Chapter 20: SDI, bigger, better, bolder.
7 months, 5 weeks, and 10 hours later.
"So we're going all the way around the building, bottom to top." Naruto asked, just to confirm. An anticipated smirk crossed his lips as he shifted around the new black forehead protector, completely black, the metal included, which made the bold letters SDI in white stand out. Though adamant at first about trading in his regular orange clothing, Naruto now wore a black jacket suspiciously similar to his old one with SDI in white letters on the back. Under it he wore a white shirt with black pants. "It's gotta be around here somewhere."
"You think we can do it, there are a lot of people here." Konohamaru said with a voice that wasn't sure. He was wearing the same forehead protector, the same blue scarf, but now with a black shirt baring SDI on the back along with a pair of white shorts. They hadn't decided much on a uniform, more of a color scheme of black and white and a logo.
Naruto and Konohamaru stood with their backs against the back wall in side the Konohamaru's room, on opposite sides of the large flame under the Konoha symbol engraved in the wall. Their intent was to search through out the whole SDI building for a demon in disguise, and it wasn't Kakashi's doppelganger. Instead something hiding as a human. "On three." Naruto knelt down, ready to go. "1...2." He looked over at Konohamaru, who was also ready. "3!"
With that, both of them dashed toward the door in the head of the room, Naruto reached the stairs first and abruptly made sure he was in front of Konohamaru so the boy wouldn't pass him. In an effort to save time he kicked it open and landed into the familiar main hall on the other side, the much larger main hall. It was filled with people, no surprise to Naruto and Konohamaru, as usual because of SDI's growing expansions. A few of them were from extremely far away villages, others were from places a little closer, all of their reasons for being here were different, some clients, some making business proposals, either way Iruka most likely had his hands full.
They both paused... "Ok, this is going to be a little harder then I thought." Naruto scratched his head, "Where is Kiba when you need him?"
Konohamaru and Naruto waded through the sea of people, trying their best to look over each one they came across as thoroughly as possible, but that wasn't easy since there were so many. How could they tell this demon apart from everyone else? If they couldn't do that then-- "!" Konohamaru felt a person brush past him, which wasn't unusual, but the strange push that felt like a slight breeze. He turned around, the closest person behind him was a man in a suit who was looking down at him strangely. But who wasn't?
The man's body seemed to jump though he didn't move, it was as if Konohamaru was seeing double for a split second, a ghost like transparent double that was side by side with the man. "!" Konohamaru pointed an accusing finger at him. "That's the guy!" When he said that the man flinched, turning to run, but Konohamaru dived forward and drove his shoulders into the back of his legs.
The man fell on his face and Konohamaru jumped on his back, retrieving the special kunai Kisame had given him and pressing against the back of the man's neck. Much to the surprise of passing patrons who stopped and crowded around, Naruto had to push his way through. "Alright demon guy! We know it's you, stop hiding." Konohamaru directed.
When Konohamaru started applying pressure, the man, no demon, started to get nervous. "Ok! Ok! Stop, stop, stop! I give up." The man pleaded in a shaky voice. His eyes narrowed, he had to find a way out of this and from the looks of this, there were none.
"Uh...Nobody ever gave up..." Konohamaru scratched his head "What do I do now?" he asked as he looked down at the hidden demon, who seemed to becoming blurrier and blurrier. "Hey, what are you doing?" A breeze blew upward, making Konohamaru gasp and shake his head, after a deep breath the distortion he was seeing seemed to fade, "!" Konohamaru drove the Kunai down and cut the man's head off completely, a very...explicit form of killing for Konohamaru but it worked.
"What was that about?" Naruto knelt down next to Konohamaru "You ok?"
"I'm fine." Konohamaru rose off of the body, shaking his head again. "..."
Naruto gave him a once over look "So you finally got over that blood thing?"
Konohamaru nodded "Yeah, I guess."
