Naruto: Potential Realised

Posted: 30-09-11

Updated: 06-12-11

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CH3: Proving Your Worth

Team 312 wasted no time in assembling at the northern gate and embarking on their journey to the city of Tanzaku Gai. Naruto had never been there before; all he ever knew was Konoha and until recently Nami no Kuni. Scout rotation didn't leave much time for sightseeing either; it was pretty much scout point A to point B and keep an eye out for anything or anyone suspicious. Occasionally they had a few parcels to deliver here and there but that was always on a tight schedule. It didn't leave Naruto with a lot of time to explore the beautiful countryside of Hi no Kuni and this was no different. Just a few hours ago a messenger hawk delivered their mission assignment. They were tasked with investigating the Tanzaku Gai criminal underworld, and by implication, the police force as well. Naruto had never been on an investigation mission; to him it actually sounded pretty strange for a shinobi to be tasked with a task such as this, but then again it also made sense. Shinobi were trained in subtlety and information gathering. If anything they were perfect for investigations like these.

"Alright, we're here," Sarugaku announced, landing in a crouch and holding up his fist to signal this team to stop. "Let's break for camp, the sun is about to set. Hayase and I will go scout the area while you three set up our campsite. Nakamura, you're in charge. We'll be back in an hour."

Rei nodded, "Understood, Sarugaku-taichō." The kunoichi turned to her fellow rookies, "You two set up camp and gather firewood while I raise a genjutsu layer to hide our presence. Once we get a fire going, we can eat. I've packed enough premade meals for all of us, so feel free to ask."

"I'm good." Naruto dropped his backpack under a tree and reached for one of the shovels Rei passed them. "Alright, don't slack off, Shikamaru. Don't even think of making me do all the work."

"Why not?"

Naruto shot him an annoyed look, exasperated with the genius' perpetual slothfulness. "Why would I do all the work?"

The shadow user shrugged. "Because you can use your clones to do your work for you," he offered in a rhetoric manner.

"... Right, I knew that." Naruto tucked the shovel under his elbow and made an unusual hand seal; Rei raised an eyebrow at. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

Poof!

Rei did a double take as six identical Naruto-clones appeared with pillars of smoke and went to work, chastising the original for being a 'lazy bastard.' Shikamaru couldn't help but laugh as Naruto picked a fight with one of his clones who made the off-handed comment.

"How did you that? Those are solid clones!" Rei looked at Naruto and then Shikamaru with a demanding expression.

Naruto looked at Shikamaru, "What?"

"Don't look at me. The fact you're able to create Kage Bunshin is still an impressive feat, Naruto," Shikamaru shrugged, plopped down on the ground and got comfy.

"Those are Kage Bunshin?" Rei was wide-eyed as though she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "That's a B-ranked kinjutsu, how in the hell are you able to create so many?"

Shikamaru smiled at that, earning him a scowl from Rei. "Sorry, Nakamura-san, but six Kage Bunshin aren't a lot, not by Naruto's standards."

"What do you mean?"

Naruto rubbed a finger under his nose in a childish show of conceitedness. "Let's just say this is only a fraction of what I can do."

Rei shook her head, refusing to believe it. "No way!" It was odd to see her lose her composure, even after knowing her only for a few weeks, Naruto saw Rei as the cool type who was never phased by what anyone thought or did, evidently in her indifference towards Hayase frequent tales of one night stands. "A fraction of- Are you out of your mind?"

"Definitely," Shikamaru shrugged with indifference, "But he's not lying."

For a moment Rei's expression went blank, then a frown came to her face and she glared at Naruto. "Just do as your told, Uzumaki." The kunoichi promptly turned around and walked off, leaving a stunned Naruto look at Shikamaru with confusion.

"OK, what did I say?"

Shikamaru shrugged uncaringly and yawned. "I'm not an expert on women, Naruto," the shadow user washed his hands of the matter and stretched out on his sleeping bags, looking up into the sky. "Take it easy, girls aren't meant for us to understand anyway. She'll come around on her own terms. Probably."

"You're a strange one, Shikamaru." Naruto rolled out his own sleeping bag and lied down as his clones gave him dirty looks and some even made derogative comments. 'I need to figure out how to control these idiots.'

'We heard that,' six different voices said in his mind, prompting Naruto yelp and jump up. "OK, if you guys want to take this outside, bring it!" Naruto's eye twitched as one of his clones gave him the finger and stuck out its tongue.

"We are outside, you moron."

"Why does he get to be the original? So not fair!"

Shikamaru began chuckled as the clones set off into six separate directions to collect firewood. Naruto shook his head, his hand in the serpent hand seal for a moment before he gripped the earth beneath his feet, gripping onto it as he created a dug in area large enough for them to set up camp. Satisfied with his handiwork, Naruto got off his knee and clapped the dirt of his hands. "That ought to do it."

-ooo-

The next day in the early morning, Naruto crawled out of his sleeping bag, nose twitching to the delightful aroma of breakfast that stirred him out of slumber. He poured some water in his hands from his canteen and washed his face, getting the dirt out of his eyes and yawned.

"Good, you're awake."

Naruto blinked a few times to get the drowsiness out of his system. He hadn't even noticed Rei as she sat down by a fire and was preparing their breakfast. Naruto shuddered, the last time he had breakfast in a forest was during the second stage of the Chūnin Exams and that had certainly not gone well. "Barely," Naruto yawned. Naruto reached into his backpack sat next to his sleeping bag and retrieved his flak jacket, he was somewhat cold in the chill morning breeze.

"Your flak jacket is different from ours, why is that?" Rei asked curiously as she offered him a can of nutritious supplements. "We don't have shoulder pads like you do, and yours seems heavier. Why is that?" she asked again.

Naruto spooned a mouthful sat down opposite her. "It's a gift from the old man."

"Old man?"

Naruto chuckled, not many people understood who he was referring to when he said that. "Hokage-sama," he said it as though the title was humorous rather than belonging to one of the greatest shinobi to have ever lived. "He gave me his tantō too." Naruto swiftly reached for the small of his back and unsheathed the dagger and held it out for Rei to examine.

"Hokage-sama gave this to you?" Rei sounded both envious and disbelieving at the same time, though Naruto couldn't quite blame her. Not many would have believed him. "This tantō is different from ours, it's got a curvier edge and it looks like it's been through a lot of battles like your flak."

"That's cause they were the old man's when he was a chūnin, like a century ago." The joke went unnoticed as Rei's eyes widened and her grip on the dagger's handle tightened. "If you don't believe me, it's fine-"

"No, I believe you, Uzumaki."

"Naruto, just call me Naruto. I'm not big on formality."

Rei gave him a comical deadpan stare as she handed him back the tantō. "That much was obvious from day one."

Naruto chuckled, "I make up for it with charm."

"No, you don't."

Naruto hung his head, feigning to be crestfallen and getting a laugh out of Rei in which he joined her.

"I want to apologise for being so cold to you lately." Rei seemed somewhat uncomfortable with the apology. "I was a little jealous, I suppose I'm just easily intimidated by geniuses like you."

