AN: Hey guys! I'm very happy to say that this chapter is already done! Yay, not that long of a wait this time. I've been really trying to force myself to write, even if I don't really feel like it, hopefully this will make it into a habit and not something I have to force myself to do. It's been hard, but I hope it'll be worth it.
Thanks for the reviews I got on the last chapter btw! I really appreciate it :D
Anyways, here's chapter 4, enjoy! :)
Note: Surnames are said first just as they are in Japan (and because i watched the anime in japanese this is how i prefer it).
Note: "..." = Thought
Note: "..." = Speech
Note: "..." = Special speech (like Nine-tails)
Nore: ~:~ = Flashback (indicates the beginning and end of a flashback)
Chapter 4: Departure for Amegakure
Naruto kicked his feet huffily at the ground. He was walking on a path in the middle of an endlessly stretching forest; with the rest of team sven and the members of team four with him. They were on their way towards Amegakure to have their first 'real' mission. Although it wa all very exciting, the fact that team four had joined them on the mission really bothered Naruto. This was supposed to be an epic first mission filled with action. But with team four with them, he was not so sure if it would be all too fun. Sasuke was bothersome enough, so another set of jerks didn't really feel as if it would make the experience much better.
"Why couldn't we've had a mission without these guys, dattebayo!? They're just a bunch of stuck up jerks anyway!", Naruto said, crossing his arms over his chest. He said this to Sakura and Sasuke, team four too far away from them to hear anything and Obito and Kakashi walking a bit ahead of their students, arguing over whether the 'Icha Icha' books were a waste of time or not (Kakashi was quite fierce in his defense of the books). Sakura was—much like Naruto—not really that pleased to have been matched up with team four. This was evident by her occasional glares at the team, specifically towards Haruka. Sasuke didn't care.
"I mean, it's not like we know them very well. So it's kind of unfair to judge them too much", Sakura responded hesitantly, trying to give the members of team four the benefit of the doubt.
"But that Haruka girl is a bitch!", exclaimed Inner-Sakura in protest.
"And the only thing you do is complain Naruto!", scolded Sakura.
"As long as they don't get in the way, it doesn't matter", said Sasuke, not really seeming to be saying it to anyone in specific, as he gave neither Naruto or Sakura any eye contact.
Naruto let out a heavy breath, clearly not happy with his current situation. Just when they were getting excited to have a new mission, team four had arrived with Obito and Kakashi. Obito had announced to them that they'd go on a joint mission with team four, to then explain the mission to them.
~:~
"So as you know, we will be having a C-rank mission, which is a bit harder than the D-rank missions. Not anything life threatening of course, but still, it could be a little big dangerous, I guess", Obito explained. He cleared his throat. "Now let me explain the mission. So recently there has been an increasing amount of missing shinobi from Amegakure, and our mission is to go there to investigate to understand what's happenin", he continued. The mentioning of Amegakure gave a visible response from team four. "We'll travel by foot, so it'll take about two days to get there".
A question spawned in Sakura's mind and she raised her hand in the air. "I thought that all missions are in some way supposed to be beneficial to Konoha, like, protecting it from enemies and such. Doesn't this mission just concern Amegakure?".
"Yeah, that's true. This whole situation might just be a problem that only concerns Amegakure, in which case Konoha doesn't need to get involved. But this many missing shinobi is weird, to say the least, and concerning. We never know what might be a bigger threat that might spread to other villages. Again, we really just want to understand what's going on", Obito explained.
"And that's all we are going to do, gather information. Not something stupid like try to find the person or people behind this. Ok?", Kakashi said to the genin, the tone of his voice being somewhere between serious and goofy, a weird mix. The genin all nodded in agreement, Naruto hesitantly so.
~:~
The mission seemed exciting to Naruto, not anything breathtaking, but exciting nonetheless. Despite this, he just couldn't begin to enjoy the experience with the presence of team four. He glared over at the three genin, observing their actions. At first glance, they didn't seem bad at all. They were casually talking with each other as if they had been friends forever—which, thinking about it they probably had. Still, Naruto knew full well that at least the white haired member of the team Kinzo, wasn't very friendly.
