YO, I'm back with chapter 6. This chapter was a blast to write. We get to see a bit of action in this chapter, and things start to heat up a bit.
I appreciate all the favorites and follows, plus all the reviews are WONDERFUL!
You guys are the best! PLease enjoy CH6
"Begin!"
Iruka called out as he swung his arm straight down to signal the beginning of the next taijutsu match.
Instantly the two eight year olds shot from their opposite sides of the ring and clashed in the center.
The winner of the initial skirmish was the feral looking Kiba Inazuka, who used his superior strength to overpower his opponent, a very unhappy Shikamaru Nara.
The tattooed boy landed a solid punch to the Nara heir's gut followed by an attempted uppercut, which black haired child managed to dodge by dropping to the ground and attempting a leg sweep.
The kick missed as the young Inuzuka jumped over the offending appendage, and exhibiting the ferocity his clan was known for, leapt atop the smaller boy and began raining down blows on his hastily brought up guard.
After a few moments a hit managed to break through to connect with Shikamaru's cheek causing the back of his head to slam into the ground.
Iruka, seeing the blow, and the Nara's broken guard, decided to step in and call the match in favor of Kiba.
"Very good both of you." the young chunin stated as Kiba helped Shikamaru to his feet and they interlocked fingers, completing the sign of reconciliation.
He then turned to black haired boy who was rubbing his head.
"Are you ok Shikamaru? Do you need to go to the nurse?" he questioned fearing the perpetually lazy boy was injured worse than he appeared.
The child in question shook his pounding head in the negative.
"Na Sensei, I'm fine nothing a nap won't cure." he drawled lazily as he walked over and took his place in between his best friends, Naruto and Choji.
The rotund Akamichi who was currently munching on his favorite brand of chips decided to offer his condolences.
"Good match Shika, Kiba is a tough one."
He then held out his bag in front of the smaller boy.
"Chip?" He asked trying to help the only way he knew how.
Shikamaru nodded and accepted the offered salty snack.
"Thanks Choji," He then turned to the masked blonde next to him who up till this point had been completely silent.
"Well, I know you're just burning to say it. What did I do wrong this time Naruto?" he asked in a sarcastic tone, though genuinely seeking this friend's input.
The blonde jinchuriki flashed his lazy friend a hidden grin before responding.
"Since you asked," he said innocently before continuing in an almost lecture like manner
"Kiba is stronger than you physically, so you shouldn't have rushed to meet him in the middle. You could've stayed on your side and used his reckless momentum against him to cause a ring out."
He then paused to take a breath, observing as the next random pair was called up, A civilian girl named Kari Sumetsu and the always stoic Shino Aburame.
"Shades has got it in the bag." he thought to himself before turning back to Shikamaru and finishing his analysis.
"Also, as soon as you saw your leg sweep miss you should have used the momentum to roll away from him so you could get out of the danger zone, and try a different angle of attack . When you just sat there you left yourself wide open for his counter, which ultimately cost you the match and gave you what I'm assuming is a killer headache."
The Nara scion didn't respond, instead choosing to just nod in acknowledgement of his friend's words as he watched Shino absolutely demolish his opponent with superior skill and a textbook execution of the academy's standard taijutsu style.
"Alright that's enough." Iruka said as he helped the young girl to her feet from where she had been knocked out of the ring.
"You really need to practice your taijustu more Kari, that was not a very good showing on your part." he said sternly as the girl just nodded in a sullen way and made her way back into the crowd of students.
"Alright, next up is," he paused looking to his list before finding the names and announcing.
"Sakura Haruno versus Hinata Hyuga."
Naruto immediately perked up at the sound of his best friend "besides shikamaru" heading into her match.
"You got this Sakura, you can do it!" he hollered as he cupped his hands around his mask covered mouth.
The pink haired girl blushed a bit in embarrassment at the loud yell, but quickly sent the blonde a confident grin and a thumbs up.
Naruto was happy that she seemed ready, he had been trying to help her build her self esteem for two years now and it was finally paying off.
He remembered not for the first time how close they had come to never being friends when he had accidentally hurt her on the first day of the academy.
When he got home that day he had rushed to his father distraught by what had happened and spilled all of his fears out in one big jumbled mess. After about 15 min of questions and frantic retellings Kakashi finally managed to piece together what had happened and they had immediately set out for the Haruno household.
