S'been a little while, haznit? Final arc of this part coming right to fanfiction-sites near you!
DISCLAIMER : NARUTO AND AC AREN'T MINE, BUT I WRITE SOME BANGIN' LITERATURE OFF OF 'EM
Let's go lads.
Oi,
Feel a bit weird writing a letter, to be honest, it's the first time I'm writing one, actually. If my parents found out I'm writing a letter to some boy they'd never let me hear the end of it. Speaking of parents, they've taken really well to me coming back to Taki. I've missed this place. Come visit, you. Lots of love.
Ew, I just said that,
Seven
The crab-soup stall was nestled in a small, shady niche at Kirigakure. It was an old wooden cart with a huge pot on top of it, soup was bubbling away inside it. Crabs were kept neatly in a separate container, ready to be cooked and added to the soup. The stall owner had saved up enough to secure the spot for himself and get four quaint benches too, so that people could hang around as they ate.
Business would dwindle now and then, but it didn't matter. That was life, after all. What did matter though, to the old man was the stench.
Kirigakure I : Crab Soup
"Sssss, what do you think Naruto-kun?"
Orochimaru observed the Uzumaki, leaning back and squinting at him. Sakura giggled. Naruto frowned at his reflection on the small mirror-piece Orochimaru had produced. Jet black hair fell forward over his face. The whiskers on his cheeks were no longer visible, now firmly under coats of red cheek-paint. His tell-tale cerulean eyes were now sporting a soft brown.
"What can I say other than summon the bitches?"
"What does that mean?" Orochimaru was looking at Naruto seriously as he unzipped his trusty grey hoodie, replacing it with a tighter-fitting black jacket.
"No I mean, isn't this what girls like? Dark hair, red highlights, now I just need to start talking about the pain inside and I'll start getting kisses from Sakura."
"Why you-" Sakura switched from giggling to immediately sporting a shade of crimson as she reached out to hit Naruto, restrained only by the sensei grabbing her with both his hands and placing her bodily on the other side.
"Damn sensei, Kakashi wouldn't have done that for me. Anyway, I get your point. Jutsu will only go so far when it comes to disguise, so it's better to do all this, but-"
Orochimaru looked at him with the same unnerving gaze, something that Naruto and Sakura were getting more comfortable with by the second, strangely.
"- Ah, fuck it, I agree. But only until I figure out a better means of disguise, ya' know. And Sakura-chan?"
"Oh no." Sakura shuddered as Orochimaru reached inside his box, opening a strange container, dabbing his hand into it. He reached forward and brushed his finger ever so slightly against Sakura's lips before she could recoil. Naruto looked at her for a moment before laughing.
"Lipstick?! Sensei, I'm supposed to be a fourteen year-old girl, I-"
"And fourteen year old girls from Yuugakure dressed so, Sakura-chan," Orochimaru was slow, patient and deliberate in everything he did. It was infuriating, yet strangely reassuring to watch. "Trust me, I know my geography and culture, seeing as we had an Akatsuki member from the place."
"Hidan, right?" Naruto was looking at the village with the lone spire. They were on a small hillock, and in the distance below he could spy Kiri. It was...gray, yet not the reassuring pure gray of Masyaf, but a dirty, dull gray. He'd been closer, close enough to touch the walls of the village, but then he'd retreated back to their spot.
"Let us be on our way."
Orochimaru stood, closing his box. Naruto met Sakura's eyes, trying not to laugh at her all-black Chuunin vest and the red circle at the centre of her forehead. "I must say though, Sakura-chan, the forehead-mark suits you."
"It's called Urna, in Yuugakure. They are a strangely traditional village. We must visit there once." Orochimaru was straightening again, donning his own clothes now. Naruto stared at the man. Orochimaru was a...strange person, yet very intriguing. He seemed to possess no end of knowledge about everything, starting from Konoha's history to ninjutsu, geography, paints for some reason, for the material on their faces was of his own invention it seemed, and very hard to remove without a special other chemical.
