Shadow of the Leaf
By Kai the Enchanter
Chapter 1: Scarecrow in the Fields
AN: Well if that wasn't an obvious title, I don't know what else to do...also, the rating was upped, because...well, just in case...
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto sniffle
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Night. Shikamaru had always liked the night. Unlimited shadows to work with...although most of the opponents Sasuke sent after him weren't strong enough to break the bonds of the Kagemane normally, having the night backing Shikamaru was certainly comforting. Currently, Nara Shikamaru was lying on his back, resting against the trunk of a gigantic tree, about a hundred feet above the forest floor. The full moon was extremely bright, and it was impossible for him to get to sleep like this. Cursing to himself, he leapt from the tree branch, into another tree, a little higher up, and therefore more dangerous, but better camoflaged, with thick foliage that would hide him from the moon and any hunter-nins that Sasuke had sent out.
Settling down onto this new branch, Shikamaru noticed a scrap of orange paper stuck to the end. He smirked to himself. It wasn't quite large enough to be an explosive tag...it was harmless, physically. But emotionally, that little scrap of orange might have killed a lesser man. Sasuke had thought he'd completely won, and with ease, two years ago. After all, he'd surpassed his own limits, shown Orochimaru that the curse seal wasn't what he needed to gain strength. He'd trained under the sannin, and trained in secret by himself, until he'd become more powerful than Orochimaru. Afterwards, he'd done what any despot would've done. He attempted to take over the world. The other shinobi nations had successfully fended him off, of course. Konoha's fall had alerted them to as much. Sunagakure, however, was not so lucky. They'd already been weakened by the war they'd been tricked into fighting. Gaara of the Sand was the one hope that they had, but for reasons unknown, neither he nor his siblings had been present at any major battle with Sound forces. And now, they'd disappeared.
Sasuke had killed thousands in his bid for power, and Shikamaru had watched as town streets became caked with blood, as the Akatsuki itself began to fall apart at the seams. It was rare to see an Akatsuki member in this day and age, when they, too, were hunted by Sound, for information relating to the location of Itachi, but the few times Shikamaru had seen them, and heard them speak, they'd been grumbling that Itachi should have killed Sasuke when he'd had the chance. The only thing that was holding their organization together was the supreme power of their mysterious leader. But Akatsuki stayed out of the slaughter.
The deserts of Wind Country were stained bloodred now. Sasuke hadn't killed enough people to literally stain every patch of sand red, but it seemed as though the land itself cried out against the crimes of the Uchiha and his men. The inhabitants of Fire Country and Wind Country had left, searching for refuge in more hospitable places, places that could match Sasuke's strength. But Sasuke hadn't ignored the fact that his cheap labor supply was running away. Shikamaru had personally witnessed his shinobi hunting down the villagers that were attempting to evacuate. He'd seen them kill the youngest child of a family that had no suitable lands to plant on, that was leaving for Cloud Country, so that they could eke out a miserable existence there. He'd seen those murderers specifically kill the youngest joy of a family that was already bereft of joy.
If only that had been the most monstrous thing he'd ever seen. No, Sasuke was only the beginning. While he was ultimate evil, as far as the world was thus concerned, it was what he'd unleashed that had been the worst. Sasuke'd killed Naruto for the Mangekyou Sharingan. What he didn't know was that while Naruto's soul had long since passed out of this world...his body was still moving. The man who'd once been Uzumaki Naruto had gone into hiding, and had only revealed himself after Sasuke'd razed Leaf. That...that was a terrible sight indeed. Kyuubi had somehow survived the death of his host, and he was back, and screaming bloody murder. Only his mortal shell, Naruto's body, could possibly have limited his powers.