When they got there it seemed, based on their icy greeting at the door by Sakura's father, that she had already told her parents what happened.
It took a few minutes, but Kakashi eventually convinced the man to allow them inside so they could all talk about what happened.
It almost seemed comical to the blonde now as he remembered the always laughing Kizashi Haruno and his goofy wife Mebuki sitting on either side of Sakura trying their absolute best to look intimidating to him and his former anbu captain father
The explanation and apology was not well received at first, but then Kakshi had done something that Naruto had never seen him or even expected him to ever do.
He had bowed low to the ground and asked for Sakura and her parents forgiveness on behalf of his son. He had pulled Naruto down with him as well and they both sat there for almost a minute before the Haruno Patriarch had given in, feeling awkward at the fact that such a high ranking shinobi was prostrating himself before his family.
Things had smoothed over quickly after that, and Kakashi had even invited Sakura to join them for training on occasion. To which her parents were extremely grateful.
While Kazahi had been a ninja he had never progressed past genin and had retired early so he couldn't offer his daughter the same home training opportunities that her classmates had, which made Kakshi's offer all the more valuable.
After that day Sakura and Naruto had started to get closer to the point that they hung out almost as often as he and Shikamaru did.
And while it was only twice a week Sakura had also begun to blossom under Kakashi's, and to a lesser extent Naruto's, teachings until she got to where she could now hold her own against most people in the class with only a few exceptions.
One of those exceptions being Naruto himself and another being the blue haired lavender eyed girl that was her current opponent.
And of course the third exception was the raven haired Uchiha scion Sasuke, who Sakura couldn't even look in the eye let alone fight properly.
Honestly it irritated Naruto to no end how his friend could go from one minute laughing and joking around with him and the rest of their friends to the next minute obsessing over how cool Sasuke looked that day with most of the other girls.
Shikimaru had exasperatedly summed it up in three words one day when Naruto had been complaining loudly about how the pink haired girl had blown them off at recess to gossip with the other girls over Sasuke's new outfit.
"Women are troublesome." He had said sagely, to which Naruto had wholeheartedly agreed.
He was pulled from his thoughts as he felt eyes on him, looking up he met the onyx gaze of the aforementioned Uchiha.
"Geez, it's like the bastard could tell I was thinking about him." The blonde thought annoyedly as he nodded to the raven haired boy and received one in return.
That just made him think of his odd relationship with the other proclaimed "prodigy" of their class.
They weren't friends exactly, but they held no ill will towards each other. Sasuke was easily one of the most skilled students in their class, second only to himself, and followed closely by Hinata.
Because of this he viewed Naruto as a rival of sorts and constantly measured himself against him, and while the black haired boy had yet to best the blonde in a single match the gap between them narrowed ever so slightly everyday as the Uchiha pushed himself to his limits to keep up with the masked boy.
Sasuke was also the only person that Naruto was able to go all out against in class and it not be over almost immediately. This brought a mutual respect between the two boys that bordered on cordial.
Naruto then turned back to Sakura and offered her a thumbs up of his own along with another yell of encouragement.
This exchange did not go unnoticed by the young Hyuga heiress, who barely managed to stop a flash of irritation from showing on her face as Naruto rooted for her opponent.
Not that she could blame him. She knew that he and Sakura had been close friends since the beginning of their time at the academy, while she had barely spoken to the boy.
It wasn't that she hadn't tried to befriend him, she truly had. She just hadn't expected it to be so difficult.
When it came to her training or her grades Hinata was top notch. She gave her all into everything she did, practicing for hours on end until she was able perform everything perfectly.
But when it came to Naruto, her brain just ceased to function.
They exchanged a standard good morning each day, as they both tended to arrive early, but anything past that Hinata just didn't know what to do.
It wasn't just with Naruto, though it was the worst with him, she wasn't really sure how to talk to any of her classmates.
She had spent her entire life either training her physical abilities or preparing herself for the responsibilities of one day being clan head, with all that there was never really much time for socializing.
Sure she had played with her sister Hanabi, and her cousin Neji, but they were close family, with whom she had grown up alongside. Her peers on the other hand she had absolutely no idea how to approach. Which left her with no other choice than to watch from the sidelines as her classmates formed friend groups and expressed themselves freely.
This also caused the unfortunate side effect of her being labeled as a haughty stuck up.
