Ok, this is my first story. It's actually probably the first thing I've ever written that's lasted longer than a few pages before I get side tracked or just procrastinate till I lose interest. I've actually had the idea for this story for a while, but never thought to do much about it until recent jet-lag started keeping me up all night with little better to do… Anyway, reviews and critique would be greatly appreciated. But please bear in mind this is my first time writing something like this so go easy. The first chapter is mostly as the title suggests - an introductory chapter to the situation and to my OC so it might be a bit slow at first but I'll make up for it in the next chapter.

Just added a new chapter and thought I'd reread the first two. I'm actually really unhappy with the first part of this chapter. But I'm also too lazy to fix it atm, so please bear through it. Trust me it gets better…

The Rogue Sage

Naruto grinned to himself, watching the backs of Yamato and Kakashi-sensei as they walked away, the silver haired ninja's words echoing in his head.

'You're the only shinobi in the world who can surpass the Fourth. I believe in you.'

It had taken a few seconds for Kakashi-sensei's words to make sink in – by combining his newly learned wind-natured chakra with his rasengan; he would be able to complete the Yondaime Hokage's jutsu and a create a technique more badass than the rasengan. With that, Orochimaru and those Akastuki bastards wouldn't stand a chance.

It had been over a week since the new Team 7 had returned from their ill-fated mission to meet with Sasori's apparent informant at the Bridge of Heaven and Earth. Although their mission had taken an unexpected turn when they were given the opportunity to reunite with their old teammate; Sasuke was just as unresponsive to their attempts to reason with him as ever. What's more, he had absolutely mopped the floor with the weakened foursome. The only thing that had saved them was the arrival of the Snake Sannin and his henchman Kabuto, who called Sasuke away before he could do any real damage.

The memory of the encounter still left a bitter feeling in the pit of Naruto's chest. He still couldn't reach his old friend. Sasuke's hatred and lust for vengeance had caused him to turn away from those closest to him and embrace a road of solitude.

He gritted with teeth with renewed determination. This was a chance to get stronger. He would bring his old friend back to Konoha with his awesome new technique. He crossed his fingers into the seal ready to activate his signature jutsu. With his new clone training technique, it wouldn't be long before he would catch up to Sasuke…

A flicker ahead of him grabbed his attention, causing him to pause. A puff of smoke had appeared in front of Kakashi and Yamato, revealing a masked ANBU on one knee with a single fist pressed against the floor. A message was being relayed.

'It's not often sensei receives messages so urgently' Naruto thought to himself, 'it must be important.' He strained his ears as he tried to make something out from the hushed voices of the three. If nothing else, he was curious.

From what he could grasp from the serious tones all three ninja were using, it did seem like something was going on. He leaned forward and titled his head slightly trying to make something out without giving himself away.

'…initial reports…'

'…chances of survival…'

'…blood loss…'

Naruto maintained his demeanour despite the fact that his pulse had quickened. This sounded important. Had there been an attack somewhere? Was someone killed? If only he could hear what they wer-

Naruto's heart jumped in his chest. He had managed to make out a word from the conversation. A word that turned the blood in his veins to ice.

'...Jiraiya-sama…'

'Jiraiya-sensei?' A sudden gust of wind drowned out the murmurs from the ninja ahead of him. He stood stuck in his kage bunshin stance with his fingers still crossed in front of him 'Could something have happened to Ero-sennin?'

Standing numbly in shock, Naruto looked up to see that Kakashi-sensei had now turned around from his conversation as was looking directly at him.

'No no…this is stupid. Nothing could have happened to Ero-sennin' he thought, 'it's got to be something else. I'm just over-reacting.' There could be any number of reasons why Jiraiya-sensei would be involved in whatever was going on. But that still didn't make him feel any less anxious about what he had overheard.

He looked across the training field where he Yamato and Kakashi had spent the last few days developing Naruto's elemental control, making direct eye contact with his masked sensei who was looking at him with his single visible eye. His usual laid back expression gave no indication to what had happened.

The copy ninja regarded him for a moment before turning back to ANBU. He said several more words with the masked ninja who nodded before vanishing in another puff of smoke. With that, Kakashi turned back to him,

'Naruto.' He called, his usual lazy voice taking on its slightly more serious tone reserved for when he was giving orders, 'that's enough training for today. You're wanted at the Hokage's office.'

