Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Naruto of the Mirage ❯ Chapter 18 ( Chapter 18 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
Naruto had been confined to his hospital bed for too long. Despite the reassurances of his mother that it was necessary to prevent against further damage from chakra exhaustion. The amount he had used to defeat Gaara and defend his home had been monumental, using up all of his unnaturally large chakra supplies, as well as forcing a good amount of the Kyuubi's chakra into use. Safe to say that he wasn't expected to awaken for a good week and a half. Granted he was anything but normal, so it wasn't too much of a surprise that he petitioned to be released minutes after waking up.
Thankfully, Tsunade denied his request and forced him to spend at least the next day in the room, under her strict surveillance. After that, he should be able to return home, given that he doesn't exert himself too much…but since he had a tendency to overdo everything he does, more like no working out what so ever.
He hadn't taken his forced vacation well, especially when he could have been able to help out the village, which needed a lot of help rebuilding. That was where the rest of his family was, while he was stuck helping Tsunade sort papers. One of the lessons from this encounter was the unfortunate truth that Sarutobi was growing on in his life, and a suitable replacement must be found before long. Fearing what would happen if he offered the post to Jiraiya; the old and wizened man offered the office of Godaime Hokage to Tsunade. He had always hoped to be able to pass on his position to one of his students, now that his true successor was gone.
He had gone to see his only female student to offer her the job and was expecting a long argument from the blonde, but was shocked when she accepted his offer after only a few days of thought. He was almost sure that she would refuse because of her brother, Nawaki, and her one time boyfriend, Dan. It was both of their dreams to become Hokage, and she had taken their deaths rather harshly. Whenever the grey haired man thought of this a sad smile would take over his face. It was against the very nature of a Kage to not feel sorrow for one as close as Sarutobi was to his students, especially when that sorrow was caused by death.
Where does the smile come from? Well, the first thing that Tsunade did when she began her journey was to `visit' the Stone ninja in their home. Once again, the Iwa Shinobi suffered sleepless nights and extreme fear of a blonde haired Konoha ninja.
Returning to his original train of thought, Sarutobi couldn't help but feel a sense of relief pass over him. This arrangement would be best for Konoha, which would in essence have two Kages to guide them through the times ahead, one in battle and the other in her wisdom and with the utmost respect of the village. The future of the village was in good order.
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“Finally! I can get out from behind that stupid desk!” Naruto was ecstatic about his release from paperwork. If that was what the Hokage did all day, he might just reconsider his job options in the future. He had suffered behind that desk for an entire week before he was cleared to help out with the manual labor with the rest of his friends. To celebrate his freedom, the young man quickly made his way to Ichiraku for some ramen.
Tsunade had more important matters to attend to, most of them dealing with sorting out the results from the chuunin exam. From what she had seen, the genins, while impressive, didn't have the maturity to be chuunin at this stage. But after the attack from Orochimaru, the village did need more Chuunin…
As night set around the village, the two figures in black cloaks reached the gates of the village. They wore straw hats that shaded their face from view and their cloaks covered their entire body except for about six inches of their legs.
“We'll stay the night out here, and search for our target tomorrow.” The shortest of the pair said, his voice was emotionless and dead. The only visible part of his skin was his hands which had a ring on his right ring finger.
“What, seeing your old village make you nostalgic or somethin'?” The larger one asked, his hands were in his pockets and not a bit of skin was showing.
The shorter of the pair didn't answer and just walked over to a tree before climbing it using chakra and lay across a branch for the night, adjusting his hat so that no one would be able to see his face.
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The next morning Naruto reported along with his team to the Godaime to receive their assignment for the day.
“Team Seven…you're needed in the…” Tsunade wasn't the best at assigning missions, normally this was something that Shizune did, but she was off helping at the hospital, so the task fell to the female Hokage. She had been determining where placement of teams by need, but with all the focus on the rebuilding, the heaviest hit spots were already near completion, and thus most of the teams were reassigned to lesser areas of need. To pick the new areas, Tsunade had been throwing darts at a map of Konoha and presto! New location!
As her latest dart thudded into the map, she looked at the location and grinned.
“Team Seven, you are hereby assigned to help the rebuilding in Konoha's hotel district. If you weren't aware, the district sustained minimal damage, but if we are able to get the structures back in form, we can begin to make revenue from them again. You have your orders, dismissed!”
