AN/ Okay, I know technically I'm supposed to update 'Just Following Orders' or 'Cursed' before updating this again, but my computer was infected with a worm that made it inoperable. And since I was a good eight pages into 'Cursed' and I'm seriously thinking of rewriting 'Just Following Orders,' I felt I should at least update this.
Disclaimer: NO! I'm not doing this no mores!
"Speech"
'Thought'
'Inner Sakura'
"(Unimportant) Demon Speech"
Naruto Wandering Demon
Chapter 8: A Lesson in Demon History
After having spent the last two and a half years together, give or take a few months, Hinata had grown accustomed to waking up to find that her teammate was already awake, meditating on his futon, a few of his bugs flying noiselessly around him. It was actually a rather captivating sight, the bugs flying around his body—which was bare from the waist up, his coat folded near him, since he had stated it didn't allow him to meditate properly—dancing around aimlessly yet always perfectly synchronized with at least one other bug.
Shino's bushy dark brown hair was short, yet long enough that it reached his eyebrows if it wasn't held up by his headband. His body was lean, having been trained for mobility rather than strength seeing as his fighting style used mid to long range attacks; unless he kept his opponent occupied by swiftly maneuvering around them, keeping them focused on him long enough for his bugs to drain them of energy.
There were several holes spanning the length of the back of his arms, fifteen on each arm, and then continuing down the sides of his back where she assumed they kept going down his legs. The holes appeared to be metal rings that kept the skin from healing, though it would most likely have healed around it by now. They were odd in how no matter how they were positioned in the light, they appeared to have a constant shadow.
Hinata yawned as she sat up, stretching her arms up to awaken her muscles from their dormant state before looking around the room.
Kiba looked strange without his faithful companion curled up under his head. The fact that he had actually left Akamaru's side was a surprise, but considering how Kurenai had stayed in the living room waiting for Kiba to head upstairs before she came up herself, it wasn't unexpected. While Kiba would most likely have remained awake through the night worrying about Akamaru, he couldn't if it meant Kurenai would be deprived of sleep as well.
The sleeping teen was only slightly more muscular than Shino, his combat style perfectly blending swift unpredictable strikes with strong kicks, some of which required him to use his hands to support him as he executed them. It was a style he had created back during their second attempt at becoming Chuunin. She remembered feeling entranced the first time she'd seen him fight like that (she wasn't the only one she later found out); it was akin to watching someone break dance. His feet were never still for too long, used every so often so as to throw his opponent off balance, yet his hands never relented in their assault, swipes being followed by backhands if he missed and flip kicks and falling leg sweeps played a large role in his strategy .
Between Kiba's offensive abilities, Shino's distractions and her own defensive abilities, Hinata figured her team was the most well rounded out of their graduating year. The only reason they didn't receive as many missions that required combat was because Sakura's team was the strongest assault team, while hers came in close second, yet also being the best tracking and escort team. They were also the second best scouting and reconnaissance team, but team ten held first, if only slightly thanks to Shikamaru's ability to plan every move their enemy would make.
Hinata's attention was brought back to her meditating teammate when a rather large swarm of bugs came in through the open window, entering the brunette's body through the numerous holes that he had on his person, before another swarm came out, heading out the same way the previous had entered. Hinata followed the swarm with her eyes as it left, noting that it scattered once outside, most likely setting up a perimeter around their temporary base of operations.
"Good morning, Hinata-san." Shino greeted, standing up before reaching for his loose long sleeve shirt. Hinata turned her gaze back towards Shino, blushing slightly as she noticed how the muscles in his back moved as he pulled his shirt over his head.
"G-good morning, Shino-kun. How long have you been awake?" she asked, blushing harder when she accidentally averted her eyes towards Kiba, who was used to sleeping in nothing but his boxers if they weren't expecting to be attacked; which was often considering how many low rank missions they received. Shino's response was delayed as he searched for his sunglasses.
"About an hour, when Kurenai-sensei left to check on something that was bothering her." He answered, putting on his jacket after having found his glasses in one of the sleeves of his jacket. "I'm going downstairs, please wake Kiba up before you leave as well." Shino requested as he left the room.
Hinata blushed again, realizing she was left alone with a near naked Kiba, something she usually tried to avoid. She had a small crush on the Inuzuka, and she felt embarrassed being around him, seeing as he wasn't necessarily shy about anything.
Wanting to escape the room before she fainted, Hinata quickly pulled her own jacket on before walking over to Kiba. She shook him slightly, muttering for him to wake up as she did, barely waiting for him to fully regain his senses before running out of the room, her heart beating wildly in her chest.
In another room, Sakura was just waking up, having been slightly startled by a door slamming shut, when she felt something… warm and rough touching her somewhere that she only let one other person than herself touch. Looking down, she found that sometime during the night, Naruto's left hand had slipped up under her shirt, which was bunched around her rib cage, and was cupping her right breast softly.
The rosette simply sighed and tried to get as comfortable as she could, having gotten used to the fact that every time she woke up, one of Naruto's hands was either in her shirt, or if they were sleeping face to face, cupping one of her ass cheeks. Naruto swore he didn't consciously do it and she believed him. Besides, they were mates which meant she was his, and, even though it had only happened once, she had woken up with her hand touching a certain part of him that she had yet to see with her eyes even if she'd felt it through their clothes.
However, when she felt his hand give her a small squeeze before happily muttering something that was mostly incoherent besides a barely recognizable 'Sakura-chan,' she reached up and removed his trespassing hand before sitting up, yawning. She glanced around, finding Shadow gone, before landing on Naruto's form. She frowned, noticing that his wounds weren't healed like he'd said they'd be. In fact, they looked almost the same as when she'd returned the previous night, only having healed to the point where they didn't look like they'd bleed unless he overexerted himself.
With a large sigh, she got up to go downstairs and get the backpack she'd left the night before, but Naruto's voice made her pause.
