A/N: Sorry it took me so long to put out this chapter, but I was in Germany for quite a bit. Anyway, this story is dedicated to the Amraphel, who not only proofread this chapter for me (and will most likely continue proofreading this story), but also sent me several of the scanned manga burned onto a disk (because it would have taken me YEARS to DL it) AND is an over all amazing person. She's an excellent writer and an awesome artist, and really she deserves way more than this story but this is all I can think to give her right now.
Anyway, some words to know:
Byakko: white//spirit fox
Dobe: 'Dirt', or 'dead last'.
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu: Cloning jutsu
Katon Ryuuka no Jutsu: Fire jutsu
..Ruddy HTMLing disabilities.. *grumbles* Okay, let's try that again. *determined*
Byakko
Chapter Two: Tamiko
By Clara, one of the insomniacs
Naruto had that funny feeling where all the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He was trailing after his three comrades, dragging his feet and looking around with a sharp eye. There was something strange in the air; he could taste it.
There mission was a simple one. All they needed to do was find some old hermit who lived somewhere in the middle of the forest and ask for some ore. The only problem was that they didn't know exactly where the hermit lived.
"Naruto!" Sakura called. The pink haired girl had pretty much adopted Nanashi as her own and was currently holding the white fox snuggly in her arms. Both her and Kakashi had bought the story about Naruto finding Nanashi at his door that morning and didn't press it, but he had a feeling at least Kakashi did not believe him. "Hurry up!"
"Yeah, all right," Naruto mumbled, but hardly hastened his step. He had just figured out one of the reasons why he felt so odd.
The entire forest was silent.
He knew Sasuke and Kakashi were already aware by the way they were looking around tensely, and Sakura seemed to be starting to notice the heavy silence. She was slowly edging closer to Sasuke.
"Ka.. Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura finally ventured. Her voice was trembling.
"Shh."
It was Naruto who ordered her to be quiet. He had stopped walking and was standing perfectly still with his head cocked to the side. The others followed his suit, turning to watch the blonde boy expectantly.
"There's two of them," he finally muttered, eyes scanning the trees. Sasuke frowned.
"How can you tell?"
One of Naruto's hands crept down and flattened against his bellybutton. He smirked. "Call it 'gut instinct'."
"Two.. two of what?" Sakura asked. She was standing next to Sasuke and had a kunai in her hand. She looked frightened, but at the same time determined.
There was a rustling in the bushes somewhere to their left right before something tall and extremely not human stepped out. It stood on all fours and had feet that resembled lizards', but with claws that were easily as long as Naruto's forearm. It was a pale blue and had a long, slender snout and long pointed ears, and was examining them through slanted eyes. It had a long tail that curved around its back left leg, resting on the ground.
"Two demons, I suppose," the creature said. It had a lilting, musical voice that reminded Naruto of a story he once heard a long time ago about a Lorelei. It was said that the beautiful woman would lure boats into jagged rocks with her lovely voice, and the creature spoke as Naruto would imagine the Lorelei would.
"Though 'demons' is such a derogatory word," another said, tone just as entrancing if a beat lower. "I prefer 'physically advanced'." The second stepped out from the bushes and stood by its companion, looking much like the first but larger and with sharper features.
"Quite true, quite true," the first agreed, nodding its large head. It turned to examine Kakashi thoughtfully. "Though humans are becoming right surprising these days. You did hear about how that one human trapped Ichiro all those years ago in a mortal body, didn't you?"
"Yes, yes! I was quite surprised. Really, humans are so silly. What is a hundred years or so to a kitsune?"
Naruto grimaced, curling his fingers against his stomach.
"Jeez," he finally said, drawing the attention of the two demons to him. "Who are you, Tweedledee and Tweedledum?"
The two demons looked appropriately put out.
"Well!"
"Humans are so rude these days." The second demon shook its large head. "Really, what ever happened to fear?"
"They didn't even ask us for our names!" the smaller one said, and pouted.
"We'll just have to introduce ourselves, will we not?"
"We will."
"You humans may call me Hoshirou."
"And me, Hojirou."
Naruto stared at them in disbelief, then turned to look at Kakashi for guidance. The silver haired man, however, looked just as incredulous as Naruto himself.
"Um, yes, well, hello Hoshirou, Hojirou," Sakura finally said, bowing politely to each in turn. She had put away her kunai, as it was utterly ridiculous to try and have a civil conversation with a demon while holding a weapon. Actually, it was utterly ridiculous to try and have a civil conversation with a demon period. Their attentions are extremely hard to keep and you had to be outrageously polite to them the entire time, or be eaten. "We're extremely sorry for not greeting you properly earlier, but we were quite surprised. I am Sakura, and these are my teammates Sasuke and Naruto, and my teacher Kakashi-sensei. We're pleased to meet you."
Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi turned their disbelieving looks to her, but she ignored them. The demons looked delighted at Sakura's greeting and rumbled with pleasure.
"Splendid. We are equally pleased to meet you, Sakura-chan, Naruto-chan, Sasuke-chan, and Kakashi-sensei," Hojirou said.
Naruto and Sasuke made awful faces at the endings placed on their names, but otherwise didn't say anything. Kakashi just smiled through his eyes.
"Yes," Sakura continued, her voice becoming a bit sturdier. "We were just on our way to the old hermit's house. Um, is there any reason why you, well, approached us?"
"Why, to kill you of course!" Hoshirou said pleasantly, as if they should have already known that and were silly for not. Hojirou nodded and smiled while the humans tensed immediately. "Oh, do relax. From what I hear death is much more painful if you're all tense like so."
