An: another chapter. Whoo. Anyone still reading this?
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Chapter 8: the devil comes back
Naruko looked at the man that stood before them with Zabuza and Haku. His headband had a scratch through the konoha sign marking him as a missing nin from their village. She could feel the memories streaming back and the anger and hurt came with them. Asuma and Kakashi reconised him but did not know how Naruko knew him. His name was Gorou Takahasma.
"Zabuza, I recomend that you and Haku join our side. Gatou is planning on double-crossing you. If you want proof then just touch Narukos hand and she will show you." Kakashi told the A-class missing nin.
"Haku, touch the girls hand and check if its true." Zabuza replied after some thought and Haku did as she was told.
There was a minute of silence and Gorou smirked since Naruko never took her eyes off him. "Hello Naruko-chan. Miss me?" he said making the two jounin and Naruko narrow their eyes.
"Zabuza-sama. This girl had a clone go to gatous hide-out and there she overheard him give orders to the mercenaries that when we would be tired after killing the ninja here, they would over-power us and kill us. That way he would get away with not paying us." Haku told her master making Zabuza narrow his eyes and nod to Kakashi.
"I will join you." He finally said and Gorou looked shocked.
"well it looks like things are not in my favor here." Gorou said and started backing away.
"Asuma-sensei. Let me fight the fool here one on one. I want to finish this once and for all." Naruko told Asuma.
"Alright, but you will explain this to me when this is all over." Asuma said and him and the other 3 backed away from Naruko and Gorou.
"If you win Gorou, you will be allowed to leave this place. If you lose...well you'll be dead so no point in putting things like that." Naruko said to the missing nin making him grin.
"Deal." He said with confidence.
Naruko took off her weights throwing them at her sensei who caught them. Naruko then took out her knuckle-blades and charged up her wind chakra before running at Gorou with her eyes flashing red.
-in the village-
Kurenai and the others were scattered around the village fighting off groups of mercenaries and so far it was going well and there hadn't been much damage done to the surrounding buildings. Kurenai took out 5 with a quick genjutsu and cutting their throats while they were stuck in it and then headed to help Hinata with her group when they noticed a explosion coming from the bridge.
'I hope Naruko is all right' Kurenai thought as she finished a daring mercenary off quickly and they headed deeper into the village where more enemies were when they noticed that they had back-up. Gai was there with his team, and when Kurenai asked him about why then he said that the hokage decided that they needed help and then they kept fighting.
-at the bridge 5 minutes prior-
Naruko and Gorou were clashing over and over and Naruko had managed to cut his legs lightly making him slower. But she was rather badly cut all over and sore but the kyuubi was working wonders by keeping the pain at bay. He had contacted her earlier in the fight and given her his chakra since he disliked Gorou as much as she did so they teamed up for the moment.
'fuck the demon brat has grown strong, I guess I have to blow her up.' Gorou thought and the next time they clashed he slapped a explosive note to her vest and then jumped a safe distance away.
Naruko noticed the note immediately and ripped the vest off and was holding it when it exploded. Asuma and Kakashi had seen this and Asuma was about to jump in when they noticed the smoke was clearing. Showing that Naruko was standing where gorou had been just a few seconds prior, rahter badly cut up and was bleeding showing that she didn't escape the explosion completely, her features started to change and her hands grew clawed and her fangs grew over her lower lip showing that the kyuubi had taken over. Gorou on the other hand was worse off. Naruko had used the kawarimi to change places with him and his arm got blown up.
"You fucking bitch! You will pay for this!" He screamed and ran at her holding up a kunai ready to strike.
Naruko didn't even try to dodge and grabbed his hand making the kunai cut her hand and covered her hand with wind chakra and ripped his heart out making blood spray her all over, then she ripped his throat out more blood covered and started just completely destroying his body. When Asuma finally managed to stop her she was covered in blood and the only recognizable part of Gorous body was his head which they needed to show that he was dead.
When Naruko managed to calm down she collapsed from her injuries. Alarming everyone that was there and Haku immediately hurried over to treat her injuries which were severe.
"Zabuza, Kakashi, please go to the village and help them. I will help Haku with Naruko." Asuma asked nicely since he worried for his favorite student and knelt beside her and took his vest off putting it under her head as pillow.
"will she be alright?" He asked Haku who was bandaging her wounds.
"Her injuries are severe and she is suffering from severe chakra exhaustion. But if im correct then shes a jinchuriki, from what I saw earlier that is, and has an healing factor?" Haku asked the jounin and seeing him nod continued. "I can't do anything about any injuries that are inside of her but the demon within her must take care of that. I can make sure she doesn't bleed out and bandage her wounds and later help her with medical herbs but I can't do anything else. I'm sorry, its all up to her and her demon."