She had overheard the other children gossiping about her on the playground early into their first year saying how, "The Hyuga Princess who thought she was better than everyone else would never dare associate with the commoners."
"If they only knew." she thought morosely before she was brought out of her musings by Iruka's shout for them to begin.
Hinata's eyes instantly zoned in on her opponent as they began to slowly circle each other along the edges of the ring with neither one wanting to make the first move.
Eventually Sakura's impatience won out, as the Pink haired girl broke rank and dashed towards her opponent intending to start the action.
Hinata was ready for her by the time they met, and the green eyed girl's initial strike was batted away by her lavender eyed opponent's quick hands.
Sakura's follow up jab was parried as well, along with her next six punches before Hinata decided to go on the offensive.
She inhaled deeply through her nose before she blazed into motion.
Her hands moved almost too fast to see as they struck out against the other girl's vulnerable points, while her feet maneuvered her in a semi circle around her opponent to keep her off balance.
Just when the heiress was moving in for the finishing blow she felt something grab her wrists stopping her in her tracks.
She looked and was shocked to see Sakura breathing heavily and gripping her by the forearms. When she raised her startled eyes to meet the pinkett's she saw the other girl smirk slightly before delivering a devastating kick to the lavender eyed girl's ribs sending her tumbling to the ground.
Hinata wheezed as all the wind was knocked out of her as she lay on the ground.
That was why she was always very careful to redirect the Haruno girl's blows instead of outright blocking.
When Sakura hit, she hit Hard.
"Come on Hinata, get up!" she screamed at herself mentally as she struggled to her feet.
She was surprised that Sakura hadn't capitalized on her advantage while she was on the ground, but once she got a good look at the girl she understood why.
Sakura was gasping for air and was wincing every couple of seconds as she tried to move different parts of her body.
Now it was Hinata's turn to smirk, though she didn't as it would be considered rude. The pink haired girl was feeling the effects of her earlier strikes.
"That kick must have been a last ditch effort to take me out." The Hyuga thought as she brought her hands back up into her family's signature gentle fist style and moved towards her weakened opponent.
Even handicapped as it was with her being unable to use chakra in the spars, her family's style was still a force to be reckoned with as it's sharp strikes attacked nerve clusters and pressure points all over the human body.
Hinata had spent years memorizing every inch of the human anatomy under her father's orders specifically for occasions like this where chakra was unavailable making shutting off tenketsu impossible.
Just as the blue haired girl was going to rush in to finish the match Sakura dropped to her knees unable to continue standing, causing Iruka to step in and end the spar.
While Iruka fussed over Sakura making sure she was alright, Hinata patiently waited for him to be done so they could perform the seal of reconciliation and she could exit the ring.
After Sakura assured the chunin she was fine, the scarred man helped her to her feet and she walked to the center of the ring where Hinata stood waiting.
As they both reached forward to perform the seal Sakura spoke up.
"You got me this time Hinata, that style of yours is scary efficient." the pink haired girl said good naturedly.
Hinata froze just for a moment, surprised that the girl was actually starting a conversation with her before she realized it was now her turn to speak.
"Thank you Sakura" she replied evenly before deciding to add,
"You almost beat me with that kick, it really caught me off guard." the lavender eyed heiress said, attempting to offer her own compliment to the other girl.
Sakura just smiled before responding, "Yeah Naruto taught it to me, he said it was part of a style called The Strong Fist."
Hinata recognized the name, and if she remembered correctly it was the preferred style of Might Guy, Konoha's resident taijutsu specialist, and long time friend of Kakashi Hatake.
"It's no surprise Naruto knew elements of that style." she thought as she knew from her observations that he often trained with the exuberant jounin.
And just like that their conversation was over and Sakura had walked back over to where Naruto was waiting for her with a play by play of their spar and what she could have done differently, while Hinata walked back over to the edge of the class by herself as she wished, not for the first time, that it was her that Naruto was talking so animatedly to.
As if he could hear her thoughts the blonde Hatake suddenly brought his eyes to meet hers and offered her a nod of acknowledgement much like she had seen him give Sasuke earlier.
Hinata returned the nod with one of her own along with a hesitant smile, she was delighted to see the sides of Naruto's mask lift as he grinned back at her from beneath the cloth.
"Maybe there's still hope for me after all." the young Hyuga thought as her day got just a bit brighter.
