Naruto yawned and stretched, glancing at the clock.
'Six in the morning. How do they wake up this early?' Naruto thought, standing up. He had managed to find an apartment after he had left the Hokage- Sasuke. He had lucked out and found a nice small apartment that he could get for free, being a 'ninja'. The landlady had said that it was her way of thanking him for protecting them all from the demons, and also because he reminded her of her son.
Her son had been brutally killed by demons in the war as she had watched, hidden in her room.
Naruto felt a small pang of guilt, but quickly squelched it. He had always felt too much for a demon, or so Gaara had always told him. He had always been 'too kind' and Gaara had warned him that that could very well be his downfall one day. Naruto hadn't listened.
'I never wanted to lead this war in the first place.' Naruto thought grumpily. Sure, he had been angry when the humans ruined their sacred grounds, but he was more in favor of talking it out with the humans. Of course, the majority of demons were for attacking, whether or not they cared about the holy grounds. Most just wanted blood and death, living only for the war and their next battle.
Naruto glanced at the clock.
'Six thirty- I've been thinking that long?' he thought, surprised. He did a double-take.
'Six thirty! Shit, I gotta get going!' He raced to his dresser, pulling out an outfit and not really caring what it was, then quickly jumping into the small bathroom attached to his apartment. He stripped, then leapt into the shower and turning on the water, nearly cursing aloud at the cold tempeture. He quickly washed up, wanting to get out of the freezing spray as soon as possible.
As soon as he deemed himself clean, he stepped out, turned off the water, and quickly grabbed a towel. He dried himself off, rubbing his hair a bit extra so it wouldn't be as wet when he went outside. Then he turned to his clothes and paused.
'These must have been her sons. Was this where he lived?' Naruto thought, getting his underwear on and then carefully picking up the first article of clothing. It was a sleek black top, obviously designed for a ninja who needed ease of movement. He slid it on, noticing that it fit almost perfectly. It was just a bit too big, but he liked his clothes that way. Next he picked up the pants- a slightly darker tan color, baggy at the bottom but tighter up top so they stayed on. Naruto slid the pants on. A perfect fit, going down to mid calf. He gave himself a once over in the mirror.
'Not half bad.' he thought, smiling. He exited the bathroom and grabbed a vest hanging up in the closet. He had seen most nins wear one, and it'd be pretty suspicious if he didn't have one, especially since he had said that he was a high-level ninja. He slid it on, completing his outfit. He was just about to go out the door when he remembered shoes. He almost cursed, but quickly ran to the closet and dug around for a pair of shoes. Since he had no socks, he decided to search for sandals. He glanced at the clock overh his shoulder.
'Six fifty? Damnit, did he own any sandals!' Naruto thought, frantically digging through pile after pile of protective shoes- almost like sneakers. Finally, he came across a pair and slid them on, running out the door and letting it slam behind him. He ran as fast as he could, directing chakra to his feet to get to the meeting place quickly.
He slammed his feet to a stop at the front gate.
'Made it.' he thought, glancing around for his partner. He was pretty sure the Hokage had called him Kakashi. He didn't see a sign of silver hair.
'What?' Naruto thought, looking up into the sky. He was very good at telling time by the sun, and from the looks of it, it was past the prearranged meeting time.
He heard footsteps approach and turned around quickly, hand going automatically to his weapons pouch. To his relief and surprise, he saw the pink-haired girl that he had seen yesterday- Sakura- and a boy with a really bad haircut, bushy eyebrows, and dressed in a green bodysuit.
"Are you here for the next watch?" Sakura asked, smiling slightly but looking dog-tired and slightly depressed. Naruto nodded.
"Yeah, the Hokage assigned me to the morning watch with Kakashi- have you seen him? He's late." Naruto grumped. "It's way too early to be awake."
"You're new, so you don't know- Kakashi is famous for being late. Only Iruka can make him be anywhere on time." Sakura said, yawning. Naruto looked confused.
"Who's Iruka?" he asked.
"He's a teacher at the ninja acedemy, but there's also a rumor going around that he's Kakashi's boyfriend." Sakura said.
"Boyfriend?" Naruto said dumbly. Sakura nodded.
"It's just a rumor though. I think it's great to be able to have someone you love with you during the war." Sakura said softly, eyes taking on a sad shine as she glanced down slightly. Naruto nodded.
"Yeah- you told me your folks died... I never really knew my parents." Naruto said. Sakura looked at him, shock and sorrow showing in her eyes.
"You're an orphan? That's so sad... I'm glad I got to know my parents, even if... they're gone now." Sakura burst into tears again and the boy with the bad haircut came up behind her and hugged her. Sakura turned into his embrace, crying softly.
"It's okay Sakura. You'll be alright. I'm here for you, okay?" he said. Sakura nodded.
"I just miss them so much..." she said. Naruto turned away, feeling as though he was spying on something private. Demons would never show so much sadness around others- he almost envied the humans ability to. A movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, and he turned to face the new arrival.
"Yo." Kakashi said calmly, walking up and reading a book. Judging by the cover, Naruto didn't want to know the contents.
"You're late!" he shouted, pointing angrily at Kakashi. "I've been here for a half hour!" Kakashi just nodded, smiling from what Naruto could tell, though it was hard to see with the mask.
