CRIMSON MOON
The smell of just dampened earth breached the nose of a small blonde hair boy as his feet squished along the muddy trail. It was a dark night to hike up the mountains, the only light provided for the young boy was the light from the stars and the moon, but even that light was shielded by the canopy of the trees. He continued to march into the darkness without as so much as a look behind him. The only thing that accompanied him was the sound of the crickets and a single crow that was perched upon his shoulder. The bird's beady eyes stared into the depths of the darkness as if expecting some kind of disaster to come rampaging out at them. Its dark ebony feathers glistened in the moonlight as the carried along their journey up the mountain.
After a while the two of them came to an opening on the mountain that led to a field with soft grass and light colored flowers silently sleeping everywhere. The boy stood for a in the opening staring out at the sky his face pinching together as if he was in deep thought. He stayed like that for a while until the cawing of the crow shook him out of it. The boy advanced through the field until he reached the edge of it. Miles below the field at the base of the mountain was a small city that was asleep. It was encompassed in wall that created a circular barrier around it, to keep potential threats out. There were multiple tall buildings that were decorated with lanterns along the roofs providing the city with light. In the center of this was the tallest building in the city, this was where the village leader stayed, the Hokage's home. He stared intently at the large tower as a silent tear slid down his cheek. "Bye…. Konoha." A blond haired boy whispered, his voice drained of all emotion. His eyes were dull and looked like he was ready to cry, but all of his tears except a single drop had dried up from all of his pain. The wind blew a strong current causing his black cloak to open up, revealing two black gloved hands, curled into fists. A fox mask was tied to his hip blowing in the wind, as if to escape this new destiny that was laid out for it.
Slowly he uncurled one of his gloved hands and reached for the mask. He slowly grabbed the mask, it started to shake from the small tremors that were running through his hand. He brought the mask up to his face and stared at the hollow inside of it, knowing that once he puts this mask on he cannot change his mind. His hand gently places the mask on his face covering his now dull sapphire eyes. The blond haired boy looked back one more time through the peep holes of the mask at the city he once called his own and then retreated back into the raining forest without another hesitation. Back in the city you could hear fain sirens starting to go off.
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It was raining hard and I was as usual stuck inside my apartment all alone. A pile of dirty dishes and empty ramen cups littered my kitchen counter and filled up table. I ignored the mess having no inclination to clean it up and headed towards my room. It was a small apartment having only a kitchen, bathroom, and a bedroom. I didn't mind that it was so small, after all it was just me living here. I opened my door that connected the kitchen to my bedroom and flopped on my hard mattress hoping to finally get some sleep. I pulled my stuffed fox, Kitsune, to my chest against my usual plain long sleeved bluish- purplish pjs, with my dog cap on top of my head. I let a sigh escape my lips as hugged him closer.
I ran my fingers across my six scars, three on each side, remembering how the villagers had tied me down and screamed horrendous words at me as the engraved these marks on my face. They wanted to make sure I would always have a remembrance of what happened long ago in the village. Not wanting to dwell on the memories I threw my hand behind my spiky blond hair, where I scratched my neck. It was sort of like a nervous or embarrassed reaction that I do, it's just automatic. A bad habit that I could never get rid of no matter how hard I tried.
A few loud taps hit my window, too loud to be rain. I rolled my head over and was gazing at a dark, drenched figure that was sitting outside my window on my potted flowers. His eyes had a deep red hue to them, which was unmistakably the sharringan. "Sas… uke." I whispered in confusion. The name felt so foreign to me now, after he left for Sound a few months ago I tried not think of him, think of his betrayal. The name ghosted over my lips as I blinked a few times to make sure I wasn't imagining the once comrade that hunched outside my house. When I was sure that this was real and not a dream I got up off my bed and rushed to the window not wanting to give him time to change his mind and leave. My hand hovered mere inches over the lock as I tried to decide if I should go alert the authorities or harbor this comrade gone rouge. I chose to unlock my window accepting any punishment I could receive and allowed the drenched Sasuke to jump in.
As soon as his feet touched the ground I rand up to him pulling him into a huge embrace not caring that I was getting wet. I went to push my head into the crook of his neck when I realized that my head no longer was able to see over his shoulder. "Sasuke grew so fast in these few months" I thought to myself. It puzzled me how he could grow so quickly, but I quickly shrugged it off just glad to have my friend back. I moved my arms so they reached around his neck when a felt smooth silky hair meet my fingers.
"It's been a long time… Naruto." The person I thought to be Sasuke said in an all too deep voice to be the Uchiha's. This man had to be Sasuke though, the sharringan was in both eyes so it could not be Kakashi since he has the sharringan in only one eye. And the voice confirmed that it's not Sasuke. Then who? The only other person that I know who has the sharringan is…
"Itachi!?" I jumped back noticing that I was still hugging him. A slight blush covered my cheeks that unfortunately did not go unnoticed by the older man. My heart stop as a cold sweat took over my body at the only logical thought as to why Itachi would be in my room entered my head. "He must be here to bring me back to the Akatsuki and I just willingly let him in my house! God I'm so stupid!" I silently continued to curse myself.
