Four Letter Words

Story Thus Far- Naruto is on the run from the searching teams of Konoha ninja. With luck he manages to take out two chunin set on killing him, and takes off to the north. ANBU and Jounin are tracking, and Naruto is slowly starting to loose himself. Only the goal of keeping the scroll safe for Iruka-sensei keeps him from breaking down completely.

Chapter 3: Fish

Naruto hopped from tree to tree like a squirrel, his scroll and newly acquired sword thumping against his back with each leap. It had stopped raining an hour ago, leaving water to collect in the hollows and leaves of the higher branches. The blonde runaway climbed up carefully. Every branch had to be tested before use; he didn't know when one might snap under his weight or know the how to stick to walls like other ninja. Naruto's fingers recoiled as they came into contact with some unseen slimy and wet thing above him.

The blonde moved a bit further down the branch and began shifting his weight from side to side. A swinging motion developed and he was able to lock a leg around the tree branch and lift up. Naruto scooted on his butt back to the main trunk and braced himself against it. Between the trunk and the branch were some tree ferns, and caught in the small space were several cups of water. The demon container drank greedily, and the freezing liquid helped to calm his growling stomach. "I haven't eaten anything since lunch two days ago." He whined to no one. The boy kick the trunk as he stood up and looked around. His head swiveled almost 360 degrees to take in everything, including the sunrise in the distance. "It's really pretty...I wonder how far this is. I can't even see Hokage Mountain anymore, not even as a speck."

The boy grunted as he slid down the still damp and mossy trunk. "I'm going to need to get food soon. I just wish I knew where a town was." He grumbled as the leafy branches once again formed a ceiling for him. Naruto tightened the cloth straps around his shoulders with a quick tug and scanned the immediate area. He didn't want to be caught off guard again. Two down... a million more to go. Naruto tried not to ask himself if that thought was about miles, or the dead men he left behind.

His ninja sandals gripped the tree-bark easily, and the blonde had to admit after several hours of the action it was becoming a cinch to do. Why didn't we ever practice this tree hopping back in the academy? It was hard at first but now I can do it okay...just have to watch out for any slippery spots.

Deep in the dark depths of the boy's stomach something laughed long and hard. "So much potential!" Cried a powerful voice. "So much to work with! You silly, silly mortals... I'm going to be having a lot of fun soon."

Naruto frowned at the burning that warmed his body. It radiated out from his stomach similarly to when he changed to his female alter-ego, but didn't leave as quickly. Must be a new degree of hunger pains.

Rai and his team sped through the forest; looking like blurs that only elite jounin could distinguish. The dog masked man kept going straight ahead confident that if anything required his attention one of his subordinates would alert him. Yuukou jumped to his side and met her captains pace. "Kanna-san, I sense a small group of chunin heading this way."

Her voice was understandable but garbled by the jutsu employed when making her goat mask.

"Yes...they must be returning since the hawk's release. Turn to intercept. See if they know anything."

"Sir." She leaped back to relay their orders to her comrades. Rabbit mask was disappointed and voiced his opinion to the frog and bird but they ignored him. Orders were orders, and the demon brat couldn't possibly get far anyway. Keh, thought the rabbit ANBU, he's a dead-last drop out. His worthless blood will never make it out of fire country.

Shidou always thought of himself as a simple and respectable man. He got up before the sun and made breakfast, then headed out into the general forest area to find the perfect tree to kill. It wasn't he that he had anything against plants, but everyone has to make a living somehow and Shidou followed in his fathers footsteps. It was a good life out away from the hustle and bustle of city life, setting his own hours and plans. No one ever told Shidou what to do, and he was too old to be ordered around or learn something new. Even though he enjoyed the quiet life he led it sometimes got lonely, and Shidou wished for a family like when he was growing up. More than anything he would have liked a wife and son to carry on the traditions, but no girl he knew would want to live so far from a city. Alas dreams will be dreams...

