Chapter Two

13 years later…

Five ninjas crossed the border to the Krigakure village of mist. They moved silently under the cover of night as they tried to keep their charka low and less aware on the enemy's ground from letting other ninjas know of their presence.

"This is bad…real bad…" One of the ninjas whispered to the other. The leader turned to glare at the one speaking.

The five men in the ground had been silent until they crossed Mist boundaries when some of them starting getting nervous and whispering to each other of the rumors that had trailed from this road to their village.

They were in enemy territory. So far as word had reached Kohona, the Mizukage was murdered by none other than Zabuza the missing nin AKA the Demon.

But it had to have taken more than just one to beat a powerful ninja and he must've not done it alone…

"I heard that he really is a demon, sold his soul and all. In return, he was given the power to call forth minions, powerful ones to do his biding…" The other four look to one another as they heard the key word, 'demon', not like they hadn't face one long ago with Kyuubi eighteen years ago.

Even the rumors of demons being called and did the bidings of their masters sounded farfetched but still spread and allowed themselves to wonder if it was possible that maybe that Zabuza might have…

"No way that's impossible, even if he did take that no good monster, there would be no way he could control it!"

They remember that recently the appearance of their kyuubi holder had disappeared but no one seem to really care.

Let it land on someone else's village. But Sarutobi the third Hokage became worried as chances of the seal breaking and the demon rising once more might come back so he sent his best elite Anbu to find the child.

To none of their skill, they had failed to finding him. They never came back. Some say they were missing, other said they were dead…thanks to the monster.

Then as a few years rolled by in their village, a sudden break-in of the Hokage's study and the scrolls of the Hokages were stolen. As ninjas went to find the thief, they could not find him but they did found something in the forest the day after.

A body of Mizuki was found lying in the ground, ripped to shred, blood all over his clothes and the look of terror on his face. The ninjas wondered who could have done such a thing when they realized it wasn't the work of a very skilled ninja.

More the butcher work of a wild animal…

"An animosities." One of them said, remembering the body of that ninja. No one could forget how gory and all that blood that had been spilled due to the unknown creature or ninja or whatever who could possible done that.

Just as the leader was getting tired of hearing all this nonsense, he heard something and signal for them to listen. They stopped talking and heard the sound too.

There it was again.

It was coming from the left side of them, rushing by the bushes, rustling the leaves. The leader indicated that someone was following but was too foolish to have realize what they had gotten into. He turn and pointed to two out of the four members and told them to check it out, the rest would wait with him.

The two chosen obeyed as they went to follow where they heard the noise.

The three waited in the clearing for only ten half minute before they heard a scream and then one of them returning with the look of terror on his face.

"…We followed…Taka went to attack…it was a decoy…the person disappeared and he was attacked…needles fell out of nowhere, didn't see it coming…hit all over his body, his eyes, his ears, his heart, everywhere…"

"Oh god…" Suddenly the leader felt something changed in the air and he felt it come from behind.

He turned for one second before he heard a scream, "My eyes!" and then turned to see the other person who went with Taka with needles puncture him everywhere and his body fell with a dull thud to the ground.

The leader and the two remaining people were bewildered and startled as they saw their fallen comrade die painfully.

They had been taken by surprised easily and now two ninjas were already dead. How, how did this happened?

"Hmm, how easily the fool has fallen not too far from his own death, just like his other friend back there."

NANI! The others looked to where the source of the voice was coming from and saw a young man standing on a tree branch looking down below at them.

The mask with the symbol of waves was on top of this mysterious killer's head.

One of the two ninjas stared at him accusingly. "You…you son of a bitch! You're dead!" And the man went ahead to jump the kid while the leader cried out, "Nomiko, you fool!"

"Yes indeed you are one, not to have followed your commander's command. And not thinking of what could happen while in blind rage." The mask ninja said calmly. "But there is always a price to pay with such foolishness…"

As Nomiko leaped towards the unknown killer, kunai in hand,something gripped his ankle and held him still in the air.

What the! The captain and the other men saw red sand wrapping around the Nomiko's foot then moving up his leg, engulfing his entire body until his head was the only thing sticking out of the sand hold. The ninja stared at the masked man.

"You…" He said as sand starting coming into his mouth, nearly choking him.

"No I am afraid you have caught yourself in the Sabaku kyuu and Sabaku SouSou, desert coffin and desert graveyard. I believe your life ends here now."

And just as those words left his lips, the sand tightens around the ninja and then pulled him apart, spilling blood and sand mixed together as black grime poured down to the ground.

The leader and the remaining ninja watched in horror at the grimy sight as the remains of their comrade spilled down on top of them.

Soon the leader sensed another presence and turned and saw another mask man step in their clearing, wearing a skeleton-like mask with the sand symbol etched in his forehead.

He, the leader realized that even if it was highly impossible for the two of them to beat…these..these unknown ninjas, they could not last if they had a chance to escape.

But they could try. "Sikaro, let's go!" And the two vanished in smoke and started their escape.

Both the leader and the remaining ninja split to race in the barrage of the trees but before the ninja, Sikaro could go off his foot was caught just like his late friends but at least he had a chance to scream before he met the same fate.

Only the leader of the once five members of his team was left and he was trying to get away as far as possible.

