Hi everybody, first of all, thank you for the feedback you motivate me to write.

As I told you last time, I'm working in a new place so i have to work at home to get everything done, so I'll probably write a chapter per week (on weekends)

Some people said Suna got off the hook too easily, but they lost their main weapon to Kiri and a siege in the desert is not an easy thing, so Naruto being the smart man he was decided to not push further

I hope you like this chaper and please comment your thoughts


Chapter 4

Naruto was a happy man, his village withstood the attack from Suna and Akatsuki, despite these last guys being just bad copies, the blond Hokage was praised for his fight and preparations, because the Root ANBU was the key to the safety of civilians and young genins

Now, he was on the ninja academy for the Chunin exams results, this time there were four promoted ninjas, Hinata Hyuga, Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka and Kabuto Yakushi

Some other genin weren't so much happy, the second phase of the exams had been particularly hard and despite beating their opponents, neither team 7, 9 or 10 could find the right scroll

Sarutobi and the elders were surprised to see Kabuto finally promoted, the talented medic got a field promotion thanks to his fight against Chiyo and his efforts to heal the poisoned people after Suna's attack

Right now, Jiraiya was the only non-root person that knew the secret behind Kabuto, after killing Danzou, Naruto got most of root's secrets so Kabuto's true identity and his affiliation with Orochimaru came to his knowledge, after beating said sanin he had a long talk to the skilled medic-nin who ended confessing his interest of learning the truth about the world and making a name for himself, Naruto being the smart ninja he was, showed some of his wisdom and chakra abilities to offer him a place in Konoha

The Godaime Hokage was proud of his students, the three of them showed great potential and earned their jackets, and the other ninja greeted them and encouraged the other genins to train for the next exams in six months

Team 8 was walking through the streets of Konoha when suddenly Sasuke appeared on their way with a hard glare "I want to see how strong you are, fight me!" demanded Sasuke

Naruto's students looked to each other, they didn't know who was Sasuke talking to, but Shino was the one to reply "Uchiha-san that would be unwise so I must ask to get out of our way" said coldly to the praised Uchiha genius

Sasuke was very angry, but realized he wasn't getting the fight he wanted so he got away, the Uchiha was frustrated, this exams were his chance to prove his worthy, his chance to measure himself against the best of the best, but in the end he just fought some weak Kusa ninjas, killing two of them before leaving the third member after she gave them her scroll

The Uchiha realized he was a good fighter, but he needed another ability, even Itachi had a second specialization, assassination and stealth were his main abilities, while he was a proficient fighter and nothing else, he could become a tracking specialist like Kakashi, kenjutsu expert like some proctors or even taijutsu master like that weird Jounin with giant eyebrows

Neji was feeling something similar, he was furious, fate had established he was the best genin konoha had to offer, but even with that fact he didn't even made it into the finals

With the war events, he could vent some of his anger, he attacked as much Suna ninjas as he could, the killing never seemed so easy, it was just got in the middle of a team and using his Byakugan-guided strikes to deliver killing blows everywhere

Tenten asked him if he was feeling well, she seemed a lot guilty with killing so many enemies in so little time, but to him that wasn't a problem, if fate had decided this would be their last day, they would die anyway, some could say it wasn't Neji killing them it was fate saying they had to die today

Lee was the same as always, he did some insane training methods to improve for the next Chunin exams that Gai said they would be entering for sure

….

..

Naruto realized the genins were on different power levels, so he ordered to the jounins to do some group training and sparring to make them see the differences and improve enough to get up to the task, Sarutobi had suggested use his own students to teach other, but they were equals some months ago so there could be some hard feelings with that

A week after the exams, things were kind of normal, a new hokage in the office, but the daimiyo and the Jounin had accepted him so things were working as usual "Do we have a mission?" asked Hinata to his ex-sensei who had called his team

"Do you think you got rid of me?" asked the new hokage grinning "Your first test was beating one of my shadow clones as a team, now you'll have to train to beat them individually" stated Naruto before making said shadow clone "Follow me" ordered the bunshin before leaving the office with the newly promoted Chunin

Naruto was reading some documents, things were good for Konoha, their loses were minimal and they showed great strength to the world, with ROOT on his command he had more power than Sarutobi, this black-ops branch was ruthless and highly effective, their success rate was over 96% and their numbers were quite good, he knew he couldn't train more root ninjas, because Danzou's methods were inhuman, but he wasn't going to waste so many capable ninjas able to do the least pleasant duties

