Chapter 2 - Dysfunctional Family

“Hey, Naruto?” Sakura asked quietly.

“Hmm? What’s up, Sakura?” Naruto answered sleepily.

“I was just curious…have you told Hinata how you feel yet?” Sakura blushed; that wasn’t what she had meant to say.

“Not yet, but I will!” Naruto laughed.

Typical Naruto…he knows nothing about love, but he thinks he’s going to sweep her off her feet!

“So, what about you and Ryouko, huh?” Naruto teased, elbowing Sakura.

“Huh? Ryouko? Where did that come from?” Sakura breathed.

“Oh, please, you’ve been making puppy eyes at him this whole trip, dattebayo! Geez, you give a guy a little stubble, and trim his hair, and all of a sudden every girl wants him! I think even Grandma Tsunade would’ve jumped him!”

Sakura and Naruto both burst out laughing, then shushing each other, as Sai and Ryouko were trying to sleep.

“I admit, I DO see him differently. More…well…it’s like this. He’s cute, but now I feel safe around him. Kind of like…I don’t know, Kakashi-sensei,” Sakura admitted, blushing even redder.

“WHOA! YOU LOVE KAKASHI-SENSEI?!” Naruto practically screamed.

“No, you idiot! I mean, with Ryouko leading us, it feels like Kakashi-sensei. Like everything’s under control, we won’t be attacked, and even if we are, he’ll handle it.”

“Oh! I get it! So you DO like him?”

Sakura rolled her eyes. “Yes. But as a friend. Let’s face it, he could do better than me. I mean, the only thing big about me is my forehead! I really got shortchanged in the T and A department…”

--

The next morning, Ryouko woke up quickly. He felt something was off…For good reason.

“Oh shoot!” Ryouko grabbed his still-lit cigarette and blew the ash upward. When the ash hit ‘nothing’ and stayed in one spot, like it was stuck to something, Ryouko new something was horribly wrong. His uttering of the vulgar word for fecal matter had awakened the others.

“Sai, draw! Get the lions to run in every direction. I want to see who or what we’re dealing with!”

Sai followed Ryouko’s orders and drew as fast as he could. Soon, the lions had splattered against a wall, now visible thanks to their ink. Naruto ran toward it, but Ryouko seized the back of his jacket.

“Hold it! Don’t touch the wall!” Ryouko reached down and picked up a rock. He tossed the rock at the wall. BRZAP! It exploded into fragments.

“We’re surrounded!” Sakura pointed out.

“And the walls are closing in…” Sai added.

“We’re gonna die if we don’t move!” Naruto shouted.

“Calm down! Earth Style: Mud Wall!” Ryouko sucked in his stomach and spat out a layer of mud. The mud grew taller and taller, until it hit the ‘ceiling’. The ceiling and walls slowed down, their progress hampered by the wall of mud.

“It’s a barrier jutsu…there has to be four people, at least…Naruto, have your Shadow Clones dig, just in case we can go UNDER the barrier. Sai, have your ink at the ready…Sakura, I need your help on this one. We need to send genjutsu in every direction, until we hit a person. You know that medical jutsu, the one you used to put me out for my eye surgery? (WAAAYYY back, at the beginning of my original fic, Ryouko’s left eye was destroyed by Gaara. It would take two years before Tsunade and Sakura discovered a way to fix it.) Try that one. Here, you’re gonna need this.” Ryouko handed her a chakra cigarette, already lit. Sakura took it and put it in her mouth, already making hand signs.

“1/8th of a turn each time we don’t hit someone, and aim the genjutsu as wide as you can! Damn it! Water Style: Water Wall!” Ryouko used some of the mud and some water that the ground had soaked up to create another wall to slow the progress of the wall down.

“It’s no good! My clones just disappear! They’ve extended the barrier down!” Naruto shouted back.

Ryouko and Sakura had started their genjutsu attacks. On the third try, Sakura hit someone.

“Ryouko, right there! I’ve stunned him, but he’s going to throw it of!”

Ryouko didn’t make handsigns for these two genjutsus anymore. First he used a “False Surroundings” jutsu, which he sensed got thrown off. But the second jutsu hit home and latched on. Torture and Interrogation were important to ANBU, and Ryouko had learned from the best. Now he set out to destroy his first mind. He would hate himself for it, but he would hate it even more if he and his squad perished.