"Sakura-chan, where you going?" came the blond's voice, sounding like a kid who'd had their blanket taken away. Sakura turned towards him and smiled when she saw that he was reaching around with his right arm, his eyes still closed, trying to pull her back onto the futon.
"I'm going to get some clothes, I left our stuff downstairs." She answered, opening the door when his hand stopped its futile attempt at finding her. Well, futile wasn't the right word. Sakura was sure that if he'd really wanted her to lie back down, she would have. After all, she loved the safe, warm and comfortable feeling she got when they laid in each others embrace, something they usually did in the mornings for a few minutes as they muttered sweet nothings to each other.
"Stay still, your wounds still haven't healed." Sakura stated when she saw that he was going to get up as well. He sat halfway up before he clutched his stomach grunting in pain.
"What the fuck? Why aren't my wounds healed?" Naruto whined, though the rosette could tell he was honestly worried. She then watched as he, for some reason or another, poked his wound before once again wincing in pain. "Ow… that hurts…"
"Of course it's going to hurt, it hasn't healed yet. Did you think it would magically heal it if you touched it?" Sakura asked, shaking her head, her face in her palm.
"I don't believe it, my wounds aren't healed." He muttered, looking at her, a worried expression on his face. "This has never happened before; my wounds always heal after sleeping for a few hours." Naruto was obviously panicked. Sakura was about to say something but Shadow chose that moment to jump in through the window, a dead rabbit in his mouth.
"God damn, you're so loud. My prey almost got away because it turned around when it heard you whining and saw me." Shadow grumbled, letting the rabbit drop to the floor with a thud. "Now what are you whining about?"
Naruto turned towards Shadow, pointing at the wounds on his chest. "Shadow, my wounds haven't healed yet! What the hell's going on?" he shouted loud enough that Sakura was sure the whole house heard him. Shadow's eyes narrowed.
"Didn't we just talk about this yesterday; the Kiri no Shinobigatana Nananin Shū have swords created specifically to fight demons. Is your brain too small to remember that or did it finally die from lack of oxygen due to your make out sessions with Pinky over there." Shadow once again proved he couldn't go five minutes around them without slipping out an insult.
"Stop calling me that!" Sakura yelled, agitated at the nickname. Shadow merely ignored her, rolling his yellow eyes.
Naruto thought back to his conversation with Shadow the previous evening before laughing sheepishly. "Oh, yeah. Guess I was too busy freaking out to remember." Naruto admitted, scratching the top of his head. Sakura arched an eyebrow as she turned towards him.
"So your wounds haven't healed because of Zabuza's sword?" she asked, receiving a nod from the two fox demons; one still laughing lightly while the other glared at the first. "So how long should it take to heal then?"
"I don't know," Naruto began, any worry or concern gone from his voice, instead replaced with amusement, "but this means I get to lie around and be lazy until they heal. When was the last time I got to do that?" Naruto asked Shadow, a grin on his face and his hands folded behind his head. Shadow actually seemed to think on that.
"I think… it was about three months ago; the last time we met the old pervert, right?"
"I don't know." Naruto shrugged. "Probably."
"Yeah, I think so, that was when he was writing his last book—"
"—Oh, you mean when he tried to learn the demon hand signs I knew of?"
"Demon hand signs?" Sakura asked, interested but her question was drowned out by Shadow's response.
"Wait was that the same time we exposed him while he was peeping on the wind daimyo's niece and the guards chased him around the village for, like, two hours?"
"Yeah, don't they still have wanted posters of him around wind country for that?"
"Who's still wanted?" Sakura tried again, but once again Shadow's response drowned her out. She was starting to get annoyed.
"No, that's from when he actually mated with the girl."
"He didn't mate with her… did he?"
"Why do you think he left so fast the next day?"
"He always leaves us with the hot spring bill!"
"Because you fucking always let him!"
"Guys?" Sakura said, opening the door, ready to leave if they ignored her.
"I've never seen you try to stop him." Naruto smirked when Shadow didn't say otherwise before turning at the sound of the door closing. "Sakura-chan?"
"Someone's in trouble." Shadow mocked as he picked up his rabbit and jumped out the window.
Naruto merely shrugged, deciding to wait for Sakura since she'd need him to unseal her clothing. 'Hn. Maybe I should teach her how to use seals, that way she won't have to rely on me to get her own clothes.' Thought the blond as he waited, his eyebrow arching as he felt a familiar chakra signature nearby. "Hey, Ero-sennin's around."
"Good morning, Sakura-san." Hinata greeted as the rosette walked down the stairs. The Hyuuga heiress was currently sitting in the kitchen, sharpening her kunai with Tsunami's knife sharpener, while Kiba was sitting near Akamaru, scratching the nin-dog's head. Sakura reached for Naruto's backpack before turning towards the lavender eyed girl.
"Good morning, Hinata, Kiba." —("Hey, Sakura." Kiba replied, not looking at the pink haired girl.)—"Where's everyone else?"
"Shino-kun is accompanying Tazuna-san and Tsunami-san into town to get some groceries and Inari-san is upstairs." Hinata answered, replacing her current kunai with a new one. "Is Naruto-dono still sleeping?"
"Um, no." Sakura paused as she thought of a reason for why Naruto's wounds wouldn't be healed even after using his mother's healing cream. "He's awake but it turns out that his wounds were too big to heal right away. He has to rest for a while."
"I hope his injuries heal soon." Hinata said, putting away her kunai and placing the knife sharpener back on the hook above the sink. She then picked up a plate that had something square wrapped in paper towels. "Sakura-san, here;" Hinata called, bringing the plate to the other girl as she was about to ascend back up the stairs, "Tsunami-san made some sandwiches for everyone, these are for you and Naruto."
