Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I'm not writing this fanfic for purposes
of financial profit. Don't sue me because I have no money. Now stop
wasting your time on this, and start wasting your time reading the fic.
Prologue: Driven
Pain. That one word pretty much summed up his whole world at the moment. The fact that he was running for all he was worth didn't help much either. Only his nearly freakish supply of stamina kept him from falling down dead, as well as out of the hands of his pursuers, who had murderous intent. As he darted around a tree trunk he briefly wondered if the knowledge of WHY he was being chased would make him feel any better.
The jolt of pain that shot up his leg as he put his right foot down drove any wondering from his mind as his nearly broken ankle came into contact with the ground to propel him forward just one more step.
As he darted around another tree trunk a kunai embedded itself into the trunk, missing his head by a mere fraction of an inch. He thanked whatever god was watching for the fact that those that pursued him didn't seem to be above the level of chounin. Since he was nearly a chounin himself, he could hopefully stay out of their hands until he reached the river.
After a moment of running, he saw two tree trunks ahead, placed close enough together that he could fit through them, but his pursuers could not. With hope to gain a little more ground, he put on a burst of speed and shot through the trunks, thankful for the sounds of muffled cursing a second later.
He put on another burst of speed to get as much distance between himself and those following as possible, and for a moment, he almost hoped he would make it to the river.
Then everything went wrong.
A kunai suddenly flew out of the darkness ahead of him and shot for his forehead, colliding with his forehead protector and arching his head back, exposing his neck. He caught a flicker of motion in front of him as the other ninja drew back his fist with the clear intent to bury it in his neck, ending his life instantly.
But not for nothing was he nearly a chounin.
He thrust both legs into the ground and leapt to the left just as his attacker launched their attack. For a moment he thought he had cleared the fist, then it buried itself in his ribcage and he felt two ribs give way, the rest nearly following.
He was hurled through the air, spinning a bit from the impact, before hitting the ground. Before the pain even registered, he had forced his body back up and jumped for the tree trunk. As he hit the trunk feet first and started to run up it, he formed a seal with his hands, gathering the needed chakra while keeping the chakra focused in his feet as well.
There was a blur up the trunk as the ninja he expected to be a jounin landed and leapt toward him. But before the jounin could reach him, there was a puff of smoke and three doppelgangers appeared who immediately attacked the jounin.
While the jounin took three seconds to dispatch the doppelgangers, his prey slipped to the side and sped up the trunk into the canopy above.
As he entered the canopy of the tree, he heard something that brought his spirits up greatly: the sound of a lot of running water. He was nearly to the river.
His hopes were then dashed as he heard a whistling in the air and he ducked as a barrage of kunai and shuriken shot through the canopy. The shuriken arched back around and of the five, two struck him, one in his left side, below the waist, the other in his thigh.
The jounin drew another kunai to throw now that his target was stationary.
Seeing what the jounin was about to do, He threw himself forward, feeling the thrown kunai dig a path on his back from his right hip up past his left shoulder.
With a heave of his legs, he propelled himself out of the tree for the next one, knowing that as he did so, the jounin would meet him mid jump and kill him.
However, as he reached the last leaves of the canopy, the entire thing exploded, and the explosion propelled him well beyond his intended landing point, a branch on a neighboring tree.
As he flew through the air he realized that whoever it was that had attacked him now couldn't give immediate chase. He silently thanked whoever had made the mistake of using whatever jutsu it was since it had given him a bit of time. He reoriented himself for landing as he started his decent toward another tree and noticed that he would land in this one on the side much closer to the river. Again he gave thanks, but stopped when he landed and noticed the three kunai already buried in the trunk, each with a very powerful explosive tag attached.
He was able to summon some chakra and throw it before him in a shield before the tags went off. This time, he was caught much closer to the center of the explosion, and despite his shield, he felt the flames eat away at his skin before the shockwave hit.
As he was propelled out of the bonfire of a tree, his skin now badly burned as well as bruised, he realized that the last attack had shot him over the river, and he would land right in the middle of it.
