You know, it's kind of funny. I started this story with a minimum goal of 2,5k per chapter, but now I don't even consider anything below 4k a full chapter. In fact, the last seven chapters have all been well over 4k. And here's a 10k chapter. It's funny how that works out. My treat, I guess, for taking so long to update.
Disclaimer: Nah man, nah.
Warning: Uh, it gets a little gory. Just a heads up.
"Ibiki specializes in mental torture. Rather than physical. He has a way of getting into your head and psyching you out." Asuma leaned back on the couch with a faint smirk on his face. "Right Hayate? He was your teammate wasn't he?"
"He's always been like that." He murmured, thinking back on his former teammate. "We always joked that he had such a way with words he should have gone into acting rather than killing. But, he found his niche in the TI department."
Kakashi snorted. "Him? An actor? He may be good with words but his expression is as hard as stone."
"He wasn't always like that." Hayate coughed into his hand. "Besides did you see that last film with that new actor Hideki Maki? Yūgao swears he barely twitched his lips the whole time."
Kakashi shrugged and Hayate remembered that the man didn't have any hobbies outside of his job and reading porn. He'd have to drag him out with Yūgao sometime. He knew his girlfriend worried over her former captain.
"Well regardless, now he's over there torturing our poor genin into submission."Asuma chuckled to himself and took another long drag from his cigarette.
He folded his hands over the folder in his lap. He had meant to simply grab the information on the chunin exam participants from a friend in Anbu who owed him one and go back to his apartment to parcel through the information like a fine toothed comb. However, he got caught up talking with Asuma who pulled him over to one of the jounin lounges to chat while their students participated in the first half of the chunin exam.
Though they did very little talking and it was an hour into the exam already. Hayate glanced around, wondering if he could excuse himself politely at this point.
Kurenai sat next to Asuma, arms folded over her chest, looking pensive. Kakashi was sitting on the windowsill, his customary orange colored porn book in hand. Hayate held back a sigh, but couldn't stop a cough from bubbling up. Although Kurenai was the most visibly nervous out of the four of them, he could tell that everyone was stressed. Asuma was on his fifth cigarette and Kakashi hadn't actually turned the page in over half an hour.
The door slammed open making them all jump.
"Guess who I found running laps around the city muttering about never doubting his students?"
Hayate sighed.
It was only Genma dragging bashful looking Gai behind him. The man paused and glanced over all of them with a raised eyebrow.
"Damn, remind me never to get a genin team. You lot looked horrible."
Kurenai smiled faintly at him, while Asuma huffed and Kakashi rolled his eye.
Genma flopped down on the couch next to him with a laugh.
"Alright, so now that I've got you all gather here." The man leaned forward with a wide grin. "Who wants to start betting?"
Hayate sighed again.
Later that evening, when his genin were safely at their respective homes likely still high on their victory, he sat down at the dining room table a smile tugging at his lips as the warm glow of pride hovered in his chest like a small sun. He flipped open the folder and slowly began to organize the information. It was a lot more than he expected to receive.
A note from the Hokage slipped out, telling him not to work too hard and he smiled faintly.
He should have known Kenji would go straight to the Hokage after Hayate expressed his suspicions to him. The man was loyal to a fault.
He glanced over the patrol information, memorizing the routes and who was running them at what time. He slipped into his room and dropped a kiss on Yūgao's forehead as he gathered his gear. She muttered a sleepy be safe, likely forgetting he wasn't even supposed to be on patrol duty right now.
She'd probably lecture him in the morning, but he'd deal with that then.
For now, he'd fit himself into any potential holes in the security and keep a closer eye on the Suna shinobi within the village.
He blinked slowly at the enormous trees towering behind the fence.
So this was the place he that seemed to hum with natural chakra. From his late nights sitting on the roof of their apartment building he had noticed towering trees in the distance, but on later exploration with his brother he learned that this area was restricted. No civilian or even genin without a pass or jounin supervision could even get near it.
Staring into the dark shadows of the forest he could understand why now.
"Was that a giant snake?" Naruto murmured beside him, eyes wide. "It just ate that bird! In one gulp. Did you see that Natsu, Sasuke?!"
Kurama nodded slowly. "This place is humming with chakra, I think it might be affecting the wildlife."
"Hn." Sasuke looked mildly disturbed.
Kurama smiled faintly at the two of them. Places like these were rare, especially with the ever expanding nature of humans, but he had come across them when he was free all those years ago. Natural occurring hot spots of nature chakra.
The three of them listened closely to this Anko person's instructions. There were mutters all around over the lack of preparation before being thrown into a survival situation. Kurama merely frowned. While he could understand the logic behind it, that didn't make it any less daunting.
The moved away from the other teams when they received their consent forms. The proctors in charge weren't done setting up by the time they finished reading through and signing their forms, so they sat down to start discussing a plan.
"We're going to have to find water first." Kurama murmured. "We can survive a few days without food, but it's probably best if we get the other scroll as quickly as possible. Dragging it out will be harsher on us in the long run, especially if we can't find a reliable source of food."
"Heh, don't worry guys." Naruto grinned. "I got us covered."
His hands patted his bulging pockets. Kurama and Sasuke exchanged glances before silently prompting him to explain.
"Well, Kakashi-sensei was constantly telling us to be prepared, right? So, I made sure to bring all sorts of supplies."
Kurama blinked. "Ah, you did buy a lot of storage seals and sealing supplies when we went shopping with Kakashi-sensei."
That must have also been the reason Naruto had been rushing around that morning like a chicken with his head cut off, digging under the couch and in the cupboards and even under their bed.
"So that's what you were working on this past week," Sasuke muttered.
His brother nodded. "Yeah, I'm better at exploding seals than storage, but I can make them myself as well. If we need some more. I can't wait till I can get into the bigger stuff, but Kakashi-sensei said to wait till after the chunin exam."
