Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, but I do own all the new characters in this story.
Chapter three
"Is that your pet?" Asked a deep voice behind them. Kakashi turned around sharply and looked at a tall figure hidden in the shadows. The figure stepped out into the light of the setting sun. He had small bright blue eyes, with a medium sized nose with a thin mouth. He had shoulder length jet black hair tied back in a ponytail. He wore a dark brown full length coat with a black leather vest and leather trousers with leather knee high boots. He wore no forehead protector which could place his native village, or, if he did, it was hidden somewhere.
Kanzuho growled,
"I am no-ones pet!"
The man chuckled and looked at Kakashi. He raised one of his thick eyebrows,
"Ah, you must be Kakashi, the copy-ninja. I've heard of you, this might be more interesting then I thought." He then looked at everyone else and laughed,
"Are these your toys? Hmm, this must be playtime." He chuckled again. He then made a few hand seals and said,
"Koudo Kaisui no jutsu!" (Earth spike technique) He slammed his fist into the ground and spikes made of hardened mud shot out of the ground beneath them. They all jumped into the trees, hoping to get away from the spikes, but to no avail and the man kept firing spikes at them, which shot through the trees. Kakashi swore to himself. They couldn't get near the man! He would defend himself with the earth, and he had long range attack as well. They were dealing with a dangerous ninja here. He lifted his arm and revealed his Sharingan. He looked down at the Ninja and frowned. He stood completely still; he didn't even move to shot those bloody spikes at them! This was turning out badly. He was obviously left behind to delay them, and he was succeeding. Sasuke landed on the branch behind him. Kakashi looked at him and noticed that Sasuke also had his Sharingan activated.
"I can't predict his moves!" Sasuke said angrily. Kakashi shook his head.
"You can't. He doesn't have to move to attack us. He uses long range attacks, but can also use close combat. We're at a disadvantage here. We can't even get close to him."
Sasuke was about to say something, but they had to jumped away from each other as the man shot a load of spikes at them. Kakashi landed next to Kanzuho, who was with Hinata, crouched on a branch behind a thick tree trunk that had several mud spikes sticking out of it.
Kakashi then heard Sasuke say,
"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" Which shot a large fireball at the man, which he defended himself with a mud shield.
Kakashi looked at Kanzuho, who was glaring at the man below and growled,
"We don't have time for this!"
Kakashi looked at the wolf,
"How are we meant to defeat him, he uses long and close combat." The wolf looked at him and sighed,
"I suppose I have no choice."
Before Kakashi could stop him, the wolf then jumped down into the clearing and faced the man. Kanzuho sat down as the man looked at him.
"What's your name?" Kanzuho asked. The man looked at the wolf and answered shortly,
"Shinji."
Kanzuho chuckled,
"What an interesting name." The man, Shinji glared at the wolf and several spikes shot at him, which Kanzuho easily dodged them. Shinji looked surprised.
"How were you able to dodge that?"
Kanzuho chuckled,
"I have eyes that are better even then the Sharingan. You can't hit me with those pathetic spikes of yours. Kakashi, leave the fight to me, I can deal with this prey."
Kakashi looked down at the wolf and nodded slightly, doubtful. Shinji snorted.
"You, an animal! You can't beat me!"
"Your confidence is overrated. I am not a normal wolf, I am a Demon wolf, I am more powerful then you so shut up and get out of our way!"
Shinji growled and shot spikes at Kanzuho, which he easily dodged and ran closer to Shinji, who was desperately trying to shoot spikes at the wolf, who dodged every one of them. When Kanzuho was close enough, he jumped, snarling. Shinji just managed to dodge the attack and punched Kanzuho in the chest, sending him flying to the edge of the clearing with a surprised yelp. Kanzuho got up and shook his head, and snarled at Shinji, who was laughing,
"Whose confidence is overrated now!" He screamed, sending several spikes at Kanzuho. Kanzuho lifted his muzzle and howled, the spikes, which were coming in fast, bounced off some invisible shield that surrounded Kanzuho. Shinji blinked, surprised.
Suddenly, Kanzuho opened his jaw and growled such a menacing growl that it made the hair on the back of Kakashi's neck stand up, behind him, he felt Hinata shudder. Then Kakashi noticed that Kanzuho's teeth were getting longer and thicker, as was his fur. He was growing in size as well, and taking a more humanoid form. When the transformation was complete, Kanzuho was the size of a human and stood on two legs, in fact, he looked the same as a werewolf from fictional stories. Kanzuho lifted his muzzle and howled, and then turned his deep blood red eyes to Shinji, who was frozen to the spot in fear. He cried out and shot a couple of spikes at Kanzuho, who brushed them aside with one arm, and, with demonic speed, raced at Shinji. Before the man could cry out, Kanzuho was on him, growling at him, staring at him with his demonic eyes. Shinji screamed and cried,
"Please s-s-stop it! I'll do anything, just please stop it!"
Kakashi jumped down, the others landed behind him.
"Kanzuho, stop that, I want to ask him questions."
Kanzuho looked at him and nodded, returning to his wolf state, still standing on the violently shaking Shinji. Kakashi approached them and knelt beside them. He grabbed Shinji by the vest and asked,
"Where's Naruto?"
The man, still shaking, said,
"Kiyomi is taking him to her lab, a three day journey from here. It's a straight path; you will know you are there when you come to some mountains, her lab lies in the tallest mountain."
"Thank you." Kakashi said simply, knocking the man out. He stood up and looked at the others, who were staring at Kanzuho. Kakashi also looked at Kanzuho and he asked,
"What did you do to him, he was petrified."
Kanzuho chuckled and said,
"Have you ever seen Demon eyes before?"