Naruto burst out laughing and cupped his mouth with both hands to keep it down. Rei's glared at him but Naruto found it hard to stop laughing and only stopped when she punched him in a painful spot on his arm. "Ouch!" Naruto rubbed his arm.

"What's so funny?"

Naruto frowned, that had hurt. "It's funny you think I'm a genius."

Rei's glare intensified and she bristled. "You're able to use at least one strong Fūton jutsu and a B-ranked kinjutsu with ease, both of which you treat as though they're the mere tip of the iceberg. Then there's the fact you somehow beat Hyūga Neji and you claim to have beaten Sasuke's opponent, Sabaku no Gaara as well as Momochi Zabuza."

"Coming around to that?" Rei gave an icy glare and Naruto gave a shrug in return, he had stopped caring whether or not they believed him weeks ago, figuring they would come to know the truth in due time; unsurprisingly, Rei was first. "For the record, I did do those things except for Zabuza, he was toying with me and Sasuke the whole time. That guy was on a completely different level. Luckily we had Kakashi-sensei with us, or we would've been dead long before we got to the Chūnin Exams." Naruto felt a wave of nostalgia; he sure did miss his old team. "And to be completely honest, I only managed to beat Zabuza's apprentice because Sasuke saved my life for the hundredth time… the son of a bitch." Naruto inhaled the remains of his food in mere seconds (much to the visible disgust of Rei) and got up, dusting off his trousers.

"How does that not make you a genius if you've already accomplished so much?"

Naruto looked at Rei with a serious expression, a stark contrast to his usual demeanour. "I accomplish those things because I work my ass off. It doesn't come easy to me, Rei-chan. It never has. All those things I accomplished, I accomplished because I train all day, every day."

"Rei-chan?" she repeated.

Naruto chuckled. "I'm not even particularly smart, I just make up for it with guts and instincts. I guess when it comes down to it, that's all you really need… Guts and instincts. You can have all the talent in the world but that means nothing if you don't have the guts and instincts to use it." A few choice words Naruto had heard once came to mind and he grinned at her. " Maybe, if I ever could dream of applying that label to me… I'm a fighting genius."

Rei was stunned by the declaration, though she was saved from giving an answer as Hayase sat up mechanically to the scent of food. "What's for grub?"

…

A while later they stood by the outskirts of the city, Sarugaku gathered them around and gave one of his patented coughs to draw their attention.

"OK, we're about to enter the city. We'll split up here for the time being," Sarugaku decided. "I'm going to the police force headquarters to give them notice of our mission assignment. Hayase and Nakamura, you two keep an eye at the market district. Nara and Uzumaki, I'm placing you by the casinos. Neither of you seem to be the gambling type, so I expect you to behave and stay away from the slot machines. Any questions?"

Rei seemed utterly displeased with her assigned partner but made no comment. Naruto on the other hand didn't really care, he got along with Hayase just fine though he wasn't about to volunteer to take him off her hands.

"Remember to stay vigilant and report your location every fifteen minutes," Sarugaku tapped the headset attached to his neck. "Don't draw attention, just mingle in the crowds. If you see any suspicious behaviour, radio in before you do anything."

"Understood," they replied simultaneously.

-ooo-

(Tanzaku Gai)

Naruto and Shikamaru made their way through the crowds in the city, brushing past civilians as they patrolled the city of Tanzaku Gai. The city was unlike anything Naruto had imagined; it was very different from Konoha. There were lights cables and neon signs everywhere, which would illuminate the city during the night; the roads were somewhat smaller, but much more crowded with people of all kinds. The occasional beast of burden pulled by with wares to be sold by its master; there were more beggars on the street than he had encountered in Wave Country, some of whom were smoking from pipes that gave off disgusting fumes.

"Opium," Shikamaru said with a curl of his nose. "And right on the streets, what exactly is the police force doing?"

Naruto was somewhat surprised not even the occasional policemen they saw on the street seemed bothered by it. In fact, Naruto could've sworn the few pipes he had seen a few policemen smoke pipes that probably did not contain tobacco.

Naruto frowned as they stopped by a stall; he paid the vendor a handful of golden ryō coins and bought a few dango sticks settled in a row on a disposal paper plate, one of which he passed on one to Shikamaru. "Any idea what to look for? Aside from the opium addicts and the policemen that ignore them?"

"Troublesome." Shikamaru obviously wasn't helping and he shrugged. "Sarugaku said to keep an eye out for anyone suspicious."

Naruto looked around as they walked. "Anyone suspicious… That pretty much fits the description for most of the people here." They continued to explore the city for a while, mostly walking back and forth by the casinos and calling in their position and status over the radio every fifteen minutes. It was almost an hour later when a loud commotion nearby alerted them.

"LOOK WHERE THE FUCK YOU'RE GOING!"

Naruto looked at Shikamaru and nodded, setting off to see what was going on. Upon arriving, Naruto saw a tall man in an expensive looking suit and stained but otherwise stylish trench coat hoisting another man foot above ground. A child holding an empty ice cream cone was standing close by, crying her eyes out as her father was getting beaten up, surrounded by another few thugs and scared civilians. The thug kicked the man, levelling him off the ground and sending him crashing into a vendor's cart. "Look what you did to my suit! This thing cost me 5,000 ryō. How are you going to pay for it, EH?"

The ringleader's thugs rushed over to the downed victim and began to repeatedly pummel him as his child began to cry her eyes out.

"Oh my God!"

"Someone should help him…"

"I'm calling the police- ungh!" One would-be whistleblower was punched in the face as he tried to run in the opposite direction and was dragged to the floor where he, too, was beaten viciously by thugs as they kicked and pounded on him.

Naruto was about to step in when Shikamaru grabbed his elbow. "Hold on, we need to call back up," the shadow user told him. He then pressed the radio attached around his neck and called for help. "This is Nara. We've got trouble in the casino district and it's looking pretty ugly."

"Nakamura here. Nara, we'll be right there."

"So am I. The police lieutenant with me has already dispatched a few officers," Sarugaku added through the radio a second later.

Naruto gritted his teeth as one of the thugs proceeded to rob the man off wallet and offer the cash to the ringleader. The leader counted the money and by the look of his angered expression, the amount was insufficient. With but a mere nod to one of his thugs, they all reached for their swords.

"Shikamaru!" Naruto growled at his partner, clenching his fists and gritting his teeth as the thugs held up their bloodied and bruised victim on his knees for public execution. "Shikamaru!"

"Go!"

Naruto didn't need to be told twice and dashed forward just as one of the thugs raised his blade and brought it down for a decapitating stroke; Naruto was faster and deflected the blade with his tantō with an icy expression on his face.

Clang!

"What the fuck!"

Naruto's nose flared with the disgusting stench of cheap liquor and tobacco smoke as he entered a stalemate with the sword-brandishing thug, holding his tantō in a reverse grip. Naruto easily overpowered the thug, with his tantō in one hand as he reared back his right hand for a palm thrust under his left arm. "Reppūshō!"

