Chapter Five: Searching for Clues and on the run
I do not own X-Men, Marvel or Naruto. I would love to, but I don't.
So far Gaara is winning the poll.
Otogakure
Word had reached Jiraiya's information network a week after the massacre had taken place, the massacre that left Orochimaru and his future body crippled. Jiraiya and Kakashi were currently walking through the literal city of the dead, Kakashi's reattached arm was still tender where it had been removed by his blonde genin's claws, but he forced himself onward. 'I have to find Naruko!' He thought in conviction. When the two of them arrived they had to chase off the vermin that was eating some of the corpses. Almost any kind of carrion feeder one could name had taken up the cause of clearing out the complex. The birds and larger scavengers spent most of their time in the sections closer to the entrances so they could have a quick escape, the deeper the two leaf shinobi explored the more of the rats and snakes increasing as the pathways darkened and wove deeper and deeper into the Laboratory.
Kakashi hadn't seen such carnage since the last war and it made him feel like he was going to throw up. It was a senseless waste of life that should have never happened. Jiraiya blamed himself for not having stopped Orochimaru earlier, back when the man first became a missing-nin. Then there was Kakashi, he blamed himself because instead of fully putting his teamwork plan in motion, he had only focused on the traitorous Uchiha even when his other students needed him, making the Uchiha's ego even worse and possibly inadvertently causing the death of his sensei's daughter. As they went deeper into the large underground building, the bodies were seemingly in better condition. The cuts were cleaner, just like only a blade infused with Wind chakra could perform. Nothing else could cut like this except perhaps a legendary blade, and it was highly unlikely that Orochimaru was going to allow anyone else to wield 'his' Kusanagi. Jiraiya checked one of the corpses, a man that looked like a spiky haired version of Orochimaru, the cut was so clean from where his head was separated that it was easy to fit back to the original bone and flesh, something the middle aged man knew well himself, from watching Kakashi have his own arm taken off.
'Naruko killed these people.' The porn writer thought, he winced when he noticed the recent stab wound to the man's sacred area. 'Most likely from those blades in her feet.'
Jiraiya knew that the Naruko he knew wouldn't have done something like this. She was a loving kid, friendly, full of life, kind of an idiot, but innocent, unblooded, except when she's pissed off, then she is like her mother. Naruko was the kind of person that could make just about anybody smile if they gave her even half a chance. Hell, the brat had reformed a psychotic blood starved killer that had the Ichibi whispering in his ear for his entire life.
This wasn't the Naruko he once knew, this was what was left of Naruko after her supposed friend, Konoha's 'glorious and untainted' Uchiha, Jiraiya was going to kill the next civilian to say that phrase, had dragged her away to one of the most vile men in the world. Jiraiya sighed as he realized that the counter seal he had place hadn't been completely successful. Somehow it had managed to remove all of Orochimaru's control, but it had not allowed the blonde's original personality to return. But the girl was alive, and if she was alive, Jiraiya could and would find her, even if it took him the rest of his days. Eventually, after walking through the massive Lab, the two men found themselves in what appeared to be a massive gymnasium and training area, and what would be the start of the massacre. Kakashi chuckled as he noticed Kabuto's headless corpse, finding the white haired boy's head against the wall. 'Regenerate from that asshole!' He thought as he then noticed an arm lying on the ground that had the same cloth on it as Orochimaru. He showed it to Jiraiya who let out a light laugh, despite the grim situation.
The traitor Sannin had been forcing Naruko to kill and kill and kill again. This must have been where he and the toads had summoned Naruko from. They should have waited until night time, they should have waited until the now feral girl had been asleep.
"RRRRAAAAAHHHHHH!" a voice roared out from inside the very room, startling the two leaf shinobi. Jiraiya turned to see a young man with orange hair bound with seal tags in a large cage, his skin was turning the usual dark color of Orochimaru's curse mark patients, but Jiraiya couldn't see any seal placed on the boy. The older ninja's years of travel and experience flickered through his head until Jiraiya recognized the powerful Kekkei Genkai of the trapped man before him.
"Tengoku-san," Jiraiya said calmly, greeting the boy formally with an unusual expression of serenity on his face. "What are you doing here, my young Sage?"
The boy's raging stopped as he started to calm down in the now calming presence of the Toad Sannin. "Y-you know my n-name?" The young man asked as the curse markings receded. "How do you know my name?"
