Hey people, I know I know I'm really late on this one, but I have a perfectly good reason for my tardiness... yeah um, you see I'm sort of doing this thing at this place that requires me to not be near any technology for a long time....
No but really that really is the reason, I really don't feel like going into any details so I'll leave that out later.
Anyway, I got a review saying that the vocabulary that I used for this story was a bit difficult to comprehend, I don't really see why but I guess that people want me to dumb down the vocab so with this chapter I tried to stop using the big words... but I promise nothing in the future. I mean what's wrong with large words... they're so fascinating, honestly I ca-...wait no what am I saying... oh no I can't believe it, I'm becoming my mother!
Seriously my mom is like uber smart and if you guys think that I use big words... wait until you get a load of the person responsible for giving birth to me.
(Wow...random much)
Alright I won't hold you back anymore, I shall let you free and allow to read this installment of Crimson Dawn: Uzumaki Naruto.
Enjoy or you might just have to pay me a hefty amount of money...or I could make you pay in gummy worms... if I get hungry, whichever is fine for me. (and I do like gummy worms)
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Crimson Dawn: Uzumaki Naruto
As of now, Yuuhi Kurenai was very pleased; the awaiting looks on the faces of her students' faces brought a smile to the red-eyed beauty's lips. Overlooking her three students, she folded her arms, half her face covered by the shade of the tree behind her.
Hinata who was standing directly parallel to Kurenai had raised an eyebrow, up until now she hadn't noticed it but when shrouded by the deep shade it was apparent that Kurenai's piercing eyes were so intimidating because they actually glowed. Behind the shadows two small scarlet red pupils glowed, completely locked onto her and taking on the likeness of fire, It was beginning to bother Hinata, looking at Kurenai's eyes reminded her of how her father looked at her, but even though their stares bore such an uncanny resemblance she knew that Kurenai's was a stare of compassion. Still, it did not hurt to point it out.
"A-ano, Kurenai-sensei," Hinata said slightly raising her hand.
"Yes."
"Your eyes... they're g-glowing."She said hesitantly.
"Yeah, I was kind of wondering about that as well, why they are like that?" Naruto added in, jamming his hands into his pockets.
"I would also like to know he reason behind your eyes, if it is not too much trouble," Shino stated.
"Oh these," Kurenai said with a slight giggle. She closed her eyes for a slight second and then when she reopened them the ghastly glow of her irises had disappeared," these are not real. It's actually just a small genjutsu I placed over them, I developed it when I was younger; whenever two many males would fawn over me I used it to scare them away, I guess I had just gotten so accustomed to using it that it has become more like a reflex to just activate whenever I'm in public. Perhaps I should teach it to you," she said aiming her finger at Hinata,"You could use it... a lot."
Hinata simply blushed and shook her head, looking down as she caught on to what her new sensei was insinuating: that she was pretty. "O-oh no, I don't think I would need it." Hinata said shyly; she cast a quick glance at Naruto who did not seem to notice her embarrassment, seemingly oblivious.
For Kurenai to say such embarrassing things while around Naruto was a bit too much for Hinata to suppress at the moment.
A breeze rustled the leaves of the trees and the low howl of wind filled the air.
"Alright, no more idle conversation," Kurenai stated abruptly, her voice brought Hinata's face back up, "Time for everyone to introduce themselves."
Shino interrupted by raising his hand halfway past his waist, "Excuse me sensei, would introductions not prove to be useless, If I am correct, we all know each other."
"Very good Shino-kun," She responded while giving the Aburame boy a pat on his head, much to his annoyance, "while you do know each other, I do not know each of you, when I say introduce, I don't just mean your names. I want you to show me just exactly who you are when it comes to skill level."
"So exactly what do you have in mind?" Shino said, a dark eyebrow appearing over the rim of glasses.
"Well first we'll start off with a light spar." Kurenai responded.
"Hm, that is not a bad proposal sensei, I agree to it, as I am curious to test out the skill of my two teammates." Kurenai smirked. Well the boy certainly wasn't discreet about things, surprising for one who was usually so distant. Shino turned to Naruto, aiming his black glasses at the blond. If Kurenai's ears were correct, she could have sworn that she heard a low buzz emanate from underneath the folds of Shino's jacket.
First off, there was what Naruto had said to him that had gotten him so riled up to spar. Naruto had said that he was expecting of him and Hinata, well at the moment Shino was eager to show him just what was to be expected. Secondly, if Naruto was able to get to the training field before he and Hinata were an not even break a sweat then what were his skills in battle like. He had already established that Naruto was faster than both he and Hinata were, the only question: was he stronger than they were?
To the untrained eye, things like a mere sentence and simply beating a person to a predetermined destination were things that stuck out like a sore thumb; but Shino wasn't boisterous, his eyes weren't that sharp. However, these things did not escape the observant mind, and Shino's mind was the basic meaning of the word observant.
Shino's concentration on his new teammate was broken when he felt Kurenai's hand hit his shoulder.
"Why don't you spar with Hinata first, and I'll spar with Naruto." Oh, that was great, was Kurenai a mind reader or something? Leave it to the trained eye of a Jonin to actually see past his Aburame mask and deduce that he wanted to fight Naruto.
"A-agreed, sensei." Shino said, turning his gaze to Hinata.
Naruto then smiled, knowing exactly what his sensei was trying to do. She was in fact attempting to gauge his skill level; in a very straightforward and subtle way Kurenai was telling Naruto that she wanted to fight him.
"That's fine with me." Naruto said, waving his hand. "I need a work out."
"Those are very confident words Naruto," Shino muttered, "it would be in your best interest to remember that Kurenai-sensei is in fact Jonin."
"Yeah, I'm fully aware," Naruto replied, not bothering to glance at Shino. 'It's time to show them what I can do.'
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Pain shot through Kurenai's back as she was shot back into the thick trunk of a tree. Dropping to her knees, she let out a heavy breath, her gaze aimed at the ground. A bead of sweat dripped off her forehead, hitting the ground just as it was darkened by a shadow.
Kurenai looked up to see Naruto above her with his leg extended above his head. His bored expression turned sideways when Kurenai rolled to the side, barely avoiding Naruto's heel before it made contact with her face. As she got up she was forced to duck a roundhouse, the force of Naruto's kick sent her long hair swaying to the side.
As soon as she stood, she was thrown back into the defensive, blocking a mass of punches and kicks aimed at her head and torso. Seriously, who knew that Uzumaki Naruto would be this strong? She had been sparring with the kid for about an hour and within the first twenty minutes it had already become apparent that he was much more skilled than she was when it came to taijutsu.
Striking like a snake, the flat of Naruto's sandal smacked against her arm as she blocked another kick. He wasn't done however, spinning around, Naruto slid his foot back onto the ground and aimed a backhand at her face. She ducked and, utilizing her low crouched position, hopped up, almost catching Naruto's chin with high upward kick. Her foot came back down with force, cutting through the air like a blade, and crashed down onto Naruto's shoulder.
