Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Legend of the Hidden Shadow Village ❯ Chapter 2

Naruto was growing impatient, as usual, with his teammate's slow movements. “Come on Ryumai, do you want us to get caught?” Ryumai looked at Naruto and shook his head. The two were trying to get into the girl's bath at the local hot springs. Ryumai had greatly objected, being a gentleman, and valuing being able to move his arms and legs, but Naruto once again tricked him into joining him on his perverted escapades. They were slowly sneaking towards the back of the roof when Ryumai accidentally knocked a tile off of the roof, causing it to fall right into the water where Sakura, Ino, Hinata, Tenten. And Sakura's friend Kina, were bathing. Naruto's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates, then he and Ryumai quickly transformed into tiles. They heard splashing in the water, as the sounds ceased, then the two heard footsteps going back into the building, so they transformed back to normal. They both looked up to see all five girls in towels, tapping their feet on the roof with their arms crossed, eyes glowing with an angry fire. Naruto quickly spoke up, “Hi ladies, we were just umm, practicing our transformation jutsu. Right Ryumai. Uhh, Ryumai?” He looked over to see Ryumai on his hands and knees apologizing. “You gotta be kidding me!” Sakura looked at Ryumai and said, “Stand up please.” And he did. “Ryumai, we forgive you because we know that Naruto tricked you into coming with him. But, we'd like you to stay and watch the show.” She smiled and said, “Besides, all five of us think you're kind of cute”, and winked at him. The shade of red his face turned would have put a tomato to shame. Then she turned to Naruto and said, “Time for your punishment for peeping on us while we were bathing.” Suddenly, all five girls pounced on Naruto. There was a good deal of girly screaming, and it wasn't from the girls. After about five minutes of that, the girls stopped attacking Naruto, revealing him a battered, mangled mess on the roof. Ryumai gasped in horror for several of Naruto's limbs were pointing the wrong way, his face was swollen and puffy, his nose appeared broken, and he was pretty messed up in general. This time, Kina spoke up, Ryumai thought her voice was beautiful, and he turned an even deeper shade of red when she looked at him. “ There Naruto. You've faced the consequences for watching us bathe. Now, Ryumai, it's time for your `punishment'. Oh don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you. No, your punishment is that you have to come to dinner with my mom and me. Tonight. At my house, and you have to spend the night.” She saw his jaw drop and his eyes grow wide. Suddenly his expression changed, he started smiling a broad smile, and Kina saw his eyes light up and thought to herself, “Now I've got his attention.” She smiled at him and said, “Be at my house at six o' clock. Don't be late.” She winked at him as the girls disappeared one by one. Ryumai helped Naruto to stand up, and Naruto jumped away rooftop to rooftop. Ryumai started to head home, but something suddenly appeared in front of him. When he looked, he saw it was Kina, still wearing a towel, but this time Ryumai noticed her perfume, her long hair hanging down her back in wet strands, and her eyes, her eyes were a sky blue, shining with a benevolent light. She was very close to him, and out of nowhere, she kissed him. They stayed that way for a minute or two, then they released each other, Kina smiled at him and said, “I meant to do that earlier, but not around the girls. See you at six.” She disappeared again, leaving Ryumai standing on the rooftop stunned and in love. When six o' clock finally came, Ryumai stepped up to Kina's doorstep and knocked on the door. Kina's mom answered. “You must be Ryumai. Kina's been preparing for tonight all day, and she's constantly talking about you. Come on inside. Please take your shoes off when you come in.” About three seconds after Ryumai walked through the door and took his shoes off, Kina ran up and hugged him tightly. “I've been waiting for you all day. I hope you like the meal I prepared.” When they let go of each other and Kina went back into the kitchen, Ryumai noticed the delectable scent in the air. He walked into the kitchen and saw Kina quickly stirring several dishes, frying, and a good number of other cooking. She noticed him and smiled, but did not stop what she was doing. “Kina, everything