Sakura was staring too. If anyone had told her she'd be on a mission with a strange snake-man for a sensei she'd have been pretty mortified, yet here she was. "How did you just have several clothes, random make up, Yuugakure-specific traditional whatchemacallits and everything all on you?"
"Seals, Sakura-chan. It's an advance-"
"Oi, mission," Naruto growled.
"Yes, Naruto-kun, what did you have to say?"
"It's weird, their entrance is nothing like Konoha's. There is a village wall as such, but there's no fixed entrance. There are several entrances, close to around...fifteen. And none of them are guarded. Not a person around, and I can assure you of that, Ninjutsu cannot cheat the Vision."
Orochimaru smiled at him, pleased or not, the Genin couldn't have said. "So what do you suggest we do?"
Naruto paused for a second. "Walk straight in, all nonchalant-like. No secret entry, no stealth. We're Genin from Yuugakure on a mission, right? We're here to report to the Mizukage, Yagura, if anyone asks. If the top ranks of this village are indeed tied in with the Akatsuki then we figure out who to capture by dusk. Torture him for the information on the piece's location. Impersonate him, infiltrate said location and make a break for it by dawn."
Orochimaru's smile widened. "That sounds good, Naruto-kun."
Silence. Naruto was looking back at the village again. Sakura broke it.
"But- But sensei, you haven't said anything. What do you mean it sounds good? There're tons of things we could do differently, aren't there any better alternatives to torturing him, or infiltration, or-"
"Sssss, Sakura-chan, every plan in the Shinobi world is a good plan if you're careful enough."
Sakura opened and shut her mouth. Naruto was sporting a quiet smile. "Sakura's statement isn't mutually exclusive to yours, sensei."
"Mutually- What're you even talking about?"
Orochimaru nodded in response to Sakura, "Mutual exclusivity, Sakura-chan, is when-"
"Oi, Mission."
"Crab soup for you, travelers?"
Sakura jumped at the oddly silky voice coming from the old man's stall. "Um, no thanks."
They were walking down a rather small road in the gloomy town. Naruto looked at their sensei for a second, now unrecognizable, for he had morphed into an entirely different man's body in a move that grotesquely seemed to resemble a snake shedding skin.
With a cognizance Naruto was still getting used to, Orichimaru turned to meet his eyes.
"There is unrest here."
Naruto hid his startle, realizing that he was communicating through Genjutsu. 'Rather unwise', he thought, considering an especially trained ninja could sense chakra pulses between them.
'Unrest.' Unrest was interesting. It could be used in a number of ways.
They cut right, Orochimaru was leading. He had benignly asked the way to the Mizukage's building to a Kiri ninja passing by.
Unrest was powerful, but most importantly it was a tell-tale sign that there had been a displacement very, very recently. In what, though? A displacement, but how? Naruto activated the Vision, deactivating it immediately when the familiar wash of blue-and-black met him. Nothing. He hadn't expected anything to pop up, either way, it was a rather nice feeling to pop the Vision on and off now and then.
Orochimaru stopped suddenly, and Naruto was shaken out of his reverie. They were near an inn, though nothing like the ones in Konoha. This one was huge, towering five floors tall with balconies. Naruto could spy clothes of all colors hung out to dry. Orochimaru stared up for a moment and then walked in.
'Sssss, this might be a nice base of operations eh, Naruto-kun? Sakura-chan?'
"Stop fucking hissing even in Genjutsu-speak, dammit," the blonde muttered in a low voice in reply. Orochimaru and Sakura walked forward, while he stood still, staring back at the road.
"Meet you two in an hour. Lunch at that crab soup stall."
He turned before Sakura could speak, partly confident that she wouldn't in fear of raising attention to themselves. He had the beginnings of some machinations in his mind.
Sakura watched the blonde walk out nonchalantly. She bit her lower lip in frustration. What was Naruto up to? And why was he taking these autonomous decisions, and why was their sensei keeping so quiet about it?