He took the force of the blow, his legs bending, but he soon countered by stepping in, thus throwing her off balance and blasting her back again with an open palmed strike.
'Dammit, he's one strong Genin!,' Kurenai thought as she flipped and landed on her feet. That last attack had hurt, if she had to be honest with herself, she would have said that he might have cracked... something. However, she had no time to think about her minor injuries, Naruto was coming in again.
Naruto flew, hopping a bit, and aiming a well-placed knee at the center of her chest. Kurenai caught it and twisted so that he would loose his balance; her planned worked for the most part. Bringing his other leg forward Naruto brought Kurenai's head to the ground with a quick kick and she tasted dirt
That was it, she had enough of that. Yuuhi Kurenai had been knocked down for the last time. She pushed herself up and rolled away from Naruto, who was on the ground as well; this was her chance. She quickly stood up and kicked the boy in his ribs, he barely blocked in time but that still did not matter.
With her upward kick, Naruto's body rose in the air, carried by Kurenai's leg. He let out a small grunt and was tossed backward as Kurenai stepped in struck with an open palm.
Just as Hinata's attention was drawn to the battle between Naruto and Kurenai, the blond had hit the ground. 'Naruto!' For the most part, Hinata had not seen the spar between her crush and sensei. Her attention was centered fully on Shino, whose taijutsu to her surprise was better than what she had expected. He blocked most of her strikes, only slipping a few times when she managed to land a hit on him.
It was after five minutes into their spar that she noticed that Shino was distracted. He kept looking off to the side, turning his head as she aimed a Jyuuken strike and every time his eyes were looking toward Naruto and Kurenai-sensei's spar.
It was odd for an Aburame to seem... distracted, they never got distracted.
Shino moved in, Hinata dodged his strike, his arm flying past her ear.
"Hinata."
Huh, was Shino whispering to her. More importantly, was Shino whispering something to her in the middle of their spar. The sunlight hit his glasses, causing them to coruscate, shining bright light into her eyes forcing her to close them. "Hinata, look at Naruto."
Suddenly, opening her eyes, Hinata blinked rapidly; Shino was still in front of her, However, his arm had fallen back to his side and he was standing straight with his hands in his pockets.
"W-what do you mean?" Hinata asked, a thin layer of sweat laced her skin and her question was asked between heavy breaths.
"Look at how he's fighting... he's matching Kurenai punch for punch, that shouldn't be right, back at the academy Naruto only demonstrated that he had a basic grasp of the academy style taijutsu. Now, he's fighting on what looks like par with Kurenai-sensei and look at his movements; those are academy taught moves. He's using a completely different technique."
Shino was right, Naruto's movements were drastically different from what she had seen in the academy. His strikes were quicker, his reflexes faster as well; it was as if his entire knowledge of taijutsu had completely evolved in the blink of an eye.
But how, how was this possible? Shino was, as ashamed as he was to say it, flummoxed, confused. Was Naruto hiding something, something that allowed him to gain this strength; a small tingle of relief entered Shino. He soon realized that if it had been him to fight Naruto from the beginning, he would have clearly been overtaken.
"OK, let's stop." Kurenai said and she let out a tired sigh. Her face was covered in bruises from hitting the ground so many times, Naruto on the other hand had little but a scratch on his entire body. Hinata and Shino had both stopped sparring.
They stood silently in the middle of the clearing, as if struck by awe. Although, given the display of skill that Naruto had just shown Kurenai would not be surprised if they were both surprised. With two waves of her arm Kurenai called to two over; she then turned back to Naruto.
"Naruto, let me ask you a question," The blond raised an eyebrow.
"Fire away," he responded nonchalantly.
Kurenai nodded, it was obvious that Naruto had was in no way fatigued by that light spar. Kurenai's breathing on the other hand was a little bit more than heavy; by this time it was obvious that Naruto could outclass her when it came to physical combat. His attacks were, too swift, his strikes too strong but as strong as he may have been, Kurenai was still sure that she held her superiority over him when it came to the more..mysterious techniques of the shinobi.
"While we were sparring, you showed no attempt to hide your prowess from Shino and Hinata, tell me are you comfortable with having your skill exposed?"
Naruto smiled; he was hopping that someone would ask that question. "Actually, I'm quite fine with letting people see my power now that I have permission from our Hokage."
"Excuse me?"
"Before I became an official nin of the village, when I began my training with the Sandaime, I had to make a promise. A vow saying that I was not to show my true strength, unless I was given permission specifically from the Hokage himself.," Naruto then chuckled, "And just yesterday I was given the OK to show what I could do, and as you have already seen, I'm perfectly comfortable with people seeing my power."
"Hm." Was all that Kurenai said. SHe would have never guessed that there was a child with this much power hiding right under her nose. And what was so surprising about it was that it was the one person that almost every villager hated with a heated passion: the bane of Konoha, the demon boy. It was strange; she had heard the rumors of how Naruto was treated so badly by the villagers, the many assassination attempts, the seemingly random beatings, the riots supporting his execution. With all of the power that he held, it was a wonder that the boy had not let it go straight to his head; he could have gone mad and slaughtered all those who tried to take his life.
But he did not, he simply took it. What was it that kept him mentally intact? During those times when he was getting chased and beaten, he had the power to stop but instead of taking the easy route and ending it all, he allowed it to happen. Sometimes, she heard, he would go missing and show up weeks later a bloody mess. What was it that he thought about during those life and death situations that helped him control himself and not retaliate.
Truly he was a mystery and now that mystery was her student, and hers to unravel; she would have to make sure that she solved to puzzle that was Uzumaki Naruto.
Making his way over with Hinata, the usually taciturn Shino said aloud, "Naruto, may I ask you a quick question?"
Naruto mentally sighed, another question... how fun. "Yeah, what is it Shino?" Naruto said in a bored tone. The Aburame pointed his finger at Kurenai, who adopted a confused expression. It seemed as if his previous suspicion about Naruto was true, now was his chance to confirm it. For a quick second Shino abandoned his habitually low tone of voice and said out loud.
"Can, you tell me why Kurenai-sensei has seemingly taken more damage during that spar then you did? You are but a Genin like Hinata and myself, correct?" Naruto nodded, "Then why is it that you can best a Jonin in combat, back at the academy your skills were nowhere near as polished as they are now. It should be impossible for you, at you estimated skill level, to beat Kurenai-sensei in a match, even if it was a light spar."
"I-I also have noticed that y-your stronger than you were a couple of days ago," Hinata added in, Naruto noticed that her gaze hung low toward the ground.
"Should it not be obvious, Shino?" Kurenai gave him a look but he ignored it. "I'm stronger than I let on before, I surprised that you did not see it before, for an Aburame, you sure are a bit unobservant." That was a low blow; there was no way that Shino would take sitting down, that was a major shot to his Aburame pride."
"Don't fool yourself, Naruto, I came to the conclusion that you were hiding something a long time ago, I simply wanted you to confirm it."
"Really?" Naruto said smugly.
