And here's the next chapter in which Hunter makes some new friends and a lot of new enemies.
Enjoy
Chapter 3
Somewhere inside the forty fourth training ground, also known as the Forest of Death, a black portal appeared on the branch of a massive tree. After a moment's pause Hunter stepped out.
"Yes!" he yelled "I've finally got this teleporting thing down...wait...why is the ground up there?" Hunter looked down and saw the forest canopy and, through the leaves, patches of blue sky. He was upside down.
"Ah, snap." Hunter walked round the branch so he was now the right way up. Looking from left to right the only thing he could see was trees, trees and more trees. "Great, now where do I go? I knew I should have kept that file."
With no obvious way to go Hunter decided to just run off in one direction and hope he was going the right way. With his Heartless strength and agility jumping from branch to branch was easy. Soon enough Hunter came across a group of three people by a river. Considering that everyone he'd met so far had been less than friendly Hunter stayed up in the tree tops to observe them from a distance.
There was a boy who looked like a miniature version of Might Guy, right down to the large eye brows exercising away from the other two. The only girl in the trio was down by the river filling up a flask of water. She had brown hair that she wore in two buns on either side of her head. She was wearing a pink sleeveless blouse and dark green pants.
The other boy in the team had long brown hair that came all the way down to the middle of his back. He was wearing a khaki shirt with dark brown shorts and he had strange eyes that were plain white, almost pupil-less. Hunter could see dark shadows in this guys heart. He wasn't evil but he wasn't the friendly type.
'None of them have seen me yet' thought Hunter 'As long as I stay up here then-' one of the branches he was holding on to creaked. 'Oh. Snap!'
The branch broke and Hunter fell out of the tree and crashed into the ground. Looking up from the ground he saw the three young ninjas were all now looking at him and they were all in combat stances.
"Err. Hi." said Hunter as he picked himself up. "Well, this is awkward."
"Hand over your scroll!" demanded the one with the white eyes.
"My what?"
"You heard him." said the girl "Hand over your scroll, and we won't have to beat the snot out of you."
"I don't have a scroll."
"I think he's telling the truth Neji." said the miniature Might Guy.
"If he's here for the Chunin exams then he will have a scroll Lee." replied Neji.
"Wow, he's a barrel of laughs isn't he. How do you two put up with him?" asked Hunter.
Without warning Neji charged at him. Hunter jumped out of the way, barely avoiding an open palmed strike.
Hunter saw the girl draw a kunai and Lee preparing to attack as well.
"Tenten, Lee, stay back! ordered Neji. "This guy might not be alone, be ready if more show up!"
Neji aimed five more strikes at Hunter but he managed to dodge every one. 'This guy's fast' thought Neji 'I may have to use the byakugan'.
Hunter dodged another blow 'This is bad' he thought 'I can't take all...three...' Hunter moved aside, avoiding yet another strike. Then he grabbed hold of Neji's arm. "Blizzard." The air around Neji and Hunter suddenly became very cold. Neji looked down at his arm and saw ice begin to spread from where Hunter was touching him. He tried to pull his arm away but he couldn't shake Hunter's grip.
Suddenly Hunter let go. Neji clutched at his frozen arm, unable to move it.
Hunter seemed more surprised than Neji, 'Did I just do that?' he thought. It was like he'd know exactly what to do. Sensing movement behind him Hunter raised his left arm and blocked a side swipe from Lee. Lee then aimed a kick at Hunters exposed side but Hunter blocked it with his leg. He spun round and punched Lee in the gut, sending him flying backwards.
Hunter couldn't believe what he was doing. It was like everything was moving in slow motion. He could sense what his opponents were doing. 'I can fight?'. He jumped up into the air to avoid a sweeping kick from Neji then he did a spinning kick mid air to knock aside a kunai Tenten threw at him.
"I can fight!" he proclaimed.
