A/N: I'm taking liberties with the world obviously. But it's still very much Naruto. With a heavy Witcher influence. AU's are kinda my specialty. Rated R because I like the freedom. If you like this give it a follow and I'd love to hear your thoughts.
xXx
Kiba had almost left the house that morning without putting his mask on.
He'd woken up, bare faced and groggy. He dawned his black flak, pants and boots. Moved downstairs to chug yesterdays black coffee straight from the pot before letting Akamaru out to harass the local squirrels. He'd made it all the way to the door when he felt his hands begin to tremble. The way he gripped the door handle was gentle. Soft even.
He was off, and he knew it.
He ran to the pantry, Akamaru at his side, and rummaged through his medicines until he found them. Soldier pills. What gave tough, metal, Witchers an extra edge. Just two tabs of this and your body flooded with endorphins of hate and tenacity. He popped four, twice the recommended dose, and within five minutes he could feel his mask stitching itself back on, stamping down the softness in his heart behind now pale, yellow irises. He could feel the lust for violence lounge on the hate filled peaks of his fangs.
Now he was really himself again.
Truth be told these things could make a monk rive in fury. But for him, years of use and abuse just left him feeling level and he was ok with that... At least until he needed to up his dose again.
"Guard the house boy." He called to the dog.
He tucked the bottle into his flak pocket for safe keeping and rushed out into the village to meet the others for todays assignment.
xXx
"What took you so long, Inuzaka?" Called the raspy voice of Shikamaru from the gate.
Kiba couldn't help but feel better when he watched his brothers in arms drown themselves in their own addictions. For him it was Solider pills, and as for the Nara? Cigarettes. There wasn't a time anymore that you could find him without one in hand. He often had a cloud of smoke following him thicker than the ghosts that were surely looming.
"Had to take my vitamins and eat my wheaties. You know how it is."
"Yeah, I do." Was Shikamaru's lighthearted response as he took another drag. Kiba looked around to find that they were the only two to have made it so far. "Where's that blonde idiot at?"
xXx
The blonde in question, Naruto Uzamaki, was running late himself. Well not exactly running, he kept a relaxed pace with his hands stretched out behind his head as his leather boots dragged away at the earth beneath him. Trailing behind him, the village heir, Konohamaru. A younger boy in his early teenage years. A crop of brown hair with just a little baby fat still framing his young face. His slender frame ran to catch up to the lackadaisical stride of the older man.
"Wait up, you almost left me again!"
"Keep up twerp, I told you I wasn't baby sitting anymore." Naruto never turned to look at him, choosing instead to keep his eyes on the slow shifting clouds in the morning sunrise.
"Geez boss, you don't have to be a dick about it."
The man in question stopped on a dime as his young protege finally reached his stride and whacked him on the back of the head with an open palm.
"Language! You know gramps didn't like that kinda talk." He said with a stern voice.
"Well that fucking hurt!" Konohamaru, the grandson of Sarutobi, whined in great frustration. Holding his melon with both hands as the man whacked him once more and walked off again, turning the corner to see his companions at the village gate.
"Hey fellas, ready to hit the armory?" Naruto asked with a yawn as they finally reached the pair.
"Ready? We've been waiting for an hour. We've been ready!" Kiba all but growled.
"Hm...Must have got lost on the trail of life I guess." Naruto said with a shrug.
"Keep that Kakashi lifestyle out of my missions unless you want to get a pay cut. Now let's go, I want to set up shop before early evening."
"Sir, Yes Sir!" Both Naruto and Kiba gave faux salutes with extreme effort in being effortless.
"Smart assess. The lot of you…" Shikamaru groaned as he pinched the bridge of his brow.
xXx
The armory latches clicked and slid about as Shikamaru showed the guard his Witchers badge.
"Morning Mr. Nara. What are we looking for today?" A tall, bald, man with scars from head to toe catered to a large room of gear ranging from the classics in violence, blades and guns alike. To the more abstract, dream catchers and holy water. Books bound in leather easily hundreds of year old.
"Hey Genma, I need rifles for three, and some ash." He said.
"Hey, what about me?!" Konohamaru yelled from behind Naruto.
The group's leader looked over to him with a minute interest. "Forgot you were here kid." He said before turning back to the man. "Anyway, yeah. Three rifles, some ash, and I guess a pocket knife for the kid, silver will do."
"Sure, sign here." The man slid him some papers and a pen under the desk window and went off to fill the order.
