CHAPTER ONE:
"No, no, I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry! Just don't hurt me!"
"You owe us a bunch of money, whoever you are!"
"I know, I just - I just don't have the money! I'm s-sorry!" The tall lean teenager sank to his knees. It was all over unless they were distracted somehow, these leaf ninja.
Idate looked around desperately, but just out of the corner of his eye in hope that they wouldn't notice. He was trapped amid the trees, up against the trunk of one with nowhere left to back up: the ninja had him surrounded. He could sense their presence behind and ahead of him, perched on the thicker branches or crouched on the ground, hiding in the deepest shadows where his untrained eyes would never find them. The only one that was showing himself was the blond dressed in bright orange. Stupid for a ninja, to wear fluorescent colors. If you wanted to camouflage, you had to be as dark as the woods, as brown as the field grasses themselves, as tan as the sand of the desert. He wasn't qualified for any of the situations.
"Last chance, you punk! Pay up, or you'll pay my way!" The orange one again. The one that wouldn't shut up. The idiot was giving him a headache.
But in dismissing this kid, classifying him as non-dangerous, Idate was nearly unable to dodge the shuriken that was flung in his face. The ninja must have reached into his pack in less than an instant, or his eyes would've caught the movement. With reflexes and stunning speed like that, Idate decided not to take his chances. Leaning back and staring wide eyed at the throwing star's quivering form in the tree, however, there was no way he would've been able to know that even if he hadn't tried to twist away, it would've missed.
Mentally, Idate surrendered. He couldn't pay them, and he couldn't get away. They were ninja. If he tried to run, he'd get a shuriken through his stomach within a matter of seconds. The mistake he'd made had proved to be a very costly, even life-threatening one. He hadn't known his was leaving his bill to ninjas. He supposed it was stupid of him to not notice the hitai-ate they were wearing on their foreheads, but he had never really been the type to notice details. But he had really gotten himself in trouble this time, any way he looked at it, and he couldn't count on Boss Jirocho to come and save his butt again. He didn't know what level the ninja hidden in the trees were. They had to be higher up than the idiot, anyway. He could only pray that they'd cut him some slack since he really had no cash on him, not a single ryou.
"I-I can't pay you. I don't have enough money to cover the restaurant bill." A hint of desperation crept into his voice, even though he didn't know it. He didn't want them to hurt him, was all. He'd been through too much for that to be added on top. Unconsciously, he reached for the pocket knife the Boss had given him. It was the thing that had comforted him over the past few years, kept him sane. It's intention isn't to hurt people, Idate, he had said. Well, it would if it had to.
"A-ha! Give us that thing! What is it, anyway?" asked the orange one, waving at his brown pocket knife, which he now clenched in his hand. Idate cringed, and clutched the knife closer to his body. There was no way they were getting that. They'd have to kill him first.
"No! I can't give you it, this is mine!" Now Idate was getting angry. He couldn't get pushed around like this by that loser. There was no way. If he couldn't get out of this, couldn't beat him, then he really was worthless after all, something he'd been telling himself he wasn't for a long time.
Quick as he could, Idate got to his feet while dislodging the shuriken from the tree. Then he hurled it as hard as it would go at the orange ninja. The boy cried out in pain as it grazed his shoulder, but he had managed to leap mostly out of the way. Otherwise it would've been a deadly shot, though it had been years since Idate had last even looked upon a throwing star.
But when the ninja looked back up from the ground, Idate was gone. The distraction had worked.
"Naruto! Are you okay?" Sakura's voice wafted down through the trees somewhere on his left. Then she was beside him, scanning the forest in every direction to see where that Idate guy had gone (so she'd fallen for it too. HAH! At least he wasn't the only one again . . .). Either that, or she was still trying to find Sasuke. The show-off had hidden himself so well (again) that no eye without a kekkei genkai of some sort could've found him. Why did he always have to be so naturally good at everything? It was hardly fair. Some people actually had to work their butts off to be ninjas.
"Now, now he's in for it! Did you see that, Sakura? That guy who was flirting with you in the restaurant ten minutes ago just tried to KILL me!" Naruto growled.
"Well then, maybe, you should just let it go." Sasuke dropped down noiselessly (as usual) on his right. "Some guys don't like to be messed with, Naruto. But of course someone like you probably would never understand that kind of thing."
