Naruto: Acolyte of Jashin
Draknal: Ahem… upon the issue of update timing, I have no clean cut update schedule. I am a college student, and it is nearing the end of the semester, and as such I have many tests and papers, and projects, etc, that need to be completed. School comes first, writing second. However, I'm glad to see so many people are enjoying this.
I would like to address one thing however. Many people have asked me when Tayuya will be appearing. Soon enough people. Soon enough. Rest assured, I don't plan on taking half the story to get to her. There, now stop asking me!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, just the plot of this story.
Chapter 2
Konoha was in an uproar. It was gone! The demon was finally gone! News of Naruto's disappearance had spread like wildfire when ANBU were unable to locate him after the Kyuubi festival. The majority of the population had decided to celebrate the removal of the plague on their village. They and their children could finally live in peace, without the imminent threat of the demon boy.
Some however, the ninja population, were not so sure that this was the case. ANBU had found the corpses of a Jounin and two Chuunin in the woods just on the outskirts of the village. They had theorized that the Kyuubi brat had obviously been manipulated by the beast and had killed them. How else could a seven year old civilian defeat three seasoned ninja?
The Sandaime Hokage let out a sigh as he sat back in his chair. There was no way Naruto could have killed those Konoha nin. People speculated that he used the power of the Kyuubi. If that was the case, every ninja in the village would have felt the enormous release of power. As it stood, nothing of the sort had been felt during the festival. It was likely that there had been an outside source involved in the murder of the Konoha shinobi. But if that were the case, wouldn't they have killed Naruto as well?
The aged ninja took a puff from his pipe. What if he had been abducted? What if he had been whisked away by someone who knew that he possessed the fox? Or what if they had just killed him and disposed of the body?
Sarutobi shook his head, not allowing the last thought to be dwelled on any longer. They would not do that for a child civilian, but leave the corpses of ninja. Any decent shinobi knew that the disposal of one body meant the disposal of every body.
Tilting his head to the side, the Sandaime looked over at the picture of his predecessor, the deceased fourth Hokage. "Minato, what would you think if you could see us now?" he pondered aloud.
He wanted to send out a search party to find the missing jinchuuriki, but there was no point to it. Any party that went after the boy would most likely be one with the orders of "kill on sight." How pathetic… people allowing their fear of a demon to become so great that they would blatantly disregard the child that served as its jailor and see only the demon itself.
In all likelihood, the blonde had been abducted. He allowed a wry grin to make its way to his face. 'Hopefully you will have a better life wherever you are now, compared to what you had here in Konoha,' he mused. 'Be safe Naruto.'
X-X-X-X-X
The course of one week had proven to be a strange trial of sorts for Hidan. He had been pushed continuously to the edge of his relatively short temper, a few times contemplating the death of a certain blonde brat. The boy just did not know how to shut up at times! After his first attempt at contacting Jashin, he had asked the scythe wielder two surprisingly odd questions.
Both questions concerned the very entity he had been trying to communicate with. While Hidan had never seen Jashin before, he was positive that he was not a large nine tailed fox, and that he didn't live in a sewer. Truthfully, he did not know what to make of the kid's "vision."
A sewer with a giant fox being held behind bars… you don't just make up shit like that. Perhaps he simply had a hallucination from having eaten too much ramen? That had to have been it, just a bad case of indigestion.
After the silver haired man informed the boy that Jashin was not a fox, and that he did not live in a sewer, he was immediately assaulted by other inquiries.
What is the fox? Does it have a name? Why is it behind bars? Is it a bad fox? Does is it eat people? Is it a magic fox, since it could talk? Why is it in a sewer? Did someone flush it down a toilet because they didn't love it as a pet? How did it get so big? And so on…
The blonde had ceased asking questions when he noticed that his instructor was twitching slightly, a shaking hand caught halfway toward his scythe, as he struggled internally.
'Must… not… kill… boy…' had been the mantra going through his head at the time. He had contemplated suicide, but that was in vain thanks to Jashin so graciously providing him with immortality.
The nukenin chuckled, thinking back to that day. It had taken all of his self-restraint to keep from skewering the boy where he stood. That, and Jashin would not have been pleased with him if he had gone through with it.
However, he and Naruto had established a few ground rules when it came to questions. First, don't ask another question until your first one is answered. Second, Hidan is allowed to ignore or refuse to answer any of your questions, so stop asking if he doesn't answer. Third, Hidan is not held accountable for his actions if violation of any of the two prior rules occurs. Such rules had helped to reduce the number of questions that were directed his way.
At present, the two were once again on the road. Having completed his business at the village, in this case scythe repairs, Hidan saw no reason to stick around. Besides, the farther they were from the village, the farther they were from any possibility of a ramen stand being nearby.
"Hidan?"
Oh great… already with the questions. Could he not catch a break? On this particular day, apparently not.
"What is it kid?" he practically growled.
"Um…" he looked around, before scratching the back of his head.
"Out with it already!" came the man's irritated command.
The blonde jumped slightly at the man's outburst, but continued to keep pace with him. He stared down at the road, watching it pass under him as he walked.