"Whatever old man…" Konohamaru grumbled under his breath.
"Hey, get him a sippy cup while you're at it!" Kiba laughed as he ruffled the young man's hair.
"And you thought I was the bully." Naruto thought out loud as he watched the scene play on, good natured rubbing of the teams new shadow. It was only interrupted when Genma shoved a standard issue M4Grand into Kiba's hand with a death threat to keep his weapons clean. A classic single shot rifle with a fixable bayonet for close encounters. Dated it may be, it was accurate and reliable. Just how Shikamaru liked everything.
"You know I'm know I'm no good with the big guns Shika. Can't I get a silver trench knife or just use my hands or somethin?" The blonde groaned.
"Hopefully we're not close enough to the target for you to have to use a pistol, Naruto. And trust me, the target isn't something you want any kind of contact with. So quit you're whining and pack the ammo. Kiba, get the ash. And you." Shikamaru looked down at the eager young Hunter to be. "Stay out of the way and keep quiet. You have no idea how big a drag it'd be to explain that I got the Hokage's grandson killed. Here." He handed him a small pocket knife, the blade probably no bigger than his palm. "You aren't to engage. And if you have to... well we're probably fucked already anyway."
The boy reluctantly kept his mouth shut, nodding instead. Going over the new knife he'd been given. He flipped it open to see it was a reinforced silver with a dull sheen.
"Get anything else you might need. And pack light. If I'm not home before breakfast tomorrow, I'll have a much bigger monster to deal with at home. So let's make this a quick one boys."
"A Nara?…. Moving quickly?" Kiba mocked with a few laughs at Shikamaru's expense.
"Shut it mutt." Shikamaru sparked another cigarette as he watched his crew scatter to get ready. "You'll understand when you have kids and a wife."
" I have a kid-"
"Not the damn dog, Kiba." Shikamaru groaned.
xXx
"So what's the target, Stag?" Naruto asked as the group trudged along their fourth hour outside the village walls.
Shikamaru let out a deep sigh, not even bothering to look back at the blonde. Keeping his stride unbothered as he preferred to ignore him.
"Why am I not surprised that you didn't read the dossier?" Kiba asked, unsurprised.
"You know I hate to read, just give me the cliff notes bud." Naruto shrugged.
"… Skinwalkers, you big idiot. There was a Skinwalker sighting a few miles from here."
"No wonder the Stag is still smoking. Those poor bastards can't see or smell worth a damn." Naruto said.
"Really? I thought making eye contact was one of the worst things you could do with those creepy things?" Konohamaru asked with genuine curiosity.
"I mean yeah, but no? I don't now. Kiba, talk to the kid."
"It's ok kid. Not everyone's a good teacher." Kiba said.
"Whatever." Naruto tilted his head back to watch the looming stars instead. Sunset would be soon but he appreciated how clear the day was that he could enjoy bothering the suns warmth and the budding stars.
"Skin walkers are real old school monsters. Kinda rare, so the there's not much recorded about them. So most of what we know is based off of experience that Witchers before us brought back to the village. My pops use to hunt plenty of these poor blind bastards. He said you can really be as loud and clumsy as you want. It's a damn fluke that they ever even find victims that aren't blatantly obnoxious." Kiba explained.
"Woahh, they're blind?" Konohamaru asked in wonder. "Think I can sneak up on one and stab in the-"
"They'd ruin your soul, kid." Shikamaru said from the front. "Like I said, stay out of the way."
"Yes, boss…" Konohamaru took to sharpening his knife with a wet stone as the walk grew quiet. The older men around him seem to reign in their focus and tighten the grip on their rifles.
"You know, they say a skinwalker can't see, but they can look you in the soul and assume you're appearance on the outside. Kinda like seeing your essence, not so much your actual body. They'll take you're voice, then your face, your life and eventually." Naruto chuckled at the boy as he noticed how rigid Konohamaru had been once he started speaking. "They snatch your soul and bury it in hell with the gallery of other faces they've stolen. They can see your outline well enough, even in the dark. And if they catch you looking at them it's like welcoming them to take your life." Kiba further explained.
"Grandpa says these monsters stories are full of it, that most of them are just ugly and depressing abominations. Shapeless heaps of demon hate that molded into... something
"They're that too." Naruto assured. "But never let a skinwalker follow you home. You might just not wake up in the morning."
