So, uh…It's nearly been 5 months.
…
Shut up it's not awkward.
'Don't look back don't look back don't look back'
Slowing down assured certain death.
His feet landed heavily on the soil, the impact sending small showers of muck all about him. But he couldn't stop. Scrambling to regain his composure, he kept going, running as fast as he could, the monster behind him hot on his tail.
'RunrunrunrunrunrunRUNRUNRUNRUN!'
The mantra that he desperately repeated within his own mind was a feeble attempt to ward off the inevitable. His breathing ragged, his heart thumping, his lungs burning from the lack of oxygen were clear signs that he was at his limit.
'Shit!'
His foot caught against the uneven surface below him and he crashed to the floor, tumbling before skidding to a stop. He weakly attempted to push himself into a sitting position, when slow footsteps drew his attention.
It was too late. This…Demon. This abomination was already here.
His eyes slowly travelled to the monster's sandals, then to its plain black pants, to its stained white shirt.
Through the heavy rain, he could clearly make it out. The ugly whiskered face, the cold blue eyes and the drooping blond hair.
Naruto shook his head in an attempt to regain his focus. Now wasn't the time to think about last night's dream, He would have plenty of time later on.
Trying to remain unnoticed wasn't easy, especially from a jonin of Kakashi's caliber. So here he was, several hours away from Konoha and 3 miles behind the team that he was attempting to follow. It wasn't an easy thing, considering he couldn't even see them from this distance. All he had to go off of was his estimated guess of where Taki was located and the few rare traces left behind by the trio.
Looking over to the west, he assessed to be somewhere near the borders of Kusa, meaning that Taki was only a couple more hours up north. Good, he may have been a stamina freak, but even he was beginning to feel the fatigue creeping in, especially considering he still wasn't back to one hundred percent yet.
He reached a hand up to his nose when the feeling of something wet caught his attention and wiped his digit against the extremity, looking down at his finger in surprise at the sight of blood smeared across it. He brought his hand back up and wiped his nose clear once more, before looking back up and continuing on unabated.
He probably just hadn't fully recovered. Yeah, that had to be it.
—
"How much further, Pakkun?"
Pakkun, the small brown pug with the perpetual bored look on his face stared on ahead as he continued to follow his lead. "Should only be 15 more minutes. I gotta say though Kakashi, you're really cutting it close here. You're lucky I still remember the way to Taki from all these years ago." At that, the ninken sent the sheepish ninja an unimpressed look. "It's embarrassing that someone like you forgot how to get there."
Kakashi brought his hands up in a defensive motion. "I know I know, it's just been a while. I would've been able to figure it out myself if we weren't in a hurry though!" He replied in a weak tone.
The two Chunin behind him sent each other an awkward look. "What about once we arrive Senpai? I heard that getting inside the village is pretty difficult."
"Not to worry, we won't need to set foot inside the village. The three of us will meet up with the Taki team and they'll show us the way to the lab. Once we're done there, we can make our way back to Konoha. Hopefully…" He added the last part under his breath.
Pakkun looked back at Kakashi. "The three of you? What about the brat that's been following us?"
The copy nin's sandals screeched to a halt on a tree branch, nearly making the two Chunin crash into him.
"Oi!"
"What did you just say?"
"Uh…The kid that's usually with you. He's been following us."
"…"
"You didn't know?"
Kakashi immediately turned around and vanished, making the ninken's ears lower as the Chunins sent him a curious look.
"Was that not supposed to happen?"
—
Naruto's eyes squinted as the trees began to thin out and grew further and further apart, signifying their imminent arrival.
'I wonder if I'm going the right way now.'
His eyes widened in shock as a hand grabbed him by the back of his neck. He quickly spun around, his foot knocking the arm away and backflipped out of reach of the gloved appendage.
'Uh oh.' He thought once he saw the livid look in his teachers eyes. He glanced behind when the two Chunin landed behind him, both blocking off his only escape routes.
"Naruto…" Kakashi seethed out. "You better have a damn good reason to be out here, or else I'm gonna make those training sessions look like a walk in the park."
"…I followed you." He said simply. He'd already been caught, no need to lie even more.
"I can see that." Kakashi replied slowly in an attempt to reign in his anger. "What in god's name are you thinking? Did the Hokage authorize this?"
