CHAPTER FIVE

Trials of the Night

11:00am

Nara clan deer ranch number 3

Nara clan compound

Konoha

Naruto grunted as he heaved a bale of hay and lugged it across the deer enclosure, dropping it on the ground and ripping off the white rope that held it together so he could scatter it on the ground. He wiped his forehead with the back of the thick gloves on his hands and watched, satisfied, as deer lumbered to from a far corner of the ranch, where they surrounded a large stag who was the leader of the herd and also led the procession towards the dry grass food Naruto had scattered. The air was getting hotter and the grass was struggling to stay green, so hay was the next best option until the rain returned. The blonde-black haired Nara went back and forth four more times, carrying only a single bale because he didn't feel like overexerting himself, and scattering the grass around for the deer as his eyes passively counted the ones in the ranch. Thirty deer; there were seven more ranches around the clan compound, close to a partly thick forest where the animals could roam around but for the moment they were to be kept in the ranch.

Naruto dusted his hand, covered in large, thick brown gloves that were mainly used when they tended to deer, and perched his hand on his hips proudly. The assassin was in a pair of black trousers that was neatly tucked into his shin height, thick brown boots, which helped in wading through the shit around the ranch. He was also in a black, long sleeved shirt with the Nara clan's symbol on the back. A frown crossed his face and he turned his head, looking back and sighed at what he saw; about fourteen of his female clan mates were leaning on the fence of the ranch, batting their eyes at the males, who were busy flexing their muscles as they lifted bales of hay above their head in a show of strength. The women giggled and whispered among themselves as they watched the men strut around with their chest puffed out, their usually sleepy eyes wide and alert and waiting for someone to poke them so that they would show off their strength even more.

The clan heads oldest son almost believed that it was mating season in the clan.

Naruto walked over to the men and sat down on the fence, his eyes became half-lidded and lazy as he observed the large stag express his dominance among the other deer, the younger stags kept their heads lowered and the female deer flocked around the large deer and ate, slightly bumping against them to get him to notice them and mate with them.

The assassin closed his eyes and refrained from cringing, not because he wasn't well versed in the biology of deer mating and reproduction, his father forced the knowledge into his head, but rather by how familiar it looked. At his appearance and setting himself among them on the fence the men suddenly calmed down and walked around with lowered heads, shuffling around hay and shovelling poop into large buckets, which would in turn be used as manure in a later time. A few plopped down beside him and a few stalked around in front of him. Naruto silently rolled his eyes; naturally he was the leader in their gathering, not because he was the most accomplished Nara among them but because he was the clan heads oldest son. Of course there were other assassins in their group, Naruto remembered three as his gaze fell on them, but he had the strongest control of the clan bloodline.

He shook his head in exasperation, wondering why he had to work with horny men and women in his age group.

"Hey Naruto." He heard from the guy to his side, also sitting on the fence and watching the deer eat. Naruto hummed and looked at him. "How was your date with Lady Fifth?" he asked with an amusedly upward twitch of his lips, but this laugh was quickly overpowered by a sleepy expression as his eyes became dull and a large yawn escaped his lips.

Naruto chuckled a little and shrugged, observing that the other men were also raptly paying attention. "Turns out she isn't into younger men." He heard a loud 'aha! I told you. Pay up, idiot.' And a full blown laugh erupted out. The group of black haired (with a few deep blue, deep purple and naturally grey haired) men fell into low laughs as well.

"I heard that Lady Fifth's assistant, Shizune was it? Asked you out." the same guy asked with a playful jab to the blonde-black haired Nara's ribs.

"Where'd you hear that from?" Naruto was sure that the events of the night were a great secret. Plus, he didn't agree to go out with the shy medic; rather he proposed a chat over coffee on a later date.

The man stretched and placed his hands behind his head. "Well, my girlfriend," a few sputtering laughs rippled through the group of men, and even Naruto had to clamp his lips shut and try to keep the water in his eyes from falling. The man flipped off each of his friends and repeated. "My girlfriend said during her morning rounds in the hospital she saw Shizune skipping around in the chakra poisoning ward, singing about some sort of rabbit eating a hotdog, I don't know."

"So because Shizune is singing questionable songs your 'girlfriend'" he air quoted and the man punched his shoulder in tune with the laughs. "Thinks I'm the cause?"

