Six Shooter

Six Shooter
Chapter 1: Black Sunshine

Lee smiled at Naruto. “Thank you for inviting me out to Ramen, Naruto-san! It is a very appropriate way of congratulations, seeing as I will be gone a very long time on the boarder!!”
“It’s fine, Lee.” Naruto laughed, “And I’ll miss you. You’re the only other person around here people think is as annoying as me. It’ll be hard to pick up the slack.”
“Truly, Naruto-san!?” Lee was almost crying, “It warms my heart to know that the people of Konoha will miss me! Are you certain you will be able to keep their lives as interesting as we two could together?”
“I couldn’t ever match up to you Lee. Not in the power of your youth.”
“Yes, as Gai-sensei always says; My youth is a roaring fire that amazes all around me!!”
Naruto ducked the huge gesture, “The quiet will be unbearable.”
“Here you go boys.” Ichiru set down the ramen.
“AI! Naruto!” Lee shifted his bowl to one side, “I can see your face in the counter!!” Lee pressed his finger against the wood grain.
“Really?” Naruto squinted, twisting his head to both sides. “I don’t see anything…”
“AI!! Yes! Right here! It could be no other! Except perhaps if you were older and wearing a short little goatee!”
Naruto tried not to laugh at Lee, his fingers next to his head miming a goat’s horns. “If you say it’s there, Lee, I’m certain someone else can see it.”

***

It all began with a simple mission that turned into a massacre, we had to pull out and leave the bodies of our fallen comrades behind. When we went back one body was nowhere to be found.

That was six years ago.

……………………………….......

The Hokage stood at the memorial stone, staring at the names there, there are so many, and one day her’s would join them.

Orochimaru has just been defeated, they had gotten the word this morning. But Sasuke was nowhere to be found in the rubble of the underground base. He must have gone after his brother again. Naruto would not like this, but she had already sent him to find the Uchiha brat so he didn’t become a missing nin too.

It was looking to be a long day. Sighing she headed back towards the Hokage tower, the paperwork beckoned.

……………………………….........

I have been traveling all day, Hmm is that fire I smell? Maybe whoever it is…will they let me camp with them?

He walked to the clearing, the wind carrying the voices to him

“ Foolish otosan, you do not hate enough to kill me yet.”

“ I will kill you!! You murdered my family!!!”

Shit, well it is too late to turn back now, maybe if I skirt the clearing they will ignore me. He thought as he turned slightly to the east and began quietly making his way through the underbrush.

“Who is following you little brother?”

“ Following me?! It is probably Kisame!”

The dark haired man froze.

“Come out come out whoever you are”

SHIT!! He walked into the clearing, there stood two tall men who looked remarkably alike, both with dark hair and red eyes, and both with a look that told of much suffering.

“ Look, I was just passing by, I will leave and not say a thing to anyone, I swear!”

“ Too late little puppet, you will have to be killed before we can continue.” A demented smirk crossed the faces of the men in front of him.

He dropped into a defensive stance and held waiting for them to attack, according to the bingo book he had stolen a few weeks back they were worth quite a pretty penny, but he had to do something about the eyes…

The younger of the two came at him he went to avoid and ended up with a fist to his stomach. He skidded back and flipped to his feet. He flipped back again and propelled himself into the air throwing glass balls into the air. They hit the ground around the edge of the clearing and shattered.

“I think they were duds.”

So says he, the stranger thought as he landed on the other end of the tree line. Now to lay the next circle…. The stranger propelled himself into the air again, forcing his body into a spin as he flung out four more circles of the glass bulbs.

“ These ones were duds too dumbass.” the younger Uchiha quipped crossing his arms.

………………………………...................................

What the fuck is this guy doing? Sasuke thought as he again rushed the masked nin. He looked like an anbu, but the mask looked to have been charred black, the grieves and bracers were black and textured. Over it all he wore a tattered trench coat.

He drew the Grasscutter as he closed on the hunter. This would be fast.

He saw the knife draw, the flutter as the handles spun and the short blade. A butterfly knife. Sasuke feinted and ducked around, hesitating. Few ninja wielded the weapons. Very few.

His guard reacted, steel singing as the blades connected, but never crossed. The hunter pressed the attack, forcing him back toward Itachi.

