Shinobi of the Force
The Force Eats Thunder…
Konoha Main Gate: Two days later
Naruto was staring through the village gate at the road ahead of him. If he took one more step forward, this would be the furthest he had ever been away from the village. Uzumaki Caldera may not be in the village proper, but it was still, technically within village borders.
Uzumaki's step constituted a choice between his old life and his new. Beyond that step, a whole new existence stretched out before him. Once he completed his stride, his life before now would cease to exist. In his heart, he knew this mission was a turning point in his life, but one could not remain still forever, or they would become stagnant.
Naruto completed his step and his awareness returned to normal. He waited for further instructions from his Jonin-sensei.
The day was a beautiful one with a bright sky, fair weather, and chirping birds. Not much about his team's attire had changed, except Hinata wore her Chameleon mask over her chest, and a pair of fingerless gloves with spikes on the backhand. Sakura wore her usual attire, but had added prachiat hand wraps to her arms. Kurenai remained in her usual clothing. Naruto's clothing remained the same as well, except he had added a plain brown poncho to go over everything. Only the hilts of his ginunting could be seen protruding from his poncho, and the hilt of Akai Shi rose over his right shoulder. His kitsune mask hung limply down his own chest.
With them were the three miners who gave them the mission, waiting silently for them to begin, though Naruto could feel one of them was becoming extremely anxious. "Starting now, we will be guarding our clients while we journey to the Katabami," Kurenai reminded them, "once we get there, we'll scout the Kurosuki clan, and learn as much as we can about them. Once we have all the information we need, we'll deal with them accordingly."
"Sensei," Naruto said tentatively, when she looked at him, he continued, "I don't want to overstep, but the Force is telling me we need to get there as quickly as we can, if we want to stop a tragedy."
"We'll get there as soon as we can, Naruto," Kurenai assured him, "if we were by ourselves we could run all the way there and be there before nightfall. We would also be too exhausted to fight," she added, "and be easy pickings for our enemies."
"Luckily, we may have a place to use as a base of operations," Hinata put in, "Lee-san told me of a curry shop, not far from the entrance to the valley where the mine is located. He said it's run by a mother and her son," Hinata finished telling them.
"As long as we don't endanger them, or inconvenience them too much with our presence, we can consider it," their sensei accepted.
"If these men will allow it," Naruto said, turning to look at their clients. "I can place them in a coma which would allow us to pack them into storage scrolls and we could run all the way there. Unload them near that curry shop," Naruto offered.
Their clients shared a look and seemed to come to an agreement, the one known as Rokusoke, stepped forward. "If you can do it safely we'll accept," he said, "we must get back to the mine as soon as possible."
This cemented something in Naruto's mind, he had only offered this alternative to see how important getting to the mine was to them. He stepped closer and thrust his hand at their clients, "you will tell us why you need to get home so quickly," his voice became compelling.
"We will tell you why we want to go home so quickly," their clients chorused.
"Now," Naruto's voice became one of authority!
Naruto's voice made them jump, as they began to tell them things they left out of their request. "We told you that the Kurosuki family were executing anyone they could get their hands on," they reminded the ninja, who nodded, "what we did not tell you was the method they used."
"Continue," Naruto Force Compelled them!
"The leader of the Kurosuki is a man by the name of Raiga," they complied, "he's a former Kiri-nin. His favorite activity is to hold funerals, and you don't even need to be dead to get one from him," they said in fear.
This was when Rokusuke knelt to the ground in tears, "just before we came here, my best friend, my brother in all but blood was captured by their gang!"
"How horrible," came many voices at once. Such was the echoing sentiment in the boy's own emotions, when he could not distinguish whether the outrage came from behind him, or within his own mind.
"We left, right as they were lowering him into the ground," he pleaded, "we could see the coffin shaking from our place on the mountain! That was how much Kenpachi was beating on the casket to be let out!" By now, the man's crying had devolved into full on sobs, "please, don't abandon us, you're our only hope of rescuing my friend and our people from this nightmare!"
Naruto looked upon these men, whose only crime was lying because they believed nobody would help them otherwise. The rising fury of his anger was temporarily banked, by the flood of compassion rising in his soul. Naruto placed his hand on the man's shoulder, and allowed images of a possible future of peace to flow before Rokusoke's eyes, which seemed to relax him.
"Sleep," came the compulsive voice again, as the man fell over. He turned his eyes up to their other clients and repeated his order, "Sleep." This prompted both to sit down and begin snoring.
Naruto stood up and took out one of his self-made storage scrolls. He opened it and placed it on the ground. He used Force levitation to move them to the scroll, and a touch of chakra to place them within. After his task and once he put the scroll in a safe place, he stood up, and turned to face the rest of his team. He noticed three identical faces staring back in resolve, all of them of the same mindset, destroying the Kurosuki clan.
Traveling to Katabami
The weather this time of the year, was always unusually calm. While no season or region is ever without the occasional rain shower, this point in their world's revolution around their sun was known as the season of tranquility.
On this day, much of that tranquil atmosphere will be lost for the time being. The temporary upheaval will come courtesy of a team of Genin out of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. As they ran flat out over the terrain, they were in what ninja refer to as battle-pursuit speed formation.
Most people when they are in a hurry, will remain upright and pump their arms and legs, like they are pumping water. This method is good for the reasonably fast speeds typical of most people (15 – 30 mph.) Ninja however, have been clocked at (60 – 100 mph,) at the low end. Many people would think they were using their chakra to get up to those speeds, but that would only be partially true.
Ninja begin training when they are young, most at about six-years old, some even younger. They turn their bodies into weapons, weapons that endure, and are as strong as steel.
Like an arrow, the members of Team Kurenai, are moving over the terrain like an arrow shot from a bow. Their bodies are moving like a single unit, like a well tuned engine. They are leaning over into the wind, face first, hands and arms at the side of their bodies acting as fletching, and a rudder. Legs and feet providing propulsion, their eyes scanning the terrain ahead, and ears relaying environmental data.
They move through the area so fast, even birds have no time to quiet their song, before the ninja are gone. As they pass, they leave a wake of rustling leaves behind them as the wind seemingly rushes to catch them. Until they depart from the valley in which Konoha resides, and move into the hilly foothills of the Katabami mountains.