"No, she also wouldn't stop talking about it. You are one lucky bastard."

Naruto rolled his eyes and was about to retort, but there was a loud call behind him. "Yo, old man!"

The group of Nara, even the women, turned to the sound and Naruto face palmed when he saw Suzu speeding towards him in a black midriff shirt and red tights black sneakers, waving a sheathed red and black sword over her head. The jinchuriki also had on a pair of orange knee and elbow pads, and ensuring her long blond hair was tied up in loose twin buns. The fourteen year old girl stumbled and managed to catch herself in time before she could face plant into the ground as all the adults that were looking at her as well. She regained her composure as she skidded to a stop before Naruto, who was now fully facing her with a curiously raised eyebrow.

"Suzu, how can I help you?" he asked and the others too cocked their head to the side. The women stopped giggling and paid attention as the 'Stag' addressed the holder of the nine tailed fox, a few more adventurous, and tomboyish women approached the group of men and squeezed in to lean on the fence closer to the clan heads oldest son.

The girl bowed abruptly; embarrassed by all the attentions he was getting, and held out her blade to Naruto. "I would like to have a kenjutsu spar with you, old man." She then added as quickly as possible before Naruto could speak. "You also said I could meet you if I needed something."

"Isn't Yugao your sensei? I'm sure she is well suited to kenjutsu spars than I am."

"Kakashi is my sensei, Yugao is my sempai. You see, I want to be ANBU captain one day." She said as she puffed out her chest and tilted her chin up. "So what do you say?"

"I'm not really a sword using type-"

"Oh please, I read that you're so good with a sword that the longest you've ever used a sword is a month before it breaks."

Naruto scratched the back of his head and a large drop of sweat grew on the side of his head when his age mates began mumbling, a few of them looked at him with something akin to complete respect and a few of the females nudged his back, sending shivers down his back; he didn't want to compare himself to the clan's deer. That was his parent's kink, and he didn't want anything to do with it. Just thinking about it gave him a terrible burning sensation in his chest. "That's because I have the bad luck of buying inferior blades, plus I'm sure breaking swords on a regular basis is a bad thing."

It was a lie; any self-respecting shinobi bought their weapons from Higuarashi, and the weapons the muscled man sold were of absolute best quality, so much so he was constantly given good reviews, and thus more patronage.

"Please old man, sempai said I should find someone else to spar with to 'expand my repertoire'. She even said I should spar with you first!" she fell on her knees and dramatic tears poured out of her eyes like waterfalls.

Naruto lilted on his spot on the fence, until he shrugged and hopped off the enclosure boundary and motioned for the girl to get up. "Alright, give me all you've got."

Suzu shot to her feet and bowed repeatedly to the assassin. "Thank you!" she unsheathed her blade and dropped the scabbard on the ground, making Naruto realize that she made use of a saber that was slightly curved at the tip rather than the usual katana that shinobi regularly used. The blade sparkled red with the sharp edge a foreboding black, and the hilt and handle were a solid black. The girl placed her left hand behind her back and pointed her weapon at the ground in what Naruto recognised as a Leaf Fencing Kenjutsu stance, close to what Kushina used when she was still alive. The girl blinked twice and pointed out. "Where is your sword?"

Naruto palmed his face and his blue eyes looked around, before it fell on one of the guys sitting on the fence watching him. "Are those swords we used when we were kids still usable?"

The man's eyes widened and he gaped. "Are you sure you want to use that? Her saber looks really sharp. We can always just get you a real sword to use."

"Nope, using a real sword is overkill." The assassin insisted, much to the collective surprise of his group of friends. "It's just a spar, right? If you come at me with all you've got and maybe I'm impressed then next time I'll use a real sword." a woman from the throng of Nara behind him pulled back her sleeve to expose a storage seal on her forearm, a puff of smoke later and a sword made out of hay lay in her hands. It was held together by white bands so that the tightly compacted dry grass could keep its form. She tossed the sword to Naruto and the assassin caught it with his right hand, flicking it to the ground to make sure that it was still usable and nodded to himself when the hay sword didn't fall apart. "Perfect."

"Are you sure you want to use that thing?" Suzu asked sceptically and Naruto shrugged.