"Fifth floor, Sakura-chan, all the way up. I hear we've got quite a view waiting for us from the balcony!" Orochimaru was beaming under his disguise, the whole thing culminating in a rather scary sight.
"B-But Naruto-?"
"Sssss, do not worry so, Sakura-chan."
Sakura was aware that Orochimaru's voice in saying that last sentence was different, there was a jarring arrested-ness to it; He didn't want to entertain discussion. She followed meekly, cursing at herself as she passed by a mirror and her mishappen reflection flashed past.
Knock knock knock knock
Their footsteps echoed against the rustic wooden steps of the lodge as they climbed. A lazy mid-morning sunlight began to creep across the stairs.
"Here."
They stopped at the fifth floor landing, having nowhere else to go. There was a long corridor with five doors. On the other end, the corridor opened up, with a railing. In the far corner she could spy a hillock beyond the railing. It was deserted, not a sound, not a soul except-
She stifled a shriek as Naruto's nimble figure made itself seen at the other end of the corridor. He clambered in from the side of the building's opening and fell forward, all hands.
"I think I was quiet enough?" He called from the other end brazenly.
"Naruto!"
"Holy shit, quiet, Sakura-chan. Want to er, announce any of Konoha's historical secrets across the corridor while we're at it?"
"You're the one who started shouting from the other side, you dolt!"
Orochimaru sported a wan smile as he stopped near the second door, pulling out the keys the man had given him and opening the room.
"So your clone's out there somewhere?" Sakura looked at Naruto, holding her gaze at him a little longer than she normally would have. He did, after all, look radically different with his black hair and more importantly, missing that shocking blue in his eyes. They were both standing in the room's balcony, with the door drawn between the balcony and the room. Orochimaru was squatting on his bed and staring at some notes.
"Yeah. I've pumped a little more than I did when I did the Anko-clone at the Chuunin exams."
"And he's going to draw...someone...to us?"
"Yeah, I'll know when he pops. He'll draw our man in, create a clone and then kill himself. I've figured it out, finally. It was weirdly indescribable, but I know everything a clone experienced the moment he disperses. And here's the more dangerous side of this jutsu, every other clone receives that information too. Senju Tobirama was a genius, frighteningly so."
"Holy...shit." Sakura looked away, processing the new vista of information.
"Yeah." Naruto looked away too with a smile, into the sunlit streets far below. Sakura was starting to copy more and more of his language. There was a moment of silence between them. Sakura broke it.
"N-Naruto...I actually don't think the jutsu's safe."
Naruto laughed, a little hollow, humorless. "It never was. It's forbidden for that very reason. The inflow of...information, it's-"
"Remember when we were in that- that wind prison!" Sakura was excited, as if she was finally figuring the answer to an elusive question. Naruto smiled, he'd clambered across those exact pieces of realization while he'd lay in the ANBU's prison cell. Sakura's moment was short-lived, though. "You collapsed to the ground, screaming. That was how injurious it was."
He met her with silence again.
"Naruto, I don't want you using that jutsu."
The blonde was still looking away. "We'll have to push some boundaries, Sakura-chan. We need to get Sasuke back, remember?" Naruto knew that argument was her Achilles' Heel, that she would probably agree with him-
"We do. But we won't lose you in the process."
She was looking at him intently again, and for a second Naruto got the oddly specific feeling that she was looking underneath the physical differences and into the blue-eyed, blonde-haired Naruto.
"I-" He didn't know what to say. Haruno Sakura was...strange. She was much, much more perceptive than Naruto'd initially thought, and she had a knack for displaying tenacity in especially tough situations. Too late, he realized he'd been staring back. He could see red creep up on the girl's face.
"You and Fuu are a thing, aren't you?"
Naruto started this time; There, that stealthy perception again. "Um, yeah."
She turned away with a strange look on her face. Naruto could sense the discomfort but it was strangely fine, familiar. It was okay because it was Sakura.
Sakura let a moment pass before she giggled, to Naruto's relief. "I remember when you had a crush on me. But you and Fuu, you got on like a house on fire the moment you met, it was so obvious I tell you."
