Demons, Snow And Kunai

Sorry this is late guys but first my PDA stopped working, then my spare decided to go for a dive in the toilet, making me loose all current progress, I waited a week for a new one to arrive by post and then just as it does I get food poisoning and am confined to a bed for another week, sheesh. But I'm back and currently doing the next chapters of Spectral Ninja and Inheritance.

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Tifa wanted to assure the ninja of her interest in him as a man as well as a ninja, but was interrupted by a frantic knocking on the restaurant door.



Frowning the older man rose to answer, there was hurried urgent whispers and he turned to look at the white cloaked ninja, two words only "they're here."



The boy frowned minutely and stood, followed by his fellow ninja's "Shino?"



The older man spoke out "lately this place has been terrorized by a group of thugs. Shino-sama has tried to stop them without killing anyone, but either they're incredibly stupid to screw with a ninja or are more than they seem."



"I'm coming" Naruto slid out of his seat after him, followed by the other two and Tifa. It was then Tifa noticed the boy no longer wore the bandage around his arm. Had he already healed, or did the blonde healer fix it while they were watching the DVD?



The group followed the frantic man through the street until they were headed to the merchant quarter and the sound of raised frightened voices and gruff nasty ones.



When they were close enough Tifa was able to understand words. The thugs were shaking the merchants down for 'protection money'.



She shook her head sadly, why did they always call it that? A stupid group in Midgar had even tried it on Tifa and others in their street, one had even tried to feel her up-thinking it was his privilege and she was too weak to do anything about it, that was until she had beaten the entire group single handed IN PUBLIC, ensuring they would be too humiliated to return ever again.



Of course it was nothing compared to ZACK's vengeance when HE found out. Zack was everyone's hero, including hers apparently. The next thing she knew there was an commotion on her street, laughing, jearing and cheering.



Curious she went to investigate.



Five familiar beaten men, more bruised and beaten then when she had done it, were walking down the road, butt naked, each wearing an sign around their necks.



'LOOSER!!!' It read 'WE TRY TO BE TOUGH, BUT GET BEATEN UP BY AN COUNTRY GIRL AND BARMAID!!



The men were walking down the street, cringing at the people around them, but they kept looking back at an darkened alleyway entrance. Following their eyes she saw a figure standing there, arms crossed over his broad chest, eyes hard and locked on the men, one foot raised to rest on the wall behind him with his shoulders.



Zack.



Later she had questioned him about it and if he thought she couldn't take care of herself. In a rare moment of seriousness and the truly protective man underneath the 'puppy' he shook his head solemnly "you are family, Tifa, like a sister. NO ONE threatens my family. Besides, it was either me or Cloud or Barrett. How much easier do you think THEY would have gone on them?"



Tifa shivered when she realized he was right. They got off easy. She then shrugged mentally, they would just do the same here as she had originally.



They reached the group of men and one woman hassling an stall vender currently, one man gripping his shirt and yanking him up so he was in the terrified man's face. The Hokage grunted "Uchiha".



With barely and the flick of his wrist, the new demon sent something small sailing through the air to embed into the thugs hand holding the shirt.



A small wooden needle, barely the size of a tooth pick.



The thug cried out in surprise and pain, dropping the relieved man. He tried to remove it, but the place the Uchiha heir had chosen would cause maximum pain to remove.



As the group turned to look at them Tifa gasped, "guys, they're ex-SOLDIERS, either that or Mako enhanced."



"Great" the lady Tsunade cracked her knuckles and grinned "a challenge. I was getting bored."



"Hey!" Naruto called out "leave those people alone!"



"Or what!" the lead thug with the needle in his hand said "we're ex-SOLDIER, you can't beat us! None can!"



"Oh really" Tifa grinned at their arrogance "do you remember the Wutai war? What about their elite? These guys...." she motioned at the four "are ninja's, the kind trained since birth to kill. They may not be mako enhanced fighters, but the entire planet blesses their moves. They make those elite fighters look like children playing."



