_few years later age 15_
Naruto jolted awake, sweat dripped from his forehead. He had, had another premonition dream, this time about a human village that lived far from the Tengu mountains. In Two days the village would be pillaged by a famous Bandit group. Everyone would die, even the women and the children.
It wouldn't have bothered Naruto that much...But watching the people die in his dream...hearing the screams of the children for their parents...It reminded him of what happened to his shrine, How his people must have felt when they were slaughtered.
Naruto sighed, knowing that he must do something...but he would do it reluctantly so...after all he still had hatred for the human race.
There was a knock on his door, he could immediately tell that it was Sasuke. No one else smelt like rain water and earth like he did.
"Hey you awake Dobe?" He called in while walking in to see Naruto sitting up in his bed.
"Yeah...Just getting up." Naruto said, rubbing the back of his neck, releasing some of the built up tension. "And I told you to stop calling me that...Teme..." He irritably looked at Sasuke, who had a smirk on his face.
"Not gonna happen." He shot back. "Anyways, Itachi and I are going to replenish the purifying barriers at the edge of our lands, you wanna come?" He invited him. He stood there a little awkwardly, trying to hide the smile he had on his face. After all Naruto had some pretty awesome bed hair at the moment.
Naruto thought of accepting the offer, but the sinking feeling of what he just had a premonition of changed his mind.
"No I think I'll pass this time, I need to work on some of my training." He tried to cover his excuse.
Sasuke watched him for a while, just staring.
"Okay" He said before he walked out of the room.
Naruto laughed a little to himself at Sasuke's awkwardness before getting up and heading towards the open air baths.
Once he saw himself in the mirror he knew why Sasuke was acting weird. His hair wasn't in it's normal shoulder-length Neat spiky mess, instead one side of his head was flat while the other was out of control.
'He was laughing at me!...TEME!' he thought to himself, hurrying to fluff up the flat side of his head. His face was red with embarrassment, luckily no one saw him on his journey to the baths.
Naruto stepped down to the warm water, immediately feeling the comfort the warm mineral water brought. He liked the smell the water produced, it felt pure and gentle. Almost like the water was alive and wanting to take care of him.
"Do you mind if I join you?" A deep soothing voice sounded behind Naruto.
He jumped, whirling around to see who was there. The smell from the water was disrupting his strong sense of smell too much to tell who it was.
To his surprise, and slight delight it was Itachi. He stood there in only his morning robe with his hair down in its sleek glory.
"S-Sure." Naruto tried to act normally, knowing that Itachi noticed his hesitant behavior.
"Sasuke told me that you wanted to pass on coming to the Northern border...Is everything alright?" Itachi politely asked while he undressed, entering the water with an almost forbidden grace.
" It's just been a while since I've really trained...So I wanted to take today and get back into my training routine." He lied to Itachi. He forgot to mention that he had never really took a break from training like everyone thought.
He didn't like that he had to lie to Itachi, but he knew that if he told him the real reason for him going...He would either want to stop him or accompany him. Naruto knew that Itachi could handle himself in a fight...Heck he still has yet to beat the Tengu in training...but the thought of him losing Itachi, or anyone else that he cared about was too much. He would never feel that pain and anger again...
"I see, just don't do too much, you'll hurt not only your body but your magical capabilities as well." Itachi knew that there was something that Naruto wasn't telling him...It stung a little but Naruto wasn't that young kid he used to be, so he would give him his privacy and not push that matter.
"I'll keep that in mind," He said as he stood, letting the water drip from his body. He couldn't help but notice Itachi's stare. His back had multiple scars from his training and from when he would fight humans. Itachi looked away, his eyes full of sadness and regret.
Naruto decided not to say anything, he knew that Itachi felt guilty about the scarring. He's tried many times before to make sure that he knew that what happened to him wasn't his fault. He was quite reckless when he first began his training. He knew that Itachi has done everything in his power to make sure that he stayed unharmed, but Naruto didn't make it easy for him...and he felt terrible for it, but what would you expect from a little boy who just lost his whole family in one night?
"What time do you and Sasuke expect to be back?" He asked, trying to take Itachi's mind off the past.