The blond godaime knew he had an unfinished business; he needed to talk with Itachi and damn he wanted to fight the Akatsuki ninjas, but those things had to wait, now Konoha was his main concern and he was going to protect it whatever it took

"Do you think that was wise?" asked Kakuzu to the leader, and wielder of the rinnegan know as Pain "We had a reputation of success" added to explain his point

"It was a necessary cost" answered Pain "Suna doen't have the money to hire our services anymore and our move wasn't too flashy to be known for many people outside Konoha" added the leader to easy Kakuzu's worries "It was a tactical move, now Konoha's ninjas will underestimate us and in due time we'll take the Kyubi" said concluding his argument

The other Akatsuki ninja listened the whole conversation and while usually Pain didn't let anyone to argue about his orders, Kakuzu was the group's found collector so he had a say in business related topics "Our orders are to keep getting money and power and staying out of the great shinobi village's sight" ordered Pain to the group before disappearing

All the holographic images vanished too, Itachi's mind returned to his body next to Kisame, the Uchiha prodigy heard some news about Konoha, they did a very good job dealing with Suna attack and Naruto, his best friend was the new Hokage 'Who knows how strong he is now' thought the missing-nin

"What's on your mind Itachi?" asked Kisame gathering his giant sword before standing

"I'm thinking about what Kakuzu said" answered Itachi "Suna and Iwa were our biggest employers after all" added keeping a monotone face

"Don't worry, there's always some people in need of a good soldier…we'll have plenty of lives to take" assured the Kiri missing-nin before going to the next village

'I know Naruto better than you Pain…he'll never buy the crap with the special cloning technique…I just wonder what'll be his next step' thought Itachi as he went with Kisame 'Maybe he'll find a way to deal with Pain and Madara' hoped Itachi because he didn't know how to take Madara down

Sasuke was struggling to get on his feet, he was fighting against Neji, both were the rookies of the year from their respective class, and despite both being good fighters, the Hyuga was beating the Uchiha

Neji hit some of Sasuke's chakra points taking away his ability to mold chakra during the fight, Kakashi knew Sasuke was probably stronger, but the Hyuga's technique was more effective, while Sasuke landed some hits at the beginning of the fight, to Neji it just took three hits and Sasuke was on the floor

Gai stopped the match when Sasuke fell again, the next match was between Chouji and Lee

Kakashi and Asuma were aware of Lee insane ability for physical combat, but Chouji had a chance with his clan's ninjutsu the speed was the key factor, when Gai said hajime, Lee quickly used the Konoha Senpu on his opponent, but the Akimichi used his meat-tank technique to block the hit, Lee had some difficulties now, in the spherical shape Chouji was now, he was very hard to hit and he just kept rolling with the intention to crush his enemy

Lee tried many moves, but all of them were ineffective, that match wasn't that exiting, but it was a smart one, Lee had a great physical advantage but Chouji used a strategy to nullify that advantage, the problem was he wasn't able to attack his opponent, the meat-tank mode was safer, but also slower

In the end, after twenty minutes the Akimichi had to stop his technique, he was too dizzy to go on, but used his partial body expansion to try to grab Lee, so the spandex-wearing shinobi used this chance to get behind Chouji and knock him with a hard chop

The result of the fight was the expected, but the importance of this fight was that most of the genin realized a good tactic was enough to even the odds in a fight; a sharp mind was deadlier than a big muscle

After some joint trainings, teams seven, nine and ten were facing the Hokage "it's good to see you all" greeted Naruto to the group "The mission is to build a defensive tower in the frontier with the wind country, we aren't expecting another attack but the place is quite unstable and many bandits or renegades could try to attack the closer towns so with this tower it'll be easier to protect the place" explained Naruto telling the situation to the genin, it was time they started to think about the effects of conflicts

The three teams were led by Kakashi, while any Jounin could order the genins in case Kakashi was busy with something, after handling the copy ninja the scrolls, the Hokage sent them away

The young ninjas were exited to go out of the village, after the invasion, the village had restricted the gates to avoid foreign shinobi enter to Konoha, Kakashi was a little disappointed from his team, Sasuke was the only trying to excel while Sakura stayed as a fan girl and Kuro Akado was mediocre ninja who tends to run from tough situations, maybe they shouldn't have passed the bell test

