Team One

by Joshua The Evil Guy

AU What if Naruto ended up not on Team 7 or any of the other Teams, but one of those that didn't make the original cut? Such as Team One. With different teammates and a new Jounin Sensei, what will happen in Naruto's future? Naru/Hina-dating

4. First C Rank

Summary: Team One has been assigned their first C-Rank Mission, protecting a very important person on a journey from Konoha to the Capitol of the Country of Fire.

Disclaimer: Squad 1 is lead by Sergeants Ryo and Koma aka "Anubis" and consist of Kento, Cye, Rowan, and Sage. Each are based off of the "Ronin Warriors" and their armors and weapons even look identical. Koma is Anubis's original human name before he put on the Armor of Cruelty/Loyalty. Ronin Warriors is owned by Sunrise, Inc.

Squad 2 is lead by Sergeants Heero and Zechs, and consist of Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Wu Fei. Each is based off of the gundam pilots from "Gundam Wing" and their armors and weapons are 'samuraized' versions of their respective gundams and weapons. Gundam Wing is also owned by Sunrise, Inc.

Soundtrack:

"First Encounter" - Green Day's "Do You Know The Enemy" on their World Breakdown album

"Mountain Fight" - Nickelback's "Animals" (minus lyrics) from their album All The Right Reasons

"Kyuubi no Kitsune" - Linkin Park's "In The End" of their Hybrid Theory album

Story:

The morning started off very early for the genin of Team One. Having gotten used to being up by 5 and 6 AM so they could get to their training as ninja with their Jounin Sensei at 7, it was quite another to be at the North Gate prepared for a long-term protection detail mission in the wilderness and still be there at 7 o'clock on the dot. Surprisingly, their client, the Fire Sage Roku was already there waiting for them, still in his red maroon robes from the day before, but he also had a hiker's backpack as well as a packing mule standing nearby. He sat on a bench near the guardhouse that was just inside the North Gate.

"My oh my, what is it that has you three so exhausted?" Sage Roku asked them, putting on the air of a 'concerned grandfather' when he saw the bags under their eyes and their slow gait towards him.

"Couldn't sleep," Naruto said while yawning, "Too excited."

"Packing and preparing everything that I would need," Kasumi dully replied, "Plus I had a... conversation with my brother about several things. It was a long night."

"Late-night training," Ryu grunted. He stopped yawning and was now trying to catch up on the sleep he'd missed while he could. He'd learned how to sleep standing up a long time ago. Through necessity.

Everyone turned to face Ryu, surprise evident on all of their faces.

"Your family had you training half the night away?" Roku questioned.

"My clan," Ryu corrected, fighting another yawn, "insisted upon testing me to prove that I'm capable. Besides, I just haven't had my coffee yet this morning. Hayato-sensei usually gives us enough time to have breakfast before meeting him. I got all the sleep and rest that I needed for the night, it's just too damn early."

"Someone's not a morning person," Kasumi teased.

"Talk to me again in an hour, after I've either had exercise, or coffee. Preferably both," he said.

"I don't think we have the time for the latter, but I'll be glad to provide plenty of exercise," Hayato's voice came from directly behind him.

"AAAAHHHHHH!" all three genin jumped up, the surprise from their sensei popping up like he usually did wiping away their exhaustion with adrenaline. "DON'T DO THAT!!"

"Good, you're on time," Hayato grinned at them, ignoring their exclamation.

"You know, we're not all as young as we appear to be, Hayato," Roku admonished the jounin, holding his own heart and breathing heavily. "Please refrain from scaring us like that for the duration of this mission."

"Hai, Sage Roku," Hayato nodded, keeping his face neutral and expressionless.

Ryu suggested Hayato do something both rude and anatomically impossible, before getting his breathing back under control and slumping up against the side of the gate. He was in his black 'mission' clothes, pitch black pants and boots with ninja-mesh armor covering his torso and a skintight black shirt over that. Currently his hood was hanging loose around his neck and his mask was also held down, with his Konoha headband covering his forehead as always.

Kasumi sighed as the adrenaline slowly left her system, leaving her just as exhausted as before. She was dressed very differently, however, from what everyone was used to seeing her in. It was very similar to what Ryu was wearing, only more feminine and with different styles. It was all black, the pants allowing for a freedom of movement, while being strapped tight against her shins by shin-guards and boots that appeared to be woven into the outfit. The top was a tight black sleeveless tunic, black-colored ninja-mesh armor beneath it, leaving her upper arms bare while she wore ninja armored gauntlets on both arms. Her chestnut reddish-brown hair, which she usually left up in a ponytail, was now hanging loose around her shoulders and down her back. Her Konoha headband was secured into her equipment belt at her waist.

Naruto, right behind his teammates, was also dressed and ready for the mission. He was wearing the outfit that Kasumi and Ryu had helped him buy from O'aka's, black steel-toed boots, dark ANBU-regulation pants, ninja mesh body armor covered with a dirty orange flak jacket and the black and orange tiger stripe armored jacket that came to his knees, not counting the shuriken holsters, specialized bracers and equipment pouches and black-cloth headband made the normally happy-go-lucky boy look like a real shinobi. He had also been yawning, but now he didn't look nearly as tired as his two teammates.

"Well then, I do believe we're all here, so let us..." Roku stopped talking as he caught sight of something in the distance. His bodyguards from Konoha to the Capitol also noticed the approaching dust cloud, and before too long they identified it as an approaching horse-drawn coach, moving at very high speeds.

"Oh dear," Roku sighed, looking suddenly weary, "I had hoped to have left before she'd gotten here."

"Uh, who?" Naruto asked, even as he got his answer as the horses and carriage came to a halt right in front of the gates to Konoha. It was expensive looking with red paneling and gold highlights. It screamed wealth with every seam.

"My granddaughter," Roku sighed again, "Or rather, great-granddaughter, Ozai Azula."

"Wait a minute," Ryu blurted out. "Ozai, as in... the Ozai family?!"

"My granddaughter, Azula's mother, married into the family. Or rather, as I like to think of it, their son married into mine." Roku grinned at the youths, before turning to face the carriage and stepping out to meet the occupant.

The door on the carriage was immediately opened by a footman and out stepped a tall, handsome young woman, only a couple years older than the genin themselves, her midnight black hair tied up in a bun, her flawless white skin lightly colored with make-up, and she was wearing a form-fitting royal red and gold Chinese-style dress with a slit up to the knee on both sides.

"Grandfather! There you are!" she cried out in a cultured alto. "When Mother and I heard you were on your way home, I just couldn't resist the temptation of escorting you there myself, so I called up our dear cousin to offer me some aid in retrieving you to the Capitol! Cousin... oh what's his name?"

"The Daimiyo," the Fire Sage informed her. "Azula-chan, you did not have to come all this way just to escort me back. Besides, Hiruzen and I came to an understanding about a few things. The least of which is that I give at least some patronage to Konoha while I'm here, and so I've hired these ninja to escort me home. Honestly Azula-chan, you are always so impetuous. Why did you bring so many men with you anyway?"

"Father insisted upon it," she replied, sounding bored. Then her eye caught on the ninja standing just behind her great-grandfather. "Well, hello there. You four must be the ninja Grandfather is referring to. Honestly, you could afford to buy all of Konoha and it wouldn't dent our coffers, why did you buy so few, Grandfather?"

Roku just sighed and rolled his eyes up to the heavens, as though praying for patience.

"HEY!" Naruto screamed, losing his temper.

The shout startled most everyone around, except of course for his team, who were used to sudden outbursts from him by now. Azula's eyes went wide and she took a step back in fright, not used to getting yelled at by anyone, in fact more used to being the one doing the yelling while everyone else apologized to her. Well, everyone except for her mother, grandmother and great-grandfather. They were the only ones that were strict with her and treated her as a person, not something as fragile as a silk-thin glass ornament.

"For your information, hime," he got right up in her face, which was difficult as she was taller than he was, "Roku-jiisan did not buy us! He hired us for a mission, to protect him and escort him back to his home! And I promised to do just that after meeting him, and I keep my word! That's my nindo, my ninja way!"

Then he took it a step further and he poked her high on her chest, saying further, "Not that a spoiled brat like you understands the meaning of keeping a promise! Even if you are Roku-jiisan's great-granddaughter, I can tell you're nothing like him! So just shut up, get back in your fancy schmancy ride, go back to where you came from and let us do our jobs, ALL RIGHT!"

Azula blinked, more than a little stunned by such an outright accusation.

"I'm sorry, but who are you and what gives you the right to address me, or my Grandfather in such... undignified terms?" she frowned at him, drawing herself up to her full height once she'd composed herself.

Naruto just smirked, rather than cower as she had expected him to do.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage of Konoha, and the ninja assigned to protect your great-grandfather, even if it means from spoiled brats like you!" he proudly informed her.

Most everyone sweat-dropped at that last bit, except for Roku himself, who was struggling not to burst out laughing at any second from the same scene. When Azula noticed this, she became very confused. She knew her great-grandfather was a bit of an eccentric, (he was the most powerful man in several countries, Hi no Kuni only being the primary and all he did was live the 'quiet' life and travel around 'visiting old friends'), but she had seen him tear other powerful men to pieces before (not literally) for showing as much disrespect as Naruto had just shown her.

"Grandfather!" she protested his restrained laughter.

"Naruto, may I introduce my great-granddaughter, Ozai Azula, Fourth Princess of Hi no Kuni and 174th Princess in the Dynasty," the Fire Sage spoke after finally conquering his need to laugh out loud. "Azula, as he already introduced himself, this is Uzumaki Naruto, one of my bodyguards until I arrive home. This is Hayabusa Ryu of the Hayabusa Clan. This is Tenshin Kasumi of the Mugen Tenshin Clan. And this is their Jounin Sensei, Kanzaki Hayato."

Azula blushed to match her dress as she realized the blunder she'd made far too late. It was not this... Naruto that had been the rude one, but she herself. He had just been returning her rudeness back at her, as her mother and grandfather had often warned her would happen in the real world.

Stepping back and lowering her head in a gesture of submissiveness and apology, she spoke to the Konoha-nin before her, "My apologies. I spoke hastily in my joy at seeing Grandfather once more. I meant no offense, Uzumaki-san. Forgive me?" she batted her eyes at him, looking at him through her lashes in a seductive glance she'd seen women of the court sometimes do.

Naruto blinked, surprised at the sudden change of tone from the young woman before him. Scratching his head in confusion, he looked back and forth between her and the Fire Sage. Seeing Roku nod and smile at him, Naruto grinned wide and enthusiastically pronounced to the black-haired noble, "Sure! No harm, no foul, right? I forgive you, no problem."

Then he turned his back on her and walked back to stand next to his teammates as though that were the end of the matter. Azula, on the other hand, was left flabbergasted, not having expected that reaction at all. But then again, she said to herself, judging Naruto by his appearance, he didn't look as though puberty had hit yet so he probably wasn't really affected by her sex appeal in the slightest. Oh well, she shrugged, it's not like it matters anyway.

"Very well then," Azula snapped herself back to attention, turning to address her great-grandfather once more, "I'm certain there is more than enough room in the carriage for one of the Mugen Tenshin Clan, and the others can certainly fit in well with the soldiers Father requested I bring along..."

"Azula-chan," Roku interrupted her.

"Yes, Grandfather?" she replied, looking up at him with wide innocent eyes.

"Where is the commander of this unit, if you please?" he gestured to the soldiers, all 100 of them standing at attention behind the carriage.

"Oh, uh," she was at a loss for a moment before turning and calling out, "Captain Sokka? Captain Sokka! If you wouldn't mind..."

"Yes, thank you Azula-chan," Roku waved his great-granddaughter off. "Please wait while I discuss somethings with the Captain. Hayato?" Immediately the jounin was joining the conversation between the Fire Sage and the guard captain.

"Wonder what that's about?" Naruto idly commented to his teammates, ignoring the spoiled princess only a few paces away from them.

"Knowing Hayato-sensei, he'll let us know eventually. When it's most inconvenient for us," Ryu said.

"You're probably right," Naruto and Kasumi both agreed.

Over by the adults, Hayato, Roku, and Captain Sokka began discussing what it was they were going to do now. Sokka looked less than pleased with Azula dragging him and his men all the way to Konoha for nothing it seemed, Roku was highly annoyed with his great granddaughter, but more so with the ones in authority that let her come here on a whim, while Hayato was just trying to figure out the best possible way to ensure his and his team's success in their mission without pissing off the wrong people.

"Captain Sokka, may I ask what your specific orders were, when you were given this assignment?" Roku asked the soldier, after introducing the captain and the jounin to each other.

"To put it bluntly, sir," Sokka replied, "Protect Miss Azula, and yourself, and ensure both of you return to the Capitol without harm. Specifically, that is all I was told."

"Personally, Seijin Roku-sama, I have no objection to taking the main roads to the Capitol..." Hayato spoke with the utmost respect to the Fire Sage in front of strangers. Especially one of the Fire Lord's soldiers.

"Actually, we left only three days after you were reported to be in Konoha, sir," Sokka mentioned to Roku. "That was over two weeks ago, if I recall correctly, and we came via those same roads, stopping only after sundown and at every inn and hot spring along the shortest route. Also, there were preparations for several celebrations being set up. Celebrations, which I was told would be happening during the next month."

Both men looked at the soldier with disbelieving eyes before sighing and rolling their eyes to the heavens for patience and peace.

"Well, I don't know about you, Hayato," Roku grumbled, "but I do not feel like traveling for another month just to get home, when the pass through the mountains will have me there within the week! Captain, I leave it up to you if you wish to follow us or simply return my great granddaughter home, either way I assure you that you and your men will be compensated for your trouble."

"Thank you sir, but most of our gear can't make it through that mountain pass, and I have my orders."

"Yes, to make sure Azula makes it home safely," Roku told him. "I have hired my own protection and escort, thank you very much. Also, four ninja and an old man do not attract nearly as much attention as a contingent of soldiers and ninja struggling over the mountains on the most direct, shortest route between Konoha and the Capitol. The best way you can ensure mine and my granddaughter's safe return, Captain, is by taking her straight back home and letting me and my hired escort go our own way. Azula is known to travel through the countryside on a whim, so nothing untoward or suspicious should happen, and as I said, no one will suspect who I am or my intentions if the party is kept small and ordinary."

"No offense, sir, but you are very recognizable," Sokka pointed out.

"And did it occur that maybe I have a change of clothes in my gear?" Roku jerked his thumb over at the stuffed backpack, still leaning up against the bench beside the gate. "It will take us a day to reach the foothills, another half a day to reach the base of the mountain and get to the pass. And then only two or three days at the most to get through the pass and to the guardhouse on the other side, where I will then be within a days walking distance of my home. No, I refuse to go through three weeks of roadside travel and overbooked inns and festival traffic when a short hike through the mountains will get me there just the same. Captain, as I said, it is your choice, but my advice is to take my great granddaughter home, maybe even take the time to enjoy those celebrations yourselves, and let me and my escorts go our own way."

"Sir, I must protest..." he started to say, but a hard look and a raised hand from Roku silenced him.

"Don't worry Captain," Hayato clasped the man by the shoulder, "My team and I are very good at our duties. I also owe Sage Roku a lifetime of debts, so you can be sure that I will be very motivated in making sure he is safely returned to his home. If it would make you more comfortable, we could take a small number of your men, maybe even yourself along with us. No more than ten, though. Any more and we would attract the wrong sort of attention. As it is, it will just look like a wealthy old merchant going to deliver his goods. Bandits are no problem, it's the other kind of attention that we're trying to avoid here, you understand?"

"I do, more than you think I do," Sokka said to the jounin. "Ultimately, however, what we do will be up to Miss Azula. If she insists on staying by your side, Roku-sama..."

"Then you'll follow my orders over hers, and personally escort her to the Capitol along the safer route," Roku said sternly.

"... Of... course, sir," Sokka sighed, looking like he wanted to cry.

The discussion apparently over, Roku turned back towards where Azula and the genin were all waiting, Hayato and the Captain following along behind him. Seeing the adults approach, the youths all sprung to attention, even Azula who respected her Sage relative a great deal, and that shone through in her posture.

"Azula-chan, my dear," Roku approached her and kissed her lovingly on the forehead, "It has been good to see you, and I do appreciate that you came all this way just to see me, but I have been away from home too long, and would much rather get back home sooner rather than later. I will be going home through the mountain pass, with the ninja that I have already hired to escort and protect me."

"But Grandfather," Azula immediately protested, not caring that she was in front of strangers, "there are bandits in the mountains. They might... attack you, or something."

"Hence why I will be protected by Hayato, Kasumi, Naruto, and Ryu," Roku pointed out to her. "Don't worry Azula-chan, I will be fine, and back home before the week is out."

"But... I wanted to spend some time with you. You never have time for me when you're at home," she whined. Roku sighed.

"Yes, and I am sorry about that. I have spoken with the Captain and he agrees with me, it would not be prudent to take all of these men that you brought with you through the mountain pass. We would be attacked for sure, and not just by bandits, but by those that we'd rather avoid the attention of. I'm sure you understand."

"I do, but..."

"You are free to do as you wish, Azula-chan," Roku said. "As am I. I have decided to take the mountain pass. Most of the soldiers are going back the way that you came, the Captain included. I advise you to go with them, enjoy the celebrations and festivals that will be happening as you pass. I will see you when you finally get home." He chuckled.

Azula fumed for a moment, then suddenly her face lit up as she said out loud, "Then I will go with you."

"WHAT?!!" the soldiers and ninja all screamed. Roku smiled rather knowingly.

"As I said, you are free to do as you wish, but I strongly advise you to go back with the Captain the safer route," Roku told her.

Azula seemed to consider this for several moments, before turning to address the Guard Captain.

"Captain Sokka! Assign a detachment from your men and ration out only the essentials that I and my grandfather will need for our journey. Then take the rest of your men and do as Grandfather suggested and go to the festivals and celebrations. Those that do not go with us have the time off from their duties. Uh... How many men would you suggest that we take with us, Captain?"

Sokka had to give the spoiled princess some credit, for asking him his opinion rather than Roku's, or worse just deciding on her own. "To be honest, I would normally say all of them," he sighed. "But in this case two squads should do. Any more and you'd just be asking for trouble. Sergeant Ryo! Sergeant Heero!"

Two armored guards detached themselves from the rest and ran forward, coming to attention before their Captain. They were both young, probably no older than 19. One was wearing mostly red armor with a pair of katana strapped to the back, the other silver-white armor with dark blue highlights with weaponized shield on his back and a saber strapped to his waist. The one in red armor had wild-looking solid black neck-length hair and blue eyes. The other had short-cut messy brown hair and hazel brown eyes.

"Sergeant Ryo," the Captain addressed the one in red armor, "gather your squads and ration your supplies from the caravan. We'll be giving you a single cart and horses. You and your men will be directly responsible for the safety of Miss Azula and Fire Sage Roku. Hop to it."

"Sergeant Heero," he turned to the remaining soldier after Ryo had run off to follow orders. "Gather your men and as many weapons and supplies for yourselves that you think you will need. If you feel that you need to, you may enlist two others from the rest of the men, one for each squad. The goal of this endeavor is stealth above all else. Expect bandit attacks. Both you and Sergeant Ryo will answer to the jounin ninja, Kanzaki Hayato, who answers directly to Sage Roku. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir!" Sergeant Heero snapped a salute.

"Get to it then. Who do you have in mind for the two extras?"

"I was thinking... Zechs and Koma, sir," he replied.

Sokka nodded in approval. "Good. Get them, be ready in half an hour, no later. The rest of us will be moving out shortly after, with the Sage's approval, we'll escort you to the highway where we will then depart."

Roku sighed again, but nodded and answered, "That will be fine Captain. Thank you."

Highway to Mountain Pass

Three Miles From Konoha

One Hour Later

The group of eighteen watched as the column of soldiers all marched off in the direction of the nearest town, which was another fifteen miles in the other direction, but since they all had the next few weeks off as they slowly made their way back to the Capitol, most of them were in good spirits. The twelve soldiers assigned to guard Azula and her great grandfather (in that order, by order of the Sage himself), were in loose formation and had taken off their armor and most of their weapons. Ryu, Naruto and Kasumi were standing close together, the boys both rather relaxed and Kasumi demonstrating the good posture she was raised to possess. Hayato was by Roku's side and very little could get the jounin much further than a dozen feet from his client.

Once the soldiers were out of sight, the group started off in the direction of the mountains, thankfully which were only another twenty miles away, so they would be there by nightfall. The guards took up a standard escort formation, four in front, four in back, one on the cart, one on either side of the cart, and one roving between the front and back positions. Roku and Hayato chose to walk ahead of the cart, while the genin ran alongside in the trees, scouting ahead and around the group to make sure there were no surprises. Azula, after half a mile, had complained about blisters on her feet and was put on the seat of the cart next to the guard/driver.

Before having left, both Azula and Roku had changed their clothes, Roku into the commoner's clothing that he'd had in his backpack, which he was also wearing and for all appearances was merely an old merchant mountaineer going with his goods on a day trip through the mountains. Azula had, unfortunately, left behind almost all of her clothing with the rest of the soldiers and finally had to go and buy something at a Konoha vendor so she could wear something other than fine embroidered cloaks, silk dresses and high-heeled shoes.

"So," Naruto asked as he came up on Roku and Hayato at the head, "how did you meet Hayato-sensei, Roku-jiisan? I know you gave him that sword he uses, but you had to have known each other before that. Was it on a mission, like this one?"

"Something like that," Hayato answered shortly.

Roku chuckled and repeated, "Yes, something like that indeed."

"Oh, do tell the tale, Grandfather. You always tell such marvelous tales!" Azula said enthusiastically.

"I'm kind of curious myself," Ryu said, passing alongside them as he patrolled.

"There's not really a story behind it," Hayato said.

"Unfortunately true," Roku sighed, yet still smiling. "The simple matter of it is that I met Hayato here when he was still just a genin. Only about seven or eight years ago by now. I was visiting Hiruzen, the Hokage. I believe it was to discuss that year's Chuunin Exams. Hayato was a hopeful to enter that year, but his team had been split up, due to injury, and the Jounin Sensei refusing to submit their names for entry."

"It was entirely by chance that we ran into each other, wasn't it?" the Sage asked him.

"Some would see it that way," Hayato stated, not saying anything else. Those listening in sweat-dropped in exasperation.

"I was on my way to have some lunch at a ramen stand I knew had good food..." Roku continued.

"Ichiraku Ramen!" Naruto interrupted with a loud shout. "They're the best at making ramen!"

"Ah yes, Ichiraku and his daughter. I've heard he's become even better over the years," he remarked. "Anyway, as I was headed there, I just happened to pass by an argument in the street, where Hayato's Jounin Sensei was screaming at him and the kunoichi of the team and berating them being unable to take part in the Chuunin Exams. What was his name again?"

Hayato's stare had gone stone-cold and there was a tension around him that hadn't been there a few minutes ago. "Rokusho Aoi," he hissed, the hate almost dripping from his voice.

"Nukenin from Konoha, stole the Second Hokage's Raijin no ken and is thought to have defected to Ame, Hidden Rain," one of the guards spoke in monotone – it was the Sergeant, Heero Yuy. "He was your Jounin Sensei?" he asked Hayato.

"Along with Morino Idate and Lin June," Roku answered for the stoic jounin. "Whatever did happen to June, Hayato?"

He did not answer.

Instead, he slapped Sergeant Heero on the shoulder and told him, "I'm taking my team for some field training. We'll be nearby. Stick to the road until we get to the foothills."

Heero was silent for a few seconds, before nodding and turned back to his duty. Hayato gathered Naruto, Ryu and Kasumi and pulled them off the side of the road and up into the trees still surrounding them on all sides.

"What was that all about?" Ryu wanted to know.

"Never mind," Hayato growled, or as close as he'd ever come before. "One of the things you all still need to work on is your tracking skills. Following a person's chakra is one thing, but sometimes what you'll be tracking or following won't have a chakra signature. Pay attention, because you know how I hate to repeat myself. I hate to repeat myself."

They gulped and nodded, paying close attention to everything he said.

As much as they learned by accident by tracking the 'Damn Cat' and by working with Team Eight, Kasumi, Naruto and Ryu learned almost a lifetime's worth more from personal instruction from their Jounin Sensei. He showed them tracking on the ground, in the trees, how to identify if the one that passed through was a ninja, civilian or something else, and how to gain more information from those tracks than they could if the one being tracked was standing right in front of them.

