Disclaimer: I'm not very sure I would want to own the Naruto series, the way its been going just puts me off a bit. Anyway, I own nothing you recognize and, most likely, never own it. This is purely for fun entertainment puposes and is not meant for monetary any type, shape, or form.
Author's Note (the beginning): What's up? Nothing. Well then, why you're here, why don't you skim along down and read this new little chapter here. Oh, and while I'm at it, I might as well get it out there.
One: This chapter, like the first one, is sort of a prologue. It'll introduce another major character, though not as major as Naruto himself, and will show you a level of Naruto's utter badassery, though it feels like a filler.
Two: I believe this chapter will be sort of short and I apologize, though personally, I dislike humungously long chapters that get boring a quarter way through. Those just put me off, like the Sasuke chapters of Naruto.
Now, you may read. Enjoy!
The Devil's Blade
An epic reimagining of The Demon's Blade
By RisenInfection
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Happiness. Joy. Compassion. I understand what these words mean and the emotions that are tied to the words, but I do not need them. They are a weakness, a blockade to absolute power. I have passed this defense by denying that these emotions exist within me, by denying that I am capable of these feelings, that is when you attain absolute power, and accept the loss of your humanity.
At one time in my life I was happy, innocent. I didn't know of the world beyond the academy walls. All that I knew was the teachings, my blade, and my family. I don't believe I could call them that anymore, but thinking about it brings me happier memories, thoughts of what was and what could've been had I not been so selfish, so narcissistic, so void. I could blame it on this cursed style, this cursed sword I wield, but deep in my soul, I know though that it is I to blame, I, who must carry the guilt and regret of that night so long ago...
Why is it that humans must feel? Why is it that what makes humans so different from animals, so much stronger, must be something I can never again have? Why does it hurt when I think about them, when I think of her and what I took away from her? But, alas, I am not so weak as to believe that my emotions make me strong, make me who I am. And I am not so gullible as to think that loving someone, that being happy and carefree will bring me what I desire in life.
No, what I desire, what I want more than anything still eludes me, still is shrouded in my mind. I may never know what it is, I may never know until the day I die. But until that day, I will continue to live my life as I have, I will continue to survive, continue to exist as what I am... The Thousand Man Slayer...
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Act I
The Devil Swordsman
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Chapter 2
The Unfeeling Dog
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His steps were quick, but measured as he trailed behind her; drops of blood fell like rain to the wooden surface below him from his new sword. It would take some time to adjust to her, but he was already getting a good handle for her, as there was almost an infinite amount of cannon fodder to test his mettle.
He turned the corner and quickly raised his blade; the pitch black edge blocked two silvery swords from slicing into its new master. He slashed his blade down, the swords of the two samurai fell to the grounds, the blades cut diagonally in half. Blood soon met the ground as well, his blade passing through the swordsmen's body's like a hot knife through butter.
He narrowed his eyes and in an instant was down the hall, screams of death echoing behind him as he passed, the floor and walls painted red in his wake.
His eyes, red as the blood he spilt, landed upon her. It seemed that she had tripped on a loose floorboard. How unfortunate.
Suddenly, the girl he had been hunting was pinned down by his sword, rammed through her back and into her stomach. He circled around her like a wolf stalking its wounded prey. He knelt down to her eye level, a sadistic grin spreading across his face. She was crying. He took some type of sadistic pleasure at the sight.
"Why?" She squeaked.
His smile faded. "I did what I had to do to have her, you wouldn't understand, no one would understand. Those who do are already dead, slain by her edge."
She looked up to him, her violet eyes puffy and bloodshot. "B-But why? Why us, damn it? We treated you as family, we loved you... I loved you!"
His eyes widened by a margin. A soft, sad smile adorned his lips. "I am sorry, but I must do what I am compelled to."
The girl gritted her teeth in anger, in hate, in rage, in fury, in disgust... in sorrow. "I-I hate you! I hate you! I wish I had never known you-you monster! You demon! I wish you were never born, you bastard!"
