Time passes. Fast as the wind for some. For others it's painfully slow. As time goes by people gain experience. Becoming stronger in some ways. Both the mind and the body. And people age. Marks of the time shows on all. Few are able to defy it.
Since the betrayal of Uchiha Sasuke, and the disappearance of Uzumaki Naruto, time has leaped three years. Konoha's sorrow for their lost comrades faded eventually. Untill it didn't affect their everyday life at all. Faster for some.
But although many knew what happened with the traitor Uchiha Sasuke. Few knew what happened to the energetic blonde known as Uzumake Naruto. Most people though him dead at the hands of the second Uchiha traitor. But some knew the truth.
He was still alive. And his whereabouts remained unknown.
In the grand forest of the fire country, a singular man travelled. His body was covered in a dark cloak. The hood made his face indistinguishable to others. His footsteps made no sounds on the leaf covered ground. A mark of a trained shinobi.
Moving throughout the forest he saw the lush nature of Konoha. The birds sat in the trees, singing carefree tunes. A rodent piled across a clearing. It was too fast for any predator to see it. The forest was so peaceful. One wouldn't think this land was in a war. He moved with a certain precision and confidence that seemed to erode from him.
Suddenly he started to take in a jog; he had spotted something in the end of the woods. He sped up, moving with the speed of a shinobi. His arms were hanging loosely behind him. He seemed graceful as he ran through the narrow terrain of the lush woods. His jumps and dodges seemed like a dance. He stopped suddenly.
He ran up a large tree, his feet sticking to the old wood. It looked quite bizarre. He continued up the ancient oak. At the top the tree he saw his goal, Konhagure no saito. The hidden village of the Leaf.
'So long ago, I can't believe it's been three years.' He mused to himself. The man removed his gloves, looking at his hands. They looked scarred and weary. They were a reminder of the past. He released a heavy sigh, letting the warm air out of his lungs.
The village brought back so many old memories, more bad than good. The feeling was rather bittersweet. But most of all it reminded him of the betrayal. His best friend had tried to kill him, and in the end, unleashed something more horrifying than death.
He removed his hood, letting his blonde, spiky hair flow freely. His face was covered by a piece of wood. A white fox mask decorated white red lines. And the cheeks of the mask had 3 whiskers engraved on either side. He rubbed his exposed temples. Whenever he thought of him he got a humongous headache.
".... It was not meaningless.... To me you have become... My closest friend..."
He grabbed his head, cradling it in his hands. He still remained balance on the narrow top of the old tree. He released a pained sob. The memories still seemed vivid, even more when he was so close to Konoha.
"That is why it is worth killing you..."
A cry, it was filled with fury The memory seemed to awaken something inside of him. He got a glowing red outlining. Hardly visible.
"Chidori!"
"Rasengan!"
He released another cry of frustration. This one was louder than the first. It echoed throughout the forest. And seconds after the echo faded. A shockwave of killing intent followed. The rawness of it blurred the air. He lost his foothold to the treetop.
As the gravity pulled him towards the soft forest soil, one single thought remained. 'So much for stealth...'
In the darkness of the foliage, a group of shadows passed. They moved with a certain grace, one that could only be achieved through years of training and experience. They were jumping from branch to branch in the gigantic forest. The pattern they moved in was planned. Obviously it was a guard shift. This was the work of the Konoha ANBU. It was boring for most, unless they got assassination missions.
Dressed in Shinobi outfit they seemed more like demons than shadows, their masks making certain of that. They all had a mask that represented an animal. Suddenly a wave made of pure killer intent and malice hit them. They all stopped on a branch.
"What the hell was that?!" A brash voice called out. It belonged to the one with the lion mask. He moved his head franticly, trying to spot the source of the wave.
"Quiet Ofu, I need to listen for sounds!" Another voice called out. His voice soaked with authority. He was wearing a raven mask. Ofu made an unseen facial gesture, as his face was covered with his lion mask.
A large crash was heard.
"Where did that come from?" The third figure called out, the voice obviously female.
"Byakugan!....." The fourth and final voice said firmly, leaving his right hand in a seal. He hesitated. "From the north!"
The group of four moved towards the source of the sound. They moved swift and quiet. Like the shadow assassins they were. Continuing through the narrow forest paths until they reached a rather large oak tree, probably the tallest in the area.
At the base of the tree was laid a body covered in tattered clothing. There was a thirty second silence as the ANBU team tried to understand what happened.
The leader tried to approach the immobile body. But as he moved his feet towards, the body let out a groan. And just as soon the person underneath the cloak started to move. The cloaked figured growled a furious growl. He managed to get himself up, letting his head to be seen. Revealing his ANBU mask.
The ANBU team relaxed for a second, thinking he were a comrade. Then the leader noticed the gashed Konoha mark.
"You, who are you?" The leader inquired, his tone of voice seeming cautious.
"None of your concern, now leave me be." The man replied with a low growl. The tone however, seemed almost arrogant.
