The Pathless Sage
A/R: Another un beta read chapter. I am going to get them all read sometime later when I actually have steady access to a computer and a means to communicate with my beta reader via instant message.
Poll about Zaraki still doesn't have enough votes, I am going for at least 50 before closing it. And I still have time before I push him into elemental manipulation, so no need to rush things.
That cliffhanger got the perfect reaction I was looking for, so yay. I am once again at the library and writing due to the fact that my mother dragged me here. Again. So I might as well use my time productively, right?
On with the story!
"What is that, Kurama-nii?" As soon as Naruto felt the demonic Chakra spike in the air, he set up a mental link with Kurama. If anyone was going to have the answers to what was going on, it would be the Lord of Demons.
"I don't know, brat. All I know is that this isn't my doing. Whatever is putting out that Chakra is an outside source, nothing is coming from your body," Kurama replied. He was slightly worked up, for reasons unknown to all but himself, and that made him raise his mental voice a little, which was giving Naruto a headache.
"Of course it's not me, I would feel it if I was radiating Chakra. I am not an idiot, thank you, I can tell when my body is molding Chakra," Naruto's thoughts took on a snarky tone, as if Kurama was pointing out the obvious. Which he was, if one was to be completely truthful.
"Hey, don't take that tone with me-" Kurama's irritated response was cut off by a joyous laughter, laughter that was coming from Zaraki.
"It's been a while since I cut loose like this," without saying a word more, Zaraki charged into the midst of the hesitating army of thugs. They didn't know what it was, but something about the evil in the air told them to run the hell away from this weird kid.
"Wait, is he the one that is radiating that evil Chakra?" Kakashi asked dubiously, both thankful that it wasnt the Kyubi running rampant and scared that there was more than one person around that had a demon sealed in them.
"I think he might be," Zabuza replied, not taking his eye off the rampaging Gennin. If it was his senior's apprentice, he might have half understood what was going on, but to see another Gennin, one trained by Kakashi, turning into an image of carnage was unexpected, to say the least.
Zaraki was having the time of his life. He cut men down left, right and center. They may not have been fighting back, so he wasn't as thrilled as he was in the middle of a life and death struggle, but he was thrilled nonetheless. He loved fighting against so many opponents at once.
The hired army were slowly starting to come around, starting to realise what was happening. Seeing the man next to him cut down, a relatively normal looking man with a mace in hand snapped out of his stupor. As Zaraki turned to slice apart an enemy behind him, the man with the mace swung down, hoping to impale the kind on the head.
Sensing something behind him, Zaraki whirled around, taking out the man in front of him in the process. Seeing the mace descending on his head, he sliced the shaft in half, before cutting through the arm that was holding up the now severed weapon. The man screamed in agony as soon as the shock of having his arm taken wore off, but not for long. He was soon relieved of his screaming head.
Finally, the screaming shook them up badly enough for them to jar back to their senses. Seeing the kid in front of them lay waste to their ranks, the shouted a loud battle cry and charged him.
Zaraki grinned. He was going to have fun massacring these weak morons.
Slash, cut, stab, impale. Pull the sword out, whirl around and behead the idiot behind. He kept going like that, not bothering to wipe his sword of the blood as it moved fluidly, drawing blood from a different victim with almost every action.
They tried their best, but no one got anywhere close to him for a long while. He looked bulky for a child his age, but his agility was top notch. Anyone withing three feet of him was cut down or sawed apart. Blood, entrails and bones flew everywhere and onto almost all visible surfaces, including the people in range.
Feeling the internal organs of their temporary comrades flow onto their own bodies scared the mercenaries greatly. The fear was rolling off of them in waves now, all their previous confidence forgotten. They were getting the slaughter they came to witness.
Too bad they were the ones being slaughtered.
-TT-
A cloaked figure stood atop a cylindrical building, paying no heed to the endless sheet of rain pouring on and around him. A head of straight red hair was visible over the high collar of the, framing a pale face with multiple piercings dotted around everywhere.
"Nagato, are you sure it was smart?" A blue haired woman asked from behind him, adorned with the same black cloak with the red clouds. Unlike Nagato, the woman's face was unmarred, no piercings visible on her skin.
"I did what had to be done," Nagato replied, his voice weak but clear.
"Madara will not be pleased," Konan warned, hoping that her friend would reconsider his decision on the matter.
"There are several problems with that statement," Nagato started, drawing Konan's attention. "First of all, I am doing this because I don't want to go along with that man's plans, but I can't do anything to directly interfere. Second, I doubt he will even find out about this happening for a long while yet, and even if he does find out, he won't dare do anything against me. The same way I can't oppose him without grave repercussions, he cannot oppose me without repercussions. Third, I highly doubt that man is who he claims to be."
"What do you mean, Nagato? That man even has the Sharingan to prove he is an Uchiha. No other Uchiha in history was as powerful as him, not even Itachi." Konan was starting to get worked up. Her partner was spewing nonsense!
"He may have a Sharingan, but what is his proof that he is an Uchiha? Kakashi Hatake has long proven that you don't have to be an Uchiha to wield a Sharingan. And as far as being strong goes, he may be stronger than Itachi, but he is in no shape or form strong enough to rival the Madara from the legends," Nagato explained, still in his weak and stoic voice that somehow rang with regal power. "And as for being too old to be as powerful as he used to be, that isn't possible. I have personally seen the rotting corpse of Madara, so no matter what he says, he cannot be Madara."
"But so what? Where is the point in helping the Nine Tails' Jinchuriki? It only gets in the way of our plans!" Konans voice was starting to become uncharacteristically high. It was a couple octaves higher than normal, at the least.
