Demon Hunters

“Move. You’re in my seat,” said the boy still standing there.



Looking up Naruto’s jaw dropped in recognition. It was the boy he’d met in the café this morning – the jerk.



Before Naruto had a chance to retaliate, a man entered the classroom and called for order.



“All right class, sit down and take out your books please,” the tall man exclaimed looking around the classroom. He noticed Sasuke standing by his desk, which was currently occupied by a new face he wasn’t familiar with. Immediately noticing the way both boys looked ready to kill, Umino Iruka decided to diffuse the situation.



“Sasuke, please take the seat behind yours for today.”



With an audible grunt, Sasuke threw the blond in his seat one last hateful glare, and quietly took the seat behind him.



Haku looked at Naruto questioningly. Naruto caught Haku’s gaze and followed up with his own, ‘I’ll tell you later’ look. Haku gave an internal sigh. The last thing they needed was for Naruto to attract attention to them. They weren’t like any of the students here; they were demon hunters, and they were on a mission to find two missing girls.



Homeroom seemed to drag on forever, and Naruto, having the attention span of a two-year old, was getting fidgety. Of course it didn’t help that he had a pair of onyx eyes boring into the back of his head either.



Slowly, the first five periods passed, and then the bell rang signaling the lunch break. Naruto sprinted out of the classroom and made his way down the crowded halls. After being stepped on a couple of times, Naruto finally made it to the pillar where he was supposed to meet Haku.



“Haku,” Naruto shouted through the crowd of hungry students.



Haku, hearing his name, turned around to the other side of the pillar and spotted Naruto. He smiled lightly upon hearing the hungry sounds the blonde’s stomach was making.



“Hello, Naru. Are you hungry?” Haku motioned for Naruto to enter the lunch line.



Naruto was taken aback; Haku hadn’t called him that since their training days at the Academy. A thoughtful smile played at the blonde’s lips at all the memories (and pranks) attached to that nickname. Coming out of his revere, Naruto nodded yes in answer to Haku’s earlier question. The boys made their way into the cafeteria and stood in the steadily moving lunch line.



“So, were you able to find out any useful information?” the blond asked.



“Well,” Haku lowered his voice to a whisper, ensuring that only Naruto could hear, “I think I may have found something. I was doing some snooping during my free period, and I found information claiming that more than five girls have gone missing in the past six months.”



“Well, that definitely wasn’t in granny Tsunade’s report.”



“I know. I found it odd too…”



“And,” Naruto pressed on, finding this information strange considering that granny’s information had never been wrong before.



“Well, two of the girls that had gone missing were found dead a week after they had allegedly disappeared. Both bodies were dumped in the same place, and both of the bodies were mangled so badly that they had to run blood tests to see if the DNA was a match. The police reports said that the first body had been carefully carved into pieces, and the amount of decay from exposure to the elements made it that much harder to positively identify the body. The second corpse was said to have had extensive fracturing to the skull and ribs, and, as if that wasn’t bad enough, the body was found with no epidermis. Naruto, all her skin had been removed. The worst part of all was that, according to the coroner’s report, all the mutilation occurred before death.”



Naruto cringed as he slowly moved forward in line.



“And where were the bodies found?” the blond found himself asking in spite of himself.



“In the school’s park,” Haku replied after a pause.



Naruto remained quiet; digesting the crucial information that Haku had relayed to him.



“I think this is definitely the work of a demon, Naruto. What do you think?”



“I--”



“Well?” the robust cafeteria worker asked, a permanent scowl set on her features, “What’ll it be blondie? You just gonna stand there all afternoon backin’ up my lunch line?”



Laughing nervously, Naruto ordered, and just like that the discussion of demons and corpses was replaced with talk of classes and some of the more – for lack of a better word – interesting people in them. It wasn’t until Naruto and Haku had both gotten their lunches and were on their way to meet Kiba that Naruto blurted out: “Wait!”



“What is it?” Haku asked the blond, immediately set on edge.



“How come you get to have a free period?”



