Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and this is non-profit fanfiction.
A/N: Shit hits the fan. Missions start and the difficulty quickly ramps up.
X
Chapter 2
Their first mission was easy. They didn't encounter any outlaws on their way to the capital, certainly due to the fact that there should be lots of ninjas going back and forth between these two places and clearing the path from any annoyances.
Keishi was a big city with buildings that didn't look anything like Konoha's architecture. It was all five or more stage buildings everywhere they looked, trees were ornamental rather than part of the landscape, with the exception of parks and squares that were ridiculously small.
People in this city seemed to buy every crap they could find. Children were barely attached to their toys, getting new ones before they even outgrew the ones they already owned. People carried around furniture for their home as if it cost nothing, not realizing the value of what they were buying as if it was nothing. Giant malls gathered tens or hundreds of shops and restaurants.
Team 8 didn't like this place. It was ugly, polluted by factories, dirty, it smelled bad like some drunk had taken a piss at every street corner…
The noble family they had to deliver the message to lived in a fancier district than what they'd crossed until then. This district was separated from the common ones by a high marble wall and silver and golden gates. Just like noble clans in Konoha but much fancier. What a waste of resources…
The guards let them pass when they saw the Hokage's seal of the letter they carried. The inside of the district was…shining. A palace here, a castle there, the noble families seemed to show off their wealth through architecture. This place was so over the top that their eyes felt like they were burning.
They were allowed into the palace of the recipient of their letter and were led to a waiting room where they were left to their own devices until nightfall. An attendant came and told them that the gates of the palace and the district would be closed in ten minutes and that they should leave now and come back the next morning at the first rays of the sun.
Kurenai made sure to cut their groans of discontent and they left this thrice damned place.
The next morning, they came back at the first rays of the sun, waited three hours outside for someone to open the gates of the palace. They waited until the sun started reaching the roofs in its' descent before being received and passing the message to the lord, who took it without looking them in the eye and waved them off.
Kurenai told her team that they'd have to wait for the answer to bring it back home to the Hokage. They groaned even more, the last bits of their patience already long gone.
X
Two days later, they came back from Keishi, happy to see Konoha's gates. They rushed to the Hokage tower to deliver the reply and their mission report.
"How did you find the capital?" asked Hiruzen to his young ninjas.
"It's horrible!" complained Naruto. "People waste their money on every crap they find in their giant malls, kids are spoiled to no end and the nobles… I don't have words to tell you how insufferable they are! Their district is too fancy, ridiculously over the top, their palaces are an eyesore and they treat us like we're servants! We had to wait more than a whole day to deliver the letter, they didn't even pay our lodgings and then we had to wait another entire day for the reply to be handed to us! I wish I could murder that lord in his goddamn giant marble office with his ebony desk!"
Kiba nodded his head during the whole speech. Even Shino seemed to agree. Kurenai seemed to be keeping herself from agreeing with them.
"You have only just discovered the fun of politics, team 8. This is just the beginning. This family was just a minor one, wait until you get sent to deliver a message to the Daimyô. You will wish you could strangle him and burn him at once before drowning him in a glass of water. I have to tolerate their act all the time as the Hokage."
"Then I don't want to have anything to do with politics!" replied Naruto, her whole team nodding in agreement. "I'd sooner put them all under a genjutsu and do my job with obedient hypnotized administrators."
"This would cause an uproar. We survive off of missions and of the Daimyô's economic support. Our food supply is controlled by him, as well as our budget for everyday life. If we go against him, he only has to cut our food supply and financial support and we'll soon become a rogue army trying to force smaller towns and villages to provide us with food, cloth, money and everything we need to upkeep our military power."
"So we have to tolerate the nobles' crap? Can't we just replace them with puppets?" asked the blonde.
"It would be too much work for too little benefit. Learning patience costs us less than reforming the system."
Naruto wasn't satisfied with these answers, but she wouldn't get anything else. Her grandfather was a conservative, after all. He had been living through this for his whole sixty-nine years. He wouldn't change now, not when he was so close to pass his burden onto someone else.
"Come back tomorrow for your next mission, team 8. Today, you can enjoy being back in Konoha."
Kiba and Naruto high fived, Shino nodded and Kurenai smiled before disappearing.
