10 Days Left Until the Full Moon
Kurenai yawned tiredly, as she huddled her poncho closer to her, trying her best to stay warm. She was starting to curse her own inability to handle the cold.
It had been one week since both Naruto and Narumi had returned back to the hotel, both revealing they had figured out where the secret base was, and where all the girls they had kidnapped and taken too. She was proud of her team, they had accomplished so much with just under two weeks left until the full moon. Kurenai was certain they would be able to raid the base successfully and save all those girls. She knew Naumi was capable, she had proved it many times before. Afterall being a chunin before she was 11 ment you were strong.
And she wholeheartedly believed in Naruto's strength as well. Even without his special gifts she believed him to be strong, much stronger than his two siblings.
She let her thoughts hang on the thought of Naruto, she was starting to worry about her favorite blonde.
It had started the day after they had returned to the hotel, they were all planning an attack on the base, huddled around in a circle in Kurenai's room. All the while Kurenai and Narumi discussed formations, thinking of the best way to coordinate an attack. But Naruto looked like he was barely paying attention. When asked for his opinion he seemed to snap out of something, like his mind was elsewhere. He would dismissively nod his head and agree with whatever decision they had decided.
This of course seemed to piss Narumi off more so than she already was. While Naruto seemed dismissive and distant, Narumi was acting more anxious and rude. Kurenai would be lying if she said that the interactions between the two of them weren't starting to get on her nerves. That much to the jounin was obvious, but whatever had happened when the two were away information gathering couldn't have been good. When she had tried to talk to Naruto about it he just blew her off.
This had shocked Kurenai greatly and she couldn't help but flash a look of hurt in her eyes when he did so.
But it didn't stop there, her mind flashing to what had just happened three days ago.
Flashback
"Okay, then we will begin our attack starting this Friday, any objections?"
Kureani said, she felt like she was speaking into an empty room as both Naruto and Naruto just shook their heads. Both stayed silent. Kurenai found this irritating, she had just wanted some verbal acknowledgment. She had just gone over all the necessary details for over an hour, only Narumi spoke up sometimes but it was to disagree with a certain issue she had with Kurenai's plan.
During this time, Kurenai had confirmed that there was indeed something bothering Naruto, he wouldn't outright say anything, but it was clear as day. Narumi seemed to take notice as well, scowling wherever she looked in his general direction.
"Great." Kurenai spoke again, fighting back an eye roll as she dismissed the two Namikaze's, watching them both leave her room silently. Once outside Kurenai's room, Naruto stalked back off to his room. Glad to finally be alone and maybe get more training in before bed.
He was stopped however as he felt a pressure come in contact with his shoulder. Naruto scowled at the familiar feeling, not even bothering to look at what it was, or more specifically, at who.
"What do you want, Narumi?"
Naruto could feel her shoulders shrug slightly, her grin almost glowing in the hotel hallway. Her hand grasped his shoulder tighter, the fabric of Naruto's poncho crinkling together unpleasantly.
"I wanted to see how my precious little brother is doing, you seem to be acting differently." she said, releasing her grasp on his shoulder. Her footsteps echoed in the hallway as she walked in front of him, a hand on her hip as she looked down at him. She put on a look of mock worry as she reached up to ruffle his hair.
Naruto felt his rage build in him again, something that had been happening for more frequently as of late. He didn't know why, he just checked it off as a repercussion of using the Sanibi's chakra, only the sliver that he has used. His eyes narrowed as movement suddenly triggered his senses and he knocked her hand away before it could touch his hair.
"No different than usual, of course you wouldn't know that." Naruto retorted smugly, eager to shut up his redheaded sister. His words had the desired effect on Narumi, he grinned at his accomplishment as he watched his sister's own smile fade away, replaced with a furious expression.
Narumi straightened and adjusted her brown poncho, she took in the sight of Naruto, his arms crossing over his chest in a challenging manner. She returned his stare with one of fierceness,
"Oh I guess I wouldn't, and I wonder why? I guess years of being casted away is bound to change someone. So yes, I guess I wouldn't know."
Naruto felt his teeth start to grind as his right eye flashed gold for a brief moment. His hands clenched as he fought back a wince, her words sharper than any blade. His nerves were starting to break little by little. He knew soon he was going to snap at his family, and Narumi was doing everything in her power to make sure it was at her.
"Hm. Maybe things haven't changed, you still are my weak younger brother that our parents threw away."
Snap!
Naruto's eyes flashed dangerously, Narumi barely had any time to react as he sent a fist into her gut. The redhead's eyes flashed with excitement as she caught her brother's fist before it could make contact. Eagerness filled her body, she had finally got what she was looking for, what she felt starved from. She bent his wrist to the side forcefully, Naruto winced slightly from the pain before spinning on his heel and sending a sweep kick to Narumi's legs. Narumi was forced to let go of his wrist and jumped into the air avoiding the kick.
