Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Shinobi Hunter ❯ Searching ( Chapter 1 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

This is my latest idea. I'm not sure about pairings, but there will be some MxM and some MxF pairings. Maybe even an FxF if you send me a review asking for it.

Itachi stared at the odd scene before him with his head cocked to the side thoughtfully. He stood in the center of a hard packed dirt road in the middle of Stone country, looking forward with some great amount of interest in his Sharingan eyes. Lying on the shadowed path before him was a form, the twisted body of some hapless soul. The Uchiha’s eyes moved upwards, not quite being able to register the chakra signature of the dead felon’s killer. This was a more than unusual occurrence.
And there, standing above the mangled body, a shinobi hunter glared at Itachi through the curved eye slits of his mask. As Itachi watched unblinkingly, one of the hunter’s hands shot out and performed a series of odd flipping gestures, seemingly boneless in nature, and in a flash the mangled body was little more than a pile of ice shards quickly melting into the parched earth. Red eyes lingered on the damp patch of earth for a few more moments before rising to meet the penetrating gaze of the other. The hunter-nin tilted his head in an exact mockery of the Itachi’s pose. The Uchiha straightened his neck, and the other followed in a deliberate parody of his movements.
It was as if the jester had become the jested. As Itachi rose a hand to hold his hair against a sudden gust of wind, the other shinobi performed the same movement in flawless perfection. Each minute change of stance and posture was mirrored across the space between them. Even the other’s trailing obi seemed to mimic the flowing of Itachi’s cloud-spotted cloak. The Uchiha’s eyes began to narrow in annoyance when the sound of his partner trampling through the underbrush met his ears. The large nin meandered onto the path and stopped, quizzically glancing at Itachi and looking around.
“What are you staring at?” came the booming voice of the blue-skinned Hoshigaki Kisame. Itachi’s head slowly turned to expressionlessly take in the huge man and his bandaged sword, Samehada. Glancing back down the path, Itachi noted that indeed, the hunter-nin was still standing there. His Sharingan eyes returned to Kisame. The big man reacted as if there was nothing there.
Itachi turned back to the hunter-nin and deactivated his sharingan. Squinting his eyes to see the area between the disorienting and blurry framing of trees on either side, Itachi saw no dark form where the nin should be. There was nobody on the path before him. Any sign of dampness on the earth would have already been leeched away by the dry ground. There would be no indication that the nin had ever been there. Blinking, Itachi reactivated his Sharingan. Standing directly in front of him with the twisted grin of the mask only feet away, was the nin.
Red eyes blinked slowly in incomprehension as the figure before him seemed to grin ghoulishly at him, another figure appearing directly behind it. Something was familiar about the man. Itachi’s eyes swiveled back to Kisame. Something was definitely similar.
“Itachi, there is nothing there. What are you staring at?” Kisame grunted, exasperated with Itachi’s refusal to continue down the path.
“Is not Momochi Zabuza dead?” Itachi questioned, voice barely above a whisper.
“Yes. I don’t see what that has to do with anything.” The tall man grumbled. “And why the hell are you thinking about stupid stuff like that right now, anyways?”
“It is not stupid if I am asking about it.” the Uchiha quietly refuted. “You say there is nothing on the path. When I deactivate my bloodline limit, I see nothing as well. But with my Sharingan, there are two rather troubling figures besides ourselves.” All of this was stated in Itachi’s normal lackadaisical tone.
Kisame stared at Itachi for a moment as if the Uchiha had lost another handful of marbles. Shaking his head, Kisame decided to humor his partner and looked around. Itachi noted how the ex-Mist nin walked right through the others, much to their amusement.
“Zabuza-sama,” the hunter-nin laughed. “Is this really the great Hoshigaki Kisame you have told me of?” The other gave a curt nod and rested his hand on the other’s shoulder.
“Leave it, Haku. Our business here is with Itachi-san.” Zabuza relaxed his arm and braced it against a tree on the side of the path.
“Hai, Zabuza-sama.” the boy intoned with a bow of his head before standing to the side. As Kisame passed by him again, Zabuza reached out and smacked the Akatsuki member over the back of the head in a familiar gesture long unused. The reaction was immediate. Samehada was drawn and posed to strike as the blue-skinned Shinobi looked around for his assailant. Itachi smirked.
“You will not see him, Kisame, unless he wishes it to be so. You have walked through him three times and have only felt his touch when he wished to acknowledge you to his presence.” Itachi’s voice carried a certain amount of fondness for his partner’s distress. “Is that not so, Zabuza-san?” Zabuza materialized in front of a gaping Kisame, smirking through the bandages wound about his face.
“Hai, Uchiha.” Zabuza gruffed. “Kisame, it amuses me to say that you have changed little in the years since our parting. Has time affected you so shortly?” the man bantered.
Kisame blinked several times and slowly shut his jaw. He glanced over to Itachi and looked back to Zabuza. “Itachi, is this some kind of sick joke, or have I finally followed you past the brink of sanity?” The Uchiha looked miffed, if anything, about his partner’s question, but lowered himself to answer despite.
“There is no deception upon my part. You may trust your eyes and ears to tell you that the apparition before you is wholly of its own creation.” Crimson eyes shut themselves for a long moment. “But there is indeed the question of why they show themselves to us.” Another pause. “Speak, specters, of why you are here and I shall not seek pain in your amusement with my person.” A single sizzling glance was directed at the young Hunter, who seemed to twitch slightly away from it.

“Sakura-chan!” shrieked Naruto, running after the pink-haired girl who had left him lying in the dust. He caught up with her and walked a few paces behind her as he rubbed his sore cheek, sporting an imprint of the young woman’s fist.
“I didn’t mean it, Sakura-chan! I mean, I didn’t meant to say that!” the out-of-breath blond gasped. “What I meant to say was me and Sasuke-teme were going to Ichiraku’s for lunch and I wanted to know if you were going or not. That stupid Sai-baka wanted to come and all, but I told him ‘no’. And you can probably guess what happened after that, but…” Naruto cut off from his babbling. Sakura was glaring at him.
“The only reason, Uzumaki Naruto, that I will go to lunch with you is because Tsunade-sama wanted me to check up on him.” With that, she walked away in the other direction. For all that she’s gotten nicer, Sakura is still a bitch, Naruto decided.

Sasuke stared gloomily into a corner of Ichiraku’s with a still steaming bowl of barely touched ramen in front of him. Sai was sitting beside him, beaming a smile towards Naruto and Sakura who were arguing about something trivial, as per usual. It was just another noon lunch at Ichiraku’s.
Sasuke’s eyes shifted to the entrance to the noodle shop before moving back to the corner as Neji sat down on his other side. The Hyuuga was a little worse for wear, having just made it back from handing in his mission report from a month-long mission in Suna. The shadow of Neji’s hand flickered over the countertop as the ivory-eyed youth gestured for a bowl of whatever kind of ramen was already cooking.
Sasuke shifted to rest his chin on his palm, glaring at the wall to the side of Neji as a bowl of miso ramen thunked down beside him. The Hyuuga began to eat, and raised a slender brow at the Uchiha. Sasuke directed his glare at Neji for a moment before stabbing his chopsticks into his noodles and putting them in his mouth with a quickly darkening mood. This was going to be a long day.

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Yes! Haku is NOT dead (actually he IS, just kinda ghastly...). This fic is SO not canon. It's after Sasuke comes back, but Itachi is quite well, and many characters that died are still alive. Or, ghosts at least. Please review. I'll love you to death if you do. And it makes for faster updates on all my stories.