Code of the Samurai
Rescue Mission
Synopsis: Two ways of life, ones that normally stay seperate from one another; the lives of the ninja and the samurai. However, when one injured samurai is isolated from his comrades and then rescued, those two ways of life start to come together.
KakashiOC, LeeOC, GaaraOC
Kai-Sensei: I HATE intro chapters X( They're always the longest ones fuck-dammit!
Silent as stars. The village of Konoha was settled into a wary peace under a half moon, the kind of peace that only crept over the huge city at night when the majority of it's sane inhabitants were sleeping away the day's exhaustion and stress, and when the streets were empty save for the graveyard shift shinobi making their patrol rounds.
From beyond the city walls, well out of earshot of the ninja, the clashing of steel against steel was evident, but the ones wielding the metal couldn't be seen even under the moonlight. In a burst of smoke that would change the fate of seven of the fighters, one injured warrior would be isolated from his comrades and come into the attention of the shinobi who were unaware of just how close they were.
"Well, well, looky what we got here!"
"Is that-?"
"You betcha."
The two would-be ninjas with the painted faces threw a battered figure at the feet of their colleagues. The person grunted at the pain when they hit the ground; judging by the pitch of their voice, it was a young man, probably no older than themselves.
"No way… He's a-!"
"What the hell's all this about?!"
The younger men all jumped when a deep voice bellowed out angrily, all knowing who it was and what it meant. The circle of shinobi parted as a large, stout man in a ringmaster's coat and hat stepped through to see what was causing all the fuss. When he saw the injured figure lying on the ground, he scoffed and kicked him in the side, earning a verbal grimace.
"Why the hell do you think I can use this? This bastard is worthless!" He spat at the leader of the hostage's captors before glaring scornfully back at the man on the ground, who was making a shaky effort to get up.
"B-but M-M-Master Kamaji, sir, we can use him!"
Grabbing the man by the arm, he roughly hauled him to his feet where he came into light.
A blood-splattered white and blue-painted porpoise mask came into view as well as blue-black-and-bronze armor to match. Tied into his sash was a katana with gold kanji inscribed on the sheath and a plum blossom saber with an unraveled scroll reading the kanji Inagaouhou (Karma) in gold ink tied to the red tassel. On his right side, an ugly reddish brown stain marred his otherwise flawless armor: it was undoubtedly the wound that had him crippled.
Kamaji threw his head back and laughed at the sight of such a supposedly mighty and feared warrior so helpless. If he'd had the strength, the samurai might have had his katana at (Or better yet, through) the bastard's throat.
Sadly, this was not the case.
"HA! We can! Excellent job, boys! Get him into a cell while the audience arrives!"
"Alright! Finally, a decent mission!"
The exuberant blonde ninja's cheerful shouting was cut off when a fist connected forcefully with his skull courtesy of a certain green-eyed kunoichi.
"Dammit Naruto, do you want to blow our cover!? They can probably hear you all the way to where we're going! Besides, it's not that great a mission; we're just checking out a fighting ring to make sure they're not forcing kids to fight or some sick crap like that." Sakura spat.
Sasuke, nonchalant as always, snorted and rolled his eyes.
Kakashi, whom Sakura and Naruto had begged to come along for old time's sake, sighed and flipped the page of his book, not even raising his eyes to the scene where Sakura had now gotten Naruto in a camel hold- sitting on his back while he was on the ground on his stomach, her hands cupped under his chin and yanking it painfully upward and his hands pinned to the ground by her feet.
(A/N: Sakura kicks ass:D But I still hate her.)
"UNCLE! UNCLE! I GIVE, FUCK-DAMMIT!!!"
"Hmph. Hope that teaches you." She growled, releasing his head (which hit the ground with a loud 'THUD!') and getting up, dusting herself off while Naruto rubbed his sore neck with his equally pained hand.
Again, the exasperated Uchiha rolled his eyes.
This was the first thing they'd had that was even remotely close to a serious mission in a very long time, and they were still acting like clowns, especially Uzumaki.
Sometimes he wondered if his teammates were still twelve or thirteen years old instead of fifteen.
He himself was now almost sixteen, and that didn't help a lot since it made his fan girl horde even bigger.
Being well-known, renowned and handsome (especially all at the same time, all the time) sucked bloody ass sometimes.
Mental groan.
