Chapter Text
Disclaimer: Naruto is under the ownership of Kishimoto-sensei.
Note: "asdfghjk" = Speech
asdfghjk = Thought
"asdfghjk" = Jutsu
(Somewhere on the border between Earth country and Grass country)
"Captain, we found something!" A ninja wearing a mask with the design of a boar's face relayed to his squad leader. He seemed to have found a secret way leading to an underground floor located at a small hillside. There was a large stone double door about seven feet high, and a big snake head statue right on top of it. The surrounding area was permeated with an eerie and foul aura as if there were some kind of monstrous activities going on inside the mysterious place.
The captain turned his head, his Dog-mask glinting against the ray of the setting sun. "So much for wanting to hide his presence", the captain mused at their target's choice of hiding place.
A four-member squad of Konoha ANBU were currently carrying out their mission on the border of Earth country. The Third Hokage had ordered them to investigate a suspected location of the notorious S-class criminal, Orochimaru of the Legendary Three Shinobi. Orochimaru had been secretly building several hideouts for his despicable experiments throughout the elemental nations. With a recent report of a rising Sound village, the Third Hokage was increasingly suspicious of his former student being behind all these.
With a wave of his hand as a signal to move, the captain and his remaining squad members leapt down to the entrance. The group of four masked ninja immediately felt unease when they stood in front of the door. Their instincts were shouting at them to run away from the place. As ANBU agents, they were used to various kinds of bizarre situations and dangerous missions, but what this place was emitting was a different story.
The captain walked closer and squinted at the double door for a while before ordering one of his subordinates to destroy it. "Cat, get rid of the door."
With two diagonal slashes of her sword enhanced by chakra, a Cat-mask ANBU split the door into pieces. The captain signaled the other two members to enter the secret way. However, the moment they took a step past the entrance, a handful of kunai suddenly launched at the two ANBU agents from both sides of the walls flanking the passage, forcing them to immediately jump away to escape from the onslaught.
"It seems that this place is filled with traps. There must have been people inside there recently. Proceed with caution as we don't know what else are awaiting us, assuming they already know that we are here." said the captain. He looked at the dark passage critically, thinking about how to go in safely. "Rat, send your clones in there and trigger as many traps as you can."
"Yes, sir." with a single hand seal, the Rat-mask ANBU created several shadow clones and sent them in one by one. A few minutes later, after all those clones got destroyed by various kinds of traps, he flinched slightly as he scanned through all the information he got from his destroyed clones. One thing was for sure; they all died a horrible death. "All clear, sir. There is a three-way intersection up ahead though."
The Dog-mask captain, nodded. "Alright, we'll split up into pairs. Cat and I will take the left route, and you two will go right. If you find any enemies, eliminate them. However, be as discreet as possible since we are in enemies' territory. We do not want them to find out that Konoha ANBUs are here. We have only a couple hours to search and leave at night. So, find everything in there and report later. Hopefully we can catch something linked to our target's whereabouts." He paused to let the order sink in. "This entrance will be our rendezvous point. Scatter!"
With that, the two pairs began their plan and entered the menacing passage. There were torches hanging on the flanking walls, one every twenty meters, lighting the way, but it didn't make the journey in there any easier. They all had to be on alert of possible dangers.
Rat and Boar took a right turn and proceeded to walk cautiously. They saw several dull steel doors on both sides. Boar, the second-in-command, proposed, "We should split here and check inside each room thoroughly."
A good twenty minutes later, however, they couldn't find anything relevant to their objective. After coming out of a room empty handed, Rat got a little frustrated at his result, or lack thereof. "There is nothing here. Are we even at the right place?" asked Rat, a little bit too loudly for comfort.
"Be quiet and focus, Rat! Captain is a proficient sensor with his tracking dogs summon." replied Boar, shaking his head at his young teammate's complaint.
"I know. I know. I'm just saying." Rat grumbled to himself. They continued in silence afterwards.
Just then Rat accidentally pushed a stone block while he was leaning on the wall. As luck would have it, a section of the wall split open, revealing an entrance to another part of the hideout.
Woah. That was unexpected. This is like one of those detective movies, thought Rat. Nodding his head to Boar, he announced via his radio coms to his team. [This is Rat. I found a small entrance at the right wing. It seems to lead to another part of this building. I'm going to go check it out. Over.]
On the other side of the hideout, Dog received the message and replied, [Copy. Report if you find anything. Over.]
