Naruto groaned in pain as he woke up, his head was throbbing and his dry throat seemed to be torn after he swallowed some of his own saliva.
Flashes of memory raced through his mind, he remembered being tied up, forced to walk through a line of mercenary prisoners and being hit by a very hard blow to his head before passing out.
He shook his head slowly, groaning again, but this time a little louder as he saw the image of Mifune being killed. Poor old bastard, he liked him, Mifune was different from the other mercenaries, perhaps because he was sixty years old and still fighting on the front lines in battles, certainly a powerful warrior when young. He helped him a lot, and they had a friendly relationship, at least. He wasn't close to the old man like he was close to Temari, but...
Wait.
Temari!
His eyes opened abruptly, and the first thing Naruto saw were men with their hands tied and downcast looks, not sad, but slightly afraid and frustrated. He was in a cell in a wagon. Around him, several men on foot and on horseback walked alongside, all wearing dark armor and crests with the symbol of a purple snake.
The army of the Land of Sound.
In the distance, a city. It was possible to see the flag of the country of fire, so these soldiers did not pass through there, it was obvious. The light of the sunrise appeared timidly on the horizon.
Naruto tried to move, but was frustrated to see his hands tied to one of the metal bars of his mobile cell. He gritted his teeth and pulled harder, attracting little attention.
- Forget it, kid. Just be quiet.
One of the men next to him said, and Naruto stared at him. He had short brown hair, a scar on his neck, and one of his eyes was bandaged.
-... How long was I blacked out?
he asked, starting to get more and more breathless as he ran his eyes over his fellow prisoners.
- I don't know exactly, I was also passed out. But I'd guess a day at most. We're already a long way from the fortress.
"A day!"
Naruto widens his eyes, the last memory of the girl running through his head. Temari was injured, of course, but there was no telling if it was fatal... no telling how far the horse had taken her or what happened to her afterwards, and he had lost precious time.
- We are a day away...
He whispered, talking to himself, as if trying to convince his mind that he heard right.
- Nah, I wouldn't say a day away. They lost a few hours chasing nearby soldiers.
The man said, and again, Naruto's eyes widened.
- What?
he asked in a low voice, contradicting his incredible urge to shout.
- They chased the fleeing soldiers for a few hours, captured quite a few. Apparently the new commander of the Sound Army troops, a man named Orochimaru, is working miracles on the battlefields with his strategies. He would rather capture mercenaries than kill them, making them slaves. At least, that's what I heard.
Naruto was silent for a while, digesting the man's words. His heart began to beat faster, his throat closed up, and a bad feeling spread through his chest. The air seemed heavier and harder to penetrate his lungs.
- Did they capture a woman?
he asked, this time in a louder tone, almost in a shout. The man stared at him and arched an eyebrow.
- What?
- A woman! A warrior, she was part of my mercenary group, did you see if they captured her!?
he shouted, not controlling the words coming out of his mouth or the voice running through his throat. The man stared at him as confused as before.
- A tall woman with blonde hair?
A male voice asked, and Naruto turned aside. Outside his cell, a man on a horse stared at him. His dark armor and his crest showed that he was part of the enemy kingdom's army. He was tall and burly, a short black beard on his face, dark eyes, and despite his rather frightening appearance, Naruto just stared at him with burning eyes.
- You are the boy who killed Byorn... unbelievable, someone so young.
- Answer me!
Naruto shouted. Despite the vivid ferocity in his voice and the burning eyes, the man just arched an eyebrow.
-... Your hair and your eyes will certainly be worth more if we sell you as a sex slave than a mercenary prisoner... the same thing would happen to her. I watched the whole thing, you know?
Naruto's eyes opened even wider, and his heart began to beat so strongly that if one paid attention, one could see his chest throbbing with each beat. The veins in his body bulged and his muscles tensed more and more, showing every fiber in his bare chest.
- A woman warrior, not the first time I've seen one, but certainly something extremely rare and I couldn't help but be impressed. She handled that sword well. But despite her skills, a woman is a woman... at most, she would serve to satisfy the boys in the camp.
Naruto gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, the man in turn just smiled.
- But hey, I think you can be relieved... your girlfriend is dead. Her horse fell off a cliff.
The blond boy held his breath immediately, the noise around him became muffled and the man's words repeated over and over in his mind. "She died," again and again like an endless looping.
Temporarily, his body lost its strength, and he faced the ground.
- Although impressive, it is disgusting. A woman playing soldier is simply not their place.
The man continued to speak, more to himself than to Naruto, who was not even listening to what he was saying. The soldier, apparently being the one with the highest rank, began to slowly walk away from the wagon with his horse.