Naruto laughed. Sakura stepped back, drawing the door and going back inside, and he continued looking at Kiri from their balcony. He reached inside his dark apparel, feeling Sarutobi Asuma's trench knives. He looked at his covered left hand, the Hidden Blade belied. A lot of things about the unknown mire of romance had turned out to be just that, so far; Obvious. Odd, Naruto thought.
"It was there, a faint diffused smell of a midden heap amidst a field of flowers. It had reared its ugly head just once, little boy, and I knew."
The old man of the crab-soup stall grinned a toothy grin, and the little black haired boy nodded. His female team-mate and their teacher were sitting on the bench in the back, talking about something, but the boy had come up to make conversation. That made the old man happy. He didn't encounter many people like that in Kiri any more.
"And once the corruption seeps into the roots, it stays. The corruption is older than you, boy, but not older than me...not older than old man Mugetsu."
The boy nodded again, paying attention even as he spooned soup into his mouth. It was deliciously creamy, yet light at the same time. He smiled, before speaking.
"Has the corruption seeped into the roots, truly? How is that possible, old man?"
The old man closed his eyes, smiling into a grimace. "The red of blood is stark against Kiri's black soil, little boy. That is all I must say."
That last sentence was spoken with a low gravel, and it struck a chord in the boy. He handed the empty cup over and turned towards Sakura and Orochimaru when it happened.
A flash, and a nauseating grind of information. "S-Sakura, sensei," he wheezed, his voice breaking slightly. Both of them turned, Sakura with concern on her face. "Five minutes away from Riruka's, our lodge. Now. Right now." The trio rushed immediately in the direction of the inn they had a room at.
Old man Mugetsu started scrubbing the bowls, the same old smile plaing across his cracked lips.
Sakura kept up to the two as they rounded the corner of the road and the inn came into sight. Her heart was racing, Naruto's clone would turn up now, followed, apparently by whoever Naruto had wanted to capture. The blonde was running hard, all of them were yet it attracted no attention in the sparsely populated street. She saw him bolt inside the inn.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH-"
She gasped. That scream wasn't Naruto, yet that had to mean it could only have been the innkeeper's, for he was the only one on the ground floor. She turned, and shrieked. The plump, middle-aged innkeeper had a massive gash across his chest, and had his mouth wide open. Naruto was standing over him back turned towards her. His trench-knife crackled with reams of gold, droplets of blood still jumping off of the surface, yet his arm was raised; he had laid one blow but was hesitating before the killing strike.
Orochimaru walked forward calmly, dispelling his disguise. The innkeeper, writhing on the floor saw the pale man walk towards him and tried in vain to crawl away clumsily. A moment later his face hit the floor with a sick thud, his eyelids unblinking.
"Grow up, Naruto-kun." Orochimaru's voice was a tinge annoyed at the boy's hesitation, a hitherto unseen emotion for the boy.
'Why in God's name would you kill him,' Sakura's voice screamed at her, but she knew better. She knew something was about to happen, and she knew she had mere seconds to prepare, a dint of instinct Ezio had tried to hone in her. She turned immediately, drawing the kunai from her belt pouch and taking Naruto's side.
"Good girl."
Orochimaru's mouth was wide and smiling slack-jawed again, but only a moment. He leapt forward, catching the limp dead body of the innkeep and flinging it at the doorway. Almost as if orchestrated, Naruto's clone bounded in through the door, and the stodgy body collided with it, sending him tripping.
The momentary confusion was enough, then, to throw off the pursuer. Tall, thin and draped in Kiri robes, he stumbled in and in one swift motion drove his sword through Naruto. The clone exploded with a loud poof. The Kiri ninja had barely recovered when the actual Naruto's throwing knife met his throat.
"Ogh-Oaaghh-"
He clutched at his throat and wildly pulled out the throwing knife lodged at the side, a move wrought in panic that made its effects known immediately as blood spurted. The man collapsed, drawing painful breaths.