Lee got back up and ran straight for Hunter. Once he was close enough he did a round house kick but Hunter dropped down under it. He then landed his own kick on Lee's back, launching him in Neji's direction. Tenten threw two more kunai at Hunter but he batted them both aside.
While his back was turned Neji launched another attack but Hunter easily dodged it and delivered a side chop to Neji's frozen arm, shattering the ice and breaking the bone. Neji grunted in pain. Before he had time to recover Hunter performed a sweeping kick that took Neji's legs out from under him, then he punched down, slamming Neji into the ground.
"Neji!" yelled Tenten. 'I guess I have no choice.' She reached round behind her a brought out her two weapon scrolls 'I didn't think I'd have to use this move until the finals.' Placing the two scrolls on the ground, one on either side of her, Tenten rapidly made several hand signs.
"Rising twin Dragons!" The two scrolls went spinning into the air, unravelling as they went. Tenten jumped up between the two scrolls and began releasing and throwing the various weapons that had been sealed in the paper.
Hunter's looked at the incoming barrage and somehow knew exactly what to do. "Aero!" he was suddenly surrounded by a barrier of wind that deflected every last weapon thrown.
"I'm not done yet!" yelled Tenten. She pulled on the hidden wires that connected her finger tips to the discarded weapons and directed them back at Hunter.
"Oh no you don't!" Hunter flung out his arms causing the aero spell to expand in a massive gust of wind. Once again the weapons were flung aside and Tenten was blown backwards into a tree.
Hunter looked round at the three genin. Tenten was winded, out of energy and had run out of weapons. Lee was picking himself back up but he was in no shape to carry on fighting. Neji was trying to get back up but he was in worse shape than Lee.
With a great deal of joy, Hunter realised that he'd won. "WAHOO! YES, yes! Oh, everybody was kung fu fighting...those kids were fast as lightning...yeah!"
"No..." Hunter looked over at Neji, who was slowly, painfully standing back up. "I...will not ...be beaten...by a loser like you!"
"Hate to beak it to ya man but you've lost. I just took down you and your team and I'm not even warmed up yet."
"Leaf Hurricane!" Hunter raised his arm just in time to block a kick from Lee. Apparently he still had some fight left in him after all.
Lee jumped back before Hunter could counter attack. "Neji, Tenten! If we all attack at the same time then we might still have a chance!"
"You three want it? Come and get it!" taunted Hunter.
Tenten got back up and ran towards Hunter, picking up a discarded kunai as she went. Neji started running to, pulling back his remaining arm to deliver an open palmed strike while Lee went around Hunter to attack from the rear.
"That's your last mistake! Blizzard!" Hunter spun round on the spot sending three blasts of ice at the genin. Hunter had waited until the last second so they would have no time to dodge. Each bolt of ice struck home and Tenten, Lee and Neji were all frozen in place.
"C-c-c-can't...move." stammered Lee.
"Well this has been fun guys but I've got to get going. Don't worry about the ice, you'll thaw out eventually." Hunter jumped up onto a tree branch and began leaping through the forest again "Remember!" he yelled back at the genin "Think warm thoughts!"
Hunter still had no idea where he was going. All the trees looked the same to him and for all he knew he was just going in circles. He'd seen several other ninja teams in the woods but he'd decided to avoid them for now.
"Still no sign of any nobodies." he muttered to himself. "Maybe I should head back to the village...wait. What the heck?"
Hunter had come across a large clearing where a girl with pink hair was facing off against three other ninjas, one woman, one guy whose face was mostly covered in bandages and another man with black spiky hair. She was protecting two others, both boys that were unconscious and lying beneath the roots of a huge tree.
Looking down Hunter could see three other people hiding in the bushes watching the fight, a blond haired girl, and two boys, one fat and one with black hair in style that looked like a pineapple. Hunter silently dropped down from the trees and snuck up behind them.
"Sasuke and Naruto are out of it." said the ninja with the pineapple hairstyle. "It's just Sakura alone against the three of those guys. Well, what do you want to do, Ino?" he looked over at the blond.
