Hello everybody, and welcome to Chapter 13 of "Shippuden Zero"! Last chapter was a bit of exciting, wasn't it?
thor94: I can tell you dislike Naruto as a character. :P Don't worry though, I do plan on making him stronger. Although I have to disagree with you on the statement you said about Kurama saving him all the time. Naruto did learn the Rasen Shuriken, and that's how he defeated Kakuza. Although it didn't kill him, it blew up two of his hearts. Naruto will be one of the main parts of a secret technique in the future, however.
Alright, well I did a few threads on Naruto Amino, you can go check them out if you want. Naruto Amino Username: Zero
With that out of the way, enjoy Chapter 13!
"Zero..."
"Zero."
"Zero!"
"ZERO!"
Zero awoke with a start. He was laying down on a mat that was above solid rock, which hurt his back when he woke up. Shikamaru was looking at him, and Ino was using her medical ninjutsu once again on Zero's head. They seemed to be in a small cave with a campfire in the middle of the cave. "Huh..." Zero asked the group around him. "What...where are we?"
"We're in a cave that was nearby our fight with Fusada and Puraka." Shikamaru explained. "They defeated us all, and managed to take Naruto and Hinata prisoner."
"What?!" Zero blurted out, getting up quickly from the spot he was laying on, pushing away Ino's medical ninjutsu.
"Please, relax Zero." Ino pleaded. "I need to heal you, that Genjutsu that Fusada casted on you could've burnt a part of your brain if he continued with it." Zero followed the plea and lay back down onto the small mat.
"Kiba doesn't seem too happy with you. You might want to pretend to be still unconscious if he walks into the room." Shikamaru suggested.
At this exact moment, Kiba was standing outside the door, and when he heard Zero's voice, he clutched the handle tightly and swung it open. Kiba stomped over to Zero with his blood boiling, ready to start an argument. "WHAT THE HELL, ZERO!" Kiba roared, grabbing a hold of Zero's flak jacket and pulling him up. Kiba then slammed Zero against a nearby wall. "THEY CAPTURED NARUTO AND HINATA, AND WHAT DID YOU DO?" Kiba's eyes were clearly depicting that he was in extreme anger at the loss of his two friends, however Zero still managed to have a straight face, showing no signs of fear.
"Kiba!" Shikamaru scolded. "Let go of him!"
"NO! NOT UNTIL HE EXPLAINS WHY HE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING TO HELP!"
"Zero was under a Genjutsu, Kiba."
"I DON'T CARE WHAT THE HELL TYPE OF JUTSU HE AS UNDER! IF HE ACTUALLY HAD STRENGTH, HE WOULD'VE RELEASED IT AND GONE AFTER NARUTO AND HINATA!"
Zero's expression was slowly getting angry by the second of Kiba yelling at him.
"WELL? WHY DID YOU?"
Ino and Shikamaru could see Zero's expression getting angrier and angrier, although Kiba was still clouded by his own anger. Zero looked like he was about to release the anger kept inside of him.
"WHY!"
"BECAUSE I SAW MY BASTARD PARENTS!" Zero roared back. Kiba was stunned at his reaction, and slowly started to lose the grip on Zero. Ino and Shikamaru stood silently as well, shocked at Zero's remark.
"You saw...what?" Kiba started to feel sorry about yelling at Zero. "Your...parents?" Kiba had now fully lost his grip and backed away a little bit.
"That god damn Fusada." Zero explained, his anger lessening. "That Genjutsu he put on me, made me see pictures of my parents. My god damn horrible parents..."
"What do you mean?" Ino asked.
"My parents...were always abusing me...making me do all the work around the house, and then throwing trash at me after I did the work..." Zero released his thoughts out loud. "Always locking me in my basement...giving me restrictions...throwing stuff at me for no reason...always picking after my sister...they thought of me as a waste of time and space...trying to remove me from my future of becoming a ninja...it was disgusting..."
The three other shinobi listening to Zero couldn't really respond in any way. Their families had all treated them well, they couldn't bear to think of what Zero went through.
"Zero..." Ino said.
"So, I ran away." Zero concluded. "And I never want to see them again." He looked off towards the fire, deciding to walk away from the campfire and sit on the ground farther away from the group. "You guys are the first people that ever welcomed me into a home." Zero started to mope, and fifty percent of his mind was thinking of his abusive parents while the other part of his mind was thinking of Naruto and Hinata.
"The first ones..."
Hinata's eyes slowly opened as the sun was falling down from the center of the sky. She felt a large breeze pushing against her, as if she were fly in the air. "Huh..." She quietly moaned out. The only thing she saw with the small opening of her eyelids was Naruto, who was floating on another water cage a short distance away from her. The cages seemed to be attached to something that looked like water-like claws, which were holding onto the two cages. "N-Naruto?" Hinata asked after seeing the blonde jinchuriki unconscious.
Naruto arose slowly when Hinata called out his name. "Huh...yeah?" Naruto looked over to the voice that spoke to him. "Hinata?" He questioned after he realized who it was. Looking around, Naruto asked, "Where the hell are we?"