Orochimaru tutted. "You might have torn his larynx, you cannot afford to be so clumsy Naruto-kun, that's twice in one minute."
"You can save him." Naruto's answer was short and harsh as ever, and it was not an answer Orochimaru rebuked as he knelt down, touching the man's bloody throat. A liquid green layer of chakra wrapped around both the pale sensei's hands and the throat, the blood seemed to clot and dry immediately as the man's eyelids rolled shut. Naruto meanwhile picked up the innkeeper's dead body, and turned. He had a strange, muted look on his face as he met Sakura's eyes.
"He was a Kiri spy. Your clone knew, didn't he?" Sakura's voice was soft as she walked towards the heavy body slung over the boy's shoulder.
"You're really perceptive, you know?"
They started walking up the stairs with the body.
"I didn't want to kill him, wanted to keep the mission clean..." Naruto was muttering audibly. Sakura sighed. She was aware of the boy's hesitation. It was a sign that Naruto had changed, yet was the same.
"What did he do?" Sakura asked.
"Called for the ninja the moment sensei asked for a room, and that ninja would've come to the room too, but he thought only I'd gone out, and got distracted. He tailed m- well, my clone, who made straight for the perimeter of the village. Both...both of them are working for the Akatsuki, Sakura-chan."
Sakura stopped for a second, shell-shocked, making both of them trip a little. "Keep walking."
"How do you know, Naruto?"
"I know. I can smell it. Call it instinct, the way you can absorb the sense of a place just by being there...and that man at the crab-soup stall? Confirmed it for me.
Sakura nodded in response, thinking back to their last encounter. It had been a stroke of luck that their tail had gotten distracted by Naruto's clone and hadn't bothered to check if the actual Naruto had gone into the inn. Yet Naruto had capitalized on that stroke of luck, drawing the man to the perimeter and then pulling him inward into the inn and finally capturing him. It was messy, fast, yet precise where it needed to be. She giggled; A plan that was a lot like the person that'd made it in her eyes.
"What're you laughing at?" Naruto looked at her curiously from the other side as they walked quickly across the fifth floor corridor.
"Just the effectiveness of it all. Reminded me of uh, mutual exclusivity."
Naruto chuckled too. Sakura kicked the door open. Their room was small, it had two beds, a balcony and a small bathroom attached. "Where do we-" Sakura began.
Naruto opened the bathroom door. "There go any chances of using a shower here." He threw the body on the floor, shutting the door. "You're a murderer now, Sakura."
He washed his hands at the sink and walked out, making space for the girl to wash hers. She seemed unexpectedly calm with the vistas of information. An entire village-full of ninja compromised to a terrorist group, and the hunt had already begun. She stole a glance at the lifeless body laying spread-eagled on the floor. The man probably had family, had children-
Her hands trembled as the moment eked a tear out of her.
Naruto turned away. His voice was hard again. "Remember Orochimaru-sensei's words?"
She dabbed the water over her eyes, steadying herself. "Grow up, Naruto-kun." She looked at him, the hardness of his voice was all over his face too, and it didn't dissipate even when he smiled grimly, nodding.
"Grow up, Sakura-chan."
They stepped out into the room not a moment too soon, for Orochimaru came whistling, the Kiri ninja's unconscious body over his shoulder.
"Ssssss, time for some interrogation, what say, Naruto-kun? Sakura-chan?"
He walked around the room nonchalantly, drawing the curtains shot and smoothening out the bedsheets. "Ah, Naruto-kun, keep a few clones ready, why don't you? And here, use this to wash your hair off, get yourself looking normal."
"They'll be when you need it," Naruto shot back, catching the vial that Orochimaru threw at him. There was dark blue liquid in it, a chemical, Naruto suspected, would undo the firm black dye on his hair. He went to the bathroom to apply it, trying not to look at the dead man.
"Sakura-chan, listen carefully." The sensei was prying yet another bag open. Sakura went over to the man. "Here, you must hold this needle over the cut I make."
