The Shadow's Fox

Chapter 9

Shikadai sat in front of Naruto, playing with the Suna toy Temari got him for his birthday, as Naruto brushed the boy's hair up into the famous Nara hairstyle. The boy was now one and a half, and he was looking more and more like his father every day.

Naruto kissed the side of his head and stood up. He needed to clean the apartment a bit today. He grabbed the few scattered books that Shikadai left laying on the ground and sat them back on the bookshelf, and was about to head to the kitchen to do this morning's dishes when the apartment shook violently, a loud rumble accompanying it. Naruto fell off his feet, hitting the back of his head on the shelf.

"Mama!" Shikadai cried out and ran over to Naruto, then crashed into his mother's chest.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, thankful that there wasn't anything wet, and wrapped his arm around Shikadai. "What the heck was that?" He stood up, making sure Shikadai was securely in his arms in case the apartment shook again, and walked over to the window. His eyes went wide when he saw smoke billowing into the air from several different spots in the village.

"Mama," Shikadai said as he pointed out the window.

"Yeah. I see it," Naruto said. He ran to Shikadai's room, sat Shikadai down, grabbed the backpack that they packed for emergencies and stuffed a few more things in there, then turned to pick Shikadai back up. He saw the boy holding his stuffed deer tightly and knelt down in front of him. "Shikadai, let me put him in the bag so we don't accidentally lose him on the way to the mountain, ok?"

Shikadai squeezed the deer tighter, but then nodded, handed over the doll, and watched him stuff it in the backpack.

Naruto stood up, put the backpack on his shoulders, then picked up his son and ran out the door, heading for the evacuation point at the Hokage mountain. As he ran, he scanned the area to try and figure out what exactly was going on, and saw several leaf shinobi on the ground, but no enemy. 'Who the heck's attacking?'

He got about half way there, but had to suddenly duck to the side, covering Shikadai, as an explosion went off. He was really grateful that he had been keeping up on his training even though he hasn't been going on missions since Shikadai came into their lives.

Shikadai whimpered and clutched Naruto's shirt tightly. "Mama, scared."

"I know, baby," Naruto said as he looked around. He didn't see any enemies around, so he carefully got up and kept going.

"Naruto, look out!"

Naruto turned just in time to see a massive centipede with a giant spike through its head coming straight for him. "Crap!" he shouted and jumped back, barely dodging the thing.

"Naruto, are you ok?" Iruka said as he dropped down in front of the blonde.

"Mama," Shikadai cried as he tried to bury his face deeper into Naruto's shirt.

"Yeah," he said as he narrowed his eyes at the giant centipede, who was slowly raising its head again. "What's going on, Iruka Sensei? Who's attacking?"

"A group of rogue shinobi called the Akatsuki," Iruka said, also turning his attention to the giant arthropod. "But I can fill you in later. Right now we need to get you two to the mountain."

Naruto reached around and formed a hand sign. "Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!" This was a jutsu that Shikaku had been helping him learn. Several Naruto's popped up and they immediately attacked the giant centipede, who was already charging for them, and the original and Iruka dashed away.

"What do they want?" Naruto asked Iruka as they jumped from rooftop to rooftop.

"I'm not sure. I heard from someone that the enemy was the Akatsuki, but they didn't know what they were after, and I haven't come across anyone that knows either."