He was brought out of his brooding when his senses picked up a presence.
No, wait…
There was more than one.
There's at least four…
He glanced delicately over his shoulder at his sensei. Although he appeared off guard, the slight but apparent tension in his otherwise lazy-looking posture indicated he was in fact on-guard and fully aware of whomever it was that was near by.
Naruto and Sakura, who were still bickering, remained engrossed in their argument and completely oblivious to whoever was there.
Then, just as fast as they had come, the presences were gone.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Whoever the hell they were, he knew they weren't ninja and they were far too fast to be normal people.
Hmm…
"WELCOME ladies and gentlemen to Master Kamaji's big top! Are you ready to see some fighting!!?"
The crowd screamed in anticipation as the second-in-command made a wide beckoning motion with his arms to get the audience riled up. Far above the crowd and undetected in the rafters, Team 7 along with several other ninja were watching all parts of the tent with attentive eyes. Among them were Shikamaru, Ino and Lee, and somewhere hidden in the crowd by the guise of a transforming jutsu were Tenten and Neji.
Things had been so incredibly slow at the missions desk that most of the former Rookie Nine Chuunin and Jounin had taken up the prospect of having something higher than a D-Rank chore- err, mission, even though it probably could have been handled by three or four Chuunin… one good Jounin even.
The first battle wasn't even worth being awake for; it was just two huge under-dressed morons who referred to themselves in the third person. It was almost pitiful, their lack of technique. Naruto had the gall to chuck a rock at them from the rafters, much to the amusement of the Chuunin and the disgruntlement of the Jounin.
The second match was… interesting, to say the least... Never in any of their lives had they heard so many threats and strings of curses. Obviously, the two combatants were a couple of very creative teenagers. Could you even do that with a sword?
However, as the 'show' dragged on, it got more and more suspicious. The fighters as they stepped into the arena each appeared to be in worsening shape than the last, whether it was scars or poorly-healed wounds. When the twelfth match came around, they all got a surprise.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Tonight we have a real treat for you! We have with us a warrior not seen by ninja or civilian for decades, thought to have been slowly dying off! But first… In this corner, we have the undefeated champion, Hayate Takehiko!"
The crowd roared as the reigning champ, a large man clad in rough leather armor, stepped into the spotlight, the champion's belt around his waist. Takehiko raised his arms, loving every bit of the attention.
The man was maybe six-foot-four or so, black hair in a messy ponytail, and judging by the smirk on his face, very ego-inflated.
Fan-fucking-tastic.
"Aaaaand in this corner, the challenger!"
A spot light came on and shone down on the corner opposite Takehiko; up in the rafters, several gasps could be heard.
"Ronin the Samurai!"
The crowd, not pleased with someone challenging their title holder fighter, started booing viciously, some people throwing rocks at the barely-standing warrior, who wouldn't even look up to see his opponent.
"He's hurt…"
Naruto turned to Sakura, who had spoken. She pointed to the samurai, who was bleeding profusely from a nasty-looking wound on his side.
"BEGIN THE MATCH!"
Takehiko let out a tremendous bellow before charging head first at the injured samurai. 'Ronin' remained still, not looking up even with the oncoming threat.
What happened next, no one had time to blink. One minute, Takehiko was only a couple of feet away from Ronin, the next, he'd charged head-first into the post of the corner, and Ronin was standing behind him in a fighting stance with his hand ready on the hilt of his plum blossom saber.
However, from anywhere in the stands, one could see that he was struggling just to stay on his feet. The wear of his injuries was starting to take effect.
An enraged Takehiko, not even fazed by the impact of his head with the wooden post (which was now smashed to woodchips) turned around to face the samurai.
He'd hurt his ego.
Scowl.
Now it was personal.
The crowd was booing even more loudly than before, and the ninjas in the rafters were good and ready to intervene and end the one-sided battle. However, someone beat them to the punch.
Out of seemingly nowhere it started to rain small black pellets (though to the trained eye, one could see that it came from the top of the center post holding up the tent) which exploded in smoke when they hit the ground. The crowd watched and waiting anxiously, unsure of what was happening when a figure leaped acrobatically out of the smoke, but it sure as hell wasn't Ronin.
