A/N: New Naruto-fic…hopefully, it's up to snuff.

As usual, your reviews will determine if this is worth following.

Do please read and review, would you kindly?

And keep it classy!

…

[Somewhere in Hi no Kuni]

A bald man in a tattered kimono stood at the crossroads, watching the roads with a lantern in hand and a carriage behind.

"What're we doin' here, Saburo?" asked the driver.

"Usual client," answered the bald man, "Whenever I'm in this part of the world, I make it a point to stop at this place; the guy gives me a good deal."

"Well we can't stay here," reminded the driver, "Who knows what kinda trouble we're gonna get up to if we're caught? And especially with our cargo?"

"Will you relax, Toshi? Money is money; and ain't nobody's gonna stop me from making more."

Toshi snorted. "Yeah, then you're gonna piss it all away on games, booze, and hoes."

Saburo leveled a pointed glare at Toshi, quickly ending the discussion. Whatever he wanted to say to his partner had come to a complete halt when the sound of a broken twig broke the silence: both men turned their attention to the bushes to find a man with a bundle in his hand. He wore the finely-tailored kimono of a merchant, and his black hair was done up in a chonmage that old-timers would've worn. His corpulent form belied the swagger of an experienced fighter, possibly a shinobi that had let himself go after retirement; an assessment reinforced with the appearance of calluses on his open hand.

Upon recognizing the stranger, Saburo let a friendly smile form on his face. "Genzaburō! Nice ta see ya!"

Genzaburō returned the gesture with his own crooked smile. "I've got quite a buy for you."

With an eyebrow raised in curiosity, Saburo strode towards Genzaburō as his client offered the bundle in front of him. Upon seeing the bundle for himself, the man let out a cold chortle. "Man, I didn't take you for a baby-snatcher. Not a bad catch, either."

"Under normal circumstances you'd be right," answered the merchant, "But there are things that piss me off about the boy…chief of which, being his late father."

Saburo let out a whistle. "I'd hate to be the friggin' idiot that pissed ya off. So what do ya want for him?"

"Whatever you can get for me," Genzaburō answered promptly.

"Okay, now I know something's up with that kid," replied Saburo, "Anything ya wanna to tell me?"

Genzaburō's crooked smile receded ever-so-slightly, his jovial tone gaining a slightly serious edge to it. "Nothing, just that I want him gone as soon as possible, and I aim to make at least a small profit out of the deal. And the lower the price you can give me, the better…I intend to let his father know from beyond the grave how much I think he and his family are really worth to me."

Shrugging in noncommittal, Saburo reached into his pocket to pull out a small, wrapped wad of bills. "Not my problem. Besides, I'm sure I can make a killing with him in any number of ways."

Within seconds, Genzaburō's crooked grin returned with a fervor as he accepted the wad of bills. "Pleasure doing business with you."

Saburo nodded in acknowledgment before leaving with his cargo in tow. Satisfied with the exchange, Genzaburō went his separate way, taking the path he'd originally taken to arrive at his meeting with Saburo. After half an hour of walking through the thick vegetation of Hi no Kuni, the merchant found himself face-to-face with the Hokage and an entourage of ANBU that quickly surrounded him. Before he could run, two of the ANBU grabbed the merchant by his arms, while pinning him down by his calves, forcing him to watch as the older man glared at him with no shortage of hatred in his eyes.

"You've made a big mistake, Genzaburō," the Hokage growled, seething with barely-restrained rancor, "And if you think your hold on the economy and the shinobi in your pocket are going to save you this time, you're sorely mistaken. Now where's Naruto?"

Genzaburō grinned wickedly at the Hokage, cackling madly. "You're too late, Hiruzen! I've already sold him off to Saburo for no more than a thousand ryō!"

The Hokage gasped in horror before his rage had returned tenfold as Genzaburō let out a maniacal belly-laugh. "And now his faggot of a father will rot in hell, as I continue to rule Konoha through its wallet! I will revel in Minato and his whore-wife's helplessness from beyond the grave while their bastard son is sold off to some nobody that'll do Kami knows what to him!"

"Hokage-sama, shall I?" asked an ANBU with a dog mask behind the merchant.

"Do it," answered the Hokage, "But I want him alive."

After nodding in acknowledgment, the ANBU reached around Genzaburō's neck, and tightened the muscles in his arms until a sickening, wet pop could be heard from his neck. As he released his victim from his grip, leaving the corrupt merchant a twitching, gasping, convulsing heap on the floor.

"Take him away, and keep him on life support!" ordered the Hokage, before kneeling in front of Genzaburō's pathetic form, his voice calm and tranquil but full of rage, "At this point, death will be too good for you, so I want you to suffer for as long as possible before you die. You see, Genzaburō, I only tolerated your corruption because I thought your money and influence would be useful later…now I see that I should've cut you out like the cancer you really are. So I will do what I should've done a long time ago: I will seize all your assets, and use every scrap of your ill-gotten fortune to finance the repairs that the village will most certainly need. I will make you watch as your criminal empire burns to the ground, while you are powerless to do anything about it. I will see to it that you are suffering in poverty as your world burns around you, all because you messed with the wrong baby."

With a nod, the ANBU followed the Hokage's unspoken order to carry off the crippled body of Genzaburō before he turned his attention to his remaining ANBU. "Get moving; I doubt Saburo could've gotten far, but we still want to catch him before he manages to go dark. If that happens, we won't be able to rescue Naruto."

