AURA
by Random Writer 46
---
NOTICE: This is not the only chapter I've updated this time. There's a little interlude before this.
Ahh... Sorry guys for being on hiatus for so long. I'm not sure I've gotten out of my blue funk yet, however, and this note will be kind of short. I hope you guys won't notice a few different things about this chapter, such as style or anything like that. It's been a while since I've even thought about Narutom, and my facts might be a bit muddled right now. I wouldn't even trust myself to remember what happened in the last few chapters!
This chapter is pretty short, but I've included an interlude before this, so make sure you guys read that first, eh?
Well, let's hope I'll be back on the ball soon, eh?
---
Chapter 9: Mistkrieg
---
"What's going on?" Sakura mumbled to herself softly, as she watched the dying man gurgle in front of her.
The bridge was stained with blood. Well, the parts of it that could be seen by Kurenai's genin group. Construction workers lay scattered, dead and dying. There was no way that they could treat these people in time... Not without making sure that Tazuna was safe.
Sasuke was taking a look around at the place, carefully sniffing here and there, trying to determine what kind of enemies they were going to fight. Silently, he put a finger on the parts of the bridge that had been splattered with blood, and tasted it.
"It's been diluted with water..." The brooding avenger said softly. "There's a high chance that those idiots of the Mist that tried to attack us had been freed by somebody."
Kurenai nodded.
"We'll continue further down the bridge, sooner or later we'll come across Tazuna, and hopefully Kakashi-san's team as well. Let's move out!"
---
KA-BOOM.
"They're here..." Kakashi noted as the smoke slowly cleared. "Hinata, guard Tazuna as well as you could. Your Byakugan would provide a good scout for any dangers to Tazuna-san."
There, in the middle of the cloud of smoke, arrived two figures. Kiba and Shino instantly tensed up. It was a bad thing that Naruto wasn't here yet, but they could deal with that.
The silhoutte of a large sword could be seen easily through the debris in the air... and flying towards them.
---
"Surprise attack!" Kurenai called suddenly as a flurry of shuriken and kunai flew towards them.
Sasuke dropped into a fighting stance immediately and dodged. Using his kunai to deflect most of the volley that came towards him, he spared a quick glance towards Sakura. She had also dodged the attack, and was panting slightly. It was understandable after all, her body wasn't accustomed to fighting just yet.
"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" Sasuke breathed, and flipped through a series of seals. Blowing a humongous fireball out of his mouth and towards the direction where the projectiles had come from, he forced their attackers into the open.
It was the brothers of the Mist.
"HYOUTON: MIZU ONIZAN!" Cried the one in the lead. Swinging his chained gauntlets towards Sasuke, he quickly made a few one-handed seals. Suddenly, water froze Sasuke's feet to the floor, and the chains were coming at him as fast as lightning.
'Shit!' Sasuke thought to himself. 'There's not enough time for me to make the seals for another Goukakyuu... I don't think my kunai and shuriken could protect myself against something like that either...'
Yet he didn't need to do anything. Kurenai had burst in and sliced the chains off the gauntlet with a chakra-enhanced kunai, obviously intending to take the missing-nin's head as well. Onitaro of the Mist quickly bounded backwards, and landed amongst his brothers.
"I didn't need any help!" Sasuke hissed, and Kurenai ignored him.
Both teams realized they were at a standstill, and nobody was giving an inch.
---
"Eh...?" Naruto mumbled as he woke up. "Where's everybody?"
It had been a few days since his fight with Inari, and the subsequent meeting with Haku. He had trained both Kiba and Hinata as much as he could, and both of them had learnt plenty of powerful jutsu, well, as powerful as he could teach them anyway.
He yawned, and got out of bed.
'Eh? Where's my team?' He thought to himself, sleepily. 'Today morning... Oh yeah! We're on guard duty! Dammit, I hope Kakashi-sensei forgives me for being so goddamn late...!'
He leapt out of bed and quickly dressed. Opening the window, he was prepared to jump out of it and latch onto the tree branch when...
"Hey."
He turned around, and looked Inari straight in the eye. The young boyt was staring at him back, but not in the same way that he had before. Naruto couldn't describe it, it was just so... different. The boy in front of him was not the same one who had yelled at him a few days before.
"Yeah?" Naruto asked, his hurry gone.
Inari bit his lip, and tried to break eye contact with the young man in front of him.
"I'm... I'm sorry for yelling at you the way I did before. I hope you can forgive me."
And with that said, he bowed his head.
Needless to say, Naruto was surprised.
Stumbling around in his mind for a moment, trying to figure out what to say, Naruto stuttered. It was terribly Hinata-y of him, but he couldn't help it. There was something shocking about the kid a few days ago suddenly turning into something like this.
"It's... It's okay! I mean, there's no harm done or anything like that. And I'm sorry about yelling like that to you too." Naruto said, bumbling a little bit. He reached out his hand, and waited for Inari's reaction. "Friends?"
The boy didn't reach out for it.
"No, you were right." The boy said. "I'm weak, too weak to protect anybody but myself. My mother always sheltered me from things, and the money that my family makes keeps me from being on the streets. I'm so weak! I'm not like my father at all! I want to be able to protect everything that I have with my two hands, but I can't do it! I want to... I want to become stronger! I WANT TO BE ABLE TO PROTECT PEOPLE! PROTECT PEOPLE THAT ARE IMPORTANT TO ME!"
At the end of his outburst he stopped, and gathered his breath. The blonde fox-nin suddenly realized with a shock, that there were tears steaming down the younger boy's face.
"I'm... sorry for making you listen to all this. I'll be leaving now."
Just as he was about to step out of the room however...
"Wait!" Naruto cried. "Come over here."
Inari looked back at him, confused. He walked back to him. Suddenly, Naruto began rummaging around inside of his pouch, as if looking for something. Inari flinched instinctively as Naruto's hand came back out.
"Take it."
It was a kunai.