Chapter 16: Father

Naruto opened his eyes to darkness. He didn't know what time it was as the torches that were already inside the cave were no longer lit. He moved to sit up and realized Ino wasn't lying on top of his chest like normal. He looked over to find her still alseep but facing away from him. Naruto got up and walked to the cave enterance where he could see daylight shining through the waterfall.

It had been three days since Sasuke left in search for The Saints hideout. It also had been three long days cooped up inside the cave. As much as it was driving everyone crazy, it was for the best so they wouldn't expose themselves to an attack by The Saints. Naruto vowed to fight them if needed but he much rather stay hidden just in case there were too many of these murderers.

Naruto was slowly returning to his old self again after making a fool of himself in the last two days. Naruto transformed into a bear and went outside in order to bring fish to the group. It was his idea so Shikamaru suggested Naruto be the one to test it out and hopefully for the last couple of days it fooled anyone lurking around. So far the group had been left alone and it seemed Naruto's idea was working.

During the three days the group had been cooped up inside the cave, Naruto also contemplated on leaving the cave and finding somewhere else to take shelter but at the same time, didn't want to leave because Sasuke could return any day with knowledge of where The Saints hideout is located.

After being lost in thought, Naruto came back to reality and walked back to his sleeping bag and sat down on top of it and watched Ino sleep. As he stared at her sleeping form, he realized that his heart had finally opened up to someone else other than Sakura. He was quite surprised but he had to admit to himself, that girl still had a special place in his heart but he was happy that he managed to fall in love with someone else who actually loved him back.

As Naruto continued to stare at Ino, she began to move and soon turned over facing Naruto and opened her eyes. After they adjusted to the darkness of the cave, she realized Naruto was staring at her. Seeing his blue eyes stare at her made her blush.

"What are you looking at?" Ino asked, slightly embarrassed.

Naruto was caught off guard by Ino's voice. He knew she had shifted her body but didn't realize she had woken up too.

"You," Naruto answered, smiling.

"How long have you been up?"

"Not long," Naruto replied.

Ino sat up and scooted closer to Naruto.

"Do you think Sasuke will really find these Saints people?" Ino asked.

The question was random and it caught Naruto by surprise but he knew how to answer that question with no doubt.

"Yeah, I'm sure he'll find them."

A comfortable silence came between the two as everyone else in the group started waking up. Shikamaru greeted Naruto and Ino as he began relighting the torches. Choji greeted everyone and helped Shikamaru. Kiba began complaining he was hungry and walked to the pool of water they had created to keep the fish that Naruto would catch fresh. Kiba grabbed three fish, one of him and one for Shino and Hinata. Kiba grabbed some wood from a wood pile Shikamaru and Choji made and used a torch from the cave wall to light the wood in order to cook the fish.

"You hungry?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, I am," Ino replied.

Naruto got up and walked to the water pool and grabbed a couple of fish. He walked over to the wood pile and grabbed a couple of sticks and shoved them through the fish. He then grabbed a handful of wood pieces and walked back over to his area. Naruto placed the wood in a pile and placed the sticks with the fish on them over the pile. Naruto stood back up and took a torch off the cave wall and lit the pile of wood to cook the fish.

Once the fish was thoroughly cooked, he and Ino ate. After everyone ate, Shikamaru got up from his spot and checked the water pool and saw they were running low on fish again.

"Hey Naruto, I think it's time to restock our fish supply," Shikamaru said.

"Again?" Naruto questioned. "I just fished a little while ago."

"I guess you didn't get enough," Shikamaru stated.

"Ok, fine I'll go back out there again," Naruto said.

Naruto walked to the cave enterance again and made a hand seal.

"Transform!" Naruto yelled.

Naruto transformed into a bear yet again and walked outside the cave. Naruto, as a bear, walked to the water pool and jumped into the water and began fishing like a bear. As Naruto swam around, he scared some fish enough for them to jump out of the water which Naruto, as a bear, would catch with his mouth. Naruto grabbed a few until he couldn't carry anymore and walked back outside the cave to catch more fish. Naruto did this two more times until the water pool inside was full of fish.

Unbeknownst to Naruto, hiding in the trees nearby were two figures watching the waterfall. They had a side view of the waterfall and saw Naruto, as a bear, come in and out as different sized bears.

"Hmm, we've been watching this cave all morning and I've seen come out of that cave is a family of bears," a male said with a slightly higher pitched voice.

"I don't know, I just find something fishy about this cave," a female said. "Pun not intended."

The male sighed, "Come on Hikari, there's no one there. Let's go before Father sends someone to look for us."

"Shut up Toshi, we're staying here and watching this cave, there's something bigger going on, I can feel it," Hikari said.

"Father is going to be mad if we're..."

"Father knows what we're doing, we're looking for people and trying to get them to repent for their sinful ways as a Shinobi," Hikari said.

