Hey all. Just going to tell you from here on out I'm going bump the rating up to PG-13, as the story gets pretty gruesome at times. No big deal.
Part 2.0: On the Road Again
Morning had finally come to the Leaf village. The few first strands of light slowly came over the horizon and lit the sky on fire, bathing the village in a gentle radiance. The storm had passed, and as the water slowly trickled down from the rooftops of the houses it reflected the sunlight causing the light to scatter and hit every spot of darkness on the ground. It was a beautiful day in Konoha, and the sunlight slowly made its way into every house.
Naruto was sound asleep, last nights proceedings had left quite a bit to think about and he hadn't actually slept until about three hours ago. The rays of the sun slowly came thought the blinds in his window and made their way across his face. Naruto groaned and slowly opened his eyes to be greeted by daylight. He frowned at the light and slowly sat up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. 'What time is it?" he thought. He looked around; the room still looked blurry and he could barely tell even where he was. He looked over at his bed stand. '8:00,' he thought...'8:00!! I'm gonna be late, we leave at 8:30!" Naruto promptly jumped out of bed and ran into the shower, tearing his pajamas off in the process. He quickly turned the faucets but nothing was coming out. 'What the hell,' he thought. Naruto began to hit the shower faucet. Still nothing; he then grabbed the shower faucet with both hands and began pulling and pushing it left and right. Finally, the shower head gave and greeted Naruto with a blast of cold water that knocked him to the other side of the shower stall. Residents nearby could have sworn that the brat was being tortured as loud as he was screaming and cursing.
He quickly turned off the shower and went to brush his teeth, inadvertently poking himself in the eye with his toothbrush, which led to him tripping on the bathroom rug, which led to him hitting his head on the closed door. Naruto laid on the ground for a second before tearing the door down in a fit of rage. He then proceeded to stuff everything from extra clothes to instant ramen in a large bag and quickly opened the door. The landlady was standing there, "What's all the commotio-" she stopped in mid sentence and looked at Naruto in a repulsed fashion. "What?" he asked. Naruto looked down and blushed a bright crimson. He quickly slammed the door, 'Seems I forgot to dress,' he thought nervously. "Sicko!" the landlady shouted before leaving down the end of the hall.
Naruto finally left his apartment and headed down the street at a furied pace. He finally caught sight of Lee and TenTen who had apparently stayed behind to wait for him. Lee was doing some type of weird training exercise where he did pushups from a complete vertical position. TenTen merely shook her head in disgust. "You're late," she said, "Gai-Sensei has already gone ahead of us. He's been asking all the Jounin something before we leave. I wanted to go on ahead, but this goof insisted that we wait up for you." Naruto smiled jokingly at Lee. Lee did a flip and returned to his original position on his feet. "Well, Gai-Sensei said that he wanted us to wait anyway. He didn't want to spoil the surprise for the special training he's got in store for us." Lee assumed the look he always had when Gai-Sensei did something that normal people would consider stupid. "Just think, it could be the most spectacular, amazing, and exhausting training we've ever done. A training that will bring us glory and a most assured victory in the Chuunin exam."
"Yeah whatever," replied TenTen, "Well, you're here now, so we'd better catch up with the others." They walked on down the road. Naruto felt slightly awkward walking with them having assailed Lee just the night before. They walked on, away from the village now down a road cut amongst the trees. The trees had long lost all of their leaves, which were scattered about the forest floor and the road itself. It was a long time before one of them spoke again.
"Hey thickbrows," said Naruto. Lee turned around but continued walking backwards to ensure they wouldn't lose pace. "About last night..." Naruto continued. Lee waved the back of his hand at him, "Don't worry about it Naruto, no big deal." TenTen raised an eyebrow at this, "What are you guys talking about." Lee got back into his Gai-worshipping mode and answered, "Naruto was just asking about the most assured victory strategy that Gai-Sensei has planned for us. He's almost as excited as I am." TenTen turned to look at Naruto, "Really, huh, I thought you hated Gai's 'training strategies'." Naruto laughed nervously, "Well, I had a change of heart I guess." 'Damn thickbrows,' thought Naruto, 'You could have come up with a better story than that.'