Sadly Naruto didn't have time to react as Narumi sent her own kick to his head sending his body tumbling to the ground. Naruto fought back the pain and rolled out of the way just in time to dodge the fist Narumi tried to strike him with. The impact of her punch formed a small crater in the hotel floor, small dust and wood particles flowed upwards as she grinned. Cockyness glowing off of her. Her confidence was short lived however as Naruto suddenly appeared at her right, her eyes widened slightly.
"So fast!"
She brought her arm up to dodge his first attack, she felt her body slide across the floor as her back pressed up against the wall. Feeling trapped, Narumi tried to escape to her left, jumping to the side using her forearm to block another punch coming at her. She sent a right hook into Naruto's stomach. She felt her eyes go wide again when her hand went directly through her brother's body, water soaking her hand. The clone of Naruto grinned before bursting into a torrent of water, sending her back to the wall.
Spitting out water from her mouth, clearly irritated. Seeing another fist come at her she tilted her head to the side, his fist scraping by her ear painfully. She grabbed his arm as his fist hit the wall, pulling Naruto closer to her and sending a knee to to his stomach. Naruto gasped in pain as he took the hit. He now vaguely understood why Narumi was a chunin, that one attack hurt more than any of Sokka's had.
She didn't stop there as she threw Naruto to the opposing wall, the impact hurt like hell as it formed small cracks in the wall, making a perfectly Naruto sized imprint. Naruto spit out a wad of blood as he glared at Narumi.
Narumi made an effort to put on a disinterested face, trying to hide the fact that she was impressed by how fast he actually was. So she settled with another smirk, not waiting for Naruto to recover as she took off running towards him, channeling chakra into her hands. Naruto did the same as he ducked under her first attack, her leg came next as he used his forearm to lessen the damage before jumping to the side, hands flying through seals.
"Water Style: Senbon flurry!"
He yelled as he threw his chakra infused hand forward. The water formed at his fingertips, solidifying instantly into numerous senbon needles flying off into a volley of attacks. Narumi cursed under her breath as she tried her best to dodge all the needles. The cramped hotel hallway proved it to be quite difficult to dodge them all as a single senbon pierced through her shoulder. She winced from the sudden pain as she jumped closer to Naruto, ignoring the pain in her shoulder as he vanished from sight. Her years of battle experience alerted her to an oncoming attack as an elbow struck her from the side. She brute forced through the hit as her own arm came up, slamming her palm into Naruto's chest.
"Wind Style: Forceful Palm!"
Naruto felt a large gust of wind hit him suddenly in the stomach forcing his body to go sailing backwards, he felt his insides shake around due to the attack as he rolled back onto the floor. Naruto grit his teeth as he looked over at Narumi, a small trail of blood leaked from her shoulder but otherwise she looked totally unscathed.
"It seems you have some fighting spirit after all. But that won't last long!" she howled out as she flew through hand seals, Naruto jumped to his feet as he did the same, not wanting to be outdone by his sister.
"Wind Style: Great Palm!"
"Water Style: Water Whip!"
Both Namikae's yelled simultaneously as they both unleashed their attack. Cracks started to appear on the walls as both attacks collided with each other, Naruto's jutsu looked powerless as Narumi's ripped through the whip splashing water everywhere as her attack landed, emitting a minor shockwave through the hotel. Narumi felt herself grin again, happy to see that she still excelled at ninjutsu in the family. By the time the dust had dispersed, Naruto had disappeared from Narumi's sight.
Sensing Naruto behind her she quickly turned around to face him head on. But before they could connect attacks both Namikaze's felt something grab onto their wrists, as they were
forcefully thrown into opposing walls. Naruto and Narumi both looked confused as to what happened as they looked up to see a royally pissed off Kurenai standing in the center. Her glare promised pain as she glanced between the two of them, a fire burning in her eyes. She had never felt so disappointed in her life.
"What on earth are you two doing?! Not only is it wrong to attack a fellow shinobi on a mission, we are in a hotel! Do you both have any idea about the commotion you two have just made? Somebody could have gotten hurt, or worse, even killed!" she roared angrily, her anger only seemed to grow as she noticed they were barely even paying attention to her.
Naruto was the only one who flinched at her words. He offered a small apology before quickly escaping into his room. He made sure to linger for a few moments as he stared at Narumi, making sure to look at her with the same expression of indifference. Narumi scowled, dusting herself off before doing the same. She didn't make it in time as a strong hand patted against her shoulder.
Kurenai narrowed her eyes, irritated, she spoke. "You and Naruto are going to clean this up as soon as you both get the chance, I will talk to Uta-san and apologize, and I expect the same from the both of you." she said, Narumi just rolled her eyes, shrugging the jounin's hand off of her.
"Tch. Whatever."
Flashback End
Thinking back to that moment she couldn't help but sigh in irritation again. True to her word Kureani had forced both of them to fix up the hotel hallway back to its original condition, there was substantial damage, all the walls were damaged and a lot of vacant rooms on that floor doors had the doorknobs completely torn off. She had apologized to the furious Uta profusely, they had almost gotten kicked out if Kurenai had not offered to pay the damages, and then some.