A few hours later, on the edge of the forest right before they would enter the foothills countryside, Hayato told them to rejoin their client and tell the guards and Roku to stop for lunch once they reached the stream only a mile ahead. While he was gone, Hayato set up a little test for his genin in regards to their tracking skills. Once he rejoined the group, just as they were resting the horses and getting out the food, he spoke with Roku for a moment. The old man tried to apologize for earlier, but Hayato waved him off, telling him that it didn't really matter. He'd gotten over Idate's and Aoi's betrayal a long time ago, but everybody has their sore spots. He did have one other thing to say about it though.

"Do not ever talk about June in front of my genin again, got it old man?" Hayato growled at the Fire Sage, putting his face so close that no one but Roku could hear him. "After that... incident, she tried to commit suicide. I stopped her, thankfully, but she hasn't ever been the same since. She's been made an honorary chuunin and works at the Konoha Ninja Library. Stop," he kept the old man from saying anything, "I don't want to hear it. Aoi was a traitor and I don't give a shit about him one way or the other. But do not mention June again. Understood?"

Roku was silent for a moment, before lowering his eyes in remorse and nodding his head.

"Good. I'm going to take my genin on a short little test here. Leave by one-thirty at the latest, even if they're not back yet. I'll be observing them at the time, but I'll still be watching," he told him.

"... I'm sorry," Roku tried to apologize again.

"Don't be. What happened with June was actually her father's fault and if it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't have been able to save her in time. So... thanks, again." Hayato then walked off and had to drag his genin away from the lunch the guards were preparing.

"Aww! How come we don't get to eat! You're not making us eat those ration bars for the whole mission, are you?!" Naruto complained.

"No, he wouldn't do that," Ryu said, then looked uncertain, "Would he?"

"No, I wouldn't," Hayato answered. "But I would take the lunches you prepared for yourselves and hidden them in the wilderness in places that you'll only be able to find using the tracking skills I just taught you. You have one hour."

"WHAT!!!" all three of them screamed, Kasumi already diving for her own pack to find the boxed lunch missing. Then she noticed something else.

"Wait a minute, I had more than just today's meal in here! ALL my food is missing!" she cried.

"Well, I did keep this," Hayato held an instant ramen pack and tossed it between his hands. "Help your teammates find their food, Naruto, and I'll not only give this back to you, I'll have it prepared and waiting for you the minute you get back."

Naruto, on the verge of yelling the jounin's ear off, stopped himself and turned to his teammates. Demonstrating a surprising control of his temper, he just grunted and said to them, "Let's go, clock's probably already started and knowing how Ryu likes his beef, wild animals might be getting into it as we speak. We don't have as much time as we might think to find it all."

"...I hate you." Ryu deadpanned to the jounin then followed his friend's advice and all three of them ran off, looking for specific signs in the environment to help them in finding the boxed lunches. It only took five minutes of individual searching before Naruto used his shadow clones to help with the search.

"What are they doing?" Azula asked her great grandfather as they were eating sushi with the guards.

Roku chuckled and answered, "Hayato decided to take the opportunity to instruct his students in proper tracking methods. As a test of their learning, he hid their lunches and gave them specific signs to look for in order for them to retrieve their meal. Knowing him though, he probably just left false trails in the forest and then kept their boxed lunches for himself!"

"Nope, already checked there," a Naruto-clone replied as he passed, looking all over the grass and dirt around them. "His food has got seals on them too, so we couldn't just steal his either. Hey Captain-san, got some snacks that we can borrow for a bit? It's taking longer than we thought to find our lunches."

Sergeant Sanada Ryo laughed then shrugged as he tossed three ration bars, grain-flavored, to the clone. "No problem kid. By the way, I'm not a captain, I'm a sergeant. Here you go. Aren't you a shadow clone though? I didn't think clones ate. And have you tried the forest yet?"

"Yeah, that's where the boss is searching right now," the clone replied, pocketing the bars. "And actually we found out by accident that shadow clones actually can eat, but we don't really need to. Unless the Boss is hungry when he summons us, which is why I need to get these snack bars to them as soon as I can. Thanks!"

The clone then ran off back to the forest, where dozens of clones were all searching for clues on where to pick up their sensei's trail. The clients and their guards watched him go and resumed their own meals.

"That was a good point about false trails though, Roku-sama," Sgt. Ryo commented. "Think they'll figure it out?"

"Not in a million years," Duo Maxwell, a private in Sgt. Heero's squad, immediately called out.

"I'm down for that. No way can a bunch of green genin best an experienced jounin in anything, from tracking to fighting. They'll never find those lunches," Kento Rei Fang, in Sgt. Ryo's squad, added.

"I don't know," Date Sage, also in Sgt. Ryo's squad, said, "This may be their first C-Rank mission, but they don't look like ones to give up easily. I think they could do it. Eventually."

"We're not talking eventually though," Trowa Barton, in Sgt. Heero's squard, remarked. "We're talking about right now. I too think they'll be able to find it, and retrieve them in time to join us for the remainder of our own lunch."

"Willing to put your money where your mouth is?" Toshidata Koma, one of the two extra sergeants Heero had suggested they bring along, challenged. Privately, behind his back, he was known as Anubis amongst the soldiers ranks. To find out why, one only had to see how he handled himself on the battlefield.

"What's the bet?" Hashiba Rowen, from Sgt. Ryo's squad, answered the challenge.

"Oh, let's keep this friendly and manageable," Roku broke in on the conversation, then pulled out a small bag from his belt. "How about those that choose the losing side must set up and clean up the camp for the rest of this mission. The winners get to hunt when setting up camp and ride on the cart in shifts."

"I'm in," Duo announced, grinning from ear to ear.

"Me too!" Kento agreed.

"This is pointless," Chang Wufei, in Sgt. Heero's squad, scoffed. "I refuse to participate in childishness."

"I believe they can do it too," Quatre Winner, the last of Sgt. Heero's squad, said. "I'm in."

"I wouldn't be surprised if they showed up in the last five minutes, but I do believe they can do it," Trowa stated his side.

"How about it Rowen? Cye?" Sage asked, "Think they'll do it?"

"Why not? I woulda been stuck hunting either way, all of you guys are lousy shots," Rowen agreed. They had all noticed the gold-plated bow he carried amongst his weapons, but only his fellow soldiers knew just how good he was with it.

"I fancy them succeeding, but I don't know if I'd be willing to bet clean-up duty on it," Mouri Cye, the last from Sgt. Ryo's squad, commented. "I'm with Wufei, keep me out of this."

"All right, what about you, Roku-sama?" Quatre asked.

"Oh, I most definitely believe Naruto and his friends will succeed, so I'll also participate," the Fire Sage confirmed. Some of the guards frowned, wondering if they should stop this here and now, if only to stop the risk of the most powerful man in the Fire Nation from doing manual labor.

Azula, seeing her grandfather's unwavering loyalty in ninja he'd only just met, scoffed at the idea and immediately proceeded to act without thought. "Very well then! I don't see what's so special about them, I don't think they'll ever manage to retrieve those lunches in time!"

That pretty much stopped all thoughts of backing out, as those that agreed with her wouldn't mind having the Princess sitting down the rest of the journey, if only to keep her quiet, while those that disagreed couldn't wait to see her help in cleaning up the camp come morning.

"Ryo, Heero, are you guys in on this?" a long-haired blond youth asked from the other side of the resting spot. He was the fourth and final sergeant brought along, and the second Heero had suggested, Zechs Merquise, also known as the Lightning Count. Mostly to do with the fact that he really was a Count, or rather the heir to one, and he was like lightning with a sword in his hand.

"What do you think?" Heero asked Ryo in his usual monotone voice.

"Wouldn't mind riding on the cart myself some," the sergeant grinned. "They'll definitely be back. With their lunches. How about you, Zechs?"

"I'm with Heero," the white-blond soldier retorted, eating his own food.

"We're with Wufei and Cye," Heero calmly informed his counterpart.

"Awww!" those that had already agreed to the bet complained that they wouldn't be getting all of the sergeants down in the dirt, one way or another.

"Oh, that's quite all right, no harm, no foul after all," Roku chuckled in rye amusement. "Ah, there you are Hayato. I was beginning to wonder where you'd run off to after giving your genin their little test. Care to join us for lunch?"

"Thank you, no," Hayato declined, going over to the gear and double-checking everything, before going to the cart and doing the same thing there as well.

"By the way," Azula asked the ninja, "how is Naruto and his playmates doing?"

"They found the first trail I left within five minutes," he calmly informed them.

"Oh, they may be back sooner than we thought they would," Sgt. Ryo called out.

"They would have found all of it, if I hadn't moved most of the food to a different hiding spot with an even harder to find trail," Hayato chuckled darkly, going over to check the horses.

The soldiers stopped talking suddenly, most of them staring at the jounin in disbelief.

"Nobody said anything about cheating," Quatre complained.

"It happens," Hayato commented, mostly ignoring the situation.

"Hm, yes, I suppose that it does," Roku remarked. "How difficult did you make the trail?"

"Chuunin level," he replied immediately.

"And the hiding spot where you put the food?"

Now the jounin was employing his trademark sadistic grin as he answered, "C-Rank."

"Oh dear," Roku sighed.

"What?" those that had bet on the genin wanted to know.

"Well, let's just say that I still have faith that they'll be back in time, I'm just not so sure all of the food will be in one piece when they do," the Fire Sage explained to them.

"... And the bet was just on whether they'd be back, right?" Trowa clarified. Roku nodded his head.

Suddenly there was an explosion off in the distance, and a flock of birds took off from the middle of the forest, making an absolute racket. The guards all shifted nervously, looking back and forth between Roku and Hayato, unsure.

"Oh good," Hayato still had on his sadistic grin, "They found the hiding spot."

The guards, even the Sergeants, all gulped and were quiet the rest of the meal, silently thanking Kami and everything else that this man was on their side.

Half an hour later, a roughed up, soot-covered Team One walked into the campsite, all three of them carrying their backpacks and wide, satisfied grins. Hayato stared at them, while in the background those that had bet against them were loudly complaining. Then he said to his genin, "You set off the trap."

"Which trap?" all three of them said together.

Hayato continued to stare, then answered, "The booby trap I placed around the second hiding spot."

"Oh, that was set off by a squirrel," Naruto shrugged.

"We barely managed to rescue it in time too," Kasumi scolded the jounin.

"We actually found the first spot right after you moved the food," Ryu told him. "Wasn't hard to track you when you moved it all like that. Hardest part was staying unseen..."

"Until I remembered the point was to find the food, not hide the fact that we were looking for it in the first place," Kasumi added.

"It was easy to get past your trap perimeter too," Ryu continued, "Especially since we were already at the base of the tree when you set it up, and all it took was a couple of Naruto's clones throwing us up above the tree line to get around it."

"It was all the other traps that we had to deal with on our way out that was the real problem!" Naruto exclaimed. "How many exploding tags did you set up anyway?!"

Hayato blinked, then frowned. "Just the one. Anything else was a false trail or basic kunai and shuriken traps and a single pitfall."

"Told you that wasn't a bear trap," Ryu muttered.

"We only heard one explosion," Sgt. Heero commented.

"My clones found the rest and they all triggered at the same time!" Naruto explained. "Spread out in a... oh what was that pattern called again? Oh, right, a wide-spread limitation field."

"We're leaving! Break is over!" Hayato snapped, surging to his feet, the soldiers one step behind him.

"Huh? What? But we just got back!" Naruto complained.

"You didn't tell us it was in a field pattern!" Kasumi said to Naruto. "That means there are other ninja out here! Probably after us now that we ruined whatever trap or perimeter we set off. We need to put distance between us and that location as soon as possible!"

"Oh..." Naruto acknowledged and hurried with getting things ready.

"Naruto," Hayato pulled him back as everyone got back on the road.

"Yes Sensei?"

"Do you remember those pranks that you used to pull when in the village?"

Naruto gave the man a look that seemed to say 'Are you serious?! Do you know who you're talking to?!'

"Did you ever prank the Hyuuga in their Clan Compound?"

The blond boy's mischievous grin said it all.

"Were you ever caught?"

"Only the first time," Naruto admitted, still grinning. "I learned how to be quiet and how to sneak around after that and the only person that ever caught me after that was Iruka-sensei."

"I need you to go back to the woods and treat every inch of them like the Hyuuga Compound," Hayato quietly told him. "Only you're not going to prank anybody, you're going to spy on them. Specifically I want you and your clones to find out who is behind us and what they're doing here. Do not let them know you're watching them, and do not let them follow you back to us. We're going to go on ahead, but we can't afford to wait, so you'll have to catch up to us after you've found out who set those other tags, all right?"

"Hai Sensei!" Naruto nodded.

"Leave three shadow clones with the group, one to stay with Kasumi and Ryu, the other two stay by me," he ordered. "Next time we stop for a break, which will probably be sooner rather than later, I'll have one of the clones dispel themselves so you'll know where to find us. Hurry."

"Hai!" and then he was gone, leaving behind three copies, smoke slowly drifting around them.

"..." Hayato stared at the empty spot, then glanced over to the horizon and saw Naruto's blurry form already a good distance away. "I probably should have waited a little while longer before teaching him the Shunshin no jutsu... *sigh* Oh well."

Back in the Forest

Naruto landed silently on the giant tree's branch, then huddled himself up against the trunk, opening his senses wide to see if he'd been detected. He did know a thing or two about stealth, though in general when going into a fight he much preferred to do it openly and without holding anything back, but at the same time he understood from Hayato-sensei's orders that this was not the time for a fight, and that meant stealth. So far, so good it would seem.

After a few more seconds of watching, Naruto almost ran out to another hiding spot to go deeper into the forest when he felt something on the edge of his chakra sense that Ryu's technique had helped him hone. He stilled himself instantly and waited, closing his eyes and paying attention to what his new sense was telling him.

It was hard at first, he still couldn't quite do it as naturally as the others could, but pretty soon he'd filtered out enough of the 'noise' to identify what was what. Thirteen foreign, human, chakra signatures, spread out in a pattern Naruto recognized from his tactics training. It was a spread search pattern, and all of them were moving in and out from the trees, down on the ground and up in the branches, at a speed that no civilian should be capable of. Also, they're signatures were brighter than everything else around them, and even brighter than the soldiers that came with Azula.

Ninja.

Silently, like he used to when he knew he was about to be caught, or whenever he snuck out of the Hyuuga Compound so they wouldn't use those eyes of theirs, Naruto crept out from his hiding spot and quickly moved out of the forest boundaries. Just before leaving though, he remembered the rest of his mission and created a dozen shadow clones, and then another dozen each of earth clones, rock clones, water clones, and had those that could, transform into random civilians or merchants, turning them into a caravan going back the way they'd come from. The rock clones, which could not use ninjutsu, but could travel through the earth as part of the earth with the underground move, he had following the fake caravan on all sides with orders to keep an eye out for the enemy ninja. And also for the rest of them to make as much noise as possible when going through the forest.

Once he was out of the trees and the clones were on their way, he flashed all the way back to where he'd left the group. Surprisingly, they were only a few dozen yards ahead of him.

"Hey! Hayato-sensei!" he called, and then flashed again, appearing right next to the jounin with a loud crack of displaced wind. "They were ninja that set up all those other traps!"

"Which village?" Hayato calmly asked, apparently not disturbed at all by his student's very loud entrance. The guards and horses were not as well-composed.

"Uh, I don't know yet," the blond sheepishly admitted.

"You don't know?" the jounin looked down at the genin. "That is what I sent you back into the forest to find out, is it not? I hope you at least left some clones to continue spying on these potentially enemy ninja, Naruto. Otherwise, I'll be disappointed in you."

"I did! Shadow clones, rock clones, earth clones and even water clones. I thought you said that they didn't work long range, but mine are still going on, and they're actually getting further away from me as we speak..."

Hayato stared. Shaking his head to clear it, he glared down at the genin and asked, "Did you at least identify how many we're dealing with?"

"Thirteen! That's how many moving and bigger chakra signatures were there anyway," he answered.

"Alright, that's something at least. Did you make sure they did not detect you or follow you back here?"

Naruto nodded his head. Hayato sighed in relief.

"Now you just need to go back and find someway of gaining the information you omitted in obtaining at the first opportunity. And this time, don't leave for five minutes and then come back saying you're done! Spying, especially spying as a ninja takes a lot more hard work than just stealth!"

"I know, that's why I..." Naruto trailed off, his eyes glazing over, as did the three shadow clones still with the group. "Uh-oh," one of them muttered. Naruto blinked.

"We've got to get out of here," he demanded, looking quite serious all of a sudden.

"Why? What is it?" Hayato inquired.

"They aren't ninja," was all Naruto would say.

"Move!" Hayato picked Azula up and put her on the cart next to her great grandfather. Then he slapped the horses rears to get them into a gallop and shouted the command to all of the soldiers once more, "MOVE!"

"Naurto..." Hayato turned to his student, intent on getting more details on what the clones Naruto had obviously left behind had found.

"They weren't wearing headbands, they all carried swords, or at least some kind of weapons, and the biggest one was talking about Kasumi-chan and Azula-hime. And..." Naruto's eyes suddenly bulged in shock.

"OK, that kinda hurt!" one of the clones complained, rubbing the back of his neck. They all blinked in unison once again. "That was the last of them."

"No, there's still one rock clone, I think he's following them," the real Naruto corrected. "Sensei, there are thirteen bandits behind us! They were heading northwest through the forest when my clones got their attention. One of them said something about having to come out to check the traps for nothing. They thought wild animals had set them off. From what he said, it sounds like it happens a lot. The big one I mentioned? He also said something about cutting off the rich old guy at the pass and..."

"Let me guess," Ryu said, coming up from behind them. They'd been running in parallel to the soldiers and wagon as Naruto gave his report. "The big guy said something about killing all of the guards, maybe taking our weapons and horses and wagon, and then taking Kasumi and Azula and basically kidnap them, right?"

Naruto's gaze darkened, and replied, "Close enough."

"Your clones attacked him and got themselves dispelled?" Hayato asked. Naruto nodded his head. "Then they now suspect ninja are involved. They probably don't know, but they can certainly guess. Still, good work Naruto. You still got the information we needed, even if in the end they know that we're here."

"Actually..." Naruto slowly showed his prankster's grin.

"What did you do?" Ryu asked knowingly.

"I made most of my clones transform into random civilians and merchants, but I couldn't do that to my rock clones, so I had one of my shadow clones change from my mission outfit to my standard outfit," Naruto told them.

"You mean that horrible orange jumpsuit?" Ryu asked, horrified.

"Yeah, then I told him to make as much noise as possible, which for me, is complaining that I would be stuck with the boring stuff. And he might have blurted out that he really hated being the distraction for the main group going south, just because he's a bunshin master. Heh heh heh," Naruto laughed out loud.

At the looks he received from both his teammates and his Jounin Sensei, he replied, "Hey! You told me to treat it like a prank! Best way to not get caught is to point the finger in the other direction! Still, they didn't go south, but went on through the forest to the north west. The big guy is scary strong too."

"Strong like powerful or strong like...?" Ryu asked.

"He threw one of my rock clones over a hundred feet through several trees before it finally broke apart," Naruto answered.

"Strong like strong," Ryu nodded. "Good to know."

"So their target hasn't changed," Hayato said. "Good work Naruto. Let me know what that last clone following them finds out when you can. We have to hurry our pace, otherwise we're going to be cut off."

"I didn't know there were that many bandits in this area," Kasumi pointed out. "Especially not this close to Konoha. What are they doing out here?"

"Most likely it was just a small scouting party, sent to check on the traps like Naruto overheard," Hayato replied. "There have been reports of a bandit camp somewhere in the mountains up ahead, but the most we can do is whittle them down, capture or take out the truly dangerous ones, and protect major trading routes. Given how many bandits are suspected of being in these mountains alone, it would take a major task of at least thirty experienced jounin and twice that many chuunin to successfully capture or purge all bandit activity from just this area alone, with massive casualties on both sides of the battle. So don't bother asking why we don't just get rid of them."

"I could do it!" Naruto proclaimed. "I will do it, when I become Hokage!"

Ryu snorted. "Naruto, you could probably do it right now. Heck, make enough clones and you can outnumber them ten to one, easy."

"Something that I may ask you to do at some point, Naruto," Hayato said to him. Then he moved ahead to share his information with the sergeants and Fire Sage.

"Besides, there are many sides to every story," Kasumi said to her fellow genin. "People don't become bandits because they're evil or they like to hurt people. At least most don't. They become bandits because they have no choice, one way or the other. For right now though, we have a mission, and that's to protect Roku-sama and Azula-san. Let's focus on that for right now, all right Naruto?"

"... Right!" he exclaimed after a moment of thought. Many sides to every story? What does that mean?

"Let's keep moving!" Hayato called out, running to the lead of the group, hand signaling for the others to follow close behind the wagon and the soldiers to double time it. They began running along and the horses were spurred into a half gallop, kicking up a dust cloud as they hurried along.

Highway to Mountain Pass

Konoha/Fire Nation Outpost

Evening

"I didn't actually expect us to get here after only one day's travel," Roku commented, sounding impressed. "But then I didn't expect us to spend half the day running from shadows and phantoms either."

"I trust Naruto, and he heard and reported that he saw shinobi-level bandits checking on traps that I did not set or detect when setting my own," Hayato replied in a low voice. "That they're in the area is worthy of caution. That they noticed you and are targeting you raises it to alarming. Would you disagree, Sage Roku-sama?"

"Hm, perhaps," Roku shrugged and took a drink. They were sitting alone at a table in the tavern that was part of the outpost. There were numerous such outposts, occupied by both the soldiers of the Fire Lord and Konoha ninja equally, though command was often split between the highest rank ninja over chuunin and the highest rank soldier over captain. The group had managed to reach the outpost just as the sun was setting and they were starting to close the gates for the evening. Thankfully, they easily let Roku in once they saw his and Azula's identity papers, along with the I.D.s for Hayato, Kasumi, Naruto and Ryu.

The outpost itself was more a soldier's fort than anything else. There were wooden log walls along all the edges, except the back edge, which was against the mountain itself, with a sheer cliff with only goat trails to climb it or to get above the outpost at all. Inside the walls were ten main buildings and few utility sheds spread out. The Command building, a two story office where the command staff did paperwork. The Armory, the Stables, the Barracks actually made up four of the buildings, the Tavern for recreation and relaxation, the Mess Hall for meals, and the Brig, which was a small stone structure built into one of the corners against the mountain. Currently it was empty and there were no signs of it having been used recently at all.

Roku took another sip of his liquor, savoring the taste as it burned his throat. "Still, paranoia is never a good trait to encourage in everyday life. Even for ninja. I am grateful to be provided with lodging rather than a tent for the evening I must admit. I may not mind it as much, but these old bones of mine do tend to complain when they don't get to sleep in a warm bed. Do you expect we'll have to keep up the hard pace for the remainder of the journey, or do you believe a more... sedate and cautious pace might be in order?"

Hayato considered, swirling his own drink around in the cup. "I'm beginning to wish that we'd taken all those extra soldiers, added attention or no."

"This is a C-Rank mission, Hayato-san," Roku reminded him. "Drawing that kind of attention would turn it into an A-Rank mid-mission before we'd even gotten to the pass. I'm sure we'll be fine. And shinobi-level or not, bandits don't really stand up to true ninja and trained soldiers, now do they?"

"Even I can be outnumbered," the jounin reminded him.

"But Naruto apparently, cannot be," Roku joked, taking another drink.

"He's still learning," Hayato said, his eyes lowered in thought.

"Yes, and you're teaching all of them very well. Considering that they found not only what you'd taken from them, and your traps, they discovered another's traps and alerted us to potential danger. Yes, I'd say you've done very well with all of them. I think with how quickly we got here we can afford to stay an extra day, if you'd prefer that is. Give us more time to rest, maybe contract additional soldiers..."

"No," Hayato interrupted, his eyes snapping up to look at the Fire Sage. "We leave at first light. Sooner we get through the pass the better. Longer we wait, the more time we give those bandits to prepare for us passing through. We just need to be ready for anything. ...I do wish your granddaughter had not come along."

"Yes, sadly I'm beginning to regret that too," Roku looked down at his cup, frowning. "Of course I've always hated putting others in danger. Azula-chan is unfortunately going to have to learn the hard way, the real world is a harsh place and there will be times in life when the unknown attacks without warning, or mercy."