"Why ask me huh?" asked the blond, who apparently was named Ino.
"Well if we don't do something soon she's toast. Are you cool with that?"
"What do you want me to do Shikamaru? Go out there and get myself killed?"
Hunter ignored the two bickering genin and focused on what was happening in the clearing.
Sakura threw several shuriken at the guy with the bandages but his team mate, the one with the spiky hair got in the way and deflected the attack with a blast of air. While Sakura was distracted the woman had snuck up behind her and grabbed her by her hair, forcing Sakura to her knees.
"My, what soft and shiny hair" she said in a mocking voice. "but you know what? If you spent a little less time shampooing and a little more time practicing your jutsu you might not be in this fix." while she was talking she gave Sakura's head a few cruel shakes. "Hey Zaku, I know what would be fun. Let's make miss beauty queen here watch as you finish of that Sasuke guy."
"Why not, sounds like fun to me." replied the man with spiky hair.
'Ok, that tears it!' thought Hunter. 'I'm not just going to sit here on the side lines and let them get away with this! I survived a fall from three miles up, I can take whatever the three stooges out there have!'
"Well if you three aren't going to do anything" the three genin hiding in the bushes almost jumped out of their skin at the sound of Hunters voice "I guess that leaves all the heroics to me!"
Hunter jumped out into the clearing and yelled "Hey, morons!"
The three Sound ninja and Sakura all looked over at Hunter.
"Real tough guys aren't you" he continued "picking on a little girl, all alone in the woods. And as for you lady! Your hardy one to talk about other people's hair. I can smell your coconut cream shampoo all the way from over here!"
The guy with the bandages looked down at Sakura "Friend of yours, little girl?"
"She's not my friend." said Hunter "At least not yet anyway. We've only just met. Hey there."
'Who is this guy?' Sakura thought 'And what is he thinking taking on these three alone?'
"Why stick your neck out for someone you don't even know?" asked Dosu.
"Well what kind of person would I be if I just sat on the sidelines and watched you three beat the crap out of her?" Hunter said the last part a little louder and directed it at the bushes behind him.
"Hey guys, I think we've got a hero here?" said Kin.
Zaku smirked at that "Well then 'hero', eat this! Slicing sound wave!"
Zaku aimed his arms at Hunter and fired a blast of compressed air at the speed of sound. Hunter didn't move and just let the attack hit him. Zaku turned round, not bothering to see if his air attack actually worked.
"Now that he's out of the way-"
"Don't count your chickens!"
Zeku spun round and found himself face to face with Hunter.
'No way!' he thought 'How did he survive that!'
Hunter grabbed hold of Zaku's shoulder "Falcon!" he pulled his arm back "Punch!" then he hit Zaku square in the chest. The man went flying backwards and crashed into a giant tree root.
'This is PERFECT!' thought Hunter 'I barely even felt that attack! Oh, I am on such a power trip right now!'
"You...who are you?" demanded Dosu.
"I'm the Indestructible Captain Scarlet!" proclaimed Hunter, punching the air "And you guys are toast! Blizzard!"
Hunter jammed his arms forward and fired off two ice blasts at Kin and Dosu. They both dodged the attack, although Kin had to let go of Sakura. The two sound ninja regrouped next to Zaku, who was just getting back up.
"Hey, pinky." Sakura looked up at Hunter "Go check on your friends. I'll deal with Huey, Dewey, and Louie here." Sakura nodded. She still wasn't sure what this guy was planning but right now he was protecting her and her friends. That was all that mattered. She got up and ran over to the tree where her team mates were still lying unconscious.
"This guys going to take on all three of them by himself?" asked Ino.
"Hey, better him than me. I mean us!" replied Choji.
Hunter examined his three opponents. 'These guy have some serious darkness inside. They won't hesitate to kill me if they get the chance.' He took a closer look at the one called Zaku. 'He has tubes implanted in his arms. That's how he can fire of that air blast attack. I wonder what happens if those tubes get blocked?'