He landed in the river with a rather large splash, and as the blessedly cool water enveloped him, he saw darkness start to cover his vision. He fought the darkness as he floated to the surface until he felt his back break the surface. He had just enough energy and presence of mind left to turn over so that he could breath before he passed out, feeling rather safe now that he was in the river, whose swift current had already carried him quite a bit down stream.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- _-_-_-
Gai studied the group of people below him with unhidden disdain. They were all chounins and genins and Gai briefly considered making his presence known and giving them all one hell of a tongue-lashing, but finally decided on a different plan, one far more humiliating and damaging.
He'd give the Hokage the name of every person down there, then he'd spread the word that a group of twenty genins and chounins were outsmarted by an injured 'dead-last'.
Most of them would never live it down.
Gai turned his thoughts to the one that they had been chasing.
Damn, that boy was good.
After the mob had beat on him quite a bit, he still managed to get back his headband and escape. He had then lead them for a merry little romp in the woods, creating several diversions on the way. Gai was truly impressed in the skill that the boy had shown.
Before flickering out of view, Gai turned to study the river, which had carried the boy well out of sight.
(Naruto, I give you your life. Use it well.)
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- _-_-_-
A hundred miles distant:
He dived behind a rock a second before the rain of kunai's reached him. As the kunai's bounced off the rock he made several hand seals and gathered chakra. As he made the last seal he heard the ninja's from behind approaching.
He was up and moving forward instantly, the ninja's in hot pursuit. Fortunately, they weren't skilled enough to sense the spell he had just used, so they weren't prepared for the attack that fell on them from behind.
He felt a sense of grim satisfaction when he heard their screams of surprise followed by screams of pain. His sand clones bought him precious seconds.
But that was all. His face remained impassive, but there was a sinking sensation in his gut as he felt his sand clones torn apart by obviously more superior ninja's than the weakling's he had been dealing with so far.
Things had just grown more complicated.
It took every bit of skill and cunning that he possessed, but he was able to stay out of the pursuing nins hands. He didn't know how long he ran, or how many he eventually killed as they caught up to him one at a time, but he knew that for every ninja that he killed, three took the unfortunate ninjas place pursuing him.
He also knew that to be caught was death. True he was incredibly powerful, but he couldn't take them all.
As he ran he performed several more seals, creating nearly two-dozen sand clones which immediately attacked the following ninjas. Screams soon filled the air as he kept running.
He came to a hill, and slid down it. He noticed a canyon not quite a hundred feet from the base of the hill. If he remembered correctly, that canyon was nearly two hundred feet deep, made by a river that still flowed. The canyon was rather wide, nearly fifty feet across.
It'd be a bit of a stretch, but he could make it.
He hit the base of the hill and was running for the canyon when they caught up.
He dove to the side to avoid a shuriken half his size and rolled back to his feet. He looked up at the hill he had just slid down and saw a group of twenty or so jounins. They were all glaring down at him.
He expected them to attack instantly, but instead, they parted, revealing the man who had put this whole plan together. The man was dressed as he always was, in the traditional robes of the village's leader. And in his left hand was a very familiar gourd.
He growled in the back of his throat in anger.
"You've led a merry chase, and killed quite a few Shinobi. Now it's time to collect. And just as a reminder of how powerless you are toward us..."
And the Kazekage threw the gourd in his hand down the hill so that it landed at his feet.
He looked down at it for a moment, but then kicked it away. The magic that had been in the gourd was gone, courtesy of the Kazekage's seal. His 'mother' was now truly dead. And he would make them pay.
As the gourd bounced off the ground, the ninja's struck, leaping off the hill and falling toward him.
His hands blurred as he made several seals, casting a spell he had used more often tonight than he had in the past three months combined.
All around him sand suddenly came to life, shooting up from the ground to form sand-like copies of him. There were forty or so in total, and they immediately jumped and attacked the ninja's, buying him time for the second spell.
He leapt back, more toward the canyon, and started to make the seals for the spell. As he finished the last seal, the battling ninja's and sand clones landed on the ground, both sides with members that didn't stand. The sand clones crumbled to sand, while the dead shinobi's simply laid there, eyes unfocused.