A single man approaches the gates of the rebuilt Hidden Leaf, which is no more than a military camp. He knocks on the gates with his left hand, breaking them down with a single hit. As the shinobi guarding the walls watch in horror, he lets out an inhuman scream. Gigantic waves of chakra tear forth from his body, cutting down trees, ripping, tearing bodies...no...something far messier...far beyond what words can describe. The tears are irregular, sloppy, and the Sound shinobi scream in pain as the pure chakra tears them apart. The walls themselves crumble, reduced to mere sand.
The apparition makes a mad rush for the center of the village, where Sasuke's mansion, of sorts, is located. As he runs, nine tails of bloodred chakra flow from behind him, destroying everything in their path. One can only watch in horror as everyone, innocent and guilty, prisoner and warden, are all ripped apart by the ravenous chakra. When Naruto...or Kyuubi...finally approached Sasuke's dwelling, the Uchiha had merely stepped out, with a raised eyebrow of surprise.
Kyuubi let out a terrible roar, and raised a clawed hand, ready to slice the Mangekyou Sharingan right out of Sasuke's eye sockets. But instead, he lets out a terrific burst of chakra, hitting Sasuke directly in the stomach, knocking the wind out of the Uchiha. Sasuke retaliates with a massive onslaught of multi-element jutsu, all of which are deflected or absorbed by the Kyuubi. He curses in pure rage, as he recognizes the body of his foe.
"You brought this upon yourself, boy...now pay the price!" The Kyuubi had spiraled into its own version of the Inuzuka clan's Tsuuga, whizzing past Sasuke. As the Uchiha cursed yet again, the Kyuubi grinned, malice in its eyes.
"You...you monster." The Kyuubi merely gave a cold laugh.
"You are the true monster. You killed your best friend, and for what? For a set of eyes that are prettier than the last ones you had? You killed a friend so that you could avenge the death of your family??! You spat on their graves with that act!" Sasuke now roared in anger.
"NO! I DID WHAT I HAD TO DO! YOU'RE NOT FIT TO JUDGE ME!" The Uchiha had hurled himself into the Kyuubi, impaling the fox with a katana. Now, the Uchiha summoned Manda. The giant snake had appeared, and promptly set to lecture Sasuke about the foolishness and futility of fighting the ultimate Youkai. But no...Sasuke had survived the fight. He and Manda attacked ferociously...but not to kill. The Kyuubi was beyond life and death. Once its borrowed body died, the Kyuubi would wander the world as a lost soul for some years. But he would return, and Sasuke would still be there for him to kill. No...Sasuke had found a sealing technique that would subdue his foe. He sacrificed a hundred children, most not even old enough to enroll in the Ninja Academy...if it'd still existed. He'd had his men use their blood to draw giant ritual circles, and characters. The Seal had encompassed the entire village, and when it was finally activated, it had bound the Kyuubi and dragged it underground. It was still there, to this day, bound by the magical chains of the sealing technique. Every year, a hundred more children were sacrificed, to keep the technique going. To keep the Kyuubi from killing one man.
If it were not for Shikamaru's incredible willpower, he would've been haunted every night by the memory of those who'd been slaughtered for Sasuke. As it was, he could never truly stop thinking about it. It was always there, beneath his consciousness. Even as he drifted off to sleep, he wondered if he could have saved those children.
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Early the next morning, Shikamaru got up, and continued along his way. He was hoping to make it to Cloud Country, and ask the Raikage to help him in his battle against Sound and Sasuke. The Mizukage had already agreed, on the condition that the other two major shinobi nations would also help. Any one of them could have destroyed Sasuke's forces, but the fact was that Sasuke had the greatest of all Youkai chained up under his base of operations. If worse came to worse, he could simply unleash the Kyuubi and flee. It would easily raze all their nations. After all...there were no men of Yondaime's caliber left alive in the world.
