Naruto coughed lightly as he woke up, a minuscule amount of dust having dried out his throat over night. While a secret base was cool and all, the fact that alot of it was dirt walls and floors wasn't entirely screaming fun for the lungs!
The redhead swung his legs over the couch as he stood up rubbing his scarred eyes. He reach down and turned off the radio before walking to his closet to grab a towel and a change of clothes. He walked to the bathroom turned on the hot water, disrobed and stepped in to the warm embrace of HIS element. When he closed his eyes his memories ran rampant.
Mikoto smiled as she watched a young Naruto and Itachi play in the forest a basic target standing at the opposite end of the clearing.
"No fair Itachi! Why are you always so good at everything!" Mikoto's warm smile brightened when Naruto looked to her.
"MOM! Why is Itachi so better at everything then me?"
The Uchiha matriarch giggled at the boy, taking a sip of her tea. She shook her head in faux innocence. "I don't know, why are you so much better Itachi?"
Itachi took a proud stance, "It's because I practice and practice till I perfect what I'm working on. I never slack off and alwasy work hard." The elder boy's eyes softened.
"Yes I admit Naruto somethings come to me easier then others. As a prodigy most things will. But people like you Naruto, the truly determined, will always become stronger then prodigies like me."
Naruto scoffed, "Yea because you can't do this!"
Punctuating his words he pulled the tea from Mikoto's cup, flowed it over his head.
And lost control of it.
Itachi started laughing at the little redhead, a pout came to Naruto's face. Mikoto tsk'd as she knelt down and used the sleeve of her black kimono to dry Naruto's face.
Naruto smiled faintly as he turned the handle for the shower. After drying off and dressing he went to his closest pulling out a lavender candle and a stick of 'cherry' incense. Naruto took a knee in front of his shrine. He used a small match to ligh the candle and then used the candle to light the incense. Placing the fragrant stick into its holder, he took a large inhale. He slowly exhaled as he placed his hands together. 'Guess this prayer thing is worth another shot,'
"Kami, benevolent goddess, I again ask that you pave my day with a worthy experience. Give me something. Something to give life to me once more." Naruto closed his eyes as he went to stand. He took one step forward before tripping over nothing. When his body came to rest at the phantom occurrence his eyes rested on a item of prayer beads. It was a loosely held string bearing black and purple beads the resembling large marbles.
He knew they weren't resting there when he woke up. He always checked the shrine when he woke up. Sighing he grabbed the beads before standing up. He rolled the beads in his hand. The redhead looked up to the wood roof.
"'Oh great and divine entity'. Real fucking funny." -
Naruto held the beads as he walked towards Team 7's meeting grounds "The Bridge" as Kakashi lovingly called. Speaking of Kakashi said Jonin was talking to Sasuke and Sakura as the redhead approached.
"See I told you he would show up Sakura. Now we can start team exer-"
He didn't get to finish.
"Trial by fire." Naruto placed the beads into one of the satchels at his waist before continuing.
Kakashi's eyebrow quirked up at the phrase. Naruto took this as a sign to explain.
"Sensei, you believe we should work on team work? I say we do our first C-rank. While I begrudgingly admit this, Sasuke can hold his own. I can't say the same for the bookworm but I believe we should actively work on our team work skills while on mission. In my opinion it will allow us to learn at a far better pace then drills. If we mess up you tell us what we did wrong how to improve so on and so forth."
Kakashi chuckled as he agreed with the boy's thoughts.
"I was actually going to propose the idea of taking part in Team 7's first C-rank. You however rarely showed up thus making it difficult to do so."
Naruto simply grunted at the verbal jab.
After a few moments of back and forth arguments between Naruto and Iruka the genin squad had been given their first C-rank mission.
Escort the bridge builder Tazuna to Wave and provide protection as he finished the bridge so that Nami no Kuni could open trade via land.
Eventually after a few traded insults Team 7 had found themselves on the road with Tazuna.
"Kakashi sensei why does wave need to hire Leaf to help them out, doesn't it have its own ninja?"
