Blue

Chapter IV

The smell of burnt carcass made Naruto dizzy. It had taken all of his self-control to get a hold of the rampaging Kyubi but he wasn't enough. Kyubi didn't stop until it had gone through every human within the forest. He remembered another old man off the distance and took little comfort that at least he wasn't the one that killed that man. He collapsed against the blackened tree, emotionally spent. He had killed all three of his students, the Hidden Leaf's client, and six Anbu from another village. Yet, he could still feel the Kyubi thirsting for more.

If his body wasn't so tired physically, emotionally and mentally, he knew the Kyubi would've pushed on and on until they reached another village. His clothes were torn and he was bathing in dried blood. He removed his shirt and looked at his belly. There were still some seals left and he knew that at least, the Kyubi was still chained to his body. He could hear and feel the Kyubi breathe as if they shared one breath. The Kyubi spoke to him as if they shared one mind. The thirst for blood that he knew belonged to the demon, felt as if it was his own thirst. Each time he closed his eyes, he could see through the demon's eyes.

Gaara came to his mind. GamaBunta had told him of the Sand demon, Shuukaku. It possessed Gaara and used the Sand nin as a medium. If Gaara slept, the Shuukaku would take over and eat the personality of the medium until it could take over completely.

Naruto didn't know if Kyubi was also like Shuukaku but he knew that they were both demons and every time he closed his eyes, he could feel the Kyubi stir. He touched the seal and felt Kyubi acknowledge it.

Unlike before, there were no bars charged with a seal between him and the fox demon. Looks like Kyubi would finally eat him.

"Hey kid."

The last time he and this demon had met was so long ago. It's huge, now that he could clearly see it outside of the dark cage. "You're free."

"The damned seal still won't let me eat you."

Naruto's head snapped up, staring at Kyubi straight in the eyes. New hope flared in his heart. Maybe he could still go back to the village. Maybe they wouldn't hate him.

As if the fox was reading from an open book, it spoke to Naruto without a hint of a joke. "And maybe they shouldn't find out."

"Huh?"

"Wake up. We're being attacked. If you want to return to your village, then get rid of those who knew about this."

He woke up with a start, leaping off the ground and onto a dead tree branch. Instincts had saved him from that long range attack. A second too late and he would've been embedded against the trunk with a gigantic kunai. The branch didn't support his weight and he had to jump off from tree to tree until he found a tree that hadn't been churned down by the previous battle. How long he had been sleeping, he didn't know. A day must've passed because the last he remembered, it was already late in the afternoon when he fought with the Anbu. And today, the sun was too high up. Around noon, he idly thought.

A mist formed around him and his nose detected the use of genjutsu. When his chakra cleared out the mist, he found out that he couldn't move. "Kagemane…"

It was a shadow jutsu. Of course, with his fire-like chakra, his shadows were everywhere and he was crippled by stepping on any of his shadows. Good, but not good enough.

His body may have shadows but his chakra didn't.

Naruto snarled and released a large amount of chakra, strong enough to block the Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu that came his way. He still couldn't move his body and he wasn't sure where the nin was because of all the shadows the forest made. On the other hand, they couldn't touch him either. Neither weapon nor illusion would get past his swirling defense of chakra.

Stalemate, but he had more up his leave. Naruto allowed the chakra to wrap around him once again, forming the fox demon as a phantom. The gathering of chakra was swirling fast and glowing bright from all directions that Naruto's shadow shortened by a few inches. Freed from the shadow bind, Naruto didn't waste any second and performed the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. All one thousand clones lashed out in every direction, looking for their prey.

--------------

Sasuke was annoyed with his mission assignment. Something nagged him and he didn't even have to bother to try and give it a second on what was nagging him. He knew perfectly why and it crawled his skin to be doing something else when a bunch of Anbu were seeking out a certain blond.

He finished with his assignment in less than the allotted time for it. The search team had two days ahead of him but if they hadn't found Naruto yet, he might still be able to catch up.

After telling his team to go ahead and report back to the village, Sasuke left for the nearest town to ask around and find a trail of Naruto's team. He didn't stop for sleep or food and just kept going, town after town, and asking for directions. It took awhile but he had found the inn where Naruto's team stopped and spent the night. The date of when they left told Sasuke that this was the last time anyone had seen Naruto. Three days after the day they left this town, he overheard of the search team. And from that day, it took him two days to finish his assignment.

Cursing under his breath, "It's almost a week…"

He didn't know whether to hope that Naruto was found or if it was better that the search team wouldn't find Naruto until he got there first. What was going on?

--------------

An old man's dead body laid on the grass with flies and worms already feasting on it. And not too far was another corpse. Two people with masks on turned over each body, moving closer to touch the gash under the old man's throat.

"Looks like that one," pointing at the dead Anbu at the foot of his companion, "…either killed this old man and got killed by someone else or that someone else killed them both."

Removing the bloody mask off the dead nin, she looked at the headband. "Hidden Stone."

"And look, his skin was burnt…"

She picked up what the Hidden Stone nin was holding and opened the scroll. "Not good, the writing's barely readable…" She removed her mask and squinted at the scribbles, frowning. "I can only make up very few of what hadn't been burnt….fox…fire…"

Her companion suddenly stood up, snapping. "Naruto."

"You've got to be kidding."

He wasn't able to reply to her anymore as he was cut in half all of a sudden. She jumped back and performed a genjutsu in mid-air, hiding behind the illusion of trees. She watched as Naruto pull out the wakazashi he used to cut her friend in half.

Her hands met, performing seals to take advantage of her being hidden. Unfortunately, upon making the third seal, she had met her demise. She could see the hand that went through her chest. Turning, she saw Naruto behind her and looking down, there was Naruto as well, staring back at her.

She could feel his strong chakra and it terrified her. She didn't scream, and didn't blink as the genjutsu faded. The illusion of trees disappeared and the forest was once again, a forest.

Naruto looked at his clone and shrugged. "That's about it, I guess."

The two clones disappeared in a puff of smoke. Their jobs completed.

"Stop taking over my body when I fight, you damned fox." Naruto hissed, leaning against the tree. His head was threatening to explode and he smelled like a rotting dead meat. He ran and kept running, as if all those deaths were running after him. He tried to look for a river, just to get rid of the blood. There was no sign of any river, or spring or any form of water at all. And he was thirsty--- growling under his breath and convincing himself that he wasn't thirsty for blood.

Again, he tried to control the Kyubi.

And again, he passed out.

-----
* wakazashi = straight and shorter blade than a katana
-----

NEXT