Crafty Chameleon

Wasting Time

Last Time:

"Yep. See ya, Sasuke." Natsu waved and headed for the East gate. He blushed slightly as he remembered the passionate goodbye Naruto gave him that morning while walking down the road towards his destination ...

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Natsu sighed as he made it to the Black Gang's territory, "The hideout should be somewhere around here." He decided to pause in a nearby tree overlooking a large lake with a few small islands and wait for any signs of where the hideout might be like voices or other noises made by machines. He reached into his pack for a food pill and his hand brushed the bingo book.

It was nagging him again ... he knew he heard about this gang. He opened the bingo book and flipped through the pages. Only 28 pages in he found a profile that made his blood freeze ...

...'The Black Gang – 7 SS Ranked members and over 100 military employees. They are notorious for theft and murder. The kidnap of heirlooms or even heirs for ransom is their specialty. In the case of heirs they sometimes sell the captive to a brothel if the demands aren't met. It's well known that this group has advanced weaponry, devices to check DNA and a deep hatred for ninjas'...

The book went on to describe each member, but Natsu nearly fell from the tree he was in when a loud metal door was heard opening startling him badly

"Oh god ... I shouldn't be here." Natsu hissed. Jumping down from the trees as voices came towards him. He remembered now ... it was right after Naruto was promoted and was going through the profiles to decide who showed that they could be ROOT ninjas from those training tests. Naruto was talking about cases where non ninjas are very powerful and just as dangerous as high ranked, which was why ROOT was specially trained to fight these kinds of people. The new ROOT leader named the Black Gang among several other dangerous people ...

A hatred for ninjas ...

That thought echoed in the orangette's head and it prompted him to remove his headband, bingo book, weapons pouch, sandals and quickly buried everything. He made sure everything was hidden and started walking as fast as possible away from the territory and away from the voices he was hearing.

"Why the hell did Dad do this? These people are SS ranked ... I need to call Naruto." Natsu whispered and was about to reach into his pocket when ...

"Well what do we have here?" Natsu's heart nearly leapt into his throat and he turned to see a tall burly man in a leather jacket. This was Nate, the Black Gang's leader, according to what the bingo book said, "You could make a pretty penny."

The ninja turned tail and was about to run as fast as he could, but he was hit hard in the back as if someone landed on him pinning him down and something was placed over his nose and mouth forcing him to breathe in an odd smelling scent. He tried to struggle, but this man really was very strong. The ninja wanted to tap into the nine tails power, but his body was weakening fast.

All the last strength he had was put into moving his hand into his pocket and typing a quick message. As his eyes fell shut and darkness consumed him he hit send ...

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Naruto was sparing with Konohamaru with Mina playing with Orochimaru. The ROOT agent's camouflage coat was laying on the porch with his goggles placed on top of it. "Not bad Konohamaru, but ..." Naruto ducked a punch and flipped the academy onto his back. "You're too tense. Try to relax it will help your movements flow easier."

"Got it, thanks ... lunch time!" Konohamaru jumped up from his spot on the ground and ran into the house making Naruto chuckle. Orochimaru rolled his eyes and went to start cooking lunch letting Mina take the little pink ball they were playing with. Mina just smiled and was going to put her toy away, but a buzzing from Naruto's black goggles caught her attention.