6 ch 6

Naruto's eyes narrowed; his target unaware of his presence. The cool wind swept along his bare back, the sweat rolling down his spine slowly. His fingers clutched the kunai in his hand tighter as he slowly maneuvered himself closer. The target raised his head and looked around suspiciously for a few seconds, before going back to drinking water from the pond. Naruto shifted position slightly, bent back his arm, and threw the kunai dead on target.

Senjii jumped away at the last second, exclaiming loudly. Unfortunately he didn't see where he was jumping and ended up landing in the pond. With a splash and lots of spluttering, he emerged and growled at Naruto.

"What the hell Naruto!"

Naruto was on the ground rolling in laughter. Tears streamed down his face as he sought to catch his breath. "You should have seen your face!" Naruto managed to squeeze out between laughing.

Senjii walked out of the water, dripping and fuming. He glared and Naruto and drew his sword.

"Let's see if you still laugh when I shave that head of yours clean of all hair!" Senjii barked at Naruto and Flash jumped to within feet of Naruto. Naruto yelped and did a Hiraishin to take himself several meters away in white blur.

Senjii followed quickly with another Flash Jump and swung his sword at Naruto's head. Naruto managed to dodge it at the last second by flipping into a cartwheel. Mid spin he did a Hiraishin again to move further away. This cat and mouse game they had invented a week ago and they were both getting much better at using their speed maneuvers whilst fighting or dodging.

Naruto appeared at the end of the island. From this side could see the ocean. Senjii appeared behind him, but too close and his forward momentum pushed both of them over the edge. Narutu's eyes opened large as he realized what was happening.

Frantically he tried to flash jump back to the island but Senjii's arms were caught up in Naruto's and they started to spin as they fell. They screamed for two second before realizing that a gust of wind picked them up and started pushing them out to sea. Naruto felt the familiar sensation, much like the wind river that brings you to his Island.

He and Senjii held themselves in check as much as they could, as the river of wind turned and twisted. Naruto felt like they had done a loop, pretty sure he saw the cloud that hid the island in the sky not behind them, but miles and miles away to his right now. The wind rushed them onto land again, over what looked like a small sea village. It deposited them in a heap on top of a small grassy hill.

Naruto and Senjii looked around. Senjii pointed east. "That's home. A good three days travel." He sighed. "Guess we should start walking?"

Naruto nodded and they headed east. The path from the clearing passed through a small wooded area. Naruto and Senjii strode through it disgruntled at the journey that in the space of five minutes was thrust on them.

The canopy of rich greens and the sounds of birds thought soon had them feeling lazy and relaxed. The crunch of their boots on the gravel and dirt road became hypnotic. Naruto yawned and stretched his arms out. His white shirt flapping in the gentle wind that blew against them. Senjii sighed and cracked his neck.

"Help!" An ear shattering scream split the silence, sending hundreds of birds flying from the forest.

Naruto and Senjii stopped in their trackes immediately.

"Anybody! Please help!" The voice shrieked again. Senjii pointed off to their right. "That way."

In a blur both he and Naruto were flashing towards the source of the scream. Jump after jump. It took them thirty seconds to arrive at what looked like a few small houses on a piece of farmland.

What they saw though horrified them. Three bodies were hanging from a post over the horses corral. All three had been brutally beaten, and bloodied. Their hands were tied behind their backs, and Naruto could see that their feet were shackled. What made Naruto almost retch was that the bodies were of two children and one woman.

Standing not far from there, was a large group of roughly thirty warriors, laughing and throwing a little girl to the ground. Senjii could see that there appeared to be another six people being attacked by the warriors. One old man, a younger man and woman who held onto each other, and three other children. It was one of the children that was screaming.

Naruto and Senjii didn't even look at each other. Senjii disappeared in a black blur. The child the warriors were throwing disappeared. Senjii reappeared next to the seven civilians holding the child in his arms. He held the crying girl as he said to no one in particular. "Naruto, don't miss"

With a primeval yell of anger, Naruto leapt into the air above the group. He had once been subject to beatings as an orphan, but to see children being mutilated, killed, laughed at as it was happening…it was too much for Naruto to handle. They had time to see a figure in white soaring above them, the sun behind him as his arms swept outwards. A hailstorm of Wind Senbon rained down on the men. All the practice with Kenshi had paid off. Most of Naruto's needles found their targets, but more importantly, none came anywhere near Senjii and the civilians.

The warriors dropped like flies as the Senbon pierced them completely, the wind projectiles not stopping till they were embedded completely in the ground. As Naruto landed on the far side of them, close to Senjii, only six men were left standing.

Senjii stood with his sword ready in case any attack came towards the civilians, but he left the attack to Naruto in this case. None of these men looked like they would be any sort of challenge to either of them.

He was right.

Naruto rushed forward. His Bo staff was back on the island, but all coherent thought left his mind as he snarled and his fist connected with the first face. He pushed wind chakra to his knuckles to increase the blunt force. The result was catastrophic. The man's head exploded in a puff of mist and bone fragments.

