Me: Welcome to the next chapter of Task of the Gods, brought to you today in part, by Sharingan Industries, makers of the Hypnotize your friends kits!...Anyways, Muse style summoning: Wolverine!
Wolverine: what the hell bub?
Me: I need inspiration, Logan!
Wolverine: *unsheathes claws*
Me: uh, that's good enough, heh *sweatdrops*
On with the show! Disclaimer same as before.
xX
The sounds of nature are quite relaxing. The babbling of the brooks and rivers, the wind whistling through the trees, the animals and forest critters frolicking through the grassy meadows, the terrified and pain filled screams of a young boy...Wait, what?
A young boy no older than six with blonde hair and shiny blue eyes was running through the streets, dodging into and out of alleyways trying to dodge the latest mob of drunk people. And failing miserably. If one was to stop and think about it, even if the crowd was drunk, the boy was still a young boy, with smaller legs, lungs...just about everything. Except stamina. Which was indeed the only reason he had been able to keep ahead of the mob that was screaming for his head while chasing him with torches and pitchforks like he was a witch in Salem. Anyways, the young boy had been minding his own business as he attempted to enjoy the festival that had taken over the market district of Konoha. Unfortunately for the boy, he had nearly immediately been recognized by nearby denizens of a bar, which had led to his current predicament.
It must have been some bad stroke of luck or fate that the boy had gone to the festival on that particular day down that particular street past that particular group...Sounds like mere coincidence, no?( in another realm two beautiful females sneezed, causing the paperwork they had just finished to go flying all over the room)
As the streets of Konoha gave way to the trees and clearings of the shinobi training grounds, the boy, now nearly totally exhausted, entered a clearing and fearfully looked around for a place to hide. Spying a hollowed log laying near the center of the field, the boy made a mad dash towards it only for several sharp knives to come hurtling out of the woods nearby and slam painfully into his legs causing him to scream. As he lay on the ground in agony, the mob caught up to and surrounded the boy, laughing harshly. Soon the mob began the beatings, kicking and throwing things at the boy as he cried out and begged for them to stop. He never knew what he did to deserve this, only that it happened often if he was out at night. As the mob started to slow in their torture of the boy, three people stepped forward, dressed in standard shinobi clothing for chunin ninjas. Nodding to each other as the crowd backed away to give them room, the three began doing hand signs in unison, running through a set quickly and ending on the tiger hand sign. As the three ninjas raised their hands to their mouths and began to exhale fire, something unexpected happened.
In a flurry of movement, the fireballs the ninjas had sent towards the boy suddenly stopped in midair before heading back towards the ninjas whose eyes widened in shock and fear briefly before the fireballs consumed them. As this happened, three figures appeared in flashes of elemental light between the remaining mob and the boy, two of them taking up guard stances while the third bent over the boy, his hands glowing with green light. Standing slightly behind where the three ninjas had been standing before, stood a single figure, his hands raised towards where the fires still burned before he flicked his hands and the fires were suddenly extinguished. Slowly, the figure lowered his hands and turned towards the crowd, his face a blank slate clear of any emotions as he gazed at the people.
Silence reigned for a few short moments before suddenly the wind shifted slightly as several new figures dressed in armor and wearing masks appeared between the crowd and the figure, hands on their sword hilts as another much older figure in robes and a large hat appeared, causing the crowd to gasp and shiver from the look of cold fury on the old figures face.
"ANBU Squads four and five, round up these villagers and take them to Ibiki for questioning about breaking the Sandaime's Law. Squads two and three, remain here." the old man spoke authoritatively before turning to assess the four figures and the prone boy, a flash of concern in his eyes as they fell upon the boys figure.
"The boy will be fine. Kuro is quite an accomplished medic. I am Cain Takama. Who are you, and why were those civilians and soldiers targeting a defenseless boy so viciously?" stated the now identified fourth figure. The old man narrowed his eyes slightly at the other man and crossed his arms slightly.
"I am the Sandaime Hokage, leader of Konoha Hiruzen Sarutobi. As for why the people were attacking young Naruto, well I cannot tell you as you are strangers in my village. Which brings to light a question of my own. How were you all able to get into my village and what is your intentions here? I know that you did not enter through the gate, nor did you or your companions trigger the barrier." Sarutobi replied, motioning towards the others. Cain nodded and turned his head to glance briefly at the boy, Naruto and Kuro. As Sarutobi took a step towards the boy, Cain moved in front of him, shifting into a loose guard stance.
"I'm sorry, I know you claim to be the leader of this village and all, but I cannot let you pass until it has been confirmed that you will not harm the boy like those others did." Cain stated coldly, his actions causing the remaining ANBU to shift into battle stances as well. However, a wave from the old man had them relax once more. Turning back to Cain, Sarutobi nodded.
