Lambs To The Slaughter

 

Lambs to the Slaughter – Chapter 7: Happy birthday

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or want to. It would be like when you see a scratch off lottery ticket on the ground. It was good but now you know it's worthless.

 

Disclaimer 2: I don't own any of the other things here, and I don't really care if someone copy n' pastes my story under a different title. This is non-profit and doesn't count score. It's basically getting more people to read my story with no additional effort on my part. Why would I get mad over people sucking my e-penis and hoping my e-jizz will help grow theirs?

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---7:30 AM - 10/10/7878 - Kyuubi's Estate, Dining Hall---

 

The room had a pleasant aroma that caused two of the beings inside to salivate. A smell of baked goodness emanated from the kitchen and permeated the senses of Naruto and Sounochi Namikaze-Uzumaki.

 

This was their third birthday, and despite the earliest memories that they could retain into adulthood having begun a little over a year ago for Naruto and six months ago for Sounochi, this would forever be a day that they would refer to as the beginning.

 

They had a surprisingly decent childhood up to this point, father let them talk in his presence, mother was affectionate and seemed to not mind father's habits of violence towards her. She assured them that most other people wouldn't be able to survive decapitation, so they had yet to try it on each other.

 

Naruto knew Kyuubi wasn't his real father, but he treated him as his own son. He even let him look in his eyes once without hitting him. The training was exhausting physically and mentally, but the one thing that father wouldn't tolerate was slacking off.

 

If one of them would slack off during their training, then father would punish the other one. It was far more effective than direct punishments, because they couldn't simply weigh the pain against the temporary benefit of resting.

 

Naruto still remembered the pain of the burn when Sounochi dropped from his pull-ups. Neither of them held it against their father, because they were both strong and smart enough to survive alone barring being attacked by a strong foe.

 

Their father sat next to them at the dinner table, which was ridiculously big considering there were never guests at them mansion and only four inhabitants. It could easily fit a hundred people around its glazed mahogany surface.

 

While the Kyuubi had decided to forgo the birthday hat that Sounochi had offered him, he did accept the noisemaker. It was a flat purple rubber tube that curled up like a frogs tongue, and when blown from the attached straw it would uncurl and make a farting nose.

 

While no one would believe them if they told anyone outside the estate, he did give it a blow. Seeing the normally stoic Kyuubi do this actually made Naruto and Sounochi scream in terror out of principle. Their father then slapped them upside the head for making so much noise and sat at the dinner throne to wait for the cake.

 

It would be petty of him to spurn any sort of recreation or joy, and the Kyuubi was not petty. He wasn't nice, or merciful, or good, or anything but evil incarnate really, but he wasn't going to limit what he could do by popular opinion of what looked good or bad. He would just burn any who had the nerve to disrespect him anyways.

 

His dinner throne was exactly the same as hit entrance throne with the addition of a cup-holder, food tray and built-in sink next to the left armrest. On his left sat Naruto, to his right Sounochi and when Kami came out of the kitchen she would sit end up sitting on his lap rather than the chair he had on the opposite end of the table for her.

 

The doors to the dining room burst open as Kami walked out holding a modestly large but incredibly detailed cake. It was three levels tall, with a white chocolate frosting covering the layers of dark chocolate, milk chocolate and red velvet from the bottom to top layers. The icing was seemingly etched with a toothpick in a pattern that resembled that of the estate's outer walls. The cake was topped with three burning sticks of incense which enhanced the overall appeal in addition to the obvious use as candles.

 

Kami loved to cook, as she firmly believed that the work going into something made it all the better. She could just manifest such a cake, but that would remove the personal touch and sense of accomplishment that came with such mundane acts. Kyuubi wasn't likely to cook anytime soon, but he agreed in the general sense.

 

Immortality made it easy to sit back and smell the roses.

 

Kami smiled as she set the platter down on the table in front of her sons and pseudo-lover. Her grin grew as she saw the delight written across their faces. While Naruto wasn't hers by blood, his adoption went unspoken. It wasn't every century that a child was raised by both prime beings.

 

The bond he had developed with her blood son helped of course, and she found his drive admirable. While her son had gotten him hurt five times, he had failed only once. The training may have been brutal, but she knew the children would become much stronger because of it.

 

“Dinner is served! Happy birthday Sounochi. Happy birthday Naruto.” Kami exclaimed as she conjured some plates and silverware. She used some magical ingredients to make the cake healthy, but the sentiment of her work was still there.