[Roger.] With that, Rat entered the pathway alone, leaving Boar to search the remaining rooms. Rat had to admit this hideout's design was so featureless that anyone could get lost easily. He made a few turns before stopping at a stairway which descended further down. "This place is like a maze", he mused. He could see light at the bottom of the stairs and another dull steel door.
Reaching for his radio coms once more, Rat announced, [This is Rat. I think I'm going further down a level. There seems to be a room. I'm entering it now. Over.]
Rat twisted the door knob, but before he went in, he took a peep inside that place to avoid unwanted surprise. Opening the door wide, he froze at the sight before him. Even the T&I department, which in his mind was one of the creepy places where one would hear ear-screeching screams of prisoners and bone-chilling cackles from a certain interrogator, was almost nothing compare to this place. This was a whole other level of creepiness. He couldn't help but exclaimed, "Holy-"
(Some time ago in Iwagakure)
"SHIT!" yelled a young man. Akatsuchi was large and imposing for a 14 years old. He had dark eyes and black hair that spiked out at the back underneath his bandanna styled forehead protector. He had large cheeks and a plum nose what gave him an overall look of constant joviality. However, his current expression didn't seem like one who was usually laid back. The boy was now sweating profusely and looking frantically for something, or more like someone.
Where is she?! Tsuchikage-sama is going to kill me if we don't arrive on time, he thought with burrowed brows, nervously walking to and fro before yelling out his teammate's name again.
"Kurotsuchi! Kurotsuchi! Where are you?!" He was supposed to meet with his teammate 30 minutes before the time for their special training with the Tsuchikage, which was at 1 o'clock in the afternoon. Now his female teammate was nowhere to be seen.
Normally, she was the first one to arrive at their designated place and waited for him. This was one of those rare occasions when she was late, but it would just be 10 minutes behind their schedule. Now it was already a quarter past one, yet she still hadn't shown up. Suffice to say, the old man was definitely going to be pissed. Just the mere thought of it made Akatsuchi gulp nervously.
He had gone to all places that Kurotsuchi liked to go for lunch or relaxed at, but he still couldn't find her. He would have to inform the Tsuchikage about her disappearance. After all, she was his granddaughter, so the old man had to know about this. Things couldn't get any worse for Akatsuchi.
Arriving at the training ground that had multiple rock formations littering the plain land, which was the result of their countless hardcore training sessions using Earth release technique, Akatsuchi prepared himself for a rant from his mentor.
Floating in the air at the middle of the training ground was an old man with his green and yellow coat with a red collar occasionally blowing with the wind. For people who did not know this man, it would be a shocking phenomenon to see a man defying gravity. For those who knew him, they could feel the commanding aura emitting from just his presence alone. He demanded nothing less than respect and obedience from his subordinates. He was Kamizuru Onoki, widely known as Onoki of Both Scales or among his generation as Onoki the Fence-Sitter. Despite his old age and short stature, Onoki still remained the current Tsuchikage of the Hidden in Stone village.
His face now adorned a deep frown because of the tardiness of his pupils. He had dedicated his time trying to help bring about the rise of the young generations so that they could succeed him. However, these youngsters seemed to not respect time at all. Onoki just sighed in annoyance. To make things worse, his back wasn't doing any good at the moment.
"What's the meaning of this, Akatsuchi? Why are you so late? And where is the brat?" asked the floating leader, not seeing his granddaughter.
"My apologies, Tsuchikage-sama. But I couldn't find Kurotsuchi anywhere." Akatsuchi flinched at the glare of the old man before him despite their massive difference in size.
"What do you mean you couldn't find her? Wasn't she with you during lunch break?" Onoki asked with narrowed eyes.
"No, sir. She told me that she wanted to train some more, and that she brought her own bento, so I went to grab my lunch alone. When I came back, she was gone. I tried to look for her at her favorite places, but there was no trace of her."
This is getting more and more suspicious the more I think about it. There had been several cases of disappearances of both civilians and ninja. Could it be?! Onoki thought with his eyes narrowed. "ANBU! Go and find my granddaughter!" commanded the Tsuchikage.
Suddenly, four masked ninja, with the standard Iwa-nin uniforms and their red animal masks, jumped out from underneath the ground and knelt before him. "At once, sir!"
"You go and continue searching for her. Our session today is cancelled", Onoki instructed Akatsuchi.
"Yes, Tsuchikage-sama!"
Onoki was left alone at the training ground, deep in contemplation about his growing concern. "Please let it not be what I suspected." He muttered to himself before retiring back to his office for the remaining day. He could do nothing now but to wait for further information.
