Hey guys! Good news, I can give you all a new chapter really quickly!
Bad news: I doubt that this is going to happen very often.
More good news: I'm going to try to give you guys at least a chapter a month, if not faster.
Anyway, I'm really excited about this. I've already written ahead for a few chapters, and I'm going to try to increase that lead between now and the next update; I'm really glad you guys have enjoyed this so far, though I thought you guys would have more questions than you did.
In other news, I'm going to try to make this my "epic" of fanfiction. I've already gotten twelve chapters down, and I'm thinking that this may go on for as many as a hundred depending on how far I can stretch my words.
So here's the next chapter, number two!
ASOSS
The relatively newly-formed Team Seven returned quickly upon the completion of their supposedly easy mission; the fact of the matter was that Tora, the pet cat of Lady Shijimi, who was the wife of the Hi no Daimyo, could outrun even the Anbu of Konohagakure. It was apparently not alone in this ability, either; every Daimyo's pet, even the Mizu no Daimyo's turtle and slug, somehow possessed the near-mythic ability to hide and run like champion ninja…
A common theory was that they were all spawned by ancient demons, and it was a hereditary trait.
The first among the team was Uchiha Sasuke, brother to Shinrui-Toko no Itachi, a boy whose onyx eyes held a pain too deep to be expressed in words or in feelings, or even in thought. (Itachi the Kinslayer)
Next of the four was Haruno Sakura, daughter of the legendary Sozetsu, a girl with fluorescent pink hair that made her emerald eyes stand out even more than they already did.
Uzumaki Naruto was carrying the legendary beast back to its owner, trying to remember something that seemed both incredibly important and ludicrously unnecessary… It was something in the cat's fur, a red bow, that triggered this. A red bow, worn in someone's hair… But whose hair, and what bow? How could any of this make sense at all…?
He decided to ignore it for a moment as he watched the cat struggle against his muscular arms. He pinched the cat's neck, paralyzing it for a few moments, as he handed it over to the noble who owned it. While she cooed over it, expressing her sincerest joy that her beloved orange furball (OF DOOM) had been returned, Naruto remembered a little bit more; it hadn't been a ribbon, it had been some kind of paint. Much like the Inuzuka clan's birthmarks, actually, on their pale skin…or against a black backround, like the lady's hair…
But it hadn't quite reached him yet, as his brain was certainly not one of the sharpest knives in the drawer, so he looked to the Hokage.
"Hey, Jiji, can we have a better mission now? I'm tired of all these stupid D-rank chores, they're such bullshit that it's not even funny! Please, can we?"
"Naruto!" A Chunin roared in outrage; this was Umino Iruka, who had been the boy's teacher throught the eleven years of Academy work. Even if the boy was, legally and physically and mentally, an adult, he still shouldn't do such a thing! "These missions are supposed to be easy ones that build up your skill level until you're actually ready for a C-rank mission! After twenty D-ranks, you still have thirty more before you'll even be considered for a more difficult mission!"
"The only skill level that's being built up here, Iruka…" The lack of any suffix, respectful or not, was made painfully obvious by the small gap of silence. "Is how pissed off I am. I'm going to get us one of those C-rank missions, whether or not you like it, and whether or not you are ever going to agree with it."
"You. Are. Not. Ready."
Suddenly, the room grew incredibly tense. That was when Naruto sensed them, the hidden Anbu, who were ready to make a—
THAT WAS IT!
With a not-quite-audible blast that everyone felt, though only in their minds, it became increasingly clear that something was terribly wrong, that some law of the universe had just been shattered into a billion irreparable pieces.
Naruto's hands then moved in an incredibly quick way that wasn't quite hand signs used for making a jutsu…
It had been twelve years since Hatake Kakashi, the Jonin and leader of Team Seven, had seen or used that method of communication. It was not the style of Anbu, nor even that of the disbanded Kurojutsu division, but a different one all together: Han Roku hand-talk.
Naruto instinctively reached for a blade that he knew would be there, aligned with his left shoulder blade and with the hilt sticking out on the right, but knew something was wrong when he gripped nothing but air. Where had they taken his blade, his armor? Where had they taken his mask? Damn them all!
Kakashi's eyes instantly showed alarm beyond what could have been possible; Naruto had taken Iruka's words as a threat, as his signing had said, and he was prepared to butcher the Chunin until nothing recognizable remained. But…but… The Hokage had assured him, told them all, had brought his former student Jiraiya to prove to them, that the boy's powers had been sealed away for good! How could this…? Did the seals slip?