"Why do you have that mask? are you ANBU? Why is the leaf icon slashed? Are you a missing-nin?" The leader sped through a line of obvious, yet necessary questions.
One could almost see the figure twitch as he was assaulted with the numerous questions. His fist clenched. And his entire body tensed. He exhaled, letting his body relax. He answered calmly.
"This mask I got off one of the hunter-nins from Konoha. It fit my purpose, so I kept it."
"He gave it to yo-" Raising his index finger, the clawed limb waved from side to side. He tisked in an arrogant manner.
"I think it's quite obvious that I killed him, ANBU-san."
It was Kanonhou Kaiba's turn to tense up. Loosing comrades always seemed to pain him much, but worst of all was that he recognized the mask. It belonged to one of his team mates from his original Genin Team. He shuddered briefly but just as quickly regained his composure. "For killing a Konoha citizen, we have no choice but to liquidate you!" Kaiba reached for his Katana, the rest of the group reached for theirs as well. All four crouched into a battle ready position.
Yet again the man sighed, he seemed to do that frequent as of late. "And there is no way for me to persuade you otherwise?" He did not seem too troubled with the fact that a team of ANBU just gave him a death sentence.
Kaiba only growled something that could have been a no. Charging for the enemy, katana unsheathed. He lunged forwards. He hit nothing but air. The cloaked man reappeared right behind him. He chuckled. "Really, is this the best you can do? You disappoint me."
A fine layer of chakra wrapped around Kaiba's Katana, he spun in a 360 degree circle, releasing the chakra in a wave as he did. The cloaked man dodged by launching himself straight into the air, doing haste full flips to make himself the smallest possible target. Kaiba grinned underneath his mask, as did Ofu. Kaiba threw a kunai towards the cloaked man, and he did hand seals while the kunai flew through the air. Ofu followed his example and did hand seals for his favourite Katon jutsu.
"Kunai Kage bunshin no jutsu!"
"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu!"
The kunai multiplied itself by a lot. Now, two dousin flew towards the cloaked being. While Ofu put his hand to his lip and blew out a fireball, which came flying towards the aerial man as well. All this before he even hit the ground.
Both the kunai and the fireball seemed to hit its target. As the fire dispersed, a charred log landed on the ground. Several eyes widened under their respective masks. They were just staring at the rather well-done log.
"Kawarimi no jutsu.... Kuso!" Kaiba cursed lightly.
The cloaked man walked into the newly made clearing. The fire had done it's job well. Burning the foliage of the trees
"This is pointless, really. Please surrender" The low growling sound Kaiba made, signalled quite the opposite intention. "Tsk tsk tsk, motivated by personal matters, how unprofessional." He put his hand into the tattered cloak, pulling out a folded Fuuma Shuriken. With a flick of the wrist the giant shuriken unfolded. He put it in front of his face.
"If you don't surrender, you will surely die. Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" With no hand seals, eight clones appeared. Each of them was holding their own Fuuma Shuriken. There was a slight pause, and then the cloaked man became a speed blur.
So did his clones. He appeared in midair, throwing his giant shuriken in perfect synch with his clones. All nine shuriken came flying towards the young ANBU leader. He dodged them barely, with a bit of effort. All nine shuriken then disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
What?! A Bunshin?' Before he could react 9 more shurikens emerged from the Bunshin Shuriken's shadow. Kaiba was dead on before he even landed. The cloaked man twitched a finger, and a chakra string that was connected to the Fuuma Shuriken called it back into his hands. He clapped it together and put it back into his cloak in one smooth motion.
He turned towards the rest of the ANBU team, who only stared at the one-man massacre. "I will repeat myself. This is pointless, please surrender." He pulled up his hand, inviting them to come at him. It was a contradiction, but he didn't expect them to listen. His cloak flew smoothly through the air as he moved.
One of the remaining ANBU was shaking in horror and sadness. She had always had a small crush on Kanonhou Kaiba. Not that he had ever noticed. And she had been to shy to tell him. Now he would never know. And the gruesome way he had died.
'Kaiba-Kun...' The young medic thought.
'Kaiba-Kun!' Her tears were unseen behind her mask. Emotions bottled up finally surfaced.
"Kaiba-kun!" She finally shrieked, releasing her gathered up emotions. She ran up to cloaked stranger in high speed, Katana in hand.
One learns something as one gains experience in the arts of shinobi. That running straight into the enemy is never a good idea. It's easy to predict and counter. That is if you live that long.
Before she even struck the enemy with her sword, she found herself impaled by his clawed hands. The fingers how his hand was wriggling playfully on the other side her torso, she coughed up a small amount of blood. He whispered something in her ear; his voice was cold, contained no malice or regret.
"Pointless.."
She fell to the leaf covered ground, the foliage stuck to her bloody wound and a slight groan of pain was heard before she took her final breath. The world around her was getting darker.
"Two down.... two to go..." The cloaked man said tauntingly. He wiped his blood soaked arms, showing his half rusted ANBU arm guards. He moved his head towards Ofu.