The powerful blast of wind hurled the man of his feet and launched him into a stall. Naruto instantly turned around and swung his tantō-wielding fist backwards in his would-be attacker's face, causing him to fly into another comrade and knocking them both out.

CRACK!

Just as Naruto turned around he found himself staring a massive earth-encrusted fist, a split second before it smashed into his face and sent him crashing through a wall. Naruto's head was spinning as he found himself lying on dinner table in restaurant, of which all the patrons fled outside. "Ugh... Hi there," he said to the attractive brunette whose meal he had interrupted as he looked up. "Yeah… you should probably get out while you still can."

And get out she did, as though the devil himself was after her. Naruto got out of the wreckage that had once been a booth in the expensive-looking restaurant as the woman high-tailed out of there.

The wall he came crash through gave away and the tall, trench coat wearing man stormed inside. "Do you know who you're fucking with? I'm Gantetsu, a captain of Kuroda-gumi!" Gantetsu was incredibly stall, easily standing at 6'7, wearing an all white, expensive-looking (and stained) high-collar trench coat, over a yellow shirt and blue tie. The yakuza's right hand was still encrusted in jagged rock, making it bigger than Naruto's head. "A Konoha-nin?" Gantetsu seemed genuinely surprised for a moment, but then his gaze turned into a snarl. "I thought we had a fucking deal… It doesn't matter, it's your funeral! Just remember, I'm not some low-life thug. I was an elite chūnin back in Iwa, so prepare yourself for death!"

Blood ran down the side of Naruto's face, it stung his eyes but he kept them open. Another one of those hit and he would probably pass out and then he'd really be in trouble. "What do you mean, 'we had a deal'?"

Gantetsu wasn't interested in answering that question, growling like the monster he was as with a mere flex of his muscles his entire body was covered in a thick earthy crust. "Not good!" Naruto as Gantentsu decided to rush forward with his gigantic earth-covered hand. Naruto back flipped backwards onto the table and continued to perform a series of acrobatic flips to avoid the rampaging rogue shinobi-slash-yakuza boss. Naruto made a tiger hand seal and drew a deep breath, his chest swelling up significantly as he prepared a fire jutsu. The stream of fire never erupted his mouth however as Gantetsu proved to be considerably faster than he appeared and grabbed Naruto's face in his gigantic hand, cancelling out the jutsu. "Eat this!" The yakuza boss slammed Naruto into the ground, a satisfying crack indicated some broken bones, confirmed by Naruto's scream of pain as a powerful sensation coursed through him. "This is what you get for interfering with our affairs, Konoha dog!"

Gantetsu reared back his left hand and it shifted into an even bigger earth fist as the Iwa rogue held Naruto by the neck with his right, his earth-crusted hand was so large it covered most of the blonde's torso. "KENGAN NO JUTSU!"

Naruto narrowly avoided the attack, forcing an enormous amount of chakra through his body to pull off a Shunshin fast enough to ensure he avoid certain death. His escape did not come without a price tag however as the muscle fatigued slowed his reaction and allowed Gantestu to land a glancing hit as the floor he had just vacated exploded in a rain of earth spikes, of which on nicked him in the arm. Naruto grunted but persevered, reacting on pure instincts as he withdrew a flash tag and lodged in the ceiling.

"ARGH!" Fortunately, Gantetsu's height made him an easy target and the blinding light set off by the flash tag bought Naruto some time. The blond jumped up and planted his feet on the ceiling as Gantetsu continued to go berserk and literally run down the walls in the restaurant, unable to find his prey. Naruto exhaled a deep, thankful of the Kyūbi as his dislocated shoulder popped back into its socket on its own accord. 'That Kengan jutsu, it's supposed to be an Iwagakure jutsu, isn't it?' It was one of those rare moments Naruto could actually recall something useful from his academy days. 'Earth is weak to lightning… Fuck! There's only one way to finish this bastard off.' Naruto reached into holster and withdrew a lone kunai blade, detaching himself from the ceiling and landing lightly on his feet just about as the giant regained his sight.

"You little fuck, where are you?" Gantetsu shouted.

"Right here, motherfucker!" Naruto threw the kunai at the yakuza captain just he turned around. "Kunai Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Midair the kunai began to multiply at a rapid rate, similar to a body of cells undergoing mitosis.

Gantetsu raised his arms in front of him in an X-shaped guard. "You'll have to do better than that to pierce my armour, brat!" Gantetsu came to regret those words not a second later as he suddenly was blasted back by the unexpected detonation of an exploding tag. "Fuck!"

Though he was largely unscathed, the smoke provided Naruto with enough cover to execute the second step of his plan. With a quick hand seal, a clone popped into existence and made a beeline for Gantetsu, jumping on his back and wrapping its arm and legs around the Iwa nuke-nin like a Boa Constrictor just as it began glowing white.

"Naruto!" Shikamaru shouted from the entrance, having dispatched thugs outside.

Naruto's eyes widened and set off instantly, emulating his clone and making a bee line for Shikamaru who he tackled just as the Naruto-clone detonated. "Shika, get down!"

BOOM!

The explosion blasted Naruto and Shikamaru out of the establishment due to their proximity; the restaurant simply collapsed as all its support pillars gave in, causing its structure to completely giveaway and collapse with a series of earth shaking tremors.

...

Naruto coughed, completely covered in dust and dirt as he rolled off Shikamaru, whom he had been forced to protect with his body. "You alright, Shikamaru?" Naruto fell on his behind, breathing heavily.

Shikamaru opened his eyes, considerably less covered in dust. "Yeah... I'm just dandy," he replied sarcastically. "Looks like our backup arrived already." It was true, Gantetsu's thugs were being subdued by police forces that outnumbered them, thus quite a few surrendered.

Naruto got to his feet just as his teammates arrived. "What took you guys so long?"

"We got here as fast as we could," Hayase retorted as he helped up Shikamaru. Then turning to his partner he said, "Rei, take a look at their injuries. I'll call Sarugaku-"

"There's no need for that." Their squad leader had just arrived and he didn't look pleased in the slightest as he was accompanied by another policeman with a lieutenant badge embroiled on his blue kimono. "Hayate-san explained to me that the new yakuza in town are lead by rogue shinobi from Iwa. We were going to organise a joint mission to take them all out at their compound but you just went ahead and blew that plan out of the water there, didn't you, Uzumaki?"

"I'm so sorry for stopping that bastard executing a man 'cos his coat got dirty!" Naruto replied sarcastically as Rei gave him a quick look over for injuries.

A vein popped up by Sarugaku's cheek and he said coldly: "You're a malcontent and a liability to this team, Uzumaki, and it's about time you realise that. Thanks to you those thugs know we're coming for them. Who knows how many of their high ranked members will go under now?"

"Yeah, it would have looked just fucking fabulous on your record, wouldn't it, taichō?" Naruto spat with venom. "You don't actually care about helping anyone here but yourself. As long as you come out smelling like daisies, you don't give a fuck who else stuck in the shit."