"Where is the point of helping your family?" Nagato asked, almost sarcastically. "I don't need a reason to help him, other that he is family."
"What do you mean Nagato? I thought your parents were killed? He can't be your brother, you were an only child."
"Ah, a sibling isnt the only relation a person can have. No, Naruto is my cousin. A distant cousin, but a cousin nonetheless," for the first time in their extended conversation, Nagato turned and looked Konan straight in the eye. "Naruto is the last member of the Uzumaki head family. He is the heir to the Uzumaki clan, the clan that I am a descendant of."
"But Nagato, that isn't reason enough to help our target."
"Of course it is. What other reason do I need?" Nagato let just a little bit of frustration leak into his voice. Never before had Konan opposed him so adamantly, but this wasn't a topic he was willing to budge on.
"I know you better than that Nagato, you don't do anything unless you have a personal motive in the matter." Konan replied, suddenly becoming suspicious of what her partner was up to. Whenever he got secretive, it meant he was doing something idiotic. By her opinions, anyway.
Nagato sighed. She knew him too well, alright. He never managed to hide anything from her, no matter how hard he tried to. "He has the Rinnegan, like me. Unlike me, he has the Chakra required to use the Rinnegan without harming his body. I used the Rinnegan without the right Chakra potency, and you can see what happened to my body."
"So, what are you getting at?"
"I am a dying man, Konan. I have a decade to live, at most and for an Uzumaki, that is a hellishly short amount of time. I want to see the Rinnegan fully mastered before I die, I want to see the secrets of the Seventh Path, the only Path of the Rinnegan that I haven't been able to use.
-TT-
Bodies of the dead lay around his feet, dead men that he killed with his own blade. The fresh blood still dripped from his blade, he didn't bother to clean it yet. Zaraki just stood there, grinning maniacally and just revelling in the marvelous exhileration that he was feeling at the time.
Gato stood shivering, he was scared of the demon in front of him, scared of the blade that the demon was holding, scared for his own life, scared of death. It was a foreign feeling to him. All his life, he thought that he could cheat death for as long as he wished as long as he had enough money. He had never paid any attention to anything other than the money that he was making. Not family, not people, not the way he was making his money, not the horrendous crimes he was comitting while making the money. No, his entire life, he just thought about the money.
Zaraki turned back towards his comrades, away from Gato, and started walking, slicing his sword through the air sharply to clean it of the blood. Gato was relieved, the demon had turned away from him, he was safe for the time being. He wasn't going to be killed, he was going to be alright.
"Zabuza, since we aren't enemies anymore, can you lend me your sword?" Naruto asked, turning towards the man and away from the scene of the mass execution that occured moments ago.
"Why are you assuming we aren't enemies anymore, and why should I give you my sword even if we weren't enemies?" Zabuza retorted, not liking the idea of handing his only prized possession to someone else, even if temporarily.
"Well, your client has terminated his contract, so there is no reason for you to kill Tazuna, and as such there is no reason for us to fight. As for why you should lend me your sword, it's because you're going to love what I am about to do with it," something about Narutos tone of voice made him shiver.
"You had better return it to me once you are done with whatever you plan on doing," Zabuza said, as he hefted the sword from the floor and handed it to the Gennin. Once he had given his sword over, he moved to see what became of his apprentice.
Holding the sword in both hands, Naruto disappeared and reappeared behind Gato in an impressive burst of speed. Being a normal civilian, despite his large bounty of riches, Gato was unaware of what was going on even after his head was cleaved clean off his shoulder.
Naruto was surprised. He had expected to feel terrible after his first kill, or feel some kind of remorse for the man he killed, but he felt nothing. In fact, he was glad that he had gotten rid of the stain on the face of the earth.
He also expected it to be hard to swing the large sword in his hand, but it was easy for him. Wielding the large sword came naturally somehow, even though he had never even seen a sword of its size before seeing this one. Kubikirihocho felt as light as a feather to him, but that might have been due to the insane amount of indirect weight training he did every day.
All of the other live occupants of the bridge didn't notice, but the easy usage of the zanbato didn't slip Zabuza's eyes. He hadn't seen anyone use the sword that easily since he saw the last user of the sword, his predecessor as a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. He couldn't worry about that now, though. He had an injured apprentice to take care of ... err berate for weakness.
"Kakashi, is Haku dead or alive?" Zabuza asked, looking down on the prone form of his protege. He was expecting to see a gaping gash on his side, not a perfectly bandaged up wound that was no longer bleeding. "Wait, did you guys wrap him up or something?"
"Haku is still alive, and is now out of danger. She didn't lose too much blood before we bandaged her up, so she should be fine. The wound wasn't too bad, so she can be moved back to Tazuna's house for recovery." Kakashi replied, stressing the 'she' in every sentence.
"So you found out that Haku is a girl?"
"Yeah."
Before the awkward conversation could continue any further, Naruto walked up to both men with a clean Kubikirihocho and interrupted the conversation, effectively taking out all the awkwardness. "Nice sword, you can have it back now." Naruto said, handing over the massive cleaver.
Naruto walked away, towards Tazuna, leaving behind a bored and tired Kakashi and a doting Zabuza. As he neared Tazuna, he threw a spherical object towards him. Tazuna caught it, and promptly threw it into the ocean with a surprised yelp. The object was Gato's head.
"Mission accomplished!" Naruto announced.
A/R: That is the end of Wave, they will be heading back next chapter and such.
Sorry for the long delay, chapters won't be coming out as fast as they did when I had a laptop, since it is rather difficult to type and talk to your friends at the same time.