"So you can handle clean up?" Naruto asked, he was skeptical about it.
"Uh huh."
"...Ok..." Naruto looked around at the crowd they had drawn. "Hey, don't you people have work to do?" he asked, which drew a clamor from the people and prompted them to move on. "I gotta go find Neji, just tell me if you change your mind." Naruto didn't know that Konohamaru had gotten over his anxiety of blood, and if it happened so suddenly then it could come back just as quickly.
"Ok." Konohamaru nodded, watching Naruto walk away. Then he looked down at his hands, a small smile edging at his lips.
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Naruto looked around the library, finding it strange that even though the rest of the building was now busy with today's work of expanding that this was the only empty and quite room. It even echoed when he walked, generally caused by the fact that this room had also grown larger. The former 3rd floor was turned into a balcony with more books, leaving only few empty shelves yet to be filled. "Hey Neji."
Neji was sitting in the back of the room outside the door to his study in a chair, clothed in a short-sleeved white shirt that was open, showing off bandages around his stomach from a recent mission. His also had on a pair of white shorts and the same black forehead protector baring the SDI logo. "Interesting choice of uniform Naruto."
"Since you guys made me take off my jacket off anyway." Naruto snorted.
"Take if off? You just dyed it black."
"Yeah yeah, anyway." Naruto changed to subject, "We got rid of that demon."
"Really, I'm surprised you managed to do it so quickly." Neji sat up, "How did you do it?"
"Cut the guys head off."
"What? No!" Neji pulled himself out of his chair, careful not to move his sides "You can't kill it that way, it's a poltergeist demon."
"A what?" Naruto asked, "What's the problem?"
"You have to use energy attacks, elemental attacks, something like that." Neji, holding his stomach, made his way over to Naruto. "There is no way it could be dead."
"So what happened to it?"
"I don't know, it most likely ran way."
'Hmm...' Naruto remembered the blurry image he saw right before Konohamaru killed the demon. 'That must have been it running away.' "Well it's gone now, think it will come back?"
"Most definitely, but there's nothing we can do about it now." Neji sighed, he wish he could have been there, it would have saved them a lot of problems that would arise later. But there was no use worrying about it now. "Is Sasuke back?"
Naruto shook his head "Nope. He's been gone for like a week...Oh, What's with all the people, I thought all of that stuff was finished last week."
"Things wont quiet down for a while." Neji sat back down in his previous spot, relaxing a little. "SDI is still getting proposals from different businesses that want to go into partnership with us, in fact we brought a retail chain yesterday."
"You mean all those people are there for that? I counted like 50 on the way up here."
"Well, not everyone is here for that specific purpose. With expansion of a business come employment opportunities, we need people to fill positions like salesmen and managers to advisors and producers. We won't have time to do all of the things that come with the expansions so we're hiring. Of course, we're the only ones that are going to be hunting demons."
Naruto shook his head in understanding, 'I guess I'm going to have to get use to it for a while.' "I'm gonna go check on Konohamaru...oh and Kakashi is missing."
"PR mission."
"Oh."
! - ! - !
Sasuke looked around at the same crowds of people he'd seen when he left, this just never seemed to end. A battered, beaten and tired Sasuke dragged his way though the lobby, taking notice of how they all parted out of his way and looked on like he was the greatest thing they ever seen. The famous Uchiha Sasuke of SDI back from one taking on a dangerous monster, I guess he understood why they acted this way but that still didn't make it any less annoying.
He pushed his way into the main hall, wanting only to make it to his room, which he wished wasn't on the first floor of the moment, and fall head first into his bed. That or a full bathtub, but being as tired as he was he'd drown. '...' He gowned, pushing another person out of his way disregardingly, he really felt like crap right now. That was until he saw Konohamaru ahead of him, the boy was just standing there, looking around rather offensively though Sasuke didn't notice. "Konohamaru."
Konohamaru looked up, "Hey, Sasuke."
