response Naruto held up a bisected leaf, eyes glinting happily. Kakashi was stunned silent. How long had he been working on this? It took months on the first stage! This was prodigious! How was Naruto the dead last again?
"Ah." Came the pleased sound from Sakura as she held up a burning leaf on one side. Everyone's jaws dropped. She had literally 15 minutes! Naruto was trying not to let his jaw hit the ground, it was understandable for him! He had done this before and knew the trick and it still took him several days! Sakura had done in it…fricking 15 minutes! Kakashi was trying hard not to cackle with glee, a team of ninjutsu prodigies. Oh how Kami loved him. That was some serious chakra control.
"Howw?" Naruto choked out.
"It was easy, following the first explosion I knew how much chakra to use, and the only tricky part was changing it to fire. It was pretty easy restricting the actual fire itself; it's my chakra after all." Sakura preened under the attention. Naruto felt like crying, please let Sasuke take a long time…
"Here." Sasuke said simply as he held up a crumpled leaf. Everyone had just finished picking up their jaws and they dropped again. "I already knew how to change my chakra to fire; it's pretty easy to change it to lightning after that."
"How long did it take you to change to fire?" Kakashi asked in a strained voice.
"A week?" Naruto face planted then grinned. His team was awesome!
"You guys…it takes months of work to do the first stage." Kakashi choked out.
"I guess we're special." Sasuke had a pleased glint in his eye. No one missed the 'we' term he used.
Kakashi chuckled, "Okay my cute students, next exercise for you. Naruto infuse the air with your chakra and try to create air currents to control the flight of leaves. Sakura create a small mind small fire ball and change the shape of it. Sasuke try and zap passing insects." Yes he skipped several training stages but he was curious, sue him. From the curious look Naruto shot him, he had noticed too.
….
All the way to Tanzaki Gai there were just noises of pure frustration behind Kakashi. He smiled at the half strangled scream Sakura did before snapping his book shut.
"Ok team! The village is now off the road. Follow me and do not get lost."
Team 7 gazed at the veritable jungle off the track and gulped. Arched trees looped off into the distance, the vines and shadows creating unusual arcing shadows like half sickle cuts in the greenery.
"I rescind my scepticism about there being a mysterious monster out of a horror story and now ask why there aren't several monsters every week." Sasuke snarled as they fought their way through tough tangled vines.
Sakura tripped for the thousandth time, got absolutely fed up and turned to Naruto. "Naruto! Blow us a path to kingdom come?"
"…Brilliant idea!" Naruto had the dynamite out faster than Kakashi could stop him but the water jutsu from his mouth prevented the blond from doing anything rash.
"No blowing up the forest." He chided. "It's only two more hours walk. You can handle it." The triple look of horror was worth all the twigs in his hair.
…..
A long two hours later, three thoroughly scratched, battered and irritated genin collapsed on the outskirts of a strange village. Their pristine sensei except for the hair hauled them back up again and mostly prodded and poked them into crossing the salt boundary line.
"Salt?" Naruto asked curiously.
"Aye lad." A stocky woman jumped over a small precipice to land in front of them. "Salt keeps it away. Burns it with a single touch. You're the shinobi we asked for?"
"Yes." Kakashi answered, "I'm Kakashi, and these are Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto. What exactly is the problem?"
"My name is Hilgride, problem is there's a beast lurking beyond the line. Every night it steals a child." She spat on the ground, "And every morning we find the poor bugger on the path."
"There's a path!" Naruto picked up, "There's a path!?" He glared accusingly at Kakashi. Hilgride looked at him strangely, "Of course there's a path. There always is a path."
Sasuke asked sharply, "How does it steal?"
Hilgride was looking worried, "I hadn't expected kids. You might have brought them into danger Mister Kakashi. No lad, it can't cross the salt line. No one knows how it steals, there's just silence then an awful cracking starts up and when it stops the child is gone.."
Kakashi furrowed his brows, "So we're dealing with a monster whom you haven't seen, is allergic to salt and lures its prey out? Don't worry about the danger, any of them lowers their guard enough to be taken and I'll go after them with a vengeance." The three genin exchanged wide eyed looks.
"What did you mean on the path? What state?" Sakura piped up.
"I meant…" Hilgride looked troubled, "They're like thick pancakes."
"Huh?" was the general reaction.
"Crispy?"
"No lad, more like no more than 1 inch thick splattered across the dirt."
Sakura went green. Kakashi's eye widened.
"They're not missing any body parts? Haven't been eaten or anything?"
Hilgride answered dryly, "It's a bit difficult to check Master Shinobi."
"Of course."
Sakura turned to Kakashi, "This is a C rank?" Kakashi too was frowning, "You mentioned none of this in the report."