"So what do you have?" Kurama asked with a fond smile.
"A lot of traps and stuff, but I also got some food, and water canteens for the three of us. Lots of extra weapons too."
"That's perfect." Kurama glanced over at the other teams. "Since we'll have our basics covered we should think of a plan or two for getting the opposite scroll."
"Hn, they're covering the station, so we can't peek at who's getting what scroll," Sasuke muttered glaring in the direction of the chunin setting up by the fence.
"So, we'll have to find that out ourselves in the forest." Naruto folded his arms over his chest. "Huh, well maybe we can capture some teams in my traps…"
Kurama nodded. "Yes, we can find a good position and lure them in."
"That creepy woman said that the ending point was the tower in the middle of the training grounds. Maybe we can set up camp near it and nab anyone trying to go in?" Sasuke added.
"That's definitely where all the action would be," Kurama replied. "But, we might open ourselves up to an attack that way from multiple teams."
Sasuke folded his arms over his chest. "We can handle it."
Kurama opened his mouth to reply to that cocky statement with a rebuttal but was cut off.
"We're ready for you fooorrrmmmsssss now!" Anko shouted brightly waving her arms in the air.
They leaped to their feet and darted over to the quickly forming line. Getting their Heaven scroll was a simple affair, Naruto shoved it in one of his pockets quickly and they made their way towards their assigned gate to wait until the exam began.
"Hey, what are we goin' to do about the scroll?" Naruto asked while eyeing the team waiting at the gate to their right. It was an older group of genin from Konoha.
A woman with long dark hair and a gold nose ring scowled at Naruto when she noticed him looking. Naruto just grinned.
"We should find a safe place to figure out who's going to keep it and how we're going to hide it when we getting into the training ground," Kurama replied fighting back a smile at his brother antics.
"You're sensing ability is going to be important in there," Sasuke said thoughtfully. Kurama glanced at the Ame team at the gate to the left of them. They wore strange yellow jumpsuits and respirators over their mouths. He vaguely wondered how the one with the cloth completely over his eyes without any holes cut out for the eyes, like his two teammates, saw anything.
"So, what? We'll dart in, find a safe place away from the other teams to sort out our scroll and decide what our plan is?" Naruto covered his mouth with his hand and spoke softly, trying to prevent the other teams from hearing or reading his lips to know what they were planning.
Kurama and Sasuke nodded.
It took twenty minutes for everyone to turn in their forms and get their teams scroll. Twenty minutes of slowly mounting stress and uncertainty. In the distance, he felt the touch of malice from Shukaku spiking minutely as well. He tried not to grimace as a mounting headache pounding behind his eyes that the close proximity to his biju brother's jinchuuriki caused. It didn't help that all the other teams' emotions were high as well. Kurama winced slightly as fear spike in one of the members of the Konoha group the right of them.
"Come on, come on, come on," Naruto muttered underneath his breath.
He took a breath and glanced at proctor's booth. The last team had just left and were making their way towards the last gate.
"Be prepared." Sasuke murmured shifting forward slightly as he prepared to take off immediately.
Kurama and Naruto copied him.
"Ready?!" He could hear the grin in Anko's voice as it echoes around the area. "One last piece of advice for ya baby genin. Don't Die!"
She paused for effect.
Kurama narrow his eyes.
"Go!"
The gate open and they darted in as quickly as they could. Kurama was on point extending his senses as far as he could to prevent any disastrous collisions with other teams while they didn't have a plan ready or their scroll properly hidden. Naruto was on his right side hands ready to create clones while Sasuke was on his left sharingan eyes already activated. He could sense the Ame shinobi to their left make an aborted lunged at them before seeming to change their minds and fall behind as Kurama as his team charge forward into the gloomy forest. It was harder than he thought to sense people in the chakra heavy forest, but he managed to steer their team away from the other teams and towards a more defensible position within the overgrown roots of one of the giant trees.
They check for any wildlife before slinking into the shadows under the roots and crouching down to discuss what they were going to do about their scroll.
"I can put it in one of my storage scrolls." Naruto murmured taking out both the Heaven scroll and an empty storage scroll.
"Good idea." Kurama nodded.
"We should make a decoy," Sasuke replied, eyes darting to every possible crack someone could slip through despite Kurama's assurances that no one was around them.
"Naruto can I have three storage scrolls? Doesn't matter what's in them." Kurama held out his hand as an idea occurred to him.
"Sure." Naruto dug through his pockets. "Uh, let's see…this one is shuriken. And this one is a bunch of exploding tags that'll explode like five or ten seconds after you release them. I can't remember which. Anyway, this last is, well, it might explode if we open it. I was just experimenting and um…well, I didn't have enough time to asking Kakashi-sensei to check it over so see if I did it right so…is that fine? I can give you another one for…uh, what do ya need these for?"
Kurama rolled his eyes and took all three of the scrolls. Instead of answering he picked up the Heaven scroll and examined it thoroughly before setting it back down next to the storage scroll Naruto had offered to seal it in. Sasuke made a noise of understanding as Kurama move his hands over the other three scrolls.
He coated the scrolls with his chakra weaving it to match the Heaven scroll.
Naruto whistled as Kurama handed him one of the scrolls.
"Ah, ok. So, each of us gets a decoy."
"It's simple, but it works." Sasuke took the scroll Kurama offered and examined it with his sharingan, before tucking it away in his weapons pouch on his leg.
"Ok, so what's the plan for getting the Earth scroll?" Naruto asked as he finished sealing the real Heaven scroll in the storage seal. He bit his thumb and wrote out the kanji for Supplies, clumsily on the outside of the scroll.
"I think setting up a trap is our best bet," Kurama replied. "We don't know our opponent's strengths or weaknesses, so limiting their movement and pushing them into a corner would be better than engaging them in battle immediately."