*Last place he’ll catch me!!* Sasuke teleported and summoned a pair of doppelgangers, three of him appearing behind the hunter.

The hunter had his turn to hesitate.

“Don’t mind me, stranger!” Itachi called out, “I’m just watching.”

The hunter moved, the shadow of the sharingan completely separate from his real form. It split suddenly, two courses of action on the hunter’s mind. One a high strike, the other a projectile at his feet.

Sasuke leapt, sending his doppelgangers up as well, crossing before him.

The hunter launched upward, he hit the first doppelganger with his knife, slashing from the groin to the navel before the illusion dispelled. The momentum carried him higher. His arm pointed out. At Sasuke.
A cable launched from his under arm.

The Uchiha substituted his other doppelganger for himself, already beginning his decent as the hunter sailed higher.

The barbed head of the cable caught in the doppelganger, piercing his chest. The hunter drew on the cable, growling audibly as the false man burst.

*A ninja rises quickly enough, but he can only fall so fast.* Sasuke hit the ground, preparing jutsu. He took in a deep breath, narrowed his aim and blew, the gout of flame coursing into the air.

The blaze engulfed the hunter as he fell into the heart of the jutsu.

*If he lives to the ground, he’ll be barbeque. Easy to finish off.*

A ripple in the flame, something small, flying up the path, the center of the jet!

Sasuke clamped his teeth down on the senbon. *HA!*

Hands snapped out, snatching the defective glass bombs from the air, one, two.

*THREE!* The third hit him squarely in the chest, the dust within splashing over his coat.

Sasuke spit out the senbon, “The whole batch is bad! What kind of dumbass nin are you to keep using them?” A second lone senbon came in reply. Sasuke dropped the glass balls, slapping the senbon out of the air. The hunter was falling slowly, still a sitting duck. The arms crossed, then opened, sweeping back and forth. The hail of senbon coming was fast, dense.

At that range, Sasuke had time to yawn before substituting a tree trunk.

The man fired his cable weapon as the jutsu went off, the wood filled with senbon and now disabling another weapon.

*He’s either really stupid, or some rogue dropout from a village someplace…*

Sasuke watched as the hunter ripped the log into the air, speeding his descent, hitting the ground hard.

The log came around on the end of his cable, the senbon filled side sweeping through the air toward Sasuke.
The grasscutter bit deeply into the log, cleaving it like cheese and parting it around him, two loops of cable trailed, hidden from his sharingan by the mass of the log itself. One slipped around his sword, the other had been aimed at his neck.

Sasuke angled his blade, sweeping the second loop away, letting the cable fall over his blade.
The hunter was closing the distance quickly.

*Damn, he’s fast* The cable was spooling as fast as the man ran forward, and when he stopped, digging his feet in, Sasuke tipped the katana up and back, ready to tear the device apart.

Like a bell tapped only once, the soft ring of Sasuke’s blade sang quietly as the cable sheered the

Grasscutter in two. The man was almost upon him again, the cable reeling around behind him as the motion of the log accelerated.

And nothing to block it with, Sasuke raised his arms, feeling the senbon bite him and the sheer mass carry him up, over and down.

Sasuke hit the ground with the log on top of him, the dust rising from the dud bombs. It got into his eyes, in his throat. On his skin.

*Damn… Lapse for one second…* He flashed signs, immolating the log to ash and smoke.

Sasuke flipped to his feet and looked around for the enemy, “Behind you.”

The Uchiha turned only to have the supposed hunter blow dust into his eyes, screaming he lashed out blindly. His eyes and throat burned.

The stranger blocked the wild blow and hit the base of the younger ravens skull, effectively knocking him out.

The older of the two was clapping, “good job hunter, you have done me quite a favor.” He spoke walking towards the masked man to hold out his hand.

The look of disgust was hidden by the mask, but the offered hand was taken, and then Itachi blinked.
……………………………….............................
The shock of the powder in his eyes threw Itachi off, how the hell as that happened?! He staggered back as he heard the whisper of skin against skin that could only be hand-signs forming and then the sound of a whispered attack name as a fist connected with the ground. Air rushed up all around him and a foot connected with his diaphragm.

He gasped taking a lung full of the powder that had coated the clearing. As he coughed and gasped the burning got worse, he could taste blood. And then his world went black.