"…No…"
"Captain, maybe we should-"
"Are you stupid!?" Snapped Kakashi, interrupting the Chunin. "You are not a Shinobi anymore, Naruto., you can't just leave the village and especially when you didn't receive clearance from the Hokage. There are rules and they are meant to be followed. What are you thinking!? Do you have any idea how much shit you're in right now?"
"No, I just wanted-"
"It doesn't matter when you wanted, we're returning to the leaf right now before you ruin whatever future as a ninja you might have!" Kakashi roughly grabbed onto the blond's jacket and began to drag him away.
"Captain!"
"What!?" The masked man shouted back.
Raido reeled back in surprise but quickly regained his composure. "I was saying, Konoha is a long way away and we have a time limit on this job, maybe we should send a messenger bird instead and keep Naruto with us for now?"
"Are you kidding me? He just managed to escape Orochimaru not even a month ago, and he's WILLINGLY going back to one of his bases!"
Naruto ripped his arm free from Kakashi's grasp and glared up at him. "I don't need you to babysit me, I can handle myself."
"Clearly you can't!"
Aoba, who had been silent up to this point weakly interjected. "The mission brief did say the place was abandoned. Besides, we'll be here as well this time."
The copy ninja looked at the pair, before looking back at his stubborn pupil, then back at the pair again. He did see their point. Going all the way back would potentially fail this mission and have the Taki Shinobi try to take matters into their own hands and could have them uncover sensitive secrets about the elusive snake charmer. Takigakure notifying them beforehand was a very rare courtesy call among nations, big or small, so they could not pass up this chance. Sending his summons to accompany him would be no good either. He had faith in his canine friends, but he doubted they'd be strong enough to ward off powerful foes on their own, and the same went for the two Chunin. They were competent, but he could not afford to task them with such an important task.
Shit. He did not like this one bit.
"If you stray even 5 meters away from me…" Kakashi said in a warning tone. Naruto felt a chill shoot down his spine. Yeah, the rest was better left unsaid.
"Let's go. And you, stay right behind me. Raido, Aoba, you two bring up the rear." The two nodded and took their position. Kakashi pushed off his tree branch, and the boy begrudgingly followed.
The rest of the trip was made in awkward silence, the air tense because of the duo. Thankfully though, they didn't have long to travel when two figures could be seen in the distance, one sitting on a large rock and the second one leaning against it.
"Hey there!" The one leaning waved with a friendly smile.
"What took you?" The other one said in an irritated tone. "Do you have any idea how long we've been waiting?"
"Now now..." The friendly one attempted to placate his friend.
"Apologies, the trip took longer than expected." Kakashi replied in a casual tone as he pulled out his orange book from his pouch. Naruto glanced at him and noted that his previous annoyed look had vanished and was replaced by the usual aloof one.
"Yeah yeah, let's just get this over with." The Taki nin turned and began making his way towards the site. His friend shook his head before facing the Konoha shinobi again.
"Please excuse him, it's been a hard week for all of us." He looked at the copy ninja and was quick to take his hand into a handshake. "You must be the famous Kakashi of the sharingan! It's an honour to meet you! My name is Masato. And, uh..." He trailed off as he looked behind him to look at the team. "I was told that this would be a team of three?"
Naruto looked to the side as the one wearing sunglasses gave a nervous chuckle. "Ah, there's been a slight change of plans. I'm Aoba, these two are Raido and Naruto."
Masato was quick to regain his composure. "It's nice to meet you all as well. Let's hurry before Kaoru goes off too far."
The group quickly caught up to the surly man and, after ignoring his irritated sigh, slowly followed after the two Taki Chūnin down the cold underground bunker. The air around them changed, making an uneasy shiver run down Naruto's spine.
'This place looks nothing like the other one…' He thought. His eyes darted around, insects crawling along the cold stone wall that was soon replaced by a monotone metallic surface.
"It's pretty dark…Anyone see a switch?" Masato questioned once they reached the bottom.
"Over here." Raido flicked a switch on and a dull click echoed around them. The low sound of machinery humming soon followed and, after a few seconds, a single white light flickered to life.
"Raido, Aoba, bag anything that seems valuable or important. Naruto, you stay next to me." Kakashi said after noticing the blond attempt to veer off on his own. The Jinchūriki made a face, but retreated back to Kakashi's side. "You're lucky I even let you come down with us. The only reason you're here is because this place is abandoned."