"I would believe that death is hardly pleasant in no matter what form it comes in," Sakura said, a bit more sharply than normal. The tremor in her voice was back and there was a thin layer of set resting on her brow. "Why do you want to kill us?"
The demons looked shocked, and Hoshirou shook its head. "Heaven forbid that we would actually want to kill you. Oh no, we were simply asked to."
"Ordered, more likely," Hojirou snorted, looking faintly annoyed.
"What were the, ah, terms?" Sakura asked. She knew she was losing this battle, since demons hardly ever went back on their words.
"They let us into the mortal world, of course. A favor for a favor," Hojirou said.
"It's unfortunate, though, since you are quite a grand group," Hoshirou added, and indeed the large demon did look a bit sad.
"Well, we will just have to find other humans to converse with," Hojirou sighed. "How dreadful."
"All right, enough chit-chat. Who would like to be killed first?"
"You have GOT to be kidding me," Naruto said, slowly shaking his head. He didn't know much about demons (except for the fact that he had one in him), but this was hardly what he expected.
"Oh, you do then?" Hoshirou asked, turning to look at Naruto. "Well, okay. You were the rudest, anyway.
"Eh?" Before he could get anything out that was more intelligent, a big, ball of something gooey and sulfuric smelling caught him square on the chest, knocking him from his feet and too the ground. "Ugh. What the hell is this shit?" He tried to raise his arm and was quite surprised when he was only able to get it a couple of inches from the ground.
"The harder you struggle.." Hoshirou said, smirking, "..the harder it will become to get out of it."
Naruto grunted, half in disgust and half in an effort to get out of the goo that was trapping him. He saw Kakashi and Sasuke each leap towards different demons. Sakura was hurrying towards him with a kunai in one hand and Nanashi in the other.
"Ugh." A shadow flew over their heads, and Naruto tilted his head back just in time to see Sasuke fly into a tree so hard that several pine cones fell on the ground. He was back on his feet in an instant, lunging at the demons with hellfire in his eyes. When Naruto turned a certain way, he could see Kakashi and Hojirou locked in combat—Kakashi constantly trying to do the hand movements for his jutsu but being interrupted by counter attacks before he could even get past the first motion. Hoshirou had a deep gash across his chest but was healing rapidly, much like Naruto did whenever he was actually fighting.
Frustrated, the blonde let out a burst of chakra. The gunk sizzled slightly, sending up an acrid smell of burning rotten eggs, but not doing much else. He gagged and surged forward, straining with all his strength against the goo.
"Give up!" Hoshirou growled, momentarily distracted from Sasuke by Naruto. He sent another ball of goo flying towards Naruto's head, but it was intercepted by a powerful, chakra protected kick by Sasuke. The trajectory shifted and the ball slammed into Hojirou's chest. The larger demon let out a surprised growl and slammed into a nearby tree, effectively trapped.
"Hojirou!" Hoshirou shouted, and Hojirou growled in response, breathing fire against the gook. It melted off him and slithered to the ground in a slimy mess.
"Ah ha!" Sasuke cried in triumph, spinning back towards Naruto. The blonde paused in his struggles, mostly because he was surprised by Sasuke's eyes. They had already changed into the sharingans. He watched dumbly as Sasuke, facing him, began the rapid hand motions of a jutsu.
"Sasuke! What are you doing?!" Sakura cried. She looked as if she was going to dive between Naruto and Sasuke, but confusion was stopping her.
"Katon Ryuuka no Jutsu!" Sasuke cried, and blew out a stream of fire at the gunk entrapping Naruto. There was a loud sizzle and the goo melted off, leaving a relatively clean and free Naruto. The blonde blinked, surprise immobilizing him for a moment.
"Hey! Thanks, Sasuke!"
Sasuke just smirked. "I always have to save your ass, dobe."
Naruto let that slide, but was grinning with satisfaction. "Woah!" he yelped, dodging another ball of gunk that flew towards him. "Ech, you jerks. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Seven Naruto's popped into existence and flew towards Hoshirou, each flinging several kunai at once. The demon howled in anger and surprise, spinning and catching one of the Naruto's in the chest with its tail. The Naruto cried out in surprise and looked down in horror at the slash-mark that the tail left. It was as if someone had hit him with a large sword, slicing him diagonal across the chest. If he had been an inch closer, it would have surely sliced him in half.
Sasuke was already on top of the demon, chidori causing sparks of electricity to dance around his hand. Two of the Naruto's had whipped out razor sharp rope and were holding Hoshirou against a tree.
Sasuke punched. The demon howled and the tree snapped in half.
Silence fell over the forest once again, interrupted only by a twig snapping. The Naruto copies popped out of existence, leaving one battered, smelly shinobi to lean against the stump of the tree. He turned to glance at Sasuke, then both boys spun around to see what happened to Kakashi and Sakura.
Hojirou was lying on its side, not moving, with a haggard Kakashi crouched beside it. Sakura was quietly and determinedly bandaging the demon's wounds.
"Sakura!" Naruto cried, then grimaced and reached up to place his hand over the wound on his chest. He coughed, then looked with distaste at the blood that flew from his lips. It was odd, really. He wasn't healing as quickly as he normally did.
Kakashi straightened up, then turned around and walked to Naruto. There was a frown line between his eyes; the hitai-ate headband pushed up to reveal his sharingan.
"It seems as if they have a poison layering their skin," Kakashi said, staring thoughtfully at the wound that crossed Naruto's body. In fact, they were all staring at him now. Nanashi's eyes were huge—he couldn't understand Kakashi, but could easily guess that there was something wrong. "It's a low level poison, granted, and would hardly kill someone in small amounts, but.."