Sarugaku's nostrils flared. "That's enough out of you-"

"Yes is it!" Rei interrupted their tirade at one another. "This isn't helping," she gave both of them a hard stare, "We need to get our act together and think about what we're doing next. Has anyone actually indentified the body?"

"Shit!" Naruto looked to Shikamaru and then to the pile of debris that had once been the restaurant.

...

Gantetsu's body wasn't found.

It appeared the giant was even quicker than Naruto had thought, or tougher - they didn't know, nor did it truly matter. What mattered was the fact he had gotten away and they had no idea how he did or if he had help. With Gantetsu on the run, the odds were likely he would come back with more of his comrades and from what Naruto was hearing, it wasn't going to be pretty.

"Iwa dogs, always got a backup plan," Hayase noted with a scowl on his face. It reminded Naruto how much Konoha in general hated Iwagakure. He hadn't conformed to the line of thought since he was the one being hated his entire life and blindly hating Iwa or anyone else for that matter, without knowing why, Naruto knew would be hypocritical, even as a child.

Team 312 convened in the alley behind the destroyed establishment and were standing in circle as they discussed their next course of action whilst the police force was busy clearing the rubble and taking statements from witnesses. "Gantetsu will probably come back with more of his thugs and ringleaders of the Kuroda-gumi. We have no idea when he'll dare to show face around here, so we'll have to collaborate even more with the police force."

"During our fight, he said something about a deal. They way he was talking, it was like we weren't supposed to be here. Isn't that strange? Why wouldn't he expect Konoha-nin to be here when it's so close to Konoha?"

"And you didn't mention this earlier because of what exactly?" Sarugaku snapped at him with ire. Naruto didn't even have to say it out loud, it was perfectly clear to the entire team their ambitious squad leader would naturally jump at the chance of revealing corruption at the top of ranks within Tanzaku Gai's police force. It would do wonders for his career, perhaps even earn him that promotion he had yearned for so long.

Naruto shrugged, it was a fair point. There wasn't much he could say to defend himself from not reporting that tidbit of information sooner. "Sorry 'bout that."

"'Sorry' doesn't cut it, Uzumaki. You're in enough trouble as it is. Don't think for a second I won't report the collateral damage you caused either," Sarugaku told him without so much a hint as sympathy for the situation he had been put in.

"Hey, that wasn't my fault! Gantetsu did most of the destroying, Shikamaru can testify to that!" Naruto gritted his teeth, what the hell was this guy's problem? Since day one he had been nothing but a condescending a-hole to Naruto, but he hadn't expected the guy to be actively out to hurt his career like that.

"Yes I can, but let's not forget what's important here." Shikamaru once again proved to be the mediator for the pair. "If someone's really on their payroll, we need to figure out who it is and quick. Something tells me, Gantetsu wasn't lying. The fact they were about to publically execute a man without so much a hint of fear for reprisals by the police can only mean they've got high ranking figures on their payroll. Most likely, if they have one of ours on their payroll, they'll have contacts in the police force."

Rei nodded, "I agree with Nara-san. We should be careful how we conduct this investigation, I think it would be in our best interest if he keep an eye on the police just as much as on thugs."

"That's impossible," Hayase shook his head. "We don't have the manpower for an operation that big."

Shikamaru and Rei looked at Naruto, prompting the chūnin to ask, "What, what's that look about?"

"Manpower won't be a problem, I can change my number from one to a thousand if I want to."

"That's absurd-"

"Not now, Saru," Hayase cut him off, "You were saying?" he then asked Naruto. "You're talking about clones, aren't you?"

Naruto nodded. "Give me a clear area and I'll give you as much manpower as you want."

"How? Regular Bunshin won't cut it. They're see through and they're mutes… what's so funny?"

Naruto made a hand seal, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." Two clones appeared on either side of Naruto with identical cocky smirks as Hayase and Sarugaku both did a double take.

"What the fuck!" Hayase exclaimed.

"Th- That jutsu is forbidden!" Sarugaku hissed at Naruto as though he had just witnessed a heinous crime. "That kinjutsu… how did you get your hands on it? This wasn't in your file!" Sarugaku took a deep breath and then hissed at Naruto: "Why wasn't this in your file?"

"Like I said, a lot of things I can do aren't in those files," Naruto replied coolly, taking great pleasure in squashing his team's negative presumptions of him once and for all. "And before you decide to add that to the list of charges you'll bring against me, know that I have permission from the Hokage himself to use this jutsu."

"He claims to be able to create a thousand of these," Rei informed their squad leader, patting a Naruto-clone on the shoulder to feel his solidity. "According to Nara, his claim isn't false."

"It isn't," Naruto confirmed, not taking his eyes of Sarugaku, who was immensely disturbed by the information.

"Why can't we feel you've got so much chakra?" Hayase asked with an underlining tone of doubt. Then again, who could blame him? A thousand Kage Bunshin was unheard off and to be told a supposedly dead last, no-talent kid like Naruto was capable of such a feat was hard to believe. Downright unfathomable even.

Naruto shrugged, he didn't truly know the answer to that. "I've always known how to suppress my chakra. It just comes naturally to me, don't ask me why because I don't know either, it just does." On that notion, Naruto had to wonder if this was a side effect the seal on his stomach that kept the Kyūbi at bay. Jiraiya had mentioned it segregating his chakra from the Kyūbi's – or something like that; Naruto wasn't paying attention at the time. "Anyway, are we going to do this Rei-chan's way or what?"

Shikamaru stifled a bemused chuckle and nodded. "I think it's a good idea, though you'll need to make sure you clones don't take the same appearance, Naruto."

"That won't be a problem."

Sarugaku finally regained his composure and cleared his throat to demand their attention. "Do it. We'll resume this mission as a team. While your clones look for the targets, we'll go see the police representative that gave me these bogus files," Sarugaku held up files that indicated the falsified records of decreased crime, "We'll give him a shake down, see what he has for us. If he cooperates, we can have this mission cleared by tonight and be on our way back by tomorrow."

Hayase checked his watch. "It's three PM, we need to hurry if we want to wrap this up ASAP."

"Then let Shikamaru take charge," Naruto suggested, receiving curious looks from all of his teammates, including the perpetually idle Kagemane user. "Look, Shikamaru is smarter than all of us combined. You give him a location, a time and numbers and he'll give you fifty solid strategies on how to handle the situation." Naruto knew he was exaggerating, though he wasn't sure by how much – Shikamaru was a pretty damn good tactician. "I don't want to sound cowardly, but that one guy nearly knocked head off my shoulders. Who knows what kind of types he hangs out with?"

Shikamaru glanced at Naruto with a nod and then looked at Sarugaku. "He makes a point, Sarugaku-taichō. I don't want to usurp you… that would be too troublesome, but if we want this raid executed flawlessly, we should pool our resources."

"Do it." Though he conceded, Sarugaku didn't seem pleased in the slightest with having to admit to be the inferior tactician by letting Shikamaru take the lead on planning their next course of action.

-ooo-

(Tanzaku Gai Police Department – Top Floor)

Oshoku Keikan enjoyed a comfortable life.