"I am Jiraiya, the Sage of the Toads on Mount Myoboku," Jiraiya said with a Kakashi-esque eye smile, which made said man feel the urge to sue someone as he looked over the remains of one of the Oto shinobi that died in the room. "Of course I would know the name of such great beings so intuned with nature itself." He finished his introduction by standing on a giant red toad that had prayer beads around his neck. There was a long moment of silence as they stared at each other that was only broken up by the toad snapping out his tongue and feasting on a buzzing fly.
"My name is Juugo. Orochimaru-sama left the compound a week ago, if he is the one you're looking for, Master Jiraiya," Juugo stated, slightly annoyed that he had been stuck in cage for five days and hadn't been fed, though he was happy to meet a fellow sage.
"When I get you out of that cage will you tell me what happened here?" Jiraiya asked, while he started looking over the binding seals on the cage. 'Damn these are rather pathetic.' Jiraiya thought as he looked at the lock seal. 'Must be Orochimaru's handiwork.'
"Yes, Master," the boy said. "I will tell you what happened here." Jiraiya grabbed the door of the cage with Kakashi looking on in the back, he then ripped the metal clean off of the rest of the cage. Juugo stepped out of the cage, happy that he was finally free and in the presence of a person that could keep his curse at bay. Juugo started explaining what had happened when he had been wheeled into the room, why he was trapped in the cage, and how everyone that was an experiment were tagged and caged with the loyalty or cursed seal from Orochimaru, except for Juugo, due to his Sage blood-line being the root of the cursed seal and no seals the Oto shinobi used would work on his body. He explained how a young boy with black duckass shaped hair fitting the Uchiha's description dragged in a petite blonde girl around the same age as the former, then how she had killed anyone sent her way. He explained how Orochimaru wanted to use her as a secret weapon against the Hidden Leaf, but needed to get rid of some sort of creature that was sealed inside the girl's stomach. The orange haired sage didn't know what it had been, but the famous Toad Sannin and Kakashi could easily guess.
Juugo went on to tell the two shinobi about how the girl snapped in what seemed to be an animalistic rage and how the young blonde had slaughtered anyone who attacked or tried to harm her, even going so far as to slice into the duckbutt boy's face, making him lose an odd red eye that Juugo pointed to on the floor, Jiraiya and Kakashi could see the sliced sharingan that Kakashi instantly bottled to use for tracking, and cut off the Snake Sannin's arm as well.
"So she didn't kill everyone in the base?" Jiraiya asked after Juugo finished his tale, while the older sage prepared a seal so that the younger sage could interact with others; he was designing it partially off of Naruko's Shinigami seal.
"No," Juugo answered as he took the strip of dried deer meat offered to him by Kakashi. "She would walk past anyone who didn't cause her any trouble, she barely even gave the children a look, but if they pulled out a weapon or attacked her, they would be dead the next couple of seconds. She sliced right through Kabuto's neck when she was first starting. The bearer of the old blood couldn't regenerate from that type of wound." He got raised eyebrows at the mention of Old Blood. "She then cut Orochimaru's right arm off when he defended himself after Kabuto was killed. That young boy with the fishing bobber shirt lost that odd eye and looked like he was crippled on his right arm, also from the looks of the wounds on his face, he will be permanently scared there. But the people who didn't act like threats, she walked right past and left them alone."
Juugo paused as he remembered what happened in the arena when it was supposed to be his turn to be sacrafised. "Though the interesting part, she was like this mindless war machine one minute, and the next she is killing everyone with nothing, but rage in those sad blue eyes. It's like someone completely changed her personality when she disappeared in that smoke cloud."
"Hmm… that must have been when we summoned her," Kakashi said while he scratched the back of his masked head sheepishly. "What?" Juugo asked in curiosity. "You are the ones to cause that?"
Jiraiya absently nodded as he finished the seal and placed it in the middle of Juugo's stomach. "Thank you, great sage," the boy said as he felt his power recede into the deeper parts of his body. He cracked his neck and stretched his muscles.
"Juugo-sama? How would you like to come with me and Kakashi to Konoha?" Jiraiya asked making Juugo stop stretching for a bit. "Hmm, I would like that." The young sage said as he smiled at the old man.
Jiraiya smiled at the young man, then he motioned for the two of them to follow him as they explored the remainder of the base and buried the corpses.
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In the Land of Stone capital
The Weaving Dragon Bar was packed, as it usually was right after a shift change in the Daimyo Samurai guard in the Capital of the Land of Stone. The Samurai that patrolled the city would relax before heading to the barracks or their homes for rest. Some came to drink, others came for more physical pursuits.
