Naruto
Naruto stared at the kubikiribōchō laying on the floor not too far away from him. He took a bloody hand to the base of the sword and took a test swing.
"The seversword huh," he muttered while running a finger down the side, leaving a small smear of red.
He took off his mask, which ironically had a fox painted on its front, and took a glance over to the cooling bodies laying next to each other. There was no point in wearing a mask in front of the dead, he had nothing to hide from them now.
"You made quite a mess here," a voice called out behind him.
He always makes a mess with the blood of his victims. His black and red cloak dripping in the crimson substance, the walls of the cabin were splattered with the droplets as well. It was during his first kill mission that he realized how his techniques actually worked on other people. He never intended for them to be so messy yet there was something about feeling the blood on his skin that comforted him. It reminded him of his humanity. It liked the discomfort, the pain, that he felt. To know that he didn't want to do this, that he didn't want to be the monster that others called him. It just was something that had to be done.
He turned to face an orange haired man with pale purple eyes.
"Pain," Naruto looked over to him in annoyance, "I thought we agreed that you wouldn't follow me to the land of the waves."
"Tazuna hired ninja from Konoha," the man replied as if Naruto hadn't spoke, "One of which is Kakashi Hatake of the sharingan."
He closed his eyes and felt Tazuna's small chakra, which seemed to be accompanied by four others.
"The copy ninja," he muttered, "Do you think I cannot handle him or his genin?"
Pain gave him a cold look. "I am saying that you need to be cautious. You have a purpose, I do not wish for you to die an early death."
"If only death came to me so easily," he laughed bitterly.
He should have died long ago.
He knew that it was a strong possibility that Tazuna would go to the hidden leaf village as it was the closest ninja village that would accept the mission. He told Tazuna to hire ninjas because it would bring too much attention to himself if he personally stood as the old man's guard. It wasn't like he could outright say that he preferred if the man got ninja from Amegakure since he wore his Akatsuki cloak.
Once he sealed his new sword, courtesy of the now dead Zabuza Momochi, he headed over to the location he told Tazuna to meet him when he got back. It was easy to feel the Chakra of those around him. His sensing abilities had grown to the point that he could sense chakra from hundreds of miles away.
As he opened his eyes, he looked down from the tree branch he laid on. Tazuna looked pale and nervous while the silver haired shinobi was tense in anticipation of a fight. Naruto supposed that had to do with his blood soaked appearance. He had least thought to wipe his mask of blood before he put it back on.
"Sharingan no Kakashi," he said lazily from where he laid, "It seems like you got lucky with your ninja, Tazuna."
He watched in amusement as Kakashi glared down at Tazuna. The man was certainly tall.
"It seems he forgot to mention that you were in the Akatsuki."
Naruto chuckled. "Relax, it wasn't something I felt like mentioning. I was hoping we could come to an agreement tonight but you seem awfully aggressive."
"I'm supposed to trust someone like you?"
"Someone like me," he mused, "No you shouldn't trust someone like me. All I want is for you to mind your business. It wouldn't do for you to interfere with my work here considering we have a common goal, just think about your poor genin."
"This is between you and I," Kakashi replied, narrowing his eye, "If you even look at my genin with killing intent I will hunt you down."
Naruto stretched his arms and swung his body around to face the two below him, ignoring the threat completely.
"I guess that's as close as I'm going to get to an okay so I'll take it."
He hopped down from the tree and studied the copy-nin. He wondered what the older man looked like under his mask. There was something familiar about his chakra that he couldn't place. He didn't know if it had to do with the fact that he was from the hidden leaf or because of something else. It wasn't until he left his old village that he learned to associate chakra signatures with people.
A small breeze drifted from behind Naruto, rustling his cloak and pushing his hair out towards his face. He tilted his head as he watched the shinobi stiffen slightly, his eye growing a bit wide but almost unnoticeably so. It was so slight that he would have missed it had he not been trained by those in the Akatsuki. He was used to looking for small tells like that.
He wondered what made the jonin have that reaction. He held up the tiger seal and the two men disappeared from his sight.
There was something calming about laying in the grass on a warm sunny day. It gave him a sense of peace that he never seemed to find in living day to day. It's almost hilarious how something so nice came from something horrible. He had only picked up on the habit to escape his past abusers in Konoha.
And the same could be said for this country, Naruto thought to himself as he stared at the blue sky and felt the ground beneath him.
Such beauty in such a dreadful place. In the land of the waves, where people fought for scraps and women would rather die than bring life, the sun shined brightly and the birds sang loudly as flowers bloomed.
He closed his eyes and hummed lowly as he felt the world around him. He could feel someone approaching.