The quartet headed towards the building where they would start their day, passing through the center of the village on the way. None of the genin noticed the oddly dressed duo that were sitting at the counter of a small shop, eating breakfast. However, Kakashi did notice, although he didn't appear to. Upon sensing the legendary Copy ninja, both of the foreign shinobi tensed, but relaxed once the team had passed. No one noticed this action. As the three young ninjas began their work, Kakashi made some lame excuse about needing to check to see if he left his refrigerator running. They never noticed the hawk that began to circle in the sky, calling the attention of the higher ranking ninja.
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The two mystery figures finished their food and made as if to follow team seven, but midway towards their destination they were accosted by three figures. Sarutobi Asuma and Yuhi Kurenai had spotted the bird that Konoha routinely employed as both a messaging and alert system. At the time Kurenai had been training her daughter/protégée Haku in the harder aspects of genjutsu and the brunette had followed her mentor to assess the threat of these ninja.
For a moment the five shinobi just stood there and gauged each other. After a moment, the smallest of the cloak clad ninja spoke.
“It's been a while…Kurenai-chan. The voice was distinctly male, but not exceedingly deep like one would associate with men in their twenties and thirties.
“Uchiha…Itachi!” The genjutsu mistress stammered. Itachi was labeled an S-Class missing ninja after his `departure' a number of years ago.
In response to hearing his name, Itachi raised his head, revealing fully matured sharingan to all present.
Haku was in shock, Uchiha Itachi was a name known to most missing ninja. She remembered a time, not long after she and Zabuza had departed Mist, that her father figure had a run in with an old `friend' from the Seven swordsman. She hadn't been privy to the conversation except for what little she could discern from the next room over. Hoshigake Kisame had been extremely strong, even for a member of the seven swordsmen, and had garnered a reputation for assassinating daimyos, but that had recently changed. He had joined an organization of missing ninja and had come calling to recruit. He had mentioned that the genius prodigy of Konoha had recently gained entry to the same organization, by massacring his entire family. Haku had recoiled at the thought, memories of her father and the small group he led leapt to her mind.
“Haku!” Her head snapped around and looked at her mentor. “You must go alert Sandaime-sama that Uchiha Itachi is back in town, and headed towards the hotel district.”
She began forming hand seals for one of her strongest illusions.
“Magen: Jubaku Satsu.” (Demonic Illusion: Tree Bind Death) She whispered her technique and quickly two large trees sprung from the ground and wound their branches around the two ninja. However, as she began to reappear, seemingly out of the trunk, to decapitate the rouge Uchiha, she found herself at the mercy of her own illusion.
“I'm sorry Kurenai-chan, but I can't allow you to get any help. Kisame, deal with the girl.” Itachi ordered.
Kisame quickly made his way towards Haku, who turned to run, but upon hearing Asuma clash with the blue skinned man, she stopped to watch. Kisame was rather tall, and carried a large sword that was wrapped on his back. He was naturally blue skinned, despite the taunts that his mother ate too many blueberries when she was pregnant with him. He had gills and closely resembled a shark.
Asuma had donned his trusty trench knives, through which, he was able to channel chakra and extend the blade of his knife. Kisame took a shallow cut to his cheek from the initial assault, but grew wise to Asuma's ability and proceeded to draw his sword, Samehada, from his back and blocked the subsequent attacks.
The shark faced man took a swing at Asuma and connected with the chain smoking jounin's gut, cutting him badly.
“Hah! My Samehada can eat right through that pitiful chakra knife you have, but the best part is, it doesn't cut, it shaves!” He boasted before turning once more to Haku.
He disappeared from her view, and she instinctively leapt into the air, preparing a number of senbon needles as she did so. Kisame reappeared directly in front of her, even though she was in the air. Doing the only thing she could, she created an ice mirror and disappeared through it, looking for the old Hokage.
Kisame was taken aback, that bloodline had been wiped out years ago, he had been part of the team that made sure of it. How had the girl survived? Even if she survived the initial purge, she should have been found out in the subsequent sweeps of Kiri.
`She must have gotten out of the village…but how and to where, she didn't have the symbol of the leaf on her, so she must be new.' His pondering was cut short by his partner's curt voice.
“Kisame, ignore her, we need to move quickly if we are to acquire our target before the Sandaime can intercept us.” His orders came as he landed a hard chop to Kurenai's neck, immobilizing her before the duo continued on their path.
