Categories > Anime/Manga > Naruto > Hidden Beneath
-thoughts within dream-
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Chapter 5 (Konoha's Shinobi Retreat)
He was racing through a thick forest, one familiar yet somewhat alien at the same time. It was a one of the many forests of the Fire Country but not one Naruto had travelled through outside of missions. The very air inside the stifling woodland seemed to be heavy with anticipation.
Dark olive leaves fluttered to the ground as he brushed past in his urgency, twigs snapping as they caught on his orange clothing, scratching his tanned skin. He didn't care about the minor injuries, Kyuubi would heal them instantly. Naruto just wanted to find his quarry, beat sense into him and drag him back home to Konoha where they could safely argue with fists or words. That boy had the ego of Jiraiya but the angst of Orochimaru, a bad combination that should never have reared its ugly head to the light of day. Not to mention the devastating affect Itachi had on the driven avenger.
-Damn you Sasuke-
He increased his speed again, burning even more chakra in the race to catch up, hoping he would be in time. His left hand thumped against a thick tree branch as he used it as leverage and pushed off again. A slight twinge shot from his palm through his wrist; somewhere in the back of his mind a little voice made the observation that he must have pinched a nerve. Little did Naruto or Naruto's latent intelligence realise that he would lose all feeling in his left arm in the upcoming titanic battle.
He could finally see a gap in the foliage, the concentrated light beckoning Naruto to the edge of the strip of forest. He angled towards it and burst into the open with a swish of leaves to land firmly on the stone.
Naruto was temporarily blinded by the overwhelming brightness from being under the tree cover for so long. The sun beat down upon the open area and white spots continued to obscure his vision. The sound of liquid-like thunder assaulted his ears and he gathered the distance to the edge of the cliff in front of him from the little he could see. Naruto squeezed his eyelids together and shook his head from side to side in a desperate attempt of regaining a semblance of normal sight.
There was a dark presence some where across from him, dark and wrong but some how familiar. He wanted to view what this thing was, wanted to know if it had stolen his rival and precious friend from him. The dark chakra flowing about this person was too oppressive to have been Sasuke. The Uchiha he knew didn't harbour such animosity. Naruto felt the subtle shift of the chakra's attention centre on him. It wavered for an instant before the hatred flared and drowned out the hesitancy.
The blinding whiteness had not left him and Naruto automatically wiped the tears forming because of it. The chakra presence chose that moment to pounce on Naruto, hurtling through the air with great speed befitting a creature with wings. A large shadow appeared in the corner of his compromised vision and Naruto blinked rapidly to try and get it in focus.
The sleep induced fogginess lifted from his brain and Naruto belatedly realised his eyelids were fluttering open and then closing constantly. The fire had died down and the shadows lapped up the visibility of the majority of the cave, so there wasn't much difference in light whether his eyes were closed or not. He threw his chakra all over the underground cavern but reeled it back in when Kakashi's familiar signature remained missing. Naruto mused that the jounin was probably on the return trip judging from the soreness of his hip from digging into the cold stone while he slumbered.
The young chuunin needed to get up and stretch his limbs but he didn't want to gather the energy to do that right now. He shifted and the square corner of something hard contained in the pack jabbed the boy just between the upper ribs. Naruto fidgeted again and sighed when the annoying thing refused to stop poking into him. He gave up the idea of being comfy, choosing instead to gaze blankly at the glowing coals and what was left of the dancing flames.
A sudden chill crept along the blonde's spine, taking its time to engulf each vertebra before moving onto the next one. The sensation was extremely uncomfortable and Naruto was almost squirming by the point when his tail bone felt the cold as well. In fact the teen couldn't move even if he wanted to, for the unexpected phenomenon forced semi-paralysis onto every part of his body. The index finger by his head gave an involuntary twitch as the sight of the cave blacked out to be replaced by a vision. Naruto watched in fascination.