"Ha Ha. Very funny. Scare the new kid I get it." Konohamaru forced himself a laugh, but nobody joined in and eventually the space was quiet again besides the light sound of the of boots on crunching leaves on the cool fall ground.
xXx
"First things first you rub your blades in ash. Making sure your surfaces are nice and dusty." Shikamaru demonstrated pulling the fixed blade from its sheath on his hip and dipping it into a pouch of ash. "Then you load these bad boys." He waved a round metal ball for the boy to see before loading it into a customized magazine for his rifle, which applied a traditional single round magazine similar to the days of yesteryear.
"Uh, what's with the balls and the old guns anyway?" Konohamaru had taken his note pad out at this point, soaking up everything in their mission and writing it down to accurately recount later.
"The "balls" are metal covered lumps of ash. Modern day weapons shoot too hard and Skinwalkers are quite fragile. Which is fine for modern day fire arms until you realize A: they can't be killed by normal bullets and B: if your normal bullet covered in ash were to strike them it'd probably just pass straight through them. So. We got these little guys, they're hard enough to penetrate but they won't pass through." Shikamaru finished explaining as he stood and took a long stretch.
"Plus the boss is a total gun nut, he's been looking for an excuse to use every old rifle he can get his hands on." Kiba elaborated. Shikamaru gave him a side eye but eventually shrugged in agreement.
"I like what I like." He said . "And then finally you take the remainder of the ash and apply it to yourself." He said, dabbing handfuls of the ash in various places on his body.
"Why ashes?" Konohamaru questioned. Notepad in hand as he watched the men prepare.
"It's harder for them to differentiate you from the environment, living or nots Going into that whole essence thing we talked about. And as for killing? They've gotta be tree ashes from the land of said skinwalker. There was one spotted in these woods. A man walking about, howling for help in the middle of the night." Kiba said.
"… you sure it's not drugs?" Konohamaru asked, a little in disbelief that these things might even exist. After all, Witchers had done such a great job over the years, the threat of monsters and beast alike was beginning to fade into myth. People feared less, society had gotten comfortable.
Witchers had gotten comfortable too.
A village some eighty odd years ago that trained Witchers by the dozens was now reduced to an exclusive level, one or two trainees at a time.
"Trust me kid, if it's legit, you'll know." Shikamaru said before inhaling the last of his cigarette.
"So what's the script?" Naruto asked, now fully ready. Dressed head to toe in black hunter gear. A black Jounin flak similar to that of their Shinobi counterparts, fitted black cargo pants with space for equipment, and light framed black boots that shifted through the night rather gracefully. Typically one would want some kind of mail to wear under it to protect from puncture wounds but Naruto's chest was often bare and his flak unzipped so his torso was free under the weighty armor. With a dull black metal leaf village emblem on his headband that he'd condensed down to a make shift necklace he let dangle from his neck. Shikamaru and Kiba wore much of the same, save that Shikamaru wore mesh fishnet under his, with his head band stitched to his shoulder. And Kiba opted for brown long sleeves under his, while wearing his headband on his head like a good boy. All covered in sporadic splashes of ash. Rifle in hand.
Konohamaru kept on a dark hoodie and cargos to blend in. He was always envious of how cool the Withchers of his village looked growing up. One day soon that'd be him.
"A civilian reported his grandfather who lives in these woods missing a month ago. And then just a day ago another civilian reported the son shambling about the woods in tattered clothes. Screaming at the sky for help. Couldn't even get near him without him bolting of into the woods. Old man maybe late 60's, bald, olive tanned skin. Lots of liver spots. The son is young, dark haired and tan as well. A skinny build." Shikamaru nestled down in the prone position on the edge of the ridge they'd set camp up at. Just beneath them he could see into a sparsely wooded area. The fall chill had left the trees bare and you could see the man's house about a half a mile away. "I'll stay hear with the kid on overwatch, take your radios and if you find him…confirm what we already now before you end him."
"You got it boss. Let's roll Fox." Kiba all but sprinted down the hill with a rush of excitement. "The hunt is ON!"
"Awh man, I gotta stay here? But you said-"
"But nothin. I'm your boss, but my boss said no. So, another time kid." Naruto trailed behind Kiba, taking his time with the hill.
"Here kid, keep a look out will ya?" Shikamaru fished into his side pocket and pulled out out some night friendly binoculars. The moon was supposed to rise high and bright this night so visibility hopefully wouldn't be a problem, save the occasional cloud.