"Yes, but just too be sure that you are not blowing up your own power," He paused, "Would you allow me to spar with you?"
"That's fine with me." Naruto said, he could use another warm up.
Kurenai sighed. 'Boy, this will be quick.'
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"Ah, what the hell are those things?" Sanae asked as she hid behind a tree for cover. She clenched her teeth when she felt the tree budge... hard, as if something large had stuck it. Where the hell was Konoe, she couldn't do this by herself. Right off the bat, Sanae had deduced that that Anko was insane. As soon as they had reached their training ground... well if the Forest of Death could even be called a 'training' ground. Honestly, what type of sensei brings her first two pupils two the most dangerous location in the entire village?
Apparently Mitarashi Anko.
Taking a deep breath before hoping onto a branch above her, avoiding another attack by those bizarre snakes that seemed to just live in Anko's sleeves. She heard the crack of a branch being ripped apart just as she hit the thick brown branch above her.
She remembered her first impression of her sensei. That happy-go-lucky facial expression was so disarming, at first she thought 'Oh this lady doesn't look too bad', well it didn't please her to know that she was wrong. Upon meeting them both Anko had told them to follow her to their training ground; when she asked where the training ground was all Anko did was tell her not to worry about it.
'It'll be fun!' Anko said. Well.. some fun; so much for having a nice, laid-back sensei who would let them train at their own pace.
For the past hour, Anko had been training them into the ground. From her position on the branch, Sanae glanced at the ground of the forest floor, it was dark and covered in greenery. Small cylindrical rays of light pierced the dense canopy, bringing in minimum light onto the floor. Scanning the ground behind her, Sanae's eyes narrowed.
Was that a sound, a rustle of leaves perhaps? Directly underneath her a large fern was moving a bit... oddly, even against the light breeze of the forest.
Her eyes narrowed as another sound penetrated the silence of the forest and she peered into a dark patch of shadow created by the many bushes.
'Hisssss.'
"Oh damn!" She knew what that sound meant, her thoughts were confirmed when a pair of golden, slitted eyes opened with an audible click and a the pick maw of a brown and black striped snake came rushing at her. Later, as expected, Anko's arm came rising out of the bush and she poked her head out, smiling.
"You better dodge or you'll die, these snakes are venomous."
"V-venomous!" Sanae yelled in surprise. That wasn't good; there was a deadly snake heading her way, she was exhausted, and her sister was nowhere to be found, yay what fun....
As the hiss grew loud Sanae prepared her legs to jump out of the way; that would be the plan if she wasn't so tired.
She let out a squeal as the the gleaming fangs of the snake approached.
"Don't worry, I've got you covered!"
Then there was a flash of blue and black and before Sanae knew it, her sister, Konoe was in the air with her foot connected to the head of the rather vicious snake. The reptile let out a loud hiss of pain as Konoe kicked it back at its owner... who by the way wasn't there anymore.
"Konoe watch out!" Sanae yelled, witnessing her sensei appear behind her sister. With renewed energy Sanae pumped chakra into her legs, springing off of the tree branch and down at Anko with as much speed as she could muster up.
The snake, still attached to Anko's arm swung back up an caught Sanae in mid air; she struggled but it was of no use. Now Anko was able concentrate on Konoe; she grabbed her by the back of her shirt and hung her in the air. She turned and with a small grunt Anko flung Konoe, causing the girl to go into a series of back flips until she smacked her back against the trunk of a tree.
Sticking to the trunk like gum, Konoe glanced at her sensei's face.
Was she smiling? Oh now she got it, this was like play time for her. Konoe let out a low groan, a tiny almost indiscernible murmur before the world went black and she fell onto a wide branch directly underneath her.
"Konoe!" Sanae said, but she was cut off mid-sentence when she found herself being caught by gravity. The odd sensation of falling filled her stomach, he ground came closer, rushing to meet her and Anko.
Anko landed on her feet, a feather falling from the sky. Sanae on the other hand... had a landing a bit less than comfortable. As soon as Anko hit the ground Sanae was released by her sensei's... weapon and thrown to the ground, from which she landed on her butt and rolled backwards until she lay flat on her stomach.
"Ow... that hurt," Sanae yelled, " a lot", she finished off lamely while rubbing her bottom.
She squeaked when a pair of feet with shin guards crashed down in front of her.
"You... fail!" Anko's harsh voice caused Sanae to cover her ears. "It was such a simple task... and you both failed!" She said loudly, the body of Anko's snake then retracted back into the sleeve of her trench coat.
"W-what do you mean by simple?" Sanae asked sitting up, the look on her sensei's face fierce, like the snake she previously controlled. "Y-you were chucking snakes at us!"
Anko squatted, bringing her face closer to Sanae's. "And so what if I was, you still failed. All I said was that you two were to work together and retrieve the dango stick from me, I never said that I would let you take it so easily. You failed and that's that, you did not retrieve this stick from my-," Anko brought her hand up to the spiky bun of hair atop her head in which she had stuck the dango stick through and her eyes widened,"-...head?"
Feeling around a bit more, her eyes widened as she noticed the absence of a certain small peice of wood.
The dango stick was gone.
No, this was all wrong. She could have sworn that she skewered that bun of hair with her dango stick; but where was it? Had it fallen during her decent to the ground, or maybe while she was kicking her two students' asses. No it couldn't have fallen, she made sure that she was extra careful when moving so that her dango stick would not fall out.
"What gives, where's my stick?" She froze when she heard Sanae giggle.
"L-looks like we didn't fail after all."
"What?" With a shaky arm, Sanae pointed up to the branch where he unconscious sister lay. Only half of her body could bee seen, as she was barely on the branch; her arm hung limply off the wood, swaying back and forth and clutched between her fingers was a long needle like piece of wood.
The dango stick.
Anko gasped, "when did she-"
"W-when you threw her into the tree, when you turned in mid-air and flung her, for a split second she was above your head, that was when she swiped it. We had both agreed that I would act as a diversion while you were coming for one of us and get your attention, and then that was when she would grab it," She coughed, cleared her throat the continued, "but unfortunately, those snakes of yours was a hindrance to us and in every way possible, it was impeding our plan's progress but they did help us by giving us an opening. So in other words, when I was grabbed and you flung Konoe; you actually gave Konoe an opening to grab your dango stick."
Right now Anko was a little surprised, she hadn't expected these two to actually get the stick, really, she didn't even expect the two sisters to last as long as they did let alone pass the challenge. It seems as if they were full of surprises.
Oh, she would have fun training these two. "Well, I'll be darned... then I guess you both pass... congrats, but for know how about we stop right now, I think I threw your sister a little too hard. So I'll take her to the hospital."
"Good... so does that mean that I can sleep?" Anko nodded. "Thank heavens." Sanae said, letting her head drop and hit the ground, pretty hard.
"You can sleep here, but that doesn't guarantee that I'll come back to get you... and there are some pretty big beast that live in this forest-...hm?" It was no good, there was a light snore from Sanae, she had already went to sleep. "Wow, she must have been pretty exhausted, anyway," she looked toward the branch were Konoe still hung loosely, "Time to get you to the hospital."