It didn't take long to find team seven, seeing as there was only one genin team assigned to the area. Sakura was off helping clean some of the rooms on the lower floor, while the boys were working from the top down. The two were about to make their presence known when they were interrupted by a pair of kunai thrown in their direction.
“We know you're there, come out brother!” Sasuke spat the last word as if he had swallowed soap.
“That runt's your brother?” Kisame asked, jovially.
“It has been a while hasn't it Sasuke…and you as well Naruto-kun, what has it been, four years or five?” The normally stoic teenager couldn't help but dig at the pair.
“NOT LONG ENOUGH!” The two yelled and charged their black haired tormentor together. Itachi was slightly impressed when a chidori erupted in his younger brother's hand, but more so when a crystal clear blade of ice formed around Naruto's arm. The duo's timing was spot on and any normally shinobi would have bit the dust. However, Itachi isn't exactly what could be considered normal by any stretch of the imagination. He simply grabbed Sasuke's wrist behind the chidori and ducked under the horizontal slash that came from Naruto, before he proceeded to throw Sasuke into Naruto.
Not losing hope, the brothers attacked again, this time with slightly different results, but the outcome was the same. This time it was Kisame that simply stopped the pair with Samehada to block the ice and a swift kick to Sasuke's side.
“I'm here too you know.” He joked, hoping to rile the two up more. It worked and they split apart to attack each opponent separately. Kisame stepped in front of Sasuke, forcing Naruto to fight Itachi. Years of training with Kakashi and their own sharingan had ingrained in the boys not to look at Itachi's eyes, or they would be as good as dead. By concentrating on his midsection and legs, one could easily determine the moves that someone was making. Naruto unleashed his satetsu and used his new attack.
“Satetsu KaihÅ!” (Iron Sand: World Order) Naruto declared as the black cloud formed an ever increasing branching ring of spikes that was designed to wound or trap his opponent.
Sasuke, on the other hand, had tried to engage the fourth member of the blue man group in an taijutsu battle, but was shocked at how smoothly Kisame was in a fight, especially with that awkwardly shaped sword. Forming a few hand seals, and inhaling a deep breath of air, Sasuke blew a large fireball towards his opponent, who simply smirked and hid behind his sword. The fire burnt the bandages that Samehada was wrapped in, but the dark blue sword, which was textured with many different scales, exactly like shark skin, just absorbed the attack. Sasuke scowled, this would be much harder than he thought.
Naruto wasn't having any better luck; Itachi had simply let the attack graze over his body, taking shallow wounds, but nothing major. Naruto had attempted to follow up with a flurry of punches; the distance was closed with a shunshin, only to be blocked off at every turn. He wasn't used to fighting again, after his draining encounter with Gaara, and could feel his muscles weakening as the one sided fight wore on.
Like wise, Sasuke was receiving a thorough beating, but unlike his brother, he was having a hard time keeping cool under the pressure. He was shocked at the power gap between his foe and himself. Even more disgusting to the young Uchiha was that he knew that Itachi was stronger. Struggling to stand up after a particularly vicious encounter with Samehada, which he had taken across his forearms; Sasuke began to go for broke, and formed his second and final chidori for the day. Charging forward at Kisame, Sasuke readied the crackling ball of energy and drove it towards his opponents head. Kisame hadn't anticipated that Sasuke would aim so high, and the only thing he had available to block with, was the handle of his sword. The blue electricity of the chidori met with the hard metallic handle of the shark named sword. Sasuke finally broke through, his hand continuing towards the blue man's head, only to be rocked when Kisame kicked his broken sword at the boy, winding him.
Rising to his feet again, Sasuke tried to feel for his chakra, but found precious little. He could feel a throbbing coming form Orochimaru's cursed seal, and decided to give into the call to power. But instead of feeling the rush of chakra to his body, he heard Naruto wince and clap his hand to his neck. In that second, Itachi had locked eyes with Naruto, and activated his mangekyou sharingan, trapping the boy in the world of Tsukuyomi.
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Anko had made her way to the hotel district at impossible speeds upon hearing that Itachi was back in town. Haku had been unable to find Sarutobi, but had reported to Tsunade who had been receiving a report from the kunai addicted kunoichi. She had pointed Haku in the direction of the public bath houses, more specifically the female side, for if Sarutobi couldn't be found, than Jiraiya and Tsunade would have to do. She made it to the building that Team Seven had occupied first and upon feeling the chakra from above her, headed up stairs as quick as she could. She arrived just in time to witness her son being pulled into the hellish nightmare that was the world of tsukuyomi.