Haku was confused at first by the blonde’s random question; the serious look on Naruto’s face making him doubt what he’d heard. Naruto’s outburst had set Haku on edge; it might have been a combination of nerves and the gruesome descriptions of the corpses, but Naruto’s outburst had really startled the brunette. He doubted it, but there was a small chance that the demon they were looking for could be taking refuge among the students of Konoha High. But would a demon really be bold enough to attack two high-ranking demon hunters in broad daylight, in front of hundreds of students? A strong enough demon would. The answer Haku came up with did nothing to allay his mounting worry. However, the pouting face of the blond still waiting on his answer, seemed a silly contrast to the dark thoughts rolling around in his head. Before he could stop himself, Haku let loose a very inappropriate laugh; nothing over the top, but a soft sound that shook the brunette’s frame in his mirth. Naruto gave Haku a questioning look, and then couldn’t help himself from laughing too – the brunette’s laughter was contagious.



So, laughing, Haku and Naruto approached Kiba and his group. Kiba saw Akamaru perk up a little, and looked up to see Naruto and Haku walking towards him.



“Hey guys! What’s so funny, Haku?” Kiba asked the pale boy with long brown hair as he tried to reign in his laughter.



“Haku is laughing at me because he thinks it’s funny that he has a free period and I don’t,” Naruto pouted.



Naruto’s pouting face was too much; Kiba looked from one boy to the other, and rolled his eyes, suppressing the laughter that threatened to escape. Haku cleared his throat and coughed politely to compose himself once more.



“Thank you for inviting us to have lunch with you, Kiba,” Haku said, well mannered as always.



“Oh yeah, I was going to introduce you to my friends!” Turning around, Kiba pointed to his group of friends. “Hey, everybody, these guys are the new students I was telling you all about. This one,” Kiba said, pointing in Naruto’s direction, “is Naruto. And this one,” Kiba then pointed to Haku, “is Haku.” The group of teenagers looked over both Haku and Naruto, and gave a group hello.



“All right, now let me go through the group. This here,” Kiba stated, pointing to a tall, handsome teen with short, spiky hair and a lean, muscular frame, “is Zabuza. Watch out for him; he’s a man-whore! He’ll fuck anything that walks on two legs, breathes, and has something dangling below the belt.”



The teen introduced as Zabuza glared at Kiba. Haku felt himself staring at the handsome man, but couldn’t bring himself the pull his gaze away. Noticing that he was being watched, Zabuza looked to the dark-haired youth and smiled; Haku’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment when he realized he’d just been caught staring. There was something eerily familiar about him, but Haku couldn’t remember ever meeting him. He was sure that he would have remembered someone like Zabuza if they’d ever met.



Kiba continued, “This here,” Kiba pointed to a young man gazing at the clouds, “is Shikamaru Nara. He’s lazy as hell, but he’s a damn genius. He’s really about our age, but he works as the school’s doctor.”



Shikamaru looked at both Naruto and Haku, and nodded a silent hello.



“Then we have Neji Hyuuga. Don’t be fooled, he’s definitely a male.” Kiba said and pointed to a young man with lilac eyes, eating from a bento box.



“Next there’s Shino. He’s a bug fanatic,” Kiba stated as he pointed to a teen sitting on the grass, studying an ant on the tip of his finger.



The boy introduced as Shino looked at Haku and Naruto from behind dark glasses and gave a slight nod.



“Next up we have the lovely ladies of the group. That’s Ten Ten; she is really into fighting – so, don’t piss her off or you’ll find yourself with a face-full of fist. And that’s Hinata Hyuuga; she’s the more reserved of the group, and she and Neji are cousins.”



Naruto smiled and waved at the two girls that Kiba introduced. Ten Ten smiled in return, and Hinata blushed then abruptly looked down at the grass. Kiba just laughed at the girl’s antics.



“There is one more person in our group, but he’s not here yet. I guess I’ll introduce you to him when he decides to grace us with his presence. For now come and sit with us,” Kiba said, settling himself in the grass next to Shino.



“Okay,” Naruto replied happily, plopping down gracelessly next to Kiba.



“You can sit next to me if you want, Haku,” Zabuza said in a charming voice.



Haku felt flushed again.



“Oh, leave him alone Zabuza! Stop attempting to corrupt all the pretty boys at our school. There’ll be none left for Hinata and I,” chided Ten Ten.