She silently prayed that the Hokage didn't end up receiving a letter from Yukigakure in the near future.
It has what led them into their current situation, Naruto and Kurenai both leaned next to a tree as Narumi searched the surrounding area. They were just on the edge of Crystal Lake, Narumi was adamant on finding the entrance to the base herself. Kurenai just shrugged her shoulders at Narumi's reason, she didn't care either, she was already fed up with the girl's antics. The lake was already completely frozen over, trees surrounded the area making it much harder to pinpoint the location of the false tree.
They took a different approach to today's mission, Kurenai had suggested that they attack the base just before the sun would rise in the morning. Since they did most of their kidnapping in the middle of the night, it was a logical reason to infiltrate and get the girls out when they would be gone.
So they quickly left the new refurbished hotel, close to five in the morning as they tried to sneak into the base. Naruto was keeping a lookout to the rear and the left hand side, while Kurenai had the last two. Kurenai snuck one last glance at Naruto, she wanted to sigh again, she was growing progressively more worried about him as time went on. She was sure something was bothering him but he refused to tell her what it was, she didn't pry, she was never one to do so before. But she sure as hell wanted to. Not to mention whenever he was in a close proximity with Narumi the air always ended up growing thicker, which would then cause an inevitable battle of words.
"I found it."
Kurenai snapped out of her thoughts as she and Naruto quickly made their way over to Narumi, she was a good distance away, her ear against the barked tree as a smirk formed on her face. She waited until the two of them got closer before giving the bark a soft knock. "It's completely hollow inside, this has to be it." she said confidently, looking back at Kurenai, awaiting orders. While she didn't like receiving orders from the red-eyed woman, she knew her place as a chunin. Even if it only was in rank.
Kurenai stared and crossed her arms, closing her eyes as she thought over the plans in her head. Narumi had informed them that there were three levels to this base, the captives were being held on the third floor, where the tree entrance would be taking them.
On the second was the training and relaxation hall, no doubt where most of the bandits and shinobi would be.
And finally on the third floor, the very top was the storage center, where they kept the riches they had accumulated over who knows how many shady missions.
Kurenai herself wasn't particularly keen on separating the three of them, while she knew they could all handle themselves it was still a risk, but if it would it would be the most effective strategy they had. The second option was clearing all floors together, while time wise they could clear each floor much quicker and effectively, it would give the enemy much more time on the floors above them to launch a counter attack, rather than getting attacked on each floor separately.
"I suppose it would be most effective to go with our original plan, I will take the bottom floor, Naruto-kun will take the middle, and Narumi-san the top."
"I want the top floor."
Naruto said, not looking Kurenai in the eyes as Kurenai looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Kurenai coughed slightly in her hand,
"Naruto-kun we had agreed-"
"No, it would be best to have Narumi face off against the majority of them, I can easily and more efficiently get to the top floor and clear it out." Naruto lied, the lie coming to him much easier than he had anticipated. He tried his best to ignore the look of amusement passing through Narumi's face, and the frown Kurenai had sent him. He pushed down his conflicting feelings and was silently grateful that Kurenai had spoken up, cutting off whatever remark that Narumi was brewing.
"Very well, Narumi-san will handle the second floor, and you the top."
Naruto nodded in acceptance, glad to see them take his reasoning easily. Looking away he felt a lump appear in his throat. He was nervous, but he expected that. He was supposedly about to meet with an unknown masked man revolving information that he shouldn't know. He was currently trying to soothe his sudden anxiety spike, rubbing his fingers together to distract his mind. He forcefully swallowed the lump in his throat as Narumi ripped the false bark off the tree, revealing a dark staircase leading all the way down into darkness. Kurenai turned back to the two of them, nodding her head confidently.
"Lets go."
"Yes Kurenai-san."
They both responded, following after the jounin as they quietly sprinted down the staircase.
It was almost pitch black as they ran, the only reason they could see was because of the very dim lanterns that hung above their heads. Naruto while he was running couldn't shake the unfathomably feeling of dread, each step felt heavier and heavier for the blonde boy as he gulped loudly. He was even more anxious since Isobu had been strangely quiet for the past week. He hadn't said a word since he and Narumi got into their little spat in the hotel. He was starting to get more and more worried as time went on, he let his mask drop for a second, and it was just enough time for Narumi to notice.
They reached the button of the staircase, light shining through as they walked through a doorless entry. They walked into a large dull grey room, the walls were completely barren of any sign of life living here as several large cages lined the backing wall.
Directly to their left was a staircase leading upwards, as a lone door stayed closed right next to the stairs. The sounds of chains reached the Konoha shinobi ears as Kurenai looked forward, her eyes glinting dangerously at what she saw disgusted her.
"Naruto-kun, Narumi-san, get to your assigned floors, I can handle this."