Many would think the change in terrain would hinder the progress of the ninja of the Leaf. They would be wrong, because the rise of a hill inevitably leads to its slope. The downhill adds momentum to their speed, which aids them in climbing up the next incline.
The ninja do not stop to eat or rest, they could move at this pace all day if they had to, and still be able to fight at the end of it. They reach the more mountainous area of the region, by the time the sun is starting to set. They are not at all tired, whatever happens they are ready for a battle.
When they reach the precipice overlooking the graveyard, and Naruto feels himself being looked at, he does not care. Let the devils know who has come to collect their due. Let them know the Shinigami has come to reap them for their wickedness, and Hell will follow behind me. Naruto unleashes his Presence within the Force upon the region, and all whom he came for shudder in their dreams.
"Someone… is coming," the timid voice of a misguided soul quakes with fear, "and he has been filled with a terrible resolve."
Nightfall
The night is silent in these mountains, Naruto and his friends have released the miners from the scroll. They are standing on a ledge overlooking a makeshift graveyard. Naruto stares out into the darkness. He feels the despair even from here, it felt like a yawning canyon, an abyss waiting to engulf him.
"I feel cold," Naruto said, breaking the silence with a shivering voice. He turned to them all, "there are enemies around, guarding the cemetery."
Kurenai nodded, then turned to their clients, "we will find your friend and do everything we can to save him. You three stay here, and pray we're not too late," she ordered.
As she was laying out her instructions, Naruto was back to looking at the graveyard. Once she finished he looked back and got her nod, just before he jumped out into the abyss, before the miners looked at each other. "How are they going to find his grave," one of them asked?
Team Seven landed in the cemetery, and as soon as they did, Naruto began to cast about himself like a dog trying to catch a scent. He moved in one direction toward a corner of the graveyard, near a particular section, where they found a freshly dug grave.
"Is the Force telling you where to go Naruto-kun," Hinata wondered?
"A little bit, yeah," Naruto admitted, "but the despair associated with this place is too thick to give me a clear direction. So, I'm using my normal senses which are as acute as any Inuzuka nin-dog, and the vague sense of life coming from this grave to help me locate this Kenpachi guy. Even if I'm wrong," Naruto declared in a growl, "it just means this Raiga-teme, pulled another person into his little hobby."
Naruto reached it, and placed his ear against the mound of dirt, "I hear breathing," he paused to listen further, "and a heartbeat. Hinata-chan what do you see inside," he asked urgently?
Hinata had engaged her Byakugan as soon as Naruto got to the grave, "yes, there's someone inside," she confirmed, "his chakra is moving very slowly, it's almost at a standstill."
"Everybody stand back," he told them. Once they took a step or two away, Naruto thrust his hand out, which shoved all of the dirt off the interment. This uncovered the coffin, they saw that it was made out of steel, impossible to escape unless one had access to chakra. Tempering his frustration a little, Naruto levitated the casket, gently out of the grave. He set it down, and using the Force on it like a sardine can, rolled the top off the coffin.
Kurenai rushed forward and knelt to check on the man's condition. She had the most experience as a medical ninja, though nowhere near as skilled as Tsunade Senju or Izumi Uchiha. She performed the Buddha Palm technique, "he's almost completely asphyxiated, but his heart's beating. He needs a supply of chakra to help shock his system into operation, once that happens we can start rescue breathing."
"Me and Hinata don't have enough to spare for that kind of thing," Sakura said sadly.
"It has to be from a male, anyway," Kurenai added, "males can only supply males with chakra, female to female,'' she explained. "Medical personnel are trained to be able to alter their chakra make-up to be neutral, which will naturally convert to the gender of his natural chakra," Kurenai explained, "and I never got that far in my medical ninja training."
"Naruto," they asked?
Who was already shaking his head, "as a jinchuriki, my chakra is too impure to help him," Naruto informed them, don't feel bad Kurama, it's not your fault, you didn't ask to be placed inside me. "If I give him my chakra, it would only kill him faster," Naruto finished, then he remembered another source of chakra, one that was all around them, "but there might be a way," he said as he moved as close to the ailing man as possible. He sat down and immediately began going through the steps he used to suppress his emotions for Force meditation. He sequestered his senses from the outside world, and sought to feel something he had only felt in his deepest meditative state. The only thing he remained aware of was his breathing, his entire being was utterly still. That was when he felt it, and it felt like the breath of the Earth. The rising and falling, the crest and the trough, the rolling of the land, the waves of the sea, the movements of the atmosphere. Naruto found his breathing, changing to harmonize with the frequency of the natural chakra, and ironically, the Force was resonating with it as well, as if it were communicating, conversing with the energy of Nature.
Naruto knows intuitively that he cannot compel the natural energy to help, anymore than you could get the tides to change, or a river to stop flowing. If you cannot force a change, you must carve out a new path. Naruto felt the thought enter his mind, it was the first time the Force had ever actually spoken to him, or give it a medium to operate through.
Naruto opened his mouth and allowed the nature chakra to flood him, then he moved as if guided and opened the airway of the man on the ground. Naruto placed his mouth over the man from the grave, and allowed the nature chakra to flood through him, and into the man's body. To the outside observer it looked like he was starting rescue breathing, even after his sensei said they needed to wait. What was actually happening was killing two birds with one kunai, by allowing nature chakra to flood through him, and convert into wind chakra. This introduced chakra into his system, which immediately converted itself into the man's own chakra, and started rescue breathing, which instead of the normal air expelled from rescue breathing, delivers pure oxygen into his lungs.
Naruto continued his rescue chakra-breathing for a good five minutes, he was going in for one more breath, when the man from the grave started kicking and sputtering and coughing. Naruto pulled back to allow the man to move, he rolled him on his side to be sure he was not going to be sick. Once he stabilized, Naruto rolled him over and got a good look at him. He was a fairly thin man, no doubt having to do with the recent enslavement and being buried alive. He had a beard on his face, matching his brown-eyes and hair. He was wearing the same kind of clothes as Rokusuke and the others. He opened his eyes and smiled up at the blonde, and a grateful smile bloomed on his lips.
Kurenai moved forward with a canteen, to give him some water, his smile of gratitude broadened, and he beckoned them closer. In barely a whisper he said, "much… obliged." At their nod, he added, "Ken…pachi," which caused teacher and student both to smile fondly, before he promptly fainted. This alarmed them, until Kurenai performed the Buddha Palm again, then breathed a sigh of relief, and smirked at her findings.
