Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters, except for original characters created by myself.
Naruto was having a good day.
He had a good night's sleep; now he was up. Miki was with him, Jiji had come to visit, and they were talking, Jiji was smiling...
Then…why did he have…a kunai in his hand?
Why does Miki have one in his hand too?
His hands were suddenly grabbed, and Osana-oba-san's voice came from behind as her calloused hands pushed him against the ground...why is it wooden now? He was outside a moment ago...
"This is where you die, little demon~"
"Die, little demon~" Miki echoed, still smiling.
More people stood around, with smiles on their faces and weapons in their hands - sticks, clubs, knives, rolling pins, and axes. They whispered, giggled, spat.
Demon... little demon...demon brat...
Jiji raised his hand, kunai gleaming…
What was happening? Why…why did he have to die?
Why did everyone hate him? He didn't hurt anyone! Why…why…why why WHY WHYWHY
Because you are weak. Weak don't get to choose. Their choices are made for them. Now, sleep...let me take care of them for you…
Naruto didn't know who said this, but he was more than happy to comply.
As his senses faded away, he thought he felt a splash...and water rising above his head, pushing into his nose and mouth.
Raira had to give credit to the Konoha Anbu. In the face of a tailed beast, they stood their ground.
Yes, it wasn't a tailed beast, just a 3-year-old losing control of one and losing himself to it.
From a safe distance, she looked on with terror and fascination as the little child, now encased in an orange chakra, tore through the Anbu ranks, one person at a time.
He had no technique, no style. Just speed and power, and sharp teeth and claws coming out of those small fingers, much like a cat's. He shrugged off any projectiles or jutsus, using smoke of those as covers, before rushing one shinobi at a time, going for their throat, tearing them off with seemingly little effort, before being peppered by attacks from their comrades. Rinse and repeat.
A long orange wisp of chakra extended behind him, reminiscent of a tail. Only one tail though.
The Konoha Anbu did not try to retreat; they rotated between different formations with minimal communication and maintained their barrage of jutsu, trying to keep the pressure on. At first they were shying away from using lethal force, but now they had started using A-rank ninjutsus. It was hard to have restraint when people were dying left and right.
In vain, though. The kid showed no signs of stopping.
Raira tried to keep track of them; she didn't want to get killed by someone simply because she hadn't paid attention to her surroundings.
She also kept an eye out for any Anbu that might try to hide or break away from the fight and run.
So far, no one had attempted that.
Maybe the tree-huggers have some spirit in them after all.
By the time the last Anbu member had his face clawed off, the sun had set below the horizon and it was completely dark.
The little Jinchuuriki let out a roar of triumph, his face turned to the night sky. Then he hobbled a few feet forward, seemingly aimlessly. His chakra cloak was barely there, reduced to just an orange glow around his body, making him easy to spot even in the dark.
He stumbled, and fell face first.
And didn't rise again.
The chakra cloak slowly dissipated.
Raira didn't dare to move.
She didn't want to share those Anbus' fate, thank you very much.
After a good half an hour, she approached the prone body of the child carefully. Her senses told her they were alone here, and the kid's chakra was very low but still there, steadily circulating.
He was alive, but exhausted.
As she got closer, she could see his body was full of cuts and burns and micro-abrasions. Skin was peeled off in many places, showing raw and pink layers of skin beneath.
And all of this was covered in a layer of gore.
He was sound asleep though. Even snoring a bit.
Raira carefully lifted him up and moved towards the nearest water source – the waterfall at the Valley of the End.
Her mission was not finished yet.
Tsume punched against a tree in impotent rage.
This wasn't happening.
They reached the port-town of Hibachi slightly after midnight. The entire way, they saw neither hide nor hair of their targets. A little inquiry revealed no party with a small child had made it into the town, or boarded any of the ships. The last ship to leave for Lightning left two days ago; there won't be another until next week.