Before long, Ryouko heard a scream of terror. An ink-covered wall vanished, giving the four Leaf Ninja time to scamper out. Ryouko looked to see who he’d hit. To his surprise, it wasn’t the Akatsuki. It was some Mist Ninja.

I wouldn’t have laid that genjutsu on that thick if I had known it wasn’t the Akatsuki behind it… Ryouko hated the thought that he might have just destroyed someone from the inside. That diminished when he remembered that it was his group that had been attacked. That caused Ryouko to grab the now-drooling man. He was only unconcious; Ryouko had ended the genjutsu in time to save the man’s mind.

“Alright, I want the rest of you out here, right now! Don’t screw with me, you saw what I did to him!” Ryouko tugged on the man’s short gray hair, in effect increasing the pressure he had on the man’s neck. To Ryouko’s surprise, the guy was clothed in traditional items, not Ninja gear.


“Okay, we give up! Please, don’t hurt him!” a blond woman with dark eyes ended the genjutsu she had placed on her body. Soon, a teenage girl with red hair ended it. Naruto breathed out sharply.

She’s totally hot! And that is skin-tight clothing! He heh, her curves are in all the right places!

“Naruto, put your eyes back in their sockets!” Sakura said, smacking him in the head.

“Ow! You violent kunoichi, what the hell?!” Naruto moaned, rubbing a growing, throbbing red welt on top of his head.


Ryouko tilted the kunai he was holding until it was under the unconcious man’s chin.

“You want to explain to me just why the hell you attacked us?” Ryouko growled.

“Please, come with us! We mistook you for the ones in black! Come to our home, we’ll explain everything!” the woman begged. Her son smiled at Sakura. He was about twelve years old, and Sakura was the nicest looking girl he’d ever seen. His sister, the redhead, smiled seductively at Naruto, Ryouko, and Sai, even winking and waggling her finger. Naruto was drooling, Sai was impassive, and Ryouko was too focused on the situation to care.

“Alright. But this better not be a trick…I’m going to hold on to this guy (Tugs on man’s head) until I’m sure you’re not screwing with us.”

“How about holding me, instead?” the girl offered. “My Daddy won’t mind…”

“I’LL HOLD YOU!” Naruto declared. For whatever reason, the girl walked over to him.

“Naruto- no. Not until we’re sure that they aren’t going to knife us. You, whatever your name is, don’t come any closer…” Ryouko glared at her. But you would think he had blown a kiss for the reaction he got. The girl giggled and backed up, twirling her hair, then even blew a kiss.

--

“So you’re friends of the Akamadori family? Why would the Akatsuki be after you?” Sakura asked. Everyone was sitting down at a low table, food in front of them.

“They want Katsuyori…I don’t know why! But we decided that, if they came back, we were going to delay them...at least buy Katsuyori some time…the worst part is, this is all on orders from the Mist Village! No one can stand up to the Akatsuki, and our whole village is being forced to bow down! I hate it!” the older woman, who wouldn’t give her name, said in frustration.

“Everyone has gone soft, and just let the Akatsuki run wild…I was forced to quit my job as a ninja, because I refused to submit my children to the government’s testing.”

“Do you mind if I smoke?” Ryouko asked quietly.

“No, not at all.”

“Thank you. I’m sorry for treating you so roughly. I got attacked early by an Akatsuki member, in a bar. He’s under our government’s control now. The bar belongs to the Akamadori family. He jumped me, disguised as Aki. My mission, officially, is to find and return Katsuyori to the Leaf Village. My personal mission is to save the whole family. If you know anything, please tell me.” Ryouko leaned forward, ignoring the age-old rule of ‘no elbows on the table’.

“We can talk later. For now, we should all rest. Your chakra must be exhausted after all that work.”

“C’mon Naruto, let’s go to my room!” the girl grabbed Naruto and ran upstairs. Ryouko stood up, as if to stop them, but then sat back down and shook his head.

“Sai, do you have a minute? Please, excuse us for a moment…” Ryouko asked kindly, stepping outside with Sai.