"Hey, what you staring at?", asked Kinzo who had turned around after noticing that Naruto was observing them.
"A bunch of losers!", Naruto countered, dragging out the vocals of the words 'losers' to emphasize his point. He snickerd a bit at his joke.
"Haha, how original. I guess that kind of humor is what you'd have to expect from Konoha shinobi", Kinzo said, grinning mockingly.
"Kinzo, you don't have to–", started Takasu, the third member of the team—who hadn't shown much presence over his teammates— but he got cut off.
"It's just funny how you all run around thinking that you're actual shinobi. But you're really just a bunch of babies aren't you?", Kinzo continued, completely ignoring his teammate.
"You sure about that?", Sasuke asked, looking Kinzo challengingly in the eyes. Unlike Naruto, he wasn't expressing anger, but confidence.
"Hmmm... no I'm good, I think that orange thing over there is enough proof of it to me", Kinzo said pointing a finger at Naruto. Naruto finally snapped.
"THAT DOES IT!", Naruto shouted and darted right towards him. In a hasty movement, Naruto threw his right fist towards Kinzo, aiming for his face. Just as Naruto thought he was about to hit him, Kinzo quickly brought up his forearm infront of his face and Naruto made impact, but immediatley retracted his arm.
"AAAAAAHH!", Naruto screamed, holding a swollen fist. Trying to grasp what just happened, he looked over at Kinzo and noticed a large plate of metal over his forearm, acting as a shield. He watched it strangely melt back into his arm. Was that what caused his hand to hurt so bad? It must have been.
"... what just happened? Did metal just come out of his forearm?", thought a wide–eyed Sakura.
"A bloodline limit?", wondered Sasuke. He was suddenly intrigued by Kinzo and his abilities.
Kakashi and Obito had arrived at the scene after having noticed the commotion their students had made. It didn't take long for Kakashi to connect the dots after seeing metal flowing into Kinzo's arm and Naruto's swollen fist. He let out a drawn out sigh.
"You know, you're supposed to be teammates now, not enemies... Alright, I guess we better divide ourselves up a little bit, if you're going to act this childishly", Kakashi said and walked ahead with his team. Obito sighed. Going on a joint mission with team four might not have been a very good idea after all. He was thinking that it could be a good way for them to grow by cooperating with others, but the genin of team four and seven seemed to blend like water and oil. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke weren't even that close as a team yet after all.
"Obito-sensei, why are we teamed up with those guys", asked Naruto with a low voice, head bent down after his failed attempt to stand up to Kinzo.
"... Well, me and Kakashi know each other well, so our teamwork is pretty good and having more people on a mission is always a good thing, especially when we're just gonna gather information. Besides, they've known each other for a very long time, so their teamwork is pretty amazing. You guys could learn from them", Obito said. "I'm starting to doubt it was a good idea though". Naruto folded his arms, unwilling to accept Obito's statement.
Takasu looked over at a grinning Kinzo, clearly satisfied with himself. Takasu frowned, hesitant to say something, but ultimatley decided he should. "Kinzo, you went a little overboard, don't you think?", he said. Kinzo wasn't pleased by this, he glared back at Takasu, a questioning look on his face.
"Takasu, they're from Konoha. Why do you even care?", said Haruka. Takasu averted his eyes downward and clenched his fist. He didn't want to go against his teammates, especially not Haruka... but their behavior was just not okay.
"Hey! I can hear you", said Kakashi who was walking infront of them. Kinzo and Haruka cringed, he wasn't supposed to hear that. "Listen, I know that you don't like Konoha that much yet. But we're actually not bad people, believe it or not". What he said made sense of course, but they wouldn't admit that to themselves.
"Whatever", said Kinzo and crossed his arms defiantly.
As the sun went down, it painted the sky a soft mix between orange and pink. The constant rattling of leaves progressivley subsided with the wind. The singing of birds faded with the growing chirping of crickets. Upon reaching a more opened area, Obito came to a stop and turned around to face the genin of team seven and four.
