Hey yo guys ! I know I've been a lazy bitch for updating soooooooo late !
Sorry ! I really am very very sorry ! Pleeeease forgive meeee ! * falling to knees and crying *
I'm not making up any excuses of any sort, but I really was away this time and had no computer !
I'm REALLY SO EXTREMELY SORRY ! REALLY !
Please enjoy and don't hate me... yet ! ^_^
The man had black,curly hair and two eyes so dark you could've been staring into the depth of a bottomless well.
Shadow casted by a passing, unknown cloud engulfed the forty year old man and the two teenagers, who both stood in defensive positions in front of the last one, a blond, golden haired boy, with blue sparkling eyes, a feet ahead the girl, a pale-faced, onyx-eyed beauty with a weird, but at the same time amazing haircut.
" Who the hell are you ? " spitted Naruto with a long since used level of contempt, usually reserved for a certain snake-sanin.
The man chuckled, a sound that made the hairs on your skin lift.
" Well, well, well...Aren't we insolent little blokes, ne ? " he asked, sounding like a tiger playing with its prey.
Naruto just stared and let out a small, but frightening growl. However, the man didn't seem disturbed even in the slightest, but even started shaking his head, feigning disappointment with such visible pleasure it made the blond's shinobi stomach revolt.
" I guess I'll forgive you this time. " he said, then put the joke aside and looked Naruto in the eye, blood lust in his eyes. " Now step aside, brat ! I've no business with ya. Just walk away and leave the demon " he said, spitting out the last word.
Naruto intended to say something completely different, but in his effort of trying to separate his growing rage from the eternal fox's one and hold them separated, he just went down to business.
" She...is not ...a demon . " he hissed. " And she stays with me. "
The man's face darkened. It appeared the blond was in with the girl's condition.
" I mean it kiddo. Last chance. We can do this the easy way..." he started, than his face turned into a really frightening grin . "...or we can do it the hard way. "
Naruto's own face erupted into a huge, fox-like, evil grin, which was not entirely his own, his white canines seeming more dangerous. Something which had nothing to do with Kyuubi.
" Well,... I guess it's the hard way, then . "
And then it began.
In just a split of second, the forest seemed to suddenly have been filled entirely with people.
The man had snapped his fingers and that moment a dozen other gorillas emerged out of the shadows of the trees.
Naruto crossed his index and middle fingers of his right hand with the ones on his left and yelled something inaudible over the noise that was shooting through the forest and the next brief of second there appeared, apparently out of thin air and with various poofs of smoke, a few dozen blond shinobis, all grinning madly.
There was another split second of studying the enemy before the battle started with a roar, sound of poofing and yelling renting the air.
Naruto couldn't see well, could barely hear, his nostrils were suddenly filled with smoke and he was being pushed back and forth by his own clones, but managed to grab Ai's wrist, who had petrified on the spot, white like marble, and held it tight.
He let his years as a shinobi guide him through the stream of Narutos and unknown enemies, pushing here and stabbing there, his kunai already covered in blood.
As he approached the end of the sea of people and felt half of his clones' sudden absence, another slim man in his thirties, holding a kind of farm tool Naruto couldn't quite identify, jumped out of nowhere in front of him.
The man roared something from which the blond shinobi could understand only " real one " and " 'emon " and launched, very sharp farm thingy first, at them.
Naruto dodged easily, but earned himself a scratch on his right shoulder while trying to push Ai out of the way, too.
He kicked the man who had attacked them, using his own force against him and made another dozen clones, this time henging half of them into Ai.
The idea just came on its own and he barely had time to congratulate himself when another tree guys, this time holding kunais and showing some sort of taijutsu skill jumped at him.
Naruto dodged one, two, three kunais directed at him, but the forth impaled into the back of his left shoulder. He let out a scowl and a curse, then reached for the kunai, took it out of the blood-dripping wound and made another hand sign.
Three other clones appeared behind him.
He moved quickly and a ear-deafening bang filled the next seconds' air.
The three man had only seen Naruto forming a Rasengan, dismissing clones and then charging. They had dodged but a roar from behind had made them look back and all they saw was a glint of yellow hair above a sparkling, swirling ball of blue energy.
The noise faded along with the rising dust.
Naruto landed into a wide brown fog and awaited, cursing under his breath.
He had Rasenganed the place in a moment of madness. What if Ai got hit by the wave ? He growled. Why did he always have to act without thinking.
The dust slowly rose and the blond found himself standing in a huge crater, lighted by the moon's silvery, unchanged light.
All over the big hole in the ground stood broken tree trunks and branches. But that wasn't all.
About half of the unknown man had been caught in the blast. The tree who had been closest now lied close to the core of the crater, their bodies burnt and bloody. The others were further away and held minor wounds and another wave had just been shaken a little.
The ones who hadn't been caught in the blast were long since gone.
After all, it had only been a low-powered Rasengan.
The victims at the edge of the crater started stirring. One looked around and let out a scared yelp, then stumbled to his feet and, after a horrified glance at the blond shinobi who had produced said crater, ran for dear life.
Naruto turned his head madly around, but none of the victims of his Rasengan was Ai.
Unfortunately, neither was the man who had seemed to be in charge.
The blond let out another curse slip from his lips, before choosing one of the men who was stirring, starting to regain himself and hurried to him.
The man let out a yelp and paled, his bloody gush on the side of his face standing out more and more.
Naruto took him by the collar and lifted him to his eye level.
Blue ice eyes connected with desperate brown ones, the last one's pupils dilated with fear.
" You " Naruto growled, making himself sound frightening. " You are going to the hospital and tell them it's been an accident. "
" A-accident ? " stuttered the man, trembling from head to toe.
