Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. However, Naruto's author is said to be a fujoshi…Kyahaha! Take that, you fools! XD
Chapter 12 – The Dark Nins' Identity
"Gross. The walls are slimy, man!"
"Shut it, dobe."
Voices echoed around the corridor as two men tried to find their way in the darkness.
"You know what, these people who kidnapped us are stupid," grumbled the blond one. The other just kept silent, frown starting to mar his passive features.
Evident in the Uchiha's scowling is his irritation from his musings before. Problem is, he can't pinpoint who these kidnappers are although he is quite sure he saw them somewhere, maybe on a mission scroll, on a newspaper ad or on a flyer. If only his recent "realizations" weren't distracting him from...wait…go back there…that's right! The mission!
Sasuke exhaled his pent up irritation softly as he tried to remember the contents of their supposed to be mission. He remembered the fine print on the rough paper sent by their Hokage bit by bit until he got to the part where he wanted.
"You must track down the dangerous group of assassins called The Dark Nins they are…."
And everything just flows back in his mind. Now how did he forget about that? He even had themselves get caught by said persons! Shaking his head in dismay for being out of it lately, his eyes widened a faction when a sudden thought came up. His frown suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a smirk. Sasuke felt confident to not only finish the mission, but also beat those fools for kidnapping them and touching Naruto. Hitting two birds in one stone he said? Well, yes indeed.
Sasuke schooled his expression again and for what seemed hours, at last they are few steps nearer from the hallway opening. As they emerged, Sasuke's eyes squinted from the brightness while Naruto used his arms to protect his eyes. After their vision had somehow adjusted from the light, they were surprised to see what's in front of them.
An 18th century Victorian-styled living room complete with a delicate indoor fountain and a magnificent vintage one-tiered murano glass chandelier hanging delicately above the calico painted ceiling appeared before them.
Naruto can't help but gasp a little and marvel at the beauty of the room. Sasuke feeling a little annoyed although his face showed great interest at the splendid display of extravagant wealth.
"Oh, look who's here now! Welcome my dear guests."
The two men looked to where the voice came from and saw Tasuku above the stairs wearing a white tux and a cravat instead of a tie. He smiled sardonically and approached the two in a languid manner with eyes fixed intently on Naruto. Sasuke balled his hands into fists not liking the way the man is staring at his companion.
"Come, come, please do have a seat, "said Tasuku motioning them to sit on the cushioned velvet chairs.
Sasuke didn't need to be told twice and he suddenly vanished, then appearing behind a surprised Tasuku. A sudden sound of a thousand chirping birds filled the room as Tasuku wheezed from the attack and blood dribbled down his chin. The silver-haired man looked down and saw a big gaping hole in his chest undeniably caused from Sasuke's deadly attack. He coughed blood and fell down in a big cloud of smoke. Naruto snorted pitifully at the demise of what appeared to be a shadow clone.
"You merciless bastard. Do you really have to use chidori on the poor clone? " Sasuke walked calmly towards the blond.
"He may be a clone but I don't like the way he looks at you like some kind of a juicy steak he wants to devour," Naruto gulped at what he had heard and looked carefully at the raven-haired man who inconspicuously stationed himself beside him again.
Growing a little flustered at Sasuke's show of protection or in this case possessiveness, Naruto prepared himself for what's to come in this uncanny situation they are facing right now.
"Aa, I haven't told you yet but," Naruto shifted his attention to his companion. "I got an A-ranked mission from Pakkun. It's a two man job and I already signed you up to be my partner,"
Naruto raised his eyebrows at this and glanced a little at Sasuke.
"We're supposed to track down a dangerous group of assassins called the Dark Nins and then report it to the Hokage."
Naruto rubbed his chin as he contemplated something, "Judging from your tone. I guess these kidnappers of ours...probably is the one you're talking about? Am I right?" the Uchiha gave him a sideway glance and smirked.
"Correct. Saved us the trouble of finding them but it was written that they are somewhat a group transferring from one country to another. I did not expect their main headquarters to be nearer in Konoha although that might be the reason why their location got overlooked plus there's only two of them," Naruto scratched his cheek with his index finger in annoyance.
"Geez. So, what's our mission supposed to be? Capture them? When you look at it this way Uchiha, it seems our role is reversed."
"It is but not for long. As I said we only need to find them but its better if we capture them as well," said Sasuke, his eyes travelling upwards to where the stairs are again and finding the so-called president of his fanclub, Akira.