Sakura thanked her, shifting Naruto's backpack on her shoulders, before taking the plate and returning up the stairs. Along the way she passed Inari's room, the loud music that suddenly started making her jump slightly and almost drop the plate she was carrying. The music lowered in volume as she began walking again, allowing her to hear the conversation taking place inside the room Naruto was in.
"I told you, he's busy hunting down a pair of demons right now, he sent me to say 'hi,' and to apologize for not being able to visit you, but that maybe he'll come by if he has time." The person sounded annoyed, as if it had been telling Naruto the same thing a few times but the blond wouldn't listen. Which Sakura didn't doubt.
"But I have a new demon hand sign to show him. I'm sure if you tell him that, he'll come over as fast as his old legs'll take him—without breaking his hip." The unknown person laughed apparently so hard that they stomped on the floor lightly if the sound she heard was any indication. "Sakura-chan, what are you doing out there; is the door stuck?"
Sakura opened the door with a slight blush of embarrassment at being caught spying on Naruto as he talked to… 'Wait, who the hell was Naruto talking to?'
"Sakura-chan, meet Gamakichi." Naruto said, as if reading her mind. Sakura however was confused. There was no one in the room other than them. Not even Shadow was there. She was about to voice her confusion when a small orange frog hopped out of the pile of clothes in the corner, something she hadn't noticed the previous night.
"What's up?" it said, half saluting her.
With a shriek, Sakura threw the plate towards the frog; however Naruto managed to catch it and the sandwiches it held.
"Hey, cool; sandwiches." Naruto exclaimed happily as he placed the bowl on the floor before unwrapping one, offering some to the orange frog, who gladly accepted.
"Thanks, Naruto." The frog said as it grabbed some of the bread and stuffed it in its mouth. Naruto grinned before taking a bite himself.
"No problem." Sakura couldn't believe Naruto was talking and sharing a sandwich with a frog as if it was a kid.
"Naruto… you're talking to a frog." She said blankly. Gamakichi however took offense.
"Hey, I'm a toad!" that only made Sakura let the shiver she'd been holding escape. Naruto of course noticed and a mischievous smile spread over his face.
"Sakura-chan, are you afraid of toads?" Naruto asked, the smile never leaving his face. Sakura blushed for the second time in two minutes.
"N-not afraid… more like grossed out." She admitted, sitting on her knees next to Naruto. Gamakichi huffed. "Where'd it come from, anyways? Is it a toad demon?"
Naruto lifted the frog by the back of the small blue jacket it wore. "A toad demon? I don't think so." Naruto answered, keeping the toad raised in front of his face. Gamakichi kicked Naruto on the nose, making the blond let go of him.
"I am a summon, thank you." Gamakichi stated, straightening out his jacket. He then turned to Naruto. "Anyways, Naruto, I've gotta go. I'll tell the old man what you said, but I'm telling you he's kind of hell bent on finding those two demons." Upon finishing his statement, Gamakichi disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Once the orange toad was gone, Sakura turned towards Naruto, who was finishing his sandwich. "Who was he talking about, Naruto?" she asked, swatting his hand away from the second sandwich. "Leave that one alone, I haven't eaten yet."
"Ero-sennin's around here somewhere, though he sent Gamakichi to say he probably won't be able to visit me himself." Naruto answered, rubbing his hand. "Ero-sennin's the one who taught me about seals, and I search for demon hand signs for him."
Sakura reached for her sandwich before she noticed what the blond had said. "Wait—what do you mean you 'search for demon hand signs for him'?" it didn't make sense; why would he have to search for demon hand signs? Naruto simply smiled.
"Oh, yeah, I never explained demon hand signs to you, did I?" he asked, already knowing the answer. That didn't stop Shadow from answering as he hopped onto the windowsill.
"Is your memory so bad that you don't remember what you have and haven't told your mate?" Shadow asked, smirking. Naruto turned towards the fox, glaring.
"I don't have a bad memory; I'm just forgetful sometimes." Naruto retorted making the black fox raise an eyebrow, about to say something. "Shut up!"
"I was just going to say that you should explain our hand signs to your mate before she strangles you." Shadow said, amused when Naruto turned to notice that Sakura was beginning to get annoyed.
"Oh! Sakura-chan, I'm sorry about that. Um, uh… Where was I?"
"You haven't started yet." Sakura answered, watching his face light up into an, 'oh yeah,' expression.
"Well, it's like this; Demon hand signs are like Human hand signs, only they're not." He said, trying to find the right way of explaining, making Sakura's face adopt a 'No, really?' expression. "I mean, you guys know all your hand signs, but Demon hand signs are old practices, mostly forgotten by a majority of the demon population. Apparently—from what I was told by other demons, and Ero-sennin—Demons were the original users of hand signs, using them to fight each other, usually leaving humans alone. They found them too inferior to waste time on, as always."
"But," Shadow took over, "it was from those few demons that did attack humans that the humans learned of, mimicked and later after learning that most couldn't use them that they created their own hand signs."
"And that's how your bird-rat-monkey hand signs came to be." Sakura's eyebrow twitched as she watched Naruto perform butchered versions of the hand signs she was accustomed to using. "And those humans were the first ninja."
"I know that already." She stated, eyes narrowed. "I asked why you're searching for demon hand signs, not an academy review." Even though she said that, it wasn't entirely exactly as she was taught. As a child, they were taught demons attacked humans relentlessly, using their demonic hand signs which humans soon recreated to use against them. "And what's wrong with the bird, rat and monkey hand signs?" she asked, demonstrating the correct way of performing the hand signs, almost tempted to complete the small genjutsu that began in that order.
"Nothing really but compared to Aries," his hands formed a foreign hand sign where the back of his fingers touched before forking at the knuckles, his thumbs bent to form arches, "Libra," another foreign hand sign, this time simpler with one hand fisted above the back of the other, "and Cancer they sound kind of weird." The last hand sign had both of his hand clenched into fists with the thumbs outstretched over the knuckle of the other hand.