X
After one month of fetch missions, they got themselves a mission to the Land of Steam to escort a merchant who was weary of rumors and had hired two genin teams for this mission. They departed with team 10 at the first rays of the sun, Kiba and Shikamaru looking like they were sleeping while walking.
Asuma and Kurenai arrived together. While she looked fresh, Asuma had his hair still messed up by sleep, a hickey on the left side of his throat and red lipstick marks in various places.
"I knew it!" yelled Ino, pointing her index finger at him. "You two are an item! You're not even making any effort to hide it anymore!"
"Ino, you're hurting my ears at six in the morning," whined Shikamaru. "Let adults be adults and don't let them give you ideas."
"Oh! I'm definitely leaving my mark on my man when I find a suitable one!"
"Ino, please shut up," whispered Asuma, who seemed to have a hangover. "I'm not in the mood for that."
Ino, pissed by her captain's words, filled a bottle at a small street washstand for workers and pressed it, drenching Asuma in fresh water.
"Are you awake now?" she asked smugly.
He closed his eyes, jaw and fists clenched, took a few slow breathes to calm himself and opened his eyes. He smiled at his genin. Her smile vanished.
"Oh no…"
"Ino, I hate you," stated Shikamaru.
"What was your team's workout exercise already, Kurenai?" asked the bear of a man.
"Fifteen laps around Konoha. Starting by running, before skipping on one leg, then on their hands and they finish crawling."
"You heard that team 10? You're gonna do this whole travel by following this program. I'll be watching you, so don't stop until I tell you so. Come on! You start now! We're going East!"
Whining, all three of them departed running. Kiba laughed at their expanse.
"You find it funny Kiba?" asked Kurenai. "How about you three do the same but you'll go back and forth until I'm satisfied."
"Thanks Kiba, really. I'm totally gonna kick your ass," groaned Naruto, Shino nodding in agreement.
"You still manage to outclass me even when I try to be mean," sighed Asuma.
"I outclass you in everything except taijutsu, but it's no problem, Asuma. As long as you have stamina, I'll keep an interest in you," she winked at him.
He sighed deeply.
"I think you're gonna kill me before an enemy ninja has a chance to do it."
"Would you rather die in good company or with an ugly Kiri ninja stabbing you with his giant sword to compensate for his lack of drip charm?"
"Don't remind me of the Kiri swordsmen… I'd rather die from your attention than theirs…"
"See? You can always find a worse situation to be in. Always look at the glass half full instead of half empty."
"Well, both of my purses are completely dry."
"No problem, I picked up your other purse this morning. A gallant man should invite his girlfriend, after all."
"I was sure you were the one who took it. Saved me time from looking for it, thanks."
"Am I that predictable?"
"Ever since you've started hanging out with Anko three years ago."
"Well then, I'll just have to find new ways to surprise you…"
"Sage no… I've got enough with my team, some predictability is welcome…"
Kurenai smiled ominously.
X
They reached the train station in Otafuki Gai, a town East of Konoha where the client loaded his merchandise into the wagons. The genin were posted in the merchandise wagon to watch over it…and probably to avoid paying for their tickets…
Nothing happened during the transport to the capital of the Land of Steam. Once there, the client unloaded the wagons, Kiba jumping out of the train to puke after being shaken by their transport for hours.
The train station was in the outskirts of the city to allow better sorting of travelers, keeping the poor ones out while allowing entrance to those with enough wealth to be profitable. Another city with despicable ways of treating people based on the depth of their pockets or the name they were assigned at birth…
They spent two days there before the client had to move and head towards the former shinobi village of Yu that had been changed into a touristic attraction with its' onsen where couples could even bathe together in private parts in their famed rejuvenation baths.
"Sounds like a naughty bath to me," remarked Ino.
"Everything sounds naughty to you, Ino," retorted Shikamaru. "Your mind is in the wrong place twenty-four seven."
"Maybe I'm a teen and my hormones are just more active than yours, Mr. Sleepingisbetterthanlove. Maybe you'll become prepubescent at thirty if you live that long…"
Kiba laughed at Shikamaru's expanse.
"Naruto, wanna see if Shikamaru's hormones are working all right?" she whispered to the blonde.
"Nah, I'm fine."
"You sure? Don't you want to try a kiss?"