The girl is dressed in a tight black Chinese dress with very high slits on the side of her legs and a large diamond cut on the chest displaying her well-endowed breasts. Sasuke stared apathetically which made Akira feel infuriated, trust the Uchiha not to be affected with such sexy attire. Akira glared at them and her brother appeared behind her with the same clothes his clone had before.
"Well, now that everyone is here. It's time to start the party!"
With a clap from Tasuku, music filled the whole house. More like from a bizarre apparition, phantasm of people dressed in gowns and tuxedos have begun to appear. They were laughing and drinking merrily totally oblivious to the world.
In the midst of it all Naruto and Sasuke stood looking out of place from the gaiety of it all. However, as quick as the vision appeared, everything suddenly got blurry and the whole place keeps going back and forth like a static intrusion. The scene around them changed from a party to a bloody massacre.
Naruto suddenly felt like vomiting when the view around them stopped flickering and stayed on a scene of those happy people now dead and brutally massacred. Blood pooled around them like a shallow lake.
A spine chilling laughter filled the air and both Sasuke and Naruto grimaced at the two siblings who were laughing maniacally totally enjoying the morbid display. Sasuke however, felt more uncomfortable as an image of his own clan's massacre flashed on his mind.
"Tch, I can't seem to do this illusion right every time! It always comes back to how they died!" said Akira in a mocking tone.
"Ahahahaha! It's okay imouto! It's more marvelous is it not? So much red! Red will look good on you Naruto-kun!" said Tasuku, eyeing the blond once again with a sinister glint in his eyes.
"Kyahahaha! You're right big brother! Who else would you think red will look good on, ne?" said Akira while looking at Sasuke in a very keen manner.
Sasuke mentally scoffed, a three-tome Sharingan already blazing on his eyes. Naruto's hands are prepared into a sign for his Sage mode while thinking who on earth is this two to be listed as dangerous assassins.
-FLASHBACK-
"Hokage-sama, it's clever for you to use the Team7's anniversary as a decoy to make me inquire things about the missing-nin," said Wolf smugly. Tsunade looked at him face now becoming serious.
"So, what did you find out?" asked Tsunade, as she poured herself a cup of sake and drank it.
"Hokage-sama, the missing-nin was found lately in the Snow Country and…" Wolf faltered.
"And?" asked Tsunade irritated by Kakashi's (a.k.a Wolf, in case you forgot.) sense of suspense.
"And… I found out, that he is an assassin from the underworld group called the Dark Nins."
"What? But I thought that group already got caught and disbanded."
"It seems that group was just a copy of the real Dark Assassins. The true one actually is not a group but works as a duo," Tsunade's brows furrowed at the newly received information. She stood up and walked to the window, swishing the remaining sake in her cup Kakashi just followed her with his eyes as he continued his report.
"We almost got a hold on one of them but they are quite masters of stealth. Based on reports, they don't stay at one place too long. However, in each place they have stayed in, there's always assassinations going on, mostly successful kill rates except that one time."
Tsunade looked at Kakashi in the corner of her eyes. "That one time…?"
"That time when you assigned Itachi Uchiha his last A-ranked mission before he become a full-pledge teacher of the academy, the one where he stopped an assassination attempt of the Rock Country's feudal lord. The assassins hired were none other than the Dark Nins themselves, Hokage-sama. "
"Oh, that…" Tsunade walked back to her desk and opened a certain report scroll.
"Hmmm…he did successfully put a stop on that attempt. Although the assassin got away," Tsunade flipped a page. "So, based on the recent missions regarding this said group, there's some spotting of the true faces of these assassins?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama. As you would kindly look at my mission report now," said Kakashi as he handed a scroll to Tsunade. The Hokage unsealed the scroll and began to read its content. Her eyes widened in surprise as she saw at the end of the report two pictures of familiar people.
"Shizune!" The door opened and in came a smiling pretty woman with black short hair carrying a pig.
"Yes, Hokage-sama?" said Shizune as she dropped the pig on the floor.
"Bring me the files regarding the Oono incident."
"Right away, maam!" Shizune quickly raced off and returned with the files in tow in just 2 minutes. Tsunade sat on her chair and opened the folder quickly scanning its content.
"Hmm…I think I know the Dark Nin's motive," by hearing this Kakashi closed his book and focused his attention on the Hokage. Tsunade calmly sat back in her chair arms crossed on her chest and raised an eyebrow at Kakashi.
"Would it kill you to stop reading that book once in a while, Wolf?"
