-1If you guys didn’t already know, I have a poll on my profile to see if you guys want me to drop ATC for the meantime, and work on this, or if you want me to continue ATC and update whenever. Please vote there now. Voting will close next weekend. Decisions, decisions. Anyway, let’s get going on the 6th chapter of Love’s Beginning, whose title I have not thought of as of yet. The beginning is slow, but keep with it until the middle, where it really starts heating up. Speaking of which, the OC in this chapter is thanks to Lord Viral. Thanks a ton, dude.

Disclaimer: Chiropractors eat their wounded, and that’s why I don’t own Naruto. I also do a pretty good Caboose impression.

Twelve hours had passed since Sakura had woke from her Tsukuyomi-induced unconsciousness. With her awake, their team, led by Kakashi, was now sprinting across the desert, towards a towering mountain in the distance. Crunching numbers in her head, Sakura figured that they had already gone around five miles. Cursing her inability, she realized that she was still halfway paralyzed from the effects of the Tsukuyomi. Even after only three hours of running, Sakura felt herself growing tired. She tried her best to stay at the back of the group, but she kept subconsciously falling back. Finally her lover noticed her plight and ran up beside her. Without a word being spoken, she grabbed Sakura’s arms and threw them around her shoulders. Sakura breathed a sigh of relief as she wrapped her legs around Hinata’s waist, laying her head down on Hinata’s shoulder. “Thank you,” she said, whispering in Hinata’s ear.

She assumed Hinata was smiling, though her eyes were closing in exhaustion. “No problem,” she said. “I know how much pain you must be in now.”

Her words rung true. Within moments, Sakura was resting peacefully on her girlfriend’s back.

--

It was a while before the team of ninja reached the base of the mountain. With Hinata carrying Sakura, it slowed them down. Hinata felt like her legs were about to give way, so she gently set Sakura down on a relatively soft spot of ground. She dusted her thighs off, but decided against trying to rub off the rest of the dust and sand that was sticking on her clothes. She turned to Kakashi. “What are we going to do now?”

The copycat ninja was studying the ground. Sighing, he stood up and shook his head. “Well, we’re officially lost. I have no clue where we are, much less where Kisame is going.” He looked up at the sky, staring into space. After a moment of thinking, he shrugged and said, “I guess we’ll just have to keep moving forward and hopefully we’ll catch up to Kisame. In the meantime, see if you can get Sakura up and walking on her own. We still need to keep moving.”

Hinata nodded and knelt down beside Sakura. She gently shook her shoulder, whispering, “Sakura. Sakura. Time to get up.”

Groggily, Sakura’s eyes opened until she looked at Hinata lovingly. She extended her hand, which Hinata gladly took, helping her to her feet. “Have a nice sleep?” she asked, moving forward to give Sakura a kiss on the lips.

“PDA,” Kiba said, casually strolling by.

Hinata shot him a glare which he didn’t receive and rolled her eyes at Sakura. “Don’t listen to him. He’s a dickwad. Anyway, how are you feeling? Good enough to keep up?”

Sakura took a deep breath and went through all the aerobic exercises she normally did with Tsunade before they got ready. After she finished doing a cheerleader split, she jumped up and said, “Yup, I’m all ready to go.”

Kakashi looked over at them with a lazy stare. “Well, unless you’ve got a map hidden in that bra of yours, we still don’t know where we’re going.”

Sakura momentarily considered pounding Kakashi into the ground; she could easily do it, but she realized what he had said was serious. She looked up at the sun, then back to Kakashi. “We’re still going north-northwest, right?”

Kakashi nodded, starting up the mountain in a random direction. “Yeah, but a mountain’s a big place. He could have headed over it, around it, but I’m pretty sure he can’t go through it.” Stopping, he turned to Kasai. “Would you by any chance have any clue where we’re going?”

Kasai shrugged, looking around at his new settings. “Nope. Not a clue. I’ve hardly ever been out of the swamp, like I told you before.” He gave a small laugh. “Give me a few more years, and I would have started talking backwards. Hardly ever been out of the swamp, have I.”

Kakashi sighed. “Oh well. Guess we’re heading into new territory. Form into a single-file line behind me, guys, and keep an eye out for traps.” Forming into a spearhead formation, the six ninja continued up the mountain, jumping through the trees.

Thankfully, the trees didn’t last long. They soon came to a path that led up and around the mountain. As they walked along, Sakura looked off the side. To their side was a sheer cliff, stretching down almost five hundred feet. Kiba saw her staring and tossed a rock down it, whistling as it went down. “That’s a long way down,” he said, putting his hands on his hips.

