Chapter nine, ready at last! Between work, getting sick to the point of wishing for death, and falling back into playing Overwatch again, I lost a lot of time that I would have used to work on this fic. Sorry about that!
Review responses:
1. TigrezzTail: Not your fault. Given that you're not the first person to have made that mistake, I'm guessing I just wasn't clear enough in the writing; sorry if I came off as insulting.
2. Noahendless: Since the Sharingan can memorize any jutsu it sees, I figured it would stand to reason that it just has a nonstop photographic memory. It's never used that way in canon, but it would make sense.
3. Jojo: Yeah. In Within the Straws I Grasp, I got away without killing off too many people I liked, but my goal is to be a much more ruthless author this time around. Teuchi's death (glossed over in the first chapter) along with Mizuki's, and then Kakashi's, are my attempts to set the tone. Canon Naruto pulled his punches, and WTSIG Naruto did up until the back third of the story, but the Oathkeeper isn't afraid to go full-tilt.
4. CygnusFang: He has access to them in the sense that he's now seen them done from a first-person perspective, but he'd still need to practice in order to accomplish any level of battle-readiness with them. You'll see a few of them, doubtlessly, but maybe not for a few chapters.
Let's get this trainwreck moving.
Over the course of the last week, Naruto had watched the presence of guards increase as the number of townsfolk shrank. Gato was uneasy, and his men were on edge. It was like a feast of fear, laid out as a banquet for Naruto to devour. Kakashi had been on a mission like this, once before, as the leader of an Anbu squad. They'd evacuated as many of the citizens as they could, only to sweep through the city like a homicidal plague.
"Those civilians aren't coming back, are they?" Naruto asked.
"Probably not." Kidomaru admitted, shrugging his shoulders.
Naruto sat with the Otoyon squad in one of the abandoned homes. Having not yet taken the liberty to finally bathe again, after more than two months of scrounging up food in the wild and living in the slums of Nami no Kuni, his normally neon-yellow hair was caked in dust and dirt. It didn't bother him; he'd gone for years without proper hygienic care as a child, after turning the streets into his home.
"What's the plan?" Tayuya asked.
"We should wait for a little while after the sun goes down." Naruto said decisively. "An hour. Op starts an hour after dark. We'll stealth-kill our way up to the mansion, and then we'll wipe it out, down to the foundation. I guarantee you, Gato's got some way off this island, and I don't want him getting access to it in time for him to escape."
"Solid plan. Split groupings? I feel like having all five...six of us in one place isn't such a great idea. I'd rather avoid friendly fire." Sakon asked.
"Tayuya with you and your brother. Jirobo and Kidomaru with me. Tayuya, you're a Genjutsu specialist, right?"
"Right." The redhead said.
"Based on the rest of you...Sakon and Ukon are the assassination specialists, Jirobo is the juggernaut, and Kidomaru is the strategist and trap-master."
"Labeled us perfectly, Yuurei." Kidomaru grinned, light filtering in through the window to fall on his teeth. "Tayuya puts 'em to sleep so Sakon and Ukon can do their thing, I watch you and Jirobo to make sure nobody gets cheap shots in?"
"Sums it up pretty well." Naruto said.
"Like a perfect replacement for Kimimaro." Sakon commented, one eye open to watch Naruto's movements. The only thing he got for his efforts was a raised eyebrow from the blond, but that seemed to satisfy him.
"He's supposed to be the one leading us." Jirobo said, gripping the edge of the table hard enough that his knuckles paled. "Instead, they've got him strapped to an operating table. No offense, Yuurei, but I'd feel more comfortable if he was here."
"None taken." Naruto shrugged, only for a loud clattering sound to put all five ninja on high alert. Without hesitation, they moved out of sight, far from windows and doors. Naruto moved to the house's staircase, still close enough that he could hear outside the building's constraints.
"Marcus, you idiot!" Someone shouted, presumably one of the mercenaries Gato had hired.
