Naruto had the feeling she was being watched. The stars provided little cover tonight because of the rain clouds overhead. Just like that night, the night she- nevermind, she didn't want to think about that. It was painful, much too painful. Phantom pain came whenever she pictured those people's faces and their weapons, so ingrained in her mind as they were.
"Naruto!" Iruka called from across the street. He had come out this late on a date, and was on his way home when he spotted a familiar student.
He didn't like her, but after six months of seeing her in class his concern over her had grown unexpectedly.
Naruto turned as her teacher approached. She inquired, "Yes sensei, what do you need?"
Iruka shook his head and sighed, wondering why he was doing this. He had no reason, no real reason to be concerned over his point of hatred.
"You're up real late, and it's raining. Shouldn't you be at home to avoid a cold?"
Naruto stared at him oddly for a moment. What was this feeling? Why was her teacher's concern stirring this unknown in her? Her answer did not come right away, and may be a while before a real one reaches her.
To respond to the unknown, she laughed and waved it off. She had never gotten sick before, she told him, and he didn't push any further on account of his not caring that much. As she walked away he couldn't help but feel a sense of danger, urging him to investigate. He ignored it, passing it off as nothing. Until he heard a muffled scream in the alley his student just walked down.
'Damn, I may not like her but she's still my student!' he thought as he dashed into the alley, only to see the coat tail of a man running around the corner. He gave chase, despite the alarms going off in his head, telling him to stop, that it wasn't worth it.
There were two men, the front one was carrying a knocked out Naruto over his shoulder and the second was probably there to fight off any pursuers. Iruka cursed his luck and started a series of hand seals, hoping to catch them off guard. Right as he was finishing, one of the abductors turned and suddenly caught him in the stomach. He was knocked out cold and left on the street, a kunai imbedded in his jacket and blood slowly leaking out.
The two men disappeared into the night with their captive.
The village woke in a stir. Academy classes were cancelled and children were kept indoors. All because Iruka was found injured early in the morning. It was just in time too, as any later and he would have died. He was in the hospital by afternoon, under watch by a team of Anbu. It was vital they found who did this, someone who would so openly attack one of their ninja in their village.
Kakashi, who was at the scene where Iruka was found, was looking for any clues he could find. Any would be helpful. He stood up, the silver haired Anbu looked at an object in his hand. It was a hair tie, colored blue and covered partially in blood. His eyes narrowed in suspicion, then he continued to search the area. Nothing was out of place, except maybe a trash can lying on it's side. It wasn't uncommon and he dismissed it after finding a cat inside of it.
Another person, under his command, appeared out of seemingly nowhere. "Report," Kakashi demanded.
"Right, I didn't find anything out of the ordinary. Except someone claiming to be a witness, though they still refuse to give any details and their story changes every time they repeat themselves," his stoic face was hidden behind his mask as he told his message.
"Where is this witness now, I would like to speak with them," Kakashi said, he lifted his hand and held out the hair tie as well, "This is evidence, can you take care of it for me?"
"Yes sir!" he gave a salute and took the tie.
For a small moment both wondered if the tie was actually important.
Kakashi was led to a bald man, a shop owner near the scene, that looked like he might keel over and die any moment. He was on a rant to a women at the register. She smiled politely but her body language told him she did not care nor did she want to listen. He stepped up and interrupted the man, which must have irritated him if the red in his face was any indicator.
"You Anbu again? What do you want, I already told you all I know!"
"Wakey Wakey, little girl," the speaker was a young man with dark hair and eyes. His sneer morphed into a grin as Naruto's eyes started blinking open.
Naruto wondered where she was as she struggled to keep her eyes open, but the blinding light made it all too hard. She could only tell she was lying on some sort of table, with only two shadows to indicate that there was people with her.
"O is the light hurting your eyes? I'll help, don't worry," the same man said. "Just sit still and this will be over fast."
The shadow to her left moved and grabbed something, what, she couldn't tell. The other shadow moved and tightened straps keeping her bound to the table. In that moment she grew worried and started to struggle against her binds. A flash of being held down and her arm, cut off. Her thoughts became jumbled as she started to panic. The binds held fast though and she could do nothing, though her fight did not end.
Her mouth had to be covered, to keep her from biting and blurring out her panicked screams. The man who had moved to get something came back, a long object in hand. It slowly descended and stopped right in her face. She froze, her struggles stopping as it loomed over her eye. Tears came to her as her situation became so much like when she had lost her arm.
Helpless to do anything to stop it.
"Calm down it'll only hurt for a second. An eye for an eye, remember, you stole mine all those years ago. I had to take mine from my sister, who died because of you!" the man yelled. He raised the knife into the air and it descended upon her eye.
A scream ripped out of her as the pain shot through her head. Blood poured across her cheek and down her neck. Her thoughts left her as her mind went blank and her body limp. The two men had different reactions, one frowned and the other gleefully twisted the knife. Another pain filled scream filled the air, and no one knew what was happening to her.