Naruto dropped his arms to his side, keeping his face neutral as he walked over to the two shinobi. The Hokage wanted to see him? That didn't really confirm or deny his fears either way. From what he could make out from the ANBU's report, there had been some kind of attack. In a situation like that it would make sense for Konoha's Jinchuriki to be present and accounted for, especially with Akastuki after him and all. Still, that was assuming there was an attack, and the ANBU hadn't been delivering a death report, which would require his presence so he could be told the news…

'No.' He mentally scolded himself. 'You can't go panicking yet when you don't know anything.' Still, he couldn't shake the rotten feeling in his gut.

'What's happened Kakashi-sensei?' He asked as he reached the pair.

'Come on,' Kakashi replied, nodding his head in the direction of the village, ignoring the blond ninja's question outright, 'let's go.'

With that he turned and darted into the trees headed back towards the village, while Yamato, who –like his fellow former ANBU kept his race unreadable – remained standing where he was for a second as he looked at the blond ninja.

'Let's go, Naruto' he said, and turned to follow the Kakashi through the forest.

For a second Naruto stood there in the field, the sound of the waterfall behind serving to break the silence. 'It's cool,' he sighed. He hadn't really expected an answer from his team leader. 'Keep calm.'

With that he vanished into the branches of the surrounding trees after his sensei and was gone.

XXXXX

While the journey back to the village had taken less than 10 minutes, it had seemed a lot longer to Naruto. He couldn't stop himself from thinking about Ero-sennin.

He didn't think he would be able to cope with news that his perverted sensei had been killed. He had managed to come a long way from his past life as the outcast Kyuubi host of the village, and he had made many friends since that night Iruka-sensei revealed that there was at least one person who could understand him. But his bond with Ero-sennin was one that we held especially precious. After the defection of Sasuke, who Naruto held as a brother; the loss of Jiraiya-sensei, who Naruto felt was like a father to him, would be more than he could bear.

Naruto blinked back the rise of emotions welling inside him as he walked in silence with Kakashi and Yamato. Once again he breathed deep to steel his nerves. There was no use in getting worked up just yet.

XXXXX

Tsunade looked up from her desk as the door to her office swung open and Kakashi entered, trailing Yamato and an usually shaken looking Naruto. The young ninja looked around the room, noticing the presence of Sakura and Sai, as well as the ever present Shizune and TonTon as he walked into the room. He stopped in his tracks when he saw the bright red messenger toad on her desk. His eyes widened in surprise.

She had never seen the boy so nervous, used to seeing the hyperactive, loud mouthed ninja everyone expected of Naruto. The sight of it left her slightly unsettled. Still, she could hardly blame the poor boy. What was he to think after being summoned to the Hokage's office on such short notice to find his team members as well as one of Mount Myoboku's toads waiting for him when he arrived?

Tsunade herself was still reeling from the news she had just received, although he hid it from the rest of the room behind an expressionless face she had perfected though years of hardship. She cleared her throat softly before speaking up.

'Naruto. We've just received a report' she said, addressing the blond ninja in the centre of the room.

XXXXX

'What's going on Granny?' Naruto replied, keeping his voice steady despite his nerves. He stood motionless at her desk, clenching his fists as he braced himself for the news. Oh shit, something terrible has happened. Could Jiraiya-sensei really be –

'We have just received word that Mount Myoboku has been attacked' came the sound of Hokage's voice as she eyed him from across her desk.

'Huh?' Naruto said, dumbfounded.

'Does that mean Ero-sensei is ok?' That had not been the news he was expecting. His sense of dread had suddenly faded slightly, although not altogether. If Jiraiya-sensei was dead, then that would have been the first thing they would have told him. However, Naruto had no idea where the perverted old Sannin had been for the past few weeks – he still didn't know if the old man was safe. For that matter, why the hell were his team here waiting for him? Why did they look so worried?

Naruto's turbulent train of thought was bluntly interrupted by the large puff of smoke and banging noise that filled the room. He instinctively took a step, raising his arm over his face. Out the corner of his eye he saw Kakashi and Yamato duck into defensive stances, kunai already in their hands.