Sasuke looked over the boy, "What happened, your hands are bloody."
"Oh, a demon, but me and Naruto took care of it."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow, he seemed surprisingly alright "Don't you want to...get cleaned up?"
Konohamaru shrugged "I guess so."
'I guess so? What's with him?' "Well just go to my office, the bathroom in there is closer."
Konohamaru looked around, then just went into the first door he saw.
"Konohamaru, that's Naruto's room." Sasuke called out. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, I told you already damnit!" Konohamaru snapped, glaring back at Sasuke.
'Huh?' "What's wrong with you?" Sasuke asked. "What the hell was that?"
Konohamaru shook his head and smiled again. "Nothing."
'Ok, he's covered in blood, he's...angry, what happened?' Sasuke looked on in bewilderment as the boy walked away, who seemed almost lost in the sea of people. '...He fought a demon recently, maybe that's what it is.' If he fought a demon then it was most likely with another member of their team since no one would let him do it by himself, and he knew Neji was still injured so that left Kiba.
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! - ! - !
Kiba shifted around the pen in his hand, sitting at a desk in his office along with 5 other people. One of which was from the retail chain SDI had just brought, the other 4 where from similar business endeavors. He was wearing a white jacket very similar to his old one, a gray shirt underneath and a pair of black pants along with the black forehead protector everyone had. "God I hate math, why did Shikamaru have to leave, he was good at this type of thing."
Sasuke stood over his shoulder, not particularly paying attention to what was going on around him. "Did you go on any missions with Konohamaru lately?"
Kiba scratched behind his ear and shifted his tail slightly, it was really uncomfortable in this chair considering how he had to position his tail just to sit down. "No, but I think he and Naruto just went after one that got in, just a few minutes ago. Why?"
"Konohamaru's acting strangely, he's just wondering around covered in blood."
"Blood? I thought I smelled blood." Kiba seemed to become uncomfortable with that. "There shouldn't have been blood, it was a poltergeist. No wonder I didn't recognize it, I smell human blood."
"Human?" Sasuke was really confused now.
"A lot of human blood...and you said they just killed the demon?" Kiba asked, Sasuke nodded. "Oh man, they just made a really bad mistake. Most poltergeist demons take over something for a host, that's the only way they can effect anything. It must have taken over a human, if they killed that guy then the demon's still alive...somewhere."
"So where is it?"
"...I don't know, but it might still be around here." Kiba looked around his office, "Uhh sorry guys, we'll have to finish this latter." He said, standing up and pushing his chair in before shaking his tail around lightly. "Where is Akamaru when you need him?"
"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked.
"To see if I can find that demon...hmm..." Kiba looked up toward the ceiling as he thought, trying to work out a plan. "My nose can't do it, so it looks like it's up to Neji's eyes."
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Konohamaru opened the door to his room, climbing down the stairs slowly and carefully. He looked around the dim lit shrine, taking short steps toward the center of the room. "I guess I can do this here, no one will hear me at lest..." That small smirk grew into a large smile. "And this--" He paused and turned around when he heard the sound of someone coming down the stairs.
Sasuke stopped halfway and called out to Konohamaru "Konohamaru, I need to ask you something."
"Not now damnit!"
Sasuke winced, looking back at Kiba who only shrugged. "What's with you?"
Konohamaru sighed in frustration "Just leave me alone, don't you take a hint?"
Sasuke jumped down next to him, folding his arms. "Don't try to get out of this, just tell me what's wrong with you."
"Nothing just--" Konohamaru's body seemed to jump though he didn't move, it was as if Sasuke had seen double for a split second, a ghost like transparent double that was side by side with him for that small moment. "!"
Sasuke's eyes widened, and Kiba's nose flared. "Holy crap, his scent just changed drastically. The demon is still here, it's inside of Konohamaru!"
Konohamaru scowled, "Damn you bastards, you always come at the wrong time!"