smells wonderful, you included.” “Don't worry, it'll be ready soon. I'll be ready after dinner.” She winked at him. “Would you mind setting the table,” “Sure.” Dinner went by without a problem, though Ryumai and Kina kept staring at each other the whole time. When it was time for everyone to go to sleep, Kina's mom showed Ryumai to Kina's room. When he asked her where he'd be sleeping, she laughed and said, “With Kina of course.” Once Ryumai had put his pajamas on, which was just his boxers, Kina walked in wearing her own pajamas. They weren't lingerie, but pretty close. She was wearing blue shorts that were beyond short and a blue t-shirt. Ryumai noticed that she wasn't wearing any socks, and she walked in, closed the door, and climbed into her bed. After a minute or so, she got up and stretched saying, “Is it really hot in here, or is just me? I think I'll make myself a little more comfortable. “Should I look away?” “Only if you want to.” With that, she proceeded to rip the sleeves of her shirt off, then almost half of the rest of her shirt, revealing a good deal of her body. Ryumai stood there admiring her for a minute, until she turned around and said, “Are you going to stand there and stare at me all night, or are we going to go to bed?” “Sorry. It's just that, you're so, beautiful. I can't keep my eyes away.” She smiled and said, “So you think I'm beautiful. Is that just my body?” “That's part of it. But just you, your body, your eyes, your voice, you're just beautiful altogether. The truth is, I'm in love with you.” She didn't appear surprised as she said, “I'm in love with you too. In fact, I've been in love with you since we met.” “Really?” “Yes, you couldn't tell?” “I guess I couldn't.” They shared a long kiss, and went to sleep. The next morning, when Ryumai had just walked into his own house, he heard knocking on the door. When he looked, it was Naruto. “Naruto what is it? I just got back in.” “Grandma Tsunade wants to see you, me, and Sakura right away.” “All right, lets go.” When they reached the Hokage's office she said, “I'm assigning you three to an S-Ranked mission. There are no available leaf village chunin or jonin, so your temporary team leader will be from the village that has requested our help.” Sakura asked, “Which village is that?” “The Village Hidden in the Shadows. It used to be just a legend, but one of their shinobi showed up and asked for the help of the leaf village.” “When do we leave?” asked Naruto, eager as ever. “Immediately. Once you're completely prepared, head out. The shadow shinobi accompanying you will meet you outside the village gates.” He'll seem a little dark and mysterious, but you'll be perfectly safe with him around. He's as powerful a jonin as Kakashi, maybe even stronger. And get this, he's only fourteen.” “How could he be a jonin at fourteen years old? That's impossible!” “It seems strange, but true all the same. He's one of the most powerful shinobi in the Shadow Village.” So thirty minutes later, Naruto, Sakura, and Ryumai walked through the village gates and looked for the shadow shinobi. Out of nowhere, they all felt something cold and sharp being pressed against their necks. It was a strange shinobi, wearing all black, with a mask covering all of his face except his eyes. Ryumai managed to blurt out, “We're leaf shinobi, we were assigned to help the shadow village.” The kunai left their necks, and two of the three shadow shinobi disappeared in a puff of smoke. Naruto was surprised, “Those were shadow clones!” “Very good, Naruto is it?” “How do you know my name?” “You've never heard of my village, but I've done plenty of research on yours. You're Sakura, and you must be Ryumai.” Sakura asked him, “Is it true that you're fourteen years old and already a jonin.” “One hundred percent true. Just because I'm a higher rank than you, I'm still only a couple years older than you guys, so just refer to me by my name: Ryo.” “Ryo, how far away is the Village Hidden in the Shadows from here?” asked Ryumai curiously. “If we head out right now, we'll be at the village entrance by tomorrow night.” So they began to run through the trees and towards the hidden shadow village. By the next night, they were standing in front of what appeared to be an enormous clearing. “Uh, Ryo, this is just a clearing in the forest.” Naruto said, very confused. “This is just a very special genjutsu. Watch.” Ryo then pulled out a kunai made of a strange black metal that seemed to absorb light, and cut