The rest of the day passed by quickly and soon Naruto found himself walking the familiar path back to his and his father's apartment for a quick snack before heading over to the training grounds.
When he stepped through the front door he was surprised to find that his father was already home waiting for him.
"Dad!" he called out excitedly as he ran to the kitchen to tackle the older man in a hug.
"I thought you were on a mission till next week?" he questioned with his words slightly muffled by the fabric of his father's flak vest.
Kakashi returned the hug before prying his son off and answering.
"I was supposed to be, but the mission parameters changed halfway through and we had to cut the mission short." The man said easily, telling his son a half-truth.
The actual reason his mission had ended early was that they had run into a contingent of Iwa Shinobi sniffing around the border, and had been thrust into a firefight.
They had managed to emerge victorious thanks in no small part to Kakashi himself, but Genma, one of his squadmates for the mission, had taken a nasty fire jutsu to the back and had to be rushed back to the village for treatment.
"Awesome!" the blonde grinned as he dropped his backpack on the floor.
"That means you can spar with me today, right?"
The silver haired man offered his son an apologetic look before answering.
" I'd love to bud, but I can't," he said regretfully not wanting to let his son down.
The currently unmasked blonde had a frown stretched across his face as asked
"Why not Dad? Come on we haven't sparred in forever, and no one in class is even remotely a challenge!" he pleaded
Kakashi shook his head before responding
"Sorry son, no can do, at least not today. I've already made plans." the man said carefully knowing his son wasn't going to like that answer.
Naruto looked shocked and quickly feigned the same hurt expression he often saw his father adopt whenever the blonde turned him down for something.
"Ah I see how it is," he started to fake sniffle "my own father doesn't want to spend time with me anymore."
He then turned up the volume and added some fake tears "OH THE CRUEL PAIN OF ABANDONMENT, IT HURTS TOO MUCH!" He cried out dramatically as he held his face in his hands.
Kakashi rolled his lone eye at his son's scarily accurate mimicry of his routine before he lightly bonked the boy on the top of his head to get him to quit.
"I'm not abandoning you, I just already promised a spar to someone else on the way home today."
The blonde quickly cut the dramatics as suspicion arose in his mind.
"Who did you promise to spar with?" he asked voice dripping with curiosity
The jounin sighed, wishing he were still out in the woods fighting enemy shinobi before answering.
"If you must know, you nosy brat, it was Anko." he said with no real heat waiting for the inevitable explosion.
And he was not left wanting.
"REALLY DAD?! You're blowing me off for The Crazy Snake Lady! You know I HATE her!" he whined indignantly, for once showing his age.
Kakashi sighed again and rubbed his face with his left hand while holding his right up in a placating manner in an attempt to quiet his son.
"Now son, I know you two didn't get off on the best foot-" he was suddenly cut off by the younger Hatake.
"She tied me to a tree upside down fifty feet in the air and sent snakes slithering up the trunk after me." he deadpanned accusingly
"Yeah, but you learned how to get out of restraints really quickly and those snakes weren't even poisonous." the older man responded teasingly, causing his son to pout even more.
In reality he had yelled at the purple haired woman for thirty minutes after he found out about that before she managed to calm him down by explaining that she had hidden clones stationed in the tree and on the ground should the worst happen, but it was too fun to not mess with his son over it.
He then added more seriously. " She has also taught you a lot of valuable survival skills son, so you should really be less hostile towards her."
The whiskered blonde squawked indignantly at that before responding.
"Me hostile!? It's her who's hostile, always sneaking up on me, and putting snakes in my bed. Two weeks ago there was a cobra in my backpack when I got to school dad. A COBRA!" he said emphatically before adding,
"Iruka Sensei almost had a heart attack and it tried to bite Choji, I mean granted Choji had mistaken it for a large gummy worm and tried to eat it so I'd be pissed too but still."
Kakashi just chuckled and smiled knowingly before responding.
"And I'm sure you did nothing to provoke her, like say, I don't know, having Bull relieve himself all over her front door, or putting itching powder in her sheets?" he said knowing full well that his son gave as good as he got when it came to the Snake Mistress.
Naruto grinned sheepishly as he remembered his pranks against the woman, before he started to protest again
"But Dad-"
"No buts." The sharingan user cut him off before he could continue his complaint.