Naruto's arms began to tremble, and hiding his face in his arms as best he could, he held himself to keep from crying. He had not cried since the death of his father.
He didn't love Temari... or less, he didn't think he did, he couldn't tell the difference between "love" and "like". But regardless of what that was, it was undeniable that the woman was special.
Naruto clenched his fists tightly, images of their rare genuine smiles flooding his mind, the moments of training and the few more intimate moments.
He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and controlling his own feelings, not even realizing that his body was shaking.
Ryuzetsu... he needed to go back... he needed to tell her. The woman had stayed in a town not far from the battle site, Suna, was the name. He needed to see her... she deserved to know as much as he did.
- The battlefield is a place for men, no woman should be allowed to set foot on a sacred site. If you really loved her, you were stupid to let her go. It was only a matter of time, women are not fit for war.
The man said in the distance, his voice muffled and barely audible. But Naruto heard it... heard it in clear sound, as if he had said those words right from his side.
His eyes widened again, his heart beat as hard as before, his muscles contracted, and he began to pull his arms hard to snap those chains. He wouldn't mind bleeding a few arteries.
And that's exactly what happened, the chains snapped, his arms began to bleed, but he didn't care. At most, the pain only added to the anger his heart used as fuel.
He ignored the surprised gasps and started kicking the cell gate, each kick harder than the last. The soldiers grabbed their swords, but before they could get closer, Naruto broke through the gate and advanced furiously toward the nearest man.
The soldier tried to attack him with his sword, however, Naruto was too fast for him and punched him in the face, hard enough to knock out some teeth and break his nose. The man was thrown backwards, dropping his sword in the process.
In midair, Naruto grabbed the hilt of the blade and crouched his body, dodging another slashing attack coming from another soldier and counterattacking with a piercing blow to his neck.
Naruto grabbed the man's body and used it as a shield from the arrows shot in his direction. As soon as the archers ran out of arrows, he advanced against another guard who was approaching him.
It was moments like this, when anger, adrenaline, or the feeling of battle overwhelmed his body, that Naruto was given the title of yellow flash.
Sliding on the ground, the blond man trips the man and kicks him still in the air, sending him a few inches up. While sliding, Naruto spun his body around and cut the man in half with one furious blow, this, before the soldier's body fell to the ground.
The surrounding soldiers widened their eyes at the strength and speed of the boy, who simply began to kill all the soldiers who came close enough, as if they were nothing but small obstacles.
The man from before, still on his horse, advanced towards Naruto and tried to attack him with his mace, but Naruto dodged, stepped to the side, and using the momentum of his movements, made a diagonal attack on the man, cutting the side of his abdomen, and unintentionally severing the horse's head.
The man fell to the ground and the soldiers were paralyzed. Their eyes stared at the boy with his bloodstained arms in a terrifying look, and their bodies hesitated to act.
The man stood up quickly, ignoring the pain in the side of his abdomen. As soon as he did, he was forced to defend against a cutting attack from Naruto, who didn't stop there, and began to attack the man viciously. Movements so fast they were hard to see with the naked eye, attacks so strong that the handle of his mace was breaking, and despite his much larger physique than Naruto's, the soldier was being pushed back.
The soldier gritted his teeth, and at a certain moment, after blocking another attack with his mace, he landed a powerful punch to Naruto's face, which was powered by the metal of his gauntlet. However, to his surprise, the boy just seemed to ignore the pain and returned his punch, times harder, right in the middle of his unprotected face.
Blood dripped from his broken nose and the man fell backwards. Naruto jumped on top of him, and before the soldier could do anything, the boy stabbed him and slashed viciously, literally severing limbs and throwing bits of flesh, clothing, and metal to the sides.
The soldiers took a step back, it was as if they were seeing an animal, an angry beast, a warrior going Berserk.
Naruto only stopped slicing his opponent when his vision blurred and his body suddenly became weak. He had lost a lot of blood, although the wounds on his wrists were already healing.
The soldiers realized this when he staggered backwards, and it was like a click in the heads of the men, who took up their swords and advanced towards Naruto.
The boy reflexively dodged the first blow, but there were too many consecutive blows, and without his huge sword, he couldn't handle so many opponents on top of him very well.
At one point, a soldier managed to pierce his chest with his sword, piercing through all his bones, organs and muscles until it came out the other side, in his back.
Naruto gasped loudly in pain and as he felt the air drain from his lung, he reacted. His body was always stronger than that of an ordinary person.
Grabbing the arm of the soldier who attacked him, he thrust his sword into his neck, followed by a sideways movement that severed the arm of another soldier.