Naruto nodded quickly and sprinted up the staircase next to them, he didn't want to waste any time. His body felt like it was on fire from nerves. Narumi nodded, a bit of a scowl on her face as she watched her brother leave, taking a step forward she hesitated for a moment. Looking back at Kurenai she pointed her thumb over to her left dragging Kurenai's attention to the closed door.
"I sense a person in that room, they don't seem to have noticed us yet. But they definitely aren't a bandit, it's a shinobi." Kurenai nodded her head at Narumi, a grateful smile sneaking a way into the jounin's lips. Internally wishing Narumi could stay act like this majority of the time. Narumi, upon seeing Kurenai's reassuring nod, quickly climbed the staircase, leaving Kurenai alone.
The jounin turned back around to the large cages in the room, the sounds of chains rattling again reached her ears as she ran to the cages. A lone voice this time reached out to her, it was tired, but a tinge of hope was traced in each word.
"Y-you, h-help us please!"
Kurenai scowled as she laid her eyes upon a dozen, no, almost three dozen young girls chained up by their wrists dangling from the ceiling. Each girl's eyes seemed dead as Kurenai arrived, already having given up hope at not being rescued. She quietly shushed the girl who spoke as she examined the cages, gripping one of the bars in his hand.
"These bars are weak, it almost feels like tin."
She mused to herself. Looking back at the girls she mouthed for them to be quiet, they all silently obeyed as Kurenai formed a one handed seal. Channeling fire chakra into her hand that grasped the cages bar the metal had started to glow a bright orange color. The girls watched in silent awe as it shined in the dark room as Kurenai, with the back of her hand slapped the bar away, the heated piece breaking away. She did that several more times as a nice human sized hole was not broken into the cages.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu."
She said, forming the two handed seal as three identical clones of herself poofed into place next to her. Looking to the clone in the middle she ushered them to the chained up woman. "Break those chains around them and escort them all back to Roka, it shouldn't be a long trip." she ordered, the three clones saluted before they all went to work breaking the chains around the girls. Most of them couldn't contain their excitement as happy sobs escaped their mouths. They all thanked Kurenai perfoursly, thanking the Gods that she had come to rescue them.
"Hey what's going on out there!"
The door from earlier suddenly bursted open, breaking it off the hinges as a tall man stepped into the room. His voice was rough as he looked at the scene in front of him, all the girls they had to capture, were currently being escorted up the stairs and out of his base.
What Kurenai first noticed was the man's stature, he stood well over 6 feet with an intimidating set of dark black eyes. He had a crossed out Iwagakure headband tied securely around his forehead. Then her eyes caught his dark blue navy chunin jacket from his village, still in pristine condition. He had a tattoo of a dragon going up his neck ending just below his left eye, it looked like his eye was going to get devoured by the ink beast.
She didn't recognize the man, perhaps he was quite new to the life of a missing nin and wasn't yet included in the last issue of the bingo book. He waited until the last girl was escorted out of the room before he spoke, his voice deeper than she was anticipating.
"Your Kurenai Yuhi right? Sorry if I mispronounced it, I'm not very good at names."
Kurenai watched as the man gave a bored expression, raising his hands to scratch his cheek. The armour on his gloved hand ratteeled and gave off an unpleasant sound as he did so. Kurenai felt her eyebrow raise as she looked at the man. He seemed to enter into a relaxed stance as he shoved his free hand into his pocket. She kept her guard up, but was shocked to see that he gave little to no attention to the girls fleeing the room.
She had casted a genjutsu over the room to make it appear that the girls were still leaving, but in reality they had all left before he had even walked out. Kurenai was hoping that he would make an attempt at stopping her from rescuing them. But he didn't seem to care. So she quickly dropped the genjutsu without him realizing, already preparing a new one before he had spoken her name...which he definitely did mispronounce.
Kurenai stayed silent, refusing to respond as she watched him with interest as she kept her guard up. The man frowned, running a hand through his matching black hair as he pouted.
"First you don't even ask for my name then you ignore me? This is the worst day ever." he mumbled to himself, it was enough to make Kurenai falter slightly at his childish remark. Blinking in surprise until she realized that he had completely vanished from her sight, before she had time to react she felt something sharp go through her stomach.
The man smirked victoriously as he dug his kunia into her deeper, "Sorry about that Yuhi-san, it seems you lost your focus." he said, shocked to see the woman he had just stabbed suddenly poof into a cloud of smoke. He felt something sharp gaze up against his neck as red piercing eyes looked at him with unamusement.
"Don't underestimate me. Oh and you really are pronouncing it wrong."
She said before attempting to slice the man's neck open. She hesitated for a moment, her eyes going wide in shock before she stopped her attack and pushed the man's body away forcefully, as she did so she jumped to her right, sending a sweep kick in her direction. The man's body suddenly materialized out of nowhere as he jumped over her leg. While in the air he grinned back at her, he seemed to float in the air as he punched Kurenai's face, his eyes lighting up as she caught his fist.