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Shino fell to his knees releasing a loud groan. His breathing was strained and and the rim of his collar was darkened, stained by the massive amount of sweat dripping from his face. Well, he had accomplished his goal, he fought with Naruto and as expected, got his ass handed to him.
A shadow cast itself over him, providing him with an aegis against the sun's rays. Looking up, he saw Naruto standing there with an expression of equanimity.
"Have you had enough, because if you haven't I can keep going on." Naruto said.
Well as of now Shino could do two things: one he could accept defeat and retire from the spar, or two: he could persevere and keep trying to face Naruto. Not only was Shino perceptive, but he was also smart as well, however, it did not take someone as smart as he to realize that, the way he was now, he didn't stand a chance against the blond powerhouse. The odds were stacked against him, first of all, he was seriously tired and secondly Naruto wasn't.
Throughout the entire spar Naruto hadn't even broken a sweat. Just what the hell was he?
Naruto extended his hand out, an end to the match coming to meet Shino; looks like he would not have to quit, Naruto would end it for him.
Taking his hand, Shino pulled himself up, "N-Naruto," he said between huffs, "H-how did you get so strong?"
"Why do you want to know?" Naruto asked. He then shook his hair wildly, a golden lions mane, it was devoid of any perspiration since he had not dropped a bead of sweat. There was nothing but dry air flying from those unruly locks.
"I-It is astounding to me as to how you have acquired so much skill and prowess and yet you are the same age as I, tell me, what is it that you did to get to your current level. If you don't mind, yes, I would like to know."
"I'll tell you that at a different time, trust me you'll find out soon enough, now why don't we go join Kurenai and Hinata?" Naruto said with a smile.
"Fine." Shino said with a slight flutter of breath in his speech.
As the two boys walked/limped back to Kurenai and Hinata Shino's breathing began to hasten. "Are you alright?" Naruto asked, "you're breathing pretty hard."
At first there was no response from Shino. "....Yes, I am fine, I'm just feeling a li-...little, light... headac-..ugh," his words died off as Shino's legs gave way and he dropped to the ground, unconscious.
"Shino?" Kurenai said.
"Shino-kun!" Hinata then followed up. They both ran up to Shino's not prone body, Naruto had already taken his pulse.
"Don't worry, he's fine, just exhausted. I guess I hit him on the head a little too hard."
Releasing a sigh of relief Hinata let go of the collar of her jacket. "W-well that's g-good to know, but don't you think that we should s-still, um you know, take him... to the h-hospital?"
Kurenai stood at his head, looking over him. "You're right, that's probably the best course of action right now. That little 'bump' on the head you gave him, Naruto, might actually be something more severe, it would be best if we want to avoid a pejorative situation. After all, we wouldn't want that little 'bump' showing up weeks later during a mission, now would we?"
"Hai!" Both Naruto and Hinata responded. Wow, she was surprised that Naruto still treated her like his superior, even though he was stronger than she. That was good though, scrupulous behavior like that would earn him some brownie points.
"Good, now let's go." Kurenai said as she scooped the Shino into her arms, "catch up you two, okay?"
"Hai!" With that she disappeared from sight in a swirl of leaves, a classic exit.
Naruto then turned to Hinata,
"W-wha-...," why was he looking at her like that, was there something on her face? She stood, eyes wide in anticipation, and she hoped that he would say something to her, because she knew that she certainly wouldn't.
" Well let's go, shall we?" Naruto said, extending a hand toward her. Hinata paused, feeling her heart skip a beat, a familiar heat resurrected itself in he stomach. Was he honestly expecting her to take his hand... if only he knew what that would do to her. So out of shock, Hinata muttered the only response that her trembling lips could force out.
"H-huh?"
"Come on, we're catching up to Kurenai-sensei." Naruto grabbed Hinata by the hand, turning his head so that he was now pulling her. Hinata let out a loud squeak and his arm dropped, pulled down by some unknown avoirdupois and it felt like dead weight. When he turned back around, he found Hinata sprawled on the ground... unconscious; her hand was still clutching his despite her being in that state.
Sighing, he squatted by her; it seems that she was still the same scared little girl she was when Naruto had first met her. Really, she was just too shy for her own good. With and annoyed expression and an arched eyebrow, Naruto scratched his head.
"She did not just faint." As much he didn't want to believe it and as many times he repeated the phrase in his head, the truth was still right there in front of him. She really did just faint. That would not go over well with him, specifically, it was annoying.
"I touch her hand and she faints... great." He said.
"Hinata..." he said giving her cheeks a few soft slaps to the face. Upon further inspection he saw that he cheeks were hot and florid; two light pink patches on her cheeks gave her face and innocent quality.
It was milliseconds later that Naruto came upon the empirical conclusion pertaining to what those pink patches were.
"Is she blushing?" Naruto's mind went to work, a super computer going through thousands of reasons per second as to why she was blushing; finally he hit the one that made the most sense. "...Yeah... I think I'll just come back to that one later." Naruto said pushing the reason out of his mind.
He smacked her once more, "Hinata... well that sucks." With slight grunt, Naruto picked Hinata up and slung her over his back. He leaned forward a bit so that she would not fall and with a burst of speed bounded off toward the hospital.
xxxxxX
Kurenai sat by the window of a small brightly lit room. The light had almost faded away and at the horizon in the distance a pale purple light seemed to reach toward the sky. The day was almost over, pretty soon it would be time for her to dismiss her students for the day.
She sighed, "So much time wasted, we could have done so much more today." Crossing her legs and resting her head on the palm of her hand, Kurenai released yet another sigh. First day and already someone was in the hospital and it was for something probably minor. Not the normal picture any sensei's perfect first day with their pupils.
A susurrus sounded and she heard the sound of faint mumbling beside her. She looked over to Shino who was in a standard hospital room bed to her right. Naruto had given him a really bad kick to the head back their, the way his head jarred when it was struck should have knocked him out but Naruto probably held back with that one.
'Click', Kurenai snapped her head when she heard the door open. What she saw next what she would never expected.
Standing at the now open fame of the door was Naruto with Hinata slung over his shoulder. She should not have been seeing things like this.
First Naruto beats Shino down, then next he takes Hinata out? Now, in comes Naruto just waltzing into the hospital with an unconscious Hyuuga girl slung over his shoulder. She hoped that he knew how awkward he looked at that moment.
"What happened to her?" Kurenai said.
"She fainted." Naruto responded nonchalantly.
"What..."
"Look, I touched her hand and she just flat out lost all consciousness, don't ask me why, don't ask me how just ask her... when she wakes up." Naruto placed Hinata down in a chair and gave her another quick glance. "Well, that's if she wakes up." He glanced back to Kurenai, "So what's his problem.
Naruto extended a finger toward Shino's shifting body.
"The doctors said that it wasn't that serious, just some mild head trauma." Kurenai responded.
