A/N: Those who freak over OCs, please chill; most of them will vanish in this chapter.
---
Chapter One: Master's Will
Naruto opened his eyes, blinking sleepily for a moment before stretching like a cat, his hand bumping Yugito where she was curled into a ball a little way away from him. Rubbing at his left eye, Naruto stood up and, brushing hay off his shoulder, slipped out of the doorless shelter and into the more open area of the jinchuuriki enclosure, where only bars separated him from the sky and courtyard where the cage was situated. Well, bars and a chakra barrier that would automatically activate his collar if he attempted to escape or even touch the bars.
The strong silver chain attached to his collar jingled slightly as he walked, stumbling now and again as he tried to wake up. The chain was long, long enough for him to easily reach any area of the enclosure, so it didn't bother him, and the other end was fixed to an iron ring set in the centre of the concrete floor of the cage.
Shaking his head, Naruto reached out and unhurriedly swung himself up the tree that was growing in one corner of their cage, climbing with graceful ease until he was crouching cautiously a foot below the overhead bars to peer up and into the distance. From this position, he could see right over the boundary wall of Master's property and into the Outside World. It was a habit to check every morning what kind of day it was out there.
Today, it looked fine, with achingly blue skies and a hot, dry heat. Like an oven. Naruto's blue-and-red eyes watched a flock of birds take off from the trees and settle by the river a little way away, wishing he could dive into the icy waters as well. It was hot…
"Fox!"
Naruto turned his head around, looking down at the ground to see Tamasine just outside the cage. The man gestured for him, calling, "Come here, boy."
Obediently, Naruto dropped to the ground, a hand reaching up to tug at his sweaty collar irritably. Tamasine entered the cage and was in the process of tipping the jinchuuriki's morning meal into the dish provided for food, shaking his bucket to be sure all the fruit and bran had been dislodged.
He stood back as Naruto promptly plopped down next to the food and began to eat, watching him thoughtfully.
"Where are the others?" he asked. Naruto glanced at him.
"Sleep," he said, his mouth full and his hands sorting through the various bits of fruit he'd been given. "They're tired. Had a fight last night."
"Yes, we heard," Tamasine agreed, sighing. Damn animals, can't get along, screaming and brawling at one a.m.… "Make sure you leave food for them, too. Today Makoto-sama wants you, blondie."
Naruto stopped chewing, his left hand resting on a piece of grapefruit and his right holding a chewed slice of rock melon as he blinked uncomprehendingly at his Handler. Tamasine didn't elaborate – he didn't see the point: smart these animals may be, but there was still no point in explaining complex concepts like the fact that Makoto wanted to test his youngest pet today by running him alone without the others to help him – and instead left, locking the cage securely behind him.
It had been approximately eight years since the escape attempt when the three of them had gotten right up into the mountain ridges. In that time, Makoto had focused on training the youngest one, seeing that the elder two would never truly be the submissive, obedient pets he wanted. The Handlers, Tamasine and Yasuo, both agreed that it was probably because they had been acquired when they were six and nine respectively, and as such had already learnt habits of disobedience and defiance. The youngest one, he'd been bought when he was an infant, so their chance of properly training him was significantly increased.
Several hours after Tamasine had fed the creatures, Makoto gave the order for Yasuo to fetch his favourite little pet, waiting patiently in the stone antechamber that was the single room of his house the animals were allowed to enter for him to be brought in.
Naruto looked understandably nervous, and more than a little curious, as he trailed behind his Handler unquestioningly. Makoto noted that he'd gotten quite tall, and made a mental note to update the fox's profile as the mammal in question knelt before him.
"Naruto," Makoto said, indicating to his pet that he wasn't in trouble through the use of his name, a name he alone of all humans called him by. "I've got a special task for you today. Yesterday, a thief broke into my home and stole from me a set of highly valuable scrolls containing a unique and priceless series of diary entries by the Shodai Kazekage, telling of the creation of Suna. Twelve in total."
