Under normal circumstances, seeing a scrawny, half-starved orphan boy only ten years old standing up to a powerfully built, strong Hunter-nin would've been laughable. But there was no laughing. The entire air seemed alive with tension, and the water stirred around beneath Aoimaru as his chakra trembled with rage.
The Hunter had hurt Naruto, who was the only person who'd ever believed in him. He'd hurt Shino and Hinata, who were like his big brother and sister. He'd hurt Kurenai, who was the closest thing he'd ever had to a real mother. He'd hurt his family.
And now he was going to pay.
Aoimaru reached deep down inside of himself and found that hidden power that had been sleeping up until now. The power that had made others label him a freak and a monster. The power that had brought the Hunter-nins after him.
Without fully realizing what he was doing, he reached out with his hand...
... and water from the river flowed upwards and into it, coalescing into a sphere of water in his palm. He took a deep breath, and then thrust out his hand, and the water shot from his palm in the form of a tentacle, the edge razor-tipped. The Hunter sprang aside as water that was tough as iron sliced through the ground right where he'd been standing.
"Don't you hurt them!" shouted Aoimaru, and allowed himself to continue the attack, grabbing up the water with his hidden powers and letting watery tentacles shoot from it to slice through the air at the Hunter, who ducked and dodged aside. One lucky blow caught his shoulder, however, knocking him back and tearing through his shoulder-guard. Blood dripped down onto the ground as Aoimaru watched from the river.
Kurenai watched in awe as well. With virtually no training and no seals Aoimaru was performing Suigadan, the same technique she'd seen Itachi use. To have such power, even if it was raw and unformed, as a member of Akatsuki.
She was very glad Aoimaru was on their side.
The blue-haired boy was still attacking the Hunter-nin with everything he had, but even Kurenai could see his attacks were draining him. His breathing was becoming more labored. Before long the Hunter-nin would rally his chakra and break through Aoimaru's attacks and strike him down. She needed to move before then.
Kurenai sprang forward just as the Hunter dodged a pair of water blasts, twisting his body expertly to avoid them. His motions, however, left him momentarily off-guard, and Kurenai launched a kick-kick-punch combo. Both kicks were blocked but her punch knocked him square in the chest and sent him flying backwards. Even though she was a genjutsu specialist, no Jounin in Hidden Leaf was completely untrained in taijutsu. She could hold her own.
"AAaauuughhh!" shouted Aoimaru, his own anger blinding him, and he lashed out, sending small waves of the tentacles streaming towards the Hunter, but also towards...
"Kurenai-sensei!" shouted Shino.
The Hunter smirked behind his mask, twisting, dodging and catching Kurenai's next attack and using her own momentum to hurl her into the path of the attack, as a sharp tentacle of water lashed out and streaked forward, slicing into her side. She gasped, spitting up blood as the attack tore through her robes and through the delicate skin underneath, drawing blood.
"Kurenai! Nooo!" Aoimaru's hands went up in shock, and the water instantly splashed down, harmless and effected only by current and gravity once more as his anger dissipated. He could no longer control the power within. As his anger fully vanished, he also realized he felt sick to his stomach. Something had gone wrong. He clutched at his chest, his heart was beating painfully fast. His blood felt like it was on fire.
"You little brat...!" Aoimaru gasped, looking up just in time to see a fist flying towards his face, and he went flying as the Hunter's attack connected, sprawling helplessly on the ground. He grimly tried to push himself up as the Hunter's katana whistled through the air. He wasn't fast enough. He wasn't strong enough. The arc struck him in the back, slicing from shoulder down to his hip in an arc diagonally across his back, and he gave a scream of pain, then collapsed, bleeding through the rip in his shirt.
"I have lost enough men because of you, you insufferable little monster," growled the Hunter, raising up his katana again. "This is your fate, so lie back and accept it... and... just... DIE!"
The sword arced upwards...
... and was knocked clean out of the Hunter's hand.
"Ackt!" the Hunter growled, cursing up a storm as he clutched at his hand. A rock had whizzed seemingly out of nowhere to strike the back of his palm, and he'd been forced to drop his sword. His head snapped up, however, as he heard an ominous sound.
A low, sinister growl that seemed to echo throughout the forest and the mist. A feral sound that send shivers down the Hunter's spine. It seemed to come from every direction.
