The afternoon sun dwindled downwards, its closeness sending a radiant orange glow through the forest cliff. The patch of turf stretched on decently long considering its elevation off the ground. It stood up like a capital building when compared to the naturally low altitude of the path. The slope that connected them had natural eroded over time, to the point where its steepness had made climbing down a non-option. Kakashi had tried to explain this to his students, but both Naruto and Sakura had been far too smitten with the cliffs beautiful view to listen, claiming that their "legs were tired" and that they didn't want to navigate their way down. This was obviously a lie, as Naruto had been trying to bait Sasuke into a footrace no longer than thirty minutes before trotting out the excuse, but Kakashi couldn't blame them for the deceit. From the perch of land, you could really take in naturally-blossoming forests-scapes of Konoha, their natural beauty only being amplified by the sunbath of the setting sky.
The firmament became awash with the beginnings of the night, to the point where Kakashi swore he could see stars twinkling through the rapidly dying clouds. Despite this show, it was undeniable that the overall lighting had started to dim over the landscape, giving the world a glum blue hue to it. This, when combined with the occasional streaks of amber light that would manage to break away from the sun's grasp, formed a mesmerizing display of illumination. Kakashi swore he could've kept looking at it forever, but something else grabbed his attention.
"Woah, careful there Ookami." He said to the older man who had just stepped near the sole tree that stood in Team Sevens camp site. This was seemingly a harmless action, but Kakashi knew the true dangers of this. He motioned to the small trip wire that had been set up at feet. "White snake trap, be careful not to trigger it or you might end falling off the edge of the cliff."
Ookami's face was at first surprised (and inwardly scared) that he was being called out for a transgression, only to soften outwardly as he realized what Kakashi was talking about.
"Ah. Thank you, Mr. Hatake, I should try to be more careful." He said, with a curt smile.
"I'd say you were already ahead on that. Didn't you say just last night that it takes a blizzard to chill a Kiri resident?' He said, gesturing towards the other man's scarf. Ookami laughed, maybe a little bit too hard, as he attempted to prematurely deflect any suspicion Kakashi had. If he was alone, he would've cursed his condition for being in such an easy to see position.
"Well, I didn't expect it to be quite so biting you know? Not many fire style users in Kiri after all."
"Fair enough." Kakashi murmured back playfully, his bouncy tone indicating to Ookami that he was in the clear. In reality, He most certainly was not. There was one thought that instantly stuck out to Kakashi as he turned away, enough to at least light the initial match of weariness.
It was colder when he wasn't wearing the scarf.
He's still wearing it. Kakashi mused to himself, watching Ookami out of the corner of his eye. The whole group was crowded around the fire, chowing down on the deer meat Kakashi and Naruto had caught earlier in the day. The copy ninja would've kept his attention fixated on Ookami, but unfortunately for everyone, there was an incident unfolding in front of him that was just waiting to exploding.
"Shut the fuck up Naruto! This is the third day you've been stuck on this dumbass topic and at this point I don't even care anymore." Sasuke growled, chucking a stray branch into the fire, which grew greater as if to visualize his growing anger. Naruto tried to stay serious, though his mouth still grew prone to slipping into a smirk. It was one of those rare times he'd actually managed to get Sasuke on the defensive in their squabbles though this was through no skill of his own of course. Naruto had not employed any fancy debating techniques or such to achieve this, instead he'd just continued to yammer on about "the flexibility factor". There was no rhyme or reason to it as far as Sasuke could tell, with the Uzumaki boy not actually explaining how the flexibility factor could actually help the man with arms for legs win the fight.
"Yeah, whatever. Nice ad homimim attack." Naruto said.
"Do you mean ad hominem?"
"I don't care how you say it, I just care that you're doing it."
Sasuke's gaze implied he was about to tackle Naruto to the ground and stuff the wild venison skewer he'd be eating into the other boy's eye. Kakashi saw this and stepped in, wanting to avoid any skewer related shenanigans.
"You two. Settle." Kakashi grumbled, which had the desired effect. Naruto went back to munching on his food, only to then click his mouth in disgust.
"Ah, I think the fire's making my mouth dry. I can feel the little buds on my tongue."
"Unless you've been sitting next to it for half an hour with your mouth open, I doubt the fire is the reason your mouths dry. When was the last time you drank water Naruto?" Kakashi asked.
"Before we picked the herbs."
"Well, that probably has something to do with it." He sarcastically murmured, amazed that Naruto had somehow lasted from mid-morning until now without realizing he was thirsty. "Drink now."
Naruto nodded, fishing through his pockets in search of his waterskin. What he found however, was a husk of nothingness, its material crinkling under his fingers and pushing only air outward.
"It's empty." He said, looking up confused.
"Would've been nice if it had been filled up when I reminded you." Kakashi said back.
"I had already filled it up by then!" Naruto shot back definitively.
"Then why is it empty now?"
He stayed silent. Upon realizing that the rhetorical question had effectively broken his brain, Kakashi mustered a large sigh before turning his gaze towards Sasuke.
"Sasuke, give him some of yours."
"No way, anytime he drinks, he puts his whole mouth over it."
"Do not!"
"Do so. I caught you with your own water tap ten centimeters down your throat just last week."
"Okay, so maybe once- "
"Stop." Kakashi barked, not wanting to experience another mind-numbing Sasuke and Naruto shit-flinging contest. "Just give him your waterskin Sasuke."