Sakura's eyebrows shot up when she heard the names. "A-Aries, Libra and Cancer? As in, from the Zodiac?" she asked, voice filled with disbelief. There were theories about how demon hand signs worked, and among those was that the twelve signs of the Zodiac were their hand signs, which would explain the myths of A-class Demons having near limitless Chakra supplies. They didn't just have Spiritual and physical energy making their Chakra, they had cosmic energy feeding most of their attacks.
Naruto's eyebrow knit together in thought. "Uh… I think so." He said uncertainly. "The Zodiac's the bunch of constellations, right?" he asked, making Sakura stare at him incredulously. "Hey, I just know the names; I don't know what they're named after or why."
"Anyways, you probably know how humans began hunting down demons that were known to attack humans. And though humans didn't have as much Chakra, they had mastered their own Chakra and perfected their Chakra control, unlike demons that simply made a hand sign and pushed out enough Chakra to produce an effect. Pretty soon, humans began to hunt all demons, though they focused mostly on those that knew how to perform demonic hand signs.
"Some demons began to fear humans, and most refused to learn the demonic hand signs. As time went on, humans had killed every master of demonic hand signs, leaving only demons that had just begun learning. Most of these demons had barely mastered one or two hand signs, and immediately hid from humans. Humans continued to hunt demons until eventually only a handful remained that still knew how to use specific hand signs."
"Some say that a few of the hand signs have been lost since the last demons to know how to use them died." Naruto added, going through his hand signs, one which Sakura hadn't seen yet. "I know four hand signs so far, but that still leaves…" Naruto looked down at his hands as he began naming all the hand signs he'd been told about, counting with his fingers as he did so, "eight right?" he asked Shadow.
"Very good, Master, your math skills are improving. You can finally count to eight." Shadow responded, making Naruto glare at him.
"I'm going to kick your ass when I heal."
"That would require that you actually be able to catch me." Shadow stated, sounding as though he were explaining something to a child.
"Or I could just outsmart you with a trap or something."
The resulting thud made when Shadow fell off the windowsill from laughing too hard drew Sakura's attention back to the two fox demons in the room with her. She had begun ignoring them when they began arguing, again. 'I'm starting to get tired of these two constantly fighting.' She thought, finishing her sandwich as she watched Naruto looking for something to throw at the black fox.
A knock at the door interrupted the blond's search for anything to hit Shadow with.
"Sakura-san, Kurenai-san wants to know if you two would be able come down." Tsunami's voice came through the door. Naruto glanced over towards Sakura, an eyebrow arched questioningly. Sakura shrugged at him.
"Tell her I'll be down just as soon as I change but I don't think Naruto can co—"
"We'll be down in a minute." Naruto interrupted her. "You wouldn't happen to have any bandages, would you?" He asked, receiving a quick, 'Yeah,' before they heard Tsunami's footsteps as she walked away. The blond turned to smile at Sakura only to notice her glare. "What?"
"What do you mean, 'what?'" she snapped, making Naruto flinch slightly. "You're in no condition to go down there!" she half yelled, half whispered. She couldn't help but sigh, however, when she saw his ears flatten to his head, reminding her of a sad puppy. "Fine, just unseal some clothes for me real quick." she grabbed his backpack and pulled out the seals inside. She couldn't really tell one from the other.
Naruto grinned, grabbed one of the seals with his left hand while pressings his thumb against one of his sharp canines, causing blood to slide down his thumb, before spreading it over the seal. A cloud of white smoke irrupted almost instantly above the seal before fading away to reveal a few sets of clothes Sakura had already prepared so as not to spend so much time deciding which shirt would match with which pants or shorts or skirt.
She picked a light blue sleeveless shirt with a pair of light green bicycle shorts and a light yellow skirt. She never liked wearing a skirt without shorts seeing as she did a lot of flipping and jumping as a ninja. Certain that Naruto was too busy making another seal to store the rest of her clothes, save a pair for later, she changed quickly. The couple finished what they were doing just as Tsunami returned with the bandages.
Naruto performed a quick henge as Sakura went to open the door, making her wonder why sometimes his henge released smoke and why sometimes it didn't. "Thank you, Tsunami-san." The rosette said as the elder woman handed her some wrapping gauze and some alcohol before leaving. Leaving the door open, she turned towards Naruto. "Alright, sit up straight, would you?"
Naruto did as he was told, his grin still in place, wondering what it would be like to be wrapped like a mummy. He pictured it in his head; himself wrapped head to toe in gauze, walking around with his arms raised in front of him. 'Wait a minute; if I'm wrapped in from head to toe, how will I eat?' he thought to himself. 'Do mummies have holes for their mouths? Do they even eat? How will I eat ramen? How will I talk?'
Sakura, oblivious to Naruto's thought process, ripped a small piece of gauze and splashed some alcohol onto it before dabbing Naruto's wounds with it. The result was instantaneous. Naruto let out a cry of pain and moved away from Sakura's hand, falling onto his back, his gaze fixed on her.
"What the fuck was that?" he asked, making Sakura stare at him strangely. Then it hit her.
"Naruto, don't tell me you've never used alcohol?" she asked disbelievingly. 'Do his wounds really usually heal so fast that he never needed to treat them?' she thought, watching as Naruto thought for a second.
"No." he answered quickly enough. "Is that what you just touched me with?" when she nodded his gaze shifted from her face to her hand still holding the damp gauze. He then let out a sigh. "Holy crap that stings." He said, moving towards Sakura again. Said girl merely splashed some more alcohol onto the damp fabric before touching it to his wounds again.
Sakura was impressed at how well Naruto handled the sting of alcohol. She knew it was something that could be painful when one wasn't used to it. Besides a few hisses he wasn't protesting. Though the way she felt his muscles tighten under her hand, she knew he was biting back a few more hisses. After she was done cleaning the last, and largest, wound she wrapped him in the gauze, making sure it wasn't too tight. The whole process took less than three minutes.
