Vagrant's of the Leaf
A/N: Not much to say for right now, please don't forget to read and review!
Chapter 1: The Darkness
Sakura had woken up that morning with a feeling of dread bubbling into her stomach. She woke up and shook it off thinking, "I'm never going to eat ramen before dinner again." She got up and went threw her daily routine of getting ready for her study sessions with Tsunade. She sighed as she said goodbye to her mother and left for the Hokage tower.
Sakura immediately knew that something was wrong when she saw an abnormal amount of ANBU stationed outside of the Hokage Tower. She gasped as she saw Tsunade and Shizune being escorted out by the ANBU in a hostile manor. Sakura also saw that Tsunade seemed to be carrying a bundle on her back. Sakura silently sneaked into the Tower after the ANBU had gone with Tsunade and Shizune to see what was going on.
She entered into Tsunade's room and saw Danzou sitting in the Hokage's chair. "Da...Danzou sama, what's going on?"
Danzou turned in his chair and smiled wickedly as he looked at the young pink haired ninja. "Hello my dear Sakura-chan, I deemed your sensei too incompetent to run this village any longer so I overthrew her.
Sakura began to shake, this had to be a nightmare, there was no way this could be happening. "Oh I know exactly what your thinking dear, but you're wrong, this isn't a dream, and you have an important choice to make. Will you follow me and the new path Kohona is going down or will you stick to the old and defend your sensei?"
Danzou's smirk grew wicked as Sakura got into a fighting stance, "Excellent my dear, I knew you would become a nuisance anyways. Sakura blinked and got a shocked look on her face when she realized that Danzou was no longer in front of her but was right behind her with a hand on her shoulder. She turned with a shocked look in her eyes as Danzou said, "You have no idea how powerful I am." And with that Sakura's world went black.
When Sakura woke up she could hear mummers all around her, she could tell from the tones of their voices that some were anxious, scared, and…excited?" Sakura jumped slightly as she heard a booming voice ring out, "EVERYONE! LEND ME YOUR EARS, THIS GIRL WILL SERVE AS A LESSON TO EVERYONE THAT THOSE WHO TRY TO OPPRESS ME WILL FALL!" With that, Sakura opened her eyes with just enough time to see Danzou run a blade across her throat.
Sakura's gasp of surprise came out as nothing more than a gurgle as the blood began to spew forth from her body. Sakura's gaze began to blur as she heard a horrible scream erupt from the crowd. Her vision cleared just long enough to make out Ino as the one who had screamed as she was pulled back into the chest of Shikamaru. She looked around and saw every member of the rookie nine minus Naruto and Sasuke along with Team Gai standing there staring at her in shock/tears.
Sakura's weary eyes finally rested on her old sensei Kakashi. The finally thought the bubblegum pink haired girl thought was surprisingly, "Where is Naruto…Why isn't he here?" And with that final thought, Sakura's head dropped and her life came to a horrible end.
Kakashi had to turn away as he tried to strangle the sob that was building up in his throat. Sasuke… became a traitor, Naruto had been banished from the village with Tsunade, and Sakura had just been killed before his eyes. His thoughts went to his teammates and finally to his sensei, and it all became too much for the copy cat ninja.
Kakashi fell to his knees as his body began to shake violently and he found that Kurenai and Asuma along with Gai were by his side in a minuet. Kakashi felt Kurenai pull the man into her body and he let out all of his grief into her chest. Kurenai rubbed his back gently as tears began to fall from her eyes for the broken man before her.
For once in his life, Gai had nothing to say about the springtime of youth or anything like that. For it seemed that winter had fallen for the youth and a darkness covered the flames that made them burn brightly, Gai sighed as he looked around at all of the children who had a look of utter defeat on their face with the situation they were in.
"We have to escape…we have to find Naruto and Tsunade, they are our only hope now." Kakashi choked out as he shakily got to his feet.
"Are you crazy Kakashi? Keep talking like that and your going to get yourself killed!" Asuma said tersely trying to keep his voice as low as possible.
"Fine, stay here you coward, one of my students is dead, one became a traitor, and the last was exiled from this village and we are under the rule of an oppressive leader. This isn't the Kohona we once served anymore and I have no more ties left to this place. Now my only reason to live lies in Naruto, I will find him, I will protect him, and I will train him to get stronger so he can overthrow Danzou. If you wish to stay here and protect this man who just killed one of our comrades just to save your own hides than you really are worse than trash."
