Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Naruto and (The Fox Return)
18 years ago...
"Altair, this is his only chance."
"I know that, Third Lord, but-"
"If he stays here, the village will destroy him. They have too much hate for what he is carrying."
"And you think that training him in our ways will be any easier? Your Shinobi training pales when compared to ours."
"Yes, but at least there, he will grow up without knowing what is sealed inside him."
"I will have to tell him eventually..."
"And it will be hard, my friend, I know. But this is his only chance." The hooded man looked across at the aged leader of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Looking down at the small child between them, something stirred in him.
He looked into the eyes of The Third Hokage, and nodded.
"Very well. I will take him back to Masyaf." Lord Third gave a visible sigh of relief as Altair gently picked up the tiny wrapped bundle.
"Go then, my friend. Take him, and train him to be an Assassin," he said, then dropped his gaze. "Just like his father..."
Then he fixed a stare towards the man he respected so much.
"But beware, Altair. Things like this have a habit of turning out badly."
The hooded Assassin shook his head in worry.
"If only you knew how right you are..."
18 years later...
"Get the Assassin! KILL HIM!" yelled several heavily armed men chasing a single hooded figure.
"Damn..." that particular figure cursed, panting heavily through the mask that covered the lower part of his face. It was a rainy night, so his cloak was soaked, dragging him down.
"Knew I shouldn't have... trusted that... accursed informant, information was... totally wrong..." he panted, as he had to gasp between every few words.
Normally, running as he was, he would have been able to run for almost fourteen miles before his hands started shaking and his breath started becoming heavy.
These circumstances were far from normal.
Pausing for a moment, he drew a small, shining knife from one of the holsters around his waist, and hurled it over his shoulder. The mercenary he was aiming at was quick enough to bring his own blade up to try to stop what he thought was a regular kunai knife.
Not quick enough.
Before he had brought his own kunai up to parry, the smaller, much quicker blade had lodged in his heart, killing him almost instantly. His companions stopped, thinking that it was clearly a combination of freakish luck and the man letting his guard down.
When they looked back up, all they saw was shadows.
Red...
That was all he saw...
The red of the moon, slowly turning in an endless cycle...
The red of the shadows, rippling through the night...
The red of blood, slowly pouring from the rent drawn across his chest like a hideous smile...
The hooded figure limped clear of the houses, towards the massive forest that stretched out before him.
Only one place he could go, because he couldn't stay here.
Too many people wanted him dead.
If he didn't get help, he soon would be.
His accelerated healing factor wouldn't be enough this time.
No time... no time...
Tearing off the sleeve of the coat he had on, he managed to wrap it around the wound on his chest.
It was enough, for now.
Eyes set on his destination, he ran towards the place he had sworn never to return to.
Six hours later...
The worst part of guard duty is something that one of the guards on the main gates couldn't help but feel.
Sheer, unmitigated, absolute boredom.
Nothing ever happened in this village, except for the occasional bandit or rogue ninja that decided to come calling.
But even they wouldn't come at this god-forsaken hour of the morning. The rain from last night had almost stopped, but there was still a fog around the lower edges of the town, which made it so that someone couldn't see twenty feet in front of them.
As such, the Hokage had made sure to send extra guards, and even some elite ninja out to patrol the edges of the town.
All very well, but that just made it another sleepless night for him.
Turning around, he sighed in discontentment, and caught sight of something that surprised him.
"Sakura? Are you on guard duty here too?" He caught a flash of green eyes and pink hair, and the tall, lithe figure smiled.
"Unfortunately, yes. You as well?"
"Of course." Turning to peer at the unmoving wall of grey she was confronted with, she let out a frustrated huff and sighed.
"Anything interesting to report?" she asked.
"Course not," he snorted. "If you ask me, Old Man Hokage is getting a little... um... flimsy... in the brain, ordering all these extra patrols," tapping his head meaningfully.
Her eyes hardened. "He's still Hokage, and I'm glad that he's ordering all these extra patrols."
"Oh, come on! We both know that nothing interesting ever happens around here."
"Mm. You could be right," she admitted, then scanned the wall of fog again. The pink-haired girl focused on something, her features hardening. "Or, maybe not."
The tall guard turned to look at what she was looking at.
And saw it.
Through the grey curtain, a white shape emerged.
A white and red shape.
As they watched, it hobbled towards the main gate, and they could see that whoever it was was obviously injured.
Taking a look towards the guards of the gate, Sakura noticed that there was no great stir, no sounding of the the alert, not even a lot of movement. The other guards were all occupied, be drink or... company of the opposite sex. In fact, they two seemed to be the only ones that had noticed anything out of the ordinary.
The guard next to her was still staring at the hooded figure limping towards them.
"Sound the general alarm, get the nearest jounin here right now. And get a med-team immediately, I can only do so much out here."
Sakura had trained with one of the three great Sannin, the legendary Tsunade, so her medical skills were first class.
She ran down towards the hobbling figure, who fell to his knees and collapsed in the mud. Red started to float into the puddles around him, and she ran quicker.
Reaching the hooded figure, she turned him over gently, and cringed when she saw his wounds.