'Such a loud entrance,' he thought, chiding himself for being so out of it that he had reacted so sloppily, 'too big to be a body flicker. It's more like a summoning jutsu, or –'

Or a reverse summoning.

Lowering his arm so he could get a clearer look ahead of him as the smoke began to dissipate throughout the room. It was still too thick to see anything clearly. But he felt his body stiffen as he recognised the massive mane of white hair in front of him.

XXXXX

'Goddammit Jiraiya!' Tsunade shouted, standing up from her desk waving the smoke away from her face angrily. 'Who the hell drops into the Hokage's Office so abruptly in the middle of a crisis?!'

She furiously regarded her fellow Sannin as she felt the rush of chakra drain from her arms and legs and the adrenaline in her blood settle down. The fool was lucky he hadn't been killed by one of them by appearing so suddenly. She could see that the two former ANBU on her right already had their weapons drawn, as did Shizune and the young ROOT member on her left. The broad shouldered frame of her old teammate blocked the rest of the room from view.

Looking at him, Tsunade saw none of the Toad Sage's usual oafish persona. His usual carefree face now had the hardened look she knew so well from their many battles together. The look meant he was serious, and when Jiraiya was serious it was a pretty clear indicator that things were not going well.

'I came as soon as I got the news from my toad messenger Tsunade,' he said, not taking his eyes from hers, ignoring the rest of the room as they silently returned their weapons to their pouches and sheaths. From what Tsunade could see, they had opted to keep quiet as the two Sannin talked, their grim faces showing that they realised the gravity of the situation. 'I didn't have time to take a longer way,' he continued, 'if you got the same message I did, then you know who's likely to have done thi-'

The Toad Hermit didn't get the chance to finish his sentence before he forcefully lurched forward and toppled to the foot of her desk with a startling crash. Tsunade caught the glimpse an orange blur driving into his back as he went down with a loud yelp.

'Naruto!' Sakura cried as everyone in the room jumped in surprise.

'What the-'Jiraiya began, trying to twist around on the floor to look behind him.

'Stupid old pervert…' came Naruto's muffled voice as he held tightly onto the Sage's back. Standing up to see over the edge of her desk, Tsunade realised what the young boy must have been thinking when he was called to her office. She felt a pang of guilt for not noticing the reason for the boy's apprehension when he had entered the room. She had thought he was acting more reserved than usual, but had chalked it up to the dire situation.

'Hey! What're you so worked up about kid? I'm fine.' Jiraiya said, trying to get up with the young ninja still firmly latched onto his back. His voice had taken on a softer edge when he realised his young apprentice had been so worried about him. He managed to hoist himself on one knee as Naruto relaxed his hold on his sensei.

Jiraiya stood up and turned around to face Naruto, who had also gotten to his feet and had wiped his eyes with his jacket sleeve. The boy now stood facing away from Tsunade, his gaze fixed steadily on the floor in front of him.

'Hey, no need to get so worried baka,' Jiraiya said dropping down on one knee to look at his student. Tsunade could see that the face of her old teammate had softened considerably. Naruto's sudden burst of emotion had clearly surprised him just as much as it did the rest of the room, who were now recovering from the second big shock in so many seconds. Kakashi, Yamato and Shizune all let out collective sighs to ease their fried nerves while Sakura was looking at her teammate, her face clearly concerned as her hands clasped in front of her. Sai on the other hand regarded the two in the centre of the room curiously; his head tilted to side slightly like that of a curious animal.

'Heh, who was worried,' Naruto said quietly, his gaze not moving from the floor, 'I just-'

'You just forgot your sensei was the great Jiraiya!' The old Hermit grinned widely as his voice rose. 'Like I'm ever going to bite the dust before a punk brat like you!'

'Ehhh?' Naruto said, looking up at his sensei's boast, his own voice taking on its usual argumentative tone Tsunade often heard when the boy got into one of his frequent boasting matches, 'As if! You're like 70 years older than I am! Even if you don't get your ass kicked, old age is going to put you down long before I even hit my prime!'

'What was that?! 70! Just how old do you think I am you little punk?!'

'At least 70! I'm surprised you're not already walking around with a cane!'

