*Sorry about the long wait to those few who follow this story... I was super busy over the summer with work, and now I'm back in college, so I'll be pretty busy. Being an engineering major doesn't help with that... I'l try to put something out here and there, though. Anyway, here we go, chapter 3! There's a bit of action in this one, and some interesting character development should follow. Enjoy!*
Team 7 had spent most of the day traveling, and they decided to set up camp for the evening. The beginning of enemy territory was only another day's worth of travel away. However, despite their distance from Otogakure, a few ninja had their eyes on the unsuspecting team...
"Alright everyone," Kakashi inquired, "is this spot good enough? We're about a day away from the outskirts of Otogakure, so we should rest and prepare for tomorrow." The team agreed and began to set up shelter, save Kenji.
"Kenji, are you gonna help or what?" asked Sasuke in a slightly annoyed tone. "I can't rely on the dobe to help me; he'll mess something up."
"Give me a break, Sasuke... It's a campsite, not a math test."
While the two shot back and forth, Kenji stood silently with his head down and eyes closed.
"Great, he's standing still. It looks like we have another useless teammate..." Sasuke continued. "Looks like I'm the only competent one our age when it comes to performing duties."
Kenji jumped straight at Sasuke immediately following his remark. Sasuke instinctively took a defensive stance, prepared to fend off his so-called teammate. However, before Sasuke could react, Kenji had pulled him behind a tree with blazing speed as a dozen kunai impaled the ground where he previously stood.
"Kenji, what the hell..."
"Look," Kenji interrupted. "We've got company."
"Dammit, how'd that kid sense us? No matter, we'll take him down face to face."
A group of 10 men sporting the Otogakure hitai-ate appeared from the shadows, weapons drawn. They appeared to be unskilled bandits rather than shinobi, but Otogakure was fairly new, so they took what they could get for an army. As expected, the men wasted no time charging in at Team 7.
"Take 'em down, boys! We've got the numbers!"
Kakashi began to worry about his team a bit despite the obviously inexperienced enemy. "Kenji, you can handle a few of these guys, right?"
"Of course, Kakashi. I might have to help out my comrades first, though."
"Kenji, wait!" Kakashi exclaimed. "There are two coming right above you!"
Kenji smirked at Kakashi's words, confident that the enemy could not touch him. He then made the Ram hand sign, moved one arm to his side, and disappeared, leaving a log in his place. The two bandits dropping from the sky lodged their weapons into the log, unable to remove them. Kakashi made quick work of the two stuck bandits, and he continued to focus on another who originally targeted him. Unfortunately, the genin, particularly Sakura, were having trouble fending off their share of enemies.
"Sasuke, Naruto, I need help! They're really strong!" Sakura yelled to her teammates.
"I'm a bit busy here, Sakura!" Sasuke responded as he blocked each of his attackers.
"Hang on, Sakura! I have to deal with these guys first!" Naruto yelled back. The pink haired girl noticed something strange about Naruto saying her name.
'Sakura...? Not Sakura-chan?' she thought to herself. Momentarily lost in thought, she left herself wide open for an attack.
'Dammit all, she's gonna get herself killed,' Sasuke thought. "Sakura, you're wide open!" Sasuke shook off his attackers and jumped in front of Sakura just in time to counter what would have been a lethal blow from a bandit's hatchet. While he saved Sakura, he left himself open for an assault from the two he was defending against before.
"Gotcha now, pretty boy!" one of the bandits shrieked as he and his comrade charged towards a defenseless Sasuke. Sasuke saw the attack coming, but he didn't have enough time to react, even with his Sharingan active. The best he could do was guard and brace himself for the steel blade heading straight for him.
Sasuke squinted his eyes in anticipation of the strike. He heard flesh tearing as expected, but he felt no pain. He opened his eyes to see Kenji standing before him, arm extended to help him off the ground.
"Sasuke, are you alright? That could've been disastrous." Kenji then took on a bit more serious tone. "Sakura, you should know better than that... Never leave yourself wide open in the middle of battle. Always stay on your guard."
"I'm sorry... I really messed up, didn't I...?" Sakura innocently questioned.
"No, Sakura," Kenji assured. "I'm sure you learned from this, and that's what's important."
"Not to interrupt," Sasuke chimed in, "but what happened to the bandits?"
