j0! Man, Thanksgiving rocked! Good memories abound!
Anyways, here's the next chapter. A little short, but I'm still tired and twitchy (guess why...) from last night.
disclaimer (there has to be a better way of doing this): Naruto's not mine, but I now own a small bottle of whiskey.
warning: light swearing. Not much, though.
The room began to glow with faint light as the sun peaked over the horizon of rolling grasslands. The fog floated peacefully across the scenery as it became scattered and broken by the warmth of daylight. At the first sign of any significant light, Hinata eased from her slumber and was met by a pair of crimson and azure eyes.
"Morning Hinata," Naruto said softly, as loud noise this early in the day would surely be a rude awakening.
She blinked her eyes hard and instantly became awake. "Morning!" She yelped in slight surprise. Uzi only smiled in return as he stared into her eyes. "What's up?" She inquired.
"Nothing!" He replied cheerfully as he released her from his embrace and leapt up from the bed. "Oh, yeah!" He turned to the white-eyed woman. "Some more friends of mine showed up this morning. These guys are real cool! You'll like 'em!"
"Do they greet people the same way as Sheila?" She asked flatly.
He laughed. "Of course not! They're not originally from this country, so they weren't raised on the traditions here."
Hinata breathed a sigh of relief. The last thing she needed to do was shoot an ally out of reflex over a 'simple' greeting.
"Well," the blonde red-eye continued, "Let's go see 'em!"
A minute passed as the couple exited their room and made their way to the foyer. On the way there, Sheila intersected them as she came from another room.
"Ah, morning Uzi!" She immediately kissed him, completing the greeting of Uzumaki for the day. "And you too, Hinata!" She ignored the stiffened Hyuuga as she greeted her as well. "Hope you two slept well! How was the bed?!"
"It was nice," Naruto took the lead. "Thanks for providing it."
"No problem. Was it big enough?"
The pair of easterners looked at each other in mild confusion. "Not really…" Hinata answered, not wanting to offend her host.
"Too small, eh?" Sheila exclaimed. "Did someone fall off at some point?"
"What?" Her eye twitched at the red-eye specialist's implication. "No," she continued with a touch of contempt in her voice, "No one fell off."
"Oh," Sheila responded as if it were a revelation. "So you two took it slow and steady?"
"Shut up already!!" The easterners commanded simultaneously.
"Sorry, sorry. Anyway, the Agran brothers are here. You wanna see 'em?"
Naruto let loose a wide grin. "Hell yeah!"
The trio arrived at the outdoor foyer and was instantly greeted by three men dressed in various military uniforms.
"Uzi!" A man wearing standard woodland camouflage stood up and hugged the blonde.
"Nephil!" Naruto returned the bear hug. These two were obviously close friends. "Good to see you again!" He turned towards the other two goggled men. "And Bastan and Geist are here too! I haven't seen all three of you at once in years!"
"Good to see you again old buddy," the largest of the three men meekly greeted.
"It has been a while," the man with spiky red hair responded quietly.
"Who's this?" Nephil turned his attention towards the only non-red-eye present.
"I'm Hinata Hyuuga."
"Ah, the White Eyes of Death," the big guy added into the conversation. "We've heard lots of stories about you. You're rather famous amongst us red-eyes."
The woman smiled at the compliment. "Thanks… uh…"
"Oh, sorry! I'm Bastan Agran, the oldest brother." He gestured towards the seated redhead. "This is Geist, the youngest…"
"And I'm Nephil," the friendly red-eye bowed cordially, "The middle brother of the three. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
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Hinata spent the last two hours conversing with the Agran brothers and Naruto. She learned that it was the trio who were the first red-eyes to contact and convert Uzi to their cause, so their friendship was particularly strong. She had also learned about each brother's specialty.
Nephil, upon closer inspection, had cross hairs for irises in his orange pupils. This mutation was akin to a bloodline, much like the Byakugan, and allowed him to see straight across massive distances and target anything with perfect accuracy. He had developed his energy usage to amplify his senses at all times to aid with his soldiery, however this left him at a disadvantage to genjutsu, or 'illusions' as they were called in the west.
Bastan was half blind. He kept thick industrial goggles over his heat-scarred eyes, not only to hide the nastiness of the gunk produced by his tear ducts, but also to improve his poor vision to the point of normalcy, as the goggles had several levels of magnification. He had strange looking glyphs tattooed on the palms of his hands that he used to create explosives out of the blue. How he did this, though, was beyond Hinata.
The quietest of the three, Geist, was the most mysterious of them all. His skills were in stealth, as he used a combination of natural camouflage and techniques to slip by unnoticed in any situation, even during heavy combat. The brothers also alluded towards a hidden power only released in times of extreme danger, although none of them ever went into detail.
