Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Vixens and Kitsune ❯ Chapter 8 ( Chapter 8 )

Kurenai was awoken the next morning by a flurry of knocks on her apartment door. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she opened the door.

“Apologies, Kurenai-sama, but Hokage-sama asked me to fetch you right away.” Kurenai grumbled silently, beckoning the chunin messenger inside as she started to dress. “It concerns your genin team.”

Kurenai dressed faster and set off for the Hokage's tower at a run.

The black-haired woman burst hastily into the old leader's office. “Is something wrong with my team?” She panted.

“I believe so,” The Sandaime Hokage answered as he gestured to his omniscient scrying crystal.

The scene the concerned duo observed was disconcerting, to say the least. Team Ten was seated around the table, a pot of steaming tea centered between them. The trio of confident teenagers of the day before was gone, and in its place were three youths, with totally different demeanors.

Ino held her teacup in two badly shaking hands. Hinata's hands kept opening and closing spastically as her eyes darted everywhere, searching for threats, and Naruto glanced back and forth between his two agitated teammates, tea in one hand and a kunai in the other.

Hinata straightened suddenly causing the entire group to tense. “Ano… I-I have to use the bathroom.” Without words the three rose as one and moved to the nearer half bathroom at the front of the apartment. Naruto stood tensely outside the door with the kunai clenched in his fist as the two kunoichi slipped silently inside. He jumped slightly as the toilet flushed and the faucet ran briefly. The trio regrouped in the narrow hallway as the fox-faced boy searched the girls' faces for some mysterious sign. The young women nodded slightly and the boy relaxed his posture ever so slightly.

“I think,” Kurenai said softly, “that we need to be there rather than here.”

The old hokage nodded and the pair vanished in a swirl of leaves only to reappear outside Team Ten's apartment.

“Who's there?” Naruto barked sharply as Kurenai raised her hand to knock.

“It's Kurenai, Naruto,” the scarlet-eyed jonin called back softly in an attempt to soothe her subordinate's ragged nerves. “Is it all right if Hokage-sama and I come in?”

There was a long moment of silence before the lock released and the jinchuuriki cautiously swung the door open. “Come in.”

The senior nins walked inside, both noticing as the veins around Hinata's eyes faded away to normal. They had Hinata use her byakugan before they let us in. Kurenai realized with a frown.

“Would you like some tea?” Ino offered, her voice barely above a whisper. The new arrivals nodded and fresh tea was poured for all.

The group drank in silence for several moments. Then Kurenai spoke softly. “So, are you guys all right? You seem kind of restless this morning.” She rested a hand gently on Hinata's shoulder, only to have the pale-eyed girl flinch away.

“Short night,” Naruto mumbled into his cup, warily eyeing the exchange between sensei and student.

“Bad dreams,” Ino added, wrapping her hand smoothly around Hinata's hand to provide the distraught girl some measure of comfort.

“I've found that night terrors often impart an urgent message,” the hokage murmured wisely. “Sometimes it is best if you share this darkness with others. After all, you've already begun to draw comfort and security from each other.”

The three genins looked shocked at the realization that none of them had yet reached. Then Ino licked her dry lips and began.

“I trust everyone here knows a kunoichi's- no, a woman's biggest fear?” She began tentatively. Everyone nodded. “Well, for me… that was just the beginning…”

XXXXX

Ino grimaced as the shadowy figure slammed her back into a lamp post, pinning her arms roughly above her head as an oblivious crowd passed by the scene. “I like sweet young things like you,” the voice growled as she squirmed in his grasp.

“Let me go, asshole!” The teen snarled, thrashing against her captor's grip.

“Are you going to make me?” he whispered, trailing his tongue down her neck and leaving a thick trail of saliva in its wake.

“Sasuke-kun will come rescue me, you pervert!” the sapphire-eyed girl barked. “And then you'll be sorry!”

