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A Darker World	By : bob665 Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 2232 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Disclaimer I do not own Naruto, and I do not make any money from these writings.

Chapter List
- 24
- 25
Authors note: Thanks for reading.

Naruto swung his legs back and forth as he dangled them over the edge of the cart. He bounced along the road; his stomach feeling like it was tied in knots and his palms felt sweaty. He glanced over at Ranmaru who was sitting on the other end of the cart. The younger boy seemed enraptured by watching the birds flit from tree to tree. As Naruto watched, Ranmaru reached his small hand into a bag and pulled out some breadcrumbs and scattered them over the side. The birds that had been following them fluttered down from the branches.
Naruto try to split his attention between the birds and Ranmaru, whose expression was completely content. The birds quickly disappeared as they made a slight turn in the road, but the boy's eyes seemed to follow them still, as if he could see them. Naruto wondered if maybe the boy could. He had some special eye power, or at least that was what Jiraiya had told him.
Naruto wondered if the boy was as nervous as he was or if he was really that calm. He had thought his mission to the House would have changed him somehow, but right now he was nervous.
"We're coming up on the gate, stay calm." Jiraiya said from where he sat, steering the cart.
Naruto glanced over his shoulder and saw the defensive wall. The sight vaguely triggered a memory, but it was like seeing a familiar building, no emotion attached to it.
"This is going to be fun," Raiga muttered from where he sat next to Jiraiya.
"Minimum collateral damage," Jiraiya said. "This is your new home, remember?"
The man muttered a response and Naruto glanced over at Ranmaru, who smiled back. He was suddenly glad that his part of the mission would take him to the other end of the village than theirs would.
Reviewing their cover story one more time, Naruto tried to look innocent as they came to a stop at a check point.
"Your papers," a guard said to Jiraiya.
"Right here," Jiraiya said. "It's an assorted cargo, general shop stuff. It's going to three shops."
Naruto turned his head to watch the two talk and saw a guard only a little older than himself making her way to the back of the cart, looking over the cargo before glancing up at him. The teenage girl smiled. "Looks like you take after your father."
"What?" Naruto said before he caught himself. That was one of the questions he was supposed to be prepared for.
"Your hair," she pulled out her own brown hair. "Blonde, you don't see that too often, especially around here. I would say there are three or four in the entire village."
"Oh, yeah." Jiraiya had bleached his hair blonde so they would look like they had a family resemblance. It was supposed to be less suspicious.
"Now, your hair, I would say that's almost lavender." She said addressing Ranmaru. "You know they say unusual hair colors only come around when the family has a long history of manipulating chakra. Are you a little ninja?"
The tone was playful, but it sent a shiver up Naruto's spine. "We sort of adopted him. His home burned down and no one in the village wanted to take care of him." He spoke the lie easily enough, Jiraiya had told him it wasn't that uncommon of an occurrence.
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"It was a long time ago. He doesn't even remember." Naruto said a little too eagerly before wondering if he was being too eager. Nervous people talk too much, or at least that was what he was told.
The girl nodded before asking. "Is that a wheelchair?"
Naruto glanced behind himself to make sure the chair was still secure. "Yeah, it's his."
"Oh, you can't walk? I'm sorry to hear that. I guess…" She trailed off. "It looks handcrafted, where did you get it?"
"Wave Country," Naruto supplied, glad they he actually remembered this time.
"I've never been there, but I hear its pretty poor. What did you have to trade there for this?"
"We took it in a partial trade for larger cargo. They couldn't pay completely." Naruto realized he was being redone and quickly shut up.
The girl's expression didn't change, but Naruto's danger sense was going off. From practice, he could tell when he was losing someone. It was unconscious, some signal in the way percent help themselves. He had always been able to tell when he was losing a client, only here he didn't know how to recover. He was even sure what he had done wrong.
"You're very pretty." Ranmaru said all of the sudden.
Her eyes flickered to the younger boy and she smiled. "Thank you."
Ranmaru smiled and shrugged a little as if he was embarrassed. "You're like those pretty birds we saw on our way here."
"Do you mean brambling? The little brown birds, you see them all the time."
"Maybe," Ranmaru said smiling.
A male voice spoke from the head of the cart, "Kiku, we're going to let them pass."
Kiku blinked for a second, glanced back at Naruto and said, "Yes sir."
