Chapter 21
This is the first chapter of a two chapter update.
The fires burned brightly in the night. Their heat radiated to Hare.
Why do I have to be on duty for the Festival of the Flames. Crow, Cat, Fox, Dog, Boar, and Monkey are all off duty. This is so unfair. I'm missing out on good food and good drinks. There is commotion to the north.
Hare started silently jumping through the roofs of the Leaf village, to the north, towards the edge of the village. He stopped on a roof that overlooked a large crowd. A group of civilians were dragging the broken body of a fox, towards a large fire. It's eyes showed desperate fear, wanting to escape.
Naruto laird curled up on a couch. Hiruzen Sarutobi sat next to him. Naruto weakly spoke, "They still hate me gramps. How can I prove anything when they will never listen?" The Fire Shadow remained silent. A look of grief adorned his face. "Gramps, I don't want to be here anymore. I don't want to get attacked anymore. I don't want to see their stares. I don't want to be here. They all hate me."
Hiruzen spoke, "Naruto..."
Before Naruto interrupted him, "Gramps. Who are the people in the masks?"
The Fire Shadow replied, "They are the ANBU."
"They're always so nice to me. They always save me. From the mean people. They sometimes pay for my food, sometimes they bring me food when I have none. They sometimes check my milk to see when its gone bad. They're so nice. They watch over me, and try their best to always be there."
Sarutobi grew a perplexed complexion before asking, "How do you know they are there."
"I can see them," Naruto responded, "Not with my eyes, but I know they are there. Sometimes, I can't but I can most of the time." The two sat in silence for a few minutes before Naruto asked, "Can I have a mask too?"
Hiruzen browed his eyes, before asking, "What for Naruto?"
"So I can hide. I want to be a masked person so no one can know who I am. So I can escape the mean people. So I can hide from them. I want to be hidden. Hidden within the masks."
They have almost brought it to the fire. Such cruelty of this is not allowed with the Leaf village. I will stop them.
Hare jumped down from the roof into the crowd, knocking several people over. Hare then spoke monotonously, "Cruelty such as this is in violation of the Leaf Villages Code. You will cease your actions or be subject to police action."
The crowds demeanor went from sadistic to fearful in moments, whispering, "It's an ANBU," and "Is he going to kill us?"
The man that had been dragging the poor creature, the fox, suddenly dropped him, frozen in fear. Hare then ordered, "Disperse." The crowd did so immediately.
Naruto gently picked up the fox, the creature wincing in pain, but unable to do anything more. Naruto jumped up, and started jumping roof top to roof top towards the south east. After a short while of running, he stopped before a fenced community, that had many gates. After a moment's hesitation, he jumped over the wall, and started walking.
He stopped before a mid-sized building that had several floors. He pushed the door open with his back, and walked to the front counter manned by a young brown haired woman with red tattoos on her face, signifying she was a Inuzuka. She spoke, eying the fox in his hands, "How can I help you ANBU sir?"
Hare gestured to the fox in his arms with his head, and stated tonelessly, "This fox was attacked by a group of villagers, and was going to be burned alive. Such cruelty is not allowed in our village. I am requesting that it be healed."
The lady responded, "We can do that, let me get a trolley for it," before walking with a quick gait. Moments later, she came out with another Inuzuka, a male, and they gestured Hare to place the fox on the trolley. Hare did so, and then the man brought it back through the doors.
The girl then turned to Hare, and asked, "Is there any way we can contact you for the status of the fox?"
Hare replied, "Send a message to ANBU though the Shadow building. I will inform them that we are expecting a message from the Inuzuka Animal Care Service. They will let it through. Message for Hare."
The girl nodded, before returning to her desk. Hare lingered moments longer, before leaving.
I still have work to do. Now I have to fill out a report. Oh joy.
Hare returned to patrolling the village. After several hours, another ANBU, Toad, came up to him bearing gifts. "Your food Hare. Crow told me to get you some Ramen."
Hare barely kept his excitement in check. "Thank-you toad."
Toad left, and Hare enjoyed his meal in silence. That is to say, not counting the celebration going on that was making large amounts of noise.
The past few months have been intense. We managed to lower Cloud and Lightning's wartime production to a lower amount than before their massive increase. A summit between Leaf and Rock, and then another with the alliance of the villages that told Cloud to back down. My mandatory six month leave from ANBU is coming up. Both Crow and gramps said they're going to enforce it. At least I get to keep my room. Gramps says I'll be a ranked a chunin for the duration of my leave. I'll be twelve in two months. If people actually knew what ANBU did, beyond assassination, they're would probably be riots.
We create the Tora mission for genin, ensuring that the cat does escape the Daimyo's wife's clutches. Creating riots for suppression missions. Scuffing walls for service missions. Putting illusions on bandits to make them stupidly enter out country just so small villages can pay us to kill them. No wonder some people can't take it.
I was raised in this environment. It doesn't faze me as much. Crow too, which is why he is the only ANBU that looks forward to such missions. What am I going to do on my leave? I should...
An explosion sounded off in the distance.
An attack! From the north east. Size was a Class-B explosion. That is Hen and Hounds area. I need to keep an eye on mine.
Hare had jumped up on the alert, rapidly observing the crowds, a good number of which didn't realize that there was actually a problem. This wasn't the case for the ninjas among the crowd.
Expand my senses. Look for hostile signatures. None.