Asuma on the contrary was happy, Ino realized how behind they were compared to Hinata, and was training to catch up, Shikamaru realized that being a mediocre ninja could mean being unable to protect those close to you so he took his training more seriously with Chouji who always tried to keep with their teammates

Gai was…well Gai, he didn't change very much, his student's power of youth was off the charts, but they were unlucky on this exams, things like this could happen so there was only a matter of time before they got field-promoted or the next exams could lead them to their deserved rank

After two days they arrived to their destiny, on the way here they saw what Naruto meant, the last village had been attacked some days ago for some missing ninja from Suna who got away before the border patrols could catch them, they had a week to build the tower before a ninja team came to protect the border with it so there was a lot of work to do

Kakashi put Asuma and Gai to watch for enemy threats while the genin got the tower built under the guidance of some stonemasons and architects, the tower would be fifty meters high with many weapons and defenses so they had to work as a team to get the thing done on time

Some of the genin like Sasuke or Neji thought they were overqualified for this job, while others like Tenten, Lee, Chouji and Kuro were working with enthusiasm and cooperation, this was precisely what Kakashi was looking for

When they had to harden the stones on the front, Sasuke glad used his katon jutsus to do most of the work, and Neji took a key role to place the weapons in the most useful angles and positions to take down enemies coming from the other side of the border

In the week they were there, the genin didn't see any fight, but Asuma and Gai had to deal with many wanderers and low profile criminals, nothing worth mentioning but they had to work too

…..

..

In Kirigakure, things were getting better for Yagura, the jinchuuriki had a great performance in Konoha, showing power and control to subdue Gaara of the sand, so he earned some people admiration, the bloody mist would never be forgotten but now the people wasn't blaming Yagura for it

From Kiri, the only genin promoted was Yuki Haku, who showed great potential and a deadly keke genkai, this was another way to support the bloodline wielders to assure them the old tendencies were in the past and now they would be praised for their work

His sensei, Mei was very happy, so she gathered many jounins with their teams to celebrate, she was a very happy person, some time ago she was leading the rebels, but now things were looking better and Kiri had avoided bloodshed…thanks to certain man

Yagura knew it would be more difficult to discuss about Akatsuki now that Naruto was the Hokage because he couldn't leave the office so easily, so he thought about sharing that information with someone else to act as a messenger between both of them 'maybe I could form a team to deal with this threat' thought after consider taking an active role

….

Sarutobi was happy, finally he could enjoy his lasts days, he knew he had some years before dying, but for the first time in his life, he felt satisfied, he left Konoha in very capable hands and got rid of Orochimaru for good, fixing the mistake he did so many years ago

The Sandaime Hokage had been a legend, but now he was a happy civilian who spent most of his time resting, smoking and telling stories to his grandson

Hiruzen thought about his own masters a lot, Hashirama's and Tobirama's words came to him a lot lately, but all their teaching had been passed down to Naruto, he was a good man, he had a good hearth, but was brave enough to take the hard decisions for the greater good and he was very skilled in ninja arts and with people, he was a light source, he got himself a name, to people to follow and for his enemies to fear and he always seemed in control

When he found that Naruto was in command of root he realized his students were right, even Jiraiya had recommended to deal with Danzou and his minions, but he was too soft to see it, the old war hawk could have supported a lot of conflicts with his personal army, but instead he was too busy with his plans and secret stuff, but Naruto used his troops to protect Konoha and he would keep doing it

Naruto was a man that would stop at nothing to get what he wanted and fortunately that was the prosperity of Konoha and its people, he carried the will of fire and was a rising star. He had a lot of faith in him

Jiraiya had assured him Naruto never used sage mode against the Kazekage, when confronted the blond said his brain was enough to beat his opponent, and in that moment Hiruzen felt like many years ago, in this moment he was completely convinced Naruto was the strongest ninja in the whole village. He knew Jiraiya became at least two or three times more powerful in sage mode so his successor had a vast power, much like his own masters Hashirama and Tobirama

….

..