"Well, and old woman needed help with her fruit cart-"
"Liar." Naruto said, sniffing the air instinctively. "You haven't been around fruit or old people at all." Kakashi's face turned from a happy smile to a forced, dangerous smile.
"And how'd you know?" he asked, sounding so overly happy it had to be fake. Naruto racked his brain for an answer.
"Well, there isn't a whole lot of fruit because the demons destroyed the orchards, and if you helped an older woman you would have had to be there and help longer than a half hour. You probably would still be there." Naruto said, praying to anyone that would listen that Kakashi accepted the excuse.
Kakashi's face relaxed.
"Well, for a second I thought you were able to tell by smell alone." Kakashi said, making a mental note to tell Sasuke later. Naruto laughed kinda nervously.
"Yeah- maybe we should start the watch?" he said. Kakashi nodded, looking past Naruto to Sakura- who had cried herself to sleep- and the bushy-eyebrowed boy who held Sakura close.
"Lee, you can take her home now. Make sure she gets plenty of rest- she's trying to be strong but she needs to be taken care of." The boy- Lee- nodded, doing a sort of half-salute towards Kakashi before carefully grabbing Sakura so she wouldn't fall and darting off.
Kakashi began walking, reading his book still.
"Come on Naruto! We should get started!" Kakashi said. Naruto grumbled and followed after him.
"Who was that?" he asked when he caught up.
"Hmm? Lee? He's Sakura's finacee- they've known each other for ages. Of course, they won't be able to get married until this whole thing is over and Sakura has managed to grieve for her parents properly. Poor girl- we didn't even have time to bury her parents bodies right, just put them in a mass grave." Kakashi said, seemingly unconcerned with how Naruto reacted but paying close attention. Naruto looked regretful, sad, and almost angry with... himself?
'I must be reading it wrong.' Kakashi thought, but filed the information away.
"Why can't they get married until the war's over?" Naruto asked.
"Well, traditionally weddins are happy occassions and a big celebration with lots of sake and music and food, but to have one now would be suicide. Unless the bride had her weapons strapped to her leg and wore her ninja uniform, and the groom was prepared to fight to the death on his wedding day. Forget the sake and the lavish party- we'd be lucky to have anyone attend or get a preist willing to be there to make it official. Sakura doesn't want that for her wedding. Of course, they might also be dead by the time it's safe." Kakashi said, almost sad. "People are dying every day because of those damn demons. No one even knows why they attacked."
"Yeah... no one knows why..." Naruto said, feeling the information sink slowly in. He hadn't really realized that the humans hadn't known why the demons attacked. He hadn't really thought about what it seemed like for the humans.
They continued the rest of the watch in silence.
That night, Naruto crept out of his apartment, checking to make sure he wasn't being followed. He cursed when he felt a familiar chakra signiture. He began running, deciding to lose Kakashi in the confusion.
He poured chakra into his feet, running and running. He felt Kakashi keep up with him for a while, but then he started to fall behind as the nins chakra gave out. Eventually, Naruto pulled ahead and far away from him.
'Damn nosey humans.' Naruto thought, getting close to the demons headquarters- about twenty miles from Konoha, in a cave that Kyuubi had discovered years ago.
When he was close enough, he turned back into his demon form. Kyuubi walked into the cave, noticing how the demons bowed respectfully towards him. They all knew who he was, and all knew of his power.
"Kyuubi-sama, everyone is here, except for-" a demon said, walking up towards Kyuubi and was cut off by a new arrival.
"Everyone except me- was that it?" Shukaku asked, striding in purposefully.
"Shukaku-sama." the demon bowed and then joined the other demons in a semicircle on the far walls of the cave. Kyuubi studied his troops- hundreds upon hundreds of handpicked demons, only the best and strongest. Every other night, they met to discuss the progress of the war and to assign new orders.
"Our meeting tonight is to discuss the new infiltrators of Konoha and Sand." Kyuubi said. Shukaku, standing behind Kyuubi, nodded.
"Kyuubi and I have infiltrated the ranks of the humans. It will only be a short time now until they are at last defeated." Shukaku said. "We'll run them out of our lands."
"Yeah!" a demon piped in, cheering because the war was almost over- the humans would die soon! His voice was joined by several others, all cheering.
Kyuubi felt a strange twang of guilt for his plans- dark eyes stared at him from the back of his mind, calculating and cautious.
'This has nothing to do with him.' Kyuubi thoguht, angrily pushing the face of the Hokage out of his mind.
"But-" he heard himself say. "-leave the Hokage for me. I will finish him myself, as a final show to the humans of our power!" A loud cry went up at Kyuubi's words- cheering and congratulating him.
Shukaku studied his longtime friend. Something was off about the way Kyuubi had said that- as though he was trying to prove something to himself.
'I'll find out what happened. Perhaps... perhaps the reason he's acting like he is is because he too may have found something- or someone- in the Konoha village.'
TBC...
A/N: Gah... sorry that this was boring- it'll get better soon, I swear! Sorry if anyone seemed OOC- I'm not used to writing Kakashi or Lee, so they probably seemed weird.
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