A/N team Kakashi sets of on their mission, what will they find? Also, an apology at the end.
Summary: One fateful night in Konohagakure, the Yondaime Hokage chose his village over his only son; only time will tell if he made the right choice. Feral!Naruto, Pairings to be voted on.
Key: Normal, "Speech" 'Thoughts' "Demonic Speech" 'Demonic Thoughts'
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Chapter 8
What lurks in the fjord
The Hokag's Office, late morningThe Godaime Hokage strummed her hand idly on her desk, a knot slowly forming on her forehead. A clock ticked away on the wall behind her. If one was watching closely, they would be able to see her hand slowly edge towards a draw situated beneath her desk.
"Stupid Kakashi-sensei, isn't it an offence to keep the Hokage waiting?" The Godaime's apprentice, and accomplished med-nin said.
"Ah, come now Sakura-chan, I'm sure he'll be here soon" The ex-yondaime said, a smile plastered across his face.
"Seeing as Kakashi still isn't here, there is another issue would like to bring up" Tsunade said, looking up from her musings and staring directly at a certain dango-loving tokubetsu-jounin
"Hm? Something wrong Hokage-sama?" Anko said, her face deadpanned with a look that took years to master.
"As a matter of fact, there is. My assistant Shizune"
"Oh? Did Shizune-chan do something wrong?" She asked, maintaining her don't know what your talking about face. Next to her, Arashi tried to muffle a snigger.
"Hehehe, Shizune-chan's been a Bad Girl. She has to be PUNISHED!" He punched his fist into the air for emphasis. Sakura sweat dropped.
'It's no wonder Sensei's a pervert if this was his sensei, not that HIS sensei was much any better' At first Sakura had been exited by the prospect of having a former Hokage on her team, especially since she had been off missions for almost two years since her former team-mates had…departed. That lasted about as long as it took to meet him. As far as first impressions go it wasn't very promising. He, Kakashi, and an aged white haired man had been sitting at a bar table together, making comments about various women present, before giggling. If that wasn't bad enough, when Sakura had walked into the bar, looking for her sensei, the blonde man had immediately pointed to her, and said loud enough for her to hear;
Flashback"I'd tap that"
The comment had hung in the air for several seconds and everyone went quiet, Kakashi had a nervous smile on and was trying to slip away unnoticed, the white haired man, which she later learned was Jiraiya, and Arashi's sensei, nodded once before adding his own input.
"Decent legs, interesting hair, no ass, no chest. Cute forehead though"
"Ano(um)…maybe we should go…" Kakashi, the only sane one ventured hesitantly, he had heard of the kind of things the Godaime had taught his student, things that frightened him. Techniques that could make any man tremble with fear.
"You…" her voice was icy cold, her hair almost seemed to be blowing from an unseen gust of wind. Her eyes got an evil glint in them that promised pain(1)
"Now now, Sakura-chan, they meant no-"
"Don't Sakura-chan me! SHANNARO!" In the time it took to blink she had leapt on to the table, and demolished it with the Slug sannin's signature heal drop. Leaving a small crater and three stunned figures of legend.
End flashbackIt had taken a squad of ANBU to halt her twofold fury, and a skilled team of medics to heal the injuries she had inflicted. Needless to say the Godaime had been rather impressed with her apprentice, although she felt she needed to train a bit harder if it took only one ANBU squad to stop her.
"NO, Arashi, she's missing" Tsunade said, shooting the unstable blonde a quick glare. Over the years she'd decided the best way to deal with his mood swings was to just treat him like she would anyone doing such a thing. It seemed to work, as he stopped mauling random pedestrians after she had made him pay off a significant amount of her gambling debt in fines.
"Really? What happened? Was she mauled by an old lady?" Kakashi said, narrowly dodging the desk drawer that was flung at him. He was, however, enveloped in a cloud of sawdust as the drawer was demolished by the impact.
"YOUR LATE!!" He simply smiled as his student launched into her regular tirade against him.
