Naruto's eyes glanced over his apartment as he prepared some tea. Noticing for what felt like the millionth time just how spartan it was. He had no adornments, his plants having all died while on his last rotation. Poor things. He had spent arduous hours with the hanging vine, doing everything he could to get the thing to grow in fire country's climate before the war had broken out.
Watching the tea leaves descend to the bottom of his cup he tensed. He was overcome with the same weird feeling from when he first entered the village. His eyes swerved from side to side, taking more care of the finer details. He surveyed the skirting along his kitchen floor.
There!
He didn't really know what he was looking at. There, near one of the cracks along his floor, was some kind of pale spider. Pale was the wrong word, the thing was stark white.
Gingerly leaning forward, so as to not startle the thing, he got a closer look at the it and came to the conclusion that calling it a spider was also wrong of him. The weird little fella had only six legs and no discernable features. No eyes or fangs to speak of. No hair. Nothing like a spider at all really.
Is that thing even an actual animal, it looks like a kid tried to make it look like one out of white dirt or something.
Reaching his hand forward at an agonizingly slow pace to grab the thing, he nearly jumped out of his skin as the 'spider', without warning, scurried up his wall at blinding speed into a small gap in his ceiling.
Walking to his window, he peered out at the street below. Another of the little critters was there, maybe the same one. He watched as it scurried its way, moving from one shaded and obscured spot to the next, into a crack in the foundation of one of the apartment complexes across from his own.
He would have to file that one away for later when he returned to the village. It seemed harmless enough. It could wait until he had the free time to actually investigate.
He took a small, slurping sip of his tea, humming to himself at his brewing abilities.
Tastes like shit.
Walking through one of the many forests east of the village, Naruto felt himself relax. This walk to the frontlines would be one of the last moments of reprieve he would have for the next four months or so, as long as he wasn't seriously injured, might as well make the most of it while he could. Cause the situation was only going to get worse from here.
It had not escaped his attention that during his little conversation with Danzo, in his underground 'office', that he had failed to address his concerns about stone. Choosing only to mention that he had gotten, through whatever means the man employed, left unknown to Naruto, the cloud ninja under control for the moment. He even doubted that much.
The village hidden in the stone had been a major aggressor in every major war the elemental nations have had to date. Now with the leaf engaged in a war with mist, it would surely only take one moment of weakness exhibited on their part, for the little gravel eaters to seize an opportunity to deal as much damage to them as they could.
Onoki of the twin scales his ass. He kicked some loose rocks off to the side of the road. The man was as jumpy as they came for someone that was supposed to be known for weighing his options to their fullest.
Maybe he was wrong though, that village, as far as he knew, was still licking their wounds from the last war. The fourth had really done a number on them after all. But at the same time, Naruto had been wondering for a while now why they hadn't really sent any of their heavy hitters to the front line yet.
Sure they had some shinobi of renown there. But that was all made up of the strength of the teams they sent. Not the individuals. He knew of at least three S-rank shinobi in anbu whose signs of involvement had not touched the main fighting. Then there was the hokage himself, Danzo, Tsunade, Jiraiya, Kosuke, some of the twelve guardians, and he suspected, some of the clan heads. None of whom had even so much as touched the front.
He plucked a leaf from a low hanging branch. That was a lot of manpower to leave behind if they weren't expecting to need to send shinobi to a second front.
No Danzo was leaving him in the dark once again. The man never really did trust him with anything that didn't pertain to training or a mission directive. Though he also probably knew that Naruto would be able to glean what was actually going on without having to directly tell him.
Peering ahead, he surveyed the road, as empty as ever. The tree canopies clasping at one another in a desperate attempt to rid themselves of the separation the road had cut between them. It had the effect of making it look like he was walking through a tunnel of greens and browns.
The roads were a lonely place during war.
"Hey kid, wait up!"
Naruto tensed, every muscle in his body coiling, ready to release themselves at a moments notice.
How had someone snuck up on him? Was he so caught up in his daydreaming about what might be occurring behind the curtain, that he didn't notice someone approaching him at great speed. No, the voice was familiar. He wouldn't have been able to detect this man even if he was diligently on high alert. One of his fellow students of the great third hokage.
"Lord Jiraiya, how can I be of help to the great toad sage of the leaf today?"
"The sarcasms not appreciated kid, know your place. you're in the presence of greatness and should treat this opportunity with the utmost reverence and respect. The Sannin said, performing a little flourish at the end.
Stopping in his tracks, Naruto quickly fell to his knees, hands clasped together in a mockery of prayer. Facing the tree in front of him he bowed deeply at the waist, head pressed to the dirt.
"I am so, so, so sorry lord tree. I had absolutely no clue that it was you, the mightiest of wooded ones, that I was carelessly walking past. Please forgive me for this greatest of oversights." naruto said, peering over his shoulder to see Jiraya's reaction
He saw the man's shoulders sag as his head dropped low.
