Anonymoose: Is it messed up your review made me laugh my ass off? Lmao. Anyways, I'm glad you're enjoying the story.
Kurasabe: Hope you don't mind my using your term in the fic. But, I liked it. Had a nice ring to it, y'know?
WARNINGS: Foul language, blood, Harime, gore, and madness.
I don't own Naruto.
Enjoy. ;)
Naruto discreetly slipped off one of her skull rings, tucking it away in her senbon pouch. Red pooled between her fingers, and bended to her will. Team seven, with the addition of Tazuna, walked past a puddle of water, three of five alert to the fact that it hadn't rained in weeks.
They were all strolling leisurely down the worn dirt path of the forest, when two floods of killing intent spilled into the atmosphere, slaying the image of peace.
"What the-!?"
The genin whirled around just in time to see something absolutely staggering.
Kakashi was engulfed by razor chains that shot from the puddle, torn to fleshly lumps in a matter of seconds.
Tazuna went sheet white, and Sakura screamed in utter terror as Kakashi's pieces pelted the forest floor, stirring up clouds of dirt.
Sasuke pulled out a shuriken and a kunai, feet sliding apart in his taijutsu form.
Naruto did the same, crouching down more, much like a cat preparing to pounce. Her left hand was extended in a claw-like gesture, and her right hand near her chest, wielding an eight inch hunter's knife of blood in a reverse grip.
Two men wearing rebreathers shot out of the puddle, wearing matching gauntlets connected by the chains used to kill Kakashi.
"One down." One of the nin hissed.
"Four to go." The other chuckled.
The two nin, who Naruto recognized as C rank missing nin from Mist, separated. One going left, and the other right.
Sakura found enough courage to draw a kunai, holding it with both hands near her chest, with the tip facing away from her.
The cloaked nin that went left flashed in a streak of black before the pinkette, whipping his end of the chain at her.
Sweat lined Sakura's brow, but something zipped by her, pinning the approaching chain to a tree.
Shiiiiiing!
Thunk.
It was the Uchiha's shuriken.
Sasuke ran forward, remaining kunai ready to pierce flesh. He threw it into the left foot of the caught Mist nin, causing him to howl in pain. The Uchiha followed up by dashing at him, roundhousing the man in the chin, and then elbowing him in the center of his solar plexus. The man wheezed, bones cracking as the Uchiha forced them to cave in. Sasuke flashed behind him, and chopped the back of his neck, knocking him out.
"Sasuke!" Sakura exclaimed, green eyes sparkling in gratitude and admiration.
"Hn." The Uchiha grunted.
The nin that went right, abandoned his chain as soon as his partner had been caught, and went straight for Tazuna's back while two of the genin were distracted.
'So that's your game is it?' Naruto thought.
Tazuna didn't notice the man quickly approaching his back, but that was okay.
Naruto had it.
She used Shisui's favorite trick, appearing in front of the remaining nin, and deflecting his gauntlet claw with her blood blade.
Clang!
The Mist nin struggled to overpower Naruto as their weapons of choice locked together. Though, she had no trouble with raw strength alone keeping him back.
"I don't think so." The redhead taunted.
"You little brat!" The Mist shinobi growled.
Naruto smiled.
Blood dripped from her blade, and slid over the Mist nin's.
"What the he-"
The droplets quickly stretched, sliding beneath the nin's sleeve.
He howled in pain as Naruto's destructive blood sank into his pores.
"Blood Release: Acid Blood Infection." Naruto announced.
The Mist nin stumbled back, grasping his right arm, which had began spasming like mad.
Kakashi suddenly appeared behind the man, making to choke him out.
Naruto glanced over to the place of his "death", unsurprised by the pile of shredded log.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura blurted, relieved.
Sasuke shot her a glare, quickly silencing her.
"No, Sensei." Naruto said, freezing the man in his actions. Her hand dipped into the pouch around her right leg.
The Mist nin began screaming in pain, and made to flee.
Naruto flicked a senbon carelessly, sending it straight through his left knee cap.
His leg buckled, shutting down on him, and he tumbled to the ground.
"Y-you little b-bitch! Wh-what have you done!?"
"I've been called worse buddy." The redhead drawled. "If you want a rise out of me, you're gonna have to do better than that."
She flicked another two senbon into his remaining arm and leg, paralyzing them.
The Mist nin sputtered in incoherent rage.
Naruto looked up into her Sensei's questioning eye.
"I imagine you and the old drunk have a lot to talk about, ne Sensei?" She copied his eye smile. But they both knew she wasn't smiling.
She was speaking to him.
