Sorry this chapter is really really really late, I had a band concert, badminton tryouts (which I passed with flying colours), badminton practice (because I made the team), a birthday party I had to go to, I got a new XBOX 360, so you know where I spent a lot of my time :D and I was out of town for spring break so that certainly didn't help. On top of that I've started drawing recently, (mainly Negima characters, if you haven't read the manga you should :P) and I'm really lazy...but still enjoy the chapter as I don't know when the next chapter will come out.
Laughing was sleeping soundly in his fuuton across the room, his back was turned to Kitsune but Kitsune was pretty sure that he could still sense, somehow what was going on around him. Currently, Kitsune sat on the window sill of their hotel room, meditating, the rock that Laughing had given him in front of him. He was breathing slowly and deeply, his eyes closed and his one hand on top of his katana should anything happen. In his mind, the rock was all he could see and feel, the rock seemed to breathe in and out as he did, matching the rhythm of the rising and falling of his chest. The moon shone brightly above him, casting unusual shadows along the walls and the ground. Somewhere out there a dog howled at the full moon and crickets chirped, it was quiet...too quiet...things were never this quiet.
They had reached a fairly large city down the river they were following earlier, filled with factories and industrial plants. But luckily, on the older side of town, there were still good old bars with notice boards, hiring mercenaries for various jobs. Laughing had gone through three bars before finally giving up and decided to bounty hunt instead. So he bought a little bingo book, pocket sized from a nearby weapons shop and flipped through it idly, looking for someone that would put up a half decent fight and their head would pay well. He had decided, after much contemplation, on the Karuka's. A group of missing nin from Kirigakure, all of them related to each other in some way, and they had reproduced to the point where there were roughly thirty of them in total, all of them family, all thirty of them had terrorized towns and villages and many missions had been sent out to different shinobi villages, but all had failed..
Each one was worth fifty thousand ryo, and the leader Haragi was worth one hundred thousand. They looked like pretty strong fighters, and they ought to be, being brought up in the 'Bloody Mist'. You didn't survive there just based on luck, it was a kill or be killed kind of place. By the look on Laughing's face, he was going to enjoy hunting them.
The two had spent three days on the road, asking around neighboring towns and villages about the whereabouts of the Karuka's, nothing really came up, only vague answers and rough directions. Nothing, until they took a quick pit stop at a bar in town. The bar was a more shadier place in the town, lots of creepy looking people and many who gave them a quick one over with their eyes. Kitsune was sure that he would double check to make sure his wallet was still with him by the time they left.
Because of all of their previous failures, Naruto was mildly discouraged and didn't even bother asking if anyone knew the whereabouts of the Karuka's, instead settling down at the grimy counter and ordering a sake. Laughing on the other hand was as cheerful as usual, having put away the mask so nobody would recognize their alter egos yet, take one look at him and you would get a sense of confidence and power off of him in waves. Seeing as how his partner had plainly refused to move, Laughing took it upon himself to ask the bartender a few questions quietly.
"You have any idea where these guys are?" Laughing slid a small pile of photos across the counter, all of members of the Karuka clan.
The barman took one glance at them and shook his head, wiping down another cup with a towel. Laughing nodded slowly, people were very secretive and fearful of powerful clans like this, if the clan found out who had given away their location to an enemy, you could start digging your grave now. Casually he tossed a couple ryo onto the counter, the barman looked at the money and then up at Laughing's face before quickly reaching out to claim the money, but not before another hand slapped down hard on top of his lightning fast as he dragged the money towards him.
The barman looked up at Laughing, slightly intimidated, just what Laughing wanted, a little bribery and a little fear always did the trick. The barman gulped, and leaned closer to whisper in Laughing's ear, "I don't have anything on these guys but I know the old fella over there might, he keeps tabs on everybody around here. Now you didn't get this information from me if anyone asks, got it?"
Laughing nodded silently and released the barman's hand, watching him squirm as he quickly tucked the money into his pocket. He then turned to the old guy sitting by himself in the darkest corner, he had a fisherman's hat on and a filthy brown coat that looked much too big on his hunched back. Casually snatching his stack of photos, a jug of sake and a clean cup off the counter which the barman was about to object to but then wisely decided to keep his mouth shut in fear of being decapitated.
As if Laughing knew the old man well, he sat down at the same dirty table as the man and refilled the man's empty sake cup. Several empty sake bottles stood in a random order next to the old man but as the man raised his head to look at Laughing pouring him a drink it was obvious that he could take his alcohol really well as he looked far too sober to have drank all those bottles.
"It's on me," Laughing assured the man before pouring himself a drink and downing it in one go. He grimaced, the stuff was cheap but still he welcomed the feeling of the liquid burning down his throat like fire.
The man paused as if thinking before copying Laughing and drinking his in one gulp, letting his hand fall back to the table with a low thud, "What do ya wanna know?"
