Living Decay
Chapter 6
The gang member's hand grasped Sakura by the wrist.
"Stop!" Naruto shouted. But it was too late, Sakura had already raised her fist up and slammed it so hard into the boy's face that there was no question that his skull had cracked in at least several different places. Needless to say, the boy was not getting up anytime soon.
Sakura turned her head back to her attackers; her eyes were completely white while veins visibly popped along her arms and forehead.
"No one touches me!" She shouted as chakra visibly formed around her still held up hand.
"Yo-you can't do that!" Another gang member shouted while stepping away. "You'll be arrested!"
"You wanna' try to take me in?" Sakura threatened while slamming her fists together with enough force to cause the sand she was standing on to be pushed away. The display was enough to cause even the city guard to hesitate before leaping down and surrounding the young Leave ninja.
Due to his shouting, Naruto too was surrounded by Sand guards and was forced over to Sakura.
"You come to this village as guests and attack our ninja." A guard spoke calmly. "You have broken the treaty between our two village and will be punished for your transgressions."
Despite not actually having done anything, Naruto did not argue. He would not be able to live with himself if Sakura were to take the full blunt of the punishment.
The boy's eye slowly widened when he realized something dreadful. Sakura glanced at the boy and quickly realized the reason behind his terrified expression.
"Told you that you'd be the ones punished." Kankuro laughed while putting his strangely wrapped object on his back once again.
The circle of city guards got closer and were about to grab the pair before a voice rang out.
"What the Hell is going on here?" The voice was clearly female and held enough authority to cause the city guards to back away slightly.
"T-Temari." Kankuro looked mortified by the arrival of the still unseen individual. "What are you doing here?"
The person pushed her way past the guards. "Shut it Kankuro!" She snapped. The woman looked at the two Leaf ninja and at the gang members that were still standing around.
"You started this; didn't you?" Temari said while looking over to Kankuro.
"O-Of course not sis." The kid was sweating quiet heavily now, and not from the desert heat.
Temari pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration before looking at the two Leaf ninja once again. She only glanced at Sakura, but her vision stuck at Naruto for a brief moment longer then expected.
"He's pretty cute." She mumbled to herself before unconsciously patting her skirt to rid it of any dirt. She cleared her throat before speaking again.
"I am very sorry about what my idiot brother just put you through." Here words sounded genuine. "I understand that there is much tension between our homes but that is no excuse for my brother and his little friends' behavior." She shot said Sand ninja a nasty glare.
"Hey!" Kankuro shouted. "That girl was the one who started it." He tried to desperately defend himself. It did not work.
"Lady Temari." One of the village guard addressed the much younger ninja. "Despite what Lord Kankuro might have done, the female Leaf ninja did retaliate violently and, according to the laws specified within the treaty between our two lands, she must be punished for her actions."
Temari looked from the village guard to the Leaf shinobi then back again. "Did he do anything?" She asked while gesturing towards Naruto.
It took a moment for the guard to respond. "He did try to interfere with the conflict between the female Leaf shinobi and Lord Kankuro's friends. Most likely to protect his comrade and potentially escalating the issue. He too will be brought in for potentially creating conflict between the two villages, just as she will be." The man paused. "You may be the Kazekage's daughter, but even you do not have the power to defy the laws of the treaty."
Temari tried to think of a counter to the guard's words, but nothing came to mind.
"What kind of mess have you two gotten yourselves into this time?" A very annoyed voice groaned out from a nearby roof. None other then Kakashi and Sasuke could be seen standing atop the building. Both with varying degrees of irritation etched onto their faces.
"These shinobi of the Leaf have violated the treaty between our two villages and must be punished." The same guard replied. "If you make any attempt to interfere, then you too will receive an adequate punishment."
The man turned back to Naruto and Sakura before reaching out for the Uzumaki. "Do not struggle and the punishment will be over quicker." With his other hand, the man pulled out a cat-o-nine tails.
Sakura's eyes widened. Such a barbaric tool was about to be used against them. Her back already hurt at just the thought of the vicious tool splitting her skin.
The guard motioned for a couple of his fellows to grab and hold onto Naruto; forcing him to the ground and tearing his jacket, shirt, and combat mesh away from his young body. Ropes come out from within their cloaks and wrapped around the boy's wrists before they backed away enough to not accidentally be hit by the multi-tailed whip. Another pair took hold of Sakura and pulled her a short distance away as well.
"Hey!" The boy verbally protested. "You could have just asked."
The guards ignored him while the main man tugged and flexed the torture tool. He looked at Naruto's bare back and could not hide the small smirk from gracing his lips. He had always wanted to do this to a filthy Leaf ninja.