It was another hour before they finally came upon the rest of the group. Gai seemed to have persuaded the group to stop and wait for them. It was pretty large, about forty people in all. However, Naruto noticed that this group was considerably smaller than the one that had been in Tsunade's office. Some people must have pulled out. Many different Chuunin and Jounin were her as well, most of which Naruto did not recognize. However, one face stood out amongst them, Shikamaru. He looked like he'd very much like to be in any other place right now. Naruto smiled to himself, 'serves him right,' thought Naruto, 'I still don't know why the made him a Chuunin instead of me'. Tsunade was talking to Kakashi about something and the rest of the Jounin sat with the students. Naruto surveyed the rest of the group. All of the rookie teams from the first Chuunin exam had stayed, including, much to Naruto's disappointment, that loudmouth Kiba. "About time you got your lazy ass up isn't it?" he called to Naruto mockingly, "We can't wait all day for some no talent bum like yourself."
Naruto was just about to charge at Kiba when Gai suddenly appeared in front of them. "Ah, finally, the youths under my amazing guidance have arrived," he said. As promised, I have created a most strenuous and invigorating training schedule for you three. It is quite possibly the most brilliant schedule ever fashioned by mortal hands. But you must be resilient and not fall onto the path of decadence and laziness lest your most promising youth be wasted on idle pursuits." Naruto was confused by most of this, but Lee was hysterically writing every word his sensei spoke into his journal. "Now, come to the head of the group, I have a most important announcement to make." Naruto's confusion continued to increase. 'What kind of training does this weirdo have in store for us that needs to be told to everyone.' He exchanged looks with TenTen who appeared to be thinking the same thing. Lee however gave Gai a simple salute and followed him to the head of the group. Naruto and TenTen followed suit.
"Attention all youth, elders, or otherwise," Gai said in a booming voice. All eyes in the group turned to Gai. "With the permission of your Jounin sensei I have created a most stringent training program for the youth under my tutelage. You see, this journey will be a most long one and the beautiful azure beast before you does not want his youth to grow decadent. Therefore, I have asked all the Jounin sensei if I can apply the most stringent of training exercises to my students specifically. You see, in a group of this size, normally, everyone would do their part to ensure its functioning, and this case is no different. However, the most basic of chores, catching food, cutting wood for fires, etcetera, will be done exclusively by my team in order to ensure they remain in fit shape for the exams."
Naruto's jaw almost hit the ground in surprise. 'There's no way he can be serious; there's got to be at least forty people here, we can't do all that for them.' "Are you SERIOUS!?" yelled Naruto.
"Always Naruto," said Gai in a reassuring tone, "but don't worry, your sensei will not neglect you as all of the members of team Gai will have special individual training sessions with the great Gai."
Naruto simply stood their in silence, his mouth open and his eyes wide with shock. TenTen carried the same expression with her as well. Gai simply stood there, giving them the thumbs up and shining teeth pose. 'No way,' thought Naruto, 'how could he possibly expect us to go along with this. Not even Lee could agree with this.' Naruto looked over at Lee, who had a steady stream of tears coming down his face. "Isn't Gai-Sensei generous Naruto," said Lee, pumping his fist into the air.
"WHAT!? Exactly what part of him is generous!?" said Naruto his voice cracking slightly under the strain of yelling so loud.
"Don't you see Naruto, Gai-sensei has almost assured our victory in the Chuunin exams," lectured Lee, "By doing the work we normally would, we would be doing the work of one genin each. But by doing the work of about twenty-four genin, eight chuunin, and eight Jounin, our strength will increase by at least one-hundred fold."
"Exactly my point Lee," said Gai, "this trip will be one final test of all of your skills to ensure your readiness for the exams. By the time we actually get to the Country of Thunder, you will be able to handle anything that the Hidden Cloud throws at you," and put the exclamation point on his speech with his usual thumbs up good guy pose. "I promise."
Naruto simply could not believe this. In even the short period of time he had been under Gai, he simply could not believe that Gai serious. 'All of that, for everyone here. No way, that's just not...' Naruto collapsed on the ground from shock, groaning slightly.
"Yes Naruto," said Gai, "we will all need rest for the journey ahead, but not now, we must make haste and it is you three's job to catch breakfast while we move. Now Gai team GO!"
Naruto only heard a resounding yes from Lee; while TenTen followed looking very downtrodden. 'What did I do to deserve this?' asked Naruto.