Kakashi gave a thoughtful look as he read Icha Icha, "Well think about it Sakura if it did then why would we be necessary for protecting Tazuna-san. I believe you can find the answer yourself?"
Sakura eyes opened wider at that, "Oh...well yea I get what you mean. Guess I didn't think it out completely."
Kakashi nodded with a chuckle, "To put bluntly Wave isn't really a village, its more of a large port founded on an island for easy water trade. Only in the last three decades has it become anything resembling a village. Business was booming, bringing in all kinds of people. It also had the bad luck of bringing in some less then reputable beings."
Tazuna nodded nervously at that.
As Naruto listened in uncaring, he spotted two puddles of water ahead of the group.
Alarms were going of in Naruto's head immediately. To confirm his feelings he discreetly raised his arm as if to rub his stomach.
The water didn't submit to his control, and that never happened unless it was two things.
A hallucination, in which wasn't possible as Naruto was well hydrated, not ill, and they hadn't been in the heat for very long. Not to mention Naruto couldn't hallucinate physical images as he was blind.
Genjutsu cast by a missing ninja(or two based on that there was two puddles) from Kiri.
Naruto noticed that Kakashi hadn't said anything yet and took that as a note that he knew but wanted to see how the team reacted to the experience and if need be could intervene.
Not two feet away from them and two men lept from the jutsu's illusion and launched an attack. The chain connected too both of them quickly found itself wrapped around Kakashi and in no time at all the man was reduced to sliced flesh. As soon as the chain was clear the two set their sights on the one closest one next.
Naruto.
The shinobi with the black shirt spoke as he charged "Now its your turn to die!"
The gourd on Naruto's back gushed out and wrapped itself around his arms, "Bring it on."
The two kiri shinobi attempted to strike him from both sides, Naruto quickly lept up and kicked out with his feet hitting them both in the face. Not giving them a moment for reprieve he fell down swiftly on the chain pulling them back to him.
Naruto tensed his arms as he compressed the water along his arms, with a roar he let the water slam into the shinobi. The force was overwhelming and forced them apart fast enough to break the chain. However as the chain snapped it lashed through the air ripping through the front of Naruto's shirt and cutting through his belt of satchels, spilling his prayer beads and tearing up his empty ones.
Kakashi took this as the moment to intervene and quickly wrapped things up.
"Well seems it was pointless to see who they were really after." The jonin sighed, " Can't risk a mission failure on assumptions. Naruto," The man shook his head as he tied the two missing ninja up.
The red head in question merely waved a blood covered hand in dismissal, using the other hand to throw a ball of red-black water to the ground "Nothing major...just had a little poison in my veins."
Kakashi raised an eyebrow but nodded as he saw the healed cut along the boys stomach. "Nice reflexes either way Naruto. You handled them very well."
To that the boy just shrugged as he picked up the prayer beads and placed them over his neck. Naruto grunted as he leaned back, stretching his abdomen. With no warning he threw two knives at the missing ninja. Easy shots to their immobile heads.
Sakura's eyes went wide in horror.
"Cut me and I kill you." Were his only words as he resumed walking down the road. Before long Sasuke was right behind him, with begrudging acceptance the bridge builder followed after him, not wanting to stay around the dead bodies as if they would explode on the spot.
Kakashi gave Naruto one more look before shaking Sakura out of her shock.
Naruto was fiddling with the prayer beads around his neck as Team 7 and Tazuna sat in a small row boat.
After killing the the Demon brothers Naruto, Sasuke and Tazuna had resumed walking. Sakura and Kakashi had eventually followed after. Naruto stuck to his excuse for killing them, and of course Kakashi reprimanded him for his actions. Naruto didn't care.
Lost in his thoughts they had arrived at shore. He took note of the wet air, 'Mist I'd guess.'
He voiced his opinion. Looking over to their charge he asked, "I've never been out of Konoha before but is it always this damp and misty around wave?" He watched Tazuna nod.
"Yes it is around this time of day, don't worry my house isn't to far away from the shore."