One man rushed at Naruto with a downward swing of a large axe. Naruto sidestepped it, and pivoted. His right hand grabbed the axe and wrenched it out of the man's hand as his spin continued. The axe coming back around to remove the man's head. Naruto could feel the chakra in himself boiling.

Senji noticed Naruto's eyes becoming slits and his whisker birthmarks getting deeper into his face.

In a blur of white though it was all over. Naruto flashed from one man to the next, killing them before they saw him.

The bloodbath had taken all of fifteen seconds.

Senjii turned to look at the family behind him. "Are you ok?"

The older man, who had to be at least seventy-five, nodded. "Yes, thank you. Thank you… our saviours." He fell to his knees weeping. The younger man and woman helped him up.

Naruto breathed in calmly, quieting the monster inside. He could hear it laughing though; and a small voice that breathed into his soul. 'Yesss…" was what he heard.

None of them noticed a shadow move in the forest as a hidden warrior ran from the carnage.

A short while later

Naruto and Senjii sat at a small dining table inside one of the farmhouses. The kitchen was small but tidy. The family they had rescued sat on the opposite side. The old man at the head of the table, the younger couple sat together on his left, their hands holding each other as well as two children. The other two children sat on the old man's right. The boy holding his sister who was still sniffling. They had juts finished burying the three bodies, who Naruto had discovered to be the boy and girl's mother and siblings.

The old man spoke first. "Thank you for coming to our rescue. It will be a while before Alucar's men discover something happened here. By then, we should be long gone."

"What did they want with you?" Naruto asked.

"Well..." The old man glanced at the rest of his family. "We are what are left of a clan that specializes in what we call Doubutsu Souzou. The local warlord discovered us and was forcing us to…well make horrible things."

Naruto and Senjii both looked puzzled. They asked simultaneously. "What is Doubutso Souzou?"

The old man looked at them suspiciously, then laughed. "I need to remember that you both saved our lives, and that you," he nodded at Naruto, "are clearly a chakra user yourself. Doubutso Souzou is the ability to create animals."

Naruto's eyes opened wide. "You mean like a summons? Like this?" Naruto made some hand signs and slammed them down on the table. A small frog appeared. He looked at Naruto for a few seconds in confusion. Naruto then dispersed the Jutsu.

The old man smiled. "No. That was summoning craft. We don't call animals from one location to another. We create animals from nothingness. It is a complex art, especially when we wish to create hybrids or anything that doesn't already exist in nature. Sometimes the life span is just so short in our creations."

"Wow." Naruto exclaimed. Senjii seemed to be in disbelief.

The younger man spoke up. "We should start packing to leave this place. It is not safe." He looked frustrated as he spoke.

Senjii asked, "Why should you leave? It's just one warlord right?"

The younger man nodded in reply.

Naruto smiled. "How big an army? A hundred men? More?"

"At least three hundred." The younger woman replied. Senjii and Naruto grinned.

"Great! Practice."

"No!" The younger man shouted. "No one else will die because of us. We will leave and we are taking our children with us. We will find somewhere to go where no one can find us. Where we can live in peace." He stood from the table, shrugged off his wife's hand and moved to leave the room.

"Wait." Naruto said. He looked thoughtful. "We are building a village. A village where no one can be hated or used. Where everyone can feel safe. Would you come with us to our village? I mean it's now being built, we don't have any buildings yet, but the land is cleared and Jiraiya and Kenshi and Mr. Guerrera are bringing back materials and supplies for us to start it."

The old man looked at Naruto in shock. "You'd invite us to go with you?"

Senjii smiled. "Naruto here wouldn't leave anyone in a bad situation, not if he can help it. Like he said, the place is under construction. But if you have to start over somewhere, it's a great place to do it. There's no where safer in the world."

The young man stopped in the doorway, and turned. "Really? We…we could stay there? We could stop hiding?" His wife came up to him and held his hand, smiling. She turned to face Naruto. "We'd love to."

Neither she nor her husband saw the arrows that pierced their hearts, but Naruto, Senjii and the rest of the family heard the breaking of the kitchen window, and saw the shafts of black wood appear in the chests of the two adults.

They died instantly, falling with a clump to the floor that signaled the start of screams from their children. Blood spurted from their mouths, their shocked lifeless eyes locking with Naruto's and Senjii's for one second. Chairs scraped as Naruto and Senjii lunged at the old man and the kids, tackling them to the kitchen floor. A hailstorm of arrows zinged by overhead as the girls screamed and cried.

Senjii sprang from his prone position and out one of the shattered window. Outside he'd have a better chance to counterattack than inside.

He hit the ground in a roll and had time to see a volley of arrows coming at him. He drew his sword and swung it in a wide circle, deflecting the arrows. A quick glance confirmed his suspicion. The warlord had come with what had to be his entire army.

He flash jumped to the left. He knew he could take out a good few of them, but he also knew something they didn't. Naruto was only going to be a few seconds behind him, and Naruto would be mad at the death of those two innocents. Senjii thought it best to get out of the line of fire while killing as many as he could.

He was right. The wall of the house exploded outwards, sending shards of wood and glass flying like deadly projectiles. The shrapnel shredded the mercenaries nearest to the house.