"It's getting kinda dark, so we'll stop for today", announced Obito.
"Eh, already!? I can continue!", complained Naruto.
"Are you dumb?", spat Haruka, reciveing an angry glare from Naruto.
"Naruto, even you need rest, otherwise you won't have any energy later", said Kakashi. Naruto pouted, but still complied and stopped his complaining. "Anyway, we're gonna need to get a fire started for the night. So we're gonna need some wood for the fire. Just look around a little for dry sticks, branches, stuff like that. Me and Obito are going to get the fireplace prepared in the meantime". Their students nodded and were just about to walk off their seperate ways, when Obito interrupted them.
"Oh, and we're going to split you up a bit", Obito started.
"Can I go with Sasuke-kun?", Sakura asked.
"Actually, I was thinking we should split you guys up with team four... hehe", he said to his students. Maybe it wasn't the best idea, but they needed to get used to each other anyway.
"NOOOO THANK YOU!", complained Inner-Sakura.
"No way!", cried Naruto in protest, obviously not getting anything off of it.
"Let's see...", Obito began, rubbing his chin in thought. "Ok. Naruto, you go with Takasu. Sakura, you're going with Haruka, and Sasuke you'll be with Kinzo", Obito said, leaving the genin dissatisfied, except for Sasuke who didn't care; and Takasu, who didn't hold anything against team seven.
Naruto glanced over at Takasu, realising that he actually hadn't heard him say anything. Looking at him, he didn't seem unfriendly at all, quite the contrary. He was about the same height as himself and was wearing grey clothing. He had shoulder-length navyblue hair; and his face looked... calm? It was the best way Naruto could describe it. But still. He was friends with Kinzo and Haruka, so he'd have to be a douchebag too. Right?
"Uhm.. Let's go this way I guess?", said Takasu to Naruto, pointing at a random direction. Naruto nodded slowly.
"... He's not insulting me?", he thougt as they began walking.
"Umm... Can I ask you something?", asked Naruto. Takasu nodded yes. "... Why do your teammates hate us?".
"Oh... I don't think they hate you, or Konoha either for that matter". Naruto looked at him, questioningly. "As you know we're from Amegakure, it's where we've lived our whole lives. But things got... tough there. So we had to flee from our village. But Kinzo, I guess he hasn't really moved on yet. I think that's why he can't accept Konoha. He'd have to leave his past life behind him. As for Haruka... she takes Kinzo's side whatever he does, so. It's nothing personal against you guys... I don't think atleast", he explained.
"What? This guy actually seems pretty okay", thought Naruto. "Honestly... I'm still kind of pissed at them, but I understand 'ttebayo!", he said and grinned, getting a smile back from Takasu.
"So what's it like in Amegakure anyways?", Naruto asked as he bent down to search for something that could be used for the fire.
Takasu went quiet for a bit until he answered Naruto's question. "It's.. horrible. It rains almost all the time, whenever there was a conflict between nations we had to hide, and–", he said but hesitated.
"And?".
"No, it–it's nothing", Takasu said as he picked up a big branch. Leaving Naruto wondering what he was going to say. He didn't want to press him on the issue though, their past had obviously been hard for them.
Sakura shot an angry glare toward Haruka, who occupied herself by searching for sticks on the ground. Sakura had been ignored by her the whole time, she'd had been acting as if Sakura didn't even exist. Not that Sakura had tried starting any conversations either. But atleast she acknowledge that she was there.
"What's your problem?", Sakura asked her. Haruka peeked over her shoulder, finally showing some recognition toward Sakura.
"There's no problem forehead", she responded. Sakura scowled.
"I don't understand what you guys have against Konoha? Especially that Kinzo guy, he's being so childish", Sakura said.
"Don't insult him", said Haruka with a low voice, her amber eyes darkening. Sakura grinned, knowing that she'd found a weak spot.
"... Do you have a crush on him or something?".
"Wha-What?!", she said unconvincingly, red appearing on her cheeks.
"Oh, so you do".
"I– I don't, forehead".