Naruto sucked in a breath. "So, what's gonna happen?"
"Oh, well, I suspect you're going to be violently sick for a bit, with a bad fever and whatnot, and unable to move for a couple of days," Kakashi said cheerfully, already pulling out a bandage from his backpack. Naruto stared and slowly pulled off his jacket and shirt, allowing Kakashi to tape him up. "That is, of course, if you were normal. It will probably just take longer to heal and whatnot—I'm not entirely sure since I have never come across a poison like this. But bleeding is out of the question, so you'll just have to deal with the poison until we can get you to a proper healer."
"Which will be after the mission is completely," Naruto said determinedly. Kakashi gave him a thoughtful look.
"Of course. The ore is important, but we're going to have to complete this mission quickly. Not only because of your wounds, but those demons.."
"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura interrupted, causing both the teacher and student to look towards her in surprise. She and Sasuke were a little further off and standing at the foot of a tree. Kakashi and Naruto hurried towards her, surprised at her horrified tone of voice.
"What is it, Sakura-cha.." The words died from Naruto's throat and his legs collapsed from underneath him. His eyes widened and face paled.
A dead fox was sprawled out against the trunk of the tree, several needles sticking out of the small body. Nanashi was crouched by its side, whimpering and nudging it with his nose.
"Wh.. what's going on?" Naruto asked. He found with surprise that he was trembling slightly. Kakashi reached forward and touched the fox, lifting up its head then frowning and shutting its sightless eyes. "This.. the second one.."
Kakashi frowned and turned towards Naruto. "I think you had better tell us the entire story."
So Naruto did, starting from when he was at the school to when he woke Sasuke up to tell him Nanashi could talk. They watched him in silence, their faces unreadable.
"You ought to have told us earlier, Naruto," Kakashi admonished when the boy finished his story. Naruto bowed his head in embarrassment, cheeks coloring slightly. "But I can see why you didn't and why you want to keep it a secret. However, it's obvious that these threats are directed at you, and we have reason to believe that this same someone who is leaving these threats can also summon demons."
"Well, it's not as if I knew he could summon demons before," Naruto snapped. "And how was I supposed to know it was a threat? We can't even be sure of that right now. For all we know, it's a coincidence!"
"It was done by the same person who killed my mom," Nanashi said quietly. He was lying beside Naruto's feet, head resting between his paws. "I can smell him."
Naruto grimaced and crouched down, picking the small fox up. "Okay, so maybe it wasn't a coincidence. But I didn't know at the time!"
"Quit being so defensive, dobe," Sasuke said, the only one who didn't look mildly surprised at the blonde yipping at Nanashi. "Kakashi's just saying that you're in danger."
"And that doing missions like these puts you into even more danger," Kakashi continued. He was digging a shallow grave with his kunai. "Not only you, but your teammates as well."
"Well, what am I supposed to do? Sit around at home and wait for them to come to me? Yeah, right. Konoha has too much to worry about already."
Kakashi sighed and gently lifted the fox's body and put it in the grave. Sakura had plucked out all the needles and was watching with morose green eyes.
"Well, it's obvious something is going to have to be done about this," Kakashi said, pushing the soil over the fox's body. "Someone who can open gates between the two worlds is definitely not a small matter."
"So, what are we going to do, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked. She was looking at the two demons they had knocked out.
"Right now? We're going to go to the hag's house. Then we're going straight back home. We were lucky that the demons didn't seem too eager to kill us."
"Eh?" Naruto asked, looking surprised. Immediately, he spun around.
"Sure. Those are second class demons. It would have taken us much longer to defeat them if they were really trying."
Naruto swallowed thickly. Somehow, that didn't pacify him.
*
An hour later they were standing at the door of what could have been called a shack. Or a hut, depending on whichever was 'politically correct'. Not that Naruto cared what was politically correct or not.
"So," Naruto said, eyeing the door with many misgivings. "Who's going to knock on it?"
"Can you knock on it?" Sakura asked. "It looks like if someone just touched it, it would collapse."
Kakashi sighed and ignored his pupils, walking up to the said shabby door and gently knocking on it. While they waited for someone to answer, they looked around.
It looked like a junkyard, really, with a small shack smack dab in the middle. There were broken down motors and other such useless pieces littering the bare area, most of them with weeds or flowers growing out of the open spaces. The home itself looked as if it was standing on its last legs, and Naruto was half afraid that it would fall over at the next gust of wind. What he really couldn't understand was how it was standing period since it looked a good two and a half stories tall. In fact, the bottom of the 'shack' had already sunk a good half inch into the soil. Naruto shook his head.
"What I can't understand," Sasuke began, peering into a bucket of rain water. He hastily took a step back when a frog leapt at his face and scrunched his nose, "..is why we didn't ask those bumbling demons who had sent them."
"I doubt they would have given us a straight answer," Sakura said, poking at a large spider web with a pole she had found. "They probably would have trailed off into something about how humans were 'so helpless that they needed the continuous aid of demons'." She did such a dead-on impersonation of Hoshirou that Nanashi actually paused from examining an old tire to look around warily.
"Well, we should have given it a try, anywa.." Sasuke was interrupted when the door to the shack was slammed open. A pot came flying from somewhere inside and conked an extremely surprised looking Naruto on the nose.
"OW!" Naruto yelped, reaching up to clutch his offended facial feature. "What the hell was that for?!"
"Get off my property, you trespassers!" a witchy voice shrieked, and a chair came flying after the pot. Naruto managed to duck this time. "OUT! OUT!"