"All ANBU, return to your village battle stations except current patrollers. Patrollers, return to yours when at least one ANBU returns to the sector your currently in, over," Dog called out through the radio set.
Then the village stage three alarms went off, signifying a small scale attack.
There are currently forty-five ANBU in the village. Plenty to fill all the stations.
"Hound, Hen, sound off, over," Dog stated over the radio.
"Hen reporting in, over."
"Hound reporting in, over."
"Hare, your dismissed from your current post, try to find the perpetrator. Hound, Hen, relay all that you already know, over," Dog ordered.
Hare started jumping across buildings towards the blast site.
Screams started to make their way down. The civilians are starting to panic. Hound spoke up, a rough male voice, "I was on my meal time when the explosion went off. The explosion went off on Cat avenue next to the ninja weapon store, but not in it. I was no able to identify any suspects. Over."
Hen, a soft female voice then spoke, "I was patrolling when the explosion occurred. I saw a man with light brown hair and a tan complexion running from the site. I moved to pursue, but managed to disappear from my sight. He disappeared in the Chunin housing district." Hare, who was at the explosion sight, then started running to the aforementioned area. "The man was wearing a black kimono the last time I saw him. Five foot nine. I saw a small scar on his neck on his left side. Over."
Dog spoke, "Don't lose him next time. All ANBU teams, run standard patrols of the area. Hare, you should already be on your way. Fox and Fish, join Hare. I want this man alive, over."
"Roger," many ANBU called out through the radio.
Hare arrived at the chunin district, which was full of chunin running around. Hare waited for several moments, before Fox arrived, with Fish appearing shortly after. Hare spoke up, "Fox, Fish, follow up on my left and my right when were moving. I am going to check the area."
Fox had loose black hair and Fish had blond.
Hare adopted a meditative position, and sat in the silence of yells and alarms.
Look for malicious signatures. None in the immediate area. Lets expand them. Still none. Max extension. There...it's gone. North west
Hare got up and ordered, "We're moving to the north-west." Hare proceeded to start jumping across the buildings at a fast rate, Fox and Fish trailing him.
There, I can sense it again. It is heading for the wall.
"I sense a suspect. He is moving for the wall," Hare stated while running. the group increased their pace, and Hare called out on the comms system, "Dog, I have a suspect who is running for the wall. We are currently pursuing. Over."
Dog replied, "Continue your pursuit. We will continue to comb the village for any other suspects."
He has increased his pace. He must know we are following him.
Fish then spoke, "I can detect the suspect. Should I advance?"
"Go, Fox follow him. The both of you are faster than me," Hare replied.
Fox and Fish suddenly accelerated their pursuit. Hare also moved faster, but not as fast as the other two. Fish spoke, "I lost him."
Hare spoke up, "Continue north west, adjust your course five degrees west. You are still gaining on him."
"I found him again. We are ready to engage," Fish replied.
Hare spoke, "Wait until your half your current distance. I don't want to risk you missing.
"Roger," Fish replied over the comm system.
"He is fixing to exit the village," Hare spoke, "We will continue pursuit, bit we may run out of range on comm systems."
Dog replied, "Roger that. Continue pursuit."
"I have a shot in five seconds," Fish spoke.
"Take it," Hare ordered.
Seconds later, Fox spoke, "Capture success. We got him while he was running up the wall. I managed to prevent him from too much injury from the fall."
Dog spoke, "Good job, Hare, take Fish's body to the hospital to for treatment of transferred wounds. Fox, take the suspect to HQ."
"Roger," was Fox and Hare's reply.
Hare picked up Fish's body, and headed off to the hospital. Fox was going to pick up the suspect, before he, or really Fish spoke, "I can handle myself," with some annoyance. Fox simply shrugged.
After several minutes of running, Hare arrived at the hospital. Dropping Fish off, Hare took off back into the city. After another minute of running, he came upon dog. "Sir, where do you want me?"
Dog contemplated only a moment before saying, "Hare, stay with me. I need you in a central location right now. You're the only ANBU sensor presently in the village. If you're needed somewhere, it may save you some running time."
Hare nodded, and took a crouched position. "Sir, please make sure no one kills me. I'm going into sensing mode." Dog simply nodded.
Hmm, so many people in the Leaf Village. There's Crow. Monkey is with him. Cat is patrolling sector six, the south eastern area of Leaf. Boar is with her. There is gramps, in the tower. Kakashi is lazing around the eastern area.
A call then came through the comm system from Fox, "Dog, we have interrogated the suspect, and he is guilty. We know he was alone, but we haven't gotten as far as who he represents. He is not a Leaf Citizen. He had proper documents to be here though."
Dog replied, "Very good, lower the alert level down one. Though he may have been working alone as far as he knows, if he represents another village, there may be another person he wasn't aware of helping to set up."
"Roger," Fox replied.
"Hare, stay frosty.," Dog stated, "Be ready to go hunting again just in case. However, feel free to relax a bit. Good job in getting our man." Hare simply nodded at the praise. Dog spoke again, "You're are earning your place more and more every day."
"I was to slow," Hare stated.
"However, if it weren't for you, we would have never caught him," Dog stated, "Give yourself credit where it is due."
I'm doing better. Who knows? I may make captain in a few years.
Sorry for not updating yesterday. I had the chapter done, but I was out and by the time I could have posted it, it was late evening. So here is the next chapter. Make sure to review!