"Sure we did. Got one of our best writers and everything to write that request."
Kakashi face palmed, "I think I know what happened. Right yeah that makes sense."
"What?" Sasuke asked.
Hilgride sighed having realised too, "They thought the poor country bumpkins were exaggerating and didn't believe us."
"I'll fix that as soon as I get back." Kakashi had a dangerous gleam in his eye.
"You're not staying? Well don't go back now, it's getting dark."
"Don't tell us, things move in the dark." Sasuke said sarcastically.
"No…we have great pumpkin soup." Hilgride shrugged, "And hopefully you'll feel indebted to protect the kids for a night."
The shinobi shot her an amused look, "Not even going to try and make it subtle?"
Hilgride took one look over the striking team and smirked, "I got the feeling you guys don't do subtle."
Naruto was intrigued by all the mystery around the beast. His C rank luck had stayed true, it wasn't a C rank anymore not with the pancake kids. He didn't know what to expect…damn that was slightly scary and disturbing.
Hilgride held up the flap to a big tent, they entered to a big communal style kitchen where the fire sparked and smoked over teams of loud people chatting over food at benches.
"Are you the leader of the village?" Sakura asked Hilgride curiously.
"Hmm no lass, that would be Perenelle over there. She was too busy with the frightened kids to come greet you in person. Perenelle!"
A fierce looking woman looked up from the gaggle of children and grinned savagely.
"Hilgride! These the shinobi they sent?" She handed the kids off to a startled man and wound her way over. "Hmmf gotta say except for the tall one you don't look like much."
"Appearances are deceiving." Naruto replied smoothly.
"That they are lad that they are. I'm Perenelle, that's all you need to know, leader of this spry little cess pit. Welcome to home." She grinned showing elongated canines.
"Yo. I'm Kakashi and these are my cute genin Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura. We offer protection for the night in exchange for food."
Hilgride coughed, "There was an accident with the request, they're not qualified for this."
"Well that's idiotic." Perenelle said bluntly, "I just managed to calm the kids down by saying there would be someone along to get rid of the thing. They get all upset you have to calm them down. She pointed at the assembled shinobi who nodded very quickly.
"Hmmf help yourselves to grub, sit anywhere. We keep the kids under a very close eye in the hall. We don't let them out until morning but one of them always eludes us." She hissed.
"The mysterious cracking?" Kakashi delicately raised a silver eyebrow.
"No, the double dares with melted raspberry on top." Everyone stared at the woman. "Of course the mysterious cracking!"
"How many exits are there?" Sasuke asked.
"Just the one." Hilgride inputted slightly sheepishly.
"Then HOW on earth are they eluding you?" Naruto asked incredulously.
Perenelle rolled her eyes, "And why do you think we hired shinobi in the first place? We don't know and we don't like it! There's been nine killing so far and we rather there not be a tenth." Her voice dropped impossibly low.
Kakashi nodded, "Sakura sealing traps, Naruto traps, Sasuke go intimidate the kids. I'll go scout for a bit." They blinked and he was gone in a flash of silver and navy.
"Fast." Perenelle remarked admiringly.
Sakura excused herself to go scribble on her paper in a corner. Naruto himself was free until the majority of the hall cleared out and he had the room and the security to create his traps. Sasuke did not look happy with his job one bit.
"Teme." He dropped into place beside Sasuke, "Good cop bad cop?"
"Sure." Sasuke said relieved, "Children are annoying."
"You're a child." It slipped out and Naruto cursed himself. Sasuke glared at him.
"And you're not?" He asked waspishly.
"I'm as much of a child as you are." Naruto said at last. Sasuke shot him a veiled look then smirked.
"Hn."
"Hey! I have you to fix me up don't I? I was surprised though, I didn't think you'd go for the medical stuff."
"I don't exactly have a choice do I? Sakura would have been perfect…" She was Naruto mused, two medics on one team could be useful but Kakashi had her hooked on bloody seals! "And there is no way in hell I am letting you heal me."
"I can be a good healer." He objected. He grew Kakashi's eye back didn't he?
Sasuke snorted, "Not even the Sage of the six paths could make you a healer dobe." And was promptly baffled as Naruto rolled on the floor laughing. The idea of Sasuke as a healer was strange. He couldn't connect the cold brilliant future Sasuke with a healer career at all! And Sakura going into seals was similarly unexpected. It threw off the future immensely but he didn't know whether he should change it back or not. Healer Sakura was ferocious; Sealer Sakura could be terrifying especially going by some of the cackles he had heard her do. Rogue Sasuke was brilliant; Healer Sasuke could pose a problem in the front line combat department. Then he remembered Itachi and winced, yeah there was no way Sasuke was going to ignore his combat skills. With healing skills he actually stood a better chance against Itachi. He had tried talking to Sakura about healing and she had nearly taken his head off in defence of seals. At least he had experience in making things explode.