The head thug snorted "we won the war against those losers, those guys will fall just as easy!"



Tifa shook her head "YOU didn't win, Sephiroth did, along with Angeal and Genesis. YOU guys were getting slaughtered before then. Besides, THESE guys aren't actually Wutain, they're from another world, a world where only the strongest survive. YOU guys are definitely NOT it, not even in their league."



The head thug snorted "we could have beaten Sephiroth" Vincent growled and Tifa laughed out loud "you would have had no chance at all, he would have killed you in seconds.



Besides" she motioned at the ninja's "I hear you've been having trouble with one of them anyway" and motioned at the white cloaked figure.



The bully scoffed "he can't stop us."



"There's a reason for that" Tifa said "you see, they are ordered not to harm citizens without permission."



"So?" the thug snorted again.



"So, it just so happens that his leader is here" she motioned at Tsunade who grinned sardonically and creaked her knuckles again "so all bets and hesitation is off" she grinned and made a show of putting on her gloves and cracking her own "I HATE bullies, we can really let loose."



She went into an fighters stance and motioned at them "bring it on."



"Bitch!" the head bully ran towards her. Tifa looked at the others as she easily defended against his attacks  "don't kill them, the authorities here decides that. Just....rough them up, a LOT."



"Pooh" grunted Naruto "spoilt sport."



What followed was an uneven fight, uneven because the ninja's were only using taijutsu, But still the idiotic bullies were no match for the six. Even Vincent decided to fight without his guns, his frame looking nowhere near capable of his feats, yet Tifa knew he wasn't using his demon strength or enhancements, pure experience, training and skill.



Now that he wasn't using his advantages, she certainly saw the similarities to Reno, Rude and Elena's fighting styles. Turk training obviously.



"You're good, for someone without ninja training" the blonde Hokage grunted, catching an fist that flew at her face.



"Thanks" Tifa grinned back.



Naruto, on her other side, grinned "wanna spar sometime?"



"Sure" she smiled back, than anticipated the look from the other woman "AFTER Aeris is born."



"Spoilt sport" the boy glared at his 'aunt figure' when he said it this time. The woman just grunted at this.



Tifa ducked a swing "no wonder SOLDIER didn't last past Sephiroth and the other two if the grunts are THIS BAD. Looks like the Devils Trio, Zack and Cloud were the only ones with any talent for fighting at all."



"I agree" the woman grunted "even Naruto fresh out of the Academy wasn't this bad."



"HEY!" the boy yelled.



"It's true" the woman said "I SAW your scores, by both Iruka and Kakashi, BOTH of Iruka's."



The boy cocked his head at her, whether out of curiosity or avoiding a blow was uncertain "BOTH of Iruka's? What do you mean?"



The woman snorted at this "you may have fooled everyone else, but he's a teacher and knows every time you did your tests they were you holding back. So he kept an secret score book. Every time you avoided the ANBU easily, every time you snuck in somewhere undetected, he evaluated you against current scores in the Academic tests and put it  down as either homework or extracurricular activities. You may think your actions with Mizuki was what actually what allowed you to pass, but you already had."



Naruto cracked up and bent over at the waist, coincidentally avoiding a blow to the head as he did "crafty bugger! I should have known he would have known! And to put it down as homework!" he shifted to the side as if about to fall sideways with laughter and avoided another shot.



He fell, Tifa seeing a flash as one leg went out, striking the ExSOLDIER in the side of the head and instantly knocking him out cold as he did.



Naruto stopped laughing, looked at the crumpled man blankly for a second as if he hadn't meant to hit him-with his head sideways like an curious fox-then shrugged and pulled himself to his feet and grinned "NEXT!"



"Baka" the blonde woman smiled fondly at her 'nephew', shook her head and with one blow knocked HER opponent out.