"Hey, look at that little sweet thing!" A tall Samurai yelled as he stepped into the bar with his friends, fresh from duty and looking to get wasted and laid. He was big, as wide with muscle as he was tall and full of confidence due to his high rank as a captain, his friends all laughed at his cat call while the bartender just rolled his eyes at the posing Samurai. The 'sweet thing' that the man mentioned was a medium height, hot redhead that was sitting at the bar with a short, blonde girl sitting next to her. Leaning up against the bar, the Samurai flashed the redhead a big smile and nodded towards an empty booth that had a curtain on it.
"Hey, hottie, why don't you come with me and ditch the little scamp," the samurai suggested, failing to add a seductive tone to his voice, leaning over the woman who seemed to flinch when the large man invaded her personal space.
"Sorry pal, I'm not interested," the teen quickly replied, keeping her head down and scooting a bit closer to her companion.
"Awe, don't be like that!" The man protested as he grabbed her by the arm, catching the attention of the blonde and the bartender.
"I said I'm not interested, leave us alone," the redhead said, attempting to shrug off the man's powerful grip. "Come on, have a drink, we're much better company than a little blonde scamp," the samurai said, spinning her around on the stool and trying to kiss her sloppily
"My Nee-san doesn't like to be touched, Bub," the 'scamp' snarled before taking a sip of her soda without even looking in the Samurai's direction.
"I don't know where you're from, you little bitch, but here in the Land of Stone, we Samurai do what we want," the Samurai replied as he sneered at the girl. "Hey I have an idea, why don't you service my friends here while I have some fun with this beauty."
"Well, I might not know where I come from, but I've got two very good reasons why you should leave Nee-san alone, asshole," the blonde growled up at the man as she spun around off of the stool and landed on her feet. She stood up to the man's rib cage. "Wanna see them?"
"Look, you retarded civilian, do you really want to pick a fight, I'm a Samurai," the man taunted as he bought into his own arrogance. The man patted his Katanas with a smirk. The blonde simply pulled up a fist under the man's chin, but without any force behind it. Then, without warning, a blade sprang from between the girl's knuckles, leaving a long cut in the man's right cheek.
"That's one," she snarled before there was another blade slicing up the captain's left cheek with her remaining knuckles under the man's chin. "And that'd be number two. Oh, I almost forgot, I still have this one!" A single claw burst out of her foot and she acted like she was aiming it towards the Samurai's manhood. Said Samurai started to sweat as his comrades started circling around the young blonde.
"Sure you guys want to do that?" The girl asked sparing his hostage's teammates a brief glance each while a cheshire grin grew on her face. "You three might be okay against a normal civilian or a genin, but I'm the best at what I do."
"W-wh-what is it that you do?" Asked the Samurai that was being held at claw-point. "Well," she said pausing for a moment to let the redhead escape the bar. "It isn't very pretty, believe it, Dattebane."
With that Karin waited outside the bar, ignoring the screams of pain that were most likely coming from the Samurai and his comrades. While she hated that Naruko did this, she was happy that her adopted Imouto had come to her rescue.
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Konoha Month and a half later
All of Teams Kakashi, Kurenai, Gai and Asuma were standing in the Hokage office with their senseis, facing the Godaime as she sat behind her desk. "Kakashi, Sakura, sit down," Tsunade commanded, gesturing to the seats on the opposing side of her desk. Once the remaining members of Team 7 were comfortable, the Godaime nodded to Kakashi. "Juugo-san and Jiraiya have managed to track down the last of Orochimaru's bases. Naruko is alive and not the clutches of that bastard."
Everyone's faces brightened at the news instantly. Even with the mask over his face, she could see the Kakashi's mood had risen considerably by that very statement. "Is she coming back? Does she have Sasuke-kun with her?" Sakura asked excitedly in the hope of seeing her crush again. Her happiness was extinguished when she caught sight of the dark glare the busty blonde and the Rookies, even Ino, sent the pinkette's way at the mention of the Uchiha traitor.
"Naruko was able to escape from Orochimaru, but due to the berserker rage that Juugo reported that she went into before she left the base she was being experimented on, we do not know of her current whereabouts," Tsunade said as she nodded to the others, pointedly ignoring the fangirl's questions. "She has been experimented on extensively by Orochimaru-teme and Juugo informed us when he returned with Jiraiya and Kakashi that the Uchiha was the one to bring Naruko to the traitor as an offering for what seemed to be extensive training most likely so that he can gain the power to kill Itachi. My former teammate of a traitor should have been unable to resist the temptation of experimenting on a Jinchuuriki and a Uzumaki."