'A cane?! Well this old man still has enough fight in him to kick your ass across Konoha!'

'Oh yeah?! Just try it Ero-sennin, with my new wind jutsu I'll show you just how strong I've gotten!'

'Oh yeah?! Well-'

The two were now standing in the middle of the room screaming into each other's faces and making wild gestures and poses with their arms. If she didn't put a stop to it soon…

'ENOUGH!' Tsunade's booming voice echoed across the room as she slammed her fist into the table, causing the entire room to jump back from her in fright, TonTon included. 'DO I NEED TO REMIND BOTH YOU IDIOTS THAT WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A CRISIS?! AN ALLY HAS BEEN ATTACKED AND YOU TWO ACT LIKE A PAIR OF CHILDREN!' She brought her fist angrily down again on the table, causing in to shatter in half sending splinters flying across the room and a cloud of dust to rise into the air.

'Sorry Granny-chan,' said Naruto now cowering in front of her desk meekly as Jiraiya's face began to harden once again. She knew that his outburst had mainly been for Naruto's benefit so she couldn't be too mad at him. But she also knew just how easily her fellow Sannin got carried away with his own bravado…

She pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath whilst the room collectively waited for her response. In the corner of her vision she saw the red frog that had given her the attack report climb from the wreckage before nonchalantly turning to face her along with the assembled ninja. 'Fine,' she said, letting herself relax visibly before turning towards the room, 'I don't need to tell you about the seriousness of this attack.'

'Um, wait. So what's going on again?' Naruto asked sheepishly.

Tsunade sighed heavily before sitting down behind her now ruined desk. She motioned to her former teammate, 'Jiraiya, you probably know the situation better than I do.'

Jiraiya nodded at her before turning back to Naruto, his face once again serious as he briefed his young student.

'About 2 hours ago, it was discovered that sometime last night an unknown party had infiltrated Mount Myoboku and laid siege to the home of the Great Toad Sage.'

'Great Toad Sage?' Naruto asked.

'The leader of Mount Myoboku and the toads who live there,' Jiraiya continued, 'we don't know exactly what happened there. But it seems that the Great Toad Sage has been killed.'

The rest of the room stared on solemnly, having been briefed on the situation beforehand. Naruto, meanwhile, scratched the back of his head thoughtfully.

'So the head honcho of the toads has been killed? Damn, that's not good.'

'I don't think you realise the importance of what I'm telling you Naruto,' Jiraiya continued, 'the Great Toad Sage was watched over constantly by 2 protectors, the Two Great Sage Toads.'

'The Two Great Sage Toads,' Naruto echoed, sounding confused.

'Fukasaku and Shima. They were the sages who trained me in Sage jutsu, which is why I'm known as the Toad Sage,' Jiraiya pressed on, ignoring Naruto's tone, 'Sage mode is the strongest of all my abilities. The Two of them were probably more powerful than I am.'

'Whoa…' Naruto sighed, staring to grasp the situation, 'These guys must have been pretty tough then.'

'Yes they were,' Jiraiya said, looking his student dead in the eye, 'and they were killed along with the Great Toad Sage.'

Naruto stared blankly at his sensei in total shock. 'They're both dead?'

'Yes Naruto,' Jiraiya replied, standing straighter to address Tsunade and the rest of the room, 'now the main problem is this – as I stated before, we have a pretty clear idea who is responsible for this. There is only one person who had both the knowledge of Mount Myoboku and the power needed to accomplish this attack.'

'Who is that Jiraiya-sama?' Kakashi asked from the corner he was standing in.

'Another former student of the Two Great Sage Toads before he was excommunicated on account of his tendency to lose control of himself to bloodlust,' Jiraiya said. His face was now deadly serious. 'We are now dealing with a rouge-nin who has a detailed knowledge of Konoha's inner workings and worst of all, can use Sage jutsu.' His gaze met Tsunade's across the room, whose face had taken on the same ominous look as his. 'Shin Kazeshini, the Rogue Sage.'

XXXXX

The band of missing-nin stood huddled around the fire, sharing dirty anecdotes and fighting over the terrible tasting food that lay cluttered around the cavern they were temporarily using as a shelter. Only their leader kept himself apart from the group, preferring to sit alone away from the rest of them while they laughed and jeered amongst themselves.