Orochimaru-sama quickly split the team into three, sending them to check Ukita and Shima ports up north. If nothing was found there as well, they would have to stake it out, in case the Kumo bastards had decided to lay low.
Now she and her sensor-nin partner were manning the town's entrance.
Orochimaru-sama had entered the village in the morning, alone and under disguise. Tsume couldn't, because Kuromaru was too noticeable. No one would be fooled by any disguise as long as a mangled, eye-patch wearing, massive wolfdog accompanied her.
"Get a hold of yourself already!" Kuromaru chided her. "You're acting like a juvenile pup."
"If you had lost a single pup from your litter, I'd like to see how much self-control you would have left." She snapped.
"While your frustration is completely justified," the feminine voice made her whip around and go for the speaker's throat. The Snake-Sannin grabbed her wrist with lightning-fast reflexes; it was as if he had materialized out of thin air behind her. His disguise was impeccable – the guise of a civilian woman, a slightly dirty white kimono with pink flower patterns and frayed edges complementing his pale skin, and his long hair let down. His face looked much softer with makeup, adequate enough to pass off as feminine, but still haggard, giving the impression of poverty. "You have to maintain composure for the sake of your squad." He actually sounded like he had a heart somewhere in his chest cavity for once. "I have checked at the port and all over the town. No one with a child has boarded any of the ships in the last 24 hours. We will have to wait till we hear from the other teams. Nothing else to do. Have patience."
"Can we check the land route?" Kujitei Hikari, her companion, quipped up.
"If you wish to check the entire Hot Water-Frost border, be my guest," Orochimaru-sama said. "I personally deem it impossible for a team this size. Then, we will also have to be covert, because Hot Water is a sovereign country. Our presence being detected would drag this all into the Fire Daimyo's court, at which point we'd have to explain that we have lost our Jinchuuriki. I am sure Sensei wouldn't want that. And finally, I think they would not have taken the land route, because that route is lengthy and perilous. They'd have to cross Frost, which has a ninja village allied to Konoha, and a whole desert after that. Perhaps they have taken one of the ports up in the north. Or none at all. They could just have a fishing boat anchored anywhere off the coast and water-walk to get aboard."
"So what do you propose, Orochimaru-sama?" Tsume's voice dripped with barely concealed irritation despite her best attempts at neutrality.
Orochimaru looked at her, and a chill ran down Tsume's spine. "We wait," he said. "We maintain watch on the harbor, on the city gates, and the routes leading to it. We wait for information from Ukita and Shima. It's a long game, Inuzuka-dono, and quite possibly a long defeat. I'm afraid you'll just have to deal with it." He paused, then added, "Or, we can just double back to Konoha and report this mission as a failure, save ourselves some time. Which one would you prefer?"
Tsume stood silently, feeling ashamed.
"Keep your eyes open. Who knows, maybe they've just made a detour to throw us off and will arrive in a few days. Our backup should arrive over the next few days; maybe that'll shock them into action." Orochimaru said, but Tsume could tell he himself didn't believe it. Then, with a puff of smoke, he disappeared.
"Wow…" Hikari said in awe. "Kage bunshin…so cool…"
Tsume sighed inwardly. Fangirls...
Naruto woke up with a sudden start.
At first, everything seemed dark to him. Then, as his eyes gradually adjusted, he realized he was lying on a bed of dried grass and leaves...in a cave? A faint light came from somewhere to his right.
His body ached, probably from sleeping on the hard floor. Carefully, Naruto stumbled to the mouth of the cave. He wasn't sure what had happened. The last thing he remembered was hearing a loud noise, and then he was in his room; he went out to see...and Miki called him a demon...was that before or after?
"So you are finally awake."
Naruto craned his neck to see who was speaking.
An onee-san sat on a rock face a little above the cave entrance.
Dressed in black, with a strange gray vest..
"You're that foreign ninja onee-san!"
She snorted. "You actually remembered."