"Give me all you've got." He spun the sword on his palm and held it laxly, pointing straight to the ground instead of the inclined position Suzu held her own weapon. Naruto's face cleared off all emotion as he tilted his head down and looked at the ground, casting a shadow over his upper face and having his shaggy hair shade his eyes. His blue eyes looked up and shone through the darkness, sending terrible chills down Suzu's spine when she felt the darkness that roiled around the Nara assassin. The dark shadows that made Naruto look tired, ringing around his eyes and creating heavy bags under his eyes, deepened and cast down his cheeks. Adding to his relaxed stance, the flailing shadows that could only be sensed and not seen, the shadows on his face and the brightly shining blue eyes of the assassin, Suzu began to second guess herself.

The Nara behind him could also feel the increase in shadowy and they clamped on harder to the fence. The feeling for them didn't last too long, but it did for the nine tailed fox holder as she removed her left hand from behind her and grasped her weapon in both hands, gritting her teeth as the full brunt of the assassins killer intent fell on her like anything she had ever felt before. She swallowed thickly, large drops of sweat began rolling down her head and she could just barely keep her legs from shaking, even as Naruto cocked his head to the side slightly and lifted his left arm up to her and motioning for her to come at him. She knew what killer intent was, during the chunin exams Orochimaru had blasted it on her without mercy as he sealed away her ability to use the nine tailed fox's chakra, but this was something else, it was like she was still a child, looking into the pure blackness of the night with no hope of ever finding a light.

The girl growled under her breathe as she took a staggering step forward after five long minutes, her blue eyes flashing evil red and vulpine as she used the presence of the Kyuubi in her to repel the killer intent with each step, something that impressed Naruto. A small, slow smirk came to Naruto's face at her determination to push past his killer intent and he waited for her, watching as she gained more speed and rocketed towards him, throwing up dust and sand as she did so.

Every Nara, male or female, was born with the innate ability of strategizing. It only varied by the speed at which decisions were made, the quality of those decisions and how well they were executed; that was why the Nara was a clan well respected. It was even believed that Shikaku Nara, the clan head of the shadow manipulating clan, was such a great strategist that he was able to see ten steps into the future against any opponent he was pitted against, not unlike the sharingan. The scarred man was the commander of ANBU for a reason as well as the right hand to the Hokage in all things strategy and planning, and even though Naruto was still yet to challenge his father, the clan head, for a battle of dominance on who was the better strategist and all-round ninja, it was widely believed that Naruto had surpassed his father the moment he became a jounin at age eleven, barely a month after Shikamaru was born.

And Shikaku never did anything to stifle the rumours floating around because, deep in his complex and often sleepy mind, he knew that Naruto was a much better strategist and ninja than him, especially after returning from a solo war against the Western Empire as well as defeating two S ranks and cleanly assassinating the Kage of Ame without any help. For now Naruto wasn't interested in leading the clan, but when the day finally came for Naruto to butt heads with his father for the position of leader stag of the Nara clan he would be waiting.

Naruto's shining blue eyes analysed the quickly changing stances the girl took as she shot at him, ranging from the basic kenjutsu style sword popularly used to the Rattle Snake sword style Orochimaru made use of, to even the Broken Boken style of Whirlpool, meaning that she had clearly been doing her homework and Yugao was a great teacher as well. He counted six different styles she alternated from as she charged at him, her blue eyes getting darker with determination to overcome the Night. He looked at her blade, a heavy sabre that was created from an unknown metal he couldn't decipher at that moment but he knew for sure that it was sharp.

The assassin sidestepped the downward slash and ducked under the side slash the girl sent after the initial strike. His head shifted back as the saber wafted past his nose and he poked his sword on her stomach. The girl snarled and twirled on her right heel away from the lazy strike and sent another slash to his face, but the assassin shifted away again and used his hay sword to bat at the edge of the metal sword with enough force to have the jinchuriki spin along with it against her whim, and only stop when Naruto poked her side multiple times and ended the sequence of harmless attacks with a harsh bash to her head, forcing her face to meet the ground with enough force to rattle her teeth.

Naruto's dull eyes looked down on her prone form as he slowly walked around her, tapping his sword on the ground every once in a while, like he was suing a walking stick. "Is that all you've got? Senselessly charging at me? It seems…" he stopped at her head and used his foot to flip her onto her back, where he could see her bruised face. "It seems I overestimated you, Suzu." He then tapped her left cheek with his hay weapon and smiled. "Better luck next time, kid."

