บท 3: ch 3
Anko had been running for a few hours now, the Hokage had told her not to worry about her charge and that he could easily keep up with her. Of course being told that a mere genin could keep up with her resulted in her ego taking quite the blow, so it wasn't that surprising when she reached the port town that connected the mainland to the land of the sea and suddenly realised that her charge was not behind her.
"Oh fuck," she muttered to herself.
"What's wrong sensei?" Naruto's voice asked over her shoulder.
Quickly turning around the tokubetsu Jōnin was shocked to see the blonde leaning against a tree, with no signs of fatigue, if anything he looked as if he had been resting before she showed up.
"So, how long have you been here? You don't look like you've been running," she decided to ask him regardless of his previous question.
"About an hour to an hour and a half," the vampiric ninja stated calmly.
"Pfft, yeah right, as if you're THAT much faster than me, now tell me how long you've really been here," Anko ordered the young man.
"I just did, and for the record, my method of travel is a LOT quicker than the trees."
"Oh really, then how DO you travel?"
"By air," and with that said the young blonde burst into a colony of bats and flew into the small port town.
"Damn, I have so gotta learn how to do that," the wide eyed interrogator muttered to herself at the sight, before making her way to find her partner.
Naruto was walking around the town market, taking in everything of importance, especially the escalated prices on fish. It was a port town, so fish should be plentiful and therefore cheap, but that didn't appear to be the case, which meant that either something was killing off the fish, or something was scaring off the fishermen, he concluded that the second option seemed more likely, after all, he knew for a fact that monsters were real.
He decided that he wouldn't learn anything if he just stood around and as such, decided to ask someone about the prices. He stopped the first person to walk by and quickly asked the individual about the situation, "excuse me, but would you be so kind as to tell me why the local fish is so expensive?"
"A monster called the Kaima attacks the fishermen's boats, so they're too scared to go out to sea, now please leave me alone," the stranger said before leaving the area, though not without a large number of hate filled stares being thrown their way. Naruto noticed this and decided to observe the individual some more. He noticed that the person was a girl not much older than himself with black hair that was formed into two large bangs that framed her face, she wore a blue tunic with bandages acting as a belt, and brown knee length shorts. Though what Naruto found the most intriguing was the large number of bandages that covered the girls form, covering her right arm, left leg, forehead, her left cheek and neck.
He quickly jumped onto a nearby building and shapeshifted into a small, black household cat, before proceeding to track the young girl down the street, noticing how wherever she went, harsh glares and calls of 'monster', 'freak' and 'why don't you just leave us alone' would follow.
The young girl eventually turned down an empty alley, and after checking to make sure no one followed her, sat down next to a dumpster and began to quietly sob to herself.
"And that's why I don't like humans," and with that the young girl jumped up and looked at the master of the voice, who was currently sitting on the dumpster she was leaning against with one foot dangling lazily over the edge, "they are so quick to judge, they make their assumptions and consider them fact, they don't care who they hurt because of that… So what makes you different?" the glasses wearing blonde asked curiously.
"Why should I trust you, ninja?" the girl asked with a small hint of aggression in her voice.
At her question, countless eyes opened on the sunglasses wearing blonde's overcoat, "because monsters judge who you are not what you are," he stated with a vicious smile, causing the girls eyes to widen and her to back up, before falling over a trashcan.
"Wha-what are you?" the now terrified girl shouted at the being before her, as it descended from the dumpster and casually walked up to her.
"Me? I'm a monster, now why don't you tell me your name," he informed her while using his telepathic abilities to implant a small amount of co-operation into her psyche.
"I-Isaribi," she claimed as she stared into the malicious yet surprisingly accepting eyes of her interrogator.
"Well then Isaribi, why don't you tell me why the townsfolk hate you," it was a question, but the way he said it made it sound like a demand, one that shouldn't be denied lightly.
"P-people disappear and are n-never seen again, I'm the o-only one to return," she hastily replied, not wanting to get on this monsters bad side.
"I see, so they fear you because you've done something no-one else has," and with that sentence the young vampire began to caress the petrified girls bandaged cheek.
"Hmm, that is unusual, it feels like there is something underneath the bandages," he thought as his fingers picked up a VERY rough texture under his caress.
She was quickly snapped out of her stupor as she felt his thumb slide under her bandages and over her hidden features. In her panic she turned and ran away as fast as her legs could carry her before diving head first into the canal just outside of the alley.
Even in her current state, she noticed the last sentence the monster said to her, "embrace what you are, being human is overrated."