The Uchiha boy briefly looked as if he was going to refuse yet again, before reluctantly taking the pouch out of his pocket. Almost immediately, however, his face became more blank than anything else.
"Mines empty too."
"Ha!" Naruto exclaimed, while Kakashi let forth an even bigger sigh.
"Sakura?" He asked to which the girl took hers out as well. Immediately, her reaction became similar to Sasuke's
"Sorry sensei, mine's empty as well."
This is where Kakashi began to get suspicious. With Naruto, he could write the empty satchel off as the boy being kind of dim, with Sasuke, maybe he just didn't care enough in the moment to refill it but Sakura had always been very careful with these kinds of things. More than that, he'd seen her take a sip from it after they had departed from the effrayed patch.
"That's very odd." Ookami said, only to notice Kakashi staring at him through the corner of his eye.
"Yes, very odd indeed."
"I guess it can't be helped though. Those things tend to spring a leak under enough stress. Maybe they were just worn out?" Ookami proposed, only for Kakashi's eye to strengthen its gaze upon him. For a split-second, he'd thought he may have said too much. After all, he'd been quick, maybe a bit too quick, to reach a conclusion on the waterskins. Luckily for him, Sakura interrupted.
"Is it really that big of a deal sensei? I'm sure we can find another stream somewhere tomorrow."
Kakashi shook his head. "According to the map, the nearest river or lake is about four hours from here, five or six if we're slow which we will be because Naruto's already parched. I can't imagine the two of you will fare much better even if you'd just taken a drink now."
"So, what are we going to do?" Sakura asked, to which Kakashi stood up and reached into his pockets before going over to the large bag of effrayed and digging through it (for a strangely long amount of time)
"I spotted a small trade shop about forty-five minutes back from here. I'll be able to swap some of the effrayed for water if they have it."
"But won't that mean we fail the mission?" Naruto questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"I'll do a trade back for some wild game, maybe a deer or something if we can find it. It might take a little bit but it's still more time-efficient than trying to trudge to the next stream."
"Why not kill the deer and just trade that for the water in the first place?" Sasuke interjected.
"If have no idea if the trade shop actually has water, it's not worth killing a deer over."
Sasuke nodded his head in acknowledgement as the man in front of him strapped the large bag of herbs onto his own back. Kakashi began to trudge outward, sparing no seconds in the process. Very soon, Naruto would get a headache. Soon after his skin would dry and he would begin becoming both incredibly thirsty and incredibly sluggish before morning. He didn't doubt the same fates would be prescribed to both Sasuke and Sakura not that long after.
"I'll be off. See you in an hour or two." He said, already beginning to make his way out of the campsite. This speed was intentional with the other members of the campsite not being able to see the small note he dropped Sasuke. The boy's eyes quickly grazed over its sloppily written ink, "read in a secluded place" plastered onto the paper in roughly drawn letters. Clearly Kakashi had not had much time, using a pen he most likely had on hand. Sasuke quickly stuffed the paper in his pockets, waiting out the time until he could follow the instructions. Around five minutes after Kakashi had departed, he casually stood up.
"I'm gonna go take a piss." He murmured.
"Are you sure? Might need to conserve some of that water for the moment." Ookami said with a laugh, which quickly spread to Naruto and (to a lesser extent) Sakura. Sasuke cracked a smile, though this was more a platitude than anything else. He quickly made his way into the forest that surrounded the area, unfurling the piece of paper as he made sure he was out of sight completely. The wording on the page was as rough and sketch-like as he expected, but there was no mistaking it's intent. Its big bold letters read:
Ookami is suspicious. Keep an eye on him.
Kakashi had left around thirty minutes ago, Ookami estimated as he cracked one of his round eyes open a peep. The genin had quickly decided to go to sleep, hoping to conserve as much of their strength as they could in the event that Kakashi couldn't get any water. He assumed they were all asleep. Naruto was, that much was obvious from the loud snoring he was projecting. On the flip side, the other two's lucidity status was up in the air, as he hadn't been able to recognize any concrete sleeping pattern for them.
To check, he stood up slowly, making sure that the other two were non-reactive. Luckily for him, it seemed as if they were. The joy he got from this revelation didn't last long though, another roadblock being added onto Ookami's path just as soon as he'd cleared one. He felt multiple pairs of sly canine eyes digging into the back of his neck, just visible through the thick surrounding forest. Hatake must've been at least a little bit suspicious if he'd felt the need to put his mutts on duty. He couldn't extract the boy's chakra lest the dogs begin to throw a fit, so Ookami was forced to retreat to a spot where he was no longer in the ninkens view.
Luckily, the dogs didn't seem to have a problem with this, probably assuming his disappearance was down to toiletry reasons. It gave him a chance to double back to lower ground. Immediately, he burst out into a coughing fit, flecks of blood being flung out with every deletion of air.
"Fuck." He growled, reaching for his watch.
Tick.
The hum of the clock's arms only served to imbue further panic in the man. It was getting real close to midnight, and he didn't have as much as a drop of the nine-tailed chakra inside him. No matter, he'd have it all soon enough. It was unfortunate that the host was so young but, hey, it was a dog eat dog world. Actually, considering the black mark that had been stained onto his shoulder, maybe snake eat snake was a better turn of phrase.