"That's very convincing", Sakura said, still grinning.
"Well, atleast I don't go fangirling around like a little girl all the time", Haruka countered.
"I'm not a fangirl! I'm serious about Sasuke-kun! It's true love!", she thought and clenched a fist.
"I'm- I'm not a fangirl!", said Sakura, trying to defend herself from Haruka's accusasions.
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that", Haruka said as she stood up with a bunch of sticks in her arms, and started heading back to the camp. Sakura huffed, but followed her a couple of steps behind.
Sasuke was still interested in Kinzo's abilities. Not that it was any hard to counter an attack from Naruto, but his bloodline limit was impressive. It could probably be used well in battle and he wanted to know more about it.
"Was that a bloodline limit, that you used against Naruto?", Sasuke asked.
"Guess you could call it that. We call it 'the frying pan', our clan consists mainly of chefs. We heat up the metal and cook stuff on it, hence the name", he said. Sasuke looked at him, being left confused.
"Why would you use such an ability for something like that of all things?", thought Sasuke. "I don't think that's a very practical use fo—", Sasuke started, but was interrupted when Kinzo burst out laughing.
"Yo-you actually thought I was serious! Tha– that's hilarous!", he said inbetween laughs. Sasuke blushed in embaressment and decided to ignore him after that.
When the genin had retrieved enough wood for the fire, they returned to the site where Obito and Kakashi sat on a couple of rocks, indeed having prepared a fireplace. It was rather big, making sure it would last the night.
Starting the fire was easy. They used some of the wood to get the fire burning, but saved most of it to feed the fire with later. Kakashi made a couple of hand signs and blew a small ball of fire into the fireplace, easily setting it on fire. Having a fire going wasn't necessary per say, it was pretty warm out. But a fire also provided them with light, which would be important if they were attacked by someone during the night.
Stretching out his arms and yawning, Obito felt a need to go to sleep and judging by the excessive blinking of Naruto, he assumed he wasn't alone in that need. Funny how the guy didn't want to take a break was the one who seemed the most tired of the group. "Alright, time to get to bed. Just place your sleeping bag wherever you want and I'll keep watch over any enemies for an hour or two. Naruto I'll wake you up after that and it'll be your turn to keep watch. After that we'll go with Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, Kinzo, Haruka and lastly Takasu. Sounds good?". He offered to keep watch first, because; even though he was tired, he usually slept better undisturbed, so he'd rather go to sleep a bit later than get waken up during the night. No complaints were heard against Obito's proposal; so with Obito keeping watch, the rest of the squad went to sleep.
By the time it was Naruto's turn to keep watch, the sun had been down for quite a while—enveloping the surrounding woods in deep darkness. Naruto held a stick above the fire—waiting for it to glow—to then wave it restlessly in the air. Filled with stars, the midnight-blue sky contrasted the red glow of the stick. He did this in an attempt to entertain himself, but unfortunatley it didn't help his restless state at all. Naruto sighed and threw the stick in the fire and decided to relax instead, leaning back and listening to the sounds of crickets and the occational hooting of an owl. Despite him having come to better terms with Takasu, he was still not very accepting of his other two teammates: Kinzo and Haruka. Kinzo hadn't shown any signs of improvement in his behavior, so he still disliked the guy. Haruka... well he didn't know enough about her to have a strong opinion yet, but she hadn't been very kind to Sakura, which he couldn't accept.
"Maybe I should try to talk to them a bit more tomorrow. To get on a little bette—". Naruto's train of thought was interrupted when he heard a sudden sound coming a couple of meters away from him. It was a cracking sound; not loud, but noticable against the silence of the night. Naruto quickly shot his head towards the direction where the sound had come from. Scanning the area, he didn't see anything but the extending forest. Everything looked normal, but something felt... off. As if he was being watched.