"I have a lot of trapping material." Naruto grinned. "Learned some new ones from one of my books and Kakashi-sensei taught me a few more tricks this last week. I can definitely make an awesome trap."
"We just need to find out where we'll do it." Sasuke nodded. "I still think by the tower would be the best spot."
"And I'm telling you that'd leave us too open for surprise attacks" Kurama replied. Sasuke scowled at him, but Kurama just held his hand up with a sigh. "Listen, how about we take today to observe and see what works best. If we can find a defensible spot near the tower, then ok we can do that but I still think we should be cautious about it and keep our eyes open for better positions."
The boy continued to scowl, but nodded slowly accepting his reasoning for now. Naruto just grinned at them obviously not caring where they put his trap just as long as he could make one.
Kurama turned his head sharply towards when he caught a flicker of chakra on the edge of his senses.
"An enemy?" Sasuke questioned.
Kurama nodded. "It feels like one of those Ame shinobi that were at the gate to the left of us."
"Only one?" Naruto frowned. "A trap?"
"Maybe."
Their eyes met.
Naruto grinned.
"Hey, guys I gotta pee!" Naruto announced cheerfully.
Kurama rolled his eyes, while Sasuke grumbled inaudibly.
"Don't worry, it'll just be a jiffy!" He jogged to the edge of the clearing. "I'll just be over here."
Kurama fought back a smirk as he ghosted over the branches of the tree to the right of his brother as he pushed his way through some thick shrubbery. He tucked his hair into his haori to prevent unnecessary movement as he crept upside-down along the branch to hover over Naruto as he pretended to find a good place to pee in the smaller clearing. Sasuke crept towards him from the opposite tree, having shadowed Naruto from the left, till they were side by side on the branch above Naruto.
For effect, Kurama added the distant noise of Sasuke's and him arguing quietly over a plan of attack from the larger clearing Naruto left from. They were actually Naruto's clones covered in a genjutsu to make them look and sound like Sasuke and him, but their foe didn't know that.
No, the Ame shinobi in question was completely falling for the bait.
Kurama watched as he moved towards Naruto slowly.
He held up his hand in a fist.
Hold Position.
Sasuke nodded minutely.
Kurama allowed for the Ame shinobi to get within a foot of Naruto before he opened his fist.
Go.
Sasuke kunai cut through the air pinning the enemy to the ground by his arms and pants sleeves. Kurama was half a second behind them landing heavily on the shinobi's back using his chakra to cling to his clothes as he bucked wildly trying to tear free of the kunai and Kurama weight. He only stilled when Kurama put his own kunai to his neck.
He leaned down.
"Now what do you think you're doing?" He whispered lowly.
Naruto turned around with a grin and crouched in front of the trapped shinobi.
"What? Ya think you could catch me unaware?"
Sasuke landed next to Naruto lightly a smug smirk tugging at his lips.
"Tsk." The Ame shinobi went completely limp and growled. "So you guys weren't as easy as I thought you'd be."
"Nope!" Naruto replied in a singsong voice. "We knew you were coming before you even knew where we were."
"Now, where's the rest of your team, and your scroll?" Sasuke demanded.
"Heh. Like I'd tell you." The shinobi snapped as he resumed his struggling.
Kurama shifted the kunai at his neck, reminding him why he stopped in the first place.
"You really think you're in a position to argue." He murmured softly in his ear. He pressed the kunai a little harder, the sharp edge cutting into his neck.
A droplet of blood dripped down the blade and onto the ground.
Kurama felt the wavering of Naruto's emotions and saw the barely held back grimace, but he continued anyway.
They agreed to this.
They weren't going to get any information by being nice.
"What?" The shinobi laughed harshly. There wasn't a hint of fear in his emotions. "You think I'd believe that you little brats would kill me? I know about you, you know. You're part of that group of Konoha brats who just became genin. You're just little kids pretending to be shinobi. You can't threaten me."
"Is that so?" Kurama replied calmly, his lips curling slightly at the hint of uncertainty his soft question caused. He leaned forward, his free hand curled into his hair and yanked his head to an undoubtedly uncomfortable position so that the shinobi could look into his eyes. He consciously forced the color of his eyes to slowly morph into a menacing red as he flared his chakra deliberately.
(They were far enough away from Shukaku that a little bit should be fine.)
"You tried to hurt my brother." He continued, his voice just barely above a whisper. "You know what happened to the last person who tried to hurt me? My brother killed him."
He tried to ignore Naruto's flinch and stayed focused on the shinobi's dilating eyes. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sasuke hesitate briefly before laying a hand on Naruto's shoulder. He turned his attention back to the shinobi.
(We agreed to this. We agreed to this. Naruto will be okay. He said he'd be fine. Focus. Focus, on the enemy.)
"What makes you think I won't do that same thing to you?" He leaned forward a bit more and dropped his voice to a hiss. "After all, I'm a lot meaner than my brother. He only killed that chunin. I'll make you suffer, genin."
He stretched out the vowels for genin deliberately and unsubtly marking the difference in status between Mizuki and him. Though technically their former teacher was at a jounin level in ability, he didn't want to ruin this by telling a lie as minuscule as it was. He wasn't sure how well this genin knew the facial cues for lying. It was over dramatic and a bit cliché, any shinobi with a lick of experience in interrogation would see through it in a second, but none of it was technically a lie.
(He'd kill for Naruto when it came down to it, after all.)
And they weren't going up against experienced shinobi.
The first task made him realize that as he watched as teams give up one by one under the pressure of the choice Ibiki forced them to make. That's why he had suggested trying this out when they were throwing together a quick plan to capture the Ame shinobi and why he wasn't surprised when the shinobi trembled underneath Kurama, eyes dilated and emotions screaming terror under the pressure of the barest hint of Kurama's chakra. He was captured completely by his eyes and words, listening with growing horror.
