I own nothing. This is someone else's sandbox. I just like to play in it.
Everyone's Grudge
The Anbu hummed low as he ran – it kept the child quiet, and right now quiet was what he needed. He had lifted he child from its cradle in the Anbu headquarters, a risky gambit at best. Not many stole from the Anbu and lived to tell about it and the only reason he had made it as far as he had was that they were less likely to suspect one of their own. But by now enough time had passed that he knew both his crime and his disappearance would have been discovered, and he intended to make it to sanctuary before they came after him. Of course, safety was relative and for this, he would never be truly safe, but for as much money as the Tsuchikage was offering for this brat, he had been more than willing to take the risk.
He paused to get his bearings. He had managed to infiltrate Grass country easily enough, but was having trouble crossing the border into Earth. Grass country was the smallest by far of all the shinobi countries, and had succeeded in not being wiped out over the years for only two reasons. The first was the terrain – nothing but flat grassland in every direction, which made sneaking around all but impossible. The second reason was that, due to its size, it could afford to cover nearly every inch of that grassland in shinobi guards – a larger country would have had to have the daimyo appoint soldiers (far less skilled than even the weakest of shinobi) as its border patrol. Grass country had long claimed that is borders were impenetrable, and certainly he was unable to move as freely as he would have liked. He had crossed the fire/grass border by the recognized trade routes that had opened up in the wake of Kyuubi's attack but he doubted he would be able to leave the same way. Still, he wasn't an Anbu for nothing.
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He was close enough to the border that he could see the guard, and far away enough that he could use chakra without being detected. The kid had woken up once, but a quick genjutsu had put it back to sleep without any fuss. He wasn't going to let the brat alert the guard at this point – he'd come too far for that.
He rigged a rough sling from his bedroll and slung the kid over one shoulder, after wrapping him securely and ensuring he couldn't move enough to get free. Now, with both hands free he performed three quick seals and molded a precise amount of chakra. Once the jutsu was complete, he held it and compressed his chakra signature as much as he was able, checking his reserves as he did so. He had enough chakra remaining to hold the technique for a good few hours, assuming his control didn't slip.
He took a deep breath and eyed the guard again. An adolescent male in his late teens by he look of it. Alert, but not too alert, and with a portion of his attention focused on the orange book in his hands. Chuunin, maybe high chuunin at best. Nothing he couldn't handle. He checked the wind, the position of the sun one last time, released his breath, and moved.
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A small stone thrown into the under brush caught the attention of the guard. Turning to where he had heard the noise, he was temporarily blinded by the glare from the sun and squinted until the dusty breeze forced him to blink stinging eyes. Distracted like that he totally failed to notice as the Anbu blurred silently into existence behind him and, without hesitation, sank into his shadow, baby and all.
The guard finished blinking the dust out of his eyes and searched the underbrush briefly, before finding the tracks of a small mammal and dismissing the noise he heard earlier. Shrugging he returned to his book, pausing to first judge the time by the position of the sun.
Twenty minutes later, his relief came, and with some satisfaction he began he strolled back to the base.
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The base in this case was the border outpost a few miles away, and it provided the Anbu a perfect opportunity to escape his guard and attach himself to another – this time an older, but not anymore skilled chuunin assigned to patrol a few miles further out on the outer edge of the earth/grass border.
The Anbu remained with the kusa nin for about half an hour, until he was sure there was no one nearby, before emerging from his shadow and knocking the nin out with a chop to the neck. Looking at the unconscious chuunin with some disdain, he removed a small flask from his hip, and liberally sprinkled the contents over the recumbent shinobi, before letting the flask fall to the ground near an outstretched hand.
Relaxing somewhat now that the worst was over, he took a few minutes to recover from his long use of the jutsu. It was a fairly simple jutsu really, a variant of the kage shuriken technique that many genins learnt early on, although few mastered it to the degree necessary to use it as he had. When he felt ready to continue, he set a light pace westward, toward the heart of earth country, leaving behind nothing but an unconscious chuunin reeking of alcohol, who would have many questions to answer when his superior came looking for him.