They had a lot to celebrate today. Not only had their raid on the nearby village gone off without a hitch. But they had also found out that a bounty had recently been placed on their heads.

'Oh yeah! 2 million ryo baby!' shouted one of the larger members. He stood up by the fire and raised both his fist above his head as he looked around at his fellow ninja. His arms and bare back were covered in small cars, as was the left side of his face. 'Now our crew's really got some respect!'

'But it's mostly due to the boss though,' said another member, his voice carrying around the cavern despite the cheers of agreement from the rest of the group. He was smaller than the other ninja, sporting saggy black hair and wearing a tattered vest as he sat beside the fire disassembling an odd circular shield like contraption as he cleaned parts from it. 'Boss's bounty alone is 5 million ryo.'

The cheering among the group died down slightly as the 15 or so members all stole glances at the prone figure of their leader. All that could be seen in the sunlight that reached into the cavern was the dark silhouette of the ninja as he sat hunched over in the darkness, either not hearing or not caring about the group's conversation.

'Yeah yeah, no one's doubting that the boss is the toughest out of us,' chimed in another member to a murmur of agreement among the group, 'but at least now people can see that we're not a group that can be messed with lightly.'

Again there was a murmur of approval from the assorted congregation. It had been six months since the band of ninja had defected from Iwagakure, rejecting the life of unquestioning obedience their village demanded in favour of a life as a band of missing-nin. With their ninja training, they could easily muscle aside any other gangs that tried to mess with them, and the villages they plundered couldn't put up a defence against them that could give the group any trouble.

It had been their leader who had incited them to abandon their lives as Iwa ninja. Easily the strongest out of the group, he had once been considered a promising jounin in Iwagakure. But for whatever reason he had grown sick of the Tsuchikage's rule and opted to set out a new life for himself and the small band of ninja that had chosen to follow him.

'Hah! I bet those idiots back in Iwagakure are sick with envy now!' one of the group called out.

'Yeah, they're back there stuck under the thumb of that old dwarf bastard while we get to kick it out here with the good life!'

And with that the conversation of the ninja returned to swapping tales of their best fights and arguments over who should receive what share of their spoils.

'Boss-sama!' a young ninja cried as he ran into the cave. He had been placed in a lookout position at the entrance of the cavern. 'Boss-sama there's someone at the entrance!'

'What!' the scarred ninja shouted angrily as he turned towards the approaching scout. Their leader continued to sit in silence, giving no indication he had heard the young boys report. 'How did he get here?!'

The scout stopped in front of the group as the various members quickly dispersed from around the fire and readied themselves for combat as their training as ninja kicked in. He smiled apologetically as he nervously explained himself 'Well, the thing is I kinda fell asleep for a second, and when I woke up he was just there.'

'YOU WHAT?!' the older ninja roared as he grabbed the boy by his jacket. One of his fists clutched a handful of cloth while his other cocked back behind his head ready to strike. All around them ninja rushed back and forth as weapons were collected and positions were being taken. Their leader still hadn't moved from his spot, though he had now looked up. The light from the fire illuminated his calm, expressionless face and dark eyes under his slicked back brown hair as he watched the scout's report to his furious superior.

'Wait, wait!' the young scout frantically added, seeing murder in his scarred companion's eyes , 'He's not doing anything though. He's just sitting there!'

'He's what?!'

'That right! He's not doing anything! He's just sitting at the entrance watching the cave!'

XXXXX

Under his wide straw hat, the intruder smiled to himself as the sounds of turmoil coming from the mouth of the cavern indicated that he had finally been discovered.

It had taken quite a while for the renegade band of ninja to notice he was there. Still, he wasn't about to complain, the now setting sun shone warmly over him as he sat cross legged on the boulder in front of the cave mouth. He had been given a great opportunity to relax for a bit before collecting his bounty.