Ofu was beyond pissed. He was going to incinerate that cloaked Bastard. No one takes his dear Kango-chan from him without dying. His hands clenched and unclenched. He was shaking with anger.
"Are you going to attack or not? I don't have all day you know." He pointed towards his wrist, as if there was an invisible clock there. Ofu snapped at the obvious taunting.
"I am going to kill you!!" Ofu called out, ripping off his mask, showing his face. It was red with anger. Veins looked like they were threatening to pop. He started to do handseals. The cloaked man was not impressed; he just stood there looking nonchalant, folded arms.
Ufu called out as he moved his hand to his lips.
"Katon: Karyu Endan!" A white hot fire with crimson edges was spewed out of Ofu's mouth, and raced along the ground. The cloaked figure sidestepped with a speed only possible for a well trained shinobi. "I am sure you can do better, bibi-kun!" The cloaked man laid weight on the last part. Once again Ofu let the taunting get to him. Ofu let out an infuriated scream
Once more, Ofu did the handseals for another katon jutsu.
"Katon: Ryuuka no jutsu!" A dragon shaped fire was released from his mouth. Although proving harder to dodge, the cloaked man still made it seem like he did so effortlessly.
"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu!" The cloaked man flung himself into the air yet again to dodge the burning inferno.The cloak svirling around him. as he spun. He could hear Ofu releasing a sound of satisfaction. 'This is it!' He redid the seals. Put his hand to his mouth, blowing out another ball of white hot fire. The fireball flew against the midair ninja. He had no chance to dodge.
'Shit! Not enough time for another Kawarimi! I'll have to..' The cloaked man quickly moved his palm towards the ground, and a certaom soaring fireball. Red chakra quickly gathered in a spinning syclone. The sphere grew quickly in size.
"Rasengan" The sphere effortlessly blew away the raging fireball, the fire scattering around him.
The cloaked man landed silently on the ground, the sphere still spinning madly in his hand, growing in size and intensity yet again. He moved his other hand towards his wrist, in attempt to stabilize his arm. The sound of the Rasengan was ear numbing.
"This is the end of you ANBU-san, but I admit it was certainly amusing." The cloaked man arose from his crouching position. Ofu knew he could do nothing. All those Katon jutsus had worn him out completely. The cloaked man disappeared out of view momentarily, to just as quickly reappear in front of Ofu, Rasengan still in hand.
"Rasengan!" He plunged the madly spinning sphere into Ofu's gut. The spinning chakra ripped apart the skin and muscles in seconds, then the blood was scattered all across the clearing. When the Rasengan had drilled through the body, the charka sphere pushed the body away like a projectile. Ofu's inanimate body stopped when it crashed into an oak, his entire torso was ripped to shreds. The last facial expression of Ofu, was one of agony.
The cloaked man walked towards the body of Ofu, he crouched down slowly to where it laid. He moved his hand over Ofu's terrified eyes, and closed them.
He arose from his position, and turned towards the last of the four-man ANBU squad, Hyuga Jakushi. He stood there, paralysed in fear. He had just watched a singular man, slaughter the better part of an ANBU team. He had never seen anything like it. And now the man had turned his attention towards him. He wanted to run, but his legs wouldn't let him leave the blood drenched clearing.
"... You are Hyuuga, are you not?" The cloaked man inquired, Jakushi nodded numbly in response. "No wonder why you ANBU found me so fast." He mused out loud. "So in a way, their blood is on your hand." The sadistic tone in his voice was hard to ignore. "But don't worry, I'll rid you of your guilt soon enough." Again the cloaked man pulled out his old and rusty Fuuma Shuriken. It unfolded. In pure instinct Jakushi jumped to his feet. Byakugan activated. His all seeing sight saw right through the wooden mask.
"Those marks! you are-" He was cut off as the giant shuriken penetrated his flesh, as if it was butter.
"That's right..." The cloaked man once again continued his journey for Konoha. His hands covered in more blood, than before.
He walked along the dusty road. There was no use hiding in the forest anymore. His second-hand ANBU boots whirled up the dry earth as he went. He momentarily stopped in awe. The Konoha gates still stood proudly, the first defence against intruders. The impressive wooden gates where closed tightly. They couldn't allow sound-nins coming into their village.
He continued walking with confidence. His hood was on, obscuring both hair and mask from view. His cloak danced behind his feet as he walked. A few feet away from the gate he was stopped by a voice.
"Oi! Who's there?!" He lifted his head, and saw a pony tailed man, dressed in a Jounin uniform.
"One who wants to enter your village" He tried to remain calm. But the thought of returning to his village somehow made him anxious. The Jounin seemed to hesitate, probably because of the blood stains of the cloak. But he soon responded.
"And what's your name?" He grinned under his mask. This was it.
"Uzumaki Naruto!"
TBC
AN: Nothing new to add. Again I want to thank Refused for his assistance , and I hope you will continue to read my story.
Thank you
-Fenris
