The battle rages around me, kunai and shuriken flying and hitting mid-air. I can hear the grunts and thumps as my friends, leaping around hurling and blocking projectiles, defend our position with all they have, one minute left and they are hard pressed to keep the enemy from overtaking us. If only I could move-gathering nature energy is always difficult and all but impossible to do whilst moving-I could save my friends from going through any more pain. 25 seconds left and the enemy has completely encircled my friends and I... I might not make it in time. A kunai flies directly towards my head- through the sheer force of will- I don't move a muscle trusting that my friends see it, it's now meters away and there has been no noticeable movement of my friends to intercept the blade, 2 seconds left and the kunai will make impact in less than one, a whirling ball of claws, fangs, and limbs spirals into the path of the blade knocking it off it's trajectory. Kiba landed gracefully and took up a defensive stance directly in front of me. Quarter of a second now and Kiba is standing there deflecting blades aimed for my head.
"Kiba stand back..." I command as the nature energy surges inside me and sage mode activates, "I'll deal with these guys." I move my fingers to form a T shape and activate my shadow clone jutsu, in a puff of smoke three replicas of me pop into existence. Two of which charge the enemy the other takes up my original position and begins to gather nature energy. I sprint at the line of enemy and catch up with my two clones, simultaneously we move our hands to form a triangle and three whirling balls of energy form at each point of contact between our hands. As the energy stabilizes we break off and run at three different points of the enemy line.
Leaping through the air, I and both of my rasengan wielding clones, yell out "MASSIVE SAGE RASENGAN BARRAGE" the whirling balls increase from the size of soccer balls to the size of hot air balloons. I smash the ball into the largest cluster of enemies-dead center of the group-causing a large blast and the launch of every single person, within a 50 foot radius, into their nearby allies, trees, rocks, and fallen weaponry. The entire force was decimated and the few who could still stand ran screaming for their lives.
"That was way too close," I mumble under my breath. "Kiba!" I explain realizing that I didn't thank him for saving me from the blade that was going to lop off my head. Turning I see that he is in the ground nursing a good number of wounds-none of which were to serious-and panting harder than Akamaru. "Are you okay Kiba?" I ask genuinely concerned for his well being, "If you hadn't jumped in like that my head would have made an excellent addition to this pile of rocks."
"I'm fine," Kiba manages to say over mine and Akamaru's worrying and noise making. He stands up and carefully tests out his muscles to see if anything is severely injured, "See, I'm just fine" he grumbles.
"I'm fine too," Sakura yells sarcastically from a few yards away, she is covered in scratches and tiny cuts none of which are serious.
"Good," I yell blankly at her grinning like a madman, "Where is Sai?" I ask realizing that I hadn't seen him since he hopped on his bird near the beginning of the battle.
"I'm here," Sai's voice says from somewhere above me. He drops down and lands lightly on his feet grinning that fake smile he has, "You guys sure got beat up down here." He is practically unscathed, besides a shallow cut along his right shoulder.
"Well that ends this mission...," I say relieved everyone is alright. We begin the walk back to the leaf, a fifty mile journey, that will take five days.
The trip is silent besides me being out random gibberish now and then, trying to fill the awkward silence. We search for a well sheltered and hidden camping spot, eventually we find a clearing about fifteen meters from the path. The setup of camp begins with tents, after about the minutes of seeing up the tents Kiba tells out in frustration,
"Damn it," the anger in his voice is plain, "my tent is ruined." Holding up the cloth canvas of his tent, which is more nothing but shreds now.
"We could share mine," I blurt out without thinking, "I mean you did save my life today so it's the last I can do..."
"Okay," Kiba responds his voice picking up "that sounds like a great idea." He helps me set up the tent and we get the structure up in about 30 seconds.
"I'll make dinner tonight," Sakura shouts from her tent.
"Great! I'm starving." I reply bouncing slightly on the balls of my feet in obvious anticipation.
"Go grab some firewood so I can start to cook," She shouts at me while tossing various cooking utensils out of her bag.
"I'll come to," Kiba buts in "Naruto would probably get us only green wood anyway." He grabs me by the wrist and drags me into the woods.
"Geez Kiba you're gonna break my wrist," I yell at him as I wiggle and thrash trying to break his hold of my wrist. As he steps into a clearing surrounded by high boulders he releases his crushing hold of my wrist. The clearing is littered with twigs and dry leaves all of which look like ideal fuel for a fire.
"Look, now not even you could get crappy firewood," He grins at me "I think..." he says trailing off on a sarcastic note.
"Is that a challenge?" I reply in a playful and aggressive tone. He just grins at me and turns his back to start collecting wood. Grinning I get to the monotonous work of collecting firewood.