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The Anbu relaxed as he saw the cave. The cave meant shelter for the night, and that was something he sorely needed at this point. After leaving the sleeping kusa nin behind him, he had moved easily through Earth country's border defenses. The border on that side was only guarded by the Earth Daimyo's soldiers, and they were simply not up to the task of detecting, let alone capturing a ninja of his caliber. He had fed the child with a bottle of formula he had taken from Konoha for just that purpose, changed him and resecured him in the sling. Following that he had moved for the rest of the day on what amounted to pretty much full burn. Konoha's ninjas would have trouble entering Earth country, but that wouldn't stop them forever. Furthermore, he also had to worry about Iwa nin – until he succeeded in bringing the 'package' to the Tsuchikage he could not be acknowledged by him, and so was fair game for any nin who caught him. Furthermore, unlike Grass, Earth country was not small, and he desperately wanted to unload his package, and that meant moving fast.
Now, tired from hours of constant motion, and nearing chakra depletion, the cave seemed heaven-sent as a place to rest. Inside he found it opened up into a series of caverns that disappeared into the earth. Memorizing the turns he took he moved into the caverns until he was satisfied that he couldn't be detected from outside, he dealt with the child's needs first (the package should be in good condition). Following that he gulped down a few mouthfuls of jerky and laid out his bedroll to get some sleep. He made sure he kid was going nowhere before he was satisfied enough to close his eyes and drift off.
Sometime later – he couldn't say how much later without natural light to judge by – he came awake. He always slept in a light trance that would let him be somewhat aware of his surroundings and come awake all at once. It was the product of too many high-stress missions that kept him on this hair trigger, but it saved his life now, as a heavy knife scored a thick line in the stone where his head had been.
The Anbu blurred away, only to trip in the darkness. Wincing as he hit the ground he ran a quick check on his reserves and almost cursed. His frivolous spending of chakra the day before had left him less than a day from Iwagakure, but meant he now had only less than a quarter of his reserves available to him.
Quickly leaping to his feet, he got his first real look at his attacker and nearly fell again in shock. His opponent was closer in size to the baby sleeping behind him than to him. Most of the figure was lumpy and indistinct, hidden in the shadows of the cave, but a few points were clear. The lantern in its left hand spread a circle of dim yellow light over the floor between them, and metal glinted in its right hand – the knife that had scored so deeply into the rock. Single-edged and heavy, with a pattern of ripples on the surface that was clear even in the flickering light of the lantern. The Anbu was shocked to realize it wasn't even notched by its contact with the rock and, as the thing took a shuffling step forward, accompanied by an odd sound like flesh scraping on rock, he took a step back.
Realizing his actions he stepped forward again – whatever this was he didn't want it harming his package. As he stepped closer to the thing, he began to make out more. The lumpy shape was revealed to be a robe, the same color as the earth in the vicinity that enveloped the small body. As it lifted its head, he saw twin yellow orbs glowing in the darkness. It took another shuffling step forward and he paused, confused before light dawned and he realized that this was as fast as the bizarre thing could move.
He laughed quietly to himself and reached to arm himself even as the thing inched closer. A part of his mind registered that the commotion had finally awoken the package, and he decided to end this quickly. Plucking two shuriken from his holster he flung them at the robed figure, only to watch in shock as it came on apparently undeterred. The throwing stars had connected, but had only left scratches as they nearly failed to penetrate at all. Making a few hand seals, he blew out a handful of fireballs to gain time and grabbed a kunai in time to realize that the fire had apparently done nothing. The air in the cavern was heated, and he suddenly realized the folly in using up the oxygen in such a confined space. The small figure in front of him was still moving forward at the same shuffling pace despite its robes smoldering around it. Gasping for air, the Anbu noticed a place where the robe had been burned away entirely leaving… green skin beneath.