Deep down inside of him, inside of his soul, his heart, sadness reared its ugly head, but it was quelled by anger and indifference. He threaded his hand through her sea-green hair and pulled her head up to his eyes. "Then after this, live. Live in your hatred, in your anger. Stew in it, let it fester and boil over. And when you are ready, come face me in combat. Let that hate, that anger become your strength, your power, let it consume you. If you live, come and kill me, so I may test my blade against a worthy opponent. Such, is the way of honor."
He threw her head back down into the wooden floor and gripped his blade. He twisted it, eliciting a scream of pain from the girl before he removed it. He kicked her on to her back. "Something to remember me by..." And he stabbed his blade into the center of her chest, through her back, and into the floorboards below. He sunk his sword until the guard touched her skin and turned the blade once more before removing it.
He spun his blade, her blood splashing onto the ceiling and the floor. He shouldered his nodachi and began to walk away, not even giving the girl a second glance. "Goodbye, Little Sister." And then he was gone, forever.
That same night a whole nation of samurai fell to one ten year olds blade. That night, what history would come to know as the Kouchou no Zansatsu, the Massacre of the High Tide, occurred. That night, a happy girl became a spiteful woman. That night, a student became a master. That night, a boy became a legend.
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The Hidden Leaf Village
One Year after the Nagatama Gang Slaughter
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Mountainous amounts of paper litter the office on the top floor of the Hokage Tower. A large wooden desk sat with the symbol of the Leaf displayed proudly within the copious amounts of paper. Hidden behind a wall of white, the rising sun's light shone down upon a man with unruly blond hair in his late thirties, who had his head upon a small pile of paper, a little strand of drool hanging from a goofy smile as he slept.
To the right of his head a framed picture of him, a red haired woman, and a young girl with strawberry blonde hair sat on the desk, the reminder of his family. To the left of his head were five pictures, four black and white, one in color. The pictures all showed one man, a man the shinobi of the Leaf had come to avoid at all costs, a man they came to know as the Oomizu no Majin: the Devil of the Flood.
A stray beam of sunlight hit the man in his face, making him snort and clench his eyes tighter as he turned his head to the left. It was obvious to the man that some god did not want him to sleep any longer as his cheek laid into his cold, stray saliva. Opening his eyes, the man lifted his head tiredly, blinking away the sleep and mucus. Shaking his head, the man found what he had been looking at last night. It was him.
"It's too early for this crap," the man whispered to himself. Standing, the man shambled around the piles of paperwork and fell through a door as he opened it.
An hour and a half later the man came back out the same door he fell through, stretching his arms and dressed in the average Jounin uniform with a white cloak over it. He rubbed the back of his head, messing up his unruly mop of blond hair even more than usual as he stared at the amount of paperwork he still had left to do. Yep, it was just another day in the life of Namikaze Minato, the Fourth Hokage.
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Time/Place Unknown
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Naruto sighed as he awoke. He was in a forest; the leaves were already beginning to change from green into various shades of browns, yellows, oranges, and reds. That must've meant he was in or around the Land of Fire, most likely pretty close to the Hidden Leaf Village.
Relaxing, Naruto thought about the last year. He had been reasserting himself as the living legend that he was and not only to the samurai world, but to that of the shinobi world as well. He figured that it would be a matter of time before the world over heard of him and began to fear him. He had no doubt in his mind that every swordsman on the continent feared or revered him by now.
The blonde stood and stretched his arms and back, his nodachi firmly grasped in his left hand. Rolling his head along his shoulders, a satisfying pop indicated that irritating kink in his neck was gone. He looked down at his sword, at her.
He sighed again before strapping the nodachi to his back. It was no time for reminiscing about past events, past sins. The masked man walked quietly for a few moments through the autumn forest, the only sounds being that of nature and the leaves crunching under his feet. He crossed his arms as he walked and closed his eyes, enjoying his surroundings while he could.
Suddenly, he stopped, his eyes open and his arms at his sides. Turning his head from left to right, Naruto closed his eyes again and extended his senses through the forest. There. Four signs of human life, heading to the north of where he stood. Concentrating a bit harder, he found another circulation of energy, this one much weaker than the other four, but it was traveling a lot faster than the others.
