Chapter 107 : Death of the War Hawk (4)

Konohamaru was startled when a golden light flashed right in front of him, knocking him off his feet.

"Oi, what's the big idea, Naruto-nii?" the Sarutobi boy asked. "I-" he stopped when he saw – or more accurately, felt – Sasuke.

He didn't know why, but he was so scared of the Uchiha at that moment that he could hardly breathe. A dark aura that felt like it swallowed you whole would do that to you, especially if you were nine.

Naruto felt Konohamaru's panic, and placed a hand on his shoulder, instantly relaxing him. "It's okay Konohamaru, and I'm sorry for scaring you." Sasuke wasn't meaning to leak out major amounts of Killing Intent, he just couldn't help it.

Someone had Sakura… she was probably terrified, and waiting for him to save her… it drove him crazy. But again, only on the inside, because on the outside, Sasuke was the picture of cool calmness.

"I-It's okay…" Konohamaru began. "I'm just glad you finally showed up! Did you find my scarf?" He asked in hope.

Naruto smiled, nodding. "Yes, we did." The blond handed the little monkey his scarf, chuckling at how excited he was to be reunited with it. "But we need to hurry, Konohamaru. Where did they take Sakura?"

Konohamaru instantly straightened, and Naruto found that interesting, very, very interesting.

"They made camp just over this hill, Naruto-nii. It's a good thing, too. I don't think I could follow them any longer…" Indeed, Naruto could see the exhaustion on the boy.

It was actually impressive that he could follow these people so far, and without being detected. Yes, Naruto was now very interested in his jiji's grandson.

"I'm proud of you, Konohamaru." The Uzumaki said. "You'll make a fantastic ninja one day." He smiled at the boy's excitement. "But right now you need to stay here, okay.

We are going to go get Sakura back, and then we'll all go back to the village." Again, he placed his hand on the boy's shoulder. "You're a hero, Konohamaru. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise."

His words were emphasized when Sasuke placed his hand on the Sarutobi's other shoulder. "Thank you, Konohamaru." He said, before vanishing in a Shunshin (Body Flicker).

Naruto smiled, nodding, before he too vanished in a swirl of leaves.

It was time for the Uchiha wrath to scar the earth once more.

...

"Damn it, we've been here too long, you know." A red-haired woman shouted, standing. "If you weren't such a fat ass, we could have been halfway to Oto by now, Jirobo!"

A man who was much bigger than the rest stood, a snarl marking his face.

"Why don't you come over here and say that, Tayuya?" Jirobo mocked. The little bitch was all bark.

"Don't tempt me, fat boy." Tayuya retorted.

"Okay, children, that's enough of that." A man with grey hair and sickly features spoke, he too standing. "You know what will happen if we start to fight each other. Orochimaru-sama will have our heads, and that's only if we're lucky."

"Sakon is right; we don't have time for your shit, Tayuya, Jirobo." Another man with dark skin and beady eyes scolded.

"We should get moving now. I don't know about all of you, but I'd rather get out of these forests before Konoha wises up and notices that one of their own is missing."

"Oh please, Kidomaru, do you really think that place is going to miss this little bitch? She's worthless, a little girl playing ninja. They'd probably thank us for our services." Tayuya laughed.

"Either way, we should get moving. I'm getting a bad feeling…" Kidomaru said. He didn't know what it was, but it felt eerily similar to when Orochimaru was upset and bloodthirsty. It was like a dark, ominous, malevolent feeling surrounded them, encasing them all around.

It felt like they were trapped.

That was why it was strange, because if there was anyone even in their vicinity, his spider webs would have told him….

Right?

Tayuya sighed dramatically. "You always have a bad feeling…" She then turned to her robust comrade, sneering.

"Make yourself useful, fat ass." She pointed with her thumb over her shoulder. "Carry the barrel with the girly in it."

Jirobo glared at the foul-mouthed red head before he walked over to the barrel which they had stuffed the pretty little Konoha genin. He really didn't like Tayuya, and if he knew just how terrible her personality was, he would have killed her the day they were chosen.