"Yeah, Sasuke's right," chimed in Sakura. That only worsened Naruto's mood. Why did she always have to go and say that? Sasuke's right, Sasuke's perfect, Sasuke this, Sasuke that, all the time. It was all that ever came out of her mouth.
"I take it you're not going to listen to me, though. In that case, he went that way," Sasuke gestured coolly to a direction vaguely to the right. He looked so bored, he could've yawned. And yet, he was the only one who had seen right through the distraction.
"This guy's mine!" yelled Naruto. He grabbed his injured shoulder and ran hard to the right. After all, he wanted his money back. And there was a lot of it, too.
I'm losing them, I'm losing them, I'm - gah!
The root had come out of nowhere. One second the ground was solid in front of him and the next his foot was trapped between coarse bark and unyielding ground. Idate let out a startled yelp as he fell forward, and barely managed to catch himself in time.
Well, that was gonna hurt tomorrow.
Oh - oh no. I've wasted too much time! No! They're on my tail right now, I know it, and I just wasted my distraction! There's no way I'll outrun them now!
That was his second mistake of the day. And he never made more than one a day. Suddenly, he felt something coming on, something bad. Whatever it was, it was worse than the threat of a few genin-level ninja. He shivered, but forgot about it almost immediately. That was just about the least of his troubles. He had to focus on the task at hand instead of giving in to his animal instincts, which tended to be wrong.
The outlook really wasn't good at all, Idate realized when he tried to lift himself up for a final stand but couldn't. He must've twisted his ankle on that (stupid) root, because it kept giving out and hurting to hell and back when he tried to put any weight on it. Oh, not good, not good. His legs and his speed had been Idate's only defenses.
"A decorative pocket knife against a kunai will turn out to be completely useless," he muttered to himself as he finally (painfully) got to his feet.
"You got THAT right!" yelled the orange ninja, charging him from the front, launching himself with a kunai outstretched at Idate. "Pay up!"
What is he - is he actually going to k-kill me? Idate's eyes took in the kunai and the look on the ninja's face, fear taking over. He had no time to twist out of the way. It didn't matter whether he had trained his reflexes to perfection or not, his body was just too slow to respond to his thought.
Ba-bump, ba-bump.
Idate's heart was pounding. What to do, what to do? His hand had raised his knife up in front of his face without any commands from the mind once again, in a feeble attempt to defend him. The action was a subconscious last resort, a kind of desperation. Idate just didn't want to die, that was all. Not yet.
Putting up the knife was his third mistake. Most likely, the thin metal could crack or bend from the force the kunai put on it. It wouldn't help with much anyway.
This feels like a lamb going up against a dragon. Those kinds of odds never end up well. For the lamb at least.
Ba-bump, ba-bump.
Aww, what a day this had turned out to be. Rotten stroke of luck. He'd made mistake after mistake. Not only would he lose his life, his gift from the Boss would also be ruined.
Ba-bump, ba-bump.
Idate wasn't ready to die that day. He had given up, not yet understanding that the young ninja was not actually going to hurt him. He wasn't the type to kill about stupid things like these. But the fear was real, and he couldn't quench it. His eyes were widening and his lips parted slightly in shock. But, though he didn't know it, Idate was closely watched by Kami, and the god disliked it when anyone hurt the boy. So he sent him a miracle.
"Back off!" screamed a different voice, not one of the ninja, but someone else.
The next thing any of them knew, the orange ninja was pinned against a beech tree by his neck, and she was there.
Hey guys! Yup, this is my very first fanfiction story ever, and I thought long and hard before deciding to do this. I'd REALLY appreciate a few reviews to see how I'm doing with this story, because to tell the truth, I dunno what people want to read . . . Well, as you can see, it starts off in the Todoroki Shrine Race Arc (cuz I really enjoyed that one . . .), but from this point on, it'll be my own interpretation of the story, and the basic Naruto plot will have a HUGE twist added in later. Also, I have a few OC's in there, including the Lost Uchiha and the End of the World character, so I hope you enjoy. Whether you really love it, or superbly hate it, PLEASE REVIEW! (yes, I'm absolutely desperate right now =)