Naruto: The Darkness Rises - Chapter 1

The moon shone brightly above a darkened forest, the silver light bathing the deserted path below in its radiant glow. The trees around were very tall, their bulk and height helping to obscure the path below. No animals seemed to stir aside from an owl or two, the sound of insects the only really discernible sign of any animal life.  The scene was calm and peaceful, if only for now.

The idyllic scene was interrupted by the sound of panting, of footsteps. A figure dashed across the path below, a shinobi of Konoha, heading through the forest as quickly as it could. From the way it was running, it was clear the figure was in a state of panic as it kept throwing glances all around, through the trees and down the path. It was clearly looking for something or someone but as to what it was searching for was undefined for now.

Eventually, the figure came to a stop in an opening in the forest. Leaning on a tree, it was panting as it continued to fling panicked looks around. "...a-ah...where...is the damned...Village?" Trying to recover, the figure opened a small flask of water and took a swig, admiring the silver light above as it did so. The moon was indeed big and bright and the figure had to admit, it made for good traveling weather.

Suddenly, a bright silver thread of chakra shot from one tree to another, catching the figure's eye. Shock and adrenaline revitalized the figure, which got up and quickly began running the way it had back along the path. Another string of chakra flew around the tree, flying parallel to the path and at high speed past the fleeing figure. And yet another flew at a diagonal across the path, uniting the first and second thread and cutting the figure's escape route off, to its horror.

"G-gah!" The fear that filled the figure and made it tremble only intensified as it watched more and more strings emerge, until a loose tower of sorts had been formed around the figure in less then a minute, comprised of strings of chakra loosely woven together. The silvery strands appeared weak as the shinobi drew a kunai and stepped forward, trying to cut one. It was, however, a fruitless task. No matter what, the threads resisted each slash and the shinobi eventually gave up, unsure of what to do.
Foosteps filled the air, calm ones, as the shinobi turned to see some of the strands part and another shinobi entered the clearing. Even though the moonlight and the shadows hid the ninja well, from the stance the ninja was standing in, the Konoha shinobi recognized this as one Hitachi Satoshi, a jonin-ranked ninja formerly from the now-defunct Village of Sound. When the Village had collapsed, he had disappeared and until now, no one had any idea where he was. Unfortunately, here he was, standing before the terrified shinobi.

"Y-you! Stay back! I-I'm warning you." The Konoha shinobi felt his legs trembling as he stepped back a bit. He had no idea how he was going to defeat Hitachi but he knew he had to if he wanted to survive. A dark, harsh chuckle escaped the one named Hitachi as he stepped forward, mirroring the retreating shinobi's step.

"Or what? You will attack me? Good." His voice sounding mostly emotionless, with an edge of darkness and intimidation, the shinobi reached to his side and drew out a pair of hand chimes. The Konoha shinobi, in response, drew a kunai and entered its battle stance, its arm shaking at the sight of the chimes.

"I would say more but that is not necessary." Hitachi frowned as he flung his chimes skywards. At the apex of the toss, the chimes shattered with a loud sound, the handles falling to the ground. The  ninja's eyes closed as silvery chakra drew the bars to the strings that imprisoned the Konoha shinobi, attaching themselves at odd intervals as the shinobi of the Sound turned and walked to the nearest wall, holding a hand out to it.

As the strings spread, making a doorway of sorts, the shinobi flung one last look at the trapped ninja. "Y-you! C-coward, come and fight!" Ignoring the taunt, Hitachi smirked to himself as he stepped outside of the strings and they closed behind him. Signing quickly, he placed a hand on the strings as chakra began flowing, his arm glowing as bright as the strings before him.

"Multi-Layer Disorientation Soundwave no Jutsu!" Instantly, the chimes began banging into the strings and each other, released multiple waves of sound that filled the chamber of chakra that trapped the Konoha shinobi. Loud screams escaped over the cacophony of the chimes, indicating that the trapped ninja was suffering. A hint of a smirk crossed Hitachi's face as he stepped back, the chimes continuing to ring out into the night, an almost musical sound filling the air. Soft hums began escaping his mouth as he listened.

It was a completely different inside the chamber, almost claustrophobic and painful. The chakra threads held as strong as before, allowing for no chance of escape, despite the desperate efforts of the trapped ninja to escape. The sound of the chimes, which sounded musical outside of the chamber, was completely painful to listen to inside the chamber. Not only was the cacophony of chimes painful to listen to, it was highly disorienting, unbalancing the ninja and sending him crashing to the ground, clinging to his ears as sharp pains filled his head, leaving him trembling and essentially helpless. Tears flowed from the ninja's eyes as pains and dizziness completely racked him, an experience he had never had before felt.