By closing her eyes in a potentially dangerous situation, she was showing Kakashi that she trusted him to protect her from possible enemies. By directing him to the bridge builder, she was also asking him to take Sakura and Sasuke away, as they didn't have time for all the questions the genin would no doubt have if they saw what she was about to do.
She was asking him to trust her.
And for some reason...
Kakashi nodded grimly.
He sliced Tazuna with a razor look, confirming he and the old drunk were going to have a chat.
The drunk flinched, but his shoulders sagged a moment later, telling them he was conceding.
"Come along Sasuke-kun, Sakura-chan." The scarecrow called, knowing Tazuna would wordlessly follow him into the foliage of the trees, and away from Naruto.
"What about the dobe?" Sasuke demanded, wanting to know why Naruto was getting so much attention.
"You did a really good job taking down the missing nin, Sasuke." Kakashi said, as if he hadn't heard anything. "Now we're going to talk to Tazuna-san, as I'm sure he might know what's going on here."
Tazuna gulped.
Sakura looked back over her shoulder at the redhead who had crouched down, just beside the second, immobile, yet conscious missing nin.
The pinkette watched Naruto's blood blade revert back to liquid, and splash into the grass, instantly causing it to wilt.
From what the pinkette understood, Naruto's blood wasn't harmful unless she wanted it to be. She guessed if Naruto was weaponizing it, even if it went back to liquid, it would still be hazardous. Everyone in the Academy had known Naruto had a bloodlimit. But seeing it in action, and how nonchalantly Naruto injured herself to access her power... it was... startling.
Sakura shivered.
"Sensei? Why's Naruto staying with that nin?"
Kakashi eye smiled down at her.
But something wasn't right.
"Sakura-chan. Don't ask questions you don't want the answer to."
Sakura swallowed, paling.
Sasuke's fists clenched, and he scowled.
Naruto drew a seal in blood across the grass she killed. She waddled aside so she was beside the Mist nin's shoulder, instead of near his feet.
The redhead looked at the Mist nin's arm, where she had commanded her blood to concentrate in, and not infect his entire body. Her blood had eaten it almost down to the bone, the flesh raisin-like, splitting open and secreting streams of scarlet that killed whatever it touched.
"You seem to be in pain." Naruto observed casually.
The Mist nin cussed at her furiously, but she paid it no mind.
At this point, she wasn't feeling much of anything. Just the need to complete her mission.
Danzo had trained her well enough that she could ignore her little amount of morals, and her guilt while on a mission. But it didn't change what she felt from her actions after the mission.
"I can end your pain for you, if you want." Naruto offered. "If I cut off that arm, you'll be fine, because the infection is only there. But, you'll have to give me something first."
"Fuck you!" The Mist nin spat. "Just kill me! Because I won't tell you anything!"
"I knew you would say that." Naruto sighed.
'People always want to give others a hard time... ugh.'
She gathered her chakra, causing her fingers to catch light with blue flames. She completed a chain of handseals, and pressed her fingers over her seal in the grass.
"Fuuinjutsu Style: Coffin Summoning(1)."
The seal burnt out, a flash of blue sparked up, and as it died, a deep red coffin erected quickly by the redhead's side, clicking open.
The redhead prepared herself for a tongue lashing.
"Naruto, I swear to the Shinigami I'll bloody eviscerate you if you ever lock me in there again!" Harime shrieked.
"You're agitated," The crouched redhead stated. "That's good... You can take it out on my tight lipped friend here."
The pigtailed cyclops blinked rapidly down at Naruto's prey, before her blue-green eye flooded with red and black.
"Hmm~ What's this~?" Harime sang, forgetting about her irritation for a moment. "You brought me a present? Hehehe~ you're forgiven!"
"Thanks," Naruto uttered blandly. "Now, we're gonna play one of my... what the hell are you?" The redhead muttered.
Harime blinked innocently with her devilish eye, shrugging.
Naruto sighed explosively.
"Let's call Harime-chan my "significant other"."
"Please don't use air quotes Naru-chan." Harime piped up cheerfully.
"Why not?" Naruto asked, raising a dark brow at her other half.
"Dunno~" Harime giggled, folding her clawed hands behind her back, and cocking her head to the side. "It just seems kind of douche-y."
"Ugh." Naruto groaned, rolling her eyes heavily. "Whatever."
She turned back to the Mist nin, whose covered face was contorted in agony, his arm having been eaten to nothing, a line of steaming blood, powdered bone, and ruined flesh gathered in the place were his limb should have been lying.
"As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted..."
Harime pouted.
"We're going to play one of my Significant Other's favorite games."
The cyclops perked up happily.