It was another much taller, stronger-built samurai who was even taller and stronger-looking than Takehiko, and this one was clad in charcoal-gray, silver and black armor with a huge zanbatou sword strapped on his back. His mask, unlike Ronin's, was that of a bear and painted with dark green marks.
(A/N: A zanbatou is a sword like Zabuza's.)
Takehiko, startled and still furious, ran at the new (decidedly larger) opponent with a roar of fury only to have the samurai lunge in a swift movement, followed by an armored fist sunk into his stomach with astounding force a split second later. He slumped over the samurai's fist, the wind knocked out of him; the samurai simply heaved him aside with little to no effort and let him hit the ground with a heavy 'THUD'.
As the smoke started to clear, the crowd let out a chorus of shocked gasps. Surrounding the injured samurai (including the one that had just punched out Takehiko) were six more samurai, each in a different color armor and mask, all of them wielding a weapon and in fighting stances.
What was interesting was that of all their weapons, not one of them had their katana in their hands.
"What the…?" Naruto started.
"They must be his comrades." Kakashi pondered aloud.
'Ronin', now safe, let his saber slide from his exhausted hands and clatter to the ground before his legs gave; the tall bear-masked samurai swiftly leaped back and caught his friend while another samurai in a wolf mask picked up his sword and sheathed it for him.
Ronin was out cold.
It was then that the one in the black, gold and crimson armor appeared.
From up in the rafters, Kakashi was surveying the scene with a sense of awe as well as urgency; it was clear that the samurai who'd stepped forth was their leader, but it was the mask that had his attention.
It was definitely a bird of sorts, but the way the beak and the eye slits were shaped were rather unusual. The beak was long and hooked, not like any ANBU bird mask he'd ever seen. The eyes were slanted slightly upwards and had red markings like the Eye of Horus adorning the back and bottom of them as well as all over the rest of it. A long crack ran from its top left side down to the chin, giving the impression that this samurai wasn't its first owner.
On the forehead in white over the red-painted widow's peak were the kanji reading fushichou no ka, which literally translated to Undead Bird of Fire.
Translated properly, it meant Phoenix.
Then that means it could only belong to one clan…
He didn't get the chance to finish his thought. The stagehands and other workers including the hired fighters had come out into the ring, all bearing some kind of makeshift weapon including sticks, pipes, chains and crude-looking knives. The phoenix-masked samurai (he decided to call that one Fushichou), who currently held a folded pair of Tie Shan, steel and iron fans, slid into a fighting stance as four of the stage hands and combatants advanced.
Fushichou turned his head back to his comrades.
"Kuma, get Sakana out of here. We'll hold them off and catch up."
The tall samurai in the dark armor nodded and hauled "Ronin", now called Sakana, onto his back, securing him there by tying his own sash around both their waists before taking off through the opening above the center tent pole.
(Kuma- Bear; Sakana- Fish)
Turning back to the advancing group of stagehands, Fushichou backed up still in a stance to rejoin his comrades.
The other four did the same with their weapons, but instead of fans, one whipped out a longbow and three arrows, another a pair of three-pronged silver sai knives, another a pair of six-inch butterfly knives, and the last one a pair of Hu-Tou-Gou, swords with hooked ends and crescent moon hand guards.
Kakashi wasn't surprised; he knew from valuable experience (and some study) that samurai didn't draw their swords unless either engaged in a serious battle or when fighting an opponent who was also using a katana.
The Copycat ninja raised a hand, the signal to get ready in case it got ugly. He could practically feel the others tense to spring and ready themselves mentally.
"Get 'em!"
The stagehands charged with a chorus of angry yells, and just as Kakashi was clenching his hand to give the OK to go, he made the mistake of blinking.
In the time it took for him to bat an eyelid, Fushichou had leapt into the air some 20 or so feet in the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon position, fans still shut and held in his hands like an extension of his fingers. It seemed that in slow-motion, four of the stagehands threw their chains up at the phoenix samurai in an attempt to entangle him.
In a flick of the wrist, Fushichou snapped his tie shan open, as he did so revealing a yin yang and a pair of gold-and-red phoenixes on a black background. Two of the chains bounced of the fans with a metallic 'clang' sound, and with a fluid mid-air spin, the samurai had deflected the other two and landed smoothly on the ground in what looked like a Tai Chi stance.
The eyes of his mask shadowed from the spotlight hitting the visor of the helmet on his declined head, he slowly looked up, giving his mask a menacing, deadly aura.