Moonlight limned the edges of the pale boy prostrate in the soft grass, several shades of darkness shivered in a ring around him underneath the trees. The dark green blades that surrounded his form had a slightly crushed look about them, as if an aura of chakra pressed them against the earth beneath. The atmosphere in the glen had a disturbing surreal quality, like a graveyard, where even the wind was muted in respect for the dead. His attention wavered back to the boy for the presence of the environment seemed to back off, saying the human male was more worthy of his scrutiny.
The black shirt and full length pants did not hide the slenderness of the boy's build and the light showed the firm muscles through the fabric as his head rested on his cheek. A silent breeze ruffled the long black tresses and a few strands fell across his delicate features. He stared at the boy's soft yet cold expression, but he was ultimately drawn towards his eyes. The daunting scarlet slowly bled away until the irises regained their natural obsidian colour.
The sudden presence of another's hand and shake of his shoulder brought Naruto back to reality. A single blink lost the moonlit vision and he was staring into the concerned eye of Kakashi.
"Naruto."
The boy went to speak but his tongue didn't seem to want to conform at first, but he managed to get words out in a low groan. "Kakai-sensei?"
"Are you all right Naruto?" The former ANBU assisted his student into a sitting position. One of Kakashi's hands remained on the blonde's arm to ascertain the teenager won't suddenly collapse on him.
The young ninja shook his head to rid the lingering dazedness, setting the yellow locks in a soft sway. At the question, the chuunin noticed the slight trembling in his hands and he mentally took stock of his faculties and extremities. His had regained all movement - that was a major plus - and that cold creepy feeling had vanished from his spine. The one thing that was perplexing the poor blonde was the fact that his heart had been mercilessly pounding within his chest since he realised the pale boy was Sasuke, with no signs of slowing down.
"Naruto?"
Naruto bat an eyelid and turned his head to centre his attention on Kakashi again; he had spaced out and forgot to answer the jounin's question. The blonde inhaled a couple of deep breaths in an attempt to calm his heart, which worked for once. "Ah yeah sensei, I'm okay." The boy saw the twitch of a silver eyebrow. He gave a small laugh to lighten the atmosphere. "Geez Hatake it was just a dream. I have them all the time."
Even to Naruto the sound was a little off, it would have definitely been wrong to Kakashi but he didn't comment on the fact. Instead the masked ninja crouched down near the dying campfire and began extinguishing it as cleanly as possible. The chuunin took the action to mean that they would be moving soon so he set about decamping.
Kakashi sighed inwardly. Something was affecting Naruto badly. It was highly likely the recent mention of the youngest Uchiha had a reason behind it. To tell the truth, Kakashi had been very worried when he had arrived back in the cavern from his scout to discover Naruto in such a stationary state.
His body had been exceptionally rigid and his blue eyes stared at nothing, as if life had suddenly abandoned the young shinobi while he was gone. Naruto's shallow breathing hadn't improved the cadaverous appearance either. The only sign the blonde to show he was alive was when Naruto had made an odd strangled noise in his throat that sounded strangely like "Sasuke". It was then that Kakashi grabbed his shoulder to break the stupor to which Naruto had fallen.
"Naruto put your bag with mine. I'll send them back together."
The blonde dropped his squished pack where requested. He eyed Kakashi. "Does this mean what I think it means?"
"Yep! Non-stop running until we hit the Fire Country border," the jounin grinned as if he had just won first prize at the lottery, "or at least far away from any pursuing Sound ninja."
Naruto ignored his sensei's erratic behaviour and minute provocation, strangely too exhausted to portray the bouncing ball of energy either. "We'll be in transformation then" he stated, the usual anticipation for the chance to outwit the enemy absent.
"Yes. I'd like us to go in as much as a westerly direction as possible. You're leading Naruto, I'll be the rearguard."
The chuunin opened his mouth, seemed to think better of what he was going to say, and then changed his mind again to ask a different question. "Can I have Pakkun to follow?"
"Pakkun's chakra would make it easy for the Sound to track us down. We need to use our jutsu altered chakra to our advantage."