Naruto stepped out of the bathroom again, looking relievingly normal. He shook his face to and fro, trying to get the wetness out of his hair. His vision finally focused, having removed the curious brown lenses that Orochimaru had given him. Sakura was holding onto the needle as Orochimaru made a clean cut, straight as an arrow across the unconscious man's bicep.
"Sssss, We have a lot to be thankful to Tsunade for, Sakura-chan. This needle can be inserted straight into the artery, you see, and the frozen suppressant will melt into the blood-stream."
"So this will make him sleep? Sensei, he's um, already unconscious."
"Not for long." Orochimaru had a wide smile on his face, much like a child handed an array of toys. "Do it now," he added. Sakura paused a moment, peering at the wound before slowly inserting the needle in. "Good, that's enough. Exchange that needle for this."
"What's this one do?"
Orochimaru drew the second needle out, examining it before handing it over. "Sssss, do you know that feeling you get, butterflies in the stomach?"
Sakura took the needle, inserting it carefully into the cut again. "Do you mean that thing's laced with adrenaline?"
Orochimaru smiled at her deduction. "Something similar."
"So he's going to wake up, but will soon want to sleep? But it'll only work if Tsunade-sama's found a way for the suppressant to be absorbed in the blood-stream slower than the second needle...that's genius."
Naruto whistled from the back. "You might be one too, what're you even talking about?"
"And now, we get him awake. Naruto-kun, I need your clone at my side propping him up, Sakura-chan, go towards the door and out of our man's sight."
Naruto quietly manifested a shadow clone with minimal chakra, who wordlessly went over to the other side and pushed the man into a slumped sitting position. Orochimaru's eyes flitted towards Naruto first, then Sakura's and then he dabbed his hand into a flask in his pouch. A second later, his slap on the man's face resounded in the room.
Naruto coughed as a few droplets of the powder hit his face but stifled it quickly. Orochimaru reached forward and stretched both the man's eyelids open.
"Uuuuuuuuurghh-"
The man gurgled, his eyes rolling within the slits Orochimaru had made out of his eyes. Naruto could see the man's dark pupil dilate.
"Do you see usssss?"
Orochimaru's face was very close to his. The man's mouth sagged, before he hissed back in a strangled voice. "Yes." The wound on the man's throat twitched.
"Do you see this boy?"
Orochimaru turned the man's neck violently towards Naruto. Naruto's eyes bored into the Kiri ninja's now open ones. The ninja's mouth curled ever so slightly.
"U- zu- maki..."
'Trench knife to his throat.'
Orochimaru's voice hissed through the momentary Genjutsu to Naruto, who slowly and deliberately unhooked the knife from his jacket and held the cold metal against the man's throat. The man's teeth starting biting down on his lips. Sakura recognized the sign, the suppressant was starting to hit. Orochimaru held the man's eyes open painfully.
"You work for the Akatsuki, do you not? Where do we find your boss, boy?"
A moment of silence. Naruto's knife pressed down. He flicked it a little bit, and it dug into the older wound. The man's lips drew blood this time.
"Pri- sonnnn-"
"Where is the artifact the Akatsuki are hiding, boy?"
His voice gargled. Orochimaru acted quickly, letting go of them man momentarily before throwing his hand into the man's mouth. The quick, unsuccessful effort to bite his own tongue faded, and so did the man's consciousness. Orochimaru stood, looking pleased, and Naruto stood too, although not so much.
"Prison?" Sakura's voice broke Naruto out of his reverie.
"It's obvious, isn't it? A leader is in the spot of maximum unrest. In a stable town full of ninja who've compromised, where'll you find the one place of instability, Sakura?" He turned away, looking at Orochimaru. "If you can take his body...kill him. Get into him, and me into prison."
Sakura looked at him worried, pleading internally that Orochimaru wouldn't approve.
The sensei smiled that wide, slack-jawed grin. "Good, Naruto-kun."
"Fuck you." Sakura cursed, before shooting a disgusted look at both of them. Naruto ignored her, and Orochimaru bent to administer the second killing blow of the mission.