"Dobe…" Sasuke twitched, "Get off the ground before I drag you up…"
Naruto rolled up still chuckling and waved at the scared children in the centre.
"Hello!" He called out cheerfully, "I'm Naruto, this is Sasuke we're going to protect you from the big bad beastie." Sasuke glowered down at them all, "Don't give us extra work…"
The group of about eleven children burst into tears. Even Sasuke looked startled at that reaction.
"I didn't mean…"
"Shut up Teme," Naruto said absentmindedly, "Hey don't cry. He's just a big grouch." He patted the smallest sobbing child on the back. The oldest child shot him a teary scathing look.
"We don't care about him!" She bit out, "The big bad beastie as you put it took our siblings so don't you dare take it lightly!"
"Tamaka…" One of the boys sniffed and clutched at her shirt.
Naruto was taken aback. Oh right just because he fought the Juubi and the legends of the shinobi world didn't mean he could afford to take wild beasts lightly. His face softened, these people had been terrorised by the animal…he had to show respect. He couldn't be insensitive.
"I'm sorry, I swear we'll take care of this. No one is going to die tonight and I never go back on my word. That is my ninja way." He said with conviction and the kids peered suspiciously at him.
"You're just a few years older than us. What on earth can you do? You're most likely going to be taken by the Panami' Creach! And our village will just carry on being terrorised!" A boy screamed at him.
The "Let me Dobe." Surprised Naruto. Sasuke knelt down in front of the half hysterical boy.
"You've lost family right? Close family, good friends…you've seen them die and you're terrified. You don't want to die but you don't want other people to die…I understand, I do. My clan was killed and I saw it all…afterwards they asked me a question…" Sasuke jabbed the boy in the chest, "Do you want to live and grow strong in defiance or do you want to curl up and scream at the world it isn't fair? I dedicated my life to become strong…so that my clan could be avenged down to the last infant. Get vengeance for your dead …spite the beast by not giving it your fear." The boy hiccupped but was silent.
"You talk pretty but words aren't going to fend it off." The girl said bluntly ruining the atmosphere completely. "Don't coddle us like we don't understand. They're dead and we don't want condescension." She stumbled over the last word.
Naruto and Sasuke exchanged looks, "Who's your mother?"
"Perenelle…" It made perfect sense…
"Well shinobi we know the village better than most of the hunters. How can we help?" The girl's eyes blazed with determination behind the tears.
"You don't." Sasuke shot back bluntly ruining the atmosphere again.
Naruto shrugged, "He's right. It's too difficult to keep tabs on you all if you're everywhere."
"We want to help! We're not children!" Another girl piped up.
"Yes you are…" Sasuke looked exasperated, "You don't have the proper training and we don't know what is going on. Stay here."
The children looked near crying again. Naruto cut in hurriedly, "If you want to do something draw us a map of the village with all the routes in and out and the forest surrounding it." He signalled to Sakura to send them some ink and paper. They got tossed in his direction indiscriminately. He handed them to the children and the girl rapidly took charge.
"Maru draw the overall layout. Kusume do the buildings, Takami do the public routes. Aseru the secret routes. Rest of you chip in with what we've missed."
Naruto hung back with Sasuke keeping a sharp eye on all of them, "That was good what you said to them." He murmured. "It gave them a purpose."
Sasuke hmmed, "They needed a purpose. And we get information without having to work for it."
There was a silence between them. Hot and sharp and obvious. There were too many secrets, resentments and misconceptions between them to truly become friends. Team mates were business first and foremost. Friends came later, if at all in their case. They had been a twisted mockery of a friendship but the travelling had twisted it on itself for Naruto and Sasuke had no idea what his future self had.
Sakura walked up to them holding out two bowls of stew. They started.
"Did you forget to feed yourselves again?" She said dryly, "You're no use if you keel over out of hunger."
"Sorry Sakura." Naruto accepted the bowl. Sasuke nodded at her.
"What are we doing?" Sakura looked interested, "I have several barrier seals drawn up and two triggering ones. Anyone leaves we'll know."
"The story they gave is very…"
"Fantastical." Sasuke finished sourly. "A beast none of them have seen which carries off children and no one knows how?"
"Guys, ninjas blow fire, an invisible stealthy monster who squashes children can't be that improbable?" Sakura commented quietly.
"Are there any records of such an animal in the library? Sakura you should know."
She blushed slightly, "Ah no. Camouflage is a possibility though."
"What squashes children to death? Only children?" Naruto asked blankly.