"Not to worry," she answered gently, "he's just fainted. Understandable, considering where we found him," she all but spat!
"Sensei, I don't think our actions have gone unnoticed," Hinata suddenly alerted them, the veins around her eyes, very pronounced, giving mute testimony to her Bloodline being active.
Kurenai merely nodded, "I didn't expect them to remain oblivious for long," she confirmed, "I'm just glad Guy isn't here. Raiga is one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, and a hunter-nin." She explained, "formidable swordsmen with chakra-enhanced blades, and shinobi that specialize in hunting ninja, whether missing ninja, or ninja from rival villages."
"What about Guy-sensei," Sakura wondered?
"His father died defeating the Seven," their teacher told them, "he was victorious, but he had to use all of his eight gates, including the Gate of Death." She had taken a sorrowful demeanor, as she told the story, then as if getting a sudden burst of energy, "Sakura, Hinata, please take this man to that Curry Shop you told us about, ask the proprietor for help, if they ask for compensation tell them to send the bill to the Leaf. Plus, any food we eat there, will be paid for out of our own pocket," she ordered to her Genins' agreement.
"What will you and Naruto be doing," Sakura asked?
There was a sudden bloom of a sickly sweet smile on her face, "Oh, I'm pissed off, as I suspect we all are, but we need to get the injured man away from here. So, Naruto and I are going to vent our anger upon the people guarding this field of debauchery, it'll also distract them while you leave." At the beginning of her explanation her voice had been strong, by the time she named the graveyard, Kurenai's voice had descended into a veritable hiss of hatred and anger.
Hinata reached over and tugged on her fellow kunoichi's shoulder, "looks like we're not popping our cherries today, Sakura-chan, maybe another day."
Sakura, while blushing at the Hyuga's word choice nodded in understanding. She knew she had been given an order, she could not disobey, nor question it. Hinata and Sakura picked up Kenpachi and made for the cliff-face overlooking the graveyard. She did wonder though, how is Naruto qualified to take part in this portion of the mission, if she and Hinata were not? Has Naruto killed someone already, she asked and answered herself with a nod, who was it?
A few minutes later…
In the graveyard, Rokusoke was in the middle of Raiga-sama's garden, he was down on his hands and knees, digging through the dirt. If anybody was within hearing range they would hear him urgently cursing himself for not digging faster, while encouraging the grave occupant. "I'll get you out, just hang on a little longer…" he urged, "please, don't die!"
"Hey," came a deep voice off to his left, "just what do you think you're doing?"
Rokusoke looked in that direction to see a man dressed in a cloak. The cloak was gray, with a hood and a high-collar, obscuring most of the man's face, and decorated with gold-trim along the chest-flap and the hem. The hapless miner looked around as if to look for an escape route, "uh well, I was looking for something to sell, to make ends-meet for my family, this cemetery looked to be as good of a place as any to look. It's a gold mine after all, they might have placed a nugget or two, in their loved ones mouth, to help him pay the boatman once he gets to the other side."
Rokusoke saw that he was surrounded by seven men, and Naruto sensed no other presence within the graveyard. It seems Raiga-teme might be the only threat among the Kurosuki Clan, Naruto mused, why else would it take a whole gang to frighten one miner?
"What are you talking about," another voice sneered, "it seems Raiga-sama is going to be arranging another funeral."
"I'm just offering you some advice, sir," Rokusoke answered, when his body flowed back into his true shape, Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, "you're going to need it where you're going." Faster than a lightning strike, Naruto flicked out his wrist, and sent a kunai through the chest of the sneerer.
"Ah," he screamed like a little bitch, as he clutched the blade buried in his heart!
Naruto was already moving to the next Kurosuki, as he drew his ginunting, and parried the dagger strike of two more that had charged at him. With the cloaks it was hard to distinguish specific features, except for height, so Naruto began calling them short-asshole and tall-asshole in his mind. In a true battle there is no such thing as a fair fight, you take every advantage you need to win, and make the fight as short as possible. Naruto was facing them evenly, both watching his every move, and right behind the short-asshole was the piece of I-beam they had used as a grave marker for Kenpachi. Naruto raised his blade as if about to attack, which quietly raised the 500-pound piece of steel and flung it into the man's back, which snapped his spine like a toothpick.
As this was happening, Naruto made his own charge at Tall-asshole, who brought out a sword, but the Genin's trained eye saw it was an inferior weapon to his own beloved blades. Naruto did not engage until the Force found the flaw he was looking for, he just kept parrying and evading tall-asshole's attacks. Then he felt it through the Force, the flaw, he swiftly engaged his wind manipulation as a cutting force, Naruto began his attack but when the tall-asshole raised his blade to defend, Naruto sliced it to pieces.
Naruto's attack was not limited to the tall-asshole's weapon though, he added the Force to the cutting edge of his blade and it went a little beyond the man's sword, and into his chest-cavity, at about the level of his heart and lungs. The attack sliced them to pieces, but left no traces on his body. Naruto looked up as a dribble of blood came out of his mouth, before he crumpled to the dirt, and arose no more. Naruto looked around and found the other four in the process of dying, but saw no trace of an injury on any of them. Looks like Kurenai-sensei is using her genjutsu to dispatch her opponents, Naruto surmised. He turned to see that despite the immense pain he was in, the short-asshole was still alive.
Naruto approached him, and looked down upon him with absolutely zero pity, then a smile triggered on his lips. "I have nothing but contempt for you and your boss," Naruto spat, "but you may yet prove useful," he concluded as he knelt next to the dying man. "If you tell me where your base is, I will be merciful to you and end your suffering," Naruto offered, then smiled sadistically, "and if not, I can make your last days of life the most excruciating you've ever felt."
The guy just laughed, "I can't feel anything below my neck you little shit, so do your worst, torture me. Anything I feel would be a godsend," shorty spat back bitterly.
Naruto actually chuckled at short-asshole's naïveté, "you really believe that the worst torment you can receive comes from your body? We are not just crude constructs of matter," he instructed, "we are, all of us, luminous beings. Only a very small part of us is composed of matter," Naruto informed his prey, "and even that is nothing but energy that has been frozen in place." Naruto read the skeptical look on the short-asshole's face, "allow me to give you a taste of the desperation that saturates this Field of Debauchery." Naruto raised his hand, fingers spread, as purple lightning arced between them and his thumb, as he slams his hand down over the man's forehead.