Onoki was curious, he wanted to know some of Naruto's abilities, there were a lot of rumors, but those were too vague, he supposed the blond Hokage was a ninjutsu specialist but nothing else, he didn't even know his elemental affinity

"Kitsuchi I want for you to double the border patrol with the land of fire and wind" asked the Tsuchikage getting an affirmative nod from the big man "And if you get any information about this new Hokage, let me know it" added before doing some other task

Just like their lands, people from earth country were hard and tough, they used to keep their traditions and grudges, but while many people hated Minato, Onoki just used him to avoid the questioning to his abilities, so instead of blaming the Tsuchikage for the defeat, they hated and cursed the yellow flash

One of the things that Onoki used to do was try to assassinate potential threats, even hiring Akatsuki for this, but it seemed that even the criminal group feared Konoha's might, so that wasn't an option this time "It seems training a new pupil would be wise" said after some thinking

In Kumo, the news from Konoha didn't make so much noise; they accepted the leaf as their equal after the last war and despite A's frustration about Minato being faster than him, he was curious about his son, he should be a strong ninja to beat Orochimaru and the Kazekage but some ninja, even S-rank were just second rate so until he was able to fight him personally, he would stay curious

"Aren't you planning something in response to Konoha?" asked Mabui very concerned about A's actions

"I know about their good relationship with Kiri…and the poor state of Suna, but we can't really do something before they so for now we just wait and observe" answered A, he knew Konoha prevented most of the civil war in Kiri so they kept at least three quarters of their ranks so he couldn't underestimate them, while Konoha seemed to be as strong as always so facing both of them was a foolish move

….

..

Naruto was sweating and breathing hard, some toads were looking at him in awe, the blond was quite young and despite that, he was so strong it was almost frightening

"Naruto-chan your abilities are amazing…it's like if you understood the very nature of chakra" commented Fukasaku who was paying a lot of attention to Naruto's training. The blond used to train in Myoboku because he could unleash most of his power without being felt or spied for anyone, the only person able to go there was Jiraiya and the pervert sanin didn't visit very often so it was the ideal place and if some kind of emergency happened in Konoha while he was away, there was a toad in his office to summon him, or his dad's bodyguards could teleport him

Jiraiya and Sarutobi asked Naruto some time ago about learning the Hirashin no jutsu, but the jinchuuriki always had the same answer, he had a different style than his father, and despite being decent at fuuinjutsu he was nowhere his parent's level, but no one of them had the mastery of elemental ninjutsu Naruto had, they were different people with different styles

"I'm trying to develop a new technique while in sage mode, but I have to work some details" shared Naruto with the old toad "You know it improves most of my original abilities, but this is something that will require some work" added before trying to prepare his elemental manipulation for said technique he was developing

….

..

The days were peaceful for Konoha, Naruto was in his third month as Godaime Hokage and things were looking good for Konoha, many people came to ask them mission for Naruto's fame and popularity

This was one of the cases where some person came a long way to hire his ninjas "As I was saying, we were living peacefully, but some months ago some weird ninja started attacking the city and their people, they rob anyone trying to enter and don't let people going out" explained the troubled man who was a victim of what seemed wanderers ninjas, but when people said a ninja was weird or creepy it usually meant he had some kind of hidden ability, and that was a problem

"Well mister Itako I just have the right team for you" answered Naruto smiling to the man, this was a great chance, this man said there were around eight of these ninjas in their city so he was going to send two teams, after asking some ANBU to bring some people, the teams came to the office "Well mister Itako, this is team ten, with the famous Asuma Sarutobi in charge, and team 8 is mine so I'll have a Chunin in my place, so you will have an excellent Jounin, six clan heirs, three of them being Chunin and a very capable combat medic that is also a Chunin, is that satisfactory?" asked Naruto getting the man nod and gratitude

"Well guys, Mr Itoko here lives to the south of the rice field country and his city has being attacked for some weird ninja, he reports hearing about 8 ninjas in total so all of you are going with him to deal with them and make the city safe again, this mission is B-rank and Asuma in on charge, but you must follow ranks here" explained the Hokage to his ninjas, who nodded and went to prepare their packs for the travel

….

..