"You see, I was walking along, when I heard someone begging for help from inside Anko-chan's house, so I decided to investigate it and-"
"LIAR!"
"ENOUGH" The Godaime's voice echoed and everyone present immediately stood to attention.
"Good, now then, today's mission is a B-rank. We've been receiving strange reports from several settlements in an area near the border into Grass country, I want you to investigate, and find out if this is a threat or not. The details are enclosed" She tossed the envelope to Kakashi who deftly caught it.
"Ano, Tsunade-shishou, how long are we to look for?"
"If you fail to uncover anything significant, you are to return within a week. If you do find something you have a month to deal with it as you see appropriate"
"Hai"
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Some distance from Konoha, some time later.
"Ne, Kakashi-senpai, what are we looking for anyway?" Anko said, not turning around as they leapt through the trees.
"According to the reports, someone or something has been prowling the area, stealing livestock. Everyone who went to investigate either turned up dead, found nothing or went missing altogether, the only one to make it back alive had his arm torn off and was gibbering something about a monster."
"Sounds like it's just a wolf or something" Arashi said, his mind set in 'mission mode'
"That would be the case, indeed most of the bodies found has claw and bite marks on their bodies, however, the area surrounding the wounds had 2nd to 3rd degree burns on the surrounding tissue"
"So you think it might be ninja?" Sakura spoke up.
"Could be, it might be a rogue ninja, some sort of summon, or even a lesser demon, although the latter is presumed extinct"
"Ha! Bring it on, I say" Anko said excitedly, resisting the temptation to lick a kunai for effect.
"Don't get overconfident Mitarashi-san" Arashi said, his voice stern.
"Your no fun" She pouted.
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Four days laterSakura slumped onto her hotel bed in defeat. They had been searching the various towns in the area for information, but no one knew anything that wasn't already in the mission report. The bodies of the victims had already been buried, and the villagers adamantly refused to allow them to dig them up for examination.
"Ne, Anko-sempai"
"Nan desuka?"(What is It?)
"Ano…I was wondering…what people say about you…is it true?" She asked innocently, unnoticed Anko's gaze turned dark.
"Oh? And what do they say about me?" She replied icily. Sakura consciously shivered
"Er…just that…well…they say you can 'Shake ones faith in mankind', er…is it…true?" She nervously wrung the bed sheets in her hands. Anko's turned to look at her, her face flickering with glee and what could be lust.
"Would you like to find out?" She cooed, before Sakura could reply the other's lips muffled her voice. Her eyes widened, before closing slowly, as she returned the kiss. Just as suddenly they departed again, leaving her panting and hungry. She looked up at the elder kunoichi with pleading eyes.
"Men, women, who cares? It's all about what makes you happy, and when you're happy, nothing else matters." The snake mistress said, her voice quavering slightly.
"After all, lifes more fun that way" She said, her former jovial grin returning. Sakura returned the grin weakly, her mind still reeling from the kiss.
The door opened and Arashi walked in.
"Mitarashi-san, Haruno-san, we have a lead on the survivor, we will find and interview him"
"Hai, come on Sakura-chan" Anko said, jumping off the bed. Sakura nodded, dumbstruck and followed.
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Somewhen laterThe ground crunched as four pairs of footsteps walked across it.
"The person we are looking for, as it turns out, wis an old hermit who lives in a cave near here, he had ran into the nearby town, screaming and bleeding before collapsing, he was taken to the doctor who did what he could, but the old man escaped and is presumed to have returned to his cave" Kakashi said, glancing around.
"How long ago was this?" Sakura asked
"Almost a week ago"
"Great, so he could be dead by now." Anko said dejectedly
"Even if he is, it still gives us an opportunity to examine this thing's work, Ah, here it is" He said, pushing aside a small tree uncovering a small cave in the hill.
"Hello? Anyone home?" Anko called out, her voice echoing eerily.
"Guess not" She shrugged.
"Smell that?" Sakura said, holding her nose.
