Naruto: Nine And Seven

Chapter 6

"... Well... I do have a son, Karashi... but he went off to join that Kurosuki family." she said sadly as she closed her eyes, thinking of her son. "I shouldn't have pushed him... always telling him to be strong and to stand up for himself..."

"What? Are you saying he just left you here to worry about him?" Fu was surprised.

"The jerk... don't worry Grandma Sansho, We'll get him back for you." Naruto said.

"Oh, you don't need to trouble yourselves."

"It's no trouble. We're here to take care of these guys anyway, so it's not like we'll be going out of our way or anything." Naruto replied and the shop owner smiled.

"Thank you, young man. You can stay here the night, free of charge if you like." Sansho said.

That night, Naruto and Jiraiya stayed in one room while the miners slept in another and Fu had her own room. Naruto was sitting on his bed and Jiraiya was looking out the window, both slightly tense. Something told them something was off. In her room, Fu had a similar feeling. Suddenly, the three heard loud footsteps down the hall.

"This is terrible!" Shouted one of the miners just before he opened the door to Naruto and Jiraiya's room. "Rokusuke's gone! He must have headed to town on his own!" Fu threw open the door of her own room when she heard this.

"Damn, at this rate, he'll get himself killed. So much for strategy, if we take our time now, he's dead." Naruto said as he stood up.

"Let's go. We need to hurry." Fu said.

Rokusuke ran towards the village, intent on digging up his friend. Hoping against all odds that he had somehow survived all this time. Unbeknownst to him, he was sensed by Raiga's partner, Ranmaru, as Raiga stood on a cliff overlooking the town.

"Someone's coming, Raiga." Ranmaru said from his place on the swordsman's back.

"A pity... it seems we'll have to hold another funeral." Raiga said sadly, sniffling a bit at the end.

It was early morning when Rokusuke finally made it to his village. The sun had barely begun to rise. He snuck in as quietly as he could and was trying to dig his friend out. He sat there at his grave on his knees, his hands bruised from digging, but he didn't care.

"Hang on, Kanpachi, I'll get you out." Rokusuke said.

"Need a hand?" a voice asked. Rokusuke looked up and saw he was surrounded by seven black cloaked and hooded figures. He yelled out in shock and fell back, knowing there was no escape.

Naruto and Fu rushed towards the village. Fu was cursing herself for not placing an insect on the man to track him. They had both seen the way he was acting, although they thought he would be smarter than this, she should have taken a precaution.

As they ran through the forest, Fu sent out a wave of insects ahead of them to collect whatever information they could before they arrived.

They reached the village a few minutes later and looked down to see a group of villagers being forced into harsh labor while four black cloaked men, members of the Kurosuki family as they had been described, watched over them. Their eyes narrowed as they saw these people. Like the miner had told them, they were basically slaves; they had little to no rights. While they watched, several of Fu's insects flew to her and she held up her hand and allowed them to land on her arm.

"How many are there?" Naruto asked and Fu paused for a moment as the insect relayed all the information it had gathered to her.

"There're a total of fourteen spread throughout the town. Nine of them are together, those four down there and one off by himself. Most of them have low chunin level chakra, one has less than the average genin... that's probably Karashi, and the one on his own has mid-jonin level reserves. That one must be Raiga." Fu said, frowning as the insect informed her of something odd. "But... there's a second chakra signature on Raiga."