Unable to move or resist with his ears ringing, all he could do was look up as the threads faded and the chimes rained down on the ground around him. Footsteps filled the air as Hitachi walked over to where the shinobi lay. "Poor fool. Your strength did not match your determination. But I will bring you to a quick and painless death." A cold smirk crossed his face as he drew a kunai and the poor shinobi on the ground moaned in fear as he looked up, knowing he was going to die.

"D-damnit! K-konoha will avenge me!" He growled as he tried desperately to move anything. But his movements were feeble and to no avail as Hitachi knelt by him, holding the kunai to his throat.

"I would like to see the Village try. Good bye." And with that, a loud scream filled the night air, followed by nothing more then the wind and departing footsteps...
---
"...Another dead messenger." Several Konoha ANBU members stood around the body of the shinobi, trying to figure out what happened here. Several hours had passed and the morning sun had revealed the deceased body to a civilian who had been passing by. Said civilian had informed the police forces of the incident. And since it was the third incident in less then a week, Tsunade had ordered the ANBU to investigate and bring back information.

Which is why there were now a few ANBU standing by the body, looking all around. But there didn't seem any signs of anything. No discarded weapons, nor any sign of who the attacker was. The body itself bore one wound, a kunai stab, but there weren't any obvious signs of any other damage and that meant there was no idea how the poor messenger had been killed.

"We can't find anything. No signs of the attacker's identity, no way of connecting this to the other two killings." The ANBU captain frowned as he tried to figure out what had happened here. But there wasn't even a sign of a scuffle, which disturbed the captain; if there was a body, how come there was no sign of fighting?

Suddenly, one of the ANBU made a discovery and waved the captain over. With a nod, the captain's frown deepened as he realized the bad news. "The message is missing? That's not good." He bit his lip as he realized the problem with this information getting into the attacker's hands. If the information on the message were obtained, it would be likely the attacker would notice where the shinobi of Konoha and Suna would be at the moment.

"We need to inform the Hokage of this. We may need to send escorts with the next messenger we send out." As the ANBU gathered the body and ran off, a deep sigh left the captain as he wondered where the messege could possibly be. Then, without any emotion, he turned and ran off with the rest.
---
Hitachi shivered a bit as he stood outside a staircase leading to an underground chamber. He hated having to visit this chamber; it was almost pitch dark inside, damp and uncomfortable. But it was necessary if he was to report what had happened to the Kage. Hitachi's loyalty to the Kage was unflinching and he would do anything that was ordered of him. And yet, the thought of entering this dark chamber bothered the normally emotionless man deeply.

Eventually, a shinobi emerged from the chamber and nodded at him. "Kage Dyga will see you now." He said, calmly waving as Hitachi sighed and descended the stairs. The floor was roughly hewed in the surrounding earth, the way lit only by dim torches. There was a damp feel in the air as the shinobi walked through the hall until he reached a wide chamber. A hole in the chamber let daylight in, to supplement the torches scattered all over.

Stone columns helped support the walls, which were made of solid rock. The walls were bare, save for a few scrolls with writing on them. On one side sat a series of shelves full of scrolls, weapons and other sundry items. Towards the back wall sat a large desk with a large and solid-looking chair. The rest of the room was bare and, combined with the lack of light, made it all the creepier.

Hitachi entered the room with faint misgivings. He stopped not long after passing the entrance until a dark figure seated at the desk looked up. In the darkened room, it was hard to make out that the figure's face was covered by a simple mask, colored the darkness of night. But then again, that was typical of the Kage, who preferred that not even his trusted subordinates see his face for any reason.

"Hitachi. I see you completed your mission." The figure waved Hitachi inside and with a frown, the shinobi walked over to the desk before kneeling quickly.

"Kage." With a nod, Hitachi got up after a few seconds. "I finished the mission. The messenger was no trouble at all and I retrieved the message as you commanded." Emotionlessly, Hitachi drew a scroll from his side and placed it on the desk. Taking a step back, he watched as the Kage took the scroll, unrolling it and reading it quickly. A smile crossed the Kage's face as he rolled the scroll back up.