"W-w-what?" Sakura stuttered, unable to understand that her crush could do such a thing. And to do that sort of thing to Naruko… She was just Naruko. "Wh-why would Sasuke-kun do that to Naruko-chan?"
"Sasuke was one of the most spoiled, egotistical and mentally unstable people I've ever met in my life, Sakura," Shikamaru said as he laid back on the couch. "No matter if a person was older, younger or the same age as him and no matter how much more powerful they were than him, Sasuke saw them as examples of how weak he was compared to his brother. Him being the Rookie of the Year or being the great Last Uchiha didn't mean much to him except that he was more powerful than his peers, but that was never enough for him. If he wasn't able to defeat an S-ranked missing ninja that killed his family, he considered himself to be weak. It didn't matter that he was only a twelve year old genin that had no idea what the real world is like. When Naruko caught up with him, and when she even surpassed him by taking down Gaara and Neji, who was the rookie of the year before us, Sasuke didn't see it as a challenge to increase his training or to even work harder, he just saw it as an example of how he believed that Konoha was holding him back. He believed exactly what the Snake Sannin wanted him to think." Everyone in the room nodded except for Sakura.
"Correct," Tsunade said as she crossed her hands in front of her face. "And ultimately the brat turned traitor, he abandoned Konoha for one of its most notorious missing nin, and everything the Uchiha once stood for. Taking Naruko, his comrade and teammate to be used by Orochimaru as a weapon and experiment, was the last straw."
"What do you mean by last straw?" Sakura asked, fearing the answer.
"The Uchiha knowingly and willingly kidnapped an active shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato and gave Naruko to Orochimaru so the man could experiment on her," Tsunade explained. "That's more than just a simple desertion, that is treason at it's highest, no Hidden Village would be willing to take someone like that into their ranks, unless they were completely desperate. He has been placed into the Bingo books for his crime."
"How has he been listed?" Kakashi asked as he covered his face with his hands. 'Am I a bad teacher?' "Kill on sight, head is to be returned to Konoha, whoever kills him can keep his eyes," Asuma replied for the woman as he opened his new Bingo Book that he had received last week. The genin flinched at the bitterness in the Sarutobi's voice. Asuma had been one of Naruko's caretakers when she was a toddler and had played with her a few times before he had joined the Guardian Twelve. The busty Kage turned to the young Haruno and glared at her before Sakura could protest the traitor's punishment. "Genin Haruno, I suggest you get over your silly little crush and put more of an effort into actually training to be a Kunoichi."
Sakura looked down, but nodded silently. After a long while, she looked up. "Naruko is going to need some help when she is found, right?"
"Quite a bit, considering the changes Jiraiya, Kakashi and I saw when we reverse summoned her from wherever she was," Tsunade agreed.
"What kind of changes are we talking about?" Choji asked, dreading the answer as he placed his chips back into his pouch.
"Orochimaru has implanted what seems to be retractable Chakra blades in her forearms and feet, large amounts of steroids that made her stronger and could cause who knows what kind of problems, loyalty and control seals which we don't know whether or not they were successfully removed or not. There could easily be other changes that we have yet to see," Tsunade replied. "She was strong enough for me and Kakashi to barely be able to wrestle her to the ground and her blades are sharp enough to sever Kakashi's arm clean off that I could reattach his limb with very little difficulty."
"Naruko was able to do that?" Asuma asked as he looked to Kakashi, who nodded in confirmation before he rolled up his sleeve to show everyone the two scars that went all the way around his arm.
"Yes, all three of us were lucky to be present at the same time when she was reverse summoned," Tsunade replied. "Otherwise we probably would have been down a Jounin or Sannin. What Orochimaru did to Naruko was horrific and I can only hope that the Naruko we all know is still inside her somewhere."
She stood and looked at all of the genin, chunin and Jounin gathered in the room. "We will be sending out search teams to look for her, if any of you guys run across her on a mission, you are to send a message for back up and try your best to detain her if she is still in the wild state we first saw her in." Everyone in the office nodded to her, then she looked back to team seven. "I will be placing Juugo and another person on your squad for the time being until we can get Naruko back."
"All of you are dismissed!" She shouted, then she sighed as all of the Jounin except for Kakashi jumped out the window and she noticed Shikamaru passed out on the couch. "What do the Nara men say for something like this? Oh right, Troublesome."
Hello guys Iskander Mandoraekon01 here. I have decided to name Juugo's clan since Kishimoto decided not to share it with us, it will be Tengoku (meaning cursed heaven), for his blood-line and such.