"Fine." Naruto thumbed his nose as the jounin made their packs disappear within summon smoke. "Wanna tell me if there is any Hidden Sound lurking nearby before I start and, I don't know… run into them?" he posed with a hint of sarcasm.
"And here I was deluded into thinking that you had gotten better," Kakashi teased.
"Whatever Kakai-sensei," the boy waved a hand. "I know you can't sense them either. They must be using a really good chakra masking jutsu."
"Yeah. My scout revealed a small camp about a kilometre west from here. I'd say ten ninja have been dispatched to search for and eliminate us. At the cave entrance I'll point you in the direction we need to slip past their lines then you've got it from there."
"Yes sir."
"Let's get going."
With a last sweep of the cave to make sure they left nothing obvious behind Kakashi retreated into the tunnel, Naruto a step behind.
The Konoha shinobi exited the underground cavern into a cloudless night. The full moon was already high and shedding light like there would never be another hour of darkness, which at the moment was very true. Naruto didn't really need to use his fox vision as the illumination from the bright satellite set the forest awash in a colourless twilight. The shadows able to survive were deeper than ever, beckoning a misstep in their black gloom.
Kakashi raised his uninjured arm to point a finger into the surrounding woods. "We need to go that way."
Naruto sidled up to his teacher and noted the direction he was aiming, which was in the general vicinity between the intense lunar star and the lone spike of a massive tree that towered over its neighbours. The young chuunin nodded in confirmation that he had the correct bearing and then quickly performed the necessary hand seals for the Hitoku Henge no Jutsu. A orange-red and black fox and grey wolf-dog soon replaced the blonde and jounin in the small clearing. Naruto bounded off into the undergrowth, bushy tail waving like a small banner and Kakashi right behind him.
It was all smooth sailing at first and Naruto was wondering whether Kakashi hadn't miscalculated the whereabouts of the Hidden Sound shinobi. Then again, it could have all been due to the blonde's good luck and the world didn't want him to get caught, much like the times he was pulling pranks as a little kid. A little voice somewhere in his subconscious scoffed at the optimistic view, hadn't the hyperactive prankster been caught more times than not.
The greenery shot by in a blur as they jumped over, through and around the various dead and living obstacles in their way. Naruto took a chance to slow down and spy over his shoulder at Kakashi just as he entered a gap between two shrubs of what looked like a particularly dense wall of low growing plants. He bumped head first into a log buried in the hedge for his lapse and his vision swam for a second or two. The fox glared at the large and offending piece of lumber before crawling over it, the scratchy branches of the surrounding vegetation scraping through his fur.
His paw suddenly slipped on the log's mossy, slime covered curve, and Naruto tumbled off the other side to land indignantly in the damp dirt and decaying leaf litter. The chuunin didn't have a chance to orientate the environs when something thin and metal buried itself in the ground centimetres away from his front paws.
Naruto scrambled to his feet and jumped sidewards just in time to avoid three more needles that were aimed where his stomach used to be. His fox senses picked out a person half concealed in a tall bush across from his position, eyes clearly perceiving the glint of metal around her neck. The chuunin briefly flared his chakra but no human signature registered despite the very obvious fact that a living human being was right in front of him. Naruto noticed the female's covert movements and was able to dodge out of the way. The changed position threw moonlight onto the thing around her neck, revealing it to be a hitai-ate and the blonde-turned-fox needed no more help from good vision to mark the Hidden Sound symbol. Naruto cursed the Sound's concealing jutsu, his luck and his slowness, though admittedly it had only been a minute since he fell off the log.
The Sound kunoichi unexpectedly crashed to the ground, caught by surprise from behind by a large canine landing on her back. Kakashi barked abruptly at the non-moving Naruto and shoved him into the undergrowth again, which the boy translated into a reprimand for not escaping immediately. The blonde didn't bother arguing as several senbon peppered the base of the tree which he had previously been in front of and started running.