"I'll teach you to mess with my teammates…"
By then, the ninjas had reacted and jumped in to join the fray; somewhere in the ruckus, one could hear a volley of arrows being fired at a rapid rate and whistling past before hitting something with a 'THUNK' or someone with a 'THWACK'.
Lovely.
Kakashi landed a few feet from Fushichou, who after landing and hissing that threatening statement had immediately charged the nearest stagehand with a rather powerful headbutt; he didn't doubt it was a wounding blow, what with the steel feather-shaped spike on the front of his helmet as well as the stag beetle-shaped "horns" on his forehead over the visor.
The samurai turned quickly around to face the shinobi, prepared to fight back if need be. Kakashi raised his hands to show he wasn't an enemy. One other thing he was silently thanking himself for; studying the fighting styles of samurai.
If this one lived up to the reputation of the samurai from the clan he belonged to, this would get very ugly.
Much to his relief, Fushichou turned around and faced his comrades who were fending off anything thrown their way, including punches, kicks and weapons.
"We got who we came for! Cease and desist!"
The other samurai nodded as their leader leaped back into their back-to-back circle. The one with the tiger mask holding the sai knives sheathed them in his sash and pulled out three black pellets, probably from a hidden pouch. He threw them down violently, and in a burst of smoke, they were gone just as quickly as they had come.
"That was so weird…"
Shikamaru and Kiba nodded in agreement with Naruto. As soon as the smoke pellets had gone off, half the ninja in the squad had run outside at top speed, but the samurai had long disappeared and hadn't left a trace of having been there… well, aside from the bloodied, beaten stagehands.
Cringe.
Lee was somewhere in the background gushing about how his sensei could have easily taken on any of the samurai, and Gai, being the big-headed dork he was, was agreeing fully and bragging about his past battles with other samurai. Kakashi didn't doubt he was making them up to impress everyone.
"Hey, check it out, a traveling group!"
At Naruto's outburst, several of the ninjas looked up to see a group of about six travelers, all of them dressed in colorful old-fashioned oriental clothing. One horse, a large white stallion, was pulling a small two-wheeled cart with a blanket over the top. At the front of the group on a large black horse was the apparent leader, a young woman no older than 18 or so, from what any of them could tell with whatever part of her face wasn't obscured by her dark bangs. A single katana hung from a belt around her hips, the kanji on the sheath reading in gold, 'Shinsei-Na Seijaku', Divine Silence.
She regarded their presence only by turning and pinning them down with her gaze for a brief moment, earning a shudder from Naruto and Kiba; her eyes were a fierce tawny-gold color, much like a hawk's.
Kakashi studied the other five; like their leader, they each had some kind of weapon. The young man on her right had a quiver of arrows and a bow on his back; the man on her left had a single katana as well, Kuma Gatsuuga. The three behind her all had single katanas, none with visible names, and didn't even look at them.
The girl at the front turned back to the road and made a whistling sound through her teeth, urging her horse into a canter; the others followed suit without command.
Kiba scoffed.
"Stuck-ups."
What had Kakashi concerned wasn't the intense gaze of the leader; it was the fierce aura she was giving off.
"Daaaaaammmnnnn iiiiitttt… why won't something happen??"
"Ah, stop your griping. It's such a drag."
Naruto groaned and rolled over on his back to stare up at the color-stained clouds. The sun was very slowly starting to go down, and he and Shikamaru were lying on the roof of his apartment building doing nothing.
Well, if Naruto complaining and Shikamaru listening to him counted as 'nothing'.
"Meeeeehhhhh…."
Shikamaru just sighed and closed his eyes. By now, he was used to the blonde's whining, but since things had slowed to a crawl again, even he admitted to being partially bored.
The apocalypse is upon us; Shikamaru is bored.
Luckily for both their sanity, Naruto got his wish when an unusual presence found its way into their ninja radar. It was much too strong to be merely chakra, but not strong enough to be more than one person.
A moment later, a streak of black, blue and white shot past; a young man with dark eyes and brown hair, not much younger if the same age as their senseis. Under his arm was a brown burlap sack, its contents unknown.
What made both Chuunins' eyes widen was that there wasn't a hitai ate or single symbol of a shinobi on his person; this guy was one of the travelers they'd seen a few days ago, and judging by the look on his face as he flew over them mid-leap, he knew he wasn't welcome.