"Alright, Naruto, We're done." Sakura stated, getting up and stretching. Naruto followed suit, minus the stretching, running his hand over the bandages. "Come on, they're waiting for us downstairs." The blond nodded following her down to the living room clad only in his pants, his henge still activated, while Sakura fixed her shorts, as they had ridden down slightly.
"Took you two long enough." Kiba stated when they descended into the living room. He saw Sakura fixing her skirt and took in Naruto's appearance before smirking lecherously. "Don't tell me you two were having a quickie?" he asked, making Sakura glare at him.
'What's a quickie?' Naruto thought, sitting next to Sakura on the couch, which meant he was also sitting next to Tsunami, whose cheeks were tinted in the smallest pink hue. Kurenai, who was sitting in between Kiba and Hinata on the smaller couch—(Kiba was sitting on the armrest of the couch, rubbing the back of his head as Kurenai had once again hit him.)—cleared her throat.
"As you all remember, yesterday we fought Zabuza and he was taken by a Kiri Oinin." She waited for everyone to nod before she continued. "Does anyone know what crucial mistake we made?"
"Letting that bastard take Zabuza's body?" Naruto mumbled, making Sakura tighten her grip on his hand that was interlocked with hers.
"Naruto!" the rosette chastised, only to have Kurenai interrupt her.
"Actually, that is exactly where we messed up. What is the job of an Oinin?" Kurenai asked. Of course Sakura answered.
"To track down and eliminate Ronin, taking their heads as proof of accomplishing their jobs before cremating the bodies on…" Sakura's eyes widened, "on site…" Everyone but Naruto had the same realization.
"That Oinin was a fake!" Kiba shouted angrily, turning towards Kurenai for confirmation. When she nodded the brown haired boy let out an aggravated growl.
"Does that mean th-that Zabuza is still alive?" Hinata asked nervously. She did not look forward to fighting the Kiri Ronin again. They had barely escaped with their lives the first time.
"Most likely that is the case." Shino said from his position near the bottom of the stairs, leaning against the wall. "However he probably won't be alone the next time."
Kurenai nodded. "Most likely the Oinin impostor will be accompanying him. However strong he may be, Zabuza is still the main obstacle. He is a master of stealth killing, the basis of which is to impair the senses. Whether that's by using genjutsu to mislead your senses or mist to make visibility bad. If you want to hold your own against Zabuza you'll need to train to fight with zero visibility."
"Not Hinata, she's lucky, she has the Byakugan." Kiba said, pouting. The blushing girl was about to say something when Kurenai interrupted her.
"I'm afraid that so long as it's Chakra created mist even she will have to train to fight without her eyes."
"What if Naruto uses his wind Jutsu again?" Sakura questioned. To her it seemed like the logical choice to simply blast away the mist again. Kurenai shook her head.
"While that would be the simplest way, we can't rely too much on Naruto helping us throughout the entire fight as we can assume Zabuza won't be alone if he returns. Everyone might be busy with their own opponents." Kurenai explained calmly. "At the same time, we don't know how many he'll bring with him. I could be one person or it could be an entire ninja squad. Even demons are a possibility."
When everyone realized how much thought Kurenai had given this they couldn't help but be impressed. Well, almost everyone.
"And what if he doesn't come back at all?" Naruto asked slowly, his voice coming out in an 'ever thought of that,' tone. Shino shifted his weight off of the wall he was leaning on.
"In that case we shall consider ourselves very fortunate to learn how to fight against assassination specialists without having to fight one in the near future." The hooded shinobi said, pushing his shades up his nose. "So when will our training begin, Kurenai-sensei?"
Kurenai glanced at Kiba and Hinata, who both wore looks of determination on their faces. "There is a clearing not five minutes from here, meet me there in four." The Jounin ordered, about to leave before she turned towards Naruto and Sakura. "Though I don't know how much training you might need, or even be able to do," an obvious reference towards Naruto's condition, "feel free to join us."
Shino followed Kurenai out of the house towards the clearing, leaving a few insects to guide the rest. Kiba sighed, glancing at Akamaru's resting form in the corner of the room before beginning to put on his sandals. Hinata got up to follow her brown haired teammate, halting at the doorway.
"Are you two going to come with us?" the lavender eyed teen asked, waiting by the doorway for an answer, Kiba a few paces in front of her but also waiting. Naruto turned to Sakura, a large grin on his face.
"Sakura-chan, let's go—"
"No." Sakura cut him off, squeezing his hand when he tried to pull it away.
"Why not?" Naruto whined, making Sakura glare at him lightly.
"You can barely walk, and you want to go train?" Sometimes Sakura wondered if Naruto thought things over. 'I do kind of want to train, though. It's been a while since I practiced any of my Jutsu.'
Said blond was not going to give up. "I promise I'll just sit down and watch everyone else train." Naruto pleaded, big blue puppy dog eyes looking into Sakura's green ones.
'Damn it, who knew Naruto was better at using puppy dog eyes than Ino.' Sakura thought to herself before caving in. "Fine," Naruto let out a victory yell, his hand finally free of Sakura's grip, "but if I see you try to join in on the training," she moved so her mouth was close to where his ear would be if he were human, knowing he'd hear her whisper, "I'll make you regret being a man."
Naruto shivered as he felt her warm breath against his face. Suddenly he felt a chill as Sakura moved away to put on her shoes. 'Shadow's right;' thought the blond, heart pounding blood into his cheeks, 'if I'm not careful, Sakura will have me wrapped around her finger.' He was snapped out of his musings when he noticed Sakura was calling him. "What was that?"
"I said hurry up and put on your shoes, Kiba and Hinata are already late." Sakura repeated, standing a few feet away from Naruto. Naruto grinned as he stood up slowly, stretching slightly.
