Another month, another chapter. Thanks for all of your support. It really makes writing fics that much more fun.
Anyways, response!
Shinkouhren: I'm not sure about the spelling, but yes, it is the Fuuenken, although it will have a different name in this fic. Like Sasuke's sword is based off of the Furaiken, but I called it Chidori to tie it in more with the Naruto world.
Lone Sakura: I'm kind of leaning towards making at least one lemon, although I'm not too sure about that. Limes, though, is something that will have to be includedI think. Sorry. I'll post warnings aboutthem if I must.
Sephynarutocloud: I'm not too sure if pimp is the correct term to use to describe Naruto, although I can understand why you may think so. However, you will discover exactly why Naruto can't become much of a pimp later (two or three chapters).
Konodraike: Yes, they were speaking a very watered down version of 1337. Basically, I only replaced a, e, i, and o with numbers.
Yami no Katon Karura: Happy belated birthday!
Kikuchou: I go into explaining why Naruto smokes a bit more this chapter, although ultimately it will be explained in two or three chapters. Oh, and you spelled smoker wrong. But for your sake, their is more interaction between Naruto and Hinata.
Chapter 6: Suspicion
Strutting down the path, Naruto had his own sword in its sheath. He had a cigarette in his mouth, carelessly smoking. In his right hand, he carried Zabuza's blade over his shoulder. On either side of him, great flames roared, licking the air. They cast their light onto the path, but the surrounding areas remained dark. It was as if the darkness itself fed off of the light.
He could hear screams emanating from the fires. Voices of those who failed the test on Judgment Day.
The poor bastards.
Oh well, he had a job to do. Ignoring the cries of agony, he walked farther down the path until he reached a giant gate, a large lock in front of it. Stopping, he withdrew his sword from the sheath. In a fluid motion, he stabbed it into the lock. It closed around his sword and a small beam of light emanated from the lock before it disappeared. Withdrawing the sword, he put it away and pushed open the gate.
Taking a breath, he stepped into the city of Hell. As soon as the gates closed, the hellish screams desisted. The place looked very much like a capital of a shinobi kingdom, minus a hospital. The walls surrounding the city were made of stone while the other buildings were constructed to match the manner of the human world. Walking down the street to his destination, he watched as pairs of eyes stared at him. They knew who he was. No one in Hell forgets a face easily.
'I don't belong here. It's been too long since I had to leave,' Naruto thought to himself. His memories of this place were filled with pain, as he had been an outcast because of his feelings on particular subjects very early in his life here. However, the fact that he was able to attract most of the demonesses, as well as the most powerful one, made him become disliked even more by the male population. Setting his eyes on his destination, he continued down the path to the tallest building in the city.
When he reached the tower, the doors automatically opened for him, revealing to him an elevator (it is predicted that the humans would invent it in about a decade). He approached it and watched the doors slowly slide open. Making sure that Zabuza's blade would fit inside, he walked in and pressed one of the only two buttons available, the one that pointed up.
He felt the machine slowly pulling him up before accelerating (it was an express elevator, something humans would invent in two decades). It slowed down as it reached the top.
Ding
The express elevator opened and Naruto stepped out, still smoking his cigarette, still clutching Zabuza's sword. The room was a throne, a red carpet leading up to a chair located a few steps above the floor. He approached the chair before bowing.
"N4rut0-kun, 1t 1s n1ce t0 s33 y0u 4g41n," a slithery voice said.
"G00d d4y, 0r0ch1m4ru-s4m4," Naruto replied. In front of him sat Orochimaru, the equivalent of the devil. He wore a white suit with a black tie (those would come into fashion in about fifty years). His eyes had a purple shadow to it. Naruto had asked him why he wore it while he still lived in Hell, but Orochimaru simply replied that he was born with them.
"1 s33 th4t y0u h4v3 br0ught Z4buz4's sw0rd t0 m3."
"H3 0rd3r3d m3 t0 d0 s0."
"1 s33. V3ry w3ll, w3 sh4ll t4k3 th3 sw0rd b4ck th3n." Orochimaru clapped his hands, and two servants took the sword away, taking it to who knew where. "H4v3 y0u c0m3 t0 s33 h3r?" he asked.