"AHHH," came the short man's screams of agony, as his brain was flooded with Force-Lightning. If he could move, the short-asshole would have been thrashing all over the ground, doing anything to get away from that hand of terror. Naruto let up for an instant, then began all over again, by sending currents of energy through nerves that were supposed to be dead. The short-man had never experienced pain like this in his entire life, he felt like the very air was burning in his lungs.
Meanwhile, in true reality, Naruto was looking at the man thrashing around on the ground. Standing next to him was his sensei, she was observing the events on the ground, with a clinical eye. "So, what are you making him see," she asked, like she was merely wanting to talk shop with a chef about how he prepares a particular dish?
"I'm making him experience torture," Naruto explained, he said while showing her the same cascading electricity in his illusion. "I mean I could do the things he's experiencing in our reality, but I don't want to go that far, because at some point, justice becomes vengeance," Naruto declared, "I would become like our enemy if I allowed myself to follow that path. The Force requires me to walk a delicate line in how I approach things, it's a balancing act," Naruto admitted, "if I allow myself to teeter too far in either direction I could become a terror we haven't known since Madara Uchiha. Worse, because he only sought dominion, I could enslave the world if I go too far, and literally destroy the world."
"The Force is that powerful," Kurenai wondered, aghast at what she was hearing?
"The Force is to Chakra, as the Sun is to a bonfire, Kurenai sensei," he explained, "they may do similar things, but they are so different in power and scope that they're not even related to each other."
"OKAY! OKAY, STOP! Please, stop," the short-asshole pleaded, "I'll tell you where we are, just please, make the pain stop!" The short-asshole told them where to find the house they had been living in, and even how to get through the security measures they had in place.
Naruto smiled in gratitude, "thank you for your candor, and I will keep my promise to you," and with those words, he plunged a kunai into his heart. "Life is pain, and your life would have been more painful than it was worth," Naruto explained as the man's eyes faded and his life left him. Naruto looked up at Kurenai who had curled an eyebrow at his words, and actions, "as I said Kurenai-sensei, there is a difference between revenge and justice. He may not have been a party to all of this but every life wasted in this place, was one he could have prevented. He chose not to do so, and therefore every person he witnessed being buried alive, but didn't is his responsibility. Thus is he guilty of murder," Naruto affirmed, "a life for a life."
Kurenai nodded, then with a smile she beckoned Naruto to follow her, "come Naruto, we're going to draw out our adversary."
"How do we do that," Naruto wondered in bewilderment?
"By showing him, he isn't safe here anymore," she answered, "we're going to need Akai Shi…"
Throwing Down the Gauntlet
The next morning Raiga was awakened by a large cry of alarm in front of his house, which he shared with Ranmaru. If those imbeciles wake Ranmaru, I'm going to give them a funeral, he growled in his mind as he checked his room, to be sure the boy was still asleep.
Raiga came out into the front of his house, and immediately saw what the commotion was all about. Arrayed in a semi-circle directly in front of his house were seven stanchions, and these poles were covered with seven Kurosuki cloaks. This was not what alarmed his men, however, it was the seven sets of eye sockets, empty of eyeballs that gazed back from what could only be their severed heads. All of which were placed upon the makeshift headstones found in his Garden of Truth, what worried Raiga though was how, whomever did this, managed to make it inside their base, especially with Ranmaru there. Have they figured out how to conceal themselves from the boy's eyes, he wondered in the solace of his mind?
At the Mine…
Meanwhile at the Mine itself, the lives of the miners were abysmal. Every person that could move on their own, had been pressed into service to help Raiga and his gang, ring every last koryo from the mine. From the youngest to the oldest the citizens of Katabami toiled in forced labor, the only aspect that was respected was gender, but that was only because men were generally physically stronger than women, and could get more work out of the men.
The Kurosuki showed no mercy to anybody, not even giving them water if they fainted at their feet. For anybody unknowledgeable about the gold mining process, the gold is merely a part of the ore. To obtain the gold within, they must refine it into mercury, which evaporates, and only then does it become gold.
Today the workers in the mine noticed that their captors were being unusually alert. There was also double the amount of guards, they never seemed to go anywhere without a buddy, not even to the bathroom. All totaled, there were seven men at the mine today, which was roughly half the men in the gang. Any of the miners that had been keeping track, knew that there were 15 members of the gang, including Raiga.
A particular incident that would catch somebody's eyes, happened mid morning when a particularly old man stumbled out of the mine. He was carrying a double load of the ore from the mine into the smelting factory, when his strength seemed to give out right next to a contingent of guards.
He dropped his burden and was immediately harassed by the guards, "what do you think you're doing, old man, get up!"
Another guard tried to terrorize him into action by sneering at him, "maybe we should tell Raiga-sama it's time for another funeral."
"Hurry up," came yet another voice!
The old man got totteringly to his feet, even as the four bastards came close to him. When all four of them entered the optimum range, the old man's posture changed, and a feminine voice came from his mouth, "you assholes are within the range of my divination. Kaiten: 32-palms of divine retribution!" This was Hinata's version of the Hyuga main branch's secret technique, it was like the normal version they all use, except instead of normal chakra, Hinata uses her raiton-chakra.
He began to spin, and a puff of smoke later, revealing a pretty teenage girl, with blue-hair, and white pupiless eyes. "Eight-palms," she declared, as she targeted all the lethal points of her first opponent, "16-palms," did the same thing to her second opponent, "24-palms," she was essentially turning them off, like one would a water faucet. "36-palms," she bellowed deeply, she was just a mere conduit for Kami's judgment, no one would find a single mark on their bodies, if they examined them later.
In the second or two Hinata spent subduing four of the gang, three more were converging upon the scene. Two were coming from the mine, while another approached from within the smelting plant. They were almost to the fight, when the one from the plant leapt completely over the entire fight with Hinata, and after another expulsion of smoke mid-air, a rosette kunoichi emerged.
Sakura landed in front of the guards from the mine, in one of her Hachi stances. She lashed out faster than a chameleon's tongue, with a side-kick to one man's left-flank. Hachi-kogaku, unlike other taijutsu styles, does not just rely on the foot or the hand to make contact, nor does it simply use kinetic power to make strong attacks.