At the ripe age of fifty-three, he was married into a wealthy family through his wife. He enjoyed many pleasures in life; he had money in the bank, a nice house and a beautiful wife amongst a sea of mistresses and even some luxury estates abroad. His sons were prodigious and at top of their class, his eldest had already had just passed his training and become a full fledged member of the police force and would one day take his place. His daughters were beautiful and desirable stock for breeding, thus the dowry would further ensure he could enjoy a comfortable life after retirement.

As the chief of Tanzaku Gai's police force, Oshoku was the most reputable member of the brass. With 5000 men under his command, not many of the city's populous dared to bring up any alleged bribe taking or corruption charges, not even the whistleblowers of the Magistrates. Men with righteous moral compasses were becoming increasingly rare as more just… disappeared, never to be seen or heard off again.

Ah yes, life was good for Oshoku Keikan.

Power… money… influence… fear of the masses… With these tools at his disposal, Oshoku Keikan was the most powerful man in Tanzaku Gai.

Not even the Kuroda-gumi, a yakuza recently taken over by a band of nuke-nin from Iwa who continued to keep the yakuza thugs in their employment dared to displease him. Perhaps 'yakuza' was no long the correct term to apply to them. Not now they were led by shinobi, and shinobi never stopped being shinobi, no matter how they claimed otherwise.

Regardless, the Kuroda-gumi had risen to prominence under the leadership of the rogue ninja, however before long Oshoku had them cornered. Up against a 5000 strong legion of policemen, not even the nuke-nin stood a chance. Fortunately, for the both of them Oshoku realised, they weren't stupid. No, it was actually quite refreshing to deal with intellectual minds for once. The Kuroda-gumi came to understand who the man in charge was and were now responsible for the additional 500,000 ryō in his personnel safe in his mansion every week. With them keeping his adversaries in check whilst keeping him happy with his weekly tribute, Oshoku was content with allowing these thugs to maintain their opium trafficking and racketeering.

As long as they knew who the boss was.

The light on his console burned red. "What is it?" Oshoku asked as he pressed the console button.

"Oshoku-sama, I have Ashitazu-dono on the line. Will you take his call?"

"No, tell him I will call him."

CRASH!

No sooner had Oshoku taken his finger off the button, did five shinobi crash through the windows behind his desk and to his right and one through the roof. Oshoku trembled; a tantō was mere inches away from his throat, held steady by the blond teenager who came crashing from his roof and landed on his desk as his four accomplices took their positions, one closing the door; another throwing kunai with explosive tags wrapped around them in each corner of the office.

A tall man with sandy blond hair approached him, he appeared to be in his twenties. "Chief Oshoku, my name is Sarugaku Tsuzumi," Sarugaku looked to Naruto and nodded, prompting the young man to sheath his tantō and reach for ninja wire. "We know all about your deal with the Kuroda-gumi, recently taken over by a group of Iwa nuke-nin. Earlier today, you had one of your lieutenants supplying me with falsified records of decreased crime rates. While this happened, my team encountered a public execution of a innocent civilian by a member of the Kuroda-gumi we believe to go by the name of Gantetsu."

"… That son of a bitch, I knew that loose cannon was going to be trouble at some point."

"Good, you're not going to bother with claiming ignorance." Sarugaku sat down on the man's desk, shoving aside his files on the floor where they laid in a heap. "Uzumaki, I believe that's enough wire. He won't be going anywhere."

Naruto nodded and drew back, standing next to Rei who nodded to him. "We need to hurry up, there's a few of them coming up. They mentioned they had a meeting scheduled today, something about budget plans."

"How do you know this?" Oshoku demanded.

Naruto smiled eerily, tapping the side of his head. "You're right, it says here he's got a meeting scheduled," Sarugaku threw aside Oshoku's leather bound agenda and reached into his pouch and withdrew a crimson and gold rimmed baton. "Chief, you're going to call your secretary and have her cancel all of your meetings for today."

"And why would I do that, pray tell, Sarugaku-san." It didn't come as a surprise the chief kept his cool, he was an experienced officer after all. "Why would I listen to you, hmm?"

"I was hoping you would say that, Chief." Sarugaku gripped and twisted the top of his baton and took off the detachable cap, revealing the metal contraption under it. It appeared to be an lighter of sorts, or a blowtorch perhaps. "This is something demolition experts such as myself refer to as a 'heatstick', would you like to know why?"

Oshoku scoffed with faux bravado and leaned back into his chair as Sarugaku got off his desk, exerting as much movement as the ninja wire allowed him. "Not particularly."

Sarugaku slowly sauntered over and smiled mirthlessly. "Using this fine piece of technology, we use a little chakra manipulation to generate a spark. This spark turns into fire and through the mechanics of the heatstick we, for all intents purposes, are wielding a blowtorch with a heat output of 1300 degrees Celsius. As you can imagine, the heatstick can be powerful tool of interrogation… Just imagine the skin on your bones melting away, and that's only a fraction of what this thing is capable of."

Oshoku swallowed thickly, breaking out in sweat. "Perhaps we can discuss this in a more civilised manner, Sarugaku-san. I am sure we can find a… middle ground."

"No," Sarugaku said coldly. "You are going to tell us everything you know about the Kuroda-gumi. Names, locations – everything. Do you understand?" Oshoku nodded repeatedly muttering incoherently under his breath. "Good, now call your secretary and tell her to clear you schedule. Do it now."

With a trembling finger, Oshoku pressed the button on his console. "Tsubaki, clear my schedule for the rest of the day and go home."

"Oshoku-sama, are you sure? You're scheduled for a meeting with union representatives in ten minutes and Magistrate representatives in another hour-"

A snap-hiss.

Bluish flames erupted from the heatstick in Sarugaku's hand as he nodded slowly.

"Just do as I say, Tsubaki! I employed you to manage my schedule, not to question my orders, do you understand? Now do it, or you're fired!"

"Of- Of course, Oshoku-sama!"

Naruto looked around the room and noticed a frame picture Oshoku's desk and picked up. 'So even this guy can be a loving father,' Naruto noted as he took the happy family on the picture. It brought him on another train of thought, "Is anyone home expecting you?"

"N- No! And put that down!"

Naruto flung the frame out of the window. "Oops!" It got him a disapproving look from Rei and Sarugaku but he didn't particularly care. "Hurry it up, the police union representatives are arguing with the secretary and it looks like they're about to barge up here."

Sarugaku nodded and put the heatstick away. "Everything you know, right now!"

…

CRACK!

Naruto shook his fist with a satisfied smile as Oshoku fell down along with his chair, a fat bruise forming on his temple as his toupee slid of his fat head. "We can't let him off without a scratch, it'll make him think even we're afraid of touching him," Naruto elaborated as his team looked at him with questionable expressions.

"The warehouse they use as a compound isn't too far from here," Sarugaku took a look at the framed map on the wall, pointing at the industrial section of Tanzaku Gai. "Let's get there quick. The yakuza thugs aren't going to be a problem. It's the five ringleaders including Gantetsu that will be tough to beat. If Gantetsu is the weakest of them like Oshoku claims, then this is going to be tough. We need to make sure we take advantage of the element of surprise."