"You already had plans to work with Yugao and Hayate today anyway remember?" he added
Naruto groaned loudly in response before deciding to use his words.
"Actually I don't have training with them today," the blonde said a tad bitterly
"Kitty Lady stopped by this morning to cancel, because apparently it's their anniversary or something, I'm not one hundred percent sure since I kinda stopped listening after she said no training."
The silver haired jounin shook his head fondly at his son's admission.
"Well you are welcome to join me for my spar with Anko, even if you aren't participating you can still learn something." he offered helpfully as he pulled on his sandals.
The younger Hatake grimaced at that.
"No thanks dad, I'll just see if Shika or Choji wanna hang out." he said as he headed back towards the front door.
"See ya later dad, love ya."
By the time Kakashi went to respond the boy was already long gone.
"Love you too son." he mumbled to himself as he double checked that he had all of his gear before he too headed out into the village.
As it turned out both the Nara and the Akimichi heirs were unavailable. Choji was holed up with his father in their kitchen learning about food pills, while Shikamaru was currently being lectured by his mother about his most recent test scores.
"Ugh" the blonde shuddered as he pitied his pineapple haired friend. When Ms. Yoshino started yelling, she didn't stop for a long time. He still had flashbacks from the time he and Shikamaru had broken her favorite vase while they were playing tag in the house.
He hadn't been able to hear correctly for the rest of the week.
Seeing as his initial plan was a dud, the masked boy decided he would just go for a walk around the village to kill some time. But since walking alone was no fun he quickly ran through a few hand signs and slammed his hand onto the pavement to summon Bull to keep him company.
The large dog was happy to see his masked friend and showed it by instantly knocking the youngest Hatake down in an attempt to lick his few areas of exposed face.
"Hehehe, down bud, I missed you too" Naruto chuckled as he pushed the ninken off of him.
"I was planning on taking a walk, and was wondering if you wanted to join me?" he asked as he scratched the beast behind his ear.
Bull nodded in the affirmative, and after a few more scratches the pair set out.
They walked for a few hours, just lazily traversing the narrow streets of the village taking in the sights and greeting the few faces Naruto recognized. For the most part he was largely ignored, though the large bulldog walking alongside him did draw a few stares from random passersby.
Just as dusk was setting in and the Sun was dropping low on the horizon Naruto decided it was time to head back home.
As he took in his surroundings to see where he had ended up he noticed that he was clear on the opposite side of the village from his apartment, just barely a stone's throw away from the walls of the Uchiha compound.
He was about to send Bull home and take to the rooftops to make the trip home quicker when he heard a shrill scream coming from behind the large wall of the compound on his left.
The scream was suddenly cut off, leaving the compound and the surrounding area completely devoid of sound. All Naruto could hear was his now heavy breathing and a low growl that began to emanate from Bulls throat.
The large dog looked up and his summoner and made a few head motions let loose a low whine.
Naruto knew what that meant.
Bull smelled blood.
Since the large ninken was the only one of the pack that couldn't speak, he and Naruto had devised a code of sorts for the dog to convey basic ideas to his partner. While nowhere near as effective as an Inuzuka's method of canine communication, for the Hatake it got the job done.
"Are you sure bud?" Naruto asked cautiously hoping he had misunderstood the ninken.
The dog just nodded in response while still growling in the direction of the compound.
The blonde thought for a moment before coming to a decision.
"Alright Bull, I need you to go get dad, and bring him here, while I go check out that scream."
The dog immediately began to protest grunting and shaking his large head in defiance of the boy's order.
Naruto placed a hand on his snout to stop his movement before speaking again.
"I'll be fine bud, I need you to trust me. You will be able to find dad faster without me, and I need to make sure that no one is hurt."
Seeing that the hound still wasn't convinced he continued
"I'm just gonna do some recon to see what's going on. I won't engage until you're back with dad, I swear."
Bull paused in his protest for a moment before finally acquiescing to his summoner's request. He nodded once and licked the boy's hand before heading off into the village in search of Kakashi.
Naruto watched him until he was out of site then he turned his attention back to the task at hand. He then brought both hands up into a familiar hand sign and quietly murmured "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu"
He watched in satisfaction as five identical blondes popped into existence in front of him before they each offered him a nod and set off towards different parts of the compound's wall.