The kicks use the shin bone of the leg, which has been hardened from kicking trees one-thousand times a day. The bastard that received her kick today, saw it coming and blocked it with his forearm, or he tried to, her kick was so powerful, it destroyed the man's arm. Sakura capitalized on his pain with a back-roundhouse thrust-kick which went straight into his sternum, then threw a haymaker right into his face.
Sakura's demolition of the first guy was so fast and brutal it shocked the last one to a standstill, which she took advantage of. While in her spin from the thrust-kick, she let loose a pair of shuriken, which struck by the time she delivered her haymaker, right into the gang member's carotid artery, and he died choking on his own blood.
Sakura watched as he died, she wanted to feel bad about his death, to be remorseful for taking his life, but she could not, did not find any pity for him. "May Kami pass judgement upon you," she prayed and bowed her head, it was the only respect she could muster for him, "and bring you rebirth."
The Genin kunoichi of Team Kurenai, met over the fallen bodies of their enemies. "Did you take care of the last one in the smelting plant," Hinata asked?
"Hai," Sakura confirmed while pointing over her shoulder at her opponents, "these were not my first kills of the day. I actually lost my cherry as you put it," Sakura was blushing as she spoke, she was still struggling to act like a lady when in the field, "on their boss."
Hinata was looking over the bodies of their enemies, she saw inside them and whistled when she got to one of Sakura's. "Damn, Sakura-chan, he looks like his heart's been crushed by an elephant," she observed appreciatively, "and to think, a few months ago you could barely throw a punch. Now you're dusting the scumbags, with a few well placed kicks."
"Yeah thanks," the rosette returned, "can you find out where Naruto and sensei are?"
"No, I can't," the azunde (a/n: author created term for blue-hair, like blonde for yellow-hair) heiress told her, "but I may know where they could be," she added, "there is a section of the mountain that seems to be obscured by a thick fog. My byakugan cannot seem to penetrate it, as if something were blocking it."
"What, something that can block the famed white-eyes," Sakura mocked, "what could it be?"
"Oh, shut-up," Hinata snapped, "there are plenty of things that can block our sight. We know of many of them," the Hyuga informed her teammate, "that Raiga comes from Kiri gives me an idea of what it could be…"
Upon the Mountain
"… kirigakure no jutsu," Kurenai informed her student. "A specialty of the Hidden Mist, which as you can see, blankets the area in a thick fog," she became speculative, "they probably developed it to combat the dojutsu of our village. It does provide some coverage from the sharingan, but it's useless against the byakugan," Kurenai instructed her student.
Naruto narrowed his eyes, then he closed them and reached out with the Force. He searched the mist and found him quite easily, but something was unusual about Raiga, as if he were two beings in one body.
"Well, Ranmaru," Raiga asked quietly, "what do you see?"
"It's amazing, one of them has eyes that can see chakra," a small voice said from within his cloak.
"You mean he is one of them," Raiga asked with some concern?
"No, he doesn't look like the ones you described to me," the voice said, "and he's blonde, not silver-haired. What will you do," the voice asked?
"I have people that depend upon me, Ranmaru," Raiga declared, "all the hopes and dreams of everyone at the Katabami Mine. I cannot let them down!"
"Will you give them a funeral," asked Ranmaru?
"They're strangers, Ranmaru," Raiga rebuked him, "I have no memories of them to carry me through another funeral. I am just going to destroy them! Behold," a great voice bellowed from the peak of the mountain, "Ninjutsu: Inazuma no kiba," as he brought out two bandage covered bundles! They came together with a metallic clang, destroying the wrappings, and sending raiton energy cascading through the air.
It entered the clouds directly overhead, causing them to begin rolling through the heavens. A bolt of lightning as big as a person, lanced down at the ninja of the Leaf, like Kami descending to Earth. It struck them with all of the ferocity of the heavens, destroying even the rock beneath their feet.
Kurenai reflexively looked at the blinding light, and felt a searing pain in her eyes. "Eek," she shrieked, and suddenly there was nothing but darkness, as her eyes closed to prevent any more damage.
"Force-Acceleration," Naruto bellowed as he engaged his closest ally. This caused everything to slow-down in Naruto's perspective, as he grabbed Kurenai and moved out of the way with her. As fast as Naruto was, he still barely moved before the lightning struck the ground behind him.
"How was that Ranmaru," Raiga gloated to his other half?
"It was wonderful Raiga," the voice congratulated him.
They watched as the smoke cleared revealing an actual crater in the rock below them. Raiga was ecstatic at the demonstration of his power, he could not stop chuckling as he muttered, "I blew them to bits," he exulted, "and now they're gone. I'm not sad in the least," he declared, "there's no way I can hold a funeral when I feel this happy."
"They're alive, Raiga," the voice informed him.
"Impossible," Raiga declared, "not after an attack like that!" As if remembering who he was talking to, he suddenly felt contrite, "I'm sorry, Ranmaru, if you say they've survived, then I know it must be true."
A sudden flare of red, came from Raiga's cloak, they appeared like the red-eyes of a demon, "one of them was injured, it seems as if we only have one enemy to fight now."
The Force-Acceleration, as well as jumping down the escarpment deposited them into a stand of trees. Naruto gently laid the ailing woman down, she had fainted from the pain.
He sensed Raiga and whoever was with him were still up there, waiting. I need to finish the mission, but she can't fight like this. I need to get her out of the line of fire, suddenly forming a specific hand seal, and saying, "Fujin Bunshin no jutsu!" A wind-god avatar whirled into existence, he knew what his purpose was as he quietly scooped up their sensei, and Force-Accelerated away.
Naruto looked and saw a shadow off to his right, about fifty yards. Surprise attack, bitches," he yelled in his mind, as he cast a kunai. Its not even the furthest I've thrown, Naruto arrogantly thought, I once nailed a deer right through the brisket from a hundred-yards away.
The only thing he heard was the metallic clang off a rock wall. He looked again and saw nothing was there, damn, I let myself get cocky again.
(Remember Naruto, Mara reminded him in his mind, your senses may be deceived, don't trust them. But you may always trust in the Force.)