Naruto opened his eyes and stared at a tree in the distance, pondering what to do. It was obvious that the four were Leaf ninja's, most likely ANBU, and one they were chasing was some type of criminal and that one with the small amount of energy was heading towards the border. The blond had an inkling of a feeling that the criminal had a backup plan set in the next country and the four Leaf shinobi would be screwed if they couldn't get reinforcements in time.
His fist clenched as a thought passed through the masked man's mind. He had several choices at hand. He could go and stop the criminal for the ninja's, he could just leave them all be and go on his merry way, or he could do things the right way, which would be the destruction of whatever the criminal's backup plan was. He nodded to himself at the last choice. That would be his best bet to test his blade on someone strong.
Mind made up, Naruto took off in a swift dash to the north, moving to pass up the criminal before he could get to the border.
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Rokusawa Katsuro grinned beneath his dark green mask as he looked back at those idiot Leaves. He couldn't really believe his luck: he had been able to get in to his target's home, which had supposedly been protected by three squads of Leaf's finest, the purportedly strongest shinobi in the Elemental Nations.
'Ha! 'Strongest' my skinny, pale ass,' Katsuro thought to himself as he ran. The four chasing him were all that were still active, the other eight knocked out or in a critical state of shock.
The masked assassin landed smoothly on a tree branch and leapt forward, continuing at a fast pace. It was just a few more kilometers before he reached the border of a small country, where he would make his getaway to the Hidden Cloud Village.
The masked assassin had heard reports that a dangerous group of warriors calling themselves the Black Earth Clan. Having done a small amount of digging before hand, like a good ninja should, Katsuro found that the group was a highly trained group of ninja's, most specializing in out right assaults. Though he didn't know the full story, the thin man had found that the group of over a hundred were originally from the Hidden Stone Village and had went rogue, and had stored hope in Katsuro that the group had not forgotten their hatred of the Leaf.
It was only too bad today was the last day Rokusawa Katsuro had to live.
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Three men sat around a round table, playing a game of poker. Seven other men were hanging around the front of the complex they called Base and nearly ninety others were inside the main complex doing something or the other to quell the boredom they were feeling at the present moment. These men were the main force of the Black Earth Clan, the largest organization of missing-nin from the Stone.
Ganpeki Mikio, a nearly three meter tall man built like a mass of rocks jumbled together into a human, grinned as he laid out an ace high straight flush. The two other men at the table groaned as the giant of a man brought in his winnings. Just as another sat down at the table to join in, the door to the 'secret base' was blown in, flying at the guardsman in chunks, killing two men and injuring two others.
The five still left standing drew their various weapons, standing at the ready for the impending attack. Mikio drew a giant double-edged axe from where he had smashed it into the ground next to the poker table.
The dust that had been kicked up by the attack showed a silhouette of a tall man, nearly two and a quarter meters tall, wearing large, baggy clothing with a long stick-like thing – they guessed it was a hilt to a weapon – looming over his shoulder. The dust settled and revealed the man to be wearing black samurai garb and a black mask of some kind of canine.
The masked man looked around before staring straight at Mikio. "Are you the leader of these men?"
Mikio smirked smugly. "So what if I am tough guy?" He put the long but sturdy shaft of his axe on his shoulder, a display of strength perhaps. "What are you going do about it?"
The intruder only stared at the large man. "Plus these five and the two on the ground, I count exactly one hundred and eighteen men, not including you." He looked down and seemed to notice something on the ground. "I see you're a gambling man."
The larger man scowled as his men began to get anxious. He could hear the others preparing for the battle that was surely to come. "What of it?"
"I'm willing to make a little wager with you. If you can stop me from killing all of your men and yourself in four minutes and thirty-nine seconds, I'll let you live one more day. But, if I win, well I guess I can add one hundred and nineteen more men to the death list for today."
"Cocky little shit, aren't ya? Alright then, you got yourself a deal, maggot. Just tell me one thing before I send you to Izanami so she can feast on ya. Did you kill a man named Genjitsu Akihiro?" Mikio asked, slamming his axes blade into the ground, signaling for his men to get ready.
The masked man just stared, his unruly blond hair waving forward as a light breeze blew into the complex. "I'll tell you, if you manage to live. You should pray to whatever god you believe in, the time starts... now."