"It seems you're not the only genjutsu master around here." he said before his body vanished again, reappearing in his original spot in the room with his arms crossed over his chest. Kurenai looked back over at him, clearly unamused at her antics. While unamused, she couldn't stop the tinge of excitement within her as she looked back at the man she was fighting, it had been years since she had fought one on one with another genjutsu user.
"No wonder you weren't shocked at seeing all the women get away, you were already unaware that they were all gone."
He just shrugged his shoulders in response.
"What can I say, I aint a master for nothing."
Like before, the second Kurenai blinked, he was gone from her field of view. She scowled, he was pretty quick at performing genjutsu, almost as fast as her.
"Kagami, remember the name."
Kurenai had to stop from following her eyes, how corny.
Jumping up into the air she performed several hand seals before taking in a deep breath.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"
A large plum of fire erupted from her mouth as the fireball surrounded onto the basement floor. The now identified Kagami materialized out of nowhere again as he was forced to dodge the attack. Kurenai using her momentum to send herself upwards stuck her chakra coated feet to the ceiling. Looking down she noticed Kagami's confident expression fade away as a look of panic crossed over his features. She sweat dropped as she watched the man look around for her frantically, she just couldn't believe what was happening.
She knew just from looking at him that he was a great genjutsu user, but it seemed he was only good at genjutsu. Most shinobi who specialize in a single art usually continue to train in other areas, unless you were a special case like Might Guy, who couldn't use ninjutsu and had to rely on taijutsu alone.
As her thoughts wandered she felt a lightbulb go off in her head.
"Hey where the heck did you go-AHHHH!"
Kagami yelled as he ducked down, avoiding a kick that was aiming to take his head off. Looking back his eyes widened as he met face to face with a brutally injured Kurenai. She was plunged head to toe in kunai as she coughed out clumps of blood. Her emotionless eyes shined with hope as she reached a shaky hand forward, trying desperately to grab onto Kagami.
"Kai!"
The wounded Kurenai suddenly vanished as Kagami forcefully disrupted the genjutsu. He felt a force smack his knees as he fell to the ground, before he could turn around and look he felt a hand grab his head and smack it against the floor. Kagami gave a cry of pain, feeling his jaw move out of place. Kurenai held the man's head down as her shadow clone pinned his legs.
"Well Kagami-san, it seems you have lost."
Kagami shook in her grasp as he spat out a clump of dirt from his mouth, tears started to form in the corner of his eyes, seeing the man look so weak, Kurenai had almost believed this was a genjutsu.
"It's not fair...I try so hard and I just can't get anywhere!"
Kurenai blinked in surprise at the man's sudden cry. This time she actually tried to disperse and see if this was in fact a genjutsu. Once she came to the realization that this was real she almost started to feel bad for the man. She sighed as she loosened her grip on his hair, allowing him to move his head freely as he looked at her in surprise.
"Look Kagami-san, you are a gifted genjutsu user, but you cannot rely solely on the art. All it took was one fireball jutsu and your whole plan unraveled completely." Kurenai offered, trying her best to not sound condescending as Kagami blinked again, sniffling trying his best to not sob out.
"B-but I can't, I can't use any ninjutsu. I was born without a chakra affinity so I can't...genjutsu is all I have." he couldn't hold back the sob that escaped his throat as he told the woman his biggest secret.
"H-huh?"
Kurenai sighed as she let go of Kagami, standing up she offered the man a hand. Kagami looked at her suspiciously at first before taking it with hesitancy. He easily towered over her as he stood tall, rubbing his hurt jaw as he tried to hide the tears that fell down his cheek. Kurenai stood in silence at the man in front of her, she liked to consider that she was a good judge of character. She could usually see when a person had good intentions, or at least wasn't truly bad.
"Why did you help me up? Aren't I your enemy?"
Kurenai pondered his words as he crossed her arms. She couldn't fault him there, but she wouldn't admit it outloud but she took some pity on the man. If what he was saying was indeed true that he couldn't use ninjutsu then his life as a shinobi would be a hard one. So the more rational side of her was telling her just to end his life now, so he wouldn't have to die later on in a worse way. But the rest of her, or more specially, the genjutsu master side of her was slowly starting to overtake her. So in the end she sighed deeply.
"Look Kagami-san." she said gaining his attention almost immediately. "Let's strike a deal, you tell me everything you know about this place, your leader, and why you were kidnapping these girls. And in exchange, I will give you some tips on improving your genjutsu."
Kagami didn't react for a few moments, seemingly frozen in place as he looked down at Kurenai. He felt his heart start to flutter widely as the largest smile Kurenai had even seen threatened to split open his face. He fell to his knees, his tears long forgotten as he bowed to Kurenai.
"Y-yes Kurenai-sesnei!
Meanwhile With Naruto
Each step Naruto took was progressively harder than the last, he doesn't remember the last time he had ever been this nervous before. He didn't know how long he had been climbing up these stairs, but it had to be awhile since he had left both Kurenai and Narumi on the bottom floor.
