Disclaimer – I do not own Naruto (in any form), I do not own any of the jutsus used (I don't have a sharingan :P) but I do own the two OCs :P

Note – I've decided to act on my current fandom… and write a naruto fic! :D

It was a quiet night and the bandit warlord, known only as Gin, was wandering around his encampment with his ever present bodyguard. The reason why Gin was able to strut around his camp, which was very close to a nearby village full of angry peasants, was his bodyguard. His bodyguard was a large ninja from Iwa, the Village Hidden in the Rocks. He was a missing ninja, of course, but he had been trained in many types of earth-based jutsus. His bodyguard, whose name he had never even tried to remember, was not the only reason he was confident in his own power and security however.

His encampment was full of his bandit brethren, most of them remnants of the larger bandit clans which had been operating out of Wave prior to its liberation at the hands of the ninja of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Now his bandits were no match for ninja in the open but they weren't in the open right now, they'd taken over the ruins of some old samurai fort or something. It was a simple layout, just a square fort with thick walls that were about two men high. With this height advantage, the fact that his men were armed with bows and the clear line of sight that his men had meant that any approaching ninja sent by the Leaf Village would be spotted and killed before they even made it to the front gates.

Sighing contently, Gin walked up to the gatehouse, past the saluting bandits until he was stood on the edge of his battlements. His bodyguard followed faithfully, looking all around for danger that Gin knew wasn't present. He grinned as he looked down at the town of wave in the valley bellow. The province had thrived since it had been liberated but all that meant to Gin was that it would actually be worth it when he raided their homes and their businesses. Grinning, he turned to his bodyguard,

"It's a good day to take over a province… wouldn't you say?" he asked rhetorically, knowing that his bodyguard had never said a word to him. He chuckled and patted his stoic ninja bodyguard on the cheek, "Of course you agree!"

Laughing a little bit at his own joke, Gin slowly began to make his way down the stairs to the courtyard again. The sound of the gate opening made Gin frown. They'd not been expecting any kind of delivery today and that was the only reason the gates would be opened. He also didn't see the cart approaching the gate when on the gatehouse. Chalking it up to day dreaming, Grin grinned at the way dozens of his men swarmed around the cart to make sure that the driver didn't try anything.

It was a simple cart with a flat bed. On the back of the cart there was a woollen cover, tossed over three long lumps, which could have been any number of things. The driver of the cart was dressed in the robes of a traveller, covered from head to toe in what appeared to be itchy brown wool. Gin nodded at the two gate guards as they closed the gate. They didn't nod back.

Turning his attention to the driver, Gin gestured for one of his men to demand answers from whoever the driver was. A young bandit walked up to the driver,

"What are you doing here old man?" he demanded roughly, holding a sword at the ready, "What have you brought us?"

The driver made an odd sound from under his hood. It was like a moan but not quite human enough. The sound lacked any emotion but also seemed smoother than any noise a person could make. Gin and his men were suitably perturbed.

When the young bandit went to remove the figure's hood there was a swishing sound as something flew through the air quickly. Two things happened immediately after that. A dart flew from under the hood, hitting the young bandit in the neck, killing the boy instantly with both blood loss and perhaps poison as well. The second thing that happened was that the figure's hood was now gone.

Gin's eyes widened as the figure was revealed to be… a wooden puppet.

The wooden puppet was carved intricately to appear human in shape but it was obvious, if you looked hard enough, that it was made of wood. Before any of the bandits could do anything the puppet's mouthpiece dropped open and the wooden creation gave out a blood curdling screech. Gin pointed at the puppet,

"Kill it!" he screamed loudly to the bandits surrounding the cart, "Destroy that piece of firewood!"

There was more sounds of things flying quickly through the air and Gin's eyes widened even more as there were gurgling screams from his men around the front of the cart. Alarms blared throughout the complex and dozens of men went after the puppet on the cart. Turning to the two guards at the gate, Gin noticed that they were standing still, facing the gate,

"What are you two doing?" he yelled at them, "Get to it!"

Both guards remained motionless for a few more seconds before they began to turn their heads. Gin's eyes widened when their heads turned to look at him, now at 180 degrees from forwards. Their faces were those of his most trusted guards until their skin shimmered a little bit. Gin took a shocked step backwards as their faces seemingly evaporated to show that they two were puppets. Their mouth pieces dropped and Gin dove out of the way to avoid being hit by hundreds of those darts. Before Gin could make another move, the three lumps on the back of the cart sat up in perfect unison, throwing the cover off of themselves.