The remaining ANBU nodded back at their Hokage before scattering in different directions. Hiruzen let out a solemn sigh as he sat on a rock, appreciating the silent night. Not even a week since the Kyūbi Attack, and already something had gone horribly wrong…and just when he'd been reinstated; if he'd taken Minato's advice and dealt with Genzaburō sooner, then Naruto would've been given better odds of a normal life. Instead, the poor boy was kidnapped and sold off to the human trafficker Ishimura Saburo while he was busy trying to prevent the more vengeful members of the Council from killing him outright.

As he contemplated the things that would've had to change in the village, Hiruzen noted the return of the dog-masked ANBU from before. He could tell from the figure's chakra signature that this was a Kage Bunshin. "That didn't take long, Inu. Have you found Naruto?"

"We found Saburo's carriage, but Naruto wasn't there," answered the Bunshin.

"What do you mean, Naruto wasn't there?"

"I think you'll want to see it for yourself; it's quite a mess."

Curious as to what it was that Inu was getting at, Hiruzen stood up from his rock. "Show me."

The Bunshin nodded, and led the Hokage through the dense foliage of Hi no Kuni for roughly ten minutes before dispelling itself upon reaching their destination. As Hiruzen scanned the locale with a trained eye, he could see what the Bunshin meant when he said it was a mess; the ANBU were examining what was left of the wagon that transported Naruto, the road flanked on both sides with trees and tall bushes. Ishimura Saburo was found dead, the carriage smashed open like an overripe melon, and their merchandise and Naruto nowhere in sight.

"Quite a shocker isn't it, Hokage-sama?" asked Inu, focusing his attention on the crime scene, "No small feat, considering that Ishimura was no slouch in a fight; he wasn't a shinobi, but he was quite the dirty fighter. Whoever ambushed him was no amateur; on top of being coordinated, they hit him hard and fast, then took off with his cargo and Naruto. We still haven't figured out who hit the transport just yet though, but I can say without a doubt that they are disciplined and competent."

"How so?" asked the old Hokage.

"We found tracks nearby," explained Inu, "The spread implied that there were at least five attackers on this raid; they struck the wagon as soon as it came within range, took out Ishimura and his driver, then carried off the slaves and Naruto. All in all, a really quick and efficient smash-and-grab."

Curious, the old Hokage walked towards an operative wearing a mouse mask, with an outstretched hand pressing against the ground. A quick look on the soil revealed that the tracks belonged to people with large feet, and the fact that they were deep in the ground implied that the owners were heavy. Whoever it was that robbed Ishimura was large, fast, and strong; and only one group of people came to mind when Hiruzen thought of someone with those qualities. In order to confirm his train of thought, Hiruzen walked back to the ruined carriage to find an ANBU wearing a cat mask inspecting the body of Ishimura Saburo. "Neko, what can you tell me about the body?" he asked, hoping he was wrong.

"From what I can gather, he was killed with blunt-force trauma," answered the cat-masked kunoichi, gently pressing on the corpse with both hands, "It was a pretty quick death too: after ambushing the carriage with his crew, the killer took on Ishimura, broke his arm and disarmed him with one swing, then ended him with a counter-swing to his shoulder. The weapon in question was long, pretty thick, and round with a slight taper…judging by how badly-damaged his bones were, I'd have to say it was either pretty heavy or the user was just that strong. My guess? Sounds to me like he was beaten to death with a really big, really crude bokken…or maybe a club?"

Hiruzen let out a solemn sigh. "We have failed."

"Hokage-sama?" asked Inu, looking up from the wreckage.

"Then there's no point in trying to rescue Naruto now," answered the old Kage, "Not when the Senmori Oni have gotten to him first."

The Hokage's remark had turned heads in his direction; a look of fear in the eyes of every shinobi present. While sightings were rare enough that they were sometimes considered a myth, the Oni tribes had existed in the wilderness of the Elemental Nations since time immemorial. Legend had it that the Oni and Humanity were on slightly amicable terms, until the latter seemingly had a falling out with the Spirit World to which the Oni belonged; not helping matters were conflicts caused by human encroachment on tribal lands. After decades, maybe centuries of bloodshed, the Oni had largely kept to themselves in the wildlands…though one or two individuals had been seen outside of tribal lands. Today, every Elemental Nation had their own resident Oni tribe keeping an eye on the wilderness, the Senmori being endemic to Hi no Kuni.

Despite their relatively smaller numbers, a total war with an Oni tribe was generally considered to not be worth the cost in human lives. In a one-on-one fight, the average Oni warrior was larger, stronger, and more durable than the average human, with reflexes on par with a shinobi, and had no less than high-Chūnin to low-Jōnin affinity for nature transformation jutsu. As far as military training and equipment was concerned, they were perfectly capable of marching for five days in heavy armor, had a very good grasp of earthworks, and had a preference for bludgeoning weapons such as the infamously heavy kanabō.

After five seconds of stewing quietly in their terror, it was Inu that broke the silence. "What shall we do?"

"There's nothing we can do," Hiruzen answered simply, "We just trespassed into these lands and missed an Oni patrol; we're only lucky we haven't run into another one, especially after Danzo's botched assassination attempt on their chief. All we can do now is go home, and hope that Kizu is still the chief."

The ANBU operatives watched as the Hokage walked down the road, his shoulders sagging in sadness. There was indeed nothing they could do to salvage the situation, except pray that fate smiled upon them.

…

A/N: …and done!

This time, I decided on a more straightforward Naruto fic, with stronger ties to Japanese mythology.

If this has whet your appetite for more, do please review, would you kindly?