"I'm going to speak with the Commander," Hayato stood up, "See about getting additional supplies, maybe some bribe money. If you have any jewels you're not too fond of, be sure to have them ready by morning so we'll have them ready. Just in case."

"Of course," Roku sighed, finishing the last of his meal and his drink. "I think I'll go spend some time with the men. And I think I'll take this bottle with me. And this one too." The old man giggled as he grabbed a couple bottles of alcohol and went outside to the campfires where most of the soldiers of the fort not on watch gathered for the usual revelry.

Hayato sighed and walked over to the corner table where the genin and Azula all sat.

"Hey, Hayato-sensei!" Naruto greeted the jounin as he stood beside the table.

"Good evening, Sensei," Kasumi nodded to him.

"What's up?" Ryu asked.

"How are you all doing?" he asked after acknowledging their greetings and giving his own in return.

Most of them shrugged, Azula was rather quiet, but the ninja were just fine and said as much.

"Good," he nodded. "Be sure to get your rest this evening. We're heading out at first light. And given what was discovered earlier today, we'll hold off on any more training exercises. So be sure to keep alert tomorrow. Azula-san, you might want to turn in early. I understand that you'll be walking tomorrow, something having to do with a lost bet?"

The black-haired princess turned red with anger, then let it go with a rush of air. "Fine. Do you know where my grandfather is?"

"You'll find him in the courtyard, consorting with the soldiers, so to speak," Hayato told her, then walked off, supposedly to find the Commander of the Fort.

"Why do you want to speak to your grandfather so much?" Naruto questioned. "Not that there's anything wrong with talking to Roku-jiisan, he's cool. You just seem kinda clingy ever since this mission started."

The noble blushed a bright red in embarrassment, keeping her eyes on the table and not looking up. She didn't say anything for the longest time, and Naruto thought she was either ignoring him or hadn't heard, but a look from Kasumi told him it would be wiser to wait for her to speak next.

"I don't get to see my grandfather very much," was the short and simple reply.

Naruto blinked, waiting for her to say more, but instead she just took another sip of her tea. He sweat-dropped and argued, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Why not just go up to him and ask him to spend time with you? And that doesn't explain why you're so clingy, you—mmhmghmmphmmh!" Kasumi had quickly put her hand over Naruto's mouth to keep him from saying anything more.

"Let's go for a walk, Azula-san," Kasumi offered with a kind smile. "You know, girl-talk."

At that, Naruto immediately stopped struggling and quieted down, while Ryu tried to pretend he was anywhere but at the table at that moment. The two girls left, and once gone both of the boys breathed a sigh of relief. They spent another few minutes finishing up their meal, then went outside to hang with the guards for all of fifteen minutes before turning in for the night. They knew by now to get their rest when Hayato told them how early they would be leaving in the morning.

Azula and Kasumi however, strolled along the wall of the fort, quietly walking along and greeting other evening walkers or guards on duty that they passed. After their first circuit, they'd finally found a quiet secluded space and Azula stopped. Kasumi paused, then walked back and simply stood next to her.

The noble just stood there, her face turned down. Finally, the chestnut haired kunoichi heard a whisper.

"He's one of the only ones that really care about me. For me."

Kasumi nodded. "I have an older brother. He's amazing. Everyone knows his name too."

Azula sniffed and replied, "Tenshin Hayate, Champion of Tournaments."

"And everyone in our clan and village just knows me as his little sister," Kasumi continued as though the other girl hadn't spoken. "The clan expects equally great things from me. The village expects me to become even more popular and treat me like I'm a princess. Some of the clan do as well. So please don't laugh when I say that I understand what you're feeling. If it weren't for Naruto..."

"Hah!" Azula let out a cruel laugh. "That idiot? What good is he?"

"He's the reason that I'm a ninja today," Kasumi coldly replied, startling the noble.

"He has a way," she said, "There's just something about him that lets him see right into the heart of everyone he meets and if you're around him long enough, you begin to see what he sees too. Eventually. There are the liars and politicians and spies in the world that might be able to fool him, but... But that wouldn't stop him from believing. Believing in his dream, and that everyone alive has their own dream and the right to do everything in their power to attain it, no matter what."

"I went to the Ninja Academy with him for several years, but I never really got to know him, didn't care to. Then we get assigned to the same team, and an hour after 'meeting him' I find myself fighting a jounin and willing to do just about anything to defeat him. All thanks to a few spoken words from the dumb blond that everybody laughed at in class."

Kasumi stared up at the moon for a minute, letting Azula just stare at the ground, thinking about what she said. "Your great grandfather must be a lot like him," she said finally, still staring at the moon. "They both immediately liked each other, and Naruto was only as mean to you as you were to him, then when you apologized, he treated you the same way your grandfather treats you."

"So I should just be grateful to know the Kage-wannabe brat instead of getting to spend time with my own flesh and blood? Is that it?!" Azula cried.

"Adults are often very busy," Kasumi observed. "I never really got to know my parents that well. Except for my mother and brother, and nii-san was always running off fighting in tournaments when I was growing up. Then my father was killed and my mother got sick and died. I never really cried at my father's funeral. I did for my mother though."

"Your grandfather loves you," Kasumi said to the lonely girl. "Cherish the time you have left with him, but don't try to monopolize him. He cares for you just as much as you do for him, and he will find the time and the means to show that to you. Just be there and let him when he does."

"I suppose you're comparing me wanting to spend time with my grandfather to you spending time with your brother?" Azula accused, but Kasumi simply nodded her head.

"Yes, and every time he came home from a tournament, before even reporting to the Hokage, he would come and say hi, give me a gift, then come back later and teach me how to be a ninja. Though I was a little girl at the time, so it might be better to call it what it was. He played with me, and I loved him for it. I'm sure Roku-sama does something very similar every time he sees you, yes?"

Azula glanced up at the moon, tears coming from her eyes. "He tells me stories. He... he treats me like I'm his equal and anything I say he takes as serious as if it were coming from the Fire Lord himself."

"Well, he's sitting out with the guards right now," Kasumi pointed over to the fire pit where there was a lot of commotion as the man in the middle, none other than Roku himself, told a dirty joke that had the lot of them laughing their asses off.

"He's with the soldiers though," Azula snootily remarked.

Kasumi shrugged. "Like I said, Roku-sama and Naruto-kun seem to have a lot in common. They don't see people's stations and ranks. They see the people themselves and judge them as such. Nothing more, nothing less. You might want to try it out for yourself some time."

Kasumi gave the noble one last grin, waved, and then turned to walk off. "Good night, Princess."

Azula scowled, then sighed and crossed her arms, glaring up at the moon now, as though it were to blame for all of her problems. A few minutes later, she had nothing left to stew over and let out a heavy sigh, before cautiously approaching the gathering in hopes of just basking in her grandfather's presence, even if it was shared with guards. Roku, on the other hand, had different plans.

"Ahh! Azula-chan!" Roku called out drunkenly. "Boys! This is my favorite ne- no, that's not it. Ah! Granddaughter. Yep! She's my granddaughter. She's got a beeeeUtiful mother. Married though."

"Awwww!" the men cried in disappointment.

"To some guy, don't really remember his name right now. Anyway, Azula here is a nice girl. Now I don't want any of you louts thinking you got a chance with her, ya hear me? And here's why; she's too damn good for the lot of ya!" The men all roared in laughter as though it were some joke.

Azula blushed, thoroughly embarrassed and tried getting away, but Roku just held her by the shoulders, not letting her get away.

"No, no, no, nononononono!" Roku called to quiet down the mob. "I'm serious! She's a nice girl. Bit of a temper, but she is my granddaughter." More laughter. "She's also a pretty good fighter. Could probably take one of you lot, if you weren't drunk! Can sing too! Oh, and let me tell you, this girl can cook! Get's that from her mother, and I don't know where she got it from. Probably one of my wives..."

"Grandfather, you've only ever had one wife," Azula calmly reminded him, though there was an edge of steel to her voice as she spoke.

Roku blinked.

"Really? Cause I coulda sworn that my wife can't cook," he muttered, only to be met with another round of roaring laughter. Azula snickered. It was true, her great grandmother really couldn't cook.

"Heh, so the little girl has a sense of humor after all," one of the guards remarked, pointing at Azula's snicker. The girl looked affronted for a moment, but Roku came to her rescue. Sort of.

"Oh, she does, she really does. She tells the best jokes! Another thing she gets from me!" Roku admitted. Then he gave the girl a gentle shove. "Go on Azula, entertain us with a joke or two."

Azula blinked, wide-eyed. She liked being the center of attention most of the time, but suddenly being put in the spotlight like this had thrown her off more than a bit. "Uh..."

Azula had a feeling it was going to be a long night.

Highway To Mountain Pass

Next Morning

Naruto yawned.

They had all woken up before the sun had risen and gotten things ready and packed so that they were out of the fort and on the road to the mountains by the time the sky began to brighten. Azula and Roku were allowed to sleep later, the first because she was a noble and still had a bedtime, and the second because he'd spent the entire night drinking and needed to sleep it off. In fact, the guards even carried the both of them, unconscious, to the cart and placed them so they could continue sleeping as they left the fort. They finally woke up about an hour after dawn.

That didn't mean Team One wasn't still tired themselves. Despite having somewhat gotten used to the early hours, thanks to Hayato's hellish training, they had still stayed up for part of the night and six hours sleep is not very much to go on. Nevertheless, they made sure they were alert and awake despite the early hour. The guards had even donned their armor and had their weapons on full display.

Just as they were entering the pass, Hayato signaled for the group to stop. Right around the same time, Naruto, Ryu and Kasumi all felt something via their chakra senses, but couldn't identify what it was until it was almost too late. Right as Hayato was signaling to the guards that it was an ambush, the trap was sprung as about thirty men jumped out from the rocks all around them.

They were a ragtag crew, obviously bandits, no strict uniform beyond the fact that they carried weapons and kept glancing to one guy in particular, the one that had jumped out right in front of them and put himself between them and the pass. He stood about 7 feet tall, was bald and had very muscular arms, but what made him really big was the beer belly he sported like it was a set of six-pack-abs. He moved easily and carried a large iron club casually in one hand, resting it on his shoulder. The thing, from tip to hilt, was actually taller than Naruto, and was spiked on the business end, making it more like a really big mace.

(Play "First Encounter")

"Well greetings!" the giant said cheerfully, as though they'd just been passing by and were in a good mood. That changed as all the bandits turned their greedy leers towards the cart and both Azula and Kasumi. "What brings you fair travelers all the way out here?" the leader queried sarcastically.

The ninja and guards all tensed, quickly realizing the situation. There was a moment of heavy silence that was only broken by Hayato stepping forward and adopting his usual cross-armed pose. "I would think that would be obvious," he said in a very condescending tone, "We're traveling through the pass to reach the Capitol. That is fairly common for these parts, one would assume."

"Indeed! Indeed you are?" the big man laughed. "Going to the Capitol, eh? And what would an old man and a young pretty thing like the well-dressed peasant there, be doing having guards and ninja protecting them, eh? I think at least one of them might be worth a handsome ransom. Normally, we might have only asked you to pay the toll and sent you on your way. But we're rather bored, you see. And a good tussle with you ninja and men who are so obviously royal guards is just what the men ordered!"

"Do we really have to do this?" Hayato asked with a sigh. "I am a jounin you understand. And royal or no, these guards here are hardly amateurs at what they do. We all know this sort of game. How much to pass?"

"Heh, normally, you'd be right, but you gave us a nasty little chase yesterday, which kept us from playing the usual game in the forest. We might even have let you go unharassed if you'd just waited for us. Now, heh, well now you pissed me off."

"I would suggest keeping that temper under control then," he replied. "You never know who you may piss off in return. Besides, you're outnumbered."

"OUTNUMBERED?!! HAH! HAH HAH HAH!" the big man laughed. "I am Tokumetsu of the Mountain Bandits, Jounin-san! We number in the hundreds! And I see less than half of our own numbers before me. Maybe even less, taking out the ones that are clearly genin. Worth less than nothing."

"Grrr!" Naruto growled, grinding his teeth and barely managing to hold himself back.

"Naruto," Hayato's words broke through the blond's anger. "Show Tokumetsu-san here how outnumbered he is. Please."

Naruto blinked. Since when did Hayato-sensei say 'Please'?! Then he took only a moment to think about it and smiled evilly at the bandits. Taking a breath and gathering the chakra needed, Naruto decided to really impress his sensei, starting with his favorite.

"Taju Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" he called out, forming the familiar cross-seal, right before flashing through the five and then three and then seven hand seals for the follow-up jutsu, calling them out successively. "Iwa Bunshin no jutsu! Mizu Bunshin no jutsu! Tsuchi Bunshin no jutsu!"

All around them, and around the 30 or so bandits, starting with explosions of white smoke that filled the area like mist, and then from the rocks of the mountainside, the river running alongside the pass, and finally from the ground beneath them came over two hundred extra Naruto's, each with grim expressions and already handling shuriken and kunai as weapons. The bandits all looked around and gulped, gathering together into a single group in front of the travelers. Even Tokumetsu looked a bit nervous at the sudden change in numbers.

At 50 clones per jutsu, Naruto was feeling pretty proud of himself, and only slightly winded. Like doing a few hours of chakra control exercises or something like that. He had certainly felt the strain of using four different bunshin jutsu one right after the other, particularly when two of them were actually high-level jutsu while the others were nothing to sneeze at. But he had trained to do just this sort of thing while in the heat of battle and do even more, so he could handle it. Still, he was glad that for the moment they all just had to stand there and intimidate the bastards.

"As I said," Hayato coldly remarked, not even looking around at all of Naruto's clones, "you're the ones outnumbered, and just as outmatched."

"Heh, so we are," Tokumetsu grumbled, looking around at what was arrayed against him and his men.

"Uh, Boss?" the one closest to Tokumetsu asked for orders.

"Don't go thinking that our friend here is the only one that has impressive jutsu on his side!" Ryu confidently called out, adopting a fighting pose of his own.

"Heh!" Naruto chuckled, feeling very proud of himself by now.

"You got us, there's no way we can fight so many, particularly not ninja," Tokumetsu said in a mock-mournful voice. Hayato frowned, growing concerned. "Oh wait, there's this," the big man grinned wickedly and tossed his club up in the air. Most everyone was watching the club, to see where or what he had tossed it at, everyone except Hayato of course, who kept his eyes on the bandit the entire time.

Unfortunately, that proved to be more difficult than even the jounin would have first suspected.

The spiked club flipped through the air, end over end until it reached the height of the rock walls on either side and suddenly straightened itself before spinning like a top on a string. The travelers stared in mounting shock at the strange phenomenon, unsure of what was happening. The bandits, however, all vanished away the moment the club began to spin. Hayato, who'd been keeping a very close eye on them, didn't even blink, instead interpreting their actions with what was happening.

"DOWN!" he screamed, grabbing his team and pulling them back to the wagon before pulling Roku and Azula off of it. "NOW! GET DOWN!"

The soldiers didn't hesitate in following the orders, and just in time too as the still spinning club began to shoot out mini-rockets that slammed into spots all over the rocky walls of the pass. All of Naruto's clones scrambled for their own cover, but unfortunately over half of them were vanquished in the first salvo and all of the easily dispelled clones, the water and shadow clones, fell soon after as the rockets continued for another ten seconds. That was not the worst of it though, as at least six rockets were fired to specific points along the pass. Where they hit, there was a cluster of exploding notes waiting and were quickly set off with more than four times as much force as the rockets had.

"AAAHHHHH!" Azula was screaming out loud. Roku pulled her close to protect and comfort her.

Two hit on either side of the rock walls behind the group, another two about ten meters behind where the bandits had been standing, also high up on the walls, and the last two on either side directly over the place where the group had stopped the wagon and were currently huddled down for protection. After the exploding notes were set off, rock slides started at each blast point. Hayato saw this and did some quick thinking.

"NARUTO! Have the rest of the clones get above us and behind us! Then go BOOM!" he shouted in the genin's ear. The blond neither flinched nor hesitated in creating a single shadow clone so fast it didn't even have time to create white smoke before dispelling itself and sending its message to all of Naruto's remaining clones at once.

Instantly, all of the remaining Naruto clones split into two groups; rock clones and earth clones. The Iwa Bunshin raced for the rear of the pass, racing to get under or at least near the rock slides as quickly as they could, while the Tsuchi Bunshin put themselves between the falling debris and their teammates. Moments later, each clone formed a single hand sign and then blew themselves into their respective pieces of dirt. Thankfully, there was enough force from the earth clones blowing themselves to kingdom come that the larger rocks were blown into marble sized pebbles and most of that was thrown back up into the air to then fall back down as harmless clods of dirt and rock. The rock clones had similar luck in keeping the pass open at least, though the front of the pass was now completely blocked off by a virtual wall of rock and dirt and heavy stones.

"Nice job," Hayato patted the boy's head after the dirt had stopped raining down on them.

Slowly, they all got back to their feet. There was an uneasy quiet in the wake of the explosions, and the rocket club had disappeared along with the bandits after it was all over. The guards all quickly readied their weapons while the ninja extended their senses, trying to feel for foreign chakra signatures, or signs of more traps laying in wait. The nobles, however, were still dusting themselves off.

Roku made it seem like the whole incident was no more inconvenient than having it start to rain and treated the entire thing like it was a matter of course. Azula, on the other hand, was starting to freak out.

"What, what-what's happening? What is going on?" she asked again and again, sounding close to tears.

"Azula-chan, everything is fine, it will be all right," Roku held his great granddaughter, comforting her. "There's nothing to worry about now. Don't worry. Hayato?"

"Yes sir," the jounin nodded and gestured to the soldiers, who immediately spread out in a close-knit protection detail with the wagon at their center. To his genin, he gave a series of hand signals, to which they paid close attention before he finally nodded to them. They nodded back and quickly split off from the rest, racing forward to the front of the pass where they were blocked off.

"How long?" Kasumi asked the boys, glancing over the rock debris with a critical eye.

"Uh... too long," Naruto was forced to admit, knowing what she was asking.

"Sooner we get started," Ryu sighed and started forming hand seals. "Iwa Bunshin no jutsu!"

Out of the very barrier blocking their progress, roughly half a dozen stone figures popped up and quickly shaped themselves into clones of Ryu and then turned their attention to clearing away the rest of the stones and dirt. Naruto and Kasumi made the same hand seals and formed another half dozen rock clones each, because that was all the room left for them. Any more and the clones would be getting in each others way.

"We need to get this cleared as quickly as possible," Kasumi said out loud.

"We're moving as quick as we can!" Naruto loudly complained.

"Might help if you got your own hands dirty, princess!" Ryu shouted.

"Keep your voice down," Kasumi told him. "The bandits might not have left, and we don't want them coming back before..."

"Before you manage to escape, is that it?" a loud, obnoxious voice said from above them.

The genin all looked up, except for the rock clones, they kept working. Standing on either side of the rock walls were at least twice as many bandits as there had been before, and the big one with the club, Tokumetsu, was standing just above where the genin and clones were working, his club resting casually on his right shoulder (apparently he either had another or had somehow retrieved the first one).

"Oh crud," Ryu cursed.

"Smash'em!" Tokumetsu ordered, pointing his club at them. The bandits all surged forward, swinging mallets, swords, maces, and just about every melee weapon that one could imagine.

Behind them, Azula screamed in fright upon seeing so many bandits, all carrying weapons and looking like they knew how to use them too. Roku stood firm, continuing to hold Azula, but he did give a look to Hayato, who acknowledged it with only a glance.

"NOW!" Kasumi screamed as she, Ryu and Naruto leapt back from their assailants. Moments later their eighteen rock clones threw themselves at the bandits and then each exploded with maximum shrapnel-effective damage.

A lot of the bandits screamed in pain and backed up, others fell and did not get back up and very few actually stood up and kept walking towards the travelers. One of those few was Tokumetsu and it looked like he hadn't even felt the explosions, even though he'd only been several meters away!

"HAH! Is that the best you got?" he mocked them.

"Oh, this guy is so going down!" Naruto growled, but Kasumi and Ryu both held him back.

"Hold it, we kind of need a plan," Ryu said urgently. "After all, he did just survive several explosions from close range and he isn't even scratched. We can't just rush in and start hitting without knowing how to hit him in the first place."

"Uh... right," Naruto grudgingly admitted as they continued back towards their sensei and the guards.

"First thing we have to deal with is everybody else," Kasumi hissed, annoyed. "Hayato-sensei wanted us to draw them out, but I doubt he was planning on there being this many!"

"Actually, I was," Hayato said from just behind him.

They were already too high-strung from the situation to bother screaming this time, but they did tense up and glare at him. "I'll take care of fatso," he told them, "Kasumi, Ryu, you help the guards protect this location. We need a place to make a stand and this is as good as its gonna get for the next few minutes. Naruto."

"Hai sensei!" Naruto was immediately by the man's side, expecting to be told to remain there and to use his clones to help out some more.

"I want you to stick by Roku and Azula's side, no matter what. Do you understand?" Hayato ordered.

Naruto blinked, a bit disappointed that he wasn't being used on the front line like he'd thought, but one glance at the kind old man and his cowering granddaughter was all he needed to do before looking his Jounin Sensei in the eye and simply nodded his head once. In the next second he was by the nobles and in position to protect them from anything coming their way.

"Good man," Hayato whispered under his breath and turned his attention to Tokumetsu as his genin went to their assigned positions.

"Ah, so they're sending out the heavy hitter already!" the giant mocked once more.

"Actually, we're just getting warmed up," the man coldly replied and readied himself. "I apologize for how short this is going to last, but my students need to be shown how this sort of thing is done. Pardon me if I seem a bit distracted while we're fighting, I just want to see how much progress they've made, so I'll be checking on them every once in a while here."

"WHAT?!!" the giant bandit screamed, going red in the face, steam practically coming out his ears.

"I'll get you!" he screamed and charged Hayato, too angry to come up with a witty reply to the jounin's insult. A large number of the bandits just behind Tokumetsu fell in the wake of his charge as they were caught up in the moment, planning on tackling the jounin, or swinging out to the side to overwhelm the defenders.

The guards with bows, crossbows, or other ranged weapons stepped forward and began to single out those they could take out in one shot each, working more to whittle down their opposition rather than stop their charge directly. Of course they aimed around the charging tank that was Tokumetsu, leaving him for Hayato.

"I will give you one last chance to back down," Hayato declared to Tokumetsu. "As a mere bandit, you stand no chance against a ninja."

Tokumetsu merely laughed. "Hah hah hah! Ninja aren't so tough! Come! Let Tokumetsu show you a bandit's chances against a ninja!"

The next moment, Hayato was standing right in front of him, his fist halfway into the giant's torso. The big man growled in pain, sinking to his knees. "You're strong," Hayato said. "However, physical strength is meaningless when you are unable to hit your opponent."

Tokumetsu lumbered to his feet and took a swing at Hayato, who simply poofed and fell away into white smoke. The most basic of ninjutsu techniques, Hayato had used kawarimi no jutsu to replace himself with a body of air that came from a few meters away. "As I said, attack power is meaningless without speed. Surrender."

Tokumetsu gave a grumbling chuckle, and said, "You ninja are rather full of yourself, which makes you easy to fool." The next moment Tokumetsu had crossed the distance between him and the ninja, and simply slammed into him with a shoulder rush. The wind was knocked out of Hayato in an instant, not to mention he was launched off of his feet and slammed into a nearby tree.

"Hayato-sensei," Kasumi hissed in shock as she saw what had happened to her teacher. She quickly refocused, and threw a senbon needle to the back of the neck of one the bandits that was pressing a royal guard.

"Hayato-sensei!" Ryu cried out, then was forced to refocus his own attention on another of the bandits that had gotten past the fire line and quickly disabled the man of his weapons and footing.

"Hayato-sensei..." Naruto growled to himself, struggling to keep his position in guarding Roku and Azula. Ultimately it came down to the fact that he was still too winded from earlier jutsu use to do anything that made up his mind, and so he kept his position, protecting the clients from any harm coming their way.

Tokumetsu stood above a surprised Hayato who forced himself to stand up. "That... was surprising," Hayato acknowledged, checking himself for injuries.

Tokumetsu spoke surprisingly melodiously as he mocked Hayato, "Ah, jounin-san, do you know what chakra is made up off?"

Hayato decided that letting his body recover from the powerful hit was preferable to inciting more injuries by taunting the giant, so he answered, "Body energy and spirit energy."

"Correct, Jounin-san," Tokumetsu answer sweetly, "But did you know there are those with an innate ability to use body energy directly? That would be me. You could call it: a Kekkei Genkai."