Naruto skilfully darted through a rain of shuriken and needles, yet hardly noticing where he was going as a sharp pain blossomed along his side. One of the stars must have sliced him a lovely new wound for the thin senbon could only penetrate flesh not cut it. The young chuunin maintained a fast speed, refusing to let the injury distract him from getting both of the Konoha shinobi to the Fire Country border.
The silver furred jounin loped several metres behind the sprinting fox, keeping an eye on their rear for any of the foe they were trying to keep off their tail. He hoped Naruto was paying some attention to where he was leading them; getting lost in enemy territory was not an appetising option. The few smoke bombs and explosive tags Hatake had managed to snag from the female ninja when he had tackled her had been hastily arranged in a trap back near the clearing. With any luck, that and Naruto's erratic weaving dash through the trees had thoroughly lost any pursuers.
The orange fox followed his instincts for the correct path, now tuned to the need to retreat and return to Konoha. He distractedly brushed past the foreign vegetation, ignorant to the blurriness encroaching on his sharp animal vision. The pain of the gash on his flank had faded into a strange numbness rather than increasing to a searing quality aggravated by strenuous running. Naruto chalked it up to the Kyuubi as he had let most of the guards fall to sustain his actions.
Naruto didn't notice when the scents of the forest entered the obscurity of non-existence, he was too preoccupied. However, when the rush of wind ripping past his ears and the thud of paws hitting dirt and wood faded into a pressing silence, the shinobi realised something was amiss but he didn't pause to consider the implications. The fox bounded through the undergrowth, utterly blind in all senses except for steadily vanishing sight as Naruto rarely used taste in transformation.
His heart pounded inside his chest, the sound loud and demanding once the outside noises ceased. It throbbed and protested the unaccustomed abuse through which Naruto was putting his animal form. Naruto momentarily prayed for inner strength and endurance as the numbness in his left flank began tormenting him with a sparking pain each time the fox stretched forward for the next foot hold.
Thwump!
The black flecked kitsune ricocheted off what felt like the solid trunk of a tree. Naruto cursed his clumsiness and inattention, the sudden impact jarring numerous bones as the small body crashed to the ground. The young ninja scrabbled with his claws to stop his slide backwards but failed. His head cracked against a hard surface and a cloudy haze drifted over his vision. He felt extremely light headed as he tried to regain his feet. Unsteady legs refused to hold any weight and Naruto slumped back to the forest floor. Somehow the adrenaline previously pumping through the chuunin had fled along with the now interrupted momentum.
A shadow fell across his rapidly tiring form. Naruto instinctively lifted his head towards the thing that blocked the moonlight. The blurry sight didn't help at all as the chuunin tried to distinguish what approached him, his ebbing chakra unable to sense the presence either. Darkness dragged long, demanding fingers at Naruto's shaky consciousness, begging him to join the coolness of oblivion. The blonde-turned-fox fought valiantly against the hold, certain that giving into the nothingness would result in terrible consequences.
The pain had developed twofold and increasing since it began its physical brand of agony on his vulpine form. Naruto whined deep in his throat; a vibrating, pitiful sound that he would have cringed at making had the blonde been in an uninjured state. As it was the fox boy desperately wanted help, any help no matter who or where it came from.
His vision cleared briefly just as the figure shifted, soft light from the full moon revealing refined features in a white human face and what seemed like lines down a side of the nose. Washed-out black hair cradled shadows around their head, unrestrained to let gravity tumble it straight to their shoulders. There was nothing terrifying about this person, who had none of the expressions he had become accustomed to in all the transformations and guises the teenaged shinobi had worn. A small part of Naruto sighed happily for the lack of aversion and veiled hatred yet another part told him firmly that no one with a beautiful face should have such a dead expression.
A hot prickling sensation, starting from behind his black tipped ears down his spine, washed away all regards of the outside world. Naruto's remaining strength fled with what was left of his sight. His mind was forced away from consciousness into the never ending void.
. . . T B C . . .
