AN: I still don't own Naruto. I am going on a trip, and will be getting back late Monday, I think, so I won't be able to post until Tuesday the 25th. To make up for this, I have made sure to finish and post this chapter before I leave. Besides, it would be cruel to leave you with that sort of cliffhanger...
On another note, it was brought to my attention that I was unclear on what happened to Naruto. He unconsciously retreated into his mind, and is currently in the halls/sewers where Kyuubi's cage is. Kyuubi is controlling the body by leaking chakra through the bars of the cage out to whatever place in that area allows people there to control the body. That's my theory on that. That's also how I believe Ino controls others' bodies, by going to that place and wresting control from the person. Most people (again, in my theory) are unaware of anything going on in their mind, because they have never been not in control, or forced to go there. Naruto is currently unaware of anything, but will 'regain consciousness' and become aware of where he is at a later point. And to those of you who have reviewed, my deepest gratitude. You are my reason for writing. Enjoy this chapter! -demonicnargles
"Speech"
thought / talking in mind
"Demon speech"
Demon thought / talking in mind
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Kyuubi waited patiently for the clones to get into position. Once the chuunin left their posts, he would have limited time to get the cash before the clones were dispatched. He peeked into his front pocket. Good. I have that navy cloth bag with me. There's no knowing how much money there could be in a jewelry store. And any moment now...
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"I can't believe I pulled guard duty here twice this week, Toru. I have stuff I have to do during the day, you know..." The chuunin sighed as he continued to lean against the wall.
"Oh well. At least we can talk to each other, Ichigo. The guy out front is probably bored out of his mind," the second chuunin replied. "It's easy money, though; it's not like anything ever-"
He was interrupted by a clang that could only be kunai colliding in mid-air. He and his partner rushed out into the street where the noise had come from. They saw four Konoha chuunins fighting furiously against six enemies, who didn't seem to be wearing forehead protectors. None of the nin seemed able to hit each other. The guard from the front of the store came around the corner. He looked at the other two. All three nodded simultaneously, and joined the fray.
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Kyuubi tried to open the back door. Locked. How on earth would he be able to open the door quietly? His clones weren't making much noise because they couldn't hit each other. Then he saw it. Fire regulations required that all exit doors open outwards. Therefore, the hinges were in the outside. He put the tip of his kunai under the bolt of the hinge, trying to use it as a lever to force the bolt up. Just before Kyuubi gave up, the bolt jerked up about an inch. Kyuubi pulled the bolt out, and repeated the process on the other two hinges. He caught the door as it began to fall backwards, and set it gently onto the ground. The last thing he needed was for the heavy metal door to give him away after he had gone to all of this trouble. He snuck into the shop.
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Toru threw a kunai at an enemy-nin, who easily dodged it. It seemed that the only purpose kunai now possessed was to distract good ninja or injure the incompetent. He followed it up with two more. He saw the guard from the front throw a kunai at the same ninja. With any luck, it wouldn't be noticed.
But luck wasn't with them. A second enemy-nin deflected the third kunai with his own. This might take longer than I had hoped, thought the Toru, as he dodged a spray of kunai.
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After searching for far longer than he thought wise, Kyuubi finally found the safe. It had been disguised as a trash can behind the counter. Seeing that it was the cheap kind with the plastic combination wheel, he punched through said wheel and grabbed as much cash as he could lay hands on. He stuffed what he could into his pockets, and put the rest into the bag he had brought. If worst came to worst, he could abandon the bag, and still get away with a good sum of money. Especially since he saw the large denominations of the bills. This was, of course, a jewelry store. Once he finished, he carefully placed the safe back where it had been. If he was careful, and if the clones held out long enough, he could also replace the door, and his theft wouldn't be discovered until much later. Kyuubi hurried to the back door. He should have checked the place out before, but it hadn't occured to him. He was a demon, who should have been able to just blast the village to hell, instead of sneaking around at night to get supplies. He picked up the door and placed it back into the doorframe. Now was the real problem. How to quietly get the bolts back into place.
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Ichigo saw that the enemy-nin had no visible forehead protectors. They were probably on an undercover mission when they were spotted by these other chuunin. Oddly enough, I don't recognize any of the chuunin, but then, there are a lot of us.
Although his enemies seemed to work well as a team, they were reduced mostly to dodging kunai and dancing away from the Konoha ninja. They hardly got a single attack off after the guards had intervened. Ichigo saw that the nin seemed unnaturally afraid of being hit. He saw numerous openings made by the other Konoha chuunin that these nin could have exploited by taking a punch or two, but the anonymous ninja refused to take any action which put themselves in harm's way. What cowards. But perhaps it is a trick to wear us out. Perhaps they have great endurance. But as quiet as the fight is, surely someone will notice and show up.
His musing was proven true when a Konoha jounin showed up. Ichigo recognized him, but couldn't think of a name. The jounin stayed out of the sight of the enemy-nin, until he suddenly leaped out of the shadow of a nearby building, flinging kunai at three ninja.