"Interesting. Thank you, Hitachi." Getting up, the Kage walked over to the shelves and pulled out a map. Unrolling it on the floor with a flick of his wrist, he scanned it as Hitachi watched silently. After a few seconds, he suddenly stomped on part of the map, ripping the entire scroll in half. His eyes, the only part of his face that could be seen through the mask, were wild as he turned to face Hitachi. His breathing was heavier then before.

"...If Konoha and Suna are doing as the message tells, then their forces will be even more divided then I had hoped. This could be our moment of action." The Kage's voice sounded full of rage and in an eerie way, sounded scary and hollow as well. His raging eyes faded, returning to their normal cold selves as he walked over to his desk again and sat down.

"Hitachi. I want you to take Ashanti and scour the paths between the Villages. See if you can come up with a few more exchanges. And do not let any live." As he said this, another shinobi signaled and in stepped a kunoichi with dark red dreadlocks and a round wooden mask over her face. Her dark skin meant she almost blended into the shadows in the room; were it not for the white body-paint and the red sleeve of the outfit she wore, she'd be nigh impossible to spot. Though unusually flat-chested, she didn't seem to care as she cheerfully and confidently stepped next to Hitachi.

"Yes, Kage! We'll take care of them, won't we, 'Tachi?" She chirped excitedly as Hitachi let out a long, low sigh. The shinobi didn't hate the kunoichi, excited and outgoing as she was. Despite being emotionless outwardly, Hitachi had worked with Ashanti long enough to know that she was serious when the need be. And their two fighting styles, unique and different as they were, had surprising synergy together. That was why Dyga had assigned them to work together and why, together, they had had such success for their Team.

"Yes." Hitachi nodded at last, with a salute to Dyga. Ashanti saluted as well, nodding eagerly with a smile on her face underneath her mask.

"All right, dismissed. Oh, and Hitachi." Hitachi frowned as Dyga nodded grimly. "Do not forget your mask. I will overlook it this time but it would not do to have you being identified, no?" Admitting that Dyga had a point, Hitachi reached to his side and withdrew his mask, a half-face mask that covered the left side of his face excepting his eye. Attaching it, he turned and left, Ashanti following closely and chattering the entire time.

Once they were gone, Dyga nodded at the shadows behind him. Two more ninjas stepped out, saluting. One was a kunoichi with short green hair which was streaked with tan, worn in pigtails. Her pale skin and slim physique made her look younger then she normally was, though she was as old as the rest of her teammates. Her mask was blank and colored gray, with slits for her eyes, except for the symbol of a moon carved in it from one side to the other. Underneath the mask, her bright amber eyes seemed to flash as they scanned the room before her. Licking her lips with her long and snakelike tongue, she acknowledged her partner.

The other shinobi was a man, clearly in his late twenties or early thirties. His hair was short, spiked and messy, colored dark brown with a single silver stripe in it. Muscular and big, he was much more intimidating then his partner. His tanned skin was decorated with scars from previous battles, including a tattoo on his right arm, with marks for every major ninja he had killed. The marks ran down his arm, stopping short of his wrist. "...Hmph." He snorted as he adjusted his mask, which covered his eyes like a visor. There were no slits; as the shinobi was blind, not having them was more intimidating. The rest of his face was uncovered as he stood there, listening carefully. With only a combat vest, pants and sandals as an outfit, he did cast a fearsome figure.

"Medinari, Kojikai. You two are to head to Konoha and cause some trouble. I do not care what you do, just cause some destruction and draw out their ANBU and shinobi. I need to judge the strength of their Village." Kojiko growled his reply, a smirk crossing his face as he pounded his fist into his chest.

"Kojikai crush them good. No let any live!" His roar echoed off the walls as Dyga smirkd wickedly.

"Excellent. Medinari!" The kunoichi nodded and saluted, looking up at Dyga. "You are to be the eyes of Kojikai. Guide him but let him wreck at will. And ensure you two escape alive, because if you are captured, you are as good as dead to me." The sterness of his messege did not seem to shake the girl at all, as she nodded grimly and saluted. She knew there would be no rescue mission if she were captured; she'd be left to her own fate, if not assassinated to protect the Village.

"Yesss, Kage. I will ensssure that we come back sssuccesssful from thisss misssion." With a nod, she whistled and Kojiko blindly stopped roaring, looking in her direction. "Thisss way, partner." As she left, Kojiko following closely behind, Dyga laughed harshly as he stood up.

"The time of the falling of Konoha has begun! For my will to flourish, my plans to succeed, I will have no choice but to wipe you all out! Hahahahaha!" Laughing so loudly he could be heard outside of the room, he smirked wickedly as he, too, turned to leave.