"And he's tight lipped you say?" The cyclops inquired.
"Yep. And he's got a partner over there. They smell similar. So... I'm guessing brothers." Naruto answered cooly, gesturing with her thumb over her shoulder to the other guy's general direction.
The cyclops turned to look, single red iris lighting up with morbid glee at the crumpled form in the grass.
"Oh hoh~ What fun!" Harime laughed. "This is the perfect scenario to play the Magician game! And that guy will be my lovely assistant!"
Harime skipped over to the other Mist shinobi that Sasuke had taken out. She pulled the kunai pinning his foot out, tossing it carelessly over her shoulder, and yanking the poor guy up by his bush of black hair, dragging him back over to Naruto with no trouble at all.
"Here's how this is gonna fly," Naruto said seriously, peering into the infected man's pain clouded eyes. "You're gonna tell me what I want to know, and you're going to do it now. Or brother dearest over there-"
Harime pulled him up higher by the hair, pointing to him curiously, as if Naruto was referring to someone else.
"-Gets to be Harime-chan's new toy." Naruto finished. "I want to tell you in advance, she's very destructive. And she always breaks her toys."
The cyclops nodded theatrically in agreement.
"F-fuck you..." The Mist nin stuttered. "My brother k-knows exactly what we were g-getting into w-wh-hen... we b-became Merc Nin... A-anything you d-do... to us... won't m-make us t-talk..."
"Hmmmm." Harime hummed, tapping her chin with a razor claw thoughtfully. "But what if I don't want you guys to talk? What if I want my lovely assistant here to sing for me?"
"Wh-what...?" The Mist shinobi croaked. "What t-the h-hell... a-are you babbling a-about...?"
"I'm the magician, you see." Harime informed him, nodding sagely to her own statement.
Soon though, she was sniggering madly to herself, and she couldn't keep up her wise act.
"Hehehe~ I'm going to show you a really cool magic trick! One when someone's insides come to the outside!" Harime laughed uproariously between her breaths, barely communicating properly. "And it'll make my assistant sing beautifully while I'm performing! Doesn't that sound like fun~?"
The Mist shinobi growled something angrily between his pained wheezes.
With no prompting at all, Naruto's hand dipped into the shuriken pouch around her hips, and pulled out some smelling salts.
"If I wake your brother up, it'll be too late." Naruto said. "Tell me who you're working for, why you want the bridge builder, and if you have allies."
"G-go f-fuck yourself...!" The Mist nin spat.
Naruto shrugged, hopping to her feet and closing the small distance between Harime and herself.
The cyclops held up the limp man even more, so he was standing sort of slouched over, leaning heavily against her shoulder. Naruto waved the salts around his rebreather.
He shifted his face away from the stench, eyes squeezing shut even tighter. The redhead persisted with her smelling salts.
"U-ugh... wha...?" The man slowly came to, eyes blinking groggily.
Naruto bit her hand, a large amount of blood flowing out and slithering onto the forest floor. The redhead quickly commanded her blood to sew the man's sandals to the ground, and the rest snaked up his body, stitching his arms to his sides.
He was officially defenseless.
"Now, let the game begin!" Harime exclaimed, pushing the confused man off of her so he stood up on his own.
He looked down, dark eyes widening.
"Brother!" He blurted. "What the hell happened? Your arm-!"
His floored brother had no time to respond.
"And for my first magic trick, I will make the color red appear from nowhere! Observe!" Harime announced, gesturing to the highly confused man standing beside her.
The man struggled, horrified to find that his arms were sewn agonizingly tight to his torso, and his feet refused to move.
He couldn't run.
So he began to panic.
The cyclops positioned her right hand so that it was formed like an arrowhead.
Naruto stepped back.
Harime sliced her claws deeply through the standing man's middle.
He screamed.
Red gushed out of the wound, staining the Mist nin's dark clothes.
The cyclops laughed, holding up her blood slicked hand.
"And now you see? I made red appear from nowhere! Amazing right?"
"Y-you're fucking c-crazy!" The nin on the ground yelled, eyes wide with trepidation as he watched his brother fold over at the waist in pain.
"Who's your employer?" Naruto asked, tilting her head nonchalantly to dodge, as her other half had flicked the blood from her fingers.
It missed.
"I t-told you... that I won't t-talk...!" He bit out. "A-and neither will m-my brother! Y-you're j-just going t-to kill us anyways!"
Naruto pulled out a pack of cigarettes.
"Carry on with the show, Harime-chan." The redhead drawled, pulling out a single death stick, and tucking the pack back into her shuriken pouch.
Harime nodded.