"C'mon Shikamaru, let's get 'im!"
The slacker ninja didn't have time to protest when the blonde ninja yanked him roughly to his feet. The man hit the ground, er, roof running, closely followed by Naruto and Shikamaru.
"Urgh, this is such a drag!" Shikamaru groaned.
Much to his disgruntlement, the man they were chasing tied his bag to his belt and picked up speed as he bolted still faster in the direction of the trees in the training area.
Naruto, already frustrated with the fact that he was keeping a steady ways ahead of them, formed an all-too familiar hand sign.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" (Shadow Clone Technique)
In a large burst of smoke, 4 Naruto clones appeared beside them. Shikamaru rolled his eyes, but made the necessary hand signs to ready a Kage Shibari. (Shadow Possession)
The unwanted visitor glanced over his shoulder and scowled before he turned back. Both of them could easily tell he was making hand signs as his arms moved in the actions.
"Kiri Shunshin!" (Mist Flicker)
Almost in the instant he'd shouted out the technique, he evaporated in a puff of mist.
"Wha-? How the hell did he do that??"
For once, even the genius/slacker had no reply.
How did he do that?
"This is such a drag…"
"Hey, you wanna find out if that smoke is from the guy we were chasing, don't you? So quit yakking and c'mon."
Groan.
At least the lazy ninja had something to be grateful for, if just a little; they'd slowed to a careful and nearly dead-silent walk in order to close in undetected on the area close to the source of the smoke. Apparently, it was located close to the river.
"I think this is it…" Naruto whispered not-so-discreetly.
The blonde ninja scooted towards the edge of the tree limb he was standing on towards a gap in the thick leaves.
"No way…"
Wandering around a 6-tent campsite with a campfire that had a pot of something cooking on it and logs for seats around it were several of the samurai from three days ago, and lying outside all bandaged up was Sakana.
Wait…
Shikamaru narrowed his eyes warily.
Tiger mask; bronze, black and brown armor. Tora.
One…
The injured samurai, Sakana.
Two…
Bird mask; green, brown and gold armor. Tori.
Three…
Wolf mask; green, gold and bronze armor. Ookami.
Four…
Shark mask; blue, navy and silver armor. Kisame.
Five…
Phoenix mask; black, crimson and gold armor. Fushichou.
Six…
He paused and counted them again. There were six, but when they'd seen them at the mission to the fighting ring, there had been seven including the injured one.
One of the samurai was missing.
"What in the world do you think you're doing?"
Both ninja whipped their heads around in surprise to find that squatting on the branch towering over them was the tall bear-masked samurai less than two feet away.
"AHHHHHH!!!!"
Naruto, who had let out that rather –snicker- unmanly shriek of terror, almost immediately lost his balance and fell off the branch only to have the bear-masked samurai easily catch him by the ankle. Of course, that left him dangling upside down, and his yell had attracted the attention of five of the other samurai.
The shark-masked samurai leapt in front of Sakana, butterfly knives at the ready, while the tiger-masked samurai jumped up into the tree with his sais bared. Shikamaru, already ready with a strategy, formed the Kage Shibari hand signs in rapid-fire procession.
"Kage Shibari no Jutsu!" (Shadow Possession Jutsu)
The shadow below Shikamaru shot out from under him to connect with the shadow under the samurai with Naruto, trapping him in place. However, his victory was cut short when he felt cold metal pressed against the side of his neck.
"Don't move." Said a husky voice.
Shikamaru glanced behind him where "Tora" had his sais so close that he'd be cut if he so much as swallowed. The lazy shinobi smirked weakly.
"I don't recommend holding them that close; whatever you do to me happens to your buddy while I'm using this jutsu." He threw back slyly. "If you kill me, he dies."
Tora growled lowly under his mask, sounding unusually like a tiger doing so, but he withdrew his sais slowly.
Very slowly.
Shikamaru turned to the bear-masked samurai, who hadn't let go of Naruto. Said blonde ninja's face was turning red from the blood rushing to his head.
"These guys aren't like the samurai from the Wave Country…" He mumbled in a woozy tone.
He could practically hear the smirk on Kuma's face.
"You kiddin' me? Those wannabes?" Kuma chuckled. "Just cuz they carry a sword doesn't make them samurai, kid. We're a whole 'nother league."