The man turned his back to her and began his walk back to his large group of friends slash clan mates, before he stopped abruptly and his eyebrows lowered ever so slowly as he looked over his shoulder. Suzu was panting as she pushed herself to her knees with her one edged sword being used as support, she huffed as she got her right foot firmly on the ground, then heaved as she got back to her feet. Her breathes came out in thick white gasps as she looked at Naruto with one eye open, her face still bruised from the deceptively strong slam to the head, which in turn bashed her face onto the ground. Naruto's eyes narrowed as he kept his eyes on her form when he felt a shroud of hazy blue chakra covered her body and coat her blade. The blood red and black saber warped as it came in contact with its users chakra and it elongated drastically, stretching and widening to about nine foot long demonic blade of unholy power.

A Zanbatou Naruto had seen a few times before.

The girl huffed as her chakra flailed around her like fire. The eerie chakra warped around her body and licked the ground, pushing the dirt away with strong winds. Suzu lifted up the Zanbatou from its position touching the ground by its tip and perched it on her shoulder. She spat out a glob of spit and glared at Naruto silently as he kept his back to her. The Nara sighed and shook his head. "This isn't the Kyuubi influencing you, I hope."

"Why don't you come and find out, old man." She snarled under her breathe as the gusts of wind got stronger.

"I guess I owe you that much." Seeing as you came at me when the spar started, he mentally finished as he rolled his neck once and turned to her. He began a steady jog to the chakra shrouded girl and thoughts began floating in his head; he couldn't touch her with his hay sword because he deduced that the wind would shred it like it would cut apart any other metal weapon. The weapon in Suzu's hand was a generationally passed down sword that had two stages, one was the normal form which differed according to the usual emotional temperament of the person and the second was a demon Zanbatou which was brought out by mental command. The first form of Kushina's sword was a dual katana that could split apart, but after it had been passed to Suzu by blood right when she entered the academy it changed into a saber. The ultimate form for the Uzumaki royalty direct descendant slash their passed down blade was a tricky thing to overcome with the almost sentient improvement in control and speed despite its massive size, and with the constant cycle of the girls wind affinity chakra passing through and over it would be harder. But it was a good thing that kenjutsu fights also included chakra augmentation of the body and of the weapon.

As Naruto closed in on the girl his hay sword burst into flames, which he controlled by mental and he brought it down on her head, which she guarded against but her eyes widened into large dinner plates at the massive explosion of wind that resulted in it, releasing all the chakra she had flowing in her sword and dispersing it around her in a glorious blast of harmless wind. Her Zanbatou reduced back to it true saber form and he continued hacking down on her, forcing her to shuffle backwards with each powerful strike, desperately crossing her weapon across her body to prevent her body from being burnt with fire. The wind that formerly covered her body in a cloak of dangerously sharp gusts sputtered and flickered off as he feinted his sword from slashing her right side but pulled his fire covered hay weapon in time before she could block once again to painfully jab it on her forehead.

That was the last attack and her legs lost all strength suddenly. Her arms quivered and she released hold of her weapon. Naruto pulled his sword back to him from her forehead and she fell down face first onto the ground, he had to step aside for her not to fall on him. He regarded her fallen form for a brief moment before he flipped her onto his back with his foot. "You're still need a bit more training to really use that weapon." He said to her in a low voice, watching the warring emotions of disappointment and stubborn pride roll across her face. "Practise more wind based chakra exercises along with your sword and you'll get better." He helped her up when she remained silent, even crossing her arms in a huff at how quickly she had been taken down.

"…Anything else?" she grumbled under breathe, both too proud to ask for training tips and too eager to fight him again once she got better.

"Don't let your temper overcome you; you had a plan when you came at me before, I could see it in your eyes, but you threw it away half a second later because I kept dodging your strikes." He poked her forehead with his pointer and middle finger and smiled at her. Red dusted over her cheeks and across her nose as she looked at him, transfixed, before she forced her eyes to the ground and she blubbered to herself. "But, even if I wasn't really going easy on you, you still did really well." He patted her head and gave her a warm smile, to which she replied with a wide, shaky, cheesy grin and a great lurch in her chest which just made her face all the more redder.