Picking up his three axes, one for woodwork and the other two for throwing, the forester marched out across the leaf strewn ground. His eyes scanned for the tree that sung its dying notes to him; that was big enough to merit the effort but small enough to not be troublesome. Those types of trees were getting harder and harder to find, Shidou blamed it on the ninja to the south.

The thirty something old man believed all the chakra stuff they pumped into the trees made them grow faster and stronger. Bloody ninja...bloody hang on trees technique...

Shidou passed by a stream filled to the brink. He glanced in it; the overflowing creak was a source of water and at times food to the woodcutter. He laughed at the fish darting from his shadow as they all tried to hide under the same log. "Heh Heh, not today little fishies. At least not now. I've got work to do." Shidou shouldered his main axe and stepped on the log in the stream. It dipped dangerously low sending panicking fish elsewhere in the process. The man reached out and caught a rope hanging not far above him. Using it to support his balance on the rocking log, he lunged forward to the opposite bank.

The woodcutter had past this way many times in the past, so far today was no different.

Naruto was having fun. After the emotional rollercoaster he'd been on the past three days the little mischief maker felt he needed some. Finding a path of hanging ropes only increased this feeling and he acted on it. Naruto firmly gripped the first old rope, and after giving it a few sharp tugs he pushed off. Trail and error proved he could use this makeshift hanging highway to travel, and it was so much more fun.

"Wooohoooo!" Naruto yelled as his ride narrowly dodged around yet another living obstacle. As the swinging rope came around again he shot a hand out and grabbed the next one in the series. His momentum from the last carried over and sent the boy shooting off into the upper braches with a gleeful yell. "I wish Iruka-sensei could see me now!"

Near the top Naruto saw that he was quickly approaching an old wooden platform at high speed. The blonde was at a loss. Should he look for another rope, let go, or try to land on the rickety stand? The decision was made for him when the rope sent him crashing into and through the structure. "Owwwww! Ow! Ow! Ow!" The blonde yelled in pain as the shock from the impact caused him to release his transportation. A thud followed by ominous creaks alerted the dense blonde to the trouble he was in.

After letting go of the rope he landed gracelessly on the remains of the old platform, which obviously hadn't aged as well as the rope system leading to it. Naruto nervously shook as he watched cracks spider out along the yellow moldy surface. All birds and bugs hushed in anticipation of what would happen. Resigned to fate, the dropout clapped his hand together in prayer. "It was good ride while it lasted, may my soul find happiness in the afterlife."

With a crunch the wood gave out and Naruto was sent hurtling to the hard ground. Wind whistled past his ears and blew back his golden hair. I wonder if this is what it's like to fly. The boy reached out to snag a branch, but it slipped out of his grasp leaving only a few torn leaves. This really sucks. After all that I'm falling to my death. He grabbed the hilt of his newly acquired sword and jerked. I really, really don't want to die like this. It's so embarrassing. I can image what the villagers would say, 'Hey remember the Demon! He went splat! Brains scattered all over the dirt, fell out of a tree. The retard.' Naruto growled and jammed the katana into the tree trunk with all his anger and frustration behind it. The blade bit into the wood and carved down with Naruto's continued descent, but he was starting to slow. Then the stolen blade hit a particularly hard knot. It shuddered at the impact and popped out of the tree as well as Naruto's hold. SHIT! That almost worked too!

The katana went spinning past Naruto and beyond the lower level of leaves. I don't think I'll die now, but I might break some bones or something. Just great! I traded a quick death for a slow one! The boy screamed in his mind and in the real world. "Try again."

Naruto's eyes snapped open. He heard something talk to him. "Who said that? Can you help me?"

"Try again," came the whispering voice in response.

"I guess it's worth a shot..." Naruto clenched two kunai in his fists. It was good for him the trunk was getting wider the farther he fell. The kunai barely made it into the bark, but did manage to give Naruto leverage to get closer to the tree. "Didn't work. I could try grabbing, but the damn things too wide now!"

The voice answered again, "Try."