An outlander? That was a foreign name. Naruto knew that somewhere beyond the uninhabited deserts of Kaze no Kuni, an entirely different civilization had managed to survive the dead gods' fall. He didn't know much about them, the records and accounts were scarce, but Kakashi had met one of them once; he'd seen it through the Sharingan, a four-sentence conversation that had ended with the two men walking in separate directions.
In the present, the wall creaked as a fist hit it. Not a full body, it wasn't a strong enough impact for that, but it was an audible blow.
"Do you think yelling is going to help?" A second voice emanated, clearly exasperated with the first speaker.
"Zabuza said that it's a demon who's been killing all our-"
Naruto's mind checked out for a moment as he processed that name. Zabuza was still alive? He'd survived a Bijuudama at point-blank range? But he'd seen the devastation it caused to the land! He'd seen the wisps of light that confirmed Haku's death, and the same result had...
No. Not the same result. After he'd killed Zabuza, nothing had come to him. After killing Mizuki, and the Demon Brothers, and Haku? Their energy had come to him, bits and pieces of power. That hadn't happened after Zabuza was attacked with the Bijuudama. Haku hadn't had a body, and it had still happened. Of course Zabuza was still alive, he'd been careless and not bothered attempting to confirm it.
"-so if you don't want to die next, then we need to find him and kill him first!"
"We've been searching through houses all day. They're all empty." The second speaker said.
"Listen, man, I'm wiggin' out over here. This ain't normal, and it ain't good. It's a ninja, he killed the rest of Zabuza's team, and Zabuza barely escaped! We were given a death sentence!"
"Oh? No we weren't. Listen, Gato may be rich, but he doesn't have the time or the money to label people as expendable. clients get a reputation for that, they start seeing a lot of lost interest in their jobs. Besides, nobody can outrun death. Let's just check this house, see it's empty, leave, and get on with it."
The knob on the door turned slowly, almost painfully slowly, and Naruto heard it creak as it swung open. He felt, rather than heard, one of the Sound Four move deeper into hiding. Two separate sets of footsteps followed the sound of the door swinging shut, and Naruto grinned. Opening his Sharingan for the first time in days, having long ago adjusted to functioning with one eye, he heard the two men moving and allowed it to calculate. As soon as the first boot came into view, Naruto didn't hesitate. With inhuman grace, he shot straight up, chakra allowing him to stick to the wall and ceiling with no sound from the contact. As the mercenary came up the stairs, while his partner continued to search the lower floor, Naruto froze as he weighed his options.
One second. Two seconds. Before the third second could arrive, Naruto was falling forward, a small disc of flames hovering in front of his hand. With virtually no resistance, he swung, and the severed head was cauterized before it could begin to fall. Deftly, Naruto caught both the head and torso, holding back his mild revulsion at the fact that he was handling a corpse. Letting it down gently, Naruto watched as the customary wisps of light flowed from the dead man to him. As always, they were absorbed into his skin, and he felt his strength grow.
"Oh, gods, no! What's happening?"
Those were the other mercenary's last words. Presumably, Sakon or Ukon had used their kekkei genkai for an assassination that left him fully conscious and aware of what was going on. Poor bastard. He'd been bought for his life in temporary service, and could never collect on the interest.
Should have picked a safer profession.
Naruto stayed low to the ground, closing his left eye again as he moved. The Sound Four had gathered together by the time he reached them.
"They're out looking for me." Naruto grinned slightly. He held full confidence in his ability to indefinitely avoid civilian soldiers.
"Possibly in force." Jirobo added. "Which complicates things. If we keep waiting, they'll inevitably surround us. Breaking through wouldn't be the hard part..."
"Watching our backs would be the problem. It's difficult to move forward while looking backward." Sakon said.
"Speak for yourself, asshole." Ukon spoke for the first time that Naruto could remember, but the blond and the rest of the Sound Four laughed; Ukon wasn't always necessarily dormant, but he was always facing backwards while Sakon carried him.
"Anyway." Naruto went back to being serious. "Schedule's moved up. As soon as we're out of this house, we're cutting our way to Gato. Anything else to say before we head out?"
"Yeah, actually. Got something for you." Kidomaru said, pulling a scroll out of his pack and handing it to Naruto.