The cart started to move and Naruto watched as Kiku became smaller until she started to wave at them. He waved back until they turned the corner. Then he glanced at Ranmaru who was just dropping his arm. The boy smiled at him and he wondered if there was any chance the kid had not done all that on purpose. One thing was for sure, though, Inari didn't talk him into anything he didn't want to do.
They moved up and down different streets until Jiraiya told Naruto to get some food. That was the code for him to get going and he hopped off the cart and didn't look back. His orders were simple, but he didn't have much time. The attack was supposed to happen at noon and the sun was getting close to its zenith.
He followed the road, walking towards the carved faces on the mountain. The buildings fell away and he began to pass what he had been told would be training grounds. To Naruto, they didn't look that different than regular fields except for the occasional post or two. Then he reached his destination. It was a series of semi-constructed buildings that look like they were about to collapse. Jiraiya said they were an aborted building project from back when he had been his age.
He picked one of the more complete buildings that still didn't have any windows and climbed inside. Leaning against the wall, he picked up his foot and peeled the false bottom off. There were several incinerate tags under each sole and he started to place them around while charging them with chakra. He placed a few of the tags on the other buildings and on the frames before heading back to the road and away from the village. He watched his shadow, and when it was directly under him, he turned around and waited. Within a few minutes he could see smoke rising from where the abandoned buildings had been.
He ran a little further down the road, not really sure what he should do. His part of the mission was done and now he was just supposed to sit and wait. For the first time, he glanced up at the monument, particularly the last face. So, that was Danzo? He looked old.

Shikamaru watched the second match of the finals, but he was paying no attention to it. His initial intention was to fail the first exam, but it just proved to be too easy. The second stage was more challenging and he found it impossible to let down his teammates. However, once he was given the option of bowing out, he took it, saying he just didn't feel ready for that responsibility. Both of his teammates had gone on and were supposed to have a match today.
Now, he wished he had. The arena was where the assassination was supposed to take place, or at least the initial try. In the build up to it, he had almost backed out several times, but remembering Choji was enough to stiffen his resolve.
Leaning back, he tried to calculate the size of the shadow he had access to. There was more than enough to reach his three targets, but he stuck his foot out in the sun, adding just that much more of the shadow he could use. Not for the first time, his eyes wandered over to his father and both of his old friends. The three of them were fairly famous and with one of them having their daughter compete it probably didn't seem suspicious. Once Shikamaru had started to think about it, this really was the perfect opportunity. The Hokage was rarely seen, but he had to attend this event.
In the distance, he heard the hollow sound of the fire bell going off. That was the signal. His fingers moved and his shadow stretched along the arena wall before bursting out in the open area where the Hokage sat flanked by his bodyguards. His shadow touched one, two and three of them as his father and friends made their move.
In theory, Shikamaru knew his father was a good fighter, but he had never seen him in a serious fight before. When the men were three steps away, Shikamaru had to remove his shadow. The fight that followed was furious, quick and one-sided. The bodyguards and Hokage fell before Shikamaru was even halfway there.
It was only then that the crowd started to react. The various bodyguards in the audience moved to protect primaries as the civilians and lower level ninjas milled around seemingly confused. Three well-known ninjas had just killed the leader of their village and people were confused.
Shikamaru finally broke free of the crowds and rushed to join his father. The three men were just standing there over the bodies. "You got him."
"No," his father said glancing over at him. "He used a body double. It's not unexpected. I don't know how he did it though. He gave that opening speech."
Choza kicked the body of the doppelganger before glancing into the distance. "It's not going to save him. Here come our reinforcements."
Shikamaru followed his gaze just in time to see the defensive wall covered in a thick mist.
"Shikamaru," his father spoke. "I want you to head to the training fields. There may be some Genin out there and they may go to the shelters. Tell them not to. In fact, tell everyone you see not to. Don't ask why."

Jiraiya had nothing against plans, but usually the longer they went off without a problem the more likely you were stepping into a trap. After letting Naruto off, Jiraiya had wandered the streets with the cart a little while longer until he had parked it. He was pretty sure no one had paid them any special attention since entering the village.
The plan had built-in redundancies, of course. If Naruto failed to start a fire in time Jiraiya would sound the alarm himself. However, he preferred there to be actual smoke. He didn't want people to panic and if the smoke was coming from outside of the village, most people would think training accident. With what Orochimaru had told him, he didn't want people moving to the shelters either.
