Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Devil's Hand ❯ Intel ( Chapter 1 )

Chapter 1: Intel

Silence. All around him no a tree stirred, no bird chirped, no wind blew nothing but silence. He was out there though, Naruto knew, somewhere in these motionless trees probably looking at him. He had two shuriken in his right hand which he help up ready to throw and a kunai in his left hand that he kept down by his side in case he needed to block something. His eyes were constantly moving trying but failing to see everything at once, his ears strained to pick up the slightest sound.
Suddenly he heard a branch move and threw both shuriken in that direction. They cut threw the air and a few leaves and went straight into the deep undergrowth. He heard two solid hits that told him the shurikens hit nothing a tree trunk and he reached to grab a couple more shuriken.

A shadow from above covered him as a shape dropped dwon from the sky, Naruto rolled to the right and heard a snarl as the shape hit the ground where he was a second ago. Naruto rolled back to his feet and saw as the figure hurled itself at him, snarling like a wolf as it came toward him. Quickly preforming a few hand signs, Naruto braced himself for the attack. The figure snarled as it thrusted it's right arm forward and grinned wickedly as it's claws sank into Naruto's chest. Naruto gasped then his body was suddenly consumed in a puff of smoke and when the smoke cleared the figure found it's claws embedded in a hunk of wood.

It heard metal fly through the air behind it and turned around and used the wood to block the three shurikens that were thrown at it. Naruto charged toward the figure as it flicked the wood off it's claw and bounded toward him. It rushed toward Naruto on all fours and then launched itself at him, spinning in the air as it came toward him. Naruto also threw himself at the spinning figure and slashed at him with the kunai in his left hand and they collided in mid-air. The figure got to his feet first and then jumped on top of Naruto and kept him pinned to the ground. It dug it's claws into his chest and tried to bite his neck, Naruto swung with his right and connected with the side of the figure's face.

It growled and pulled it's right arm back for a punch of it's own, Naruto gritted his teeth but then suddenly felt something a distance away and then held his hand up.

Naruto: "Kiba stop! Don't feel that?"

Kiba let his fist drop and got off of Naruto then helped him to his feet then started to sniff around as Naruto pulled out two kunai.

Kiba: "What is that? I've never felt anything like this before. Obviously it's chakra but it's definately not human."

Naruto: "Be on guard it's probably a demon."

Kiba strecthed his claws and then crouched low ready to spring in any direction, "I'm always on guard, oh and sorry about stabbing you earlier."

Naruto chuckled, "Don't worry about it I barely felt it and the cuts are already healed."

Kiba: "Hmph, the power of the Nine Tails is great."

Naruto: "Yea well...."

He fell silent as he felt the chakra split into four smaller ones then they suddenly vanished altogether. He heard Kiba growl slightly and began shifting around, looking everywhere at once.

Naruto: 'What the hell is going on here? Chakra's don't just vanish like that.'

They stood there for about five minutes but nothing around them moved, it was as silent as it was when they were having their sparring match.

Kiba: "Maybe we were just imagining things and there's nothing out there. We've all been jumpy since that attack five years ago so let's just head back to the village."

Naruto nodded in agreement and started to turn toward the village still thinking that it was strange that four chakras mysteriously appeared then vanished. He felt something rush past him and he heard Kiba cry out. A second later he felt a fist connect with the side of his face and was knocked to the ground and then he found himself struggling with something that was on top of him. Out of pure instinct he slashed out at the shape above him with his kunai and felt the resistence of cutting through flesh and felt warm blood flow onto his hand.

Something hissed above him and another blow connected with the side of his face and he felt the figure get up off of him. Naruto got to his feet and saw as something seemed to materialized out of thin air. It was about 5 feet tall and was covered in short, greenish, yellow fur had long arms and had short blades coming out of each of it's elbows. It clutched it's wound and backed away from Naruto as another appeared right beside it, facing Naruto and hissing at him. Naruto suddenly relized that these were the sources of the chakra that he and Kiba had felt earlier. He heard Kiba growl as the other two chakras appeared, Naruto held his kunai before him as the demons began to advance. He threw the kunai at one of the advancing demons and it held up it's arm causing the kunai to hit it's blade and splitting in half.

Naruto: 'Mental note: Don't get touched by that thing.'

The two demons began to rush toward Naruto and he preformed some quick hand signs.

Naruto: "KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!"