With that Kakashi stormed to his house to gather his things so he could leave as soon as possible. Last he heard Tsunade and Naruto were forced out going south from Kohona so he would start there and try to pick up their scent. Kakashi got to his home and wasted no time in shoving everything he needed into his pack before he slung it over his shoulder and walked out the front door…Only to be blocked by 5 Root ANBU.
"Going somewhere Kakashi-san? I don't recall Hokage-sama giving out any missions or pardons to leave the village to anyone ninja or civilian yet. And don't even think of fighting us, you may be legendary around here, but against five ANBU it will be like a genin taking on a jounin, you have on chance what so ever." The leader of the group called out arrogantly.
Kakashi sighed as he dropped his bag and pulled up his forehead protector revealing his sharrigan eye. "I was hoping to avoid a fight, but if we must, let's get this over with, I have important business to attend to."
The ANBU tensed slightly when Kakashi revealed his secret weapon, but calmed their nerves and got into their battle stances. Just as the leader was about to rush forward a battle cry of, "DYNAMIC ENTRY!" was heard as Gai, Asuma, Kurenai, Neji, and Lee dropped down on the ANBU effectively knocking them out.
"Those ANBU were…pathetic to be caught off guard so easily. Truly a disgrace to our village, it's seems you wouldn't have needed our help after all Kakashi-san." Neji said politely if not with a bit of arrogance in his voice as he stared at the five fallen ANBU.
Kakashi looked at everyone and saw they were each carrying a pack indicating that they were leaving the village with him.
"My eternal rival, I could never let you go alone on such an important mission for our glorious village. Together we will keep will rekindle the fires of youth so that springtime can blossom once more!" Gai said, keeping his voice down as much as he could for a normally loud man.
As Gai was ranting about his speech Kakashi had pulled out his favorite little orange book and paused in his reading to look up lazily and ask, "I'm sorry Gai, did you say something?"
Gai looked absolutely livid but before he could rant about how his eternal rival's cool and hip attitude pissed him off, Kurenai covered his mouth with her hand roughly and said, "Let's get out of here before someone notices the ANBU and sends more."
Everyone nodded their agreement and made their way towards the southern gate…
With Tsunade, Shizune and Naruto
Tsunade, decided to stop a decent way from Kohona to rest and plan where they were going to go. Tsunade gently placed Naruto on the ground and sent Shizune to gather wood for the evening's fire. Shizune walked off and Tsunade sighed as she sat down next to the unconscious blonde beside her. "How did it come to this…Naruto, I'm so sorry for everything that's happened all because of me…I'm such a fool…" Tsunade thought sadly as she looked at the boy once more before turning away to think of what to do next.
Shizune came back with the wood and set it down as she went to tend to Naruto as Tsunade continued to search herself deep in thought. She finally decided to go to Suna and talk with Garra knowing that he would provide them safety in his village. She turned to tell Shizune what her plan was.
"Shizune, if memory serves me correctly there is a trader's village not to far from our current location, when Naruto-kun wakes up we are going to get new clothes, hair styles, everything." Shizune's face scrunched up in thought which was a bad sign for Tsunade.
"It's a good plan Tsunade-sama, there is only one problem, we don't have any money." Tsunade sweatdropped feeling like a fool for overlooking such an obvious fact, it had indeed been far too long since she had been traveling.
Before Tsunade could make a reply, the sound of a twig snapping rang out which caused both Tsunade and Shizune to get into defensive positions in front of Naruto. Tsunade blinked when she saw a group of thieves walk up calmly and say, "Hello ladies, we will be taking all of your valuables now."
Two minuets and a group of badly injured thieves later, Tsunade grin was growing and was becoming infectious to Shizune when she saw that the thieves had been well stocked with exactly what they needed, money. "Well, at least they were good thieves." Tsunade said with glee as she stuffed the money away for safe keeping. Suddenly, both ladies heard Naruto groan and they were by his side in an instant.
They could both see that he was in terrible pain and they said at the exact same time, "Naruto-kun, why won't you wake up?"
Inside Naruto's Mind
Naruto had been wandering around a strange maze ever sense he had passed out and it was beginning to get on his nerves. "WHAT IS THIS STUPID PLACE?" He cried out in frustration as he continued to try and find the exit. A little while later just as Naruto was about to snap he finally found a door.