"Mhm, you're foreign!" Naruto said, before looking back at the scenery.
It was…so beautiful...
As far as he could see, it was a wide open, barren expanse of rocky terrain punctuated by yellowish grass. There wasn't even a single house, or anything else man-made in sight.
"Where are we?" he asked with wonder in his voice. Naruto had never seen a place like this; has anyone in Konoha?
We are still in Fire Country...but on the extreme northern border," the onee-san said. "Buckle up though, we are going to head out. I was just waiting for you to get up."
"Where are we going?" he asked, puzzled.
"Kumogakure. In Land of Lightning."
"But…I live in Konohagakure…"
Onee-san looked at him in a funny way.
"Don't you want to see new places? Why, did you like Konohagakure that much? Had many friends?"
He fell silent.
Did he honestly like Konohagakure? Everyone was angry with him, nobody talked to him, chased him away, hurled stuff at him. Friends? His only friend was Miki, and he wasn't sure about that anymore…
"Will they not hate me there?"
Onee-san laughed.
"Why would they hate you silly? They want you there. The Raikage sent me to take you there! Why would he do that if everyone hates you?"
Oh. That…was nice.
The onee-san hopped down from her rock perch, landing in front of him.
"Ok enough talk, we can talk some more on the road. You don't mind piggybacks, do you? Now go take a leak somewhere while I clean up inside. Don't fall off the hillside now!"
"Onee-san, what do I call you?"
"My name is Raira. What's yours?"
"Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto."
Onee-san stopped, then whirled around to look at him. Naruto took a step back. Did he say something wrong? Was my name a bad one? Is she going to hate me for that?
Tense seconds passed, before she smiled.
"I see, Naruto-chan. Nice to meet you."
Naruto heaved a sigh of relief, and beamed.
Raira couldn't believe her ears.
The boy did not have any Uzumaki traits. His hair was blonde, eyes blue…
She chased the thoughts away. He could just be a coincidence, with the same name. Although she doubted it, because Konoha had ties with Uzushio since the days of the Shodaime Hokage. The god of shinobi married one of them too.
But in the end, it didn't matter. He was her mission. She wasn't going to let this go because of her grudge against them. If anything, it was a poetic form of revenge.
The kid was ready, and he quite enthusiastically hopped onto her back. He didn't seem to realize he was being kidnapped, or have any qualms about it if he did. Raira wanted to make it to Kumo before that changed.
"Now we climb the mountain. Don't talk or move around until we get to the top now, ok?"
The kid nodded good-naturedly, and Raira started scaling the mountainside. Chakra empowered leaps took her higher and higher, and she enjoyed the feeling of finally being able to move without worrying about chakra poisoning. The kid hasn't probably realized that he slept for two whole days. She utilized the time, resting as much as possible. While she was not in optimal condition yet, she wasn't exhausted and in danger of chakra poisoning either.
From here on out, she would enter Ta no Kuni, and slowly make her way through it, heading to the northern coast. From there, she could take a ship to Lightning. Perhaps even hire a fishing boat for more privacy and security.
As the third day after Kumo infiltration faded into the night, Hiruzen felt his heart grow heavy.
I have failed.
He had promised Kushina he would take care of Naruto. And he had failed.
With a sigh he turned back from the window, steeling himself.
"So what do you have for me now, Danzo?"
His old friend seemed a bit miffed by his tone, but Hiruzen wasn't in the mood for courtesy.
"Four squads of Anbu pursued the intruders as they escaped the village." Danzo said. "One has come back with one of the Kumo-shinobi."
"And others?"
Danzo shook his head. "No contact since."
"And when exactly were you going to inform me? In my lifetime, I hope?" Hiruzen snapped.
"Had everything gone well, I would have informed you as soon as I received confirmation of them securing the Jinchuuriki."
"And what were your men doing when they escaped? Couldn't they have stopped them, before they crossed the gate?"