Smoke came out of nowhere and when it cleared there were seven Narutos.

Narutos: "Hehehe, try your best uglies!"

Six of them rushed forward and the seventh one vanished in a puff of smoke. The demons hissed as they crashed into the Kage Bunshins, the wounded one punched at one of the bunshins. It's fist was grabbed and it struggled to pull it's arm back. A bunshin jumped at it from it's left but the demon saw it coming and swung it's free arm toward it. It's elbow blade cut throught it's body and the bunshin vanished in a cloud of smoke.

The demon made a strong pull and managed to yank it's fist out of the first bunshin's grip. As it was about to strike out another of the bunshins came from behind and stabbed it in the back with a kunai. It cried out in pain and the first bunshin shoved a kunai into it's throat. It choked in surprise and the bunshin gritted it's teeth and made a fist around the handle of the kunai. The bunshin used all of it's strength to force the kunai down it's body, cutting through it's soft, fleshy torso with little resistence. It drew one last breath and fell back as it's blood poured from the vicious slash down the front of it's body.

The second one kicked the feet out from under one of the charging bunshins. It went down hard and landed on it's stomach, the demon quickly stomped it's foot into the back of the bunshin breaking it and causing the bunshin to vanish in a puff of smoke. While it's back was turned one of the bunshin's launched itself at it and grabbed it's neck and twisted it violently, killing it in an instant.

Kiba wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth as he faced the two demons that ambushed him. The blow wasn't hard at all, Naruto's hits were harder, but they surprised him and got in a cheap hit.

Kiba: "Hehe, you'll pay for that you demon bastards."

He bounded toward the demon on his right on all fours as the one on his left ran into the trees. The demon hissed as Kiba rusehd toward him on all fours and leaped into the air. Kiba stopped, looked in the direction the second demon ran in and smirked, then he looked up at the demon that jumped into the air and jumped after it. He sailed throught the air toward it and when he got close to it the demon turned into a small puff of green smoke. Kiba went straight through the smoke and landed in a tree but was able to balance himself on a branch then he turned to face the demon. He saw that it was still a puff of smoke and was floating down toward the ground, the smoke reformed and began to look around for Kiba.

Kiba quickly hid himself among the branches and skillfully and silently made his way down the trunk toward the demon. He saw as it rushed into the trees and Kiba jumped from tree to tree following it. When he got to the third tree he found the demon facing away from him scanning the treetops. Wasting no time Kiba kicked off the tree straight toward the demon's back, he grabbed the back of the demon's head as he landed and slammed it into the ground. He set himself quickly and lifted it back up and drove his knee staight into it's midriff. He pushed it away an in quick succession punched it's chest with his right, hit it's side with a left hook and rammed the heel of his palm into it's face. Kiba felt and heard the demon's bones break as it's head snapped back and warm blood sprayed over his hand and face.

He wiped some of the blood off his face and started toward Naruto's chakra. A bush rustled on his right just as the second demon sprang out of the forest behind him. In a blur of motion something shot out of the rustling bush and tackled the demon out of the air. Kiba turned just as the figure drove it's claws straight into the demon's head.

Kiba: "Good boy, Akamaru."

Kiba watched as Akamaru, looking just like Kiba, turned back into the form of a dog and bounded toward his master, barking happily. He jumped into Kiba's arms and began to lick the blood off of Kiba's face, his tail wagging. Kiba laughed and set Akamaru on his head and walked toward the clearing where Naruto waited. He found him staring down at one of the demon's, another wasn't to far away with a wicked slash down it's front. Naruto was surrounded by four Kage Bunshins who each had kunai out and were constantly looking around for any sign of trouble. Naruto looked up when Kiba and Akamaru neared him and he dismissed the bunshins, they vanished and Naruto looked back at the demon's body.

Kiba: "Got any idea what kind of demon this is?"

Naruto: "Nope, never saw, heard or read anything about this."

Kiba: "Maybe we should take one of them and ask the Hokage or someone."

As Kiba spoke the body of the demon turned to dust where it lay.

Naruto: "Guess we can't do that, let's go."

Akamaru barked and Kiba and Naruto ran through the forest toward the village as fast as they could.

Naruto: 'Hmm, whatever those things are I hope that Kakashi Sensei or Iruka Sensei knows what they are.'

They got to the closed gates of the village, on top of the gates were four ANKO ninjas keeping watch on top of the gate.