(Three hours later)
The Third Tsuchikage was approving a file about a request for additional funds for the upgrade of the standard of ninja training at the academy. The Hidden Stone village was at the final stage of revitalizing their military prowess after their humiliating defeat at the hand of Konohagakure during the third Great Shinobi War. A thousand ninja were decimated by a single man with a single jutsu. This feat was almost impossible to achieve, but a certain blonde Jonin of the Leaf had proved otherwise. It obviously wounded the pride and power of the Hidden Stone village in the shinobi world.
This was what war was all about, and Onoki knew it really well as he had lived through all the three great wars himself. Death and destruction were the guaranteed outcomes, no matter who won or lost. Consequently, the cycle of pain and vengeance was created; once it started, it would never end. World peace might have been a far-fetched dream after all.
Onoki was broken out of his stupor by the arrival of his ANBU agents. "Tsuchikage-sama, we could not locate Kurotsuchi-sama anywhere inside the village. Even with our sensors, her chakra trace was completely gone." reported the ANBU. "We deduced that she must be-"
"Outside the village, either by choice or by force. It seems she's been kidnapped, like I suspected." Onoki grimaced at the fate of his granddaughter. A humiliation was brought upon Iwagakure once again. At the same time, he believed Kurotsuchi could protect herself, at least until he could send help for her.
"Sir, what is your order?" the ANBU sounded determined to find their Stone princess.
"We cannot let the public catch news of this. Take six squads and rescue her. Don't come back without her." Ordered the old leader.
"Hai!" With that the ANBU left to gather his teams and begin the rescue mission.
Onoki of Both Scales was fuming on the inside. He had an idea of who the culprit was. "How dare that bastard!" He was too arrogant to think that the snake bastard wouldn't mess with his village. Now he suffered the consequence of letting Orochimaru roam around Earth country. Onoki swore to condemn the bastard for daring to harm his granddaughter.
(Present time - Orochimaru's hideout)
Unexpectedly, the room was a really big one with light bulbs hanging down from the ceiling, providing enough light to walk in safely. The first thing that caught his attention was that there were maybe fifty big collecting flasks on the shelves hanging on the wall. Inside those flasks was a disgusting sight. Several body parts or organs, like eyes, arms, etc, were in those water-filled containers. Agent Rat felt sick just by seeing it. "They always said he was damn creepy, but this is just too much" he thought while continuing to check on anything that may lead to Orochimaru's whereabouts. Walking further inside, he saw a table covered by a white cloth like those ones in operating room. The cloth was stained with blood, and it seemed to be freshly used too. There was also a board with some hand-writing on it. Rat decided to take a look at it,
[Affiliation: Iwagakure. Rank: Chuunin. Age:16. Female. Specialty: Explosion release. Duration of captivity: 1 week.]
"He's been kidnapping people all over the place. This must be another hideout for experiments," said Rat to himself before deciding to survey the room more. To his right, there was a giant computer attached to the wall, filled with some kind of DNA related information on its screen. And to the opposite of it were all types of tools that surgeons would use for their operations. Rat began to feel unnerved about this whole thing.
The hair on his neck rose up slowly as an aura of dark and evil came from a cell in the left end corner of the room. It was dark inside there. As he approached the metal confinement, his right hand reached for his sickle on his back, while the other hand tried to push the cell open as he got in front of it.
The cell opened with a creak. Rat took a step in, with both his hands now fully equipped with his two razor sharp sickles. He stopped in his tracks once he got a clearer vision of what was inside. Lying down on the floor was a young girl. She looked to be around his age and had short black hair. Her clothes were still intact, but she had metal wires tied around both of her hands and her feet, with dried blood on the shallow cuts.
He slowly knelt down in front of her. His eyes carefully studied her sleeping form, "What happened to her?" He shook her shoulders a little bit before she started to squirm in pain. "Hey. Wake up."
The girl groggily opened her eyes. All she could see at first was a blur of a white and red mask close to her face. Now fully awaked, she frantically crawled away from the figure. "N-no! Stay away from me!" yelled the girl.
"Hey hey. It's ok. I'm not hurting you." said the ANBU as he quickly sheathed his weapons back on his back before raising his hands up. He walked closer to her slowly, trying to show that he meant no harm. Now that he could see her whole features, she had short black hair and a pair of rosy eyes. What a strange eyes' color. There were bruises on her right cheek, signaling there was some resistance during her kidnap. Seems to be a shinobi.