The next moment Tokumetsu's fist slammed into Hayato's head, or so Tokumetsu thought. At the last moment Hayato managed to replace himself with a nearby boulder. To Hayato's shock from his new position he saw Tokumetsu slam his fist and stone into the rock wall behind it, which caused the boulder to be all but pulverized, while the wall had a large hole in it. This was going to be harder than he thought. He jumped from his cover, launching a lightning jutsu at the living tank, but the man dodged easily.

"Raiton: Raikyū (Lightning Release: Lightning Ball)!" A blue-yellow blast of lightning formed between his hands and was cast at the surprisingly nimble giant.

"Ah, jounin-san, so you're finally going to fight me for real, huh?" Tokumetsu mocked Hayato's attempts.

"..." Hayato thought about replying, but decided to give a different kind of answer, in the form of another Raikyū.

Not far away, Naruto was watching the battle unfold, itching to get into the fight, and feeling quite put out that he had been delegated to the rear guards. However, orders were orders, and he didn't want to disappoint either the Old Man or Hayato-sensei. And so, he was forced to stay here. He grinned suddenly - nothing was preventing him from being in two places at once. Naruto didn't know exactly how tough the big guy was, and how much Hayato-sensei was still holding back to preserve chakra for bigger fish, but still . . . maybe he could help out a little.

Kasumi elbowed Ryu. "Naruto's planning something."

Ryu threw an eyeball in Naruto's direction, and nodded once. "How can you tell?"

"Last time we saw that look on his face, he chewed out my Big Brother," she replied.

"Who then started teaching him the Tenshin Mugen style," Ryu whispered back. "Yeah? So? You're probably planning something too. We're kinda in the middle of something here Kasumi-hime, what's your point?"

"What kind of things does Naruto usually come up with?" she asked him, expecting him to figure it out.

Ryu blinked. "Oh."

"Yeah. Oh."

They quickly threw a few more kunai, Kasumi attacking with her senbon needles when she had a clear shot at a disabling pressure point on one or more bandits, then retreated until they were on either side of Naruto.

"What's up?" Ryu asked him, while keeping an eye out for any more approaching bandits.

"I'm going to try and help out Hayato-sensei," the blond answered, seeming to concentrate equally on their surroundings and his internal energies.

"How?" Kasumi put forth, keeping her own eye out.

"Shadow Clone."

Ryu and Kasumi shared a look between themselves and their teammate, before silently nodding.

"Right."

"This is going to be fun," Kasumi muttered, not entirely sarcastic. "Distraction or attack?"

"This is Naruto, Hime," Ryu reminded her.

"Never mind," she rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Kage Bunshin no jutsu," Naruto muttered under his breath, a single burst of smoke revealing a single clone. "You know what to do," Naruto told his clone.

"Right Boss! You can count on me!" the clone declared, jumping away with such speed that it looked almost like a shunshin.

"A single clone?" Roku asked.

"A single clone is enough," Naruto said with a grin, giving his teammates a look.

"Didn't used to be," Ryu commented with a quiet chuckle. To which Naruto responded, "HEY!"

"Well, we worked hard enough to fix that, didn't we," Kasumi returned with a confident smirk. Ryu and Naruto both grinned back at her and nodded. Roku's eyebrows rose with curiosity. Azula just looked confusedly back and forth between them all and fearfully at the attacking bandits.

The clone appeared in the nearest tree, staring at the back of Tokumetsu, as he fought a progressively more harried and distracted Hayato, who tried to keep attention both on the fight and on the soldiers. Taking out a kunai, the clone focused on the back on the enemy.

Remembering his training, both recent and from long ago at the Academy, the Naruto clone brought up his kunai and started to take aim. The chakra provided to him by his original would help in pulling this off, because otherwise it would have taken the boss himself doing it. Using as much strength as possible, he threw the weapon at the weakest point of the human body – the place were the neck joined together with the head, where no bone was present to protect the spinal cord, and the skull ended to make room for muscles and joints, enabling the head to move about. He also added chakra to 'spin' the leaf-shaped blade so that it could angle and hit the right mark despite the target jumping around.

Tokumetsu peripherally noticed the thrown projectile but didn't care, he was busy blocking a rather powerful lightning attack, which he then pushed aside with his weapon. His arms were a little tingly after, but that was it. The kunai hit dead on, and then simply fell down, having not been able to penetrate Tokumetsu's skin. The massive man turned around to look from where the kunai had come. Although the attack was pitiful, and useless against him, that did not mean any follow-up attack would be equally so.

Keeping an eye on Hayato, who had withdrawn for the moment, thinking of his next move, Tokumetsu rushed over to a tree and bushes from behind which the kunai had come, and eyed Naruto's clone. "What have we here, a cockroach?" Tokumetsu said with a growl.

"Hi," the Naruto-clone said with a huge grin, then waved, while saying, "Bye." He ran up the tree, while making seals, and said, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." A whole slew of clones descended upon Tokumetsu, who was covered in blonds a moment later.

With a roar the man exclaimed his reaching of his boiling point. With a rapid cyclone movement, and liberal use of his spiked club, all the clones that had started to attack him turned to smoke. He then simply smashed the tree to pieces, which prompted the remaining clones to jump away from it. As the tree fell, Tokumetsu stepped back into the clearer part of the mountain pass, and was faced with Hayato, and what he thought was the original Naruto and his remaining clones, a mere handful of them.

"This guy's tough, Hayato-sensei," said the first Naruto clone standing right next to Hayato, with the other clones scattered around them.

"Heh, you're still bothering with those useless clones, blondie?" Tokumetsu growled, starting to get seriously pissed off.

"YOU'LL FIND OUT JUST HOW USELESS THEY ARE, BAKA!" the clone screamed out loud. Then to put words into action, about half of the remaining clones spread out and started to rush him, only to scatter at the last second when he would have struck them with his club. After about a minute of dodging the giant's attacks, they started making their own attacks, but only when they could be certain they wouldn't get destroyed in the attempt. The most they managed to do was trip him up a couple of times.

Tokumetsu's face scrunched up with anger, and growled, "Time to stop playing around."

"I agree, bandit-san. Tell me, do you know a shinobi's two greatest weapons?" Hayato asked friendly, smiling coldly at the giant. Tokumetsu just growled and raised his club, preparing to finish them off, but then Hayato raised a finger in the air. "Number 1: teamwork," Hayato spoke, and despite his common sense, Tokumetsu waited to hear number two, "And number 2: subterfuge."

Kasumi and Ryu had appeared from the rocks behind Tokumetsu moments earlier, and had no sooner reached the titan and attacked. Kasumi went high, Ryu went low. Tokumetsu was only aware of a series of slaps across his body, and then he noticed the other two kids jump past him, turning around to face him. Kasumi having bounced by him with flips and jumps was upside down, while Ryu was straight up in somewhat of a crouched position.

"Heh," the lead Naruto clone chuckle and made a signal to the rest with him. As one, they charged Tokumetsu anew, each forming the seal for the Bunshin Daibakuha jutsu. Thus completing the Team One Hi-Lo-Thru Combo!

"Dodge those," the two spoke in concert as they flew onward, bringing their hands together in the ram seal to detonate the exploding notes they'd just placed. Tokumetsu noticed the exploding notes on his body and managed to pull two off with his great speed, but by then it was too late. The clones reached him and practically wrapped themselves around his waist. They detonated half a beat after the tags did. A massive explosion followed, and covered the man in a giant fireball.

As the explosion echoed away, all fighting seemed to stop. Everyone in the pass at that moment seemed to be holding their breath as they stared at the remains of the explosion, waiting to see what had become of the bandit's 'unbeatable' leader. Survival instincts began to set in as the rest of the bandit army threw down their weapons, and ran off screaming. Meanwhile, the ninja waited anxiously to see how much of a fight they still had left on their hands.

"N-no way!" Ryu exclaimed as the smoke finally cleared away enough to see.

"Natural indeed," Hayato grunted, reaching for the special pouch at his hip.

"*Koff*!" the blackened giant coughed out some smoke and just stood there for a moment, blood dripping down his body from multiple wounds, at places pieces of skin hanging loose where his clothes were soot-ridden rags at this point. But other than that, he was seemingly just fine.

"C-cowards..." he hissed out, clearly in pain as he watched all of his 'troops' flee. "W-we'll finish this... later..." Tokumetsu grumbled, and then slammed what remained of his club into the ground at his feet, which then fell away and filled back in as soon as he was through it and into whatever hidden passage lay beneath.

In a remarkably short amount of time, the bandits had disappeared like they'd never been there in the first place, save for all the damage to the mountain pass. Hayato made sure everyone stayed alert, but had the genin working to clear the front of the pass as quickly as possible while allowing the overwrought guards to regain their composure.

(Stop "First Encounter")

"This is why I wanted to wait a few more nights," Hayato softly said to Roku while the genin labored and the soldiers kept guard. Azula was sat in the wagon beside Kasumi, a blanket over her shoulders and some protection from attack.

"And why I wished to go this route in the first place," Roku countered. "Bandits would attack either way, but at least here we have some advantages."

"Such as? No, don't bother. I'm through arguing about this," Hayato sighed, rubbing his face from the tension of the battle only finished minutes ago. "Even if we turn back, they know we're here and our capabilities. That Tokumetsu is tougher than I expected, and he'll need a few days to heal at the least, but I doubt he's all we'd have to worry about."

"Hardly. He did not strike me as a trap maker or strategic mastermind," Roku agreed.

"But he did use several traps that had already been installed in the area, not to mention that getaway of his. Undoubtedly there are other, more experienced and more powerful fighters we'll have to worry about down the line. I need to rework our strategy a bit. Kasumi!" he called the genin sitting next to Azula. "I'm going to scout around for a bit. You're in charge until I return. Let me know via one of Naruto's clones when the pass is clear again."

"Yes, Hayato-sensei," she acknowledged even as the man disappeared in a swirl of leaves and dust.

Elsewhere In The Mountains

Bandit Camp

Tokumetsu and his troops returned to the hidden camp to a mix of shame and ridicule. Any that returned from a lost fight would get the same, but the fact that so many of them were injured and more than a third of those that had gone to the ambush came back severely injured or not at all, forced the admission that the target wasn't as easy as they'd first thought.

"Ne, ne, ne Tokumetsu-kun," mocked one of the bandits at the center of the camp, "You looked a bit roughed up there. Don't tell me this 'easy old man and some guards' that you scouted for us did all this to you. Maybe you're not fit to command after all, ne?"

"Shut up, Kai," Tokumetsu growled at the man, and unfortunately that was all he could do. "For starters, besides guards, there were ninja. One of them a jounin. I'd like to see you take him on by yourself! Which, by the way, is what I had to do!"

"Ne, but I'm not suicidal," Kai shrugged. He stood just over 5 feet, neck-length wild brown hair that hangs drooping, crazy-looking brown eyes, and had wiry musculature. He was dressed simply, as they all were, though he wore mostly leather armor in various shades of brown and was one of the remarkably few amongst the bandit camp not carrying a weapon at all times. Tokumetsu had relinquished his club upon entering the camp and was one of the others to carry no weapon.

The last to be absent of arms walked up to the first two, and the eyes of the whole camp were on him. Not as someone to fear or watch, but as someone to respect. This was their leader, Bakato. There were no surnames amongst the bandits. He stands just under 6 feet with short-cropped, spiky brown hair, held up by a dark green headband. He's in his early-twenties, well-tanned skin, has dark eyes, and wears a civilian tunic with various belts strapped all over his body, all of which hold pockets or straps holding something larger to the belts. He also had well calloused hands, showing the men that he worked just as hard, if not harder than they did. The one thing that made him the leader despite the respect he garnered was that he had once attended the ninja academy in Iwa, but he'd left the village before graduating and thus was not considered a nukenin, a missing ninja. That didn't mean he allowed his learned skills to falter though.

"Tokumetsu!" Bakato cried upon seeing his fellow leader's condition, "What happened? I heard that you used a few of my traps, but they've never been able to injure you like this before!"

"It... wasn't your traps, Bakato-sama," Tokumetsu humbly replied. "There were ninja with the old man I marked. A jounin and his genin apprentices. Although, those guards with the old man held off the rest of my men, so while I did not face them, they're worth whatever that old man paid for them."

"Are you sure they were paid for guardsmen, ne?" Kai questioned.

"There were a dozen of them!" Tokumetsu growled at his fellow 'second-in-command'. "What other possible reason could one old man and a rich girl have for traveling with twelve well-armed and trained guards and a Konoha ninja squad!?"

"Konoha!!" half the camp suddenly screamed.

"They are the nearest Ninja Village and these mountains are just outside the Fire Nation Capitol," Bakato patiently reminded all of them. "There is also to consider, Tokumetsu, that they might be family guards. You may have stumbled upon a bigger fish than you expected to handle my friend!"

"Ne?" Kai screeched, "How do you figure that Bakato-dono?"

Bakato shot the dark haired bandit a look, and retorted, "I've told you to never call me that Kai. I'm nobody's lord. In answer to your question however, who would be traveling the mountain pass to the Capitol that carried family guards with them in addition to a squad of ninja from Konoha?"

The camp was mostly silent as the vast majority of them started scratching their heads and shrugging. Bakato sighed and finally told them, "A noble of the Daimyo's Court."

"Ah! Oh! Right!" they all nodded along.

"Which means more than just stealing whatever they've got on them. It means... ransom," Bakato grinned, which quickly caught on and soon the whole camp was laughing evilly at the thought of ransoming a noble to the Fire Lord and the Court of Nobles. They might get enough out of it that they could all become nobles themselves they'd be so rich!

"Ne, this means that we can't let this fish get away then, ne?" Kai pointed out with an evil smile.

"Tomorrow, we take the whole group. I'll need three squads, maybe four to help me out. We're going to... prepare things for this ninja and these guards. I'll go ahead and map out the area that I have in mind. Tokumetsu, you're in charge of the camp until I return, and I want you resting and your men recuperating. We're going to need all the help we can get judging by the trouble you had with them. Kai, gather the squads and report to the Last Pass and Forgotten Valley. I'm going to need your earth techniques for a lot of this."

"Of course Bakato-dono. I live to serve, ne," Kai mocked, and then left in a flash before he could be rebuked any further. Bakato just shook his head and left to start planning his traps.

Mountain Pass

Team One's Camp

Night

The group had finally settled into their camp for the night, setting up tents and cooking supper. They only had one fire going, and it took Azula whining for an hour before Hayato finally consented to allow that much. Thankfully it was large enough without being a bonfire to accommodate all of them, ninja, nobles and guards.

"What's your plan, Hayato? To deal with these bandits?" Sgt. Heero asked once everyone was settled.

"Get through the pass as quickly as possible," was the short yet immediate reply.

"The bandits in this area seem to have a tactical advantage over us," Sgt. Ryo commented. "They've also targeted us specifically, most likely because there aren't any caravans scheduled to come through here for quite a while and there's no one else traveling this way. If there were, we would have passed them already, or perhaps the bandits got to them already. I agree with Heero, we need a plan for when we face them again."

"W-w-when? Y-you mean IF, right?" Azula whimpered, shivering and huddling closer to Roku.

"... She really should not be here," the white-blond guard, Zechs, stated not even looking at the princess.

"Nothing can be done about that now," Hayato stated in a firm voice before anyone could agree, disagree or argue about it. The facts were the facts and arguing over them wouldn't help matters and they all knew that.

"First and foremost, Sage Roku and Princess Azula's safety is the number one priority," he continued speaking. "Who among your men are the best? Not counting yourselves, because I saw from today's fighting already that you two sergeants are the best I've seen outside of trained ninja. Who would you call the best?"

"Anubis," Sgt. Ryo gestured for the silent armored guard.

"Zechs, after myself. Quatre after him," Sgt. Heero stated.

"Zechs should be the one guarding Azula tomorrow. I saw how he was with that crossbow of his, almost as good as that whip-sword of his. He's able to combine long range and close range as seamlessly as any one and that's what is needed with these bandits. Anybody notice what tactics they used today?"

"Traps," every one of the guards said at once.

"They also used the giant as a distraction," Ryu added. "Most of us put our attention on him and that rocket club weapon of his. Meanwhile we were surrounded and nearly cut off from all escape just standing there like idiots! It was almost..."

"Like ninja tactics..." Kasumi whispered, her eyes widening.

"The traps were set off with exploding notes, and none of them were surprised by Naruto's clone techniques," Hayato nodded to her. "I don't think we have to worry about bandits learning ninjutsu or any nukenin leading and training them. Besides, what they did use was very basic. Almost graduate Academy level, but I've already taught you three numerous tactics more advanced and effective than what we faced today. Nevertheless, it does speak of ninja techniques."

"How did that bastard survive anyway?!" Naruto suddenly exclaimed. "I mean we hit him with real weapons, we put lots of explosive notes directly on him, and I had my clones explode practically in his face! And he still walked away from it! How?!"

"There are people in the world, Naruto," Roku spoke up, "that will surprise you at every turn and have secrets and ways of doing things that you cannot even begin to imagine. I've lived for almost a hundred years now and traveled all over the known world and even to a few unknown locations, and I'm still being surprised by a lot of what people can do.

"I would surmise, however, in answer to your immediate question that this Tokumetsu has an abnormally abundant amount of ki or physical energy. As I'm sure everyone here knows, yes even you Azula, ninja use a power known as chakra, which is a combination, a mixture if you will, of their spiritual energy and their physical energy. The key is that both must be equalized in order to mix together and only that which is successfully combined is what you call chakra and use for your jutsu."

Roku took a gulp of water to clear his throat and continued, "There are people in the world, very unique individuals that have an imbalance between their physical energy and their spiritual energy. Nothing is wrong with them or anything like that, it is merely the way they were born. Some simply have greater spiritual energy than others, more than they have physical energy. These people usually become priests or spiritualists. Some even become very powerful psychics.

"Then there are the people that have greater physical energy or very little spiritual energy in comparison. These people, such as Tokumetsu, are usually quite strong and capable of building their bodies and physical powers to such degrees that even a ninja of comparable strength might be overwhelmed. It is one of the only ways I can fathom this man's near-invulnerability to damage as well as his immense strength. Knowing how tough you are, Hayato, I was surprised to see him land a hit on you in the first place. It looked like it hurt."

"It did," Hayato simply remarked, no obvious emotion in his tone as he stared into the flames.

"Hmph," Roku scoffed and took another gulp of water.

"Those are our assignments, not a plan," Zechs interrupted, bringing attention back to the conversation.

Hayato was silent, staring into the flames of the fire rather than answer.

"How about I bust some skulls by outnumbering them with clones again!" Naruto suggested, smacking his fist into an open palm.

"That hardly worked the first time, what makes you think that they wouldn't be prepared for it a second time!" Kento remarked.

"It worked better than you think," Hayato informed them. "Where the clones were standing, the rockets that were shot out by that man's weapon shouldn't have scratched a percentage of them. Instead over half were wiped out in the initial onslaught."

The men all stiffened, realizing the implications of the jounin's words.

"There were additional traps laid out and if Naruto hadn't gone overboard on making clones when I had meant for him to make a few dozen shadow clones, we probably would have lost that fight. And no one knew this, but thanks to Kasumi and Ryu, the explosive notes we were all sitting on at the time didn't have a chance to blow either. After the initial onslaught, while I faced off against Tokumetsu, they scouted for traps and disabled the ones that would have scattered or killed us if the bandits had wanted it that way. They probably did and seeing that one or more of their traps failing is what sent them running more than me defeating their leader."

"Which is why we need a strategy on getting out of the minefield. Literally!" Duo exclaimed.

"Ah, the eccentricities of the strategist," Roku said loftily. "It makes me ever so happy that I just play for the fun of it rather than depend on it for training as most do these days."

"Grandfather, what are you talking about?" Azula innocently questioned.

"Tell me, Azula-chan, what is my favorite game to play in the whole world?" the old sage asked her.

"Messing with people's heads," she replied instantly, not seeing most of them sweat-drop behind her.

"Eh heheheh," Roku chuckled uncomfortably, scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment and to get rid of the sweat drop there too. "No, I meant what is my favorite game that is actually a game?"

"Oh," the dark-haired princess blushed slightly, invisible in the firelight, "Well then it would be Shogi, and Go and the other one is that game from the Far West that you call Monopoly."

"Heheheh..." Roku's sweat drop was even bigger this time. "Well, the first two are well known methods of training one's strategic ability. Generals all over the world often remark how those games help them prepare for when they face real strategies in wartime, and even people in individual battles can use them to help plan out how the enemy will strike and respond to your own counterstrike. I would imagine that is what is giving Hayato pause in outlining what our own strategy will be in avoiding the bandits tomorrow."

"The problem is that Tokumetsu was not the one to set the traps, and though we've seen many different kinds of traps already and from that can know what to expect, none of us have met or faced this particular trap builder before, so it's hard to know what to expect from him," Kasumi pointed out.

"Wow, I didn't think being a ninja would be so, so..." Naruto searched for the right word.

"Hard?" Ryu supplied.

"Dangerous?" Azula offered.

"Mentally taxing?" Kasumi said knowingly.

"Yeah, that," Naruto pointed at Kasumi, "but also... challenging! Yeah, that's the word! I've never had to out think anybody like this before! ANBU always responded the same way to my pranks no matter what I did, so I just had to learn their habits. After that it was easy to pull off all the stuff I did. On the other hand, this is completely different."

"Unfortunately, learning their habits from just a single encounter is not an easy task," Quatre said.

"But not impossible," Hayato said, still staring into the flames. "For right now, everyone just needs to trust their training and know where they have to be. I'm not dropping the topic, I'm merely waiting to decide on a final commitment until we have more information. It's getting late. We should all get some sleep. I'll take the first watch with the Sergeants. Kasumi, Naruto, Ryu. You three will have the last watch in the hours before daybreak. So get your sleep now."

"Heh, some things just don't change," Ryu commented, referring to the early hour they would wake, which was the same hour they woke every day when training with Hayato.

"Get some sleep!" Hayato finally ordered, and everyone turned to their tents or sleeping rolls and tried to get as much sleep as possible before having to wake in the morning.

Bandit Camp

Same Time

"So, they've set up camp for the night?" Bakato confirmed with the scout he'd sent to spy on the targets.

"Yes, sir," the boy, no older than ten, though he looked smaller than he should. "They also talked about coming up with a plan to deal with us, but I couldn't hear anything specific."

"That's all right Hikari," Bakato patted the boy on his head, playfully ruffling his hair. "You did a good job. Go ahead and go to your mother. You've earned yourself a full meal tonight."

Once the boy had run off to a hidden hut in the mountain's rock wall, Bakato turned to his own hide away home and joined his fellow bandit leaders at the table in the center of the structure.

"Ne. We should attack them now, while we know where they are and when they aren't going to be moving any time soon, ne," Kai argued.

"No," Bakato immediately denied the request. "They're in the forested area just before the ravine. We'll attack them once they're past the ravine, blowing the bridge so they have no choice but to walk into our web. Besides, it's night and we'd only end up losing men in an attack with no guarantee of gaining anything out of it."

"So?" Kai scoffed, like the idea of losing men was inconsequential.

Bakato glared at the man and grabbed him up by his collar. "I am not about to risk my people's lives just because you refuse to see the big picture and have no patience, Kai! If you're so eager for a fight, go by yourself with as many as you can convince to follow you and attack them, in the dark, in their camp, where they can escape in any direction they choose. Tokumetsu told you about the genin that created over a hundred solid clones and was only winded for a few minutes! Are you really so stupid that you don't think that in an unprepared area that you can take out someone that can outnumber you in an instant?"

Kai gulped and was definitely sweating by now. That was the problem with Bakato, in the younger bandit's opinion, is that he thought everything through before taking even a single step. Unfortunately for Kai, this made Bakato very successful in staying alive and out of prison, but it also meant that he didn't get to have as much fun if they just went wherever the hell they pleased whenever they wanted.

This made Bakato very popular among the men that had joined them as fighters and brought their families with them, which made it very difficult for those like Kai to wrest control from the popular young bandit. On the other hand, Bakato was usually right when it came to stuff like this, and Kai was more of an impulsive sort and he couldn't stand all the kids running around, so even if he was in charge, the entire group would break up as soon as that happened leaving Kai with just whoever he could strong arm into coming with him and they'd probably be in prison before the week was out. Best to just stay Bakato's second-in-command, or just until he got too annoying. At least he still got to have fun on occasion, and staying out of prison helped.