Throwing the man's body forward, Naruto turns and begins to run toward the city. Soldiers chase after him, but quit when an arrow pierced his body.
Naruto groans loudly in pain, gasping heavily and staggering a few steps. But, he leans on his sword and refuses to fall to the ground, continuing with his long strides toward the city.
With each step, his body ached, his consciousness faded, his throat closed. His vision became increasingly blurred, and a few hundred meters before approaching the city, everything went black, darkness embraced him, and Naruto fell to the ground with a sword stuck in his chest, and an arrow stuck in his back.
The soldiers watch him fall to the ground, and after a while of discussion, and frightened whispers as they see the state of the bodies killed by only one man, they decide to continue with their mission, their work.
Hours passed, the sun illuminated the fields around the city.
Two men were walking along a stretch of dirt road that led to the main road to town, they were talking quietly, just another day in their quiet lives.
Until their eyes focused on the red stained grass, the body lying on its side with a sword and an arrow stuck in its flesh. Their eyes widened at first, but soon they just sighed.
Dead bodies were nothing new to them, not after the plague that had ravaged the entire country, and although it was a long time ago, they remembered it vividly. Not to mention that, although their town was peaceful, those who had nothing were thrown again and again into misery, daily... dead bodies found in damp and dirty alleys were also nothing new.
- This one is younger... wow, look at the color of his hair.
One of the men said as he approached, placing his hands on his waist.
- I've never seen hair this color... golden... tsc, what a shame. A strong boy, look at that body.
- A soldier, maybe.
- More of a mercenary, he'd have the army tattoo otherwise.
- Oh, right.
-... That necklace... heh, those are claws.
One of them crouched down and took the necklace from around Naruto's neck, something, according to the soldiers, useless, that made no difference whether it stayed with him or with the soldiers. Not least because, before he could be sold, all his belongings would be as well.
- Long claws... was it the same creature that made that scar on his face?
- Probably... it doesn't matter. Let's take him to the pit.
- Will you keep the necklace?
- Nope, I dare not steal from the dead.
The man put the necklace back on his body.
- Let's get these things off him first, a grotesque image even for me.
They both crouched down and lifted Naruto up after removing the sword and arrow from his body and placing both things on his lap. They started walking along a dirt path, and after a few minutes, they were far enough away from the city.
A huge ditch stained with blood, the smell of rot emanated from the place filled with already dead bodies. Flies everywhere, young and old corpses, some already in an advanced state of decomposition.
Nearby, horses and a group of young mercenaries, all with swords and armor on their bodies. Back from a mission, probably.
The man in front of the others raised an eyebrow as he looked at the young man carried by the two men.
- This one is too young to have contracted the plague... and what a unique hair color.
The man said, taking off his helmet and letting the wind kiss his black strands.
- Good afternoon, Sasuke-san. I thought you would have left by now.
The young man smiled.
- I had a few things to take care of, but we'll be leaving soon.
- Ah, yes. We found this one in the field, a sword stuck in his chest and an arrow in his back.
The man named Sasuke grimaced slightly.
- Hm, what a coincidence... I saw an enemy convoy with prisoners earlier.
- An enemy convoy? So close to our city?
One of the men asked, adjusting Naruto in his arms and approaching the ditch.
-... Maybe I saw it wrong. Anyway, have a nice day.
- You too, Sasuke-san.
Sasuke watched as the two men threw the young man's body into the ditch, along with the bloody sword and arrow, just before continuing on his way.
Hours passed... maybe even days. The sun setting on the horizon at the beginning of the night was the starting point for the enemy soldiers to invade the city Tanzaku with the aim of capturing it, just as they had done with some other cities.
Civilians were not attacked if they stayed in their homes, but the streets became a battleground. Civilians walking peacefully were caught in the crossfire, and those lucky enough not to be hit by a stray arrow ran for cover.
However, the soldiers in the city showed incredible resilience and began to push the enemy soldiers out of the city, carrying the fighting into the surrounding fields and staining the beautiful green landscape crimson red.
- Lancers!
Sasuke's authoritative voice echoed across the battlefield, and soldiers in armor similar to the one he himself wore hurled spears toward their opponents.
The man was fighting on the front lines, killing and piercing his opponents with exquisite mastery.
Beside him, a warrior of small stature was assisting him, swinging a sword in his small hands with extreme strength, standing side by side with Sasuke, apparently the leader of that group of soldiers.
- Choji!
Sasuke shouted, and a huge man took the lead, and with his axe, attacked the row of enemies ahead, making room for the swordsmen to advance through the enemy formation.