Naruto's body went on auto-pilot as he looked around, hoping to see anything resembling a mask. The room was rather empty though. There were a few notes here and there that had already been bagged by the Chunin, and broken empty containers. The room itself was about 30 metres long with the corners shrouded by darkness because of the weak lighting.
"Captain, have a look at this."
Kakashi made his way towards his subordinate who was standing next to a small sink embedded in the wall. Naruto glanced back at them but continued on ahead. The rest of the room was poorly lit, so he had to struggle to see clearly through the darkness, but he could see a number of notes strewn about the countertops. He approached them and frowned down at the characters, not being able to make any sense of the random musings displayed on them.
But the handwriting on these notes. He recognized them. They definitely belonged to that madman. The sight of it definitely sent a shiver down his spine.
"Hey."
Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin, making Masato take a step back in surprise.
"Sorry sorry, didn't mean to scare you!"
The blond caught his breath and turned back to the notes. "It's fine." He mumbled.
Masato circled around him to have a better look at the notes as well. Soon growing bored of them, his eyes danced around the room, taking note of the broken glass containers.
"This Orochimaru guy seems like quite the character, huh?" The man said mostly to himself, though Naruto heard him loud and clear. The boy glanced back at him before looking back down at the notes. "Wouldn't want to be stuck in a room with him," He started with a small shiver. "You know, we had quite the monster in our village as well."
"Is that right?" Naruto drawled with no apparent interest.
"Yeah. A man named Kakuzu. I never met him but boy, he sure was scary."
Naruto blinked as the gears in his mind whirred, as if attempting to remind him of something.
'Kakuzu…? Why does that name sound familiar?'
"Watch out!"
So engrossed was he in his thoughts that he didn't even register the sound of something shifting and falling from the ceiling. The man next to him shoved him to the side and let out a sound of pain when the shadow dug into his chest and bit off a chunk of his flesh.
"…!"
The whiskered boy turned around and stared at the shadowy thing in surprise. With a push, Masato managed to put some distance between himself and the creature and collapsed against a wall, a hand pressed against his bloody torso.
His eyes darted behind the malformed thing and took notice of Kakashi and the three other Chunin fending off three other things of similar appearance. The one in front of him gave a snarl and began stalking forward. Naruto got to his feet as the being was upon him and managed to barely evade a swipe, its movement was quick erratic, making it unpredictable. He took a breath to calm himself and steeled his resolve.
'This is an enemy.' He told himself. 'Wake up, dammit!' It dove for him in an attempt to grab a hold of the Jinchuriki, but Naruto was faster. His palm came forward, burying into its sternum as he expelled a powerful blast of air and sent it flying. It frantically picked itself back up, and leapt to the wall, sticking onto the side of it like a spider.
'It knows chakra manipulation?' The blond thought in surprise. It jumped from the wall up onto the ceiling and slinked off into the darkness. Naruto narrowed his eyes as he searched the ceiling frantically. Ahh dammit, why did this room have such poor lighting anyway!?
He heard a screech and spun around, but...It was too late. The man beast crashed into him and before the blond could react, its teeth had already found him. It tore into his throat like wet tissue, and a small gurgle was the only sound he could manage to make. As his vision began to fade, he faintly heard Kakashi's voice desperately calling out to him.
He gasped as he heard the screech again and snapped back to reality. Quickly bringing up his guard, the man beast flew at him like a bullet and impacted into his smaller frame, sending him to the ground. Before it could do anything though, the thing gave off an inhuman shriek before collapsing into an unmoving mass.
Naruto grunted in pain and pushed the body off of him. It rolled onto its back, and the jinchuriki ripped the kunai out from the creature's chest. He panted and stared at its disfigured face. What were those things? They looked like half humans half…Something else.
And most importantly, what the fuck had just happened? Was his mind still playing tricks on him? Yeah, he was still recovering from the mental and physical torture after all. There was no other logical explanation.
He glanced to the side at the panting Masato, but his attention was redirected in front of him when he heard a similar screech followed by another one of those creatures leaping at him. His eyes widened as time moved in slow motion. The abominable experiment was nearly upon him, when…
"Raikiri!"
The thing's chest exploded open as a hand encased in lightning tore into it. Blood splattered onto his stupefied face as his eyes focused onto the horrific scene. The electricity died off, and a gloved palm was pressed against its shoulder to rip the hand out of the thing's chest. It fell to the ground with a thud, but the blond's eyes were still fixated onto the gaping hole on the creature's back.