So, have I left you with a good cliff-hanger yet? Please let me know your reactions, I know mine, but I want to know yours! lol
I run into tons of writer's block with so review please! ^.^ I really need your help to be able to keep going with this. I'll answer any questions you may have.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Chapter 5 (Konoha's Shinobi Retreat)
He was racing through a thick forest, one familiar yet somewhat alien at the same time. It was a one of the many forests of the Fire Country but not one Naruto had travelled through outside of missions. The very air inside the stifling woodland seemed to be heavy with anticipation.
Dark olive leaves fluttered to the ground as he brushed past in his urgency, twigs snapping as they caught on his orange clothing, scratching his tanned skin. He didn't care about the minor injuries, Kyuubi would heal them instantly. Naruto just wanted to find his quarry, beat sense into him and drag him back home to Konoha where they could safely argue with fists or words. That boy had the ego of Jiraiya but the angst of Orochimaru, a bad combination that should never have reared its ugly head to the light of day. Not to mention the devastating affect Itachi had on the driven avenger.
-Damn you Sasuke-
He increased his speed again, burning even more chakra in the race to catch up, hoping he would be in time. His left hand thumped against a thick tree branch as he used it as leverage and pushed off again. A slight twinge shot from his palm through his wrist; somewhere in the back of his mind a little voice made the observation that he must have pinched a nerve. Little did Naruto or Naruto's latent intelligence realise that he would lose all feeling in his left arm in the upcoming titanic battle.
He could finally see a gap in the foliage, the concentrated light beckoning Naruto to the edge of the strip of forest. He angled towards it and burst into the open with a swish of leaves to land firmly on the stone.
Naruto was temporarily blinded by the overwhelming brightness from being under the tree cover for so long. The sun beat down upon the open area and white spots continued to obscure his vision. The sound of liquid-like thunder assaulted his ears and he gathered the distance to the edge of the cliff in front of him from the little he could see. Naruto squeezed his eyelids together and shook his head from side to side in a desperate attempt of regaining a semblance of normal sight.
There was a dark presence some where across from him, dark and wrong but some how familiar. He wanted to view what this thing was, wanted to know if it had stolen his rival and precious friend from him. The dark chakra flowing about this person was too oppressive to have been Sasuke. The Uchiha he knew didn't harbour such animosity. Naruto felt the subtle shift of the chakra's attention centre on him. It wavered for an instant before the hatred flared and drowned out the hesitancy.
The blinding whiteness had not left him and Naruto automatically wiped the tears forming because of it. The chakra presence chose that moment to pounce on Naruto, hurtling through the air with great speed befitting a creature with wings. A large shadow appeared in the corner of his compromised vision and Naruto blinked rapidly to try and get it in focus.
The sleep induced fogginess lifted from his brain and Naruto belatedly realised his eyelids were fluttering open and then closing constantly. The fire had died down and the shadows lapped up the visibility of the majority of the cave, so there wasn't much difference in light whether his eyes were closed or not. He threw his chakra all over the underground cavern but reeled it back in when Kakashi's familiar signature remained missing. Naruto mused that the jounin was probably on the return trip judging from the soreness of his hip from digging into the cold stone while he slumbered.
The young chuunin needed to get up and stretch his limbs but he didn't want to gather the energy to do that right now. He shifted and the square corner of something hard contained in the pack jabbed the boy just between the upper ribs. Naruto fidgeted again and sighed when the annoying thing refused to stop poking into him. He gave up the idea of being comfy, choosing instead to gaze blankly at the glowing coals and what was left of the dancing flames.
A sudden chill crept along the blonde's spine, taking its time to engulf each vertebra before moving onto the next one. The sensation was extremely uncomfortable and Naruto was almost squirming by the point when his tail bone felt the cold as well. In fact the teen couldn't move even if he wanted to, for the unexpected phenomenon forced semi-paralysis onto every part of his body. The index finger by his head gave an involuntary twitch as the sight of the cave blacked out to be replaced by a vision. Naruto watched in fascination.