"Do you think I was just dreaming when I saw the fox?" the boy inquired softly.
'The fox again… of all things,' the nukenin thought with disdain.
"Look, I already told you, it was probably a bad case of indigestion or food poisoning or something. Do you honestly think a giant fox with nine tails could possibly exist?"
Naruto didn't answer him. He just continued looking down at the ground, observing the path they were on. This was a bit surprising. He had figured the boy would have just shook his head, agreed, and laughed.
"Well, there was a big fox like that," he answered matter-of-factly.
Hidan looked down at the boy, an eyebrow raised in slight curiosity, and skepticism. This he had to hear. "Really now? Why don't you tell me all about it."
The blonde grinned his large idiotic grin, happy to be the one telling a story for once. "Well, oji-san told it to me, so I don't know if it's really true or not."
The scythe wielder didn't particularly care whether it was true or not. He just wanted to hear the damn story! If it would get the kid to shut up about the fox afterwards, then by all means he'd listen as long as he needed to.
"Seven years ago there was a giant fox that attacked my village, Konoha. It had nine tails, and was really powerful, 'cause it was a demon fox called the Kyuubi," the seven year-old elaborated, making gestures with his arms to go along with the words.
"Nobody knows why it attacked us, but we tried to stop it, and we didn't do very good. But then our Hokage, the Yondaime, killed it! But, he died too. So now every year the village celebrates the death of the fox." He frowned at the last part, remembering what happened to him on previous festival years.
Hidan was barely able to keep from laughing at the boy's story. It was so farfetched! A giant demon fox that attacks a village. An entire village of shinobi couldn't stop it, but then their leader just up and kills it, and somehow dies too. It sounded like an anti-climactic, melodramatic, child's bedtime story.
Noticing his companion's silence once again, he looked over to find the boy with his brows furrowed and fists clenched. 'Oh, so he can do anger,' the nukenin thought to himself.
It was a rare occurrence that Naruto showed anything other than happiness, goofiness, or sadness. This was the first time Hidan had seen him slightly irked about something.
"What's got you so pissy?" he inquired, a grin making its way to his face as the question seemed to snap the boy out of his thoughts.
"Huh?"
Hidan could only sigh. "Kid, don't play dumb with me. You were in a bad mood a second ago, so spill already."
"Well, every year on the Kyuubi festival, the villagers would attack me… and I don't know why. I never did anything to them! They would call me 'demon' and hurt me!" he sobbed, tears flowing freely down his face.
"Oh for the love of Jashin-sama…" the silver haired man muttered. He was not cut out to deal with this childhood trauma crap. "Stop your whining kid. We all have to deal with some fucked up stuff. Besides, it's not like you have to put up with their shit next year, right?"
The blonde let the man's words sink in, as his crying dwindled down to sniffling and a desperate attempt to keep more tears from spilling. Hidan was right. He wouldn't be in the village this upcoming year, so he had nothing to worry about. And even if they tried to come get him, Hidan would protect him!
The seven year-old allowed a shaky, half-sure grin to come to his face. "I guess… you're right. But still… I don't know why they hated me so much…" he mumbled, occasionally sniffling.
"Some people are just fucked up. Who knows," came his companion's response. 'How ironic that I'd be the one to say that,' he thought with a mental sneer. Memories of the slaughter of his village came to mind.
"Ah, good times," he chuckled. He did leave the civilian population alone. Jashin saw no gain in killing innocents. However, if you were a shinobi, then you were fair game. Well… occasionally that rule was made to be broken, as in Naruto's case when he had first found him.
Hidan had not been in a good mood at that time, so when he came across some foreign shinobi, that made his day. Nothing made him feel better than indiscriminant slaughter, so to hell with not killing innocents! On any other day though, sure, he'd leave civilians alone. There wasn't much enjoyment in killing them anyway. Threatening them, however, was far too much fun to pass up.
Satisfied for the moment, the blonde allowed the silence to settle back between them as they continued with their journey. He didn't need to ask where they were going, as his silver-haired ally had already informed him when they first departed their camp site. Tea Country, he'd said.
When asked why they were going to Tea Country, his answer had been that it was nowhere near Konoha or Ame, which was a good thing, considering how Hidan had killed off four of their shinobi. The last thing he wanted was more nin coming after the bounty on his head. It wasn't that he was worried they might defeat him, it was that they were becoming a nuisance.
It seemed that every time he turned around there was a cocky team of shinobi confronting him and boasting about how strong they were and how they'd kill him and claim the reward. All of them had made a very nice sacrifice for Jashin.
With the hopes of fewer bounty hunters, he had determined that their destination would be Tea Country. A nice bonus was that its population was smaller than that of Fire Country, so there was less chance of collateral damage while training Naruto. After all, who would mind if the land got destroyed if no one was around to care?
Speaking of training, the two of them simply walking along like this definitely wasn't doing anything to help the boy along on his path to becoming a valuable follower of Jashin.
