Hey guys! This chapter might be a little late, I'm truly sorry, there's just so much pressure, with school and everything. Seriously, I'm sorry, I don't know when the next Haven in the Sky chapter will be updated, but I'm a quarter done writing it, now I just half to finish and edit it. Enjoy this chapter!
Kenji took the stone from mid-air and shuffled back into the back room, not telling Naruto what he meant by those words. The door swung shut behind him and the sounds of hammering came from the back room. About a half an hour later, which Shichi and Naruto spent swapping stories and drinking tea, Kenji reappeared, in his hand a red fox mask. It was finely carved, the six whisker marks matching Naruto's whisker marks. The inside was black like the stone and covered in glowing white lettering and seals. "This mask is yours, do not ever lose it, if you do, I will beat you until you wish you were dead..."
Naruto gulped at this death threat and took the mask carefully, as if scared of damaging it in anyway and getting beaten for it. "Thank-you old man, I'll treasure it," He slipped it into a padded cloth bag that Shichi had produced out of nowhere and said his goodbyes to the old man.
"If you ever want anything made or need repairs come straight back to me!" Kenji yelled, waving at the two retreating figures. "Ah, how good it is to be young...I hope Laughing doesn't run him too hard..."
"Well Naruto this is goodbye," Shichi grinned at him, messing up his hair. They stood at an empty dock which Laughing had told them to meet him at, ready to leave. "No matter how strong you get out there, remember that you can always come back and spar with me, cause I'll whoop your ass any day of the week." He handed him the katana on his belt, "This is my katana, you better use it well, otherwise I'll give you a beating worse than Kenji will beat you."
Naruto returned the grin with his own foxy grin and accepted the katana, strapping it to his belt like Shichi did. "No problem, and I whoop your ass all the time," he never really did but he was sure he could if he were allowed to use Kage Bunshin. Their conversation was interrupted by Laughing pulling up in that rowboat that they had used to first get to the island.
"Hope in, we've got a our work cut out for us for a bit," Laughing had his mask on, making his voice a bit muffled but still reconizable. Waving a last time at Shichi, Naruto jumped into the boat and swung his bag holding his mask and gear into the boat. His gear consisted of black cargo pants with a red stripe running down the legs and a loose red battle gi with a black fox across the back and front. He took up the other set of oars, helping Laughing row out to sea. As he rowed, Naruto looked back at the island, watching it become smaller and smaller, until it was just a pinprick on the wide horizon. When he could no longer see the island that was his home for a few months, did he turn his attention to the other figure in the boat.
"Where are we going?" Naruto asked, curious at what his first job would be.
"There's a client who wants a scroll from this one collector. It's highly guarded so it could be tricky, but nothing big to worry about." Laughing shrugged, he had gone on missions like this loads of times, it wasn't his first.
"That's what you say, but remember me? This is my first time here, couldn't you be a little more helpful?" Naruto retorted, Laughing was treating him like he had done this kind of thing his entire life, which he kinda had, but back then, they had a planned out strategy and a bigger team for this kinds of things.
"Uh...easy, we knock out all the guards, waltz in, take the scroll and waltz out," Laughing took off his mask and grinned, it was a method which he used everytime, it never did fail him no matter how many guards they put up or traps for that matter.
"Kami help me, I'm stuck with a moron," Naruto groaned, and facepalmed.
They arrived at Claw country about two days later, a little faster than Laughing had originally planned. There, they made their way into one of the main cities in Claw country and settled down at an inn. The two of them sat on the roof of an apartment building later that afternoon with a stolen pair of binoculars, scouting out the target's house. "This should be it," Laughing pointed at the huge mansion surrounded by a tall stone wall a little bit down the street.
"I see about thirty guards, probably more than that though in there," Naruto whistled and lowered the pair of binoculars from his face, "Alot of guards to protect a civilian collector guy." Guards stood at the front gates, weapons slung across their backs, a few guards here and there patroled the outside perimeter and Naruto bet that there were tons more inside those walls.