"Get out of him." Sasuke growled, if looks could kill...
"The hell I will." Konohamaru smiled again, looking down at his blood stained hands. "I like this body, it has so much to offer. With something like this, I can kill every one of you SDI bastards." He reached behind him and pulled the two blue Kunais out from his waistband. "Yeah, I think I like this body..."
Sasuke grabbed Konohamaru by the collar of his shirt and lifted him off the ground "Get out of him now!" He shouted. Konohamaru only laughed before his body started to pulse with a golden aura, Chakra poured into every muscle he had and gave him strength, enough strength to headbutt Sasuke and send him sliding backwards. "Damnit! Kiba, go find Neji and see if he knows how to get this thing out of Konohamaru."
Kiba turned and ran back towards the door, but stopped himself "What about you?"
"I'll handle him, just go." Sasuke said firmly, making Kiba keep going weather he wanted to or not. "Get out of him now and I'll make it quick."
"Why would I let go of something like this?" Konohamaru laughed harder "This body knows things about you, It know everything that's happened to you. Oh yeah, it knows where your brother is."
"What!"
Konohamaru took the opportunity to attack, drawing both of the knives back towards his left side and thrust them at Sasuke's stomach. Sasuke stepped to the side and kicked Konohamaru in the legs, sending the boy falling to the ground. Konohamaru rolled on to his back, quickly pressing the handles of the weapons together, creating the Chakra rope before he tossed it at Sasuke. Sasuke tilted his head to the side, watching it fly past in to the wall behind him. "Stupid." Konohamaru pulled the Chakra from the rope to the markings on the twin Kunai he was still holding. The second blade reeled back, slashing Sasuke across the face.
"Just because your in his body doesn't mean I wont hurt you." Sasuke lifted his wrist and wiped the blood from his cheek.
"You love this body, you wouldn't--" Konohamaru was knocked on to his back by a strong punch to the face by Sasuke.
"I didn't say I wanted to, I just said I would. So make it easy on yourself and give up."
"I'm just getting started." Konohamaru flipped backwards on to his feet and out of Sasuke's reach. "This body has so much potential, so much power I can tap into." His Chakra flared up again, increasing his strength farther.
'I don't want to hurt him...I have to find a way to hold him." Sasuke clasped his hands together, about to do a hand seal but Konohamaru jumped on him. He was so much faster now, so fast that Sasuke could hardly keep up. 'I guess I'll have to hurt him a little.' Sasuke grabbed Konohamaru by the shoulders and threw him into the wall between two of the lit torches.
Konohamaru used Chakra to keep himself from falling off of the wall, though losing a little balance when he lifted one fist. Then he transferred most of the Chakra contained in his body to his left arm and dived at Sasuke, throwing a strong punch across his face. It was evaded when Sasuke caught his arm and slammed him down on the ground, using his other hand to push down his head.
Konohamaru, still holding strength in his left hand, easily broke free from Sasuke's hold and rolled over so that he was on top of Sasuke's back, "This body isn't as weak as you thought huh?" Konohamaru grabbed him by the neck with his still super powered left hand and started choking him.
"I know...his limits...as well as I know... my own." Sasuke threw his head back into Konohamaru's face, effectively forcing him to let go. With a sharp gasp for air, Sasuke thrust his elbow back onto Konohamaru chest and rolled over on his stomach, kicking Konohamaru up into the air with both feet. Then he finished the hand seals and drew in a deep breath "Reverse Goukakyuu no Jutsu." He spit out a ball blue flames, but he managed to aim the blast low enough to hit Konohamaru's leg and freeze part of the ceiling.
"!" Konohamaru hit the ground, unable to move his completely frozen legs. "Damn."
Sasuke, already standing by the time the boy landed, placed his foot on Konohamaru's back. "Stay down."