Moonlight limned the edges of the pale boy prostrate in the soft grass, several shades of darkness shivered in a ring around him underneath the trees. The dark green blades that surrounded his form had a slightly crushed look about them, as if an aura of chakra pressed them against the earth beneath. The atmosphere in the glen had a disturbing surreal quality, like a graveyard, where even the wind was muted in respect for the dead. His attention wavered back to the boy for the presence of the environment seemed to back off, saying the human male was more worthy of his scrutiny.
The black shirt and full length pants did not hide the slenderness of the boy's build and the light showed the firm muscles through the fabric as his head rested on his cheek. A silent breeze ruffled the long black tresses and a few strands fell across his delicate features. He stared at the boy's soft yet cold expression, but he was ultimately drawn towards his eyes. The daunting scarlet slowly bled away until the irises regained their natural obsidian colour.
The sudden presence of another's hand and shake of his shoulder brought Naruto back to reality. A single blink lost the moonlit vision and he was staring into the concerned eye of Kakashi.
"Naruto."
The boy went to speak but his tongue didn't seem to want to conform at first, but he managed to get words out in a low groan. "Kakai-sensei?"
"Are you all right Naruto?" The former ANBU assisted his student into a sitting position. One of Kakashi's hands remained on the blonde's arm to ascertain the teenager won't suddenly collapse on him.
The young ninja shook his head to rid the lingering dazedness, setting the yellow locks in a soft sway. At the question, the chuunin noticed the slight trembling in his hands and he mentally took stock of his faculties and extremities. His had regained all movement - that was a major plus - and that cold creepy feeling had vanished from his spine. The one thing that was perplexing the poor blonde was the fact that his heart had been mercilessly pounding within his chest since he realised the pale boy was Sasuke, with no signs of slowing down.
"Naruto?"
Naruto bat an eyelid and turned his head to centre his attention on Kakashi again; he had spaced out and forgot to answer the jounin's question. The blonde inhaled a couple of deep breaths in an attempt to calm his heart, which worked for once. "Ah yeah sensei, I'm okay." The boy saw the twitch of a silver eyebrow. He gave a small laugh to lighten the atmosphere. "Geez Hatake it was just a dream. I have them all the time."
Even to Naruto the sound was a little off, it would have definitely been wrong to Kakashi but he didn't comment on the fact. Instead the masked ninja crouched down near the dying campfire and began extinguishing it as cleanly as possible. The chuunin took the action to mean that they would be moving soon so he set about decamping.
Kakashi sighed inwardly. Something was affecting Naruto badly. It was highly likely the recent mention of the youngest Uchiha had a reason behind it. To tell the truth, Kakashi had been very worried when he had arrived back in the cavern from his scout to discover Naruto in such a stationary state.
His body had been exceptionally rigid and his blue eyes stared at nothing, as if life had suddenly abandoned the young shinobi while he was gone. Naruto's shallow breathing hadn't improved the cadaverous appearance either. The only sign the blonde to show he was alive was when Naruto had made an odd strangled noise in his throat that sounded strangely like "Sasuke". It was then that Kakashi grabbed his shoulder to break the stupor to which Naruto had fallen.
"Naruto put your bag with mine. I'll send them back together."
The blonde dropped his squished pack where requested. He eyed Kakashi. "Does this mean what I think it means?"
"Yep! Non-stop running until we hit the Fire Country border," the jounin grinned as if he had just won first prize at the lottery, "or at least far away from any pursuing Sound ninja."
Naruto ignored his sensei's erratic behaviour and minute provocation, strangely too exhausted to portray the bouncing ball of energy either. "We'll be in transformation then" he stated, the usual anticipation for the chance to outwit the enemy absent.
"Yes. I'd like us to go in as much as a westerly direction as possible. You're leading Naruto, I'll be the rearguard."
The chuunin opened his mouth, seemed to think better of what he was going to say, and then changed his mind again to ask a different question. "Can I have Pakkun to follow?"
"Pakkun's chakra would make it easy for the Sound to track us down. We need to use our jutsu altered chakra to our advantage."
"Fine." Naruto thumbed his nose as the jounin made their packs disappear within summon smoke. "Wanna tell me if there is any Hidden Sound lurking nearby before I start and, I don't know… run into them?" he posed with a hint of sarcasm.