Hinata rolled her eyes. “Thank you, captain obvious.”

They continued up the path without much stress for the remainder of an hour. Sakura could feel herself growing increasingly agitated as she realized that this particular path really epitomized the term winding mountain pass. It was going all the way around the mountain, instead of straight up it. Sighing in frustration, she resented, right side of her brain arguing that this was probably the quickest way across the mountain.

The first traces of the fog were almost too minute for the team to catch. The path finally turned down the opposite side of the mountain, where the team could see the border of the Land of Fire. It was (surprise!) another chain of mountains, rounded from years of wearing down by the elements. Sakura reminded Kakashi that they had no jurisdiction outside of the Land of Fire.

Kakashi pulled the papers Tsunade had given them. “If we come across some enemy ninja teams, we can flash these.”

Sakura scoffed. “And then what? They’re still going to ask why we’re here, and they’ll probably try to ‘persuade’ us to leave. Besides, you really think they’re going to let us into their territory to try and get an ally for the Leaf Village, especially when Kisame was a ninja of the Mist Village.”

Kakashi blinked in surprise, setting the papers back into his pockets, still a little dazed by what Sakura had said. “I guess you’re right, Sakura. I guess we’ll just have to be on the lookout for sentries.”

“Hey, you see some mist coming in?” Sakura asked after a small pause.

Now it was Kiba’s turn to laugh. “And they call me captain obvious. You know, we are heading into the Land of Water, whose main village is the Village Hidden in the Mist.”

Sakura gave him half of the peace sign.

They pressed onwards for a few more minutes, the mist thickening as they came closer to the mountain range. Soon most of them were tripping over small stones and ruts in the ground. Finally Kakashi called a stop, as the mist grew so thick it was graying the edges of their teammate’s bodies. His eyes warily glanced around, taking in every detail of the mist. “Something’s not right…” he said warily. He grabbed the edge of his headband and pulled it up, revealing his Sharingan eye. “Just as I thought,” he said under his breath. “I can’t see anything through this mess. Someone made this.”

That instantly put the entire team on alert. As Neji activated his Byakugan, Kasai tried to light a fire in his hand. To everyone’s surprise, it lit easily. “Hmm. Whoever made this must not be very experienced. My fire’s not even flickering.”

Kakashi saw that Kasai’s fire lit a small area around them and said, “Hey Kasai, you think you can brighten that fire a bit? Maybe light up this this fog?”

Kasai shrugged. “I can try.” Scrunching his face in concentration, the small ball of fire in his hand grew brighter and larger until it was the size of a beach ball and bright as a miniature sun. Everyone looked away, shielding their eyes from the blinding light. But before he could do any more, his ball of fire vanished in a puff of steam. So surprised was he that he literally fell over backwards.

Due to their eyes becoming accustomed to the brightness of the sun, ninja found that they could no longer see in the relative darkness of the fog.

“Ack! I can’t see! Akamaru, where are you?”

“Ruff!”

“Ow! That’s my foot!”

“Goddammit, someone fell on me!”

“That’s me, Sakura!”

“Oh, sorry, Hinata.”

“Be quiet!”

That last shout came from Neji. At his call, everyone stopped squirming and attempted to get their sight back. Soon they could see that Neji was looking at something in the fog intently, glaring into some place in the fog. “We’re not alone… There’s something in this fog with us.”

“MAGEN: NARUKUMI NO JUTSU.” a thin, raspy voice wheezed out of the fog. The simple sound of its voice, one filled with death in it, sent chills up the team’s spine. A collective shudder ran through the group. Kasai tried futilely to light another fire, snapping his fingers rapidly. “What the hell?” Kiba asked, whirling around. “I can’t smell shit in this fog!”

“DEATH WAITS FOR YOU, CHILDREN…” the voice rasped again. Neji was searching fervently with his Byakugan, desperately trying to search the uniform fog to find out where their intruder might be. The voice rasped again, followed by a coldness falling over the group, “A SHRIEKING FATE AWATES YOU, CHILDREN……”

The mist parted, whispering through the air. As the owner of the raspy voice floated forward, Hinata felt her chest gripped by an icy fear. It was him. A shinigami. The warped face was pulled down into a demonic grin, displaying rows upon rows of serrated teeth. A form of chakra in the shape of a person was crucified on its sharp, pointed nails. Its long, billowing cloak was seemingly made out of the fog. If it could be possible, its grin grew wider as it held its left arm up, bunching the coils of red beads around its shoulder, brandishing the knife it held in its hands. “YOU WILL DIE, CHILDREN…”

It seemed like the team took a collective step back. Kasai was the first to fall to his knees. “Please, oh powerful lord of the afterlife! Please spare us! We have done no wrong!”