On Tifa's other side she noticed Itachi-who was just calmly avoiding each blow his opponent unleashed without actually seeming to move-strike HIS with an flash of movement.



The thug dropped without a sound.



Next the white cloaked figure easily knocked out his opponent.



The last two thugs and their female companion looked at them, shock, fear and anxiety, looking like they desperately wanted to run.



"Think about it, seriously" Tifa said to them "I warned the others, they didn't listen. NOW where are they? I'd say the WRO probably know by now and are probably almost here with either some mako enhanced members or binds. If you guys give yourselves up, they'll probably go easier on you than these guys."



The woman opened her mouth, looked thoughtful but nothing came out. One of the other males did the same but the final one looked pissed of at the 'threat'.



Tifa sighed, there was always one that either saw itself as the faithful favorite of the gang leader, or thought it was really the tougher one of the group, despite the fact it couldn't beat the leader itself, always waiting it's opportunity to take over.



Before Tifa could warn him he was pulling his gun.



A shot sounded in the air.



Tifa turned to say thanks to Vincent, only to find he hadn't been the one, he looked as startled as her. Tifa turned to see the thug nursing his bleeding hand, an hole blown right through his palm, gun forgotten on the ground.



Naruto was the one to answer their questions with an grin of "nice shot, Ru."



There, standing behind lady Tsunade with his smoking gun raised to the sky and flanked by Rude, Elena, and an third TURK unfamiliar to Tifa, was Rufus Shinra. And he looked pissed off, in a major way, he hadn't even looked that way when AVALANCHE had beat him on top of Shinra tower and killed Dark Nation.



Or when the remnants turned up, hurting Reno and Rude and threatening Midgar.



Frankly he kinda looked scary this way, (and sexy in an unattainable way) he reminded Tifa of insane Sephiroth.



There was a noise in front of Tifa and she spun back to find the head bully conscious, cringing and stuttering the white-clad blondes name, followed by "S....s...sir."



Tifa could only theorize that the blondes identity and relationship to the old president, plus years of 'training' (brainwashing more like) made the exSOLDIERS obedient and loyal still to the company, even though it had been disbanded after the old presidents death.



If Rufus played this right, it could work in their favor.



The Shinra heir obviously thought so as well for he turned thunderous bluegrey eyes onto the leader. "I was told by loyal subjects in this town how it was being terrorized by mako enhanced people. I thought there was NO WAY my SOLDIERS could be doing this, disbanded or not my SOLDIERS aren't thugs, they are an glorious representation of my company, only to find I was wrong!" He practically yelled the last part in his fury, causing the man to cringe in shame.



"You are an disgrace to the SOLDIER name and my company, all of you!" The man cringed down deeper, followed by the other members, the ones conscious or otherwise awake.



Except the one  with an hole in his hand, he sneered "we don't work for you anymore remember Mr President" the title was sarcastic.



Rufus glared at  the man "you obviously didn't read the contract you signed when you became SOLDIER, did you." When the man looked uncertain and a little panicked the heir went on, waving an piece of paper in his hand around "look familiar?"



The panic increased.



"This is a copy of the standard SOLDIER contract father got each of you to sign before you started mako injections, just after you were promoted to SOLDIER from TROOPER. It says that for the rest of your lives you belong to hiim-therefore as his heir-ME. While allowed to retire or leave, you would be required to come back if and when you may be needed and all acts are to be honorable as this reflects on Shinra. You're actions against civilians let alone fellow Shinra employees is definitely unhonorable, so we reserve the right to punish you for them how we see fit. Humm, I think those you wronged should choose."



"Or" Tifa called out "you could give yourselves up willingly to the WRO and accept Reeve's punishment."



Looking around at the sea of hateful and pissed off citizens around them, the men held their hands out to the TURKS, "we'll surrender to the WRO, peacefully."