It seemed to work as his usual inexpressive face returned. Naruto could always tell how Itachi felt by just looking him in the eyes, for Itachi never wore his emotions on his face, they were all internal, just like his father.
"It's quite the journey, even if we fly...I suspect we should be back around late evening or early morning." Itachi stated, washing some of his body.
"Oh...Well then I will see you when you get back." Naruto said as he walked away from the bath, put on one of the robes sitting out, and proceed to leave Itachi in the bath.
"Naruto..." Itachi called out to him without turning around. Once he knew that Naruto had stop and was paying attention he spoke again.
"Try not to do anything...dangerous while Sasuke and I are gone..." His voice held warning but also great concern.
"I won't." He said before leaving. He wasn't going to do anything dangerous...Not yet anyway.
After making sure that Sasuke and Itachi had left, Naruto himself headed out to where he thought the human village was located. The cool breeze brought some comfort from the intense summer sun. Naruto was deathly silent the whole way, he knew that there were servants of Fugaku everywhere...It was best not to be questioned so he needed to avoid them at all cost.
The Sakura tree's flowed with the wind, letting go of some of their blossoms. If Naruto wasn't about to defend a human village he didn't even know, he probably would have taken his time, enjoying the Nature he was permanently apart of.
Snap*
Naruto froze where he stood, his fox ears swiveled, trying to pick up any other sound. He lightly sniffed the air, knowing that something was following him, and he was going to find out what...or who it stood, his fox tail and ears perfectly still as he awaited what was to come.
A few minutes went past and nothing happened. It threw Naruto off a little but with what was to come on his mind he decided not to look into it, making up time by running fast through the forest.
Eventually he came to the village in his dream. He looked at it from the forest border. He could smell the humans quite clearly, the smell of sweat, blood and something fowl. He heard the screams of playing children and he bustle of the market place.
Gritting his teeth he made sure to hide his ears and tail form human eyes, and headed into the town.
He expected the questioning glares and the hesitation when he passed, what he didn't expect where the children running up to him with smiles and questions.
"You're new, Where did you come from?!" One of the small children asked. He had brown mousy like hair and smiled the way Naruto liked to smile, which made him feel a little at ease with the children.
"I'm a warrior, I've come to help your village." Naruto said bending down to the child's level.
"But no one must know...It's a secret mission, can I trust on you three to keep my secret safe?" He said in a hushed voice, almost like a child telling a secret.
The young ones nodded fervently, understanding that Naruto was serious and yet very friendly.
"Good, now where can I find something to eat?" Naruto asked, actually quite famished from his journey here and the little scare he had in the forest.
The children giggled and started running in a direction, calling back for Naruto to follow them, which he did with a slight hidden joy.
'At least now I won't be too suspicious...' he thought, chasing them.
He stopped abruptly, sniffing the air.
Somewhere in the air smelt truly amazing. Nothing he had ever had before smelt so wonderful. Naruto ended up following his nose to a little shop. He read the sign saying, "Ichiraku", and decided to go in. Immediately it smelt so much betting inside then what he smelt outside. His stomach rumbled loudly, actually catching the attention on the man on the other side of the counter.
"I don't think I've ever seen you in here before..." He said, smiling slightly, but remained a little cautious.
"I'm just staying the night...What is that?" Naruto pointed to the food that man was handing out to two customers at the counter. The man looked at him funny, but smiled.
"You've never seen Ramen?" He spoke, wondering how he couldn't know about such a popular food.
"I'm familiar with it, I used to have it when I was little..." Naruto said smiling a slightly pained smile while rubbing the back of his neck. "It just has been quite sometime since I have had it..."
"Well, This here Is my famous Ramen, Not to brag or nuthin but you won't find better ramen anywhere else." The shopkeeper whispered the last part.
"By the way my name's Ichiraku."
"I'm Naruto." They introduced each other, but were interrupted by Naruto's loud and very hungry stomach.
"Listen, since you're new in town and you've never eaten Ramen before...Let me make a bowl for you. It's on the House." He said smiling before turning back to his kitchen.
"Thank you Ichiraku-san." Naruto was grateful that he was going to get something to eat, and was even more excited that it was something that smelt so much better than the usual food he consumed.
He enjoyed watching the man work, concentrating on what he needed to put in the bowl. Once he was done he gave a proud sigh before handing over the steaming bowl to Naruto.