Naruto listened dully, knowing that it didn't matter if his face was blank and his eyes unfocused. He knew that these scrolls were one part of a much larger hoard of 'unique and priceless' artefacts his master possessed, and that chances were the man had never even read them. He was a collector, not a scholar or historian. Makoto-sama was a man who loved to own all things rare – the rarer the better. Naruto was living proof of it.
"Pet," Makoto-sama said in a voice that made Naruto snap to attention, even kneeling on the ground as he was. "Your task is to retrieve these scrolls and bring them back to me. This will be your first task all alone, but I have faith in you. It doesn't matter how long you take to find him, but I expect you back within a month."
Naruto blinked slowly, repeating the words to himself. He was being sent out alone… his shoulders twitched in a slight shrug. It's not like the Handlers did anything anyway except watch him when they accompanied him. And this way, he wouldn't have to wait for them to rest and recover whenever they got winded, which happened maddeningly frequently.
"Do you understand what I am asking you to do?" Makoto-sama asked seriously. Naruto dipped his head.
"Yes, Master," he said in a low voice. Makoto-sama nodded.
"Good. Go now. I will see you when you return."
Naruto nodded and his eyes flicked to Yasuo, who gestured him to follow. He didn't stand, opting instead to crawl after his Handler on all fours until he reached the door. Once out of sight of his master, he was able to scramble to his feet and trotted to keep up with the human.
"Come, Naruto," Yasuo snapped over his shoulder, and Naruto followed him across the courtyard to an alcove opposite his cage where a table was set up. On it, a strip of bloody cloth was folded, and Yasuo lifted it gingerly, unceremoniously shoving it into Naruto's face. The blonde flinched a little, but didn't back off, allowing the scent of a stranger's blood fill his nose.
"The thief was hurt by the guards during his escape," Yasuo told him. "This is his blood. Find him and bring back Master's property. Bring back the scrolls with Master's scent."
"Master's scent," Naruto repeated in a monotone, breathing in the smell of the thief deeply to be sure he remembered it. He felt that familiar fire that used to be occasional but now lurked forever just beneath his skin begin to buzz with electricity as he grew excited, the smell of blood and the promise of a chase stirring his heart with some almost frightening instinct. Lifting his head, he caught a whiff of the scent on the wind and made to follow it, preparing to knock down the stone wall in the way, when fingers hooked through his collar and restrained him.
Naruto whined, turning confused eyes to his Handler, who had grabbed him, struggling slightly against him. Yasuo looked resigned as he dragged the hyped half-demon to the gates and shoved him outside, repeating the order. "Track! Bring back Master's scent!"
And Naruto was gone, chasing the ever-so-faint and fast-fading smell of the person who had broken into his master's home.
The thought of disobedience didn't even cross his mind as he dipped his head and breathed in that scent again. He was too well-trained for that. It didn't even occur to him that he could run away and have a whole month to vanish before they even thought about looking for him. If it had, he would have brushed it aside as crazy talk. Right now, his entire focus was that smell, and the coiled lengths of paper he was to retrieve.
---
Tanaka Ren sighed in relief as he splashed water onto his sweaty face. He'd been running for the last fourteen hours with only short breaks to catch his breath, and so far it seemed as if he'd gotten away.
Sinking down to sit next to the cool, running water, Ren reached for his pack and pulled it open. There, sitting innocently in the top of his bag, were twelve scrolls easily worth enough to buy a town and everything in it, people included. Carefully, he wrapped the twelve of them in a length of soft leather and stowed them at the very bottom of the pack, then reaching for his canteen and refilling it from the stream.
With a groan, he stretched a kink out of his back and dug in his pack for his hitai-ate, tying it in place when he found it. Suna's hourglass symbol glinted dully in the light, and Ren flopped backwards, lying on the mossy ground and panting, trying to recover. He hated A-ranks, he decided. Really, he should have just turned this one down. Recovering scrolls stolen from Suna more than twenty years ago? That's just asking for blood, sweat and tears.
Speaking of… Ren checked the bandaging on his arm. No, the wound was fine. It was a shallow one, and he wasn't too worried about it. In fact, his pride was hurt more than his arm. Bloody civilian guards, pulling a fast one on a jounin.