However, Sasuke and his group stopped as they saw two huge men with hammers in their hands kill their soldiers as if they were nothing. The force of the swinging of their hammers was enough to send men in full armor flying through the air.
The two men had distinctive long hair in a light brown, and a silver.
Choji took the lead again and attacked, however, the brown haired man was faster and attacked him with his hammer, an attack in which Choji defended, but the force was so great that he was pushed back.
The other man, with silver hair, spun the hammer above his head and attacked Choji, who had his guard down from the previous attack. The blow was strong enough to break the armor the big man was wearing and throw him backwards again.
- Choji!
Sasuke shouted in concern.
- I'm all right! Damn, these guys are strong!
Choji shouted back, spitting out a small amount of blood.
The two men ahead were the enemy's only front line, but they were enough to start turning the tables in the enemy's favor.
Spears were thrown toward the soldiers, and those with shields took the lead, protecting their allies. However, the row of shields was soon destroyed by the brandishing of the hammers of the two men in tandem, who despite being large and heavy men, with weapons just as large and heavy, moved with great speed, agility and strength.
Sasuke looked at his companion beside him, and then at Choji. A mutual nod. Choji took the lead again, running toward the two men and getting into a position where one was in front of the other.
As he approaches, he throws his axe, but the brown-haired man defends with his hammer. However, it was enough to distract him long enough for Choji to close the distance between them and land a powerful punch to his face, causing the man to stagger backwards.
Sasuke moved forward soon after his men advanced toward the other man. Sliding across the ground, he slashed the side of his opponent's leg, bringing him to his knees. His companion of small stature uses this opportunity and slashes the side of the man's waist and Choji finishes with a strong kick to his head, picking up his axe soon after.
The man fell to his side, but recovered quickly, and as if ignoring the pain in his body, stood up and held Choji's axe handle.
They widened their eyes. Choji was huge, and his strength matched his physique, a man able to hold his axe in motion must be stupidly strong.
The brown-haired man smiles and headbutts Choji, pulling his axe towards himself and turning to Sasuke and the other soldier.
In one swift motion, the man attacks them horizontally with the axe, brandishing it as fast as he brandished his hammer. Sasuke dodged it by jumping back, only to have to dodge again another attack coming from behind. Glancing back, he saw his companion do the same, only to be caught by a kick from the man.
- Sakura!
he shouted, ducking and countering the blow from an enemy soldier. As soon as he had killed him, he ran toward the pink-haired woman who had stood up. The brown-haired man, however, advanced toward her with more speed, wielding his axe and ready to kill her.
But, Choji held him back and knocked him to the ground, pulling his axe back to himself. Before he could make another move, the brown-haired man stood up quickly and punched him in the stomach unprotected by his broken armor, pushing Choji back and leaping toward where his hammer had fallen.
Sasuke gritted his teeth as he was hit by a hammer blow from the silver-haired man, causing him to be thrown backwards.
- Sasuke!
The pink-haired woman ran up to him, kneeling beside him and helping him up. Blood dripped from his evidently broken arm, and he growled as he stood up.
He hadn't even noticed when the silver-haired man eliminated all the soldiers who had attacked him. The two opponents were smiling, covered in blood, and apparently not even tired. Strength, agility, endurance... two battlefield monsters.
- Argh, what the hell! I always heard that the gold and silver brothers were tough, but how is this possible?
He heard one of his soldiers grumble.
- Sasuke!
Another female voice caught their attention, and Sasuke turned back minimally. A woman with red hair, shades darker than blood, approached him with a sword at her waist.
- We've managed to repel most of them out of the city, but if we don't finish this soon, they'll be able to get in!
She said quickly, and Sasuke rolled his eyes. As he looked at the bodies on the battlefield, as well as the faces of his enemies, he was seriously considering retreating. This was just another mercenary job, it was not their job to protect the city, but the kingdom's soldiers.
As he went to give the order, however, his eyes focused on a brief but continuous movement just beside the gold and silver brothers, who, like himself, seemed to notice the movement.
They were a little way from the city at the moment, already close to the ditch where they were throwing the bodies.
His eyes could hardly believe it when that same boy with golden hair and a hole in his chest climbed from the world of the dead back to the world of the living using that bloody sword as a support.
Naruto was breathing hard, his body was shaking, his lungs felt like they were on fire, but after so long amidst those decomposing bodies, he finally managed to climb his way out of there.
He awoke to the sound of screams, at first only muffled, but as time passed the sounds became closer and more audible. Soon the distinctive and familiar sound of the battlefield invaded his ears. He pushed the dead bodies aside and leaned on that sword, climbing his way out of that ditch.