"I'm so glad! I wasn't done playing anyways~"
Naruto unzipped her mask, sticking the cigarette between her lips, and lighting it with a small fire jutsu.
"Hey, can I ask you a question?" Harime chirped, looking at the floored Mist shinobi.
"J-just... kill us already... you s-sick whores!" He roared.
Harime's devilish eye narrowed, and her mask stretched, crinkles gathering around the corners, telling the story of her large, insidious grin.
The pigtailed redhead snatched the standing man's head back by his hair. She forced him to bend backwards, making him cry out in pain as the wound on his abdomen stretched, heavily weeping crimson.
He tried to yank himself away from her iron grip, though, it was futile.
"Can you guess what I can make appear from here?" The cyclops questioned, snickering darkly as she tapped a place just a bit to the left, slightly above the incision deep in the Mist shinobi's middle. With the stitching design on the front of her mask, it seemed as if someone had tried to sew her mouth closed, but she was simply too amused to have them falter her grin.
"Alright, obviously we've got a party pooper." Harime pouted, as the floored shinobi only growled and spit curses at her.
"Obviously," Naruto agreed, nodding wisely, taking a deep drag from her cigarette, and blowing out a long plume of smoke.
"Alright, I'll bite." Naruto drawled, crossing her arms. "What're you gonna make appear next, Harime-chan?"
"Watch and be mystified!" Harime exclaimed grandly.
She slipped her claws into his wound, making the Mist nin gurgle in pain, mercilessly ripping his flesh even more as her hand dived deeper.
Harime sighed in bliss when he began to scream in utter agony, writhing violently in pain for an escape that he could not reach.
"No! Brother!" The floored shinobi yelled, eyes lit with desperate fright.
Harime's hand disappeared into his skin.
"Just listen to that beautiful music..." The cyclops hummed, pleased.
Naruto smoked her cigarette, watching with half lidded azure blues, ears tuned into the wet tearing, and squelching of flesh.
Harime brutally snapped the bones of his rib cage in her way, and he began quaking uncontrollably.
She felt around, probing his insides as his eyes rolled around like marbles in their sockets, his body going into shock.
"Now where in the name of Gumo's Lair is tha- EUREKA!"
When Harime pulled her wrist from the Mist nin's body, her hand was fisted around a brown, blood slicked, and oval thing.
"Is that his spleen?" Naruto asked, at the same time that Harime exclaimed "Ta-da!" enthusiastically.
"And yes Naru-chan, this is a spleen." Harime said kindly.
"Ew." Naruto muttered.
Harime giggled.
At a choked gasp, they both turned back to the situation at hand.
The nin in the cyclop's hold had a mixture of foam and scarlet oozing from beneath his rebreather, his body vibrating with the force of his shock.
"Oh God!" The nin on the ground wailed, helplessly watching his brother suffer immensely. "S-stop it! Y-you evil b-bitches...!"
Naruto's eyes sharpened.
'Got you...'
He'd talk. The redhead was sure of it.
Harime tossed the small brown organ, so that it flopped wetly onto the center of the lying Mist nin's chest.
He screamed in terror, anguish, and rage.
"Tell me what I want to know, and we'll end this." Naruto stated, knowing they'd won.
"Y-you monsters!"
Harime suddenly went very still.
Naruto sighed, stubbing out her cigarette, and tucking it behind her ear. She took the stub hidden in her bra, and flicked it off to the right.
The cyclops hit a pressure point in the seizing man's neck, forcing him back into unconsciousness. She was standing over the hysterical man on the forest floor in an instant, leaving the other brother to crumble over backwards, his sandals still rooting him to the ground.
Harime dropped into a squat.
"I really don't think you understand what a monster is, my friend." The cyclops chided kindly.
Even so, she managed to be entirely sinister.
Her black sclera had glowing red veins creeping across it's gleaming surface, traveling like spiderweb cracks across glass, leading to a furious lava red iris.
She pulled down her mask, her whiskered cheeks creasing deeply with the force of the grin upon her face. All of her teeth seemed to have been sharpened to fine points, giving her a shark-like appearance.
"Monsters are people who teach others the meaning of true despair, and never allow them salvation."
Her grin never faltered as she spoke to him in soft tones, her eye narrowed with the savagery of her abominable mood.
It was entirely frightening.
How her voice was so easily, and utterly contradicting her evil face. Harime spoke in the tone of a loving mother, used only in special, tender moments. Someone teaching a life lesson to someone very dear to them.
And that ability alone, was enough to put the fear of Kami in the Mist shinobi.