“Whatever, Ten Ten,” Zabuza smiled, and looked towards Haku. Hesitantly, Haku sat down next to the grinning young man.



“Like a sheep going to lay with a wolf,” muttered Ten Ten as she watched Haku take the bait, “Lost another one.”



“Hey, Kiba, you wouldn’t happen to know of any good places where a guy could get ramen around here, would you?” asked Naruto.



“Ramen? Well, there is this one place. I know! I’ll take you there after school some time, blondie,” Kiba said happily.



Naruto beamed, ignoring the new nickname, and thanked Kiba, then started an animated conversation about the strange teachers at their school. Hinata and Ten Ten joined the conversation; they seemed very interested in two teachers in particular. Ten Ten and Hinata giggled while reporting a rumor that Kakashi Hatake (the advanced art teacher) was after Iruka Umino (their English teacher), and Naruto found himself laughing right along with them.



“Idiot, what are you doing here,” questioned a familiar voice from behind the blond youth.



“Sasuke,” Kiba greeted the other, “What took you so--”



“It’s you!” Naruto exclaimed jumping up and pointing his finger at the raven-haired boy.



“You know each other?” Kiba asked, unsure as to whether it was a good idea to let Naruto point his finger at Sasuke like that.



“Hn,” Sasuke responded, as he sat down gracefully next to Kiba.



After Sasuke sat, Naruto remained standing, still pointing awkwardly at the Uchiha; Sasuke glanced up at the blond and smirked.



“You know, it’s rude to point,” the raven-haired teen stated, taking a bite of his onigiri.



Naruto growled at the raven’s comment. It was Sasuke who was the rude one; he had been ever since this morning. Before Naruto could recover from his anger the bell rang signaling the end of lunch. Naruto glared heatedly one last time at the raven-haired boy still sitting on the grass before heading off to his sixth period.



Watching the entire scene unfold before him, Haku excused himself from his conversation with Zabuza – but only after promising to meet the dark-haired young man after school. That taken care of, Haku hurried after his best friend.



“Naru! Wait a minute.”



Naruto turned to see Haku walking up to him; the blond stopped and waited.



Studying his best friend’s peculiar expression, Haku resolved to get to the bottom of whatever was apparently bothering Naruto. “Let’s ditch sixth period,” offered Haku.



“All right,” Naruto stated, a bit surprised at Haku’s sudden rebelliousness. Usually that was his job.



…



“Sasuke,” called a familiar voice; upon hearing it the Uchiha slowed his pace to wait for his friend.



“Nice of you to stop,” said the young man blandly, now that he’d caught up to Sasuke.



“What is it, Shikamaru?” Sasuke asked, not bothering to beat around the bush (which the lazy teen appreciated).



“That was an awfully interesting display you and Naruto put on,” Shikamaru stated lazily; putting his hands into his lab coat pockets.



“Your point?” Sasuke asked; he had no idea why he was being so defensive. It wasn’t like him at all.



“What did you do to him?”



“I didn’t do anything to that idiot,” Sasuke sighed. Knowing this wasn’t answering his friend’s question, he grumbled; “I ran into him a couple of times this morning, that’s all.”



“Hm,” Shikamaru hummed thoughtfully, “So what you really mean to say is: this morning Naruto found your secret hideaway at the café, right?”



How Shikamaru could have deduced that from the cryptic answer Sasuke had given, he didn’t know. Defeated, Sasuke answered; “Yes.”



“And of course by that, you mean: Naruto came up to you this morning and tried to play nice, and you – instead of giving the blond a chance – shut him down by being your cold and unfeeling self.”



There was a slight pause.



“I’m not unfeeling,” Sasuke muttered, irritated.



Content with the answer he received Shikamaru said nothing else, and neither did Sasuke as they headed off to their respective rooms.



…



“So, you ran into Sasuke this morning?”



“Yeah,” Naruto replied.



The blond sat down, and leaned his head back against the gate that surrounded the edge of the roof. He supposed it was there to discourage kids from doing a swan dive into the pavement below.