"My shoes are upstairs but I'm not going to put them on. I'm used to walking around barefoot; I actually like the feeling of grass under my feet." Naruto responded, smiling. Sakura figured there was nothing wrong with that seeing as she knew a few people who walked around barefoot from time to time.
The group arrived at the clearing a few minutes later, guided by Shino's bugs, after leaving Shadow behind to guard the house much to Tsunami's joy seeing as she found the jet black fox rather cute. Shino and Kurenai were in the middle of the field, which was rather large, the younger wearing a blindfold, trying to dodge Kurenai's attacks.
It seemed Shino was doing well, dodging every single one of Kurenai's attacks until she dropped down and performed a sweeping kick, knocking the teen to the floor.
"Remember to listen to the sound your opponents footsteps make when he runs towards you, the way the dirt gets disrupted as he shifts his weight around and the way the his clothing rustles in the wind as he attacks." Kurenai stated, lifting Shino off the ground. "This is something most spend years training to learn and, if they're lucky, master."
"I can see why; it's easy to hear your footsteps as you run, but listening to the way the earth crunches as you shift around while trying to concentrate on hearing your clothing move in the wind…" Shino dodged a punch and the backhand that followed but was caught by a kick aim for the side of his head.
"Trying to concentrate on listening to any of those separately in the middle of a fight is hard enough, but you must learn to listen to them at the same time and combine them in your mind to create a mental picture and still react. All of that has to happen almost instantly." Shino got up shakily as Kurenai turned to the newly arrived group. "Kiba, take over for me, spar with Shino as you normally would." Kurenai ordered, walking over to pick up another blindfold. "After twenty minutes, you're to switch roles."
"Hai." Kiba said, running over towards Shino before dropping into his signature fighting stance. The rest watched as Kiba attacked Shino, his unpredictable hits landing far more often than Kurenai's.
"Which one of you girls wants to be blindfolded first?" Kurenai asked, walking over towards the group of three, ignoring Shino's grunts as he was struck. Neither of the girls seemed too willing to volunteer. "Alright, Hinata, you go first." Hinata took the blindfold and tied it around her eyes. "You can't use your Kekkei Genkai."
Hinata nodded as she dropped into a defensive stance in front of Kurenai.
"Sakura's going to be your sparring partner, not me." Kurenai explained, causing Sakura to stiffen. Hinata nodded again before turning towards the pink haired girl. "Sakura you need to attack Hinata as if she weren't wearing a blindfold. If you go easy on her, she won't be able to keep up in a real fight."
Sakura understood what the Jounin was saying, however she was still hesitant. 'This seems a bit advanced for us beginners.' She thought, glancing towards the two boys on the other side of the field, cringing as Shino was hit with a rather strong kick in the ribs. From his expression, even Kiba felt he should take it easy.
'If he takes it easy on Shino, then he won't learn. It's like when a baby bird is made to leave the nest. Even though it could die, if it doesn't it won't learn to fly.' Inner Sakura said, making Sakura sigh inwardly.
'I guess that's true.' She looked at Hinata who was still waiting, nervous as to when the first hit would come. Sakura dropped into her fighting stance. 'Here goes then.'
Naruto flinched as he saw Sakura get her feet swept from underneath her by Hinata's kick. The group of teenagers had been training for just over two hours, stopping every forty minutes for a quick breather. Kurenai would leave to check on Tazuna and his family every once in a while. In that time, he had watched the four teenage ninja beat each other reluctantly.
'They're not really getting much better…' thought the blond, biting his lip to quell the instinct to protect his mate. 'She's just training, and her partner's punches don't seem particularly strong.' He told himself, though it didn't help much. He was starting to regret asking to join them.
"Alright, that's enough for today." Kurenai shouted, returning from her last trip to Tazuna's house. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief and was about to walk over to Sakura when he noticed there was someone watching them from the bushes to his left. He turned, trying to figure out who it was.
The scent was male, but not that of an adult male. It was familiar, as if he had smelt that particular scent before, but he couldn't remember where. 'I know it was recently, but…' no matter how hard he concentrated he couldn't peg the scent to someone. When a soft breeze brought more of the person's smell towards him, his eyes narrowed in further confusion. 'This scent isn't human.'
"Naruto." Sakura called, breaking him out of his thoughts. "Let's go back to Tazuna-san's house. Everyone left already." She said, smiling as she panted from exhaustion. Even though she'd been beaten during the training, she had clearly enjoyed it, if her smile was any indication.
"Alright." Naruto responded, still glancing towards the person in the bushes as he got up.
Sakura raised an eyebrow, wondering what he was looking at. She turned in the same direction he was and felt for any chakra signature in the area, surprised when she detected someone. She knew who it was, however. "Inari-kun?" she called out, not receiving any sort of answer until the preteen boy walked out of the bushes. "Where you watching us train?"
"And what if I was?" the raven haired boy asked rudely, cocking his head to the side. Sakura smiled lightly.
"You thinking about becoming a ninja?" the rosette asked, oblivious to the way Naruto's eyes narrowed when Inari smirked.
"After your pathetic excuse of a training exercise?" Inari laughed mockingly. "Hell no. You guys suck."
Sakura nearly exploded in anger. "What did you say you little twerp!" she yelled, emerald eyes aflame with killing intent. Right when she was about to move to strangle the boy however, Naruto's hand stretched out in front of her.
"Sakura-chan, let's go. It's not a good idea to attack the client's family." Naruto said, trying to keep his amused expression up. Sakura, however, was not one to let someone insult her.
"I don't care if he was the client; I'm going to kick his ass!" Sakura shouted, only to freeze at the look Naruto gave her. The seriousness in his eyes didn't scare her, but it made her feel the same way she did when the Hokage had glared at her when she had tried to refuse working with Kabuto's team on a joint mission a few months ago. She felt as though her superior was demanding she do something, and she was to obey.