Kakashi and Sakura said their thanks to the row man along with Tazuna before they began heading up shore. As they walked through the mist Naruto opened his range of view as it got thicker and thicker, but the farther he tried to see the weaker his view became till he couldn't make anything out except basic details. The boy reigned in his energy as they kept walking.
"This mist isn't natural stay alert. Sakura stay at Tazuna's back Sasuke you cover the front. Naruto you stay at the front and keep an eye out."
Team 7 nodded as they fell into their designated positions.
Naruto grunted as they continued to walk. "Kakashi you were right, this mist isn't natural it's saturated with chakra," He narrowed his eyes," and it's being controlled act-everyone down!" he shouted as a large blade spun through the air.
It's flight stopped as it got lodged into a tall tree. Not three seconds later a tall black haired woman with spiky hair shunshined to the blades handle. She had Kiri's AQUA black ops jacket, a teal blue colour and was filled out by her figure. She had a black piercing in the left corner of her mouth on her bottom lip. On her left shoulder was a tear drop tattoo.
At her waist on the left side were two kunai holsters of a beige colour, on the right a black, white, and red mask hung at her side. A large black crest ran down the centre of it between the eyes and too the upper lip. On the left side of the mask was red set of swirls that went from the edge to the black line. Her arms up to just above her elbows were cover in armlets that had two arm guards of a steel grey colour, the cloth turned into thin gloves over her hands metalic plates at their back.
"My, my, my. I came to kill the bridge builder and here I find Kakashi Hatake..." She stopped speaking as her honey gold eyes fell across the genin team with her sights ending on Naruto.
Kakashi grimaced as he recognized the person before him.
"Kurai Momochi: ex leader of the Kiri Assassination Corp, and was part of the Legendary Seven Ninja Swordsman of the Mist."
Kurai chuckled at that, "It seems you know of me. Your a real ninja Hatake, unlike these pathetic children." With that she dropped down and grabbed the long hilt of her blade. With a simple looking tug she ripped the sword from the tree. The tall woman's laughter seemed to echo as killing intent hit everyone among the group.
"Not that I'd expect you to know of them but there are 8 points in the body that guarantee an near fatal blow. Larynx, spine, lungs, liver, jugular, subclavian artery, kidneys and the heart." Without warning Kurai appeared among Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke. With her body low to the floor.
"LUNG!" She roared as she spun around with her blade angled to jab Naruto through the chest. In Naruto's perspective everything slowed down and he thought back to training with Danzo's ROOT forces. In his mind Kurai was replaced with a ROOT ninja, tanto poised to run him through. Reflexes kicked in and Naruto swiftly leaned backwards, he realized however how slow he was compared to this jonin as he found his head had suffered a shallow cut and his head band ripped off with the sword.
Kurai not letting up for a moment angled the blade for another swing this time targeting Sasuke, "JUGULAR!" Instead of a clean target as was present Kakashi had snuck into her guard, a kunai embedded into the woman's gut.
The sound of dripping water became audible as Kurai gave a gasp of surprise before it was replaced by a smirk appeared. "Not even!"
Kurai growled as her blade sliced through a water clone. With no pause Kakashi was behind her, kunai against her throat. "Its over Kurai."
"Sensei look out!"
Kakashi's eyes widened as Sakura'a warning hit his ears. He ducked as Kurai's attack went wide, she however predicted this and lashed out with her leg, kicking the Leaf jonin in the chest.
Kakashi flew threw the air and landed in the water. It only took a few seconds for Kakashi to feel the difference in the water. "No!" He shouted as Kurai reappeared to behind him, her hands finished a rapid sting of hand signs.
"Water Style: Water prison jutsu!" and like that Kakashi found himself trapped in a sphere of water. Kurai smirked under the bandages covering her mouth as she made a water clone.
"Time to make you watch the kiddies die Hatake!"
Sasuke grunted as he pulled a kunai out of his leg pouch. Sakura matched his action. Sakura spoke in defiance, "Not a chance!"
"Oh that's adorable, you still want to play ninja. Let me tell you something kiddies." Kakashi interrupted her.
"RUN! You didn't stand a chance the moment I got caught!"
Sakura looked to Sasuke, "Ready Sasuke?"