"G-Gato!" He stuttered. "Zabuza-sama t-took a job t-to kill Tazuna t-the bridge builder! We're t-the D-demon B-brother's! W-we w-work for Zabuza t-to raise m-money f-for th-the B-blood Limit C-civil W-war! T-to k-k-kill th-the Mizukage Y-Yagura!"
"Gato?" Naruto mused allowed, stroking her smooth chin. "The business tycoon? Of Gato Incorporated...?"
"Y-yes!" The Mist shinobi nearly sobbed.
"Nice to see you finally decided to cooperate." Naruto drawled. "Too bad you made my friend here angry."
The Mist nin looked into Harime's single menacing eye.
And he knew.
This is what it was to look into the eyes of a demon.
"It was a monster that made me the way I am in the first place." Harime murmured softly. "I can never be the innocent child I once was. I'm just a creature sworn to protect those who despise me. Those who allow me no place in the light. But that's okay. Because you can have fun in the darkness too."
Harime ripped off the Mist nin's rebreather, tossing it haphazardly over her shoulder, and took hold of the bloodied spleen she'd torn from his brother's body.
The cyclops smiled.
The Mist nin gaped at her.
"W-what are you-"
She shoved the dark organ into his open mouth.
Both redheads watch his face contort in pure disgust and horror.
Harime laughed.
And she laughed.
And she laughed.
And she laughed.
Naruto looked away.
The Mist nin choked on the flesh, but Harime forced his mouth closed with both of her hands.
He couldn't struggle. Naruto had paralyzed him.
"Does it taste good?" Harime asked, cackling boisterously, eye alight with helpless insanity. "Can you taste his pain? Can you taste how terrified he was when I ripped it from his body? Well? Can you?"
The cyclops pulled away one of her hands from his mouth, and pinched his nose closed.
Tears streamed out of the Mist nin's dark eyes, and his face tinged with blue.
Expression tortured, he swallowed.
Harime guffawed, watching the bulge travel down his throat with sick glee.
She kept his mouth closed as she released his nose. His chest heaved greatly as his nose sucked in oxygen desperately, snuffling and snorting as he choked on every other breath.
And then, the Mist shinobi realized the weight of what he had done.
Blue quickly shifted to green as he gagged violently.
Harime turned his head to the side, vomit rushing up his throat, and spilling out of his mouth, forming a nasty puddle around his cheek.
He didn't say anything.
But his tears told of his despair, and a deep newfound hatred that would never be rectified.
He whimpered pathetically.
"That's an interesting expression." Harime chirped, back to her old cheerful self, her devilish eye fading to blue-green. "But, I don't have any paints on me."
Naruto looked at her other half, watching her identical lips form into a misleading cute pout.
"I know!" The cyclops perked up. "To keep such an interesting face alive, I'll add you to my Toy Box!"
Naruto stiffened.
The Toy Box was... it was a place.
A place much like Jorogumo's Coffin. She could summon it to her location from where she had it stored secretly in the Leaf. The reason Jorogumo didn't decay, was because Naruto had used seals to bind a pocket dimension, where time did and space not exist, to a material object. Jorogumo's pocket dimension was obviously, within a coffin. The pocket dimension in the Toy Box was bonded to a large wooden chest.
The Toy Box was where Naruto kept the bodies of enemy shinobi that particularly amused, or intrigued her when she used to be under the influence of Harime. But now that Harime and Naruto had separate bodies, she'd honestly forgotten about it.
The thing about the Toy Box was, no one's corpse was put in there unless they had been altered first. More often than not, they were turned into dolls with the souls of whoever had been killed bonded to them. Under the influence of Harime, Naruto had utterly broke her opponents, and if she liked their expression, she bonded their souls to life sized toys, filling them up with the entrails of the original shinobi's body. By bonding their sorrowful and hateful souls to an inhuman object, Naruto turned them into mindless things that only acted on the last thing they felt when they were alive.
Sorrow and hatred.
The redhead had never actually summoned one of her dolls in battle, but if she did, they would destroy any living thing in their path, thinking it to be the one who had reduced them to such a pitiful existence.
"Harime." Naruto spoke up grimly. "We're in the middle of a mission that should be classified as A, at worse, possibly S ranked. We don't have time for you to play around anymore."
"Awwww~ But I still wanna play Naruto-chan! Please? Can I still play? Can I?" The cyclops whined.
Naruto's lips pursed beneath her mask.
"Tell you what?" Naruto muttered, forcing blood out of the bite wound on her hand that had scabbed over. "I'll summon the door to The Gallows for you, and while you're there, you can use whatever you need to make your new dolls."
"Really?" Harime squealed, blue-green eye sparkling.
"Yeah, sure." Naruto confirmed, dropping into a squat and drawing a seal in the blood that had dripped into the grass.