"Hm, well that's good, at least it wasn't something fatal."
"Yeah, but on a different note... how did Hinata get like that?"
Naruto sighed, "I grabbed her hand because I wanted to catch up to you quickly but when I touched her, she simply... dropped like a rock."
Kurenai raised an eyebrow.
Looking at the darkening sky Naruto took out the small scroll that he was given. "What's that?" Kurenai asked.
"Oh this," casually, he tossed her the scroll and she opened it.
"A map of Konoha...?"
"Yes, but it's a map only used by tyros coming to the Anbu. If you look closely, you will be able to see that there are small pinpointed locations indicating every and all of the meeting and training locations for Anbu Black Op agents. It was given to me by my captain, the man you met with earlier. I was instructed to meet him at a specific one of those locations as soon as I was finished with my meeting with you, and seeing as how two of my comrades are out of commission I would like your permission to leave."
"If that's all then sure, you have my permission. But tell me, were you told what would be occurring at the meeting with your captain?"
"Actually, I was told; he said that I wouldn't just be meeting with him, instead I'd be meeting with the my entire team."
"Well, good luck Naruto... you know I still never would have guessed that you ofall people would be an Anbu. You're pretty amazing you know." She tossed him back the small black scroll which he put back in his pocket.
Naruto made a hand sign before chuckling. "Wow, I'm amazing?... Never heard that one before," he said before his body faded away, the last of his words dying off as a low echo.
It saddened Kurenai to hear her student say something like that; had he never really been told that he was amazing? She thought that it wasn't the truth and that he was just saying that to be sarcastic but the sad smile on his face told her otherwise. She thought about his last words, they circled around her head. 'Never heard that before...'
His words made her think about how hard of a life he must have had to be able to say something like that and really mean it. No she would not allow something like that go on. Vowing in her mind, she would make sure that Naruto would never be able to say things like that ever again.
xxxxX
Naruto glided from rooftop to rooftop, flying through the village at mach speed, brown buildings and green trees in the distance, all rushing past him in an instant. As he continued on further, eventually the browns and blacks faded, giving way to only the greens of trees.
He stopped on a branch, harshly making it crack and with great dexterity slipped out his little black scroll. He smoothly opened it, his head reading from left to right, eyes scanning to paper with robotic perception. He looked south. "This way!" Naruto rolled the scroll back up and put it back into his pocket. Then he bounded off into the darkness of the forest, leaving a thoroughly tattered branch behind him.
The leaves fluttered past his face, brushing against his face. High in the canopy he could smell the stinging scent of damp greenery coming from below.
Strangely, on Naruto's perspective, the forest of death was pretty soothing at night, especially when one was flying through the trees like Naruto was at the moment. Even though it had become dark, Naruto's vision was not impaired. He never really understood why his eyes worked the way they did, in the dark he could see just as well as he could in the day, if not better. Most people would need to activate a minor night vision ninjutsu to gain the vision that so easily came to him in the dark. It was one of the few things that he didn't understand about himself, and one of the few things that he did not wish to investigate. There was something in the back of his mind telling him not to go there, to just stay away.
Slowly, as he noticed, the trees grew farther apart, until they gave way to a small clearing. In the distance he could see a large creek, his enhanced night vision allowed for him to observe the rushing torrent of water. His eyes then locked onto the one thing that mattered in that dark green clearing of grass and trees; his captain standing in the clearance with his hands behind his back. His tiger mask a pale dusky white.
In the shadow, Saito looked somehow ominous, ghostlike, his Anbu vest transparent in the bitter darkness. Naruto sneered this apparition that was his captain. Now he was in friendly territory, the mask could come off, fully.
He landed in front of his captain with nothing but a small rustle in the leaves, he would have landed silently but he wanted to make sure that he was noticed.
"Taichou." Naruto said kneeling down on one leg, bowing his head.
"Taichou, Naruto, you are addressing me as your captain, yet you are not even an Anbu member yet, tell me, why is it that you do that?"
Naruto looked up, his expression solid. "I'm am but a Genin and you are an Anbu, I am below you and due to the certain circumstances that I am placed under I will be calling you that in the future, so why not practice now?"
"Ah, a scrupulous one you are indeed, you'll make an excellent addition to my squad."
"Thank you." Naruto responded standing up."So, I do remember you mentioning that I would come here to meet the you and the rest of your team," he looked around seeing nothing, "by the way, where is said team?"
"Cutting to the chase as usual I see Naruto. Well, if you want to meet the team, then by all means... meet the team." Saito followed by allowing his hand to sway in a horizontal arch in front of Naruto's face.
Almost an instant later, Naruto felt it; three other intense presences all around him. Killing intent as thick as a block of ice, dense and potent. It was not only mentally terrifying but it was also opulent. The horrid sensation came in abundance, all of it aimed at him. Icy cold daggers stabbing in to his sides, his back, his neck, his death was prominent around him. He could feel each one of them, both individually and as a whole unit pouring their killer intent onto his very existence. As of now he had no protection, no aegis to shield him from the feeling of literal death clutching him from all directions.
Through it all Naruto kept his eyes on his captain. On his left, one wearing an eagle mask, to his right the another wearing a baboon's visage. The last one behind him, wearing a lion's mask." Six, empty and hollow eye holes boring into him.
He would have blinked, but that would be showing weakness and that was what he could not tolerate. But to be honest he wasn't scared, he had seen worse. Compared to the Hokage, these guys had the killer intent of seven-year old children, well not counting his killer intent as a seven year old. Still he didn't expect to be encircled like he was by his 'comrades' as they are called.
He sighed. "The team, I presume?" Saito nodded. Naruto still wanted to know how they always did that weird disappear/appear out of nowhere technique
"Impressive, not even a flinch... you didn't even blink most of the new guys, when we do this, wet their pants." Saito's voice carried an odd static behind it when he spoke through his mask, as if he was speaking through a radio.
"Well. then I guess that I'm not most guys." Naruto responded coolly .
"A pithy response my friend." Saito said.
A shifting of clothes occurred behind him, Naruto's ears twitched at the sound. Another thing that he did not bother to investigate about himself, his extremely acute hearing.
A static tone sounded after the ruffle of clothing. "So this is the new kid huh?" It said. Based on the voice's base, Naruto knew instantly that this person behind him was male.
Not bothering to turn around Naruto fired back, "Yeah I'm the new kid, what's it to you?"
There was no response so Naruto turned around. In front of him stood a lion-faced Anbu garbed in the same attire as Saito. As Naruto stared into the blank holes on the Anbu's mask, he sneered. "Well?"
The Anbu let out a chuckle. "Kid I don't think you know who you're talking to." He then placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder which Naruto stared at vigorously.
He then heard another voice to his left, this time it was female. "Yeah.. Naruto, I have heard rumors about you, but let me tell you that you're nowhere near as strong as Sakai is." Naruto turned to the female anbu, donning an eagle mask and chuckled. He remembered seeing her back when he took out that Jonin a year ago.