"N0," Naruto replied. "0ur r3l4t10nsh1p 1s 0n3 th4t m0st l1k3ly w1ll n0t l4st. 1 m34n, 1 h4v3 b33n b4n1sh3d fr0m H3ll 4nd f0rc3d t0 l1v3 0n w1th hum4ns. S331ng h0w sh3 c4n 0nly v1s1t dur1ng 4 m1ss10n, 1t w1ll b3 t00 d1ff1cult t0 k33p 1n t0uch. W3'r3 3v3n tw0 d1ff3r3nt b31ngs!"
"Sh3 kn0ws th4t, but w41ts 0nly f0r y0u."
Naruto became frustrated. "1 t0ld h3r t0 m0v3 0n w1th h3r l1f3! W3 h4v3 n0 futur3 t0g3th3r."
"Sh3 h4s b3s33ch3d m3 t0 b4n1sh h3r 4s w3ll s0 th4t sh3 c0uld b3 w1th y0u, d3sp1t3 0bv10us d1ff3r3nc3s. H0w3v3r, 1 d3cl1n3d 34ch t1m3 0n y0ur b3h4lf."
"G00d. Sh3 sh0uld kn0w th4t w3 h4v3 n0 ch4nc3 t0g3th3r. G00d d4y, 0r0ch1m4ru-s4m4." Naruto turned and walked to the elevator, signifying that their conversation had come to an end.
He left the way he came: down the elevator, through the street, through the gate, into the Pit, through the path, until he found the portal he entered from.
With a heavy heart, he left Hell.
River BorderUchiha Sasuke took a deep breath before doing his best to let it out in a calm manner.
The mist had lifted itself and he was finally able to survey the battlefield. It was not pretty. Bodies littered the green grass, the blood dying it a brownish red. The some corpses had arrows sticking out of their body. Others had some rips in their flesh or pieces of their body missing. More had died in a peaceful-looking manner.
But the most had died from a single clean slash wound, obvious signs that Naruto carried them through this battle. Swallowing, he searched for Sakura. The shoulder wound, although most likely minor, seemed very deep.
She was bleeding. Lots.
And she seemed to be in much pain.
He really had to stop exaggerating things. It was a shoulder wound, for crying out loud! Those don't bleed much. If it were deep, her arm would have been hanging off of a piece of flesh instead of staying jointed. And pain was something Sakura was used to.
So why was he so worried?
…
Ignoring the thought, Sasuke looked around for any flash of pink.
There.
Running, he headed to where the pink was. "Sakur-"
"What makes you think you could do that, Kiba?" Maeka interrupted Sasuke. She didn't know of course; her back was turned toward him. She had a mortified blush.
"Look, we were in the heat of a battle. We had no time to simply wait for you to get onto Akamaru, so shut the hell up bitch. Oh, don't look at me like that. I said that I would make it up to you, boy," Kiba said. He looked away, almost refusing to make eye contact with her. He had a faint blush dancing on his cheeks.
"Well you didn't have to touch my ass! You could have lifted me by my feet, even my waist!"
"Okay, I admit that I wasn't thinking straight at that moment."
"So then what the hell were you thinking, asshole? Trying to sneak a look at me from beneath, pervert?"
That was the last Sasuke heard from the conversation because he began to walk away, growling and muttering something about too much pink hair. He only hoped that someone would step up to stop them before it came to blows. Right as he was about to continue his search, he heard her voice.
"Uchiha-sama!" Sakura ran towards him. "Uchiha-sama, are you alright?" She seemed to be in a somewhat stable (non-teaching) mindset, so he conversed with her.
"I'm fine. How about you, Sa- I mean- Haruno-dono? Did Konohamaru take care of your wound?" he asked. He noticed that her shirt no longer sported the tear in the fabric; she must have changed her top after getting fixed up.
"Actually, Naruto did that," Sakura tapered off. Sasuke scowled. This Naruto person was powerful and dangerous. He didn't give much information about himself or his motives for joining him. For all Sasuke knew, Naruto could be after his head. And judging from his skill, he could very well take it.
"How are the others? Are they fine?" Sasuke changed the subject.