Kakashi hesitated and nodded slightly. The wolf nodded,
"Scares you, doesn't it? Even the bravest man cannot stand against Demon eyes. Shall we go now?"
Sasuke glared at the demon wolf that they were following, thinking about what the thing said about demon eyes. He then remembered in the forest of death, when Naruto saved him from that snake. When Sasuke saw his eyes, he was shit scared. Those eyes were evil, and Sasuke was paralyzed with fear. He had never been so scared in his life. He shook his head, trying to get the image of those blood red eyes out from his mind. Sakura, who was traveling beside him, asked,
"Are you alright, Sasuke-kun?"
"Yea, I'm fine." Sasuke lied and jumped on ahead.
For two days they chased Kiyomi and Naruto, with Kanzuho leading the way and reassuring them that they were catching up to them. To Hinata, it didn't feel like it. On the morning of the third day, Hinata woke up and looked about. Neji was the only one awake, as he was on guard duty. Hinata got up looked through the forest, and then she thought she saw mountains. She jumped up into a tree, climbed to the very top and looked out at the range of large mountains, and she felt overjoyed. They were closer! She looked at the mountain range and easily spotted the highest one there. Her mouth fell open, it was easily ten times larger then all the others, the top third of it was lost in the clouds, which swirled around its snow covered peak. She jumped down, worried. How were they meant to find Kiyomi's lab on that! She landed at the tree base, to find that everyone else had woken during her absence.
Kanzuho, who was seated next to the fire, looked at her and said,
"Well, what did you see?"
Hinata looked at the direction of the mountains and said very quietly,
"It's huge, the largest one is."
"So we're close?" Kanzuho asked, evidently catching Hinata's quiet words with his sharp ears.
Hinata looked at the others and nodded. In a few minutes, everyone was ready and they climbed into the trees, wanting to look at the mountain range themselves. They were surprised at the size of the thing and Sakura asked how were they meant to find Naruto in that, and Kanzuho reassured her that he can follow Naruto's scent, so there would be no problem.
They carried on, hoping that they would reach Naruto in time to prevent Kiyomi killing him. They reached the edge of the mountain range; the largest mountain was a good ten miles into the range, so they had a lot of trekking to do.
Hinata sighed; it would be very difficult as the smaller mountains were steep and ragged, not very good for climbing. Kakashi and Gai, however, went on, determined to get Naruto back.
Hinata started to climb the first mountain, and by the time they reached the top, it was sunset. It seemed as if it would take forever to reach the mountain, and she was sure that the people that had Naruto were in the mountain. They rested on the peak, unwilling to go further as it would be far too dangerous to descend the cliff at night, which was fast approaching. Hinata looked over towards the mountain, wanting to get there as soon as possible. The mountains around them were white as they had a fresh layer of snow on them, so Hinata could clearly see a few animals dart about on the mountains. She watched a group of three dark dots, on a mountain five miles from where they sat. She stood up; staring intently at the dots- they did not seem like animals.
"What is it?" Asked Kanzuho, who had come to sit beside her. Hinata didn't reply, but pointed at the three black dots climbing the mountain ahead of them. Kanzuho glared at the dots and raised his voice,
"Kakashi, I think Hinata found our kidnappers."
Kakashi came and stood on the other side of Kanzuho and looked at the three dots climbing the mountain. The others also came to look at what Hinata had seen.
"Is Naruto there?" Kakashi asked, Kanzuho shook his head,
"I cannot really see from this distance, but I bet he will be with them. Everyone, rest now, we have a lot of climbing to do tomorrow."
Everyone woke early and ate a quick breakfast in time for sunrise. Kakashi looked out into the mountain range and saw that Kiyomi was not there anymore. They had to hurry to get their missing comrade. They continued to descend the mountain and then climb the next two. They were making better time then Kakashi thought they should. They stopped the night and continued in the morning. They were just a day's climb from the larger mountain. Kanzuho said that they were still on the trail, though Kiba had said that Akamaru couldn't pick up any kind of trail- the snow interfered too much, but Kanzuho said that his nose was better then Akamaru's, and told Kiba to shut up- rather rudely actually.
At the end of the day, they reached the base on the mountain and setting up camp to start the climb the next day. Kanzuho, however, was on edge. He was sniffing intently at a piece of ice embedded in the snow. Kiba looked darkly at the black wolf and said acidly,
"What, is the trail in the ice now?"
Kanzuho looked at Kiba, his eyes narrowed.
"No, this ice smells like the enemy and, there is a spot of blood here. It's not Naruto's, it smells like the ice. Keep your guard up, an enemy could be near."
Neji, who was sat near the fire with Hinata, stood up and activated his Byakugan. He looked about and then pointed to a snow-covered rock 50 metres from camp.
"There."
Sasuke smirked and approached the rock, doing hand seals.
"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!"
A large ball of flame extended from his mouth, melting the snow around the rock. When Sasuke finished the jutsu, he looked to see if he had done any damage. Suddenly, a voice above Sasuke said,
"Up here, little dragon!"
Sasuke looked up and managed to dodge just in time as ten kunai were thrown at him. The figure landed and smirked.
Unlike Shinji, this person's face was very elegant and well proportioned. He had Emerald green eyes with thick eyelashes and a well sized nose. His mouth was hidden by the collar of his coat, which was like Shino's, but ankle length and a snow white colour. His Light brown hair was waist length and was in a plait down his back. In fact, Kakashi thought that it was a woman at first, until he spoke in a light tenor voice.
The man looked around at them all and said,
"You seemed to have defeated Shinji, but he is weak. I am far stronger then him. I shall kill you all here and now."
R&R!!