Naruto ended his transformation and returned to his normal self. Shikamaru looked at the new stock of fish and was happy with the catch.

"That should last us for at least two days," Shikamaru said.

Naruto grunted at having to outside again in the same day and walked back to Ino. The two shared a kiss and Ino laid her head on Naruto's shoulder.

Hinata turned away at the sight of them kissing. She didn't want to see it as it just caused more pain in her heart to see the man she loved with someone else.

The group chatted amongst themselves as the day went on and the boredom was starting to get the best of them since they couldn't leave the cave. It had become a routine the last couple of days and it was frustrating for everyone. Nerves were becoming shot and small arguements erupted between Shikamaru and Kiba which Naruto managed to stop.

Before they realized, it was evening. Naruto started feeling hungry and grabbed everything he had grabbed earlier int he morning to cook for him and Ino. Kiba, Shino and Choji followed to feed themselves while Kiba cooked for Hinata. After everyone ate, night had fallen and went unnoticed by the group as they had been blowing out the torches before dark but this time were left lit longer. Shikamaru realized the sunlight that usually glowed near the cave enterance was no longer there.

"Shit!" Shikamaru yelled, "The torches!"

Shikamaru quickly got up and Choji followed. Nartuo and Kiba also got up to help them put out the torches quicky.

"I hope no one spotted light coming out of this cave," Shikamaru said.

Ten Minutes Earlier.

SLAP!

The slap echoed through the canopy.

"Why'd you do that for?" asked Toshi, rubbing his cheek.

"Because you were snoring and look," Hikari said, pointing to the waterfall. "There's a light glowing out of that cave and no bear that I know of can make fire!"

"Well I'll be damned," Toshi said. "What should we do?"

"First, I'm going to make sure there really is people inside," Hikari said.

Her figure moved into the moonlight revealing her face. She had short, light-brown hair and golden eyes. She brought up her right arm, the moonlight revealing her white cloak, and bit her thumb until blood trickled down. She smeared it on the palm of her left hand and performed hand seals.

"Kushiyose no Jutsu!" she yelled.

Hikari slammed her left hand onto the thick branch she and Toshi were standing on and a cloud of smoke appeared. Once the smoke cleared, it revealed a squirrel.

"Kinezumi-chan, you see that glow over there?" Hikari asked, pointing to the waterfall.

"Yes," Kinezumi said.

"I need you to sneak over there and see if there is any people inside that cave, okay?" Hikari ordered.

"Sure thing, Hikari-chan," the summon said.

The squirrel known as Kinezumi ran across the branch she was summoned on and then down the tree. She quickly darted up the rocky and hill and ran towards the waterfall. She came to the cave and peeked inside to see silhouettes of human-like figures on the wall. After the quick peak, Kinezumi quickly ran back to the tree Hikari had summoned her on.

"Hikari-chan, I do believe there is people inside that cave," the summon reported.

"Thank you and good work," Hikari said.

Kinezumi disappeared in a cloud of smoke and Hikari got up from the branch. The moonlight revealing her bust that still could be seen through her white cloak.

"Toshi, you stay here and keep on eye on the cave. I'm heading back to camp to tell Father about what Kinezumi and I found and see what he wants to do," Hikari said.

"I will," replied Toshi.

Hikari jumped to a tree and disappeared into the night, heading northeast. Toshi sighed when he saw her silhouette disappear. His eyes returned to the waterfall when he noticed the glow coming from the cave had disappeared.

Naruto opened his eyes but this time it wasn't dark. The torches had been lit and he looked around and saw that Shikamaru and Choji were already awake. He looked over to Ino and saw her smile at him, it was her turn to watch Naruto sleep and he smiled back. His thoughts returned to what happened between the two last night after everyone had fallen asleep.

"Last night was fun," Ino whispered into Naruto's ear seductively. "And I had such a hard time keeping quiet."

All Naruto could do was smile wider and Ino came in to steal a kiss. Naruto willingly obliged and returned the kiss. Naruto then blushed as his stomach rumbled which caused Ino to giggle until her stomach did the same thing, causing her to blush.

"I guess it's time to cook some food, huh?" Naruto asked.

Ino nodded and Naruto stood up. Naruto walked over to the water pool when suddenly several purple balls came bouncing into the cave.

"Hey, what are those?" Choji asked, pointing them out to everyone.

Choji got his answer before anyone could speak as the purple balls exploded into a purple smoke.

"Shit, they're smoke bombs!" Shikamaru yelled.

Before the group could do anything to escape, more smoke bombs went off but Shikamaru noticed something different about these. These ones were making him feel sleepy and he couldn't properly mold his chakra to his feet to get a nice sprint out of the cave. Shikamaru then realized his body was giving up and he was falling to the ground. As he fell to the ground, he saw everyone else was having the same issue. Before his body hit the ground, Shikamaru blacked out.