Danzo's initial intention was to use the civilians as a shield. Jiraiya hated to admit it but if it wasn't for Orochimaru and his intelligence they would be in a bad spot right now. The fire would only work as a distraction for a few minutes. The citizens would've rushed to the shelters when the real attack began, but now he had been able to reposition some of his forces to dissuade them from heading to the shelters.
Overall, the plan really hadn't changed. There was the fire that would be the signal for the initial assassination attempt. Presumably, that would fail but send Danzo scurrying. A few rebels had slipped into the village under the cover of the confusion of the exam to run damage control as the bulk of the forces would overtake the wall under the cover of mist provided by Raiga and Ranmaru.
The mist brought out the Hyuga, which were being neutralized painfully, but not lethally by Hinata and Hanabi. That had caused the squads to pull back, and so far none have tried to venture into the mist after the first attempt. The village's defensive plan had not changed.
If a breach couldn't be sealed up initially the standard plan was to hold back and wait. It was a simple tactic. An enemy force would be at its strongest when it made its initial breach. As the attacking force began to spread out through the village, it would become more dispersed and more susceptible to an organized counterattack. Buildings would be damaged, but, in theory, the civilians would be evacuated. However, with them being directed away from the shelters, confusion would rain and he was just about to make that worse.
Biting his thumb he activated his radio and spoke. "Step three."
Slapping his hand down against the ground, he summoned Gamabunta. He could only imagine the sight, a giant toad emerging from the mist with him riding on top of his head. Katsuyu, the famous slug summon was not more than a stone's throw away with Tsunade similarly perched.
Summoning chakra to his vocal cords, Jiraiya spoke as if he had a loudspeaker. "We are here to take the head of Danzo. He is a usurper, a murderer, unworthy of the title he has claimed for himself. He now cowers in the shelter meant for our civilians. If you stand with them attack us now or else let us pass."
Gamabunta stepped forward slowly and no one moved to stop him. Danzo's hard-core members would be with him and the fighting members of the Hyuga clan would still be recovering. Still, he half expected someone to attack him as they slowly marched through the village. Was everyone just stunned or had Danzo truly alienated everyone. Jiraiya hoped that was the case. He loved this village.

Shikamaru was only half sure that his father's instructions were actually important. He knew better than to question, there would be time for that later. He had directed a few people away from the shelters. In an emergency, the civilians were used to taking orders from anyone with a forehead protector, even if they didn't make much sense.
The smoke worried him a little. Like everyone else in the village, he had a healthy fear of fire. Fortunately, it was obvious it was nowhere near the village, and once the giant toad emerged from that mist, no one seemed to move to put it out or move at all. It was strange just see people standing in the streets. Then again, today wasn't a normal day.
Leaving the village, he stayed on the road, scanning the training fields for anyone. He didn't see anyone. He paused briefly at the smoldering ruins which he regretted seeing. On rainy training days, Genin teams often took shelter in those buildings. Shikamaru continued down the road and was about to give up when he finally saw someone staring up at the Hokage monument.
"Hey! Don't go to the shelter."
The blonde boy turned towards him. "I wasn't going to."
Shikamaru came to a stop about 10 paces away and stared at the boy. He didn't recognize him, not that he knew everyone in the village. Still, this kid looked his age or maybe a bit younger. "Are you in the Academy?"
The boy hesitated before answering. "No."
"The training fields are off-limits to anyone who is not either in the academy or a ninja. So, what are you doing here?" Shikamaru had a sudden suspicion but it seemed unlikely.
"Sorry, I didn't know. I was just... I'm not from this village."
"I'm guessing you're a friend of Hinata and Hanabi?" The boy startled and Shikamaru raised his hands, trying to seem unthreatening. "I'm on their side. I was supposed to tell anyone I saw not to go to the shelters. Not sure why."
"It's that guy's fallback position." The blonde haired kid nodded to the monument and the one eyed man on it.
Shikamaru nodded. "Well, I guess we sit the rest of this out."

Gamabunta moved through the village, careful not to damage any buildings. All things considered, Jiraiya thought, things were going as well as they could. Danzo had fallen back to the shelters, but as they were forewarned, they had warned people away from the shelters. The man was now in a hole with, hopefully, no human shields, at least for now. As for everyone else in the village, they seemed to be sitting this out.