Kakashi chuckled a little and closed his little orange book.
"Probably it would Hokage-sama," Tsunade just shaked her head at his subordinate's eccentricity.
"At any rate, the Dark Nins are dangerous. Two months after I was appointed as the Godaime, there was an incident. It was an underground operation by the council that was kept silent, it was to eliminate the Oono's . I, myself, wasn't aware it happened until it was already done. The Oono clan, rich nobles that come from a long line of royalty who are dominant in the field of science was starting to become different. There were rumors that during their inaugural parties, human trafficking was being held."
Tsunade kept talking while opening the folder.
"It would seem that the present generations of the Oono had become cruel and weird. After their destruction, it was discovered that in every Oono household there is a basement filled with grotesque symbols in which holds sacrificial rituals and human experiments. However, it wasn't the Black Ops who massacred everyone. When they arrived at the place, everyone was already brutally killed. In the middle of the bloodbath stood two children covered in the blood of their kin playing happily in the midst of it all. Those two were taken in custody and interrogated. However, they had escaped and never been found ever since."
Kakashi shifted a little and looked thoughtful. "Well, what did they found out during their interrogation?" he asked. Tsunade pulled out from the folder a blue colored paper and handed it to Kakashi. The anbu took it calmly and read the contents thoughtfully. As he read along, the expression of his eyes started to change.
"Such tragedy and such foolishness," said Kakashi as he gave back the files to Tsunade. The blond big breasted woman put the files back in the folder and closed it.
"What can we do? Such things are bound to happen when people become greedy with their own power and knowledge."
"Uhm, excuse me for interrupting but what happened to those kids, Hokage-sama?" asked Shizune as curiosity got the better of her.
"In the investigation, it was known that their parents were the head of the Oono family. In their parents' attempt to have their so-called prodigious scientific endeavors continue, they trained their own children for it. "
Shizune looked down, not liking where the story is going. Tsunade continued.
"The two of them were forced to watch and study all the horrifying inhumane acts of their family until one day, there was a celebration of some sort within the household. The two children were not there in the party for they had sneaked back into the lab to read a forbidden scroll that their father had left in the operating table. It was a curse jutsu made by the Oono themselves, yet young as they were, of course they don't know what jutsu it is. However, they know how to perform the hand symbols so they tried and they failed. The jutsu had a reverse reaction and it struck the two."
"What curse jutsu was it?" asked Shizune.
"It was the Bloodlust Curse," Kakashi answered grimly. Shizune looked at him and back to Tsunade.
"Bloodlust Curse?"
"Yes, the Bloodlust Curse. Victims under this jutsu are forever trapped in an unrestrainable desire to see blood. In short, it makes the victim's skills honed up to become a merciless killer."
Shizune gasped. "The poor kids! What happened to them afterwards?"
"The two went back upstairs and went in a killing spree. Since it was the annual reunion of the Oono family, all of them were there and all of them were killed," Tsunade spoke in a grim tone.
Kakashi crossed his arms and continued where Tsunade had left.
"Murder rates after those two escaped had gone up. But, a year after that it had lessened and the Dark Nins appeared. It seems the two managed to somehow repress and control their urges to kill and uses the curse to their advantage and for their survival. Lately, it seems they had been lying low most of the time. "
Tsunade took a blank scroll from her desk compartment and wrote something then handed it to Kakashi.
"It seems that I can no longer set aside this matter. We must track down the Dark Nins again. I will be assigning Sasuke Uchiha for this task and after their whereabouts are to be found, an issue of their capture must be employed immediately."
Kakashi took the scroll and bowed.
"Yes, Hokage-sama."
-END OF FLASHBACK-
"Now, DIE!" screamed Akira dashing to where Sasuke and Naruto are. The two managed to get away from the charging girl by jumping away from each other. A mist of dust slightly rose up and the girl stood huffing between the two sporting a maniacal grin.
They were only 6 meters apart from each other when Akira swiftly turned to Naruto and charged. Naruto quickly blocked a frontal attack and dodged multiple fatal slices of the girl's dagger.
'Ugh, this girl is so fast! It's almost inhuman!' thought Naruto as a quick slice almost made it to his face. Akira did not give Naruto a chance to strike back as she mercilessly gave one attack after another.
On the other side, Sasuke was making a Snake, Dragon, Rabbit hand seals for his Katon Ryuka no Jutsu but before he finishes with a Tiger seal, a sudden punch was sent his way. Fortunately, the Uchiha managed to see the upcoming attack and was able to block the blow with his arms making slide two meters away from the impact.