“Will I now?” The unseen speaker's voice dripped with mirth and menace, as he began to fondle his helpless captive. Cold, uncaring hands began to violate her most sacred core and teeth bit into flesh that seemed to grow more sensitive with fear.

A scream was begging to be released but it would not come for fear that her revulsion at what was happening would be expressed in a different form. Her captor kissed lips that remained sealed under his. His expression turned to one of complete ecstasy when his prey tried to fight back by biting him so hard on the lips that she drew blood. “I love live prey,” he whispered in her ear as he nipped the soft fragrant flesh right below her ear. “You said I'll be sorry will I indeed… or will you?”

XXXXX

“Did he come?” Naruto asked softly. “Did anyone come?”

“No,” his teammate replied. “Many people passed us, but nobody raised a hand to help. The last thing my attacker said was, `See what waiting to be rescued gets you?' as he slit my throat. The fear of being ignored and forgotten, that was the worst.”

“I know the feeling, but after last night I think some kinds of attention might just be worse,” Naruto replied. The assembly looked at him oddly, so he explained, “When I was younger, the Fourth Hokage was my idol. I wanted to be like him, to be able to put myself between a force of nature and those I care about with no thought except their safety. So it's quite odd to find your hero standing behind you as your home burns to ashes.” The young man shivered as he told the story.

XXXXX

Naruto choked as plumes of smoky ash billowed up from the once-great ninja village, pouring past the Hokage monument.

“I'm disappointed in you, Naruto,” the stern voice of the Yondaime Hokage said from behind the young prankster's back.

“This wasn't my fault!” The kyuubi container snapped, trying unsuccessfully to turn away from the scene of hellish destruction. “I couldn't stop this!”

“I gave you an important task, and you failed.”

“You asked too much! I gave all I could!”

“I asked nothing more of you than I would expect from any other villager.” The former leader's voice held a strong note of disappointment.

“Then what more can I do?” The younger blonde screamed hoarsely.

“Why are you here, watching the village burn?”

“It's already over!” Naruto wailed. “Leaf is dying and there's not a damn thing I can do!”

“I thought the same thing when the kyuubi attacked.”

“I'm different!” The boy snapped. “I'm no hero.”

“The only thing that separates a hero from a demon is a willingness to stand firm and never run away, no matter how strong your opponent.”

“If that's what you felt facing the kyuubi, then that's bullshit!” Naruto spat. “That's not heroism. That's fucking suicide.”

“Is it?” The former Hokage asked. “And what about all the people I cared about who survived that day because of my sacrifice?”

“No one in this kami-forsaken village cares about me! Nobody took the time to get to know me, the real me!”Naruto exploded. “Nobody cared about me, so why should I care about them?”

“You don't care about anyone?”Like magic, the voice's familiar lilt jolted the jinchuuriki out of his immobility. Spinning swiftly away from the terminal conflagration that was once his home, he confronted his accusers.

“I-Ino-chan?” He stammered, gaping in unspeakable horror at the burned remains of his once beautiful teammate.

“N-not even us, Naruto-kun?” The soft stammered question fell from Hinata's flame-kissed lips even as one of her beautiful pearl-like eyes dangled limply from its socket.

“What happened to you?” The blonde shinobi stared in revulsion at the smoldering remains of his friends.

“You happened to us!” Ino shouted, taking a menacing step forward. “We were counting on you to watch our backs and you ran!”

“Y-You n-never face your problems, Naruto-kun!” Hinata snapped, as the youth hastily backpedaled to escape her wrath.

“All you do is run, and keep running,” the Fourth said, forcing the fox-faced youth closer to the precipice. “But what happens when you've got nowhere left to run?”Before the younger ninja could reply, he gave him a swift shove backwards.

XXXXX

“W-would you?” Hinata whispered. “R-run away from us, I mean?”

“I… don't know. On the one hand, I wanna say it's just a dream and it wouldn't really happen. But… I don't know,” Naruto answered, running his fingers through his spiky blonde hair.