"Enjoy." Ichiraku spoke before he headed to the back end of his store.
Naruto took a little time to just smell the Ramen, taking notice what was in it and picked up his chopsticks. After grabbing a fair amount with his chopsticks he eagerly ate the Ramen.
"MMM! Ichiraku-San! This is amazing!" He smiled big, taking even more into his mouth. There was no way that something this amazing was just a simple bowl of noodles and vegetables.
"I'm glad that you like it!" He heard the man's voice at the back still, but Naruto didn't really care if the man wasn't there really, he just wanted to consume what was in front of him.
"Mister!" He heard one of the little children call for him.
He hurried and finished the broth and the rest of the noodles before setting a generous amount of money on the counter.
"Keep the change!" he yelled before bounding out of the shop, almost running into the group of children.
"So you found it!" The youngest rejoiced, clapping a little in joy.
"Yeah, I've never had anything like this before...I can't eat another bite..." He said rubbing his very full stomach. The children all smiled at him, but Naruto could sense some sadness.
He scratched the back of his neck with hesitance.
"Are there any shops in the area?" He asked, wanting to see if someone carried a certain item.
The children all started to run and trot in one direction, in which Naruto followed. Soon enough they came upon the village market. Naruto turned to all the children, getting their attention.
"Wait here, I'll be back." He made sure to get a nod of understanding from them before leaving to one specific merchant.
"What can I get you?" The middle aged woman asked, not really even looking up at Naruto.
"I just need Two big bags of Kompeto." He said
The woman looked up, shocked to see Naruto was almost an adult...Why would he want two full bags of Konpeto?
"Are you certain? That's a lot of Konpeto for just you to eat sir." She tried to get Naruto out of buying that much, but it wouldn't happen.
"No I need that much, and It's not for me, I'm paying some people back for helping me...not that it's really any of your business." He finished, a little more icy than he really intended, but it got the woman to bag the two big pouches of Konpeto.
"That'll be one silver piece and two copper." She said before handing over the candy.
He handed it to her and grabbed the two pouches, heading in the direction of the small children. Kompeto was well known throughout the demon world as a delightful human treat. So he wanted to show his gratitude through something that he knew the children liked and that he thought was a suitable gift from a demon.
"Here, this is for helping me." He said, handing the slightly large pouches to the two that looked the oldest. "Now you must share this with the other children, Its for ALL of you." Naruto warned them to make sure it was shared, which wouldn't be a problem with the amount that he had bought for them.
"WOW! Thanks mister!" The children all squealed with happiness, taking the Konpeto with quick hands. After thanking Naruto a couple more times, the children all ran off, disappearing to who knows where.
"You're good with children."
Naruto turned his head in the direction of the voice, knowing it wasn't human. There stood a Inugami in human form, it was a dead give away with the dog smell that radiated from him. Not to mention the fact that through Naruto's fox vision he could see the shocking white mess of hair, and the red and black gaze the man gave.
"What are you doing here? I thought the Inugami hated the smell of humans..." Naruto smirked recognizing the specific white Inugami.
"Yes I do hate how they smell...but I can't really do anything about that when I'm banished..."
"Not again, what did you do this time Kakashi?..." Naruto let out his breath that he was holding in one big gust of a laugh, exasperated that his friend was banished yet again.
"How many times is this now?four or Five?" Naruto almost busted a gut when he heard Kakashi scoff and fidget a little.
"No! Come now Naruto-kun..." He paused for just a moment,almost in a hesitant fashion, "It's the Third, and this time it wasn't for a female..." He proudly added in.
"Oh?" Naruto's eyebrows rose with disbelieving enthusiasm, "That's hard to believe."
"...Anyways, what brings YOU to a human village?" Kakashi tried to turn this back onto Naruto, making sure that he didn't pry to far into what was going on.
"Some..people are going to attack this village...and I won't let that happen." He finally spoke, turning slightly to face Kakashi.
"You want to protect the Humans?" Kakashi asked, raising one eyebrow, while folding his arms preparing to hear an explanation. The look Naruto gave him told him not to push into the subject. "I mean it's not a really bad thing to want to protect them...I guess..." Kakashi scratched the back of his neck, watching Naruto's expression change to a more sad and thoughtful expression.