All in all, they were an odd bunch that was extremely friendly. They tried to incorporate Hinata into their conversations with Naruto as much as they could, although some stories just had to be experienced firsthand to really understand. After quite some time of catching up, they finally started discussing their plans for the revolution.
"You know," Nephil led the conversation, "There's a good running for us in this country. We could get a ton of support if we play our cards right."
"How so?" Naruto inquired.
"We have our hands in the security of this country's economy," Bastan continued in place of his brother. "We provide lotsa protection for relatively low prices. This keeps a lot of traders loyal to our forces here. I personally know a few of the higher up merchants, and if I pull some strings, we could secure supply lines without having to worry about tying up our forces too much."
"That rocks, but why would normal tradesmen want to help us out?"
"Oh, believe us," Nephil responded as evil smiles worked their way on his and Bastan's faces, "We have our ways. All you have to worry about is rallying your troops."
"We're being watched," Geist suddenly interrupted.
The Hyuuga woman began to activate her bloodline, but was stopped by a smiling Nephil.
"Don't do anything," he said. "Don't change you attitude or tone of voice. At best, the spy can't hear us yet, so we have to appear as if nothing's wrong." His point was driven home by the fact that everyone else's faces appeared to show that they were unaware of the intruder. "Where's the spy, Geist?"
"About thirty meters away directly behind me."
Hinata blinked and realized that someone was missing. "Hey, where'd Sheila go?"
She was answered with a gush of wind as Sheila reappeared with a man in a black cloak in tow. She flung the bound man onto the ground and held her fancy metal spear against his neck. Everyone else immediately wielded their respective weaponry against the stranger.
"Who are you?!" Sheila demanded, cheeriness banished from her usually chipper tone.
The man said nothing as he stared at no one with those intricate eyes of his.
"Talk!!" Bastan yelled as he thrust his previously hidden shotgun into the man's face. "Who are you and who sent you?!"
"What's with all the commotion?" Karin walked onto the foyer, curious about all the sudden noise. "What's going… holy shit!!"
"You know this guy, Karin?" The Hyuuga asked.
"That's- that's Itachi Uchiha!!"
"Where?!" Sasuke suddenly appeared at the door at the mention of the rogue ninja's name. "He's here?!"
Naruto didn't even bother to answer the avenger's question as he pulled the trigger of his Uzi and sent a single round into the man's head. He didn't even flinch as the corpse disappeared in a puff of smoke. On the other hand, all the other red-eyes were surprised at this.
"What the hell?" Nephil said out of confusion. "What was that?"
"Oh," Karin breathed a sigh of relief. "It was just a shadow clone…"
"A what?"
"Shadow clone," Karin began as she explained the basic mechanics of the technique to the western specialist. She soon became annoyed with his shock over the existence of such a move and left.
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Meanwhile, Itachi stood before a man who sat on a large throne hidden in the dim light of the massive room. The chamber was spared no expense, as it was built with the finest marble and precious stones and adorned with numerous valuables and other fancy, expensive things that looked cool.
The man opened his eyes as his clone popped out of existence and sent its information back to him. "It appears that Uzi is on the move with all of his friends."
The phantom atop the throne looked down slightly on the foreigner. "So he's moving with all the red-eyes?"
"It appears so."
"Did he say when?"
"No, but it sounds as if it will be soon."
The figure thought as he stroked his chin. "I see, very well. What are the terms of your… temporary allegiance?"
"I only wish to capture Uzi."
"For the reward?"
"No. I have my own reasons."
The figure delivered a nasty cackle. "Ha! You sick bastard, you! Very well, I accept your terms, but you better hold up your end of the bargain!"
The rogue Uchiha nodded and raised his hands to form a seal. Upon contact, his body puffed out of existence, leaving behind the so called tyrant ruler.
"You hear any of that, Lorsvall?" The man's gruff voice called.
A lone figure stepped out from behind a pillar of the extensive hall. "Yes, sir. I believe I have the perfect man for the job." The smug man's lips parted in a malicious grin.
Even I'm starting to miss the action, so I'm bringing in the main baddies to spice things up! Might do a chapter tomorrow, depending on if I get my illustration project done earlier than anticipated (unlikely).
On another note, did any of you guys know that Karin's shorts actually exist? Not as clothing sold under the Naruto franchise, but short shorts that are loose enough to have an inch of legging but tight enough to show off fine ass. Yeah, they exist, and I say this because my cousin wore a pair last night at the party. And since I have an active and healthy 'Y' chromosome, so I can say it's fairly... hot... especially on a fine body (she really takes care of herself). Don't worry though, I'm no hick. Still... never knew they existed. Just thought you'd like to know.