"What was that, a stick? It was probably just an animal or some-". The sound came again, this time even louder. Naruto froze. The sound of crickets and the crackle of the fire had seemed to cease, and a cold breeze uncomfortably brushed against his skin. Naruto swallowed hard and with slightly shaking hands he took out a kunai from his pouch, holding it tightly infront of him. He lifted himself from the rock he was sitting on and slowly made an approach towards the bushes where the sound had come from. After each step, his feet became heavier, his breath quicker. He was only four steps away now. Only two. One. and—
"Naruto".
"AHHH!". Naruto dropped his kunai to the ground by the sudden mentioning of his name. He turned around and was met with a dead faced Sasuke.
"What are you doing?".
"I- uh... There was a sound, coming from behind the bush". Naruto pointed a finger at the bushes where the sound had come from.
"So? It's a forest with animals, what'd you expect deadlast?".
"Huh!? It's not like I was scared or anything, just wanted to check it out. What if we were like being watched or something?". Sasuke walked past him and looked behind the bush, Naruto peeking over with him.
Nothing was there.
Sasuke looked at him for a minute, waiting for Naruto to respond.
"I–I swear I heared something 'ttebayo!", Naruto said, trying to convince Sasuke he wasn't crazy.
"Well, nothing was there, but if you say so. It's my turn to keep watch now, so you can go".
Naruto crossed his arms and frowned at Sasuke before walking back to his sleeping bag, dragging it a couple of meters away to keep his distance from him before he went to sleep, making sure to get rest for the upcoming day.
"Are these guys for real?", said Sakura upon watching the sleeping bodies of Obito and Naruto. The sun was already up, birds were chirping and everyone were wide awake, ready to leave. They had expected the two of them to wake up eventually, but they were just as far away to waking up as they had been 20 minutes earlier. So now they were left having to wake them up by force. Kinzo was enjoying throwing small rocks on Naruto's face, making him flinch in his sleep.
"Takasu, could you use one of your water jutsu to wake them up?", Kakashi asked as he packed his bag.
"Isn't that a little...", Takasu hesitated.
"No, no. It's fine. They won't wake up otherwise", Kakashi said, an approving thumbs up directed at him. Takasu hesitated for a bit, but finally preformed a few hand signs and let a jet of water spray out of each of his hands, aiming at Obito and Naruto. Obito quickly woke up with a scream, and was completly confused over his surroundings. He looked around and witnessed everyone laughing at him, except for Takasu– who felt bad about it –and Sasuke, beacuse he's... well Sasuke.
Obito looked over at Kakashi, quickly realising that this was something that he would've orchestrated. "What'd you do that for?!".
"Well you guys wouldn't wake up".
"Couldn't you have just shaked us awake instead?!".
"You'll need to get used to being wet, it's going to rain a lot in Amegakure", said Kakashi.
Kinzo was still laughing, even after everyone had stopped. It became apparent why when he pointed a finger at a soaking wet Naruto. "H–he's still sleeping! AHAHAHA".
"How is that even possible?", sighed Sakura.
It didn't take long for Naruto to wake up after Kinzo went to pinch his nose, forcing him awake. Obito and Naruto quickly got finished packing their stuff and they were soon ready to continue their travel to Amegakure, being well on their way towards the village again.
Naruto took a breath of air and looked up in the sky. For the most part it was clear blue, but he noticed large dark clouds in the far off distance. Every now and again a lightning flashed in the clouds. He assumed that it was probably coming from Amegakure, meaning they weren't that far away from the village anymore. Naruto increased his pace eagerly, but slowed down when he felt a chill run down his spine. He felt watched again. Like yesterday at the fire. He stopped and turned around, revealing nothing but the endless trees of the forest.
"Already want to head back home?", asked Haruka mockingly. Naruto turned back to his teammates and crossed his arms.
"No! I was just checking for enemies!", he said and quickly ran back to the group.
As they got closer and closer to the village, the amount of clouds above them increased. The sky became darker and darker and the forest became increasingly dense and green–maybe because of the damper climate. The chirping of birds became less evident, being replaced by the low rumbling of thunder. Eventually cold, heavy raindrops came falling from the sky, forcing them to put on cloaks to protect themselves from the rain.