"I think we've been captured by those two ninja we battled earlier." Hinata predicted. "This cage is made of water, but the water has so much pressure that we can't break it even with our abilities. It's being carried by a bird, who seems to be going very slow, which isn't moving the cage much."
"Just like that battle Kakashi had with Zabuza!" Naruto thought, remembering the first battle he had as a Genin against one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. "Argh...the nerve of these guys..."
"Let me see if I can see what they are doing." Hinata suggested, activating her Byakugan. Naruto decided to remain quiet, as Fusada and Puraka were having a conversation above them.
"What are we going to do with these two shinobi again?" Puraka's voice came first.
"We're going to deliver them to Lord Ifisiki's territory, of course." Fusada explained. "They can serve as slaves, and them being from the Hidden Leaf village, they have to be powerful enough to finish work faster."
"Lord Ifisiki will be proud of our efforts!" Puraka explained. "Maybe we could even get info from these two shinobi about the Hidden Leaf village, and possibly raid it!"
"Well, our village does have close relations with an Akatsuki member. Maybe we could find info about the Hidden Leaf's jinchuriki, and be paid twice as much as we do after every mission."
"Yes! We will use the Akatsuki member for help!"
"Shhh!" Fusada shushed Puraka. "You could wake them up. They need to regenerate their chakra for the work they will do for Lord Ifisiki once we arrive there tomorrow."
"Yes...Fusada." Puraka followed instructions, decreasing the sound of his voice.
"Alright, let us stop for rest after a few more minutes of traveling on your Aqua Beast."
Hinata released her Byakugan after scanning the area while listening to the conversation. Naruto was shocked at what they heard, realizing a conclusion about what they might do with him. "Hinata...what if they find out that I'm the jinchuriki?" Naruto whispered.
"I'm sure none of that will happen." Hinata quietly tried to persuade Naruto into forgetting that.
"But, you heard them! They have an Akatsuki member on their side!"
"If they try to ask me anything about the jinchuriki, I will say nothing, because I will not reveal any information about you."
Naruto felt relieved at Hinata's remark about never revealing information on him. "Phew...thanks Hinata." Naruto whispered. "I needed that." Hinata replied with a simple nod through the cages. "You know, I'm really glad to have a friend like you, Hinata. I know you always have my back."
Hinata started to blush as she felt enlightened at her crush's trust in her. "T-Thank you, N-Naruto." Her shy personality was starting to come back. "I will always have your back, Naruto."
"We have to get going soon." Shikamaru explained. "Who knows how far those two could get before we can't get to them."
"Well, we can't go anywhere until Zero gets out of that corner." Ino pointed at the moping Zero, who had Ascension propped up next to him.
"This is such a drag..." Shikamaru groaned. "Kiba, could you please go talk to him and get him out of that corner?"
Kiba was currently leaning against a wall with Akamaru lying down next to him. "Why me?!" He complained.
"Well," Ino replied. "You were the one that yelled at him a few minutes ago."
"Argh..." Kiba had to cheer Zero up, for the sake of the mission. "Fine..."
Kiba removed himself from leaning on the wall and walked over to the corner that Zero was sitting down in. The new ninja was currently just staring at the wall, clearly in deep thought with his hands around his knees. "Zero, come on, we gotta continue the mission." He pleaded, trying to use a simple solution. Zero didn't budge at all and actually tightened his grip on his knees. "Look, I'm sorry for the way I yelled at you earlier. I didn't realize what happened to you under that Genjutsu."
"It's not your fault," Zero said, still staring at the wall. "It's, my fault, for having such a bad past in the first place..."
"It's not that Zero!" Ino said, in which she was listening into Kiba's apology. "It isn't your fault about that! It's those horrific people that actually were proud of calling you their son."
"And listen, I know that you're going through that, in which none of us can ever relate to." Kiba said. "But, as a shinobi, you have to save Naruto and Hinata. They are your friends, which means they're our friends."
"How are they my friends if I couldn't even save them from being trapped in some stupid Genjutsu?" Zero asked. "I'm too weak...being a captive of some stupid mind trick."
"You're clearly stronger than that, Zero." Ino said. "You're equal to us, and as a combined team, we can take down anyone."
"With that scythe of yours, you look a hell of a lot cool, too." Kiba said. Zero couldn't help but grin at Kiba's comment on Ascension.
"We're all shinobi." Shikamaru stated. "Although you're not the same ninja rank as us, we will always treat you as equal."
Zero did not reply to the remark for a few seconds. Finally thinking of a reply, Zero said, "You're right. I'm a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf." Zero slowly started to stand up from the corner. "I must not let past images cloud my mind. I have to focus on the mission at hand." Zero grabbed Ascension off the wall it was propped up against. Turning around, a different expression appeared on his face. An expression of bravery, an expression of strength. An expression, of courage. "Let's go save Naruto and Hinata."
As a sign of pride, Zero activated his Z-vision for no exact reason. Once activated, his vision went black.
Well, that's Chapter 13 of "Shippuden Zero"! Some crazy stuff happened, didn't it!
I don't really have much to say for this closing Author's note, other than the upcoming chapter.
Chapter 14 will be out sometime this week. This is AM, signing off.