"You want a monster?" the voice growled, coming from the direction the rock had been hurled. "I'll show you a monster."
The mists parted as chakra exploded, a brilliant flash of crimson. Visible chakra coalesced around the figure of a boy walking towards the Hunter. The blonde ninja, the one called Uzumaki Naruto. His expression had changed, however, and to describe it as pissed off would be a dreadful understatement. He looked ready to tear the Hunter to pieces with his bare hands. And his appearance had altered too. Grown more wild, more feral. Claws and fangs had slid into place and his hair grown bushy and wild, waving in an unseen breeze. His blue eyes were now crimson and burned like fire.
The Hunter, though shaken, had seen worse in his career, and slipped a hand behind his back to grab a pair of kunai. "Don't any of you ever stay dead!" he shouted with false bravado, and hurled the kunai.
Naruto didn't so much as dodge the kunai so much as -vanish-. One moment he was standing there, the next he wasn't, and the kunai hurled through empty space. When he re-appeared, it was at the base of the Hunter, and he hurled a kick upwards with such force he would've done a weightless Rock Lee proud, slamming the Hunter full in the jaw and rocketing him skywards. Naruto instantly dropped into a crouch and pushes himself upwards with all four limbs like the beast he now was, and shot past the Hunter. In mid-air, he twirled his body up and over and came down with the force of a cannonball, slamming blow after bone-crushing blow into the Hunter's midsection, knocking him earthward. He slammed into the ground with such force that the earth shook... Kurenai could feel it as she watched in abject awe. She'd seen Naruto fight before, of course, they all had. But such ferocity always left them breathless. And even a little terrified.
Fortunately, Kyuubi's power did not overwhelm Naruto's sense of friend and foe. He knew who not to attack.
Naruto re-appeared in a crouch and lashed out, grabbing the Hunter's ankle and yanking him upwards, twirling in a circle to build up speed and letting the Hunter go, sending him crashing down into the waves atop one of the bigger rocks. The Hunter rolled onto his back, trying to push himself up and continue the battle, reaching for the shorter blade he'd strapped to his leg. But as he watched in abject horror Naruto crouched down and shot skyward, rearing back his hand, his fingers clenching into a tight fist.
He sped down and slammed his fist into the Hunter's face, hard enough to shatter the white mask which covered it and probably the skull beneath as well. Water shot skyward from the impact as the whole boulder sank into the river, spraying it up everywhere, and Shino, Hinata, and Kurenai lost sight of their blonde-haired teammate.
Kurenai remained tense despite the silence to follow, hands on her scrolls. They weren't designed to restrain the Kyuubi but they might calm him down a bit if...
... the mists cleared, and Uzumaki Naruto was the one who walked out of them. The red chakra had vanished, as had any of its lingering effects on his body, and he was himself again. Tired, worn out (his knuckles were bleeding but they'd heal soon) but smiling still.
Behind him, the Hunter was most definitely out of the game. For good.
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Victory, however, had come at a terrible cost.
Hinata and Shino crouched to either side of the fallen, green-haired boy that was their mission objective. His face was ashen, and they'd dared not roll him onto his back and make him comfortable, the wound across his back prevented that. There was blood everywhere. Hinata and Shino had been working to staunch the flow, working with some bandages and ointments, but none of them present were qualified Medic-nin.
Aoimaru was dying.
"N-naruto...?"
"I'm here," he said, instantly down by Aoimaru's side, holding the little boy's tiny hand in his own. "You did great, Aoimaru... you really did... you stood up to that guy and fought him. You were really brave."
A weak smiled flitted across Aoimaru's ashen features. "I was, wasn't I?"
"Yeah."
The little green-eyed boy's smile stayed plastered to his face as his eyes rolled back and he fell forward weakly. Naruto gently squeezed his hand.
"Aoimaru...? Hey, Aoimaru... come on..."
"We have to get back to Konoha quickly," stated Shino, but even his voice seemed subdued.
"Aoimaru? Hey, come on Aoimaru, you heard Shino... we gotta go... Aoimaru?" said Naruto, shaking the little boy's hand in his own. "Aoimaru?"
Hinata choked back a sob, trying to be brave, and Kurenai just watched with sad, crimson eyes. Shino's expression was, as ever, unreadable.
"Aoimaru?"
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Author's Notes:
I got nothing.