Naruto let all his rage come to the forefront. He had gathered a lot over time. He was mad at Mizuki-teme for tricking him. He was mad at the villagers for glaring at him. He was mad at the Yondaime for insuring the villagers' ire. He was mad at the Hokage for not telling him about the Kyuubi. Most of all he was mad at himself for getting in this situation. "Try this you stupid tree!" Naruto screamed and thrust his hands forward.

Impossibly sharp nails grabbed onto the bark and held fast. The blonde almost had his arms pulled out of their sockets at the sudden stop. Chips of wood rained down below him as he scrambled around the trunk to a projecting branch. Once there he kissed it, and swore never to follow suspiciously placed rope trails again.

"Oi kid! Are you okay?" Came a yell from below him.

The bird masked ANBU was the first on to meet with the returning chunin. The two chunin, a man and woman, watched the gathering special forces warily. "Hey, we just came back because of the hawks. We haven't done anything to warrant you guys." The girl said stiffly.

"We aren't accusing you." Frog mask stated while putting his hands up in the 'don't shoot' position. Dog mask and goat landed on each side of him. Rabbit was circling the area while twirling a pair of kunai between his fingers.

"We just want to know if you have seen anything that way. It would be pointless for us to continue if our target isn't in the same direction." Rai asked diplomatically. It annoyed him how paranoid some ninja were about ANBU. Maybe it was the fact they were the best of the best, or maybe it was their reputation for coming seconds too late. Rai didn't know or care why other shinobi got all cautious when ANBU were around but it was a major pain.

"No, but we didn't get too far before seeing the recall birds." The man answered.

"I see."

The woman fiddled with a senbon and glanced at the sky. "Actually, Shingo and Gurio haven't come back yet. I would think they would have by now."

"That's right..." The man focused his attention back on Rai who was waiting. "We left two companions further on who wanted to continue with the search. Both chunin, but neither arrived at the agreed upon revendous by the time limit we set which was an hour. That was yesterday."

"Thank you for your assistance." Goat mask gave a quick bow and followed the rest of team.

"Ne, brother. Now that I think about it, Shingo was always a little hotheaded. Do you think they got into trouble?"

The man looked at his little sister. She had graduated to chunin at the last exam and was still relatively inexperienced but had an unusual grasp of the human psyche. She mostly talked her opponents into submission. "I don't know Cho. I hope not."

Brother and sister restarted their return to Konoha. Cho was biting her lip. "I think he did. I think he lured Gurio into a fight or something and they didn't win."

"Against what? A butterfly?" He tried to lighten the mood but failed. His sister sent glares at him that could melt rock if chakra powered. "Think about it Cho-chan. It's an academy drop-out, couldn't pass the pre-genin exam. Even a second year could do that if they wanted."

Cho shot him a look filled with surprise. "But brother, haven't you seen the boy work?"

"What are talking about?"

"I've been by the academy after hours, and I used to be worried that the demon vessel could wipe us out. He tries so hard...but then I heard he failed most of his classes. Think about it, he got into Hokage tower unmolested and took the scroll. When it really matters I think he pulls out all the stops." Cho sent her brother a meaningful look. He got it.

"Oh crap."

"There's a reason I studied psychology as an elective and not flower arranging. I think we have unleashed a ticking time bomb."

Naruto hung upside down from the branch by his legs. He saw a middle-aged man with an axe looking up. No forehead protector... "Hiya old man!" He waved.

"Boy! You sure you're okay? You scream like a girl!"

"What! I do not! There was just this...thing! Yeah this thing some idiot built and it collapsed on me." Naruto scowled and yelled down to the man.

Shidou swung his tree cutting axe down into the ground and laughed. "Boy! I can't believe you found it!"

"Found what?" Naruto asked as he made his way down. Very carefully he jumped down to the next branch, then the next, and the next. He didn't want to take any chances at the moment. One brush with a death a day was enough for him.

"I'm guessing it was a wooden platform, about two yards across with a rope leading to it?" The man asked as he wiped tears from his eyes.

"Yeah..."

"Damn. I hadn't thought about that tree house in years."

"Tree house?"

"My old mans old man built it back when he was kid. For hunting and surveillance and stuff. You know, back when this area had ninja swarming all over it."