He could feel Naruto and Sasuke grow uneasy at the show and undoubtedly this chakra, so he shove a little more into the air in hopes of making the other shinobi speak quickly to get it over with. Despite his brothers vow to continue being a shinobi and his promises that he was okay after Mizuki's death, Kurama knew the boy was still uncomfortable thinking about that night.
He was starting to regret suggesting this idea.
"I d-don't have the scroll. M-Mubi has it!"
"Hm," Kurama tilted his head. "Then where is this Mubi? And what scroll is it? Heaven or Earth?"
"E-Earth, my team is-"
The rush of triumph was immediately rush by a fast moving gale of malicious intent heading straight towards them. He had no time for a warning. Instead, he used the capture shinobi as a spring board to leap over his teammates and dragged them out of harm's way by the collar of their shirts. He tossed them ahead of him a few feet and spun on his heel as he felt the new enemy get close.
Half a second later a new enemy entered the clearing.
Sasuke and Naruto's protests were cut off when they noticed the new figure.
"Oh my, did I interrupt something?" Although the shinobi's face and figure were androgynous, her voice was the higher pitch of a woman. However, despite the soft tones, Kurama could shake the strange wrongness he felt when looking at her.
There was something wrong.
Something seriously wrong.
The Ame shinobi tugged his clothes loose and leaped to his feet. He took one glance around him before trying to dart off into the woods.
She caught him before he could move an inch.
"This isn't good." She frowned as she pinned him in place with a rough grip on his hair. "There wasn't supposed to be an extra here."
She blinked. "Oh well."
Kurama was close enough to get splashed with the crimson liquid when she slashed his throat with a kunai. He stumbled back a step. He heard Naruto cry out behind him and Sasuke sucked in a sharp breath. The woman simply dropped the body and turned fully towards them.
She tilted her head to the side in mock confusion. "What's the matter? Weren't you just threatening to kill him? Hm, what was it again…? Oh, yes. I'm a lot meaner than my brother; I'll make you suffer."
Kurama took another step back as he was hit with a wave of amused malice.
"Oh wait, you wanted to get the whereabouts of his teams Earth scroll, didn't you? My apologies." She reached behind her making all of them tense. "How about I make it up to you? You see, I have an Earth scroll too. You won't have to go hunt down another team. Just have to kill me."
"Of course, since it's three on one I can't make it too easy for you." She opened her mouth and swallowed the scroll whole. "You'll have to cut it out of my stomach if you manage to beat me."
"Fine! We'll do just that!" Sasuke snapped taking a step forward so that he was even with Kurama.
The woman laughed softly. "You've got spirit boy, but are you sure you'll be able to lay a hand on me?"
"Of cour-geh!"
The clearing echoed with the crack of three sets of knees hitting the ground at once. Kurama felt an involuntary shiver at the intensity of the killing intent. This was worse than Kakashi, worse than Zabuza. His breath shuddered in his lungs and sweat dripped down his face.
A kunai to the heart.
(No.)
A kunai to the head.
(NO.)
(That is not how this goes. He had sworn to not be weak anymore!)
He closed his eyes and took a breath.
(He didn't know what was going on. This person seemed way too strong to be a mere genin and judging by her earlier words it seemed like she had sought them out specifically. No. He could muss about the reasoning later, right now he had to get his teammates out of this situation.)
His chakra flared as he opened his eyes and glared into slowly widening eyes.
"You think that paltry bit of killing intent would scare me?" He growled lowly as energy flooded his system, heightening his senses and dispersing the woman's own killing intent with ease.
"Oh my."
Yes, focus on me. Don't look at them. Don't you dare hurt them. Just focus on me.
He wiped his upper lip with the back of his left hand deliberately, not daring to glance to his left where he knew Sasuke's eyes were on him.
Run.
Run.
He recognized it despite kneeling slightly behind his brother.
That was one of the first signs that they had created.
It was one Natsuki insisted on.
He had taken a serious pose and whipped his hand over his upper lip decisively while glaring ahead. Sasuke had argued that it should be something else. Something like tapping or patting the leg a certain number of times. Naruto had to agree with Sasuke, it looked too cool to be their flee signal, but Natsu had only shaken his head.
"These are supposed to be secret. We want to misdirect our enemies and make sure they don't know what we're planning. This move looks like you're determined to fight. Our enemies will assume that we're going to come at them with all we have. When we disappear they won't immediately think we're running, instead, they might assume that we're preparing a surprise attack. Hopefully, that'll give us a head start."
Sasuke had rolled his eyes and agreed eventually, muttering something along the lines of them probably not using much so it wasn't that big of a deal. Like with the signal itself, Naruto had agreed with his other teammate. He didn't want to run from a fight. He wanted to be strong. He wanted to beat their opponents.
He didn't feel very strong right now.
His brother was once again surrounded by that damn Fox's chakra. Not as much as the bridge, but still more than Naruto would ever be comfortable seeing his brother engulfed in. It chased away the creepy woman's killing intent, but it wasn't much better for trying to think straight or move for that matter. His limbs were still shaking and his heart beat wildly at the oppressive red chakra licking at his skin. He tensed waiting for it to burn him.
"I won't let you hurt them."
And suddenly it wasn't as oppressive.
He flinched as it curled around him, but instead of burning him it surrounded him in a comforting warmth that calmed his racing heart and soothed his trembling hands.
Naruto. Run. You have to run. Please.
The voice sounded like it was coming through a broken radio. It echoed and faded mid word. His ears felt like they were stuffed with cotton as he tried to make out the meaning as it rumbled and echoed in his mind.
It wasn't his brother's voice.
It was deeper.
More…well, he wasn't sure.
But, despite the oddity, there was a familiarity in the inflection and tone of the words that reminded him of his brother and spurred his limbs to move. He tugged the still frozen Sasuke after him as he raced up the closest tree and leaped away as quick as possible. Sasuke managed to shake himself out of his stupor enough to not need unnecessary dragging, but Naruto still kept a hold of him to try to fight back his own nerves.