"Sure thing boss…" The boy took the binoculars and scanned the forest behind them, itching for something, anything, to happen.
Shikamaru watched the last drops of day drip from the sky through his scope. "You're coming up on that old man's house. Clear the perimeter and then clear the house."
"Roger they Stag." Came the gravely response of his hip radio.
Shikamaru watched Naruto round the house and pop out on the opposite side with a thumbs up. Kiba readied himself at the entrance and promptly kicked through the door when Naruto came behind him.
"You two keep a sharp eye out in there. If this is a skinwalker, a corpse should be around there somewhere. Copy?" Static came in response on his radio. "I said copy you dunderheads." Still nothing. "God damnit." He said with a gruff. "Hey kid take your watch and start a timer. They got 3 minutes before I have to take my ass down there."
"You got it boss." Konohamaru took a pause from his binocular duties and set his watch for 3 minutes exactly and returned to his perimeter scan. "Do they mess with you often? Naruto and Kiba I mean."
Shikamaru scoffed before letting out a deep yawn. "I'd be more concerned if these jokers weren't messing with me." He removed his scope with a couple clicks and nestled his cheek against the stock for stability.
"Somethin wrong with your scope?" Konohamaru wondered aloud.
"…Nah. You just don't need one after you practice enough." Was his nonchalant answer.
Konohamaru noted that the cabin was easily a 500meters across a wooded opening but shrugged it off as the older man possibly trying to impress.
The sun sank with finality and the stars above could be seen in there unshaded beauty. The moon was still a far was off from its peak but there was a slight luminescent glow in the forest. Konohamaru was lost in his thoughts as he scanned the sparse wood, keeping on the alert as not to miss anything. He was three weeks away from being permanently placed with a senior team and he didn't want to goof. It'd been a dream of his to join team Nara since his grandfather had placed him in the academy 9 years ago.
Shikamaru Nara, Kiba Inuzaka. And Naruto Uzumaki. All lead by Ensui Nara. Or at least it used to be, their leader had died some years ago. Shikamaru as next in line to lead, decided not to replace him with anyone new. They were after all a true team of prodigy's. Kiba, born of a long line of Hinters and soldiers alike. Naruto, the son of the villages 4th Hokage and legendary hunter. And Shikamaru. Heir to the Nara, the most knowledgeable family in the monster killing business.
"Boss, do you think I have a good chance of being team Nara?" Konohamaru asked, almost kid like as his binoculars panned across the darkness.
"You know the team doesn't pick."
"Yeah. But still-"
"Still nothing kid. If you become permanent, cool. If not. Then I'm sure you'll serve your village with pride or whatever. How much time?"
Konohamaru held back his disappointment to look at his watch. "1 and 20 left boss." He said to a groan of a response. He felt disheartened sure but he still took his task seriously as he scanned the wound with purpose. That is, until he heard a crunch to his left. He quickly panned over. Left to right he searched but he couldn't make out the sound.
Until his eyes panned down, coming across a tan creature with a tattered pelt. It meandered about the wood. Crunching twig and leaf as it made it's way in the duos direction.
"Hey boss, check this out. The coyotes are back."
Gentle creatures they were. Typically living in packs adjacent to civilization to feed on small live stock. A nuisance for sure, but small enough to be harmless for the most part. Some even took them in as pets if they were small enough.
"That right? Make sure sure they don't make a break for Naruto's snacks. He gets cranky without his instant ramen and I really don't wanna hear it."
"They?" Konohamaru quickly surveyed the area surrounding the coyote for more in case he'd missed something.
"Pack animal kid. Monsters and animals aren't much different. If it's supposed to have a pack, there's always more than one."
"You got it. I think this one is just lost then. He's all on his own." He moved to toss his bag in the tree next to him, but found it peculiar that the coyote moved closer still. Still all on its own. Tail waging in the night breeze.
"Interesting." Shikamaru looked over his shoulder briefly to confirm the trainees assumption before continuing his overwatch. "Just get it out of here."
"Hey bud, shoo." Konohamaru waved a hand at the thing, ushering it elsewhere. But it kept tugging along. Sniffing hard as it approached. It was at the tree line about 30 feet away now. A small little thing, hard to make out in the fresh bight, covered by the shadows of trees.
The boy's alarm went off when he saw something he never thought he'd see.