"Look at what you've done!" Temari harshly whispered to her brother.
"I-I didn't think it would get this bad." Kankuro tried to defend himself uselessly. Temari was tempted to beat her idiotic brother to a pulp right then and there. She was just happy that her other brother; or father, was not around to see this. Their enjoyment of the incoming torture would only make the situation that much worse.
"You don't want to do this." Naruto warned with honest worry flowing from every word.
"You can't stop what will happen." The man chuckled softly.
"I can't." Naruto admitted. "But the second that thing touches me, you will be hunted down and torn apart." He stated. There was no malice in his words.
The man only chuckled a bit more at the boy's pathetic excuse for a threat.
Naruto looked up at Kakashi and could see a sadness within the jonin's eyes that he had never seen before. Whether it was directed at Naruto or at the incoming nightmare that was about to be unleashed; Naruto did not know.
A hush fell over the small crowd around the group of ninja; everyone anticipating the sound of the cracking whip. The man slowly raised the tool high above his head and held it there just to allow the boy to suffer in anticipation for when the punishment may begin.
"He' 'ee." A retching, screeching voice cried out from a nearby dark alley. Due to the near complete silence of the surrounding area, it was almost impossible to not hear the sounds of gurgling and retching that accompanied the voice. Or at least what sounded like a voice.
A heavily cloaked figure stumbled out from the alley. The aged black cloak completely hid the figure's body while also showing signs of what appeared to be burn damage and several tears and holes that did not appear to come from any tool or weapon. Burn marks could be seen on every one.
The figure stumbled closer to the group while their upper body lurched unnaturally. All the while making the same gurgling and retching sounds.
The torturer sighed heavily before lowing his weapon. He recognized the cloak as being from a disgraced shinobi of the village. The man was once revered by the village as a war hero during the Great Shinobi War but several very unfortunate events lead to him losing not only his entire squad, but his wife and daughter as well; but the later was due to his excessive drinking. The man was almost never sober and had visited the hospital so many times do to alcohol poisoning that he had his own permanent room in the building. The worst part was that he and the drunk used to be great friends.
"I do not have the time for you!" The torturer shouted at the man.
The figure continued to stumble forward as if not hearing the man. The other ninja stepped aside to allow the individual to approach their squad leader. They had been ordered to only allow their leader to interact with the drunkered as the man would refuse to listen to anybody else; even while inebriated, the man was still a skillful ninja that could easily end them long before they would even have a chance to move.
The figure came to a slouched halt in front of the leader.
"What do you want?" The man almost snarled. The only reply he got was more gurgling and retching.
"Stay away from him." Naruto warned from his still down position.
The man glared down at the boy before lifting his foot up and planting it firmly against the back of the boy's head before pushing the boy's head down into the sand.
The cloaked figure gurgled and croaked loudly before stumbling forward towards the squad leader with it's arms out in front of it.
"What the?" The man was caught off guard but was able to shove the man away. "The Hell is wrong with you?!"
The shove caused the figure to stumble back a bit. When it did, a sickly green, dark red, and off-white fluid splashed out from underneath the hood. The fluid landed mostly on the figure's cloak, causing it to his and quickly dissolve the material that it had come into contact with.
The squad leader slowly pulled out a kunai. "What's wrong with you?" He asked slowly.
The figure snarled.
"Stop fooling around!" The squad leader shouted before quickly reaching forward, snatching the cloak and ripping it away from the drunk man.
Only, there was no man underneath the cloak. What stood there was best described as living gore.
The legs were completely skinless with the muscles, nerves and tendons twisting around the unexposed bone. The feet were nothing more then two toed extensions fo the legs. There was not skin on the entire front torso of the creature; nor where there any muscle. Hell, the sternum was completely gone with the ribs being completely exposed.
Unlike Naruto's other creations; this monster still had all of it's organs. Only they were all enlarged and the same color as the fluid that had come out it earlier. Every organ was now connected to the creature's enlarged lungs.
The monster's arms only had loose hanging flesh half-haphazardly wrapped around twisted muscle and bone with hands that wielded the same long, manipulative clawed hands that the Stalker's possessed.
It's head had no hair to speak of. Empty eye sockets, a missing nose and a jaw that was melted and fused to the exposed trachea where all that remained of the individual that the creature had once been.
"That's not your friend anymore." Naruto said solemnly. "He's a Puker now."
The man glared down at Naruto's exposed back. "What did you do to him!?" Without a second thought, the man raised his whip and quickly brought it down hard on Naruto's back with a loud crack.