"We stick to the plan and wait for them to get past the ravine before attacking, is that understood?" Bakato released Kai, looking directly into his eyes as he waited the answer to his demand.

"H-h-hai," Kai gulped, admitting that Bakato could also be very scary when he wanted to be.

"Good," the trap builder stood up before resuming his seat at the table. "I didn't run from the Earth Nation just to be caught in the Fire Nation. Heh. And who would have thought failing to pass the Iwa Ninja Academy three times in a row would be such a blessing in disguise? After all, I got all the training I could squeeze out of the instructors and when I finally left the village, they couldn't label me a nukenin because I hadn't even graduated! Didn't stop me from training though, and training both of you in case you forgot."

"Ne, I haven't forgotten Bakato-dono," Kai submissively replied.

"Heh, you saved my life at least a couple dozen times, not to mention what you've done for all these people, Bakato," Tokumetsu, still in bandages, remarked. "I just hope that those brats and old man don't move too quickly. I want another shot at them, and according to the doc, it's gonna be a week before I'm healed enough to fight. Even with the rapid healing stuff you showed me I could do."

"I wouldn't be too worried about that," Bakato grinned, adjusting the dark green headband that held his spiky brown hair out of his face. "Knowing experienced ninja like I do, the jounin is going to slow their progress down for at least a day. It's going to take them another two days before they reach the ravine from where they're currently camped. They'll probably reach it in a day and a half, but once he sees that ravine, the jounin will have them stop for a day and send the guards and his genin out to scout the area. That will buy us a whole day at the least to finish preparations. When they finally cross the bridge, as there is no other way across if they want to continue on to the Capitol, we'll blow the bridge, trapping them in our web. Hahahahahah!"

Tokumetsu and Kai joined their leader in his maniacal laughter. They'd soon have a noble, or two, of their very own to ransom, making them all rich beyond their wildest dreams. And who knows what condition the ninja would be in after they were done with them. The kunoichi in particular had caught Kai's interest, just from the descriptions of her being passed around by the survivors of Tokumetsu's attack on them.

"OK enough," Bakato stated and the laughter stopped. "If you really want something to do Kai, you can go out to the Forgotten Valley and finish up the traps that you left half finished out there. Tokumetsu, you get some rest and heal up. I want you there as much as you want to be there, so that means resting and listening to the Doc. All right?"

"Yeah, I got it," the giant grumbled and left to his own spot to rest and meditate on healing.

"Ne, you're right," Kai got to his own feet. "I shouldn't have left that stuff half finished like that, ne. I'd better get it done before that jounin sends out his scouts, ne? Night, Bakato-dono!"

"And don't call me 'Lord'!" Bakato shouted at the bandit commander after he'd already left.

The bandit leader sighed and decided to go ahead and turn in himself. It would be a busy week, but hopefully, Kami willing, also a very profitable one. He was asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

Mountain Pass

Kazan Ravine

Two Days Later

Hayato pushed the group as hard as he dared, forcing everyone to run rather than walk, sending the genin out ahead and behind in a roving patrol to detect any trace of the bandits at all, and only stopping to rest the horses pulling the cart. They actually made it from their first campsite to the ravine in less than one day's time, reaching the edge just as the sun was setting. Ryu soon found the bridge across only a kilometer from where they first came across the landmark, but it was already night and it had been a long day, so they set up camp where they rested and waited until daybreak before continuing any further.

Once the jounin saw the ravine, and the only bridge across it in who knows how far in either direction, the game plan became suddenly clear. He spent the whole of dinner that night asking questions about the area from Roku, the guards, even Ryu and Kasumi if they'd been anywhere near the area before. After that, he took catnaps and spent the rest of the time just staring into the fire while thinking of what to do once they crossed the ravine. Because once they did, he knew there was no going back.

Going back right now was still an option, but Roku wanted to get home and as he said continuously every time Hayato or the guards suggested turning back for his and Azula's safety, so it was more a final option more than anything else. Until they crossed that bridge. Then their only options became surrendering and dying, or fighting and dying, or the preferable option of fighting and running away as fast as they could for the Capitol and the nearest military outpost.

Roku would press on and Hayato and the guards would have no choice but to follow. So the only option left to the Jounin Sensei was how they were going to fight and run. He spent the entire night going over numerous tactics and overall strategies they could employ, but without knowing the name of their true adversary, he might as well be fighting blindfolded in a dark room with an infinite number of enemies, all of which could kill him with a touch!

Once they woke in the morning, Hayato kept the same pace he'd pushed them through the day before and they were across the ravine and a few kilometers further down the pass before the sun was fully above the horizon. An hour after they crossed however, they all heard a distant explosion behind them and Hayato knew that the bridge had been blown out. Even if they were inclined to, had they gone back they would have been driven into a corner they never would have gotten out of. Instead, Hayato hurried them along and had Naruto and Ryu take the horses' place in pulling the cart when it came time to rest the animals.

"You're panicking," Roku observed of the jounin about mid-morning.

"You're not giving me any choice," Hayato snapped at the sage. "Two squads of guards and a rookie genin team are not enough to protect you from these bandits, whoever they are! If it were just you and my team, we might be able to sneak past them at some juncture, but by sticking to the main pass... we're ducks in a pond swimming into a fisher's net. The question is; can we claw our way out before the fisherman throws the knife to put us out of our misery."

"I never knew you were so cynical, Hayato," Roku chuckled, like the man had just told a joke.

"It's called Life and Experience," the jounin morosely replied.

Approaching noon, Azula started to complain and ask when they would be stopping for midday meal, but Hayato shushed her every time. He stood alert and his eyes were seen tracking every sound outside of the perimeter, despite having Kasumi, Naruto and Ryu running constant patrols around their position. The guards were equally alert and ready for anything.

Finally, Roku had had enough, so to speak, and turned to his granddaughter and explained the situation to her. "Azula, my dear, do you know what is going on right now?"

"Well of course I do!" she snapped at him, crossing her arms petulantly. "We're on our way home, running from bandits that want to hurt us, but nobody is listening to me when I tell them that I'm tired and want to rest. Besides, my butt is sore from all the rocking this cart does. My carriage is never this bad!"

"I'm sure it's not. I would also remind you that you could have gone home in your carriage with all the other guards you brought with you and they'd have no problem coming and going at your whim. In fact, I am sure that many of them would quite enjoy it. However," he gave her a stern look, "you chose instead to come with me, even after I explained the conditions you would have to endure for no longer than a week or so."

"I know," Azula said, looking down at her lap, "And I thought I understood what you meant, I honestly did, but... This is not what I'm used to at all! How can you stand going places like this Grandfather?"

"I've gotten used to it over the years," he admitted to her with a smile. "I might even say that I prefer this method of travel to all the fanfare that you brought with you the day I left Konoha. This is simpler. Dangerous, for sure, but much faster and far simpler than taking a full company all across the country just for one old man."

"Grandfather, you're not just anyone!" Azula protested.

"I know that, and worse yet, the Fire Lord knows it too. But do you know this, Azula? That the reason we cannot stop, the reason we are hurrying so, is because our protectors know what stands against them. An army of thieves and brigands wants to take us and at the very least ransom us to the Fire Lord. A squad of ninja and twelve men do not stand much chance against an army. Especially on their home ground."

Azula pouted thoughtfully, thinking about what he'd told her.

"So why not call for help from that fort we stayed at a couple nights ago? Get them to bring their troops to distract the bandits and sneak past?" she finally asked. She pointed at Naruto, "Have him send his clones with the message. He's certainly good enough with them."

"Already tried that," Naruto and Hayato said at the same time. Naruto continued in saying, "Right after the battle, Hayato-sensei had me make a dozen clones and send them back to the Army Fort. They were dispelled less than an hour after I sent them off, taken out by traps and bandits. I even tried sending more just before sundown! Same thing!"

"We're on our own," Hayato stated. "And the reason, before you ask, that we're staying on the pass instead of finding other paths through the mountains is the same reason Sage Roku gave to you for our hurry. The bandits know this area better than we do, and stealth is no longer an option. Therefore we have to go with speed and move through the pass as quickly as we can."

"Oh," Azula mumbled, looking down at her lap again.

"Don't worry Azula-sama," Zechs comforted the girl, patting his specialized weapons, which he kept in his lap while holding onto the reins, "We will protect you and your grandfather and get you both home safely. Even if we have to die to ensure that happens, I swear to you that it will happen."

Azula looked up in shock at the guardsman. She rarely spoke to those assigned to protect her all the time, but this was the first time she'd heard the raw conviction they all had in their duty to safeguard her from harm. Seeing this masked, white-blond haired man swear to give his life to save hers was more than she'd expected. She almost didn't know how to handle it, until he lifted his helmet and smiled at her with warm blue eyes, and she felt a lot better about the situation all of a sudden.

"I... I believe you," she said. "Thank you."

Zechs readjusted his masked helmet and nodded at her. "No thanks are needed, Your Highness. Still, you are welcome. Now then, lets..."

"ZECHS!" Quatre from the front suddenly shouted, drawing everyone's attention.

Zechs looked up and saw a crossbow bolt... headed straight for his left eye!

A black blur suddenly clouded the guard's vision, even as he was pushing the nobles down into the cart to save them from the attack, and the next thing he saw was the young genin, Ryu, holding the bolt with both hands and glaring at the grove of trees half a kilometer off the left side of the pass.

"There's no one there," he stated, his gaze shifted all over the area. "No chakra signature. It was either a long distance shot, or another prearranged trap that either we or they set off when we passed."

"Good aim," Duo joked. Zechs shot him a glare from beneath his helmet.

"It's a short range bolt," Sgt. Heero observed from the weapon. "Lots of power, can pierce armor, but useless outside of a hundred meters. I think this was meant to scare us."

"Let's move," Hayato ordered, getting them moving again at the same pace, but with everyone twice as alert than before. Azula stopped making complaints and even started trying to see if she could detect the enemy too. She wasn't having much luck, and she didn't want to distract anyone by asking more questions.

After a half hour or so, they came to a rise in the land and the forests that had framed the pass for days now suddenly fell away to reveal a rocky plain where not even grass grew. There were cliffs, boulders, cracks in the earth leading to gorges and maybe even a canyon or two, yet hardly any vegetation worth mentioning at all. They pressed on for another half hour until Hayato suddenly pulled them all up short.

"Stop," he ordered.

"What is it sensei?" Kasumi questioned, trying to understand why they were stopping when they should be running still.

Before he could answer, Ryu's eyes went wide and he cursed out loud. "Oh shit!"

"Huh, what? What is it?!" Naruto exclaimed, until he caught onto the hint the same time Kasumi did and they both opened up their chakra senses and focused more on their immediate surroundings.

"Oh shit," they both agreed with their teammate. They were now literally surrounded by chakra signatures. The thing was though, none of them were strong enough to be near human chakra levels, not even a civilian's. Nevertheless, they could recognize the feeling of charged exploding tags, buried all around them in every direction, and it was a safe bet to say that they were literally in the middle of a minefield!

"It would seem," Roku observed with a sour expression, "that we have fallen into the bandits' trap. Fitting place for it. This area of the mountains is known as the Forgotten Valley, just before the Last Pass. Because it seems as though it has been forgotten about by the gods."

Suddenly they heard clapping. "Very impressive. Maybe our meal ticket is worth more than we thought it was gentlemen." About thirty meters behind them, standing atop one of the cliffs of the area, was a tall man with brown hair and straps covered in weapons and tools all over his arms, legs, and torso. Beside him on either side was the giant Tokumetsu, and a shorter man with wild brown hair and a wiry build. Behind them and all around the area in small groups was over one hundred men, each carrying weapons of their own.

Forgotten Valley

Mountain Pass

"Here's the plan," Hayato said while glaring at the bandit leaders in the distance. "Best close-range fighters stay here, no matter what! Rowan, Heero, Trowa, Zechs. You guys are our long-range artillery. If it is not a kill or disable shot, don't take it. Everyone else, meet the enemies attacks, but do not leave the cart and do not go more than ten meters from it in any direction. You three," he pointed to his genin, "Stick together. No matter what! Roku-sama, Azula-sama, please stay in the cart. My team and I will be on offense for now."

He straightened and stepped forward. "I'm going after the leaders."

"By yourself, Hayato-sensei?" Naruto asked, concerned.

Hayato's only reply was to open the catches at the special weapon pouch at his hip. The genin and Roku's eyes all went wide at the action and no more questions were asked.

Kasumi took a moment to look around and see what was arrayed against them. She quickly tallied the odds and decided that, just to be sure, they needed an extra ace in the deck so to speak.

"Guys," she whispered to Naruto and Ryu, "Remember that jutsu we've been working on the past few weeks? Not the weapons, but the one that lets us use the weapons finally?"

Ryu's eyes went wide, surprise clearly showing on his face, while Naruto looked confused for a second longer before understanding lit up behind his own eyes. Then he too looked surprised, figuring out what she was saying to them.

"You... want to use that here? Now?" Naruto questioned.

"We haven't exactly perfected it you know," Ryu said. "We don't even know if there's a range limit or if it can be broken or anything like that yet! It's too dangerous!"

"We need an advantage, and these bandits already know about Naruto's clones. We need an extra advantage." Seeing she wasn't reaching them, she added, "Working together like that, we matched and beat a jounin! Twice! If it's overkill, well then think of it as a chance to field-test the jutsu."

"And I thought Naruto was the impulsive one while I'm supposed to be the suicidal one," Ryu muttered, shaking his head. "Fine, but we need time to set it up, and I don't think they're going to give it to us."

"Sensei!" Kasumi called, just in time too, as Hayato had been about to charge.

"If there's not something really dangerous that I don't know or a key piece of information that will get us out of this trap, Kasumi," he growled at her, glaring over his left shoulder, "I suggest you get back with your teammates and start planning on how to win this fight."

"That's just it," Kasumi told him, "We want to use the Buntai no jutsu, but we need at least three minutes to set up for it. The moment we start, they're going to attack."

Hayato glared at her for another few seconds, before facing front again. Then he quietly told her, "Get started. I'll hold them off until you're ready."

Almost surprised, she only hesitated a moment before nodding her head and racing back to her teammates. They all quickly got into position, holding out their hands in the middle and started channeling their chakra in preparation.

__________ - - - - - - - - - - * * * * * * * * * * 1 1 1 1 1 * * * * * * * * * * - - - - - - - - - - __________

"They're up to something, ne," Kai pointed out to Bakato. "Should we...?"

"No," Bakato smirked knowingly. "Set off the first round of traps only. Don't want to damage the merchandise, but let's make sure they know we're serious." He nodded his head to Tokumetsu, who nodded back, then slammed his club down onto a very specific spot at their feet.

The ninja all felt the chakra surge and could almost follow it along the pathways of seals, wires, and conduits to the trap almost literally beneath their feet. Hayato acted first, giving his genin the time they needed to prepare for the fight to come.

__________ - - - - - - - - - - * * * * * * * * * * 1 1 1 1 1 * * * * * * * * * * - - - - - - - - - - __________

(Play "Mountain Fight")

"I got it! Finish what you need to do!" he ordered, pulling out his chakra blade weapon, Sutamasurao, and activating it with a surge of his own chakra.

*SNAP*Hissss! The meter long blue-white blade made of pure chakra extended. He stood poised for exactly the duration of one heartbeat, and in the next, before the bandits even had time to truly react, he charged right at the bandit leaders with a blazing burst of speed!

"Shit! Do it now Tokumetsu!" Bakato ordered. The giant said nothing in reply however as the traps were already going off.

Small pouches of gunpowder, which wouldn't do any harm even if you held it in your bare hand, went off and smoke filled the area, making it impossible to see more than a few feet in either direction. Unfortunately the wind did not seem to be blowing in the area at the moment because the smoke just hung in the air rather than dissipate after a minute or two. Hayato, however, was still clearly identifiable as his energy blade was clearly seen even outside the smokescreen. And he was still moving forward.

"No, I meant activate the entire grid, NOW!" Bakato screamed, pulling out some exploding shuriken and throwing them right at the oncoming chakra sword. The blue shaft of lightning shifted twice, there were a couple muffled explosions, and it kept on coming, not even slowing down.

Tokumetsu, eyes wide, raised his club again and this time hit a different spot, a large rock. The club shattered it, and by that action, triggered the restrained chakra pathways laid out and 'arming' every single one of the traps in the entire valley. Hayato stopped moving, the sword stationary in the smoke, and the man having barely made it so his feet were on a couple non-trapped stones jutting out from the earth. That was as far as he could get though, at least until the smoke cleared and he became able to see an alternative.

In the center of the smokescreen, the genin of Team One weren't wasting the time their sensei was buying them. Once their chakra was ready and balanced they channeled the energy down their arms and out their hands to intermingle with one another's.

"Chakra Gattai!" they all exclaimed. Softly.

The chakra mixed and then began to flow back into them at a much greater intensity.

"Ready?" Kasumi whispered, sounding strained.

"As we'll ever be," Ryu whispered back.

Naruto said nothing for a moment, focusing instead on shaping the chakra the way that he wanted to, forming chakra strings out of the extra burst he'd just gotten and attaching them to his friends and teammates' bodies. When he was ready, and felt them attach their own, he felt an odd impulse to speak the name of their unnamed jutsu. What was even more odd was that at the exact same moment, Kasumi and Ryu said the exact same thing at the exact same time.

"Buntai no jutsu: Ikko Dageki!" (Team Technique: Team One Strike!)

Suddenly everything became crystal clear and sharp to Naruto's mind, while Ryu felt full of energy and Kasumi was filled with a boundless confidence. They straightened for a moment, and before that moment was even through, they were in motion. Despite the smokescreen and being unable to see each other or their surroundings, they still moved as though they knew exactly where everything and everyone was around them.

Naruto dove low and started running straight out into the field, his chakra sense fully active and telling him exactly where it was safe to step. At the same moment, Kasumi leaped over their heads, legs spread for balance as she pushed off a running Naruto's back, and then kicked smoothly off Ryu's shoulder, even while the black-clad ninja dashed in the opposite direction Naruto went in. Once she was on the other side of the cart, Kasumi landed in a smooth crouch and was up and racing through the field in the remaining compass direction.

It was done so fluidly and without even a flicker of hesitation on any of their parts that everyone figured they must have practiced for hours, if not weeks to get that good. That it was done while visibility was nil made it all the more impressive. The fun was only just getting started though.

Naruto reached his targets first, but then again he'd also set off all of the exploding traps that lay between his starting point and them. He just moved too fast to be caught in the explosions, in fact the force from each blast actually accelerated him even faster so he was clear of the next and thereby blowing most of the smokescreen away in the process. Once he was in the 'safe area', or as he was currently thinking of it, the 'target zone', he jumped high up overhead and without even bothering to call the jutsu name, created a few dozen shadow clones, all of them throwing shuriken and using Shuriken Kage Bunshin no jutsu the moment they were fully formed. A lot of the bandits just stood there and screamed, but most had the good sense to run away instead.

Kasumi, being the fastest and nimblest of the ninja present, reached her targets next. Unlike Naruto, she deftly and easily avoided every single one of the traps in her path, finding and detecting the precise spots where it was safe to step and the exact way to dodge them while moving at near shunshin speeds. Near those speeds because the bandits could still see and follow her progress as she neared them. In less than fifty seconds, she'd closed the distance and was inside the safe area where no traps were lain, and all the bandits stood ready.

They didn't expect much trouble from her, despite how quickly she moved. She was a girl, and while they didn't know what ninjutsu she could use, they all felt they outclassed her in fist and weapon fighting. After she threw her first senbon needle and kicked one of them so hard between the legs that he flew over everyone's heads to land head first on a capture trap (he was buried up to his ankles, what would have been his neck), they all quickly changed their minds. The worst of it though, as they were soon to learn, was when she used Senbon Kage Bunshin no jutsu, because just as Naruto had been learning how to control the flight of his shuriken, Kasumi had been doing the same with her senbon needles, and she'd figured out how to do that cold with a Senbon Kage Bunshin so that every needle-clone she created, landed in every single disabling pressure point that she knew of on whatever target she hit. She didn't do it for every bandit she faced, only for those when she saw an opportunity for it and had the proper angle. Still, it taught the bandits to run every time she pulled out even one needle.

Ryu, as tended to be the case in everything of late, was a cross between his two teammates in his approach to his own targets. He opted to run and avoid setting off each trap, but he didn't quite make it through without setting off a few here and there. He really enjoyed setting off the explosion traps, for the simple fact that they tended to damage or erase all other nearby traps, and a few times he even deliberately set them off to clear the area he was about to jump to. Unlike his teammates however, the group of bandits he targeted weren't just standing around staring at him. Those with long range weapons, crossbows, bows and arrows, even a few spears were cast at him with the intention to kill him, but he always managed to just get out of the way. Thanks to the team jutsu, his reaction times were off the charts. He even caught a few of the spears and bigger arrows and threw them back, with much greater accuracy than their original wielders.

When he finally breached the safe area, he didn't even pause before flashing through a few quick hand seals and shot out a half dozen fireballs in a wide spread. A few of the bandits caught on fire, and the rest did their best to dodge. The technique served its purpose however, giving Ryu enough breathing space to pull out his kunai and enough exploding tags to wrap around each of them. It had taken him three days of chakra control exercises and another two of practice with the jutsu, but he'd finally gotten it a few days before they got this mission.

Throwing a single tag-wrapped kunai towards the central mass of the bandits' ranks, he used his specialized Kunai Kage Bunshin no jutsu. Or rather his Kunai Kage Bunshin Daibakuha no jutsu! (Exploding Kunai Shadow Clone technique!)

A full ten-spread of tagged kunai formed and exploded only a second after forming. It was a side-effect of the chakra used to make the jutsu work in the first place, it activated the explosion seal on the tag, but thankfully only after all the tags and kunai had fully formed. It was why he'd needed two days of working on just the jutsu itself, as he'd needed to work on his timing so that the kunai-copies were formed far enough away from him and close enough to the target to be effective. After that, and showing he had plenty of ammo to continue his barrage, this group of bandits too finally broke ranks and ran from him.

During all this, Hayato wasn't being idle. The moment Naruto set off the first explosion, the smokescreen let up just enough for him to see once more, and get a bearing on his targets. He didn't have to be right in front of them to attack them thankfully, but he did need to be within a certain range, and because of the smokescreen he hadn't been able to do that. Now seeing at least the shadowed figures of his targets, Hayato quickly unleashed his attack that he'd been preparing since the moment he revealed Sutamasurao!

"Engetsu!" he cried out and raised the blade with both hands above his head, arms fully extended, and then brought it crashing down to strike the ground so fast that it looked like a solid arch of blue-white energy. The moment the chakra blade struck the ground, the energy he'd been building up was unleashed in full. Seeing as these were not genin he was testing, Hayato saw no reason to hold back this time in using his weapon.

A wave of raw energy spread out from Hayato's feet, where the blade had struck, and towards the bandit leaders location. It moved quickly, as quickly as Hayato himself could move, maybe faster. The ground was displaced by the passing energy, and there was so much of it that it broke through in places, allowing some of the energy to escape prematurely, creating the effect of bursts of the same blue-white electrical energy shooting straight up into the sky as pillars of light from the ground. When it finally struck, a hundred meters or so away, the energy overloaded itself and there was a powerful explosion, most of it in the form of shrapnel from the ground.

Bakato saw this coming and gave the signal for an immediate withdrawal. The bandits fled, running away as fast as they could, the explosion of Hayato's attack urging them further on. As a bonus, Hayato's attack also wiped away all of the traps laid in front of his position, though unfortunately none of the bandits, particularly the bandit leaders, were taken out. Yet.

Seeing they were still running, he decided to encourage the viewpoint of leaving his team and his clients alone, or else, and chased after them, flashing forward to catch up with the stragglers. He quickly had them running for the hills, screaming in fright, from him and his chakra-weapon.

Unfortunately, there were a lot more bandits than four or five groups, and the ninja had no way of knowing that the bandits had an actual plan, one in which involved retreating the moment they were attacked. Once they had retreated and all of those capable of attacking were separated from one another, the trap was sprung.

As he evaded the jounin with the energy sword, Bakato pulled a simple looking kunai from one of his own pockets, and as he was running, he threw it at a rather unremarkable and hard to spot and easy to miss 'X' carved in the side of the rock he passed on his right. Hayato saw the move and his eyes widened. Too late, he tried to retreat and retrieve his team and order them back to the clients.