An hour later they were back at the restaurant, preparing to leave. The older man and his daughter wanted to come, but couldn't bare to leave their regulars, but fortunately had a young apprentice they had trained who was extremely reliable and honest and his family were hard workers looking for an business, so they decided to give them a try of running it, Rufus promising to tell them immediately it anything happened there.



He also offered them a business in Midgar to convert, obviously eager  to have them nearby to him, but the two politely declined-for now-they just wanted to relax for a while and maybe only cook for the ninjas.



The blonde looked disappointed-crushed really but too polite to express such-but managed to subliminally angle some dinner invitations out of Naruto under the pretense of checking on Temari's condition and talking to Tseng and the doctor about the progress of the serum made from Tifa's blood and tissue.



Before he left, Tifa pulled him aside "about those contracts, is that the truth?"



The blonde nodded.



She frowned "the why haven't you used them to get Zack and Cloud back into you control?"



He shook his head "here they were convenient to use, but I don't count them legal anymore. Besides, Zack Fair officially died eight years ago in the mako reactor in Nibelheim, meaning his contract was null and void when father issued his death certificate to allow Hojo to use him as an experiment. As for Stryfe, he was never a SOLDIER in other than his own head. TROOPERS only had an standard five year contract, which COULD be renewed, but wasn't, so has since expired. Legally, they are free and I have no claim to them."



"Oh" Tifa nodded in understanding.



"If you wish I can give the two citizens an lift back to Midgar with myself and my TURKS, Mr Tuechi doesn't look the type to be able to ride an Choocobo comfortably for any amount of time."



Tifa saw his point "I don't know, let's ask."



After a bit of trouble they finally decided that lady Tsunade and the older man would travel back to Midgar with Rufus and his TURKS via Reno and his chopper while his daughter-at her fathers insistence-the white cloaked ninja and the rest would return by the large birds, returning them back to Cloud and his farm. This would be necessary, as Naruto needed advice and tutoring on how to care for an chick safely and properly.



Once done then the group would return with Tifa to the apartment building where they would reunite with the two and the rest of the shinobi and the children.



They made it back to the farm in half their previous time, mainly because Naruto's emotions were going haywire. He kept riding ahead of them, peeling with laughter, the girl riding after him, causing the Uchiha heir and Vincent to have to speed up to catch up and then THEY had to follow faster.



At the farm Naruto was given instructions on the chicks care, names and location of people in Midgar for everything he needed and they piled into the car to head back.



They discovered at the apartment block that not only had the man and  woman beat them back but there was three new figures.



There was a woman a little younger than the restaurant owner and her son, who seemed fascinated with the older man's daughter, causing her to blush at his attention and a figure from the photo, the man in the black bandanna and glasses, the three boys teacher, Ebisu. The woman and boy, she soon learned, was two old friends of Naruto, also civilians, the family of the bridge-builder from the groups first mission, the same one that Haku was killed on.



It seemed the chick liked the kids, it didn't take long for the two to end up seated on the floor, the chick walking back and forth unsteadily between their legs, pulling their hair playfully and playing with them.

Almost as soon as he saw Naruto was unoccupied Sasuke came forward and without a word seized his mates arm and tried to drag him away. Naruto protested, calling him "TEME!!" as he did. The Uchiha just 'hnned' and continued to drag him towards the bedroom.



Tifa blushed when she realized what he was going to do.



"Wait!" the blonde pulled free and moved to the kids and chick, who looked up at his approach. He smiled at the two children and knelt down beside them "can I ask you guys a favor?"



"Of course Naru'" Marlene looked serious. "Can you take care of No' for me for a while? He's only a baby so even if he's smart, he's too little to be by  himself." Marlene caught the chick up and hugged it close to her chest protectively, nodding solemnly.



"Don't worry, Naruto, he's due for a feeding so I'll get the kids to do so. Besides, they help Zack and Cloud sometimes at the farm, they know what to do."



"Thanks Tif" and this time he allowed Sasuke to drag him away, blushing and muttering under his breath about "horny Teme's."

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