That had been the fatal flaw in their plan the first time. They had tried to do it in secret and even those who would've been happy to see Danzo gone had come to support him out of instinct. In a way, it was funny. Ninjas were supposedly the experts at doing the unexpected, but even they could get trapped in their own thoughts.
Gamabunta came to a stop and Jiraiya hopped down to the entrance of one of the shelters. There was a wooden cage in front of it now, courtesy of Yamato, who stood off to the side. Strangely, there was a Genin of 13 or 14 wrapped up in a tree. Jiraiya looked at him for a minute before addressing Yamato. "Trouble?"
The man glanced over his shoulder at the Genin and shrugged. "Not really. Danzo and most of his men are inside. As far as I know, no civilians are inside, but I can't say for certain."
"Then let's seal it up and be done with it," Tsunade said, coming to stand next to him.
Jiraiya smiled. "I like the idea, but it won't work."
The shelters were the last line of defense. The entrances could be caved in by a guard if enemy made it that far and there was enough supplies to keep the villagers alive inside for three weeks if it was at its capacity. There were no other entrances, but with a little work, there were several spots you could break through and escape.
"We have to go in." Orochimaru said, slithering up to the two of them, his voice slightly muffled by his mask. "A wounded animal can be twice as dangerous."
"Well, why don't you take a stroll inside and trigger the avalanche?" Tsunade said.
Jiraiya could tell Orochimaru was smiling under his mask even as a snake slowly start to slither out from his sleeve.
"He's quite venomous. One of those types that can kill you before you even notice the bite. That should take care of the avalanche." Orochimaru supplied.
Jiraiya said nothing for a minute, and then, with a flick of his wrist, he threw a kunai that struck the snake in the head, pinning it to the ground.
"We can't be sure no civilians got in. Sending your snakes in is too risky." Then he smiled, "We're using my plan."
From the beginning, Jiraiya had assumed that Orochimaru was holding something back. So, he had done the same thing although that had meant keeping his allies in the dark. Explaining Sage Mode and what he intended to do with it only took about a minute. Preparations to use the Demonic Illusion: Toad Confrontation Chant took a little longer. The plan was simple, he would start his attack and they would follow behind him, eliminating any enemies in their wake.

Naruto decided he liked Shikamaru. The boy seemed pretty laid back. Although, maybe he just felt that way because everything was feeling a bit strange now. Where they stood, they could see a giant toad and a slug, which was not normal. The fog was still there, but as far as either could tell, there wasn't any fighting. It was very rather quiet. Neither of them knew what to do so they just started talking.
"You think it's over and they just forgot to tell us?" Naruto asked when there came a pause in their conversation.
"I don't think that's the situation."Shikamaru hesitated for a second before he ventured, "Was there a withdraw signal? Perhaps you-we have lost?"
Naruto shook his head. "The fog's still there, and besides the... " he hesitated trying to remember the word. "Sannin are here." Naruto bit his lip and looked at the fog, thinking about Ranmaru and what he was doing there. It made him feel a little guilty just standing around.
"So, the shadow thing, how does it work?" Naruto asked, trying to get his mind off the subject.
Shikamaru let out a sigh. "It's a clan secret, but I can manipulate chakra to different degrees and by doing so I can make a shadow of physical thing. It's like pinning them to the ground, only it's all over their body. My father's a lot better at it. He can actually make the shadows take physical form."
"I don't know anything cool like that. Most of my training was concentrated around taijutsu. I know some ninjutsu," Naruto quickly added. "It's just; most of my training was to manipulate chakra in the right amounts. I can set off incinerate tags really close to each other." The word sounded a bit weak even to him.
"Incinerate tags? You ever use explosive ones? They're the same thing, at least in principle."
"Yeah, but not too often. Jiraiya said the explosions would bring too much attention to us."
"Jiraiya?" Shikamaru said, surprised. "You were really trained by the famous Jiraiya?"
Naruto smiled when he heard the shock in Shikamaru's voice. He wasn't sure why the other boy was so surprised, but before he could elaborate, there was an explosion.
Both boys crouched as little rocks hit the ground around them. As the dust cleared, Naruto was trying to see what was going on. The explosion had torn a hole in the mountain. Most of the ground between them and the village was now strewn with rocks. Then he saw someone moving. Before Naruto was aware, he was moving towards the figure, ignoring Shikamaru's cry of, "Wait!"
Naruto had taken 10 steps when he suddenly froze, unable to move.