Two of them were puppets as well, these ones with two sets of arms instead of looking like wooden humans. But the middle figure was obviously not a puppet. The middle figure was a woman, perhaps in her late teens, who was grinning from ear to ear. Gin, being a straight man, noticed that the woman was wearing a black tank top and a pair of black shorts. But what caught his attention was the slightly exposed underwear and the thin material that connected both the tank top and the shorts. She flicked her brown hair back to get it back into shape, her headband holding her stylishly short hair back. She turned to Gin with a massive grin as her puppets, for the two swords on her back suggested she was a ninja, decimated his assembled guards,

"Hello Mr Gin…" she greeted him teasingly as she drew a black kunai, "Do you like my puppets?"

Gin made a small squeaking noise as he reached down frantically for a dagger. A strong hand stopped him fast. He looked behind him to see his bodyguard holding his hand down and doing something very, VERY, unusual… he was smiling. The missing ninja chuckled,

"I don't think he's having as much fun as he could be Tiger…" the ninja teased her with a grin, "You haven't even gotten started yet after all! Give him a bit of a show before the end alright?"

The woman, Tiger, rolled her eyes and mimed speaking with her left hand,

"Yak yak yak…" she stuck her tongue out at his bodyguard, "You're not the boss of me Wolf."

Gin looked up at his bodyguard but it was obviously not his bodyguard. He was someone called Wolf, even if he was wearing his bodyguard's face. The woman clapped her hands to gain his attention, grinning happily, as she stood up on top of the cart,

"Prepare to be amazed!" she declared as the six puppets launched themselves up to stand around her in a circle, facing outwards. Now that he was paying attention, Gin noticed the woman, Tiger, was twitching her fingers ever so slightly, "Try this on for size!"

The remaining forces of the fort were rushing towards cart and Gin knew, just from the way that both ninja seemed so relaxed, that they were going to die. As one, the puppets all lowered their jaws, opening what were probably concealed dart launchers. Gin's eyes widened as their mouths began to glow bright yellow. Tiger grinned happily,

"Puppet Jutsu – Circle of doom!" she laughed happily as literally thousands of darts filled the air almost instantly. Gin flinched and closed his eyes tightly but there was no sharp pain anywhere on his body. When he slowly opened his eyes he almost fainted as he looked down at himself.

There were hundreds of darts all around him but none of them were closer than an inch to him. It was as if she had controlled every single dart and their direction through her puppets. The man pretending to be his bodyguard was also spared the woman's attack, although there was a single dart closer to his crotch than anywhere else. Gin's bodyguard frowned at Tiger,

"Watch it…" he pouted, a sight definitely not ever seen on the missing ninja's face, "I need that!"

Tiger stuck her tongue out at the man pretending to be his bodyguard, Wolf, again and grinned wickedly,

"Why would you miss it?" she asked teasingly before grinning, "Not like you use it that often."

Wolf winced; making it look like the bodyguard had winced. It was another expression Gin had never seen his subordinate ever make. Only after the witty banter did Gin realise that it was quiet… unnaturally quiet. Remembering that his remaining men had be charging at the puppet ninja not seconds ago, he looked around for them.

Every single one of them was dead, darts either riddling their bodies or having just caught them. It didn't matter, Gin reflected, puppet ninja were infamous for their use of poisons with their weapons. It made sense to assume that this ninja did as well. When he turned back to the cart, the brown haired ninja woman was alone, leaning back as she sat on the edge of the cart, swinging her legs idly as if she hadn't just killed almost 50 people. Tiger looked him with a happy smile as she idly kicked her legs,

"You should probably beg for mercy right about now." She suggested with a small smile as she leant back to watch the clouds, "Or at least ask who we are. Or why we're here. Come on… it's what you bad guys do! It's part of your code or something."

Gin blinked a few times. For such a dangerous ninja this tiger, this woman, seemed to be rather playfully. It seemed she enjoyed teasing him. Wolf, the man pretending to be his bodyguard, smacked Gin round the back of the head, causing him to curse and rub the back of his head,

"Go on then… answer the lady." He instructed Gin with a grin that was also very out of place on his bodyguard's face, "Do the typical bad guy rant… I swear the only reason she likes these missions is to hear crappy rants and pointless questions…"

Tiger, who was leaning back fully so that she could look at the clouds, pointed with her hand to the sky suddenly,

"And to sample the sake!" Tiger declared happily, "Each region has different flavours… its great!"

