EPISODE 2: The Ambush

Two shurikens and a knife with a massive explosive tied to it came flying towards the two gatekeepers from each side. The one with the sword managed to deviate the explosive knife with a knife throw of his own, and he intercepted a shuriken that was going straight for his face with his sword. However, he was hit in the body by the other shuriken.

The guard of the twin fire knives intercepted the other two shurikens that were directed at him, but he couldn't stop the second explosive knife and he got hurt when it exploded not too far from him.

For a second there, they thought that this ambush was a trap led by the unknown ninja without a clan's badge, but soon they were proven wrong.

Two more explosive knives were thrown towards them, but before these could reach them, the knives got shoot and exploded in mid-air. Apparently, two stones from the ground had crashed with them on midair. The soil in front of the gatekeepers also rose up and created an earth-style barrier to shield them.

Jim Namikaze had used the earth shot and earth cover jutsus, which were earth-release techniques from his original village. [Jutsus were special techniques. Some were learned from practice, but most, such as the sharingan eye's powers, could only be used by ninjas that were descendants of certain bloodlines and clans. Very few ninjas could use more than two elemental styles, such as earth and wind, in their special techniques and most had only one primary element, such as earth, water, or wind.]

Jim Namikaze quickly grabbed his sword and sent two more earth-style bullets at very high speeds to the locations from where the shurikens and the explosive knives came from. And sure enough, a bunch of ninjas fell down from the left patch of trees and a masked guy jumped out from the other trees with a katana in hand, ready to attack.

Jim Namikaze grabbed and threw his orange cape in the air, in front of himself. The masked ninja reached him quickly and slashed the cape in half with his katana, but the earth ninja wasn't there anymore. Was this another jutsu or just a pure feat of speed?

"Earth-hold jutsu!" yelled Jim from the nearest tree, while he made a series of hand signs that finished with him closing his hands together. Right after that, the two parts of the ground to the left and right of the guy that attacked him rose up and grabbed the masked ninja by the waist. The guy realized that he was trapped in that place, so very quickly, and with very little thinking, he launched his other two explosive knives towards the earth-style ninja.

"Earth-style rise jutsu!"

Jim Namikaze made the ground in front of himself go up, looking like the barriers that he used to protect the gatekeepers. However, this time it was different; as soon as the ground barrier that went up came in contact with the explosive knives, he stopped his hand gestures, closed his hands, and extended them towards the trapped ninja.

"Earth-style rush!"

The two masses of soil not only grabbed the airborne knives but also went straight towards the enemy ninja that was stuck. One knife exploded and destroyed the mass of soil before reaching its destination, but the other one didn't...

The trapped ninja's eyes opened wide and said everything. He knew this was likely to be the end of the line for him. Once the second mass of soil crashed with him, the other knife exploded. It was the end of the line indeed…

Meanwhile, two other masked ninjas had jumped out of their hiding spots to attack the two gatekeepers. Jim's earth-style shield had covered them from the sides, but it wasn't a particularly large or powerful shield, so it was starting to crumble. It also left their front, back, and other positions wide open for any attack. The gatekeepers had been caught off-guard and one of them was hurt in the initial surprise attack, so their odds weren't looking great, but they also had some tricks of their own.

The guard of the red fire knives jumped out of the crumbling earth shield and made his move before the enemies could land any other attack on them. He made his technique's hand signs, while holding the two knives with his fat fingers only. Then, he swiftly placed his knives at an angle in front of his face.

"Fire-style katon blaze jutsu!"

The blaze of fire that he launched forward was split in two parts by his knives. Both masses of fire went straight towards the enemies from two different sides, as if they were two torrents of water coming from two different fire hoses. One of the enemies got hit pretty badly by the attack and the other got caught by the fire, but didn't take a direct hit. The first one didn't get up again, but the second ninja used his strongest elemental technique right away:

"Water-style twisting stream!"

The gatekeeper used his fire attack once more, but he didn't have time to launch the full blaze. As a result, his fire stopped half of the wild stream of fast-moving water, but he was hit directly and pushed back by the other half.

To make matters worse, other enemy ninjas went after them to attack them.

The guard of the sword knew it was his time to take care of things. He didn't know any special jutsu or elemental techniques, like many ninjas, but he was very well-trained in the use of weapons. He left his sword and grabbed his two explosive knives instead. Then, he threw them, one towards each of the two enemies approaching. Unfortunately, the attackers were not amateurs. Both unsheathed their battle knives and deflected the two explosive knives mid-air with their own projectile attacks.

However, one of them got the surprise of a lifetime right after, when the explosive knife he deflected with his own came back to him and hit him along with a mass of soil from the ground. The explosion that followed was truly destructive and took care of nearly all the enemy ninjas there. They made the mistake of staying too close together in the same space.

The one that used the water-style technique took notice immediately and saw that the earth-release user was back. Clearly, he had defeated the ones who attacked him before, using his earth techniques.

The attacker that used the water technique ignored the two gatekeepers and prepared to take out the earth ninja with his water attack. He knew that water-style jutsus could penetrate techniques that used the soil.

"Water-style twisting stream jutsu!"

"Earth-style fists jutsu!"

Both started to prepare their attack at the same time, but before the water technique had taken form, a rock-like fist-sized piece of compact soil hit the ninja attacker in the crotch. This hit stopped him from completing his attack, and right after, the second fist of earth struck him wildly in the chest.

The attacker tried to hurry to complete the water technique after a few seconds, but the earth ninja was faster.

"Earth-style dual-shoot jutsu!"