Two of the nin dodged the kunai, but the third was just a hair slow, and was grazed across the arm. This shouldn't have been a big deal, but Ichigo was startled when he saw the nin vanish in a puff of smoke. He looked at the ground where the nin had been. Sure enough, there were footprints. A bunshin couldn't make footprints. Unless it was an advanced form. With a start, he realized that any bunshin of that caliber would be at least jounin level.
With the clone's demise, the other five nin sprang into attack. But curiously, they jumped past the unknown Konoha chuunin to attack the guards and the jounin. Two went for the jounin, while each chuunin was faced with one. They nin emptied their kunai pouches at them in mid-jump and prepared to fight hand to hand. The jounin threw two well-aimed kunai at his assailants and dodged the kunai thrown at him. Because they were in the air, they had no chance of dodging the kunai aimed for the center of their bodies. The kunai sunk deep into their chests. Then the nin promptly disappeared in puffs of smoke.
The jounin smirked. Just as I thought. Confident that the remaining seven chuunin would handle the last three attackers, the jounin listened for the real perpetrator.. The clones were obviously a diversion for something else in the vicinity. Then he felt something strange. A genjutsu! It's in the jewelry store! No, just behind it! The jounin began to run in that direction, only to stop after a few steps. "What is the meaning of this!" he shouted.
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Kyuubi was at a loss for how to replace the bolts. He couldn't hammer them into place. Suddenly he heard the characteristic "poof" of a clone being dispelled. He needed to hurry. Thinking quickly, he decided to just shove the bolts as far in as he could, and hope no one noticed. He heard another two "poof"'s in quick succession. Kuso! Another ninja must have shown up! He crammed the second bolt into the hinge. He heard a voice cry, "What is the meaning of this!" He realized that his fake Konoha nin must have interfered with what sounded to be an older ninja. The voice sounded older than the chuunin he had heard. It probably belonged to a jounin. But he had specifically ordered the clones not to interfere unless... Kuso! I've been discovered! That guy must be a jounin for sure! Why does this have to happen to me? Kyuubi decided not to think about the obvious reason having to do with his robbing a jewelry store.
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The jounin was confused and angry. These chuunin had gotten in his way, and were staring at him while the other chuunin fought was were surely clones. And why did the clones pass these chuunin to... They're clones too! The jounin saw the "Konoha chuunin" pull out their kunai. Am I going to have to fight all four of them?
Suddenly three kunai flew from the right, hitting three clones. The real chuunin had finished with the clones, since one hit dispelled them. That left one very lonely clone, who threw his remaining kunai and crouched in preparation for the inevitable attack. The jounin dodged the poorly aimed kunai and attacked. He swung his leg for a roundhouse kick. Even if the clone blocked it, the it would dispelled. To the jounin's surprise and dismay, the clone's creator was apparently a flexible person, since the clone bent back wards nearly to the ground, picked up a kunai behind him, and stabbed it deep into back of the jounin's thigh. The jounin grunted in pain, but followed through with a quick punch which dispelled the last clone.
The jounin walked quickly to the chuunin, who seemed winded and sporting various shallow cuts, but relatively unharmed, and knocked each of them roughly in the chest. Good, none of them are clones. "You, chuunin, stay here and be on the lookout for any more threats." With that, he sprinted as fast as his injury permitted towards the back of the store.
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Kyuubi rammed the last bolt halfway into the hinge. That will have to be good enough. I need to leave quickly! He heard three "poof"'s. Make that very quickly. Kyuubi took off down the back alley. He needed to move quickly and stealthily, so that meant taking the alley that ran behind all of the stores. But if someone from the fight looked back here, they would see him. He heard a final "poof", and then he heard the sound of someone with a slight limp sprinting after him. As he rounded the corner, he glanced back, and since his pursuer was dressed differently than the chuunin he had seen, he realized that it must be the late ninja, whom he assumed was a jounin. Kuso! Now I'll have to lose him in the village or the forest. But how could he have detected me? Kyuubi thought for a moment as he ran towards the nearest edge of the forest. The genjutsu! Of course! I was smart enough to use ninjutsu to hide, but forgot to remove the genjutsu I already had! Kyuubi quickly disabled the genjutsu and jumped onto a rooftop, and then into the forest.
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The jounin ran as fast as he could while trying not to worsen the injury on his leg. He could run, but it was painful with a kunai sticking in his hamstrings. Although he knew that running with it in would make the injury a bit worse, running after pulling it out would make him bleed to death. So he could run at about 75 of his normal speed. It wasn't fast enough to catch up to the ninja, but it was enough to keep him from getting away.
Soon he noticed that it was incredibly hard to see the ninja, and the genjutsu that had alerted him to the nin's presence had apparently been removed. The nin had black hair, dark clothing, and appeared to have black paint or dye covering every inch of exposed skin. AN: It has to be paint or dye or something, because there is not a single black person anywhere in Naruto. How weird. Although his jounin training allowed him to see the nin anyway, he was annoyed at how difficult it was.
He saw the nin run into the forest. Pulling out a stick, he set off a flare to alert others to his position and need of reinforcements. Then he followed the mysterious ninja into the forest.