"I can scare of the Yakuza if I create a thousand Kage Bunshin-"

"I'll believe that when I see it Uzumaki," Sarugaku derisively cut him off. "Until then, don't expect me to take your word for anything you claim you can do."

Half tempted to take him up on that offer, Naruto threw his hands in the air. "Fine, don't believe me. Do whatever the fuck it is you want to do, I'll just hang back and prove my worth to you once and for all when the opportunity arises."

"Let's stay focused here," Shikamaru called for attention as he crouched with his hands folded in his thinking position. "If it's a warehouse, it's a confined space. If we come in hard and fast, we can take them out quick and easy."

"What have you got in mind?" Hayase asked.

In response Shikamaru walked over to the door and pulled open, standing face to face with several of the police force's brass.

"Your chief is corrupt," Shikamaru informed bluntly, gesturing to unconscious Oshoku bound up in his chair. "We were sent here to conduct an investigation. We discovered the paperwork your chief had been submitting to our government were packed with lies."

The police union representatives looked to each other and began to talk at the same time but Shikamaru held up his hand. "We're not interested in you, whether we include you as corrupt officials in our report is entirely up to us. Of course, we can be persuaded to leave you out of it…"

"What do you want?" asked the union leader.

Shikamaru smirked, "That's what I want to hear."

-ooo-

(Tanzaku Gai – Industrial District)

In a poorly lit warehouse, the sound of repeated blows to flesh rang, followed by bemused sniggering and laughs and painful grunts.

Gantetsu was knelt before another figure with blood streaming down his face, he appeared have endured a fierce beating and was breathing heavily as the warehouse full of thugs and four other shinobi looked down upon him with contempt.

"How many times have I told you to watch it?" hissed the man towering above him, promptly striking him again with a silver cane in his hand. "Your job is to keep the people under control, to let them know who's in charge. Not to carry out public executions for everyone including Konoha-nin to see!"

"Boss… please…" Gantetsu uttered through the pain. "I'm sorry… let me take care of this! If I make them disappear before they can report anything-"

Ssssshhhh!

"What is that?" the man hissed from the shadows, his silver cane hovered mere inches from Gantetsu's head.

Fire bared down as a large circle was carved into the roof by a sword of fire.

"YOU FOOL!" shouted Gantetsu's boss, striking him once more. "You were followed?"

CRASH!

The ceiling gave away with a loud explosion and a teenage boy with blond gravity-defying hair and blue eyes flipped in the air with a red baton in his hand, emitting a stream of blue flames. "Holy shit, this thing is awesome!" Naruto deactivated and twirled the heatstick between his fingers. "I'm keeping this- oh, am I interrupting something?"

Naruto was a sucker for dramatic entrances.

"Who is this… the Konoha-nin that bested you, Gantetsu?" The mysterious figure stepped forward in the moonlight, revealing himself to be a tall, silver cane-wielding man with a gas mask; spiky grey hair and brown eyes and dressed in black shinobi garb under expensive looking robes. "He's a mere boy!"

"Kigiri-sama… this kid didn't beat me-!"

Whack!

Gantetsu made a whimpering noise, holding his head in pain.

"Silence, Gantetsu." Kigiri strode forward to Naruto, standing fully in the ray of moonlight. "I assume your allies are waiting outside for the signal to attack?"

Naruto's eyes darted from left to right, counting several dozen yakuza thugs.

"Do you have any idea who I am?"

"No, but that's really a cool gas mask," Naruto responded cheekily. "Seriously, where do you get those, anyway? I mean, now that I think of it, that's a really handy piece of equipment. You never known when you could use one of those-"

"Silence! My name is Kigiri, Iwa's former Ginyasha, and you boy, are out of your league." Kigiri strode closer to Naruto and levelled his silver cane.

"A silver cane? Come on, you've got to admit, that's pretty lame…" Naruto jeered with a sour expression. As expected, the look on Kigiri betrayed his next move and Naruto braced himself for an head on attack he anticipated.

Gantetsu's eyes widened as Kigiri closed in on Naruto with his cane. As Naruto caught it in one hand and smirked it dawned Gantetsu what was about to happen next. "BOSS, GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Gantetsu surged forward as 'Naruto' began to glow.

BOOM!

…

"GO!"

Naruto jumped down the hole in the roof and landed in the warehouse, back-to-back with the rest of his team. 'I really need to thank Jiji properly for giving me that variation of the Kage Bunshin!' Naruto held up his hands in an unconventional hand seal.

The warehouse was mostly intact, scattered with the bodies of some yakuza thugs and a huge crater in the concrete floor. The majority of the thugs were alive though, getting to their feet covered in dust and swearing profoundly as they reached for their swords.

"What is the meaning of this?" Kigiri hissed and pushed Gantetsu away, bleeding somewhat but nowhere near as damaged as the large figure of Gantentsu whose rock armour had been almost completely shaven off and was bleeding profusely.

"Boss… are you alright?" Gantetsu crouched to his knees, wheezing as he struggled to breathe.

Naruto frowned. 'That guy just risked his life to save his boss? Who would've guessed nuke-nin are capable of loyalty like that.'

"Kuroda-gumi, you have declared yourself as enemies of Hi no Kuni through illegal opium trafficking and other criminal charges," Sarugaku announced, holding a kunai in a reverse grip in both hands. "I will extend to you one opportunity to surrender, if you do not come quietly you will be subdued and your punishment will be much more severe."

Kigiri growled menacingly and made a summoning gesture. "Gantetsu get to your feet! Rosaria, Kogero, Kihō! Aide me against these Konoha dogs."

Three figures that had previously stood in the shadows appeared next to their boss. One of them was an attractive woman in a pink and black robe; the other a tall muscular man in shinobi trousers and a karate gi with ripped off sleeves and lastly a dwarf-sized man with grey skin, a dark cloak and goggles and an oversized wrist launcher.

Naruto's eyes narrowed as the yakuza began to surround them. "Shikamaru…"

CRASH!

"Just on time," Shikamaru said as the doors of the warehouse blew wide open and the police force rushed inside and ran towards the thugs.

As the police rushed at the thugs, Kigiri snarled. "That fat fool Oshoku betrayed us!" Kigiri pulled one of his henchmen by the scruff of the neck and pushed him towards the policemen and Konoha-nin. "Kill them! KILL THEM ALL!" Kigiri promptly charged forward with his four lieutenants, Gantetsu considerably slower but hot on his heels as they clashed.

-ooo-

(Naruto VS Kigiri)

The police and yakuza shouted battle cries as they engaged one another; Naruto left the rest to handle the small fry and met Kigiri head on with his tantō in one hand and a kunai another in a cross-shaped guard against his opponents silver cane. "Just tell me something," Naruto gritted through his teeth, pushing Kigiri back with limited effort. "What's with the cane?"