He tried focused on getting away.
(There had been so much blood. When he killed Mizuki it had been dark and he had been in such shock he didn't really remember the gory details. But, he had watched, pinned in place by shock, as the woman's kunai slid across the other boy's neck. He had seen the horror and pain flash in his eyes as his blood sprayed out of the wound briefly before sluggishly pouring down his neck as the life left his eyes.)
They could find a hiding spot and the three of them could come up with a plan.
Actually, he turned his head, they should probably have Natsu leading since he could sense…
He froze.
Sasuke nearly fell from the tree branch when Naruto stopped abruptly, tugging him back unexpectedly by the arm.
He couldn't bring himself to feel bad.
Because his brother wasn't behind them.
"We have to go back."
Loud.
Obnoxious.
Stupid.
Annoying.
There were many words that Sasuke used to describe Naruto throughout their Academy years. None of them were positive. He smiled too much and never seemed to take things seriously. Sasuke hated how he seemed to skirt by in the lessons despite all of his disruptions and pranks. For a long time, Sasuke assumed that he only managed decent grades because of his brother.
He had thought he'd be a failure of a shinobi.
He had thought he'd be a nightmare to have as a teammate.
But…
It was a tiny grin, vastly different from his usual blinding smiles.
"When I become Hokage, I'll make sure to send you on that mission."
He was wrong.
It was funny, how he had gotten so used to that grin and laughter. It was something he could rely on with Naruto, regardless of the situation.
That's what made its absence all the more disturbing.
"Natsu, Natsu didn't follow. We have to go back." There was a tremble in his voice. His eyes were wide, pupils dilated in mounting terror. "Sasuke! We have to go back. Now!"
He made an aborted movement to leap back, but Sasuke caught him.
"Sasuke!"
Anger.
The blond thrashed in his hold.
"Naruto! Listen!"
"No! Natsu is back there with that woman! She killed that guy without a second thought! We can't leave him there. We have to-"
His palm stung from the force of the slap. It jerked Naruto's head to the side and left him wide eyed in shock. Before the bell test, probably even before their mission in Wave, he would have been satisfied to be able to shut the boy up so completely. He probably would have taken joy out of managing to hurt someone who had been an annoyance to him for so long. But, now…
He grimaced and pulled it away from his teammate's cheek.
"We need a plan Naruto." He said as calmly as he could. "I'm not disagreeing with going back for Natsuki, but we need a plan. So…so just calm down."
His own heart was still racing form the sheer force of the killing intent that woman let out. He hadn't been able to breathe, much less move. He kept seeing his own death as though it was on a loop. It had been terrifying. Natsuki's sudden release of chakra had managed to kick start his brain, but he still hadn't been able to move even after Natsuki sent the signal to run.
(In the back of his mind Kakashi-sensei's story repeated as though it was on a loop. What was the name of the boy who died? Obito. It was Obito Uchiha. There had been so much pain in Kakashi-sensei's eye at the mere mention of the boy; his sensei's former teammate. It made him consider what he'd do if one of his own teammates disappeared suddenly from his life. He didn't like the thought.)
We can't end up like them. He took a deep breath, firming his resolve and calming his panicked heartbeat. I won't let us end up like them.
Naruto looked down at his feet.
"Thanks." That soft, uncertain voice really didn't suit him, Sasuke decided.
"Right, now, let's figure this out."
"Yeah."
Hold on Natsuki, you foolish idiot. We're coming.
"Your friends ran away." She smirked seemingly unbothered by his chakra hovering in the air. "That's a little rude. Should I go get them for you?"
"I won't let you touch them." He growled, lunging forward.
Chakra coated his hands turning his nails into claws. He scowled fiercely when he was met with air instead of his target. He leaped over several kunai thrown his way and landed upside down on the branch above him.
The woman looked up at him with a puzzled look on her face.
"You know. You are saner than a berserk jinchuuriki has any right to be."
He didn't reply. Instead, he lunged forward like he was going to try and strike her again. However, when she leaped out of the way, he twisted mid-air to position himself and lunged again as soon as his feet ghosted over the ground.
With a burst of chakra, he shot at her while she was still mid leap and caught her in the stomach.
Blood sprayed and he heard her gasp.
Then the body turned to mud.
He scowled and dodged another volley of weapons.
"Very good. You caught on quickly and adjusted your attack accordingly." She spoke as she eased herself out of the ground.
An earth jutsu? He didn't even see her form the hand signs for it.
"It's too bad you're not…"
He didn't give her enough time to finish. He didn't want to hear it. He just wanted to make sure that his team had enough time to get away. He just wanted to make sure she didn't hurt them. That she never hurt them.
He just wanted to make sure she ended up dead here.
(Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. Have to end this quickly, before Shukaku notices.)
The woman was fast.
She struck at him with a single minded ferocity that had him barely dodging blows even with his heightened senses. He was decent at hand to hand combat and was fairly certain he could beat most of his peers unless they developed a completely different style since graduating from the Academy, but she was on another level. A punch grazed his cheek as he twisted to deliver a kick to her stomach. Instead of pulling back when his foot connected with her stomach he pushed himself back to give himself some space, but she was on him again in a second. He flared his chakra in irritation, which finally pushed her back.
She landed a few feet away and tugged at her singed sleeve. "So that chakra isn't just for show? You can actually use it as a weapon? Hm…this is a more interesting fight than I thought it would be. Show me more little jinchuuriki."
He sensed the surge in chakra a moment before the attack and dodged out of the way of a massive water snake. It cut through the forest to the right of him, uprooting the bushes and smaller plant life and creating long gashes in the trees as it passed.
He gritted his teeth as he landed on the side of a tree trunk.
That was definitely a B-rank jutsu and he didn't see her move her hands again. That shouldn't be possible. Everyone had to use the hand signs. It was how humans molded their chakra properly in order to do the complex jutsus they prized so highly.