"Just do everything you can do. We can only hope that shes strong enough." Asuma said.
Haku worked in silence for awhile before they saw Kakashi and the others returning from the village. Showing that the mercenaries had been finished off. Asuma saw team 9 with them and nodded to Gai before Kurenai came running with the rest of his team and the girl from team 9 all with worried looks on their faces seeing how bloody the blond was.
"what the hell happened to Naruko Asuma-sensei?" Shikamaru asked his sensei obviously worried for his long time friend.
"That looks personal." Kiba said pointing to Gorous 'body'
"She fought Gorou Takahasma, a jounin missing nin from our village. She demanded to fight him one on one and I let her since I knew she wouldn't take a no for an answer considering the look she gave me.I take it that the village has been secured?" Asuma asked to be sure.
"Yes." Kurenai said. "and yes kiba, It was personal. Gorou and Naruko have a history that I will tell you guys about later." she finished when everyone gave her a look.
"I have done everything I can for her." Haku said standing up. "It's now up to her if she lives or dies. We should get her to a safe location where I can give her some medicine and have a better access to herbs." she finished. "Gently though, her injuries are bad. We should probably make a stretcher."
Kakashi and Asuma grabbed two sticks while others grabbed a cloth and made a make-shift stretcher and then carried Naruko to the house on it slowly.
-later that day-
"so Kurenai, Naruko is stable for now. Care to tell us what happened with her and Gorou.?" Asuma said sitting down in the living room where everyone was except for Naruko.
"Jounins and over may remember that I have known Naruko since she was 5 since she needed to learn to defend herself after she was badly abused. Correct?" when the jounin all nodded except for Zabuza and Haku since they weren't from konoha.
"I will start from the beginning for the genin and those who aren't familiar with this. Naruko has her whole life been hated in our village for things she has no control over. From what I was told then her parents were dishonorable and she gets blamed for it since they are dead. We did not know how deep this hatred ran until she was 5. a group of civilians attacked her and beat her badly. A jounin stopped them and took her away. That jounin was Gorou. But he did not do this out of kindness. He took her to a secluded place and raped her a few times before he was discovered. He managed to escape the village though. After that Naruko grew cold and the trauma was obvious. I was given the task of training her to be able to protect herself, I guess when she saw him on the bridge she wanted to get her revenge against him for what he did. And it was about time too." Kurenai told them and looking around she saw the looks of horror, fury and disgust on everyone except for Sakuras and Sasukes faces since they didn't give a fuck.
"thats..just horrible." Tenten said and everyone agreed.
"pift, she should just have defended herself. This just proves that shes nothing but a loser." Sasuke said making everyone glare at him except for sakura who agreed with her sasuke-kun like always. Even Ino felt disgusted by his attitude.
Before Kurenai could harm him though he was already pinned to the wall by Zabuzas blade and Sakura was knocked out by senbon that Haku had thrown at her. The Killing intent that everyone in the room aimed at the Uchiha actually made him pee his pants. Zabuza dropped him soon and he scrambled to his feet and ran up the stairs to change.
"what a prick." Haku said before following him upstairs to check on Naruko.
"I am guessing that you Asuma are team leader here?" Zabuza asked the jounin to which Asuma nodded. "Can I come back with you to Konoha? The girl saved my life and I want to repay her." he asked finally.
"We would have to talk to my dad about enlisting you as a shinobi but I don't see why you can't come along." Asuma said and Zabuza nodded in understanding.
Shikamaru along with Chouji and Tenten decided to go check on Naruko since they had nothing else to do.
When they arrived at the room which Naruko was being treated in they saw Haku changing her bandages and making more medicine. "how is she?" Shikamaru asked after looking at his team-mate.
"She's better than she was earlier. I guess shes a really strong person since I have never seen anyone get this well away from what happened to her." Haku replied softly making the Nara wonder what exactly happened.
"Can you tell us from her fight?" the nara asked finally.
"she started by using her knuckle-blades and they clashed a few times, he managed to cut her since he was a little faster than her but she also managed to cut his legs making him a little slower. After some time he grew desperate and tried to blow her up by putting an explosive note on her vest. She ripped the vest off seconds before it blew up. We thought that he had gotten her there but when the smoke cleared we saw gorou with his hand blown up and her rather badly injured but alright. She had used kawarimi to switch positions and when Gorou ran at her with a kunai thinking he could finish her quickly since she was badly injured she grabbed his hand and then killed him by ripping his heart and throat out and well. You saw how badly his body was destroyed. I am really surprized at her willpower. Even Zabuza would have been out of it after what she went through." Haku explained making their eyes widen.