The warm glow of the sun's rays had provided a comfortable spot for him to sit and enjoy himself as he sat on his rock. His dusty cloak spread out around him, covering his entire body below his shoulders and masking his light brown haori. The loosely fitting cloth was interlaid with intricate red and golden swirls and patterns along the arms and hem. Despite the growing killing intent emanating from the cave, his face showed no hint of concern as he took a drag out of the long, thin pipe that sat in his palm. Decorative like the rest of his attire, the carved pipe extended into a small ornate golden bowl in his hand that glowed red as he drew on the dried crushed leaves inside. His cheek and eyebrow were marked with the dark violet of recently received bruising, indicating a recent struggle. His dark brown eyes were fixed on the floor, looking at nothing in particular as he contently listened to the chaos in the cavern ahead of him and breathed out a slow stream of smoke.

'From the sound of it, this shouldn't be much trouble,' he thought to himself, vaguely aware of the sound of footsteps steadily approaching him. 'Good thing too, I'm exhausted.'

He lifted his head slightly to see a bare chested and heavily scarred ninja approaching him, flanked by 4 equally aggressive looking nin all eying him warily. He kept the smile on his face as the man approached him.

'Hey!' he said, stopping less than a metre from where the man was sitting and glaring angrily at him, 'Waddyu think you're doing here? Do you have any idea who's base you're sitting outside of?'

Instead of a response, the stranger simply sighed, exhaling a last cloud of smoke before turning his pipe over and tapping it out on the rock we was perched on. He made no acknowledgment of the man in front of him, whose eyes had started to bulge slightly.

'Ignore me will you you bastard? Well how about we cut you up right here as a lesson in-?'

'Azuma Koji,' the stranger interrupted, his expression covered under his straw hat, 'and his gang. Defected from Iwagakure a little over six months ago. Have since taken on a life as petty bandits. Currently worth a combined bounty of 7 million ryo.'

He looked up, locking eyes with the stunned ninja, 'I'm here to collect on the bounty that's been placed on you and your leader. I'm kind of in a hurry so if you want to surrender now that's fine. Just tie yourself up and take a seat over there.' He motioned with his thumb behind himself, not removing his gaze. 'Otherwise, you'll all die here.'

The stunned silence that followed was only broken by the slow rustling of the wind as it swept through the rocky range the cave was situated in. The 5 ninja surrounding the intruder stood shocked at the stranger's declaration. He was easily within striking distance. He must have known that he didn't have a chance in hell of taking such a fortified position. From the look of his tattered cloak and sakkat he resembled a wandering hermit. But wandering hermits didn't make threats like that. He was either a madman or a foolhardy idiot…

The scarred shinobi in front of him gritted his teeth under what must have been this idiot's idea of a joke, 'Bastard…'.

He reached for the kunai in his trouser pouch. If this jackass wanted to act tough then he could just have to carve that cockiness out of him. Grasping the metal handle firmly in his hand, he brought it back around in front of him, carving a deadly arc towards the jackass's throat. Teach him to act so tough-

Before the blade was even halfway towards its mark, the attacking ninja suddenly shot backwards into the cave. The 4 other ninja stood bewildered with their weapons half drawn. They hadn't even seen the intruder move.

Perched on the rock he has been sitting on, the man now had one foot extended out flat in front of him. His movements had been too fast to see, but it seemed to the stunned ninja he had kicked the missing nin back into the darkness of the cave, with the sickening crunch echoing from within indicating a messy landing for their superior.

The stranger lazily pushed himself up and stepped off the rock as the ninja surrounding him drew their weapons and adopted defensive stances around him.

'I guess that's a no then.' He said, his calm voice failing to mask his eagerness as he landed easily and drew himself to full height.

'Get the bastard!'

The 2 closest ninja rushed right at him, kunai held cautiously in front of them as they charged. The other 2 were wary enough of the stranger's speed to keep their distance and used the second of distraction their allies gave to jump back with their hands quickly forming seals in front of them.

The first ninja to reach the intruder lashed out with a sharp stab with his kunai, only finding empty air where his target had been a second ago as his attack was casually sidestepped. The intruder stepped around the attack to place his attacker between him and the second approaching ninja, still keeping close to the pitifully slow missing nin. He smirked to himself as he dropped low and stepped forward inside the man's guard, driving his elbow into his chest at a downwards angle with an audible cracking sound that shot the man into the ground. Dust rose around him from the force of the impact. His sternum had been shattered, sending bone fragments into his heart and killing him instantly.