By the blank look on Naruto's face he didn't know. Shidou ran a hand through his hair and took a good look at the blonde. Now that he could clearly see the boy his jaw dropped. Blonde hair stuck out at odd angles, and scratches decorated most of his skin. The blonde's clothes were in even worse shape. The net-like pack attached to the kids back drew his attention, and he noticed the empty sheath strung through it.

Naruto fidgeted at the examination, he felt like one of Shino's bugs. "What?"

"Did you loose a sword?"

"Ah..." Naruto blinked. I had a sword? Oh yeah! The one I took off of Gurio... "Yes!" Naruto nodded.

"Good, it almost took my head off. Come over here."

Naruto followed the axe-man, his head swiveling every few steps to take in their surroundings. No ambush that I can sense.

"So kid, what brings you out here?" Shidou asked as the two came up on the katana. It had been driven halfway into the ground.

Naruto grabbed it and tugged. After two more tries he freed it from the underground root it had stuck in. "Running away."

Shidou offered a rag to polish mud off the fine blade. "What about your parents? Won't they be worried? I know I would if my son ran away."

Naruto handed back the dirtied rag and put the katana away. "Don't have any."

"Oh. I'm sorry."Well aren't we mister sensitive? Shidou you idiot. "Hey, you look like crap. There's a stream about a mile away you can clean up in." Naruto's stomach chose that moment to make itself known. "And we can catch some food too."

"Really!" The blonde jumped up excitedly. "Lead the way."

Naruto followed his new friend along a narrow trail, thanking the man and talking about random stuff along the way. Shidou laughed. If I had a son, I think I would like him to be just like this kid.

Doctors and nurses past his door quietly. They didn't want to disturb the man's sleep, but he woke up anyway. Iruka blinked and groaned. "Who turned off the lights?" Pain was coming from so many different places it was funny. I guess that worked. Combination kawarimi and explosive notes. Instills sharp pointy objects into the blast radius. I should teach that in the next class. Why aren't the lights on?

Iruka groaned and tried to sit up. Immediately several alarms blared in the room and nurses came rushing in. "Iruka-sensei! Don't move!" They tried to press him down to the mattress. And it's sooo soft. Why not just relax and let them do their thing? Another, darker voice answered this thought. Naruto.

"Please, what happened? And why are the lights still out?"

The nurse stood very still and wrote something down on the clip board at his bedside. "I'm sorry Iruka-sensei, but it appears you're blind."

"What?"

"The blast it...it killed Mizuki-sensei and-"

"Don't call him that! He's a traitor."

The nurse nodded, and then admonished herself. Of course he couldn't see her. "It killed Mizuki and tests show that the heat, we think, it seared your retinas. You might get some sight back later, but never like it was."

"Is that all?" He asked in a whisper. Iruka Umino was exercising the vaunted self-control most teachers gained in their careers. The nurse bowed her head. It was a shame that the man would be crippled for life...but she had to tell him. It was her job, and it's not like he could see for himself.

"Your left leg, it had to be amputated from the knee down. We couldn't find two fingers from your right hand and you'll have some difficulty hearing. I'm actually talking in your ear right now."

"What about...what about Naruto?"

"The demon vessel? He's still missing."

"How long has it been?"

"Three days, about to be four."

"Thank you." Iruka relaxed and focused like he was so used to telling his students. Slowly awareness crept into him, and he sent a thin trail of chakra down his leg. It stopped. A single tear trickled out of the corner of his blind eyes. Iruka now knew where every scar and mutilation the explosion gave him was. "I have to be strong. For Naruto...if they haven't found him yet he took my words to heart. I have to find out if anyone else was working with Mizuki." The former academy teacher's eyes shut as he fell back asleep, the pain taking its toll.

Naruto was playing in the flowing water, dressed in only boxers. The water came up to his waist in most parts, and deeper in others but he didn't care. Sitting on the bank Shidou had out a portable sewing kit and was fixing some of the major tears in Naruto's pants and jacket. He shook his head at the younger boy's antics, laughing when he slipped on a rock and plunged beneath the surface for a second.

