A Long Road Ch 9
A Naruto Fan Fiction
I do not own Naruto
Ch 9: Burying Bodies
The night air was cool against Naruto's skin as he walked to the front gate. He had no idea what he was expecting on his new assignment, but whatever the circumstance he would have to be prepared. Instead of the sword that was normally strapped across his back was the rifle he had been working on.
Approaching the gate he could see that Asuma and Kiba had already arrived. "Where is Shikamaru?" Kiba turned to look at Naruto. "He's probably still sleeping, the lazy bastard." Naruto didn't need to be the smartest person in the world to know that Kiba was obviously not a morning person. "So what are the details on the mission?" he asked Asuma. "Assassination of a low rank government official north of Kumogakarue." (Village of lightning) "Any idea what we want him dead for?" "He has some information that we cant allow to fall into the wrong hands. But that was all the information I was given on the subject." Naruto was puzzled; usually ANBU would handle assassinations, so why weren't they assigned to the task? Just then Shikamaru came dragging his feet over to the group. "What took you so long?" barked Kiba. "My alarm went off late. So is everyone ready to go?" Naruto and Kiba nodded but Asuma spoke up "Before we leave I need to make one thing clear. We are not officially going in to Kumogakarue, and if we are caught we cannot request political aid form the village. Once we go in we will be on our own and no one will come to help if we are in danger. Got that?" Everyone agreed as they started to grasp the magnitude of the situation. "Now I will need your head bands so no one can identify us with Konoha." They complied and Asuma gave the markers to a guard at the gate who had been notified before hand. Without a word they departed down the road to Kumogakarue.
…..
4 days had past since they left the village and all conversation had been worn down to talking about the weather. The only one who was even mildly energetic was Kiba who had Akamaru to keep him company. Truth be told the group didn't have much in common except for Shikamaru and Asuma, and they spent most of the time playing Shogi. Naruto kept to himself most often keeping his gear maintained and polished occasionally looking in his spell book and righting notes.
When the journey began they had gone through Otogakarue (sound country) to find a ship that would take them to Kumogakarue undetected, from there they would make there way to the target and retrieve the sensitive information before he could get it to his superiors. It was a task that had a iron clad deadline, but they had no idea when that would be.
Naruto leaned over the side of the boat looking out over the ocean; unfortunately the fog was thick today so visibility was just over a kilometer. It would be helpful for slipping in without notice. Sliding out of the mist was land; he heard a call from the cabin informing them that they would be at the dock soon. As they approached the dock Naruto noticed that harbor was long abandoned and in need of some serious repair.
As the boat docked Kiba walked up behind Naruto and taped him on the shoulder. "Asuma wants to give us a final briefing before we go." Naruto nodded silently. They met down away form the ship so no one could hear them. Once everyone was accounted for Asuma spoke. "Our first stop will be a small town 5 kilometers north east from here. We will gather supplies and head for the targets location, which will be a 2-day's walk. Kiba if you or Akamaru smell anything alert us imminently. When we arrive Shikamaru will need to draw up a plan as soon as possible so we can neutralize the target. Naruto what kind of support can you give?" He hadn't anticipated being put on the spot like that and he stood silent for a moment. "Long range support or if we can get him out in the open I can take him down. I can also fight close range if need be." "Good. Now lets go we have a long walk ahead of us."
The seriousness of the situation sunk in quickly for the group as they all thought about it. If they were noticed by opposing forces they would have only themselves to look to for help. Kiba and Naruto were the only ones with a good amount of offensive techniques and would likely be the first ones to fall in a battle if it came to that.
No one talked as they traveled toward the first point in their real journey. The village would only be a short stop for food and anything they needed. All the same they would keep it low profile and hopefully the wrong people would not notice them. After that camping a few miles out of town would be safe enough. Shikamaru was the one they sent into town being the least recognizable of them all. Shikamaru thought that Naruto made a strange request when he asked him to find some refined led ore. Unfortunately there was none to be found but Naruto said it would not be a problem.
…
Later that night when the fire had died and no longer emulated the tents Naruto was the only one not asleep. He had the first watch and had not awakened Kiba for his shift even when it was overdue by 3 hours. He didn't want to overburden them when he could stay up for days at a time. A useful skill that had paid off more times then he could count.