Guard: “State your name and class.”

Naruto: “Uzumaki Naruto, Jounin.”

Kiba: “Inuzuka, Kiba, Jounin.”

The guard nodded and signaled to someone in the village and a moment later the gates swung open. Naruto walked into the gates with Kiba right behind him, he nodded to the guards on either sides of the gates as he entered and they acknowledged him. He looked up and saw a single line of thread indicating a trap high in the sky, there were many others but they were nearly impossible to see and there was a huge net of them all around the village.

Things had changed drastically since Orochimaru’s attack five years ago and the appointment of the fifth Hokage Tsudane. The village was still tense even though there hasn’t been any sign of a new attack and traps were everywhere. There were less civilians in Konohagakure since the attack and many more ninjas roamed the streets.

Kiba bid Naruto farewell and he and Akamaru started walking in the direction of the Inuzuka house as Naruto headed in the direction of the academy hoping to find Iruka. When he got to the academy all the classes were over. He asked one of the instructors who were still there where iruka had gone.

Instructor: “Oh, yes you just missed him. He was heading down to the ramen shop about ten minutes ago, he’s probably still there.”

Naruto: “Thank you very much.”

As Naruto turned to leave the instructor called him, “ Oh and congradulations on becoming a Jounin. Out of all of the Genins I didn’t think you’d be one of the ones that became a Jounin.

???: “You aren’t the only one, he’s such a slacker.”

Naruto turned with a grin toward the ninja behind him who spoke, “You’re one to talk, Shikamaru, you’re still the laziest ninja I know.”

Shiakamaru: “Whatever, it’s not important right now. We’ve found Orochimaru.”

Naruto’s eyes widened and his body tensed, when he spoke his voice was quiet, “you’re sure it’s not genjutsu like the last village?”

Shikamaru: “Positive, this time Kakashi went with the scouts and used his Sharingan and this time it’s not an impressive illusion. And he felt Sasuke’s chakra there.”

Naruto: “Sasuke….”

Shikamaru: “Indeed, be ready to leave in the morning, we head out at seven so make sure you have your equipement.”

Naruto: “Who else will be coming?”

Shikamaru: “It’ll be me, you, Neji, Lee, Tenten, Ino, Kiba, and Sakura. Kakashi will be leading us.”

Naruto: “Sakura and Ino? Are you crazy? They just recently became Chunins, there’s no way they can be ready for this kind of mission. Why not Chouji or Hinata, she’s Jounin, or even Iruka Sensei?”

Shikamaru: “Because they are needed for defending the village and Ino’s jutsu is useful and Sakura was the first to volunteer for the mission, I added you and Kiba myself.”

Naruto: “I don’t think that Sakura should be put on this mission, it seems like a really bad idea to me.”

Shikamaru: “And I’m second in command and I think that Sakura’s chakra knowledge may be valuable to us later and she’s been training with Hokage.”

Naruto: “Still…”

Shikamaru: “It dosen’t matter, she’s coming whether you like it or not.”

Naruto threw his hands up in frustration and walked toward the ramen shop.

Shikamaru: “Remember, seven.”

Naruto: “Yea, yea whatever.”

Naruto walked down the street, thoughts buzzing through his head. He wasn’t even paying attention and he bumped into someone who was exiting the shop.

Naruto: “Sorry about that.”

???: “Oh, it’s you Naruto.”

Naruto: “Iruka sensei.”

Iruka: “I’ve told you before that I’m not your sensei anymore.”

Naruto: “So? I can still call you sensei, besides it’s more natural to me that way.”

Iruka: “Hahaha, I see that’s fine. So what’s on your mind? I can tell by your eyes that you have something occupying your thoughts.”

Naruto: *sigh*

Ten minutes later in the ramen shop.

Iruka: “ I see, you two ran into a few Sladers.”

Naruto: “That’s what they were? I had no clue.”

Iruka: “Yea, back when I was an academy student they used to be a huge problem around the village. They were pretty fast that have the ability to make themselves and their chakra become invisible for a short time. They also can become smoke for a limited time and move around like that. Back then to become a Genin you had to kill three Sladers, the last one I fought gave me the scar across my nose. Three years after Kyuubi was sealed the Sladers seemed to vanish. There wasn’t a trace of them anywhere and we just continued life regularly, never wondering or caring why they were gone. But after all this time I wonder what brings them back…”

Naruto: “I donno but doesn’t matter, they’re dead now.”