At His mental command all the sand clones immediately went into their sand state, allowing him to cast his spell without hitting any of them.
"Mugen Sajin Daitoppa."
He opened his mouth wide and a torrent of sand poured forth, smashing into the ninja's like a brick wall and sweeping them all back. He gathered as much chakra as he could and performed a set of familiar seals.
Instantly, another hundred sand clones rose from the sand that had just issued from his mouth, and attacked the stunned shinobi. These sand clones were much more powerful than the ones created so far, and most of the shinobi died before they knew what was happening. Those that didn't die immediately would've almost certainly died soon after if not for the Kazekage.
He felt a rather large buildup of chakra, greater than the one he had just done, and another hundred sand clones rose up, in the image of the Kazekage. The new sand clones attacked the old and cut them down in a few moments.
He was already running for the canyon gathering chakra into his feet and legs. He was nearly ten feet from the canyon when he felt another buildup of chakra and the ground beneath his feet exploded upward, carrying him along with it.
After carrying him nearly a hundred feet upward, the spell had run its course, and he began his decent. He noticed that the spell had placed him over the canyon and that he would fall into it, with no chance of grabbing either canyon wall.
Which meant he had a three hundred foot fall before him. Even he'd be lucky to survive, and luck hadn't been with him tonight.
As his decent started, he glared at the Kazekage. As there wasn't much else he could do, he was still glaring at the man as the fell into the canyon and out of sight.
The Kazekage couldn't help the shudders that ran up his spine at the young man's look as he had disappeared into the canyon.
The Kazekage picked four of the remaining jounin.
"You four, go down there and make sure he'd dead."
The four jounin paled a little.
"And if he isn't?"
It was plain that the jounin was hoping that he'd be able to simply let the boy alone. No such luck.
"If Gaara's still alive, then kill him. Do not return without proof of his death."
The four jounin had paled a little more, but nodded and vanished in puffs of smoke.
The jounin remaining didn't envy them.
Author's notes: So what do you think? Please review. I'll have the next chapter up as soon as I can.
Prologue: Driven
Pain. That one word pretty much summed up his whole world at the moment. The fact that he was running for all he was worth didn't help much either. Only his nearly freakish supply of stamina kept him from falling down dead, as well as out of the hands of his pursuers, who had murderous intent. As he darted around a tree trunk he briefly wondered if the knowledge of WHY he was being chased would make him feel any better.
The jolt of pain that shot up his leg as he put his right foot down drove any wondering from his mind as his nearly broken ankle came into contact with the ground to propel him forward just one more step.
As he darted around another tree trunk a kunai embedded itself into the trunk, missing his head by a mere fraction of an inch. He thanked whatever god was watching for the fact that those that pursued him didn't seem to be above the level of chounin. Since he was nearly a chounin himself, he could hopefully stay out of their hands until he reached the river.
After a moment of running, he saw two tree trunks ahead, placed close enough together that he could fit through them, but his pursuers could not. With hope to gain a little more ground, he put on a burst of speed and shot through the trunks, thankful for the sounds of muffled cursing a second later.
He put on another burst of speed to get as much distance between himself and those following as possible, and for a moment, he almost hoped he would make it to the river.
Then everything went wrong.
A kunai suddenly flew out of the darkness ahead of him and shot for his forehead, colliding with his forehead protector and arching his head back, exposing his neck. He caught a flicker of motion in front of him as the other ninja drew back his fist with the clear intent to bury it in his neck, ending his life instantly.
But not for nothing was he nearly a chounin.
He thrust both legs into the ground and leapt to the left just as his attacker launched their attack. For a moment he thought he had cleared the fist, then it buried itself in his ribcage and he felt two ribs give way, the rest nearly following.
He was hurled through the air, spinning a bit from the impact, before hitting the ground. Before the pain even registered, he had forced his body back up and jumped for the tree trunk. As he hit the trunk feet first and started to run up it, he formed a seal with his hands, gathering the needed chakra while keeping the chakra focused in his feet as well.