Naruto had given them strict orders to henge into members of the local fauna and investigate, only dispelling once they had found something.
It only took about forty five seconds for the first clone to dispel and it's memories made the blonde gag.
It had taken on the form of a squirrel and had climbed through the open window of a house just on the other side of the wall. What it found in the living room of the home would forever be burned into his memory.
Five people, two adults and three children all dead. The youngest child was even smaller than Naruto himself. They had all died from what seemed to be stab wounds except for the father who looked to have been decapitated.
Tears sprung to the young boy's eyes as he remembered the blank looks on the faces of the children.
The next three clones that dispelled brought images much like the first. Entire families dead, and in various ways each one more gruesome than the last.
At this point Naruto had fallen to his knees and vomited all over the ground in front of him twice. He was quietly shaking as he sat in the dirt wishing that his dad would hurry up and get here so that he could pick him up and tell him it was all a bad dream.
Then the final clone dispelled, and unlike the others the people in the contents of it's memories were very much alive.
There was a shaggy haired main in dark clothing holding a katana as he stood over a girl who looked to be only a few years older than Naruto that was begging for her life. The strangest thing about the man was this orange mask with one eye hole and blue flames painted on one side.
The clone heard the man taunting the girl in an almost playful voice as he delivered a slice to the back of her leg rendering the limb useless. The girl cried out in pain before she was silenced by a kick to her abdomen that sent her skidding across the ground.
The clone had dispelled at that point to warn it's creator of the still living girl.
Naruto was torn, he wanted to help that girl, but after what he had seen he knew that whoever that masked man was he was way above his level.
And the boy was scared.
He had never faced death before today. Sure he had trained and sparred, given injuries and received them, but what happened in that compound was something else entirely.
It was slaughter, pure mindless slaughter.
The blonde would be basically throwing his life away if he went in there, it was too dangerous.
But then he remembered the terrified look in the girls wide brown eyes.
She had a life too didn't she? She deserved to live just as much as Naruto did, so what kind of person would he be if he cowered in fright while that girl died scared and alone.
Naruto shakily stood to his feet and closed his eyes while taking a deep breath to steady his heart rate.
Suddenly his mind was filled with the words his father had once told him during one of their many talks on the duties of a shinobi.
Kakashi had just returned from a long mission where he had stayed behind in a small village to protect its inhabitants from a local band of rogue ninja even though it went beyond the parameters and pay grade of the mission he had been assigned. When Naruto had questioned his decision he had said something that had stuck with the boy ever since.
"To know what is right and to choose to ignore it is the act of a coward."
When the boy's eyes snapped back open, the cerulean orbs were filled with a burning determination that hadn't been present before. And without another moment of hesitation he focused chakra into his legs and leapt over the wall heading in the direction his clone had dispelled
Obito Uchiha, or "Madara" as he had been calling himself was getting bored of slaughtering his former clanmates.
He had agreed to take part in order to convince Itatchi to join his group, well that and a small part of him did want to seek revenge on the clan that had shunned him as a child. But after the first twenty were cut down it really started to get monotonous.
That was until he found the young girl currently crawling away from him.
She had been the only Uchiha to actually put up some semblance of a fight since he had arrived. When he had attacked her family her parents had gone down easy, but not her. The young shinobi had actually managed to catch him in a genjutsu, which gave her enough time to make a run for it.
Of course she hadn't gotten far, only maybe fifty feet before the more experienced shinobi had been able to break the illusion and cripple her with a well placed kunai to the achilles tendon, but still she had entertained him if only for a moment.
Perhaps that's why he hadn't killed her outright when he walked up to her, choosing to taunt her instead hoping to get a little more amusement out of his toy before it was broken.
But she had disappointed him.
Instead of defiance her face shone with pure terror in the face of her certain death.
"It's a shame really." he thought to himself as he prepared to bring his katana down to end the child's life.
"I had hoped we could play some more." he said aloud as he swung his blade expecting to hear the sound of blade meeting flesh.
Instead he was met with another sound.
"EARTH RELEASE: EARTH STYLE WALL!"
Obito was shocked as he heard a young voice scream the name of the jutsu from somewhere to his right, and was even more surprised when a thick wall of dirt six feet wide rose ten feet in the air blocking his intended prey from his blade.
The Uchiha then turned his head just in time to catch a glimpse of bright blonde hair streaking towards him in a shunshin.