Naruto slowly opened his eyes, however it wasn't the light from the torches he was seeing, it was the actual sunlight. As his blurry vision focused, he realized he was outside. Naruto tried to move but his arms were restrained behind his back.

"I see you're finally awake," a deep, middle-aged male's voice said. "Pick them up and put them on their knees."

Naruto felt himself being lifted up and then forced back down on his knees. He tried to get out of the restraints he had on.

"Don't bother, it's a chakra-binding rope. You'll never be able to escape," the man said.

Naruto looked up to find a man standing above him. From Naruto's view, he looked to be pretty tall and he was wearing a white cloak with a hood over his head and was wearing a ANBU mask that looked like a lamb.

"Who the hell are you?" Naruto asked.

"What a disrespectful brat you are," the man said. "You, disrespectful brat, can call me Father. I am the leader of The Saints."

Shikamaru, who was restrained and held down and positioned behind Ino who was the right side of Naruto, overheard the man talking to Naruto about the rope was chakra-binding.

'This guy's lying, it looks like normal rope but I still can't mold my chakra for some reason, otherwise, I could use my shadow stitching to cut this rope,' Shikamaru thought.

Naruto continued to try and break out of the ropes that his hands tied behind him.

"Fighting with the ropes is useless," Father said. "Even if you managed to break them, you still won't be able to use your chakra. As an added measure, the smoke bombs we threw is a special bleind of a sleeping genjutsu and a chakra disrupting agent."

Shikamaru's eyes widened, that explained why everyone was passing out and why he couldn't mold chakra to his feet to sprint out of the cave. He cursed himself as he remembered last night that he and Choji forgot to put out the torches before night fall. It meant these people had came through this area and saw the light glowing out of the cave.

"What the hell do you want?" Naruto yelled.

"What do I want?" Father repeated, "Well that really depends on what you want."

"What are you talking about, old man?" Naruto yelled.

"HA! You definately don't have manners, do you boy?" Father asked, amused.

"Not when it comes to assholes like you that attack me and my friends!" Naruto yelled.

"Fair enough," Father replied. "All I want from you, if you desire to live, is to repent from your evil ninja ways."

Naruto and his group widened their eyes at the statement Father made. Repent for their evil ninja ways? How is their way of life evil?

"You all look so confused, let me see if I can explain it so you'll understand," Father said.

"I don't want to hear a dman word you have to say, just let us go!" yelled Naruto.

Father nodded and Naruto felt the back of his head get hit. Naruto fell to the ground but was roughly pulled back up.

"Interrupt me again and I'll have you beaten worse, understood?" yelled Father.

Naruto fell silent.

"If you don't want to die, then just denounce your loyalty to your ninja village and you can join us in our quest to rid the world of evil and enter Heaven," Father began. "Your ninja ways have led this world down into evil and as our punishment, God struck down and rose the dead to destroy the wretched."

"You've got to be kidding me, right?" Naruto asked.

"No, you see, for a long time I hated ninja that belonged to a society like a hidden village. When I was a boy, my village was burned to the ground during the war between your Konohagakure and Iwakagure. I watched, horrified as I hid in a closet, as my parents were murdered by ninja. After they took what they could from the house, they set it on fire. I managed to escape from that house but at a cost," Father began.

Father took off his ANBU mask and took off his hood, revealing his badly scarred face. Naruto and his group looked in horror at the sight and then looked away.

"My entire head, face and right side of my body had been badly scarred from the burns that I suffered when I tried escaping that burning house. At that very moment is when I discovered God was on my side. He spoke to me, telling me that soon in the future he would cast his punishment over the world and that my ticket into Heaven after this world ended was that I took lost souls and turned them over to God," Father finished.

"If you think I'm going to denounce me being a ninja, you can forget it!" yelled Naruto.

"I'm not asking you to stop being a ninja, boy. I'm asking you to repent for your sins as Shinobi of a corrupt society like Konohagakure," Father said. "I want you to repent for your sins by severing your ties as Konoha-nin and join me in our quest to purify all corrupted ninja and villagers so they may ascend to Heaven when we die."

"How dare you think I'd be that easily persuaded into joining a psycho like you who kills innocent people!" yelled Naruto. "I'm sorry that you had to go through some terrible things that you did growing up, but what you did in the village of Hotaru was uncalled for! The slaughtering of innocent people, I will never join up with people like you in a million years!"

"The destruction of Hotaru and the death of its villagers was justified, they wouldn't repent for their sins as supporters of Konohagakure. They sided with Satan and they were disposed of," Father said.

'This guy is delusional,' Shikamaru thought. 'To use God as a reason for killing innocent people, it's just sickening!'