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Kyuubi was surprised when he noticed a flash of light behind him. He glanced back. A flare! Can't anything go right today! He was going to have to ditch the jounin before reinforcements arrived. As much as he had improved his speed, he knew that the jounin's injury was the only thing that kept him from catching up. If I can make several clones, then I might be able to escape. Yeah. Then- No! He caught me because of the genjutsu! I have to use it while I'm in the village! Kuso! I'm going to have to kill a jounin to keep this a secret!
Ducking behind a tree, Kyuubi made four clones and used the Light Absorption Technique on them so that they matched his appearance. He jumped into the higher branches, and sent three of the clones to attack while keeping the fourth behind to act as a decoy. He couldn't do this for much longer, since he was almost out of Naruto's chakra. And he couldn't risk using his own chakra without alerting every skilled ninja to the presence of his demonic chakra. Then he wouldn't be able to use it in front of anyone ver again. Or worse, they might remember than Naruto had a demon sealed inside of him. They hated him enough as it was. He crouched on the branch as his clones attacked.
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I'm never going to catch up at this rate, thought the jounin. He kept pace with the nin, but every leap from one tree to the next made the kunai slice a little deeper into his leg. Already, he was forced to favor his right leg, which was bleeding around the kunai. He probably should have set off the flare and tried to do first aid on his leg, but he couldn't let such a potentially dangerous enemy leave unchallenged.
He saw the nin duck behind a tree. Was the nin foolish enough to hope that he, a jounin, wouldn't notice that? Three shapes that he assumed were clones leapt out and drew their kunai. Apparently not. The jounin saw a bit of movement behind the tree. The nin wasn't willing to risk himself. Or maybe he was waiting to launch sneak attack.
He threw three kunai at each of the clones. They dodged easily, and kept coming. The clones jumped at him, threw two kunai each, then drew a third. They held these in a way the jounin knew meant close combat. He dodged five of the kunai, but his injury prevented himfrom esacping the sixth, which stuck out of the bicep of his right arm. Great, now I can't use my good arm, and I'm going to be in close quarters. Drawing two kunai, he blocked two wild swings from two clones, and moved his head enough to avoid an attempt at stabbing his face. Spinning around, he faked a melee attack, then threw his kunai at two clones. One dodged, but the other "poof"'ed into nothingness. I wasn't given the rank of jounin for nothing. He saw the real nin step out from behind the tree and begin throwing kunai. These were easily dodged, but it was becoming more and more difficult as the two remaining clones pressed their attack and as his leg and arm continued to bleed. He threw a single kunai at the real nin, and jumped backwards out of an the reach of the two clones' ferocious attack. The kunai probably wouldn't even hit the nin, but it would stop him from throwing kunai for a few seconds. He perched on a high branch and began the seals for the Grand Fireball Technique. Not only will it dispell the clones if they are too slow, it will alert any help to my location. He came to the last seal and brought his hand to his mouth. He took a deep breath, feeling the chakra gather in his lungs. Then he died.
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Kyuubi pulled the kunai out of the back of the jounin's head. The body fell to the ground forty feet below. The jounin had been so intent on avoiding the clones and the thrown kunai that he had failed to think that the "real" nin might have also been a clone. Crap, I need to hide the body. But where? Kyuubi thought for a moment. He couldn't bury it. That would take too long and could be discovered. Maybe I could disguise it to look like something else... Mizuki's body! They never got rid of it, something about 'not defiling our honor by burying a triator'. I can cut up the body and hide it in with Mizuki's remains. The two clones who had been fighting picked up the body and ran with Naruto towards Mizuki's final resting place. The third clone trailed a ways behind, making sure that they were not followed.
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"I'm sorry, Hokage-sama, but that is all we were able to determine."
The Sandaime sighed. Early this morning, he had been besieged with reports of robberies from all kinds of small stores. And then there was the matter of the jewelry store robbery, ending with three slightly wounded chuunin, and a missing jounin. The ANBU had been able to find where the flare had been set off, and had rushed into the forest, following the trail of blood to a place where the trees had shown evidence of a battle. There was no clue as to who won, or what happened, but the jounin had not returned, and with the amount of blood they found on the trail, he probably would have died even if he had been victorious. But there was no body. They had followed a smaller trail of blood which led to Mizuki's corpse, and found several wild dogs eating there. They had assumed that the mysterious jewel robber had won, and the remains the dogs were eating were the jounin's. They theorized that the body had been brought to Mizuki's corpse by the wild dogs, since that was now the apparent lair of this pack.
"Be on the lookout for any other attempts. I want double guards for the next two weeks at their assigned places, and five more jounins to patrol the streets. If there is any sign of trouble, use a flare immediately. We don't want to lose another ninja because he or she thinks they can handle it alone. Does everyone understand?"
The ninja in the room nodded.
"Good. And if anyone finds any evidence related to any of last night's thefts, bring it to my attention immediately. It could have been a coordinated strike, and there was only a disturbance at the jewelers because of the guards. You are dismissed."
The ninja filed out of the room.
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End of chapter. Please Review!