Gennin Hikui Basho stared up at the imposing edifice of the old, decrepit looking apartment building. Swallowing dryly, Hikui turned around to see his two teammates poking their heads and upper bodies out from behind the corner they hid behind. Seeing him turn to them, they made pushing motions with their hands towards the darkened building. Despite the day being cloudless and sunny, the atmosphere around the apartments seemed to be cast in an ever present air of darkness and shadow. Shakily, Hikui began to step towards the shadowed main entrance, each step planted carefully before gently placing the other foot forward, as if making his way through a minefield.
As he made his way towards the front door, Hikui contemplated just how much he hated this particular D-Rank mission. 'Sometimes,' he thought, 'I'd almost rather go after that damned demon cat than this…almost.' As he neared the front stoop, Hikui gently placed the week's worth of groceries on the step. Bracing himself, Hikui reached out to press the buzzer. Pushing the unimposing button, Hikui lit out from the fenced off yard like the bats of hell were after him, silently promising to do everything in his inconsiderable power to never have to come back here again, his team scrambling after him as he passed them.
Had Hikui and the rest of his team stayed but a few moments longer they would have seen the door throw the stoop into shadows as it was opened. When the door closed, the stoop was empty, as if nothing had ever been there at all.
Shibou Shounin hefted the lit torch in his hand as he stood at the head of the lynch mob. Shibou, in his own modest opinion, was an upstanding citizen of the Hidden Leaf and the Land of Fire who was a respectable businessman with businesses across the country. In truth, Shibou was a fraud and a cheat up to his neck in ponzi schemes, scamming renters, and, ironically enough, fraud. As such, Shibou was making money hand over fist. That is, until the Kyuubi attacked on October 10th. When the dust had settled, Shibou was all but ruined, in his mind at least. In reality, while Shibou had lost most of his more legitimate sources of money in Konoha, the Leaf Village's official name, what was left in the rest of the Land of Fire still brought in more money than most families made in two years.
Once the identity of the newly made jinchuriki was leaked to the public, Shibou was amongst the first and most vocal of those calling for Naruto's execution. When no such actions were taken against the child and a law was passed forbidding talk of the Kyuubi's true fate, Shibou fell into drink, letting his hatred fester in shady bars and the dregs of cheap sake bottles. Eventually, Shibou, coming across 'the Demon's Lair' with an empty bottle, lost what little rationality he had left. Deciding to take matters into his own hands, Shibou gathered a mob of like-minded people with the intentions of storming the apartment complex and lynching the demon before setting the building aflame. Seeing that his mob was slavering away at the bit to get started, Shibou thrust the burning torch at the gates of the complex, mentally comparing himself to a samurai general leveling his katana at a distant enemy as he did so.
Gaining easy entry to the complex, the mob stormed into the lobby. Once the last member of the mob was inside, the doors closed with an ominous creak.
As the mob congregated in the lobby, Shibou jumped up onto the abandoned security desk to address his fellow concerned citizens. "Spread out and search the place room by room! Find the brat, and bring it here so that we can finally enact justice for all its victims! Leave no stone unturned! And if anyone tries to stop us, let them share its fate!" Roaring in approval, the mob split up into small groups and swarmed through the halls. Jumping down from the security desk, Shibou led a small group to begin his search on the top floors. As the last person left the lobby, the shadows shifted.
Okotta Hito grumbled and groused as he went from room to room on his own in his search for the 'demon childe,' having been separated from his group. "People these days, no common decency in anybody anymore. I mean really, I turn around for one second, and everybody's ditched me. Bunch of ingrates."
A distant sound made Okotta pause. 'Was that…a scream?' He waited, but the sound did not repeat itself. 'C'mon man, get a holda yerself. All this talk about demons has got you hearing things.'
Leaving yet another empty room, Okotta tried the next door, letting out a low whistle as he entered. Whoever had lived here in this apartment before most likely dying during the Kyuubi attack had been an avid collector of vintage samurai weapons and paraphernalia. Several suits of samurai armor, ranging from yoroi with lacquered leather scales to plate armor Tosei-gusuko, stood around the room. Each one was paired with a wooden display rack filled with katana, spears, daisho, yumi, and other weapons utilized by samurai. There was even a suit of steel plate armor from the lands across the western seas holding a broadsword, complete with display case showing off a variety of western weaponry.