"And here I was deluded into thinking that you had gotten better," Kakashi teased.
"Whatever Kakai-sensei," the boy waved a hand. "I know you can't sense them either. They must be using a really good chakra masking jutsu."
"Yeah. My scout revealed a small camp about a kilometre west from here. I'd say ten ninja have been dispatched to search for and eliminate us. At the cave entrance I'll point you in the direction we need to slip past their lines then you've got it from there."
"Yes sir."
"Let's get going."
With a last sweep of the cave to make sure they left nothing obvious behind Kakashi retreated into the tunnel, Naruto a step behind.
The Konoha shinobi exited the underground cavern into a cloudless night. The full moon was already high and shedding light like there would never be another hour of darkness, which at the moment was very true. Naruto didn't really need to use his fox vision as the illumination from the bright satellite set the forest awash in a colourless twilight. The shadows able to survive were deeper than ever, beckoning a misstep in their black gloom.
Kakashi raised his uninjured arm to point a finger into the surrounding woods. "We need to go that way."
Naruto sidled up to his teacher and noted the direction he was aiming, which was in the general vicinity between the intense lunar star and the lone spike of a massive tree that towered over its neighbours. The young chuunin nodded in confirmation that he had the correct bearing and then quickly performed the necessary hand seals for the Hitoku Henge no Jutsu. A orange-red and black fox and grey wolf-dog soon replaced the blonde and jounin in the small clearing. Naruto bounded off into the undergrowth, bushy tail waving like a small banner and Kakashi right behind him.
It was all smooth sailing at first and Naruto was wondering whether Kakashi hadn't miscalculated the whereabouts of the Hidden Sound shinobi. Then again, it could have all been due to the blonde's good luck and the world didn't want him to get caught, much like the times he was pulling pranks as a little kid. A little voice somewhere in his subconscious scoffed at the optimistic view, hadn't the hyperactive prankster been caught more times than not.
The greenery shot by in a blur as they jumped over, through and around the various dead and living obstacles in their way. Naruto took a chance to slow down and spy over his shoulder at Kakashi just as he entered a gap between two shrubs of what looked like a particularly dense wall of low growing plants. He bumped head first into a log buried in the hedge for his lapse and his vision swam for a second or two. The fox glared at the large and offending piece of lumber before crawling over it, the scratchy branches of the surrounding vegetation scraping through his fur.
His paw suddenly slipped on the log's mossy, slime covered curve, and Naruto tumbled off the other side to land indignantly in the damp dirt and decaying leaf litter. The chuunin didn't have a chance to orientate the environs when something thin and metal buried itself in the ground centimetres away from his front paws.
Naruto scrambled to his feet and jumped sidewards just in time to avoid three more needles that were aimed where his stomach used to be. His fox senses picked out a person half concealed in a tall bush across from his position, eyes clearly perceiving the glint of metal around her neck. The chuunin briefly flared his chakra but no human signature registered despite the very obvious fact that a living human being was right in front of him. Naruto noticed the female's covert movements and was able to dodge out of the way. The changed position threw moonlight onto the thing around her neck, revealing it to be a hitai-ate and the blonde-turned-fox needed no more help from good vision to mark the Hidden Sound symbol. Naruto cursed the Sound's concealing jutsu, his luck and his slowness, though admittedly it had only been a minute since he fell off the log.
The Sound kunoichi unexpectedly crashed to the ground, caught by surprise from behind by a large canine landing on her back. Kakashi barked abruptly at the non-moving Naruto and shoved him into the undergrowth again, which the boy translated into a reprimand for not escaping immediately. The blonde didn't bother arguing as several senbon peppered the base of the tree which he had previously been in front of and started running.
Naruto skilfully darted through a rain of shuriken and needles, yet hardly noticing where he was going as a sharp pain blossomed along his side. One of the stars must have sliced him a lovely new wound for the thin senbon could only penetrate flesh not cut it. The young chuunin maintained a fast speed, refusing to let the injury distract him from getting both of the Konoha shinobi to the Fire Country border.