"Though I still do not know who you and your group are or why you are interested in Naruto, I simply wish to ascertain that he is ok. He is like a grandson to me." Sarutobi replied. At that moment, Kuro stood, lifting the boy into his arms and turning towards the group.
"His injuries have been taken care of and as such, he is no longer in a potentially life threatening condition. Might I suggest we get the boy into a warm room perhaps with a bed for him to rest?" Kuro stated, causing the Konoha leader's face to twitch at the medic's words.
"Perhaps we can take this meeting to my office and you can explain who you are why you are here and what you meant by potentially life threatening injuries. While I cannot inform you of the details, Naruto possesses a fairly advanced healing ability that nearly assures that most potentially fatal injuries heal rather quickly." Sarutobi stated, motioning for his remaining ANBU to disperse save for Squad Three, Tiger, Dog, Cat, Snake and Weasel. Cain nodded and motioned for his own group to follow the Hokage and his escorts to the Hokage's office.
Once inside the tower, Kuro laid the boy on the nearby couch as the other two took up guard positions next to them and Cain stood in front of the desk. The Hokage sat in his chair as ANBU Squad three moved to take up their normal guard positions. Tiger and Dog moved into the shadows behind the Hokage while Snake Weasel and Cat disappeared against the opposite wall. Leaning back in his chair, Sarutobi motioned for Cain to begin explaining.
"First off, I'll start by introducing my team. I am Cain Takama, that is my second in command Ryujin Fumodotoji, the woman is Seravina Shirayuki, my intelligence officer, and lastly but certainly not least is my medic, Kuro Noshu Kenshin," Cain began, pointing to each of his team members as he named them, who nodded, waved and smiled shyly, respectively.
"Second, please activate the privacy seals so this conversation does not leave the room." Cain said, causing the Hokage to run through some hand seals and the room to glow momentarily.
" Now, Sarutobi san, would you like the believable version or the unbelievable version of our story?" Cain continued, causing the Hokage to blink in confusion.
"Why would you ask such a question, Takama san?" the Hokage replied.
"Well, our story is quite a tale, I was curious if you wanted the short non detailed version or the slightly longer but less believable version." Cain responded, a slight grin on his face.
"Well then, I suppose the shorter version first then the longer one."
"Very well. The short version, we were sent by Kami's Court to fulfill a Task that involves protecting Naruto and killing Madara Uchiha" Cain said nonchalantly, his face completely serious. This, of course caused several reactions which included the Hokage bursting out laughing, Weasel losing control of his concealing jutsu and faceplanting from shock, and the collective thought from the remaining ANBU of 'This guy is nuckin futz'. Shortly, the laughter died down and Weasel regained his composure and jutsu, as the Hokage realized Cain was completely serious.
"What you claim, is quite impossible. Setting aside being emissaries of Kami, Madara Uchiha has been dead for the past sixty years!" Sarutobi exclaimed, looking at the other male warily. Cain shook his head in the negative.
"I assure you, the man is very much alive. Of course, I do remember stating previously that one version would be unbelievable, the other slightly less so, so there you have it. Madara Uchiha developed a technique shortly before he fought your First Hokage. This technique allowed him to transcend the boundaries not only to place himself above death, but to cross the dimensional barriers. During the fight with Hashirama, he used the jutsu to escape death and landed in our world. Sixty years ago, Madara Uchiha single handedly transported the four of us to this dimension, where he then killed us." Cain continued. As his words sounded more and more unbelievable, Sarutobi started thinking about possibly having to remove the four strangers and have them locked up pending a session with Ibiki, and possibly Inoichi too. Noticing the elder male's reactions to his story and knowing what the man was most likely thinking, Cain sighed.
"Look, I can tell you don't believe a word I am saying, so allow me to show you a bit of proof." Cain said, reaching into a pouch on his waist causing the shinobi in the room to tense before he pulled out a small hand sized data pad. Setting it on the table in front of the Hokage, he reached down to press a button only to find the blades of two ninja-to at his throat. Sighing he paused, looking up at the aged Hokage.
"Please allow for this demonstration, Sarutobi san. No harm will come to anyone in this room, you have my word." Cain said. The Hokage nodded after a moment's deliberation and motioned to the two ANBU to remove their swords. Leaning forwards, Cain pressed the power button on the screen, causing it to light up and project an image in the air above it. As the light pixels came together, the image of a man appeared.
"This is the security camera footage of the attack that brought us to this world, and our subsequent death at the hands of this man." Cain explained, the picture suddenly moving and rolling through the events. Pressing another button, Cain froze the footage at a certain point and looked towards the Hokage, who was staring at the frozen footage in shock and disbelief.