Could she be?
He focused his senses on the area around him. He had been panicked and angry when he first started the fight, so he wasn't focusing on her chakra. He scowled as his hands flash through the signs.
"Phoenix Flower!"
The clearing lit up with tiny fire balls.
Instead of going for her still form in the middle of the clearing he focused the attack towards the branches of the tree opposite of him. He weaved them in a tight formation in order to prevent her from escaping.
To no avail.
With a step, she flashed away with the body flicker jutsu.
He didn't release the jutsu, however, and instead sent them after her concentrating on her chakra to make sure he wasn't being tricked by any clones again. They began a game of cat and mouse with Kurama's flames. The woman dodged around the clearing, using clones and the body replacement jutsu and body flicker jutsu when she was cornered.
He tensed when she suddenly disappeared.
He reached out for her chakra, but only got conflicting signatures.
"You're intelligent. I'll give you that, and the combination of that chakra and your sensory abilities is interesting, but you need to work on your spatial awareness." He tensed as her voice whispered softly just above him on the tree truck.
He tried to jump back into the clearing, but was stopped by the flames now scorching the grass. He released the Phoenix Flower jutsu in shock.
His eyes widened.
(Did she lead him around the clearing in order to corner me with the effects of my own jutsu?)
"That chakra functions like flames and doesn't burn you when you surround yourself with it, but you're not flame proof yourself." She continued conversationally. There was an amused glint in her eye.
Just who was this woman?!
"It functions as a defense mechanism." She lunged forward with a kunai in hand aiming straight for his heart. With no time to pull out his own kunai, so he flared his chakra again in hopes of melting the metal before it touched him.
The kunai stopped centimeters above his heart, melting into droplets of iron that burned his chest where it dropped. He watched in vague horror as the skin on her hand was burned away by the flames. The smell of burnt flesh was suffocating up close.
He choked back a scream and glanced down.
Embedded in his upper thigh was another kunai.
She smirked. "However, despite being versatile in its defense and attack abilities, it's not an automatic defense. You direct it to where you want to protect, but in doing so you neglect other vulnerable parts of your body. An obvious solution would be to use even more chakra to cover your whole body in its protection, but you seem hesitant to do so. You flare your chakra briefly then bring it back to a smaller output. Could it be that you don't have much control over a larger output of power? Then again this is the Nine-tailed Fox's power, so it's likely you'll lose your mind if you use to much more…how disappointing."
He gritted his teeth as she pulled the kunai out releasing a spray of blood. He felt his vision waver almost immediately as the blood didn't stop. He clamped a hand over the wound, but the red liquid just leaked through his fingers.
"Like I said, you need more spatial awareness. I just struck your femoral artery. Most people would die from such a blow within minutes without immediate medical attention. Though knowing what I do about the Uzumaki and jinchuuriki healing abilities I doubt you'll die as easily."
He slipped down the tree as he lost his grip on his chakra briefly due to the shock and pain. He landed harshly on his back amidst the flames caused by his jutsu. The woman followed with a graceful flip and landed by his head.
"It's been interesting little jinchuuriki. Much more interesting than I expected. However, I have to go now to find out where your little teammates ran off to."
The wound was deep and the blood just kept coming.
This wasn't good, even for him.
He could call up more chakra…
(But, he wasn't sure how much more this body could take at this point. It might do more harm than good. And there was the ever present factor that was his biju brother whose jinchuuriki was running ramped somewhere in the forest…)
She turned and started walking away.
He had to stop her!
He couldn't let her hurt them!
(Think. Think!)
"You're trying to get Sasuke, aren't you?" He growled lowly as he devoted chakra to his wound to try and heal it faster. The chakra still flickering around him faded as it was used to try and heal.
(That was the only thing that made sense since she didn't seem to be interested in his own power and she had mentioned something about not planning for the other shinobi to be there when she first arrived. She must be after Sasuke's sharingan.)
She laughed and continued walking.
(He had to stop her.)
"You're a clever one, aren't you? Be a good boy and stay right there. I promise I'll return your teammates to you in one piece." She turned and grinned at him. "Mostly."
He scowled at her fiercely, but she just laughed.
With shaky hands, he tugged off his obi and shoved it in his mouth before his hands ran through signs. His chakra was preventing him from completely bleeding out, but was still struggling to close the wound completely. With some time he'd be fine, but he didn't have time. If he wanted to get back into this fight he'd have to do something a bit drastic.
And painful.
He took a deep breath.
'Exploding Flame Shot.'
He jerked and clenched his jaw from the sheer agony the flash of flames caused. Even using only a little bit of chakra and under powering the jutsu it was still fire and it burned. Which was the point, ultimately. But that didn't stop the immediate regret he felt upon subjecting himself to the pain.
But, it did its job.
He shakily sat up on his elbows and looked over the damage. It was a nasty burn that probably wouldn't heal very well, but the wound was sealed. He let spat out his obi and rolled to his knees pushing back the spike of pain that movement cause with a single minded stubbornness.
"What in the world did you do that for?" She turned to him with a raised eyebrow. "Are you seriously considering continuing this fight?"
Kurama couldn't quite form words just yet, so he settles for pushing all of his pain into a fierce glare. She took a step towards him again.
"Hey! You leave my brother alone you freak!"
Naruto dove into the clearing with a group of shadow clones.
"Oh, would you look at that your teammates came back for you. How sweet."
The clones charged toward the woman with loud battle cries, while the real Naruto darted over to Kurama.
He growled.
"I told you to run!"
(Can't you see I'm trying to protect you!?)
His eyes widened in horror when Naruto suddenly stumbled and shook his head with a puzzled look on his face. The woman ignored the shadow clones and took the chance to strike.
"Naruto!"
He disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Wait…
That wasn't Naruto…?