The shinigami simply threw its head back and laughed, a high, shrieking sound that made the entire team clamp their hands over their ears. “DEATH WAITS FOR NO ONE, CHILDREN… YOU HAVE SINNED, AND-” Before anyone could react, a fireball the size of an elephant was sent hurtling toward the air at the shinigami. Burning through the fog instantly, it slammed into its chest, exploding in a brilliant display of light. Sakura could hear the shinigami’s cry of anguish.

Now that the fog was dissipated, Sakura could easily see the sun shining down, throwing the shinigami into light. More importantly, she could see places where its cloak was burned, and its skin was scarred. Her eyes widened as she realized the truth. “Guys!” she shouted. “It’s not real! It’s just an illusion!”

She realized that her words had come a little late for some. Kakashi was already charging chakra in his hands for a Chidori. Suddenly, the shinigami seemed a lot less frightening. It waved its hands in the air frantically. “CALM DOWN! I-IT WAS JUST A TRICK!” The shinigami disappeared in a massive plume of smoke so powerful it swirled around the team’s clothes, blowing them back. Once the smoke cleared, Sakura rushed forward and pinned their assailant to the ground. As he struggled, Sakura couldn’t get a good look at him, but she could definitely se and hear that he was a he. “Ack! Get off of me, you psychopath!”

As he continued to struggle, Sakura simply pinned his arms behind him and said, “Don’t bother. I’m Konaha’s-”

“I couldn’t give a fucking rat shit who the fuck you are! Just get the hell off me!” he shouted in an angered voice.

Sakura ground her teeth and turned to Kakashi, who was deactivating his Chidori. “Can I kill him, Kakashi? Only a little?”

Kakashi sighed and ran his fingers through his gray hair. “No, sorry Sakura. If it helps, you can paralyze him though.”

Sakura grinned. “With pleasure.” For a fraction of a second, she released his hands to gather chakra in her hands. Apparently, this was enough for him.

Within that second, the stranger freed his hands and formed several rapid hand signs. “Henge No jutsu!” he cried.

Sakura never knew what hit her. In a moment, she was flying through the air at an astonishing rate, propelled by the shockwave that emanated from the stranger’s jutsu. Hinata saw this and leaped into the air, grabbing Sakura as she was about to go over the cliff. She barely skidded to a halt before they both went over. She set Sakura down, glancing over her body for injuries. “I’m fine,” Sakura muttered, standing up. As she did, she observed what had sent her flying. Her jaw dropped. “Holy…”

In place of the stranger, a dog, coal black with eyes gleaming in the sunlight stood, nearly fifty feet tall. What was even more spectacular was this dog had three heads, each with a mane of six foot snakes surrounding it. He had transformed into Cerberus, guardian of the River Styx. Cerberus whipped his side heads around once, and took off running. Before he got even a hundred feet, a wall of flame, provided by Kasai, whipped in front of him. The enormous dog backpedaled, sending huge chunks of dirt and rock into the fire. He turned to flee another way, only to find that way blocked, too. Soon a massive ring of fire had formed around him. Kasai was sitting atop a nearby ridge, smiling at his work. “Nice, huh,” he remarked to no one in particular; Cerberus was out of range and the other members of the team were on ridges farther away. “Katon: Akuma Kyoofu. Fire Release: Devil’s Terror.” He smirked. “You’re not the only one who can make people think they’re in Hades.”

Soon the giant dog started to panic. Every time he tried to go through the flames to escape, they burned so hot they near melted his flesh. And when he tried to leap over it, Kasai would easily nail him with a Giant Fireball. Finally the fire master decided it was time to end the standoff. Forming his hands into the shape of an O, he slowly closed it, subsequently causing the fire ring to close as well. Cerberus began to panic, reigned in from all sides by the massive ring of fire. He ran in a circle, much like a real dog would do if cornered. After the ring closed to within 50 feet of him, Cerberus’s right head opened its mouth and yelled out, “Alright, enough! I give up! Just stop the fire!”

Kasai obliged, though not happily. Soon as the flames were down, Cerberus tried to make another break for it, only to have his path blocked by Sakura. Even with the predicament he was in, he found it appropriate to laugh. “Come on, girly. Out of my way.”

Sakura planted her feet on the ground, then leaped into the air. Cerberus tracked her as she flew even higher into the air, finally coming back down. He looked on with curiosity. Surely this girl wasn’t trying to attack him. A frail little white girl attacking him? No way.