"Let's finish this quickly, before the Anbu find this place," the other man, one that will henceforth be dubbed 'Rockface', said.
The other, who will be known as 'Smiley, frowned. It turned into a growl and he brought a fist down onto the girl's jaw which resulted in a satisfying snap. "Right, let me do one more thing."
They both grinned evilly, pulling out knives. Naruto regained consciousness moments later.
Kakashi sighed as he stepped out of the shop. He resisted the urge to flatten his hair and looked around. Straightening as he realized the hokage was in front of him, he quickly got into a bow.
"Lord Hokage," he said simply.
"Stand, Inu. I have urgent news, Naruto has disappeared. I believe you can figure out the rest," the hokage inhaled and exhaled from his pipe after speaking.
"I understand...that blue haired tie must have been hers then. I'll see if I can get a scent from…" Kakashi trailed off as the hokage waved him away.
"Go, find her!"
"Yes sir," he received from the squad of covert ninja.
The hair band was retrieved by one of Kakashi's men. The silver haired masked man pulled his mask up so his nose was free and brought the tie real close. It smelled very much of blood and that brought some distaste to his mouth. He couldn't smell anything else with his mind bringing up memories, ones that the current situation reminded him of. He sighed and pulled out a scroll, dried blood was across a premade seal.
He channeled chakra through it silently. A moment later a cloud of white smoke burst out of it. When it cleared it revealed a small pug.
"Let us get started then," the small pug spoke in a deep voice that betrayed his size. He was entirely serious, and dressed in clothes similar to Kakashi's Anbu uniform.
"Here, I need you to find this girl's scent, we need to find her right away," Kakashi kneeled down and held the tie to the pug's awaiting nose. Briefly he worried it wasn't enough for Pakku to sniff Naruto out.
It was.
Pakku took off and not a moment later Kakashi and his squad were following. They were led to a forest on the south side of the Leaf Village. Pakku momentarily stopped when he came upon another hair tie. They knew they were headed into the right direction now.
It didn't take long for them to come along an old but well maintained shack. Right at that same time thunder cracked overhead. It rumbled and the shack visibly shook with it. Kakashi took in the scents, two males had been here. They just recently left, with no sign of taking Naruto with them.
Raising his hand, he signaled his team to move in. He himself kicked the door down, while others went through the window or the weak walls.
The sight that greeted them was bloody. It was Naruto, her face covered in red and her clothes sliced to ribbons. Blood was pooled around her from wounds that astonishingly looked entirely healed. She was unconscious, and if not for a gag over her mouth he would have probably been able to hear her screaming a mile away.
If he hadn't killed people with his own hands, seen blood and gore, he would have puked and been scarred for life. He had done that though, and now he could only steel himself and deal with it when he had time off.
The medic of the team rushed forward, a green light pouring from his hands. He reached into his bag and pulled out some medical equipment. Some of the injuries were not healing correctly and so the man had to reopen them, unfortunately. There was no time for anesthesia, and each Anbu of the squad had to internally wince as the girl screamed hoarsely.
The medic member, he had an owl mask, waved them over. He quickly assigned them jobs, something they each knew how to do. Kakashi did not mind following orders instead of giving them for once. An hour later, a very painful hour later, the owl masked Anbu had gotten each injury stabilized. Kakashi really did think he was going to be sick after that, after hearing the little girl scream as they reopened rapidly healing wounds so they would heal right when the medic worked on them.
She was transported to the hospital, where she underwent another half hour of surgery. The hokage had appeared, really worried Kakashi was sure, but had it hidden behind a mask of apathy. He himself was worried as he stood at the end of her bed. He may not have personally known her but she was still someone he kept tabs on for reasons known only to a few.
"This will stay under wraps for now, understood?" the third hokage commanded. The team bowed said various different versions of 'affirmative'. "Owl, Inu, you two stay and watch Naruto. Bat, Bear, Stag, you go continue your squad's patrol. Beaver, I need you to go summon someone for me..."
Hiruzen Sarutobi, third Hokage left the room after looking at Naruto's injuries once more. She had been given anesthesia before her second surgery to calm her down and relieve her of the pain. Though even now she still looked in pain as she laid on the hospital bed unmoving.
Very few of the injuries inflicted on her would scar, only two of them affected her physical ability. This would haunt her for years to come. Naruto will need help from her best friend, his parents, and others to feel safe. He feared what would happen if the villagers decided to attack her again. He feared what would happen when Naruto woke up.
She was a strong girl, but he was not sure if she would recover or be broken from this.
It's been a while since I updated, sorry for that! Anyways thank you all who have read this story. I hope what happened in this chapter didn't turn you off of this story, and these two characters I used will only make one more apperance I assure you.
Since it's been a while I will be taking the poll down after this chapter, and renaming the chapters so they are less random.