"Sensei?" he thought in slight fear as he dodged a swipe from a kunai intended for his liver.
The older shinobi then leapt backwards to put some distance between himself and his new adversary, and when he did he was able to get a good look at his assailant.
It was a child, definitely not his dead sensei back from beyond the grave to enact his revenge.
The boy looked to be no older than ten with blonde hair and bright blue eyes currently narrowed in anticipation, with an orange vest over black clothing and a mask covering the bottom half of his face.
A very familiar mask.
"Sensei's hair and his mask, there was little doubt of who this child was." he thought to himself as he settled into a more relaxed stance.
He was obviously his former sensei's son, Naruto was his name if he remembered correctly. And given his fashion sense and the small bit of his fighting style the boy had displayed Obito assumed he had been trained by him.
"Can I help you boy? As you can see I'm kind of in the middle of something." the masked man asked almost nonchalantly.
Normally he would have just used kamui to teleport behind the boy and slit his throat, but unfortunately he couldn't kill the boy.
If he was sensei's son then that meant he was the container of the nine tails, which would be important for his plans further down the road so killing him would do much more harm than good.
But if he truly was a student of his former teammate, then the boy definitely would not be leaving unscathed. He couldn't pass up the opportunity to hurt the bastard that had taken everything from him.
Naruto didn't answer verbally to the older man's obvious taunt, instead he formed a familiar hand seal and summoned two clones to his side who both rushed the masked murderer while he ran for the girl.
He hadn't made it two steps before the memories of both clone's quick deaths entered his mind and he felt a presence materialize directly behind him.
It was only due to the years of training that the masked blonde was able to duck his head in time to avoid a right hook that would have easily fractured his skull. The blonde then tucked into a roll to avoid the man's follow up kick, before popping up and continuing his mad dash for the now unconscious Uchiha girl.
He tossed a handful of Shuriken behind him in an attempt to discourage another assault from behind, and was disappointed yet unsurprised when he didn't hear the sound of steel hitting flesh.
Suddenly pain flared through his jaw as a disembodied arm came shooting up from the ground to connect with the bottom of his chin sending him flying up into the air before he landed hard onto his back.
The arm was then followed by a head and torso before eventually the masked man was standing over the downed Hatake holding the five shuriken the blonde had thrown at him earlier.
Obito then brandished the bladed stars in front of the groaning boy as he chastisingly said,
"Didn't your mother teach you not to play with knives kid."
Then with movements too fast to follow he threw the blades so that each one embedded themselves in one of Naruto's limbs.
"AAAAAHHHH" the boy howled in pain and hot tears streamed down his face as the steel pierced his flesh deep enough to touch bone.
He chuckled a bit at the child's pain before he spoke again.
"Quiet down kid, you'll wake the neighbors." he said mockingly before looking around at all the dead bodies and adding "Well, maybe not these neighbors, but you get the point."
He then slammed his foot down on the boy's gut feeling a few ribs give way at the blow and knocking the wind out of him in a soundless scream.
"Ah, that's better."
Naruto was going to die. He knew it as he lay there unable to move beneath the masked man's boot.
His arms and legs were on fire and he could tell at least three ribs were broken. He tried to focus his vision but found that he couldn't, probably a symptom of a concussion from the uppercut.
All he had wanted to do was help that girl and now they were both going to die. He was a failure.
The boy tried to move any part of his body but he found that he couldn't, so he just lay there and prayed for his father to show up and rescue him as he felt darkness closing in around him.
"I don't wanna die," He thought as he felt himself slowly losing consciousness.
"I don't wanna die" He suddenly saw a dull orange glow in the approaching darkness.
"I don't wanna die" The glow was closer now and Naruto could see it was emanating from a cage of some sort.
"I don't wanna die" The blonde desperately reached out for the cage, sure that his salvation was just beyond its bars.
"I don't wanna die!" At last he was close enough to touch the bars and he saw what lay behind them. The massive face of some predatory animal regarded him with hungry eyes.
"I DON'T WANNA DIE!" Suddenly the beast's mouth opened up revealing a dark maw full of gleaming white razor sharp teeth.
"I DON'T WANNA DIE!"
The beast's mouth slammed shut around the boy and he heard sinister laughter booming in his ears. Suddenly there was an all consuming heat and Naruto Hatake knew no more.