--

“Sai, use those mice. Can you get them into the girl’s room? I don’t know what she’s doing to Naruto, but we need to know. She’s playing the ‘flirty’ game…that worries me…”

“Why does it worry you?” Sai questioned as he drew.

“Because I was the only single guy at the academy, helping Iruka-sensei, one day I got picked to help the kunoichi. They had to seduce me, in various ways, and then ‘kill’ me before I touched them. This girl is following a pattern that they used on me, or a similar one…she might just be friendly…but I don’t trust her.” Ryouko exhaled, the smoke clearly visible against the cold night air. Sai’s mice came to life, and scampered to the window…

--

“So, Naruto-kun, do you have a girlfriend?” the girl questioned. Ryouko hadn’t caught her name. No one had given their names out, except Naruto, of course.

“Nah, not yet!” Naruto replied, sitting on the window sill.

“Re-ally…a cutie like you? Single? It’s a crime…I should know, I’m single, too…” the girl had moved closer to Naruto, and pulled him away from the window.

“You? But you’re drop-dead gorgeous!” Naruto answer, shocked that something that looked so good could be single.

“A crime…Naruto-kun…” suddenly, the girl pushed Naruto onto her bed, knocking aside stuffed animals of various shapes, sizes, and colors.

“I noticed the looks you gave me earlier, you bad boy…if you wanted to see…all you had to do…” the girl reached for her shirt, and pulled it up over her head, “…was ask…”

Naruto could only stare blindly. The girl moved in closer.

--

“Hmm…” Sai’s mice had come back. They began to form words on the paper.

“What’re they saying?” Ryouko whispered.

“That she is beautiful, and seductive. She just removed her shirt, and is moving toward Naruto-kun…but she’s got a senbon in her hair. It’s hidden too well to be anything but a weapon…”

“Damn! It’s not like we can go barging in, either!”

--

Ryouko ran back inside, whispering urgently to Sakura. Instantly, she took off upstairs. Ryouko turned in time to block a kunai with one of his own.

“I thought so…you had your daughter seduce him! Those ‘kisses’ she blew…genjutsu, aimed at the most susceptible mind, right?!” Ryouko blocked the man’s kunai. But the mother and son were frozen.

“How could you? How could you turn your back on us?!” the son demanded.

“I had no choice!” his father murmured. “It was either HELP the Akatsuki, or get killed by them!” The father turned to Ryouko. “It’s too late, my daughter has already given your friend a nice send-off. I knew that dip would fall for it! All she had to do was flash a little leg, and he was hooked on her!”

“She flashed more than that!” Ryouko shot back, pushing away and throwing his kunai. “Even if you put her up to seducing my friend, she went farther than ‘showing a little leg!’”

“DON’T YOU DARE INSULT MY LITTLE GIRL!” the man roared. But he stopped suddenly, and fell forward, blood pouring from his mouth. Behind him was his son.

“No time to explain, we’ve got to check on your friends! My sister is really strong!”

“Alright. Sai, you keep an eye on them, find out what you can. I’m going to help Sakura!”

--

Ryouko dashed upstairs, finding Naruto staring absently at the girl. Understandably so; she was topless and he was fourteen, a boy, and a pervert. Guys are born that way, apparently. (lmao, I had to get a shot in. This was a witty observation by one of my friends. It IS a joke…not ALL of us are pervs! XD )

“Game’s up, girl. I know what you’re doing…” Ryouko, a man of integrity, made sure to look her firmly in the eyes.

“How DARE you just barge in! I don’t care if he’s your team mate! He belongs to ME know! Get him, Naruto!” the girl blew a kiss to Naruto, who charged Ryouko. He didn’t even have time to get his hands up, as Naruto moved incredibly quick and socked him in the jaw, rocketing him backward, through the wall, and down the stairs.

Seconds later, the girl joined him. Ryouko moved aside just as she tumbled down, senbon piercing her neck and back, and her mother standing on top of the stairs.

“My own daughter…my God…” the lady broke down in tears. “I killed my daughter!” she wailed. Ryouko leapt upstairs, over her, and into the girl’s room. Naruto tried to attack him again, but this time Ryouko was ready.

“Release!” Ryouko ducked Naruto’s punch and tapped his shoulder, thereby forcing his (Ryouko’s) chakra into his (Naruto’s) body, breaking the genjutsu. Naruto stopped dead, and looked up.