"Hey! Old man it's not funny!" Naruto shouted when he resurfaced. His hair was plastered against his head, giving him an aristocratic appearance.

"Yes. Yes it is." Shidou answered. He flicked the jacket out and ran his finger along the bottom. The man's gaze wondered between the orange jacket and the scroll lying next to him. I wonder what that is. He seems very protective of it.

"Take this! Water paddle no jutsu!" Naruto slammed his palm against the water and sent it splashing to Shidou, who jumped up and cursed. Naruto pointed and laughed, his mirth soon infected Shidou and they were both smiling. Naruto walked close to the bank and leaned over so his elbows were supported by the grassy overhang. "Hey, you said there would be food here too, Shidou-san."

"Oh that's right... I did, didn't I, boy?"

"My name's Naruto. N-A-R-U-T-O." He enunciated exaggeratedly. Shidou slipped his needle through the thin leather of his vest and waded into the stream next to the half dressed boy.

"Okay, I'm going to teach you something my father taught me and his father taught him." The man said solemnly as he slipped off his vest and shirt and dropping them on the bank. "It's very important, so watch me and don't move. Understood?"

Naruto nodded and sat on a rock. The water reached his chin and tickled his nose but his attention never wavered. Shidou moved slowly at first, he stuck his arms under the water and froze. Minutes trickled by, and Naruto was beginning to get impatient. "Ha!" The woodcutter yelled and tossed something up on the bank with a great splash. Blue eyes widened more than ever before as they watched the big trout flop around helplessly on the ground where it landed. "And that boy is the great art of noodling."

"Like ramen noodles? Did you use ramen as bait? You had ramen and didn't tell me!"

Shidou waved his arms in the air to try and stop the questions that kept being fired at him by the hyper blonde. "No. Not like ramen noodles. Catching fish barehanded, it's just called noodling! Calm down and help me put this thing on a fire."

"Yay! Food!" Naruto jumped out of the stream and ran into the brush to locate some fallen branches. There were plenty nearby from his earlier fall and he was determined to capitalize on it. Shidou took a bare wooden spear from under a bush and washed it in the water. He said a quick prayer for the spirit of the fish, and then ran it through with the small cooking spear. Naruto came running back with a small pile of wood and began to stack them up, but was stopped by Shidou's hand.

"Not like that boy. You did say you were running away, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, if you place the wood like that, it'll smoke more. Try this." He rearranged the branches, throwing out some and adding others. "It'll burn faster, but produce less smoke. Smoke that could alert the enemy to your presence."

Naruto took his thinking pose, while the man placed the fish over the fire. "How do you know this? Are you a ninja, Shidou-san?"

"Naw." Shidou muttered and dropped back into the water. "It's part of the trade. Got to know what wood is good for smoking, what doesn't and what burns fast. If the people want to buy wood that crackles, I find it. If they want a wood that smells nice as burns, I get it. Simple. Now get in here, I'm going to show you how to noodle while that sucker cooks."

Rai's team picked up the pace as the smell of blood hit them. They didn't have long to wait, two more tree jumps and they froze. "Oh...why didn't we smell it earlier?" The woman asked as she surveyed the scene.

"Must be the two chunin those others were talking about. What happened to them? It looks like they just dropped dead." Bird mask commented as he looked down at Gurio's corpse.

"Their forehead protectors are gone." Frog mask observed. He knelt down and they all heard him gasp.

"What is it, Kimi?" Rai asked as he walked over to his subordinate. The frog ANBU pointed to the body of Shingo. Surprise and a little confusion was evident in his garbled voice.

"This was no accident. Look. He was stabbed through the heart. Whoever did it had to have gotten in close if the twisted muscle means anything. And that one," he waved over to Gurio, "has multiple cuts and bruises. We aren't dealing with an idiot here. Either whoever did it had more luck than humanly possible, or is an experienced and deadly force. We didn't see it because the rain must have washed most of the blood away."

Hyun, the rabbit masked, delicately picked up a katana. "I recognize this maker. He usually does jobs like these in pairs. The other must have been taken by the victor."