With good reason too, as the frozen picture was of Madara Uchiha with his sharingan active, barely looking a day older than the last time Sarutobi had seen him, nearly sixty years prior.
Shaking out of his stupor, Sarutobi looked at the other man as he turned off the hand held and returned it to his pouch. Sighing, he rubbed his wrinkled hands over his eyes wearily as he let his mind reflect on this information. After a few moments, he lowered his hand and gazed at the other man with sharper eyes.
"Very well, I will believe your story for now. Now what is it you are here to do?" Hiruzen stated wearily. Cain shrugged and looked at the still sleeping boy.
"Like I said before, we are here to watch over and protect the boy, and when the time comes, assist him in defeating Madara. Other than that, we have no motives or anything else." Cain replied. Sarutobi glanced over to the boy as well and his eyes softened. Straightening, he addressed the medic, Kuro.
"You said his injuries were potentially life threatening, how so?" he asked, making the medic jump slightly at being put on the spot like that.
"Well, the knife wounds to his legs severed his femoral artery in three places, he had multiple broken ribs two of which nearly punctured his heart and one that punctured straight through his left lung. Aside from that, there was massive swelling in his spine in four places as well as a fractured wrist, broken elbow forearm and shoulder cuff, and one part of his skull was fractured so badly I'm surprised the splinters didn't turn his brain into mush." Kuro stated impassively. With each new injury listed, the Hokage and his ANBU grew progressively pale. Any given two of those injuries on anyone else would have guaranteed near instant death if not a horribly drawn out and painful one. Shaking with rage, Sarutobi took several deep breaths before motioning to one of the ANBU.
"Cat, you have a priority mission. Inform Ibiki that the criminals apprehended this evening are to be classified under T&I regulation Zulu. As such, as soon as he is done, they are to be executed. Make sure to inform him this is to be done quickly and before the Civilian council gets word of it. Understand?" he ground out harshly. Anbu Cat stood straight at attention and saluted crisply.
"Understood sir!" she replied, her voice dripping with venom as she shunshined away swiftly. Sarutobi turned back to the four and sighed.
"He truly doesn't deserve this. You must be an amazing medic with chakra stores of a kage to heal all of that alone and so quickly. For that, I thank you." he continued, turning to Cain.
"For now, I will allow you to stay in the village, and grant you citizenship papers and if you so desire, entrance into the ninja ranks, though if you wish for that, we will have to test you to determine your rank, as well as place you on probationary status for six months. For now, it is late, and I am sure you all must be tired. I will grant you the temporary use of an apartment nearby. Also, I would like you to be back in my office tomorrow for a full debriefing on your story.
Anbu Dog and Weasel, please escort our guests to the hotel and set them up in the Hokage suite for the night." Hiruzen finished. The two Anbu appeared kneeling before the desk and stood, nodding their heads before turning and motioning for the four to follow them. Kuro reached over and picked up Naruto and headed out the door, followed shortly by Seravina and Ryujin, as well as Dog, as Cain turned back to Sarutobi and nodded.
"Thank you for that, Hokage sama. We will take Naruto with us as well to make sure he's safe. You are more than welcome to have your guards keep an eye on us as well, though I think, you'll be doing that anyways. Until tomorrow then." Cain said, bowing slightly before turning and following his team out the door and towards the hotel. Sarutobi sighed wearily, taking a seat and resting his head in his hands, rubbing at his eyes. Turning to face the window, he gazed out over the village bathed in darkness, his expression somber.
Minato, what would you have done, I wonder... he thought to himself.
oOOo
The following morning.
Sunlight peeked through the shades of a window, gently waking the sleeping boy. As his eyes opened on the unfamiliar room, he sat up quickly, bright blue eyes darting around the room fearfully. The last thing he could remember was running from the mob, and then pain. A lot of pain.
"Calm down, Naruto. you're perfectly safe here." came a soft female voice from the doorway, which had opened to reveal a shapely young woman about 5'6 with hazel eyes and long dark blue hair tied in a ponytail. She was dressed in calf length black shinobi pants and a sleeveless dark blue shirt under a lighter blue flak jacket vest. Smiling at the confused boy, she slowly made her way over to the bed and set down the tray she was carrying, upon which lay several plates of breakfast foods. Motioning for him to eat, she moved over to the window and raised the shades to allow more sunlight into the room, brightening it up some. Warily, Naruto took a few suspicious sniffs at the food and, finding nothing odd smelling, took a few bites out of it. Seeing this, the woman snorted, drawing his attention back to her. Crossing her arms under her chest, she shook her head at the boy, chuckling softly.