Oh, the shame.
Deciding that, if asked, he'd say he was wounded by a swarm of S-ranked nuke-nin guarding the fortress that he'd had to storm, Ren took another few minutes just to relax and take a break before he sat up and pulled out his map, looking it over. He'd been ordered to be sure that no-one knew he'd come from Suna, which is why he'd run straight for Konoha when he made his escape (serves the tree huggers right) but it was fairly obvious that he wasn't being chased. If he was, the search party had been sent too late. Ren may be many things, but he was excellent at disappearing. No shinobi could possibly track him this far.
Which meant, in a nutshell, he could go home. Mission success. Ren bent over the map, trying to figure out which direction he needed to go in. If he was just on the border of Fire and Tea Country, then he needed to go… ah, there we go.
Grinning, he tucked the map into his pocket for when he (inevitably) got lost and stood up, swinging his pack onto his back and jumping over the stream, setting off at a calm pace, not too hurried but not a dawdle either.
He was ready to get back.
---
Kobayashi Toshi was a patient man. Well, not really. But he was a sarcastic one.
"Hey, guys, you think we could go a little slower? I mean, we're practically breaking the sound barrier here," he drawled. They'd been meandering along at a sedate walk for the last hour. His temporary teammate Hyuuga Neji glared at him.
"I have a stomach wound, Toshi!" he snarled. "And we're not needed anywhere. So why hurry?"
Toshi shrugged. "Mostly because I'm bored," he admitted. "'Sides, Sensei said that once I get back from this mission, he'll teach me shunshin no jutsu!"
"If he's so eager to teach you, why did he insist your team get split up and all sent on different missions?" their female companion, a girl named Tenten, asked curiously. Toshi shrugged one shoulder.
"I think he's sick of the blood. Sasuke and I got into this huge fight before we got split – blood flying and everything. And all because I said one little thing about his brother." A long-suffering sigh.
"Was that 'one little thing' designed to insult or upset Sasuke-san, tailored to cause him to lose control in the way you are so good at, Toshi?" Neji asked pointedly. Toshi smirked.
"Maybe. Anyway, Kaka-sensei said we needed some 'cooling-off' time, and so here we are. What's your story?"
"We volunteered," Neji deadpanned. Tenten chuckled.
"We wanted a holiday," she added. Toshi frowned.
"What about a B-ranked mission could possibly be considered a holiday?" he demanded. The other two looked at him in incredulous unison.
"It was a whole week without green spandex and youthful springtimes," Tenten pointed out. Toshi blinked, winced and nodded.
"Ah. I see your point." Toshi, in an uncharacteristic moment of empathy, decided not to press for a faster pace for the duration of this mission.
---
Naruto crouched beside a stream, his head swaying back and forth and he considered the signs that his mark had been there. Then he turned and without hesitation rammed his whole head beneath the surface of the stream, allowing himself a moment of bliss as the running water cooled his hot skin and washed away much of the sweat and grime that had built up.
After a long minute, when his lungs were burning with the need to breathe, Naruto pulled back, breathing deeply and sitting himself in the exact same spot the thief had sat. He'd sat here for a long time: too long for someone who was running away. Naruto could tell by the strength of the scent concentrated in this one spot that this man had lingered for well over an hour.
Cupping his hands, he filled them with water from the stream and lifted them to his lips, drinking quickly to quench his thirst. Then, without hesitation he jumped over the stream and continued to follow the man's trail, only slightly surprised when it veered in a completely different direction to before.
With teeth bared in a snarl borne of concentration, Naruto shot through the trees, occasionally dropping to all fours for a stride or two as he struggled to follow the smell of a man he'd never laid eyes on. Soon, every sign told him, you'll get him soon.
---
Neji slumped against a tree, leaning his head back and closing his eyes and his hand nursed his aching side. He'd misjudged a distance in the fight they'd been in and had come away with a nasty gash and two broken ribs.