Anko was definitely pissed, the brat had gone and lost her, and if he died, the council would have her head, not because they liked the brat, no, they would celebrate the kids death but execute her under false accusations.
Combined with the fact that she was constantly remembering things that she had forgotten and you have a very aggressive konoichi.
"Dammit where the hell is that gaki!" she shouted in frustration.
Just at that moment a young girl wearing bandages ran out in front of her, "embrace what you are, being human is overrated," and with that the girl dived headfirst into the sea.
Looking down the alley the girl came from she saw the person she was searching for in the first place.
"Hello sensei, I was just investigating the area, and discovered a couple of interesting things," the fedora wearing genin stated completely unfazed by her (currently murderous) presence.
"What the fuck were you just doing?" the purple haired woman asked through gritted teeth.
"Finding out about the village pariah, turns out her name is Isaribi and she isn't human," the vampire stated before walking past his partner.
"Wait! What do you mean she isn't human?"
"She has scales under those bandages, she might have been human once, but she isn't now."
"So that girl had scales, I wonder, could she be the Kaima?"
"So you are aware of the Kaima, I take it that our secondary objective has something to do with it?"
"Yeah, we're supposed to investigate and neutralise the threat it poses to this country."
"But we only need to neutralise the threat, not the Kaima itself, am I correct?"
"If we could find out why it attacks people and find a way to stop it then I guess we could let it live."
"Good, I already have a suspicion concerning the Kaima's reasons, that is, if Isaribi is the Kaima."
"I take it you already know our primary objective then," Anko asked for confirmation.
"Destroy Gato's storehouse and all of its guards in warehouse 4, pier 2," the sapphire eyed boy stated with a vicious smirk, "I think it is time to get to work."
The sun was setting and we find two Konoha ninja standing in front of a large brick warehouse with large steel doors preventing anyone from getting in, of course the large steel doors had never come into contact with a vampires boot before.
The thirty something thugs assigned to guard the merchandise couldn't believe their eyes, someone had quite literally kicked the door in, a five ton steel door had just been kicked off its hinges and thrown at least ten feet from the frame.
Looking at the newly made entrance, they saw a short guy wearing strange black clothes, being gawked at by a woman wearing a tan trench coat. I was obvious she didn't expect the result either.
Before anyone had regained enough sense to speak, the boy disappeared and the next thing they know, one of their group had a hand impaled through their heart, before they dropped down, all light leaving their eyes as the thugs blood began to move towards, then UP the creature that broke down the door, before it was seemingly absorbed into its clothes and skin.
"KILL IT!" one of them shouted, obviously the leader. At that call every thug in the room snapped out of their coma's and ran towards their enemy, with their makeshift weapons drawn. They kept getting closer and closer, and their target didn't even seem to care, one of them arced their cleaver back and then swung at the still motionless killer, before feeling the satisfying resistance of metal meeting flesh, then as soon as it started it finished, the boys head flew through the air, before landing on the bare ground, as his body collapsed.
"SHIT!" Anko couldn't believe it, the brat had effortlessly kicked down a door that Gai probably couldn't even budge, killed a man in an instant, and then, just LET himself get decapitated, leaving her on her own against more than thirty enemies.
Not that they were a problem, but still, the Hokage would be REALLY pissed that she had just let the brat die, and she would pay dearly for it.
"Hey look, that woman looks like she'd be a good fuck," one of the random thugs shouted out, completely unaware of what was going on behind him, after all the guy did think that the fear in the woman's eyes was because of him.
Of course, the giant bubbling mass of eye covered darkness wasn't making a sound as an enormous maw filled to the brim with teeth easily twice the size of a man appeared on the thing, before it opened and the mass lunged forward, effortlessly devouring five of the warehouse guards before they even realised that there was something behind them.
Everybody was frozen as the anamorphous mass of darkness began to shrink and the countless eyes began to close, until only a human shaped being with two eyes remained. As the darkness disappeared from its features the entire room was shocked to see the boy that was previously decapitated.
"Now now, did you seriously think I would just let you amputate my head if it would kill me?" the glasses wearing psycho asked, his voice saturated with amusement.
"H-how?" the konoichi asked in disbelief at the sight before her.
"How? Because I'm immortal of course," the former jinchūriki stated as if it was obvious.
One of the thugs who managed to shake himself from his stupor and decided to try and kill the creature from behind, soon found his head missing, courtesy of a giant cleaver that emerged from the blondes back, which was soon followed by a large man wearing bandages over his face.