Apparently this was funny as Kurai's water clone let out a throaty laugh.
"It seems you need to learn about the real world kiddies, your not ninja. Your only pretending."
She raised her hands up, tensed. " By your age I'd already spilt the blood of many with these two hands, crushing many opponents."
"Kurai, the Demoness."
The real Kurai looked at Kakashi's trapped form. "So you seem to know a little bit about me."
"Long ago in Kiri, when it was know as the Bloody Mist, to truly become a ninja there was a final test."
"So you knew about the graduation exam." Kurai chuckled darkly.
Sakura had another stroke of brilliance. "So what we had graduation exams too."
Another laugh came from the missing ninja. "Did you have to kill the other students to pass?" Sakura's and even Sasuke's eyes went wide at the revelation.
"Yes...we killed the very people we'd grown up with, the people that had the same dreams as us. We couldn't pass until there was only one person left standing."
Kakashi's distorted voice spoke again, "Ten years ago in Kiri, the rules about the graduation exam changed. The very year before a girl no older then the age of 9 filled the school with terror. She who wasn't even enrolled in the academy had brutally and with out difficulty killed all 106 students."
A shadow fell over the clones eyes as a hand ran over her own chest in a sensual fashion. "It felt so..."
"Orgasmic!" The water clone charged forward and railed Sasuke in the chest with the hilt of her sword. Following the momentum she placed her elbow square into the genin's stomach. Kurai slowly stood up as the boy attempted to get on his feet, quickly she pushed him back down with her boot. Her face twisted into a mix of bliss and insanity laugh cruelly as she spoke, "You're so pathetic!"
She squeezed down and rubbed her boot deeper into his gut.
She let out a gasp of shock as something wet grabbed her by the torso and threw her away fom the Uchiha.
The clone looked up through her soaked bangs, sitting in the edge of the water. "You..."
Naruto's eyes were dull and lifeless but his emotions were anything but, "You cut me so I'll kill you."
The clone blew her bangs up as she stood, the large sword in hand. "Just try it runt!"
At the edge of Naruto's hands two blades of water formed and took the form of basic katanas. Faster then a genin should be, Naruto was in front of her arms crossed and poised to lash out. Kurai's clone reacted quickly cutting through Naruto like paper only to gasp as she looked down to see two blades sticking out from her stomach.
Kurai stared on in suprise at the speed of the red head. 'Kami, is this really the one you spoke of?'
The last three days Kurai had been visited in her sleep by Kami the divine Goddess herself. Or atleast she thought so. She had been warned that a powerful child with skin the colour of fresh snow and hair the colour of dull cherries. He would have control over water and would be wearing a ring of prayer beads. She didn't know why she was warned of this child. Because of these she had warned Haku to stay vigil and to help her escape if she found it necessary.
'I find it very necessary, but I want to see how this progresses just a bit more.' She looked at the red head as he slowly stalked towards her. "You say you killed an entire class of students? Don't make me laugh!" The swordswoman looked on in curiosity and a strange excitement as the boy was wrapped up in purple chakra a phantom figure forming in the shape of a demonic woman. "I killed my academy teacher, a chunin, like I was stepping on a bug. It was in a forest, with out a source of water,"
Water surged as his anger started to boil. "My greatest power is control over any form of water. Were next to an ocean."
The water at Naruto's feet rushed forward intent on drowning the missing ninja.
It never reached, two senbon hit the tall woman in the neck. She dropped like a rock releasing her jutsu and freeing Kakashi.
Naruto's rage dissipated as he watch he target fall face forward into the water and float. Not a moment later a Kiri Hunter ninja appeared kneeling next to the dead missing ninja. "I thank you, you provided me plenty of time for her to drop her guard and lose focus." Naruto grunted.
Kakashi shook his head dry as he stood on top of the water. Checking her vitals he nodded to the hunter ninja. "No pulse."
He leaned his head next to the missing ninja's mouth to check for breathing. He heard nothing and felt nothing from it.
Silently the hunter ninja picked up the body and nodded to them before vanishing.
Kakashi knew something was wrong.
More revision as of sept.14, 2020