His old wrinkly hands dug through the satchel; in search of the sealing tag he'd kept in there. It wasn't written by him of course. The fujinjutsu displayed on it was far beyond his level of comprehension, he only knew how to follow the basic instructions. At that point, even this would be difficult when considering his degraded chakra network. Ookami quickly shoved these thoughts of inadequacy to the back of his mind. If he extracted the nine-tails from the boy and resealed it inside himself, he'd be able to regenerate chakra quicker than his curse mark could destroy it. After that came the issue that, one, he'd just killed a child and would probably become an instant target through any leaf affiliated areas and, two, with the decision to keep the nine-tails inside himself, he was suddenly a very big target for a lot of people. The rest of his life would be one of recluse, but at least it would be one.
Now, onto the problem at hand. The dogs had, from what he'd seen, a key and lock focus on the genin, meaning he'd need to distract them in someway if he were to get to Naruto uninterrupted. His mind worked quickly, gaze scouring over the area to try and find something he could use. That something came in the form of a medium-sized, cream rabbit that was currently stationed to the far side of him. It was a bit smaller than he would've liked, but it'd get the job done all the same.
With a rabbit corpse in hand, Ookami made his way through the forest depths. He'd circled back around to try and get out of the view of the dogs, only to realize this had been pointless. If a ninja as elite as Kakashi Hatake had signed a summoning contract with them, they most likely had a strong sense of smell. Ironically, this is actually what his plan hinged on. He crouched down in a prickly bush, hopeful that his scent would be masked by it's strong, pine-like aroma. It was as dark as the dead of night usually entailed, so the dogs were barely visible through the small slits of forest-caped moonlight. From what Ookami could see, one was smaller with droopy face. He seemed to be the leader based on his positioning. The others took the form of a massive black one with a spiked collar and a shiftier orange breed, who's slanted eyes were covered by thin sunglasses. Why a dog needed eye ware at all, let alone ones that blocked out the sun, he couldn't figure out.
Steadying his arm, Ookami gave the rabbit corpse a few test swings, taking time to adjust its angling and such, before, with one final throw, he released it. The rabbit went flying threw the air, falling a little bit behind the dog's station. As expected, the two big ones began to flip out chagrining towards the perceived threat (as well as smell of food).
"Hey, you blockheads! Get back on duty!" The little one growled, somehow talking in human tongue. It would've put Ookami off if he wasn't so focused on dashing through the forest. He only had a little bit of time until either the little dog was able to bring the big ones to their senses or they simply devoured the animal completely. It wasn't like it was a long walk to get from the outer forest to the campsite, but he had to be speedy if he wanted to go undetected. Luckily for him, by the time he reached Naruto's sleeping body, he was able to be exactly that.
He crouched down next to the genin, carefully lifting up the boy's shirt to reveal an average-sized black seal circling around his stomach. Ookami was as cautious with his movements as he could be so as to avoid a premature awakening from the boy. At the end of the day, this was the difficult part. Everything he'd worked for hinged on this working. He gently gripped onto the sealing tag he'd retrieved earlier, placing it near Naruto's stomach. Slowly, he started to project his chakra through the paper, just as had been instructed to him years ago. In turn, a magnetic pushback commenced, strands of pure red energy beginning to leak from Naruto's stomach and latch into the paper. It looked like some sort of primitive sea life attempting to traverse onto the paper. Strings of crimson folded over themselves, twisting and prying as their tips stuck to the top of the tag. If only it could go a little bit faster, Ookami thought, but it was no matter. The dogs were still distracted, Kakashi was far away, everything was going according to-
" Fire release: fireball jutsu!"
Ookami dropped the paper at the sound of Sasuke's voice, head yanking sideways. His eyes became fully illuminated by the mass of flame that was hurtling towards him, the old man only just managing to get a hand on his umbrella in time. Sticking the top of it outwards like a shield, Ookami sent the chakra he'd been pumping into the sealing tag through the umbrellas wood frame. This chakra somehow manifest into a burst of wind massive enough to completely snuff out Sasuke's fireball. What it couldn't snuff out though, was the rain of kicks that the Uchiha boy threw down against the man, who was now desperate to make space. Sasuke unleashed his attacks with a scary amount of sharpness, boots connecting so hard with the umbrella that it threatened to rip through its material altogether.
If a second gust of wind hadn't been exfoliated from the parasol, Sasuke very well may have knocked Ookami out then and there, but unfortunately for him, he was sent sailing backward along with Naruto and Sakura's barley conscious bodies.
"Hey, what the fuck?!" Naruto snarled, before looking down at his stomach to notice that faded red threads that were weeping from it. Then he looked back at Ookami, who was standing towards the forest in a defensive position. The old man's eyes were wild with fury, the battles adrenaline causing mad twitches to occasional sail through them. It didn't take Naruto very long to connect the dots.
" You scumback fuck!" He growled, getting to his feet while Sasuke helped Sakura do the same.
"Okay, what's happening right now?" Sakura asked, still so drowsy that she had to rub her eyes.
"The old man's evil and can shoot wind from his umbrella. Now we're going to fight him." Sasuke explained as if he were regurgitating a simple mathematic equitation.
"Wait, hold on- "Sakura said, trying to process the information she'd just been given. The chance was dashed however, by Naruto's current outburst.
"If you wanted the damn fox, you could have just asked for it!" He screamed, taking a furious step towards Ookami. The man only sneered in response.
"idiot, you have a tailed beast locked inside you and you don't even understand how it works. If the fox is removed, you die."
Naruto's face became flush with surprise, before contorting into one far greater in rage than anything Sakura and Sasuke had seen out of him before.