A massive, bleeding scar was drawn across his chest, looking like it had been inflicted by a heavy weapon, probably an axe. Other than that, there were smaller scratches and cuts all over his body, but none were life threatening.
The only danger was the rent in his chest.
The pink haired girl's eye's hardened.
Things didn't look good.
Feeling for a pulse on his neck, she found his heart was beating, but very faintly.
He needed medical care now.
"Come on!" She yelled at the gates, and she saw several medical ninja hurrying towards her. Meanwhile, she removed the bandage around his chest that looked suspiciously like a sleeve, and hurried to bandage his chest.
When she had finished, he still was in danger, but no so much in danger as he was before. Suddenly curious about his identity, she went to remove the mask that covered the bottom part of his face.
Bad move.
In an instant, his right eye flashed open, and he drew one of the suspicious knives on his belt, and pressed it against her throat.
And, then, he spoke for the first time.
"Not yet, little girl. That area is private for now."
She glanced down at his single blue eye, which closed again as he coughed violently. The knife dropped from his hand, and his eye opened again one last time to stare into her green eyes before the medical ninja came, picked him up, and put him on a stretcher. She stood up slowly, then stopped and picked up the knife he had dropped.
She'd return it later.
"He'll live."
"Good. When he's awake, I want to question him personally."
"Yes, sir."
Kakashi, the famed Mirror Ninja and shameless pervert, turned away from the medical examiner and sighed. Why couldn't this man have picked another day, when they were all better rested?
All the same, his appearance raised quite a few questions. Was this a trap from one of the neighboring nations? Could he be a fugitive or a criminal? And who attacked him in the first place?
All in all, it was going to be a busy day.
He noticed his former apprentice standing outside the room, fiddling with a small knife.
"Is he going to be all right?" she asked anxiously.
"Yeah, he'll be fine. Tsunade sends her compliments for reacting like you did. If it wasn't for you, he probably would have died."
"I'm glad," she said, still looking into the room. Kakashi grinned slightly, and noticed the unusual knife again.
"Can I see that?" he asked, and she put it in his hand. He turned away, frowning.
The only other time he'd seen a knife like this...
He put the knife back in Sakura's hands and walked over to a pair of guards. He whispered a few words into the first one's ear, and made off down the hallway. After a few seconds, the two guards walked towards the room and stood in front of the door.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"I don't know. Kakashi said to guard the room and not let the patient out."
Raising an eyebrow, she turned to see Kakashi's fast disappearing form, and started following. He ran towards the Hokage tower. She was delayed entering for a few seconds, but then managed to see Kakashi walking into the Hokage's office.
She didn't go in, rather she stood outside and listened.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, sir. It has to be him."
"It makes sense."
"What does?"
"Our ANBU Black Ops agents traced the blood trail of... him... where he came from."
"What about it?"
"It stretched seven miles through the forest, all the way to the next village."
"That's impossible. With his wounds-"
"Exactly. But if it's him... and Altair has been training him... he could be more powerful than I am."
She stood outside, then the Hokage's voice shouted from the inside of the room.
"You can come in now, Sakura."
Guiltily, she opened the door and stepped inside, knowing she'd been caught eavesdropping.
"Sorry, Lord, but I was just-"
"Curious?" he said mildly. "That's a good trait in a Shinobi, but the trick is not to get caught."
"Yes, sir. And, can I ask what you two were talking about?"
"I suppose so. We were talking about-"
Before he could continue, the door was knocked inwards from a ninja running in.
"Sir! He's escaped!" he said, panicking. The Hokage and Kakashi both looked alarmed at the news, and Sakura looked surprised.
"That's not possible," Kakashi stated.
"With the Creed, barely anything in not possible. You know that." Turning to the pink-haired ninja, Kakashi issued a command.
"Sakura, stay here until you here from us. Don't go outside, don't try to leave."
"Why?"
"I don't have time to explain." She was about to say that he had better make time, but something about his look stopped her. He seemed... afraid.
"Promise you'll stay here."
"Fine." Nodding with satisfaction, Kakashi ran after the Hokage out the door. It shut and locked behind him, leaving her alone in the room.
Well, not exactly alone.
"Finally, I thought they'd never leave," said a new voice from behind her. A voice she recognized.
She looked back and saw the hooded stranger leaning against the windowsill, seemingly bored. She turned around and went for the door.
Even as she touched the door handle, a gleaming knife embedded itself in the wood a centimeter from her hand.
"I'd like my knife back, please." She pulled the blade from the wood and threw it back towards him. It would have hit him in the face, but he caught it almost lazily.
"The other one too, if you don't mind." She took the knife out of her pocket and tossed it to him. He stuck both in sheaths on his belt and approached her slowly.
Again, she sought to go for the door, but even before she could touch the handle, his hand caught hers. He gently pushed her against the door and lowered his head to whisper in her ear.
"Thanks for saving my life."
A second later, he was crouching on the edge of the balcony. And then, he jumped. She ran forward to look out the four-story tall building, but couldn't see him anywhere. The only thing remaining was a few merchants and a cart of hay slowly being pulled away.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment