Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Blood Stained Hands ❯ Whispers of Danger ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer : Naruto and all other associated characters are not mine nor are they being used for profit in the telling of this story.

 

Chapter One: Whispers of Danger

 

Dark eyes scanned the sea of rooftops before him, watching the early morning sunlight gradually illuminate the sleepy village as the sun steadily climbed its way higher into the clear blue sky. Below, many villagers were already moving about in the streets, preparing to start their day. As the sun climbed ever higher into the sky, the sounds of life began to rise in volume.

 

But to Sasuke Uchiha - sitting alone on one of the many rooftops - the hustle and bustle of daily life held little meaning to him. The activities the rest of his fellow villagers chose to spend their lives doing were no more important to him than the toils of a bunch of ants. He felt no connection to them, no common bond, no reason to feel like he belonged or was one of them.

 

He hadn't felt any kind of connection like that since he tried leaving Konoha more than two years ago. After his attempt to abscond from Konoha and join Orochimaru and his gang of missing-nin, he had become an unofficial outsider by those that now only tolerated his presence. It was rather ironic really - he had never wanted anything to do with Konoha when he was its favored prodigal child, but now, when the village only kept him around to make sure none of its secrets or coveted bloodline traits left with him, he was shunned.

 

Karma. It was a bitch.

 

Sasuke sighed, staring into the distance as the sun drove away the last lingering traces of night.

 

He knew he had only himself to blame for his situation. After all, no one had held a kunai to his throat and made him leave - his own ambition and thirst for vengeance had been responsible for that. But somewhere in the back of his mind, Sasuke still couldn't help but feel some small pang of anger towards the one that had dragged him - kicking and screaming - back to the village of his birth:

 

Namely Konoha's number one loud-mouthed, orange-wearing prankster and Hokage wannabe, Naruto Uzumaki…

 

Sasuke grit his teeth at the memory of that day. He'd been so sure he'd finally found a way to kill his brother and avenge his family that he hadn't cared about anything else but Orochimaru's promise to help him get stronger - and to hell with whatever the consequences might be! But just when he thought he could finally realize his dream, who should come along but his annoying, knuckleheaded teammate to drag him back.

 

Apparently the idiot had made some promise to Sakura to bring him back and even got several of their fellow rookies to go after him. It had been a brutal battle. Neji, Kiba, Shikamaru, Lee, and Choji had almost been killed by Orochimaru's bodyguards, the Sound Four, and only managed to defeat the curse-sealed ninja by the skin of their teeth.

 

But their battles were nothing compared to the one that had taken place between Naruto and himself. The memory of Chidori and Naruto's Rasengan meeting in a titanic clash of power still sent a chill racing down the Uchiha heir's spine. Looking back on it now, it frightened him how differently that battle could have ended. If he hadn't hesitated at the very last moment - sparing Naruto's life and giving the blond an opening to attack - he could have very well killed his teammate.

 

For a brief moment during that battle, he had truly wanted to kill the blond - to finally prove he was stronger and sever his last and only remaining tie to Konoha. But something had stopped him. Itachi had said the only way for him to fully mature his Sharingan was to kill his best friend. He could have done that with Naruto. Somehow during their time together on Team Kakashi Naruto had become his best (if not only) friend. He could have finally obtained the legendary Mangekyo Sharingan like his brother, but to do so would have resulted in not only the death of Naruto but also some small part of himself. And he couldn't do that. No matter how annoying the loudmouth could be at times, Sasuke didn't want to see him dead.

 

Whatever the case or his reasons for stopping, he had ultimately been knocked unconscious by Naruto's Rasengan and woken up back in Konoha under heavy ANBU guard. Charged with attempted desertion, he'd only been allowed to continue being a ninja by agreeing to submit to a number of strict rules laid down on him by the village elders and new Hokage. He was no longer allowed to move around the village freely. Although they never made themselves known, he knew he was under almost constant surveillance by covert ninja. He wasn't allowed to leave the village - even on a mission - without an ANBU escort to make sure he didn't try to leave again, and was now restricted as to what kind of missions he could take. There was also question as to whether he would be allowed to join the ANBU black opts someday.

 

He had lost all chances of ever joining Orochimaru and learning how to defeat his brother that day Naruto brought him back. In a way he still resented Naruto for bringing him back. But at the same time, he was secretly grateful for the blond klutz. Despite his still burning desire to hunt down and kill Itachi, over the years he had come to the conclusion that him joining Orochimaru and submitting to such a dark and self-destructive path would have been exactly what his older brother wanted him to do. And he would be damned if he ever let Itachi manipulate him like that.

 

Unfortunately, he'd never gotten a chance to thank Naruto for saving him; for shortly after bringing him back to Konoha, Naruto had left with his strange new sensei, Jiraiya, for intense individual training.

 

Sasuke hadn't heard anything from the blond whirlwind since.

 

Sakura along with many of the other Rookie Nine had also gone off to individual training. He still sometimes saw Sakura around the village, but she was often too preoccupied training with the new Hokage to become a medi-nin to talk with him. And even when they did run into each other, she no longer looked at him the same way she used to. It seemed his betrayal of the village and him nearly killing Naruto had shattered whatever schoolgirl crush she once had for him. There was a tension now between them Sasuke couldn't quite explain. It was like she was suspiciously wary of him now.

 

Sasuke sighed and stood from his place on the roof. He'd always been alone - had been ever since his brother slaughtered their entire family. But now, more than ever before, Sasuke truly felt the cold, burning sting of loneliness deep inside his heart. For with Naruto's departure, he'd lost his one and only true friend in Konoha. He had no reason to stay anymore, but no longer had the option to leave.

 

It was a truly sad and pitiful state he was in. There were times when Sasuke wondered if he would ever get his revenge on Itachi…

 

Turning away from the rising sun, Sasuke kicked off the edge of the roof and began to make his way towards the other end of the village, bounding from rooftop to rooftop like only a trained ninja could do. He was suppose to meet Kakashi later that morning to discuss his next mission. After his attempted desertion and in agreement with his tenuous terms of return, Kakashi had been one of the only ANBU sensei willing to take responsibility for overseeing Sasuke's missions and making sure he didn't try to leave again. The silver-haired jounin still treated Sasuke as his student and continued to train him, but at times Sasuke felt like Kakashi was really doing nothing more than filling the role of some kind of glorified babysitter. It was so degrading at times it made Sasuke seriously begin to consider trying to leave Konoha again.

 

Leaping from rooftop to rooftop, Sasuke eventually came within sight of the main gates of the village. The towering wood doors were open, offering passage to the outside world to everyone else but him.

 

Sasuke probably would have gone past the gates without even a second glance if he didn't happen to spot out of the corner of his eye two figures coming through the gates into the village at that very moment. One was a tall man with long, spiky white hair that reached almost to the ground. The other was a boy, no older than his mid-teens, with a headful of unruly blond hair.

 

Sasuke almost missed his footing on the next rooftop in his startled haste to stop. For a moment all the Uchiha heir could do was stare, frozen by the sight of the one he beheld.

 

Naruto…

 

It was him... The loudmouthed prankster. He'd finally come back…

 

At first Sasuke didn't know what to think. But then with hardly any hesitation, he took off in the direction of his friend while somewhere in his heart the loneliness that'd consumed him for the past two years suddenly didn't feel so bad.

 

oooooo

 

“Good to be home, kid?” Jiraiya chuckled as he watched his student excitedly look around.

 

“Wow! The village's hardly changed!” Naruto exclaimed, almost bouncing in place. He hardly seemed to know where to look first. “Ugh. But I see they finally got around to putting the old hag's face up,” he said, glancing at the huge stone image of Tsunade's face looking down on them from the mountainside overlooking Konoha.

 

“Show some respect, kid,” Jiraiya warned. “If Tsunade hears you calling her old again she's going to punch you into next week.”

 

For his part, the hyperactive ninja actually did Jiraiya the favor of blanching in fear.

Smirking, the Sannin said, “I actually have to go check in with the new Hokage now, so why don't you go look around the village a bit.”

 

“Yeah, okay!” Naruto exclaimed, his whiskered face breaking into an ear splitting grin. “The first place I'm going is Ichiraku! I haven't had any decent ramen in ages!”

 

Jiraiya shook his head and gave a long-suffering sigh. Leave it to Naruto to put ramen first on his things-to-do list after being away for more than two years. One would think after so much time he might want to see his friends or check up on some old acquaintances, but no. The kid just wanted to go to that blasted noodle stand of his. He guessed it was only natural. After all, Naruto's love for ramen bordered on legendary. It was all he'd heard about their first six months of training how no other place could match Ichiraku`s noodles.

 

Still shaking his head at the hopelessness of his student, Jiraiya turned to leave. But before he could even take a single step away, the wandering Sannin abruptly stopped, his eyes narrowing in disdain.

 

Before them, standing several yards away blocking their way into the village was none other than the prodigal wonder-child of Konoha, Sasuke Uchiha.

 

Jiraiya had to fight with himself not to let his animosity show. He might have not been present during Sasuke's attempted desertion, but he had heard all about it from Tsunade how the power-hungry brat had almost killed Naruto. Through his and the Hokage's frequent messages to each other Jiraiya had heard about the regulations put on Sasuke restricting him from leaving the village. If it had been up to him he would have never even let the brat back at all. But he guessed that was why he wasn't the Hokage…

 

Naruto however didn't seem to hold any reservations greeting his former teammate.

 

“Sasuke! You're still here!” he happily cried.

 

“Thanks to you,” the other boy replied, his tone unreadable and expression impassive.

 

“So they let you stay after all. I had to beg Tsunade not to kick you out. She said she was half-tempted to banish you even after all the trouble we went through to get you back.”

 

Sasuke's already ever-present frown deepened. “Well, then I guess I'm just lucky to have a loser friend like you,” he snidely replied.

 

Naruto's face warped into a disgruntled pout. “Don't call me a loser. I can kick your ass from here all the way to the other side of the village now without even breaking a sweat. Plus…” he trailed off with a vulpine grin, stepping closer to Sasuke until he was standing right in front of him, “I'm taller than you now.”

 

Sasuke was dismayed to note the blond was right. Sometime over the last two years the hyperactive blond had shot up several inches, making him have to actually look up at Naruto (something the dark-haired boy was not pleased to admit).

 

“That's probably because you haven't been eating that godforsaken ramen of yours,” Sasuke retorted, folding his arms across his chest. “That stuff probably stunted your growth several years.”

 

“Speaking of ramen, wasn't that where you were just heading, Naruto?” Jiraiya briskly cut in, eyeing Sasuke darkly. He didn't like his student talking to boy that'd almost killed him. Hopefully he could distract Naruto into forgetting about Sasuke and going in search of his aforementioned noodles. In his opinion, the less Naruto hung out with Sasuke, the better.

 

But it seemed Naruto wasn't of the same mindset.

 

“That's right! Come on, Sasuke! I want some ramen! You can treat!” Naruto shouted, grabbing the other boy by the arm and dragging him away in the direction of Ichiraku. “I want to know what you've been doing the last two years. Maybe we'll even see some of the other rookies. How's Sakura? Have you heard anything from Gaara? Jiraiya wouldn't let me write any letters or tell me anything about what was going on back home while we were training. He said it would distract me. Have you been training with Kakashi-sensei? Did you learn any new moves? We'll have to go spar sometime. But not before we go to Ichiraku!”

 

The hyperactive teen's voice gradually faded into the distance as he continued to bodily pull the dark-haired boy after him, all the while happily babbling on without giving Sasuke any time to actually answer.

 

Jiraiya stared after them, displeased with the idea the Uchiha boy was still with Naruto. If he didn't know better he would have almost said Sasuke looked… content, with the faintest hint of an actual smile on his face, as Naruto dragged him away. He didn't like it. He was going to have to talk to Tsunade about this. After what that boy did trying to leave the village, he didn't trust him anymore. Naruto was too trusting a soul to believe his former teammate could still be dangerous. It was kind of amazing how easily the naïve boy could forget personal slights like that (even those that'd almost resulted in his death…)

 

Yes, he was going to go straight to Tsunade about this. That Uchiha boy was bad news…

 

oooooo

 

As chance would have it Sasuke and Naruto did happen to meet up with some of their fellow rookies on the way to Ichiraku. First their old teammate Sakura, then the old Team Eight - Shino, Hinata, and Kiba along with a grown Akamaru - and as a final stroke of coincidence Rock Lee and a slightly disgruntled looking Neji. More out of wanting to catch up with their friend who they hadn't seen for the last two years than any actual desire to sample the culinary delights of Ichiraku ramen, the others agreed to accompany the two to lunch.

 

Unfortunately, blinded by the warm welcomes of his friends and excited exchange of news Naruto failed to notice the suspicious glares aimed at Sasuke behind the blond's back as they seated themselves in the noodle shop and gave their orders. Even after two years none of them had forgotten Sasuke's betrayal or the way he'd almost killed their friend, and made no attempt to pretend they had.

 

Sasuke however gave no sign he saw their looks or noticed their hostile auras, and chose rather to ignore them with his usual indifferent air of superiority. As if to prove he truly didn't care what the others thought of him or his past mistakes he purposely sat himself right beside Naruto at the counter, secretly enjoying the way the others had to speak around him if they wanted to talk to Naruto.

 

“So you're training with the old hag now?” Naruto asked, slurping up a mouthful of noodles as he glanced down the counter towards the pink-haired medi-nin in training sitting at the other end beside Lee. “How's that going?”

 

“Don't call Tsunade-sama an old hag!” Sakura yelled, glaring at her old teammate. “Not only is she Hokage but she's also one of the most skilled medi-nin alive. She could tear you in two if she wanted to.”

 

“Yeah, whatever…” Naruto mumbled, slurping up another mouthful of noodles. “She tried to do that before and didn't beat me. She should just give me the title of Hokage now.”

 

Sakura looked ready to lunge at Naruto, but Lee managed to grab her in time and hold her back.

 

“You must be very strong now,” Hinata softly spoke up, looking at Naruto with shy, adoring eyes. “After two years of training you must have learned a lot.”

 

“Sure did!” Naruto beamed, eager to boast. “I could beat up almost anyone now!”

 

Sasuke wasn't the only one to roll his eyes at the blond's usual loudmouth bragging.

 

“Then you probably came back to Konoha at the best of times,” Neji said.

 

Naruto quirked an eyebrow at him. “Why's that?”

 

“No one has actually said anything about what is going on, but we have noticed the last couple weeks that the jounin and ANBU ninja in the village have been acting strangely,” Lee explained. “Gai-sensei and a couple of the others seem anxious, as though they are waiting for something big to happen.”

 

“It's true,” Kiba agreed, his expression grave. “Kurenai- sensei didn't come with us on our last mission because she said she had to stay behind in the village for security reasons.”

 

“Tsunade-sama's been acting strangely too,” Sakura added. “She's seemed more stressed lately, and keeps having these secret, closed-door meetings with ANBU black opts. Something`s going on…”

 

A heavy silence descended on the noodle shop, the mystery of the village's top ninja's unease an almost tangible presence in the air.

 

Beside Naruto, Sasuke sat quietly on his stool, digesting the others' observations as his eyes narrowed in troubled thought. He too had noticed something off the last few weeks. More than once in the past month Kakashi had disappeared without any word as to where he was going or why. It was almost like the ninja of the village were preparing for war.

 

“Well, whatever everybody else is worried about doesn't scare me!” Naruto loudly announced to the shop. “If someone wants to attack Konoha, then let them come! I'll stop them!”