A sudden skittering pulled Okotta away from admiring the pseudo-armory, the man waving his torch around in front of him in an attempt to spread the torch's light. Releasing a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding when nothing jumped out at him, Okotta decided to browse for a weapon suited for ending a depowered demon's life. Standing in front of the suit of western armor ('They call their samurai 'knights' over there, don't they?'), Okotta contemplated the wide-bladed sword the westerners called a 'broadsword.' 'Rather unimaginative over there, ain't they?'
A warm feeling trickling down his chin made Okotta wipe a finger across his lips, puzzling over the red that came away on his hand. 'Blood? When did—gah!'
A burning pain in his chest pulled a gasp from the man's lungs. Dropping his torch, Okotta looked down. He saw five fingertips poking through his shirt before everything went black.
Minato would have sneered had he still had a mouth as the man's body dissolved into light, leaving the cartoonish pink Heart glowing softly in his hand. When the morons had broken in, Minato and Kushina had begun hunting the intruders down, leaving the solitary Shadow behind to protect Naruto.
Minato grimaced as he held the Heart up to his face. He and Kushina had been killing these civilians easily, converting the hatred-tainted Hearts into Shadows, which had then gone on to hunt down their former allies. Unfortunately, the last group the pack of Shadows had run into had a retired shinobi with them. While the Shadows had ultimately overcome the group, most had been taken out by the retired ninja. Fortunately, it appeared that most of the Shadows would regenerate, although it looked to need a few days.
It would seem that Shadows would not be much use against a ninja unless they attacked en-masse, Minato mused. Nor did it seem that the newest form would be very effective, as this newest creature created from the black Heart of the ex-Jounin was essentially just an adult sized Shadow. If only there was a way to make stronger Heartless (…yesss…Heartless…that name seemed right, the way these people went after an infant.). If only…
Minato's gaze slid from the Heart to stare at the suit of western armor. Contemplating the armor, Minato looked at the Heart in his hand, then back at the armor curiously. Wondering, Minato pushed the Heart into the chest-plate. As he took a step back, the armor began to twitch and rattle.
To say Shibou was not happy would be an understatement. In fact, Shibou was an equal amount furious and terrified. Something had been picking off his men one-by-one every time their backs were turned; leaving him with only two—make that one person left out of a group of twelve. He had come to this accursed place in order to kill the demon that had cost him so much, now; he just wanted to get out of the dark apartment complex in one piece.
Clank…clank…clank…
Shibou froze. He whispered aside to his lackey. "Did you hear that?"
The man opened his mouth to answer, only to cough up a mouthful of blood. As Shibou watched helplessly, the man's torso slid apart diagonally before dissolving into specks of light, leaving a cartoonish pink Heart floating in mid-air. Shibou was frozen in terror as a metal monstrosity slowly stepped into the flickering torchlight.
It could only be described as an animate suit of plate armor. The head was a conical-beaked helmet perched atop its torso. Fused to the right arm was a wide, double-bladed sword, while the legs were shaped like sharp, pointed goat legs, the living armor somehow balancing itself on two points not unlike a metal ballerina. Adorned on its chest was a crest depicting a black heart framed by red thorns, the bottom half of a fleur-de-lis protruding from the bottom point of the heart.
Shibou backed away as the armor approached the floating Heart. He could only watch as the beaked helmet ate the Heart, his own heart skipping several beats when the monstrosity grew in size before splitting off into two identical copies. As the twin armors inexorably advanced, the shadows curling around them like otherworldly serpents, Shibou began to slowly back up.
Shibou's heart seized as his back hit something with a metallic clang. Shaking like a leaf in a storm, Shibou slowly turned to see what was behind him. The last thing he ever saw was the oni-masked visage of an animated suit of samurai armor and a spray of red.
That was the last anyone ever heard of Shibou or his mob. His was but the first to disappear into the bowels of the apartment complex in an attempt to 'destroy the demon,' but it would not be the last.
AN: Welcome to the second installment of Heartless Shadows. I thank everyone who has decided to follow and fav my work. To those waiting on the next chapter of Aura Shinobi…I really hate writers block.
Spark681: Honestly, Minato and Kushina still have their memories and personalities because the death god himself did it. All other heartless following them, unless otherwise stated, will be no more than drones following their, and eventually Naruto's, orders.
RyoKyo: Does this chapter satisfy your request?