"I do want to dance with that beautiful Jinchuuriki but my sister thinks he is a hindrance to her love. On the other hand, I think YOU'RE the hindrance to my own, uhmm…let's say my new 'love' as well," said Tasuku as he calmly stood in front of Sasuke blocking any attempt to help the blond.
Tasuku sent ten poisoned tipped senbon on Sasuke's way. The Uchiha saw this and stepped out of the way doing several backflips and rolls avoiding the continuous barrage of poisoned senbons. Using his eyes, Sasuke noticed that Tasuku can control the senbon's movement through manipulating air. The Uchiha quickly hid behind a nearby pillar to avoid another onslaught and quickly made the hand seals of Monkey, Dragon, Rat, Bird, Ox, Snake, Dog, Tiger, Monkey, he channeled a large amount of lightning chakra on his hand resulting to a creation of sounds reminiscent of many birds chirping.
However, Sasuke felt something different and he looked at his hand to see red-colored mass of chakra swirling around his arm. His eyes shifted back to his enemy as he emerged from his hiding spot and dashed in breakneck speed.
"Chidori Nagashi!"
Chidori was released in every direction, along with the red-mass of chakra that seems to be making the electricity current of the technique more charged. This time it was Tasuku who are dodging the fatal streams of electricity one after another.
"What is this? How come you can use your chakra? I sealed it myself!" said Tasuku while maneuvering his body into this and that to avoid the whip-like currents and still managed to throw senbons towards the Uchiha.
Sasuke did not bother to reply and focused on manipulating some of the electric torrents to form an instant barrier to deflect Tasuku's counterattacks.
"Tch, it was the Kyuub wasn't it?" said Tasuku again as almost hundreds of senbons appeared behind him and all flew towards the Uchiha. One had almost stabbed him since it came from behind but Sasuke kept on dodging. Relying on his electric torrents to be his shield, he closed his eyes for a while and then opened them, his three tomed Sharingan had changed to three intersecting ellipses, the Mangekyou Sharingan.
"Come back here, demon!"
It was Akira screaming.
"You! How dare you!" she sends a frenzy of attacks to Naruto. "You stealer!" Slice, punch, slice. "Sasuke is mine! Only mine!" A combo of kicks was given. "You're nothing to him! You're trash! A demon! Worthless!"
Naruto kept on dodging her fast attacks, his clothes now have some few cuts and slashes but his body is undamaged. However, he is starting to get a little bit pissed at the never ending insults.
Although it seems he doesn't mind the insults but the way Akira is saying like she owns Sasuke is what really makes him feel irritated and the fact that he can't get a good timing to do an offensive attack is an added fuel to the fire. Now that it had come to this, Naruto thought up a plan.
"Oh yeah?" Naruto sneered at Akira. "You act like you're jilted by your boyfriend but in the first place, Sasuke doesn't even know you!" he said while blocking an uppercut. "You're the one who's nothing!"
"What do you know? You're a stupid demon!" screamed Akira aiming to slice off Naruto's head. Good thing Naruto had ducked before he was sliced clean. He continued his taunts.
"As for me, ever since I can remember," Naruto tried to swipe her off balance but missed.
"Sasuke and I already knew each other. We've been through everything together," Akira threw three kunais but Naruto deflected it by grabbing a chair and used it as a shield.
"We were always with each other and up until the end. Who did he chose to be with?" Akira grimaced in response and smirked.
"Ha! Fool! I know the thing going on between you two is just an act. A fake!"
"Are you sure?" said Naruto looking quite smug. "What if that act was also just an act? What if the truth is that Sasuke and I are really the ones who are together?"
Akira's eyes narrowed and her attacks started to get disorganized. Naruto pressed on.
"You're just nobody but I am Sasuke's somebody," Naruto had managed to give a flying kick but Akira had blocked it with her arms. "I'm his best friend, I'm his brother, I'm the one he's always with, I'm the one he can always count on, I'm the one he shows more emotion to and I'm the one who cares for him more than anyone! In short…I LOVE HIM AND HE LOVES ME! SO BACK OFF!"'
Naruto skidded a few feet away from blocking one of Akira's attacks. The girl stayed still and looked up at Naruto.
"What…What did you just say?" the girl asked in shock from what she just heard.