 

Many of the others didn't pay attention the blond's boasts. But beside Naruto, Sasuke felt an unexplainable wave of dread rise in the back of his throat, as though Naruto's boasts had somehow just sealed the hyperactive prankster to a dark and tragic fate…

 

oooooo

 

“I'm telling you, Tsunade, I don't like that kid. He needs to be stopped from talking to Naruto.”

 

“As much as I dislike Sasuke myself, I cannot just arbitrarily ban the two of them from seeing each other. Naruto would probably think we were somehow trying to punish him if we did that,” the Fifth Hokage of Konoha sighed as she wearily leaned back in her chair. On her desk was a small mountain of paperwork. One pile near the edge looked precariously close to toppling onto the floor. “Besides,” Tsunade went on, looking up at Jiraiya with shadowed eyes, “there are more serious matters for us to deal with than Naruto renewing his friendship with Sasuke…”

 

Jiraiya abruptly stopped his angry pacing in front of Tsunade's desk and took a seat in one of the chairs facing her. “What's going on? I noticed the extra security you had posted at the gates when Naruto and I came back this morning. Are you expecting some kind of attack?”

 

“Possibly,” the female Sannin replied, tiredly massaging the pinch of skin between her eyes. “Over the last few weeks we've noticed a number of enemy scouts on the borders of Konoha. We think it's Akatsuki. We managed to capture two of these scouts on different occasions but both bit down on cyanide capsules hidden in their mouths and died before we could get the chance to interrogate them.”

 

“That doesn't sound good, Tsunade,” Jiraiya murmured. “Do you have any idea what they might be after?”

 

Tsunade's already troubled face darkened. “We have no way of confirming it, but we think Akatsuki might be searching for jinchuriki - human demon-vessels. Two weeks ago I received word from our spies in the Sand country that Gaara, the new Kazekage, was attacked and almost killed by two known Akatsuki members. He managed to escape without harm, but such a direct attack on a powerful country like Sand is a troublesome sign of Akatsuki`s growing strength. There have also been unconfirmed reports from several other countries of other jinchuriki mysteriously disappearing.”

 

“You don't think Akatsuki would actually dare to try attacking Konoha, do you?” Jiraiya asked. Both knew the implications of what other such attacks and disappearances could mean.

 

“I honestly don't know what to think anymore, Jiraiya…” Tsunade sighed. Leaning forward in her seat the kunoichi desperately speared her old teammate with worried blue eyes. “Please, Jiraiya, you have to tell Naruto to be careful. I don't know how much longer it's going to be before Akatsuki finally comes after him…”

 

oooooo

 

Night had long since fallen over the land of Fire. Hovering in the inky sky a full moon gazed down on the silent land below, bathing it in silver, ethereal light. Beyond the gates of Konoha, nothing but miles of empty forest stretched out in all directions towards the dark horizon. But somewhere in the quiet wilderness a lone figure stood on the highest branch of an ancient oak tree, staring at the sleeping village nestled between the rolling folds of land in the distance.

 

Swirling red eyes gazed over the upturned collar of a billowing black cloak that hid the rest of its owner's form from view. As the mysterious figure continued to scrutinize the Hidden Leaf Village another dark figure approached, silently bounding up the tree until he stood beneath him on the next highest branch.

 

“My lord,” the second figure whispered, bowing his masked head low, “our spies inside the village report our target has finally returned. We await your orders.”

 

The red-eyed figure balanced silently a moment longer before finally tearing his swirling, tomoe-dotted gaze away from the unsuspecting village.

 

“After two years of waiting it is finally time to attack,” he said, his unnatural eyes shining eerily in moonlight. “Alert surrounding squads. We attack tomorrow night.”

 

As the other ninja bowed and disappeared back into the night, Itachi Uchiha turned back towards the sleeping village of Konoha. “Soon,” he whispered under his breath like a deadly promise. “Soon, Uzumaki, until you and that demon inside you finally belong to Akatsuki…”

 

Then like a blurry shadow blending back into the night, Itachi disappeared without even the slightest rustle of leaves to betray his departure…

 

To Be Continued…