"Hn." He said as if too confirm it. Wow he knows as many words, or word in this case as Sasuke does, they must be related. He had a smirk that was plastered on his face which was directed at my blush and my reaction. "How dare he mock me! I'll wipe that smug look off of his face for sure and see who the last one laughing is!" I silently scream inside my head.
"What do you want?" I spat out at him with a few growls in between as I took a step back getting into a fighting stance just in case he attacks me. I instinctively go to grab a kuni out of my pouch only to realize that it is not tied to my leg since I'm in my nightwear. "I guess if a fight happens I'll have to use just my hands and jutsu, I can't believe I don't have kuni pouch! Well if it's a fight he wants then it's a fight that he will get!"
"You're… very, odd you know?" His voice snapped me out of my inner fight. "I just came to war." He started to say, but then I cut him off. "To kill me and send me off to the Akatsuki! All because I'm a jinjurikii! Well I won't let you take me to them!" I screamed at him. I was panting from my anger at this man and the lack of breath I had from screaming my lungs out. His face turned from the typical stoic Uchiha to a look of pure shock at what I had accused him of. Surprising I know.
"I'm not in the Akatsuki anymore." He said while he pointed to his cloak that he was wearing. That was the first time I realized that he wasn't wearing a black cloak with the red fluffy clouds on it. It was just a plain old black one and his hands were in simple black gloves that had a protective shield on the back, the Akatsuki ring was nowhere in sight. "Can I continue now?" I nodded my head not trusting my voice right now. What else could I do, but listen to him? He appeared to be honest and showed no sign of being in the Akatsuki anymore. Plus, if he really wanted me dead he could have easily killed me already instead of trying to reason with me, something I will never openly admit. "You see, I want you to join Akuma." I went to interrupt him, but his hand was already up before I could say anything. "Konoha wants you dead, and they're planning on killing you soon. So I came here to warn you and offer you a position in Akuma." His eyes contained sadness and betrayal, as if he actually felt bad for me. It was in his eyes that I knew he wasn't lying to me about Konoha wanting me dead.
"But…" I never got to finish as he cut me off again. Does he have a problem or something with not letting people speak? God! What is he doing now? I eyed Itachi carefully as he fumbled around my house/apartment, occasionally picking things up and putting it down and every now and then something would fall and my eye would twitch. Then he made his way to the kitchen. 'Oh great now he goes into the fridge to raid my food'. He closed the fridge door and made his way to my ramen stash. "Is this all you ever eat? This… this… Garbage?" He said as he held the ramen cup away from him as if it was actually garbage.
Left eye twitched.
It twitched again.
"What the hell Itachi! Get out of my house now or I'll fucking kill you!" I screamed at him. I could feel all of the anger I had for him bubbling up, just waiting for me to make the kill. At that moment I understood why Sasuke was able to hold such hatred for the elder Uchiha, I mean come on what person does not like ramen? He slowly started to back away after he put the ramen cup down on the table.
"I'm going to leave the Akuma cloak here, the gloves, and a mask. If you decide on joining Akuma then go to Neko's tavern at 3:28am exactly. And try not to get caught." And with those final words he retreated back to the open window to take his leave. When he was outside he turned around to close the window and caught a glimpse of his eyes. His true eyes, he let his guard down by relieving the sharringan of its duty and its place stood two midnight eyes that held empathy. Without another word he silently shut the window and disappeared into the darkness of the city. I silently stared at the window for a long time after he left, just watching the rain dance down it. I turned around and decided to dismiss this all as a dream and made my way back to my bed, but then my eyes spotted the black cloak neatly folded on my table with two gloves on top of it.
I went over and picked up the gloves when I noticed that there was a small inscription on the protective metal. I peered closely and the small engravement, it read "I promise to protect my comrades". I put threw the gloves down on the floor as my body was flooded with emotions. "How can I protect my comrades when I can't even save my best friend!" I screamed into the night, knowing that I wouldn't get an answer. From the corner of my eye I noticed the mask that Itachi had left me. It was a simple white Anbu mask in the shape of a fox, all of the fox like detail was painted in orange. Grasping the mask I turned back to the window gazing out into the night and thought "What the fuck Itachi."
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"Summing fang pursuit no Jutsu!" I yelled as I threw my hand to ground, summoning my hound dogs. After the cloud of smoke disappeared a small brown dog with a bandana was sitting by my feet waiting patiently for my first command. "Pakkun, find Naruto's scent!" I ordered in a panic tone, there was no way I was going to allow the village to lose both of them.