Laughing took his time, refilling both of their cups before sliding the stack of photos across the table. In a low and dark voice he asked, "Where are they?"
Where they were turned out to be just a couple hours run east from the town. For all the things the Karuka clan was known for, intelligence was obviously not one of them, as Laughing was yelling about right now.
"Who the hell makes their camp in a freaking valley? And they go and clear cut all the freaking trees to make their little buildings with! They might as well have a big neon sign saying, 'Karuka Residence'." Laughing growled, the Karuka were obviously stupider or more arrogant than he had originally thought, although he really hoped it was the first one.
"But you have to admit, their numbers sure are something to be scared of, maybe that's the reason of their stupidity, there's safety in numbers right?" Naruto asked, already sliding his Kitsune mask over his face with a devilish grin.
Laughing grinned evilly back at his partner, "Wrong."
"This is f*****g bullshit Kakuzu I don't understand why we have to go bounty hunting again!" a certain Jashinist complained to his partner.
Kakuzu shot Hidan a glare that he had picked up off of Itachi, "Not my fault you go and spend all the money on sake you douche bag, now you have to pay up for it."
This silenced the Jashinist immediately, he liked the searing feeling of sake, nothing else could replace it, except the thrill of killing someone, which is why he should stop complaining now, but instead, he continued. "By why a f*****g entire army of Kiri nuke-nin? You've seen f*****g Kisame, they're beasts!"
"Kisame is only Kisame because he's one of the seven legendary swordsmen of the mist, the rest are relatively weak compared to him, I even checked with him before this," Kakuzu stopped adbruptly at the edge of a cliff. Below them lay a huge camp with people milling around, sharpening weapons and drinking sake, all of them were oblivious to the destruction that awaited them. "Look if you stop complaining, you can have all the sake you find down there."
"You know...they're relatively weak, I don't know why there's such a large bounty on the lot of them," Kitsune mused as he ducked under a giant axe and axe kicked its wielder out of the battle with a sickening crunch as steel plated ninja sandals met bone.
"I told you this would be a fun bounty hunting trip," Laughing remarked as he leapt nimbly over a huge brute's back twirling his katana quickly in order to send several heads flying to the ground with a noisy plop. The two of them chatted away as if they were strolling through a park on a nice sunny day and not going through a giant encampment, killing people left and right, rivers of blood streaming down the ground.
On the other side of the camp Hidan laughed as his scythe brought him another wave of blood. The ground was littered with his ritual circles of blood, dead bodies lay left and right, not really knowing what killed them. "More! More! More!" he cackled maniacally, clearly enjoying himself.
Kakuzu rolled his eyes, he didn't even know why he bothered convincing his earlier complaining partner before if he was going to enjoy himself this much regardless, both of them gained from bounty hunting in multiple ways anyways. One, he got hearts to add to his 'collection', some were fairly strong ones too. Two, Hidan got sacrifices for Jashin. Three, the money from bounty hunting was excellent, way better than being mercenaries. Four, sometimes there was free sake and loot to claim. It was a total win-win situation in the end, despite the much complaining at the beginning.
But this was odd, why were the Karuka so confused? They were running in all directions now, if they were to run wouldn't they run the other way? Somewhere in the midst of the battle he had someone yell, "It's an ambush! Enemies on both sides!" Who else could there possibly be? Hidan was right over there over to the left a little bit, swing his scythe like a mad man, which he probably was so he didn't really count as an ambusher from the other side...unless...
Kakuzu ducked just a steel plated ninja sandal came flying over his head along with a blur of red and black, didn't the Karuka's all wore blue? As as sign of their Kiri defection? Then who would wear red and black? Kakuzu didn't get anymore time to ponder this question as all the Karuka's around him fell neatly on the spot, their throats spurting blood left and right.
Kitsune's eyes widened as he realized who was standing there in front of him, with a casual movement of the wrist he wiped the blood on his katana on a nearby Karuka's dead body, making the blade gleam in the sunlight again. "Feh, stupid zombie bros." The bingo books had describe the two as 'immortal', well let's see how 'immortal they really were.
Laughing cracked his knuckles as he assessed the sudden development in the situation before them, "I'll take this screwed Jashinist, you can take the emo seamstress..."
"Oi! I am not a f*****g seamstress!" Kakuzu bellowed at Laughing.
"I thought he was the potty mouth...now we have the potty mouth bros as well as the zombie bros?" Kitsune pointed his katana at Hidan haphazardly.
"You are so dead the minute I get my hands on you..."
"Bring it on Ms. Seamstress, I'm waiting..."
Dun...dun...dun...cliffhanger!!!! Next chapter! The zombie bros and the two duke it out! Who will come out on top? Well tune in next time! (Sorry if I made the Akatsuki a little OOC :P)
~AnimeClouds~