Just as he thought that, an arc of static electricity came shooting straight for him. He did not have time to dodge it, so it struck him, but he used the Force to absorb it. Then his pranking mind got an idea, let's play dead.
Raiga jumped from his perch above and found the boy, "he's nothing but a warmed over corpse, now. We're strong, Ranmaru," Raiga congratulated his companion, then he thought better of his notion, "no, it's just you, you're the strong one. When I am with you, I am strong," he corrected, "your strength becomes my strength."
"Wait, something is not right," Ranmaru cautioned, "I can't sense his condition."
"What," Raiga demanded?
At the same time, Naruto sweeps Raiga's legs out from under him, sending him on his back. He landed on his back on top of the cloak-covered Ranmaru.
"No, Ranmaru, Ranmaru," Raiga was almost frantic as he ripped off his cloak to reveal a little boy, who looked to be about five. "Are you alright," Raiga shouted as he checked on his young friend's status?
Ranmaru gave a moan of pain, he was unconscious, but alive. Behind his back Naruto created two more clones, who nodded, as they knew what to do.
Naruto threw a spread of shuriken directly at Raiga, who instinctively parried them away from himself and Ranmaru. The blonde rushed in with a low kick at Raiga's kneeling form, and he moved to dodge, which carried him away from Ranmaru.
Naruto pressed his attack by launching a scathing barrage of punches and kicks at the former Mist ninja. This carried the fight away from the injured boy. Which was Naruto's intention, while his clones moved to the kid to check on him themselves. They nodded to each other when they stabilized him, then one of them picked the kid up and they sprinted away down the mountain.
Raiga had been putting as much concentration as he could into holding off the surprisingly skilled brat. He had no time to spare for anything outside of his immediate line of sight. Naruto was controlling the battle with just taijutsu, when he felt his clones leaving the area that was when he decided to break the stalemate.
He suddenly threw a thrust kick into an opening he perceived through the Force, powerful enough to stun the Kiri-nin. Then backflipped to gain some distance, as he used his signature Wind-Force-Push technique to send Raiga slamming into the granite wall behind him.
Raiga fell to the ground with his breath knocked out of him. He looked over to where Ranmaru had been and gave a start upon finding him gone.
"You needn't worry about the boy," Naruto barked, "he is no longer your concern. I have had him taken to a safe place, he will be examined to discover his condition."
Raiga had been staring in a daze at where Ranmaru had been, barely hearing his opponent. His anger flared as he listened to the Konoha-nin, "when I am done here, there won't even be enough of you left to hold a funeral for," he brought the blades of his swords together as a current started to arc through it. "Lightning Ball," he bellowed as a sphere of electricity formed instantly and shot straight at Naruto.
Naruto raised his hand, "Furyoku-jutsu: Henko," he said calmly, (Wind-Force Art:: Deflection), the ball of lightning was knocked off course, and dissipated in the air.
"Interesting attack," Raiga observed, "you're a wind user, so my lightning attacks are all but useless against you."
"Among other things," Naruto said calmly as a cascade of energy flowed up from the ground, "Shinrikijutsu," and out through his fingers. Violet lightning flashed toward Raiga, who brought his swords up into a cross-block. This was a mixture of Force Lightning and Raiton-chakra. The swords stopped most of it but still pushed him back into the cliff-face.
"It seems we're evenly matched in some areas," Raiga observed, "but I see you carry a sword on your back. Why don't you show me what you can do with it?"
"Very well, you have at least some of your humanity left," Naruto said as he drew Akai-Shi from her sheath, "I will honor you with my blade. This is my final mercy to you, Raiga," Naruto declared, "I will give you an honorable death."
As Naruto drew his mother's blade, a peculiar thing happened as soon as the blade cleared the scabbard. The entire sky, for up to a twelve-mile radius, turned a deep crimson-red, and Raiga felt himself remembering the things he was scared of as a child. When his family owned a funeral home, he remembered being accidentally locked inside one of the coffins.
It made him afraid to ever be buried alive, which he had suppressed until now. He began to shiver unconsciously as he recalled his fear, as it came roaring back to the forefront of his mind. Raiga began to lose concentration on the Hidden Mist jutsu, as his mind was inundated with his worst fear, which caused it to begin unraveling.
Ten miles to the North
A woman was traveling at a steady sprint as she ran to deliver an important retasking order from the Hokage. She was just coming over a rise when the crimson skies bloomed like a storm cloud.
Many people in the Elementals upon seeing such a sight would turn and run in the opposite direction. Anybody alive during the last Great War, would know what seeing the bloody skies again meant, certain death.
This woman, however, would never turn away from this advent, because it meant that the man she loves was in battle. She could no more not aid him in a fight than she could stop the sun from setting in the west.
"Naruto-koi is in battle," she said aloud to nobody because she was alone, luckily she was going there anyway, she will not have to face charges of abandoning a mission. She flooded her legs with chakra, and entered battle-pursuit mode, "I'm coming baby."
Return to Naruto
Naruto stood with his entire body facing Raiga, his arms to the side, sword at the ready. Raiga's fear decided who would attack first when he charged in, the left blade in the lead. Naruto stood his ground and swatted his blade lightly to deflect, which he knew to be a feint.
Naruto was one with the Force, allowing it to guide his moves, while his mind was free to strategize. Those little spikes could be able to hook my blade out of my grasp if I am not careful. Raiga brought his other blade down, but Naruto stepped forward and to the side and deflected it inboard. As Raiga tried to recover, Naruto lashed out with a kick to his flank.
This kicked Raiga away, but Naruto made his own charge at the owner of Kiba. "Furyoku Jitsu: Kōgeki," (Wind-Force Art: Strike) knocked Raiga back into the rock-wall again but this time, he rebounded and attempted to escape by jumping over Naruto's head.
Naruto made his own jump, directly at Raiga Kurosuki in mid-leap. He combined chakra-enhancement, wind manipulation, and the Force, as he literally flew over Raiga's own flying form. Naruto seemed to pass over and rotate through the air, making his strike at the last possible instant there seemed to be a flash of light that obfuscated the actual contact.
Naruto and Raiga landed a few yards away, with their backs facing each other. Naruto immediately began maneuvering his blade to flick the blood off, and returned it to his sheath. Then as Raiga's head rolled off his shoulders, he just walked away. He furled a sealing scroll open as he went, and Raiga's head came flying as he used a touch of chakra to embed it within. He put the scroll away, just as Raiga's blade, Kiba floated into his hand. All just in time for him to dive off the cliff to the Curry of Life shop.