"Oh on the contrary, I don't think that he'll be a problem..." Naruto replied.
Another static voice to his right this time. "Hm, don't you think that that's a little arrogant?" This time it was man, he was the man in the baboon mask. Naruto also had a faint memory of him from one year ago.
Naruto shrugged. "Maybe, but it's the truth." He quickly grabbed the Anbu's arm, and as smoothly as flowing water, turned around and hurled him away. A prickling sensation entered Naruto's wrist when the lion-faced Sakai twisted his entire body so that he landed on his feet."I'm sorry, what was the truth again," he asked arrogantly before twisting and throwing Naruto over his body, this time with much more force than Naruto did with him.
For an instant the world looped around and Naruto was in the air, looking directly into the Sakai's eye holes, his expression impassive. An instant later, time regained normal speed and the Anbu's mask went rushing away as he was thrown into a tree twenty yards away, cracking the wood.
A rookie, attempting to best a veteran, who the hell did this kid think he was? Walking up to Naruto's now upside down body, embedded into a tree, the Anbu knelt down so that his face was level with Naruto's.
"Listen to me," he said, holding Naruto by the side of his head. "Don't you EVER do that again, if you do I'll kill you."
A glob of spit to his shiny mask was Naruto's response.
"You brat, you're dead now!" Once again, like his captain, this Anbu was showing a LOT of emotion, he must have been really strong. He pulled his fist back preparing to strike, then, surprisingly, he stopped, thrown off by an odd sensation in the back of his head. The finely polished blade of a kunai stuck out of the Anbu's skull, blood pouring from the wound.
Nausea crept over him as he keeled over and yelled in pain, closing his eyes behind his mask.
He opened them.
Believe it or not he was standing in front of Naruto who was standing as well, a smirk on his face. "W-wha..." his voice trailed off, making his confusion apparent.
"That my friend was a genjutsu." Naruto said, elaborating for the lion-faced Anbu.
He was taken back. What genjutsu, when was he ever placed within the confines of said technique. It made no sense at all, no more sense than having your head impaled by a kunai and then one blink later being completely untouched.
"When did you-" he voice trailed off, replaced by a low groan of stupor. The flummoxed Anbu folded his arms and turned to his comrades. "Was I really?" When they all nodded he turned back to Naruto.
Naruto raised one finger. "It's simple, really. You see you never threw me into that tree over there," he said pointing to the tree that Sakai thought that he tossed the boy into. "By then you were already in my trap."
"What trap , when did you activate it?"
"Technically, I did not activate it, you did. It's a basic genjutsu, a personal creation of mine, where whoever looks into the eyes of the user when he cast the genjutsu gets instantly pulled into it. It works with distance as well, the closer the eye contact is, the more powerful the genjutsu is and the less chakra I have to expend sustaining it. And since I caught you at point-blank range I had to use little to no chakra at all. That was probably the reason why you didn't detect it."
Sakai went over what just happened in his mind. Naruto said that he had been caught at point blank range, if that's so then, that can only mean that their faces were a mere inches apart. That meant-"
"So you hit me with it when I threw you?"
"Correct," was Naruto's response. "Even though I never hit the tree, I was thrown, and that's when I hit you with it."
"Bastard... but meh, that was fair. I'm Yuuji Sakai."
Naruto turned his head to his captain. "Yuuji?"
"My brother." Saito said with a dismissive wave.
Naruto turned to the other two Anbu who introduced themselves as Shima Touei , in the Baboon mask and in the eagle mask was the only female member of the team, Haruno Yukari. Naruto questioned the name. "Did you say Haruno?" Naruto said now noticing the stream of flowing hot pink hair behind the outline of Yukari's mask. Naruto surprised himself at how late he had picked it up, for someone as observant as he, one would think that he would have noticed something as obvious as hair color.
"Yes, I said Haruno." She responded, holding up a few locks of her pink hair.
"Hm, an Anbu from the Haruno clan, no offense but, I never thought there were any. I thought that the only nin in your clan, unfortunately, was Haruno Sakura"
"None taken, I'm well aware of my clan's status as a non-shinobi inhabited clan. In fact me and my younger cousin Sakura are the only two... wait do you know her?"
"Unfortunately, yes."
"I see, I know she can be a bit bombastic with her passions at times but, forgive her she's only a young girl." Yukari said with a chuckle. Even though Naruto had only met her, he could tell right away that he would be able to get along with Yukari. Even though she was related to her, Yukari didn't seem at all like that feckless excuse for kunoichi that went under the name of Sakura. It was funny how two people whom were from the same clan could be so different.
"True, but her passions can be a tad bit annoying at times." Yukari giggled at the small sliver of sarcasm Naruto laced his tone with. "Anyway," Naruto said turning back to Saito," I've met the team now, I know their names they now mine, what now?"
"I'll be frank with this then." Saito began. "I have received orders from The Third himself saying that we are to patrol the outer perimeter of Konoha, meaning during this patrol, nobody she be inside the village. We are to remain outside until tomorrow, and return in the morning. Sakai you take to the west, Touei, the east, Yukari and I will head south, and that leaves you Naruto to cover the north. We are each to head in our separate directions, cut through the city and exit through the northern, southern, western and eastern gates."
"Is that all?" Naruto asked.
"Oh, Naruto I have a message from our Lord Hokage, he says that this is, a test for you, to see how you will measure up in the actual field. He also says not to worry, this is one of the easier missions." That comment sparked a series of chuckles from the rest of the team which caused Naruto to grumble.
"Geez that's just like him, whatever, is that everything?" Naruto said folding his arms.
"Yes, that's it," Saito said, tossing him a small black device.
"Radio?" Naruto said slipping it in his ear.
"Yes, we are all to stay within radio communication," and with a swift chopping motion he uttered one word: "Go!"
Then they were gone, leaving a single expanding ring of dust in their wake. "How the hell do they do that?" Naruto said, making a single hand sign before fading away.
Moments later he appeared on the sturdy branch of a large tree. He was in the forest of death, he was to leave the village by cutting through and exiting through the northern gate. He had his orders and he was to follow them, no matter what.
He was gone, bounding off the trees, and rapidly moving through the air. A blur of motion gliding threw the darkness.
xxxxxxxX
Sanae snapped her eyes open. OK, there was something wrong, first off she could not see a thing and in her mouth, she tasted... something. Something... awful, nasty, it tasted like crap, if that was what crap actually tasted like. But dammit, what the hell was this crap? As her vision returned she noticed fine little black needles stick in front of her, that was weird... and why were they sideways.
Upon further observation she realized that those little needles were blades of grass and the reason why they were sideways was because her head was on the ground. Her eyes clicked left and right then up... she gasped.
She was still in the forest of death! She could see the outlines of twisting branches and every few seconds the rustling of leaves. The sounds of a myriad of animals, permeated the air, screeches and squeals and couple of howls, some clicks and every now and then a growl. Some of them sounded, for the most part, not dangerous at all while others... well let's just say Sanae wasn't willing to investigate the sources of those sounds.