Naruto's brains worked in overdrive, thinking of kissing Ino. She could feel her cheeks heating.
"Okay, maybe…but only to taunt Shikamaru and start him on behaving like a boy his age…"
"Of course, I wouldn't do it for any other reason…" taunted Ino.
Naruto planted a finger in her temporary teammate's flank, making her recoil and scowl.
"What was that for?"
"Stop teasing everyone, blondie."
"You're blond too, you know?"
"Yeah, but I act more mature than you," Naruto said, sticking her tongue out at Ino.
"Oh yeah?" Ino grabbed her tongue and licked her nose in revenge before running away with Naruto running after her to take her own revenge. This is how the cycle of revenge started… (A/N: joking.)
X
In the village of Hot Springs, the group was split to take turns guarding the client while the others could enjoy their stay.
Ino and Naruto got their turn with Shikamaru and they went to the onsen. They took their time enjoying the relaxation provided by the hot water after their travel. When they left the bath in a bath robe, they found Shikamaru and cornered him into watching them kiss. He appeared unphased, while Naruto was the opposite. She actually wanted to get another go at it, but Ino walked away annoyed that her ploy to push Shikamaru to the next step in his life had failed. The blonde with cheek marks was left there, wanting more and not getting it anytime soon.
"Don't worry, one day you'll find someone who wants to return your affection," said Shikamaru, patting Naruto's head.
She felt really insulted at that moment and the poor Shikamaru was sent flying into the bath he had gotten out of five minutes earlier. How dare this child act so mature while he wasn't even a prepubescent teen yet? He should keep his advice to himself…
X
On the second day, Naruto started feeling bad. She could read someone's negative emotions, their hurt feelings. That person had a grudge and was coming straight to Yu, they had to leave fast and protect their client!
She met Kiba while looking for Kurenai and he seemed to have smelled something bad too.
"What do you smell?" she asked.
"Blood. Someone's coming here, and he reeks of unwashed blood from kilometers away. Can't be good…"
"He's not alone. I feel someone else, someone who…wants to kill the first one? Why are they traveling together?"
"They're too far, I can't smell the second one. Let's hurry and warn our group!"
They ran and found Kurenai and Asuma in a shared hot bath. Or rather they found Kurenai and noticed Asuma's presence…under the surface of the water…doing adult things.
Naruto's hot cheeks were totally the result of the steam, they had nothing to do with the situation at hand…
'Focus, Naruto!' she admonished herself in her mind.
"Captain! We're in trouble!" she blurted.
Kurenai lifted an eyebrow, seemingly not taking it seriously, or just too unfocused to realize what her genin meant. Kiba was staring at her boobs dumbly, out of commission. Naruto would have to do everything herself then…
She used a genjutsu on Kurenai that carried what she felt from the incoming threat and did her best to relay Kiba's testimony of the man reeking of blood from kilometers away.
Obviously, in this situation, Kurenai's brain was overwhelmed and she had a weird reaction. It seemed to…excite her? She held Asuma's head under the water and finished what they were doing before his head popped out of the bath, breathing heavily.
"Did you try to kill me?" he accused his lover.
"What? No! I…what did you do, Naruto?"
"Move your asses from the onsen! There's someone bloodthirsty heading here! I won't get caught in whatever plan he has for this village because of your steamy adventures!"
The jônin duo reacted instantly, leaving the bath with their towels and drying themselves, putting on their clothes faster than she could follow, meanwhile Kiba still had boobs in his eyes. The blonde slapped him out of his trance state.
"Hey!"
"Get your dick out of your head, Kiba! We don't have time for your animal urges!"
"Right! I was completely hypnotized by Captain Kurenai for a moment! I need to close that drawer of my memory and focus on the danger!"
They left the onsen after their captain and found the rest of their group watching over their client without being seen by his customers. They rushed him to pack his most precious possessions and leave quickly before a disaster could happen – and before their mission could fail.
She could feel Asuma and Kurenai's wariness. She felt Kiba's and Akamaru's unease growing into fear, then into terror as the monsters got closer to the village. She felt Shikamaru and Ino's worry upon analyzing their teammates' behaviour. Asuma and Kurenai could now sense the two monsters, because Naruto could now feel their fear. The guys who were coming were no pushovers.