The seals carved into The Gallows door weren't only to keep others out. It had the same seals that were at the bottom of Jorogumo, and Harime's coffins, and the Toy Box as well. Which were used to summon them to Naruto's location.
Flashing through handseals, Naruto's fingertips once again, ignited with blue flames.
She pressed them against the bloody seal.
"Fuuinjutsu Summoning: Gallows Chamber Door."
A familiar dark oakwood door rose from the blue flames that flared up from the seal.
Naruto stood up, walking around the flat frame and smearing her bloodied hand down the locking seals. Harime did the rest, shutting down the seals with chakra.
Naruto twisted the gold knob, pushing the door open, a whiff of old blood, peppermint, and stale scroll paper brushing past her masked face.
'Home sweet home.'
Harime collected the two Demon Brothers, dragging them by the hair, one blissfully unconscious, and the other, whimpering every so often in pain and fear.
The pigtailed cyclops tossed them carelessly onto the bloodstained floor of The Gallows.
"Just don't leave The Gallows Harime, alright? I don't want you to run into Konohamaru or anything." Naruto called. "Also, summon your coffin and get back in when you're done, so I can summon you to me later."
"Will do!" The cyclops saluted.
She walked back over to Naruto, pushing the door to a crack.
The cyclops cocked her head to the side, massive drill-like curls swishing with the curious motion.
"You seem like something's on your mind, Naru-chan." Harime observed innocently.
It was a twisted sort of irony, that she could look so harmless, even with her hands being covered in blood, and her teeth filed to monstrous points.
Naruto stared at her other half's teeth.
The cyclops blinked.
"After you locked me in the coffin again, I got bored and sharpened them with my fingernails." Harime said, holding up her indestructible razor nails.
"Uh... cool...?" Naruto offered awkwardly.
"Oh!" The cyclops chuckled, pressing a bashful hand to her smiling lips. "Was that not what you were wondering about?"
"Eh, no." Naruto said. "Actually, I wanted to ask you why you never stay angry when I lock you in the coffin."
The redhead's other half became alarmed.
And then, she smiled with honest kindness.
It had to be the most chilling thing Naruto had ever laid eyes on.
Not in a good way.
"Oh Naruto-chan! Don't you know I'm used to you ignoring me?" Harime laughed.
But the pigtailed cyclops' eye seemed alarmingly sad, even though she smiled gently.
"I've always been locked away from you. Because even now, you don't want to be connected to me. It's why you gave me this body, right?"
'W-what the...?'
Something inside Naruto's chest became almost unbearably heavy.
'What... what is this feeling...?'
"I could never actually hurt you in a way that you wouldn't be okay, Naruto." The cyclops admitted. "It's in my nature to hurt others. But never you..."
Naruto's eyes widened.
"I was created to protect you. And no matter what I do for Danzo, or the village, that will never change." Harime promised.
'This feeling... it's...!'
The redhead's mouth opened.
"Ha-"
The Gallows door clicked shut softly.
'B-but... why...?'
Naruto recognized what she was feeling.
Doubt.
Kakashi deactivated the sound silencing jutsu he had put up around the perimeter of the trees, within the clearing he had lead his other genin, and Tazuna to. The jutsu kept outside sounds away, as well as inside sounds inside.
He felt Naruto approaching. She wasn't trying to mask her presence. Infact... something about her chakra seemed off...
'Like she's in turmoil...'
Kakashi frowned thoughtfully beneath his plain mask.
He made a decision.
The scarecrow would figure it out later. They were on a mission. A possibly extremely dangerous one. He didn't have time to worry about Naruto just yet.
The scarecrow looked solemnly at his client, weighing the pros and cons of the situation, and if he should allow his genin to continue.
Tazuna had immediately spilled his guts about Gato and the poverty going on in Wave. The whole reason for the bridge was to connect Wave to other nations, and resources to get it back on its feet, as Gato had nearly sucked it dry. But, if the bridge succeeded, Gato would lose his easy money, thus, he sent assassins after the old drunk.
Sasuke and Sakura had wanted to stay and finish the mission.
Sasuke, for either glory, experience, or the desire to out do Naruto. Or even worse, all of the previous. The poor boy felt the need to be more superior than everyone. And if you stopped praising him for a second, he went sour. Kakashi could see why, as being in the shadow of someone like the prodigal Uchiha Itachi would mess up anyone. Not including the fact that Fugaku only acknowledged Itachi as his beloved son before he was killed by "jealous traitors". Though, everyone and their grandma knew Danzo's ROOT drones had been sent to kill Fugaku and the elders before ending their own lives. (Meaning, all the Jounin and up that served in the Third Great Shinobi War knew the elders and Fugaku had been planning a coup d'etat since a little after the Nine Tails attack, and the Fourth let Danzo handle it).