He would have taught the boy how to use jutsu, but his chakra reserves were most likely too small for that. He doubted if Naruto would even be able to do a simple technique like create a bunshin. In that case, they would simply have to work on enlarging his reserves first. But how to go about doing that…
Hidan let out a sigh as he scowled at nothing in particular, glancing around at all the trees surrounding the path they were on. He was not a teacher damnit! It's not like he had a lesson plan for training brats on the most basic of things. Once again, he'd have to improvise.
You strengthen your chakra reserves in a similar manner to how you would increase muscle mass, except in this case they were dealing with reserves and chakra coils. By straining them they would be partially destroyed, and then they would rebuild themselves stronger than before. This meant that he'd need a chakra control exercise of some sort to do this.
In a way this would kill two birds with one stone. He would be working on his control, and he'd be increasing the amount of chakra that his body could store. Now what to have him do? A sudden idea coming to mind, Hidan grinned at his stroke of genius. Drawing his scythe he slashed off two small branches from a nearby tree.
His companion was staring at him with a quizzical expression, his head tilted slightly to the side. Returning his weapon to his back, Hidan handed one branch to Naruto, then held the other out in front of himself. He made sure that the blonde was watching before he began.
Channeling a small amount of chakra into the object, the branch began to glow slightly. Then, one by one, the leaves on the branch began to disintegrate, soon leaving the inanimate piece of tree barren. Looking to see his student's reaction, he found the boy slack-jawed and staring at him in amazement.
"Wow! How did you do that?!" he practically shouted, excitement radiating off of him.
The nukenin mentally patted himself on the back. Kids were so easy to impress that it wasn't even funny. It was downright hilarious! Show them a useless little trick and they go nuts.
"You remember how to use your chakra?" Hidan inquired.
He received a vigorous nod. Good, at least he had been paying attention through the lesson. Throwing kunai was great and all, but if the kid wanted any chance of becoming a shinobi he'd have to practice with his chakra. The silver haired man had come to realize this, and as such, had spent part of the previous week teaching Naruto the basics of chakra and how to channel it.
He didn't actually have him try it on an inanimate object though, so there was no telling how this would work out.
"Well just channel a bit of your chakra into the branch. Try to concentrate on where you want it to go. You want to send it through the branch and into the leaves, got it?" he asked, waiting for a response.
Once again Naruto nodded. With nothing else to be told, the blonde turned his attention to the branch he had been given. He held it out in front of him, like Hidan had done, and then proceeded to engage it in what looked like a staring contest.
The scythe wielder had to bite back a laugh. The kid looked ridiculous, staring at the branch like he was trying to mentally drill holes into it. He was concentrating so hard that he didn't even notice that he was starting to fall behind slightly.
Said blonde was still trying to remember how to do what Hidan had taught him. He allowed his mind to be completely focused on the item in his hands. He dug deep into his very being, until he felt the flow of warmth throughout his body. Slowly, he willed it through his arms, into his hands, and finally into the branch he held. The branch soon took on a bluish glow. That was it! Just a bit more…
BANG!
The sound had been so sudden and loud that it caused Hidan to jump. Whirling around with his weapon at the ready, he had expected to see attackers or an ambush of some kind. All he found though, was a slightly disgruntled, and mostly surprised Naruto. The seven year-old's eyes were wide, and in his hands remained nothing more than a fractured remnant of the branch he once had held. The blonde was also adorned in shredded leaves, compliments of the destroyed tree limb.
"What the fuck did you just do kid?" he asked, once again returning his scythe to the strap on his back.
"I did just what you told me to!" the whiskered boy protested, trying to avert the blame for the mishap from himself.
Reaching out, the nukenin snapped off a branch from another tree, before handing it to his traveling companion. "Do it again," he commanded.
"Huh?" came the boy's ingenious reply.
"Do exactly what you did before. Think you can handle that?" he asked with sarcasm tagged on at the end.
The boy frowned at Hidan's tone, but nodded nonetheless. He would show him that it wasn't his fault the branch exploded.
Concentrating once again on the object he held, Naruto allowed his chakra to flow to its intended destination. It traveled through his body and into the branch.
Hidan watched with interest as the blonde managed to channel his chakra correctly. It was a bit surprising that he was capable of it so well at such a young age. So far it looked good. The branch was glowing slightly, and the amount of chakra continued to increase in the tree limb.
Something changed though. He noticed the amount of chakra coming from Naruto spike as the branch glowed even brighter, before…
BANG!
The nukenin had to shield his face with his arm as splintered tree came flying his way. Well that certainly helped to clear up a few things.
"You're using way too much chakra damnit!" he shouted, pulling a splinter from his arm. Once again, Naruto was covered in leaves, but he didn't seem to be injured from the small explosion. Odd… but it meant that he was correct in his theory.
The shinobi-in-training was definitely using too much chakra. The other thing it meant was that he was pushing his chakra out, rather than simply letting it flow, which would explain why the explosion blew outwards away from him. The force of the chakra buildup forced the contents of the mini-bomb away from him, in the same way that momentum would continue to force a person forward, even after the person pushing from behind had ceased shoving them.
Well, at least the exercise was successful… somewhat…
Hacking off another tree branch he once again handed it to Naruto. "Keep trying to do what I showed you until it doesn't explode," he instructed.
How was it that he was able to channel too much chakra into the branch? Maybe he had simply forced it all out, which would prove that his control was pretty crappy.
BANG! "Darn it!"
Casually he handed the boy another tree limb, still musing on what he had found. Well if his control was crap, it either meant that he just naturally had shitty control, since he was so young. Or-
BANG! "I almost had it that time!"
With an irritated groan he handed the boy yet another branch, before massaging his temples. This kid was just proving to be one big headache. 'Why Jashin-sama? Why?' he asked himself.
Back to his previous thought. It either meant he had naturally shitty control, or, the more unlikely scenario, he had an overabundance of chakra. But that was entirely impossible. 'He's seven years old for Jashin-sama's sake!'
BANG! "Grr… stupid branch!"
This went on for the better part of two hours, as the two companions continued their trek towards Tea Country. Hidan had come to discover something about his blonde traveling partner in that time. Even he had a breaking point with his temper.
After many fruitless attempts at completing the chakra control exercise, Naruto had ceased his efforts. When asked why, he responded with, "Because the stupid branch keeps blowing up!"
The blonde then crossed his arms and pouted.
Chuckling at his young associate's plight, Hidan found himself wondering what they could do to pass the time instead. It had been entertaining listening to the boy's futile chakra control attempts. He was also thankful, for he was certain he'd need a new cloak now. Being bombarded with wood splinters in the back repeatedly tends to do some damage.
Silence had settled over the group now that exploding pieces of wood were no longer a factor. The scythe wielder wondered how long that would last. Naruto was simply too energetic to just shut up for long. Speaking of energetic, it would seem that he had been wrong about the boy's chakra reserves. For a seven year-old, they were enormous. He was able to continuously attempt the chakra control exercise for two hours straight! In fact, the only reason he had stopped was due to frustration. The question now was…
'Where the hell does he get it all from?'
This had plagued Hidan's mind for the better part of half an hour. A kekei genkai perhaps? No, he was too young to have unlocked something like that. Was he simply a freak of nature? Perhaps. He was actually leaning towards that idea.
The blonde in question was currently fiddling with his hands, looking over in his companion's direction from time to time. "Hidan, I'm bored."
The nukenin looked to the boy who had addressed him. "What the fuck do you want me to do about it? Entertain yourself."
"But I don't know what to do," he whined, childishly dragging out the word "do."
"Why don't you try the chakra control exercise again?" the silver haired man inquired.
The blonde scrunched up his face, showing distaste towards the suggestion. "That's no fun, 'cause the stupid branch keeps blowing up! I want to do something else!"
Hidan did not want to have to put up with this for the rest of the trip, so he decided to go with the idea of throwing out random suggestions. "Practice your kunai throwing. I swear to Jashin-sama you still suck at that."
"Nuh-uh!" the blonde protested. "I hardly miss anymore!"
He was correct in his claim. Over the course of one week, Hidan had helped him to fine tune his throwing. Out of thirty kunai, he could nail a target from one hundred feet away with at least twenty eight of them. That was with a stationary target though. In the shinobi world, it was extremely rare that your target would sit around and wait to be killed.
"Yeah, you hardly miss," Hidan agreed.
The seven year-old sneered in triumph, crossing his arms smugly.
"…when the target isn't moving," the rose eyed man added. "I'll bet you couldn't hit a mobile target that knows how to dodge," he challenged.
Considering this, Naruto absentmindedly allowed his hand to travel to the kunai pouch at his hip. "I bet I could hit a moving target," he mumbled.
'So, he's up for the challenge, eh? Might as well put his skills to the test,' Hidan thought with slightly sadistic grin.
"Then why don't you try to hit me," the nukenin suggested.
The boy shrugged indifferently. He probably could hit him, if he tried, but there was no incentive. Seeing this, the scythe wielder came up with a risky plan to motivate Naruto.
"If you can hit me once, then at the next town we find I'll buy you some ramen."
No sooner had the words left his mouth, a kunai whizzed past him, barely an inch from his face. His companion had already snatched out another of the tiny projectiles from the pouch he had given him. How he had managed to do so, so quickly, he would never know. All he knew was that if he wanted to hold on to the remainder of his money, he would have to use every trick he had to avoid getting hit.
Naruto's eyes gleamed with determination as he stared down his prey. This wasn't a game or a challenge anymore. It was the key to a meal of the Gods. He would prevail.
Knowing that standing still probably wasn't the best course of action, Hidan bolted down the road as fast as his legs would carry him. Looking back for a moment, he found that the blonde ramen consumption machine known as Naruto was hot on his tail. He was faster, had a longer gait, and had shinobi training for Jashin-sama's sake, yet some supernatural force was giving the boy the power and speed he needed to keep up with him.
"Well at least this will prove to be entertaining," Hidan mumbled, sidestepping another thrown kunai. All he had to do was wait for Naruto to run out of kunai. However, he failed to notice what the boy was doing to rectify that problem.
The blonde wasn't foolish. He knew he had a limited supply of projectiles, and as such he would have to use them wisely and effectively. To do this, he made sure that he was directly behind Hidan when he launched them, that way if and when they missed, they would simply continue to go straight, and fall down onto the road, where Naruto could reach down and grab them as he ran past, effectively restoring his weapon count.
Some of the kunai that missed happened to fly off into the woods though. Those would just have to be ignored and counted among the losses, meaning he'd have to use the remaining ones more carefully. This was going to be a long trip.
X-X-X-X-X
Nemasu Shirai was not having a good day. First, he was stuck going on some stupid B-rank diplomacy mission to a country that he wasn't even sure why Konoha gave a rat's ass about. He hated diplomacy missions because, in the end, it boiled down to acting as a messenger boy. He was a Chuunin for Kami-sama's sake! He was supposed to be leading teams into enemy territory and stealing vital information or performing assassinations! Work like this was meant for grunts, the Genin.
"As soon as I get back I'm gonna give that old prune a piece of my mind," the shinobi muttered. Of course, this wasn't true. He wasn't stupid enough to complain about the Hokage's decisions in mission selections… directly to his face that is. However, thinking about doing such a thing helped to ease his anger.
Tea Country was such a boring place. The number of ninja he had encountered there were very few and far between, and none of them had been hostile, further proving his point about how lame diplomacy missions were.
Hopping from tree to tree, he figured he was making good time. He had been keeping a fast pace for the past four hours, so it wouldn't be long before he made it to the Tea/Fire border. However, it seemed as good a time as any to take a break.
Sitting down on one of the larger, sturdier tree branches, he leaned back against the trunk of the tree, letting one leg hang off to the side and dangle. He wanted to close his eyes and rest, but he knew if he did he might fall asleep, and that would only delay his return further.
Thunk
Looking down at the base of the tree he was resting in, the Chuunin found that a kunai had become lodged in it. Immediately he sprang to his feet and began looking around for any possible threats. Perhaps the mission wouldn't end up being so boring after all.
He could sense two chakra signatures nearby. One was relatively high, around Jounin level, and the other was quite low, probably that of a Genin.
Pumping chakra into his legs, he leapt from tree to tree as quickly, but stealthily as he could. Gazing down at the road that cut through the large forest, the Konoha nin began to assess what he saw.
A man with silver hair and a scythe with three blades was backpeddling, while blocking kunai that were being thrown at him. The person throwing the kunai was even more interesting. A kid, perhaps no older than eight or nine, was launching the weapons with a great deal of precision, while running at the man he was trying to hit.
The first question that ran through his mind was, 'What is wrong with this picture?'
Wait a minute… that kid seemed awfully familiar. Blonde hair… blue eyes… whisker marks?! It was the Kyuubi brat! So, he wasn't dead after all… well in a minute or so he most likely would be. If he was reading the older combatant correctly, he was just toying with the kid. Once he took to the offensive though…
The Chuunin allowed a predatory smile to come to his face. This was about to get bloody.
X-X-X-X-X
Launching another kunai at Hidan, Naruto watched as it was deflected with a swing from the man's scythe, sending the projectile whizzing off into the woods somewhere. He mentally cursed his luck as he checked his kunai pouch. He was down to his last few, less than a dozen.
Throwing another of the pointed weapons, he wanted to laugh in triumph as it struck Hidan in the chest. However, his victory was short lived as the man in question poofed out of existence, leaving an impaled log in its place.
'Dang! I was sure I got him that time,' the blonde mentally groused.
The question now was, where did Hidan get to? Hearing a sound in the bushes off to his right, he hurled a kunai into them. A squirrel darted out of the offending bush, glaring at its attacker before running off. Crap. Well there went another kunai.
A chuckle from behind him made Naruto jump and spin around, a kunai at the ready. There, no more than a foot away from him stood Hidan, with his scythe resting over shoulder.
"I'll bet you're running low on those things," he snickered, pointing at the boy's kunai pouch. The blonde responded with a glare, preparing to renew his assault on the nukenin.
Dashing forward, Naruto threw not one, but two kunai this time. His target had been quite surprised, to say the least. Blocking the first of the projectiles with his scythe, he barely noticed the second kunai that was heading his way. With split second timing he ducked under the weapon, then retaliated by striking Naruto in the stomach with the butt of his weapon.
The seven year-old felt the air rush from his lungs, and the ground quickly raced to meet him as he collapsed, gasping for air. He could do nothing but sit on his hands and knees, trying desperately to take in large gulps of much needed oxygen. So when Hidan began to laugh at the boy's plight, he could only muster a weak, wheezy, "Screw you…"
The response only made the man laugh harder.
His laughter abruptly stopped when he realized that they were not the only ones in the area. Looking down at his student of sorts, he wondered whether he was prepared for a possibly hostile encounter.
"Hey kid, we've got company," he muttered, quietly enough so that only he and the blonde could hear. The jinchuuriki's eyes widened as he realized that there was the possibility of a fight occurring.