The girl adorned the standard attire of Iwa-nin, consisting of a red uniform with her right sleeve missing and a lapel over her right leg, a brown Iwagakure flak jacket which was torn at the abdomen part, fishnet tights and a skirt over them. She also wore regular shinobi sandals. Wait a minute... short black hair, rosy pink eyes, Iwa headband... Rat's eyes widened in surprise as he finally recognized who this girl was.
"No! Don't get any closer!" She still didn't trust the person in front of her. No one would blame her though if they saw what she saw an hour ago, what a man did to her cellmate. She continued to crawl further away from the ANBU.
It must've been bad. Rat assessed. He stopped at a good distance where she told him to, not wanting to push his luck. "Calm down. I can help you." the masked ninja tried to comfort the girl after seeing how scared she was of him.
The girl lowered her guard a little bit as she could see he indeed wasn't going to hurt her. "That man killed her. H-he cut her s-stomach open. There was b-blood everywhere!" she stuttered while trying to explain. She was shaking tremendously though. The scene had been too much for her to handle.
Rat saw the girl shudder in fear. He felt sad to see someone this young witnessing whatever happened here that must have been a very terrifying sight. He himself wouldn't want to experience whatever she'd seen either even if he was an ANBU. "I'm sorry. It's okay, I'm getting you out of here. You'll be safe," said Rat before carefully cutting off the wires around her wrists and ankles, then gently hugging the girl and rubbing her back to ease her pain.
She hugged back and clutched her only source of comfort. Her shaking somehow stopped after a few minutes. Rat contemplated a bit before asking to confirm his suspicion. "You are a shinobi, yes?"
"Yes. I was kidnapped by a man. His face was so pale, even paler than sick people. He did something to me which make me unable to mold my chakra. I don't know what it was, but he hit me in the stomach with all five of his fingers." Explained the girl, still stuttering here and there.
"I see. Can you show it to me? Maybe I can fix it." Rat replied, nodding his head as he had an idea of what had probably happened.
She stiffened. "S-show you?" she asked hesitantly while her hands subtly covered her abdomen.
"Yeah, I need to see what it is. I think it must be some kind of chakra restricting seal." Rat seemed a bit flustered after realizing the notion of asking a girl to show him her stomach blatantly.
She went silent for a few seconds then took a deep breath before lifting her red shirt, revealing her abdomen. Rat quickly checked the affected part of her body so that he could end her embarrassment. Rat identified the seal as soon as he saw it.
It was the Gogyo Fuuin (The Five Elements Seal). Its ability was to block the flow of the target's chakra which prevented them from using or even controlling their own chakra properly. Once it was completed, the target would become unconscious and unable to fight for a short time. Without a doubt, Orochimaru used that opportunity to capture her with ease.
In order to counter it, or more specifically cancel it, Rat needed to use the seal's counterpart called Gogyo Kaiin (The Five Elements Unseal) which basically reversed the effect of the original seal.
"Alright, what I'm about to do is going to hurt you a bit, so bear with me. After that, you will most likely fall unconscious from the sudden rush of your chakra flow." Rat explained.
"Um, that doesn't sound pretty at all," said the girl.
"No, it doesn't. But will you trust me?" asked Rat.
"I don't really have any other option if I want to leave this place." Thought the girl. She contemplated for a bit before nodding, preparing herself for the coming pain.
Rat ran through a set of hand seals necessary for his intended technique. Soon, on his right hand, his fingers began to glow blue fire-like hue with letters representing all five elements. With the technique now ready to perform, he positioned his hand on her stomach and alerted the girl, "Alright, here goes! Sealing Arts: Five Elements Unseal!"
As soon as impact was made, the girl suddenly gasped for air, knocked back by the strong pulse of power by the seal. All she felt was pain, starting from her coil spreading throughout her chakra system in her body. A couple minutes later, the pain died down a peg, then a feeling of relief overcame the rush of her chakra flow. It was like a ton of weight was lifted off her shoulders. Her mind still disoriented by the unsealing, the girl's eyes fluttered when she looked at the relaxed manner of her savior as his shoulders were slumped down. This could have gone south if there had been even a small error from him.
"Rest for now. I will get you out of here", Rat muttered softly to her. He then picked the girl up bridal style as she began to succumb to her much needed rest. She snuggled into his chest adorably. His lips twitched upward as he found the sight oddly cute.
Oh no! Bad Naruto. Bad Naruto. He blinked in surprise before shaking away his thoughts. With a blush on his face behind his mask, he looked at her face one more time before making his way out of this despicable place.
"Sleep tight, Kurotsuchi."
Author's note: I took the liberty to name the land in which Kusagakure locates as Grass country since the land was not even named by the author in the first place.