They were taking a break in a small clearing, eating ration bars and soldier pills to prepare for their last leg back to Konoha. Tenten was carefully cleaning one of her swords while they waited and Toshi had decided to catch up on the sleep he'd lost last night when that enemy ninja had burst into their room and promptly set it on fire.
…And then there was that thing the night before, with the dam, the explosives, and the consequent tidal wave…
They could afford to relax: they were well and truly in Fire Country. They were safe.
---
Ren crept through the trees, flinching at every forest sound. He was well and truly in Fire Country now: the horrible compromising part of his journey where he actually had to navigate their ally's soil without them finding out that a Suna ninja was illegally inside their borders.
It would have been easier to get a boat straight from Tea Country to Wind Country, but the way things had gone down that hadn't been an option. So here he was.
The sound of movement behind him made him jump and look around, but he couldn't see anything. Stretching out his chakra, he couldn't sense anything either. Still… something was off.
For a long moment, Ren waited, taking in the eerily innocent stillness all around him. There was nothing wrong: the air was still and calm. So why were the hairs at the back of his neck standing on end?
It struck him like a fist to the face. Stillness! He was in a forest, not a desert. There should be, like, birds calling and small rodents merrily spreading their little plagues. But for some reason, there was nothing. Had something scared them off?
On high alert, Ren turned and continued his journey, not even trying to stop his feet from quickening of their own accord.
---
Naruto watched him stop and look around. He was a fairly ordinary person, with nothing notable or unique about his appearance whatsoever. Naruto knew that by tomorrow he wouldn't recognise him by sight. But his scent… that was ingrained in his memory, and now it filled his nose as he drew closer to the thief.
He felt his blood heating, those horrible instincts he hated so much but had been taught to use rising to demand violence.
Wait, he crossly reprimanded the urges, shaking his head to clear it. Leave me alone! I'm getting there, okay?
Naruto could feel the creatures in the forest fleeing, as did all creatures (except humans, but Naruto was of the opinion that nine out of ten times, small rodents were rather more sensible creatures than human beings) whenever that horrible heat flushed through his system and bloodlust filled his heart.
Needless to say, Master's home did not have a rat problem.
The thief had begun to run away, dodging through the branches of the big trees that were everywhere, growing thick and tall.
Naruto bared his teeth, final giving in a little to the demands raging through his mind. Time to start.
Lurching into action, he dropped onto all fours and raced through the branches, bouncing along the same path that the thief had taken, gaining ground on the spooked-but-unaware man quickly.
A growl rumbled around him, and Naruto took a moment to realise it originated from him, reverberating through his chest.
The thief obviously heard it, because he skidded to a stop and spun, holding a kunai up defensively. His brown eyes fell on the approaching Naruto and his eyes widened. His mouth fell open and then this man, this shinobi, was screaming in terror.
---
Tenten was on her feet before either of the boys had even registered what they were hearing. She stared out into the forest in the direction of the bloodcurdling scream that was echoing towards them. Someone was in trouble.
"What do you suppose that is?" she asked Neji nervously as he moved to stand next to her.
"A teddy bear picnic," Toshi said promptly, pulling on his backpack. "What does it sound like?"
"Shut up," Neji ordered. "Byakugan!"
His bloodline ability activated, and he peered toward where the sound had suddenly cut off.
What he saw made him blanch.
"Well?" Toshi asked impatiently. "What's going on? Huh? Huh, huh, huh? What do you see? Come on, we're getting old here."
"Someone is in trouble. We should help him," Neji decided. By the way that man was moving, he was definitely a shinobi. Tenten nodded and lifted her backpack while Toshi rolled his eyes.
"No, you think? How is he in trouble, Oh Mighty Ass?"
"I am not certain. But we should be swift," Neji said in clipped, rather ticked-off tones. Instantly, he and his long-term teammate shot off through the trees, leaving Toshi to trail behind, mumbling, "Yes. Quite. Be impressed with our swift-ness. Man, what a dickhead; I almost miss Sasu-princess. Well, not really…"
---
Ren screamed blue murder as he watched the… the thing, the demon race towards him, a haze of shimmering red surrounding it like a chakra cloak, its energy scorching the greenery around it a deadened black colour.