Sitting up on her bottom she rubbed her forehead, feeling a rather large bump. "Ow... my head...ah..ugh..twuah!" Well, now she knew just what that horrible taste was. As long as it wasn't crap she was happy, but on the other hand dirt was the tastiest of substances. Wait, was her spit brown... eww!
Wiping her tongue with her shirt and standing up, she looked around. It was dark, really dark. How long had she been asleep exactly?
"I can't believe Anko-sensei, she really left me, next time I see her I'm going to give her a piece of my mind." Her foot, hit the ground, followed by her other one but she stopped. "W-where am I?" She said in a scared tone. It seems that she was now aware of the fact she was in the middle of the forest of death while it was dark. That wasn't good.
"H-hello...?" she yelled out lamely, her legs shaking a little bit. Her answer was a series of howls and shrieks from the resident animals in the forest, she knelt down and squeaked.
'Great idea, alert the killer animals in the forest that you're there, not you brightest action Sanae' Dusting herself off Sanae once again began walking through the forest. She could barely see a thing, and she couldn't remember the way Anko brought her into this stupid forest. Now how the hell was she supposed to get home?
She yelped when a roar sounded off in the distance. Her pace quickened, whatever that was she didn't want to find out. Another how, this time she screamed and broke out into a full sprint. The shallow and rapid sounds of her breath were the only things she heard, well excluding the loud patter of rapid footsteps behind her.
Putting a little chakra into her step she sprinted into an even faster run. Something was following her, and she did NOT like it. She was... afraid. Letting out another scream, she leaped forth an placed herself among the treetops. She flew through the leaves like a little swallow afraid for its life and that was exactly what she was, prey running from a predator.
There was a crunch of several branches, each one getting closer to her and seconds later another roar.
Damn, whatever the hell this thing was, it was smart... and STILL following her. Frantic to get out of the forest, Sanae began leaping into air, above the treetops, in hopes of seeing the which direction the village was.
Where was it... where was it, had Anko really brought them out, this deep into the forest of death? While in mid air, the dark tops of trees flew by underneath her until they rushed up to meet her and she was back down among the branches. Still, that rather large... thing was following her.
Dammit!
She tried once more, throwing herself above the canopy. "Yes!" This time she spotted it, the dark outline of the village to her right. Once again, Sanae went down into the trees, crossing her arms in front of her to shield her face just in case an branches decided to attack her. The branches came down fast, she saw one, small but sizable, it would be tricky to land on but she was sure she could pull it off.
As the branch came closer she stuck one of her legs out, bad idea. With a yelp Sanae, slipped forward off the branch going into a fast plummet toward the ground. Before she knew it, air escape her lungs and she was screaming with all her might. She couldn't help it, fear did that to a person.
Crack. She hit a branch, before going through several more branches that coincidentally softened--if you can even say the word 'softened'-- her landing. She landed on her side, hard.
"O-ow...my arm... that really hurt a-," she was cut off by the sound of low growl. Her eyes snapped wide open, she had almost forgotten, she was being followed by...something.
The sound came from in front of her, a low raspy growl sending chills up her spine.
A-anko-s-sensei, if this is a joke, I'm not laughing."
Then the sound of four paws lightly hitting the dirt came closer.
"T-this isn't funny anymore."
A growl.
"O-okay, I admit, I'm scared now..."
A roar.
Sanae screamed. She held her hands up to her head and switched into the fetal position, her body shaking violently.
Two golden eyes opened in the darkness, staring directly at her and behind them Sanae could see the faint outline of a large rather feline body.
She gasped and closed her eyes when a massive tiger came in to view, its wide maw open slightly so that Sanae could see it's impressive array of teeth.
That thing was huge, the biggest that she had ever seen in her life and now the last.
It brought its large muzzle to Sanae and sniffed the now whimpering girl. "Please, don't eat me, please don't eat me please don't eat me..." Sanae continued her desperate mantra in hopes that the animal, by some unknown thaumaturgy, turn its head and decide against making her its meal.
"Someone, save me, please... I-I'm...scared." She yelped when she felt the slimy surface of the tiger's tongue rub against her face causing her to let out an 'ahhhh' of disgust and fear.
"Anyone... please...-" that's when she was cut off by the sound of someone laughing high above her. Seconds, later, she heard a thump and the tiger in front of her roar and moved back. Opening her eyes, she saw the same tiger, wildly shaking it's head and bucking like a bull. On top of its cranium was... Naruto.
What the hell? Why was Naruto here, but she couldn't complain, if not for him, she surely would have been dinner.
Pulling out a kunai Naruto, hung to the tiger's ear, his legs wrapped tightly around the animal's neck.
"Hehe, you better look away Sanae-chan, this might get bloody." She thought about it for seconds, maybe she would look away, but she couldn't transfixed by the sight in front of her. Without fear Naruto, clung to the animal, in fact he was smiling. She could not believe it, how was Naruto doing this, wasn't he scared or something?
The tiger stopped jostling for a just a moment, giving Naruto enough time to react. Cocking his arm back, Naruto struck the beast on its head causing it to release a roar of pain as its head jerked up before it went down. Naruto was still, holding onto the beast ear but it would not be like that anymore.
Releasing roar, the tiger reared his head, this time with a bit more force than the other times. "Alright big boy, I'll get off, but first." Naruto grappled the tiger by its neck and jumped, off twisting his body and planting his feet on the ground so that his face was now next to the tiger's. Naruto's well-toned muscles rippled as he twisted the tiger, heaving it through the air and slamming it.
No way... that was NOT Naruto. Sanae, refused to believe it, there was just no way that a Genin could be this strong and ruthless. Letting out a weak defeated growl, the tiger slowly rose to its feet wary of Naruto standing right there. That was funny, the hunter had now become the hunted.
It stood and brought it's mouth to Naruto's face, opening it while releasing a little growl. Naruto narrowed his eyes, the beasts breath smelled of blood and raw meat. Naruto said one thing. "Leave." Quickly the tiger, whipped its head around, with another growl, brushing its tail against Naruto's face. With another growl, it was gone.
"Hey Sanae-chan, what are you doing h-..ugh!" He was cut off by Sanae driving herself into his chest.
"Naruto... I-I was so scared, it started chasing me... and- and-" Sanae froze, realizing what she was doing, although his chest did feel nice she was sure that she did not want to be there. He wouldn't let her forget this moment. Sanae stepped back, sniffling. She wiped the tears from her face. "S-sorry," she said, her face red.
"N-naruto, w-what exactly are you doing here?" He looked at her seriously, she held her breath. This was a completely different Naruto.
"Sanae, the question is, what exactly were you doing here?" He placed both his hands on her shoulders and she blushed. "I tell me."
"I-I was," she looked away, "training with my sensei."
"Training... right and where is said sensei?" If he wasn't mistaken, Mitarashi Anko was her Konoe's sensei. Speaking of Konoe... "and hey where's you sister."