"I'm pretty sure that you don't want to be here when they do attack Kakashi, They won't hesitate to kill old men like you." Naruto joked, laughing as Kakashi looked himself over.
"Now Naruto...Is that anyway to treat someone who was going to offer you help" He shot back, irritation growing slightly in his voice. Naruto might be his young fox friend but he was always known for his trouble making and his jokes...but then again he was someone who would help anyone in need and would fight for what's right, no matter who against or where.
"Sorry Kakashi...and Thank you." Naruto smiled his signature smile, crossing his arms over and behind his head, like he always did when he was really happy and couldn't contain it.
"What do we do about the town's folk? I can almost promise that no one will leave..." Kakashi asked, beckoning Naruto to follow as he walked along the river road.
"We'll just have to fight them before they reach the town...from my-" Naruto paused, knowing that he couldn't reveal his gift. "From my source, I believe that they should be arriving in almost two hours..."
"Source huh?" Kakashi didn't push further, but he knew that there was obviously more to it than that.
"East of here there is a sort of rest stop for travelers, They will be coming from that road...So we'll just have to make sure that none of them pass that way." Naruto continued to walk with Kakashi, but now in the direction in which they were talking about.
"Are you sure they're just humans?" Kakashi piped in after a moment of silence.
"I'm pretty sure...Why?" He inquired back.
"Just that...I've been here for a good month or so...and recently there has been a presence near here that has me worried..." He stopped to look down at Naruto. "I can't explain what it exactly is but I know I've never felt it before...and that frightened me..." He looked in the distance, on edge.
'I wonder if he's talking about the presence I felt in the forest before coming here?' Naruto thought to himself, watching as Kakashi became more upset and on alert.
"I don't think it's anything to worry about...Besides I don't feel anything unusual coming from the east now...Do you?" He asked back trying to prove his point.
Kakashi relaxed a little, knowing that the young fox was right.
"No"
"See, we'll just be kicking the trash out of humans and humans alone." Naruto pushed onward, hearing Kakashi follow after a slight moment.
As Naruto said, the group of renegade samurai were noisily heading for the resting house before the village.
Naruto watched as the men greedily ate the food that a poor servant girl left for them, as was her job to tend to travelers. They took advantage of her and her job, making he do hard and tedious motioned to Kakashi to quietly go around the back of them. He wasn't going to give any of them a chance to escape. When Kakashi nodded and started to head the way Naruto wanted, Naruto himself started to walk on the open road path up to the rest area.
The men took instant notice that there was someone walking their way. Most stopped eating to watch Naruto closely, all the rest continued to stuff their face.
"You stupid boy?" One of the main men called out to him, chewing some of his food.
Naruto looked in his direction, continuing forward clearly ignoring the lot of them.
"I said," The man now yelled at him, upset that Naruto was ignoring him.
"ARE YOU STUPID BOY?!" He whorled Naruto around to face him.
"No, I'd like to think that i'm actually quite smart compared to you." He spat back, yanking his arm free.
With all the attention on Naruto, Kakashi had an easy enough time sneaking around the back of the group without being seen.
All the men looked to Naruto now, wondering if he really knew the situation he was in right waited to see what their leader was going to do.
"I don't think you know just who you're talking to..." He grabbed the front of Naruto's yokatta, while also reaching for his sword.
"It's rude to pull a weapon on an unarmed man..." Kakashi's voice sounded behind the group, startling everyone to whip their heads to see who was talking.
Naruto grinned as the distraction gave him a great opportunity to take the man's sword and drive the hilt into his stomach, knocking him out instantly. With their leader out of battle for a while, the rest of the group became panicked and sloppy. The famous saying 'cut the head off of the snake and the rest is useless.' ran through Naruto's mind as he proceeded to kick the snot out of the remaining samurai men.
With little effort the men ran back to the forest entrance that they came from, holding up their unconscious boss as they went.
"Don't come back here! otherwise you'll lose a lot more than your pride!" Naruto yelled after them, giving a serious look to those who doubted them.
Naruto turned back to Kakashi, a smile plastered to his face after watching the men run away.
"You don't know when to hold back...Do you?" Kakashi looked at him, wondering how Naruto has lived through so many situations.