Gin turned to his captor and was sure he saw the man sweat-drop before collecting himself with a small cough. Deciding that he'd best humour the two strong ninja, seeing as how he was at their mercy, Gin began with the whole 'bad guy rant' thing,

"What are you people doing here? Why have you attacked me and my men?" he grounded out, becoming genuinely more frustrated and angry with every word, "If this is about money then take it! What village are you from anyway?"

Tiger sat up fully again with a blank look on her face. Picking up a splinter of wood from the side of the cart, Gin watched as she tested its weight. Satisfied, Tiger threw the splinter, hitting Gin in the chest with it. Gin screamed and yanked the splinter out, very thankful that it had only gone in about an inch. Tiger sighed and pouted at Wolf,

"That was the worst bad guy rant ever." She complained jokingly, "Are you sure he's the right guy?"

Wolf shrugged a little bit as Gin fussed over his small wound from the splinter,

"I don't know…" he paused for a moment in thought before adding, "Maybe he's new to all this?"

Gin realised that he was about to die from blood loss or damage to his organs so he turned back to Tiger just as the woman rolled her eyes at him,

"Despite the fact that your rant was just awful… I'll answer anyway." She hopped off of the cart to stand a few feet away from Gin, "We are ninja of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. We were contacted by the citizens of Wave to dispose of you. Since the Village Hidden in the Leaves maintains close ties with Wave, our Hokage was only too happy to comply. Hence, you're going to die!"

This last sentence was said with way too much happiness for Gin's licking, even if he did think that it was mostly put on. Tiger patted his cheek mockingly before turning and walking away from him without a care in the world. Gin, angry at being mocked by the woman, went for his dagger again. He had grabbed hold of his dagger before he felt a cold feeling spreading from the centre of his chest. Frowning, he looked down to see half the length of a sword sticking out of his chest.

Gin blinked a few times in shock, not really believing that there was something stuck through his chest, especially not that it was a sword. Before the shock could fade away the sword disappeared from his chest, leaving a hollow feeling in the centre of his chest as the sword left him. Walking past him, Wolf's form shimmered and instead of his bodyguard, there was a man dressed all in black with unruly brown hair. His clothes were dark, long but practical. More importantly to Gin though, he was holding a bloody sword. The sword glowed slightly, which chakra, and the blood disappeared from the sword as Wolf put it away. Gin looked up into the blue eyes of Wolf and coughed up some blood as he tried to speak,

"Who… who are you?" he asked through the blood welling up in his mouth. Wolf tilted his head to the side slightly and turned to Tiger. The woman had stopped and was looked at the two of them with mild interest. Shrugging, Wolf moved closer to Gin, drawing his sword as he moved slowly to the dying warlord. Pinning Gin to the ground with a foot on his chest, Wolf held his sword at the ready,

"We are Tiger and Wolf." He stabbed his sword into the side of Gin's neck, twisting to snap his neck, "And we are ANBU."

As Wolf withdrew his sword and channelled chakra into it to clean it again, Tiger looked at him with a raised eyebrow,

"You know he was dead before the second statement right?" she teased him with a slowly growing smile, "You should really learn to get to the point faster."

Wolf looked up at her and pouted a little bit. Sighing when he saw that it wasn't going to get him anything, he took out a storage scroll and sealed the whole wooden cart within the paper with a grin,

"Sometimes it's good to be a ninja…" he mused before reaching into his robes to take out a white mask with black markings on it. He looked at the mask with a small frown, "And then there are downsides… it's hard to breathe in these things…"

Tiger, who had already put her mask on, shrugged a little bit. Tiger's mask was a white one as well but instead of black lines to make a wolf's face, there were orange lines to make a tiger's face,

"Yeah but they look cool." She teased before yawning a little bit, stretching her lithe body out for a second before tilting her head to the side, "Do we have to go back straight away? Can't we sample the sake first?"

Wolf sighed a little bit before turning to Tiger with his head tilted to the left. When you were ANBU you got used to reading body language from just the way a person's mask was positioned. He nodded a little bit,

"Alright…" he grinned underneath his mask as he began to make his way towards the gates, "But this time you're buying!"

At the mention of drinks, Tiger was grinning underneath her mask but when he mentioned her paying for it, she growled and charged after him,

"Get back here you!" she growled as she chased the fleeing Wolf.

Yes it's just a little introduction for you my friends! :D

You didn't think you'd get a 10k word epic in the first chapter did you? :P