They finally reached the outskirts of the village after they pushed through a large bush. The village was surrounded by a large glooming lake, the water vibrating as heavy raindrops hit it's surface. The whole village looked flooded, it's elevation not being very high above the body of water. The village itself was dark and lifeless. Industrial buildings stretched gloomingly up in the sky, enveloped by a dense mist. A slender bridge strechted above the lake, providing entry to the village.
"This place gives me the creeps", Sakura thought, shuddering.
"All right, here we are", said Obito and turned over to his students. "Take off your headbands and hide your ninja gear. Konoha and Amegakure don't have the best realtionship, so it's best to just act like we're tourists", he said as he himself took off his own headband, followed by everyone else.
"So! What happens now?", Naruto asked, jumping up and down.
"As I've said, our mission is just gonna be to try to find out what is happening here. So we'll check things out, talk to villagers and investigate anything that seems off. To make things more efficient, we'll split up into our respective teams", Obito explained. Naruto jumped in the air.
"Yes, suck it!", Naruto said to Kinzo and Haruka.
"Hey we're pretty happy to not have you guys around too", said Haruka. Naruto glared at her. "... Especially you forehead".
"What'd you just say?!", raged Inner-Sakura.
Obito and Kakashi sighed at their students. "Well uh, I guess we'll take the west side of the village", Obito said.
"Alright, we'll go east. Let's meet up here tomorrow morning", he said and Obito nodded in agreement.
"Let's go!", Obito said and started off towards the village. They crossed the bridge and easily got inside of the village. There wasn't even a gate, anyone could simply walk inside. Once inside, the two teams seperated to their own respective side of the village.
As team seven walked through the long twisting streets, Naruto felt an unpleasent chill in the air. There was something about the place that felt off. The way the rain water rushed down the street, even with countless drains. The way the lifeless buildings stretched infinetly up in the air, looking as if they could fall at any moment—if not for the large pipes that supported them. The sharp smell of oil. The lack of any life in the village. The way people covered their faces with the hoods of their raincoats. It all seemed so unfriendly and cold. Naruto could understand what Takasu meant when he was talking about the village, it was certainly not a place he would want to live in.
"This place seems a little... weird", said Sakura, expressing Naruto's thoughts.
Naruto nodded in agreement. "Mhm! Totally".
"Yeah, it is. It's quite different from Konoha, that's for sure", Obito said. Despite having heard a lot about Amegakure's lack of... warmth? This was worse than he'd imagine. Obito came to a sudden stop when upon taking notice of a food stand. It was tinylike, squeezed between two buildings. There was a warm light that came from it and it emit a pleasent smell. It was very welcoming—in contrast to the rest of the village. Upon seeing the word "dango" plastered on a sign above the foodstall, an excited Obito couldn't help but walk towards it. A confused Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke followed him inside.
"Uh, what are we doing here Obito-sensei?", asked Sasuke.
"Well uh, I was a bit hungry and they sell dango here! Dango is just too delicious to pass, you know! So I figured we'd take a bit of a break", Obito said, smiling cheerfully.
"We haven't even done anything yet...", thought Sakura.
"Eh!? Can't we eat ramen instead?", asked Naruto.
"That's what you're concerned about?...", commented Sakura under her breath.
"Nah, dango is better", Obito said as he sat down on a chair. Sasuke sighed, but sat to join him with the rest of his teammates. The resturant owner was an old lady, white haired and short. She gave them a friendly smile and asked for their orders. Obito made a very specific order of dango, having to go over his order twice before the lady could fully catch what he wanted. Naruto asked for ramen, but when the lady said they didn't have any, he settled for the first best thing on the menu. After they were all done with their orders, they had to wait awhile for the food to get ready. To pass time, Obito began some small talk with the old lady.
"It sure rains a lot here", Obito said to the lady. She nodded approvingly.
"Yes, it certainly does. You're not from around here I assume?", she said, laughing slightly.
"No, we are shino— ouch!", Naruto started, but got cut off midsentence when he felt a sharp pain on his leg and saw glares from Sakura. "Ah, I mean, we're travelers, travelers! We explore the world and stuff!". The lady chuckled in amusement.