"Ugh, he must be dead"
Their footsteps resounded throughout the cave as the entered.
"Hey, what's that?" Anko asked, pointing to a huddled up bundle of rags at the end of the cave.
"Probably our witness"
"Huh, go figure, hey Sakura, you do the honors?"
"Sure I guess, ugh, what's that smell? It almost feels like killing intent" She groaned.
"It is" the up-till-now Blonde said.
"What? You mean that guys alive and threatening me?"
"No, it's a special kind of killing intent, it can last for weeks or even months in the one spot, lingering with the taint" He said, his voice taking on a strange monotone, his eyes where wild and unfocused.
'Shit, something's set him off' Kakashi panicked, hoping his mentor wouldn't do anything rash. Said mentor was slowly approaching the bundle, he paused and knelt down, pulling back the filthy rags."My god, THAT'S what happened to him" Sakura gasped. Anko had a look of disgust on her face while Kakashi's bore a look of concern.
"That's…awful" The man's entire face had been scarred, one side completely destroyed. There were bandages wrapped around one shoulder, where his arm had been ripped out of its socket. The bandages where stained black with ichor. There where several gash marks running down his chest, some had exposed muscle. Maggots crawled in and out of his wounds, gorging on the rotten flesh, although many of the maggots were dead and unmoving.
"I know your alive, wake up" The Yondaime said, slapping the man across the face.
"You mean he's alive? Through all that?"
"Barley, now tell me, what did you see?" The man's one remaining eye opened, revealing a sickly yellow orb beneath.
"I saw…death"
"Tell me about 'death"
"It was…like a raging inferno, everything…red. It's eyes, OH ITS EYES!" He jerked and coughed up blood, the tainted dark liquid dribbled from his chin.
"The inferno, what was in it?"
"Eyes, two eyes, water, so much water, it was fighting something, and the tails, Oh the tails, it…it was a demon, a demon of death. DEATH!!!" He wailed, before slumping to the ground. Arashi stood up slowly. Everyone parted as he made his way outside. He stood still and breathed in, his eyes closed as he focused.
"What is he…?" Sakura began
"There" His voice rang sharp, cutting her off. He was looking towards a nearby lake.
"What is it?"
"That lake…it's not on any of the maps" Kakashi's eye widened slightly.
"You mean…"
"Lets go"
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A pair of red slitted eyes watched the group as they approached the lake.
'More trespassers, more humans, kill the humans'They moved silently as it vanished into the undergrowth, just as the blonde one looked in its direction. The eyes looked at the blonde, and recognition set in. Memories, fighting, pain, anger, blame, joy, a multitude of things flashed through its mind as it stared at the hair.
'That hair, him, fault, revenge' Any plans of subtly gone it leapt out into the open and charged at the group, heading straight for the blonde."HOKAGE!!!!!" An inhuman cry rang out into the sky, four heads snapped towards the source. The blonde one trembled.
"Na-Naruto?"
And the beast struck
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A/N: Naruto returns, YAY! 'does little dance'. Sorry I'm late, school has a habit of dumping several assessment tasks simultaneously. I'm already behind. Also, I went out to play Friday Night Magic with some friends last night, so yeah.
Okay, I admit when I started out this fic I said there would be no yaoi, but it's just keeps lowing out, to be fair I'll try to add some minor yaoi later, although no yaoi lemons. I'll be looking more in-depth into Anko's character same with Sakura's.
On the topic of pairing, it is Anko, and only Anko. I will try to have a bit of interaction with the other pairing options to give a glimpse into what they would have been like, if I can remember. All you NaruHina fans DO NOT distress, NaruHina is my favorite pairing, and as such, I will be doing several pieces of Naruhina in future, I already have two fics in the works, one of which I hope to cover all of parts 1, 2, and them some. The other is an AU I thought up that I'm pretty sure hasn't been done before. So loom foreword to them.
Remember when Naruto kissed Sasuke? It's the same as then.
Also, check out The Demon Prince of Konoha by IeatChicken, its worth reading