The wind carried the stench of ash and blood. Konoha lay like a gutted corpse, its walls blackened by the flames of war, its streets littered with debris. Atop the Hokage Monument, Naruto Uzumaki, 25, stood tall, his Hokage cloak stained with mud and soot. His blue eyes, once sparkling, scanned the horizon with a weariness no rest could erase. The Fourth Shinobi War was over, but the victory tasted like shit. Hinata was dead. Sasuke, missing. Sakura, in exile. And he, the great Naruto, was supposed to hold this ruined village together with his bare hands.
"You're late, Hokage."
The voice cracked like a whip in the heavy air. Naruto turned, meeting the gaze of Kaida, a kunoichi he had recruited three weeks earlier. She emerged from the shadow of a broken rock, her striped ninja headband crossing her forehead, black hair tousled, framing a face marked by a claw-shaped scar. Her piercing green eyes challenged him. She wore a tight outfit, torn on her left arm, revealing a strange, almost alive tattoo that pulsed softly on her skin. The cursed seal.
"I didn't call you here to chat," Naruto growled, his voice hoarse. "We've got raiders to the east. You coming, or just gonna act smart?"
Kaida smirked, stepping closer with a graceful stride, too close. Her breath brushed his ear—warm, provocative. "You need me, Uzumaki. Admit it. Makes it hurt less."
Naruto clenched his fists, nails digging into his palms. This woman was such a pain. She provoked him at every damn chance, and damn it, it worked. A treacherous heat rose in his gut, but he pushed it back mentally. Not now. Not with her. Not while Konoha bled before his eyes.
"Move your ass, Kaida. We leave in ten minutes." He turned, descending the hill with heavy steps.
---
The sun was sinking as Naruto, Kaida, and a handful of Konoha ninjas reached the forest east of the village. Reports were clear: raiders, rogue ninjas, were taking advantage of the chaos to pillage Konoha's supplies. Naruto had seen too many of these bastards in recent months. Cowards striking from the shadows, stealing what the survivors had painstakingly rebuilt.
Kaida walked beside him, silent for once, a kunai twirling between her fingers. Naruto glanced at her silhouette. She was dangerous—not just because of her cursed seal, but because she knew exactly how to push him over the edge. He forced himself to look away.
"There," an scout whispered, pointing to a clearing where hooded figures busied themselves around a stolen cart. Naruto counted eight enemies. Ninjas, judging by their movements. Not amateurs.
"Kaida, left flank. You others, with me," Naruto ordered, voice low but firm. He felt Kurama stir within him, a familiar heat in his veins.
Kaida nodded, a predatory smile on her lips. "Try to keep up, Hokage."
The clearing erupted into chaos. Naruto launched a Rasengan into the central group, smashing a raider against a tree with a sickening crack of bone. The others retaliated, wind blades and shurikens flying toward him. He dodged, his cloak torn by a blade grazing his side, leaving a streak of blood. Damn, that stung.
On the other side, Kaida was a whirlwind. She dove at two enemies, her kunai slicing a throat before the other could react. But as a third raider summoned a Katon, she activated her cursed seal. The tattoo on her arm lit up, black lines crawling across her skin like serpents. Her eyes turned wild, and she obliterated the ninja with a wave of raw energy, eliciting a scream from her victim. The shockwave shook the ground, and even Naruto shivered. This woman was a monster.
The fight lasted less than five minutes. The raiders lay on the ground, dead or unconscious. Naruto, breath ragged, wiped the blood from his side. Kaida approached, her seal still active, drops of blood—not hers—staining her face. She stared at him, a mix of challenge and something darker in her eyes.
"Not bad, Hokage," she said, her voice hoarse, almost intimate. She stopped a step away, so close he could feel her body heat, the scent of sweat and metal. "But you almost got split in two."
Naruto grunted, heart hammering. "And you almost leveled the forest with that seal of yours. Control yourself, Kaida."
She laughed, a low sound, and placed a hand on his chest, fingers brushing the tear in his cloak. "Control? You don't like it when I let loose, Uzumaki?"
The tension was electric. Naruto felt his blood boil—not just from the fight. His eyes wandered over Kaida's lips, then the curve of her neck, where a vein throbbed. Damn, he needed to calm down. But before he could respond, she leaned close, lips brushing his ear. "If you're afraid of me, say it. Otherwise… stop pretending."
He grabbed her wrist, pulling her against him, their bodies nearly pressed together. "You're a pain in the ass, Kaida." His voice was a low growl, loaded with frustration and something else. He felt his pulse quicken, his body responding to hers despite himself. His fingers dug into her wrist—not enough to hurt, but enough for her to know he wasn't playing.
She smiled, a dangerous glint in her eyes. "And you're a damn Hokage who doesn't know what he wants." She pulled back, but not before letting her fingers slide across his chest, a gesture that left him burning.
Before Naruto could respond, one of the Konoha ninjas, a nervous boy named Taro, ran up. "Hokage-sama! We've got a survivor. He… he speaks of a guy named Kael. Says he's going to raze Konoha."
Naruto froze, the name hitting like a punch. Kael. The rogue Uchiha. The one who had sworn to destroy everything Naruto had built. He cast one last glance at Kaida, who raised an eyebrow, as if she knew things were about to get uglier.
"Gather the prisoners," Naruto ordered, voice hard. "We're going back to the village. Now."
Kaida stepped back, her laughter floating in the air like a promise of chaos. Naruto clenched his teeth, body still tense from their encounter. This woman was going to drive him insane. And something told him this was just the beginning.