Sakura wanted to stay because she was hoping to impress the Uchiha with her conviction. Which was pointless, because the girl had no bite to back up the little bit of bark she had. Also, the pinkette had fell for Tazuna's guilt card, bringing his grandson and daughter to the table, talking up how devastated they'd be if he died.
Kakashi's ebony eye flattened.
'I've sure got my work cut out for me.' The scarecrow thought blandly.
Naruto floated over to her teammates, blue-green eyes expressionless.
But Kakashi wasn't fooled.
He could smell foreign blood on her. And she had a fresh cigarette stuck between her hidden lips, poking from the shadows of her unzipped mask.
The poor girl was so stressed, she didn't bother to hide the fact that she smoked.
'I need to talk to her as soon as possible...' Kakashi thought worriedly.
Sakura was demanding where Naruto had gotten a cigarette, and screeching about how gross smoking was. As well as announcing to the heavens that Naruto could never be as cool as "Sasuke-kun", and that she needed to stop trying to steal the Uchiha's spotlight.
"Haruno." Naruto bit out, eyes flashing red momentarily.
Kakashi resisted the urge to flinch.
The other three didn't have good enough self control.
"Be quiet." The redhead finished.
The pinkette quickly overcame her alarm, her notorious temper pushing through.
Sakura turned red in her anger.
"NARUTO! JUST WHO THE HECK DO YOU THINK YOU AR-"
Sakura was cut off as the redhead slung her blood at her. It immediately crystallized over the pinkette's big mouth, silencing her.
Horrified, Sakura tried to pull it off, squealing and grunting in extreme dismay.
It didn't work.
Kakashi sighed tiredly.
"The Demon Brothers they said," Naruto spoke up, puffing on her cigarette. "They work for Zabuza, who was hired by Gato to kill the bridge builder."
'Shit! Momochi Zabuza? The Demon of the Bloody Mist...?' Kakashi inwardly winced. 'I know I can take him... but... I also need to keep the genin in mind...'
"How did you get them to tell you that?" Sasuke demanded, cutting Kakashi's thought process short.
Naruto turned to the envious boy, her blue-green eyes half lidded as she smoked. She took a long relaxing drag, as if she didn't have a worry in the world.
This only angered the Uchiha even more.
"How you ask?" Naruto drawled. "I asked him nicely of course."
Sasuke fumed.
"That's not what I meant dobe and you know it." The Uchiha growled.
Kakashi watched his redheaded student gaze lazily at her male teammate.
His eye widened.
'Her chakra... it's calmed down...!' The scarecrow thought, surprised. 'Only high ranking shinobi can force themselves to calm in times of stress... why would Naruto know that technique? And why would she know how to properly interrogate someone?'
Kakashi's ebony eye narrowed.
'I could be just overthinking it, because she is Sensei's kid. But... that doesn't explain how she is entirely unshaken about killing enemies... and I know she killed the Demon Brothers... I smelled their fear. The potent type of fear that only comes when someone knows they're going to die...'
Kakashi's eye took on a thoughtful gleam.
'I can tell killing them is not what had Naruto disturbed. Perhaps something one of them had said is what had shaken her...?"
He shook his silver head, and looked back at his two bickering, but not really bickering students.
Tazuna had began trying to help Sakura out of her blood mask.
"Alright Uchiha." Naruto muttered, stubbing out her cigarette against her bare arm, causing Kakashi to grimace.
'Add resistance to pain to the list of suspicious things about Naruto.'
"You really want to know?" Naruto's eyes crinkled with a bitter smile. "I did my job as a shinobi and got us vital intel. We're up against Zabuza Momochi. An A ranked missing nin of Mist. Knowing this, if we choose to finish this mission Tazuna so obviously lied about-" Tazuna winced. "-we can plan accordingly, and avoid unnecessary casualties."
'No outward reaction to the idea of her teammates dying. Though, she knows I'm an elite, so she trusts me enough, knowing I'll watch her back. But, she doesn't actually care about any of us...'
"You wanna know what was done to get that vital intel?" Naruto continued, indifferent.
There was a short pause.
Naruto's eyes were blank as she answered her own question.
"Torture."
Everyone froze.
"And now they're dead." The redhead stated.
'She's blunt to people she doesn't care about... almost to the point of cruelty...' Kakashi realized. 'I need to fix this...'
"You killed them?" Sasuke asked, his voice breaking marginally.