All around them, the earth started shaking and rumbling, like a giant turning over in his sleep. The bandits all vanished, finding hiding spots or nearby escape tunnels that they ran to, leaving the ninja standing alone out in the open as the earthquake intensified. Just as suddenly, they were no longer on an open plane of a forgotten valley of rocks. The earth shot up in spires, spikes, and shelves, as cracks formed, closed, and shifted all over the place. By the time everything stilled and the shaking stopped, the open plane had changed into a stone maze, which might have been natural if not for the way that it was formed and the fact that some of the paths were just as clearly man-made.

"Shit," Hayato cursed, looking around his situation and realizing what it meant.

"Gotcha," Bakato said smugly, looking down from a safe spot above the maze. Though none of them could see him, he could see all the players at the moment. The armored guards and the old man and young noblewoman at the center. And then the four ninja, all separated in a different part of his Doton: Meikyuuishi no jutsu (Earth Release: Stone Maze Technique) and unable to reach the others of their group, completely separated.

"Gentlemen," he said to his fellow bandits, "Let's begin, shall we?"

(Pause "Mountain Fight")

Forgotten Valley

Stone Maze

Roku

The smoke had cleared, but was almost immediately replaced by some kind of stone maze, the result of some insidious jutsu the bandits had gotten their hands on no doubt. Unfortunately, rather that put walls around them and box them in, the maze lifted the ground they were standing on and a good meter outside their perimeter until they were on a mesa in the center of the stone maze, at least ten or fifteen feet higher than the surrounding ground.

"Well, this isn't good," Duo remarked, shouldering his scythe.

"Wh-what happened? And why isn't being out of the maze a good thing?" Azula quietly asked.

"It would seem we stepped into a rather extensive trap of some kind. My own fault I suppose," Roku was forced to admit. "As to why being where we are like this being a bad thing, well... For one, we are highly exposed, with no means of cover and in a position that anyone can see us from any angle and target us for long range attack. The only good part of this is that they cannot get close enough to attack directly, I suppose..."

"Want to bet on that?" Kento growled, adjusting his weapon so it would be ready anytime.

"The same people that created this stone maze also raised the area we're standing on," Heero pointed out to the nobles. "They could just as easily have made the raised area hollow and connected underground tunnels to it in order to subdue us, capture us, or even kill us without being able to stop them. You two stay in the cart. We'll handle this until the ninja return."

"How can he talk so... calmly like that? With everything going on?" Azula asked her grandfather.

The white-haired man sighed and answered, "Unfortunately, there are soldiers that have seen things that young people should never have to face. Men that see that sort of thing so often either break under the pressure, or it finally gets to the point where it just doesn't bother them anymore. For the rest... for those in command, they have to force themselves to appear unaffected by such things, for the sake of their men, so that those that look to them for leadership can take heart and strength from them. Sergeant Heero strikes me as such a man, Azula-chan. I suggest you borrow some of his strength until this is all over with."

Azula, wide-eyed, just nodded and stared over at the sergeant, keeping quiet.

"I'm not really someone you want to look up to, I'm afraid," the sergeant said with no emotion.

Azula blinked, while Roku and the other guards all laughed and chuckled. Finally she sighed and rolled her eyes. Adults never made any sense to her anyway.

Before the levity could continue, however, the bandits seem to lose patience as the attack began.

It started with long-range attacks; flaming arrows, thrown stones, exploding charges and cannons and the like. Though to the naked eye, the samurai troopers had no obvious defense to this onslaught, they very quickly demonstrated that this was not the case.

"Heero!" Ryo shouted, pointing.

The white and blue armored soldier just nodded and put away his sword before raising his shield. Looking back briefly, he asked the Sage and his granddaughter, "I'm sure it's been discussed before, but do either of you know why it is Samurai can survive in a world where ninja are the primary military resources of governments?"

Without waiting for the answer, he raised his shield like it was some kind of crossbow, but there was something beneath it, attached to the shield yet not a part of it. Yellow-gold energy began to gather at the pointed end until it suddenly exploded in a display of violent kinetic energy. A beam of yellow light shot into the sky and as Sgt. Heero moved his weapon, the beam arced across the sky, eradicating all of the long range weapons in the path as it passed.

When he stopped and the beam of light faded, there was no sign of the bandits attacking at all. He lowered his shield and hid the attachment once more. "Ninja aren't the only ones that can use chakra," he finished saying to the nobles.

"Heh," Kento scoffed. "Show off."

"Would you have cared to try and stop all those weapons?" Sgt. Ryo asked his squad-member.

"Uh..." Kento blushed and adjusted his own weapon. "Never mind."

"We have more coming, and I can only use my Buster Shot three times a day," Sgt. Heero informed them. "After that I'll be useless in the fight. We need to find a way out of this mess."

"I'll handle the next wave, if there is one," Zechs said. "And if they did have a tunnel beneath us, I think they would have used it already. We just have to be on the look out for..."

"For that," Duo pointed.

Just over the top of the maze, right across from them and seeming on a bridge that lead right to their location, was roughly thirty to forty men, wearing make-shod armor and hand-made or stolen weapons of knives, clubs, and swords.

"Looks like this fight is just getting started," Rowen commented as he notched his bow with an arrow and began to take aim. "Hope the ninja join us soon, otherwise we'll have all the fun."

"I'm more worried that we may get too much of the fun and them not enough," Ryo said as he drew his twin katana.

"Only thing we can do is hold out until they get back to us," Heero stated plainly.

"Yeah, and hope that there's something for them to come back to," Duo added with a gulp.

Forgotten Valley

Stone Maze

Naruto

(Play "Mountain Fight")

Naruto cursed silently to himself as he ran through the narrow stone corridor he found himself in. Every once in a while he came across an armed bandit that would try to ambush him, but thanks to their Buntai jutsu still being active his senses were all on hyper alert and he was already knocking them out by the time they were uncovered from their hiding spot.

The really cool part, at least to Naruto, was how all the taijutsu skills he'd been learning recently were really coming to the fore. He'd thought he might be wasting his time, but his body, even while dashing from point to point, his body automatically adjusted from position to position, striking with rock solid punches and hard kicks. The bandits that attacked him never had a chance between that and his connection to his teammates.

Unfortunately, they were running low on the fused-chakra that they used to maintain the connections between them. Well that, or they were getting further away from one another and there was some kind of limit on how far away they could stay connected. After all, they had only just gotten the thing to work somewhat recently, there hadn't been time to fully test it out for everything.

Naruto was trying to get closer to them, but every time he tried, he wound up running into a dead end and he felt the lines connecting him to his teammates stretching thinner and thinner with each new corner he took. What made it worse was when they first tried jumping on the walls and climbing to the top of the maze. While he had a feeling it was a different experience for each of them, he knew that all three of them had failed to climb to the top of the maze. With him, it had been the walls turning to mud and somehow resisting his chakra so he couldn't use the tree-climbing exercise. He was starting to get desperate, and it was only the feeling of being connected to his friends that was keeping him from outright panic at the moment.

A few minutes ago, he'd seen a yellow beam of light shoot into the sky and upon feeling a 'tug' from the chakra strings connecting him to the others, he knew that they'd seen it too, so now they were all heading to where they hoped either Hayato-sensei, or Roku-jiisan were at the moment.

Just as he turned down one path that he was certain would lead towards Roku and the others though, he felt a chakra surge and it was only a 'tug' he felt from Ryu and Kasumi that had him leaping back mere moments before he would have been impaled by a dozen rock spikes that shot out of the ground and walls of the path he'd been about to go down.

As he watched though, they slowly retracted back into the earth until the path was clear once more. He wasn't fooled though. Seeing no other ways that would get him to where he wanted to go, only away from there, he made a quick decision. He started stretching his legs, and doing the breathing exercises Gouken-sensei had been teaching him. Knowing he'd be dead if he screwed this up, but determined not to, Naruto readied himself and started moving before he could change his mind.

To those watching, they couldn't believe their eyes that someone could be that stupid. There was no way a 12 year old brat could outrun the traps set up in front of him. Besides the spikes, there were also pitfalls, projectiles, giant boulders, walls that come out of nowhere, and a dozen other things to crush and pulverize anyone stepping in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Then they saw him dash in... and the spike shot up right under his foot.

Despite the running lessons Hayato had been giving his young pupil, there was no reason to expect jounin level speed from him any time soon. Even if he trained with weights and ran hundreds of laps around Konoha a day, in the month that he'd been training there was no way Naruto could seriously outrun those spikes that shot up the instant they were touched.

On the other hand, Naruto had been jumping, running up and down, and landing from Konoha's giant trees, practicing switching the chakra output to his legs so that he could survive landing from such a high jump without injuring himself. He was also quite adept at channeling stronger chakra pads to his feet when holding a heavy pole while walking on water that would sooner let it sink to the bottom than let it float.

So while Naruto was a bit disappointed that he wasn't as fast as he'd hoped, he was definitely prepared for that contingency.

Thus, everyone watching and hoping to see the blond idiot get himself impaled, dropped their jaws in amazement when they saw him rocketed up into the sky over the maze as the spike that should have impaled him, instead shot him up and over the rest of the traps behind it.

"Whooaa-ahaaoaaaooh!" Naruto screamed as he cartwheeled through the air. Right about that same time, Ryu and Kasumi both looked up, feeling a dangerous tug on their connection to Naruto that told them he was in trouble. Unfortunately, neither of them were in any position to help him out, no matter how much they wanted to.

"Oh crap! I'm gonna go splat unless..." Naruto's brain kicked into overdrive for exactly one second before switching back to panic mode. Thankfully that was just long enough for him to remember one of his new tactics.

"Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" he shouted, the clone appearing on the ground some ten feet below him. It then disappeared in smoke when spikes impaled it.

"OH COME ON! You've GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!" he screamed and then created two more shadow clones on either side of him. They grabbed his arms and threw him further up in the air, but hopefully in the direction of the wagon. They didn't exactly have time to aim.

"Let's try this again!" Naruto shouted to himself. "Kage Bunshin no jutsu!"

The clone appear some thirty feet below him, but that was still another twenty feet from the ground and where it crash landed happened to be another trap, this one the exploding kind.

He waited two seconds and tried again in a different area. No explosion, but a boulder smashed it before the white smoke from its summoning had even fully dissipated. Getting frustrated, Naruto was about to try again, when he caught sight of a bandit with a crossbow below him, aiming to apparently kill him mid-fall. Naruto smirked and performed his variation of the replacement jutsu, the Saka-Kawarimi. The bandit with the crossbow kindly finished Naruto's fall for him, while Naruto found himself in a unique spot where he had a full view of the entire stone maze.

Too bad he sucked at mazes in general, even the paper ones.

Locating the wagon where Roku-jiisan, Azula-chan, and all the guards were was easy enough, but he couldn't really see a way to get to them safely, nor a way to get them out of this mess either. Not much of a thinker, Naruto tried to track where Kasumi and Ryu were from his connection to them, only to realize that in the adrenaline-filled excitement of his free fall, he hadn't noticed that the fused chakra that had been used to establish the connection had run out and the connection faded with it.

Grumbling to himself, Naruto set his priorities and decided to regroup with the guards first and foremost. Kasumi-chan and Ryu would be fine, and they'd already decided earlier to meet up there anyway. Decision made, Naruto leapt out from the rock outcropping he'd landed and started sliding back down into the maze, surfing along the rock wall.

Just as he reached the top of the maze though, those damn spikes started shooting up again, but thankfully they seemed to be slower to reach him now that he was higher up. Jumping away from them, he aimed to run along the top of the maze, which was more like a series of broken paths than walls. He soon discovered, however, that they were just as trapped as the maze paths themselves.

One path/wall fell away completely the second he put a foot on it, another had spikes shooting from the ground trying to take out his ankles, while others had him dodging and running through flying shuriken and kunai projectiles. He did the best he could, running and jumping all over the place, but it was hard going and most of the time he had no clue what he was doing.

"Damnit!" he cursed as he leapt across another fall-away path, barely making it to the other side. "I don't have time for this! I've gotta get to the others! DAMNIT!"

He dodged one set of flying shuriken only to step right into a bunch of kunai headed right for his head. He cartwheeled out of the way, getting a few scratches to his armored jacket, but avoiding terminal injuries, though barely. When the flying shards of metal suddenly stopped, he took a moment to catch his breath, until he heard the telltale sound of crumbling rock. "DAMNIT!" he screamed and started running again.

He didn't make it far before his luck finally ran out and he wasn't fast enough to make it to the next ledge before it crumbled away. Thankfully, it was not a very steep drop to the ground, only about six or seven feet at the most. Unfortunately, the moment his butt landed on the ground, the earth spikes started all over again. "FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!" he screamed and started using the tree-climbing to run along the sides of the walls and this time they stuck and didn't turn to mud. The spikes however still shot out, but at least they were slower in coming and not quite as long.

Then he came to his first intersection, and taking a gamble, he flipped and jumped clear across it to the flat ground past it and kept up his running speed. The spikes stopped coming, but when he looked back, he saw a giant boulder rolling down the narrow passage and it was gaining on him.

"I'M GONNA KICK THE ASS OF WHOEVER CAME UP WITH THIS STUPID MAZE! BELIEVE IT!!" Naruto screamed.

He saw another intersection coming up and fast. Seeing how close the rolling boulder was getting, he formed the cross-seal, didn't bother with calling out the jutsu name, focusing the energy more on running instead, and created one shadow clone for each passage that was coming up. They quickly ran ahead and took their designated path.

The first one was impaled by spikes before his second footstep down the path straight ahead. The second one ran another gauntlet of shuriken and kunai and was making good headway, until a wall suddenly closed in and crushed him before he could even cry out. The third one, which took the path to the left had no trouble whatsoever. But it went the completely opposite way that Naruto wanted to go.

Frowning, Naruto smiled as he saw the spikes up ahead slowly retracting, a full ten seconds after impaling his clone. Creating another half dozen clones, Naruto sent them running straight ahead. Five spikes impaled and destroyed the first clone, but the remaining clones jumped up and climbed on top of the spikes, another clone being destroyed by a total of ten spikes after the first five, and so on and so forth until the last clone came out in an area where no more spikes appeared. He threw himself back to activate a few more spikes for the Boss.

Naruto grinned and reached the upraised spikes just as they were beginning to lower. And they just didn't have the same damage potential if they weren't fully extending from the ground all at once. Swinging between the spikes and climbing over them, Naruto reached the other side some three seconds ahead of the giant boulder slamming into the raised spiked, crashing into them and breaking them apart. Naruto looked back nervously as he cleared the spiked path, watching as the boulder came crashing through, rolling steadily closer.

It was slowing down, but not enough that it wouldn't break through entirely from what Naruto was seeing. Naruto got ready to jump up and over the boulder, if he could, because the only place to run was straight on, and he knew that he couldn't outrun this thing for very much longer. Thankfully though, just as it reached the last few raised spikes, something shifted (like maybe more spikes were coming up to replace the broken ones) and just as it reached the last set, the boulder lost practically all its momentum and bounced gently against the rock death trap before rolling back some.

When he was sure it wouldn't be crushing him any time soon, Naruto took a deep breath and let out a sigh of relief. Much calmer now, he turned and started walking down the path that should lead him to where his friends were going, and where he needed to be.

Then the ground fell away and he was cast into the darkness of the earth.

Forgotten Valley

Stone Maze

Kasumi

Kasumi was running wildly through the maze. Like the others, she was sure, she was trying to head back to where they had left the wagon and the soldiers to protect their clients. She'd felt it the moment the connection snapped between her and the boys, but it was to be expected honestly. They had not had time to properly test it, to find out all its weaknesses, its limitations. She resolved to correct that when they got out of this mess.

The chestnut-haired kunoichi smirked to herself as she flashed through the stone maze. Two months ago, given this situation, she would be saying that she was going to die and her only option was to make sure the mission was still able to be completed before being killed. A month and a half ago, having graduated the Ninja Academy, but not yet meeting her teammates, she would have come to the same conclusion, but with less fear and more resolution. Now?

She laughed to herself as she smoothly ducked under some kunai and shuriken. Now, she was a friend of Uzumaki Naruto, and had spent over a month getting to know him, trained beside him, and helped him grow as he in turn helped her grow. She knew the dangers, she knew that they faced a lot of unknowns here in this situation, but she also knew one thing above all others. Even in the face of death and certain destruction, Naruto just grins and gets right back up, ready for more.

Could she, the heir to the Mugen Tenshin Clan, a noble ninja clan of Konoha, do any less?

To quote some of her former classmates at the Academy; PUH-Lease!

The traps, however effective, were all rather basic too. At least from her perspective. Although given their abundance, it certainly made up for the lack in originality. The spikes were a bit tough at first, and to most it would seem they instantly react, but there was a delay. Not much of one, less than a few seconds certainly, but it's still there and she'd been training so that she had near instant reflexes from the time she could stand and walk.

The ground spikes were easy, but the wall and 'ceiling' spikes on the other hand came out faster than she could get past them. Which happened every time she tried to climb to the top of the maze. And it started at the top, closing off the option of getting out, and then made its way down, making it difficult to keep trying for long. She found it easier to just go through the maze avoiding the traps there than pushing her luck in beating the one that kept her from cheating, so to speak.

She was making good headway towards the wagon and the soldiers position, when she entered a wide and surprisingly open area of the maze. She slid to a halt the moment she was past the walls of the maze and pulled out a kunai and a fist full of senbon. Standing opposite her, at the only other entrance/exit of the area, was a short, lithe man dressed all in brown with unwashed drooping brown hair and an ugly look on his face. She glared at him, glancing all around them, looking for the others that would be there, hidden.

"Oh, not to worry, kunoichi-san," the man said in a sly, mocking tone, "We're all alone here. I don't like to share, ne. And as feisty as I'm sure you are, ne," he flashed through two hand-seals in the blink of an eye before slamming one hand into the wall behind him. Instantly, the passage behind her closed, sealed off by the rock walls closing in, and then raising a good four feet, topping off in barbed spikes. The passage behind him also closed, but unlike the one behind her, there was a door in the wall.

"Ne, I don't think I would be needing much help in dealing with you anyway, ne," he mocked.

She glared her hazel eyes in annoyed anger at him, settling into her stance. She wouldn't bother saying one word to this trash. No, he was worse than trash. And while he was clearly well-versed in Doton jutsu, it was just as clear that he was no ninja.

"Aw, nothing to say, kunoichi-san, ne?" Kai settled his stance and brought his hands together.

Her only response was to glare further and wait for him to make the first move. Normally she would have already attacked by now, but with this maze's penchant for traps, and given her opponent, she decided to change her own tactics a little.

"Heh," Kai chuckled and flashed through a half dozen hand seals, finishing with the snake seal, and pointed with both hands, right at her. "Doton: Surorokku (Earth Release: Rock Throw)!"

From around him, beside him, below him and behind him, melon-sized stones separated themselves from the ground, earth, and walls around them, and then began to launch themselves at Kasumi. She tracked each stone as it flew through the air, right on target, but also kept an eye on her opponent too. She waited until the first of the stones were an arms-length away and was half a second from hitting her before finally ducking back out of the way.

As expected, the moment she moved, he started another jutsu, but she was already moving before he was even halfway through. Ducking and weaving around the falling rocks, she threw her fist full of senbon at him, but saved her chakra for later rather than create a dozen more each.

Kai had seen what this girl could do with those needles, and knew he did not want to get hit by even a passing glance. He abandoned his first jutsu and couldn't help being grateful that Bakato had made him train in his one defensive technique so much that he only needed one hand seal for it instead of the three that were normally used for it.

"Doton: Doryūheki (Earth Release: Earth Style Wall)!" he kicked up some dust as he shouted and instantly there was a solid, though only four-inch thick, barrier made from the ground. The needles were stopped, but Kai couldn't help but notice all of them were more than halfway through before they ultimately halted. He gulped nervously and backed slowly away from his defense and let it fall back into the ground.

Only to see Kasumi just a few feet in front of him and running with a kunai in one hand and the other balled in a strong fist.

"Yikes!" he squeaked and started running from her. Then he squealed again when there was a sharp pain in his butt and his right leg fell asleep on him. He looked back and saw a senbon sticking out of his right butt cheek.

Pathetic, Kasumi thought to herself. One or two Doton techniques and this bandit thought he was as worthy and powerful as any legendary ninja in the bingo book. Maybe this, if he ever got out of prison, would teach him a lesson about things like that.

Kai, on the other hand, was thinking that he would be the one teaching her the lesson. The reason for his confidence was soon revealed as he ran, he was also forming hand seals, hiding it behind his body as he ran hunched over. Right as he reached the wall of the maze, he spun around and finished the technique with a shout.

"Doton: Doryūsō (Earth Release: Rising Stone Spears)!"

Kasumi's eyes went wide as she skidded to a halt a meter in front of the bandit. She didn't have time to be messing around however, as the same spikes that had thus far been part of the maze erupted all around them, but each one aimed only for the Konoha ninja. Putting her conditioning training to good use, Kasumi was leaping and jumping and flipping all over the place, narrowly avoiding being impaled by sharp stones shooting up out of the ground.

Thankfully, they stopped when she got close to the distant wall, opposite to where her opponent was pressed up against. She frowned as this information filtered its way through her brain. If this was just a raw technique, and not attached to any of the preset traps placed throughout this stone maze, then that meant the origin point was him. And given the range she had just witnessed, coupled with the fact that he didn't look particularly winded, all he would have to do is stand in the exact center of this area and he could turn the whole place into a porcupine nest. Save for wherever he was standing.

Kasumi frowned.

She was at a distinct disadvantage here, as there was no way she could get close enough now without being struck by those rising spears, and her long range attacks were negated by his Doryūheki. What's worse, the only other long range attacks she had were the few water jutsu her brother had taught her, and water was weak against earth. Though she had seen and knew that there were water jutsu that could best the inherent weakness of its nature, she did not know them and she did not know how to further empower her own jutsu to overcome it either.

The old her would be looking for ways out, as every logical bone in her body was screaming for her to retreat and save herself. The her that was friends with Naruto however, was looking for a way to win. She decided to do what Naruto would do and see where that got her.

"Tsuchi Bunshin no jutsu!" she flashed through the hand seals and two mud piles rose up and formed solid clones on either sides of her, gaining flesh-tones and her identical coloring as the jutsu completed.

They did not exchange words, just a single glance with the original and then all three ran straight for their target as fast as they possibly could. Given that Kasumi was still the fastest of the three genin on Team One that was very fast.

Kai was stunned for a moment.

First, the bitch doesn't even say anything to him, barely even acknowledging him as a real threat, and on top of that she threw a needle in his butt! He fumed about that for a second, before deciding that he would have to wait to play around with her. Number one order of business was to neutralize her, and that meant knocking the bitch out. So what if she got banged up in the process? Not like he wasn't planning to do worse to her when he finally got his hands on her.

"Doton: Doryūsō!" he used the technique once more, creating the spikes only in the straight path she was using. The last thing he saw before she was hit by the spikes was that bitchy smirk of hers. The same one that told him she thought he was pathetic and not worth her time.

He hated that look.

He let the jutsu run its course, but was surprised when he didn't hear the customary scream of someone being impaled to death by stone spikes. He lowered the spikes and was shocked when he saw that the girl, and her clones, had completely disappeared. There wasn't even any mud left over from the clones.

That did not make any sense to Kai, so he started looking around, stepping away from the wall that he'd put his back to, but no matter which direction he looked, even up and down, the girl was no where to be seen.

Until he was over three meters away from the wall, and he felt a pair of hands grab both his ankles. Eyes wide, he screamed and looked down. Only to find the Earth clones holding his legs and smirking up at him. They then pulled him rapidly down into the ground.

"Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu." the real Kasumi pronounced as she stepped around from where she had been positioned behind the bandit.

"Wha-whu-what?! But how, ne?" Kai shouted up at her, only his head above the ground, the rest of him completely immobilized, which meant no hand seals, which meant no escaping.

"The only thing I will bother saying to trash like you," she coldly replied, "is that you are no ninja. You don't even know what it means to be a ninja. No matter how many ninjutsu you teach yourself, you will never be a true ninja."

That said, she turned and walked towards the door he had been guarding, ready to resume her path back to the others and those she was assigned to protect.

"Ne!" he called.

When she briefly looked back at him over her shoulder, he told her, "I wouldn't go that way if I were you, ne!" She scoffed and continued on, ignoring him.