"No need to worry, Sasuke; I took care of them." Kenji pointed his finger to a pile of 6 seemingly unconscious men.
"What? You took on all six of them, and you don't have a scratch? How?!" Sasuke began to grow irritated, jealous that someone near his age could achieve such skill. His emotions got the best of him, and his curse mark began to burn. After Kenji curiously glared at him for clutching his shoulder in response, Sasuke calmed himself and resumed his cool attitude.
"Never mind... Sakura, go help Naruto and Kakashi. I need to ask Kenji something... Privately." Sakura simply nodded in response and headed in the opposite direction.
"Kenji," Sasuke questioned, "how did you obtain such power?"
"What do you mean, Sasuke?"
"How'd you knock these guys out so quickly without breaking a sweat?"
Kenji stayed silent for a few moments before uttering, "They aren't knocked out..."
Sasuke gave him a puzzled look before walking over to the pile of defeated enemies. Only upon closer inspection did he notice that not one of the bodies was breathing or had a pulse.
"They're... dead?" Sasuke kicked one of the corpses over and discovered three massive claw marks through the man's lifeless chest. Another man exhibited similar markings, and the bottom two of the pile were charred and skewered beyond recognition.
Sasuke spoke his thoughts out loud, evidently laced with both amazement and fear. "You... you have to be monster to do this. I've never seen such killing intent."
If there was one person that hated to be called "monster" more than Naruto, it was Kenji.
"Excuse me, Sasuke?" Kenji questioned angrily, shooting a deadly glare towards the Uchiha. "I did nothing more than what was necessary to protect my comrades. Do you have a problem with my actions?"
Sasuke tensed in slight fear. He hadn't expected the seemingly innocent boy to have such a dark streak. "N-no, not at all. Thanks for s-saving m-me..."
Naruto couldn't help his curiousity and caught a few glimpses of his two teammates talking. He became even more intrigued when Kenji showed what appeared to be an aggressive demeanor. 'Wow, I never thought that guy could get mad... I wonder what the hell the teme did to piss him off.'
Upon hearing Sasuke's apology, Kenji returned to his normal, upbeat mood. "Alright then! Let's continue setting up camp, shall we?"
'That was close...' Sasuke thought to himself. 'After seeing what he can do, he's the last one I want to piss off. Something's not right about him...'
After the team set up camp, the younger members of the group unanimously voted Kakashi for guarding the site while they rested. With a heavy sigh, the white haired jonin leaped away to scan the perimeter of the area. In his absence, the rest of the team had not much else to do but talk amongst themselves around the fire before bed. To no one's surprise, Naruto was the first to speak up, but he brought up an unusually serious topic.
"Hey Kenji, what'd Sasuke-teme do to get under your skin earlier? You looked pretty pissed after we took care of those bandits." Sasuke tried his best to hide an otherwise audible gulp at the sound of his words.
As usual, Sakura obnoxiously intervened whenever Naruto said anything even remotely negative about her unrequited love interest. "Shut up, Naruto! Sasuke didn't do anything wrong! Kenji's probably mad about something dumb, anyway. All of you guys are like that!"
"Sakura, shut it..." murmured a pale-faced Sasuke.
"Why, Sasuke? I'm telling them you didn't do anything!" She felt no regret with her words... Until she caught a glimpse of Kenji's face. His glare made her realize why Sasuke told her to stay quiet. "I-I mean, I'm sorry... I'm gonna h-head to bed. N-night, guys."
'Alright,' Naruto mused. 'Sasuke didn't do anything... Kenji's not telling us something.'
Kenji's smile returned as quickly as it had disappeared. "Alright! Goodnight, Sakura! Sleep well!"
The entire team contemplated staring at him in confusion, but they thought better of it, fearing that his ruthless side might resurface. At this point, even Naruto knew something was amiss, and he refused to sit idly by and leave this mystery unsolved.
'Now I KNOW something's weird with this guy... And I'm gonna find out what.'
*Hmm, what's wrong with Kenji? Any Bloody Roar fan could probably figure it out with a bit of inferencing, but stick around for Chapter 4 if you wanna see where it goes. I honestly felt a bit ehhhh about this chapter, but it establishes a conflict with Kenji that ties nicely in with Naruto's past, so hopefully things unfold nicely once I get to that point. Thanks for reading - until next time!*