Stunned by the feeling, she nodded slowly, calming some when Naruto smiled again and placed his arm around her shoulders, leading them away from the clearing.
'What was that feeling?' Sakura mentally asked herself, trying to figure out what had just happened. Inner Sakura, also at a loss, merely shrugged.
"Sakura-chan… That boy was Tsunami's son, right?" Naruto asked, receiving a nod from his mate. The sigh that followed made her raise an eyebrow in curiosity.
"Why? What's wrong?" she questioned, looking up at him.
"He's not human." The answer made Sakura stop walking, which in turn made Naruto stop as well. "I didn't feel it at first, but back in the clearing he let some of his Chakra out. It wasn't a lot, but it was dense." Naruto turned his gaze towards the direction of the clearing. "It was the Chakra of a high C-class demon."
"If it's just C-class why did we leave? A Chuunin can handle a C-class and I know you can handle a B-class no prob—"
"His Chakra was rich with lust, Sakura-chan. It took everything I had to walk away; my instincts were telling me to rip him to pieces." He admitted, noting the worried look on her face. "Not my demon instincts;" he reassured her, smiling before leading her towards a tree, placing her back against it, caressing her face with his hand, "my instincts as a mate."
If Sakura had a question it was lost as he pressed his lips to hers, her eyes widening slightly at the sudden action. Emerald orbs closed as she felt Naruto's tongue glide across her lips before she opened them, letting the pink muscle slip into her mouth. One of her arms wrapped around his neck, pulling his face closer to hers, increasing the intensity of the kiss while the other moved over his back, careful not to untangle his bandages.
Noting that the air coming out of her nose was becoming ragged Naruto broke the kiss, pulling back from the swollen pair of lips that continued to seek his, unwilling to separate. The blond couldn't help but grin, speaking between kisses. "Sakura-chan… you can barely… breathe." He pointed out, chuckling against her lips. Figuring she wouldn't stop to catch her breath herself, he trailed kisses across her chin, continuing down her neck before he clamped his lips on her collarbone, working on giving her a hickey, receiving moans from the rosette.
Sakura used this time to catch her breath, moving the hand of the arm she had around his neck to run her fingers through his blonde locks, circling around his fox ears, gaining a low growl from him. She smiled at him when he pulled back, calm sapphire eyes meeting playful emerald ones. Of course she knew what had made him pull back, he wanted her to stop touching around his ears and actually grab them.
Naruto's silent request was fulfilled when Sakura lightly fisted his ear, rolling it in her hand as she pulled him up to her face. Once they were at eye level Sakura leaned forward, intending to reinitiate their make out session but Naruto surprised her by placing his hands on her ass, under her skirt, before lifting her up slightly, enough so that their pelvises were in contact.
The squeal that came out of Sakura before her legs instinctively wrapped around his waist made Naruto forget about the fact that she had clenched her fist around his ear.
The initial shock of being hoisted up passing, Sakura couldn't help the blush that spread across her cheeks, not due to embarrassment, but rather from realization of their position. With her legs wrapped around his waist, his pelvis being pressed against hers allowing her to feel the bulge in his pants, she suddenly became aware of the fact that they were against a tree almost directly in front of the house.
"N-Naruto, why don't we stop now?" the question came out as a mix between a plead and a statement; though whether it was for him or herself, she didn't know. The way the blond stared at her, his eyes a combination of worry and apprehension, made her wonder what could have possibly caused the sudden shift in his emotions. "What's wrong?"
Naruto didn't say anything, he merely tilt his head up and pressed his lips against Sakura's forehead, making the rosette blush as she continued to observe him. "Sakura-chan, your kisses calm me down more than when my mother used to sing to me." He whispered softly before kissing her gently.
He knew he was confusing her with his constant mood swings, even if he wasn't outwardly displaying them, but he'd been contemplating whether or not to tell her that he had almost lost control of his body, a different voice than usual compelling him to claim her right then and there; to assert his role as her mate.
Instead he chose to talk about his mother, a topic he'd never fully enlightened her about. The one time she'd asked, he'd answered as best he could without actually answering. She'd apparently understood it was a touchy subject and changed the direction of their conversation.
"Alright, I'm going but I know Shino's cheating; no one is that good at janken!" Kiba's voice came from their right, making them turn in time to see the brown haired teen close the door. When he spotted them, however, he froze, eyes wide as ramen bowls—well, at least Naruto's ramen bowls—and face red as the tattoos on his cheeks.
The young Inuzuka's strange behavior made Sakura raise an eyebrow. 'What the hell's wrong with him?' she thought, glancing around before she noticed just what it was. 'Oh, Kami-sama, no!' she buried her face in Naruto's shoulder in embarrassment. She and Naruto had never separated from their final position; her hands were still around his neck, her legs had remained around his waist and their pelvises were still in full contact with one another's. Not to mention he was still holding her up by her ass.
"Naruto, put me down." Sakura whispered, trying not to look towards Kiba, whom she knew had let his perverted mind wander. Naruto complied, confused as to why she had suddenly seemed as if she was trying to hide. Turning back towards the brunet, he couldn't help but wonder what was going on.
Still frozen in place, Kiba couldn't help the blood that trickled down his upper lip. It was easily the most awkward moment he'd ever experienced. He couldn't believe he'd come across Naruto and Sakura doing it! At least, that's how it appeared to the young Inuzuka, seeing as how all he had seen was a pair of flustered teens against a tree, Naruto's hands under Sakura's skirt (He didn't know she had her shorts on, seeing as they'd risen up her thighs), while said girl had her legs wrapped around the blond's waist. No other explanation seemed to fit the way he'd found them.