"You sick son of a bitch!" yelled Naruto. "No! No! No! I won't ever join you bastards!"

"I'm giving you one last chance, repent for your sins and join us and your lives will be spared," Father said.

Naruto stared at Father and didn't say another word. No matter what, Naruto was going to find a way to bust out of the ropes and fight The Saints. He wasn't going to join ever. Naruto was going to find the strength.

"Going once," Father said, counting down.

Naruto continued staring down Father still trying to figure out a way to get lose from the ropes.

"Going twice," Fahter continued.

Naruto pulled his arms with all his might in hopes of it breaking the ropes, he needed to escape and beat this guy down.

"Such defiance," Father said. "So you will not repent then?"

"No!" Naruto yelled.

"Very well then," Father said and he nodded.

A man, also wearing a white cloak, who had spikey reddish-brown hair and green eyes, grabbed Naruto and forced him to face his group. Naruto didn't see it but Father nodded to Hikari, who was holding down Ino. Hikari pulled out a kunai, which Naruto didn't see at first, and in a the blink of an eye, slashed Ino's throat.

Naruto's eyes widened in horror as blood gushed out of the wound and she fell to the ground.

"Ino!" yelled Naruto.

Shikamaru just looked in horror.

"Since you won't repent, you can watch everyone die before I kill you myself!" Father said.

Father's words went unheard as the anger boiled inside Naruto. Suddenly Naruto burst into his Nine-Tailed Chakra mode. The chakra so strong it disintegrated the ropes that had him tied.

'Wait, this kid is a Jinchuurikki!' Father thought, 'I have to escape!'

Chakra arms formed and extended, grabbing members of The Saints that were holding the group captive and threw them down the side of the hill. Hikari, the one that slashed Ino's throat, was slammed face first into the ground several times until her body stopped moving. Her face was bloodied and caved in. Naruto's chakra disintegrated everyone's ropes and they got up and ran down the hill to attack their captors.

While Naruto was focused on getting rid of Father's followers and helping his group escape, Father ran into the cave in hopes of escaping unseen. He ran to the back of the cave where he found a tunnel and ran. When he reached the end, he only find it led to a cliff that was hundreds of feet in the air. Father returned to the middle of the cave to try and find another way to escape but he was trapped. He then saw the silhouette of Naruto standing by the waterfall.

Naruto formed a black ball into his hand and added his nature affinity into it which the black ball formed a new shape as a large shuriken.

"Bijudama Rasenshuriken!" yelled Naruto and he threw the ball of Kurama's and his chakra into the cave.

Unable to react, Father stood there as the chakra shuriken hit and exploded. The blast was so powerful it blew open the cave, sending rock and dirt in every which direction.

Shikamaru looked up when he heard the explosion and saw pieces of rock and dirt flying through the air. He had just killed his captor with his Kage Kubi Shibari no Jutsu.

Kiba, Shino, Hinata and Choji disposed of their captors as well just as the explosion went off.

They all returned to the top of the hill to find the cave they had been using as a shelter obliterated. They saw Naruto walking towards someone on the ground and Shikamaru quickly went over to Naruto.

Naruto grabbed a kunai from his pouch as he slowly made his way to Father, who survived, but barely alive. Shikamaru quickly reached Naruto and walked over to Father.

"At t-the last second, I s-saved myself with my s-stone barrier," Father said.

Shikamaru noticed something on his left arm, it was an arm band that had the Kanji for 'New' and 'World' which put together read 'New World'.

"T-the rest of m-my followers, w-will come here w-when I don't r-return," Father said.

"Shut up, I don't care, I'll kill them all if I have to!" Naruto yelled. "Now you'll feel the same pain as Ino felt you bastard!"

"Wait, Naruto, not yet!" Shikamaru yelled.

Shikamaru's cry went on deaf ears as Naruto slashed Father's throat just like he had that girl slash Ino's. The blood gushing out just like Ino's had. Naruto didn't stay to see Father die.

"Naruto, I wanted to ask him a question before you..."

"Leave me alone," Naruto said as he dropped the bloody kunai and walked over to Ino's lifeless body.

Naruto fell to his knees by her as his rage turned into sadness and tears began forming in his eyes. He brushed her hair with his hand as his tears turned into full crying.

"Damn it!" Naruto yelled. "Ino, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry! I vowed to protect and let nothing happen to you and I failed!"

The group couldn't do anything for Naruto at the moment as they all began to mourn the loss of Ino.

During this time, the skies had clouded up and darkened which no one noticed. Lightning began to flash and thunder rolled as the sky opened up and rain began falling down heavily on the group.

Walkers moaned and grunted as they slowly walked eastward. Whatever caused the horde to move in that direction had long since gone until the explosion of Naruto's attack echoed through the forest. The Walkers all turned and started walking in the direction of the explosion.