His eyes widened as Sasuke appeared in the smoke, hands in a familiar position.
(They used body replacement like we did in the bell test…)
"Great Fireball!"
The woman side stepped the direct attack with a body flicker and reached out to grab Sasuke, but he disappeared in another puff of smoke leaving Naruto who immediately created at least a dozen clones. The clones ran circles around the woman, who looked vaguely amused. Kunai and shrunken exploded from the branches of the tree behind her forcing her to dodge around both the clones and the weapons. The clones grabbed the weapons she dodged and threw them at her at close range or attacked her directly with them to keep her occupied. Though Kurama knew she was just fooling around like she had during their entire fight.
He shifted and raised his hands.
"Pheonix Flower."
He didn't know his teammate's plan, but it was obvious they had one so he might as well help out since they decided to ignore his order to run. He directed the balls of flames to dance around the woman, closing any gaps she might have been able to slip out of. He shielded another volley of weapons from Sasuke with a quick illusion, but she dodged them anyway.
In fact, she still looked amused despite being on the defensive.
Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Naruto formed more hand signs.
"Hand of Waves!"
Kurama heard the echoing cry from the branches, though he couldn't see Sasuke from his position and he released his jutsu. It would have only been washed away by their own anyway. Twin gushes of water came from two directs, crushing the woman from either side while she was occupied with the clones.
However, his teammates weren't done yet.
With a tug from Naruto, the wires that had been weaved through the clearing since their re-entrance into the fight tightened, wrapping tightly around the woman and pinning her against a tree. The same one she had stabbed Kurama on he noticed vaguely.
With a crow of triumph, Naruto tossed his disguised Heaven scroll as Sasuke released his second Great Fireball jutsu. As soon as Sasuke's jutsu ran its course the exploding tags from Naruto's storage scroll exploded sending chunks of charred wood everywhere.
For a few minutes, the clearing was silent aside from their heavy panting.
Sasuke landed with a thump next to him sending him a partially concerned, partially livid look which made him cringe slightly. The boy opened his mouth as he glanced over Kurama's state.
He winced, he probably looked like hell.
His haori was slipping off of his right shoulder without his obi holding it in place and was torn and burnt. His shirt had gaping holes that were singed around the edges revealing the still healing burns from his melting of the kunai aimed for his heart. He was leaning heavily on his left leg, his right leg was a burnt mess peeking through the torn and burnt fabric of his pant leg. He was likely covered in dirt, ash, and blood on top of it all…
Whatever Sasuke was about to say died after he took in his appearance. The boy closed his mouth and sighed.
"Let's get you out of here. I'll let Naruto lecture you later."
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Naruto charging over his eyes reflecting the turmoil Kurama felt in his emotions. Kurama glanced away, unable to look at the fear and frustration any longer. Sasuke moved to wrap an arm around Kurama's shoulder before they both froze when a familiar laugh echoed through the destroyed clearing.
"Heh, that was a fancy bit of teamwork." The voice changed midway through the sentence into a deeper tenor that was more fit for a grown man than a woman…
The three of them turned in unison towards what should have been a corpse at this point.
He didn't have time to be properly disturbed by the peeling skin on the woman's (?) face, nor the gleaming golden eye peeking through the ripped skin around her (?) left eye. He couldn't even muster much shock when her…his hands flash through several seals and suddenly his neck was stretching across the distance at a rapid pace.
No, all he could do was lunge towards the frozen Sasuke and bring his arm up to try and block.
Fangs sunk into his forearm, tearing through skin and muscle making him grit his teeth from the sudden pain from both his arm and his leg.
However, he couldn't hold back a shriek when he felt the invasion of foreign chakra into his system. His eyesight dimmed worryingly and his vision spun, but he could still make out the rapidly forming seal on his arm. Just above where this woman…man…no…monster still had his fang like teeth in his skin.
(Not another seal!)
He choked back another scream when the shinobi narrowed his eye and jerked away tearing even more skin.
"That wasn't meant for you." He growled showing something other than amusement since the start of the fight.
His response was cut off by another wave of pain coursing through him like a rushing river.
It's vocal point being the new seal.
(That disgusting chakra was trying to invade his system!)
(No!)
(NO!)
(NO!)
His vision blurred for an entirely different reason as his mind flickered in and out of his mindscape while he fought back against the chakra invading his system.
Blink.
He was staring down at the cracked glass below him. There were a lot more cracks than when he had first entered it back when Mizuki kidnapped him. They almost spread across the entire cage.
Blink.
His vision was blurry and his ears felt like they were stuffed with cotton. He felt an arm around his shoulder and a panicked voice in his ear, but he couldn't distinguish the words being said. There was screaming in the distance along with explosions.
Blink.
Outside of the bars, he could see a slowly forming shape. It was shadowy and wavered in the light of his red chakra.
Blink.
It was Naruto screaming, he realized. He was screaming at the enemy shinobi as he dove at her…him…repeatedly, eyes blazing.
Blink.
The shadowy figure was speaking, but it was distorted. Kurama took a step back as it reached out towards him.
You…?...can give…power...if…
He blinked and remained in his mind as he tried to puzzle through the words. When he caught onto the intention he laughed. A full belly laugh at the sheer absurdity. The shadowy figure pulled back slightly. Kurama wiped the tears from his eyes still chuckling.
(As if a mere mortal could tempt him with power.)
Red chakra seeped from the cracks beneath his feet.
(He already had power.)
The shadowy figure pulled back further.
(More than the mortal could ever dream of.)
"Get out." He whispered.
Blink.
He watched in a daze as the foreign chakra exploded from the bite mark, chased out by the red flames of his own chakra and dissipating into the air. The hands on his shoulder tightened their grip as he slumped. His legs giving out beneath him. He glanced up to find Sasuke's worried face hovering over his own.
"Ah-" He choked on his words as a strong grip tightened around his neck and pulled him bodily from his teammates grasp.
