Naruto : Monsters

Tora was a tiny thing, she could have easily fit into the palm of both my hands. I had no idea why she was named Tora – tiger – because she had white fur with large patches of orange scattered around her body along with the most soulful blue eyes I've ever seen. When we first spotted her hours earlier she appeared to be a perfectly healthy, ordinary cat.

Not anymore.

...

I didn't know if petrified was the proper term to describe her current condition but it was the closest thing I could think of to describe it because she was literally petrified, as in stiff as solid rock. All her hairs were standing on end as her unblinking eyes remained wide with terror. Her tiny jaw hung open in a silent unending scream while her tail stood straight up.

To be perfectly frank Tora looked dead at first glance. Hell, even after a second or third glance she still looked dead. You could have easily mistaken her for a stuffed animal instead of a living one. The only reason why we knew she was still alive was because I could still see her heart beating whenever I checked her over with my Byakugan, albeit rather slowly.

"And you know what?" Kakashi blinked and pointed at the cat. "I'm not even mad. That's amazing." He turned to us, his eyes twinkling with amusement and repressed laughter. "I didn't even think it was possible to screw up a D-rank mission so badly. How did you even do this?"

"Look, it wasn't our fault. We didn't even touch the thing." I stepped forward and held my hands up, "We did exactly what you told us to do, down to the letter. We found the cat with my Byakugan then slowly encircled it without letting it notice us. Everything was fine until that point. It was only after we jumped it that things began to go wrong. It, well, it…"

"The cat caught sight of Naruto." Shikamaru interjected, picking up from where I left off.

Kakashi eyebrows shot up. "…I see. That would explain things."

Nekomatas were famed for their ability to sense the ill intent in others, so what would happen if it ran into the container of the Nine-Tailed Fox, a being that was said to be the living embodiment of all the malice and hatred of the world.

"So, it saw Naruto and became so terrified that it ended up like this?" Kakashi guessed.

"…Not exactly, no." I muttered, looking away, refusing to meet the questioning look he sent my way.

An awkward silence filled the room before Shikamaru broke it with another sigh and answered in my place,

"The cat looked terrified when it caught sight of Naruto but other than that, it was still perfectly fine. It just stood stock still for a second before bolting away. 

We expected that to happen and had already blocked all off all its escape routes. Unfortunately the direction it ran just happened to lead it straight to Hikaru." Shikamaru paused, and you could almost see how he was trying to think of a way to describe what happened next, before simply shrugging. "When it got one good look at him it froze and turned into that."

You could have heard a pin drop in the silence that followed.

Kakashi slowly turned away from the cat to stare at me, his eye disbelieving, before returning to look back at the cat.

"So let me get this straight." Kakashi pointed at the cat, "Tora here, a breed of cat that can sense the evil in all living beings, caught a glimpse of Naruto," he pointed at the fidgeting girl in question.

"And after sensing the Kyuubi in her, which just might be the closest thing to being a living embodiment of pure evil you could ever hope to find in this world or the next, only caused Tora to run away in terror but when it caught sight of him," He then pointed at me, "Tora was so terrified by what it sensed that it ended up becoming literally petrified with fear."

Another long silence followed that statement.

Kakashi scratched his chin and gave the cat an appraising look, "That's one smart cat…"

"That's what I said." Shikamaru chimed in.

"Hey!" I yelled out, offended. Come on, I knew I was no angel but I wasn't anywhere nearly as bad to justify this kind of reaction.

"Umm, Kakashi-Sensei," a timid voice spoke up from beside me. I glanced to my left to find a downtrodden Naruto anxiously shifting from one foot to the other, "We're not going to get fired over this…are we?"

I rolled my eyes at the girl, "Naruto, for the last time, we're not going to get fired as ninja's just because we failed a single mission."

"But Hikaru," she turned her wide blue eyes to me, "We didn't just fail the mission, we completely bombed it! We just killed the Daimyo's cat! His cat, Hikaru! If we can't even keep a stupid cat safe how are we supposed to rescue princesses or save entire countries?"

"How many times do I have to tell you that we are ninjas Naruto? Say it with me, nin-ja, not samurai." I explained, "We don't save princesses, we assassinate them. 

In that sense our ability to kill helpless innocent animals shows great promise in our future for our profession." For some reason Naruto wasn't the least reassured by words if her growing slump was any indication. Turning to Kakashi, "Sensei will you please tell her that we're not going to get fired."

"Hikaru's right, you're not going to get fired." Kakashi quickly assured her.

"...Really?" Naruto asked, raising her head up almost reluctantly, her expression a mix of disbelief warring with hope. Kakashi hasn't exactly proven to be the most reliable teacher so Naruto's scepticism was more than a little justified.

"Yes, really." He nodded, looking so oddly happy as he did so that I was instantly on guard. "In fact, not only are you not going to get fired but you're going to successfully complete this mission."

"But how?" Shikamaru poked the cat, sending it rocking again, "Even if we had technically succeeded in getting the cat back alive, I doubt our client would see it that way."

"Normally you would be right." Kakashi nodded, "But you have me here with you and that makes all the difference. I'm a veteran of a thousand successful missions, and almost two hundred of those were D-rank missions. Over the years I've learned more than my share of tricks to get me out of messes like this one. And I happened to know just the jutsu to fix this."

"Really!" Naruto perked up, all traces of earlier anxiety gone, replaced with excitement. And she wondered why I kept calling her bipolar. "You're going to show us a new jutsu? What is it? A B-rank, A-rank? Oh-Oh, could it be an S-rank? Are you gonna teach it to us?"

"Yes, as matter of fact I am going to teach it to you." Kakashi smiled at her exuberance before standing up and walking around the table, stopping once he stood behind the cat, near its tail. "Now what I'm about to show you three is a personal jutsu of mine, one that I created years ago. It's a secret technique, a team 7 exclusive."

His voice took on an unusually grave tone as he looked us over. "There are two conditions you must all agree to if I'm going to teach it to you. The first is that you must never teach anyone outside of this team this jutsu, no matter how desperate the situation. And second, is to never, ever use it on a comrade." He looked us over again to make sure we were listening. "Understood?"

"Understood." We replied.

"Good," Then Kakashi smiled and nodded at us, all seriousness gone as if it were never there. "Now watch carefully, because I'm only going to use this jutsu once."

He turned to face the cat before bringing his hands together to form a single hand seal, the tiger – hands held together with fingers interlocked, except for the index and middle finger which were held straight up.

For some reason I couldn't explain, a feeling of profound dread washed over me when I saw Kakashi forming that hand seal. It stirred an old memory in me, sending all of my instincts blaring up in alarm.

"Hidden Leaf Ancient Taijutsu Supreme Technique," A glint appeared in Kakashi's eye and I realized what was about to happen too late to do anything to stop it. "A Thousand Years of Pain!"

Then he shoved his fingers up Tora's ass.

The frozen cat eyes shot wide open and – MMMEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

...

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