Boy, that's comforting. Shikamaru thought sarcastically.
"Whatever. But while you're in my shadow, I have full control of whatever this league has to offer, so don't bother struggling."
He raised both arms as if to demonstrate, but Kuma didn't budge.
"What the…?"
Dammit!
In the time he'd spent talking to Kuma, Tora had prepared some kind of cancellation technique and now had two fingers to the back of his head.
"You're not the only one with tricks up your sleeve, kid." Tora growled. "Now I suggest you start cooperating before I have to use a nastier one than just halting the flow of your chakra."
Gritting his teeth, the slacker shinobi jumped to the ground, perfectly matched by the tiger samurai and followed by the bear samurai.
Shark Mask, who had been intently watching the scene in the trees, lowered his knives and his guard seeing that Tora and Kuma had it under control and that his injured comrade was no longer in danger of harm.
Sakana, who had woken up from all the fuss, groaned and opened his eyes before turning to look at them through a squint; it was right about then that both ninja realized that his mask had been removed; he couldn't have been more than 21 years old or so, barely an adult and still very much a young man.
The warrior sat up weakly in an attempt to get up, but immediately fell back with a groan as a sudden pain shot up his side.
"Tanaro!"
Shark Mask, the one who had spoken was immediately at his friend's side (apparently now he was called Tanaro) and had his upper body supported on one arm while the other kept a firm hold on his left butterfly knife.
"Sit."
Naruto needed no further instructions and plopped himself on the log indicated by Tora pointing one of his sais. Shikamaru did the same, though in a much more cautious manner, keeping a sharp eye on the tiger-masked samurai.
The blonde ninja's eyes traveled to Shark Mask and Tanaro/Sakana; the former was currently trying to calm the latter down, who was being attacked by a vicious coughing fit. Shark Mask had put away his other butterfly knife and was tending to his reopened wound.
So, this one was the doctor.
"Spies, eh? I suppose that's our own fault for not being discreet." The leader, Fushichou, turned to stare down Shark Mask, who recoiled, muttering apologies under his breath in another language.
He was sitting on the log across from them on the other side of the fire, his arms folded and legs crossed. Shikamaru was vaguely reminded of a white crane by his build and the white and red mask.
"Now that you're here, I can't let you go until I've learned more about you; call it a force of habit on precaution."
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.
"You're rather calm about this. How do you know we're not alone?" He threw back just to get a reaction. If he played his words right, he might get something out of this guy.
"I don't, but if you aren't, I don't think your buddies would be foolish enough to ambush us with a samurai within reach of both of you. You'd be taken out faster than you can blink." He replied.
By now, Naruto was getting fed up with just talking.
"ALRIGHT, ENOUGH! Who or what are you guys and what the hell are you doing here??" He shouted. "If you're trying to take over Konoha, you'll never get away with it!"
There was a long pause as a few of the samurai exchanged silent looks before they all burst out laughing.
"Uh, kid, not to be rude or anything…" Tori started, "But what the hell have you been sniffing?"
Naruto scowled, trying to hide his embarrassment at such an apparently stupid outburst.
"Kid, we're not after your precious village. We're just here until we can travel, and then it'll be like we were never here… assuming you don't go running off to tell your Kage about your imaginary plot." Kuma explained calmly.
"It's not like we're you're enemies." Tori added.
"Could've fooled me…" Naruto muttered while glaring at Tora, who only snorted in reply and folded his arms.
Fushichou just sighed.
"Fine then. If you want me to prove it to you so badly…"
Much to their surprise, Fushichou reached up to his mask with one hand and his helmet with the other, pulling both off in one fluid motion.
A long, dark wrap-ponytail bound in red silk fell to his waist, and when the mask came off, Naruto stared wide-eyed at the traveler girl from a few days prior. Fushichou smirked.
"Surprised?"
"What the-? You're a chick??"
"You have kunoichi, so why is a female bushi surprising?" (Bushi- Samurai)
Shikamaru looked over at Naruto, who appeared to be thinking it over. Fushichou turned to her comrades.
"You might as well."
The others, some more reluctant than others, did the same and removed their masks; like Tanaro, they were all male. Kuma apparently was the oldest, and had navy hair and brown eyes that reminded Shikamaru strongly of Asuma, though he lacked a beard and had a lock of hair that hung just above the level of his eyes.