"Must you be like this everytime we meet? I really like you, but fuck you make it hard sometimes." Jiraiya finished, his hand waving around in frustrated motions.
Getting up and dusting the dirt from his knees and forehead. Naruto looked the man in the eyes, a serious expression settling itself onto his face.
"Yes , I must."
Jiraiya looked at him in a way that made his blood run cold. It was the expression of a man that had something important to say and that he expected the recipient to listen to him with the utmost care.
"I'm sorry, what can I do for you lord Jiraiya." Naruto said, standing to attention, his eyes never once leaving the toad sage's own.
"Stone is amassing a force south of the village hidden in rock. I suspect both have joined forces and are preparing to move through the land of grass."
"I expected this to happen." Naruto's voice was shaky, his breathing shallow. "Just not so soon."
"There's more."
Looking up at the man, Naruto realized that he had never seen the man so nervous before. There was a light sheen of sweat along his brow and he was shifting uncomfortably from one foot to the other. War was bad and all. Horrible even. The worst thing that he could imagine. But the man before him had experienced two others. This was not the normal reaction he saw from most of the veterans he had interacted with so far. What could have one of the Sannin so unsettled?
"What else, have cloud decided to join them as well?" Naruto asked. Now that would be nerve wracking. Three of the great hidden villages against just them and the minimal support that they would receive from the sand. They would be on the losing side immediately. Not good. Not good at all.
Jiraiya took a steadying breath.
"Hanzo is on the move. He's headed toward the leaf village as we speak." Jiraiya took another small inhale, nostrils flaring at the action. "He should be there in a day or two."
"What does any of this mean?" Naruto asked, not having a clue of the implications.
"I'm not entirely sure if I know myself. But I thought I'd give you some warning." he paused. "If fighting breaks out, we'd win, but there might not be much of a village to come back to."
The older man looked through the trees back toward the leaf.
"The collateral damage would be enough that we'd surely lose this war."
Looking out over the fields in front of him, Naruto could immediately see the difference between his last encampment and this one.
For one, there was a fucking giant earth wall at the far east side of the camp, open in section where trenches had been dug for shinobi to launch long range ninjutsu from. It stretched from one cliffside to the other, effectively cutting off their opposition from making an easy pass through to the valley exit behind them.
The other thing he noticed was the shinobi. They were significantly more run down the other lot, and that was saying a lot. The other bunch had been on what he thought were their last legs. How was the defection rate for shinobi not higher than it was during a war? Surely being overworked to this level would make more of their shinobi want to abandon the cause, not less.
Gazing through one of the many openings in the wall, he could see the no man's land they had between them and the enemy. 200 meters of mud, craters, and the dead, unable to be retrieved lest the men and women sent to get them meet the same fate.
The smell was horrible. The rotting flesh, moist as it was from the morning mists, baking in the midday sun was another thing to add to the long list of demoralizing circumstances the leaf ninja had found themselves in.
He would have to end this little mission quickly. The hokage may need him if Hanzo were to try anything. That's what he told himself at least. The urgency was probably derived more from the want to get away from that smell
Joru saw him as he entered their side of the valley. Looking around himself he saw the other shinobi beside him had also noticed. They perked up at Naruto's entrance, the appearance of the red death bringing some hope to the shinobi, surely believing that the participation of one of the leaf's heavy hitters, the red death, their own resident jinchuriki, would soon bring an end to the fighting. He supposed they weren't wrong, they just didn't realize that there would be more death than they'd seen yet before that outcome was achieved
Fucking idiots, the lot of them.
Looking to his left, inside the command tent he saw Mimiko animatedly talking to the commander in charge, some jonin named kezui or something of the like. Mimiko was the best of their little team at dealing with those who were in charge of them. Joru didn't like the man. But then again, he didn't really like many people. And that fact, meant that he would not be the one to talk to the man about their plan of attack.
Peering closer at her face and body language, he could see that Mimiko had perked up considerably. Her shoulders were tense. There was a regular twitch of her body suggesting toward the entry way. She had a small smile on her face now, one that spoke of joy and worried anticipation all at once.
She had noticed his arrival as well then.
He's still a couple hundred meters out or so. Her sensory range is increasing significantly.
He could hear over the din of the crowd now gathering as she hurriedly dismissed herself. She made her way toward him, feet almost tripping over one another in her haste. He chuckled to himself at her eagerness. Naruto was completely oblivious to it, but she was obsessively in love with him.
Not in any kind of romantic sense. No not in the slightest. She was in love the way someone was in love with a movie star or a hero. No, even greater than that. admiration to such a degree that it warped the perception of them to the point of sheer reverence. That person could do no wrong. They could make no mistakes. Everything they did was the good and righteous thing to do. If they told you to drink the poison, you would do it, smiling as it burnt your throat and churned your stomach. And for that she never did see him for what he truly was.
He was a monster.
A monster that would rend the flesh of their enemies and feast on the bones. The best kind of monster. The kind that knew what they did was wrong. Objecting to it even. The kind that did it anyway, for nothing more than orders. Never admitting to others or themselves that they had the choice to walk away, and the chance to leave the killing behind.