"Alright, let's try this again." Zaku raised his arms and aimed at Hunter "Slicing sound wave!"
Hunter jumped over the air blast "Missed!"
"Not quite" said Dosu, raising his right arm. Hunter saw a metal device with a bunch of holes in it attached to Dosu's forearm. Then he heard a loud, constant ringing sound.
'A sound attack!' thought Hunter 'If I were human that would really mess with my head. Good thing I'm not human!' Hunter dropped out of the air, aiming a punch at Dosu. The sound Ninja moved out of the way just in time. Hunters punch shattered the ground where he'd just been standing.
'That sound wave should have disoriented him. Why didn't it work?' thought Dosu.
"Nice try mummy man." said Hunter "But if you think that sound attack will work on me you're in de-Nile. Ha!"
"I'VE HAD IT WITH THIS GUY!" yelled Zaku. Once again he aimed his arms at Hunter "Slicing sound wave!" He fired another powerful blast of air at sonic speeds straight at Hunter. He just stood there and let the wave of sound and compressed air wash over him.
Everyone stared at him wide eyed.
"T-that's impossible!" stammered Zaku.
"Ha, told you I was indestructible!" Taunted Hunter. "Brave you may be, you think that your might is tough. Come have a go if you think you're hard enough!" he added in a sing song voice.
"Yeah, you may be 'indestructible'" snarled Zaku "But they're not!" This time he aimed his arms at Sakura and her team mates "Slicing-"
While Zaku was distracting Hunter, Kin had readied some of her senbon needles to attack the kid with. That was when she saw his eyes change to a bright yellow. "What the...Zaku watch out!" she yelled.
Too late. Hunter flung out his right arm and a large three pronged hook attached to a long chain appeared out of nowhere. It flew straight at Zaku and wrapped itself multiple times around his arms.
"What? What is this, I can't break free!?" said Zaku, panic mounting in his voice.
"Hey Zaku!" The sound ninja looked over at Hunter and saw him smirking. "GET OVER HERE!" Hunter pulled on the chain connecting him to Zaku's arms, lifting the ninja off his feet and sending him flying towards Hunter. Once he was close enough Hunter punched down, smashing Zaku into the ground.
That was when Kin threw her needles at Hunter. He swung his left arm and another chain and hook appeared, deflecting the needles away. The hook then fell to the ground with a dull metallic thud.
Hunter looked at the chains that ran from the large hooks and then disappeared up into his sleeves. "Hooks with chains huh. I was hoping for swords or death rays but this'll do." The chain and hook around Zaku's arms unwrapped itself and Hunter pulled it back to him.
'Those chains look heavy' thought Dosu 'There's no way he can move effectively with them dragging him down'
Hunter charged full speed at Dosu, before anyone could blink he was slamming his nee into the man's stomach. The hooks dragged along behind Hunter, ripping out great chunks of dirt but he wasn't slowed down in the slightest.
"Those chains aren't even slowing him down!" said Shikamaru. As he watched he saw Hunter swing one of the chains round aiming for Kin. She dodge the attack but then the chain changed direction and wrapped itself round her leg. He sent his other chain at Dosu, which coiled around the man's waist. Hunter jumped high into the air, dragging Dosu and Kin with him.
"Swing your partners round and round!" Hunter dived back towards the ground still pulling the two sound ninja with him. "And smash their heads into the ground!" Hunter landed gracefully on the ground while Kin and Dosu were brought smashing down. Kin was knocked unconscious, Dosu just broke a few ribs.
"Take my advice mummy man and stay...ut oh." Hunter looked over at where Sakura and her team mates were. One of them had gotten back up but Hunter could see something was deeply wrong. The kid had strange black marks that were spreading across his body and a dark purple energy was swirling around him.