The door opened easily enough and she could see the path through the maze down a small, enclosed tunnel fashioned into the wall itself. Seeing no signs of a trap, and the earth user trapped behind her with no way to get out, she confidently walked down the tunnel towards the lighted path. About halfway down the tunnel, the trap was sprung by a simple depression of earth in the floor. The lethal spikes snapped out faster than anyone could react to, faster than she could've anyway.

"AAAHHHHH!!" her scream echoed throughout the stone maze.

"I tried to warn her, ne," Kai chuckled darkly to himself.

Forgotten Valley

Stone Maze

Hayato

"Kasumi!" Hayato shouted as he heard the scream. He tried to find where it came from, but ever since that damn trap-builder activated this damn stone maze trap, he'd been stuck running around in circles.

While his secondary element did happen to be the earth element, Hayato was unfortunately not quite as trained up in Doton jutsu as he was with his primary element and Raiton jutsu. Most unfortunate was that he had yet to fully master the Doton: Iwagakure no Jutsu (Earth Release: Hidden Among the Rocks technique), a technique that would literally allow him to walk through the walls of this maze.

First thing, when he got himself and his team back to Konoha, resume his own training, and double it. Training them up was fine, but he'd been neglecting teaching himself new things while he taught them as much as they could handle. That was now coming back to bite him on the ass.

A sound caught the jounin's attention and he quickly dove to the side, just in time to avoid being crushed by a falling rock. Sometime in the half hour he'd been running around the maze, he found himself inside a cavern portion of said maze and had since been working on getting himself out of it. Unfortunately, despite earth's typical weakness to lightning, when building earth defenses, more was usually better, and even his strongest techniques could only blast away so much rock and earth without a lot more power behind them. Like real lightning for starters.

"Ah, ah, ah," a voice echoed throughout the dark cavern, "Shouldn't let you mind wander, Jounin-san! It might get you killed."

"..." Hayato had tried multiple times to track the source of the voice that had been tormenting him, but still no luck so far. The Bandit Leader had hidden himself well. "I don't suppose there is a reason you've chosen to face me behind a whole lot of traps. And judging by said traps, I would wager a guess that you originate from Iwa, or at least your knowledge of ninjutsu and trap making do."

Echoing silence was his only answer.

"I'm sorry, I thought you wanted to start a conversation," Hayato called as he resumed walking through the dark cave, though ten times more alert than he'd already been.

"And what makes you think I'm at all interested in what a Konoha ninja has to say to me?" the voice echoed back.

"Hey, you started it," Hayato smirked. Maybe Naruto and Ryu were starting to have a bad influence on him? Nah!

"What's your name anyway?" Hayato asked when he got no immediate response.

"I don't suppose you're one of those silly warrior types that like to know the name of you enemy before you kill them, or are killed by them, are you?" the bandit's voice echoed from every direction in the dark cavern.

"Not particularly," Hayato admitted. "Just curious is all. Particularly since you may be the first ever non-ninja placed in a bingo book. I like knowing the names of interesting people like that."

"Funny, you're a funny man, Jounin-san," he called back.

"OK, I'll start, though I imagine you might already know who I am. My name is Hayato, Kanzaki Hayato. Now which of the many famous bandits with rewards on their heads might I have the pleasure of being trapped by today?" Hayato mockingly called out.

"..." for a time Hayato thought he wouldn't answer, but finally there was a soft, echoed reply. "Bakato. Just Bakato, before you ask."

"No family name?" Hayato gingerly asked, even as he began looking for the nearest way out, but the walls were all covered in shadowed darkness, making it nearly impossible for him to see.

"I abandoned my family name along with..." he stopped talking for a second and then resumed, "I have a new family now. And it is them that I am trying to protect here."

"Protect? By attacking and robbing and even killing travelers?" he incredulously shouted.

"A family's gotta eat," was the amused reply. "By the way, you're only going deeper into the cave. I thought you should know."

"Oh really? And why's that?" Hayato shouted at the darkness.

"..." Bakato said nothing until Hayato felt a tremor run through the ground and up his legs. Then the echoing shout of, "Doton: Iwayado Kuzushi (Earth Release: Rock Lodging Destruction)!"

"Shit!" Hayato cursed and pulled out Sutamasurao and activated it in a flash. He whispered something under his breath, holding the blue-lightning sword with both hands before him.

As the roof and rock walls began to cave in, as the jutsu implied, it was a trap technique where if a single stone is dislodged from the constructed cave, it fell in on itself, trapping and killing everyone inside of it. It was a popular trap and technique for Iwanin during the war between Konoha and Iwa.

Just as the first rocks began to fall and were about to crush him, the energy from the blue chakra blade seemed to spread and become ten times as bigger, before wrapping itself around Hayato, making him glow with lightning-blue energy, and the energy blade itself was now a pure white, and over seven feet in length from hilt to tip.

"Kinjutsu: Plasma Field (Forbidden Technique: Plasma Field)," Hayato's voice was somewhat distorted. Like he was trying to whisper, but he was filled with so much power that it came out as a deafening shout.

__________ - - - - - - - - - - * * * * * * * * * * 1 1 1 1 1 * * * * * * * * * * - - - - - - - - - - __________

Bakato looked down at the pile of rubble with a look of acknowledgment. He didn't like to kill, but he knew when it was necessary. And it would be easy enough to retrieve the body and whatever special weapons or artifacts the jounin might have been carrying. As the dust settled, he looked down over a ledge that had been positioned right above the rock cavern. He was about to turn away and call his men in to start digging so they could collect the jounin's weapons, when he saw something odd.

He realized what it was about two seconds before it revealed itself anyway. It started as a soft blue glow, but soon turned into a shining light coming from the rubble of the trap he'd just thrown on the Konoha jounin. Seconds later, the rocks exploded outward with violent force, revealing an all-powerful looking version of the Konohanin. He was covered in an electric blue aura that spoke of unbeatable power and that energy sword of his was taller than any man alive and looked powerful enough that it could slice through a mountain a league away.

"Damnit! Archers!" Bakato shouted the orders. "FIRE!"

Hayato looked up and with a two-handed grip on his weapon, he swung the pure white beam sword in a tight circle around him and whisper/shouted, "San-Engetsu."

The walls and ledges all around them exploded as the energy was unleashed in an unstoppable torrent. Everything was chaos, loud noise, motion, heat, light, no one could make sense of anything until it all stopped and the dust began to settle in the air.

When Bakato came too, maybe a minute after the jounin had wiped out over half his men with a single attack, he found himself on a large pile of sand, all that was left of the strong stone ridge he'd been standing on minutes before. Looking around, he briefly thought he was in a desert somewhere instead of the mountains. Amazingly enough, aside from some bruising and some cuts here and there, he was largely uninjured from the attack, which was surprising given the level of damage present.

Looking up at the jounin, he saw as the man slowly stopped glowing and his energy weapon reverted to its original, lightning-blue appearance. Then he distinctly heard the man say to himself, "Damn, I really wanted to avoid using that for a while longer. It always take a lot out of me."

'Interesting,' Bakato thought to himself. Looking around though, he realized whatever traps he'd had in the area were long gone by now, and even if they weren't there was no telling how reliable they may or may not be. He planned on waiting until the Konohanin left and then making his way back to the hideout and getting reinforcements, but that wasn't going to happen.

"You shouldn't get up yet, Bakato," he called without even looking over at the Bandit Leader. "You're the only one still conscious by the way. And yes, I have that much control over an attack like that. Breaking up the electrical bonds between molecules and turning solids into sand is even easier than controlling who remains conscious after that attack."

"You'll notice, however, that you can no longer move," Hayato explained, walking over to the prone man, "The paralyzation will last for two days before wearing out. And no, it's not a matter of mind over matter or chakra control. Your nervous system is overloaded, not to the point where it can no longer function or handle the energy traveling through it, quite the opposite in fact. Your nerves are transmitting faster than you brain or body can keep up with. So while everything still works, you can't control it until it wears off."

Deactivating his weapon and putting it away, Hayato waved and said as he headed back towards the clients, "I'll be sure to send the Fire Lord's army in to help you out before you and your men die of thirst or starvation. It gets chilly up in these mountains, so have a good night!"

Bakato, tried as he might, couldn't even raise a finger to show his feelings to the man.

(Stop "Mountain Fight")

Forgotten Valley

Stone Maze

Ryu

Ryu slowed to a trot, taking a minute to catch his breath, as no more traps were shooting out at him and bandits weren't trying to ambush him. Well, at least not at that very minute. He'd been stuck running through this gauntlet for the past half hour, and just his luck that his path seemed to have the most twists and turns and traps down it. He couldn't even climb the walls without weapons shooting out at him and the walls trying to crush him every time he tried.

Not that he could say that fairly, as he had no clue what similar obstacles the others were facing, but this was arguably worse than Hayato-sensei's most sadistic training regimen. He'd had to pull off some killer moves just to get past a lot of the traps, and being attacked around every corner wasn't exactly fun either. Not only did he have to knock out all the bandits while avoiding being killed by the various traps around them, but he had to make it so they couldn't get back up and attack him again later.

About fifteen minutes ago he'd heard Kasumi's scream and had been working towards finding her more than anything else, but there had been no follow-up screams. About ten minutes after that, there was a large cloud of smoke over one corner of the maze, followed by a brilliant flash of light. Hoping that it was his Jounin Sensei rather than some super trap these bandits had set off, Ryu did his best to head in that direction. As much as the maze would let him anyway.

Another fifteen minutes of running, avoiding traps and the occasional bandit beat down, and Ryu finally came to an open area of the maze. It wasn't anything like a boxed in canyon or trap, rather it was more like there were no walls between the section of the maze he'd been in and the next one straight in front of him. Just past the wall in front of him, on a raised platform, he could see the soldier guards under siege by hordes of bandits. Resolving to get to them and help as quickly as he could, he started to charge forward. Instinct made him stop and jump back, right before a very familiar-looking club smashed apart the spot where he'd just been standing.

Looking up, Ryu frowned upon seeing Tokumetsu towering above him. How that brute managed to sneak up on him in such an open space, he couldn't begin to guess, but he also didn't like his chances in a one-on-one fight with the strongman.

"Heh," Tokumetsu scoffed, seeing the black-clad ninja dodge his strike. "Looks like I got the scrawny one. I was hoping to at least get that loudmouthed brat, if only so I could be the one to shut him up. I guess I'll just have to settle for you then, short-stuff."

Ryu growled, getting to his feet and pulling out his kunai. "Who are you calling short-stuff, fatso?" he mocked, then charged in, fully intending on kicking the giant's butt.

Tick marks appeared on Tokumetsu's head when he heard what Ryu called him. He didn't even bother shifting his stance when he picked up the club with one hand and in a flash of motion that Ryu couldn't even begin to keep up with, slammed the genin into the wall behind him, leaving an inch deep crater in it just from the sheer force of the blow.

"I'm not fat," Tokumetsu whispered in a dangerous tone, "I'M JUST BIG-BONED!!"

"Oh shit!" Ryu cursed and did a quick kawarimi with a rock somewhere behind the mad giant.

The stone was so much sand in the air after being hit by Tokumetsu, providing Ryu with enough cover that he could find himself a better hiding place. Hey, he may be from a clan of battle-crazed psychos, but a ninja knows when to fight and when to hide.

He ran for the platform where the guards were fighting, making sure to stay behind as many large rocks as he could for cover, but unfortunately in the end it made no difference. Tokumetsu seemingly came out of nowhere and swung his club at the back of his head. Luckily, Ryu had seen the shadow and knew enough to roll forward while ducking his head, narrowly avoiding having said head taken off.

"How the hell?!" Ryu cried out. "I don't have time for this!"

"Well that's just too damn bad, isn't it?" Tokumetsu growled at him and swung his club again.

"GAH!" Ryu wasn't fast enough this time and the weapon hit him dead center, sending him flying into the rock wall and then crashing to the ground. He'd been hit full force by Gouken-sensei before in training, but that was nothing compared to this!

What was this guy?

"Aw, don't pass out on me now, short-stuff!" Tokumetsu picked the genin up and threw him into the wall, cracks forming around his body just from the force of the giant's strength. "We're just getting started!"

What followed was arguably the most painful time in Ryu's entire life. Except he still remembered his uncle's training sessions and then the clan's examinations every year on his birthday. Not to mention Hayato-sensei's team training. So while after a few minutes he couldn't even get up on his hands and knees, he kept his pride intact and kept trying to get up anyway.

"Heh, you've definitely got spunk kid," Tokumetsu grumbled, 'helping' Ryu to stand on his feet. "I HATE SPUNK!" he then used his spiked club like a golf club and Ryu as the golf ball and sent the youth flying through the air over the walls of the stone maze.

When he finally landed, it was only a few meters from the raised platform, but when he crashed into the ground, there was a sickening thud and cracking noise. He didn't get up this time. Then again, he was also unconscious, so there wasn't much he could do about it anyway.

Moments later, Tokumetsu appeared standing over the broken genin. He looked about and nodded to himself, satisfied. Then he said, "That should be enough. The others should have finished by now, and it's time I finished off those pitiful guards."

He then raised his spiked club over his head, and then slammed it full force into a very odd rock formation in the wall to his right. The minute after he pulled his club from the wall, a low rumbling filled the earth and the cause was soon obvious as all of the walls and hidden paths of the maze began sinking back into the earth, until there was only the flat, broken plain of the Forgotten Valley.

"Hey!" a voice called in outrage, "What's the big idea, ne? I thought we weren't going to drop the trap until we got all of them? Still got those soldiers to deal with, don't we, ne?"

"Ah, shut up, Kai-baka!" Tokumetsu growled at the annoying Bandit Leader. "I was getting tired of running through all those secret passages just keeping up with this gaki! I can take care of the soldiers easy enough, and I figured the rest of you were done by now."

"Ne, got that right, ne," Kai laughed, showing off his burden. Namely a wounded and cut Kasumi, who was unconscious but still tied and gagged just to be on the safe side. Her black armor was wholly intact, but there were open cuts and tears in the arms and legs and a couple of bleeding cuts on her cheeks.

"Pervert," Tokumetsu grumbled, shaking his head.

"Takes one to know one, ne," Kai shot back.

"Why you!" the giant raised his club in threat.

"I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?" a new voice spoke.

Both Bandit Leaders spun on the spot and stared wide-eyed at a bruised and dust-covered Hayato standing there, energy sword active and pointed right at them. "Step away from the genin."

Tokumetsu actually considered for a brief moment on just smashing the prone boy, and Kai considered pulling out a knife to use against the girl in his arms. Hayato saw that and shifted his stance accordingly.

"Keep in mind that I outran you big boy, and your boss is now paralyzed amongst the rubble of his own trap. This sword does not miss. Drop her and get away from them both."

"Well, if you insist, ne," Kai shrugged, and then tossed the girl right at Hayato and both he and Tokumetsu dashed away.

"Damnit!" Hayato cursed, catching Kasumi and laying her next to Ryu before running after the two of them. He did at least release the girls binds and make sure she was OK, but he was no medic, and he had to make sure those two didn't get away with this.

(Play "Kyuubi no Kitsune")

Forgotten Valley

"Uoohhh..." Naruto groaned as he slowly dug himself out of the pit he'd fallen into. He'd been hanging onto the walls, inches from being impaled on a bunch of non-moving spikes at the bottom of the pit for quite a while when the whole thing suddenly caved in on itself and he found himself jumping and crawling his way back to the surface until he finally had to start digging to make progress.

Now, at last, he was in the open air and just one final rock in his way. A little heave-ho and he was free. Covered from head to toe in dirt and bruised and battered, but alive and free. Taking a moment to appreciate this fact, he stretched and took some time to catch his breath. A minute later, he was ready for action and started looking around to take in the situation.

His eyes froze, along with the rest of him, when he caught sight of his teammates, both looking quite beaten and laying very still in the dirt. He couldn't do anything when he saw that, he could barely breathe, but despite how it feels at times, the world does not stop when you experience a shock.

"AAAHHHHH!" he heard a girl's scream, and despite his mind's attempts at retreating into itself, he automatically turned towards the source and saw a nightmare come to life.

A few dozen meters away from his position, the wagon where all the soldiers and Roku-jiisan and Azula-chan were supposed to be, was overturned and smashed to pieces. Almost all of the soldiers themselves were laid out on the ground, either unconscious or...

Cowering behind the remains of the wagon was Azula-chan, who was the one that screamed, and protecting her were the two sergeants, Ryo and Heero, and her grandfather. He was just standing there over her, between the bandits and his granddaughter, and that seemed to be enough because amazingly they were leaving him alone. The soldiers took out the rest, but the biggest problems, literally, were the two Bandit Leaders.

Tokumetsu and Kai were fighting like a pair of mad dogs, the giant swinging his club with his inhuman strength, and the loudmouthed Kai throwing earth jutsu in at every opportunity. Thankfully though, also fighting them was Hayato-sensei, and while he looked worse for wear himself, he was holding the two of them back.

Unfortunately, either because he'd been weakened, or the giant had somehow enhanced his club, Hayato could not slice through Tokumetsu's spiked club with his chakra sword, instead they either clashed as any normal weapons would, or the sword just passed through the club giving a shock to the wielder, which he usually responded to with a, "Heh, tingles."

Naruto was trying to process all of this at once, and was torn between going to his teammates or trying to help his Jounin Sensei and the soldiers. Before he could make the decision though, one of the other bandits attacking noticed him and ran straight at the confused looking genin. Naruto didn't even see him before he was tackled to the ground and punched a few times. It did knock some sense into the blond's head and after another punch he decided enough was enough and started punching back.

The bandit went down after three solid hits to the face and after Naruto got to his feet, he ran straight for the people he was hired to protect. Hayato-sensei could handle himself well enough, but it was clear that Roku-jiisan and the others needed some help.

Naruto formed a few shadow clones and bum rushed the few remaining bandits, knocking them to the ground with a couple of sweeping kicks, and then knocking them out with a few punches and face kicks. There were still a few more enemies between him and the others though, so he kept it up.

Tokumetsu saw this out of the corner of his eye while defending against Hayato. Seeing the tide turn, he made a tactical decision and threw Hayato off him with a shove and a hard kick to the ribs. Then he called out, "Kai! Hold him for a minute! I've got to take care of some trash!"

"Ne?!" the earth-jutsu user exclaimed. Then he was too busy throwing rocks and spikes at the jounin to respond any further.

Tokumetsu, ran straight through his men and aimed right for the two remaining soldiers.

"Look out!" Roku warned, pointing at the onrushing giant.

They both saw him, but despite their swords and what capabilities they had, there was little they could do to stop him. And as fast as both of them were, Ryo and Heero were wearing full armor and had been fighting for hours now. They couldn't even begin to dodge when Tokumetsu struck them each with a hard swing from his weapon. When they finally landed amidst their men, they were clearly unconscious or... or maybe dead. Azula, seeing this, chose that moment to faint dead away.

"NO!" Naruto screamed and threw himself at the giant. Himself and a half dozen clones.

"Pest!" the giant swatted them all away, the clones disappearing in poofs of smoke, and Naruto landing painfully on the ground.

"Damnit!" the blond hissed, trying to get back to his feet, but his body just wouldn't cooperate.

"Naruto!" Hayato shouted upon seeing his genin attacked.

Naruto looked up, but that was all he could do. The helplessness pounded at him, his frustration and anger at his own weakness increased with each breath, but there really wasn't anything he could do.

Hayato saw the situation as it was, and couldn't believe what had become of such a simple C-Rank mission. But how could he have known there would be a literal army of bandits here waiting for them? How could they have known their opponents would be so powerful? So many unknowns, and all because one old man didn't want to go through slow traffic on his way home. A man that was even now just standing there looking at all of them, as though waiting for something to change the situation.

Well if that's what he wanted, that's what Hayato would give him.

"Hyeeaaahhhh!" Hayato screamed as he pushed himself beyond what limits he'd placed there before the fight even started. Sutamasurao briefly pulsed and the energy blade increased to one hundred percent. He charged the bandits and moved even faster than before.

What was cut was severed and cauterized, never to be reattached. What was pierced was burned away into vapor. And what was shocked was electrocuted and burned beyond recognition. The jounin moved from bandit to bandit, protecting his clients and his genin from any further attacks. Until only two others remained on the field.

Kai was hiding, either from cowardice or intelligence as there were few that would face the wrath of an enraged jounin. Especially a Konohanin protecting people.

Tokumetsu was one of the few that would do something like that. But he was also very quick for someone of his size. So when Hayato had cut down the last of his men, the giant crept up behind him, and using that surprising speed of his, he slammed his club with full force down onto the middle of the jounin's back.

"No!" Naruto cried, struggling to move as he was, saw it all, but there was nothing he could have done.

Being the jounin that he was, Hayato took the blow, but did not go down. He hadn't even cried out. He did get out of the way though, in case there was a second blow coming. Turning, he faced the giant once more as blood began to pool in his mouth, some of it dribbling out as he stood there. The chakra sword flickered a couple of times, but remained fully active.

"Hayato-sensei!" Naruto shouted, getting to his knees. Another minute and he could stand, then he could help his Jounin Sensei, help the man that had trained him and helped him in becoming a ninja.

Then, in the space of a single second, the chakra sword went out completely and blood began pouring from Hayato's mouth, and the gaping wound in his abdomen that came from the stone spike impaled there. Standing some meters behind Hayato, Kai started laughing, his hands still in the snake seal from using his jutsu. The spike retreated and the blood began to flow.

Hayato looked down and stared, in shock and unable to fully process what had just happened. Almost in slow motion, he fell to his knees, and then collapsed fully to the ground. His eyes searched, and finally locked onto Naruto's.

"Naruto," he croaked, blood pouring from his mouth, "Run..." His eyes glazed over and he fell over completely.

"Heh, hahahahahahahaahaaHA!" Kai laughed. "Ne, that was the best fight I've had in a long time. And now with Bakato-dono paralyzed for a few days, I got myself two hot looking pieces of jailbait to spend my time with. And on top of that, we got ourselves some prime ransom material in that scared old man over there."

Tokumetsu just shook his head and rolled his eyes. He put his spiked club on his shoulder, but didn't say anything else. Kai would never change, he was thinking. Then a wave of the most malevolent chakra any of them had ever felt before in their entire lives swept through them and then they were both thinking the same thing; what the hell was that?

The answer soon became obvious when it repeated and a column of steam began to rise from one of the bodies. Namely, Naruto's body.

He was still crouched on his knees, but his fists were clenched tight, and what bruising and other wounds he had were fading while those still standing stared at him. A low grumbling growl came from the boy, that was looking less and less like a boy by the second.

"You..." Naruto growled, slowly getting to his feet. "You... monsters!"

The steam suddenly exploded away from him and was replaced by an unmistakable red chakra aura. The violent and undoubtedly evil chakra erupted from the genin's body like lava from a volcano, spreading around him and then shooting into the sky in a spiral around his body. At the height, they all briefly thought they saw a face form itself out of the red chakra, but then dismissed it, thinking they were seeing things. They hadn't seen anything yet.

Finally the chakra settled down, more or less, into a body-hugging aura of menacing red. The chakra, however, was not the only thing that had changed about Naruto in all this. All of his wounds had been healed, like he'd never been injured in the first place. But also his basic appearance was much different from before. His fingernails had grown into sharp claws, his muscles tightened, and the birthmarks around his cheeks were somehow deeper than before, like something was inside his face trying to push its way out. The most prominent of the changes, however, was his eyes. Instead of his normal cerulean blue eyes, a pair of slitted animal pupils the color of blood stared out from his eyes.

Tokumetsu and Kai were stunned and too shocked to really react, but there wasn't anything they could really do about what was going to happen anyway.

"Grr," the beast that Naruto had become growled at them. In the next instant, he was running straight for them on all fours, and moving faster than Hayato had at full speed.

"What the!" Tokumetsu screamed and reacted on instinct, which was to smash the living hell out of whatever scared him. In this case, that was Naruto.

Naruto took the blow to the side of the head and was sent skidding all the way to the ground in front of Roku, who was staring wide-eyed with open shock at the display. Naruto got up immediately after coming to a halt, shook his head, and glared with very real Killing Intent at the strong giant.

Tokumetsu gulped and then looked up at his club. The spike on the side that had hit Naruto was bent inwards, and there was a crack running up and down the length of the weapon. A weapon that he spent quite a lot of time using to break rocks apart and it never got a scratch. One hit to the side of this enraged ninja's head and he gets up without a problem and the club is nearly split in half.

Before he even had time to second guess himself, Naruto was on the move again, and the Bandit Leader had to give all his attention to the threat. He tried to hit the blazing red ninja, but he was too fast and Tokumetsu kept missing. Finally, he called out for assistance.