There was a blur up the trunk as the ninja he expected to be a jounin landed and leapt toward him. But before the jounin could reach him, there was a puff of smoke and three doppelgangers appeared who immediately attacked the jounin.
While the jounin took three seconds to dispatch the doppelgangers, his prey slipped to the side and sped up the trunk into the canopy above.
As he entered the canopy of the tree, he heard something that brought his spirits up greatly: the sound of a lot of running water. He was nearly to the river.
His hopes were then dashed as he heard a whistling in the air and he ducked as a barrage of kunai and shuriken shot through the canopy. The shuriken arched back around and of the five, two struck him, one in his left side, below the waist, the other in his thigh.
The jounin drew another kunai to throw now that his target was stationary.
Seeing what the jounin was about to do, He threw himself forward, feeling the thrown kunai dig a path on his back from his right hip up past his left shoulder.
With a heave of his legs, he propelled himself out of the tree for the next one, knowing that as he did so, the jounin would meet him mid jump and kill him.
However, as he reached the last leaves of the canopy, the entire thing exploded, and the explosion propelled him well beyond his intended landing point, a branch on a neighboring tree.
As he flew through the air he realized that whoever it was that had attacked him now couldn't give immediate chase. He silently thanked whoever had made the mistake of using whatever jutsu it was since it had given him a bit of time. He reoriented himself for landing as he started his decent toward another tree and noticed that he would land in this one on the side much closer to the river. Again he gave thanks, but stopped when he landed and noticed the three kunai already buried in the trunk, each with a very powerful explosive tag attached.
He was able to summon some chakra and throw it before him in a shield before the tags went off. This time, he was caught much closer to the center of the explosion, and despite his shield, he felt the flames eat away at his skin before the shockwave hit.
As he was propelled out of the bonfire of a tree, his skin now badly burned as well as bruised, he realized that the last attack had shot him over the river, and he would land right in the middle of it.
He landed in the river with a rather large splash, and as the blessedly cool water enveloped him, he saw darkness start to cover his vision. He fought the darkness as he floated to the surface until he felt his back break the surface. He had just enough energy and presence of mind left to turn over so that he could breath before he passed out, feeling rather safe now that he was in the river, whose swift current had already carried him quite a bit down stream.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- _-_-_-
Gai studied the group of people below him with unhidden disdain. They were all chounins and genins and Gai briefly considered making his presence known and giving them all one hell of a tongue-lashing, but finally decided on a different plan, one far more humiliating and damaging.
He'd give the Hokage the name of every person down there, then he'd spread the word that a group of twenty genins and chounins were outsmarted by an injured 'dead-last'.
Most of them would never live it down.
Gai turned his thoughts to the one that they had been chasing.
Damn, that boy was good.
After the mob had beat on him quite a bit, he still managed to get back his headband and escape. He had then lead them for a merry little romp in the woods, creating several diversions on the way. Gai was truly impressed in the skill that the boy had shown.
Before flickering out of view, Gai turned to study the river, which had carried the boy well out of sight.
(Naruto, I give you your life. Use it well.)
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- _-_-_-
A hundred miles distant:
He dived behind a rock a second before the rain of kunai's reached him. As the kunai's bounced off the rock he made several hand seals and gathered chakra. As he made the last seal he heard the ninja's from behind approaching.
He was up and moving forward instantly, the ninja's in hot pursuit. Fortunately, they weren't skilled enough to sense the spell he had just used, so they weren't prepared for the attack that fell on them from behind.
He felt a sense of grim satisfaction when he heard their screams of surprise followed by screams of pain. His sand clones bought him precious seconds.
But that was all. His face remained impassive, but there was a sinking sensation in his gut as he felt his sand clones torn apart by obviously more superior ninja's than the weakling's he had been dealing with so far.
Things had just grown more complicated.
It took every bit of skill and cunning that he possessed, but he was able to stay out of the pursuing nins hands. He didn't know how long he ran, or how many he eventually killed as they caught up to him one at a time, but he knew that for every ninja that he killed, three took the unfortunate ninjas place pursuing him.