“What do you think the Fourth meant when he said he gave you an important task?” Ino asked.

“It's always difficult to understand dream logic,” the current leader said. “But likely what he meant was that it is every citizen's duty to defend this village to the best of their ability, no matter the cost.” Naruto will have to tell them of his true duty in the fullness of time, he thought. But that can wait a while.

“So, Hinata… what did you see?” Naruto asked placing his kunai on the table before taking his teammates hand.

Hinata took a long swallow of her tea before she answered in a trembling whisper. “I-I s-saw my family die.”

XXXXX

The night was filled with the screams of dying ninja. Hinata whipped her head from side to side as she dashed through the seemingly abandoned Hyuuga compound. “Father? Neji?” She shouted desperately, trying to ignore the cold ball of distress growing in her stomach. “Hanabi? Anyone?”

“Hinata-sama, run- argh!” Hinata grimaced as Neji's voice was cut off followed by a disquieting gurgling noise.

Hinata swallowed as she charged grimly around the corner only to see her cousin lying face down with his throat viciously ripped open. A hulking, shadowy form crouched over the body, crushing the branch member's spine in its monstrous grip. Spinning on her heel, she bolted from the sight into an adjoining courtyard only to find the scene repeated a hundred times over, main and branch house members alike inhumanely dismembered.

“Nee-chan!” The heiress' stomach dropped helplessly as she sprinted through a door, following the screams of her younger sister.

Please let her be all right! Hinata prayed fervently as she dashed up a flight of stairs two at a time, barreling through the door into her little sister's bedroom.

The indigo-haired girl skidded to stop, frozen in horror at the nightmarish scene before her. Hanabi hung limply as another shadowy behemoth gripped her easily by the throat. “Nee-chan,” she wheezed, helplessly begging for her sister's aid.

The creature let out a low chuckle as it casually grasped its captive's arm and ripped it off with casual ease.

“No!” Hinata's anguished scream was easily drowned out by her sister's howl of agony.

“This is all your fault, you know,” Hiashi's dispassionate voice droned from behind Hinata as his older daughter stood transfixed in horror. “If you would have just taken a stand Hanabi wouldn't have to suffer like this.”

“I didn't do this!” Hinata countered as the gothic creature slowly ripped its claws through her little sister's midsection.

“But you did,” her father's voice insisted. “Your unwillingness to meet the challenges in your life led the Hyuuga to this dark day. Whenever you found yourself tested, you backed down.” Hinata grimaced as her younger sibling's other arm was ripped off, more slowly than the first. “And so here we stand, the last two of a mighty clan: one impotent in her youth, the other in her determination.” The creature grew bored of its current victim and mercifully silenced the younger girl by snapping her neck. Hinata stared in shock as her sister's lifeless body fell to the floor. The hulking monstrosity moved with such speed that the last living Hyuuga felt little more than a searing sensation in her throat before her field of vision was forcibly altered.

Her last, shocked sight was of her own decapitated head lying next to her father's.

“This really is entirely your fault.”

XXXXX

“Hey!” Naruto said sharply, slamming his hand into the table causing both girls to jump. “It wasn't your fault. It's just a creepy-ass nightmare.”

“Even if you do run from your problems?” Ino asked quietly.

“Or wait to be rescued?” Hinata murmured.

“Or keep backing down,” Kurenai said, carefully observing her unstable charges.

“NO MORE!” Hinata grabbed Naruto's forgotten kunai and plunged the blade through the back of her hand, embedding it in the dining room table with a brief misting spray of blood. “No more backing down,” she growled, wrenching the deadly implement from her hand and tossing it back on the table.

Naruto picked up the bloody blade and stared off into the distance. “No more running away,” he murmured, mimicking his teammate. Naruto tore the blade from his hand and offered it to Ino handle first. Kurenai stiffened, but the hokage's grip on her arm stopped her from intervening as Ino accepted the bloody talisman.