The assassin, still keeping his hand on her head and to which she never moved too much to shake it off, shifted to look at the other Nara in the ranch, observing as the leader stag of their group bested the Kyuubi holder, one of the best sword users of her generation.

"Who's up for brunch in the dinner hall?!" he yelled to them and they cheered back in agreement. Naruto threw his hand over the small shoulders of the much shorter, extremely flustered jinchuriki and walked with her to the direction of the clan compounds mess hall, which was where members of the clan ate after a hard day's work in the different ranches. "You're coming too; maybe you can get a few more pointers from my clan mates." The girl bobbed her head and gratefully took the presented sheathed saber she had dropped by a tendril of darkness that came out of Naruto's shadow.

As the large group of Nara shuffled towards the mess hall for food there was a large explosion to the far left of them, not big enough to harm anyone in the ground but dangerous enough to send shockwaves that shook the foundations of the houses around the source of the explosion. Instinctively Naruto pushed the younger ninja behind him and faced the explosion with squinted but empty eyes as his 'Pasty face' set in.

A mad cackle echoed around them as more Nara clans men ran out of their houses and ranches of work towards the place of the blast. A few Nara fanned out of the group to assist, mostly medics, while the rest looked around carefully for the person laughing.

"Do I have your attention now, Night?!"

Naruto heard the voice, as well as the others, and he immediately shook off the thick brown gloves on his hands and clenched his pale fists to his side as his eyes looked up, where Diedara and Sasori soared in a circle on a clay bird. Another wild laugh escaped the mouth of the mad bomber and Naruto's mind frantically traced the source of the blast to the clan heads house, where his mother was having a guest, but his father was in the Hokage's office reporting on the assassination of Nagato to Tsunade on Naruto's behalf and Shikamaru was on a B rank mission to Wind country, merely a diplomatic mission. His eyes sharply returned to Diedara and the rings of darkness around them deepened with foreboding. His posture straightened and his shadow slowly crept up his body, much to the wonder of the Nara around him, as well as Suzu, and the mild astonishment of the Akatsuki members flying around their small group. The shadow slithered down after a second to reveal him in his combat uniform, besides the flak jacket, and after a flurry of shadows covering his body his cloak appeared into sight. The thick boots on his feet was replaced by a pair of comfortable black sandals.

The Nights dead blue eyes followed the clay bird until it abruptly froze after a blazingly fast shadow burst out from his own and rocketed even higher up the sky, before it exploded into a glorious ball of fire so far up in the sky that it wouldn't affect the ground.

"Go and see if there are any injured." Naruto said to those closest to him and they too communicated this with the others as they all ran to the bonfire that had resulted from the explosion. Naruto could hear Suzu unsheathe her weapon and he spoke again. "You too."

"But-"

"I want you to go and report this to Lady Godaime," the girl prepared to reply in the negative but Naruto spoke first. "Now."

The Uzumaki ground her teeth, then nodded curtly and ran to the entrance of the clan compound, leaving Naruto to look up at the puff of thick black smoke in the air. Wordlessly a clone rose up from his shadow and began flipping through a few handseals. "Earth style: Piercing Rock Darts." It droned and slammed its palms to the ground. After doing so the ground around Naruto and his clone rumbled briefly then began spitting out thick spikes to the cloud of smoke in the sky. As the darts perforated the smoke Naruto closed his eyes and thought of the next jutsu he was to use. "Hiden art: Shadow sewing technique." His eyes opened again and they blazed with energy as his clone melted back to be his shadow and a single string darted out to the shadow cast by the multiple darts shooting at the heavens. Naruto got into a good running position and followed the shadows of the earth darts, as he reached the highest dart his body phased into sight on the real dart and not the shadow. The assassin spread his cloak and released a massive shadow bull at the incoming flock of clay birds that were being sent by Diedara. The shadow creature roared as it bashed through multiple explosions until it savagely slammed against the mad bomber. The animals shadow shimmered as its body became less tangible before it morphed into a clone of Naruto, which pulled out a kunai from the well of darkness of its cloak and slit the former Iwa ninjas throat in one clean swipe and dragged another line of blood from his throat again after another slice, just to be sure, while Naruto glided around far above them, keeping track of Sasori as he flew around in fan-like metallic wings that sprouted out of his back and arms.