He had no idea what to expect, for the past few days he just couldn't get the masked man's words out of his head. He had no idea how much this man would know anything, or even HOW he would possibly know to begin with. It was enough for Naruto's blood to run cold at the very thought. He was nervous, he was scared, damn he hadn't felt this much in a long time.
His thoughts seemed to freeze as the end of the staircase came into sight, his heart stopped for the briefest of moments, looking up into the dimly lit room with a sense of apprehension. He forced the lump in his throat back down as he took a hesitant step into the room. The room was pretty empty, there were several boxes stacked on top of one another lining the walls leaving a vast amount of open space in the center. The walls were completely barren, aside for a small window looking out into the frozen lake.
The room wasn't very bright, but it wasn't completely dark either. His eyes adjusted quickly to the room, scanning around to see if the man who told him to come had arrived. He felt somewhat guilty leaving his team to do the fighting, he felt like he wasn't much help on this mission than he had originally wanted to be.
But they wouldn't understand how important this was.
Taking another step into the room he froze when one of the boxes fell to the ground. Snapping his head in the direction of the box, he felt his face morph into confusion as the soft sound of feet ran over the concrete floor. He couldn't see who had run away, his eyes having trouble following the shadowy figure in the room. He jumped slightly as another box fell to the ground, this time opening up as dozens upon dozens of kunai fell onto the floor, clanking onto the ground.
Looking in the other direction he managed to catch a small glimpse of the intruder, a head of unruly brown hair caught his eye as the figure once again ran away. He managed to follow the figure as it trapped itself into one the far corners of the room, Naruto was able to get a better look as he took another step forward.
His face then morphed again into shock as he laid his eyes upon the mysterious figure. At first he had thought maybe it was the masked man who he had spoken to last just playing a trick on him, perhaps testing his abilities or something?
But he couldn't have been more wrong.
Naruto lowered his body a little, hunching down as the mysterious person backed themselves against the wall. Naruto put on his softest smile as he got closer. Finally getting a good enough look, looking at the now seen young girl. His blue eyes looked down in worry, as bright gold looked at him in fear.
"Hey hey it's okay, you don't have to be scared."
Naruto's voice tried it's hardest to remain soft in fear of scaring the young girl away. He momentarily forgot why he had come up here, his thoughts now fully on the obvious terrified child. He repeated his previous statement as he tried to get closer. The girl only seemed to get more scared as her hands flew upwards to her head. Naruto watched as her eyes clenched shut as her hands desperately gripped his brown locks, a sudden tenseness overtaking the atmosphere.
"S-stay a-a-away!"
She screamed loudly, her young shrill voice was loud as it bounced off the stone walls. Naruto winced at the girl's sheer volume, his ears barely picking up the sound of clicking that echoed just outside the girl's scream. His body tensed as the clicking sound only managed to get louder, turning his head his eyes went wide in fear as a large curved blade came rushing at him. He bent backwards as the sword flew just inches from his nose, and saw a few strands of his blonde hair get cut as he jumped away from the random attacker.
Looking out into the room he felt his eyes go into confusion again, the clicking sound emitted again as the man who attacked him shook violently. Naruto watched as the man's mouth forced itself open with an unpleasant cracking sound. Naruto jumped away as what seemed like a hundred senbon needles flew out of his mouth, flying towards Naruto at high speeds.
"What the? A puppet?"
Naruto thought as he used his trusty water shield jutsu to block the incoming attack. As the last senbon pierced his shield he stopped his jutsu just in time to roll to the left, dodging the sword attack again. He glared at the puppet, this being the first time he had even encountered one. He heard Shisui's words from all those years ago. His eyes looking around the room quickly.
"Damn, I can't find the puppeteer anywhere."
He thought as he quickly performed a shunshined behind the puppet, flipping a kunai out and slashing outwards into the light blue chakra strings, hoping to sever the connection between the puppet and it's master.
"What...where are the chakra strings!"
The puppet then tilted his head back, sending out another volley of senbon. Naruto performed another quick shunshine forcing his elbow into the puppets stomach. The wood cracked from the hit as the puppet was sent flying back smashing against the wall and shattering into a hundred pieces. Satisfied he looked back over the room, more light seemed to shine through the window as the young girl from earlier kept her eyes shut. He was about to walk over to her when her loud scream filled the room again.
"GO AWAY!"
She removed her hands from her hair as she threw her arms towards Naruto. The clicking sound became louder as two more puppets suddenly appeared next to her and sent themselves flying to Naruto.
Naruto this time fought back the shock at realizing that the little girl just did. Naruto performed another shunshine reappearing next to the left puppet. He was about to prepare a water whip jutsu when the second puppet turned and hurled its curved sword at him. Naruto quickly dodged out of harm's way, the puppets sword couldn't stop in time as it sliced right through the first puppets throat. The sound to work cracking echoed as chips of the puppet flew backwards before falling to the floor.