"Possibly." Rai agreed. Did the demon do this? It seems impossible, but he is a demon.

"Kanna-san!" The goat masked woman called from the other end of the scene. "I found some faint signs of a trail leading away. The rain washed most of it, but I can make out some rookie mistakes. No doubt it's our target. I think we are one, two days at most behind."

The dog masked ANBU clenched his fist in irritation. "Hyun, you return to Konoha and inform the Hokage of this development. Then wait for us to come back."

"What! But, Kanna-san, you know I want this." Rabbit mask coldly stated.

"I do. But the fact is no matter how good you are, I can't have you jeopardizing this mission. As soon as we get close ten to one says you'll blow cover and try to take it on alone. Look around. If it could do this, we are dealing with an unknown variable. ANBU don't do unknown. We are going to track, watch, and then take it out."

"I understand." Rabbit mask whispered and left.

"Boss, you think you were a little hard on the guy?" Frog questioned.

"Perhaps, but he's young. He'll deal with it. Yuukou, you lead."

The woman jerked up and leaped into the trees. The rest followed. "As you can see whoever passed this way, demon vessel or not, obviously isn't using chakra to balance on the branches."

"God. That takes a ridiculously large amount of stamina to keep up." Bird whispered in mild shock.

"Yeah, I know. Best part is this trail seems to be going for miles. North."

Rai, feared captain of ANBU and part-time restaurant owner, was very glad of the mask concealing his expression. "North? That's Rice Field country...and the Sound." A long forgotten feeling settled in the pit of Rai's stomach. It was dread.

Naruto sat by the fire watching the visible patches of sky turn orange and purple through the canopy. He giggled as the cold gooey feeling tickled his skin. "Shidou-san, what are you doing?"

The woodsman set down a small jar of ointment. "If you must know, boy. I'm putting this ointment on all those blasted cuts so they don't get infected. Now hold still." He smeared some of the stuff over Naruto's exposed back and whistled. "What the heck do you do for fun? Is falling out of trees the only way to get kicks or something. There's a scar just missing your spine as thick as my finger."

"Really? I didn't know... why are you doing all this?" Naruto asked innocently. His eyelids gained weight of their own accord and began to pull down. Now that he was warm, feed, and relaxed the past few days activities were adding up. Sleep was calling.

He wants to know why I'm helping. What did they do in that village? No wonder he wants to run away. "I guess my conscience wouldn't like it if I just left you alone." Shidou said and dipped his fingers back into the jar.

"What's a conscience?" Naruto yawned.

Shidou paused in his ministrations trying to come up with an answer. This must be what it's like to have kids, always asking uncomfortable questions. "Well, a conscience is something that tells you when something is wrong, and tries to get you to fix it."

"Like a voice?"

"I suppose. Do you have a voice?"

"I don't know...but something tells me to try."

"That's good advice, I'd listen to it." The forester pillowed his own leather vest under Naruto's head and draped the boy's jacket over him. "You look wiped, kid. Go to sleep."

"Will you be here in the morning?"

"Sure, I'll see you off. It's not like I've never camped out before."

"Thank you..." Naruto whispered as he fell asleep. Soft snores issued from his mouth and Shidou chuckled. This is the most fun I've had in years. Thank you Naruto.

Aoba Yamashiro scowled as darkness prevented him from going any farther. He was tracking the demon vessel, and wasn't more than an few hours behind. "Shit." He scowled and moved to the ground. He was a jounin, and stupid mistakes he was notgoing to make. Aoba slipped off his sunglasses and rubbed his eyes.

He settled down and decided to get some sleep, the vessel wasn't likely to be moving at night and he wasn't going to attack at this rate. Only headstrong idiots would attack in the darkness against unknown variables. Aoba smiled grimly. I'll get the scroll back. If it resists, I'll just have to kill it. The jounin stabbed a kunai into his tree and glanced up at the moon. I'll do it. They all say I got jounin by luck, but it wasn't luck. It was brains. I out strategized them all, and I'll do it again.

END.