"So, you were going to kill me?!"
"Damn right I was going to kill you! Wait, let me rephrase that. Damn right I'm going to kill you."
Naruto took another step forward; blades of grass being squashed under his sole.
"Naruto, don't." Sasuke said, prompting the Uzumaki boy to clear his head, at least a little bit as he turned to face his friend.
"Why not?"
"Did you see the amount of wind he was putting out before? One step into his range and he blows you off the cliff."
This did make sense, Naruto thought. The edge of the cliff wasn't that far behind them. If Ookami was able to hit them with a decent gust of wind, gravity would do the rest.
"So, what do we do then?" Sakura asked, readying a kunai at her side as a distance measure should Ookami get too close. Sasuke's now sharingan-imbued eyes became lost in thought for a moment before snapping back to the situation at hand.
"Either we stall him until Kakashi gets back or we try and deplete his chakra outright. This might actually be doable, since he can't be that competent if he's using a chakra instrument."
"Chaka instrument?" Naruto asked. Clearly, he wasn't familiar with the term.
"A tool that helps conduct your chakra. If you're using a chakra instrument the way he's using it, chances are his elemental chakra control is just so awful he can't properly mold it on his own. Might be why he wanted the fox."
Naruto and Sakura both nodded, the former a slight bit put-off by hearing Sasuke casually mentioning the nine-tails like that. Nevertheless, he focused his sights back on Ookami who was standing there, waiting for their next move. This was another tip off that the man simply wasn't that much of a combat threat when you took away his umbrella. Yet another big hint came in swift supply, with Ookami going fully bug eyed as he heard the loud barking of dogs getting closer and closer.
"Shit!" He cried, turning his back on Team Seven in favor of the forest. This gave the genin a massive opening that they were eager to exploit. Sasuke's hands cracked through the signs before raising up in an O shape around his mouth. A dispatch of flame fled from his lips, charging towards Ookami, who was too concerned with warding off the oncoming dogs to do anything. Or so they thought. See, Ookami wasn't stupid enough to completely turn his back on the genin. He switched his focus back to them yet again, a smug smile plastered on his face (even despite the rabid hounds that were currently charging towards him.)
"Fool!" He cried, sticking his umbrella out in front of the incoming fireball. With a burst of wind and a sudden wrist slide, he redirected the flame onto the ground in front of him. The forest grass caught ablaze, stopping the dogs in their tracks with its heat.
"Crap! Supa try and find another way around. Iroai, go get the boss." Pakkun instructed, falling back as the flames threatened to engulf him as well. The spectacled one set off running after Kakashi, while he and the spiked collard one began running to the side in an attempt to try and beat the flames before they engrossed the whole forest length.
Sasuke mumbled something (probably contain on expletive or five) to himself, before converting his fireball jutsu into a phoenix flower. Shots of flame traveled across the landscape; each one being sloppily broken down into an all-encompassing array of sparks by Ookami. Sasuke took a small breath which acted essentially as a reload "function". The short time he had taken to inhale turned out to be all Ookami needed to formulate a plan, though. Before Sasuke had a chance to lay down his next patch of phoenix flowers, Ookami picked two explosive tags out of his satchel before blasting them over to the edge of the cliff with his wind. They stuck themselves to the ground just behind the trio, Sasuke's eyes widening as he saw them. The lingering sparks that still flickered through the air were all he needed to see to make the connection.
He had to admit, for what Ookami lacked for in fidelity and skill, he more than made up for in cunning. Now, if Sasuke were to shoot more fireballs (the genin's only real long-range offensive option) they were at a risk of collapsing their own terrain should even a single spark hit the tags.
"Damn it. Sakura, can they be deprogrammed?" He asked through gritted teeth.
"Nope, they're flash paper tags." Sakura shot back after reading over their inked text and realizing it held nothing of value. Flash paper tags were different from the normal fujinjutsu based tags in that they were not programmed to do anything. It was their pure material which allowed them to explode, so slicing through its sealing language would do nothing. On the flip-side, this also meant they couldn't implode on themselves without either a flame or a detonator.
"I'm on it." Naruto said, quickly sending two shadow clones outward. The copies ripped the tags up from the ground before throwing them forward at Ookami. Sasuke saw the specifics plan without even needing instructions, immediately blasting the tags with a fireball jutsu. This, of course, caused an explosion to burst through the air, it's residual smoke masking the genins location. Ookami flinched, any control he had of the situation fading with the prominence of the smog. He quickly shot another blast of wind chakra out of the umbrella, but by that point, it was already too late. He may have been able to dispel the smoke, but the genin had been lying in wait for his next attack.
A kunai flew out at him, too low for him to possibly block. At first, it didn't look like it was going to hit anything, but that was because he didn't notice the wire that had been weaved through its hole. The knife shot past the opening in his legs, disappearing from the man's peripheral view before being violently yanked back into his back. It stuck itself in directly upon a patch of the dried white curse mark skin, which already sizzled enough without a knife stabbed into it.
"Aaaah!" He cried, blood beginning to trickle down from the cut.