"Hey uh, boss…"
"Yeah yeah I hear it. Let's roll." Shikamaru slung his rifle over his shoulder. No use trying to shoot while moving down a steep hill.
"Boss…"
"What kid?!" Shikamaru all snapped. Or at least as close as Shikamaru could get to snapping. He turned with aggravation, to the young boy.
Konohamaru pointed off in the not so far distance. The tattered coyote was looking at them. Big eyed and full of malicious intent to be certain. It's features were animalistic, sure. But it's mouth seemed to curve into a frown if that was possible. Expressionless was it's lingering stare but that wasn't nearly the worst thing about it.
"Do coyotes normally stand on two legs like that?" He asked before being roughly ushered in the other direction.
"Kid. Close your eyes. Follow me." Shikamaru spun Konohamaru around in a flash and made a bee line for the downside of the hill.
"How am I supposed to see what I'm doing? What the hell is that thing??"
"Konohamaru!" Shikamaru tightened his grip on the boys collar and for a moment Konohamaru could see the trained legend in the ferocity of his gaze before it flooded back to something much less tense. Something calm. "Do you trust me or not?"
"Y-yes." Konohamaru did his best to calm his nerves and did as he was told. Taking steps with his eyes tightly closed as Shikamaru lead them away.
"Good. Now let your body go limp and tuck your chin."
The boy didn't have time to react before he felt himself tumbling down the hill.
xXx
"Come on Kiba, this isn't fun anymore. That baby Skinwalker took over an old man. Not exactly a challenge." Naruto said, picking at his teeth with a Kunai. "I mean, I could've used a gun for Christ sake."
"Oh calm dow will ya? Pranking that lazy ass is the only enjoyment I'll get out of today." Kiba reasoned.
The duo had entered the house to the rancid smell of rotting flesh. The offending source being a skinless heap of muscle in the master bedroom, laid out in a bloody mess across a queen sized bed. The perpetrator? A spineless mass covered in the deceased's skin, flopping about on the ground as it tried its hand at being a human. Failing grotesquely. The beast couldn't have been very old, or at least not been familiar with taking the form of humans. It lunged about just trying to get off the ground. Naruto sighed with disappointment as he threw a kunai dipped in ash through its forehead.
"Yeah but we tried scaring him the time before last. That lazy bastard has nerves of steel." Naruto groaned.
Kiba gruffed in annoyance as he recounted the last time he'd tried to catch their leader off guard… it resulting in him not being able to smell for a week due to a fractured septum.
"You're no fun anymore…I think I miss the annoying blonde idiot from back in the day."
Naruto simply shrugged and continued to pick away at his teeth. "That idiot grew up like everyone else.
"Suit yourself, I'm still going to scare the shit out of him this time-"
Kiba's revenge plot was interrupted by a barrage of knocks at the door.
"The hell is his problem?" Naruto wondered aloud. "What if we were actually in trouble in here?"
The bangs only grew louder.
"It's me! Let me in!" A childish voice screamed from the other side.
"Konohamaru? You idiot-" Naruto had gotten up to open the door when a firm hand stopped him from undoing the lock.
"Seriously, did you pay attention in training?"
"Of course I did." Naruto yanked back his arm and looked at the door. And then back to Kiba. "… Why do you ask?"
"That has to be a Skinwalker. You think Shikamaru would just let the kid bum rush the cabin while we're on a mission? Don't be so dense-"
"Let us in guys. That's an order!" Even more banging still as the voice of Shikamaru permeated through the door.
"They start off by mocking your voice. Your words. They look you in the eye until they slowly swallow up your personality and then. They come for your skin."
"I know all that already but are you telling me there's two Skinwalkers wearing our recruit and our bosses skin out there?" Naruto said with a genuine curiosity.
Kiba looked all but over the situation. He slung his rifle that he'd drawn to aim at the door and took out a knife instead.
"I'm telling you that whatever's out there isn't with us. So, open the door slow and be ready to put a knife through their head if they pounce." He also pulled out his bottles of solider pills. Taking four more for himself before shaking the bottle at his partner.
"Candy?"
"Nah." Naruto waved away the offer. "You know I never liked that synthetic stuff."
"More for me." Kiba said with a shrug.
Neither of them felt what they should feel in that moment.
Naruto felt a wave of calm wash over him as he looked at the entrance. As the door kept banging he imagined the glory of killing his next beast. The premature triumph bringing a smile to his face. He felt at home here. This felt right. He was always happiest on the job. His exposed skin seemed to rise with heat. A slight steam emitting from him.