"I thought you said you knew this body." Konohamaru cringed and pushed outward, "Explosion!" From his body a rush of golden energy spreading out in every direction in the form of a sphere, being contained in the frame of the room the energy could only move two ways, back and forward. It meant a wall was coming at Sasuke that he had no way to defend against.
Sasuke had no choice but to stand his ground and block his face as the golden wall slammed into him. The first thing he felt was burning, then a sharp electrocution, it was like fire and lighting combined into one, and he had to admit it was powerful. Being already weakened from his previous mission he had to find away to defend himself or else... '...Uh...come on think!...' And in the middle of that searing pain an idea formed. "Ice wall!"
When Konohamaru heard Sasuke crash in to the rock wall he disengaged the attack, and though he had plenty of Chakra left he started to feel tired. Mainly because Konohamaru still needed more training to expend that type of energy, though it was easier for him then it was before. "Hn, One down, 6 to go."
"Not quite." Sasuke pushed a thick sheet of ice off of his body, watching it fall to the ground with a loud crash. "Wanna try it again?" He asked, right before his body disappeared in a small cloud of smoke only to reappear in front of the boy with a sharp knee to the stomach.
"You son of a bitch." Konohamaru held his torso tightly, crouching over a little with a strained look coming on to his face. "I'll take this place down, and all of you with it! Right now damnit!" Konohamaru's body began to glow with a light the same color of his Chakra.
"What are you--!" 'He's going to explode!" Sasuke grabbed Konohamaru's arm, but drew it back when he felt the same burning/electrocution feeling he felt during Konohamaru's explosion attack. Which was what he was about to do, Kamikaze with Konohamaru and take down this building in the process. "Stop it!"
"Make me!"
"Fine, I will." Neji came from behind, driving his index finger into a spot on Konohamaru's back, then proceeding to do the same thing with other places on his body. The light surrounding Konohamaru's body faded almost instantaneously and Konohamaru looked around in confusion.
"What did you just do?"
"Let's just say you wont be able to try that again." Neji shifted as if he was about to move, but he found his torso hurt to much... so he, quite visibly, gave up. "Iruka, now."
Iruka, clad in a black vest with a white shirt under it, black pants and the same forehead protector, dropped in from seemingly out of nowhere with a scroll in hand. Which he proceeded to wrap around Konohamaru before the boy, binding his arms in the process, could make a move. Then with a blur of speed Iruka landed in front of him, unrolling a second scroll and a paint brush staring to write furiously. "Ok Neji go ahead."
Neji preformed a few quick hand seals, clapping his hands together then thrust them forward toward Konohamaru. "Soul Release!" Before Konohamaru could say a word his mouth and eyes were forced to open wide, drawing out a painful sound as something was ripped from him, something transparent. It was a spirit, one with out any particular defining feature except for the yellow eyes. "Nice try demon."
"You humans can't even touch me." The demon snickered. "I'll be back, not one of you bastards will be left alive."
"What makes you so sure your leaving?" Neji smirked, watching the demon attempting to fly though the ceiling as it usually would have been able to, unfortunately it didn't work out. "I've sealed off the whole floor, you cant get out."
"Uh...what's going on?" Konohamaru blinked and looked around, trying to figure out why he was wrapped in paper. "Iruka, Neji...Sasuke?"
"Ok Naruto." Neji called out. "And remember, elemental attacks."
"How's this for elemental?" A cloud of black smoke erupted from one of the flames on the wall, a disguised Naruto revealed himself sitting crouched on the extinguished dish, his right arm held outward. "Katon Ken!" That whole arm erupted into raging flames, one of his new techniques. He jumped upward, pulling the burning fist back and driving it into the terrified ghost, and where he normally wouldn't have been able to touch the ghost, he easily incinerated it with one blow.
"What the hell!" Konohamaru, still bound by the seal, hopped angrily over to Naruto as he landed. "You put out my fire!"
"Relax, it's only a small one." Naruto shook his arm, waving away the flames. "What's the big deal?"