"I suppose it can't hurt to show you something extraordinary beautiful before you die!" Kigiri distanced himself with fleeting swipe to keep Naruto on his toes and held up his cane in a horizontal guard as he trailed his palm over its smooth cylindrical shape. "Gold is supposedly the most valuable mineral on earth, but I have always preferred silver. It is more durable and practical, yet society overlooks these qualities due their vanity and obsession with that what they perceive as 'beautiful' and 'valuable'… Sometimes the best of qualities of men are also overlooked. It was why I deserted Iwa, to come here and be my own boss." Kigiri went through several sweeping motions with the cane. "Back in Iwa they called me Ginyasha… Out here they call me Kigiri no Gintsue, a perhaps not so fitting epitaph as I am capable of far more than just canes, boy!"

Naruto's eyes narrowed as Kigiri levelled the cane in his direction and a split second later the cane shot out and morphed in a extremely lengthy spear. Naruto jumped high over it and Kigiri was upon him instantly, the spear now a long and thin sword seemingly capable of slicing the wind itself. Naruto brought up a guard with the tantō in his left hand and chucked the kunai at Kigiri, but even at this close distance the Silver Demon was able to narrowly avoid it with a jerk of his head. Naruto was rewarded with a powerful smash in the side of the head from Kigiri's guard.

Naruto back flipped midair and skidded slightly over the ground as the fighting continue to rage on. 'Fuck, no time to think!' Naruto's hands went through the motions purely on instinct after spending thousands of clone hours on this particular jutsu. "Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu!" With flawless expertise, Naruto's chest swell up as his lungs filled up with air and a stream of fire erupted from his mouth with just the right amount of chakra used to spark his flames.

That seemed to do the trick… for a second.

Kigiri was fast, a lot faster than Naruto had anticipated him to be. The silver cane wielding yakuza boss darted to the left and speedily appeared next to Naruto with his silver sword swung in a decapitating strike. Naruto sunk through the ground much to Kigiri's surprise, and as the swordsman's eyes widened, Naruto emerged from the ground behind him and aimed a powerful strike for the kidneys.

Kigiri gasped as he fell to one knee, but before Naruto could follow up with another he was struck in the face by Kigiri's weapon, now morphed back into a cane. 'That silver manipulation ability of his doesn't sound dangerous in theory but it sure as hell is in practice.' Naruto nursed a gash on his cheek whilst Kigiri got to his feet. 'Not only that, he's incredibly fast. He's no Lee, but with an ability like that he doesn't need to be either.'

Naruto sure as hell hoped his teammates were faring better than he was as he rolled over his shoulders to avoid a lunge.

-ooo-

(Sarugaku VS Gantetsu)

"DIE!" Gantetsu swung a massive fist towards the wall. It instantly gave away, giving him space to run outside the warehouse with his opponent hot on his heels.

"You're not going anywhere, you oversized brute!" Sarugaku was upon the giant, wielding several kunai with ninja wire attached to them. The seasoned chūnin hurled the projectiles at Gantetsu as he tried to run for it and easily halted his movements with a web of ninja wire to which he added another salvo shuriken and some more ninja wire to it. As more projectiles lodged into the earth, the wire pulled tighter on the Iwa nuke-nin; completely halting his movements and allowing Sarugaku to take his time in catching up with his prey.

Gantetsu's breathing was laboured, still suffering from previous injuries at the hands of Naruto and his Kigiri; yet he was still smiling. "Looks like you got me."

Sarugaku held a single kunai in one hand, to which all other wires where connected. "You won't be smiling for long, Iwa scum!" Sarugaku reached into the large pouch on his hip, specifically for his demolition equipment and withdrew a thick roll of explosive tags.

Gantetsu's eyes widened in fear and Sarugaku smiled condescendingly. "Terrifying, isn't it?" Sarugaku mocked as he held the explosive tag roll to the kunai through which all wires connected. "Ninpō: Bakuhatsu Wana!" The roll in Sarugaku's hand began to rotate wildly as tag after tag seamlessly attached to the kunai and shot up the web of ninja wire. "This is where it ends!"

Sarugaku raised the kunai above his head and flung to the ground, sinking it up to its hole; and jumped back a few times to distances himself out of the blast radius. "Katsu!"

BOOM!

The explosion caused a series of small tremors through the ground and chunks of earth flew through the air as black smoke bellowed from the newly formed crater.

Sarugaku exhaled slowly as he approached his fallen victim, but it was until the smoke cleared that his eyes widened. In the middle of the crater, protecting by a huge chunk of earth was Gantetsu, seemingly unharmed by the explosion. "H- How?" Sarugaku shouted with disbelief. "The explosion should've killed you!"

"Heh!" Gantetsu smirked as he broke free from the earth shield, covered in large chunks of jagged pieces of earth. "I had you pegged as an arrogant one from the get-go, what with your 'heroic' speech 'n all. So, I made sure you went after me so I could lure you outside and while you took your perverted pleasure in slowly setting up my death I channelled chakra through the ground to pull him minerals I could use to heal myself!" Gantetsu burst out in laughter. "I played you like a fool!"

Sarugaku surged forward with his tantō drawn, rage in his eyes and chucking an explosive tag kunai at him, but Gantetsu did not falter, instead the giant swung a giant earth-encrusted fist at Sarugaku, intercepting the kunai with a chunk of earth and used the remainders of smoke to blindside Sarugaku and slam the Konoha-nin in the abdomen, sending him flying into a painful sprawl on the ground.

"And now you're going to die like a fool!"

-ooo-

(Shikamaru VS Kihō)

In another part of the warehouse, Shikamaru found himself running through a confined space muttering 'troublesome' like a mantra as his levitating dwarf opponent continued to launch grenade after grenade from his wrist launcher.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Series of explosions followed the shadow-user as he ran down the hall.

Shikamaru jumped forward and spun fast enough in the air to throw a kunai with an explosive tag attached to it to distract his opponent as he continued to down the hallways of the warehouse. Shikamaru slid on his feet around the corner, and reached for more kunai and explosive tags whilst muttering every swear word in the book.

"Gihahahaha! You can't run now, little mouse! Trickku Shotto!" Kihō took aim with his wrist launcher and shot three canisters at once; two bounding of the wall against another and strategically exploding in front of Shikamaru.

The explosion sent the shadow-user flying back towards Kihō, who took aim once again and shot a large net towards Shikamaru to bag him like a cat. "Gihahahaha!" the grey-skinned dwarf cackled, only to suddenly find himself incapable of moving. "Wh- What the…!"

"Kagemane no Jutsu, success." Shikamaru got to his feet with his hands in the rat hand seal.

Kihō was distraught with fear. "How did you-!"

"When you shot that net, I decided to wing it and use the shadow cast by the net as a medium to catch you. Looks like I'm in luck today, I should hit the casinos later." Shikamaru smiled lazily as he took a few step backwards looked to the ceiling, forcing Kihō to the same.

Place right above Kihō's head were two kunai with explosive tags attached to them.

"Wh- When did you throw those up there!"