"That could be the enemy," Shikamaru's voice chastised from behind him.
As suddenly as Naruto have frozen he was free, but he turned to face Shikamaru. "Sorry."
"We have to see who it is first," Shikamaru said running up to Naruto and pushing a bunch of paper into his hands.
Naruto looked down and recognized about a half dozen exploding tags. Then he started after Shikamaru. There were fist sized rocks everywhere, but the figure that had caused Naruto to run was starting to get up. He didn't recognize the person and then Shikamaru stopped suddenly.
Naruto stopped next to him. "You know who it is?"
"Danzo," Shikamaru spat. "I'll hold him still and you put those tags on him."
The dust had mostly settled and the man stood, turning towards the noise. The man was old and one side of his face was bloody. He was naked from the waist up and something was wrong with his arm. Naruto couldn't tell exactly what, though.
Then the man turned and he seemed to look directly at Naruto. The blonde stared back at the man who had a huge effect on his life. The man seemed to stare directly at him until Shikamaru's voice broke through Naruto's daze.
"Go, I can't hold him."
Naruto shook himself and darted forward, channeling chakra to the tags. The man stood there like a statue, but when Naruto was only a few steps away, he could see his muscles straining. Not breaking strike, Naruto spun around to the man's back and slapped the tags on and ran to get clear.
In the back of Naruto head, he remembered Jiraiya telling him that exploding tags had a cumulative effect. How big of an explosion would six make? That was the last thought Naruto had before he was knocked off his feet by the blast wave.
He hit the ground, tumbling end over end before ending up face down with a mouthful of grass. His head hurt, but he was able to struggle to his knees and spit out some grass. Looking back, he didn't see the man anywhere.
"No! That body was mine."
Naruto looked up to see a man running across the field. He had long black hair flying behind him. Jiraiya was close behind. Then his arms gave out and he was face first in the grass again. That wasn't the last thing Naruto remembered that day, but everything else was a fragment. He remembered hearing people arguing as he laid on the ground. He remembered someone looking him over and he remembered a bed. That was it.

Six Months Later
Naruto turned his face up to the warm shower. He had come to enjoy showers and baths. When he had been at the House there had usually been a line, and at Inari's the water had never stayed warm for very long. Not that the building's water system was perfect. Air seemed to get into the pipes, causing the faucets to spit.
After Danzo's fall, the new Hokage had a condemned building refurbished and fitted out as apartments for the kids who had been at the House. Some had wanted their own apartment while others have chosen to live in small groups. Naruto's apartment was on the top floor, on the far side. His neighbors were Hinata and Hanabi, who still had some issues with their family. The Hyuga clan had not suffered any repercussions for their support of Danzo, but the feeling Naruto got from most of the villagers was that they should keep their distance.
He still wasn't used to living in a village as densely packed as Konoha, although, he was doing better than some of the others. Still, they were getting better. Some of the younger kids were attending the Academy while some of the older kids, like Sakura, were attending special classes. Most of them weren't sure if they wanted to be ninjas or not, but it was something for now. He personally liked his lessons with Jiraiya, although Kiba had been one of those who joined him in his lessons.
Naruto wondered how much longer that would continue. Once Danzo was deposed, Konoha had pulled its strength in words in case of an attack from another village. At least that was the official explanation. Strangely, he was one of the few that knew that had been mostly an excuse. They were sacrificing some of their market share in missions to hopefully relieve some of the hostility that had grown towards Konoha. According to a letter he got from Haku, it was working.
Haku had sent him a few letters and he had tried to respond although it did feel a bit weird. Raiga was a wanted criminal there and Naruto wasn't exactly on friendly terms with the man, but he did like Ranmaru. The strangest thing, though, was Tsunami actually seemed to like Raiga. She and her grandfather had moved to Konoha. It was rare that outsiders got to do that, as Naruto understood it, but they knew more than a few things that the village would prefer to keep quiet. Still, what would happen if they got married? Inari and Ranmaru were friendly with each other. Would they have preferred to be brothers or something else? He shook his head, giving up on trying to figure that out.
"Naruto, I want to share the shower with you. I'm going to be late for the Academy." Konohamaru said as he pulled back the shower curtain.
Naruto stared down at naked boy and smiled. "If you come in like that, you're going to be even more late."
Konohamaru smiled up at him. "I'm not trying to make up time, I'm trying to make the detention worth it."
- 24
- 25
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A Darker World