"Ah, yes," Kakashi said, looking faintly put upon. "This is definitely the right place. Obaa-sama! Would you please allow us into your humble home? We come bearing gifts of fine wine an.."
"Take your gifts and wine and shove it up your.." Something muffled her voice, cutting her off before she could finish what had promised to be a perfectly derogatory sentence. Kakashi sighed.
"We also have top of the market gardening tools and the best seeds for harvesting. Will you please let us in, Obaa-sama?"
There was a beat of silence, broken only by the cheerful calls from the birds overhead.
"Fine. Wipe your feet when you come in."
The four looked at each other, then formed a single file to resolutely walk in and scrub the feet on a welcome carpet that seemed dirtier than their shoes. The inside was surprisingly cozy, with a ragged, moth eaten and extremely comfortable looking green couch standing (with a couple of books for one leg) in the middle of the living area that had a connecting kitchen. A woman that looked older than dirt was sitting at the table in the kitchen, scowling at them in such a way that gave her wrinkles wrinkles.
"What do you want?" she rasped out. The rustiness in her voice gave Naruto the impression that she was quite the smoker.
"Ore," Kakashi replied, not bothering with any pleasantries.
"Hm. Is this why your brought the kyubi and two other brats with you? For ore?"
Naruto grimaced. Although he had told his teammates long ago about his, well, 'companion' (in which they just looked mildly surprised before nodding in acknowledgement), he didn't enjoy hearing about it.
"Actually, they came along for the ride. Finding your place isn't exactly what one might call easy, you know," Kakashi said blandly.
"Hmm. Well, show me your gifts."
The next few moments were occupied with the two discussing (rather, arguing) prices for the ore and Naruto poking around the small living area. Truthfully, he was feeling disturbingly dizzy and tired, and the cut on his chest was burning something terrible. He sat down carefully on the old couch and was pleased to find that it was as comfortable as he thought it would be. Nanashi hopped onto his lap and curled up into a little ball of white fluff.
Sasuke sat beside him, tilting his head in such a way that he could see the other boy's chest. Naruto had put on the remainder of his shirt, although it did hardly anything since it was nearly sliced in half. It was regrettable, really, since it had been his favorite shirt. Hm. He wondered briefly if he could con a new one from Iruka for an early birthday present.
"Oi. Dobe. How's your chest?" Sasuke asked, half surprising Naruto. He had almost forgotten that the taller genin had sat beside him.
"Burns," Naruto answered shortly. He didn't want to think about it, because thinking about it led to thinking about why he was being chased in the first place and that wasn't very pleasant. He wanted pleasant right now.
"You better get that checked out immediately after we get back to Konoha," Sasuke said sternly. Naruto rolled his eyes.
"Yes, mother."
"Then that's that," the old lady said, interrupting Naruto's and Sasuke's conversation. She stood up and shuffled over to her stove, placing the small bags off seeds on the counter. "I suppose I should warn you about the surplus of demons that have been around here lately."
"We've had the opportunity to meet a couple today on our way here," Kakashi said sourly. "Don't worry, though, they're several miles from your house and won't likely harm you if you offer them a spot of tea, or something."
"Please," the hag cackled. "No demon would be foolish enough to try and approach me. You should know that, Kakashi."
"Of course, Obaa-sama, but it still isn't safe here.."
"Nonsense. I've been living here for longer than you could imagine, boy, and have encountered far worse things then a couple of stray demons. I will be perfectly fine." She paused and turned one yellowing eye towards Sasuke and Naruto. "But I must insist that you come back and visit me. I'm nothing but an old lady with only customers to talk to."
Kakashi let out a small sound of surprise, but nodded. He was giving Naruto and Sasuke odd looks.
Abruptly he turned around, swept the bag of ore up, and bowed deeply to the old lady. "Thank you for doing business with us, Obaa-sama." Naruto and Sasuke stood up, taking that as a cue to leave. The old lady merely nodded and inched her way back to her chair, carefully sitting down again.
As they left the house, Naruto threw a glance back over his shoulder at the hag. She was staring at them with a thoughtful expression on her weathered face, and to his shock she smiled at him. Hesitantly, he smiled back as the door swung closed behind her.
*
"Well," Kakashi said as they made their way back to Konoha village. "That was certainly a surprise."
"What was, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked. She was once again holding Nanashi, but this time the little fox was dead asleep and snoring quietly.
"Many people have visited the old lady, but no one has ever been invited to return. Some were even told specifically to never enter her land again. Tamiko-sama is.. quite powerful."
"Her name is Tamiko, then? She reminds me of Hokage-sama," Naruto said thoughtfully, scratching his chin.
"I'm not surprised. They were married for several years."
Naruto fell onto his bum.
"You're kidding!"
"Nope. She was always badgering him, but that was to be expected. After all, he took her out of the forest and that was her home."
"So, what happened?" Sakura asked, soaking in all the gossip greedily. Naruto stood up and brushed himself off, looking as if he meant to gracelessly fall on his rear.
"Nothing particularly interesting. They still loved each other, but she couldn't stay in the village. I don't even think they divorced.. just had a long distance relationship, so to speak."
Sakura sighed dreamily and nodded, causing Naruto and Sasuke to look at her with something akin to mild disgust. This, of course, was no surprise, as the two were boys and more focused on becoming great shinobi over locking lips with a girl. Well, Sasuke at least. Naruto still harbored a small crush on the Sakura.
The shortest ninja sighed slightly, but it wasn't because of what they were talking about. His chest was really starting to bother him, itching and burning and..