Hunters vision zoomed in on the kids shoulder. 'He's got the same mark as that Anko lady. That thing is real bad juju.'
"Sakura." said the boy. His voice was perfectly calm but there was a threatening undertone. "Sakura, who did this to you?"
Sakura looked terrified. This wasn't the Sasuke she knew. "Sasuke. What happened to you?" she asked in a trembling voice.
"Don't worry. I'm all right. In fact I've never felt better. He gave me this gift, and he made me understand what I am. I'm an avenger. To follow my path I must have power at any price. Even if it means being consumed by evil."
'That doesn't sound good' thought Hunter.
"Sakura, which one of these people did this to you?" Sasuke asked again.
"Ha! That would be me!" Hunter looked to his left and saw Zaku getting back up.
"You really should have kept quiet man." said Hunter.
Zaku aimed his arms at Sasuke "I'll take care of the whole bunch of them in one fell swoop! Super Sonic -"
Zaku never got the chance to finish. In the blink of an eye Sasuke was behind him. He Grabbed hold of Zaku's arms and force him down into a kneeling position, placing his foot on Zaku's back.
"You seem to be very proud of these arms of yours." Sasuke smirked as he started to pull. "You must be very 'attached' to them!"
"Hey, that's enough!" yelled Hunter. He quickly sped over towards Sasuke and Zaku. He flung one hook at Sasuke, forcing him to let go of Zaku and jump back to avoid it. Then he slammed the other hook into the back of Zaku's head, knocking him out.
"And just who are you?" demanded Sasuke
"I'm the guy who protected your girlfriend while you were taking a nap. Now calm down before you do something you'll regret!"
Sasuke tensed up, ready to attack.
"NOOOOOOOOO!" Sakura screamed "STOP!" she ran up to Sasuke and flung her arms round him. "Stop, please." she begged in between sobs.
Nothing happened for a few seconds, then the black marks on Sasuke's body receded and he dropped to the ground, panting heavily.
"Glad that's over." muttered Hunter as his chains both faded away.
"Sasuke!" Hunter turned round and saw Dosu standing close by. "And you, whatever your name is. Your both too strong. We can't hope to defeat either of you." he placed a small scroll on the ground before Hunter. "We'll strike a deal. I give you this scroll and you let us go."
Hunter was utterly confused. What the heck did he want with a scroll? Then he remembered that kid from earlier, Neji, talking about a scroll. Something to do with the chunin exams.
Cautiously he picked up the scroll "Thanks for the reading material. Now shoo!"
Dosu picked up Zaku's body, then he went over to retrieve Kin. "For the moment we're even." he said "But if any of us should ever meat in combat again-"
"Oh, take a hike will ya. I've heard enough tough guy speeches today."
Dosu walked away, carrying his teammates with him. Once he was gone the other genin team hiding in the bushes came out into the clearing.
Sakura seemed surprised to see them "Shikamaru? Choji?...Ino?"
"Hey, what about me?" asked Hunter "Don't I get a mention. I only saved your life from...whatever those guys were."
"Oh, right. Thanks. Who are you anyway?" asked Sakura.
Hunter gave her a weak smile "I'm still working on that. Call me Hunter."
"Hunter huh?" said Shikamaru in a tired, almost board sounding voice "What are you hunting?"
"The Nobodies."
That earned a confused look from everyone.
"Well it's been fun guys, but I've got...to...hello. What have we here." Hunter's gaze wandered over to the final member of Sakura's team. A small blond haired boy dressed in orange cloths. Outwardly there was nothing weird about him (apart from the whisker like marks on his cheeks), inside though, Hunter could see two hearts in him. One was a normal heart but the other clearly belonged to something much more powerful and, from the amount of darkness in it, it wasn't something nice.
"What's he looking at?" asked Choji.
Hunter reached towards the sleeping boy's chest. The assembled genin got the shock of their lives as Hunters hand passed right through the boy's body. "Oh snap! I wasn't trying to do-huh?"