"Déjà vu, huh?" Tori kidded. He was only about 20 or so, not much older than Fushichou, with brown hair and deep green eyes.
Tora rolled his eyes; he was slightly older-looking and taller than Tori, and instead had jet-black hair and brown eyes much darker in contrast to Kuma's. Fushichou turned back to the shinobi, looking almost… friendly?
"While you're here, you may as well stick around. We actually have the ingredients to make some good ramen this time." She offered.
Naruto raised an eyebrow, skeptical. Shikamaru did the same, though his expression remained as bored and stoic as always.
"How do we know you didn't poison it??" He accused.
Tori rolled his eyes and walked over to the pot on the fire, took the lid off and fished out a ladle, taking a bite of it as proof.
"Hmmm….salt, pepper… lacks poison."
He paused a moment, then dropped the ladle.
"Ack! (cough) Jin! What the hell did you put in there??"
Tori staggered back clutching his throat before falling over backwards on the log Fushichou was sitting on. His foot twitched with the gurgling sounds he was making before he went totally silent.
There was a long, pregnant pause.
Naruto and Shikamaru were staring on, unconsciously hugging one another in terror.
Fushichou shook her head and punched downward, apparently connecting with Tori's unprotected head judging by the grunt he made.
"Yuuya, you're such an ass."
"Owww… Dammit Kai, do you have to hit so hard??" Tori/Yuuya whined.
Shikamaru mentally took note: Kuma was Jin, Tori was Yuuya, Sakana was Tanaro and Fushichou was Kai. That left Tora, Kisame (Shark Mask) and Ookami.
"Keiji, get the bowls, would you?"
Ookami groaned, sounding unusually like Shikamaru doing so, but wound up going into the two-wheeled cart and retrieving a stack of ceramic bowls, each with a surname and seal on the side. The one on the bottom read Utariyuma and had a tiger seal, which he assumed belonged to Tora.
Jin distributed ramen among them, two with more than the others; they had the decency to give Naruto and Shikamaru their own and leaving two of them to share. Naruto dug in almost as fast as Yuuya, which would have been comical if the scene of the shinobi's messy eating habits hadn't made it so stomach-churning.
"You've outdone yourself again, Jin." Yuuya commented after swallowing a dumpling.
The tall navy-haired samurai smiled slightly in acknowledgement. Even Shikamaru had to admit, it rivaled even Ichiraku's ramen bar.
GASP.
"Help yourselves; there's plenty." Jin added to break the silence after Naruto finished his first bowl with a satisfied 'ahhhh…'.
Some twenty minutes later, an almost-empty pot and chorus of belches ("Men…") from Yuuya and Naruto were the only significant details to the clearing. Kisame/Shark Mask, apparently called Seyuno, had helped Tanaro get a little food in his system, and had gotten the help of Tora, called Hiroyuki, to pitch the last tent.
Now the pot had ginseng tea simmering in it, the steam rising up into the darkened sky. By now, Naruto had let his guard down as had Shikamaru.
He still didn't get why they were being so friendly; either they were very good actors (except for Hiroyuki) or they really were this hospitable.
"You can leave whenever you feel like." Kai stated, as if sensing his thoughts. "You're not prisoners or anything."
The lazy shinobi looked over at Naruto, who seemed perfectly content leaning against the log and staring up at the stars.
"We probably should be heading back. It's late."
Naruto looked back down, wearing an almost comical pouting look.
"Awwww, man!"
Even Yuuya looked disappointed.
"We'll be here for another week; feel free to visit, but try not to sneak up on one of us, okay?" Kai asked.
"Yeah! I'll be here, believe it!" Naruto shouted excitedly.
The tawny-eyed samurai grinned.
"Alright then."
Shikamaru turned around and started walking into the forest, Naruto jogging to catch up. By now all he really wanted to do was sleep, and he could feel his eyelids drooping.
However, something was nagging at him, and it was really annoying.
Something was wrong.
It was when 5 minutes into their journey back to Konoha that his foot sunk into the earth a few inches did it hit him too late.
"Look out!"
A strong force from behind shoved both of them forward as an explosion shattered the otherwise quiet night air; he'd set off a landmine, and one of the samurai had pushed them out of the way and taken the blast.
"JIN!!"