She was bossy, snooty, and cursed worse than an old man. In his personal opinion, she was the worst kind of kunoichi; big bite, and even bigger bark.

Reaching out to pick up the barrel all seemed normal. The wind blew in the same direction as it had previously that day, the sun was still lounging in the sky, and the forest was just as thick with trees as ever.

There wasn't a sound other than their voices for the longest time, that, and the wind, but the moment Jirobo was about to touch the barrel, another sound filled their camp.

A sickening, all too familiar sound of metal slicing flesh caught everyone's attention.

The rest of the Sound Four turned to look at Jirobo, who was strangely still. Only a few seconds past in that eerily silent stillness, but the moment it ended…

All hell broke loose.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" the sound of Jirobo screaming in absolute pain washed over the forest, actually managing to startle his comrades. The orange-haired man turned to the others, and their eyes immediately widened.

His hands… both of his hands were gone…

Cut from his arms with scary precision.

"Shit!" Tayuya shouted as she got into position, back to back with the others. "Who the fuck!? Who's out there, damn it!?" She had her flute in her hands, positioned to play her deathly melodies.

Her voice, however, was unheard, because Jirobo's screams were still mighty.

Before Tayuya, or her comrades, for that matter, could tell the man who could put an Akimichi to shame to be quiet, he suddenly stopped screaming, and slumped to the grass-covered ground.

A kunai was pierced through his throat, the cold steel glinting in the small bead of sunlight finding its way through both the clouds and tree cover.

Dead.

In mere seconds, a man who could fight on equal ground with a highly ranked chunin, or low-ranked jonin, was taken out of this world with what looked like relative ease.

Childs play…

Tayuya, Kidomaru, and Sakon all gulped, readying their curse marks. Something was out there… in the forest… and it wasn't friendly.

"Did you really think Konoha would allow you to get away with one of our genin?" a voice asked. It belonged to someone young, but the point of origin was impossible to decipher.

The voice rang out all around them, sounding calm, yet furious. "Did you really think we'd just let you take one of our own?" His voice seemed even angrier, and the feeling of absolute darkness was ten times thicker, threatening to suffocate them. This was more than Orochimaru… this was the definition of darkness…

Of evil…

"Fuck you!" Tayuya shouted. "Show yourself, fuck face!" She regretted her words the moment she said them, because the instant the last word left her tongue, the dark, malevolent feeling surged, and visions of her horrible, gruesome death filled her mind, and it felt like she was being engulfed by a giant, dark blue demon with the face of the devil himself.

It was colder, so much colder now. The wind felt like mini blades, slashing away at their skin, and the sun seemed to dim, like it was turning its gaze away from what was about to happen to them.

For the first time in a long time, the Sound Four – what was left of it – shook with fear Orochimaru couldn't ever hope to install in them. It was a fear that something was coming, something worse than death, and far more painful.

It was sheer terror.

And then, the feeling vanished, but something else appeared.

Sasuke and Naruto were before them, what was left of the people who dared to touch the Uchiha's lover.

A harsh silence fell over them.

Naruto smiled, and brought his hand in front of Sasuke's face.

The sound of him snapping his fingers filled the forest.

The bandages around Sasuke's eyes began to burn away.

The Uchiha mirrored his shishou's smile.

"Gaze upon our enemies, Uchiha Sasuke." Naruto spoke.

Sasuke opened his eyes.

His crimson, looped eyes with a three pointed star sitting in the middle.

Their screams went unheard, lost in the ever-present forests of Hi no Kuni.

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Author's Note's: Like I said, everything is going to be explained in future chapters.

This is kind of a crummy place to put the time-skip, right? Wrong. It's perfect. It will all make sense soon.

Throughout this entire fic, I've never had anything planned (except the invasion), but from this point on, I have something that roughly resembles an outline.

And everything is going to get even more epic, so brace yourselves, because daddy is coming back with a BANG!