Well, that’s what he said before Sakura hit him with a Painful Sky Leg from at least 200 feet in the air, smack dab in his middle head. He collapsed to the ground, legs splayed out all around him. Sakura stood next to him and grabbed one of his snakes. “Alright, listen. I don’t want you transforming ever again, or I will go Slug Queen on your ass.”

The snake she held in her hand looked at her in surprise. “You are the apprentice of the Hokage?”

Sakura, repulsed, answered, “Yeah, I am.”

The snake’s eyes widened, saying, “Well in that case, fuck this! I ain’t fighting against the Hokage’s apprentice.” There was an enormous explosion of smoke, but this time Sakura was ready. Instead of tackling their opponent to the ground, she gathered chakra in her hands and did a quick jab at the man’s 2nd vertebra down from his skull, completely paralyzing him. Finally, the smoke cleared, and Sakura could see the face of their opponent as she rolled him onto his back.

He seemed young, for his face seemed like that of a teenager. Under his scraggly black hair, a pair of brown eyes looked at her with resent. He was the basic stereotype for being tall. He was about 6” 4’, give or take. He had obviously been living in the wild for some time, because his hands were rough and cut from doing his own work to survive. His gray kimono was tied around his waist because of this fact. He also did not wear a headband. As Sakura hauled him up and put him in a headlock, she saw the back of his kimono was adorned with the kanji for prosperity and long life. When he was on his knees, his head was level with Sakura’s. Kakashi walked up, observed their prisoner and nodded appreciatively. “That was a pretty good fight you put up for someone your age. What’s your name?”

He looked down at the ground. “Like it’s any business of yours.” Sakura grabbed a kunai and pointed it at his happy place. “Oh-kay. I’d be glad to answer any questions you have. First off, I’m 20, so don’t think that I’m just some punk kid, alright? Second, my name, thought none of your business-” Sakura poked the kunai a little bit closer. “- is Katsuhito Fujishima. Now will you tell little pink-hair over here to give me control over my bladder again? Cause I really kind of have to pee.”

“Gross,” Sakura muttered. Even so, she still patted Katsuhito’s spine, bringing feeling back into his body. “Don’t even think about running away again,” Sakura commanded, looking down on the young man with distain. “If you do, I’ll castrate you. And don’t call me pink-hair.”

Katsuhito crossed his legs protectively. “So, um, what’s you guys’ story?” he asked, looking around at the group.

“We’re chasing a man-shark named Kisame,” Kakashi answered. “We’re pretty sure he ran through this mountain around a day ago. You seen him?”

Katsuhito scratched his chin. “Nope. Can’t say I remember seeing someone like that.” He smiled deviously and held out his hand. “Maybe a few bucks could… jumpstart my memory.”

Sakura looked at him in shock. “You’re a mercenary!”

Katsuhito looked at her strangely, then burst out laughing. “Wrong, pinky,” he said snidely. “I’m a loner. This mountain gets a lot of visitors, and some of them have a little more trouble than others holding onto their belongings.”

Sakura’s eyes narrowed. “So you’re not a mercenary. You’re a common bandit.”

Katsuhito gave a quick, curt laugh. “Would a common bandit have mastered the Henge to an extent as to transform into Cerberus or Death itself without help? No, I am much more than a bandit. In fact, with a little work, I could probably kill all of you.”

Sakura growled and grabbed Katsuhito’s shirt, hauling him up to eye level. “Yeah, I highly doubt that.”

Hinata placed a calming hand on Sakura’s shoulder. “Calm down,” she said in a soothing voice. “Maybe he knows a quick way through the mountain. There’s no point in killing him now.”

Sakura sighed and gave in to Hinata’s logic. She sat Katsuhito down, where he busied with brushing himself off. “Alright, here’s how it’s going to work,” Sakura said, brandishing her kunai. “You’re going to tell us everything we want to know, or you will no longer be a he, got it?”

Katsuhito gulped. “P-point taken,” he said.

“Alright, first,” Kakashi began. “Have you, or have you not seen a 6 foot man-shark run through here in the past few days with a giant mummy-sword on his back?”

Katsuhito seemed reluctant to answer at first, then said, “Yeah, I’ve seen him.” Kakashi breathed a sigh of relief. “He went along the river, which it probably pretty obvious.”

“A river? I don’t remember seeing a river,” Kasai said, looking confused.