"..bleeding." Naruto blinked and looked up at Sasuke, who had a frown line between his eyes. "You're bleeding, Naruto."
The blonde looked down and frowned when he saw that, indeed, he was bleeding—right through his bandages, at that.
"..Well, hell."
.end chapter two.
Anyway, some words to know:
Byakko: white//spirit fox
Dobe: 'Dirt', or 'dead last'.
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu: Cloning jutsu
Katon Ryuuka no Jutsu: Fire jutsu
..Ruddy HTMLing disabilities.. *grumbles* Okay, let's try that again. *determined*
Chapter Two: Tamiko
By Clara, one of the insomniacs
There mission was a simple one. All they needed to do was find some old hermit who lived somewhere in the middle of the forest and ask for some ore. The only problem was that they didn't know exactly where the hermit lived.
"Naruto!" Sakura called. The pink haired girl had pretty much adopted Nanashi as her own and was currently holding the white fox snuggly in her arms. Both her and Kakashi had bought the story about Naruto finding Nanashi at his door that morning and didn't press it, but he had a feeling at least Kakashi did not believe him. "Hurry up!"
"Yeah, all right," Naruto mumbled, but hardly hastened his step. He had just figured out one of the reasons why he felt so odd.
The entire forest was silent.
He knew Sasuke and Kakashi were already aware by the way they were looking around tensely, and Sakura seemed to be starting to notice the heavy silence. She was slowly edging closer to Sasuke.
"Ka.. Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura finally ventured. Her voice was trembling.
"Shh."
It was Naruto who ordered her to be quiet. He had stopped walking and was standing perfectly still with his head cocked to the side. The others followed his suit, turning to watch the blonde boy expectantly.
"There's two of them," he finally muttered, eyes scanning the trees. Sasuke frowned.
"How can you tell?"
One of Naruto's hands crept down and flattened against his bellybutton. He smirked. "Call it 'gut instinct'."
"Two.. two of what?" Sakura asked. She was standing next to Sasuke and had a kunai in her hand. She looked frightened, but at the same time determined.
There was a rustling in the bushes somewhere to their left right before something tall and extremely not human stepped out. It stood on all fours and had feet that resembled lizards', but with claws that were easily as long as Naruto's forearm. It was a pale blue and had a long, slender snout and long pointed ears, and was examining them through slanted eyes. It had a long tail that curved around its back left leg, resting on the ground.
"Two demons, I suppose," the creature said. It had a lilting, musical voice that reminded Naruto of a story he once heard a long time ago about a Lorelei. It was said that the beautiful woman would lure boats into jagged rocks with her lovely voice, and the creature spoke as Naruto would imagine the Lorelei would.
"Though 'demons' is such a derogatory word," another said, tone just as entrancing if a beat lower. "I prefer 'physically advanced'." The second stepped out from the bushes and stood by its companion, looking much like the first but larger and with sharper features.
"Quite true, quite true," the first agreed, nodding its large head. It turned to examine Kakashi thoughtfully. "Though humans are becoming right surprising these days. You did hear about how that one human trapped Ichiro all those years ago in a mortal body, didn't you?"
"Yes, yes! I was quite surprised. Really, humans are so silly. What is a hundred years or so to a kitsune?"
Naruto grimaced, curling his fingers against his stomach.
"Jeez," he finally said, drawing the attention of the two demons to him. "Who are you, Tweedledee and Tweedledum?"
The two demons looked appropriately put out.
"Well!"
"Humans are so rude these days." The second demon shook its large head. "Really, what ever happened to fear?"
"They didn't even ask us for our names!" the smaller one said, and pouted.
"We'll just have to introduce ourselves, will we not?"
"We will."
"You humans may call me Hoshirou."
"And me, Hojirou."
Naruto stared at them in disbelief, then turned to look at Kakashi for guidance. The silver haired man, however, looked just as incredulous as Naruto himself.
"Um, yes, well, hello Hoshirou, Hojirou," Sakura finally said, bowing politely to each in turn. She had put away her kunai, as it was utterly ridiculous to try and have a civil conversation with a demon while holding a weapon. Actually, it was utterly ridiculous to try and have a civil conversation with a demon period. Their attentions are extremely hard to keep and you had to be outrageously polite to them the entire time, or be eaten. "We're extremely sorry for not greeting you properly earlier, but we were quite surprised. I am Sakura, and these are my teammates Sasuke and Naruto, and my teacher Kakashi-sensei. We're pleased to meet you."
Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi turned their disbelieving looks to her, but she ignored them. The demons looked delighted at Sakura's greeting and rumbled with pleasure.
"Splendid. We are equally pleased to meet you, Sakura-chan, Naruto-chan, Sasuke-chan, and Kakashi-sensei," Hojirou said.
Naruto and Sasuke made awful faces at the endings placed on their names, but otherwise didn't say anything. Kakashi just smiled through his eyes.
"Yes," Sakura continued, her voice becoming a bit sturdier. "We were just on our way to the old hermit's house. Um, is there any reason why you, well, approached us?"
"Why, to kill you of course!" Hoshirou said pleasantly, as if they should have already known that and were silly for not. Hojirou nodded and smiled while the humans tensed immediately. "Oh, do relax. From what I hear death is much more painful if you're all tense like so."
"I would believe that death is hardly pleasant in no matter what form it comes in," Sakura said, a bit more sharply than normal. The tremor in her voice was back and there was a thin layer of set resting on her brow. "Why do you want to kill us?"
The demons looked shocked, and Hoshirou shook its head. "Heaven forbid that we would actually want to kill you. Oh no, we were simply asked to."