"Naruto, stop!" Kakashi roared, looking to the Hokage for anything—absolutely anything at all—that would be able to stop his young and volatile charge from erupting into a beast that could slaughter mercilessly.
"Very well, Naruto-kun…" The Hokage drawled, slightly shocked himself at the show of fierce determination. "Send in Tazuna."
ASOSS
The first thing Naruto had done was buy a sword that was made for his form; he placed it where a standard Anbu blade would go, along the outside of the right leg, but it just didn't feel right to him. Remembering where he'd reached for earlier, in the room where he'd forced a mission to be given, he aligned it with the bottom edge of his left shoulder blade… It felt much better, much more comfortable.
Then, having packed his things and then bringing extra materials in the event that they became necessary, he decided to head out and wait.
ASOSS
A puddle. Really, a puddle? In the middle of the summer, in the longest draught Hi no Kuni had seen in more than seventy-five years? Though he would have sensed them anyway, Kakashi was disappointed by the two ninja who were hidden within the minor illusion.
The blond Jinchuriki's hands moved on instinct, the message flashing back to Kakashi.
_Two enemies. Terminate?_
It was not a question of 'if,' but rather one of 'when.'
Kakashi still didn't answer, nor did he want to; he was still trying to ascertain just how much of his old self had come back, and wasn't certain if he'd been entirely unsealed or not.
It wasn't to be, however, as only a small section of Naruto's power and personality had been unlocked: the Kenjutsu master, albeit with a different blade, as well as the take-no-shit attitude that defined the very Anbu corps in itself. The intense and undying loyalty to Konoha had never faded whatsoever… Realizing this, at length, Kakashi sighed. "Not now, Naruto."
Suddenly, the two 'hidden' enemies leapt forth from the puddle they had been hiding in, though that had been an obvious giveaway… Their chain of shuriken, dripping with a poison that likely had no antidote, was wrapped around Kakashi.
"What!?"
He was summarily shredded into itsy-bitsy, teeny-tiny pieces of flesh and bone.
Naruto had drawn his blade now, and waited for the enemy to come to him; seeing that they would do no such thing, he charged forward with the intent to butcher. "Guard Tazuna!" He roared, though he knew it was likely an unnecessary measure. With a single slash, one was incapacitated—Naruto's sword had cut upward, splitting the man in two just below his ribcage, but he was still going to be alive in a few minutes.
"The other one is yours to take, Sasuke… Kill him, he is unnecessary."
Sasuke felt compelled to obey Naruto, which was strange and frightening to him—he was an Uchiha, he was supposed to take charge! Sasuke defended himself against the man, but never got an actual hit.
He was taking too long... The second of the men ran, attempting to flee.
"Damn you all!" Naruto roared, vanishing in a burst of speed, performing a quick and thorough beheading of the man who had attacked himself and his team without provocation. After seeing this, Kakashi reappeared—he'd switched himself out with a log, via Kawarimi, before the chains had even touched him.
He wasn't a Jonin for nothing, after all.
"Excellent job, Naruto. Sasuke, Sakura, you also did extremely well; against foes of their caliber, I'm amazed that you held up as well as you did. And Naruto… Try to tone it down a bit, eh? That attack was cruel, you could have just knocked him out."
"Life is cruel, Hatake." Naruto spat. "Why should death be any different?"
Death… The life of a ninja was, ironically, their end.
"Nevertheless… Move out, team."
"What, and just leave him here?" Naruto argued. "We should get some information out of him!" He demanded, briskly walking up to the dying man.
"Tell me who you're working for, and who your target was."
The man spat, blood mixing with saliva that just barely missed Naruto. "Never, you brat!"
Naruto reached down and ripped out the man's stomach before threatening to upend it; the gastric acid would melt his face off.
"Okay, okay, fine! I'll talk, damn it! His name is Gato, he said he'd pay us two million dollars each if we killed the builder!"
While the rest of his team shot dirty looks at Tazuna, Naruto continued on with his rather unorthodox interrogation.
"Who else is working with you? It's not possible that you're acting alone!"
"The O—" He was quickly silenced by a senbon needle that went through his eye and brain, instantly ending his life.
"He was working with a man named Momochi Zabuza, the Kirigakure no Oni. Many thanks, Konoha-san, I'd been tracking this pair for quite some time."
"That… That was my kill."
"If you say so, Genin-san. I'll be going now…"
The Oinin (Hunter) left, having cut off the head, taken the other, sealed them away, and set fire to the bodies…
"Damn her! That was my kill!" He shouted.