The young girl shoved her hands forward again before they were grabbed suddenly. The girl turned in fear as Naruto looked back at the familiar (not so familiar) masked man.
"Kise-chan, that's enough."
The tense atmosphere lifted almost instantly as the puppets next to Naruto slumped down to the ground. The young girl locked her eyes onto the masked man, her body hesitantly relaxing as her small body slumped down. The masked man released the girl's hands before patting her on the head and looking over at Naruto. Under his mask he smiled at Naruto and raised his free hand and waved.
"Hello Naruto-kun, how have you been today?"
"Uhh good, I guess."
Naruto replied awkwardly. Stepping away from the puppets silently hoping they don't come to life suddenly. The masked man hummed in response before he knelt down and looked at Kise. Pointing his thumb over at Naruto. The young girl's large gold eyes looked over at him.
"Kise-chan this is the boy I was telling you about."
Naruto looked at the masked man in confusion, ignoring the girl as she tilted her head up to him. Naruto swallowed the nerves growing in him once again as he waited for the interaction between the two to come to an end. Tilting his own head he looked back at the grounded puppets, he couldn't believe the young girl was controlling them. From what he could tell she wasn't even using chakra strings, the strings were visible to the naked eye since to be used you needed to condense the chakra enough for it to become visible enough to physically connect itself to the puppet.
"Wonderful! Then Naruto-kun about why I asked you to come here."
Naruto broke off his chain of thought as he nodded. "Yes, you said you tell me everything." he said, trying to keep calm in this situation. He could feel his nerves returning, this time laced with a thin layer of anger.
"Yes I did! But I also said you needed to do something for me first, Naruto-kun!~"
The masked man said in a sing-song voice as he clapped his hands together. Naruto rolled his eyes at the man, he truly didn't know what the hell this guy's deal was. Crossing his arms Naruto just glared, waiting for the man to speak.
The masked man grinned under his mask as he stepped away from Kise and over to Naruto. He reached into his cloak grabbing a thin piece of paper and handing it Naruto. Naruto eyed it suspiciously at first, at first he was thinking it was a paper-bomb. But quickly ruled it out since it wouldn't make much sense for the man to do that, even though he was a fan of theatrics. So Naruto grabbed the paper, raising his eyes in confusion as he read it over.
"I don't understand-"
"This is what I would like you to do. You see the group I am in, we call ourselves Atarashī. You could say we are a group fighting for justice in this messed up world." he said, looking at Naruto to make sure he was paying attention.
"Well you see my friend, well he definitely isn't a friend, my teammate, or coworker if you will, was there the night that your sensei, Shisui Uchiha was killed. He was the man who had healed you and saved your life, while also implanting the eye into you, and sealing away the Sanbi." he said as he motioned to Kise who was hiding behind his leg. He didn't wait for Naruto to respond as he placed his hand on the young girls head again.
"And this is Kise-chan, she is your mission. On that note I gave you, it is the area where I want you to deliver Kise-chan."
"B-but this is all the way in-"
"Yes I am aware, due to unforeseen complications no one else is available to do this. And we can not take her with us, it is far too dangerous."
Naruto looked at the man like he had grown a second head, his mouth fell open in shock as he shook his head. He was now beyond confused, before he could speak again the masked man cut him off.
"You see Kise-cahn has a rare bloodline, are you aware of magnet release?"
Naruto nodded his head, "Yeah, the Sandaime Kazekage was able to control his iron sand with magnet release, and the Yondaime Kazekage was able to control gold dust."
The masked man smiled happily beneath his mask as he clapped again, praising Naruto on his vast knowledge. Naruto just rolled his eyes again, asking why he had brought up the bloodline anyway. The masked man nodded his head, silently glad that his mask was there to hide his sheepish expression.
"Yes, and while both the Sandaime and Yondaime Kazekage were both very skilled in their bloodline. Kise-chan here dwarfs them both in comparison, her magnet release is much more dangerous and refined. Were you shocked to see that the puppets you had just fought had no chakra strings?"
"Yes I was surprised, I didn't know it was possible."
"Usually it isn't, but because of Kise-chan's magnet release, she is able to control the metallic weaponry and joints in puppets without the use of chakra strings. It's almost second hand nature for her, although she is inexperienced, she can be quite deadly." he said, making Kise hide further behind his legs. Naruto looked at the girl rather surprised, for someone so young, she didn't look to be any older than eight years old, but she already seemed so strong. He looked back at the masked man, his eyes going deadly serious.
"You are aware what you're asking me to do right? You're telling me to travel all the way to the Land of Lighting, for a girl I had never met before. I am grateful for the information, but you still haven't told me who killed my sensei."
The masked man didn't waver at the blondes cold words. He had expected this after all, since what he was asking for seemed rather unorthodox. He frowned under his mask, closing his eyes he took in a deep breath of air.
"I am very much aware, not only would you be betraying your village, you would be betraying all your comrades. I am simply asking you to become a missing nin to fulfil our groups request and deliver Kise-chan to safety. She is very important." he said making Naruto glare even harder. The masked man took a step forward, his body towering over Naruto's as his voice deepened considerably. Naruto had to stop himself from falling over the mass amount of pressure the man was emitting.