"Ordered, more likely," Hojirou snorted, looking faintly annoyed.
"What were the, ah, terms?" Sakura asked. She knew she was losing this battle, since demons hardly ever went back on their words.
"They let us into the mortal world, of course. A favor for a favor," Hojirou said.
"It's unfortunate, though, since you are quite a grand group," Hoshirou added, and indeed the large demon did look a bit sad.
"Well, we will just have to find other humans to converse with," Hojirou sighed. "How dreadful."
"All right, enough chit-chat. Who would like to be killed first?"
"You have GOT to be kidding me," Naruto said, slowly shaking his head. He didn't know much about demons (except for the fact that he had one in him), but this was hardly what he expected.
"Oh, you do then?" Hoshirou asked, turning to look at Naruto. "Well, okay. You were the rudest, anyway.
"Eh?" Before he could get anything out that was more intelligent, a big, ball of something gooey and sulfuric smelling caught him square on the chest, knocking him from his feet and too the ground. "Ugh. What the hell is this shit?" He tried to raise his arm and was quite surprised when he was only able to get it a couple of inches from the ground.
"The harder you struggle.." Hoshirou said, smirking, "..the harder it will become to get out of it."
Naruto grunted, half in disgust and half in an effort to get out of the goo that was trapping him. He saw Kakashi and Sasuke each leap towards different demons. Sakura was hurrying towards him with a kunai in one hand and Nanashi in the other.
"Ugh." A shadow flew over their heads, and Naruto tilted his head back just in time to see Sasuke fly into a tree so hard that several pine cones fell on the ground. He was back on his feet in an instant, lunging at the demons with hellfire in his eyes. When Naruto turned a certain way, he could see Kakashi and Hojirou locked in combat—Kakashi constantly trying to do the hand movements for his jutsu but being interrupted by counter attacks before he could even get past the first motion. Hoshirou had a deep gash across his chest but was healing rapidly, much like Naruto did whenever he was actually fighting.
Frustrated, the blonde let out a burst of chakra. The gunk sizzled slightly, sending up an acrid smell of burning rotten eggs, but not doing much else. He gagged and surged forward, straining with all his strength against the goo.
"Give up!" Hoshirou growled, momentarily distracted from Sasuke by Naruto. He sent another ball of goo flying towards Naruto's head, but it was intercepted by a powerful, chakra protected kick by Sasuke. The trajectory shifted and the ball slammed into Hojirou's chest. The larger demon let out a surprised growl and slammed into a nearby tree, effectively trapped.
"Hojirou!" Hoshirou shouted, and Hojirou growled in response, breathing fire against the gook. It melted off him and slithered to the ground in a slimy mess.
"Ah ha!" Sasuke cried in triumph, spinning back towards Naruto. The blonde paused in his struggles, mostly because he was surprised by Sasuke's eyes. They had already changed into the sharingans. He watched dumbly as Sasuke, facing him, began the rapid hand motions of a jutsu.
"Sasuke! What are you doing?!" Sakura cried. She looked as if she was going to dive between Naruto and Sasuke, but confusion was stopping her.
"Katon Ryuuka no Jutsu!" Sasuke cried, and blew out a stream of fire at the gunk entrapping Naruto. There was a loud sizzle and the goo melted off, leaving a relatively clean and free Naruto. The blonde blinked, surprise immobilizing him for a moment.
"Hey! Thanks, Sasuke!"
Sasuke just smirked. "I always have to save your ass, dobe."
Naruto let that slide, but was grinning with satisfaction. "Woah!" he yelped, dodging another ball of gunk that flew towards him. "Ech, you jerks. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Seven Naruto's popped into existence and flew towards Hoshirou, each flinging several kunai at once. The demon howled in anger and surprise, spinning and catching one of the Naruto's in the chest with its tail. The Naruto cried out in surprise and looked down in horror at the slash-mark that the tail left. It was as if someone had hit him with a large sword, slicing him diagonal across the chest. If he had been an inch closer, it would have surely sliced him in half.
Sasuke was already on top of the demon, chidori causing sparks of electricity to dance around his hand. Two of the Naruto's had whipped out razor sharp rope and were holding Hoshirou against a tree.
Sasuke punched. The demon howled and the tree snapped in half.
Silence fell over the forest once again, interrupted only by a twig snapping. The Naruto copies popped out of existence, leaving one battered, smelly shinobi to lean against the stump of the tree. He turned to glance at Sasuke, then both boys spun around to see what happened to Kakashi and Sakura.
Hojirou was lying on its side, not moving, with a haggard Kakashi crouched beside it. Sakura was quietly and determinedly bandaging the demon's wounds.
"Sakura!" Naruto cried, then grimaced and reached up to place his hand over the wound on his chest. He coughed, then looked with distaste at the blood that flew from his lips. It was odd, really. He wasn't healing as quickly as he normally did.
Kakashi straightened up, then turned around and walked to Naruto. There was a frown line between his eyes; the hitai-ate headband pushed up to reveal his sharingan.
"It seems as if they have a poison layering their skin," Kakashi said, staring thoughtfully at the wound that crossed Naruto's body. In fact, they were all staring at him now. Nanashi's eyes were huge—he couldn't understand Kakashi, but could easily guess that there was something wrong. "It's a low level poison, granted, and would hardly kill someone in small amounts, but.."
Naruto sucked in a breath. "So, what's gonna happen?"