Shikamaru winced as he thought of the memory of the Yondaime. What had the man hoped for when he'd sealed Kyuubi in a mere boy? He should have found some other way to seal it, he thought. Or at least he could have sealed it in a boy of no account, who would never know how to access it, and would never have been found by the Akatsuki. As he leapt through the trees, Shikamaru reprimanded himself. He knew his thoughts on such a subject were useless. It was twenty years too late to question the Yondaime. Now...life felt good. The morning air felt delicious in his lungs, and while he knew that the greater part of Fire Country had been terribly damaged, Shikamaru loved the feel of the forest beneath his feet. He snagged a fruit from a tree as he leapt past it. Recognizing it as a poisonous fruit, he muttered to himself and tossed it away.
The ripe, red-gold fruit dropped through the forest, tumbling to some undeniably gruesome destiny on the forest floor. Until it was snagged by a gloved hand, inspected, and then given back its original course. This time, though, it was close enough to the floor so that it didn't shatter when it dropped. The gloved hand returned to a green pouch, where it searched around for something, before returning to its original duty of floating listlessly in the air.
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It was now noon, and Shikamaru had run out of forest. Before him lay inexplicably, a cornfield. He'd thought they'd all been burned or pillaged by Sasuke's forces, but he didn't complain. He could get some dinner, and use the stalks as a cover. It was better than flat plains, anyway. He waited till the midday sun was cut off by a passing cloud, and then slunk into the cornfield.
Walking slowly and carefully, Shikamaru picked a few ears and continued along his way. Continued, until he ran into a wooden plank. The plank had been driven into the ground. It was about ten feet tall, and hanging on it was a farmer's scarecrow. Shikamaru looked at it suspiciously, and was about to dismiss it as nothing, when it suddenly turned upside down. Shikamaru glared at it, and tried to poke at its side with a kunai. That was when the scarecrow's hand reached up and grabbed his wrist.
Shikamaru gave a yell and broke the man's grip, leaping backwards and reaching for his shuriken. The scarecrow exploded into a puff of smoke, and when it had cleared, the young Nara beheld the masked form of Hatake Kakashi, hanging upside down from a wooden plank. His exposed eye closed into a small arc, what passed for a smile with Copy Ninja Kakashi.
"Yo."
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End of Chapter 1.
Please Review!
By Kai the Enchanter
Chapter 1: Scarecrow in the Fields
AN: Well if that wasn't an obvious title, I don't know what else to do...also, the rating was upped, because...well, just in case...
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto sniffle
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Night. Shikamaru had always liked the night. Unlimited shadows to work with...although most of the opponents Sasuke sent after him weren't strong enough to break the bonds of the Kagemane normally, having the night backing Shikamaru was certainly comforting. Currently, Nara Shikamaru was lying on his back, resting against the trunk of a gigantic tree, about a hundred feet above the forest floor. The full moon was extremely bright, and it was impossible for him to get to sleep like this. Cursing to himself, he leapt from the tree branch, into another tree, a little higher up, and therefore more dangerous, but better camoflaged, with thick foliage that would hide him from the moon and any hunter-nins that Sasuke had sent out.
Settling down onto this new branch, Shikamaru noticed a scrap of orange paper stuck to the end. He smirked to himself. It wasn't quite large enough to be an explosive tag...it was harmless, physically. But emotionally, that little scrap of orange might have killed a lesser man. Sasuke had thought he'd completely won, and with ease, two years ago. After all, he'd surpassed his own limits, shown Orochimaru that the curse seal wasn't what he needed to gain strength. He'd trained under the sannin, and trained in secret by himself, until he'd become more powerful than Orochimaru. Afterwards, he'd done what any despot would've done. He attempted to take over the world. The other shinobi nations had successfully fended him off, of course. Konoha's fall had alerted them to as much. Sunagakure, however, was not so lucky. They'd already been weakened by the war they'd been tricked into fighting. Gaara of the Sand was the one hope that they had, but for reasons unknown, neither he nor his siblings had been present at any major battle with Sound forces. And now, they'd disappeared.