Snapping out of the trance he'd been in, wiping the blood from his face in the process, Kiba turned around, noting that the two had separated, Naruto looking at him while Sakura fixed herself. "Uh, I-I forgot something inside." Kiba said as he opened the door and entered the house, ignoring the looks of confusion his teammates directed at him for returning so soon.
Outside Sakura was still trying to get over the embarrassment of being caught in an intimate moment with her mate. She briefly wondered why Naruto appeared completely calm, like it didn't matter to him.
"Wonder what the hell was wrong with him?" Naruto spoke out loud, folding his arms behind his head. "The way he reacted you'd think he caught someone mating." He looked down at her grinning only to notice the blush that spread across her face. "Wait—don't tell me…" he trailed off, his grin growing in amusement.
"I-I think he thought he did." Sakura replied, her embarrassment returning full force. Naruto couldn't contain the laughter that resulted from the new information, though he stopped when he noticed Sakura's glare. "Let's just go inside." She suggested, walking towards the house with Naruto following behind her.
Before they walked inside, however, the door opened and Tazuna ran out, pulling Kiba with him, as Tsunami came to the doorway, yelling;
"—cause they're here doesn't mean you can be lazy and make them run your errands!" Tsunami shouted, waving a metal spoon in the direction her father was running. Noticing the two out of the corner of her eye, the raven haired woman couldn't help but blush slightly. "Oh, hey. Where have you two been?" she asked, obviously implying something.
"Walking." Naruto answered, sparing Sakura from trying to avoid the older woman's mischievous gaze. "Where are those two going?" he asked, pointing in the direction of the two retreating backs of Kiba and Tazuna. Tsunami continued to stare at Sakura, a knowing smile on her face.
She'd been washing dishes when she happened to look out the window, the only window with a view in their direction, and had seen them as they began their make out session. Though she'd told herself it was wrong to spy on them, and had even closed the small curtains, she had been unable to stop herself from constantly peeking at them. She'd been so engrossed in peeping on the two she'd almost missed when her father tried to send one of the ninja to do something he could do himself.
"One of the helpers we were supposed to pick up had a small emergency and decided to meet us here." Kurenai explained, walking past the doorway while toweling her hair. "He called a few minutes ago saying that he was here but didn't know how to get here. Kiba and Shino must've played janken, though, seeing as Kiba hates doing simple things like that."
"Is there a ramen stand in the village?" Naruto said, receiving an arched eyebrow from Sakura. Tsunami nodded, unsure why he'd ask about something like that. Before any of them blinked, Naruto had already begun sprinting towards the direction the two males had gone. "I think I should go with them!" He shouted before he disappeared.
Sakura sighed, mad at the blond for continuing to move around without any concern for his condition but knowing he was probably already too far for her to catch up to him. 'At least they're just going to pick someone up.' She thought, walking into the house to take a shower.
Naruto was rubbing his ear, though to Kiba and Tazuna it appeared as though he was rubbing his head, seeing as when he'd caught up to them he'd dropped down in front of them, scaring the shit out of both of them. Long story short, he'd ended up promising not to tell anyone that they'd shrieked like little girls in exchange for them buying him ramen.
Though happy about getting treated to ramen, the blond couldn't help but be annoyed at the fact that all he could hear from one of his ears was an extremely long 'beep.' Especially since the medicine that would relieve him of the nuisance was back in Tazuna's house.
'Sometimes I hate how sensitive my ears are.' thought the blond demon as they entered the small village, his eyes narrowing when he took in the state it was in. "Damn, Ojii-san, you weren't kidding when you said you guys were broke." He spoke disbelievingly.
The village was small enough that one could walk through it in around five minutes. The houses appeared to be falling apart, some having a few holes in the walls or roofs and some being nothing but walls held together by ropes and logs. The stores were empty for the most part, their only produce being spoiled or rotten. The people weren't much better off than the rest of the village, looking emaciated and depressed, most having lost hope that things would get better.
"This is a slum district." Tazuna said, making the younger males turn to him. "The port cities are the only places where poverty isn't so obvious, but that doesn't mean it isn't there. Those who don't have the money to live there are forced to move into one of the numerous settlements outside of the ports, surviving off the trash they dump outside the walls that surround the cities." He explained, leading them through the small hamlet.
"What do you mean they're forced to live in these dumps?" Kiba asked, irritated by the way everyone they passed struggled to ask them for any spare change. "Why don't they just get jobs at the ports?"
"Anyone working at one of the ports is an employee of Gato. What little he pays them is then cut in half, as he says that they have to pay a working fee, since he has the money to bring in workers from the other places to replace them." The answer made Naruto's eyebrows crease together as he looked back at everyone.
"Half of these people look like they were already brought in from elsewhere." he stated, gaining a quick glance from the aged bridge builder.
"So you noticed." It wasn't a question.
"It's easy to see that some are lighter skinned, while others are darker. Several have certain similarities with others; narrower eyes, larger noses, mannerisms, height." The amount of detail the blond had taken notice of impressed the other two. "Not to mention that some have accents."
Tazuna couldn't help the sigh that escaped his lips as they exited the slum, heading towards the port that would soon come into view. "Gato has brought hundreds to this country, and when they get tired of working for him, they end up being stranded here with no way to return to their homes."
"Let's talk about something else; the more I hear about this guy the more pissed off I'm getting." Kiba said, unable to keep the aggravation from his voice, as they reached the port city. Naruto couldn't help but agree.
To Be Continued...
AN/ Sorry for the wait and for this chapter being mostly filler. Couldn't really decide on how to write it. I actually have a few scenes that were changed continuously or were taken out all together. That and the fact that Microsoft word won't let me edit anything anymore, and openoffice isn't compatible with my computer, and I think this chapter is finished for now. I would have liked to continue but I also think this is also a good place to stop for now.
Also, I'm holding a poll on my profile to see if I should restart JFO or not. If you have time, I'd like to know whether you think I should or not.
As always please review.