The second attacker, momentarily unbalanced by his ally's position between him and his target barely had time to register his companion slam into the ground before catching a blur of brown and gold as the intruder's fist shot directly into his throat, shattering the cartilage and bone as he dropped to the floor.

'Shit, he's fast!' thought the other ninja, still yet to land from his leap backwards as he finally completing his hand seals as his allies broken bodies slumped before him. He noticed with horror that the second ninja was still on his knees clutching his throat. His eyes bulged as he coughed up chunks of red pulp, before rolling back in his head as he fell forward into the dirt beside the first.

'Wind release: Pinning Bullet!' he cried, sucking in a lungful of air as he skidded across the ground. To his side he heard his companion call out. 'Fire release: Small Fireball Technique!'

The ground ahead of them was quickly enveloped in a flurry of missiles as balls of fire and rushing pockets of air flew out from the mouths of the pair. There was a reason they had been sent out as the first strike force. In the confines of the cavern the duo's explosive team tactics ran the risk of either hitting a teammate or causing a cave in. Meanwhile, out in the open they could afford to use their wide spreading attack to overpower any attackers through sheer speed and rate of fire.

The only problem was that this attacker simply refused to take a hit from one of their missiles. He dashed forward, closing the distance between himself and them at an alarming rate as he ducked and dived through their attacks. But that was impossible, the sheer volume of missiles in the air made any hope of dodging their attack futile. Nevertheless, this strange figure seemed to be doing just that. All that the ninja could make out was his wide brimmed straw hat and tattered cloak fluttering around him as he circled towards the pair with impossible speed.

Wait! He's moving to close to-

Too late the ninja realised the intruder's tactic as he looped round to his companion with a burst of speed. Once again placing a human shield between him and the incoming attack.

It's too late! I can't stop in time!

In his strain to keep a bead on his target, he had failed to notice how close the man had gotten to his ally. 'Shit!' he cursed to himself as he shot out a final blast of air as his partner turned in a vain effort to engage the rapidly approaching cloaked figure in taijutsu. The blast struck his ally with a glancing blow on the shoulder, sending him lurching forward with a sharp cry of pain.

He was quickly halted by the attacker now standing directly in front of him, who had grabbed the struck shoulder as the ninja fell forwards. The man barely had time to look up before the stranger reached up under his slowly rising chin, grabbing the underside of his head and twisting it brutally to the side with a sharp snap.

Goddammit! Who is this asshole?!

In the space of several seconds the intruder had killed 3 of their group. He was obviously no simple wanderer. 'If I'm gonna have any chance of getting him I need to retreat into the cave,' the ninja decided. He channelled his chakra into his legs to prepare to make a dash into cavern where he could be better supported by the rest of his fellow nin.

He looked over to see the tattered body of his former comrade, still held aloft in front of the attacker by one arm whose grip preventing him from dropping to the floor.

Wait, what's he-

Before he had any chance to move, his companion's body was shot towards him with blinding speed, propelled outwards by the assailant's kick. Despite the chakra surging through his legs, he couldn't get out of the way in time. His former partner's body hit him with a dull thud, sending them both backwards into the rock face behind him.

'Son of a bitch,' the ninja thought as his body collided with the hard rock. He was able to hear several of his bones breaking, pain lancing through his body before the back of his head smashed against the rock and blackness consumed his vision. 'That was a dirty move…'

Shin Kazeshini watched the last two bodies in his welcome party flop to the floor as the last thug collapsed beside the ninja he had used as a human missile. From within the cavern, the sound of stamping feet and barked orders could still be heard as the ninja within realised they were under a far more serious attack than they had previously thought. He glanced carelessly around at the four corpses around the cave. The small clearing in front of the entrance was now littered with small craters and scorch marks from the last two thugs' attack. Their combined attack had actually been pretty respectable. The average ninja would have been sore pressed to deal with their overwhelming attacks. Still, a 2 million ryo bounty wasn't earned for nothing.

Shin smiled to himself. His pulse had barely even quickened and his muscles were still as relaxed as when we had been sat on his rock not 15 seconds earlier. He brushed some dirt from his cloak absently before turning to walk nonchalantly into the cavern, his head still bowed under his straw hat.

'No,' he thought cheerfully to himself as he stepped into the darkness. 'Not much trouble at all…'