Yet, after a second, to everyone's surprise, Naruto was unaffected by the technique! Itachi took a step backwards, eyes wide open. He couldn't figure out how it was possible, until he looked at Naruto's eyes. They weren't black as they had been before, or even the mature sharingan that he had witnessed during their fight. Instead, there was a black iris, with a red blade, the exact opposite of Itachi's mangekyou sharingan.
`He received Shisui's eyes; my mangekyou will be worthless against him. It was then that he noticed Anko's presence. The situation had broken down and he knew it. The only move left to make was a tactical retreat and he told Kisame as such.
“Why, it's only one worthless ninja?” He asked and made to charge Anko, who merely smirked and disappeared in a blur of motion, reappearing behind Kisame and having grabbed Naruto, handed him off to Sasuke. She was crouched to the ground and upon seeing the look of rage that he had been blown off, she smirked at the man.
“I don't see what's so funny?” He asked in a huff.
Anko calmly stood up, and straightened out her coat before pulling Kisame's left arm from behind her back, the appendage having been completely removed via kunai.
“Your nervous system leaves much to be desired.” She chided before turning her attention to Itachi. The youngest ANBU captain ever in the history of Konoha felt the chakra signatures of Tsunade and Jiraiya approaching and grabbed Kisame's sword an ordered the older ninja to retreat, blowing a whole out of the wall before leaping out of the building and fleeing into the surrounding forest.
After a sufficient distance, Itachi took the opportunity to dress Kisame's wound, the blue man had been in a state of shock that he had been humiliated by a Konoha kunoichi and had his arm removed. Once he had regained sufficient sense, he asked the question that had been bothering him since the encounter.
“Why did we leave, you could have taken her!” He asked boisterously.
Itachi's eyes narrowed in response.
“No, she is a special jounin for a reason, not just because she is good at torture, but because she was singled out by Orochimaru as his apprentice before he defected. He has been after the sharingan for such a long time that he studied it's weaknesses and created his entire style of fighting around it, a style which he passed on to Anko. She has been raised as a tool to fight Uchiha, a tool that could easily fight me equally unless she was to make a mistake. Not to mention that Jiraiya and Tsunade of the legendary three were moments away from arriving, there is no chance for us to escape with our target against them. The news of the jinchuuriki's eyes must be reported to the rest of the organization. We may need to amend the plan a bit.” He speculated as he continued to push ahead, back towards the base of his organization, Akatsuki.
Back in Konoha, all parties involved in the little skirmish were licking their wounds and pondering the day's events. Asuma wasn't as injured as he seemed, mostly the damage was superficial, but there was the worry of damage to his intestines and some other internal organs. Kurenai would have nothing more than a headache when she wakes up, although her pride will undoubtedly take a large hit. Naruto, besides having some major bruising, and muscle fatigue due to his activities, was being evaluated by Tsunade, who wasn't nearly as interested in his new sharingan, as Sasuke was. With the healing that she gave him, not to mention the Kyuubi's own healing powers, he shouldn't have been in such a condition. His muscles should have been back to perfect condition, not weakened like he had just awoken from a coma. She suspected some form of poison or other liquid and sure enough, during a scan of her `nephew' she found a large quantity of a foreign substance that she was unfamiliar with. After testing, she discovered that it was a laboratory created virus that targeted the immune and chakra systems and upon destroying it's host cell, would not only release new copies of the virus, but a good bit of potassium chloride as well, a very potent muscle inhibitor. The good news was that he had only recently been infected and with treatment, he would be cured of this problem quickly, the only issue left was, `how did he get this virus anyway?'
Sasuke hadn't taken much damage, other than to his pride and mind. First of, he realized how large the gap between Itachi and himself was. Secondly, he was angry that he couldn't land a blow to Kisame, but most of all, he felt sick to his stomach that he tried to reach to Orochimaru's cursed seal for power, and in the process, almost caused Naruto to fall victim to the tsukuyomi. He had forgotten that his seal was contained by Naruto's will and vice versa. He cursed at himself for forgetting something like that. It was because of him that Naruto had nearly been subjected to torture by his worst fears.
`I won't let it happen again!' He resolved to himself.
`Who are you?' Sasuke demanded.
