Disclaimer/Author Note: I don't own any characters or storylines of 'Naruto', this disclaimer is valid for the whole story.
Ready, Set, Gone!
Masaru was living in interesting times, and he felt the part. He would have rubbed his forehead but his Iwa-headband was in the way. So he opted for a noncommittal grunt as Tetsuya told him a story he had already heard trice in a new outrageous way – included was his wheezing and generally unbearable laughter. Masaru was terrible tempted to sock him one, just to shut him up. But he needed his whole team ready for battle - so that was not an option.
They were maybe 150 meters from the border of the Land of Fire in the light forests of Grass country. Downhill, about a third of a mile away, a dirt road winded its way through the plain.
They were a team of five shinobi – one genin, three chunin and himself, a special jonin. Their team was put together in a hurry, to meet and escort a defected Konoha shinobi of lesser rank, who had some important information, to Iwa. Masarus sensing abilities got them through Grass-country without a hitch, but now they were sitting ducks and waiting for their 'package'.
While the others were still joking around and telling stories, Masaru was getting increasingly anxious. The presence of two tai-jutsu heavy chunin and a so called gen-jutsu prodigy – to him the genin just looked puny- should have put him at ease, but he had seen too many missions go haywire. One idiot could ruin a mission, giving away their position, botcher a critical jutsu or something else, the result would be the same – 5 dead Iwa-nin. So he really hoped that Tetsuya choose another day, mission and team to get killed. And once again the urge to just knock the idiot out got overwhelming.
It was nearly noon, when he finally sensed a shinobi running towards them on the road, and he was fast to take control.
'Quiet now! I sense someone on the road, running in our direction...seems to be low chunin or so, male,' he grunted.
The chatter stopped at once, 'How long?' asked Isamu while his right hand itched towards his Kusarigama.
'About ten mi-shit' cursed Masaru, 'two chakra are approaching fast...they are cutting through the woods...' While there was some mumbling and shuffling within the team Masaru concentrated on the two new arrivals, which were ignoring the wide bend the road took and were closing in rapidly.
'One female...using a bit of chakra...maybe a genin bolstering her speed..., one male...chunin I think...but he feels kinda strange...', he mumbled. Tetsuya snorted next to him, and he could picture the leering grin in his minds eye.
Masaru looked at his team, 'We do not cross the boarder, is that understood?' he said. There were a few grunts from his them and he once again turned his concentration on the rapidly moving situation on the other site of the boarder.
'They split up...the girl is coming directly towards us, and the guy is moving to intercept our package', he reported.
'Did they detect us?', squeaked Susumu while nervously fidgeting with is fingers.
'He is about to pee his prodigal pants', snickered Tetsuya and smirked at the genin. While Isamu snorted, and Susumu blushed Hiroki grunted 'Just shut the fuck up, Tetsuya'.
While his team was bickering the kunoichi reached the far side of the road and jumped from the trees onto the gravel. She was petite, not bigger than 160cm and was clothed with a green, grey and brown camouflage cloak. Masaru couldn't really see her face because it was mostly hidden underneath her hood, but what a saw looked kind of waxen.
The cloaked kunoichi crossed the road and jumped onto the trees again.
The five Iwa-nin tensed, but when the girl turned around and started watching the road where the other two nin should appear, the whole group relaxed.
Even with her back to them Masaru had to fight the urge to panic, something was wrong at the whole situation...his gut feeling had never been wrong and right now is gut wanted him to run, run as fast as possible.
While they were watching the kunoichi Masaru could sense the male nin intercepting the traitor, whose chakra instantly vanished – there was just the strange one left. This could just mean one thing.
'Fuck, they killed him', he whispered. Tetsuya was the one who heard him best, and the first to react.
'The bitch is going to pay', he said and launched himself out of their hideout. Masaru was just a moment to late to grab him, he could feel the fabric of the cloak slipping through is fingers. So they all watched with bated breath as Tetsuya closed in on the girl with full speed. In just a few moments he had reached the unaware kunoichi, Masaru could see the glint of steel in his hands, and they both tumbled from the tree. While the girl could somehow right herself in time and landed on her feet, Tetsuya belly-landed on the gravel and didn't move anymore.
They were in shock, nobody moved, but when the Konoha-nin used her foot to flip Tetsuya onto his back the spell was broken. Both Isamu and Hiroki jumped into the direction of the road with their weapons gripped tightly, Susumu was just a step behind, hand seals already forming.
Masaru couldn't move, his gut was screaming to run, to hide and escape, but he just couldn't leave his team members behind. While he palmed two kunai his team had reached the seemingly oblivious kunoichi.
She didn't seem to that oblivious when she launched Isamu into a tree trunk with just an open palm movement, while throwing something at Susumu with her other hand. That was the exact moment when Masaru remembered that there were two Konoha-nin, and his senses screamed that the other one was standing behind him.
Masaru tried to turn around, in the corner of his eye he could already see a cloaked form with a bone white mask, but the other one was faster. While he had the vague feeling of his head exploding and the ground rushing towards him, he thought he could hear Susumus screaming, or maybe his own, or both. But the last thing he heard was: 'You lost. Why you ask? Because you were not ready.'
This fic was inspired by the story 'Venatori' by 'The Laughing Phoenix', which is just awesome by the way.