The world appeared to stop for a moment, as if even the universe could not contemplate how stupid a mistake the man had just made.
"Oh no." Sakura whispered.
A yellow light appeared from deep within the Puker's eyes at it let loose a horrendous gurgling scream while charging towards the squad leader. The man easily jumped back, only to have a silently charging Stalker slam it's skull against the man's back, sending him to the ground. Screams and shouted ripped out from the crowd as the realization of what was happening finally dawned on them.
The other Sand ninja drew their weapons and made to help their ally only for something very large to land on a nearby roof with a heavy crash.
The Tormentor looked down at the crowd before lowering it's head and letting out a terrifying roar while raising one of it's massive arms and slamming it down on the ground below in anger.
The second Stalker rushed out from it's hiding place and charged at the ninja that were still holding him down.
The monsters were all working together to keep the enemy ninja away from their living Marker. Even with their lack of numbers, they were doing a very good job.
The squad leader did not even have time to register what had just happened before a pair of twisted hands grabbed him and turned him on his back. He reached for another kunai when the Tormentor's massive arm slammed down on him and pinned him to the ground effortlessly.
Needless to say, all of the noise attracted the Kazekage's attention and the man was on the scene just moments after the Tormentor's loud arrival. He did not say any words as he watched the event unfold. The other ninja quickly surrounded their leader in a defensive formation; even though the monsters did not appear to show any interest in the man at all. They only appeared to care about the man that had struck the young blond Leaf ninja.
Despite being pinned down, the squad leader was still able to draw a kunai and proceeded to stab the weapon into the thick armored hide of the Tormentor; to no effect.
The arms from earlier reached down and held the man's arms down. He looked up to see the Puker knelled down t his head; staring down at him with those tiny yellow pinpricks that all of the monster's now sported. The same fluid from earlier dripped from the hole where the mouth should have been.
The droplets that his the man's flesh sizzled and hissed as they burned away flesh; causing the man to grit his teeth in pain.
The two Stalkers, seeing that their master was no longer in danger, made their way over to the pinned man and each held an arm down. Freeing the Puker from having to do so.
Kakashi was astounded. These creatures, without being directed by their creator, were able to work together in ways that not even highly trained ninja were able to. They were able to work together to not insure Naruto's protection, but to take out a target without missing a beat. Using their unique abilities, no matter how different from each other they might be, to eliminate a threat. And he was about to witness the elimination.
The Sand ninja still tried to struggle against the much stronger creatures, only to have his head held still by the Puker's own clawed hands. He felt the creature pull at his jaw and tried to keep it shut to the best of his ability; this ultimately failed however and his mouth was forced wide open.
Naruto stood up and rubbed his wrists as blood started to pour from his left eye. He found his body calmly walk over to the prone man as his eye changed into the red, marked stone it had back at the academy.
"You made a very poor mistake." His mouth spoke, but Naruto did not make it do that. His voice was calm, almost friendly. As if anger, hate or animosity simply did not exist within the range of his voice. His other eye began to bleed.
Sakura was scared. This was not Naruto. This was not her friend. This was something else. Something that was not natural, not right. It was using Naruto, his body was clearly not his own anymore. A horrid thought crossed her mind. What if the being within him had taken over? What if Naruto's mind was now dead and gone?
"One is never meant to strike a god." The friendly tone made the words more unsettling then they should have been. Naruto could not stop them from pouring from his mouth.
"Even an incomplete god is still something that should be honored and respected until he can be made whole again." Naruto's head looked down at the man before looking at his creations.
"You need to be punished." No malice or hate could be found in any of his words. "But do not worry. You will still be of use...In making us whole."
The Puker leaned it's head back. It's organs constricted as it's lungs expanded to the point of pushing the already exposed rips that much further away from the body. With a horrific retching gurgle, the creature poured it's caustic fluid directly onto the man's face from the hole where it's mouth should have been. The man tried to struggle away to no avail as the bile entered his mouth and traveled down into his lungs and stomach. The pain was instant.
Once the creature's lungs were empty. The creatures all let go of the man, stepped back and watched as he rolled onto his hands and knees and retched violently. A combination of the Puker's bile, blood and organ tissue poured from his vomiting mouth. His tongue, teeth soon followed before his body would shut down due to the sever trauma. Even in death, the bile dissolved away his innards, with his abdomen, jaw and a majority of his face.
"See?" Naruto's voice said almost gleefully. "Now you are useful to us." He leaned back as the tattoo on his stomach glowed a violent red before spinning rapidly. Several massively thick, red tentacles slowly emerged from within the quickly spinning tattoo; grasped the man's corpse before slowly dragging it directly into the tattoo. The body vanishing within without any sign of resistance.
Naruto sighed happily.
"I think I will look over that letter again." The Kazekage mumbled to himself before addressing his soldiers. "Those Leaf ninja and their...things are to be left alone for the extend of their stay here. Understood?"
The ninja nodded before going about to try and disperse the crowd. The Kazekage vanished on a cloud of sand.
His head motioned to look up. Sakura; seeing what was about to happen, quickly rushed forward and covered Naruto's eyes with her hands.
"What are you doing Pink One?" Naruto asked with a smile. "We were just going to ask for volunteers. It would help us to become whole once more."
"Naruto." Kakashi addressed the boy with his authoritative tone. "What are you doing?"
"Ah, Masked One." Naruto said in a cheerfully friendly voice. "The Whiskered One is here, but we decided to enjoy the small amount of freedom while we were given the chance. He can see and hear what we do, but can not do anything."
"Fine." Sakura said while still covering Naruto's eyes. The boy's body made no motion to try and remove her hands. "Then who are you?"
"We are a god. Did we not already say that?" He asked genuinely. "You may call us simply Brother if you wish. We came to this world to feed a short while ago, but your kind was somehow able to take away our body and trap us within the Whiskered One. It has been mildly irritating until recently when we were finally able to make our pawns." He paused for a moment. "But a living Marker has never existed before and it has given our pawns their own minds. A tad unexpected if anything else. Needless to say, we plan on eventually breaking free and reforming our body."
"And how do you plan on doing that?" Sasuke snarked. "A true god would never allow themselves to be trapped. Let alone trapped within a dunce like Naruto."
"We have not figured out a way to break free as of yet. But we plan on using this planet to reform our body." He paused once again. "It seems our time is over. The Whiskered One's will is breaking our control. It was very nice speaking to you and I do hope that your corpses do not decay away before we can use you to make our body whole once again." He went silent.
"Sakura?" Naruto's usual toned voice returned. "Can you please take hands off?" His voice was slightly panicked.
When she did, Naruto quickly turned his head and vomited.
The Stalkers and Tormentor made concerned groans and coos at their master's obviously strange actions; while the Puker stood confused as to why it's master's bile did not cause the same smoking and hissing it's own did.
"Naruto?" Sakura asked, her voice stiff.
"S-Sorry about that." He chuckled embarrassingly while wiping his mouth. It was a bit of a mess.
He turned his head only to receive a swift punch on the cheek. Before he could even react to the attack however, Sakura's arms quickly wrapped around the boy's neck as tears streamed down her own own cheeks.
"Don't you ever let that thing take over again." She demanded softly. She did not want to loose her friend. Especially to an entity that could reform the dead. She did not bawl or even hiccup; Sakura just let the tears silently fall and soak into Naruto's bare shoulder. She had no concern that she was hugging a half naked boy.
"You had a us scared there for a moment Naruto." Kakashi said with a relieved sigh. He had been just as terrified as Sakura when the entity had taken over Naruto. He had already failed the boy's father once before in his life; he could not do it again.
Sasuke gave just a grunt. His own way of showing that he was at least slightly concerned as well.
"Um, pardon me." A voice from behind spoke up. It was Temari and her younger brother Kankuro being dragged by his ear.
"I don't really know what's going on. But my brother would like to say something." She gave Kankuro's ear a hard tug. "Don't you?"
"Owowowowowow. Jeez, I'm sorry already." He grumbled before his sister let go of his ear.
"Your Temari right?" Sakura asked after she let go of Naruto and wiped her eyes free from her tears. "Thanks for trying to help earlier." She said with a polite bow.
"It was not like I actually did anything." The Sand ninja turned her attention to Naruto. "More importantly, are you alright? How is your back?"
Admits everything that had happened, everyone had forgotten that all of it had started because that man had slashed Naruto's back with that cat o' nine tails.
Naruto turned around to show the group his back; where the whip had broken the skin in several places, allowing blood to drip down his back.
His creations all gave low groans of worry and concern. Their Marker was not supposed to bleed.
"Is it bad?" Naruto asked nonchalantly.
"Not a bit." Kankuro said sarcastically. Only to get a bop on the head from his sister. "This is your fault you know. You could at least pretend to act at least a tiny bit apologetic.
Sakura sent the male Sand ninja a nasty glare before pulling out a special healing ointment and some gauze and bandages. She soaked the gauze in the ointment before using the bandages to hold them over the wounds.
"Thanks Sakura." Naruto said before walking over to his Tormentor and grabbing his back out from the within the beast's empty chest cavity. The team had been using the creature as a sort of pack mule during their travels.
He pulled out another mesh shirt, t-shirt and a jacket before redressing.
"These are some impressive beasts you have here." Kankuro said while admiring the Tormentor.
"Very." Temari said nervously as a Stalker sniffed and circled around her. The other was currently trying to understand what the bandages on Naruto's were.
"Oh." Temari just remembered. "Father decided to have no actions taken against you all and asked for me to apologize for the entire event." A small smirk formed on her lips. She motioned for Naruto to come closer.
The boy looked back at Kakashi for guidance, who only gave him his unique eye smile as an answer to his unasked question. Sakura's eyebrow twitched.
Naruto walked closer to Temari. The woman leaned down slightly to whisper in the boy's ear.
"I will be participating in the Chunin Exams this year. I would like to see you there." She whispered.
Naruto looked at her for a moment before branding his trademark smile. "You bet I'll be there. You can also bet that I'll be the first one to make it to chunin too.
Temari smirked. The boy clearly did not get the hidden meaning in her words, but his positive demeanor did not detour her from trying to at least get a date with the blonde. He seemed like he could be fun.
She and her brother took their leave, allowing for Kakashi's team to make for their hotel. Naruto's creations went back to hiding among the buildings of the village once again.
As they all took their leave, they were all unaware of the red-headed figure standing a top the Kazekage's Tower.
Gaara had seen everything.
The night was uneventful. It was odd for the Leaf ninja however, the lack of chirping crickets was not something that they were used to.
The next day, the team went to the Kazekage's Tower and were hastily given the village leader's reply to the scroll they had given him the day before. The man's eyes did not leave Naruto's form for even a moment during the quick exchange.
With what they needed in hand. The ninja team left the village without any interruption. Hell, after a few days of uneventful travel, the team arrived at their home village without so much as a hint of trouble.
Needless to say, seeing the Puker and Tormentor being added as new members of the village was unnerving to those that were still not used to Naruto's undead creations.
The Tormentor tried to enter the Hokage Tower, and was saddened when it was unable to fit through the human made door.
The ninja team handed the Hokage the scroll they had been given by the Kazekage before each giving their own mission reports. After, the genin all went their own way, leaving Kakashi with the village leader.
"So, I assume you knew something like that was going to happen?" Kakashi asked his leader.
"Maybe not that exactly, but yes." Sarutobi admitted. "It has been difficult for us to be able to get even the smallest of a response from our supposed ally and the only other alternative would have been by using invasive force. Using Naruto's beasts to scare them was the only other method of obtaining an answer." He looked at the contents of the scroll. "It does not hurt they it also helped gain an answer I actually wanted."
Kakashi did not respond.
"Give your team a few days to rest up. I'll have another mission for you by the time you are ready. Telling Naruto that it is another C ranked mission might speed up his recovery." Sarutobi paused for a moment. "And please have him visit the hospital without his beasts. They get too excited around so many sick and injured."
"Wow! That's amazing Hinata!" Naruto shouted as he watched Hinata finish a new fighting technique she had developed on her last mission.
The boy went straight to his favorite food bar and met his lavender-eyed friend there. The two talked for a bit before Naruto demanded he witness Hinata's new abilities.
"Thank you, Naruto." Her heated face was enough to hide her slight blush at the praise. "Now it's your turn. Tell me about your mission."
Naruto did, all the while smiling big and occasionally petting the Tormentor's head. He obviously left out the part about loosing control, but told the girl just about everything else. He failed to notice her slight facial twitch when he told her about what how strange a girl Temari was.
Besides that, Hinata sat quietly and listened to Naruto's happy voice. His smile warming her in ways no one else ever could. She did wish that the Puker would stop trying to touch her developing breasts. It was the strangest thing. She had slapped the creature's hand away from her chest at least a half dozen times already.
The creature was just being curious to why she only had two bile processing organs. Such an ineffective system. She would only have enough to possibly take down one, maybe two targets before running out and being forced to attack with her claw-less arms. The creatures it had been created from were strange.
Naruto and Hinata sat and talked about what Naruto might have missed while he was gone. Apparently someone had tried to break into Naruto's apartment while he was gone. The village only found out recently when the man had not been seen for several days. They found his corpse partially fused with the Corruption growing inside Naruto's closet. The Slasher had made short work of the man as what wounds could be seen where all piercing wounds originating from the back.
It would appear the leaving the Slasher as his house guard was a good idea after all.