"Oh, well, I suspect you're going to be violently sick for a bit, with a bad fever and whatnot, and unable to move for a couple of days," Kakashi said cheerfully, already pulling out a bandage from his backpack. Naruto stared and slowly pulled off his jacket and shirt, allowing Kakashi to tape him up. "That is, of course, if you were normal. It will probably just take longer to heal and whatnot—I'm not entirely sure since I have never come across a poison like this. But bleeding is out of the question, so you'll just have to deal with the poison until we can get you to a proper healer."
"Which will be after the mission is completely," Naruto said determinedly. Kakashi gave him a thoughtful look.
"Of course. The ore is important, but we're going to have to complete this mission quickly. Not only because of your wounds, but those demons.."
"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura interrupted, causing both the teacher and student to look towards her in surprise. She and Sasuke were a little further off and standing at the foot of a tree. Kakashi and Naruto hurried towards her, surprised at her horrified tone of voice.
"What is it, Sakura-cha.." The words died from Naruto's throat and his legs collapsed from underneath him. His eyes widened and face paled.
A dead fox was sprawled out against the trunk of the tree, several needles sticking out of the small body. Nanashi was crouched by its side, whimpering and nudging it with his nose.
"Wh.. what's going on?" Naruto asked. He found with surprise that he was trembling slightly. Kakashi reached forward and touched the fox, lifting up its head then frowning and shutting its sightless eyes. "This.. the second one.."
Kakashi frowned and turned towards Naruto. "I think you had better tell us the entire story."
So Naruto did, starting from when he was at the school to when he woke Sasuke up to tell him Nanashi could talk. They watched him in silence, their faces unreadable.
"You ought to have told us earlier, Naruto," Kakashi admonished when the boy finished his story. Naruto bowed his head in embarrassment, cheeks coloring slightly. "But I can see why you didn't and why you want to keep it a secret. However, it's obvious that these threats are directed at you, and we have reason to believe that this same someone who is leaving these threats can also summon demons."
"Well, it's not as if I knew he could summon demons before," Naruto snapped. "And how was I supposed to know it was a threat? We can't even be sure of that right now. For all we know, it's a coincidence!"
"It was done by the same person who killed my mom," Nanashi said quietly. He was lying beside Naruto's feet, head resting between his paws. "I can smell him."
Naruto grimaced and crouched down, picking the small fox up. "Okay, so maybe it wasn't a coincidence. But I didn't know at the time!"
"Quit being so defensive, dobe," Sasuke said, the only one who didn't look mildly surprised at the blonde yipping at Nanashi. "Kakashi's just saying that you're in danger."
"And that doing missions like these puts you into even more danger," Kakashi continued. He was digging a shallow grave with his kunai. "Not only you, but your teammates as well."
"Well, what am I supposed to do? Sit around at home and wait for them to come to me? Yeah, right. Konoha has too much to worry about already."
Kakashi sighed and gently lifted the fox's body and put it in the grave. Sakura had plucked out all the needles and was watching with morose green eyes.
"Well, it's obvious something is going to have to be done about this," Kakashi said, pushing the soil over the fox's body. "Someone who can open gates between the two worlds is definitely not a small matter."
"So, what are we going to do, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked. She was looking at the two demons they had knocked out.
"Right now? We're going to go to the hag's house. Then we're going straight back home. We were lucky that the demons didn't seem too eager to kill us."
"Eh?" Naruto asked, looking surprised. Immediately, he spun around.
"Sure. Those are second class demons. It would have taken us much longer to defeat them if they were really trying."
Naruto swallowed thickly. Somehow, that didn't pacify him.
*
An hour later they were standing at the door of what could have been called a shack. Or a hut, depending on whichever was 'politically correct'. Not that Naruto cared what was politically correct or not.
"So," Naruto said, eyeing the door with many misgivings. "Who's going to knock on it?"
"Can you knock on it?" Sakura asked. "It looks like if someone just touched it, it would collapse."
Kakashi sighed and ignored his pupils, walking up to the said shabby door and gently knocking on it. While they waited for someone to answer, they looked around.
It looked like a junkyard, really, with a small shack smack dab in the middle. There were broken down motors and other such useless pieces littering the bare area, most of them with weeds or flowers growing out of the open spaces. The home itself looked as if it was standing on its last legs, and Naruto was half afraid that it would fall over at the next gust of wind. What he really couldn't understand was how it was standing period since it looked a good two and a half stories tall. In fact, the bottom of the 'shack' had already sunk a good half inch into the soil. Naruto shook his head.
"What I can't understand," Sasuke began, peering into a bucket of rain water. He hastily took a step back when a frog leapt at his face and scrunched his nose, "..is why we didn't ask those bumbling demons who had sent them."
"I doubt they would have given us a straight answer," Sakura said, poking at a large spider web with a pole she had found. "They probably would have trailed off into something about how humans were 'so helpless that they needed the continuous aid of demons'." She did such a dead-on impersonation of Hoshirou that Nanashi actually paused from examining an old tire to look around warily.
"Well, we should have given it a try, anywa.." Sasuke was interrupted when the door to the shack was slammed open. A pot came flying from somewhere inside and conked an extremely surprised looking Naruto on the nose.
"OW!" Naruto yelped, reaching up to clutch his offended facial feature. "What the hell was that for?!"
"Get off my property, you trespassers!" a witchy voice shrieked, and a chair came flying after the pot. Naruto managed to duck this time. "OUT! OUT!"
"Ah, yes," Kakashi said, looking faintly put upon. "This is definitely the right place. Obaa-sama! Would you please allow us into your humble home? We come bearing gifts of fine wine an.."