He also knew that to be caught was death. True he was incredibly powerful, but he couldn't take them all.
As he ran he performed several more seals, creating nearly two-dozen sand clones which immediately attacked the following ninjas. Screams soon filled the air as he kept running.
He came to a hill, and slid down it. He noticed a canyon not quite a hundred feet from the base of the hill. If he remembered correctly, that canyon was nearly two hundred feet deep, made by a river that still flowed. The canyon was rather wide, nearly fifty feet across.
It'd be a bit of a stretch, but he could make it.
He hit the base of the hill and was running for the canyon when they caught up.
He dove to the side to avoid a shuriken half his size and rolled back to his feet. He looked up at the hill he had just slid down and saw a group of twenty or so jounins. They were all glaring down at him.
He expected them to attack instantly, but instead, they parted, revealing the man who had put this whole plan together. The man was dressed as he always was, in the traditional robes of the village's leader. And in his left hand was a very familiar gourd.
He growled in the back of his throat in anger.
"You've led a merry chase, and killed quite a few Shinobi. Now it's time to collect. And just as a reminder of how powerless you are toward us..."
And the Kazekage threw the gourd in his hand down the hill so that it landed at his feet.
He looked down at it for a moment, but then kicked it away. The magic that had been in the gourd was gone, courtesy of the Kazekage's seal. His 'mother' was now truly dead. And he would make them pay.
As the gourd bounced off the ground, the ninja's struck, leaping off the hill and falling toward him.
His hands blurred as he made several seals, casting a spell he had used more often tonight than he had in the past three months combined.
All around him sand suddenly came to life, shooting up from the ground to form sand-like copies of him. There were forty or so in total, and they immediately jumped and attacked the ninja's, buying him time for the second spell.
He leapt back, more toward the canyon, and started to make the seals for the spell. As he finished the last seal, the battling ninja's and sand clones landed on the ground, both sides with members that didn't stand. The sand clones crumbled to sand, while the dead shinobi's simply laid there, eyes unfocused.
At His mental command all the sand clones immediately went into their sand state, allowing him to cast his spell without hitting any of them.
"Mugen Sajin Daitoppa."
He opened his mouth wide and a torrent of sand poured forth, smashing into the ninja's like a brick wall and sweeping them all back. He gathered as much chakra as he could and performed a set of familiar seals.
Instantly, another hundred sand clones rose from the sand that had just issued from his mouth, and attacked the stunned shinobi. These sand clones were much more powerful than the ones created so far, and most of the shinobi died before they knew what was happening. Those that didn't die immediately would've almost certainly died soon after if not for the Kazekage.
He felt a rather large buildup of chakra, greater than the one he had just done, and another hundred sand clones rose up, in the image of the Kazekage. The new sand clones attacked the old and cut them down in a few moments.
He was already running for the canyon gathering chakra into his feet and legs. He was nearly ten feet from the canyon when he felt another buildup of chakra and the ground beneath his feet exploded upward, carrying him along with it.
After carrying him nearly a hundred feet upward, the spell had run its course, and he began his decent. He noticed that the spell had placed him over the canyon and that he would fall into it, with no chance of grabbing either canyon wall.
Which meant he had a three hundred foot fall before him. Even he'd be lucky to survive, and luck hadn't been with him tonight.
As his decent started, he glared at the Kazekage. As there wasn't much else he could do, he was still glaring at the man as the fell into the canyon and out of sight.
The Kazekage couldn't help the shudders that ran up his spine at the young man's look as he had disappeared into the canyon.
The Kazekage picked four of the remaining jounin.
"You four, go down there and make sure he'd dead."
The four jounin paled a little.
"And if he isn't?"
It was plain that the jounin was hoping that he'd be able to simply let the boy alone. No such luck.
"If Gaara's still alive, then kill him. Do not return without proof of his death."
The four jounin had paled a little more, but nodded and vanished in puffs of smoke.
The jounin remaining didn't envy them.
Author's notes: So what do you think? Please review. I'll have the next chapter up as soon as I can.