"Oh, that sounds very interesting! But why'd you travel to a place like Amegakure of all places? Especially with how things are now...".
"How things are now?", Obito asked, his head tilting to the side.
"Well, it's just that people have been turning crazy in this village lately! Talking about some 'god' of Amegakure. It's all rubish I tell you!", she said waving her hands dissmissivley. Team 7 shared a keen look between each other.
"God?", asked Obito.
"You don't know?", she asked. Obito shook his head. "Well ever since Hanzou died, some people have said it was the actions of some sort of god. They say he will achieve world peace. It's all just rubbish of course!", she said. Obito looked confused, eyebrows narrowed.
"Wait... Hanzou's dead?", he asked.
"Either information has spread very slowly or you're not very informed", she said jokingly. Obito chuckled.
"I'm afraid the latter could be possible... hehe".
"Uhm... who's this Hanzou guy 'ttebayo?", Naruto asked.
"Honestly, I thought you people were supposed to be travelers. Shouldn't you know a bit more about the world?", she asked chuckling slightly. Naruto forced an akward smile and itched the back of his head.
"Ehe... yeah, probably".
"He was the leader of Amegakure, not a very good one mind you. Very violent person he was", she said. She then went back over to the kitchen where the chef had prepared their food. "I'm assuming that's why so many people are saying that he was killed by some god. They appreciate that he's gone, but honestly this village is still a mess. No one has any sort of control of this place anymore", she continued as she brought the food and laid it out in front of them.
"Here's your orders!", the old lady said, giving them each a plate of dango.
"If Hanzou's dead, then who's in charge now?", Obito asked.
"We don't know. All we know is that a new person is in charge. They won't tell us who though". Obito furrowed his brow.
"Something's fishy about this village for sure", he thought.
"What's up with all the mising shinobi?", Obito asked casually, eating a piece of dango. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura had by this point realized that Obito hadn't just come here to eat dango, but used it as an unsuspicious way to gather information from a villager aswell.
"He's actullay very good at this stuff, he doesn't seem suspicious at all", Sakura thought.
"The missing shinobi? Hmmm yes, it's certainly strange. Generally I wouldn't think much of it, Amegakure isn't known for it's safety, but...", she started.
"But?", asked Sasuke.
"... Well. All the shinobi who've gone missing aren't just normal shinobi, but very powerful ones. The are all known for having extreme chakra reserves. It's very strange", she said.
"That's weird! Right Obito-sensei?", Naruto asked, but didn't get a response. Naruto looked over at Obito, but he had his head turned and was looking behind them, not seeming to give them any attention. "Obito-sensei?", Naruto asked again. Obito turned back to Naruto and nodded, but he looked lost in thought and concern was evident in his face.
"Yeah, it's strange". Obito finished his dango quickly and stood up, laying a few coins on the table. "Sorry, but we've got to go. Thanks for your time", he said with a smile and quickly left, walking with quick steps through the rain. His students were confused.
"Hey, hey! I hadn't finished my dango yet!", Naruto said, who had found himself enjoying the dango more than he'd expected.
"We could have asked her about more things, don't you think?", asked Sakura. Obito stopped when they reached the end of an alleyway. He checked the area before finally talking.
"Someone has been watching us". Worry struck the genin. Had someone been watching them the whole time?
"W–who?", Naruto asked.
"I dunno know, he covered his head with his hood", Obito said. "... I don't feel very good about this mission. Something isn't right"
"Aren't you overreacting?", Sasuke commented sharply, not wanting to cancel the mission because of something like this.
"Trust me, something just isn't right, I can feel it", he said and looked around once again before he continued speaking. "Listen, we're going to stay low and be as careful as possible. We'll meet up with team four right away and abort the mission, alright", he said commandingly, his students hesitated. "Alright?", he said again, lifting his eyebrows. The genin finally agreed with reluctant nods. Obito let out a breath and let his body loosen up a bit.
"Alright, let's get goi-", he started but suddenly hurled and held a hand over his abdomen.