His body ached, but it was as if a large part of that pain was inhibited. The pain he felt was as if he had been punched in the chest and slept badly, nothing more.
The first thing he saw was more bodies, both of soldiers with armor similar to that of mercenaries, though with glaring differences for those in the business, and of enemy soldiers.
The second thing he saw were the two huge men standing not far away, as well as the mercenary group in peculiar armor.
Despite his state, his mind processed this information quickly, there were fallen bodies all the way to the city that had some of its parts in flames. Arrows were flying in the sky, and all over the surrounding field were soldiers. An attack to capture the city, clearly.
Naruto lowered his head again, he no longer heard the noise of the battle around him, his mind went back to past events.
His muscles tensed again, his eyes widened as his tears mingled with the blood that flowed from his head. Blood that he was sure was not his own.
- Heh, a walking corpse... that's a new one.
His instincts screamed, and his body moved before his mind could process his next move. A strong gust of wind passed close to his face, and with a single eye he stared at the man who had attacked him, his hammer in the air.
The brown-haired man looked surprised for a few moments, but soon attacked him again. Naruto ran his eyes over the armor and the distinctive purple snake symbol. His teeth gritted.
Naruto took a step to the side and attacked him with his sword, hitting his blade on the handle of the man's hammer. His sword broke from the force and weight of the enemy's weapon, but Naruto didn't care. With his sword broken in half, he leaped towards the man and stabbed what was left of his blade into his eye.
The man immediately screamed and backed away, dropping his hammer in the process.
The other man, a silver-haired soldier, advanced toward Naruto. However, the blond man gritted his teeth, grabbed the handle of the hammer lying on the ground, and in a move as fast as his opponent's own attack, he struck the hammer into the side of his body.
The soldier groaned loudly in pain as he felt his body being thrown to the side, but recovered. His armor had shattered with the force of the blow, as had his ribs.
He had no time to catch his breath, as Naruto attacked him again, just as fast as before. The man tried again to strike him with the hammer, a horizontal blow.
However, Naruto lowered his body as he ran towards his opponent, squeezed the handle of the hammer he was holding, and in a diagonal upward motion, he hits the chin on the man, who is thrown upwards.
Naruto jumps up soon after, and spinning his body still in the air, he lifts the hammer all the way up and hits the man's head on the ground.
It was all in just a matter of seconds, so fast that the brains of the soldiers watching could barely digest the images they saw. The man's head exploded as it was crushed by the hammer.
Naruto let out the air he didn't even realize he was holding. His eyes closed again. His heart was beating so hard that it felt as if his body was pulsating along with it. His hand squeezed the handle of the hammer and his breathing became stronger.
His instincts screamed again, and his body acted, blocking the other man's attack with his hammer. The force behind the attack, however, was too strong, and he was thrown backwards by the impact. But even after that tremendous blow, he didn't fall; he continued to stand holding the hammer in front of his body as if he were holding a mere sword.
The silver-haired man shouted and advanced towards him, anger in his eyes that he had killed the other soldier, apparently.
Naruto just stood there, staring at him, waiting for him to approach. He felt so strange, as if he were a spectator watching his own body from a distance. All the pain he felt was gone despite his clear injuries, and he didn't feel tired.
The hammer coming towards him seemed to move in slow motion, and despite all the blood present on the metal, it did not have an intimidating appearance.
Again, his body moved on its own. He took a step to the side after jumping and rotated his body still in the air, spinning the hammer along with him and hitting the man in the head.
The helmet the man was wearing was destroyed, as was his disfigured face, literally dented by the blow. The soldier was thrown backwards and fell to the ground.
Naruto's vision suddenly blurred, and despite the sudden weakness that spread through his body, he walked toward the silver-haired man as he dragged the hammer across the grass.
Wide but careless steps, and as he came close to the man, with only one arm, he struck his head again with the hammer.
Once, twice, four times... enough times that it no longer hit brain and bone, but the ground.
The hammer clattered into the earth, and Naruto's trembling hand released the metal weapon handle. His eyes stared at the man's lifeless body, his body more tired than he felt. He seemed in a trance, until initially muffled calls forced him back to reality.
Turning his head slowly to the side, Naruto focused his gaze on a boy not far away, surrounded by a few soldiers who stared at him with steady eyes and intense stares. This boy was handsome, not too tall, with straight brown hair and green eyes, hm, an expression he had seen before.
-... Konohamaru...
His name slipped through his lips, and Naruto saw the boy run towards him just before everything went dark once more.