And like Mimiko. Only with much more awareness than the naive girl.
Joru loved monsters.
She said nothing to him as she approached his space in the centre of the camp, not even deigning to look at him. He really wanted to break her. See that pretty little face of hers covered in tears, drooling and bloody. Begging him for mercy as he ruined everything she was. As he tore her down and remade her from the ground up, only to break her to pieces once more. Over and over again until nothing recognizably Mimiko remained.
Joru loved monsters because he was one himself. Proud of it too. If only the other two would make it there. Achieve that serene state of mind, where they stopped denying the truth of what they were. Their other teammates had, so why couldn't they.
"Our little red has returned it seems, eh Mimiko?" he said, his voice thick and heavy with a mockery of joy.
"I can see that dipshit." Mimiko spat. Turning back to Naruto's direction, brushing some of her orange hair away from her cheek. twirling the strand briefly before catching herself and returning the wayward hand to her side.
"He's late like always. Such a terrible soldier no?" he couldn't help the smile that broke out on his face at what he knew was coming.
The kunai was at his throat faster than he could register the movement. The point touching just under his chin, drawing a large, shimmering drop of blood. It traced a path all the way down to his chest before she spoke. Having leant toward him, orange hair tickling his cheek, her breath was hot on his ear.
"I wish you would be more bearable, just for a day. I wish I didn't want to kill you. I wish i dint want to kill my teammate. But I do Joru." her breath smelt so good as she said it. How could it not when it carried such sweet words. "I wish I could kill you everyday. One of these days I won't have the restraint to stop myself."
"You're too kind, Mimiko. But boy wonder is coming, and we don't want to make any bad impressions now do we." Joru said. She was so fun.
He watched as she stiffened, straightening her back and inhaling deeply. He could see the moment she buried the true part of herself deep under the surface, away from the light, putting it in that place where it would only grow stronger.
His whole team, even the two missing members, were all monsters. And he could hardly contain his excitement at what level of depravity they would all eventually stoop too.
Wars were an amazing thing to be a part of.
They were completely still. They were not shuffling on their feet. They were not moving their arms, lest the sound of fabric gave away their position. Their chests were not rising and falling as they breathed.
Come on. Come on, move you fucker. Move away so we can start killing you. That way we can all be finished and at least some of us can get a break.
A mist ninja had decided to come out for a piss, just seconds before they moved in on the trenches to begin causing a distraction to allow for the leaf ninja to make an assault on the enemy line. It was just inconvenient really.
Sure they could kill the guy. Probably quickly enough to not set off any alarm. But the risk was far too great. They weren't in position, they were too far to the left side of the trench still. I wouldn't funnel them to the centre and the attacking force would appear in the wrong area.
So Naruto remained still as stone for the 2 minutes it took for the man to piss, shiver, zip up his fly and meander his way back inside his little hole.
Pointing two fingers forward, he and his two teammates moved painstakingly slow pace forward. All the way to the centrepoint of the trench.
He turned to Mimiko and nodded his ascent for 'operation kill a bunch of mist ninja to begin'.
A few silent handseals later and naruto slammed his hands into the ground. Channeling chakra forward into the trench and then outward along its length.
Earth style: gate to hell
The ground yawned open, as a fissure 6 metres wide opened up along the length of the trench, roughly eighty metres in length. Shinobi unlucky enough not to be safely tucked away in the little sleeping nooks of the trench fell in. some fell to their death at the bottom. Some sustained injuries, bumping along stone ridges before righting themselves. Most, though, simply stuck themselves to the walls of the fissure, only a few metres down.
Good it was never meant to kill that many.
Naruto looked to his left when he felt a massive amount of chakra being gathered.
Mimiko was standing, chest thrust out. Her orange hair almost glowing as the tendrils whipped back and forth, curling and uncurling themselves on the imaginary breeze that her surging chakra was creating. Her mouth set itself in a thin line before she slammed her hands together in an imitation of a prayer.
Wood style: sacrificial bud of the rotten grove
Brambles grew their way out of the walls of his fissure, the vines of the bushes snaking their way along its surface. They snapped and jolted about, ;ooking for something to snag themselves around, finding only mist shinobi. The vines crawled up the legs of the enemy, thorns ripping and tearing the flesh, eliciting screams of agony and fear from them. A moment passed and only strangled gasps escaped those lucky enough to be choked to death by the things. The unlucky others merely groaned and whimpered as they began to wither before his eyes.
Blood leaked from their wounds. The crimson liquid absorbed by the leaves pressed against their skin like some kind of vampire. Naruto watched on as the skin grew taught against the bones. The eyes sunk into the skull. He heard as the cries for help died away, replaced by wheezing. All too fertilize the bushes, all to feed the blood red berries now perched atop the plants.
The world was silent for a moment and the view before him was of green and red.
Then the shouting began anew.