So he screamed like a little girl. He'd never seen anything like this before. Even Suna's resident psycho demon-host, a boy named Gaara, had nothing on this kid. The sheer power rolling off him in waves was enough to almost make him wet himself.
So, he did the only sensible thing anyone would do in such a situation. He turned and ran.
Racing through the trees, his heart pounding in his mouth and enough adrenaline to fill a pool being pumped out of his adrenal glands, he hightailed it through the trees, heedless of the twigs and thorns that caught at his clothes. He knew that the demon was gaining on him, and fear flickered through him. Was he going to die? Was the demon going to eat him? Suddenly all those fairytales his brother had told him when he was a kid seemed not so far-fetched. This certainly looked like one of the hell-bent demons that Aki had insisted riddled Fire Country.
Ren felt a horrifying jerk and a sharp pain burned itself across his back. He cried out, stumbling as he missed his next step. The backpack he was wearing tore, and he felt it fall away from his back, but that didn't matter.
He was bleeding: the demon had slashed him across his shoulders. It was too fast for him to outrun. Was this the end?
Was… was he going to die?
---
Neji, Tenten and Toshi observed the frightening creature that was chasing down a strange ninja.
"Um… what do we do?" Toshi asked in a low voice. "I don't want to fight… that. It's… scary."
At that moment, the demon caught up to his prey and slashed at him. Neji's sharp eyes spotted that he was holding a kunai knife, but his claws would indicate he didn't really need it. The kunai bit into the man's shoulders, and the claws on the demon's other hand curled into his backpack and pulled.
Unfortunately for the creature, its own attack had cut one of the straps, and the other tore under his strength.
The ninja shot away while the demon slowed, considering the backpack in his hand, no doubt confused. Now was the time to stop it.
"Tenten," he said, making the girl jump. "Do you have a weapon laced with a poison that will knock it out?" he asked. She nodded instantly, reaching for her pouch and pulling out several senbon.
"These are laced with tranquiliser," she reported. Neji nodded.
"Make sure you hit it where the drug will spread quickly," he said, nodding at the creature.
An instant later, a single senbon arched through the air and struck the odd thing in the chest; a perfect hit.
"I hope that'll do it," she said quietly.
The demon reached up a hand, human-esc face looking hurt and confused as it touched the obviously-painful needle that had struck near the heart. Before he could do more than pull it out and hold it up to look at it in confusion, he jerked and began to shake before slumping forwards.
Toshi made to step forwards, but Neji put out his hand and stopped him. "Wait. Let us be sure he is well and truly asleep."
A tense five minutes trickled by, during which the unconscious creature did nothing more than lay limp on the broad branch of a tree.
Eventually, Toshi broke the silence.
"Well, this is exciting," he said sarcastically. Tenten frowned at him, and lead the way forwards, towards the stranger.
His – it was definitely a he – left hand was still clutching the backpack, but as the drug took a greater hold on him, gradually the frightening red aura that had surrounded him diminished. His appearance seemed to tame, until he looked only a little wild. Toshi mentally likened it to Inuzuka Kiba changing from his Man Beast form back to his normal state.
Tenten cautiously reached out and brushed away a lock of his tangled, filthy blonde hair. "He… looks human!" she exclaimed. "Do you think he's…"
"Yes," Neji said, examining the body with his Byakugan, "He's human. But whatever that… whatever charka he was using, it wasn't natural. I've never seen anything like this before."
"What should we do?" Toshi asked sensibly, poking the unconscious boy with his toe. Tenten elbowed him. Neji considered.
"He could be a valuable source of information to Konoha," he said eventually. "We will take him back. Toshi, bind him."
"Aw, man, why do I have to do it? Damn, you're just like Sasu-princess, always making me do everything…" Dissolving into grumbles, Toshi bent down and began to loop wire around the pliant body, securing the boy who seemed, now that he looked, around his own age.
"Okay," he said, hoisting the body over his shoulder. "Let's go home."