 

Naruto watched as his mother sat down on his father's lap. He thought he saw his father's lip twitch at the corner, and figured that his father had predicted it. He took a bite of the cake and closed his eyes at the intense pallet of flavors.

 

He had taken a slice off of the top, because he wanted one of the incense near him while he ate. His brother seemed to have the same idea, and his reaction to the food was a bit more obvious.

 

Sounochi ripped into his cake with reckless abandon. That first bite was so good he almost lost it and shouted it out, but he didn't want to push his father. Yelling had been one thing he was never allowed to do in his vicinity.

 

His mind was a haze of chocolate induced joy as he happily ate. After about ten seconds he heard a clink and looked down to see an empty plate. He reached over the table for the cake but recoiled as his write was slapped by his mother. The stern look on her face vanished quickly, and she cut him a piece from the second layer and handed it to him.

 

Just as Sounochi was about to take his first bite his danger sensed rang. He realized he had almost made a deadly mistake.

 

“Thank you mom.” after getting a satisfied nod from his mother he dug in again.

 

Naruto sighed inwardly as he saw his brother ripping apart the food with such haste. His face was smeared with Chocolate frosting, and his hair wasn't spared from the same fate. Naruto used the edge of his fork to separate a piece of his food into a more reasonable size. The piece was promptly impaled on his fork before he set it on his tongue with surgical precision.

 

He savored the flavor as a whole before shifting the food to the front of his mouth and taking a lick of the frosting. The flavor really was incredible, but the piece was becoming saturated with saliva so he quickly finished it.

 

Some would think that this sort of behavior would be tiring, or at least require concentration. Naruto however felt was as natural as breathing. He proceeded to savor his food, and knew his brother was rushing again by the sound of his fork. He was reckless in some cases, but Naruto knew he could become serious and deadly when it mattered.

 

“Oh man! That's great! Thanks for the food. I'm stuffed!” his brother exclaimed before attempting to leave the table. Naruto had a mental countdown before the sound of a wooden spoon hitting skull resounded in the room. His mother pointed to the throw utensil before crossing her arms expectantly.

 

“Sorry mom, I got forgot.” Sounochi exclaimed sheepishly as he returned her spoon. He never rubbed the back of his head though, because he knew a rubbed injury is liable to be hit again twice.

 

The dinner continued as the three beings with an ounce of patience ate and the last was bored out of his mind. Eventually the cake had only a single piece remaining and all three swallowed their last bite.

 

Mother and patient son shared a look as Sounochi reached for it, but was rewarded with a wooden mallet impacting his hand as Kyuubi snatched it up. The last piece was eyed by the Kyuubi before he slowly ate it. He acted as if he didn't intend to make the other three jealous, but they all knew what was going on. Soon enough the plate was set down in front of a satisfied Kyuubi, pouting Kami, meditating Naruto and squirming Sounochi.

 

Kami whipped out two boxes, and handed one of them to each son.

 

Sounochi behaved as one may expect and ripped the paper off to reveal a finely crafted silver buckler. However due to his diminutive size it was a large shield. Etched designs resembling his tattoos covered the surface, and a single emerald inlaid in the center.

 

Naruto waited for his brother to thank their parents before opening his box with clean rips in the paper and then carefully separated the cardboard beneath it. He reached in and genitally removed a large bloody hook.

 

The end had barbs to prevent any escape of a hooked creature, and it had a hook at the base to attach to a chain. The metal was rusted iron, and the bloodstains made this look like little more than a used meat hook.

 

Most would consider this junk, but Naruto realized that he had lucked out. His brother's shield would be handy, and demons would have an especially hard time with it. His hook on the other hand was connected to a spirit from beyond this realm.

 

To compensate for his physical weakness, Naruto had been training in the arts of Necromancy, summoning and other miscellaneous conjuration techniques. He would use his strategic mindset to avoid being attacked, and with time he could become an ambush or guerrilla warfare specialist.

 

The problem of course was finding things to summon. Only low level beasts could be conjured from scratch, and they would be near useless in any real battle. The real power came from using defeated foes, indebted allies and befriended creatures as summons.

 

The summons power was proportional to the power they held before being summoned or killed, and thus starting with nothing was difficult. This hook was obviously tied to a creature that could be of real use in the future.

 

Then something dawned on Naruto.

 

“Why are our gifts weapons? Couldn't you wait until we're seven and going to leave to give us these?” Naruto asked. The answer was dawning on him, but was cemented by the response.

 

“Because I'm giving you the gift of independence.” Kyuubi said before snapping his fingers. Both Naruto and Sounochi vanished in a flash of light.