Alucar himself sat on a huge horse in the middle of his army of mercenaries, his sallow face and dark beard standing in stark contrast to each other. The earrings and tattoos that adorned his body spoke of someone who loved pain and mutilation.

He snarled at the appearance of Naruto and Senjii, and the losses to his army. "Kill them!" He ordered.

Naruto however didn't give them time to act on those orders. If anyone had been close enough to see, Naruto's iris's had become slits. A reddish glow seemed to surround him and he let loose a yell that seemed more feral than human. A wave of red chakra literally exploded off of him, sending the bodies of the warriors closest to him hurtling through the air. His scream continued as wave after wave of anger washed over him; red chakra wrapping itself around him and then exploding outwards like blasts of gale force wind. The front ranks of the army were atomized into bloody mist, the middle ranks scrambling over each other to back away from the demon they saw before them.

Senji stood still for one wide eyed second.

"Shit"

He burst into action, the soldiers he had been fighting running away as fast as they could. He had never seen Naruto get this way, but he felt sickly at the sight, the Chakra hadn't reached him, but he felt foul this close. But, he realized Naruto had gone completely berserker and forgotten the house behind him and the children who were still crying and cowering on the floor of the house. Naruto's chakra threatened closer and closer to them. Senjii flash jumped into the house and barked commands, pointing out the back door, away from Naruto and the army.

"That way! Run!" The urgency in his voice spurring the older children to grab the younger ones and run. The old patriarch was busy making hand signs as fast as he could manage, as Senjii looked on in shock. The table lit up then became a huge bear. The bear stood up and blocked the chakra waves coming through the shredded hole in the kitchen, its fur being torn to shreds at each wave. It let out howls of pain but kept its place, giving the old man time to move as fast as he could out the back door, and make sure the children escaped.

Senjii ran with them out the back door, and looked back in time to see the house explode into shards of wood. He saw what looked to be Naruto, surrounded by red chakra at least four times bigger than himself. He could have sworn he saw what might have been a few tails swinging behind Naruto.

Senjii's blood ran cold. Was the demon breaking free of its container? His fist clenched tighter on his sword. Naruto was his friend, but if he had not choice… He prepared to flash jump to Naruto when the boy in question screamed louder than Senjii had heard before.

The red chakra began to shrink inwards. Senjii couldn't see from this angle, but he had the impression that Naruto was concentrating immensely. There was almost a vacuum effect as the chakra was pulled into his body, wood, dirt, body parts, all tumbled and made their way towards Naruto with his screaming neverending. Senjii looked on in amazement. It was as if he was the center of the universe and the universe was…

Senjii turned to the family with a panicked expression on his face. He swung his sword in the hardest slash he could manage, digging a huge hole out of the ground. "Jump in! Now!" He grabbed the old man and literally threw him in. He tackled the children into the hole just as the noise became complete silence for one second. All the chakra completely pulled into his body.

Naruto had a vague idea of what he was doing, but he had no idea how to control what was about to happen. He really hoped Senjii had gotten away with the surviving family members.

Silence for one heart beat, Senjii breathed heavily. Alucar looked at what remained of his forces, and prepared to bark out a command.

Naruto exploded in a final burst of chakra. This chakra however was not red, but instead it was a blast of white light and wind that erupted from his body like a bomb. The remaining army members, house, nearby forest had their very existence erased a layer at a time. Flesh was peeled from bones, blood was atomized, screams were left unheard as the sound of the erupting wind was deafening.

In their hole, Senjii and the family clutched each other tightly as the wind ripped by overhead. It was over in seconds, but it felt like minutes.

Naruto collapsed in a heap, his white clothes shredded, hanging in tatters. A large circular crater was all around him. Not a trace of the house, the army or the nearby forest for two hundred yards in any direction.

Senjii stood up carefully, looking in disbelief at the level of destruction. Note to self, don't get Naruto pissed.

Jiraiya looked at the sack of coins in his hand. With a sigh he walked into the bar. When he needed to be, he could be focused. And he was insanely proud of his apprentice Naruto's ambition to start a village. He looked around and cleared his throat. This town was famous for what he needed.

"I am looking, " He announced loudly, getting everyone's attention. "for anyone who can build a water plant for a new village."

Most of the heads turned away, but one old man looked across at him and walked over. "What sort of water plant?"

Jiraiya shrugged. "I don't know. We are building a new village, and have a lake as a source of water. We'd need to filter the water, and pipe it to the buildings in the village. It's a start from scratch sort of job."

The old man rubbed his scruffy chin. "I've not had to build one in many years, but I've done what you are talking about before. I can show you what you need to buy, and arrange transport."

Jiraiya nodded. "I have my own means of transport. But I would need you to show me the needed items. My name is…"

The old man brushed his hand and scoffed. "I've been around the world enough to know your face. You're Jiraiya of the Sannin. You're trustworthy so I believe you will pay fairly for this job." The old man walked back over to the table he was sitting at and hefted a bag onto his shoulders.

"You're lucky I was passing through this town, I don't think you'd find anyone as good as me anywhere close to here. Maybe more to the south." He walked with Jiraiya outside the bar. "My grandson Inari should be around here somewhere. We'll be off immediately I take it?"