"They're fine. No wounds besides a few cuts and scratches. Naruto was able to kill most of them before they posed a real threat to us."
"I suppose that's good…" Sasuke took in a deep breath. He had been avoiding this subject, or perhaps he was a bit afraid. But he had to do it now. "Um… about two nights ago…"
"Hm?"
"I… I want to apologize about what I said," Sasuke said. He did his best to keep his voice straight. "I was angry that night and snapped." He bowed a little before quickly straightening his back.
"No, Uchiha-sama, it was I who stepped out of line. We shouldn't have played that trick on you. I'm sorry," Sakura said before bowing lower than he did.
"You don't have to apologize, I stepped out of line."
"No, no, I stepped out of line."
"But I did something stupid that night."
"But we should have-"
"Stop apologizing! I won't accept it when you're not at fault!"
"But I am at fault!"
"Well then, as your lord I command you to stop apologizing!"
Sakura opened her mouth to continue but closed it. "Yes, Uchiha-sama," she quietly said.
"Good. Come with me. I have a feeling that we'll need to separate your cousin from Kiba before she kills him," Sasuke said. Sakura nodded before following after him. She hung her head low and gave a sigh.
"What's wrong, Haruno-dono?" Sasuke said, turning to her.
"Oh… It's nothing," Sakura lied.
Then she remembered why she wanted to talk to him in the first place. "Uchiha-sama?"
"Yes, Haruno-dono?" Sasuke said, continuing to walk.
"When you were fighting Zabuza… what was going through your mind?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"Obviously, you were not using the Haruno Style. What made you give it up for the manner that you attacked in?"
"Well… I don't know. It felt like my instincts just told me to go on the offensive. And I did."
"Do you remember watching your brother train his swordsmanship with your father?" She really did not want to mention his brother, but she needed to in order to confirm her hunch.
"… No." Sasuke spat. The mere mention of Itachi still set him aflame with anger. Calming down a bit, he continued. "My father and… Itachi always trained away from me to prevent me from learning to Uchiha Style."
"So you've never seen it?" Sakura asked.
"Never. Why?"
"Well… the last one. The stab you killed Zabuza with."
"What about it?"
"That was an Uchiha Style technique."
Sasuke stopped in his tracks and slowly turned to face her.
"What?"
"It's true."
"How would you know?"
"Before all this happened, I was the representative of the Haruno house, being the strongest in it. Your father once invited me to watch a training session between him and your brother. I saw Itachi use that strike before. He almost killed your father that day."
"Well it doesn't matter now. What matters now is that we separate your cousin from Kiba." And Sasuke began to run towards the mentioned pair (Maeka had just lunged at Kiba and tackled him to the ground). Sakura followed close behind him.
ElsewhereAs soon as Naruto stepped back into the human realm, the tiny fox felt his lazy presence. As soon as he could, he leapt off of a distracted Hinata's shoulder and bounded after him as fast as his legs could carry.
So it was no wonder when Kitsune-chan located Naruto within a minute. As soon as it did, the small fox took on a happy demeanor and crouched low on its front legs, wagging its tail at a fast pace.
"Aren't you happy to see me," Naruto replied. Wearing a small smile, he bent down a bit and scratched behind the fox's ears. After reappearing on the grassy side of the river where Zabuza fell, he quickly relocated himself to the forest on the opposite side.
It gave a small, happy yelp.
"I suppose you want your payment?"
The animal summon could barely contain its joy.
"Well you did earn it. Just to warn you though, this may feel weird. Not painful, just weird. It might still feel a bit strange after it's done, but you'll get used to it. Now, close your eyes."
The small fox did so. Naruto closed his eyes and muttered several words in his native language. He then quickly opened them and snapped his fingers, pointing towards the small fox.
"…"
"…"
The small fox continued to stare at Naruto, sitting on its haunches.
"And we're done!" Naruto said. He began to walk past the small animal summon, but it gave off a small confused growl. Naruto turned around.
"What? Don't believe me? Take a look."
The small fox took a look at its body.