Grabbing his axe and throwing up a lousy guard, Mikio was barely able to block as a blur of black crashed into him, a blade of black steel cutting through the shaft of his weapon and into his own armor. The large man's eyes widened like plates as the blood of his men sprayed all around him, the man in the mask cutting through his armor with an almost ridiculously long sword, his blood-red eyes staring at the larger man, like a wolf appraising its meal.
4:30
Seven Dead
Mikio felt a strange sensation pass through his body as he flew through the door that led to the main complex. It felt like a twisting of his veins, like his heart trying to beat its way out of his chest. Maybe it was the concussion, but the large man had to wonder, 'was this fear?' The giant flew through another set of doors, through his men, and into a concrete wall.
4:00
Ten Dead
The masked man blurred into the center of the complex and instantly ducked as a steel bo staff passed over his head. He spun and slashed through the staff wielders abdomen, severing his digestive system and killing the man. Using his momentum, the swordsman rose in his spin and cut through a pair of kali sticks a man almost bashed him in the back with, the masked man's long sword cutting through the stick man's skull and scalped the top of his head clean off.
3:50
Twelve Dead
Mikio's forces hesitated for an instant as two of their comrades died by a single blade stroke. They regained their bravado and roared, charging with weapons drawn.
The blond man only stared at the rushing men before disappearing in a black and gold blur. He reappeared on the other side on one knee, his sword raised above his head, coppery blood dripping next to him. In another instant, red rained down as nearly half the men exploded and fell, bisected and dead by the masked man's assault.
3:35
Sixty Eight Dead
The swordsman in black stood, not even phased in the slightest that he had just wiped out fifty six men with a single sword stroke. Mikio gritted his teeth in anger and snarled like a rabid dog, he looked at the fifty men still standing, their expressions like that of a fish, stunned at the display of power by their mysterious assailant.
"What the FUCK are you all waiting for? Kill that motherfucker!" The giant screamed, his throat going hoarse. His men snapped out of their stupor, rage and fury replacing what they were feeling. They rushed in, creating a circle around the killer. The masked man took their offensive in stride, his sword a flash of black as it blocked, parried, and killed all of its would-be opponents.
1:00
One Hundred and Eighteen Dead
"Now, your turn 'tough guy'," the masked man mocked as he turned to the larger man whose stony features were doing a great impression of a fish out of water.
Mikio shook his head, his face gaining a look of anger. "I'll show you asshole!" He jumped and came back down hard, his hands in a hammer fist that sent a shockwave directly at the masked killer. The man only stepped to his left, the wave only managing to sweep his cloak back. Mikio scowled before dashing at the man, his right fist cocked back as he rushed towards the masked monster.
0:45
He threw punch after punch, but the masked man only sidestepped or knocked his fists away with the flat of his blade. Cocking back his right fist again, Mikio smiled psychotically; he had the fast bastard against a wall. Putting all his strength into his attack, he tensed his muscles and punched... and did nothing but put a hole in his base.
0:30
The masked man looked at what could've been him if he hadn't stepped to his left in the nick of time. Finally attacking, the murderer slashed the giants arm, the sound of steel hitting steel his only reward.
Mikio grinned as he saw what the smaller man had done. "Little trouble there, huh, tough guy? You won't cut through my skin so easily, it's as hard as steel, you-"
"Well it's a good thing then," the red eyed killer interrupted, Mikio's eyes going wide as he spoke in that harsh voice, "that I can cut through steel."
Mikio once more had that sensation he thought was fear as he flew to the ground, his armor in shreds and his chest bleeding profusely.
0:15
The masked man walked up to the downed man, his sword on his right shoulder held lazily as he stared down at the soon to be corpse. "Pray to your God for mercy, 'tough guy', for I will not be as generous."
The soon to be dead giant looked to his right and grinned. He lifted his arm and smashed it through the hollow floor he laid on. "Why don't you die first and I'll follow you into Hell, you damned monster."
0:10
The large man pulled something under the ground and stared into his would-be killer's eyes, eyes that burned with the fires of Hell, eyes that held pain and strength. They were the eyes of someone who didn't feel. They were the eyes of a dog trained to kill, trained to die within the thick of battle. They were the eyes of an unfeeling dog of war.