" Yes. Accident. Show them the place and make up something. "
And he trust him to thw ground with force, shooting him a last dreadful look.
" And if I find out you'd fleet... " he added, then turned around and whispered over his shoulder, in a manner so scary the man immediately got to his feet and made a run for the local hospital. " ... I'll find you. "
The blond pushed chakra to hiss feet and climbed the closest and tallest tree he found.
He reached the top and looked around. The crater seemed smaller from up there. He counted the men. There were only five left in the crater, most of them lying face down in the dirt.
But no sign of Ai or the black-haired man from before.
He jumped and landed perfectly. He would have to search the woods, but there was no time.
The whole place was covered in a thick darkness as a cloud covered the silvery moon, bringing with it a chilly breeze.
An idea sprung to Naruto's head. He closed his eyes and shut out everything : all the sounds, the rustling of the leaves, the hoarse whimpers of the wounded men, the chill running through his naked arms, the stinking pain in his back.
And waited, searched. He was so focused he could even feel the tiny chakras of the civilians lied onto the ground.
He let his senses dig deeper into the forest, searching for anything.
And then he felt it. But it wasn't what he wanted. It was a rather dark, strong chakra, but not a ninja's, for it wasn't that much of it. But it was running through the woods.
Naruto considered. It must've been the unknown man's chakra. Naruto's heart skipped a beat.
He searched the trail of chakra the man was leaving behind, coming back the way he went.
And then he felt it. A tiny, tiny chakra. A small, extremely weak flame that, if Naruto didn't know better, he could've mistaken it for a bird's.
One of the men in the crater opened his eyes.
He felt a throbbing pain in his left leg and right shoulder and saw they were covered in blood. His own blood.
He tried to rise, but fell straight down, back to the cold ground. He could only hope some help would come, eventually.
He looked ahead, at the trees untouched by the blast and he saw the blond kiddo who had produced whatever made the crater. Fear tugged at his heart, but the kid wasn't moving. He was standing straight, not even breathing. And then, faster than the eye could see, he shot his eyes open and just vanished behind the trees, in a mad rush.
Some of the fear dissipated, but some more replaced it.
How long would he lay there ? Was he going to die ?
He pictured the round face of his boy, his sparkling blue eyes not different from the blond ninja's ones...
Sound of footsteps clicked something in his brain and he opened his eyes once more, just in time to see people dressed in white stumbling into the crater. Medics. He closed his eyes and drifted into darkness once more. He was saved.
Naruto flew through the trees at lightining speed, his heart punding in his chest. He grunted and gritted his teeth, guilt, frustration and fear tugging at his heart. How could he let Ai's wrist go ? How he could Rasengan the place without thinking he might hit her accidentally ? He didn't, but that was not important.
He was afraid. Afraid of what he might see, because Ai's chakra seemed to fell smaller and smaller with every jump he took from one branch to another, darkness swallowing him whole.
He suddenly felt a small chakra very close and came to a very sudden halt, turning around and taking a few steps back.
There was something on the ground.
He approached just when the moonlight slipped through a hole in the canopy above, free from the now distant cloud.
The blond fell to his knees and reached a shaking hand to touch Ai's arm. She flinched.
Naruto gritted his teeth so hard they screeched.
Ai's hair was heavy and thick with blood, her face covered entirely in bloody bruises and gashes, as well as her whole form.
She seemed to have both arms and a leg broken, but it was hard to tell.
She stood there, her form seeming smaller and smaller with each second that passed by, the pool of red liquid in which she lied widening.
He couldn't even move her in that state. He had to do something. Anything !
In desperation, he bit his right thumb and slammed the ground so hard he made a little crater shaped in the form of his hand there.
A second later, a poof of smoke revealed a human-sized frog, who looked too happy for the scene.
" Yo, whazzup Naruto ? " asked the frog, but then saw Naruto's madly desperate face and the dying girl on the ground.
" Oh,... What the ...-"
" Bring me Ero-senin right now ! " Naruto shouted then, seeing the frog unmoved, added. " PLEASE ! "
" I'm on it, kiddo ! " said the frog, then disappeared.
Naruto resumed staring at the girl, thinking he could heal her with his stare, willing her to get better.
He pressed his face in his hands and muffled his scream, then started punching the ground, enlarging the crater he had made summoning Gamaichi.
After a minute that seemed like years, the frog appeared in another poof of smoke, this time with Jiraya at his side.
" ' luck Naruto ! " he called, then disappeared again.
" I hope it's important, because I was about to-" the sanin started, but was cut by Naruto.
" HELP HER ! "
It took the white-haired shinobi a second to realise what was going on.
Then his face darkened and he lowered to where the girl lied, his blond student a few feet away, watching closely.
Jiraya gathered chakra to his index and middle finger, making them glow blue.
He gently touched the girl's forehead and she immediately seemed to relax.
Naruto blinked.
" Whaddid you do ? " the blond asked in a low whisper, afraid he might cause Ai damage if he spoke too loud.
" She's asleep " the blond's sensei answered in a similar whisper, then lifted Ai off the ground.
" Hey, what 'r you-"
" Meet me at the local hospital . " was all Naruto got, before Jiraya poofed with Ai in his arms and another cloud covered the moon.
Naruto felt tears rolling over his cheeks as he sunk into the darkness of the forest once more.
Thanks for reading even though I'm a crazy little lazy bitch ^^
Next chapter out sooner than this one, that's a promise !
Huuuuuuuugs for all of you who had read this ! Damn, even for the ones who haven't !
See you sooner than you think ! LOVE YA ALL !
P.S.: Thank you Xamd for constantly reviewing this ! * sends a kiss *
Byez !