They finally left the village, carrying their client and the most valuable items he couldn't be persuaded to leave behind and running for their lives.
They heard the ruckus when the one with violent thoughts reached the village. He seemed to be willing to destroy this village for whatever reason. For their betrayal, she could now feel. Was he a former shinobi from this village?
"Crap! The second one is coming at us!" shouted Kiba. "His smell is unique, I've never smelled anyone like him! He doesn't seem to be human! And he's fuckin' fast!"
Naruto realized why she couldn't feel his emotions anymore. He must be able to mute them or worse, he might be feeling positive emotions. Which could mean that he was enjoying hunting them…
"I think this guy is a bounty hunter or something! The moment he came after us, I couldn't feel his emotions anymore!" warned Naruto. "Either he's able to feel nothing at all or he's only feeling good about hunting us down!"
"There's a bounty of thirty-five million ryô for my head," informed Asuma. "If he felt powerful ninjas, he must bet on one of us having a bounty to collect!"
"Damn it! I'd rather go back to deliver a message to Keishi's nobles!" whined Naruto.
"Be careful what you wish for!" retorted Kurenai.
"He's getting closer! In five minutes he'll be on us!" warned Kiba.
"If we can't outrun him, we must prepare to face him!" declared Asuma.
"We don't even know what we're against!" replied Ino.
"We have no other option," said Kurenai. "I'd rather play it eight against one than getting killed from behind while trying to flee."
They prepared a formation to face off the monster coming after them.
X
"Where did he go? I can't smell him anymore!" worried Kiba.
They tried to feel his chakra, but no one could find him.
"Underground!" shouted Kurenai.
They jumped away just as he appeared from right where Asuma had been standing. They didn't even have time to think about his weird appearance, the guy wearing a black cloak with red clouds and a hood attacked Asuma relentlessly with deadly accurate taijutsu. The jônin avoided the first punch, deflected the following kick, but the man grabbed his throat and started strangling him.
Shikamaru's shadow possession reached the man trying to kill Asuma and he forcefully made him let go of his captain's throat, but he couldn't predict the black tendrils coming out of the cape and quickly reaching for him.
Naruto used a wind blow to push them away from Shikamaru and their points got stuck into the ground twenty centimeters away from the boy who ran for his life while watching the tendrils and the one controlling them warily.
Kurenai used a genjutsu on him now that he was immobile for a second, but he immediately broke out of it.
"Your little tricks can't do anything against me, you fool woman. My ability makes me immune to genjutsu."
Naruto didn't believe it for one second. He just had never met someone good enough in the art of illusion to counter his ability, whatever it was. She launched her auditory genjutsu as the first layer, feeding him false information, using a similar visual genjutsu to try and get him to make mistakes by not realizing he was under a subtle illusion, but he broke out of it immediately.
"I just told you this is useless. You're wasting your chakra, women. Let the men talk with our weapons or I'll kill you too, even if you don't have any bounty on your heads."
Every member of their group had to struggle to stay alert, not to let fear overcome them. Asuma got back up, his hand touching his throat.
"If I can't get you with a weak genjutsu, then I'll just have to use my strongest one!" replied Naruto.
She gathered all the negative emotions she could feel around her, all the negative memories she had, her trauma resurfaced from under the rug and everything fueled the illusion she put him under, piling up layers and layers of it until he was unable to get out of it.
Kiba was looking at her like she was…a monster.
"Why do you look at me like that?" she asked, uneasy with his doubt.
"Your marks…they're grown bigger… You have claws too… And there a different chakra coming out of you…"
But they didn't have time to waste on her physical changes due to using the Kyûbi's chakra for the first time. A missile landed near the bounty hunter… Actually, it was the other monster, a tall man with a giant three-bladed scythe.
His cruelty overwhelmed Naruto for a moment, she had a vision of the massacre of the village of Hot Water, putting her out of commission for a while.
X
When she opened her eyes, she saw Asuma with the bounty hunter's tendrils plunged in his heart, Kurenai dead on the ground in an expression of pure pain just like the other genin. Asuma's heart was being removed from his body and the bounty hunter retracted his tendrils with the jônin's body part pulled in and disappearing.
This was a nightmare. But this was a real nightmare. One she couldn't wake up from.