"It's not poisoned or anything, kid. Go ahead and eat up." she said, turning and taking a seat in a nearby chair. Naruto tilted his head slightly to the side and frowned slightly. Shaking his head, he turned back to the food and dug in, showing all the manners(or lack thereof) of a six year old who had never been taught any, causing the woman to laugh softly and shake her head. Once he had finished the food on the tray, Naruto glanced up at the woman only to realize she had disappeared and was replaced with a guy with shorter hair wearing similar clothes as the woman, except his vest was greenish yellow. As the guy approached him, Naruto scooted back against the headboard, causing the man to stop and raise his hands in a soothing gesture.
"Do not fear, Naruto, I'm just going to check to make sure you are fully healed and that I didn't miss anything last night." the man said, to which the young boy nodded and relaxed a bit.
"Who are you? Where am I? What happened? Do you know where the old man in the funny hat is?" Naruto asked as the man checked him over. The man chuckled gently and stepped back.
"Well let's see. I am Kuro, you are in a hotel room in Konoha, you were heavily injured last night and I helped save you, and I'm guessing you're talking about the Hokage. Well, he's in a meeting with my boss right now, I believe." Kuro replied, chuckling as he counted off the answers to the boy's questions.
"Who was the beautiful lady who gave me food? Who's your boss? Can you take me to the old man in the funny hat?" Naruto asked, tilting his head as he fired off more questions at light speed.
"Slow down, kid, sheesh. Has anyone ever told you, you ask too many questions? Anyways, I'm guessing you're referring to Sera, she's one of my teammates. My Boss is Cain, and I suppose I could when my boss summons us." Kuro told the boy, who whooped for joy at the last one and tackle hugged the elder man, screaming his thanks. He had been looking for the old man for a long time but nobody would tell him where he was. Chuckling, Kuro pulled the overly happy child off of him and set him back on the bed.
"Calm down, kid, it's no big deal." Kuro told him.
"Yes it is I been looking for the old man for a long time but nobody would tell me where he was, Kuro oni-san!" Naruto blurted, now bouncing on the bed. Raising an eyebrow at the form of address, Kuro looked at the tray of food the boy had eaten, spying the remains of sugary cereal and an obscene amount of syrup. Shaking his head at the foods of choice Sera had given the boy, Kuro could only watch as Naruto near literally bounced off the walls from a sugar rush.
Meanwhile, At the Hokage's office...
Cain had just finished explaining in detail the group's story leaving a slightly shocked Sarutobi and his three Anbu sitting there in silence. Shaking out of his shock, Sarutobi rubbed at his eyes roughly before refocusing on Cain.
"Well, that is quite as you said, an unbelievable story. Although, the evidence you have presented has more than proven the truth of the matter. So then, what are you going to do from here?" Sarutobi asked.
"Well, my team and I discussed the plans of action last night and decided that we would, with your permission, form an offshoot of your Anbu specifically dedicated to the protection of Naruto and dealing with high ranked threats, such as Madara. If that is not possible, we will accept commissions into the ninja ranks under the conditions that we form our own base team, and that at least one of use at any given time is bound in village until Naruto becomes a genin, for the purposes of our primary mission. In the majority of cases, the one member of my team we would like dedicated to this task is Kuro, as he is best suited to healing not frontline fighting anyways, and can serve a dual purpose as a medic nin in the hospital as well as protecting Naruto. Is this acceptable to you, Hokage-sama?" Cain replied. The Hokage thought it over for several minutes.
"First, I would like to set up a placement test to determine how powerful you all are. I will withhold my judgment pending that, if I may. It would not make sense to form you all into a squad of Anbu and later learn that only one or even none of you has the ability to back it up. Precautionary measures, of course. I believe I can schedule one of the private secluded Anbu training facilities for this purpose for later this evening, if it suits you and your team, Takama san?" Sarutobi said. Cain nodded before pulling out a small device and speaking into it. Shortly after, a knock was heard on the door before it opened admitting Kuro and a streak of yellow and blue which slammed into Sarutobi screaming "OLD MAN!" before anyone could react. Chuckling softly, Kuro entered the room and nodded to Cain as Sarutobi peeled the wiggly ball of energy that was Naruto off of him and set him down on his desk. Turning back to the two, he smiled.
"Well then, I'll reserve a spot for your team's test later this evening. Until then, you are free to do as you wish as long as you are accompanied by one of my Anbu. For now, I believe I need to treat this little bundle of energy to ramen." the Hokage said, ruffling the boy's hair as he did so before being nearly dragged from the room by the now extremely happy six year old. Cain nodded to Kuro who rolled his eyes and followed, along with two of the hidden Anbu, the third shadowing Cain as he headed back to the hotel room they were occupying.
Xx
Well then, another annoyingly eh chapter. It'll get better as I get back into the swing of things. Next up, the demonstration test, with a twist! Until then, I bid thee,
Adieu.