"When you get to your destination, you will meet one of our very own spies, he is the one who knows who killed your sensei, once you get there you will get all the information you need."
Naruto growled at the man, his fists tightening as he activated his sharingan. The man remained unphased as Naruto grabbed his cloak. He ignored Kise's yelp of fear as Naruto pulled him down to his level.
"Your just making me your fucking errand boy, you are asking for a lot here! And how do I even know you guys actually know who killed Shisui-niisan?! This all just sounds like bullshit!"
The masked man nodded, using speed Naruto couldn't follow he pushed the blonde away with one hand. Naruto stumbled backwards as a kunai grazed over his neck. The man's voice was emotionless as he spoke,
"Everything I have told you has been the truth, down to the last detail. I put my life on it, but there is too much at risk here. So please choose, if you accept then you will deliver Kise-chan to the Land of Lighting, become a missing nin and know everything you want too. And if you refuse, the whole world will know everything about you, and your precious Kurenai Yuhi, will die."
Naruto for a moment thought his heart beat had just stopped forever. His eyes went wide in fear at the man's words, the lump from earlier formed back in Naruto's throat. Just the mere thought of Kurenai, the person he cared for the most...the thought of losing her hurt more than anything else. Any rebuttal Naruto had thought off suddenly died, too shaken up by the idea that the man would actually go through with his threat. Time seemed to slow down as Naruto stayed silent, frozen in place as his hair fell forwards shadowing his eyes from view completely.
His mind began to race, he was backed into a corner and he knew it. The threat was a solid one, it had scared Naruto more than anything else, scared him more then the moment he jumped in front of the kunia for Shisui. But the man seemed serious, if he declined right now there was no telling that the man would instantly vanish and go after Kurenai.
Naruto knew Kurenai was strong, but this man seemed to be on a whole different level completely. He clenched his first as he glanced over to the terrified girl sitting on the floor. Naruto responded hoarsely, like it was the first time he had spoken in his life,
"...I accept."
The masked man smiled under his mask as he removed the kunai from the boy's neck. He nodded as he walked over and offered his hand to Kise who took it slowly. The masked man fooze for a moment as his eyes glanced over to the staircase on his left.
"Meet us at the Roka town entrance, we will be waiting there. See you soon Naruto-kun,"
In the next second the man and Kise were both gone from sight. Naruto stood frozen in place, his eyes still showed over. The words of acceptance had come out of his mouth almost subconsciously. He hadn't even been aware he had spoken until the man responded in kind. It was wrong, he knew it was the wrong thing to do. But Naruto knew no other way out of the situation.
The mashed man had backed him into a corner, a corner he knew he was unbeatable in. But what could he have done? Kurenai was too precious to Naruto, she didn't know how much she meant to him.
"It's alright Naruto."
Naruto internally nodded at the Bijuu, a small sense of relief entering him as he heard the voice he was beginning to miss, it offered him some much needed comfort. Then suddenly the loud sound of footsteps made its way to Naruto's ears. Naruto made no motion to react as the steps started to increase in volume. Stalking their way closer to Naruto, each step sent small tremors through the blonde as he looked up.
His blue eyes back to normal as he looked into the emotionless purple staring back. Neither said a word for a while, basking in the room's eerily quiet atmosphere with a strange sense of sadness. If anyone were to walk in they would no doubt suffocate from the overwhelming amount of pressure that flowed through the room. It was different from anytime Naruto had ever been with his family, those moments were always tense for him, and it was definitely different than the brawl he had with Narumi in the hotel hallway. No, this was entirely different.
"How much did you hear, Narumi?"
"Just the ending, Naruto-nii."
Narumi's voice matched Naruto's. Both were dull, void of any emotion. Naruto slowly nodded his head, turning around so his back was facing his sister. He took one step forward before her hand reached out and gripped his shoulder tightly. The room grew darker as Narumi's piercing blue eyes drilled a hole into the back of Naruto's head.
"You are aware that I can't let you do this. It is my duty as a shinobi of Konohagakure, and as your sister, that you are not to abandon the village, or your family."
Naruto gave a dry chuckle as he pushed Narumi's hand off of his shoulder. Tilting his head as he gave the darkest stare he could muster up in his current state. He raised both his arms, pointing at the both of them.
"We haven't been a family in years Narumi, get with the times. And there is no changing that."
Naruto retorted, unsure if the hurt look in his sister's eyes was real or not. But just as fast as it came it vanished, she forcefully grabbed Naruto's wrist before pulling him closer to her. Naruto gave no indication of panic as she did so, their faces were inches apart as she scowled bitterly.
"Then I say we finish what we started at the hotel, don't you agree?"
Naruto returned her scowl as he kicked Narumi in the stomach, she seemed unphased by the attack as she skidded backwards.
"Yes, lets."