Well, it couldn't distinguish too much. But the grass blades seemed to be shorter. It wasn't much shorter (the grass around him reached about half his standing height), but it was better nonetheless. However, there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary. His fur color had not changed, his paws were the same, and his snout (as far as it could tell), was the same. It gave one more saddened glance over its body, counting every part of body.
One head, four feet, two eyes, two ears, countless hairs, two tails, countless teeth, and –
…
Hey!
He had two tails!
Upon recognizing the new feature, he immediately stood up on his four legs and turned his head around to get a closer look at his tails, thus turning his body.
He did it again.
And again…
And again…
And-
"That's enough now. You'll never catch your own tails until they get really long. And then you'll realize that doing so has no point, so hurry back to Hinata. She's probably worried sick about where you are," Naruto said. "I'll give you a head start as to make it seem like you got lost. Or chased after a rabbit. Or something."
Kitsune-chan gave a small yelp of affirmation before bounding away, enjoying the feeling of being slightly taller.
Naruto simply pulled out a cigarette and started smoking. He slowly began to count to two hundred.
The small fox had pinpointed Hinata's smell. Weaving through the mess of bodies and blood, he leapt into her arms and sneaked a quick lick onto her cheek, wagging his tails a bit. She petted his head a bit.
"Where did you disappear to? You just leapt off my shoulder and then disappeared." Hinata had her Byakuugan activated, having used it to look for the small kitsune.
The small fox simply smiled.
She smiled a bit. Something had changed in the small kitsune. She noticed that it had gotten a bit bigger but she felt like she was missing something. She moved her hand along the small animal summon's back and stopped at its haunches. Hinata noticed that Kitsune-chan had two tails.
She almost dropped him out of surprise. "When did you get two tails? I thought you only had one!"
The animal summon in question simply wagged them faster, as if he was happy for someone to have noticed. He licked her cheek again and leapt back onto her shoulder, back onto his resting place.
"Well, I guess it just confirms Konohamaru-kun's guess." Hinata looked at the seal on her right forearm once again.
Just what the hell was going on?
That wasn't truly important though. Right now, she saw Neji and Konohamaru supporting a tired-looking Tenten. She would have gone over to help, but she spotted Kiba and Maeka fighting again with her Byakuugan, so she ran to help break it up.
"Crazy bitch!" Kiba yelled while dodging. It was obvious that he was on the defensive, almost afraid to strike back at the pink-haired rogue. Rushing over, Hinata spotted Prince Sasuke and Sakura running towards the pair to separate them. However, before the three could reach them, Kiba had almost tripped over a rock. Using this moment, Maeka lunged forward and tackled him to the ground.
"I'll teach you some manners!" Maeka yelled as she began to beat Kiba into the ground. Akamaru latched onto Maeka's arm, but she easily shook him off. However, before she could land a third punch, she felt two pairs of strong arms reach under her arms and quickly restraining them. "Let me at him!" she yelled, straining against her captors.
"Maeka, what's going on here?" Sakura said.
"This asshole copped a feel of my… my…" Maeka paused, a red blush adorning her cheeks. "He groped me!"
Sakura turned to him. "You WHAT?"
"Haruno-dono, please. We need to-" Sasuke began. But he was cut off as Sakura quickly whirled around.
"That's Sakura-sensei to you, damn it! As for you…" she said to Kiba, who suddenly wished that he were some place else. Sakura simply ended her statement with the cracking of her knuckles. She went low and started to punch Kiba in the face. "Don't even think about touching her!"
There was no way Sasuke could help Kiba now. He was able to suppress Maeka, but both of the Pinkheads were another story. Thankfully, Hinata had rushed to the scene and quickly disabled Sakura before she could do anymore damage to poor Kiba, sending the crazed teacher unconscious. Sasuke, glad that she was out of the way for now, quickly lifted Maeka to her feet before unceremoniously pushing her away from a bruised Kiba.
"Kasen, Inuzuka, this is your last warning. I don't care if you're my sensei's cousin, I don't care if you are skilled on the battlefield. If I catch either of you causing possible physical harm to each other, I will kill you both," Sasuke seethed. Kiba and Maeka looked silently at Sasuke as he walked away.
"Come on," Sasuke said, his back turned to them, "we need to collect these crests. We'll sell them and split the money between ourselves."