"Got him." Sakura said, dropping the wire of the kunai. Naruto cast more shadow clones, about six in total, which charged towards the older man. Ookami saw this, taking aim once more with the aid of his umbrella. However, Naruto had not been simply charging in with no plan to counter attack. Two clones continued to run forward, while the others circled into formation. Three of them latched onto a lone one as they ran, beginning to swing him around until unleashing him at the peak of his momentum. The clone went sailing through the air, with height and speed that would have previously seemed impossible. Ookami's already bulging eyes widened further as he realized that clone that the genin had locked him in check. His range simply didn't have the length required to blast away every clone before at least one of them reached him. He struggled against this reality, blasting away the five on the ground before desperately thrusting his umbrella topside to try and get the drop on the airborne clone.
CRACK!
It was too late though, the shadowclones fist smashing into his jaw with physical aplomb. Ookami, a fat seventy-year old man, was not good at keeping his balance normally, let alone after being decked in the face. He fell down to the ground, reeling from even the attacks of the shadow clone. Even through his face-clutching hands he was able to blow it away, but any attacks that required any skill were completely off-limits at this point. This wasn't just because of the wack to the head (although it was part of it). As he tried to recover off the ground, the old man exploded into a bloody coughing fit so immense that he could hardly open his eyes.
Fuck! Chakra's running real low.
If you were to run an autopsy on Ookami right now, you would find his internal factors in a state not too different from a mutilated corpse with how his chakra coils were degrading. Even when he was youthful and healthy Ookami had never been the best with chakra control, so he was downright amateur while in a state that was a few minutes away from dying outright. He opened his eyes a few seconds after the pain ceased, taking a look over at the genin who were now rushing towards him. He needed to act quickly, or they'd have him bound in no time.
Swiftly taking aim with his umbrella, Ookami aimed his breeze the fire that was crackling behind him, extinguishing it before shooting a smaller shot off onto the forward ground. This propelled him forwards, out of the genins reaches and into the forests grasp. Picking leaves out of his moustache, he rose to his feet, trying to calculate how far he'd managed to push himself. He could still see the dwindling light of the clearing peeping through the trees, so he couldn't have gone too far-flung, but judging from the voices in the distance, he'd managed to escape the genin's line of sight for the moment.
"Where'd he go?!"
"Couldn't have gotten that far. At the speed he was going at, he probably hit a tree and died."
"Should we wait until sensei gets back, or just go after him now?"
Wherever the discussion was headed, it bought him a few extra seconds of time. Ookami was able to maneuver himself out of their possible detection zone. He scaled a nearby tree, blue gown camouflaging his from surprisingly in the gloomy navy glow. His harsh pants were forcibly quelled, despite how exasperated he was. A few seconds afterwards, the three teens emerged into the woodland, obviously not that concerned about his whereabouts.
"Try and find a body. If he's not around the immediate vicinity, he's ran off." Sasuke directed, the other two nodding at his instructions. He knew he hadn't put up that much of a fight, but Ookami couldn't help but be angered at the little brat's solemn nature. After all, they were inches away from loosing this battle and they didn't even know it, so in his mind, the lack of urgency was completely unwarranted. He would show them this right now. Steady hands grasped the grip of his umbrella tightly, aiming it upwards at a slow-
"Top right treetop." Sasuke said, red eyes fixating on Ookami. The older man flinched slightly under the sudden gaze, realizing that trying to hide out of the visional range of a boy with a dojutsu may not have been the smartest idea. Sakura whipped to the side on her teammate's instructions, tossing a bit of wire up at the spot mentioned. At first, Ookami thought the children had gone nuclear and stuck an explosive tag onto its length. Luckily for him, they weren't quite that brutal, and the tag itself was just an adhesive. He quickly realized this wasn't lucky at all, with Sakura using the tag and wire as a makeshift harpoon, pulling him off the edge of the tree.
He crashed onto the ground, leaves bursting out underneath his weight. His back felt a sudden surge of pain burst through it, though whether that was the curse mark or just falling off the tree he couldn't figure out.
"Fuck." He muttered to himself, as Sakura marched towards him. She'd have dragged him towards her with the still-connected wire, but she doubted it would support his weight. Ookami's still throbbing head looked sideways, in an attempt to see where she was coming from and if he could launch some sort of counter attack. Fate must've been on his side that day because what sat at fingers length was something that could completely turn the tide of battle on its head. An uneven patch of leaves sat over a trip wire, it's material barley visible in the light.
One of Kakashi's white snake traps.
Ookami's hand shot out to trigger it. Sasuke, with the aid of the sharingan, was able to see it coming but Sakura, who was actually at risk, did not.
"Sakura!" The Uchiha shouted, but he was too late. A sharp snap was heard, its audibility marking the arrival of a large battering ram like branch that feel from the trees. It smashed into Sakura's stomach, hard enough to send her flying through the forest depths. With the force she'd been hit with, it was a safe assumption that she was out of the fight for at least a decent window of time.
"Bastard!" Sasuke snarled, rushing forward with heart overruling his mind. No matter how fast his eyes moved, he couldn't reach Ookami before the man had picked his umbrella back up. Another blast of wind chakra left Sasuke to the same fate as the girl before him. He was thrown into the forests inner-reaches, allotting Naruto as the only genin left before Ookami.
"Shit, Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, before shifting his attention to fully focus on the foe before him. Unfortunately for him, it was already too late to do anything. A gust of wind shot full force at Naruto, pushing him down towards the trees like a ball in a sports game. Ookami devilishly smiled as he watched the boy soar backwards…but then he realized he was weaving hand signs. Naruto's fingers frantically locked together, desperate to get through the chakra molding process before time ran out. He slammed his fingers together in one final cross sign, before a massive cloud of smoke erupted behind him. His clones formed a net between the treetops, halting any negative momentum he may have had.