"KAI!" he screamed. "HELP ME OUT ALREADY!"

"Ne?!" the coward exclaimed, but was already preparing several rock throws.

They all missed of course. Naruto wasn't staying still long enough for Kai to target him. He took another run straight for Tokumetsu, who saw it and made sure to time it just right, swinging his club with his full weight behind it this time. Naruto was likewise prepared.

The weapon came to an abrupt halt in its owner's hands, and when he looked, his eyes went so wide they almost rolled out of their sockets. Naruto had caught the club with an open palm and had grabbed onto it so tight that there were grooves in it from his fingers and claws. With an ease that served to further stun the Bandit Leader, the blond genin yanked the weapon out of his hand, snapped it over his knee, and then threw both pieces over his shoulder.

Tokumetsu gulped, and then threw up as he passed out, as Naruto chose that precise moment to slam his red-chakra-infused fist into the big man's gut. If he'd wanted to, he could have felt the man's spine with his knuckles.

Leaving the giant to fall to the ground on his own, Naruto sped away and towards Kai. The earth user screamed and tried to get away, but Naruto easily caught up to him and punched him so hard that half his teeth fell out and the bandit flew so hard and so fast that his head actually cracked and went through a stone boulder somewhere far behind him. A trickle of blood could be seen pooling out from the hole in the rock.

After a long moment, when it became clear that neither of the bandits were getting back up, Naruto just stood there, panting and glowing with red chakra. Then, slowly, the red chakra began to fade, and his breathing calmed and came back under his control. Other than some sweat and dirt though, after a minute he was completely back to normal.

It would be a while before he learned that in response to that first chakra surge, both Kasumi and Ryu had woken up and witnessed the whole event.

(Stop "Kyuubi no Kitsune")

Capitol of Fire Nation

Roku's Home

Two Days Later

The rest of the mission had gone as most C-Rank missions are supposed to go, easily and without incident. Somehow, in a way Naruto could not begin to explain, Fire Sage Roku did something that healed everyone's wounds and most importantly kept Hayato and the others from dying. Though they were still hurt, their mortal wounds were almost completely healed by the time they were done. Thankfully they got to the Fire Nation Outpost at the other end of the Mountain Pass before they day was through and got the rest of their wounds tended. The day after, Team One finished escorting their client to his home, and the soldiers followed along until they got to the city and went to give their reports to their superiors.

Hayato had spoken with the commander of the outpost before being confined to the infirmary and troops had already been sent out to arrest all the bandits that were in the area Hayato had told them about, but by the time they got to Roku's home word had reached them that the Fire Nation soldiers had not found anything beyond signs of the battle. No bandits, no traps, no wounded prisoners, not even bodies of the dead.

"How the heck is that even possible?!" Naruto screamed, outraged at the news.

"I have my suspicions," Hayato said, shifting slightly in his seat. While the hole in his stomach and damage to his back had been healed, he was still sore and even after two days, his chakra was still on the low side. When he'd been fighting those two, Kai and Tokumetsu, he'd been close to chakra exhaustion, the kind that puts you in a coma for several days. Ironically, thanks to getting skewered in the gut and then healed, he was much better off than if he hadn't gotten injured. Not 100 percent, but not totally exhausted either.

"And?" Ryu wanted to know.

"And if you think about it, you'll come to the same conclusions I have," the jounin smiled mysteriously.

"That there were far more bandits in hiding than we ever saw at any point during the conflict," Roku told the genin, bringing a tray of food and beverage with him. Azula trailed behind bearing her own load of snacks.

"How could that be?" Kasumi asked, accepting some tea.

"Yeah, there must've been over a hundred there as it was!" Naruto exclaimed.

Roku and Hayato both nodded, but remained silent.

"How many could there be?" Ryu finally asked.

"We may never know for sure," Roku answered. "But despite their losses from our encounter with them, their numbers will probably continue to grow. The desperate and desolate always manage to find good hiding places, and the desperate often turn to thievery out of necessity than anything else. For now, the mountain passes will be more heavily patrolled and a few more people will hire armed escorts, as I did. Overall though, business as usual as they say."

"That just doesn't seem right," Naruto pouted, crossing his arms moodily.

"No one can change the world overnight, though many have tried, Naruto," Roku laughed. "We all do our parts, and while what seems to be right and wrong can change with the perspective, so does it change with time and experience. For now though, you are my guests, and I invite you to spend the night. I will even forward the time expense to Konoha, as I feel I owe it to you all."

"Nonsense!" the genin all started to protest, but a motion from their sensei stopped them.

"Thank you, Roku-sama," Hayato bowed in his seat. "But as tempting as that offer is, we must be getting back to Konoha."

The younger ninja were about to say something, but didn't when they noticed something in their Jounin Sensei's posture and eyes that silenced them.

"You cannot seriously be considering going back to Konoha in your condition after only a day's rest, Hayato," Roku stated. "Only an arrogant fool would be thinking such a thing, and you are no fool."

"Nevertheless, we cannot accept you offer of hospitality at this time," Hayato said in return.

The Fire Sage stared at the Jounin Sensei for some time before saying clearly, "You're angry with me."

Hayato's silence was answer enough.

"I was offered greater protection, a safer route, and I could have insisted that Azula, despite her own insistence, go back with all the soldiers she brought with her, soldiers I might have been able to bring with us for our own army to combat that which we faced," he listed. "And still I chose to take so few on such a dangerous path, even after being warned and threatened, I forced us to continue when we could have gone back and gained greater numbers or gone a safer way. Did I miss anything?"

Hayato clenched his jaw, then forcefully relaxed it and took a deep breath. "Whatever you may or may not have done for me in the past is no excuse, nor pardon for what you do in the present."

"Of course not," Roku sat down. "And I would be insulted, and highly concerned, if you felt otherwise."

"..." Hayato opened his mouth to say something, but stopped himself before speaking a word.

"Say what is on your mind, Hayato. As you should well know, I'm not one of those 'sensitive nobles' that get all on their nobility when insulted or slighted. And we are in private, so..." Roku said.

"What were you thinking?!" Hayato near-screamed at the old man.

Roku raised an eyebrow, crossed his hands in his lap and looked expectantly at the experienced ninja.

"When we first started out, the decisions made were understandable, and while not ideal, were the best of the available choices. But after we stopped at the Army Outpost? Where we were offered more men, and an extra day or nights stay. And that was after we knew skilled trackers were targeting our group specifically. Then after our first encounter, we could have turned back. You said no, just soldier on! Since you've made it so clear that you want me to speak my mind, then I'll go right ahead with that, Fire Sage Roku! What in the hell were you thinking continuing with the mission with so many dangers involved?!"

A moment of tense silence, and Roku calmly asked, "The truth?"

"If you please," Hayato snapped.

"I wanted to see what they could do," he pointed at the three genin.

"What?" all the ninja present blurted out loud.

"I have taken notice of other remarkable people in the past," the old man explained. "Hayato, you for example, were from a family of merchants, and not very good ones. Your Jounin Sensei turned out to be a traitor, as well as another of your teammates. Yet I still chose to give you that weapon you're so fond of. I'm sure you've asked yourself why I would do such a thing."

"To answer that, let me first tell you that I also gave... gifts, such as that weapon, to a few other ninja whose names you might recognize. Sarutobi Hiruzen, Namikaze Minato, and... a woman named Kushina. Also, more as a favor to the man you know as the Third Hokage, I also gave three Summoning Scrolls to his students, the ninja known to the world as the Sannin."

"Whoa," Ryu's jaw dropped in amazement.

"You gave the Sannin the Toad, Slug, and Snake Summoning contracts?" Kasumi clarified. Roku nodded his head yes.

"I recognize the old man's name, but who were the other two? And who are these Sannin?" Naruto asked. Ryu and Kasumi palmed their faces in exasperation.

"That's something for another time I'm afraid, Naruto," Roku told him. "What we are currently discussing is the answer to your sensei's question. Why did I give him such a rare and powerful artifact? Because, quite simply, I saw something in you Hayato. Something that made me trust you and believe that you were worthy of the chance to earn such a gift. And quite obviously, you were."

"So that is why you came to Konoha in the first place," Hayato scoffed and turned his head. Turning back, he grumbled, "You heard that I took a genin team and came to check them out. All the reasons for Konoha, to meet with the Hokage and discuss matters of state, were they just a pretense? Lies?"

"Oh no, Hiruzen and I did indeed take the opportunity to discuss several very important matters, and since I was in the area, I took care of quite a bit. But I will admit that it was not by chance that I chose your team to be my escorts. And before you get too paranoid, as I know you tend to get sometimes," he stated firmly, "No, I did not hire those bandits to kidnap me. No, I did not arrange for Azula to arrive at the time that she did, and I can only imagine the sheer coincidence of it happening in the first place. And lastly, the reason why we did not turn back after being attacked, is that I had only seen a glimmer of what these three were truly capable of. Having seen them in true action, Naruto especially, I can say that I am most impressed."

"Oh really," Hayato growled.

"You are angry, and with just reason," Roku sighed. "Think of me what you will, Hayato-san. Yet consider that such trials are customary for a ninja to face. Just take a look at the Chuunin Exams. Public spectacles where soldiers put their lives and the lives of their teammates on the line on the chance that one of them will be promoted? Considering that all you did was walk me home and discovered a threat that may have overcome us eventually had we not been made aware, and that no one was permanently injured in the end, it's not the worst that could've happened."

Hayato glared and crossed his arms, but he didn't argue any further.

"Also," Roku took a sip of his tea before continuing, "There's something else to consider. There is a certain hierarchical order to things in this world. Ninja trumps civilian, chuunin trumps genin, jounin trumps chuunin, and Kage trumps jounin. Well," the old man leaned in closer and whispered conspiratorially to them, "Sage trumps Kage. And not just politically either, I'll have you know. Or did you think first aid was all that was needed to save everyone's lives?"

Hayato snorted and turned his head.

"All right fine," the jounin finally said. "Given the circumstances, no one could have predicted how things could have gotten so screwed up, and you're right, it all turned out OK in the end. But no more tests, old man." He glared to further emphasize his point.

Roku shrugged. "I wouldn't call it a test. I did not expect anything to happen at all, and I was content to watch you train your genin further afield until a greater challenge appeared. Now then, will you reconsider my offer of hospitality?"

Road to Konoha from Capitol

Three Days Later

They spent the night and the next day as Roku's guests in his home. Hayato took the time to teach his team the lessons he'd meant to teach them from the start during this C-Rank mission, but with the way things turned out it became all but impossible. They left the Capitol that afternoon and made it to an Inn about a quarter of the way between there and Konoha before sunset. They did, however, camp outside, and only paid the Inn for the opportunity to bathe and eat come morning.

After another half day's travel, they were already more than halfway there by the time they stopped for lunch. They were making good enough time that Hayato planned they would be back in Konoha by nightfall. The difference between walking with a wagon, civilians and soldiers to leaping through the trees at top speed, stopping only for five minutes to rest or eat.

Hayato had noticed the growing tension between his "perfect team" ever since they stayed the night at Roku's home. It had been building steadily ever since with each passing hour.

He wasn't a hundred percent certain, but if he had to guess, Naruto was acting depressed and was trying his best to spare the other two from seeing it, while Kasumi and Ryu saw it clearly enough and were chomping at the bit to interrogate their teammate about what had happened, but were holding back because they didn't want him to be embarrassed and even more depressed.

The whole reason he chose when and where to eat lunch had nothing to do with how hungry they were or their position or anything else like that. It was simply the moment that he judged Ryu and Kasumi's patience had finally been eclipsed by their curiosity and frustrated anger that Naruto wasn't talking to them on his own.

"I'm going to hunt and get some dry wood for a fire to cook with," Hayato announced after they'd secured the clearing where they would be resting for a while. "It may take a while, so stay here and keep each other company. If there's trouble, I showed you how to leave signs, right?"

"Hai Sensei!" they all acknowledged. Then he left.

Kasumi figured out what he was up to by the time they stopped, Ryu figured the same just moments after he "left", while Naruto clueless went to sit under the shade of a nearby tree. Before he got too far, Kasumi stopped him and said, "Naruto, we've got to talk."

Naruto froze, figuratively and literally. Ryu had once mentioned to him that it was never a good sign for the male in the relationship when a female said those words to him. The fact that Ryu, at this moment, was standing beside Kasumi and looking just as tense as she was told him that he undoubtedly was the male in trouble. And that he wouldn't be getting any help from his fellow comrade.

"Uh, sure Kasumi-chan," Naruto said nervously, turning to face them. "What's up?"

"What happened?" she simply asked.

Blinking in confusion, the blond tilted his head to the side and asked, "What what happened?"

"In the fight with those two bandit leaders," Ryu elaborated. "We woke up right when Hayato-sensei collapsed. At least I did, and I knew Kasumi woke up soon after that. We saw what you did. We saw what happened. What we want to know is how you did it, and why you haven't shown that kind of power to us before? An ace in the hole like that is..."

"It's not like that!" Naruto screamed at them.

Only then did the two older teens realize that the look on their teammate's face wasn't nervousness or embarrassment. It was fear. Real, genuine, panic inducing fear. He looked ready to bolt at their next word, so they kept quiet, stunned by his outburst.

"It's not like that..." he repeated quieter, looking utterly defeated all of a sudden.

"Naruto..." Kasumi tried, but he turned away from them.

"Wait," Ryu ordered, his voice firm. "So, it's not something you were holding back. I get that. Which means it was unintentional. But you know what it was, or at least where it came from. Is this some kind of bloodline or kekkai genkai?"

"No," he shook his head.

When he didn't continue, Kasumi decided to take things from there.

"Naruto, please. You have to talk to us." No response. "Fine. Then I'll talk. You say it's not a kekkai genkai or bloodline limit. Which means you do know what it is, or at least where it's from. But you don't want us to know about it. How am I doing so far?"

He didn't say anything, but just from his body language alone, they could both tell that she was right on the money. She continued speaking, not really having expected a response.

"You've been a very good friend to us, Naruto, and there's not much that you don't share with us. I remember how you were in the Academy, you made it impossible not to notice you. Something in particular that I remember was how all the adults did their best not to look at you. And how they told the rest of us to stay away from you. The civilian parents did at any rate."

"Something else," she started pacing, "your enormous chakra reserves. That kind of thing just doesn't happen naturally. If anything, my clan made sure that even if I wasn't top of the class that I learned the material. There are really only two ways to increase chakra reserves. Experience and physical training. What everyone calls experience is actually just mental training, exercising the chakra the same way physical training exercises the muscles. To be your age and have beyond Kage level reserves either means you're a special jounin in deep undercover using S-Class disguise techniques," Ryu laughed out loud and Naruto chuckled a bit, "OR, your chakra has been 'exercised' constantly since you were an infant." They both stopped laughing.

"The only way something like that could happen, without you consciously working and meditating on building up your chakra every single day of your life since you came from your mother's womb, is if foreign chakra were introduced into your chakra coils before they had fully developed. If the foreign chakra were already there, then your own chakra coils would form around it, using it as the foundation to build upon, giving you enhanced chakra coils, capable of generating and channeling larger amounts of chakra than the average person. What I can't figure out though, is why someone would do that to an infant, no matter who it is?"

Naruto was trembling by this point, wanting to run away, but something was making him stay and the conflict was tearing him apart inside. His fists were clenched so tight, he was afraid of drawing blood soon, and tears were streaming down his whiskered cheeks. He couldn't say anything though, not without breaking the law, and with it his friendship with these two people he'd attached himself to.

"Maybe if we put things into context," Ryu said. "Naruto's birthday is October 11, right? Twelve years ago. Third Great Shinobi War had been finished for a little over two years by then. The Fourth Hokage was in power. He was a renowned pacifist, despite being one of the greatest ninja ever to wear the Leaf headband, so he would not condone secret projects to create new bloodlines or super soldiers. He was also a seal master, and to do what you're saying Kasumi, putting foreign chakra into anyone requires sealing it into them, which means fuinjutsu. So he would have had to have been behind it if it was done at all."

"What else was happening around that time?" Kasumi asked out loud, though more to herself than to Ryu or Naruto. She kept pacing back and forth, tapping her chin with her fingers in time with her steps. "Something important was going on, or happened, but it's just slipping my mind. What happened twelve years ago on October 11th?"

Ryu's head snapped up and his eyes went wide as he answered, "The Kyuubi attacked Konoha on that day. The day that the Fourth defeated the Kyuubi no Kitsune."

Naruto tensed, the fear in him nearly overwhelming that which held him back, he wanted to run away, he didn't want to face them when they learned the truth.

Kasumi stopped pacing and her jaw went slack. Ryu was similarly stunned.

"The..." her voice cracked a bit, "The bijuu, the Tailed Demon Beasts... They can't be destroyed. There are... legends, going back hundreds of years. The bijuu cannot be killed or destroyed. But."

"If it were possible," Ryu frantically interjected.

"But if it were possible," Kasumi gulped, "a skilled enough seal master could seal them away. Defeating them, until they were released, or escaped."

"But the Kyuubi?" Ryu was shaking his head, "The Nine Tailed Fox? The strongest of them all?"

"Only something, someone with their own chakra to continuously fuel the seal could hold the strongest. No object besides a living person could contain it," she explained, her voice flat, and her expression still stunned. "A living sacrifice. But... it couldn't just be anyone. An adult's chakra coils would be too rigid, too set in their ways and wouldn't be able to handle the foreign chakra. The person would explode as soon as it was sealed into them. Even if they had the most chakra possible for a human to have."

"But..." Ryu turned to look at Naruto's back, "you already said it. An infant, a newborn's chakra coils wouldn't have even begun to develop. And would use the foreign chakra as a foundation to build upon. Giving the seal more than enough chakra to remain fully active their entire life."

They all stood there in the clearing, the wind blowing in the trees and grass, not saying anything. None of them knew what they could say. Hayato, hiding in the bushes, was on the verge of bursting back into the clearing if the tension didn't release soon.

Naruto wanted to run, run as fast and as hard as possible and not stop until he collapsed. But it was too late now. They knew the truth, and to deny it, even for an instant, would be a lie that he could never take back. He didn't want to lie to his friends, even if they soon wouldn't be.

Kasumi was still mostly in shock, trying to process what she had figured out, trying to come to grips with what she now knew. It explained so much. It explained everything, everything that intrigued her about Naruto, from his chakra capacity, to what had happened with the bandit leaders, to why he was treated so poorly and even why his chakra control was so pitiful. He was the living sacrifice of Konoha, the super soldier of the old shinobi wars, a Jinchuuriki.

Ryu was in the same boat as Kasumi, stunned at the revelation of who and what his teammate really was, and why exactly he fit in so perfectly with a couple of clan heirs of somewhat prominent ninja clans. Until he remembered and asked himself, what does this change? Naruto's the same today as he was when they first met, as proven just an hour prior when he'd been joking around about the training with Gouken when they got back to Konoha. The only thing that changed was that they learned the one secret their friend and teammate had been keeping from them, and they'd learned that it was a secret worth keeping. That was it.

"So," Ryu shrugged, his tone casual, "how long have you known? Cause I just learned myself, and I gotta say, I'm already over it."

Naruto, Kasumi, and even Hayato in the bushes blinked and stared at the black-clad genin.

"What?" he shrugged again. "This doesn't exactly change anything, does it? Naruto didn't suddenly grow horns and nine tails, did he? And you're not exactly acting like a demon. Not to mention, the only time I've seen you use what we now know is the Kyuubi's chakra is when you were so pissed off you couldn't see straight... and you used it to kick the asses of the guys that beat the living shit out of me and were going to rape and probably kill Kasumi-chan here. I would have done the same if I could, to be honest."

Naruto turned fully around and wiped the tears from his eyes.

Kasumi just stared at Ryu for a minute longer, thinking over what he'd said and what she knew. And she realized, he was right. Naruto was still the same ninja that had changed her life and given her the confidence to push through and become a true kunoichi. He was the reason she was a ninja today and her gratitude towards him had not lessened one bit. If anything, because of what she now knew, it grew by leaps and bounds. Just from what she knew of fuinjutsu, which wasn't much, she knew that the moment Naruto either willed it, or if he allowed the seal to be damaged in any way, the Kyuubi could be unleashed and finish what it started twelve years ago. And judging from what she'd seen just a few days ago, Naruto's own anger and emotional pain either weakened or damaged the seal just enough so that some of the Kyuubi's chakra flowed into his body, empowering him in a way, but weakening the seal all the same.

The more pain and anger he feels, the more the seal weakens. From what she could tell, what happened with those bandits had never happened to Naruto previously. She'd seen what he'd been treated like as a child, she'd seen how he was treated in his daily life by practically everyone in the village, his home. To see that he was so hopeful and genuinely kind when he had all the reasons in the world to be filled with rage and anger at everything and everyone, it amazed her and filled the young girl with an awe that could not be described.

Filled with so much raw emotion, Kasumi did what any girl her age would do. She started crying, and ran and grabbed Naruto in a hug and did not let him go anywhere.

Stunned by this, Naruto just stood there for a minute, looking desperately at Ryu for help, but getting none, he finally just returned the embrace to the crying girl in his arms and held her as she released her emotions on him.

"Uh," Ryu stepped up to the two of them and shrugged helplessly, "I think what she's trying to say," he said over her wailing, "is that she's glad there aren't any more secrets between us and that nothing has changed at all. At least not between us."

"Heh," Naruto grinned and his hug with Kasumi became a little more genuine. "Looks like Hayate was right after all."

"Nii-chan, *sniff*, knew about-about this?" she sniffled, still hugging the blond tightly.

"He said that the Fourth wanted me to be seen as a hero to the village, and that," Naruto sniffled, "and that he already saw me as one. And when I told you guys, that you would feel the same way. Guess he was right." He wiped his eyes and hugged Kasumi tighter.

"Shouldn't have needed to guess, baka," Ryu ribbed on him a bit. "Thought you knew us by now."

"Yeah, well..." Naruto trailed off.

"It's OK, we understand," Kasumi mumbled into his shoulder. "I'm just sorry it took us so long to figure it out. Then I wouldn't have held Ryu back from beating all those people up that we thought were insulting you. Next time, I'll be sure to get a few of my own hits in first."

"Aw c'mon guys," Naruto laughed, "I don't want you getting in trouble because of me."

"No trouble at all from my perspective," Ryu grinned. "Nobody messes with my friends. Especially not when those friends are my teammates and sparring partners."

"Heh," Naruto blushed and felt like leaping for joy all around the clearing. He had friends. And they called him friend too.

"Sorry if I'm interrupting, but let's go ahead and eat so we can get back to Konoha," Hayato commented from directly behind the genin.

"GAAHHHH!" they all screamed. "DON'T DO THAT!"

"Sorry," he shrugged, unapologetic.

"Well, now that you two know about Naruto's... tenant, and decided that nothing's really changed, I guess we can start increasing your training for the next little while."

They all groaned, Naruto and Kasumi finally letting go of one another, and sat down for their meal. The sooner they were done, the sooner they were back on their way to Konoha, and Hayato had already told them that he planned on them being back in Konoha by nightfall.

"So, now that we've completed our first C-Rank mission," Ryu asked as they ate, "does that mean we can stop taking multiple daily D-Ranks? To make time for all the advanced training we'll be receiving that is?"

"Nope," Hayato replied. "First thing, tomorrow morning after we get back, report to Training Area 25 for morning training. We'll do twice as many D-Ranks as before now. Until we get assigned another C-Rank that is. You three are, after all, aiming to be the best Support Team in Konoha. Just because you completed one rather difficult C-Rank is no reason to loosen up. If anything, it's even more reason to buckle down and increase your training. You could all be a lot better. And..."

"And?" Kasumi prompted.

"Wasn't there a team jutsu that you were trying to pull off? Last you showed me, it still needed a lot of work. But tell you what," Hayato said, "I'm still going to assign you twice as many D-Ranks. But just for tomorrow. If you manage to finish four in the morning, and eight in the afternoon, and still have time for our usual training sessions, then I'll consider dropping it back to two in the morning and four in the afternoon. And all the extra time that we have from that, we'll commit to mastering that Buntai jutsu of yours. All right?"

The three of them briefly exchanged glances, then looked back at their Jounin Sensei and nodded their heads. "Deal," they said together as one.

"Deal then," Hayato nodded back. "Now, if we're done gossiping over the water cooler, let's get on home, shall we?" All four of them got to their feet and were gone in a flash.

TBC!