The collecting was on schedule. On schedule was good. Very good.
Of course, Naruto was nowhere to be found. That was bad. Very bad.
What if Naruto had ditched them after helping them out in one battle? As much as Sasuke didn't want to admit, he was stronger than he was.
Sighing, Sasuke knelt down to pick up another crest from the ground.
The fact that Sakura hadn't said much about Naruto worried him. What if he was a spy sent by his brother?
Sakura still had return to consciousness though. Hinata seemed to have hit her fairly hard to knock her out for so long.
He was worried. How couldn't he be? His teacher and most trusted bodyguard wasn't guarding him right now. Also, she was not in the best of condi-
"You're thinking about her, aren't you?"
Sasuke jumped and turned around to meet the blue eyes of Naruto. And a face full of smoke
His first reaction was to act strong and cough a bit from the haze. "No." Sasuke quickly denied. Wanting to change the subject, he said, "I never knew you smoked."
Naruto smirked. "Well now you do. And don't lie to me. I can read you like a scroll."
Sasuke ignored him and continued to pick up crests from the fallen bodies.
"…"
"…"
"Sakura's dead."
"What?" Sasuke turned to him only to see a large (Sasuke added the adjective foxish, knowing very well that it was not a word and that he could have used foxy but that felt too weird for him) grin.
"Gotcha. I think you like her."
Sasuke blushed a tiny bit before turning away. There was no way in hell that this guy would trick him again. "That was not funny, Naruto."
"It wasn't supposed to be funny. Sakura is fine and she should be waking within the hour."
"I do not like her."
"Of course you do."
"No, I don't."
"Don't lie to yourself."
"I do not like her, okay?" Sasuke turned around and yelled at Naruto. "She is simply my bodyguard. No more, no less."
"Alright then. Deny it. But trust me. This will get harder with each passing day. You constantly be in close proximity with her and then things might get ugly," Naruto warned, walking away, taking puffs from his cigarette. Sasuke simply resumed collecting crests.
But he was now plagued by even more thoughts.
As for Naruto, he simply walked around, absentmindedly smoking. He didn't exactly know why he started smoking. It was bad for his health; he knew that very well. But when he took what he was into consideration, it didn't really matter. So he just kept smoking. All he knew was that there was some guy called Asuma involved.
"Na-Naruto-kun."
He turned around.
It was Hinata. "Hi," he nonchalantly said. Naruto watched as she did her best to gather her courage.
He looked so different when compared to being far away. His face seemed toradiate happiness and beauty. She noticed that he wore a necklace with a stone at the end. It looked like it was made from something not found on earth, its crystal blue-green color drawing her in. she averted her eyes from the necklace and to his face.
"I… I know that y-you were in the forest talking with Kitsune-chan last night."
"What makes you so sure?"
"I-I saw you. I know I did."
Naruto smiled his foxy smile. "Oh, I get it. Why, if I weren't so smart, I'd have thought you were hitting on me."
"Th-That's not what I mean!" Hinata yelled, her face turning scarlet. "You w-were in the forest, and you were talking to K-Kitsune-chan. And you had two fox ears… And t-tails! N-Nine of them!"
Naruto walked up to her and put the back of his hand against her head.
"W-What are you doing?" she nervously asked, deeply blushing.
"I'm checking if you have a fever. But you seem okay, so I guess you're just making all this up." He pulled his hand back. Hinata looked hurt.
"Look, I know this sounds mean but… maybe you should see a doctor for this," he said, trying to make her feel a bit better.
"B-But…"
He didn't like emotionally hurting people. He really didn't. It went against everything he had been taught during the many years it took him to grow up. But he couldn't tell her the truth. Not yet.
But he could try to allude to it, couldn't he? Give her the benefit of the doubt?
"And even then, you should mind your own business."
She felt like she was going to cry.
"But… being a shinobi, it's kind of your job to snoop around. So far, I think you've done a good job," Naruto said.
She looked up.
He started to walk away.
"Just learn to read underneath the underneath and keep your findings to yourself."
Eventually, Sakura had awoken and the group crossed the river, stepping into Rock Territory. They went towards the direction of the Rock Kingdom's capital. The surroundings became rockier until they reached a small patch of trees, where they decided to set up camp.