Kiba on the other hand could feel the hair rise on his forearms. His hearing intensified enough to hear the rapid heart beat of whatever was on the other side of that door. He could smell it now too. Decaying canine flesh and oak. Blood rushed to his face and his brow tightened into a hearty state of hatred. He wanted to end whatever was the other side of that door the way he wanted to end every beast. With extremely violent indiscrimination.
But not once did the common pull of fear smother the two. Not once did uncertainty tremble the hands, unsteady the feet. Fear was as far off a thought as the idea of that monster actually having killed Shikamaru and Konohamaru.
"Open the door. Slowly." Kiba instructed.
Naruto moved slowly toward the door, twisting the knob. Giving a final look back to Kiba before he pushed it forward. The porch was empty. Dimly lit by the stars above, everything was so still and quiet.
Legend says that the cry of a transitioning Skinwalker sounds like a man wailing for help. But when the coyote shaped figure outside lunged for the door it's voice more resembled that of a blood curdling scream of agony.
Naruto and Kiba lunged at the beast but it's battle cry was cut short with the loud ring of a rifle. With a loud ping in the distance. It fell to the ground writhing in silent agony as a ash filled ball dissolved beneath the flesh of where it's eyeball once was.
"Oh COME ON!" Kiba yelled with frustration into the night. "You couldn't let me have this?!" He kicked the beast of the porch and through his hands up at the dark forest line.
Naruto let out a deep sigh as he sheathed his blade and slung his rifle. "Damn, Nara doesn't miss."
Konohamaru watched in wonder as Shikamaru let out a chuckle at his teammates expense. He stood up, wiping of the debris from their brief tumble down the hill. The ash had kept them safe from the Skinwalkers senses. Causing him to pursue the loudest thing in the area.
Which was unsurprisingly Kiba and Naruto knocking in the cabin door earlier.
"That was a hell of a shot boss!" Konohamaru exclaimed jumping up with excitement before racing over to the other two men to check out the dead beast.
The men had begun to bicker by the time they reached them. Talks of who would have had the better stab and who could've taken the thing with their bare hands were thrown about with aggressive egos only Witchers could have. But Konohamaru had no interest in them. His attention was swallowed up by the still beast.
At first his voice had been lost. Gone was the coyote replicating Konohamaru's very own voice. It shifted to silence as it died painfully. It's mouth open with no words coming out. He could see the strain on it's face and he knew the things time was near.
His amazement shifted to shock however when the cries of help started once more shifting between the deep sounds of lost men to the shrill screams of little girls. The beast cycled through presumably every soul it'd taken in it's life time.
"Kill me!" A little girl cried.
"Come forward so that I may eat your soul!" Came the guttural roar of an elderly man.
But finally something distinctly inhuman spoke to him.
"Look upon my face boy. And heed my words." It was deep. Labored in its dying breaths.
Konohamaru's hands began to tremble as he reached into his pocket for his blade. This was the first time anything of the supernatural had directly addressed him and to say the unease the beast put off was frightening would be an understatement.
"Look upon me with fear boy. Because we're coming for your-"
The beast was silenced as the heel of Naruto's boot pushed the ash filled ball deeper into its skull. "Ignore that thing kid. We've all been cursed once or twice." He said.
And that really was the truth of it. He watched as the older men joked and recounted the things death and wondered just how cursed they were. Word had it the Witchers of Konoha didn't keep their humanity for long. Either it be from the detachment most suffered, the crutch of their coping, synthetic augmentations, or perhaps, something much stranger.
He studied the three and thought it odd how Shikamaru sank a 400m shot with no scope. Or how Kiba's bloodlust seemed to almost make his canines look like fangs. But must curious of all? The orange like glow that seemed to be fading around Naruto after he ended that monsters life. Like tangible heat was rolling off of him in waves.
"You alright kid?" Naruto shook him and Konohamaru realized he must have been staring.
"Y-yeah I'm fine boss." His gut told him there wasn't just one monster in that open field. But he wasn't sure that met danger either. He felt a urge to grab at the back of his neck when a chill had ran through him that he couldn't quite explain.
He pushed down the fear to stand in triumph with these seasoned monster slayers "I'm, fine."
xXx
A/N: Thanks for joining me. I hope you stick around for more chapters.
Yes I'm still working on all my writing. No there's no timeline xD.