A breeze was entering the cavern now, letting him catch his breath. He couldn't retreat further – the kid was behind him, and the cave wall behind that. The monster was still coming at him and was now close enough for him to see that what he had actually thought was green skin was actually green scales. He dashed in and made a pass with his kunai, doing little more damage than the shuriken he had used before. On his second pass he stabbed with the kunai instead, and while he was rewarded with a rush of green blood and a grunt of what might have been pain, he also left his weapon behind, lodged in the flesh of his enemy. He took his final kunai out and nudged the kid further back with his foot before setting his stance. The creature was close enough that he would attack soon, and might leave itself open as it did.
The creature finally reached a position directly in front of the Anbu and, faster than his the Anbu could have predicted, he leapt forward, leading with his heavy knife. The man couldn't move, had nowhere to move to, and his block was blasted aside, his counterattack ignored. The large knife met his chest between his ribs and pressed forward with no resistance whatsoever. The kunai in the man's hand gored a large wound in the side of the creature, but by that time the knife had already reached the man's heart. The wide blade continued to penetrate until the thicker handle met the man's chest with a meaty doink! – a sound the man faintly registered as being almost offensively comical. The Anbu was intimately familiar with pain, had been tortured on several occasions, and had even survived a similar chest wound to this before, but the pain he was experiencing as he bled out onto the ground was unique, made all the more acute by the feeling he had, as he looked into the yellow eyes of his killer, that this creature hated him. No, not just hated, loathed him utterly. Not for anything he had done, or anything he might do, but out of some bizarre personal prejudice that had sparked the unprovoked attack.
As he fell to the ground his eyes fell on the blond hair of his package, caught a glimpse of blue eyes in the dim light. His mind registered for the first time the wails that were piercing the air. He felt, amidst the pain a faint regret for what he had done. He had never hated the child for what had been done to him, but his desire for monetary reward had been greater than his conscience in this matter. Now it looked like the child would die for his greed. He had time to gasp out an apology as everything faded to black and he breathed his last.
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Shuffling around the body of the dead human, Pug approached the wailing child and swiftly ended its life in the same manner as the adult (doink!). Turning to leave it was surprised when the wails began again. Turning back to the child, absentmindedly removing a kunai embedded in its arm, uncaring of the blood that gushed from the wound it observed the child. The child was apparently whole, and healthy judging from he noise it made, although it was now covered in is own blood. Stabbing it again(doink!), Pug observed this time as a red glow emerged from the frail body and flesh knit and became whole. It repeated the experiment a few times(doink! doink! doink!) in confusion until it was satisfied that it wasn't working. Returning the large knife to the confines of its robe, it held the lantern over the child to observe it more closely. Something glinted in the dim light and, moving the swaddling clothes of the child, Pug found the item. A pair of dog tags - red with blood but still identifiable and with words on it, in a human language, if only Pug could read.
Unsure of what to do in this situation, but knowing that another would be able to decipher this item, he hefted the bloody child and, as an afterthought, the adult human's pack with far more ease than would be suggested by their respective sizes, and shuffled slowly off into the darkness. He leaves the adult corpse – the taste of human is terrible – and he knows that nothing remaining in these caves for long will go to waste.
Over time, the child lapses back into silence, and then sleep, lulled by the shuffling motion of his captor. Around his neck glints a bloody piece of meal with the words: "Uzumaki Naruto, Konoha"
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Some time later, having attained permission to enter the country, a group of Leaf Nins survey the grisly scene. What remains are left have been gnawed on by countless cave dwellers. Blood is present from two humans and a third source, presumably their killer. Although remains of only the adult are recovered, there is too much of the child's blood present for him to have survived, and the official report sent back to the Hokage is that he must have been eaten whole – after all, whatever killed a fully trained Anbu would have had to have been very large and formidable.
The Tsuchikage investigates the scene himself, and comes to much the same conclusions. Those caves are home to fearsome creatures if the legends are to be believed. An infant could never have survived. An official investigation never takes place. There is no report. Over time the incident is forgotten, although rumors spread, and Iwa Nin going near those caverns are always a little more nervous than before.