Naruto looked back too and even had the gall to look surprised when he realized what he had just said. He only wanted to taunt her but it seems he had said too much. Getting even angrier since the blond is now being silent, Akira dashed forward.
"LIES!" she screamed.
Akira started to get unfocused due to her rage. One attack had faltered a little and Naruto immediately grabbed the opportunity.
'Gotcha!'
Doing a hand seal, Naruto made two kagebunshins who immediately jumped on Akira. One grabbed her arms together and the other on her legs.
"I don't hit girls but I'll make an exception on this! Senjutsu: Rasenrengan!"
Struggling from the tight grip of the kagebunshins, Akira couldn't move and had taken simultaneous hit from two Rasengans. She flew straight to the wall and landed unconscious on the floor. Naruto's shadow clones landed beside her and formed hand seals creating a rope made of their chakra and poofed away. Naruto walked towards where they were and tied the girl up.
He turned around and saw Sasuke staring without interest at the circle of black fire surrounding Akira's brother. The wall somehow is not burning the man but is rotating in a manner that some kind of gray gas had appeared inside the area where the man is.
Tasuku attempted to cover his nose and mouth but the gas is filling up around him and his body started to get numb until he fell down. It seems the gas makes anyone who inhales it temporarily paralyzed.
When Tasuku fell, Sasuke deactivated his Sharingan and the black flames also disappeared. He also felt his own chakra coming back however, a sudden pain flared up in his chest and the Uchiha fell down as well. Naruto also felt his own coming back and run towards the Uchiha when he saw him fall down.
Fearing that Tasuku had managed to hurt him, he quickly scooped Sasuke up in his arms.
"Sasuke! Sasuke!" he yelled. "Don't die!" He groggily stood up with Sasuke in tow yet immediately fell back on his knees when he felt someone cuff him hard on his head.
"Ow!" he clutched his head making him release Sasuke. Realizing that he dropped his friend, he quickly sought for the Uchiha and stopped when he saw said Uchiha on the ground glaring at him.
"Eh?"
"Idiot."
"Wah! Sasuke!"
Without even thinking, Naruto jumped on Sasuke and hugged him to bits.
"Oi, Naruto."
"I thought he got you!" said Naruto while shoving his face on the Uchiha's broad chest.
"Naruto, listen-"
"You're such a weakling to be hurt by that psycho!"
"What! For your info-"
"That's why you should just let me handle everything!" Naruto tightened his hold.
"Can't…breathe..."
Now feeling more pissed off at Naruto than the one he was battling with, with his unreserved strength he sent another thwack on the head, effectively shutting the blond up and also making him release him from a hug that might be the cause of his death.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! What'd you do that for?" said Naruto clutching his head with his two hands while glaring accusingly at Sasuke.
"Dobe, I fell because my chakra limit is way above its limits and now in disarray since it's starting to combine with Kyuubi's chakra. So, as to not damage me further, would you kindly take back what you have lent to me?" said Sasuke.
"Eh? Uhmmm…Oh! Ahahaha…of course," Naruto placed his hand on Sasuke's chest. The Uchiha felt a tiny bit of pain when he felt the Kyuubi's chakra leave him and relief when his chakra had started to stabilize.
"Uhmmm…Sasuke…?"
Grunting uncomfortably, Sasuke sat up and faced an apologetic Naruto.
"Hehe…sorry about that," Naruto said.
"Hn."
Sasuke reached out and pulled Naruto back in his arms.
"Wah!"
"Dobe, stop being and idiot. Our mission is complete."
Naruto widened his eyes and his mouth formed an O-shape. Then, he slowly relaxed on the Uchiha's arms and hugged him back.
"Ye-yeah…" Naruto shyly replied.
Sasuke then released his hold on Naruto almost reluctantly and stood up.
"Man, this mission is once again, a piece of cake like any other mission I recently got!" Naruto overcoming his sudden shyness exclaimed and gave Sasuke a cheeky smile but the smile suddenly changed to something akin to shock.
Sasuke looked at the blond curiously and stared down, funny why he was suddenly thinking of looking like a pin cushion because now there are so many senbons penetrating his body.
Vaguely remembering that time in the Great Bridge, Sasuke fell down again.
~Owari~
A/N: Whew! Finally! Another chapter and it's quite long too! Oh, and don't think I made this chapter long because I'm trying to make up for not updating for months!
Please don't because…because…oh beat it!
IT'S TRUE! *sobs pathetically in the corner* I was trying to make up for it! *sobs more*
Anyways, review 'kay? xD