“Whoa…she was cute…where’d she go…and why is there a fist mark on your face?”

“She’s dead, Naruto. She put a genjutsu on you, and tried to stab you with a senbon. Now, where’s Sakura?”

“I don’t know…I really don’t remember much…” Naruto scratched his head, still feeling wobbly from the genjutsu.

“Go wait with Sai. This family isn’t on the same page. The mother and son killed the father and daughter for betraying the family. Make sure everyone’s okay, and see what’s left of our stuff. We’ve got to move, the Akatsuki will be coming.”

“Right!” Naruto ran down the stairs. Ryouko pretended not to notice the tear in Naruto’s eye; he really thought the girl loved him. Ryouko sighed, knowing how hard death was. But at least Naruto hadn’t had time to get to know the girl; not the way Ryouko had gotten to know Hayate, Kimimaro, and the Third Hokage. When they all died within days of each other, Ryouko’s life went to hell. And it stayed there, until this mission started. Death and danger aside, Ryouko was…enjoying himself, in a strange way. He shook his head, deciding to ponder that thought later. Right now, he had to find Sakura.

It didn’t take long. The closet door flew off it’s hinges and nearly decapitated Ryouko. Sakura came tumbling out, tied up with about eight coils of rope. Two on her arms, one coil around her wrist, three on her legs, then the other two coils connected the other ropes, making for a nearly inescapable rope prison. Finally, Sakura’s headband was stuffed in her mouth and tied in a knot, making an effective gag. Ryouko verbally warned Sakura he was there, and was going to cut the ropes. That was for his own safety. Sakura could STILL destroy him from that position if she landed a full-power punch.

“That dog got the drop on me! She stabbed me with something, too…she was waiting behind the door when I came in…” Sakura’s voice trailed off. “I can’t…feel…my chakra…”

“Boy…you, Ryouko…” the mother was talking. “the green jar contains an antidote…my daughter uses a poison, called”

“Ariothimayne,” Ryouko finished. “I’ve heard of it. Sakura taught me, actually. Green blotches on the stab wound, spreads throughout the chakra network, closes the tenketsu…”

“Hey…heal me already…spout the knowledge later…” Sakura mumbled.

“Right, sorry. Hang on.” Ryouko picked Sakura up and carried in front of him. Ryouko didn’t want to leave Sakura in the care of this woman. The family was WAY too dysfunctional. Two of them lay dead, and Ryouko didn’t want him or his squad to be next.

“Sai, Naruto, are we packed up?” Ryouko asked, laying Sakura on the table while racking his brain on how to use the herb he needed to heal her. Powder, pill, liquid?

“Yes, Ryouko-kun. We should move quickly. What happened to Sakura-chan?” Sai commented/asked.

“Poisoned. Don’t worry, it’s an easy poison to get rid of, and I know the cure. I just want to make sure we’re ready to leave at a moment’s notice…Sai, take Naruto and scout around, would you? Find us a place, an empty house, or something. We definitely need a place to hide out off the grid. We can’t fight the whole village, let alone the Akatsuki. And this might take a while…” Ryouko didn’t want to hang around in this country long, but with the Akatsuki around, he didn’t want to leave them, either. The Mist and Leaf may be enemies, but in Ryouko’s eye, people were people, and this was a village that was being manipulated.

--

Ryouko finally remembered what to do with the herb. But healing jutsus weren’t his forte. Forte or not, though, it was that or let Sakura slowly die.

“Poison Removal Jutsu...Damn, it’s too strong…” Ryouko muttered, trying again, his hands glowing with green healing energy. “Maybe I can suck out enough just to get her moving again, and she can finish…That should do it!”

Sakura stirred, then sat up. She shook her head, trying to clear the cobwebs. Immediately after that, she put her medical jutsu to work on herself.

“Sorry, I didn’t master those medical jutsu yet…I’m only good enough to heal a few cuts, and stab wounds. Poison…I need more practice…”

“Not on me, you don’t! I don’t want to be poisoned again, I got enough of that with Lady Tsunade. ‘Save your own life in 30 seconds’! I hated that drill…guess I’ll have to keep working with you…”

Ryouko nodded. “Seems that way. I’ll get it eventually.”

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