Two small stones from the ground went airborne and flew towards the face of the water ninja with tremendous speed. They were too fast, so they reached him before launching the water attack.

"Earth-release projectile techniques are much faster than any long-range jutsu of the water style. That's why it's good to know the weaknesses of your own techniques. If you knew that you wouldn't have used it right now," added Jim Namikaze, showing that he obviously wasn't an amateur ninja either.

The water-style ninja fell down to the ground and looked like he was out of the game for the moment. The others didn't get up to attack again either. It looked like the ambush was over.

Then, Jim went to check the condition of the two gatekeepers.

"So, this isn't The Leaf? It seems like your village has enemies too… Are you two alright?"

The guy with the sword replied "yes," but he was bleeding a little from the right side of his waist. The fire-style user was still soaked, but at least he wasn't bleeding, and he could stand on his own.

"Thank you for helping us," said the soaked guard of the fire knives, before he paused to breathe.

The wind there was starting to get somewhat heavy and none of the attackers had raised to finish the job, so it started to feel suspicious.

It felt like something else and something worse was about to arrive.

The owner of the red fire knives warned Jim of his suspicion:

"These guys may have been after you. I don't think our small village has anything of value to bring a skilled group of ninjas to attack us here, at our front door."

Then, someone they had not noticed yelled at them, with a pretty powerful voice:

"You are wrong! You do have something, or rather, someone who has something that we need!"

Jim Namikaze and the two ninja guards turned around. There was someone else there—not too far from them—wearing a mask like the others, but his clothes were not the same. The others had black clothing and this guy was wearing gray clothes. He also had his hands and arms uncovered, up to his shoulders. Both of his arms had the same creepy-looking tattoo, starting on his hands and ending on his shoulders. It resembled the double helix form of the human DNA molecule, but the real reason why he had those on his arms was his nickname—which was about to be revealed. It also looked like he was carrying a sword on his back, but no other weapons.

"You three defeated my squad, so I will have to finish you for them, and do the job on my own," said the stranger with a very decisive voice.

Then, he began to take off his mask, until his face was fully uncovered. The fire-user was shocked when he recognized the stranger's face:

"Jounen? Is that you?!"

The other guard also looked shocked and somewhat worried, as soon as he recognized the face.

"An Uchiha like you got soaked and pushed back by a water-based attack. What a shame you are for the grand fire-style clan of warriors from The Leaf. Things haven't changed around here I see," said Jounen sarcastically, while he smiled maliciously.

[The Uchiha Clan is one of the clans that formed The Leaf, but many Uchihas didn't stay at The Leaf and went to nearby villages. Uchihas are well-known for their mastery of the fire-style and their fearsome sharingan-eye techniques that can be used only by those highly skilled Uchihas who awakened their sharingan eyes.]

Jounen went straight to the point. He was clear about who he needed to find.

"Where is the Uchiha girl that came with you that day? The one that mentioned that she was Madara Uchiha's grand-daughter. Maida? That was her name, wasn't it? I'm here to take her with me. Madara's ultimate sharingan power shall be awakened again through her."

[Madara is a legendary Uchiha warrior of the past that was said to be one of the three most powerful ninjas of all time, alongside the First Hokage of The Leaf, Hashirama Senju, and the Sage of the Six Paths, Hagaromo Otsutsuki. He was also one of the few Uchihas who's sharingan eye evolved to an unprecedented level that had not been seen in centuries, since the original creation of jutsu techniques by the holy sage, Hagaromo. Many Uchihas never awakened their sharingan eyes, and among those who did very few ever reached the higher levels of evolution for their eyes' power.]

The Uchiha guard stood up completely and grabbed his two fire knives; he was still soaked from the previous water attack, but he wasn't afraid of Jounen.

"So that is why you want to attack us? We will not let you enter this village or harm any of the people here… not even her!"

The guard of the sword still looked extremely worried.

Jim noticed this and asked him:

"Who is this guy? Is he more powerful than the others that attacked us?"

And the guard replied:

"He is Jounen, a ninja that deserted our village to became a rogue ninja. He is a wind-style user that was the most powerful ninja in our village five years ago, when he left to seek higher powers for himself."

Jim knew that neither of the two guards were in good condition for a high-level battle. Even himself, an Anbu-level ninja [Anbu ninjas are secret undercover agents for their clans], was not quite ready to defeat the most powerful ninjas in the continent. One thing was clear for him though: he knew that he had to help them again. Otherwise, Jounen would kill them. And this powerful enemy definitely didn't look like he had good intentions or plans for the woman that was Madara Uchiha's descendant. He had to be stopped…

Jounen looked at the Uchiha guard of the fire knives:

"Kenn, do you really think that an Uchiha failure like you, who never even awakened his sharingan eyes; and Carl, the good-for-nothing sword-user who can't even perform elemental jutsus; and some random earth ninja out of nowhere can stop me? You would do well if you get out my way and save your own lives! If you bring me Maida Uchiha, none of you would have to die. It would be a pretty good deal for a bunch of weaklings like yourselves and for your shithole village as well. No one else will ever care about this place after I take her and her eyes from here."

Kenn and Carl didn't answer, but despite the bad situation, they would not let him go through. Jim Namikaze was ready to help them again. It was clear that it wasn't going to be easy. Jim had also noticed that this guy was the one causing the strong winds in the area, so he was the real deal. He had to be a highly skilled wind-style ninja that had mastered his element.

"There is a reason why I am called 'Tornado Jounen.' You three will experience it now, unlike ever before," said Jounen as he prepared his ninja-like hand signs to start his first wind-based attack.

NEXT- Episode 3: Versus Tornado Jounen