"Take your gifts and wine and shove it up your.." Something muffled her voice, cutting her off before she could finish what had promised to be a perfectly derogatory sentence. Kakashi sighed.
"We also have top of the market gardening tools and the best seeds for harvesting. Will you please let us in, Obaa-sama?"
There was a beat of silence, broken only by the cheerful calls from the birds overhead.
"Fine. Wipe your feet when you come in."
The four looked at each other, then formed a single file to resolutely walk in and scrub the feet on a welcome carpet that seemed dirtier than their shoes. The inside was surprisingly cozy, with a ragged, moth eaten and extremely comfortable looking green couch standing (with a couple of books for one leg) in the middle of the living area that had a connecting kitchen. A woman that looked older than dirt was sitting at the table in the kitchen, scowling at them in such a way that gave her wrinkles wrinkles.
"What do you want?" she rasped out. The rustiness in her voice gave Naruto the impression that she was quite the smoker.
"Ore," Kakashi replied, not bothering with any pleasantries.
"Hm. Is this why your brought the kyubi and two other brats with you? For ore?"
Naruto grimaced. Although he had told his teammates long ago about his, well, 'companion' (in which they just looked mildly surprised before nodding in acknowledgement), he didn't enjoy hearing about it.
"Actually, they came along for the ride. Finding your place isn't exactly what one might call easy, you know," Kakashi said blandly.
"Hmm. Well, show me your gifts."
The next few moments were occupied with the two discussing (rather, arguing) prices for the ore and Naruto poking around the small living area. Truthfully, he was feeling disturbingly dizzy and tired, and the cut on his chest was burning something terrible. He sat down carefully on the old couch and was pleased to find that it was as comfortable as he thought it would be. Nanashi hopped onto his lap and curled up into a little ball of white fluff.
Sasuke sat beside him, tilting his head in such a way that he could see the other boy's chest. Naruto had put on the remainder of his shirt, although it did hardly anything since it was nearly sliced in half. It was regrettable, really, since it had been his favorite shirt. Hm. He wondered briefly if he could con a new one from Iruka for an early birthday present.
"Oi. Dobe. How's your chest?" Sasuke asked, half surprising Naruto. He had almost forgotten that the taller genin had sat beside him.
"Burns," Naruto answered shortly. He didn't want to think about it, because thinking about it led to thinking about why he was being chased in the first place and that wasn't very pleasant. He wanted pleasant right now.
"You better get that checked out immediately after we get back to Konoha," Sasuke said sternly. Naruto rolled his eyes.
"Yes, mother."
"Then that's that," the old lady said, interrupting Naruto's and Sasuke's conversation. She stood up and shuffled over to her stove, placing the small bags off seeds on the counter. "I suppose I should warn you about the surplus of demons that have been around here lately."
"We've had the opportunity to meet a couple today on our way here," Kakashi said sourly. "Don't worry, though, they're several miles from your house and won't likely harm you if you offer them a spot of tea, or something."
"Please," the hag cackled. "No demon would be foolish enough to try and approach me. You should know that, Kakashi."
"Of course, Obaa-sama, but it still isn't safe here.."
"Nonsense. I've been living here for longer than you could imagine, boy, and have encountered far worse things then a couple of stray demons. I will be perfectly fine." She paused and turned one yellowing eye towards Sasuke and Naruto. "But I must insist that you come back and visit me. I'm nothing but an old lady with only customers to talk to."
Kakashi let out a small sound of surprise, but nodded. He was giving Naruto and Sasuke odd looks.
Abruptly he turned around, swept the bag of ore up, and bowed deeply to the old lady. "Thank you for doing business with us, Obaa-sama." Naruto and Sasuke stood up, taking that as a cue to leave. The old lady merely nodded and inched her way back to her chair, carefully sitting down again.
As they left the house, Naruto threw a glance back over his shoulder at the hag. She was staring at them with a thoughtful expression on her weathered face, and to his shock she smiled at him. Hesitantly, he smiled back as the door swung closed behind her.
*
"Well," Kakashi said as they made their way back to Konoha village. "That was certainly a surprise."
"What was, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked. She was once again holding Nanashi, but this time the little fox was dead asleep and snoring quietly.
"Many people have visited the old lady, but no one has ever been invited to return. Some were even told specifically to never enter her land again. Tamiko-sama is.. quite powerful."
"Her name is Tamiko, then? She reminds me of Hokage-sama," Naruto said thoughtfully, scratching his chin.
"I'm not surprised. They were married for several years."
Naruto fell onto his bum.
"You're kidding!"
"Nope. She was always badgering him, but that was to be expected. After all, he took her out of the forest and that was her home."
"So, what happened?" Sakura asked, soaking in all the gossip greedily. Naruto stood up and brushed himself off, looking as if he meant to gracelessly fall on his rear.
"Nothing particularly interesting. They still loved each other, but she couldn't stay in the village. I don't even think they divorced.. just had a long distance relationship, so to speak."
Sakura sighed dreamily and nodded, causing Naruto and Sasuke to look at her with something akin to mild disgust. This, of course, was no surprise, as the two were boys and more focused on becoming great shinobi over locking lips with a girl. Well, Sasuke at least. Naruto still harbored a small crush on the Sakura.
The shortest ninja sighed slightly, but it wasn't because of what they were talking about. His chest was really starting to bother him, itching and burning and..
"..bleeding." Naruto blinked and looked up at Sasuke, who had a frown line between his eyes. "You're bleeding, Naruto."
The blonde looked down and frowned when he saw that, indeed, he was bleeding—right through his bandages, at that.
"..Well, hell."
.end chapter two.