Naruto leapt in the air pumping his fist as he did so with a victory cry before landing on the ground and sprinting at the door. Naruto shoulder bashed it open to reveal a gray room with a large throne facing away from him in the middle of the room.
Naruto just about jumped out of his skin as a booming voice called out, "COME FORWARD BOY!" Naruto gulped before a defiant fire burned in his eyes as he marched forward. Naruto walked in front of the throne and looked up in shock…"What…What are you?"
The figure looked down at him and said, "I AM SHINAGAMI, AND WE HAVE MUCH TO DISCUSS BOY!"
"Wait, Shinagami the death God!" Naruto thought shocked before screaming out, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING INSIDE OF ME?"
"SILENCE BOY, I AM NOT ALL OF SHINAGAMI I AM ONLY ABOUT TEN PERCENT OF HIS SPIRIT, IT SEEMS THAT YOUR FOURTH LEADER SEALED PART OF MY SPIRIT AWAY WITH THE KYUUBI…AND TO BE QUITE HONEST, SITTING HERE LETTING MY POWER GO TO WASTE IS FOOLISH INDEED. EVEN IF I CAN'T RETURN TO MY ORIGINAL SPIRIT, I WILL NOT ALLOW ANY PART OF MY POWER TO NOT BE USED IF IT IS ABLE. SO I AM GIVING IT TO YOU BOY, SADLY ENOUGH I CAN'T FORCE YOU TO USE MY POWER FOR DESTRUCTION AS I WOULD LIKE, AND I KNOW THAT YOU WILL USE YOUR POWER TO SAVE THOSE THAT YOU LOVE. BUT BE THAT AS IT MAY, MY POWER NOW BELOGNS TO YOU USE IT WELL BOY…USE IT WELL…
And with that being said, the fraction of the spirit that belonged to Shinagami flowed into Naruto forcing him to wake up in horrible pain. Naruto let out an inhuman scream as his body began to transform. Shizune and Tsunade watched helplessly as Naruto rolled around screaming terribly for a reason that they couldn't understand. But as quickly as it began it was all over and Naruto shakily got to his feet.
Tsunade gasped as she realized that Naruto had grown to just above the average height for his age in less than a few minuets. "Naruto, what's going on? What's happened to you?" Both Tsunade and Shizune were in for another surprise when Naruto looked up to reveal the darkest blue eyes they had ever seen. Naruto took off his cloak which caused Shizune to blush and Tsunade's eyes to widen at how ripped Naruto had become, he was by no means "beefy" but he was built to perfection. The final two changes they noticed were one that his hair was just below his shoulders and two, that his voice was much deeper as Naruto said, "Wow…Boy do I have an interesting story for you two."
Naruto then went about explaining how he had absorbed ten percent of the Shinagami's spirit because it too had been absorbed by the seal the Fourth had placed on him. Tsunade could only nod dumbly as Shizune began to sway feeling weak at the knees. "I'm…I'm going to faint!" She cried out weakly as she began to fall. Tsunade made a move to catch her, but before she could move Naruto was by her side catching her before she hit the ground.
Tsunade's mind was in overdrive as she rewound Naruto's movements, she turned to look at him shaking Shizune gently calling out her name with worry flashing in his eyes, she could only think one thought before she came back to reality, "It…It was like he floated across the ground…Naruto, you truly are quite the surprising person." Little did Tsunade know that what she was thinking was the truth, Naruto had floated across the ground, and ten people had seen him do it.
As Tsunade went over to console Naruto and wake up Shizune, the ten people stepped out of the brush causing both Tsunade and Naruto to spin around and get into defensive positions. Naruto looked around and said, "Its you…your, all here, but wait where is Sakura?"
The remaining members of the rookie nine, plus Team Gai lowered their heads as Tsunade said, "Where is she? Where is my apprentice?"
Kakashi looked up with a sad eye and said, "Sakura…she's…"
The sorrowful wails of Tsunade and Naruto could be heard all throughout the forest.
A/N: And that's it. For right now, sorry its so short but that's all I could come up with for right now. Next chapter, a changed Naruto, the mission to recover Sakura's body, a message for Danzou, and perhaps a meeting with Shinagami? You'll just have to stay tuned to find out!