"You'll be unconscious, Naruto-kun, when they will throw you in the cell, but you will wake soon, within an hour from now. When you wake, undo the seal and try to track our target man. He will be in the highest office in the prison. I will find you there."
It was late in the evening when the Kiri ninja walked past the crab-soup stall. The ninja had the limp body of a blonde-haired boy in his hands. Old man Mugetsu frowned. The ninja didn't notice him as they walked past. He sighed, and went back to packing his utensils. It was yet another day of dwindling business.
Momochi Zabuza walked, loose and lithe like a panther surveying prey. The lowermost level of the prison lit up with noise. He had been tipped that Uzumaki Naruto had been spotted in Kiri, and mere hours later, one of his own men had captured him. He remembered the little, brave child from the encounter in Wave Country. He looked down at the limp body. The boy was still the same, albeit he'd bulked a little physically. Their new Mizukage would surely love to get his hands on the Konoha Jinchuriki.
"-TRAITORRRRR"
"Fucking scum, selling out your own-"
"You won't need to wait too long, Momochi, for your death, it'll be-"
His cold, dead eyes stared straight past all of it as he stopped by a single cell. Five people were huddled in a corner, and one turned their head when his silhouette made itself seen against the sick orange torch-light.
"What brings the traitor here?"
Her voice was rough with wear, yet held semblances of a silky, regal touch. Zabuza opened the gate to their cell, knowing no one would be fool enough to try to get out. He stood at the gate, and all but the woman who had spoken cowered. She stood slowly, tall enough to match him, wild brown hair spilling in tresses behind her back.
"Your kind will die soon, girl. You either choose power, or death."
Zabuza dropped the boy's limp body into the cell and turned. There was silence. He fixed the woman with his stare before breaking it abruptly and walking away.
"They- they're capturing children now?" An old lady's voice, broken and despairing, came from behind the tall woman after the footsteps had died away. The tall woman knelt, delicately turning the boy over. When she saw him, her breath caught in her throat.
"Not just any boy, ma, this is..."
He awoke, feeling a dull pain in his gut. He intentionally kept his eyes shut, lest he wasn't in a cell as Orochimaru had assured he would be. He forced himself to keep his eyes still beneath his eyelids and just listen for a minute or to.
He heard sniffling, far off crying. There was movement now and then in his own cell, but everything seemed oddly still. He opened his eyes, bracing his muscles. A dull orange glow amidst darkness invaded his vision. He breathed deeply, turning to look at his cellmates. They were old, trembling and petrified, an old woman and three men receding further still into the corner. Except for her.
He locked eyes with her and knew, almost immediately that she would be the one to help in this disruption.
"Who are you?"
Her voice was almost commanding, but Naruto ignored it. He brought his hand forward in front of the light. There was the mark of a snake inked in black on his palm; A seal...Orochimaru's seal. The sensei's voice came drifting back to him.
"Your Hidden Blade, your sword, throwing knives and trench knives..." Sakura went through each of them. They were staring at his assortment laid out on the bed. Naruto couldn't help feeling a little proud.
"These won't be difficult to seal, Naruto-kun." Orochimaru drew out the quill, dipped it in the black paint and started inscribing symbols on his palm. Naruto and Sakura observed closely, their first time witnessing Fuuinjutsu live.
He pressed down hard on the seal, rubbing this thumb against it to create friction. He could feel a certain re-arrangement, a disturbance from within, and sure enough, a cloud suddenly engulfed him as one of Orochimaru's dark black bags materialized with a soft poof, falling on the floor. The weapons within clanged.
There was pin drop silence in the cell. He looked at his ankle, and then at the woman's. They both had Chakra Blockers on, digging into their system. He stood for a second, channeling the chakra within his system at the point of his ankle the blocker was digging into. He drew the trench knife from the bag and wrapped his hand around it. He sat down, pausing before slamming it onto the blocker.