Suddenly, before the elderly man knew it, Naruto was soaring towards him, having been thrown by the wall of clones. A pathetic blast of wind shot out in an attempt to deter him, but Naruto's motion and Ookami's rapidly approaching chakra fatigue rendered this nothing more than a futile gesture. Naruto landed a few centimeters in front of the ground, rolling off the dirt before bursting up into a sharp kick. At first, Ookami thought it was aimed at his face and braced accordingly, but he quickly learned that its effects were far more damaging than even that.
SMASH!
The boy's foot crashed through his parasol, enough force behind it to shatter parts of the wood frame.
"No way to run away now, huh?" Naruto jeered, kicking the remains of the umbrella out of Ookami's hand. Ookami sat there in silence, completely shocked by how quickly his apparent victory had been flipped on him. He had lost. That thought bounced through his head but it required a constant recollection of the events that had just transpired to really sink in. Naruto had destroyed his umbrella. He couldn't win a physical confrontation with Naruto. He had lost. He had lost and he was going to die.
"I'm taking you back to camp." Naruto said, gripping onto the collar of the man's robe. The fear of his ever-approaching mortality washed over him, sending Ookami into a state of pathetic desperation.
"No! Please, I'm begging you! I'll die without that chakra!"
"So will I. You're seventy old man, you've had a good run." Naruto muttered, beginning dragging him along the ground. Pleading humanitarianism after he'd just tried to kill the boy and his friends clearly wasn't a good plan of action. He needed something different, something that would make the boy freeze. Come on Ookami, think think think think.
"Please, I-…. I knew your mother!"
Naruto stopped. His blue eyes widened, only emphasized by the flush of the moonlight. His previously iron grip on the man's collar was dropped completely, while his stare of contempt was replaced with one of anxious curiosity.
"What?" His tone was low, lower than Ookami had heard it previously. He'd struck gold here.
"Well, I didn't know her personally, but I know about her. Kushina Uzumaki, the previous nine-tailed jinchuriki, I know all sorts of things about her!"
Naruto stood so still, it was hard to know whether he was about to slap him or that he'd simply frozen. His eyes were deep, flickering like puddles in the dead of the night.
"Tell me." He said, voice so hoarse Ookami couldn't even hear it.
"What?"
"Tell me." He said again, with enough force that Ookami scuttled back against the ground slightly. He quickly recovered however, tempted not to keep the boy waiting lest he eat a punch to the face.
"Kushina Uzumaki was born as a citizen of Uzushio, the former land of whirlpools. She was, uh, of high social status- "He stumbled through his words, Naruto's iron-weighted gaze burrowing down into him. At first glance, it may have looked like he was so intimated, that he couldn't speak straight but what Ookami was actually doing was much more sinister. His hands pocketed through the satchel; Naruto so distracted by his words that the action went unnoticed. Eventually, he gripped onto blade of a kunai knife. It was thin, and kind of blunt but it was all he needed. If he couldn't get the chakra out with a tag, he'd do it the old-fashioned way.
"Uh, she moved to Konoha in-Ah!" Before Naruto could snap out of his daze, Ookami leapt forwards, brandishing the kunai. He sliced along the boy's stomach, sloppy but still dangerously effective. The immediate blood loss Naruto began to go through sent dark circles crawling up the sides of his vision. They didn't stay there though, quickly beginning to completely overtake Naruto's sight and replace his senses with a strong numbness that rung deep into his bones. He couldn't feel much, in fact anything at all. It was almost like he was being forced to sleep in that regard but this sleep happened to be blissfully painful
Am I…falling?
Let me in.
Let me in
Naruto Uzumaki
Let me in
Just a little bit.
Let me in
A little bit?
Just a little bit.
You'll die without it.
Waves rippled across Naruto's face, a voice burrowing into the innermost-reaches of his brain. It was barley louder than a murmur, but hit him as hard as full-on scream.
"…Okay."
Silent was the night, as Ookami leered over Naruto's deceased body. He'd never been a big fan of the killing part, especially when it involved weapons and such. He'd done it before obviously, but it was usually through seals and the like. Everything else made him feel a tad bit icky.
The depravity of the fact that Ookami was describing murder in this way was completely lost on him. There was little chance he would ever pick up on it either, since he shuffled over to his foe's corpse so quickly that it almost resembled a hungry child running downstairs to the dinner table. He did a quick examination of the body first of all, making sure that it wasn't a clone or such. It appeared not to be, although that cut seemed shallower than it looked when he'd sliced him. Odd, maybe it was a natural byproduct of the tailed beasts sealed inside you.
Wait, did Naruto's finger just twitch?
Wait, why was chakra coming out of him?
CRACK!
Naruto's hand was latched onto his face before he'd even realized the boy had moved. Sharp, growing nails pressed into the side of his cheek hard enough to draw blood, his eyes widening as he finally managed to get a visual on the boy. Naruto looked very, very different. His eyes, which had previously resembled a sapphire-tinged river now glimmered with the scarlet of a sandstorm. His teeth were sharper, his whiskers were longer and most noticeably, his body was now coated in a layer of thick red chakra. It was only now that Ookami fully realized the boy he just killed had come back to life looking like a demon, a cry of help bubbling up his throat only to be snuffed out by Naruto's hand.