He heard something faint. Footsteps off in the distance. "Crap." He muttered to himself. The moon wasn't out tonight so visibility was about 4 meters at its best, but he could tell that they couldn't be more then 100 meters away. He through a blanket over the glowing coals of the fire and completely silently moved up to where they were. His back to a thick tree the figures (3 or 4 of them) passed by unnoticing. He peered out and saw that they were four ninja; a Jonin among them and three others, nothing special. Heading towards the camp they showed no sign of changing course. He had no choice but to kill them now before things got worse. Naruto pulled out his combat knife and rubbed some dark ash on it that he had taken from the fire.
They obviously weren't expecting a fight because there formation was nonexistent, one was trailing a few steps back from two others, a boy and girl who seemed to interested in talking quietly about gossip, they followed a Jonin. Naruto ran up without a sound and grabbed the straggler by the mouth hugging him close and driving the six inch blade in below his Adams Apple it stuck out the back of his neck severing his spinal cord. The blade had been so sharp that it had barley made a sound, no one noticed. He laid the body on the ground gently and advanced with keeping a moderate distance. The girl seemed to notice the lack of sound coming from behind them and turned her head before Naruto could hide. "Shit!" she exclaimed startled. She had turned and jumped backwards away from him. Her friend was not so lucky and did not react quickly enough as Naruto ran forward and jammed the blade into his temple. The knife was now stuck in some thick bone Naruto could tell by the resistance and the sound it made when the man died. There was no time to pull the knife free and he charged directly at her tilting his body forward gaining force in his stride. Now she was back up to a tree with her kuni out. He grabbed it with his left gantlet and her head with his right smashing her cranium to the tree. The back collapsed and when he let go gore fell from the hole that was almost held together by loose flesh. The Jonin leader tackled Naruto to the ground and was about to plunge a kuni into his chest but Naruto grabbed his wrist. Struggling both of them pushed the weapon away from themselves and at the other. Finally after a drawn out struggle Naruto pushed the man off of him and jumped to his feet. The Jonin was getting to his feet when Naruto kicked him in the jaw. The man fell on his back and the tables were turned. He kicked the kuni out of his hand and pounced on top of him pinning one arm with his knee. Naruto sent punch after punch at his face and he put up his free arm to block desperately. He didn't stop punching until the Jonin stopped moving.
He dragged each of the mutilated corpses back to the camp and into a pile. Blood still dripping from his clothes all that crossed his mind was "Damn that was messy." Then looked around and found that the fight had awakened no one. He searched the Jonin and found a scroll describing their mission, they were not expected back for a day and a half which was plenty of time to leave this area, but after that they may be in for a bit of trouble. Burying the bodies would give them a bit more time to avoid tracker ninja but leaving the country may be more difficult then they originally planed.
He walked over to Kiba's tent and woke him with a shake. "Is it my shift?" he said in a sleepy mumble. "Ya but first you need to help me with something." They both exited the tent and Kiba was shocked. "What the fuck? Did you do this?" he said a little off put by the gore and blood. "They got to close." He said as if that was all the explanation needed. "Now help me bury them." the next while was spent in a silence. "How did you get all of them without waking us? These two look beat to death." Kiba asked with a guilty curiosity. Naruto told him what happened without much detail and they pushed the bodies into the hole, Naruto retrieved the knife out of the man's head letting the wait of the body dislodge it with the fall. The sickening noise it made caused Kiba to cringe but Naruto didn't seem to notice. They piled the dirt on top and packed it down to make it look natural. There were still dark red patches scattered on spots where the grass had died long ago.
They restocked the fire both unable to sleep, and sat on the tree trunk adjacent to it. Kiba looked up at Naruto. "So how did you learn to fight? Once Jiraiya passed I mean." He said. Naruto looked up pondering weather to tell him or not. He couldn't keep his past to himself forever. "Where to begin?"
…..
Thanks for reading
I would like to say that despite the extreme lateness of this chapter I have not lost interest. I was rushing my self most of the time and felt like I painted myself in to a corner.
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