"What's that?" The blond asked, hesitant to unfurl it.
"It's a summoning scroll. Pull it out, put some blood on it, and it'll summon a snake to get you out. You may not have to use it, but keep it as a contingency plan. I'm a spider summoner, so the rest of us will get out that way, but I was told to give that to you."
"I'll keep that in mind." Naruto said.
"Alright, are we fucking ready already?" Tayuya asked.
The Sound Four had their collective gaze on Naruto, who paused for a moment. Just like with Mizuki, he saw brands of power. Just above Tayuya's neckline, between her shoulderblades...Kidomaru's right arm...Jirobo's ankle. He knew where Sakon had been touched as well; he'd done it. In small writing, almost to the point of calling it a scar or a tattoo. Whether they liked it or not, they had made their pact with him.
"Let's go." Naruto said.
If he'd asked Tayuya what she thought of the situation, the redhead likely would have replied with something along the lines of, a bloody fucking mess. He'd been ready to assault Gato's mansion and mercenaries, but he hadn't thought about the kind of fighting force that a multi-billionaire could buy. Naruto was taking far more liberties than he knew were reasonable, purely because he'd seen his own regenerative abilities in action.
"You know, Yuurei...this may be a bad time to bring it up, and I have total faith in your skills, but is that a member of the Seven Swordsmen?" Kidomaru asked.
It was late May, but a dead tree sprouted no leaves, and Zabuza sat on the trunk-end of a branch that would have snapped to pieces if he hadn't been using chakra to displace his weight. Naruto could feel the weight of his eyes, and he understood the meaning of killing intent; the sword-master had come to finish what he'd started, just over two months ago.
"Oh, great. Just great." Naruto grimaced. "Leave him to me."
A saw-blade came down, and Naruto could feel its bladed teeth ripping through his chest. Enraged, he gave a baleful glare to the mercenary responsible before reaching out and ripping his throat away.
"Zabuza!" Naruto shouted, venom in his voice as he felt hate bubble up inside of him. Like a geyser of malice, his body felt energized, and his skin took a slightly darker tint.
"I still owe you for what you did to my men." The Kirigakure no Kijin said menacingly, dropping from his perch.
He landed, all fury and no sound, pulling the Kubikiribouchou from the magnetic clasps that kept it on his back. An ethereal image imprinted itself on Naruto's mind, a feline demon older and more fearsome than the Nibi no Nekomata could ever dream of becoming. Zabuza had become its avatar in the waking world, a newborn god in the land of men. A monster, in the flesh.
The feeling inside of Naruto's chest was somewhere between apprehension and anger. Adrenaline poured into his body, and his muscles screamed at him to move, but he stood where he was. The blood from his previous wound had already dried, and there was an air of power surrounding Zabuza as he walked forward.
It was fear.
Naruto was afraid.
Suddenly, he was five years old again, an orphan on the streets who dumpster-dove for food and had to fight not to cry every night he went to bed hungry. He stared, wide-eyed and unblinking, as Zabuza approached him. He felt so small, and the monstrous assassin from Kirigakure seemed to tower over his existence. Someone was shouting at him, was it Jirobo? He heard the voice, but couldn't put words to the sounds that reached his ears. Too much was going on. What could he do? What should he do?
"Yuurei, get the hell away from him!" Tayuya shouted, her voice cutting through the raucous combat.
Like the last twist of a lock getting picked, everything clicked into place. He wasn't Naruto anymore, he'd never been Naruto. That was a name he'd been given on the streets, after he'd raided a ramen shop and been caught eating some of the toppings. He'd made it his own, but the name he'd chosen...Yuurei. The ghost. Something inhuman, something that continued to live long past the point where it should have been killed. Involuntarily, his hand rose to his throat, feeling the scar-lines that had been left by Gozu's gauntlet.
Ghosts couldn't be killed. They were already dead, and remained on earth because their business was unfinished. Naruto continued to stare at Zabuza, but the set of his eyes had changed. He wasn't thinking about the past anymore; he was dialed in on the necessary actions of his present. Calm, quiet anger had once again settled itself in his gut, and he felt no fear.