"HGH- HGH- HGH-"
He grunted, slamming it again, and again, and again, till a slow, slight stream of Gold was finally starting to dance across the surface of the knife. He heard the woman breathe deeply.
"Braider's Silver...a chakra conductor...the Blocker's starting to leak!" her voice was slowly rising, and the Uzumaki knew why. It was the impending sign of freedom for them. The old woman came from behind the cell, placing both her arms tightly around his ankle so it could lay in place for him to hit.
"Thanks, baa-chan."
She smiled toothily at him. "Do it, son."
BANG
One final sharp slam, and the blocker burst open. He laughed. 'God bless you, Sarutobi Asuma.'
He stood, stuffing the trench knives into the hooks on his jacket and the throwing knives into his pockets before ultimately slinging Sasayaki over his shoulder into the comfortably heavy scabbard. "To answer your question," he looked at the woman finally. One emerald eye met cerulean, the other obscured by her fringe, "-I'm-"
"Uzumaki Naruto," the woman finished for him. Smiling, she pointed at the chakra blockers on her legs, indicating that he tear them apart immediately. Naruto knelt, funneling chakra through the knives. The blockers came apart in a single strike, and the woman finally stood, weak and exhausted, yet somehow commanding respect all the same.
"Pleased to make your acquaintance, Naruto of Konoha. My name is Mei. Terumi Mei. Now let's blast this puny cell open and kill ourselves a traitor."
The old man walked slowly under the quivering streetlights, the wheels on his portable soup-stall trundling along the rough road. He'd dreamt of a day when the roads were smooth, when happy chatter would surround him, and little children would grow up to be fine ninja of the village he was once proud of. But it had devolved into nothing but bloodshed, over and over and over and over and-
"Ah, excuse me..." He turned the cart rather sharply making way for the tall, powerfully built man to pass by him.
"No respect for the Mizukage, old man?"
Kisame's voice seemed to coil around the old man in the still evening air. They stopped in front of each other. Hoshigaki Kisame towered over him, yet the man didn't cow down.
"No respect, Akatsuki boy."
"You'll wish you hadn't said that, Hozuki Mugetsu." Kisame effortlessly caught the man by his clothes and lifted him. The handles of the cart fell down, one of them breaking against the road. The man struggled for a moment before loosening himself, held in the Akatsuki member's elevated hold. His smile never faltered, even through the discomfort.
"Sssss, let the man go, Kiiiiiisame." Orochimaru stood on the other end of the street, illumined under the same flickering street-lamp. "I hear tell of an artifact that our old friend Kakashi has you guarding."
Hoshigaki Kisame said nothing, his eyes were wide open and fixed on Orochimaru akin to a shark onto blood. He let the old man down.
"Ah, Orochimaru. The twisted little snake coils around my territory, does it? You couldn't get this artifact out of me if you tried, Snake. Only my accomplice knows where it is, not even me."
"Ssssuch a pity. I was hoping you would know. And you won't let me walk away freely now either, would you? How sad, how sad..."
Hozuki Mugetsu hobbled away slowly, paying no mind to either man. His portable crab-soup stall with the broken handle trundled along the rough corruption-hewn streets of Kirigakure. The red of blood would now anoint the black of the road. He just hoped it would be a better road tomorrow, for blood or no blood, there was business to be done.
End.
Final arc's under way, a chapter to go.
Orochimaru, Naruto and Sakura make for a pretty nice team with some cool character dynamics. They all play off of each other naturally. Orochimaru being a talkative professor of a sensei is something that just happened over the course of the chapter, I didn't plan for it.
Naruto and Sakura's interaction was also really easy to write. Those moments of discomfort are so...characteristic of teenage years, I think.
Naruto is slowly starting to gain the character I had initially set out to make of him. Sure, he isn't that loud-mouth from canon, but I think the middle-ground gives me a lot of leeway to work him into what I want him to be. I want to push him morally, see what his character does. They are after all in a world where killing isn't uncommon.
Lastly, do leave reviews by! It helps me out so much, honestly :)
See ya' soon!