The silver furred jounin loped several metres behind the sprinting fox, keeping an eye on their rear for any of the foe they were trying to keep off their tail. He hoped Naruto was paying some attention to where he was leading them; getting lost in enemy territory was not an appetising option. The few smoke bombs and explosive tags Hatake had managed to snag from the female ninja when he had tackled her had been hastily arranged in a trap back near the clearing. With any luck, that and Naruto's erratic weaving dash through the trees had thoroughly lost any pursuers.
The orange fox followed his instincts for the correct path, now tuned to the need to retreat and return to Konoha. He distractedly brushed past the foreign vegetation, ignorant to the blurriness encroaching on his sharp animal vision. The pain of the gash on his flank had faded into a strange numbness rather than increasing to a searing quality aggravated by strenuous running. Naruto chalked it up to the Kyuubi as he had let most of the guards fall to sustain his actions.
Naruto didn't notice when the scents of the forest entered the obscurity of non-existence, he was too preoccupied. However, when the rush of wind ripping past his ears and the thud of paws hitting dirt and wood faded into a pressing silence, the shinobi realised something was amiss but he didn't pause to consider the implications. The fox bounded through the undergrowth, utterly blind in all senses except for steadily vanishing sight as Naruto rarely used taste in transformation.
His heart pounded inside his chest, the sound loud and demanding once the outside noises ceased. It throbbed and protested the unaccustomed abuse through which Naruto was putting his animal form. Naruto momentarily prayed for inner strength and endurance as the numbness in his left flank began tormenting him with a sparking pain each time the fox stretched forward for the next foot hold.
Thwump!
The black flecked kitsune ricocheted off what felt like the solid trunk of a tree. Naruto cursed his clumsiness and inattention, the sudden impact jarring numerous bones as the small body crashed to the ground. The young ninja scrabbled with his claws to stop his slide backwards but failed. His head cracked against a hard surface and a cloudy haze drifted over his vision. He felt extremely light headed as he tried to regain his feet. Unsteady legs refused to hold any weight and Naruto slumped back to the forest floor. Somehow the adrenaline previously pumping through the chuunin had fled along with the now interrupted momentum.
A shadow fell across his rapidly tiring form. Naruto instinctively lifted his head towards the thing that blocked the moonlight. The blurry sight didn't help at all as the chuunin tried to distinguish what approached him, his ebbing chakra unable to sense the presence either. Darkness dragged long, demanding fingers at Naruto's shaky consciousness, begging him to join the coolness of oblivion. The blonde-turned-fox fought valiantly against the hold, certain that giving into the nothingness would result in terrible consequences.
The pain had developed twofold and increasing since it began its physical brand of agony on his vulpine form. Naruto whined deep in his throat; a vibrating, pitiful sound that he would have cringed at making had the blonde been in an uninjured state. As it was the fox boy desperately wanted help, any help no matter who or where it came from.
His vision cleared briefly just as the figure shifted, soft light from the full moon revealing refined features in a white human face and what seemed like lines down a side of the nose. Washed-out black hair cradled shadows around their head, unrestrained to let gravity tumble it straight to their shoulders. There was nothing terrifying about this person, who had none of the expressions he had become accustomed to in all the transformations and guises the teenaged shinobi had worn. A small part of Naruto sighed happily for the lack of aversion and veiled hatred yet another part told him firmly that no one with a beautiful face should have such a dead expression.
A hot prickling sensation, starting from behind his black tipped ears down his spine, washed away all regards of the outside world. Naruto's remaining strength fled with what was left of his sight. His mind was forced away from consciousness into the never ending void.
. . . T B C . . .
So, have I left you with a good cliff-hanger yet? Please let me know your reactions, I know mine, but I want to know yours! lol
I run into tons of writer's block with so review please! ^.^ I really need your help to be able to keep going with this. I'll answer any questions you may have.
Sign up to rate and review this story