"i knew she was strong but wow." Tenten said with awe.
"she will pull through." Shikamaru said with steel in his voice since there was no way he was letting his team-mate die. They sat down and just looked at the blond girl.
-Narukos mind-scape-
Naruko woke up to find herself in front of the kyuubis cage, she stood up and looked at the huge beast that was looking at her.
"so my host decided to come for a visit. It has been long since last time." Kyuubi said smirking.
"Not by choice. But thanks for the help in the fight. He was too strong for me alone. I will grow stronger though and then I won't need any of your help foxy." Naruko said coldly. "Are my injuries healed?" she then asked.
"you would be dead without me foolish human! That explosive note made some of your organs start bleeding but I have healed them. Your other injuries are being healed by that girl that was with Zabuza." the fox replied growling.
"i should wake up. No point in staying here." Naruko said exiting the mind-scape.
-outside the mind-scape 1 day after the mercenary attack-
Naruko slowly opened her eyes making everyone that was in the room gasp, which was everyone except for the banshee and duck-butt. Naruko tried to sit up but was pushed down by Haku.
"don't be a fool. You are still injured." the girl told the blond.
"I'm fine!" Naruko growled out earning her two flicks to the forehead from Tenten and kurenai.
"Listen to orders." Kurenai said giving her a light glare making the blond huff but Naruko decided to not push her luck and laid still.
'I finally killed him. I got revenge.' Naruko thought to herself realizing that she wouldn't be alive otherwise.
"Now we should let Naruko rest. She still has to finish healing even though shes healing faster than most." Haku said. Naruko fell asleep after a few minutes.
-the next day-
Tenten walked into the room where Naruko was still sleeping and sat beside her just watched her sleep. She reached forward not able to resist anymore and traced the whisker like marks on the girls face, she had expected them to stand out of her skin but she realized that they were, it seemed, tattooed on her face. Which was weird considering she didn't know of any family in konoha that had whiskers tattooed on their kids. So she guessed that Naruko had just decided to do it herself. She decided to ask the blond when she awoke. Tenten also traced a scar that the blond had gotten in the fight on the bridge that was over her left eye(an: like scar from lion king, yea yea sue me if you think its lame). She decided to stop before she woke the blond up but stroked a stray lock of hair from the blond girls face gently causing her to wake up accidentally. Tenten drew her hand back quickly as Naruko opened her eyes slowly and looked at her.
The two stayed in complete silence for a few min and just thought over things. "how long have I been out of it?" Naruko asked finally breaking the silence.
"a day. Kakashi and the others went to finish gatou off for good. I asked to remain here to guard you." Tenten replied smiling a little.
Naruko nodded and sat up slowly. Tenten helped her so she wouldn't hurt herself but when Naruko made to get up she stopped her. "you aren't strong enough to do that yet."
"if I ain't then ill fall down myself. Let me get up before I freaking pee myself damn it!" the blond said irritably at how everyone was treating her like a doll. "and besides I'm fully healed."
Tenten reluctantly let the girl get up and walk out of the room on unsteady feet but followed her so she would be able to catch her before she injured herself more. Naruko made it to the bathroom without incident and closed the door behind her. When she was alone in the bathroom she relieved herself and then took a look in a mirror. She saw the new scar and growled low since she didn't like scars that much. She then decided to head back to her room before she got in trouble.
But when she got there she had a quick idea to show that she was fine. She started taking the bandages off right in front of tenten who tried to stop her but was too late. When Naruko turned around Tenten could see that she was fully healed and allowed her to take the rest of the bandages off. When she was finished though, the blond was half naked making the bun-haired girl blush and look away while Naruko put on a red bra and a black T-shirt.
"So how long has it been since they left?" Naruko asked finding her weapons and gear.
"you are not going after them." Tenten said stubbornly.
"Yes I am. If you don't tell me then I'll leave anyway since I'm the one that gave them the location of the hide-out. You can either come with me and be useful or I can knock you out and leave." Naruko said coldly.
"...Fine. They left an hour ago." Tenten relented since she knew the girl wouldn't hesitate and got her own gear ready since she wouldn't let the girl out of her sight.
The two headed out and arrived at the hideout soon after that. They saw everyone fighting and Tenten headed to help her team out while Naruko looked for her own. Seeing them near the entrance she decided to head inside alone.