“I just don’t understand him,” Naruto continued, “It’s like every time he sees me he goes out of his way to be a bastard. What the hell did I ever do to him? Him and his stupid duck-butt hair. And that smirk! I see it and I just want to punch something.”

“Maybe he likes you and he just doesn’t know how to express his feelings for you, Naru,” Haku said matter-of-factly.



“Maybe… Wait! What? What are you saying?” Naruto exclaimed caught completely off guard, “Were you not listening to me just now, Haku? He hates my guts!”



“Relax, Naru. I was only making a joke.” Haku smiled at how riled up he could get his friend.



“Haha. That was so funny I think I forgot to laugh,” Naruto pouted.



Haku laughed, and then the two fell into a companionable silence. They stayed on the roof until the start of the bell rang, signaling the start of the last class of the day.



…



“Yes! Class is finally over,” Naruto sighed as he stretched his slightly stiff limbs.



He quickly jammed all his books and pens into his bag, and ran out the door of the classroom. As soon as he reached the hallway he found Haku waiting for him.



“I’m sorry, Naru! I forgot to tell you that I promised Zabuza I would meet him after school today. You’ll have to walk back with out me,” Haku said, hoping that Naruto wouldn’t be too upset.



“Okay, that’s fine,” Naruto said with a smirk, “I planned to go check out the school’s park after school anyway. So, I guess I’ll see you back at the house.”



Haku nodded and hurriedly made his way to the front of the school where Zabuza was waiting for him. As soon as Haku was out of sight, Naruto headed to the back of the school. By leaving through the back entrance he only had to cross the back field and hop the fence, and then he’d be at the park. Or at least that’s what Kiba had told him when he’d asked him at lunch.



As Naruto neared the park he sensed a powerful aura emanating from the grounds. But something was off; the aura was unreadable. Generally speaking, all aura’s have an angelic, demonic, or human ki. But Naruto had heard rumors that there existed beings possessing the power to disguise or even completely hide their ki. He’d always thought it was just a legend, but this aura had no distinctive ki. Without a reading on the ki, Naruto couldn’t tell whether the being was friend or foe.



“What are you doing there, boy? Have you come to kill me?”



Naruto almost jumped; his fight or flight response making his muscles tense.



“Why would I be here to kill you?” Naruto asked, raising his guard.



“Because you’re a demon hunter, are you not? If you weren’t you would be running away from me screaming. Or else you are a very foolish human, with no sense of self-preservation,” the being chuckled.



It had a point.



“So, you’re a demon then?”



“Yes. I am the last of my kind,” the demon seemed to giggle, “You demon hunters are a dying race too you know.”



Naruto clenched his fists. He didn’t like the way the demon was talking.



“Are you responsible for the disappearances of the girls around this school’s campus?”



The demon seemed to take a moment to think about it before answering; “No, that is the work of a much more powerful demon than I.”



“I see,” Naruto trailed off.



If that were true, then Haku had been right in thinking that the attacks were demon-related. That spelled trouble. Naruto had really been hoping that maybe the attacks had been orchestrated by some whacked out serial killer that had been let loose on Konoha.



Naruto heard a soft rustling from the bushes to his left, and turned, taking on a fully defensive stance. The demon had dropped from a tree and landed in the shrubbery underneath. It was only a split second later that Naruto fell to the ground; the demon had landed a blow to the back of his head. The world tilted a little on its axis, and Naruto blinked rapidly in an attempt to right his vision. But before Naruto could recover, the demon slapped a binding seal onto his back. Naruto was immobilized by the seal’s magic, and then, to the blonde’s horror, he heard the demon begin to chant a ritual spell meant to render a captive unconscious. Naruto’s eyes slid closed a moment later with the completion of the chant.



The demon hovered over the blonde’s now unconscious form and smiled.



“That was way too easy, little demon hunter,” the demon addressed Naruto, “If you’re the best that hag Tsunade could send then she’s in more trouble than I thought. You’re just lucky that I found you before the real demon did.”



The demon then brushed some of the hairs out of Naruto’s face then lifted him into its arms.



“Either way, I think you’ll do nicely for what I have planned.”



The demon caressed Naruto’s scarred cheeks with one clawed hand, and then, in an instant, they were gone.









-----TBC-----

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