Sasuke had killed thousands in his bid for power, and Shikamaru had watched as town streets became caked with blood, as the Akatsuki itself began to fall apart at the seams. It was rare to see an Akatsuki member in this day and age, when they, too, were hunted by Sound, for information relating to the location of Itachi, but the few times Shikamaru had seen them, and heard them speak, they'd been grumbling that Itachi should have killed Sasuke when he'd had the chance. The only thing that was holding their organization together was the supreme power of their mysterious leader. But Akatsuki stayed out of the slaughter.
The deserts of Wind Country were stained bloodred now. Sasuke hadn't killed enough people to literally stain every patch of sand red, but it seemed as though the land itself cried out against the crimes of the Uchiha and his men. The inhabitants of Fire Country and Wind Country had left, searching for refuge in more hospitable places, places that could match Sasuke's strength. But Sasuke hadn't ignored the fact that his cheap labor supply was running away. Shikamaru had personally witnessed his shinobi hunting down the villagers that were attempting to evacuate. He'd seen them kill the youngest child of a family that had no suitable lands to plant on, that was leaving for Cloud Country, so that they could eke out a miserable existence there. He'd seen those murderers specifically kill the youngest joy of a family that was already bereft of joy.
If only that had been the most monstrous thing he'd ever seen. No, Sasuke was only the beginning. While he was ultimate evil, as far as the world was thus concerned, it was what he'd unleashed that had been the worst. Sasuke'd killed Naruto for the Mangekyou Sharingan. What he didn't know was that while Naruto's soul had long since passed out of this world...his body was still moving. The man who'd once been Uzumaki Naruto had gone into hiding, and had only revealed himself after Sasuke'd razed Leaf. That...that was a terrible sight indeed. Kyuubi had somehow survived the death of his host, and he was back, and screaming bloody murder. Only his mortal shell, Naruto's body, could possibly have limited his powers.
A single man approaches the gates of the rebuilt Hidden Leaf, which is no more than a military camp. He knocks on the gates with his left hand, breaking them down with a single hit. As the shinobi guarding the walls watch in horror, he lets out an inhuman scream. Gigantic waves of chakra tear forth from his body, cutting down trees, ripping, tearing bodies...no...something far messier...far beyond what words can describe. The tears are irregular, sloppy, and the Sound shinobi scream in pain as the pure chakra tears them apart. The walls themselves crumble, reduced to mere sand.
The apparition makes a mad rush for the center of the village, where Sasuke's mansion, of sorts, is located. As he runs, nine tails of bloodred chakra flow from behind him, destroying everything in their path. One can only watch in horror as everyone, innocent and guilty, prisoner and warden, are all ripped apart by the ravenous chakra. When Naruto...or Kyuubi...finally approached Sasuke's dwelling, the Uchiha had merely stepped out, with a raised eyebrow of surprise.
Kyuubi let out a terrible roar, and raised a clawed hand, ready to slice the Mangekyou Sharingan right out of Sasuke's eye sockets. But instead, he lets out a terrific burst of chakra, hitting Sasuke directly in the stomach, knocking the wind out of the Uchiha. Sasuke retaliates with a massive onslaught of multi-element jutsu, all of which are deflected or absorbed by the Kyuubi. He curses in pure rage, as he recognizes the body of his foe.
"You brought this upon yourself, boy...now pay the price!" The Kyuubi had spiraled into its own version of the Inuzuka clan's Tsuuga, whizzing past Sasuke. As the Uchiha cursed yet again, the Kyuubi grinned, malice in its eyes.
"You...you monster." The Kyuubi merely gave a cold laugh.
"You are the true monster. You killed your best friend, and for what? For a set of eyes that are prettier than the last ones you had? You killed a friend so that you could avenge the death of your family??! You spat on their graves with that act!" Sasuke now roared in anger.