Slowly, breathing normally once again, the boy got to his feet and look to his teacher, hoping that he would give directions for what to do.
"You still got some kunai?" the rose eyed man inquired. The blonde nodded.
"Behind you, two trees to the left. Throw one there," he instructed. "But wait till I tell you to." Again he received a nod as confirmation.
The nukenin flipped through a few hand seals before muttering, "Now."
Spinning around, Naruto launched one of his three remaining kunai at the designated spot. He missed, but that was to be expected, as he didn't know exactly where his target was to begin with. It was, however, enough to get the spectator's attention, as he jumped from the tree into the road, a kunai of his own in hand.
He had expected to see Hidan launch himself at the man, but looking around, the scythe wielder was nowhere to be seen. Had he run off?! No, he couldn't have! He had been doing a jutsu, right?
Looking back to his opponent he gulped as the man began walking towards him. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, with brown eyes and long brown hair, which was tied back into a ponytail. He wore the standard Chuunin attire, and had a… Konoha headband. Oh crap…
"So, the little demon boy did survive after all," were the first words out of the man's mouth. "And where have you been hiding for the past two weeks?"
The blonde glared defiantly at his foe, choosing not to answer him.
The shinobi grinned. "That's fine. You don't have to tell me. In a minute it won't matter anyway."
With a burst of speed, the Chuunin darted forward and stabbed the kunai he held through the boy's chest. Rather than a cry of pain though, there was a puff of smoke, and in his place stood the silver haired man from before, a crazed look on his face.
"What the hell?" he shouted, before leaping back and pulling out a few shuriken.
He watched silently as the man grabbed the kunai that was lodged in his chest and pulled it out, before casting it aside. That was when he noticed something from before that he couldn't see, due to how far away he had been. The man's hitai-ate had a slash through it. He was a missing nin.
'Oh shit…' Shirai thought with utter distaste. 'I know I wanted excitement, but this is not what I had in mind.'
He soon found himself on the defensive when the scythe user leapt forward and struck out at him. The attack itself lacked in power and was poorly aimed, allowing the Konoha nin to dodge it. Intimidation perhaps? Or maybe he just didn't see him as a challenge?
The brown haired man frowned at the thought. 'He may be a missing nin, and he may be dangerous, but he is seriouslyunderestimating me!'
He flashed through a few hand signs before shouting, "Bunshin no jutsu!"
Where there was only one leaf ninja before, there were now five. 'They may only be illusions, but they are certainly enough to make anyone wary of which to attack.'
He found that he was sorely mistaken when he rushed to attack. Rather than taking up a defensive stance or trying to put distance between himself and his attackers, the silver haired nin charged forward to meet them, scythe raised high.
A quick slash forced one of the doppelgangers to disappear. Looking down at his shoulder, Hidan found that there was a decent sized cut with blood bubbling out of it. Shrugging, he looked over his opponents. They were each wielding a kunai. However, only one of them was covered in blood.
'Good thing I left an opening for him to get me,' he chuckled mentally. People were always a lot easier to kill when you could distinguish the true one from the clones.
Drawing his scythe back, he hurled it at the man and his copies. The spinning weapon slashed through two of them, the other two narrowly dodging out of the way.
'He's unarmed, I need to strike now!' With that in mind, Shirai and his last clone leapt at their opponent.
He was slightly surprised when the man sidestepped his attack. Using the man's momentum against him, the scytheless nukenin drove a fist into the Chuunin's gut. His body continued on its previous course, albeit with a flip, as it upended over the silver haired man's arm, before it landed on the ground with a 'thud.'
Hidan looked over his opponent once before casually walking over to where his thrown weapon lay. The man wasn't getting up any time soon, so why make the effort to hurry?
With his weapon in hand, he approached the Konoha nin, kicking his body once to make sure he was still alive. He received a yelp in response.
"Still alive, huh? Well how did you put it earlier… in a minute it won't matter anyway." A laugh soon escaped the scythe wielder's mouth as he raised his weapon to skewer the face-down shinobi.
Rolling over just before the hit connected, the brown-eyed ninja managed to evade the attack, and at the same time retaliate. He unleashed a barrage of shuriken, each of which, being at such a close range, struck their target. Several lodged themselves in the silver haired man's chest, his neck, and even his forehead.
Rather than keeling over dead, the man continued laughing, not caring in the least that he was defying the laws of life. A second later…
Poof!
He disappeared in a puff of smoke, the weapons stuck in him clattering to the ground.
'A kage bunshin?!' Shirai though frantically, looking around for his adversary. 'I've been fighting a clone this whole time?'
Getting to his feet, he pulled out a kunai and took up a defensive stance. Maybe if he could sense him before he attacked he'd have a chance!
The ground behind him suddenly exploded upwards, a single shinobi rising up out of it. With the same maniacal grin from before, Hidan slashed the back of his enemy's legs, slicing the back of the man's knees. With a cry of pain, the Konoha nin fell to the ground.
"Now, I'm no medic nin," the scythe user started, tapping his weapon against his shoulder, "But I'd say you aren't going to be standing up any time soon."