"Ah, yes, allow me to introduce you to one of my familiars, Momochi Zabuza, the demon of the bloody mist," Naruto stated calmly as Zabuza proceeded to completely emerge from the vampires back.
Of course the fact that a large man with an even larger sword had seemingly grown off of what the group had already decided could only be a monster or demon, they did the only thing they could think of, panic.
They rushed around, quickly getting decapitated by Zabuza's blade, or impaled by Naruto's hand, Anko could only stand there, looking on at the carnage that befell the area as her monster of a partner effortlessly dished out death, with all the bloodshed pooling all around the floor of the warehouse.
It took less than half a minute for the duo of Naruto and Zabuza to slaughter every last guard, leaving nothing more than corpses and a blood-soaked floor.
"Well this is going to take a while to clean up," deadpanned the still stunned tokubetsu Jōnin.
"Just a moment," when the blonde said this, ALL the blood started to flow towards, then cover the blonde before getting absorbed by his skin and clothes, leaving a perfectly clean room and a wide eyed woman, "now for the next point of business," he continued before walking towards a large box covered with a brown sheet which he quickly threw off to reveal a cage, filled with people wearing nothing more than rags, other than that, they had nothing in common, there were men, woman, adults, children, old people, it didn't matter, the cage was filled with all sorts of people.
"Every crate in this place is filled with the same merchandise," the blonde stated receiving a dirty look from his sensei before she started looking around and realised that there was probably about 300 crates in the warehouse.
"Why did you refer to these people as merchandise?" the purple haired konoichi asked with a dangerous edge to her voice, she clearly didn't like what he was insinuating.
"Because until we free these people, they are slaves and technically, merchandise. So let's get on with our job already," and with that the two of them proceeded to release the captives for the next couple of hours.
"So why aren't you flying to the Island?" Anko asked as they walked across the sea to reach their new destination.
"Because for some reason which I don't understand, I can't fly over moving water, none f my kind can(1), though using chakra to walk on it seems to simulate dry land," he explained.
"Okay, that doesn't make sense."
"I know."
"Sssooo, if that Isaribi girl is the Kaima then why do ya think she is doing what she is?"
"If Isaribi is the Kaima, then I believe that someone might be tricking her into working for them, probably claiming that they can cure her, probably bullshit as well."
"What makes you think that?"
"Let's just call it a hunch," in reality during their brief encounter he had used his telepathic abilities to get a good idea of what sort of person she was, but he didn't want to say that.
"Okay, so what do you propose we do?"
"We find whoever it is that's using her and expose them, then she should stop terrorizing the community and can, hopefully get on with her life."
"So you aren't a complete asshole then."
"Only to people who aren't my enemies."
Neither of the two noticed the large fishlike creature slowly submerging itself after their conversation.
It took the pair a couple of hours to reach the largest of the islands and the sun was rising. Anko immediately left to find somewhere to sleep, deciding not to argue when the blonde told her that he didn't need to sleep, at all.
So while Anko was sleeping in a nearby hotel, Naruto decided to get a head start and find Isaribi, which didn't take as long as he expected.
"Why don't you die ya monster!" shouted a small child as he threw a stone at the kneeling girl, while a crowd of other young children shouted insults at her.
The group was currently gathered on a beach with several large rocks scattered around the area, but most importantly, there was a small hut that was desecrated with graffiti exclaiming things such as 'monster' 'die demon scum' etc.
It was Isaribi's home, nothing more than a simple shack that everyone took their fear and anger out on when they were drunk or having a bad day.
"You know, attacking a monster is stupid, since either it or one of its friends might kill you for it," the child who threw the stone heard in his ear as he felt a sharp, cold sensation on his throat. Daring to look down, he saw that someone had placed a REAL kunai to his throat, deciding to follow the arm attached to it, he pissed his pants when an eye opened up, on the persons sleeve.
Everyone was looking at the strange person, his excessively large hat, his black suit, his massive coat and his tinted sunglasses, all in all, he looked weird in the burning sun.
"Now why don't you children run away before I decide that you'd make a decent meal," Naruto said as he removed his kunai from the child's throat. The group decided that they would be best, NOT sticking around and legged it.
Isaribi didn't know what to do, she knew that the being before her didn't mean her any harm, however, it was an unknown, she knew nothing of its abilities, other than it having extreme skills in stealth.
"Hello Isaribi, I would like a little chat with you," the blonde stated as he walked up to the young girl.
"You already know what I am, what else do you want," she asked him quietly as she kept her head down and her eyes diverted.