It was nighttime after the battle with Zabuza and his men.
It was the quietest meal they ever had. Barely anyone talked. Everyone was too focused on what had transgressed that day.
Ninety-nine of Konoha's shinobis and a valuable commander had been killed at the hands of ten people.
All of them were looking at Naruto, who was eating with a thoughtful look, paying no attention to them. They were all staring with great intensity. So intense, that Hinata did not even know that Kitsune-chan had left her shoulder.
After having eaten some pieces of meat that she gave him, he was now slowly wandering close to the fire. He was curious and wanted to see what it exactly was, but Hinata wouldn't let him get close.
But now was his chance. Slowly, he walked closer and closer to the steady flame.
A branch in the fire cracked and sent sparks flying outwards, startling the small two-tailed fox and making him scurry back to Hinata. Leaping into the air, he landed on her chest, knocking her out of her reverie and focusing on him.
She let out a surprised cry and almost didn't catch him in time. Of course, this attracted everyone else's attention. Doing her best to ignore the stares, she gently petted the trembling fox.
And then someone noticed it.
"Hey, that fox has two tails!" Maeka said out loud. And then everyone was looking at the fox.
Naruto, of course, was still out in his own little world.
There was much squabble about the scared fox's two tails. Almost everyone had gone up to pet it, causing the panic in the small fox to multiply and he shrank into Hinata's arms even further, shaking uncontrollably. Konohamaru, however, told the group to stay back. "The only way this fox could have gained another tail is if the Kyuubi no Kitsune gave it to him."
"What's that?" Maeka asked.
"A demon."
Naruto flinched at the word of demon.
"Touching this fox could kill you." The silence that settled afterwards was tense. Konohamaru walked over to Hinata. "Did the fox give you a seal?"
Hinata nodded her head.
"Show me please."
She gently set the small fox down (who immediately hopped into the hood of her sweater) and she pulled back the sleeve, revealing her right forearm.
"I thought so. You've been given the seal," Konohamaru said grimly.
"W-What does it mean?" Hinata nervously asked.
"I'm not too sure yet, but from what my gramps knows, this seal seems to attract bad luck."
Silence filled the glade they were in once more.
"I say we call it a night," Sasuke said, doing his best to break the tension. "We've had a tough day and I think it would be best for us to rest."
"Who will be night watch though?" Kiba said.
"I'll do it."
Everyone turned to look at Naruto. "I'm not particularly tired, so I'll do it." He got up and walked away, already on the job. 'I hate that word...'
"We'll we need two so-"
"I'll join him too!" Sakura quickly said, standing up. She put on a quick smile.
Silence.
"Sakura-sensei…" It pained Sasuke for him to use that name in front of everyone, "You don't even have a sword."
"Are you saying that I can't take care of myself?" she said. He could feel anger rolling off of her.
"N-No. I have full confidence in you," he quickly said.
"Good." And Sakura walked away.
Sasuke turned to the rest of the group. "I think you guys should rest. You had a hard day on the battlefield." Complying, everyone but Hinata went to his or her individual tents. She stayed in front of the fire.
Kitsune-chan had crawled out of her hood and was once again sitting on her shoulder. He could sense that something was saddening her. Had he done something wrong? Carefully, he leaned over and gave Hinata a gentle lick. Smiling, she gently picked him off of her shoulder and cradled his body. Staring into his eyes, she said, "I don't care if you gave me this curse or not. You're my pet, and I will take care of you."
She got up and put out the fire (much to Kitsune-chan's delight) and set off for her tent.
Hinata noticed that Sasuke did not head for his tent. "U-Uchiha-sama, you should get some rest. You s-said so yourself."
"I'll do so later. I've got to keep an eye on Sakura and Naruto. I don't trust him yet, and Sakura doesn't have a sword."
"Oh… O-Okay then." She entered her tent and Sasuke set out to follow Naruto.
I need your opinion on something. I've been thinking about it for a while and I want your input.
Should I put one of two Naruto stories that I am writing on hold and focus on the other one, or should I continue with what I'm doing right now, switching back and forth between each one?