"Sensei! What's wrong?", asked Sakura. Obito turned over and cracked a painful smile.
"Ahahaha... stomachache. I think I ate those dangos a bit too quickly", he said. "I just have to go to the toilet quickly, I'll be right back", he said and quickly rushed over to a public restroom.
"That's kind of lame...", thought Sakura as she put her palm to her face. The three genin sat on a bench in the alley, waiting for their teacher to come back, they sat quite for awhile, until Sasuke let out a frustrated sigh.
"This is ridiculous, why is he getting so paranoid over this?", said Sasuke.
Naruto nodded in agreement. "Yeah, yeah. I don't want to go back home ye–".
"Uzumaki Naruto...".
The genin turned around hastily, revealing the figure of a tall and slender guy. He was wearing a black cloak that covered most of his body and was decorated with red clouds. His eyes were thin and tired, looking as if they almost were closed, it made him look a bit older than he probably was, he seemed as if he might be anywhere between 17 and 20. Wet black hair fell down over his face, covering a slashed Suna headband. The genin backed off, making sure to keep their distance from the man.
"W-who are you? ", Naruto asked with a shaky voice. He didn't know why, but this man made his spine shiver, maybe it was his raspy voice, or his almost dead-like appearance. No, it was something else, but he couldn't put a finger on it.
The man took a step towards them.
"Me?... It's not really that important".
"What do you want?", Sasuke asked, pulling forward a kunai. The man looked into Sasuke's eyes for a second. He gave a lopsided grin and then audibly cracked his right pinky.
The kunai Sasuke had held fell to the ground, followed by Sasuke himself who hit the ground with a heavy thump.
"What's happening? I can't move my muscles properly!", he thought as he struggled to get up from the ground. His body felt as if it was being pushed down and the pouring rain made it seem all the more heavier to move.
"Sasuke-kun!", Sakura shouted and ran up to him, kneeling down beside him. "Wh–what did you do to him?!", she said as she picked up the kunai Sasuke had dropped and held it shakily infront of her. He cracked his left pinky and she too fell down to the ground. "I–I can't move!", she thought, realising that her body was stuck in place. The man then completley shifted his focus away from the two, and put his attention back to Naruto. Naruto stumbled backwards, his legs starting to shake.
"Uzumaki Naruto... you posses something inside of you that we want...". Naruto's eyes widened, his heartbeat increasing. Inisde of him? That could only mean one thing, and it terrified him. His head was throbbing and he couldn't think, his eyesight became blurred as visions of red pushed into his head and a menacing roar permeated through the depths of his mind. He felt deep rage and heat resinating from his torso, slowly spreading.
Cold metal touched Naruto's back, bringing notice to the fact that Naruto had been cornered against a wall.
The man reached his hands forward towards Naruto. "... yes. You know what I'm talking about... The Kyu—".
A strong hand gripped his forearm, not letting go. The man diverted his eyes towards the person who'd grabbed hold of him and saw the black in Uchiha Obito's eyes shift to deep red.
Next Chapter: The Ghost of Konoha
AN: Ohhh, kinda left you on a cliffhanger there didn't I! Sorry about that.
Honestly this chapter was really fucking hard to write. I don't know why exactly, maybe the bigger cast of characters and trying to make my OC's fit into the story; but I really pushed myself to get it done either way. I'm not sure if I'm completly happy with the end result, but I could change things over and over again and still not be satisfied. I figured it's better to get these chapters out at a bit more of a regular rate, so I've got to ditch my perfectionism a bit. I think my writing will get better by time, so I'll probably revisit these chapters later to make them better reperesent the vision that I had in mind.
Still, I hope you could enjoy this chapter, I think it was alright atleast. Next chapter is hopefully going to be pretty great, there's going to be a lot of fighting, so look forward to that!
With that said, it's time for me to start working on the next chapter! See you and have a happy holidays!
Thank you for the follows, favorites and reviews. It really keeps me motivated :)
(I also appreciate constructive feedback and even negative reviews. As long as I can learn and improve from it, I don't mind. So feel free to write whatever critiscism you may have).