"So you admit that you are the Kaima," at her nod he continued, "why do you terrorise these people?"
"What does it matter?"
"Because depending on your answer I will either spare you, or kill you. If you don't answer then I will get that information the hard way."
"You mean torture," Isaribi spat out.
"No, I mean invading your mind or drinking your blood," at this comment the heavily bandaged girls eyes went wide and she finally looked at the boy in front of her, "what? I'm a monster, some of my abilities include telepathy and the ability to assimilate memories by drinking blood," he claimed with a shrug.
After thinking about what the black clad person said, she decided to bite her finger, drawing a small amount of blood in the process, before offering it to him.
"Fine, if you can learn persons memories by drinking their blood, then experience mine," she stated, looking straight into the eyes of the strange creature before her.
Upon being offered, Naruto slowly bent down and did as prompted, he licked her blood from the small cut, experiencing every memory she had ever had, being kidnapped at a young age, being experimented on by a man named Amachi who worked for the traitorous ninja, Orochimaru of the Sannin, being released as an incomplete specimen and getting ordered to kidnap people and destroy boats in exchange for the cure. He saw it all, and by the end of it, he understood.
"I hope you realise that you cannot trust the word of anyone who willingly works with Orochimaru, they are NEVER honest or good people," he stated as he finished assimilating her memories.
"So it's the only option I have," she claimed quietly as depression sank in.
"No, you could easily live with your changes, as I said before, being human is overrated, OR if you really want, I could kill Amachi and absorb his memories and skills and IF he has a way of curing you, do it instead of him," at the last part, the young girl looked up in shock, this stranger would help her if Amachi could, of course…
"What do you want in return?"
"I may be a monster, but I'm not evil, well, I am to my enemies but you're NOT my enemy."
"What do you want?"
"You're not going to let it go until I say something I want are you?"
"No."
"What do you think Vicky-chan?"
"Huh? Why are you asking me?"
"Cause you're more cunning than me."
"Uh… why not get her to go to Konoha with you?"
"Why?"
"You know, company or something like that, I really don't know what to ask of her," Kyūbi stated in his head.
"Well it is the only idea we have so, why not," "you are to come to Konoha with me and my sensei."
"…"
"What?"
"Is that all?"
"Hey, I don't exactly have anything I want off you, this is the only thing I could think of to get you to drop it," he answered honestly.
"…" it was clear by now that the girl had lost all fear of the boy in front of her, yeah he was weird, yeah he could be scary but he just wasn't evil enough to consider him dangerous to anyone who he didn't dislike.
"Anyway, I think I'll go and kill Amachi now," he stated nonchalantly.
"Huh? How can you say something like that so easily?"
"Like what?"
"That you're going to kill someone!"
"Because they deserve it and I know that he will be the one to die, since I can't," he stated calmly before walking away from the still kneeling girl.
"He's VERY strange," Isaribi stated to herself when she could no longer see him.
Naruto had easily found the island that the research base Amachi worked in was on and quickly made his way inside the area.
He was easily capable of detecting the presence on the other side of the security camera's watching his every move thanks to his telepathy, not that it mattered to him.
He soon found a large room filled with large cylinders that each contained a mutated organism of some kind, when the doors locked and walls lifted, revealing three large lion like creatures that had obviously been starved if the look in their eyes was anything to go by.
"Oh would you look at that, fast food," he said as one of them lunged at him, only for him to grab its leg and with a quick jerk of his arm, rip it off before using the limb to clobber the beasts head with, shattering it's skull and sending it flying into the wall, creating a large crater where it impacted.
"And it's a home run!" he shouted out greatly confusing his spectator on the other end of the security camera.
The other lions decided that they might have a better chance of eating if they ignored their prey and ate their former ally, effectively removing them from the equation.
"Well that was boring," Naruto deadpanned before kicking down the door leading deeper into the lab, but before leaving the room, he looked at the camera and stated with a grin, "Naruto one, Amachi nil"
It didn't take long for Naruto to make his way to Amachi's chamber, where the scientist was already there waiting for him.
"Hello there, Naruto was it? I have a few questions for you," the man stated calmly as he walked towards the young vampire.
He had grey hair, slanted eyes and a large nose, while he wore a grey suit covered with a basic white lab coat.
"Really, well then feel free to ask, Amachi-san," the blonde said with a grin.
"Well, first things first, how do you know my name?"
"Trade secret," cue sweatdrop.
"What the hell did you mean 'home run'?"