He was the living sacrament of Konoha's triumphs, and a monument to all their sins.
"There's nobody to bail you out this time, brat." Zabuza snarled beneath his armor-tape mask, the Kubikiribouchou swinging from right to left.
Naruto jumped to avoid the massive blade, but Zabuza was a Kenjutsu master, stopping his swing on a dime and turning it into a straight-angled slash toward the sky. Unfazed, chakra spread out from Naruto's feet, a bright red energy that bit into and corroded the legendary sword. With his balance stabilized for a split-second, Naruto took his chance, a left cross ramming into the older ninja's jaw as he dipped away to avoid retaliation.
"I'm not letting you get away again." Naruto hissed, opening his left eye to reveal the Sharingan that Kakashi had given him before his death.
"You took his...oh, gods, you poor fool. How much could you have learned in two months, with nobody to teach you? Hatake Kakashi was a true shinobi, down to the end. You're just a bumbling student who hasn't experienced the joys and horrors of war." Zabuza laughed, swinging his blade once again.
Naruto was just barely inside its range, and common logic would dictate that he should dodge outside, but Zabuza was coming at a steep angle and could thrust as easily as finish the swing. The most survivable option, then, was to move forward. Naruto rushed inside the swing, and felt his right collarbone snap like a twig as the Kubikiribouchou tore through a lung and the beginnings of his intestines. He felt like his chest was on fire, with his muscles and organs unnaturally exposed to the evening air, and he brought chakra into his left hand. Raising it, he grinned.
"Futon: Bakuha!" Naruto coughed, spitting blood as he spoke, but his palm seemed to glow white before a wave of wind ripped itself from nature and forced Zabuza away. The Kubikiribouchou went with him as he hit the dead tree he'd been sitting in, knocking it over in the process.
In full view of anyone who cared to look, Naruto's flesh began to knit back together. Organs became un-ruptured, muscles healed and reattached themselves to bones that snapped back into place, and his skin crawled back across the wound to cover it. A clean white scar-line contrasted with Naruto's flushed skin, and Naruto felt like his jaw might unhinge as he let out an involuntary roar.
Loose stones began to shake, and then rise, as Naruto felt a soothing release of his mortal restraints. Corpses shook on the ground nearby as a tail began to manifest out from the base of his spine. First one, it split into three, and then each of those multiplied the same way; nine inhuman appendages extended back, and Naruto felt the urge to destroy. His very breath was poison, and he was an unnatural defilement of what it meant to be alive. A monster, by any stretch of the means.
"HAKAI!" Naruto bellowed his command, and the world obeyed. His tails swirled, the ground rumbling beneath him as a dark orb shot forth from his outstretched hands. It touched one of the mercenaries who'd felt less fear than his fellows, and there was no hesitation in the technique's application. In an instant, the man had exploded; bloody meat, bone shards, and pieces of organs, had blossomed from the area where he'd been standing.
"HAKAI!" He shouted again. "HAKAI! HAKAI! HAKAI!"
Destroy. Destroy. Destroy.
It was the mantra of demons, lords of annihilation against whom there was no defense. What could nullify the ability to kill? What could stop a raging hell-beast that knew nothing but violence and death?
"Kidomaru, you need to get your team out of here!" Naruto called out to his temporary teammate, watching three more of Gato's mercenaries get wiped off the face of the earth.
Zabuza hadn't been idle, his hands running through seals as fast as he could manage them, and a three-headed water dragon roared to life as it tore through the air towards Naruto. The blond's fourth orb of destruction collided with the Suiton: San Suiryu Endan, absorbing the jutsu without disappearing. Like a rock, it dropped, colliding with the ground.
With a violent shudder, the earth yawned, and deep-hidden magma shot high into the twilight sky. Quickly, the geyser fell, turning into a river that torched the grass and trees that stood nearby. The sun had set mere minutes ago, but Nami no Kuni was bathed in light, and the air shimmered as Naruto stared down Zabuza from across the molten river.