his hand with it. He performed a series of hand signs unfamiliar to the three leaf shinobi, and pressed his hand to the ground at the entrance to the clearing and said, “Release!” After that, the clearing that had been empty only moments before was now full of buildings. “Come on, Lord Kage doesn't like to be kept waiting.” They all walked into the village, and Ryo lead them toward a giant building in the center of the village with a strange symbol carved into a large metal circle at the center. The symbol appeared to be an eye, which Sakura noticed was the same symbol on Ryo's headband. They walked into the building and headed to the top floor, where they stood before a huge wooden door covered in strange symbols, which Ryumai realized were actually pieces of sealing paper. Ryo walked up to the door and cut his hand with the same strange kunai as before, and drew a series of strange symbols on a blank piece of sealing paper near the center of the door. Ryumai realized that the symbols written on every piece of sealing paper on the entire door were written in what appeared to be red ink, but he now knew was blood. The paper glowed for a moment, and a very deep voice said from beyond the door, “You may enter.” At that, the door swung slowly open, revealing a large room lit only by hundreds of black candles. At the back of the room, behind a large table, sat a very thin man who appeared to be in his late twenties. He had been staring at some thing on the table, but looked up when the group walked in. He made a series of hand signs and pointed his open hand at the door, which closed silently when he closed his hand. He was garbed in a long black cloak, and a mask covered most of his face. His long hair went down his back, and his eyes were a striking green. “Ryo, I see you have brought help from the Village Hidden in the Leaves. We will need their assistance to solve the problem at hand. But I haven't introduced myself to our guests. My name is Sutol, and I am the leader of the Village Hidden in the Shadows, known as the Kage. Now, on to why I had Ryo go to your village and ask for your help. Thirty years ago, there was a young shinobi of great promise living in this village. His name was Garraki, and he had earned the nickname “Shadow Walker” because of his innate ability to travel through shadows. That ability is actually very rare, only a handful of shinobi have ever been able to learn it. Garraki had been working his way up through the ranks of the shinobi of this village, and eventually became a very high level jonin. But that wasn't enough for him. One of the sentinels was walking through the woods one night, and he chanced upon Garraki practicing shadow style jutsu that the First Kage deemed forbidden because of their dangerous side effects. The sentinel reported his findings to me, just as Garraki entered this very chamber and attempted to take my life. He was close to victory, but he tried to use particularly dangerous jutsu, the combination of the jutsu's side effect and his body being nearly drained of chakra caused him to become too weak to continue the fight. He fled into the forest and one of the sentinels found his dead body, or so we thought. We later found out that Garraki had killed one of the sentinels posted in the forest and transformed the body to look like him. When I say later, I mean that we realized this about two days ago, when one of the sentries encountered Garraki while patrolling the village. Garraki is after my life, and will not rest until the beating of my heart has ceased. What I need you to do is track down Garraki, and make sure he can hurt others no more. Will you complete this task?” Ryumai answered, “Yes sir. We will make sure that Garraki falls, and can never cause anyone harm ever again.” “Excellent. I will make your job a little easier by calling Garraki into the open. Once that is done, you may complete your task. Ryo, I will warn you, Garraki is like no shadow shinobi you have ever fought. He will use jutsu that were forbidden for a reason, thus, you might have to use that jutsu that I taught you many years ago. Am I clear?” “Yes Lord Kage, I will use that jutsu only as a last resort.” “Then you may be off. You will know when to head out, for the shadow village symbol will appear in the sky. Be careful young ones, do not underestimate Garraki, he is not an S-Ranked Jonin for nothing.” Thus, Naruto, Sakura, Ryumai, and Ryo headed towards the center of the village to wait for the signal.