ASOSS
They traveled for two more days, most of which was on a rickety boat made of wood and reeds, until they had finally made it into the poorhouse that was Nami no Kuni.
"Be ready for anything…" Kakashi cautioned, his senses on full alert, preparing.
Naruto, seeing a sudden movement, launched a hidden kunai faster than his two former classmates could ever have tracked it with their eyes. There was a sound of the knife hitting flesh, and that was when they saw…
A snowshoe hare, with a coat so close to white that it was almost blinding.
"GET DOWN!" He shouted, tackling everyone else to the ground—milliseconds later, a gigantic zanbato swept right through where their heads had just been.
"Heh… A bunch of tree-hugging hippies and an old man who's far past his time…"
"Momochi Zabuza, bastard son of the Jakiri…" (Bloody Mist) Kakashi scowled. "Member of the Kirigakure no Shinobigatana Nananin Shu, wielder of the Kubikiri Hocho, attempted assassin of the Yondaime Mizukage, and one of the most hunted-after men in the world."
"I'm flattered, Hatake. Truly. But your brats, they don't seem all that impressive to me."
Kakashi looked to his orange-clad student, smirking beneath his partial mask… "Show him your left arm, Naruto."
The boy was somewhat confused, though he didn't show it, and slipped the arm out of his jumpsuit. Unzipping the front, the arm snaked out to reveal a burned, carved, scarred, and inked tattoo; Zabuza's face noticeably paled, going from a healthy peach to Anbu-mask white in all of one second flat.
"You… You can't be serious. You must be joking."
"Oh… How did I know that you were going to say that?"
"You son of a bitch… That's beyond even MY level of cruelty! He couldn't have been older than—" It clicked, and Zabuza froze as the pieces fell into their places. "You monsters, you locked it all away!" He declared, moving to attack Naruto. "He has no memory of it, does he?"
The renegade's eyes gleamed with a dark light… "And, now, I'll never again be questioned as the greatest of the seven!" He swung his massive blade down.
"The attack you chose… Quite correct, given my situation. With my blade, it's exceedingly difficult to block such a strike. Unfortunately for you, however…" Naruto did have a terrible habit of talking with the people he was about to kill. "My blade is also in the proper position."
He leapt up, letting his sword escape from the crushing pressure of Zabuza's weight and force, and descended with a harsh war cry.
"HAIL AND KILL!" He bellowed, his blade rushing down in an attempt to end Zabuza's life… But, seeing that he was nowhere close to the renegade's position upon nearing the ground, he performed a monumental feat of Ninjutsu: compressing as much of his chakra as possible, he used it as a giant spring that shot him in such a way that his sword was perpendicular with his enemy's guts.
Zabuza couldn't react in time, and was summarily torn in half by the blade...
But, instead of blood, only water came out.
"DAMN IT ALL TO YAMIMAKAI!" Naruto shouted.
A dark laugh resounded from both everywhere and nowhere at once… "Well, it looks like he wasn't entirely sealed. Or, perhaps, he broke a little bit of it. Either way, this is a temporary farewell. And tell Gato, when you see him, that the Kirigakure no Oni will end him!"
They felt the man leave, and the mysterious Oinin from two days earlier presented herself. "Where did he go? I felt his chakra, he can't be far…"
"Hell if we know, miss."
"Naruto, that's a boy!"
"Sakura… I really think it would help you, sometimes, if you stopped talking about yourself like that. At the very least, do so less often… Please?" Naruto rolled his eyes.
"The blond is right, I'm actually a girl. This doesn't really matter, however, as I fear I must move on… Goodbye, Konoha-san."
The kunoichi vanished.
"She's a strong one… I hate to see her go."
"But we both know you love to watch her leave…"
Naruto didn't bother refuting the statement. Sasuke and Sakura were still trying to comprehend Naruto's sudden skill increase; he'd just taken on an S-class ninja, with only a sword and some chakra, and managed to make the man retreat.
It was starting to scare them, and this incident was just more proof that he really was the most unpredictable ninja in all of Konoha.
Naruto sheathed his blade, preparing to move on, and his eyes softened now that the battle had ended. "Tazuna-san… Which way is your home? I'd like to get there as fast as possible."
After having the way pointed out to him—which he'd been facing—he moved on… After all, he needed to get to the house so that he could rest before taking down Gato.
And take down the man he would, with his own two bare hands if necessary…
BELIEVE IT!