"Kakuzu! The Nine-Tailed chick woke up! Can I play with her? I'd like to impale her arms and cut her legs!"
"Don't mess with her, moron. We need to keep her alive or the leader won't be happy."
"Happy about what?" asked Naruto, trying to get a hold of herself.
"We wouldn't want to have to wait for the Kyûbi to reform in around three years, so…" the bounty hunter smacked the bloodthirsty killer on the head.
"Shut up, idiot! Don't tell anything useful to her. You never know what could happen."
The scythe guy's head suddenly fell to the side, while the bounty hunter with a deep voice was tossed away.
"Who the fuck cut my head?!" shouted the vulgar gray-haired man. "Kakuzu! Saw it back!"
"Fuck you, Hidan! You useless jerk, now I have to fight two enemies myself!"
"I was right, you can't die even when beheaded… Your body will tell me all of its' secrets… Kukuku…"
As Hidan's body fell to the ground, a white face with purple eyeliner was standing in front on Naruto.
"Orochimaru…"
"I was right to follow your movements and Akatsuki's at the same time. I arrived just in time to make sure you couldn't fall into their hands. How are you, Kyûbi girl? Naruto, was it your name?"
She didn't answer. Of course he'd consider her worth as a demon host before her worth as a human being…
"I'll go help my subordinate with his opponent and I'll be back for you. Don't even try to escape, you won't go anywhere I can't find you in the time it will take to get rid of that man."
He disappeared in a body flicker. She saw him reappear in the fight between a guy who was fighting with his bones and the bounty hunter who now had five bodies, four of which were made of black tendrils and a mask with white and one of the elemental colors.
The bodies used combination attacks, creating gigantic flamethrowers, water beams with electricity flowing through them, all the while using earth to create a layer of armor around his main body and to create earth pikes from the ground, trying to impale Orochimaru and his ally. The snake summoner summoned a giant gate to block the most destructive attacks of their opponent and the other changed into a new state, his skin becoming brown.
The fighters took the battle away from Naruto and the beheaded guy and soon, a forest of bones appeared out of nowhere. Orochimaru managed to bend his body away from the spikes, but Asuma's killer got caught in it. Soon, it was over.
Naruto looked at her dead group. She wouldn't go back to Konoha anytime soon. Thanks to her hero of a father, she was condemned to be someone's tool. Everyone and their mother would try and get their hands on her. But no one cared about Naruto. They only cared about the Kyûbi.
'Damn them. Damn them all. I can't trust anyone. Nice people die too fast and the other kill each other for the right to use me. I'll become strong. I'll become the strongest kunoichi who was ever born, I'll gather abilities like these two who can't die normally, I'll become invincible so that no one can ever beat me and I won't let anyone use me ever again. But before that, I need to become strong. Just like these guys fighting to use me, I'll become a monster. You need a monster to fight another, right?'
Orochimaru came back the corpse of the bounty hunter over his shoulder. His subordinate was following him.
"Kimimaro, grab the immortal's body and head, I want to study him. With your body, the Kyûbi, this guy's immortality and the other's five independent bodies, I'll become invincible."
"Yes, Lord Orochimaru."
This guy, Kimimaro, seemed completely loyal to the snake Sannin. What a waste. A guy so powerful shouldn't bow to a monster. With a power like his, he could be independent. He was a teenager and already so strong, he could easily grow much more powerful than Orochimaru…
"Let's go, Naruto. You're coming with us, of course. Don't make me waste my time. I'm not known for my patience."
She stood up, contemplating the carnage.
'Don't look at them. They were weak. Kurenai didn't listen to me, now she's dead because she was having sex on a mission instead of being on guard. Now I'm forced to join Orochimaru and to fight these caped guys who seem to want to extract the Kyûbi from me… Thanks daddy, thanks gramps, thanks to your kindness, I'm living my best life… I even get to choose who's going to kill me by extracting the demon from me! I couldn't be luckier!'
Her thoughts were silent for a moment…
'Fuck Konoha. Fuck ninjas. Fuck the ninja villages, the system, fuck everyone who wants to use my power…no, not my power. The Nine-Tailed Fox. Hey! Fox! Do you hear me? You and I, I think we could use each other for our mutual benefit! Don't you think so?'
Silence.
'What do you want and how will I benefit from it?'