"This guy's a famous collector with a huge collection, and a little paranoid too," Laughing told him, taking out the scroll the client had given him at the beggining of the mission. "About 100 guards, forget a little paranoid, this guy has an army in there."
"So when do you wanna strike?" Naruto asked, still watching the guards and noting the times the patrols came around.
"You have all your gear here?" Laughing asked absentmindedly, stuffing the scroll back into his pouch.
"Yeah, why?" Naruto was confused, why did he need his gear at this paticular moment? They were just sitting on the rooftop, looking at the guy's house through a pair of stolen binoculars, where did his gear come in?
"Go get changed, we're going in now."
About half an hour later, the two of them had all their gear on and in position. They had gone over the plan earlier. The plan was for Naruto to cause a diversion big enough to get most if not all of the guards' attention, then Laughing would just go in, grab the scroll and go. Originally, Naruto had argued about why he had to take down all the guards. But then Laughing had bluntly reminded him that this job was building up his reputation not Laughing's so Naruto had relectuantly agreed.
"It's better if you kill them, leave a few survivors to tell the tale but destroy the rest," Laughing reminded him over their com-link. Naruto sighed, adjusted his fox mask and watched the guards, they switched every hour, so their switch should be just about....now! "Go!" Laughing hissed at him over their com-link. The guards had gone inside the gates, seizing his opportunity, Naruto crashed through the gates with a chakra re-inforced shoulder just as they were about to close it, Shichi's katana drawn. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a dark shadow flitting over the wall and into the mansion. He grinned, Laughing had infiltrated the mansion
"Who are you?!" one of the guards demanded, all four guards had their swords drawn. "I am Kitsune, your worst nightmare, prepare to meet your demise," Naruto replied cooly. Before the four could say anything else, there was flash of blades and blood spurted everywhere. "Four down, ninety-six to go," two screams echoed from within the mansion. "Make that Ninety-four actually," Naruto smirked, he was gonna enjoy this somehow.
A little over ten minutes later, Laughing met him in the bloodstained, body filled hallway with a the need scroll and several other scrolls tucked away safely in his pouch. With a nod, the two of them headed down the hallway, Naruto had left four survivors, one in the bottom of a heap of bodies, one hanging from a tree by his underwear and two bound and gagged, thrown in a closet he had found, all of them had his name imprinted in their minds and a wild story to tell. It was easy getting out with all the guards down, even the collector was unconcious, buried under a pile of his own precious treasures.
They snuck out of the place easily, using a genjutsu so that nobody on the streets would see them, masked and bloodied. They arrived at the inn, still under the genjutsu cover. One of the first things they did was secure the scroll, Laughing sealed it into a storage seal he had on his arm specifically for this purpose. Then they cleaned out their bloody clothes as best as they could and headed for the hot springs to wash the filth off of their skin and hair.
"Not too bad for your first," the hot spring was completely empty at around this time of day, it was just too hot to be in the springs, but the two would much rather be all hot and sweaty than to have someone else's blood on them any longer. Naruto just nodded, the adrediline in his system finally dying down, leaving him kinda tired. He did a once over on his wounds, Laughing had gotten off without a scratch lucky guy, Naruto on the other hand, after fighting all those guards had a dozen of bruises, scrapes and minor cuts, all which would heal within the hour or so.
"Is this how it's going to be every time?" Naruto asked, his head flopped back, eyes closed, letting the hot water soothe his tense muscles.
"I don't think so, some jobs might have the two of us on opposite ends of the world, so you might just have to tough it out on some missions," Laughing replied breezily, with the two of them, it was easier than sending a heavily chakra enforced clone should the need come for a two man mission.
"In that case, when's the next mission?" Naruto was suddenly enthusiastic about it, all those pent up frustrations he had collected in Konoha had fueled him, some were released in that bloodbath back there. It almost felt good killing them, or was that the fox's instinct taking over? Naruto mused over this thought for quite some time until his head hurt, was he becoming what he never wanted to become?
There's my latest chapter! Is the fox taking over? Or is Naruto becoming a cold-hearted murdurer? Find out when I post my next chapter! Which could be quite a bit I apologize but stay tuned! R&R! ~AnimeClouds~