Naruto shrugged.
"Killing. Torture. Lying. Sneaking. Backstabbing. Such are the ways of the shinobi." Naruto's cigarette was reduced to tiny shreds by a concentrated storm of winds in the palm of her hand.
'Elemental chakra manipulation of high ANBU level.' Kakashi noted grimly. 'She's been trained to kill effectively. And she knows it.'
"I am a shinobi." The redhead said. "Expect these things from me. And be capable of doing them yourself."
For once, Sasuke seemed flabbergasted.
The scarecrow couldn't blame him.
Tazuna had gone pale again.
Naruto made a 'come hither' gesture, and the blood on Sakura's face shattered, liquefying as it traveled back over to Naruto.
Sakura gasped for breath, too struck silly by being gagged, and Naruto's nonchalant manner of admitting she was a killer to say anything.
The redhead pulled a small red and black scroll from her shuriken pouch, and sealed the blood suspended in the air within it, tucking it away again once she was finished.
Naruto looked up at Kakashi.
"I don't mind continuing the mission." She shrugged. "I don't like starting things and leaving them unfinished."
Kakashi noticed his other two genin realizing something very important.
They needed to reevaluate their impression of Naruto.
No one had said anything for three hours.
The silence was broken when Naruto's arm blurred in movement, her thrown shuriken landing in a tree trunk base hidden behind an arrangement of bushes.
Thunk.
Sakura flinched.
"Naruto what the hell!?" The pinkette hissed. She rushed over to the bushes, and parted them, showing everyone a little white rabbit that had fainted, a shuriken just above its head.
"It's an innocent little bunny!" Sakura exclaimed.
Tazuna seemed relieved.
But the rest of team seven noticed the small line of red on the lodged shuriken, and that the rabbit was uninjured.
'It's no where near winter... so that rabbit should be brown. But... it's not...' Naruto thought perceptively. 'Which means it was kept inside. And I know for a fact I sensed human chakra behind that bush... so... the only explanation is that rabbit is kept for the purpose of substitution.'
The redhead's ears twitched at the sound of something large rotating, and quickly cutting through the air.
"Everybody get down!" Kakashi suddenly bellowed.
Everyone hit the deck, Sasuke tackling Tazuna to the forest floor.
Thunk.
Naruto peered up through her bangs, unsurprised to find Momochi Zabuza standing on his infamous seversword from the Seven Blades of the Bloody Mist.
Kubikiribocho.
"My my," Zabuza drawled, in a deep, rasping voice. "What do we have here?"
Naruto stiffened.
Her eyes became saucers.
'Oh my...'
"Copy Ninja Kakashi. The Sharingan user." The swordsman answered himself.
"Sharingan?" Sasuke bit out.
Kakashi smoothly got to his feet.
"Momochi Zabuza." The Copy nin stated. "Can't say I'm happy to see you."
Zabuza chuckled, yanking his cleaver-like sword from the tree, and hopping back so they had about ten feet between them.
"If you're unhappy to see me, then just hand over the old man." The bandaged ninja said. "You see, his head holds quite the pretty penny."
Tazuna squeaked in fear.
The genin got up, watching the two elites stare each other down.
"No can do." Kakashi shrugged, drawing a kunai, flipping it expertly between his fingers. "Tazuna's our client. We took the responsibility of protecting him."
"Well that just makes things more fun, doesn't it?" Zabuza snickered darkly. "I'm going to love cutting you all to pieces."
Sasuke and Sakura paled, looking at Naruto when they heard her sigh, assuming her to be terrified as well.
Horrified, they found that what was visible of Naruto's masked face, was bright fuschia.
"I-I... I think I just fell in love..." Naruto murmured dreamily.
And that's when an unnatural fog began creeping along the clearing they were all in.
The genin, (save for Naruto, who seemed to have become jelly), stiffened.
They knew.
Blood was about to be spilled.
(1) I'm just gonna say Naruto's coffin technique (which is her own), is a summoning. (Thanks for the idea DBlade59). No one else does it unless it's Edo Tensei, which is an entirely different thing.
- Harime's coffin doesn't have a pocket dimension like Jorogumo's Coffin and the Toy Box. Because Harime can't die unless Naruto does, not eating and injuries don't affect her.
- Both coffins, The Gallows door, and Naruto's Toy Box have seals on them that allow her to return them to their original place from where she summoned them.
- Having half of Naruto's soul, Harime can summon and do every technique Naruto can.
- For the record, there's no need to be having heart palpitations. I'm not gonna put Naruto with Zabuza.
'(-_-)/~ *sweat drops and waves off possible worries*
Later gators.
'Til next time.