He was right. That scythe had slashed the tendons and ligaments in the back of his legs. It seemed as though this was it…
Movement in a tree above him forced the Chuunin to look up as best he could. There he spotted yet another Hidan, who was holding the demon boy by the collar of his shirt. Leaping down next to the first Hidan, the man set down the blonde with him, then poofed out of existence.
'I can still kill the demon… I may die, but at least I'll be the savior of Konoha!' the vest wearing nin roared in his mind.
Propping himself up on an elbow, he drew his arm back to throw his projectile at the boy. He would have succeeded, had Hidan's foot not come crashing down on the man's arm. A snap was elicited from the arm, along with an agonized scream. It would seem as though he'd have to rethink his plan.
Uncomfortable with the situation, Naruto quickly scurried behind Hidan, where he was sure he'd be safe. Poking his head out from behind the nukenin, he looked down at his would be attacker. To his dismay, the man was glaring at him with murder in his eyes.
The blonde's companion noticed the exchange. "Ah, why are we so hostile towards the kid here?" he inquired glancing from one to the other.
The Chuunin's answer was simply silence. Tearing his eyes away from the "demon", he lowered his head and waited for the end to come.
With a sigh of aggravation Hidan proceeded to kick the man once again in the ribs. "None of this silent treatment bullshit," he growled. "You're gonna answer a few questions. In return, I won't kill you."
"I have nothing to say to you," the vested man spat. "If I did you'd just kill me anyway."
The scythe wielder rolled his eyes. Why did people always have to assume he was a stereotypical missing nin? Flipping his scythe once, he brought the bladed edges down on the man's back, before slowly dragging it back. The Konoha nin cried out again.
"If you don't talk I will kill you."
It came down to a matter of honor or survival… talk and live, but be disgraced, or hold your tongue and be killed. 'Fuck honor…' Shirai thought, while trying to ignore the wounds that had been inflicted on him. 'I want to live!'
"Fine…" he mumbled.
Hidan smiled inwardly, happy that he would actually get some answers. "Alright. What's a Leaf nin doing all the way out here?"
"Messenger mission…" he gasped out, his wounds beginning to burn with pain.
The rose eyed man seemed to accept this answer. After all, he could care less why this guy was running around so far from his village. The fact was, he was out there.
"Next question. What's the deal with the kid? You got a problem with him?"
The shinobi's eyes wandered over to where the boy in question was hiding. "You mean the demon child," he growled, his voice laced with venom.
"Yeah, sure. Now spill. What's your problem with him?"
"My problem?" he whispered. "My problem?! That thing should have been killed long ago! It has been nothing but a menace, waiting to kill us all!" he finished, his voice rising more as he continued on.
Hidan inspected his nails with disinterest. "And why might that be? What reason could you and village possibly have to hate this brat? Well, other than the fact that he's a pain in the ass that doesn't know when to shut up," he added.
"Hey!" the jinchuuriki protested, "I'm not that bad!"
He received a blank stare from his companion.
"Well, I've been getting better…" he conceded.
Nemasu Shirai found himself in an odd position. He could break the Third Hokage's law, and expose why the boy was hated so much, or he could lie. Well, what difference would it make if he told? Who else would know that he divulged the secret?
"Seven years ago when the demon fox, the Kyuubi, attacked our village, we thought all was lost. We couldn't keep it from killing hundreds of our people and destroying our village…" he began, recalling what had happened that fateful night.
"Our Hokage, the Yondaime, arrived in time to help us. But even he couldn't kill the beast. So instead, he sealed it into a newborn child. So now… the beast lives on… waiting to strike again…" he trailed off. Not long after, he turned his hateful gaze once again to the young blonde.
Naruto stared at the man for what seemed like hours. What was he saying? That… the reason they called him demon child, and Kyuubi brat, and so on… it was because it was…
"It was sealed into me?" he squeaked, not believing what he had just learned.
"Yes, into you. And we should have killed you long ago, and rid the world of that monster!" the Chuunin roared, his resolve set.
Hidan took his time to digest this new shred of information. 'So, the kid wasn't lying. There really was a demon fox that attacked their village. And what's more, it's inside this kid. Very clever, Jashin-sama…'
"Well, that certainly clears up a few things. Now that you've told us what we wanted to know, you've outlived your purpose," the silver haired man elaborated. "Give our regards to Jashin-sama."
"You… you bastard! You swore you wouldn't kill me! You said you would let me go!" Shirai shouted defiantly, acting braver than he really felt. He was in no position to yell at this man. However, in his heart, he had known that it would probably come to this.
"Hey now," the nukenin started, pointing a finger at the downed shinobi. "I never said I'd let you go. But I'm not going to kill you."
The Konoha nin let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. So, he was going to be left for the vultures, a slow painful death…
"He is," Hidan continued on with a grin, pointing to his blonde accomplice.
The seven year-old let out a gasp. "W-What? You want me to… to k-kill him?"