“No more… waiting to be saved.” Her voice was barely audible but her hand moved with the same dedication her teammates had shown, slicing through flesh and drawing blood without hesitation. She freed her hand and grasped Hinata's as Naruto wrapped his hand around the pair, completing the bloody union. “For good or for ill, we are Team Ten. Brother, sisters, lovers and friends.”

Hinata spoke next. “Bound in will through blood and steel, we do not bow, we do not kneel.”

Naruto picked up next, his voice as soothing and lyrical as his female teammates. “We face our fears, our sins atone. We stand together, we'll not die alone.”

Three voices rose together in a single cadence. “The bonds are forged, the calling done. The strength of three with the heart of one.”

Naruto blinked slowly and was the first to speak in a hushed whisper. “What the hell was that?”

“I don't know!” Ino said in a panicked tone. “I just… said the first thing that came to mind, and then I couldn't stop.”

“It is not uncommon for a new team to have a phrase or saying that binds them together,” the Hokage said soothingly. “My students, the legendary Sannin, had such a phrase, as did your father's team, Ino. They went on to do great things, as I believe you will. But now, perhaps it would be best if we dealt with those kunai wounds, eh?”

The genin stared in shock at their still-joined hands. “Oh yeah,” Ino murmured, making no move to separate from her teammates. “I drove a kunai through my hand, didn't I?”

“Which was a very reckless thing,” Kurenai scolded gently as she returned from the kitchen with three wet hand towels. “You could have done serious damage to your hands, to say nothing of the amount of blood you lost.”

“Now, now, Kurenai,” Sarutobi interjected. “We all do reckless things when we're young. But if everyone is all right, I really should be getting back to work.”

“What time is it?” Hinata asked.

“A quarter to eight,” the Hokage answered politely.

Naruto's eyes bulged comically. “The library opens in fifteen minutes!” he exclaimed, franticly forming a now-familiar cross-shaped handseal. “Kage bunshin, release!”

For a moment, nothing happened, and then the blonde prankster fell to the floor screaming in pain.

 

A/N: Gotta give my props to my editors; Pirate Queen who slowly but surely is teaching me grammar and catching what I miss, and Beta X, who doesn't want to named but contributes a lot in her own way. She was the one who helped flesh out Ino's nightmare. Much love you two. And to TUHO, I lost your new e-mail! Drop a line if you're still interested.

All right then… people may not have bothered to read my authors notes last time so let me make this crystal clear. THE HAREM IS CLOSED. The list from chapter 7 is final. So no more reviews asking me to add girls. No more scenarios to add girls. Not gonna happen. This is his harem. These are the girls he comes back to time and time again.

Let's see. As far as Naruto's bloodline goes, I'll be starting a more detailed explanation of it next chapter, and hopefully I created something truly unique. At this point, no one actually knows about it in story. Sarutobi strongly suspects, but all he has is circumstantial evidence, so at most he'll keep a closer eye on Naruto. It's like roleplaying. What you know and what your characters know are not necessarily the same thing.

I haven't forgotten about Kyuubi either. At this point she can only communicate with Naruto when he's asleep or unconscious and this has only been one story day. Naruto hasn't interacted with Kyuubi simply because he can't yet.

People have said that Naruto asking Hinata out is too limiting for his harem. As for the harem, we readers know it's coming. Naruto doesn't. He's trying to get Hinata, since she seems to be the most sure thing he's got. In his mind the ANBU lady was a little weird, but overall very nice. Sakura was all right, but she's got her head so far up Sasuke's ass, when he talks, two green eyes peer out. And he has a hot fox demon in his head/belly that wants something from him. This is the extent of his personal interaction with women.

As for the summons, I haven't finalized those yet, but I am leaning very heavily towards what I stated in chapter 7. As for those who say I shouldn't use “super summons” I really don't see a problem with using a phoenix, which would be a one shot boss summon for the bird contract or dragons so as always, if you can provide a really good reason why I shouldn't I'll take it under consideration.