Hunter noticed that his surroundings had changed. He wasn't in the forest anymore he was in what looked like a...well the best way to describe it is a big, dark concrete room filled with ankle deep water. Looking around Hunter saw that the genin had all disappeared. The only other person here was the blond boy, who was lying down a few feet in front of him.
'Wasn't I right next to him?" thought Hunter as he approached the boy. "Hello?...blondie..." Nothing. "WAKE UP!" the boy jumped awake.
"What the..where...who are you?"
"Hey, I'm Hunter who are you?"
"Erm..I'm Naruto. Hey, do you know where we are?"
Hunter looked around a bit more. "Yeah. I think this is inside you."
"What!?" yelled Naruto "Wait, if this is inside me how come how come you're here?"
"Beats me. All I did was reach out and poof. What's in the cage?"
Naruto looked confused "What cage?"
Hunter placed his hand on top of Naruto's head and turned him to the left. On the other side of the room was a gigantic cage door beyond which was an impenetrable darkness. "Oh that? I have no idea."
"Well, if it's a cage that means there's something in it. HEY! If anyone's in there speak up or forever hold your peace!"
A pair of massive read eyes opened on the other side of the cage, along with a huge mouth full of teeth.
Naruto instinctively backed away "T-t-that's the...Nine tailed Fox!"
"The what?" asked Hunter.
"WHO ARE YOU?" boomed the Fox in a menacing voice.
"I'm Hunter, this is Naruto and you are...really, really big."
"DO YOU HAVE ANY LAST REQUESTS BEFORE I FEAST UPON YOUR MARROW?"
"Aren't you stuck in that cage?" Hunter pointed out.
There was a loud clang as the Fox slammed it's claws against the cage door and let out a menacing growl.
"Ok, so you're big and scary. Well guess what I'm scarier!" Hunters eyes glowed a luminescent yellow. As Naruto was standing behind Hunter the only one who saw this was the Fox.
The demons eyes widened in shock "YOU...YOURE A...BOY! LISTEN TO ME! THIS THING IS NOT WHAT IT APPEARS! DO NOT TRUST IT!"
Naruto was stunned. The Nine tailed Demon Fox sounded almost...afraid.
'Snap' thought Hunter 'This thing knows'. "And that's my queue to vamoose. See you on the other side Naruto!"
"I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE YOU HEAR ME!" bellowed the Fox as Naruto's mindscape faded away "I KNOW WHAT YOU ARRRRRRRRRRR-!"
"Well that was weird" said Hunter. He was now back in the real world, surrounded by the Hidden Leaf genin. With a groan Naruto woke up as well.
"Huh...Sakura...Sasuke...? " then he saw Hunter "You! It was all real?"
"Apparently." remarked Hunter.
"Wait! What was 'all real'? What just happened between you and Naruto?" demanded Ino.
"Yeah, it was like your hand passed right through him!" added Choji, while opening a bag of potato chips.
"Sorry folks but there are some things you don't need to know." Hunter turned to leave "Oh, almost forgot." he chucked the scroll he was still holding to Naruto. "You guys need this more than I do."
"Hey! Thanks!" said Naruto.
"Wait! If you give us your scroll how will you finish the chunin exams?" asked Sakura.
"I'm not in the exam." answered Hunter he jumped up onto a nearby tree branch and looked back down at the group "By the way" he lifted up the 'Icha Icha Paradise' book "if any of you run into a guy called Kakashi tell him I still have his book and I'm going to keep sending it back to him piece by piece!"
"What? How did he get Kakashi-sensi's book!?" asked Naruto.
Hunter turned around and jumped off into the forest.
"That...was weird." said Ino.
"It was something." agreed Shikamaru.
Naruto was the most confused out of all of the genin. He couldn't shake what the Fox and told him. "DO NOT TRUST IT!...I KNOW WHAT YOU ARRRRRR-!"
'Just who or what was that guy?' he thought.