"What's the matter, gramps? Not liking the new look?" He hissed. His voice was deeper than before, rippling with an undercurrent of something that was far beyond human. Ookami took a desperate slash at him with the kunai that he was still holding, only to find the knife unable to even get past the chakra that was now orbiting around his skin.
"I thought you were gonna tell me about my mum?"
Ookami continued to squirm.
"You not feeling up to it?" Naruto asked rhetorically, having no intention of releasing his grip over Ookami's mouth. Instead, he picked the man up by the head like he was little more than a ragdoll before tossing him forward into a nearby tree. Suffice to say, the tree fell down.
"Tell me about my mum." Naruto said, striding over to Ookami like it was the most casual thing in the world. Obviously, the senior was in no state to even say his own name after being thrown into a tree with enough speed to essentially chop it down. This fact did nothing to stop Naruto from continuing his demands.
"Come on, you said you would didn't ya? Tell me about my mum!" He growled, punching Ookami in the face so hard, it was a surprise he didn't die outright. A few seconds passed, with Naruto giving him a tiny chance to regain his bearings before hitting him again. Then again. Then again, then again and again and again and again.
"Talk."
A hand suddenly became rested upon his shoulder, red chakra swelling up and around it as it pushed down.
"Naruto."
The boy turned back, inflamed red eyes sparkling sinisterly, only to cool down as they rested upon the figure.
"Kakashi-sensei?" He said, completely ignoring the beaten-down man in front of him.
"Get off him."
"O- "Naruto stuttered, the blaze of crimson that had enraptured him settling down. His eyes relaxed back to their normal blue, and his chakra coat faded along with them. The sudden loss of power caused him to stumble back onto his ass, expression softening. "Okay. Sorry."
Kakashi offered him a hand, which Naruto gladly took. As soon as the sensation of cool down faded away though, his facial features turned completely serious.
"Wait! Are Sasuke and Sakura okay?!" He asked, to which he got a speedy answer.
"We're alright Naruto." He heard the Uchihas monotone voice call out, as the two emerged into sight. Sakura had bandages wrapped around her stomach, arm rested over Sasuke's shoulder. A thankful smile graced the Uzumaki's face, though its subtlety meant it wasn't quite as bright as his usual ones. Unfortunately, this show of companionship didn't last for long. Ookami used the absolute last of his strength to leap onto his feet and took off running, in a show that was more pathetic than impressive. Even Kakashi couldn't help but flash his usual "what the hell?" look that was usually saved for comedic situations.
"Where are you even going?" He called out as the man continued to bolt downward through the forest, brushing past leaves at they went. Team Seven tailed him of course, not returning the same speed. Instead, they just walked eventually finding themselves back at the campsite. Ookami had apparently forgotten that this campsite rested on a cliff-like structure because his master plan had apparently been to just continue running in a straight line forever and now that he couldn't, he was done for (even more so than before). Team Seven watched the last specks of hope fade from his eyes as he ran forwards dead on into the same white snake trap Kakashi had set earlier. A rope dropped from the tree, ensnaring Ookami in its clutch and holding him up from the branch by his left leg.
"Fuck. Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck." He swore while dangling from the rope in a way that made Sasuke have to bite his lip to avoid laughing. "Aaaah! Fuck."
Team Seven watched the man with pitiful glances, as he ran manic hands through strands of his wily hair. Eventually, he managed to compose himself enough to make discussion but even then, his words were hardly well-adjusted.
"You fucking leaf pigs! You don't care about anyone do you? Do you?! I'm about to die and you still don't care! You still don't care!"
Silence resumed for a little while before the lone reply came from Sakura.
"You tried to kill us first."
This pissed him off enough that he proceeded to have another hair-grabbing fit, gripping hard enough that he risked pulling tufts of it out. Ultimately, Kakashi took a step forward, attempting to sound professional.
"Ookami Hitsuji, as a jonin of Konoha, I declare a threat to the populous and prosperity of the ninja world. You will serve in our custody until you're cleared to be picked up by ANBU."
"I'm going to fucking die in five minutes!" Was all he got in the form of a reply. The bluntness of it was enough to make Naruto laugh, even if he didn't really understand the context of what was being said. Ookami did not hold the same humor.
"Oh yeah, laugh it up fox brat. Dumb little shit!"
"Hey, shut up. I was beating the crap out of you just before!" Naruto shot back, defensively clenching his fists.
"Oh yeah?! Well you still don't know anything about your long dead Mother, so I'd say that didn't really matter in the end!"
Naruto charged forward. If he'd been working with a clearer head, he wouldn't have. At the very least, he would've been slow enough to do it that Kakashi would've had a chance to grab him before he did anything dumb. Now though, he was so fast that before the others had even had a chance to see him moving, he'd halfway crossed the cliffside.
"Naruto, no!" Kakashi screamed, echoed by the rest of Team Seven. Naruto didn't listen though; he was too intent on beating the living daylights out of Ookami again to hear anything. In fact, it was only when the old man took three final explosive tags out of his satchel, that Naruto realized this had been a dumb idea.
"Bon voyage demon spawn!" He cried, setting the three tags alight and throwing them as far as he could. Obviously, the explosion wasn't close enough to even hurt Naruto outright but the effects it had were far more deadly than anyone expected. The detonations rippled through the ground, outright severing the ground from itself. The cliffside collapsed under the tag's contents, spiraling into a clutter of dirt and rocks that Ookami and Naruto were both victims of.