Konohamaru growled in anger "The big deal!" He jumped up and drove his head into Naruto's then proceeded to kick him, hard. "Those weren't supposed to go out!"
"Ow! Ow!" Naruto ran backwards in an attempt to get away. "Stop! Sasuke, do something!" He shouted, figuring that Sasuke could calm him down.
Sasuke sighed and shook his head. "Konohamaru." He grabbed Konohamaru by the shoulder and pulled him back, then turned him around making sure Konohamaru was looking at least in his direction. "Stop." He knelt down next to the boy and looked him in the eye...then he smiled and ripped the scroll off of him. "Ok, go ahead."
A now free Konohamaru immediately sprang on to an unsuspecting Naruto, sending both of them tumbling to the ground from relinquished force where Konohamaru proceeded to punch Naruto repeatedly. "Those Punch fires Punch were Punch important Punch to me. Punch Punch And Punch you Punch put it Punch out! Punch!"
"OkokI'msorryletmegoletmego!" Naruto squirmed and pleaded, attempting to push him off though only able to when Konohamaru deemed that Naruto had enough. "Ow!"
Konohamaru snorted and climbed out off of Naruto, though still angry.
"What's with him?" Naruto sat up, rubbing the side of his face.
"This place was important to him." Iruka watched as Konohamaru hastily worked to relight the one empty dish. "After his grandfather died, Konoha was destroyed, and we had to completely renounce ourselves from the village, this was the only thing he had left of it."
"..." Now Naruto felt really bad about doing it...
"!" Naruto looked up, surprised to feel a rather strong earthquake and the fact there was a crowd of people now by the door. "Hey, what all of you doing?"
There was an upstart from the crowd, though the 4 of them could make out the word demon. Demon, which was most likely the cause of the earthquake.
"2 in on day." Iruka rubbed his head, this was becoming stressful.
You humans think you can get rid of me that easily? A face protruded from the ceiling like an imprint, this was the same demon.
"Give it a rest." Sasuke sighed in annoyment "Your trapped down here, do you really expect to kill us?"
We'll see about that.
"Oh come on, I just came back from fighting a swarm. I don't feel like dealing with you." Sasuke called out.
"I'll handle him."
Sasuke looked back, still unable to figure out how Gaara was always able to sneak up on him. "What?"
Gaara was warring clothing similar to his old ones, now they were all black. He also had the same black forehead protector tied around the strap to his gourd, and of course he wore the same orange headphones that conflicted with his red hair, meaning that the CD player was somewhere on his body. "He's in the walls isn't he? I can handle him."
He didn't have to tell Sasuke twice, infact Sasuke had already pushed through the gathered crowd and was half way up the stairs.
Gaara lifted his left hand into the air. "Move away from the walls." He gave a half warning to anyone it concerned before attacking. Just as his warning dictated, from the ceiling and every wall large spikes shot out, ones that were easily able to hit the target which was pushed back and fell from above...directly into the fire at the back of the room. "Simple."
The crowd looked on in complete awe, so this is what happened on a daily basis in SDI, exciting. "Don't you people have business to attend to?" Gaara didn't give anyone a second glance, he just walked past and returned to his room. After a few seconds Naruto ran after him.
"Looks like it's back to work." Iruka shifted around the collar of his white shirt and adjusted the black vest. "Did we decide on a uniform? I see everyone else is out of their usual attire."
"Do we really need one?" Konohamaru shrugged "We're all wearing black and white, and we got these, isn't that enough?" Konohamaru tapped the metal portion of the band on his head.
"Ah, I guess that's alright." Iruka picked up the clipboard he set aside surprisingly nearby for no one to notice and headed back upstairs, he still had a lot of people to see.
"Hold on, Is anyone going to tell me what just happened?" Konohamaru looked around and found that Neji was the only person left. "Neji?"
Neji found this interesting "You don't remember any of it Konohamaru."
"Huh?"
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