"I don't hold back on those who kill for sport, or for no good reason." a shadow passed over Naruto's face for a brief second, then faded.
The two demons walked together, back to the village they'd protected. They were happy to know that it's inhabitants would not meet their once intended fate.
"They'll never know of the danger they were in...and They'll never show their gratitude to us..." Kakashi sighed slightly, thinking of what rewards he could of received, most of them being parchment and ink. He had his stupid obsession with finishing a book series that he had started part way into his first banishment.
"Nope." Naruto walked on, his hands behind his head before he stopped suddenly, turning to face Kakashi.
"So what do you plan on doing with yourself now?" He asked.
Kakashi stood there a moment, not quite sure what he himself wanted to do. It's not like he could return home. He hadn't had a real home since he was a child. But once his influential mother died, so did that family and home.
"I know that the Tengu's would welcome you back..Especially after what you did for Sasuke." Naruto said, really hoping that Kakashi would accept the offer.
It was a few summers back when Sasuke went through this faze of having to prove himself to ally the Tengu in his family. As a boy he had always struggled with people who looked down on him, even though he was the heads son and a very talented Tengu. He finally conjured up the courage to do something about it and decided to challenge a traveling lightning God servant. But as all adult Tengu learn is to never pester or challenge your weakness, which in this case was lightning. If a lightning God's powerful lightning where to hit a Tengu's wings the damage would be irreversible, leaving the damaged appendages to rot until they fall off or are nothing but bones. Tengu relied on their wings for their powerful wind powers and purification abilities. Without them they were almost useless.
Luckily before Sasuke could fully challenge his doom, Kakashi had witnessed what he was trying to do and stopped the boy. But as usual with Sasuke, he ran his mouth off at the God servant, inciting his wrath. Being humiliated and insulted didn't fit well with the servant, so he demanded that the boy receive. fitting punishment. But with Kakashi there, he calmed the God servant down a little, making sure he didn't demand Sasuke's life, but things needed to be righted. So Kakashi made sure that he understood that Sasuke was still but a child and didn't know of what he just did, and that he would take the boy's punishment instead.
The God servant thought that it was fair and accepted Kakashi's offer. So The Lightning God servant took Kakashi's left eye.
The Tengu found out what happened when Sasuke returned home and explained what happened. Fugaku deemed Kakashi a friend to the Tengu and made sure that everyone knew that he was welcome anytime to The Eastern and Western mountains in their domain. Little did they know that because Kakashi meddled in the affairs of another demon, that, that was why he was banished from his first home.
Naruto began to speak again, Returning Kakashi back to his scenes.
"You know that you can't avoid Sasuke forever, right?" Naruto finally got out with a sly smile, knowing full well that the Inugami was trying to stay away from the young Tengu prince.
"T-That's besides the point...I'm not avoiding him...I'm just keeping my distance for awhile..You know how he gets." Kakashi sputtered in a moment of embarrassment.
"Sure, Sure." Naruto continued to tease. Kakashi was tempted to take off his sandal and throw it at the annoying fox, hoping that would stop him, but thought better of it. The two of them continued to walk back towards Fugaku's forest, knowing that they would reach the Tengue estate before nightfall.
But before they could reach the edge of the forest line, the two of them sensed the strange presence again.
"You feel that?" Kakashi asked Naruto, knowing that it was the same presence that he had been following before.
"Yeah, I felt it when I was first coming through this forest...But somehow it's different this time...Almost like whatever it is, is wounded or something.
"Should we investigate it?"
Naruto stared into the forest, searching his instincts in what to do in this situation. All of a sudden his head started to throb with the familiar pain of a vision. He bent over slightly clutching at his head.
"Naruto?" Kakashi got concerned, knowing that this wasn't normal behavior.
"I-I'm fine just give me a moment." He waved Kakashi back, not wanting him to disturb the vision that was trying to come to him.
Somewhere in the forest was a body lying in a small ditch under some tree roots. By the looks of the person they were hurt pretty badly, and if they didn't get help soon there was a high possibility that the person wouldn't make it to dawn.
"There's someone in the forest that's wounded pretty badly...we need to find them..." Naruto gasped out once the vision was finished and his normal vision returned albeit a bit fuzzy afterward.