His teacher nodded, before taking the kunai the vested man had dropped, and offering it to his partner. The boy shook his head, backing up slightly. "I… I don't… I couldn't… I won't!" he shouted.
"I should have known you would let the demon do it," the injured man mumbled, still glaring at the child.
"I'm not the demon!" Naruto protested. "I am not! You're lying! If what you said is true… then it's just inside. But that doesn't mean it is me! I'm me!"
Part of him didn't want to believe that such a powerful and dangerous beast resided within him. The very same beast that was the reason so many Konoha shinobi had died, including the Yondaime. But then again, if it was in him, then that means it had been there for seven years now.
If that was the case, then as long as it was inside him, it couldn't hurt anyone! That helped to give him a sense of comfort, and was probably the only reason he hadn't simply run off and started crying.
Grabbing the ninja-in-training by the wrist, Hidan dragged him over to the wounded shinobi, and placed the kunai into his hand. "Once in the neck, that's all you have to do," he instructed.
The blonde sat on his knees, looking from his hand that held the kunai, to the man he was being commanded to kill. 'Kill him? I have to… k-kill him?'
"Even if you kill me, we will still keep hunting you, demon," Shirai taunted. "Konoha will not rest until you are dead."
"We will kill you, your friends, your loved ones," he grinned, as he began to laugh. "And no one is going to help you. Not him," he motioned his heads toward Hidan, "And certainly not that old prune of a Hokage. He's protected you for too long. In fact, we should probably just kill him too, for sympathizing with the- urk!"
The Chuunin began gasping for air as blood poured from his neck. A coughing fit overcame him as he spat up his life essence. Shortly after his body began to convulse, before it finally lay still, the light leaving his eyes…
And there, next to him, sat Naruto, a determined look upon his face, his brows furrowed, his hand still holding on to the kunai which was lodged in the man's neck. It was one thing to insult him. But when you insulted the Sandaime, the only person to ever care for him, then you've gone too far.
Hidan nodded, smiling at the boy's work. "Not bad kid. Your first kill, at age seven."
His words hit home. Naruto instantly withdrew his hand from the weapon as if it had burned him. He looked from his hand, which was covered with blood, to the corpse of the man he had just killed. The blonde wanted so much to just break down and cry, but something wouldn't let him. Perhaps it was the realization that he was going to be a ninja, and that he would have to kill.
"Well, I guess he won't be needing this anymore," Hidan mused as he reached down and plucked the hitai-ate off of the corpse's head. He tossed the shinobi-ware to the boy he had been traveling with for two weeks. "Here kid, it's yours now."
Naruto caught the item and looked it over. 'A Konoha hitai-ate…'
He was caught off guard when the scythe wielder he had come to know as a teacher walked over and handed him a kunai as well. "You've made your first kill, so you've earned this. Now, let the world know what you are." He pointed to his own hitai-ate for emphasis.
Nodding in understanding the blonde took the offered kunai, and carefully, as not to cut himself, he made a slash through the Leaf symbol on his protective headpiece. When he was certain that he had done his job well, he took the item and placed it on his head, positioning it so that it held back his untamable blonde spikes.
"Now that this has been taken care of, we should probably move on and…" the man's words seemed to trail off, getting quieter and quieter. But, he wasn't moving anywhere. And Naruto could see his lips moving, so why couldn't he hear what he was saying?
Suddenly a whisper of some sort made its way to his ears. Slowly, it began to get louder and louder. Yet, he still couldn't understand what was being said. It was as if it was on the edge of his senses, yet it was piercing his mind.
Falling to one knee the blonde clutched at his head. "Hidan, there's a voice in my head!" he screamed. "Make it go away!"
The voice only continued to whisper, each word unintelligible to him. It was as if all of Konoha, all of the world was yelling at him, the roar of the voice taunting him, ordering him, comforting him, doing all of those things and more.
Looking up for a moment, he saw Hidan looking down at him, and he was laughing!
"Stop… please," he pleaded, hoping the tormenting whisper would leave him be. "Stop it! Just leave me alone! STOP IT!"
With that, all became quiet. The whispers died, vanished, disappeared, as if whisked away by some unseen force. All he felt then was a mild tug in the back of his mind, which sent a chill down his spine.
"Well, you done now?" asked a slightly curious Hidan.
"Hidan…" the seven year-old began, unsure of whether or not he wanted to know the answer. "W-What was that?"
The man smiled, crossing his arms. "That was Jashin-sama. You finally did it. He has accepted you as one of his followers. Looks like killing someone helped to get his attention. Your head's probably hurting like a bitch right now, right?"
The blonde nodded, dumbstruck that he had just been accepted by the very being he had been trying to contact for a week. "So… what does this mean?" he inquired.
"This means," Hidan grinned, "That now the real training can begin.
-Chapter End-
Draknal: Damn. Once again, sorry for the wait and all that. On a plus side, by waiting longer, you got a longer chapter. Up next we have a time skip! Please just be patient for my next update. I'll get around to it when I can.
Leave a review please! I know it would make me happy to see some more positive feedback from you guys. Oh, and thanks once again to my beta reader, B.