Iruka: “No, where there’s one they’re always more, they’re very social demons and always travel in packs of about ten, some up to twenty.”

Naruto: “Hmm.”

Iruka: “ I also hear that you’re going with the squad to the hidden sound village.”

Naruto: “Yea and so is Sakura-chan.”

Iruka: “I wonder why they would take her?”

Naruto: “I wonder why as well.”

Iruka: “Doesn’t matter, how about I treat you to a bowl of ramen?”

Naruto: “You know I never turn down an offer like that.”

Iruka: “Hahahaha.”

**********
The room was dark and silent, there was only a single candle lit and it illuminated the face of Sakura. She sat on her bed, her hair long again, staring down at something in her hands. It was a photo of her, Naruto and Sasuke the last time they were together, her thumb was rubbing the Sasuke in the photo.

Sakura: “I miss you so much, why’d you have to go? I don’t understand at all. But I’ll get you back and we’ll be together forever.”

She hugged the picture to her chest, blew out the candle and laid back in her bed.

**********
The next morning Naruto woke up at about 6:30 so he dressed himself and got all of his equipment ready. He sighed a deep sigh and locked and left his room. He arrived at the gates and saw that almost everyone was there. Kiba and Akamaru, Tenten, Lee, Neji and Ino were already there.

Neji: “Hey, good to see you again.”

Naruto: “ Likewise, how long has it been? A year?”

Lee: “About that much, I wonder how much you’ve improved.”

Naruto: “Hahaha, same here.”

Kiba yawned and stretched, “Man, where’re the others? Making us get up so early then not even showing up.” Akamaru barked his agreement.

Ino: “Here comes Sakura-chan.”

Naruto turned and looked toward the village as Sakura came holding something white in her hand. As she neared them she put it in her pocket and waved them a good morning. Naruto walked toward her before she got to the others and she stopped looking up at him.

Sakura: “ Naruto, so good to see you again.”

Naruto: “Sakura-chan, why did you volunteer to go on this mission?”

Sakura’s eyes narrowed, “ Isn’t it obvious? It’s been five years since we last saw Sasuke-kun and I want to help you guys get him back.”

Naruto put his hand on Sakura’s shoulder, “But you’re not ready, I think you should stay in the village.”

Sakura shook him off of her and confronted him, “ I don’t care what you think, I KNOW that I’m going on this mission just like I KNOW we are going to get Sasuke-kun back.”

Naruto: “But Sakura-chan…”

She ignored him and walked past him toward the others, Naruto turned toward her.

???: “Naruto-kun…”

A soft, quiet voice behind him surprised him but he didn’t let it show and he turned back to stare into the white eyes of Hinata.

Naruto: “Hinata-chan, nice to see you.”

When his gaze caught her’s her eyes dropped and she blushed and stammered slightly. Naruto shifted nervously because he found out last year that Hinata was in love with him. She didn’t know that he knew and it made Naruto slightly uncomfortable because he still had feelings for Sakura but he didn’t want to hurt Hinata’s feelings.

After she found some words Hinata looked back into his eyes, still blushing.

Hinata: “Naruto-kun….good luck. Be carful…it’s a dangerous mission and….you….might not….come back.”

Kiba: “Naruto, get over here!”

Naruto: “Coming! Sorry Hinata but I gotta go now, and don’t worry I’ll come back. We all will, don’t worry about us.”

Naruto started toward the group but Hinata grabbed his sleeve to stop him.

Hinata: “Naruto-kun…take this with you.”

She handed him a small scroll that Naruto pocketed, deciding he’d open it later. He embraced Hinata in a quick hug that made her blush even more and then started toward the group. When he reached them he noticed that Shikamaru had finally arrived, that only left Kakashi.

Naruto: “Let’s just leave now, he’ll be late as usual. He can catch up.”

He felt something fly through the air behind him and jumped to the side as three kunai hit the ground where he was. He pulled a kunai and spun it into his fist, he spun around just as someone else’s kunai whipped toward his forehead. Both kunai stopped a centimeter away from flesh, Naruto’s was near Kakashi’s throat and Kakashi’s stopped right between his eyes.

Naruto smirked and Kakashi grinned beneath his mast, “Glad to see you’re keeping up with your training.”

Naruto: “Glad you’re not getting rusty, old man.”