A New Mission
Naruto entered the Curry of Life shop with a grin, "O bāchan, Sanosuke, set me up with a hefty bowl of your spiciest Curry!"
"Naruto-kun," came from several mouths, as they rushed over to see him!
Hinata wasted no time in throwing her arms around her best-friend's neck and kissing him on the cheek. Sakura also gave him a hug as she added her own greetings.
The miners that accompanied Team Seven crowded around the Genin. "Did you fight Raiga-teme," Rokusuke wondered?
"Yes I did," Naruto stated simply, then turning he saw the boy from Raiga's back, laying on a palette. He was completely covered with nothing visible, but Naruto sensed that Ranmaru could see him perfectly, "we fought honorably, and to the best of our abilities."
He turned to his teammates, "where is Sensei?"
This altered the mood of the room, and the kunoichi looked on the verge of tears. "She's in Granny Sancho's room, resting," Sakura told him, "she still can't see, Naruto. From what she explained to us, she burned out her retinas, she said she made a stupid Genin mistake, when she looked at Raiga's lightning."
"Who was the boy your clones brought in, Naruto," Hinata asked? "He hasn't said anything since he got here."
"I don't know, I heard Raiga calling him, Ranmaru," Naruto answered, "he was concealed inside Raiga's cloak during the fight," Naruto explained, then continued on in guilt, "he was the recipient of one of my attacks when I fought Raiga. I swept Raiga's feet out from under him, making him fall on top of the boy."
By now they were all sitting at the main table, Hinata and Sakura were sitting on either side of him. Grandma Sancho was across from him, while her son was busy in the kitchen. She heard his story and placed a comforting hand on Naruto's. "It was certainly not your fault the boy was injured," the old woman admonished, "if anything it could be laid at Raiga's feet, for bringing his son onto the battlefield with him."
"She's right Naruto-kun," Hinata assured him, "he's got a kekkei genkai dojutsu. It seems to have identical abilities as the byakugan, but with an active component. He can particalize his chakra and cloak himself from even my sight, then project illusions so elaborate they even fool the byakugan. He was there willingly," Hinata concluded, "he was there with Raiga on purpose."
"He's a kid," Naruto said as a counter to her argument, "could he have even resisted if Raiga wanted him to come with him? Raiga could've forced him to go with him, and who knows. Raiga may have given his parents a funeral once he found out about his power…"
"I never knew my parents, sir," came a voice from behind him, "and I unlocked my power well before I met Raiga." Naruto turned to face the voice, who was looking at him with determined eyes, "I lived by myself for as long as I remembered, the only way for me to get food was if people brought it to me. My arms and legs do not work, but once my power activated, people grew scared of me, they stopped bringing me food. They were afraid of me," the boy growled, "I couldn't even walk and they were afraid of me."
"When Raiga came to our village looking for a spy, I was ready to die by his hand," Ranmaru declared. "Raiga saved my life, he was searching for meaning in his life, and so we became part of each other. I became his eyes and ears, and he became my body," he explained, "and I would rather be dead than be without him. So, sir, if you would be so kind I would like the same hand that killed my body to kill Raiga's eyes."
Before Naruto could answer, there was a knock on the door, Sanosuke answered the door, and met one of the most beautiful women he had ever met. She had long dark, almost black-hair, onyx eyes and delectable lips he wanted to kiss. He was caught speechless for the moment, before he remembered his manners, "Ohayo gozaimasu, welcome to the Curry of Life shop, I am Sanosuke. How may I be of service, Miss," he asked while bowing formally.
"Ohayo, Sanosuke-san, I am Izumi Uchiha, kunoichi of the Hidden Leaf," she introduced herself while returning his greeting. "I am looking for…"
"Izumi-chan," Naruto's voice came from the dining area?
She returned to her upright position when she heard his voice. Izumi could only begin smiling when she saw him, "for him," she finished, as she looked beyond the proprietor at her fiancé.
Sanosuke stood back to allow her in, when she bounded over to throw her arms around her love. Naruto met her half way and picked her up to whirl around with exaltation. He brought her in and bent her back, planting a loving, passionate kiss on her mouth, which she melted into and returned with just as much fervor.
"Who is the young lady," Sancho asked, though she could guess?
"Oh, that's Naruto's fiancée," Hinata answered as she and Sakura were both blushing at the display, and the miners were also showing some color in their cheeks. Only Ranmaru was showing any indifference to the scene in front of him, he would never have the opportunity to partake of such activities. Even if he survived here, what woman would tie herself to someone who cannot even walk?
As everyone settled down, Naruto filled Izumi in, on the results of the mission, including a detailed account of his fight with Raiga. When she learned of the injury to Kurenai's eyes, Izumi asked to be allowed to examine her. Izumi, in addition to being the most powerful kunoichi in the Leaf, was also a skilled doctor. It has been said that her medical acumen could rival that of Tsunade herself.
When she returned from her examination, Kurenai was with her, both of them had distraught expressions on their faces. Izumi wanted to seek solace in Naruto's arms, but she was outside her home, and thus was the Uchiha princess. She could not show that kind of weakness in public.
Instead she led Team Seven's sensei to the table and returned to her place beside Naruto. Izumi could not seek solace by holding him, but she could feel comforted just by being as near to him as possible.
"How did the examination go," Naruto asked?
Kurenai buried her face in her hands, while Izumi just sighed, "Kurenai's days as a ninja are over," the Uchiha explained. "The lightning blast permanently scarred her retinas," she told them, "so unless we can find someone willing to give away their eyes, there's nothing we can do about it."
"She can use my eyes," a high voice said to them. They all turned to look at the pallet on which Ranmaru lay, he turned his head and looked at them all with hard eyes. "Your sensei," he began, "she lost her eyes while fighting against Raiga and me, she may use my eyes."
"Ranmaru-chan, that would mean…" Naruto was astonished.
"It would mean my life," the boy nodded.
"But…but you're a kid I can't kill you, it would be murder," Naruto protested, "I fought Raiga in an even battle. He was just as capable of killing me," Naruto explained.