Naruto turned his head to the side and watched as a small figure fell from a tree and crashed to the ground with a yelp. He couldn't help but laugh. This must be one of the Hatake's precious genin. He understood why the shinobi was so protective of them, they probably just graduated from the academy from the looks of this one.
He turned back to looking at the sky to pretend as if he hadn't seen anything. Maybe the kid would leave on his own.
"I heard that," the genin grumbled.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," he replied, slightly amused, still not looking over.
He didn't have this mask on but he figured the kid was too young to recognize him anyway. He continued to stare up at the sky and felt the boy come closer. He internally sighed.
Naruto turned to meet the boys' eyes, "Is there something I can help you with?"
"Your... your eyes."
He laid on his side and pushed his hair from his face while the boy stood there frozen.
After using the chakra of the kyuubi no kitsune as much as he did, it ended up changing a few of his features. One of them unfortunately was his eyes. His irises were able to revert back to the same sky blue when he stopped channeling the foxes chakra, but his pupils on the other hand stayed slitted. It made it hard for him to blend in at times when people were so amazed with his eyes. Many assumed they held some special ability because of it but all he could do was see a bit better in the dark.
There were also the lame jokes that Kisame made about him looking like Orochimaru, as if the shark man even had room to talk.
"You can't have them," he said amused, "anything else?"
The boy spluttered and gained a faint blush on his cheeks.
"I wasn't asking for your eyes! I'm an Uchiha, mine are better."
Of all the people that Naruto could meet in the land of the waves, he would have never thought that he would meet Itachi's younger brother.
"Alright Uchiha-san," he snickered, "I guess you can go back to falling out of trees or whatever it was that you were doing."
"I was training," the Uchiha muttered slightly embarrassed, "I want to get strong and avenge my clan."
"I wish you the best of luck then," he responded, "There is no better motivator but be careful of what you may have to give up for your goal. It may leave you feeling empty when it's all said and done."
He thought of Tobi's plans to sacrifice anything to be rid of a world that hurt him. He thought of Pain who hurt others because of how others hurt him. He thought of those killed and the expressions of their loved ones as they stared at their dead bodies. He thought about his own longing for death.
He stared at the blue sky, the same color as his eyes - as his father's eyes, and neither of them said another word. They could only try to relish the peaceful day and pretend they weren't hurting.
It didn't take long for Gato to make arrangements to come back to the land of waves after hearing the bridge builder ordered ninja to guard him.
Not only that but all the ninja he hired were dead, Naruto mused to himself. I only left the regular mercenaries behind to report back to him.
"He should be here in 3 days," Naruto's clone said, "The mercenaries haven't been informed of him hiring any more ninjas. Do you want me to dispel?"
It amused him how quick his clones were to dispel. It showed his own desire and want.
"If only I could dispel in a puff of smoke," he muttered, "No I need you to gather more information on them, see if you can find anything else."
The clone glared, "You just love to torture us. Get over your jealousy and call a new clone."
Naruto sighed as he received the clone's memories and formed the seals for the kage bunshin no jutsu. He hated when he talked back to himself. He sent a new clone on its way and laid in the grass.
Your grass obsession is quite weird.
"Kurama," he whispered as he turned his head towards the red fox coming out from behind the trees, "You're one to talk. Laying in the grass is kind of all you do."
The small fox stalked closer with a faux glare.
I do more than that brat.
Naruto ran his fingers through the soft red fur and Kurama curled up into his side. They both pretended that the fox didn't purr. He thought it was cute but Kurama seemed to get offended by the C word.
"Anything exciting with the Kohona-nin?"
They are as boring as ever. That Hatake tried to send several letters back to the village but I intercepted them.
"Thank you," he murmured and scratched behind Kurama's ear, "It's kind of sad that we will have to leave this place soon. The forest is peaceful."
We don't have to go back, you know.
He gave Kurama a look that the fox ignored.
"I can't just leave. Besides, Pain is waiting at the border even now," he sighed, "There is nothing else to do but obey."
If you had tails I might have mistaken you for a Kitsune, except a Kitsune would never be an obediant slave.
"Kurama, if I ever grow tails outside of your chakra ones I will literally throw myself off a cliff."
The fox nipped at his fingers.
Stop trying to kill us.
"Don't worry, I'll free you before I pass," he smiled softly, "I'll free the both of us."
The fox didn't respond verbally but he could see the animal's small ears lower. He knew the fox didn't like the thought of him dying but had accepted that that's what he wanted. Somehow Kurama had grown attached to him. He wondered if it was because they were so similar, always hurt and used by other people, destined to be captured.