She got inside completely undetected and headed immediately towards Gatous treasury where there would be huge amounts of money and stuff that Wave and Konoha could use. When she entered it she sealed everything into scrolls that were specially marked and completely emptied the room, even the safe that was carefully hidden and had bank account numbers and stuff that she sealed away.
After she finished raiding the treasury she headed towards Gatous office killing all enemies that she met on the way. When she arrived at the office she broke down the door and killed all of his body guards easily before turning her attention to the fat man sitting scared behind his desk.
He tried to beg for mercy but Naruko knocked him out before tying him up and sealed all documents that she could find on the desk into scrolls along with paintings and everything of worth before making clones and raiding the rest of the house and cleaning it out completely of enemies.
When she was done she dragged Gatous unconscious body outside where the konoha shinobi were still fighting since Gatou had many on his side. She whistled loudly making the fighting stop and when the mercenaries saw their boss was defeated they ran for their lives.
Asuma walked to his student after the rest of the enemies left and took Gatous body. "I didn't want to be the judge." Naruko said simply seeing the question in his eyes.
Asuma nodded and they headed back to town and threw the fat business tycoon into a jail cell and then they split up. Some went to get the villagers out of hiding while the rest went back to Tazunas house leaving clones to guard Gatou.
-later that day at Tazunas house-
"What were you thinking Naruko? You could still be a little injured." Kurenai said scolding the blond like a little child and Naruko had the decency to look guilty when it was her mother figure scolding her. Naruko had given Asuma the scrolls with money for wave and some papers which involved all business in wave and he was now helping villagers rebuild while Naruko was on house arrest for leaving the house. This time Haku, Zabuza, Tenten and Kurenai were making sure she stayed put instead of just Tenten. She had been playing cards with Zabuza and Haku,she got along with both missing nin and was actually starting to befriend them, when Kurenai came and started scolding her,
"I was thinking that I wanted to help instead of staying here the whole day." Naruko said innocently and Kurenai glared at her making her scared.
Kurenai saw that the girl was sorry and scared so she sighed before asking "Do you even realize that you could have died on that bridge?"
"Yes. And the village would have thrown a festival celebrating my death. And in a few months I would be forgotten by everyone." Naruko said. Before she could blink she was on the floor holding her cheek after Tenten slapped her. Hard. The bun-haired girl then walked out of the room slamming the door closed behind her making the blond flinch.
"the fucks up with her?" Naruko muttered nursing her cheek. Kurenai sighed and shook her head.
"Go talk to her." Kurenai ordered the blond and when she opened her mouth to object she said simply "NOW!" and the girl scrambled to her feet and did as she was told.
'one would think that everyone was pmsing' Naruko thought to herself while she used her sensor ability to feel where Tentens chakra was before heading outside the house and to the clearing where she and her team had been training the others.
When she got there she saw Tenten throwing weapons at a tree muttering things under her breath that she couldn't hear but sounded suspiciously much like: 'stupid bullheaded blonds'. Naruko blinked before walking up to the girl only to have her throw weapons at her forcing her to dodge flying projectiles.
"oi calm down damn it!" Naruko said after awhile and when she was ignored she ran at the girl tackling her to the ground where they wrestled for awhile until Tenten got the upper hand since Naruko was still recovering from chakra exhaustion. Tenten pinned the smaller girl down and held a kunai to her throat so the tip was over her pulse, one movement and she would kill her and glared at her.
Naruko froze when she felt the blade at her throat looking up into the older girls eyes. "Don't you fucking dare to tell me to calm down when you act like the whole world is against you goddammit!" Tenten growled out before throwing the kunai away and punching the girl below her. "I would fucking miss you if you died along with Kurenai" another punch "the hokage" another punch "and your whole fucking team!" she punched the girl with her full strength breathing hard. When she looked at Narukos face she was shocked to the core. The normally ice-cold eyes were a sea of pain that went so deep that Tenten forgot to breathe.
"I'm Sorry." Tenten snapped out of her shock when she realized the blond was saying something.
"what?"
"I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking when I said that earlier." Naruko repeated.
"..apology accepted. But you owe me dinner and a spar when we get back" Tenten said and put the kunai away but didn't move off the girl or let her go, instead she laid down.
"um Tenten can I get up?" Naruko asked after some time.
"No."
"why not?"
"because your comfy."
"I think if we don't arrive at the house soon they will think that you killed me and are hiding all evidence."
"fiine." Tenten said finally and got up before helping the blond up.
They headed back to the house not knowing that something had definitely changed between them.
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an: Naruko and Tenten won't start dating until much much muuuch later in the story. I there will be some moments that they are close to doing something or doing something but this story is about the legend, not her love life.