 

“You didn't sit in your chair. It's time for your punishment.” Kyuubi said to Kami. He had been turned from her, but as he turned she realized he had a whip covered in barbed wire and poison ivy.

 

*Crack* The whip blurred out and ripped apart her clothing and left torso. This was going to be fun.

 

---9:11 AM - 10/10/7878 - Forest of Death, Inner Sanctum---

 

“Oh fuck! Shit! Bro, what do we do? You're the smart one! Tell me! Shit” Sounochi bitched aloud. Naruto's mind was buzzing with plans, possibilities and everything else to determine the best course of action.

 

He slapped his hand over his brother's mouth. While he was sure they were in the inner sanctum and therefore no unauthorized fighting was aloud, he wasn't going to take any chances. Sounochi thankfully didn't put up a fight. While his brother wasn't very clam or rational all the time he trusted his Naruto to do the majority of the heavy thinking.

 

Naruto decided that the first order of business was finding a source of water. The inner sanctum was filled with smaller animals that closely resembled those outside the Forest of Death in size and threat. There were bears and such creatures that may be a danger, so traveling quietly was essential. Trained or not, a single bear swipe could kill Naruto or put his brother out of commission.

 

Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose with his right hand as he gathered power in his left. He slowly turned his left palm to face forward and held his hand at his hip. He curled his fingers slightly, causing them to resemble claws.

 

He then began to raise his hand in an arc. Much like the curls his brother did with weights, his motion caused his arm to move upwards without changing the position of his elbow.

 

As it reached a 90 degree angle with his torso he flung it outwards and a shimmering blue blast flew into the ground five feet ahead. A flash of light later and a moderately sized hawk sat on the ground.

 

While the size, shape and strength of this hawk were regular the color was different. It looked as if it had been ripped out of a photograph in blue-scale. There wasn't a speck of red, green, yellow or any color besides shades of blue. The brightest parts were simply a very bright blue.

 

The bird turned its head to the left and looked at him. He transmitted his will to it before it gave off a small caw and flew to skies. About five minutes later if returned to guide him towards a suitable campsite.

 

This part of the Forest was covered in grass that grew twice as tall as Naruto, so about 6 feet. The grass was a bright green with touches of yellow mixed in. The temperature was only about 80 degrees Fahrenheit, but the high humidity caused it to feel much hotter.

 

He walked through the grass while holding his brother's hand. In this terrain getting lost could be deadly. They walked in silence for about 12 minutes before the grass thinned and they saw a riverbank.

 

The dirt was a deep brown, and the river seemed safe due to the abundance of fish and moss. While some would consider that to be a gross thing, both children knew that clear water was a sign that something was wrong. Clear water showed that even moss and grubs couldn't survive in it.

 

They walked to the edge and looked in. There was a true abundance of life in the water, and the threat of crocodiles was offset by the availability of food.

 

“Okay, we can talk now. Keep it down though, I don't want to attract unneeded attention.” Naruto said to his brother. His brother sighed visibly, but was noticeably calmer than fifteen minutes ago.

 

“I'd thank god, but we both know what she's doing so I'll settle for you.” Sounochi exclaimed. Naruto snickered at the joke. He was calm, but not emotionless.

 

“I can tell you want to try your hook thing, so I'll make camp while you do. Don't worry, I'll let you know if anything comes up.” Sounochi said. He was best for making camp anyways, as Naruto lacked physical strength to accomplish the required tasks quickly. Sounochi pulled a combat knife he kept on his from his belt and began cutting and weaving grass into a tent-like structure.

 

Naruto was thankful for his brother's helpfulness. He decided to take Sounochi's advice and pulled the hook from his belt. Before starting he took an assessment of their equipment just in case things got ugly.

 

He was dressed in lightweight black leather armor, colored black and adorned with dull copper studs. It was an effective protection without becoming cumbersome or tiring. He wore it most of the time to assure he could handle it in a situation like this. His chest piece had a bandoleer across it, which was unfortunately empty save for a single health potion. It could quickly mend a serious wound, but adrenalin would cause it to malfunction and stop, so he could only use it outside of battle.

 

His legs were covered in the same style, and his feet had steel toed boots to attempt to protect his mobility in exchange for the loss of speed due to the weight of the boots.

 

His belt had a few loops, one was holding his hook, one held a multi-knife and the third was holding a water canteen. It was still full, and he was thankful that he had put it on this morning. His head was covered by a black fedora with rims extending about 6 inches. The rims had a dark red edge to match the silk ribbon just below the top of the hat.