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Raan looked down at the scene before him. 'Dammit,' he thought, 'not again.' He looked down solemnly at the scene of carnage before him. The building was dusty and dilapidated, showing signs of age. It had been abandoned for some time. However, footprints and the signs of a slight scuffle seemed to have brought the area back to life. Blood littered the area, washing the walls into a grotesque crimson. Light pierced through a cracked window and lit the scene up before him. It penetrated and exposed everything and seemed to land most prominently upon a white cloth under which three corpses laid. Raan had discovered this area before the local media had, and he had seen the bodies. They were young girls, each looked to be about eighteen to twenty years old. Their faces were splattered with blood and their eyes had already rolled into the backs of their heads, giving away their lifelessness. Their skin had already begun to go blue and was even cold to the touch. Their bodies themselves were heavily mutilated, bearing signs of a harsh beating followed by what looked as though something had ripped the apart from the outside in. The blood easily splattered everywhere, leaving a trail from beginning to end. Raan observed them further. 'Looks like these two were the first to go. The third after seeing the carnage tried to escape but...' the third body lay a few feet from the others, in the same condition, except it was facing down, where the other two were facing up towards the sky. 'He must have caught her on the run,' thought Raan, 'she didn't get very far.' The whole place reeked of death, the musky scent of decaying wood mixed in with the smell of the blood gave for a rather pungent odor. He felt bile begin to rise in his throat, but he choked it down.
"Looks like the master killer has struck again eh?" asked a local reporter taking pictures of the grotesque scene. "Just can't seem to get any clues on this one can you Raan?"
"No, I suppose not," he said. That wasn't true; he knew very well who was doing this, knew him better than Raan liked to admit. He sighed heavily and placed his forehead in his hand. He was wearing his special Cloud forehead protector, showing the insignia of the Hidden Cloud Police Force. The normal clouds were wrapped in a circular figure resembling a police badge. 'The Raikage must have let him do this, given them both a night off to go have some 'fun',' thought Raan. He sighed heavily.
"Hey man, it's not your fault," said the reporter, "you're trying your best. The whole village has complete confidence in you that you'll wrap this thing up sooner or later. I mean, you're only a Chuunin, and you've never let a criminal escape the force yet." He placed a reassuring hand on Raan's shoulder, trying to comfort what he believed to be frustration.
Raan smiled weakly. "Thanks, I guess you're right." 'I don't deserve any praise. I'm just as bad as they are. Well, I have to try and reason with them, to try and protect the village somehow.'
"Listen, I've got to take care of something real quick. Don't disturb the scene until I get back," he said.
"Sure, don't worry about a thing," said the reporter. Raan gave another weak smile and slowly walked out the doors of the building. It was snowing again outside, and as usually, it was dark. 'Probably about midday,' he thought. He pulled a cigarette and lighter from his pocket and lit the end of it. He immediately touched the glowing cigarette to his lips and took a single, long drag from it before tossing it aside. He exhaled the smoke back out in front of him, only for the wind to whip it back into his face. He looked down at the snow, noticing a slight puddle in it. His own reflection looked back at him. He was only 18, but was already an accomplished officer on the squad. While not the best offensive ninja in the world, he was brilliant, and could notice details that others could not. He also was the best negotiator in the Hidden Cloud; 'Probably the reason I'm where I am today,' thought Raan. His face was very clean shaven, with a pair of golden eyes that gave him a very warm and friendly look. He was quite tall, about 6 feet. He wore the traditional style Chuunin jacket, a dark black vest with a fuzzy collar around the neck to keep the user warm. His jumpsuit was padded for warmth and completely black, as were his shinobi boots, knee length. He scratched the back of his head in apprehension. His hair was long and very dark black, going all the way down his back in a long ponytail. He shook the snow from his head and continued on down the road. 'He won't be far,' Raan thought, 'He doesn't like people messing with his creations.' He looked from building to building and noticed one almost directly parallel from the one the girls were in. He opened the doors, startling a flock of birds from the rafters above him. Light pierced through the darkness into the room. It resembled the other building almost perfectly, except the windows were boarded, letting no light through. He stuck the doors open and continued on. 'He's here all right,' thought Raan, 'I can feel it.'
"Set," he said, "I need to talk to you." He waited for a response, yet none came. Suddenly, there was a movement above him, on the rafters. He could here the metal clang from rafter to rafter as he jumped across them. Raan swallowed hard from apprehension. "C'mon Set, I just want to talk."
Something dropped about fifty feet from him, scattering the dust into the air and landing with a loud crash. Raan's heart beat faster, he could feel it.
Set lazily opened his eyes in the darkness. His eyes were the only part Raan could see; they were a blood red with strange crisscrossing lines moving perpendicular to each other. Raan's breathing became heavily labored. 'Those eyes, I can't stand them.'
"So," replied Set in a voice that sent chills down Raan's spine, "my illustrious keeper wants to talk to me. Well then by all means..."
Raan heard the doors slam behind him, leaving just a faint trace of light in the building. 'Julius!' he thought. He could see Julius's outline by the door. His heart raced now, he was trapped.
"Talk."