"None." Sakura admitted, "That's strange, animals…even monsters have to eat."
"Exactly my cute little genin." A gloved hand sneaked in and stole some of their stew to form a new bowl. Kakashi leant against a table, dipping bread in the soup.
"Sensei!" They exclaimed.
He waved back idly, "So down that train of thought. It doesn't eat humans…good for it…what can it eat? Whatever squashed the children was large…very large…going from the uniform thickness but there aren't big enough animals around here for it to live off."
"Plant eater?" Sasuke asked.
Kakashi hmmed. "Probably not, it's a good idea but most of the plants around here are poisonous."
"Really?" Sakura perked up.
"Later Sakura, I'll show you how to gather some samples. So one food group left."
"Fish." Naruto slowly smiled, "There has to be a river close by for a village or town to grow."
"Bingo." Kakashi pointed the soggy bread at Naruto. "We'll check it out in the morning, dark is here and we have a job to do."
The women and men were putting all the utensils away with a grim air now. Some of them pulled out hoes, spades and axes; some drew the children to the centre of the hall and sat in a circle around them facing the children who were still scribbling away.
"Here!" The girl called out waving a piece of paper, "We did it!" Naruto retrieved it, handed it to Sasuke and went off to implement his traps.
Sasuke spread it out over a table. Kakashi put his empty bowl down, when had that happened?
"Good going you two. A map will be helpful."
Sakura pointed out the river. "It's more up ground than the rest of the village. It winds around and continues to Tanzaki Gai. It's huge!"
Kakashi nodded but traced an area out, "The villagers have already combed this area and here. So that leaves this area. The other areas are too dense for anything of the size I'm thinking."
"How big sensei?" Sasuke asked rubbing his eyes.
"About the size of five Hokage buildings…I'd say…the poor girl's blonde hair couldn't even be seen anymore and it's the same for all the others so around 5 or 6."
"Shinobi!" Hilgride ran up to them bow slung over her shoulder. "The salt line's been broken!" She looked distraught, "We have a saboteur." She hissed. "It could be inside at this very minute, be on your guard."
Naruto came running back at that point. "All done! Just tell your men and women not to try and come inside. Sakura's seals can be activated now." He nodded at Sakura.
"Hai! Fuin!" Sakura slapped a line of ink leading to her seals. It lit up to the colour of lava then faded away flowly.
"It worked!" She bounced around like an eager child. Kakashi stopped her by placing a hand on her head. "Maaa calm down. Be on your guard, nothing can be taken for granted. Do not take your eyes off the kids. Sasuke, Naruto watch duty. I'll try and sense." He sat down in the lotus position and became instantly still.
"Well he doesn't waste any time does he?" Hilgride remarked, "Off you go you lot."
"What is he doing?" Sakura asked blankly.
Sasuke shrugged and wandered over to a window facing the forest in the direction sensei had said the animal could have its lair.
Naruto turned to Hilgride, "Did you do this for the other children?"
"The last few, yes lad."
"Can you tell me what happened?" He followed her as she leant against a pillar in full view of the silent kids. She sighed.
"I told you most of it already. Silence. Cracking noise, like a big egg actually and then the air cracks you know? It bends and shifts…it's kind of terrifying…and it grabs a child and the child disappears. The cracks go away after that."
"The air cracks!?" Naruto stared at her. She looked a little sheepish, "I can't find a better word for it. You know like glass…that's it…the cracks run through it like glass."
"What made you think shinobi could help?" Naruto asked still in a high voice.
"You guys can walk on damn water…breathe fire dragons…what made you think we wouldn't?"
"Good point." Naruto turned away thinking. Air cracking? He had never heard of such a jutsu.
Kurama? Heard of a jutsu or animal which can crack air?
Umm no. Interesting case though…maybe ice spirits?
She didn't mention a temperature drop…hmm.
This is an extremely weird case kid.
Tell me about it, so made up your mind on whether we're going to be friends?
No. Go away.
Naruto sighed. He rubbed his eyes, guess even backwater villages had grit.
"I swear this grit wasn't here before." He murmured.
Hilgride tensed then barked, "Everybody ready! That's the first sign kid, grit in your eye! It's coming!" She drew and strung her bow. Naruto pulled out two kunai anticipating the battle.
The room tensed suddenly, waiting with steel drawn. Tension filled the air along with the frightened breathing of the children. Which direction? Left? Right? Front? Back? People shifted on the balls of their feet.
Kakashi's eye flew open suddenly, "Huge chakra from the left!" He barked. Everyone turned to face the left just as an ominous thunderous cracking filled the room like numerous bones being broken.
Hanbunbi is a half tailed beast. Sorry this chapter was rushed but hope you enjoy it. Leave a review if you liked it?