But he became unaware of the last masked ninja following, the red charka flowing in the ninja's veins as he went in chase to his unknown prey.

As far as the leader could go before he knew he was being followed, he tried to make one last tactic attempt against the said ninja. Whichever one of the two it was.

"Katon Housenka no Jutsu!" He held his fist to his mouth, spitting multiple fireballs in the direction where he felt the ninja was at.

When he believed to have hit his target, he heard 'poof' and smoke coming towards him. When the smoke cleared did he realized he had made the biggest mistake that cost him his life.

The ninja had used seven clones of himself and went to attack behind the man and had taken a kunai to hold against his neck. He felt the prickpoint of the sharp blade touch close to his jugular area.

The ninja standing behind him breath down his neck, through the small hole of his mask. Just like the other two but something of this ninja was different, distantly very familiar…

"Hmm, so more others of you ninjas come to our territory once again. My my, the Hokage must really be in desperate attempt to try and stop us. So tell me…how is the old man, did he wish to send you like the others to retrieve that scroll long time ago after I killed Mizuki…or did he miss the little 'monster' badly…"

That was all the leader needed to heard as he put two and two together and fear and hate was coming off him as he realized that the monster, the child sealed with Kyuubi was holding his very life in his hands. He turned slightly and saw the orange mask of the fox and the two ice cold blue eyes shining through the mask.

"You…you killed all those ninjas…you killed the Mizukage…you killed Mizuki…you…" He felt the blade pressed deeper and blood slowly trickled down his throat.

The fox holder smirked behind his masked as he leaned closer to the man and whispered, "Let this be taught to you on how a monster can really be of what you believe…" It was said in an ice-cold voice and it send shivers down the leader's spine.

The last few words that his followers said, ringed in his ears, clear and loud, giving in detail of what Zabuza had gone and take to sell his soul all right.

He sold it for this monster!

And when the leader thought the blade should have slashed his throat, he was deadly wrong.

There was pain, but it was in the worse place ever. "You…you are…"

The man choked, blood spilled down from his lips as he looked down to see the gapping wound where his heart should be but a hand had speared through. The man's dying vision saw the bloody claws and in those claws, his own beating…

"…A monster…" The boy had indeed become what they had feared all along, a demon. A monster…

The masked fox pulled his clawed hand out of the body and let the corpse fall to the ground. "A monster I may be but it is the fault of your own damnation that led to your fated end…you and your fourth Hokage that made me what I am." He looked at the piece of meat in his hands.

So juicy and tasty, still raw and fresh from this body. Wouldn't be bad to take a bite and enjoy the kill…

A part of him, the demon, Kyuubi wanted to consume the heart and let the blood leak from his face, enjoying the meal but he didn't wish to eat 'garbage' that came from that village itself.

Especially from his own…beside he could think of another way to use this little fleshy organ for later.

"Yosh…" He said as he tears pieces of cloth from the dead corpse and wrapped it around the still warm heart. Then he jumped into the trees and headed back to meet his other two comrades.

The masked ninja reached the area where the two were already waiting as he returned, carrying his 'prize' bundle. He looked over at the two, one standing by quietly, the other jumping from the tree he sat on.

The first that had come was dressed in yellow long sleeve striped shirt and pants, with a black robe tied tightly by a yellow sash.

His black hair was place in a bun in back covered while in front was held by two beads at the ends. He went over towards the dead ninja with needles sticking out and started plucking and cleaning them on the ninja's clothes before placing them in his pouch.

The second of their company was dressed differently then the two, he wore red slacks, a long sleeve red shirt with a net shirt under and a white cloth that wrapped from across his left shoulder to the waist, a huge gourd strapped to his back and sand was being absorbed back in.

His blood red hair was cut short but still as the ninja removed his death mask, revealing cold green eyes and a tattoo red kanji 'love' on his left temple.

"Blood…" He said, his demon side sniffing the air, smelling it off their third masked friend, carrying the organ that bled and was turning the cloth red within.

"Now, now Gaara, this is not for you…just something I plan to do with it later. Let's just say I'll give this as payback to their village for their 'hospitality'" The masked fox ninja said.

The first looked up a bit and slowly removed his mask. His feminine face revealed and his brown eyes stared at them then down at the dead man he was standing over.

"Well it looks like these were much of a challenge than the last batch they send." He plucked another needle out and wiped the blood off.

"What did you expect Haku…do you really think that they are that capable of sending ninjas to try and stop us. Hmmp pathetic bastards…" Gaara said, he didn't take his eyes off the bloody claw on their still masked companion.

Haku sighed and then plucked the last needle out, which still had an eye attach and he grabbed the dead man's shirt and pulled it off.

"Well our mission's complete, let's head in and report to Zabuza."

The fox ninja nodded. "Yes we should, afterall we took care of another worthless bunch of scum." The ninja removed his masked and stared at his two friends with ice blue eyes with slivers of red spiraling around his slit pupils.

Haku nodded and then he, Gaara and Naruto headed back to the mist village to report their success, leaving the bodies of the ninjas out for the scavengers and crows to enjoy their new meal.

Their work was done and it was time to report back to their master, Mizukage of the Mist Village, Zabuza.