"A VERY old sport called baseball, involved some dude throwing a ball at a guy with a club, and if the guy with the club could hit the ball outside the arena, which by the way is several times larger than the Konoha Chūnin exam arena, it would be called a 'home run'," Naruto explained to the, now slightly less confused, scientist.
"Well now, if you know about me then you should already know that I'm not much of a fighter, so I'll just leave here now and URRGH" the psychotic scientist started, only to find his chest exploding after getting hit in the back.
As the grey haired man fell forward, his vision darkened as he looked towards his killer, and noticed the smoking device in his hand, then everything went black.
"Well that was boring," Naruto deadpanned before absorbing Amachi's blood, allowing him to learn everything about all the inhuman experiments that were performed in the building he was currently standing. He was just a little annoyed when he realised that Amachi didn't have a cure for Isaribi's condition, meaning he couldn't help do anything more than learn to embrace the monster she had become.
"She is going to be very unhappy about this," he thought to himself.
"You sound almost sad about that," Victoria stated in his head.
"I guess so, she is the second nicest person I've met."
"Who's the nicest?"
"You of course," and continuing his conversation with Kyūbi he left the island to find Anko and Isaribi.
When Anko woke up, the first thing she saw was a black clad blonde staring down at her.
"I have to say, wearing your birthday suit isn't the warmest way to sleep," he smirked at her.
"…"
"PERVERT!" and with that cry she decked him into the wall, only to realise that, she wasn't naked, "huh, I thought you said I was in my birthday suit!"
"I did, purely to see what kind of reaction I'd get off you, and you didn't disappoint either. Anyway, I've completed the mission, turns out Isaribi was being tricked by an old acquaintance of yours, a scientist called Amachi, who claimed he had a cure for her condition, which he actually didn't. So right now, Amachi is dead and Isaribi might be coming with us to Konoha," he claimed causing a tick to appear over Anko's eye.
"So you're telling me that, I've got to put up with babysitting a little girl while you go flying back to Konoha," she asked with a dangerous edge to her voice.
"No, I'll be taking complete responsibility for her, so we will be travelling at your pace" the blonde assured her.
"Okay then, where is she?"
"I've yet to pick her up."
The pair eventually reached the beach that the young girls hut was located, and Naruto noticed her sitting on a rock, gazing out to the sea.
"I'm sorry to inform you that Amachi didn't know how to cure you, his plan was to dissect you when he had finished using you," Naruto calmly informed the girl, though if you listened closely enough you could hear the sadness in his voice.
"So I'll never be human again."
"Maybe, maybe not, it is entirely possible that there is someone who could potentially cure your condition if you wanted them to, but the question is, DO you want them to?"
"If you asked me before I met you, then my answer would have been yes, however now… I'm not sure anymore," the dark haired girl said with a distant tone, it was obvious that she was thinking, though what she was thinking about was a mystery.
"(sigh) Not all humans are worthless, it's just that the majority usually rejects the minority and sometimes, that rejection can take the forms of physical or psychological abuse, so all in all, as a species, humans are dumb, fearful and spiteful creatures, at least monsters don't share those characteristics," the blonde explained to her. "So, are you going to stay here or come with us to Konoha?"
"That," she pointed at her shack, "is all I have here, maybe if I go to Konoha I'll find something to live for," she claimed earning a warm smile from the normally cold or sadistic genin.
"I hope you do, you're too nice to live like this," he said gesturing to the area they were currently conversing in.
"Are you two going to take all day or are we going to head back to Konoha now?" the trench coat wearing, purple haired konoichi asked in irritation.
"S-sorry, I just need to get packed, it shouldn't take long," and with that, Isaribi entered her hut and began to pack everything that mattered to her.
It didn't take long.
"Okay I'm ready," the fishgirl stated as she exited her home with a small backpack strapped on.
"About time, let's go, I don't want to have to water walk all the way back to the mainland, so I want to make sure we catch a boat this time," Anko said while throwing a glare at the blonde, "and to make matters worse, I haven't even had a chance to kill anything!"
"Feel free to decapitate me then."
"I want to KILL you know, make sure it DIES you know, that little thing you don't know how to do," the konoichi stated with a little bit of killing intent directed at the blonde.
"Tch, fine then, we'll find a bandit camp for you to slaughter on the way back, happy with that?" Naruto stated in an attempt to compromise.
"Umm, Yeah, that'll do," and with that, the group made their way to a port to catch the next boat and head back to Konoha with Isaribi in tow.
(1) it is stated in the Hellsing Manga when a battleship gets taken over by Rip Van Winkle
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