"Actually Naruto," Sakura stated hesitantly, "the law states that anyone from a year old and up, who has unlocked their chakra, is considered an adult. They are therefore, fair game in battle," she explained, "technically, because he was in battle with you, you may still finish him off."
Naruto looked at her with a sour face, then turned to his sensei, "Kurenai-sensei," he asked as he placed his hand over hers?
She only sighed, "if you had asked this question yesterday, I would have thought the whole idea was barbaric, and ordered you not to do it. Today, I find myself thinking cruelly, selfish thoughts, not caring that he's a feeble little boy." She brought her other hand up to cover his, "I am afraid I cannot be objective on this issue, my student."
"It's alright," Ranmaru said, bringing everyone to look at him, "if you're the one taking my life."
"Why me, I took your friend's life," Naruto wondered in horror, "you should at least want revenge upon me."
"I saw you, always crying," Ranmaru explained, which startled Naruto, "deep within your heart. You were all alone, you wondered why everyone thought you were invisible, why they never saw you, even if they were looking right at you." How did he know, I haven't told anybody about that, not even Izumi-chan?
Naruto could feel all eyes upon him, looking at him. He dreaded looking at them, even Hinata, especially Izumi, he never wanted anyone's pity. He never wanted to feel like anybody's charity case, so he never allowed them to see him crying. He always wore a mask, even around his kichōna-ane, he never lied about his feelings, he just never gave them cause to look beneath the surface.
Naruto's hand was still in his Sensei's grasp, who had tightened it to keep him from pulling away. He continued to listen to Ranmaru, more out of a desperation not to look at the others in the room, than for what he had to say next.
"I've been watching you," he said, "I am the same as you… life has been painful to us, except you can move and do something about it. I can't do that, I am dependent on the kindness of strangers, and that is not the way I want to live for the rest of my life. Because we both know in the back of our minds, kindness and goodwill are not everlasting, they are as fleeting and fickle as the weather."
"My illness keeps me hidden away from the world, only allowing me to peer out at life from beneath my blankets. As cruel and heartless as Raiga was, he showed me a world beyond my little cabin. If my death will allow someone to continue living as they always have," he told them, "then my life will always have meaning to it. When you give my eyes to your sensei, who is a precious person to you, then even if the rest of me dies, a piece of me will continue to exist as long as she does."
"Raiga was the one to show me the world beyond my little room," Ranmaru told them, "I have no intention of allowing myself to go back to that kind of existence. I would rather die," he snarled at even the idea of going back to nothing but that empty existence, "I would rather starve to death than return to that way of life."
"If you could be healed…" Naruto began, but was interrupted by the boy.
"I cannot be cured," he spat, "one of the first things Raiga did when we started out was take me to any doctor we could find. Even Tsunade Senju, found nothing that could cure me," Ranmaru stated bitterly, "it was my destiny from the day I was born."
Naruto had closed his eyes at the boy's words, he was asking those in his mind if they could see any alternatives. None of them could but they all agreed it would be beyond cruel to return the boy to his existence, after he had experienced the world. It was the equivalent of what he would feel, if after knowing love and family, they were suddenly ripped away from him and he was all alone again, without even the Force for guidance.
"I will not raise my hand against a child," Naruto declared, even as he saw the boy's eyes harden, "but maybe there is a way without using violence. Does anybody know where I can find hemlock and nightshade?"
Naruto found the ingredients he needed. He mixed them into a porridge and fed it to Ranmaru. He also made himself a batch, and ate it with him. As he said to Ranmaru about his fight against Raiga, he was always capable of killing him, and this would not be an exception. He and his precious people knew that the Kyūbi would protect him, but he wanted to experience what the boy was going through as he died.
"When you look at your sensei, know that I will be looking at you through her eyes," he said to Naruto, "and as long as you fight to protect her, you are protecting me too."
Ranmaru passed into the Pure lands, with a smile on his face, the last utterance he made was, "thank you."
As cruel as it was, Ranmaru's eyes needed to be extracted within seconds of death, or they would begin to decompose and be useless. Unfortunately, in the last few years Izumi had become an expert in eye transplants, and she was a skilled surgeon. Unlike Kakashi's transplant years ago, performed by his teammate, who was still in training to be a medical ninja, she was able to attach the ocular-nerve as well as all tenketsu so that Kurenai would be able to turn them on and off as needed.
The day before they were to leave, Kurenai's eyes were still wrapped in bandages, and Izumi explained to them her true purpose for being there. "It seems as if Team Eight ran into a little trouble on their first C-rank mission. The client lied in his mission request about the severity of the opposition. What started out as a simple escort mission, has morphed into a protection mission, when they encounter a missing Kiri-ninja on the way to Wave Nation."
"What happens now," Kurenai asked, even if she suspected the answer?
"My original mission was to commandeer Team Seven and help you finish your mission here in Katabami. Then go with you to Nami, and lend a hand where I can," Izumi explained, "but with you injured and needing rest, I am calling an audible. You, and the kunoichi, will head back to the village, while me and my fiancée head to Wave to aid them in the mission."
Naruto was blushing as a lot of ideas came to his mind about the upcoming journey. It is a three-day journey from where they were to Wave, many things could happen between them on this journey.
Lightning on the Mountain.
High on the mountain where the corpse of Raiga Kurosuki lay, a single individual was kneeling next to the body. He was analyzing the body for any clues about the identity of the killer. He was wearing a storm-cloud gray haori, and a mask with black teardrops, which could also be called raindrops, painted under one of the eyes. The man's arms were dark, with stylized tattoos for water (水) and lightning (雷) on his right and left shoulders respectively, with shaggy blonde hair, falling over the other eye. He carries a broad, foldable, cleaver-like sword, strapped to his back.
There are traces of lightning being used on the body. Some of it's chakra based, but there is another component that also produced lightning.
The hunter-nin from Kumo had been pursuing Raiga for a few days, hoping to take his sword for his village. The Raikage had ordered him to hunt down all rogue Kiri-nin, and take their weapons. He wanted them all but had expressed special interest in Kiba, because of its association with lightning.
I may have to go incognito to the village and see what I can gleam there, the Kumo hunter thought. At the very least I may figure out who defeated one of the Seven, he or she could become a major player soon. Afterward, I have clues that Kubikiribōchō is in Wave, I would rather not have to fight the Monster in the Mists.