Naruto's lips tightened at the evasion tactics Sasori was using, throwing poison laced senbon and kunai at him from his mouth while flying around with the hope of tiring Naruto out. The Nara clapped his hands together and flashed through a set of seals as he gradually descended from the sky. "Fire style: Cursed Red Amaterasu." He held up the tiger hand to the bottom of his lips, dragged in as much air his lungs could carry and blew. Fire, dark and evil enough to leave imprints in the minds that saw it, escaped from Naruto's mouth and warped through the air towards Sasori, who kept throwing weapons but only for them to get incinerated by the S rank flames of the Nara assassin. The puppet master unsealed his most prized puppet, the Third Kazekage puppet, and had it cover him in its metal sand. The sentient flames surrounded the wooden man in a ball of super-hot fire, sputtering and rippling as Naruto continued breathing it out. The unranked jounin ceased his attack and glided with his cloak towards the fire, which allowed him entry easily.

The man touched down on the solid sand ball and a tendril of darkness touched the ball, seeing as his hands were still in the tiger handseal. He could feel the shadows and the darkness move around inside the metal ball but he couldn't control them because there weren't any openings for him to capitalize on, so he decided to make his own; he jumped up a little and washed more godly fire down, this time on the protective ball Sasori had around him. The effect was that the sand solidified together and a continued blast of the flames hardened it so much that it began to break apart. Naruto forced his cloak back to him so he wouldn't glide in the air and he dropped straight down on the puppet of the Kazekage, who immediately wrapped him up in its iron sand. Naruto melted out of the hold flowed down through the miniscule shadows on the puppets body, every place he passed by was severed off and dispersed into ash after bursting into flames, until he got to the chakra strings before he reappeared again before the aghast and horrified puppet master, even more horrified as several tendrils of darkness from the assassins cloak crushed his metal wings.

Sasori looked at the dead eyed assassin with wide eyes as his arms fell limp to his side, both plummeting down to the earth, which was still miles below them. "So you are as strong as they say you are."

Naruto narrowed his eyes slightly but kept his hands to his side as he fell, the wind flapped and thrashed against his hair and the bottom of his cloak but the shadow summons construct never flew open. The Nara ignored the question and said. "Is my mother still alive?"

If the bomb had killed her…

His fists tightened beneath his cloak and he reigned in his emotions.

Sasori shook his head. "No, she is safe."

"Good. Where is she?"

"Our new leader, Uchiha Madara, has taken your whole family, Shikaku, Yoshino and Shikamaru Nara, and is holding them hostage."

"I assume he wants the rinnegan in my possession." The puppet man nodded. The ground was approaching and the red head could see the dead body of the mad bomber lying on the ground, bleeding profusely from his neck. The body of the former Iwa ninja was a mere speck on the ground but they were shinobi; their eyes were accustomed to seeing far distance objects. "Where can I find them?"

"You know where they are." He replied. "He will begin cutting up their bodies starting from their hands in five minutes if you don't show up."

Naruto's lips screwed to the side. "I see…are there any more of you 'Akatsuki' in Konoha?"

"No. They are with Madara, waiting for you." The ground was closing in on them faster and faster and Sasori closed his eyes in resignation. "It was nice meeting you…Night."

Naruto stared at the puppet man before he responded. "And you too, Sasori." And he flared out his cloak, slowing him down drastically but Sasori smashed into the ground feet first and exploded into many pieces of shattered wood. Naruto's feet touched down safely and he had a clone capture the cylindrical object lying on the ground labelled 'heart'. He dropped it to his feet and stepped on it without hesitation, destroying the heart of the puppet master and killing him for good. Naruto hummed in thought as he looked around, idly taking Diedara's shadow and storing it in his Night Dimension. "You want the rinnegan huh."

The Valley of End, he thought briefly as his shadow shot away from him and pinged against several objects, Naruto's body flickered away with it in a "Hiden art: Chain Shadow Teleportation."

Authors note

Things be getting dark.

Drop a review if you want to see the next chapter, those help a lot, just so you know :)

Stay safe, wherever you are in this world, follow me on Tumblr at ghost-of-foy and I will see you when I see you.

Foy.