At that very moment in time, Ganpeki Mikio knew even if he hadn't done what he had just did he would be completely and utterly fucked in the ass no matter what he did. At that very moment, the giant knew the wrath of God was this man in front of him, this devil before him. The moment after, the giant knew no more.
0:00
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Rokusawa Katsuro hadn't been shocked many times in his life, though two did occur to him from time to time. But to say he was shocked now would be an understatement.
He was only ten meters away from the base of the Black Earth Clan, when it erupted in a large ball of flames and smoke, the force of the explosion blasting him out of the tree he had perched in and to the hard ground below. He coughed as a cloud of smoke passed over him and filled his lungs with deadly gases and water vapors. Using a nearby tree for leverage, the assassin stood and limped slowly deeper into the blast sight. He was sure his left ankle was either twisted or possibly broken as he favored his right leg.
Covering his mouth he tried to look deeper through the haze, hoping that someone was alive, hopefully a mole from Cloud, though it was unlikely. He was just about to move further into the smoke when six sharp knives found their way into his back.
Katsuro grunted as he fell to his knees and then to his chest, finding that a couple of his ribs were broken and one was puncturing his right lung. Looking up for someone, anyone he found a grisly sight that would be the last thing he'd see.
A man, by his stature, stood in the blaze of what had been a base, his black samurai clothing torn and burnt in many places, the clothing barely staying on his form. He held a long sword in his right hand that didn't seem damaged in the least, though the blood dripping from its edge suggested the man knew how to wield it. A cracking black mask of some type of canine hung on his face, the upper left side completely destroyed, revealing slightly tanned skin and a blood red eye. The man looked over to Katsuro before vanishing in blur of black, the flames flickering as the man passed by them.
As he lay there dying, Katsuro knew he had just seen the God of Death, having come to take his soul to the underworld.
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The Hidden Leaf Village
One Day after the Black Earth Incident
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Namikaze Minato rubbed his temples, his migraine only becoming worse as a loud roar of thunder boomed outside of his office. Ever since twelve of his elite ANBU had returned from a failed mission, it had been raining nonstop. What four of the Black Ops agents had witnessed while pursuing an assassin from the Cloud through Black Earth Clan territory just added to the substantial work he had to do.
He looked down at his desk, a picture of a tall man with blond hair wearing a black mask of some type of canine and wielding a long nodachi sword lay there, mocking him. This was the man his ninja had reported seeing, the same man from one year ago: the Devil of the Flood.
More and more, the Fourth Hokage was beginning to dislike and respect the man. He had his reasons to do so after all. He was just glad the man hadn't killed any of his shinobi as of yet. The blond man would make it his mission to personally end the killing streak of the Thousand Man Slayer if that were to happen.
Minato sighed and leaned back into his comfy chair, letting thoughts of work and death pass away from his mind. He reached up to his flak jacket and opened a pocket on the chest. Reaching in, he pulled out a golden locket attached to a thin, gold chain that his wife had given him nearly a decade and a half ago, and opened it. Inside was a picture of a slightly younger him, his redheaded wife, and a small blond boy. All three were smiling, the boy and his father more broadly than the mother.
The Fourth smiled sadly as tears fell from his blue eyes, memories of a past he had gained and thoughts of a future he had lost passing through his mind. But there was one thought, a name, that made it passed the others and into the forefront of the blonde's mind:
Naruto
Author's Note: Well, are you done reading? Sweet! I wrote this chapter right after the first one, had the juices flowing for a little while (why does that sound dirty?). Anyways, chapter three might come out the week after next or next week possibly, if this chapter is recieved well, which I hope it is.
Anyway, I might be occupied next week as I'm getting the game [PROTOTYPE], which will hopefully be one of the greatest games I've ever played, though Mass Effect will stay as my top game. I seriously cannot wait (though I'll have to {God Damn It!}) for Assassin's Creed 2 and Mass Effect 2, which will hopefully be some of the best games I've ever played. Well, whatever.
I hope you enjoyed this and please, don't feel shy to review. Thanks!
Until next time, RisenInfection, out