Kakashi’s eye twitched, “ Who are you calling old? I’m still young compared to all the older Jounins”

Naruto put his kunai back in it’s holder, “Eh, whatever old is old.”

Kakashi: “Hmph.”

Shikamaru: “Well now that Kakashi’s here I think that it’s time for us to leave.”

Sakura: “Yea, let’s go get Sasuke-kun back.”

Naruto looked toward the village as the group headed out, “Yea….let’s get Sasuke.”

**********
The hidden sound village was a surprisingly quiet place despite it’s name. The civilians there were always on edge because of the sound nins that were constantly roaming the village in groups. The villagers were tired, ragged and hungry but they couldn’t leave the village because of the countless number of traps the ninjas had set. They knew were every single trap lay but they hadn’t bothered to tell any of the civilians. Whenever a villager tried to leave they usually set off numerous traps that had to be re-laid, because of this the civilians were discouraged from going outside the village.

In the center of the village sat a big structure, the biggest one in the village. Inside the structure was a big chamber that was lit by rows of candles on each side of the chamber walls. At the back of the chamber there was a chair and in the chair sat Orochimaru. His elbow rested on his chair arm and his chin sat in his hand as he stared off into space. He closed his eyes then let out a deep breath, “Good to see you back, Kabuto, what news do you have for me now?”

As he spoke a man with glasses seemingly appeared out of nowhere, “News about Konohagakure, they’ve found out where we are and have sent a small squad to attack us.”

Orochimaru: “How small?”

Kabuto: “A nine man team led by Kakashi.”

Orochimaru: “The fools, sending such a small number to attack an entire village. They think to highly of themselves. Tell me who gave you the information.”

Kabuto: “It was the Sladers, of the ten we sent only six returned. We presume the other four were found and killed but I don’t think that they know we sent the Sladers.”

Orochimaru: “Good, send three more squads to join up with Kakeru’s unit. Speaking of which how are they progressing?”

Kabuto: “Steadily, they will be nearing Konohagakure in two days, the Sladers should reach them in time.”

Orochimaru: “Excellent work Kabuto now go see to those Sladers.”

Kabuto: “As you wish.”

He vanished just as the doors to the chamber opened and admitted two people into the chamber. Orochimaru sat up was a grin broke over his face as the two ninjas entered the chamber. One of them was a young girl, 18 years old, she wore tight, red pants, a pink shirt with sleeves that were a little to big for her. She had one brown glove on her left hand and brown pouches around her waist and wore simple brown shoes. Her purple eyes stared up at Orochimaru and her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail moved slightly as she walked.

The other ninja was a man, 21 years old, he wore a long black cloak that concealed his clothes. His shirt, pants and shoes were also black but were trimmed with red cloth, his cloak had a hood on it that he always wore up but when he looked up at Orochimaru with pure black eyes he could see the tattoo made up of two circles on his left cheek.

Orochimaru: “You two are just in time for your orders.”

Girl: “And what might those be?”

Orochimaru looked into her eyes and she averted her gaze choosing instead to stare into the shadows behind Orochimaru’s chair. Orochimaru turned his gaze back toward the man who just stared at him blankly.

Orochimaru: “ We’ll be having some visitors pretty soon and among them will be Copy Ninja Kakashi.”

The cloaked man didn’t move but Orochimaru could almost feel the anticipation come off of the man in waves.

Orochimaru: “If by some remote chance they are able to get into the village I want you two to take care of them.”

Girl: “Yes, Orochimaur-san.”

The man didn’t say a word as he walked out of the chamber, closely followed by the girl. As the doors closed behind them Orochimaru once again seemingly spoke to no one, “ You seem agitated…would you also like an assignment?”

???: “ Anything is better than hanging around here all day.”

Orochimaru: “Hahaha, I understand and I do have something for you to do actually. There’s a village nearby here that our squad had to stop at for supplies, I want you to go there and destroy it.”

???: “Why?”

Orochimaru: “ We want our squad to be a complete surprise, if the fools from Konohagakure learn about it that early then it wouldn’t be a surprise would it?”

???: “It shall be done, Orochimaru-san.”

Orochimaru felt a small burst of chakra behind him then the nin was gone. He sat back in his chair as a snake slithered up his chair and sat around his neck.

Orochimaru: “Be careful Sasuke-kun, I still need you.”
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