Sanae then told Naruto about how everything happened, how Anko brought them here to train, injured Konoe, and how Sanae had fallen asleep expecting Anko to come back for her.
"Oh."
"Yeah, that's what happened, and anyway, like I was saying, what were you doing here in the first place?"
He should have expected that, however, that wasn't something that she needed to know. Well, it would have been something esoteric in the past, but seeing as how he now had the right to tell whomever he wanted about his power, that was no the case anymore. "If you must know, I'm on a mission."
"With your team and on the first day?" Sanae's obvious disbelief made her tone seem all the more intent on finding out the truth. Truth she wanted and truth she would get.
"No, not with my team," he paused, "at least not with the team that you know of."
What the hell was he talking about, what other team could a genin possibly have on their first day as an official nin? That's when her Fumina wit kicked in. Something was wrong, she could just tell. First his odd clones now this? She could tell that Naruto was hiding something, even the dullest of people could figure this out. But it seemed that she wouldn't have investigate this for Naruto would tell her on his own.
"What do you mean?" She said awaiting his next words with diligence.
He sighed, obviously this was something big. She could tell because his hands never left her shoulders and that meant either he was trying to harass her or he was being serious. Something told her that it was the latter.
"How can I say this... you know what, I'm just going to come right out and say this. The reason that I'm here is because I'm on a mission... an Anbu mission."
Stop, time for a rewind. he was obviously lying.
"No I'm being serious, why were you out here?" She said laughing at what she thought was his excuse.
"I'm not lying, I'm being serious, I wouldn't be here if I weren't." Well he did have a point, kind of. But that still did not mean that he was telling this truth. "Listen, you shouldn't be out here, its cold and to be honest, you will most likely die out here."
"And what about you?" Sanae asked, folding her arms.
"I can handle myself." Naruto said confidently. "So don't worry ab-" Naruto suddenly froze, to Sanae's surprise and tapped his ear. "Naruto here," he began. Upon further inspection she saw that Naruto was speaking into a small black radio earpiece. Maybe he was telling the truth.
"No, not yet, I'm heading there now, I got a little sidetracked along the way, over"
He paused for a moment, Sanae's eyes never leaving his face.
"Yeah, I found something, a person, over. A female, a ranked Genin of the village," Naruto then turned and gave her a quick look up and down. "She's a Fumina, over."
There was another period of silence where the absence of Naruto's voice allowed for the sounds of the forest to be heard. A second later Naruto resumed his conversation with whoever it was on the other side of that radio. "I don't know all the details exactly but I already questioned her. Apparently, she and her teammate were brought here to train by their sensei, a certain Mitarashi Anko. And you know how she can get, over."
Another pause. "I understand; I'm going to have to take a side track from this mission, I'll escort the Fumina back to the village, I don't think she'll be able to make it out by herself. After that I'll resume the mission as long as possible."
Naruto sighed. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, whatever, over and out." With that Naruto let his hand fall from his ear and back onto Sanae's shoulder. He looked at her with unblinking eyes. "Do you believe me?" he asked. At the moment all she could do was nod, her head moving frantically up and down. At first she did not believe him but the way he spoke just now, for some reason convinced her.
She still couldn't believe it, well it was more like she didn;t want to accept it. She had always thought that she was pretty close to Naruto when it came to skill and now she was coming to find out that he was skilled enough to join the Anbu all along. It kind of made her feel a bit weak inside, first of all how did she not notice it before? How could she overlook such a prominent source of power sitting next to her every single day, someone so powerful had been her friend?
That was what he looked like just at that moment, powerful, in control, professional. If not for his unconvincing attire and lack of a face mask, she would have said that at that moment he looked exactly like an Anbu, he definitely had the aura of one, that was for sure.
But what she was even more sure of was that she needed to get to hospital, and quickly. "Naruto, I need to leave this place."
"Well, I know that-," he was cut off.
"No you don't understand I need to get to the hospital, I need to go see Konoe... now!"
"She's in the hospital?"
"Yes." Sanae had almost forgotten that she didn't tell Naruto that her sister was in the hospital when she was recapping all the events of her day. "Can you take me there?"
"Off course," he turned crouching down so that she could climb onto his back. She was, to say the least a bit hesitant.
"I can still travel on my own you know."
"But this ways faster, trust me." Honestly, she really didn't know if she could trust Naruto, he had been hiding such grave secrets from them, who knew what else he could be hiding. Despite her diffidence she still climbed onto her blond 'friend's' back. "Hold tight." he said.
And seconds later she wished that she had, they were traveling so fast that she almost fell off the instant they took flight. Since when was he so fast? He was crazy-... no insanely fast for his size. The wind whipped her face as if it was a solid substance trying to throw her off her blond friend. For the most part the ride was silent... and fast, oh sooo fast.
Sanae really didn't mind the lack of speech between the two, although she had so many questions to ask him. Like how he got so strong and how long ago did he begin training. But at the moment, she just wanted to think.
About a mile later, they were out of the trees and back into village. "Naruto?"
"Hm?" he said, funny he thought that she had fallen asleep. "What is it?"
There was a brief pause. "T-thanks for saving me, back there."
"No problem." He actually expected her to question him some more, maybe this info was just a bit too much for her to process at the moment. He probably would act the same way... probably not.
The buildings flew by until they arrived at their destination, the hospital.
Planting his feet on the ground, he let Sanae off. "And here we are, I told you it'd be fast." All Sanae did was nod. "Listen, as much as I want to see Konoe right now, I have to get back to my mission.' Sanae nodded.
He turned to walk away," I'll come visit her in the morning. And-," he turned around, "I'll tell you both everything when I get back, alright, I promise."
She nodded again.
With that he was gone, his body fading away like dispersing mist.
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Whew I'm done. Once again I apologize for the tardiness, I know, I could have hurried up a bit but hey I have other things to attend to. You know like that thing that I mentioned in the first author's note, the one that required me to be away from tech for a long time... yeah that one.
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and all that it had to offer. I bet nobody was expecting Naruto to be on a team with another Haruno, ha. Just to let you know, putting a Haruno on Naruto's team was actually a request. One of my friends asked if I could make Sakura uber strong and bring her onto Naruto's team, and if anyone's ever read my profile, they would know that I have fervent hatred of Sakura. Like I really hate her, but just to shut him up I told him that I'd put a Haruno on the team, I never really said that it would be Sakura so I guess I'm safe.
Oh and one more thing, I've been thinking about this lately, if you guys want, I could turn this into a Naruto/ Yugito pairing if you guys want. But I always see stuff like that so I'm a little against, I'd much rather go with my golden pair of Naru/hina but I want what you want, unless something happens and I end up not caring. But anyway tell me your opinion on that matter.
Hopefully this chap will get a good amount of reviews, I'm at like sixty six right now. SO do me favor and get me to like ninety, maybe even higher, that'd be freaking awesome.
But for now, until the next chapter.
Thanx
Latr
Next chapter: Veterans and Tyros
GrIm'S sTePpIn' OuT