It was at this moment, surrounded by a falling cliffside and its innards, that Naruto heard a voice wringing in his ear.
You really didn't think that one through, did you?
When the Uzumaki awoke, his face was covered in a paste of thick grey dirt. Normally, this would be cause for disgust but it meant one thing to Naruto. He was alive. Not only alive, but completely in one piece if he was indeed seeing the body parts in front of him for what they were.
"Pah! Gross." Okay, maybe there was a little room for disgust, he thought, spitting some jettisoned muck onto the ground. As it turned out, the cliffside was not as steep as it appeared. It was really only a few feet worth of drop before you hit the slope, which had still been further nullified as Naruto had been riding on a support of residual mud and rocks. In all honesty, he was feeling pretty alright right about now.
"Ah, ah, ah." The same could not be said for Ookami, who was currently attempting to drag himself onwards towards Naruto by rubbing his face against the ground and hoping that was enough to generate momentum. It wasn't obviously, judging from the fact that he'd woken up before Naruto, yet was about two or three meters away from him. Now that Naruto was awake however, he noticed that Ookami may not have been overreacting when he said he was going to die in five minutes.
The same wooden, bleached white skin that had been running up his neck was now crawling up towards his facial features, overtaking the left side of his lip. His arms and legs were obviously beginning to lose the usefulness, limbs shaking like jello whenever he attempted to put them into action. It took a small while of pathetic struggling, but eventually, Ookami stopped moving, looking up at Naruto.
"I give up. You win kid."
"I think I won a few minutes ago, actually. Right around the bit where I slammed you against the tree." Naruto pointed out, a fact that Ookami was nonchalant about.
"Yeah, I don't care."
Silence overtook the air, the only sounds that could be made out being the chirping of the crickets and the sad hum of Ookami's pocket watch. That was until Ookami looked up at Naruto, a slightly sinister look in his eyes.
"Hey, Naruto. You ever learn the whole story of what happened on the night you got that thing sealed in you?"
There was something about the way he said it that made Naruto's blood run cold. Previously, when he'd been talking, it had been full of delusional hope and confidence and that made him seem completely and utterly small-time. Now, he was speaking with a disturbing resignation that made him somehow threating despite the fact that he literally couldn't move.
"I know enough. Fox came in, wrecked shit, The Fourth put him in me."
Ookami laughed.
"So, you don't know anything?"
"There's nothing else too it."
"Oh, there fucking is. Strap yourself in Mr. Uzumaki, I'm about to rock your world."
Naruto gulped, as Ookami began to feel more and more unreasonably relaxed in his position.
"Yagura Karatachi, the fourth Mizukage and holder of the three tails, is murdered. Seiya Samina takes back over, blames the leaf and starts a war, but he didn't start a war with just the leaf, no no no, he started a war on the tailed beasts." Naruto's heart told him to stop listening, but his brain told him to just nod along. For once, he chose to listen to the latter.
"See, whoever killed Yagura, killed the three-tails too. Now the mist doesn't have a tailed beast but everyone else does, and they don't like that. Before you know it, the mist has kill squads all over the place, seven swordsmen and shit, butchering the jinchuriki and then getting some fujinjutsu girl to put kill seals on the tailed beast along with them. Kiri got spared because they were an ally but goddamn did they rain hell every else. Tailed beasts, divine creatures birthed by the sage of fucking six paths, dropping like flies."
Naruto stayed quiet, his silence prompting Ookami to continue.
"Now the nine-tails got sealed in your mama cause' the whirlpool objected to the mist's inhumane killings of god's creatures. So, what did the mist do to the whirpool? They wiped them the fuck out, with only a few, including mum, escaping to Konoha. Why do you think the Nine-Tails was so pissed the day he ran amuck? His whole family had been wiped out and he'd been sealed inside the belly of a girl right after."
"You're lying." Naruto said, though his shaky voice indicated that he himself was doing just that.
"I'm telling the truth, because with that truth comes the big question. How'd that fox get out of your mum's seal on that day? She was found dead in the Hokage tower, the seal having been broken. No one aside from the Foruth entered that room all day, his secretary swore it Something awful suspicious going on there, don't you think?"
No words came from the Uzumaki boys' mouth, but not for lack of trying. The amount of information that had just been dumped on him was simply too great for him to formulate a single question. Ookami laughed harder at this, only for that same laughter to quickly descend into a mad coughing fit. Blood leaked from his teeth, flossing beneath the gaps and into his hand. The same white skin that had taken over half his body began to cover his left eyes as well while his breaths started to become short and desperate. He looked at Naruto with his one good eye, crazed and near-death but still lucid enough to offer one final statement.
"Beware Naruto Uzumaki. Orochimaru has Konoha in his sights and he will not rest until it's a greatest treasure are his and his alone. Beware the snake sanin. All beings on Kaguya's earth will falter under the delusion of the eye of the moon. Beware the one with the spiral- "His voice became cracked, drying out further and further before shattering completely. Ookami took one last gulp of air before keeling over and dying.
A few minutes later, Pakkun would arrive, shouting out to anyone that could hear that he found Naruto. The rest of Team Seven would show up only a few seconds after that, a collective wave of relief washing over them as they watched Naruto. He was unable to join them in that sensation, scarcely making conversation the whole night. Even by the time they'd set up a different camp and he'd went to bed; he could only feel his mind replaying the information that had been given to him over and over again.
He'd figured it out. That's why he was always laughing.