Danzo lowered his head. "I am afraid they caught us all by surprise."
"Surprise?" Hiruzen shouted, anger replacing his sorrow and guilt. "A whole regiment of undercover shinobi and spies, and still they caught us all by surprise? What happened to your personal information network? Tell me, Danzo! Why should I still let Root exist for even a single second longer? What good is it if it can't prevent disasters like this?"
"Even Jiraiya didn't have an inkling of this," Danzo said, looking up at him with one narrowed eye. "And he is so busy managing his spy network that he cannot even afford to visit the village. Accept it, Hiruzen; Kumo beat us fair and square. Now, all we can do is try and minimize the collateral damage and hope for the best. I have taken the liberty of deploying another squad to check on the squads in pursuit."
Hiruzen closed his eyes and took long breaths. Danzo had struck a low blow. Sometimes he truly felt disappointed in himself, for raising such dysfunctional students. Tsunade was drinking and gambling away Senju fortunes while her clan was down to only distantly related retainers, Jiraiya ran away from every shadow of responsibility, and Orochimaru was…Orochimaru.
"This Kumo shinobi," he said tiredly, "is he talking?"
Danzo shook his head. "He's probably Anbu. Desensitized to standard procedures. Actually I was going to officially turn him over to TI. Maybe a Yamanaka can…"
"May I see him?"
Danzo nodded and silently led the way.
The Root spread beneath Konoha, as its name implied. It was an extension of the underground Anbu bases that didn't appear on even the Anbu maps. Hiruzen didn't know all the outlets. With him, Danzo always used the one that led from the old Shimura clan residence.
After almost five minutes of walking through the labyrinth, they were standing in front of a cell. The Root operative bowed and opened the door, letting them in, and then closed it behind them.
The cell was bare save for a chair, on which the Kumo shinobi sat, his hands tied behind him and legs secured against the chair's legs.
Dried blood caked his cheeks and chin, while his upper body lay bare, covered in burns and cuts. A large chakra suppressor seal covered most of his torso.
Hiruzen internally groaned.
"Greetings Hokage. Between ourselves, I preferred the inn better."
Hiruzen smiled. "Jei, was it?"
"Correct."
"Hm. Jei, I have a proposal. You could simply spare everyone, including yourself, a lot of pain if you simply share all the information regarding this mission. Then we can take you up, treat your wounds, and discuss with the Raikage about…exchange of hostages. Would you cooperate?"
Jei cracked a smile. "A Jinchuuriki for a death row inmate? You must be joking."
Hiruzen hummed. "I consider myself to be a serious person. My friend here can vouch for that."
"The fact that you are here, in person, and just spoke about 'hostage exchange', means only one thing. You haven't gotten your Jinchuuriki back. In other words, my mission is a success." Jei said, exhaling with apparent relief. Two of his front row teeth were missing. "No, I don't think I want to go back to Kumogakure. I was on death row there, this mission being my only option. And now you tell me it's a success. I don't want anything else from life. So, thank you for your generous offer, but no. You must do it the hard way. I never would have guessed Konoha Anbu could be so...persuasive though. So much for being pacifist tree-huggers."
The man licked his busted lip.
Hiruzen nodded, and Danzo knocked on the steel door, signalling the guard to open it.
"That's the most we got from him ever since he's been here." Danzo said once they were both out of the cell.
"One fine shinobi." Hiruzen said. "Have him transferred to TI. Doubt anything would be of any use, but might just help with finding out if we have any moles in our ranks. Speaking of which, any way to contact your men? It'd be great if they could coordinate with the rescue team."
Danzo shook his head. "I don't have my way of contacting them. Their only objective is to find the boy, come back with him alive and intact. They will not hinder any Konoha forces, this much I can guarantee."
"Let's just hope for the best then."
AN : Special thanks to DescriptivePessimism_DAA for beta reading and sharing valuable feedback.