 

It was useful as a distraction as well at the benefit it provided by covering his skin from the sunlight. His skin seemed to burn far easier than it should, and he was slightly jealous of his brother's pale skin that never wanted to get sunburn.

 

He also had a thick black cotton cape for the same purpose, but he took it off due to the heat.

 

While there was little sun in the forest, he wore the hat just in case.

 

His brother wore a full body suit of Kevlar armor with a layer of aluminum chainmail underneath. Aside from the incredible heat that was contained, the protection was incredible. When his father showed them how to make a few basic seals the suit became everyday wear after the addition of a very weak ice spell. His brother's weak Chakra was able to power it without wasting much, so the design was efficient.

 

The suit was colored a very dark green, and his head was covered by a separate helmet of similar design. It had two short gunmetal metal tubes tipped with glowing green lenses about the width of a quarter protruding about two-thirds of the way up the front of the mask. It was airtight and contained a self-cleaning filter that would allow him to breath even fully submerged.

 

His brother also had a storage seal on the waist of his suit, and thankfully seemed to pack more than Naruto.

 

Storage seals worked by temporarily converting the contents to pure energy, but they still weighed about 15% of their previous weight. It could be more or less depending on craftsmanship, but Sounochi's was pretty bad and only reduced weight by 80%.

 

The other limitation of the seals was that living things couldn't survive the process and tended to come out as a pile of blended bones, organs and flesh.

 

He pulled a black scarf from the seal and passed it to Naruto. It was promptly put on over his mouth, so that the air filter would function correctly. Not able to work underwater, but better than nothing.

 

Naruto knew they would need to change the cloths as they grew, but threw that off his mind as he focused back on his summoning.

 

Naruto assumed a cross legged position on the ground before holding his arms in front of him and bending the elbows to a near 40 degree angle. Then he held his hands so that the back of his bottom three fingers met between the second and third joint. He positioned his index fingers straight out so that the inside of the tips met. His thumbs were straight upwards and toughing in a similar manner.

 

He positioned the strange hand seal in front of his solar plexus and closed his eyes. He visualized a white plane where the things were his hook and a ethereal light blue form of his body.

 

He then looked to the base of the hook and visualized the connection to its owner. A deep blue ribbon formed and flew into a swirling blue vortex about twenty feet away. Naruto grabbed the ribbon and dragged himself into the realm of the creature where the true test would be.

 

As he touched the vortex his vision blurred and he found himself sitting on the gray stone floor of some sort of tomb. The walls were sealed on all sides and the room was only about 15 feet wide, 40 feet long and 60 feet tall. He looked up and saw a few balconies that were covered in shadow.

 

Being unsure what kind of test this was, he quickly used his chakra to climb the wall. Control was never a hard thing for him, and the wall walking technique was among the first things he learned.

 

He reached the top of the wall and flipped to the balcony's edge. It was about five feet outwards and seven across. His position would allow him to see whatever lay below. He waited in anticipation for was whatever emerged.

 

“Make room for Pudge.” a voice rumbled from behind Naruto. As a pungent stench filled his nose through the bandana he knew he was in some deep shit.

 

“What rotten luck...” Naruto muttered.

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I had to throw a cliffhanger in there somewhere. Anyone who knows who this mother fucker is gets 50 pats on the back.*

 

This is a bit shorter, but I wanted to get it out before school tomorrow, because I won't have much time until next weekend.

 

Things to note: 1. I don't have the kawarimi jutsu in this story. It's a bullshit move that cannot be balanced. I mean, how can you act like mastering rock wall or water wall is a good idea when you can swap with a fucking log that doesn't even exist beforehand? To anyone who says shit about handseals: No. You can master jutsu without them.

 

The walls require a good amount of Chakra, so you can't play solely defense really. Kawarimi is a fucking D class that lets you dodge a nuke if you see it coming. Let's not even bother with the point of swapping other people.

 

Also, how can anyone explain that it's easier to pick up a log and run over back in front of the attack then away again instead of just running over by the log? Seriously?

 

The move is retarded and not in my story. Period. Shunshin is the minimum for dodging and it can rip apart the legs of the user as you saw. If you use it too much you get tired. If you're tired you might run into a wall at mach 2 speeds and die.

 

Rant over. I would like to thank everyone who reviewed and my Beta who would prefer to remain anonymous. Keep up with the R&R.

 

Soon my plan will be complete,

-KishinoKurobi

 

*You must do it yourself, you have my blessing. Not really, I can't bless shit.