Shikamaru yawned lazily. "Though it was only logical for you to force me into a confined space so I couldn't escape the blast radius of your grenades, you didn't account for any explosives I might have been carrying. Just before you tried that trick shot I threw two kunai in front of me and two behind. The ones I threw behind me were extremely mild variations and though they wouldn't be lethal for me, they could destroy your grenades and make them inert before they detonated."

"A- And what about these two? Are those two mi- mild variations?" Kihō's voice shook in fear.

Shikamaru shook his head. "I ran out of regular explosive tags so I had to go for these ones, they're considerably more powerful than the usual ones. If I'm not mistaken, once I detonate them, the ceiling will give away and crush you."

"W- Wait! I have money! Lots of it!" Kihō screamed at Shikamaru. "If you let me go, I'll give you as much money as you want - I'll give you every last penny I have!"

Shikamaru didn't deign to reply and merely smiled in his lazy manner.

BANG!

The ceiling above Kihō gave away with a loud explosion and just before the grey-skinned dwarf was buried by the debris, Shikamaru cancelled the jutsu.

"That's my part done… Yeah, I'll just sit the rest out," Shikamaru sighed as he slumped against the wall with a lazy sigh.

-ooo-

(Naruto VS Kigiri)

In the upper levels of the Kuroda-gumi warehouse, Naruto and Kigiri were still going at it in a heated combat that took them all over the place.

WOOSH!

Naruto ducked under a swipe to his head and retaliated by burying his fist in Kigiri's stomach; the lanky shinobi-turned-yakuza boss lurched over as saliva dripped down his chin. Naruto followed up with a crushing left hook to the temple to send his opponent crashing headfirst into the wall.

He had gotten used to Kigiri's speed and with time managed to exceed it. His opponent's movements became easier to predict and Naruto fully capitalised on Kigiri's weak taijutsu by delivering as many powerful strikes as he could in quick succession. 'This guy is nothing like Neji or Gaara,' Naruto thought, sidestepped a fencing-like lunge and retaliating with another punch to the kidney.

"Damn you!" Kigiri began swining his cane erratically, blood and saliva dripping down his chin. This couldn't be happening! How was he losing this badly, to a child no less! "I'll kill you!" Kigiri screamed as he swung his cane towards Naruto many times, changing its form wouldn't work so why bother with wasting chakra?

Naruto held up his guard, hopping from foot to foot like a boxer to keep his reflexes sharp. "Just give up, you can't beat me. You're going to die if you keep this up," Naruto warned. Kigiri's response was to swing down his cane, but Naruto already saw it coming a dashed forward, planting his left fist deep into Kigiri's stomach and snatching the cane out of his hand with right, following up with a roundhouse kick to knock the older shinobi down.

Naruto glared at Kigiri, "I can tell from your movements you've gotten rusty since you took over the Kuroda-gumi. It's still there in your mind," Naruto tapped the side of his head for emphasise, "But your body can't keep up with it. You're an easy target for someone like me who hasn't stopped fighting since he started!"

"ENOUGH! I will not stand here and take such disrespectful from a whelp like you, boy!" Kigiri bellowed, going through several hand seals.

A string of hand seals Naruto recognised, prompting him to swear out loud. "Fuck!"

"This ends NOW!" Kigiri cackled. "I may have lost some of my skill, but my partner in combat has not! Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Kigiri slammed down his arm on the concrete. It was almost dramatic how he did it, Naruto noted.

POOF!

The building shook and the ceiling collapsed as a giant pillar of smoke burst into existence followed by the earsplitting screech of a creature Naruto could only assume was a giant squirrel. Its fur was platinum blond, its eyes red and it claws were twice as long as Naruto was tall and thrice as thick. "I have come to serve, Kigiri-sama!" the creature resembling a squirrel bellowed. The creature was so big, that simply by summoning it, Kigiri had dispelled several of Naruto's clones and sent many yakuza and policemen flying through the air.

As fascinating as the creature was, Naruto didn't have much time to admire as Kigiri levelled his cane towards Naruto and commanded the best to attack. The summon obeyed and struck out with large drill like claws, tearing away at the warehouse building and forcing Naruto to run for it and jump onto rooftops nearby as he escaped.

"Oh, it is so ON!" Naruto shouted as he jumped high into the air, jumping from chunk of debris to chunk of debris to reach a high enough altitude from which he could determine a safe spot to summon Gamabunta. He had been dying for an excuse to summon the Toad Chief ever since Sarugaku called him a liar, and this was the perfect opportunity to not only get kick his TL in the teeth but to also beat Kigiri. Naruto's hands became blurs as he we went through the string of hand seals required and slammed his fast palms below him as though he were trying to touch the ground dozens of feet below. "KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU!"

POOF!

As the smoke cleared up, Naruto was over a hundred feet higher in the air positioned on the head of none other than Gamabunta the Toad Chief.

"GAKI!"

Author's Notes

Apologies for the long wait.

College just started, what ya gun' do about it, right? I had this chapter and the following two written up ages ago but unfortunately my beta's gone AWOL and after weeks of waiting I decided to just post it and edit out whatever mistakes I find or are pointed out to me in reviews – seriously though, don't simply review to point out my mistakes, it makes me cry. Just kidding – big boys don't cry. We just get all mad and throw tantrums.

Anywho… I know some of you – well a lot of you actually – have been wondering what the hell is up with Kumogakure Ninja. Well, what can I tell you? I'm not feeling it at the minute. Whenever I try to work on a chapter, I just completely lose focus. That doesn't happen nearly as much with my side project(s), hence why I'm updating Potential Realised instead of KN.

Regarding this chapter's content: yeah, I learned from my mistakes in Kumo Nin so I'm not going to draw out the starting arc of the story. Next chapter rounds up this little mini arc and we'll be getting onto the next arc soon and as many of you've guessed it, it's gonna be the Search for Tsunade Arc. After that arc, we'll be looking at a lot of original content and both plot and character development so look forward to that.

And before I forget, check out my profile to find out what Sarugaku and Hayase more or less look like. Since I took those two directly from the show, you might want to have a good ol' lookie-loo. Here's hoping I find a good enough image that resembles Rei. Those characters will be around for a while and play an interesting symbolism theme I've got going on – enough rambling!

See you next week. The next chapter will be up by the weekend!

...

Jutsu Used:

(Jutsu: Kengan no Jutsu - Fist Rock Technique) - C rank, offensive, short range. A common jutsu taught in the academies of Iwagakure, by encasing their arm in rock, the user can deal a powerful hardened punch against an opponent while being protected from direct contact with their target.

(Jutsu: Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu – Dragon Fire Technique) – C rank, offensive, mid range. By igniting channelling chakra through the lungs whilst inhaling, the user then proceeds to ignite a spark with chakra spit a stream of fire at a sizeable range.

(Jutsu: Ninpō: Bakuhatsu Wana! - Ninja Art! Explosion Trap) - B rank, offensive, ? range. A common jutsu used by demolition specialists in the shinobi world by combining ninja wire, explosive tags and projectiles such as a kunai and shuriken, the user creates a web of explosive impossible to escape from and surely to kill.