As he struggled to breathe he couldn't help but notice just how disturbing their enemy looked with the sagging, torn and burnt flesh still clinging to his face. The single golden eye was visible through the torn skin was narrowed in irritation, but held a spark of interested that Kurama recognized as dangerous despite how scattered his thoughts were from the pain and lack of oxygen.
"That was an interesting thing you just did." He murmured. Kurama couldn't help but notice that his lips were no longer synch with his words. He also noticed how his vision was growing darker around the edges. "You've been doing a lot of interesting things throughout this whole little fight, haven't you? But, that was the most interesting, I think."
Kurama summoned enough strength to glare.
"What are you?" The single golden eye drilled into his own as though he was examining his very soul. "No…perhaps the better question would be…who are you?"
"He's my teammate!" Sasuke growled. "And you don't let him go this instant…"
The eye shifted.
"I will get to you in a minute Sasuke Uchiha. Don't you worry." Kurama was lifted higher. "You ruined my plans you know. This wasn't how this little fight was supposed to go."
The man sighed in disappointment before setting Kurama down, much to his surprise. He swayed as he gasped for much-needed air. He would have fallen had Sasuke not pulled him back and held him up with one arm. His other held a kunai out in front of them as if that would do any good in light of their enemy's superior skill.
Perhaps he wasn't the only one not thinking clearly.
The shinobi glanced away from them briefly instead of attacking
"It seems as though I've run out of time." He murmured to himself. He turned his strange golden eye back on them after a moment of what looked like deep thought. "Alright, I have to go now. I have to prepare another seal for you Sasuke and shake off a troublesome former student. Next time I won't miss, little Uchiha." He chuckled as he studied them for a minute, his eye lingering on Sasuke before turning to examine Kurama. "Try not to get in my way again…Uzumaki Natsuki? Was it?"
He tilted his head to the side as if they were sharing a joke.
(There was no way…)
Then he was gone.
Kurama let out a breath as his body sagged. He dragged Sasuke down with him and they sat panting for a full minute as Kurama tried to organize his scattered thoughts. Everything hurt. His arm, leg, neck, head.
Everything.
He closed his eyes and took a measured breath and let it out slowly.
(Where…)
His eyes snapped open and he glanced around frantically.
"Naruto?" He rasped as panic made his settled heart pick up speed again.
Sasuke groaned and pointed a shaky hand over towards a speck blond, black and orange Kurama could make out on the other side of the clearing.
"He…" Sasuke panted. "He…freaked out when that snake freak bit you…was going at him like crazy…but…that guy did something and knocked him unconscious."
"Ah…" He replied.
Relief flooded his system.
His vision blurred one last time before completely fading.
He was unconscious before his head hit the ground.
Even the resulting crack didn't wake him.
He stared into the forest.
Grains of sand swirled around him restlessly as he focused solely on the raging chakra in the distance.
He wouldn't have noticed it if mother hadn't suddenly shrieked louder than her usual shrieking then went deathly silent.
Through mother he could feel the lick of chakra swirling in the distance. It swelled, lashing out and churned in barely suppressed power before seeming to fade completely from his mother's senses.
He had never felt another person's chakra before.
It was odd.
He could feel mother's restlessness as the chakra faded.
Grains of sand lashed out at the empty air around him.
"Gaara…?" Kankuro's voice was soft as though he was trying not to startle him.
Gaara ignored him and tilted his head.
Mother?
"Gaara, please. We've gotten the other scroll. Let's go to the tower now…" Tamari sounded strained as she moved to take a step towards him but decided against it and remained where she was.
He blinked and glanced down at his current state.
It was probably the blood.
His sister never really liked seeing him covered in his prey's blood.
Mother shifted within him, and he focused his attention on the demon within him. What did mother want him to do about the strange chakra? He felt a bubble of excitement at the thought of a fight. Everyone had been so weak so far even though he was promised strong opponents in return for not slaughtering random shinobi before the plan went into action. The team that he was currently covered in the blood of had been so weak. They screamed and cried when he caught hold of them and died with barely a fight.
That chakra, though, it felt strong. Its owner's blood would be a good gift for mother.
His fault. His fault! Stupid Kurama! Make him pay! Kill! Kill!
Mother's orders tore through his mind with familiar shrillness and rage, but there was an unfamiliar hint of fear.
Mother was very upset at this odd chakra.
His lips curved into a wide grin, making his siblings flinch and take a step back.
"Yes, mother."
He would make his mother proud and destroy it.
Maybe she'd even let him sleep, just a little bit.
(His existence was the only one that mattered. He would affirm it with the death of this person who held such odd chakra that made his mother shriek in fear and rage and he would eliminate any shinobi who got in the way.)
I'm such a horrible procrastinator. This should have been done and posted a week ago, but I ran into a creative block with the fight with Orochimaru and pouted over it while playing civ for longer than I should have. Basically, I struggle with fight scenes in general and this one, in particular, gave me hell. I knew how I wanted it to end, but I didn't know how I was going to get there. I'm happy with it now and glad I took the time to tinker and rewrite it instead of rushing, but I'm sorry regardless for the wait.
Anyway, how was Orochimaru in this chapter? Lol, it was really hard to keep referring to him as 'she', had to go back and edit the fight afterward to catch where I slipped up and use male pronouns. I think in the manga the grass nin he stole the face from was male, but the anime referred to him as female until he revealed himself so I just went with that. Orochimaru is interesting to write because he's one of the few major antagonists in Naruto that are allowed to be completely villainous without any justifications for his actions (Which is why I find the fact that he was the only one to actually get out scot free at the end of the anime/manga both interesting and hilarious). He's also an arrogant son of a b and that's always fun to write. Extremely smart and powerful, yet a little too arrogant is my favorite type of villain. It's a classic.
I'm not sure about Gaara though. An unstable bloodthirsty child is hard to write.