Katsuhito pointed to a large line of trees going through the mountain, well over twenty miles in the distance. “Probably because you couldn’t see them,” he said, sitting back. “Actually, that desert you crossed was once a huge lake. Unfortunately, the Land of Water’s Dynamo had it drained to make room for new land for the village. But as the lake dried up, the Dynamo realized that it had almost no fish, and in them, nutrients in it. It was impossible to farm, and what’s worse, the lake was on Leaf Village territory anyway. There was a big fight, and the Leaf Village gained a desert and a few miles of mountain. Whoop-de-fucking-do. Anyway, the tributary they made to divert the lake still flows; it gets its water from an underground spring under the mountain.”

“How do you know all this?” Kakashi asked.

“I’ve lived here all my life,” Katsuhito answered simply.

“But what about your parents?” Sakura asked, genuinely curious.

Katsuhito fixed her with a glare. “They were killed when I was six,” he answered in a monotone voice. “I lived here after that.”

“Oh my gosh,” Hinata said, putting a hand on Katsuhito’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”

He brushed her hand off with a scowl. “I don’t need your sympathy,” he said angrily standing up. Sakura readied herself, but all he did was walk over to the edge and kick a rock off. “Sympathy won’t bring them back.”

After an awkward silence, Neji spoke up. “Well, do you think you could show us the way to the river?”

Katsuhito looked back and sighed. “Why should I?” he asked. “About all you’ve done since you came here is threaten me, burn me, kick me, and almost castrate me. Look, I live alone, and that’s the way I like it. The river’s over that way. Find it yourself.” He began to walk away, assaulting small dirt clods along the way.

“Wait!” Hinata called, grabbing his shoulder. He smacked it away and kept walking. Thinking quickly, the light bulb went off in her head. “There’s a reward in it for you!” He stopped in mid-step, foot halfway up in the air.

Sakura looked at her, mouth agape. “Are you crazy?” she hissed in her ear.

Hinata clamped her hand over Sakura’s mouth. “Just go with it, okay?”

Katsuhito casually walked back, observing the ground before looking Hinata square in the eye. “A reward, you say?”

Hinata nodded. “Konoha pays its ninja well. We could count you off as an asset to the mission if you help us capture him. You’ll get a pretty penny from the Hokage herself.”

Katsuhito scratched his chin, considering it. Finally, he nodded slowly. “Alright,” he said. “I’ll help. But only on a few conditions.”

Hinata sighed. She had been expecting this kind of thing. “Alright, what are they?” she asked.

“Number one,” Katsuhito said. “I want to be paid like a full-blown ninja. Number two, I don’t want to be tied up, paralyzed, or have bodily harm inflicted on me by Pinky over here.” He jerked his thumb at Sakura. “Number three…” he paused for a moment. “We go and get my little friend.”

“Little… friend?” Sakura asked, still miffed about the Pinky comment. “I’m pretty sure I don’t want to see your little friend.”

Katsuhito glared at her intensely, and Sakura realized that she had said the wrong thing. “Don’t say that. She’s the only person I know, and we’ll be getting her before I take you anywhere, including some river.”

Kakashi looked at him critically. “Will it take long?” he asked. “Kisame has at least a day’s head start.”

Katsuhito smiled, then formed a few rapid hand signs. “Henge no Jutsu!” In an instant, the old Katsuhito was gone, instead an enormous wolf was left in his wake. Sakura gaped at the sheer size of it. It must have been at least half the size of the nine-tailed fox, and although it had nothing distinguishing it from an ordinary wolf besides its size, she could see that it was bristling with power. Well? The Wolf’s booming voice echoed throughout the mountain range. Are you coming? It was a moment before an astounded Sakura realized that he was speaking telepathically, as the wolf’s mouth did not move. U-um, sure, she thought, jumping up onto his back.

Hold on tight! Katsuhito roared as soon as the team was assembled on his back. As he bunched his leg muscles and flew through the air, everyone was nearly thrown off his back. As everyone grabbed onto a handful of hairs (Which was two or three) Hinata had the clearest mind, so she asked, Who’s your friend?

Katsuhito didn’t stop, but thought back, Her name’s Mitsu Hatoyama. Um, just so we’re clear, does your flesh taste good?

I’m told.

Well, that’s the end. How you guys like it? I don’t think I tried my hardest with the fight scene, and I didn’t mean to, actually. Wasn’t the main fight coming up, so don’t think that’ll be the standard for the chapters to come. You’ll learn more about Katsuhito’s personality in detail later, in the next chapter, I hope. Well, hopefully we’ll meet Mitsu in the next chapter, and she’s probably my favorite OC Lord Viral sent me, which reminds me:

2nd disclaimer: surprisingly, I do not own Kasai, Katsuhito or Mitsu. All credit for their creation goes to Lord Viral. Damn. That’s not something I’m used to saying.