"NO! I DID WHAT I HAD TO DO! YOU'RE NOT FIT TO JUDGE ME!" The Uchiha had hurled himself into the Kyuubi, impaling the fox with a katana. Now, the Uchiha summoned Manda. The giant snake had appeared, and promptly set to lecture Sasuke about the foolishness and futility of fighting the ultimate Youkai. But no...Sasuke had survived the fight. He and Manda attacked ferociously...but not to kill. The Kyuubi was beyond life and death. Once its borrowed body died, the Kyuubi would wander the world as a lost soul for some years. But he would return, and Sasuke would still be there for him to kill. No...Sasuke had found a sealing technique that would subdue his foe. He sacrificed a hundred children, most not even old enough to enroll in the Ninja Academy...if it'd still existed. He'd had his men use their blood to draw giant ritual circles, and characters. The Seal had encompassed the entire village, and when it was finally activated, it had bound the Kyuubi and dragged it underground. It was still there, to this day, bound by the magical chains of the sealing technique. Every year, a hundred more children were sacrificed, to keep the technique going. To keep the Kyuubi from killing one man.
If it were not for Shikamaru's incredible willpower, he would've been haunted every night by the memory of those who'd been slaughtered for Sasuke. As it was, he could never truly stop thinking about it. It was always there, beneath his consciousness. Even as he drifted off to sleep, he wondered if he could have saved those children.
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Early the next morning, Shikamaru got up, and continued along his way. He was hoping to make it to Cloud Country, and ask the Raikage to help him in his battle against Sound and Sasuke. The Mizukage had already agreed, on the condition that the other two major shinobi nations would also help. Any one of them could have destroyed Sasuke's forces, but the fact was that Sasuke had the greatest of all Youkai chained up under his base of operations. If worse came to worse, he could simply unleash the Kyuubi and flee. It would easily raze all their nations. After all...there were no men of Yondaime's caliber left alive in the world.
Shikamaru winced as he thought of the memory of the Yondaime. What had the man hoped for when he'd sealed Kyuubi in a mere boy? He should have found some other way to seal it, he thought. Or at least he could have sealed it in a boy of no account, who would never know how to access it, and would never have been found by the Akatsuki. As he leapt through the trees, Shikamaru reprimanded himself. He knew his thoughts on such a subject were useless. It was twenty years too late to question the Yondaime. Now...life felt good. The morning air felt delicious in his lungs, and while he knew that the greater part of Fire Country had been terribly damaged, Shikamaru loved the feel of the forest beneath his feet. He snagged a fruit from a tree as he leapt past it. Recognizing it as a poisonous fruit, he muttered to himself and tossed it away.
The ripe, red-gold fruit dropped through the forest, tumbling to some undeniably gruesome destiny on the forest floor. Until it was snagged by a gloved hand, inspected, and then given back its original course. This time, though, it was close enough to the floor so that it didn't shatter when it dropped. The gloved hand returned to a green pouch, where it searched around for something, before returning to its original duty of floating listlessly in the air.
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
It was now noon, and Shikamaru had run out of forest. Before him lay inexplicably, a cornfield. He'd thought they'd all been burned or pillaged by Sasuke's forces, but he didn't complain. He could get some dinner, and use the stalks as a cover. It was better than flat plains, anyway. He waited till the midday sun was cut off by a passing cloud, and then slunk into the cornfield.
Walking slowly and carefully, Shikamaru picked a few ears and continued along his way. Continued, until he ran into a wooden plank. The plank had been driven into the ground. It was about ten feet tall, and hanging on it was a farmer's scarecrow. Shikamaru looked at it suspiciously, and was about to dismiss it as nothing, when it suddenly turned upside down. Shikamaru glared at it, and tried to poke at its side with a kunai. That was when the scarecrow's hand reached up and grabbed his wrist.
Shikamaru gave a yell and broke the man's grip, leaping backwards and reaching for his shuriken. The scarecrow exploded into a puff of smoke, and when it had cleared, the young Nara beheld the masked form of Hatake Kakashi, hanging upside down from a wooden plank. His exposed eye closed into a small arc, what passed for a smile with Copy Ninja Kakashi.
"Yo."
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End of Chapter 1.
Please Review!