"And how do you know that?"
"Just trust me Kakashi, my kitsune powers are never wrong." Naruto turned more serious, hoping that they would find whoever the vision wanted them to find.
"All right..." Kakashi sighed out. "I can use my Inugami powers once we're in the forest." he said, walking into the forest edge with Naruto closely behind him.
Kakashi stopped further in, standing completely still. He searched his surroundings, listening to everything and breathing in deep. He tried to track anything that was unusual and use his Inugami powers to sense anything out of the ordinary. He jolted suddenly, a painful throb shot through him.
"What's wrong?" Naruto asked, sensing Kakashi's pain.
"S-Someone here just threw my seeking powers back at me...whoever is in here with us doesn't want to be found by any power..." Kakashi winced, still feeling the shock.
Usually when a demon did such a thing it was because they were being followed and or hunted.
"could you get anything?" Naruto asked.
"I'm pretty sure that they're this way." Kakashi said pointing to an area deeper in the forest.
Naruto bolted that way, wanting to get to where the person was soon. Kakashi followed, keeping his guard up, wanting to make sure that he didn't miss any movement or spike in power.
Naruto slowed, knowing the area that they were heading to, his vision had shown him everything in this area.
"I think they're over here...Wait here in case something happens." Naruto motioned for Kakashi to back away a little. He headed to one really big tree, feeling a presence there.
"Is there anyone there?" He called out, announcing his presence. There was a spike in something coming from under the tree. Naruto craned his head down to see if he could see what was down there. What he saw would change his life and that of the Tengu clan.
There lying under the tree roots, heavily beaten and bleeding badly was a demon male, but not just any demon, he was probably one of the last of his kind, The son of Ho-Musubi, the fire god. You could instantly tell he was because of his scarlet hair and the tattoo on his forehead. But it was believed that the whole line from Ho-Musubi was wiped out along with his followers, so to find him here was something short of a miracle.
"Are you alright?!" Naruto tried to climb in and help the demon, but was greeted with a low growl and hiss. Piercing seafoam green eyes shown with hate and distrust, but most of all pain and betrayal.
"I saw a vision of you here, needing help..." Naruto tried to sooth the demon, inching bit by bit closer.
"I'm just here to help you, you're releasing a lot of power unintentionally...I'm pretty sure that whoever did this to you wants to finish the job and you're helping them along...Please I'm part of the Tengu clan that has domain over this mountain, I can offer you sanctuary." He said, sitting in front of the Fire god.
The god gave him a strange look, clearly the demon in front of him was a Fox and not a Tengu, so why would he live on a Tengu mountain.
"It's a long story, they took me in basically." Naruto could sense that the fire demon was suspicious of him being a fox. But he seemed to ease up, for his power grew weaker and more friendly. He eased back into a more comfortable position, but ended up coughing up some blood from moving, he sounded like he was in a lot of pain and Naruto wanted to help him, but he was still guarded and untrusting...with good reason. The wounds he had sustained were recent on top of old ones. Naruto could smell the rotting flesh of infection under the fresh wounds...This Fire god was lucky to be alive still.
"H-Help." A semi deep voice came from the fire demon as he rasped out his plea, before completely passing out. His wounds continued to pour out his black blood as he lay there.
'Whoever attacked him sure wanted him dead...' Naruto thought as he carefully picked up the Fire god, not wanting to cause him any more pain or injury.
"Kakashi!" He yelled for his friend to help. In a flash he was there, gaping at what Naruto had found.
"He's-"
"Yes Kakashi..."
"You do rea-"
"Yes Kakashi! But now isn't the time! He's going to die if he doesn't see medical attention." Naruto climbed his way up the ditch side that he was in with no help from Kakashi.
"I'll meet you at the Tengu estate, Fugaku is going to want to talk to you about the power we felt and how we found Homusubi son..." He said, hoisting the fire god onto his back.
"I'm going to use my transportation spell to get us there, but afterward I need your help because it'll wipe out the rest of my strength." He said, turning serious, wanting Kakashi to understand how dire the situation was.
"I got it...I'll see you there..." He said, disappearing in a flash.
Naruto summoned the rest of his strength into his transportation spell, hoping that the Fire God would live through the night.