Kakashi crouched down in front of him and placed bloodied hands on his shoulders. "Naruto, look at me." He shook the startled blond, making him take his eyes from the corpse and look at the masked man. "It's okay, it's over. Are you hurt?"
"N-No…" He replied shakily. His gaze moved back to the prone bodies. "W-What are those things?"
"…" Kakashi was silent for a brief moment. "I think they're people."
"…People…?"
"Masato! Hang in there!" Kaoru quickly knelt down next to his friend and pulled him back into a sitting position, eliciting a groan from the man.
"Don't worry, I'll survive." The kind man said with a strained smile. He was helped to his feet and Kaoru turned angry eyes towards the Konoha team. "I knew it. I knew something felt fishy here. You Konoha dogs are always the same! You don't care about anyone else but yourselves, always dragging us smaller villages into your mess!"
"How about we get out of here first, before we start throwing accusations." Kakashi replied with narrowed eyes. Kaoru huffed and stormed off, at least, as much as he could with his teammate leaning against him. Naruto shakily got up as well and, after casting one last look at the bodies, followed after the team.
—
"Has everything been accounted for?" Kakashi asked his subordinates. Both nodded, having already sealed everything of importance. "Let's get going then." Kakashi looked towards the fourth member, who was now sporting a thoughtful look while staring at the ground.
"Good riddance." Spat Kaoru, making Kakashi turn his attention to him. "And don't bother coming back, we get by much better when you keep your affairs far away from us."
"K-Kaoru…You shouldn't say such things." Panted Masato. Kaoru was about to reply but was interrupted by a new voice.
"He's right, Kaoru. It is not your place to make such decisions."
The group turned towards the newcomer, and both Taki shinobi's eyes widened. "L-Lord Shibuki!" They knelt down, Masato struggling to do so as the leader of the waterfall village and his two bodyguards approached the group.
"Please get up, Masato, Kaoru. We need to get you two treated as soon as possible." Kaoru looked down in shame as Shibuki turned towards the Konoha team. "Kakashi Hatake. I thank you for coming on such short notice. Unfortunately, our intel seems to have been wrong and we…Well we nearly paid the price for it. Shall I arrange a team of medics for you as well?"
"Lord Shibuki." Kakashi bowed his head. "Thank you, but we are fine on our end. Everyone's made it out unscathed."
"I see." Shibuki nodded in approval. "Then please, spend a few days in our humble village. It's the least I can do after making you travel for so long and putting you all in grave danger. I'm sure you'll enjoy your stay here."
"We appreciate it, lord Shibuki, but we really should be going. We need to report to lord Hokage and-"
"Please, Hatake-san. I insist."
"…Well…When you put it that way." 'I guess we can send a messenger bird.'
"Excellent!" Shibuki gave them a pleasant smile. "Then please follow me."
The Taki group began making their way and, Kakashi looked back at his confused team and offered a weak shrug. "Well I…Guess we'll be spending some time in Taki."
With that, the Konoha team followed, Naruto following behind after them.
IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ.
Okay, damn. Didn't expect this to take so long to come out. You may have noticed that this chapter was shorter than the previous ones. That's because I just wanted to get something out, honestly. I was going to do the full 8k minimum chapters but that would have taken too long. Hopefully chapters from now on shouldn't take as long but honestly, we've seen what happens when I try to make promises.
I noticed a review that said that this story was abandoned. No, my friend, it isn't. As I've said before, as long as I don't say that this story is abandoned, then consider it still ongoing, even if sometimes I disappear for months on end.
If you're still here after all this time, then thank you. I appreciate the hell out of you. I'm sorry if it feels like I'm neglecting this story and neglecting you, my readers. Unfortunately, life sometimes gets in the way. And there's nothing you can do about that except plant your feet and try your best to weather the storm.
Which brings me to my next point! I've been considering making a discord server for this story. I think that would be pretty fun! Even if only a small handful of you guys join, that will make it worth it in my opinion. I'd love to be able to talk to you guys directly, and vice versa. That way I can have somewhere to post any drawings of mine for the story (and hypothetically yours if you so choose), you guys could discuss the story with me, you can message me and ask "hey Yogami, when's the next chapter coming ya lazy twat?". It just feels like a great way for me to be able to talk with you guys. The server isn't made yet, but if enough people say yes to this, then I'll start making it, and by next chapter I'll have a link to it. So let me know!
If you review you get to keep your kneecaps.