"Kakashi, what do you mean find his scent?" The dogs all looked nervous right now. Each one timidly looking at the other, knowing that the rain would wash away any trace of a person's scent. One of the larger grey dogs started whimpering at the dreadful thought of not being able to trace his scent. The dogs started to run wildly sniffing the rain filled air and the drenched earth just trying to pick up a trace of his scent. Just a small sniff would be enough to lead us in the right direction and bring us one step closer to finding him.
"He ran away, sirens are going off! The whole village is looking for him! I won't let what happened to Sasuke happen to him! NOW, go! And be quick!" I ordered the dog who was arguing with me instead of helping the others track Naruto. 'Naruto what have you done, where could you be. You better hope that I'm the one who finds you." I thought to myself. I stared at the star and rain filled sky just thinking what I could have done to prevent this one to leave. I knew it was going to be a long night, but I was okay with that, if it meant at least saving one of them.
I was left with my thoughts for a while until a small bark drew me out of my own self-hatred. "Sup boss." The small brown dog said after he had gained my attention. I could tell that he was going to bring me some kind of bad news in the way that he hung his head in defeat. I started to notice the other dogs making their way out of the forest to me, dragging their paws in a defeated motion. I closed my one visible eye in defeat raising my hand to signal Pakkun to give me his report. "Well we couldn't find his scent outside of the village, the rain washed it away. We were able to trace it back to the village gate and a few steps to the east just beyond the gate, but then we lost it." The dog hung his head in shame at his failure, but kept his eyes down longer than he should have. It was as if he was hiding something else he had found.
Letting this information set into my brain I attempted to come up with a quick plan of action. I mulled over every detail Pakkun had said to me and the only reason I could draw up was the same as Pakun's, he left to get Sasuke back. "Is that everything you found?" I asked Pakkun, just wanting to make absolute sure that I was not missing anything. The small ninja dog went to open his mouth as if to say something then quickly closed it. He did this multiple times before he finally spoke saying "Well we did find traces of a stale scent in Naruto's apartment, it was at least a week old." I stared at the dog to go on. "I'm almost certain that I know who the scent is, but I may be wrong since I have only smelled it once. I believe that it belonged to Itachi Uchiha. We didn't find his scent anywhere else in the village besides his apartment and it wasn't near the gate where we lost Naruto either. I'm not sure if his disappearance is related to Itachi or not, what do you think Kakashi?"
My body froze as the puppies words repeatedly rang in my ears. 'Why would Itachi be in Naruto's room and leave him alive? Maybe he casted a genjutsu on Naruto with his sharringan to get him to leave the village willingly… Maybe he decided to desert the village? No, Naruto would never do that, he loves this city and cares about becoming Hokage way too much to throw it all away. He must have been kidnapped, but then the perpetrayer scent would have come up around the gates, but only Naruto's was there.' A whole bunch of thoughts were scrambling around in my head coming up with multiple scenarios that could have happened, but none of them seemed right. Staring into the woods I give the only orders that I can think of, "Pakkun, report to Lady Tsunade and tell her to put together a search party for Uzumaki. I'm going to go ahead and scan the forest more thoroughly, I refuse to arrive too late to save them. This time I will make it!" I choke off as I shout the last of it at Pakkun who is already on his way to the Hokage's tower. Without wasting another second I break off into a sprint heading for the coverage of the gloomy forest.
NARUTO'S POV
I slowly walked up a dirt path not bothering to run against the rain anymore. I was already wet and muddy from the storm and tripping into a few puddles that I didn't care anymore. My cloak was covered in mud that was slowly dripping off in half liquidy chunks from the relentless rain. My body was on high alert even though there was no sign of any pursuit. Everything was quiet except for the patter of my feet against the gravel and dripping of the rain. I couldn't hear any footsteps or see anything because of this damn rain. I was strictly relying on my ability to sense others' chakras to tell if I was being pursued.
Seeing no one in view I closed my eyes to concentrate more strongly on any chakras that could potentially be following. I could sense multiple chakras around me, but none of them were coming from the direction of the leaf village. Instead they appeared to be coming from in front of me 'Hm, that's weird' I thought to myself right before I felt a sharp pain strike my face. "Ow, what the hell was that?" I screamed as I rubbed my poor nose looking for any sign of an attacker. I looked up and there was a big sign that read Neko's Tavern. "I guess this is the place" I spoke to myself as I stepped a few paces back to take in the full view of the building. It was a decent sized wooden house that had loud blaring music and drunken shouts escaping from the opened windows, it was amazing that I didn't notice all these loud noises. The tavern appeared to have two floors from the outside. The drunken shouts got louder and louder and I could make out the shadows of two men fighting in front of the second story window. The smaller shadow lunged for the larger one, but the larger shadow easily avoided the oncoming attack, sending the smaller man out of the window. Glass shattered everywhere as the man plummeted to the ground. He landed with a loud thump and a few groans escaped his mouth signaling he was okay. Gulping I slowly walked up to the door not entirely too sure what I was about to get myself into. I knocked twice and slowly opened the door to the rowdy tavern.