The whole group was travelling to the west, Asuma sometimes carried the client to go faster, but all of them stopped to rest every four hours, they had been on their way for three days and were about to arrive to their destiny when Hinata stopped them "There is something off here" said Hinata looking with her Byakugan and seeing too much chakra around that part of the forest "Arrows!" exclaimed the Hyuga heiress before assuming her stance to deflect the projectiles coming at her, all of the ninjas were able to dodge the attack, even Asuma who was carrying the client

"Can you find the ninja shooting these arrows?" asked the Jounin leaving the man in Ino's care to pay more attention to the surroundings

"He's barely out of my reach" answered Hinata a little confused about this guy, he clearly must know about the Byakugan to fight this way, it was a common tactic between long range fighters to stay some distance away shooting some attacks

"Give me a moment…stay on guard" said Shino before letting some of his insects fly from his sleeves, the bugs were making a perimeter around, when Hinata said "Attack!" and the whole team evaded another set of arrows, but this time Asuma took a kunai and threw it to some trees

"It landed" said Hinata before running to the enemy followed by Asuma and his other teammates, leaving Kabuto and team ten to protect the client

Asuma paid attention to the first attack, the direction it came from and the direction of the second, so he assumed their opponent was moving to their right and after attacking he had to move and he just anticipated his movement with a wind-chakra reinforced kunai, that pierced through his shoulder, Hinata was the first to face him and quickly shoot a big water projectile, the mysterious shinobi used an golden spear-like weapon to stab the attack and make it lose its pressure, Asuma then tried to hit him from his back, but he used the golden weapon to block, before being caught for Hinata's water prison "Good work Hinata" said Asuma, encouraging the Chunin performance

But when the Konoha ninja thought they had trapped him, Kidomaru activaded the level two of the cursed seal, releasing a great amount of chakra that made Hinata's control over water fail, free from the water prison the ex-sound nin shooted some more arrows to his enemies, who were so close that were forced to jump backwards, then he summoned a giant spider, Asuma remembered Kiba's performance in the Chunin exams so he shouted "Kiba, make some fire"

The Chunin looked to his dog and after the man beast clone, Akamaru exhaled a wide fire attack "Wind release: Gale palm" said Asuma doing a collaboration attack that took Kidomaru in surprise, he was too close to the source of the attack so he used all his chakra to harden his golden armor in hope to withstand that attack

After the fire dissipated, they saw a heavily burned ninja, but he was still alive and that was a big feat, the Jounin got closer and realized he was going to die before he could be interrogate so he just pierced his hearth with a wind-enhanced trench knife "Let get the others and hurry to the city, this guys's partners could be somewhere close" said Asuma to the other Chunin before running to his students

When they arrived to the city, Mr Itoko led them to his house; team 8 was going to stay with him while Asuma and team 10 were going to get some information, the ex-guardian ninja took his team with him, Naruto's team was amazing, his kids were logical, smart and quite good fighters, Hinata was the close range specialist, Kiba went in and out of the fights thanks to his speed while Shino was the long range support and one of the best disablers

When he thought about his own team, while Shikamaru was very smart, he wasn't very strong on his own, Ino was very naïve, she was just getting out of her fan-girl attitude and finally Chouji had a great potential, but his style wasn't very good, as a unit they were effective, but individually they couldn't do so much against a dangerous enemy

Asuma felt some movement on his peripheral sight-range so he got on guard, with his team doing the same after him, the Jounin jumped to avoid a barrier technique that trapped his team, he looked around to see to new shinobi wearing clothes similar to their first enemy, there were two new guys, a big and fat young and a thin grey-haired man "Well, well it's seem I trapped some Konoha ninjas" said Jirobo, Asuma knew his team was in some danger, but any rush action could get all of them killed so he had to stay calm

"They are quite resilient" answered Asuma, trying to get some information from this enemy "Are you really trying to fight with me?" asked the Jounin, mocking his enemies, but the rhin one seemed to be in charge and took a step ahead "I'll fight you until Jirobo steals all your kid's chakra till they die" said the man known as Sakon, the ex-guardian realized that served two purposes, it was to give him some pressure, he had to win fast to save their lives, and that could make him take bad decisions

Asuma took his trench knives and charged to his enemy, but said man evaded him and raised his chakra making some black marks appear all over his face and hands, "Is that the cursed seal?" asked Asuma remembering some of the early experiences Anko had with that thing

"Oh…so you know about Orochimaru-sama's might" said Sakon before getting ready to fight this ninja, "I know our new Hokage mopped the floor with him, he even took his ability to mold chakra way" answered Asuma, trying to infuriate him, he knew Orochimaru liked to have servants that worshipped him, so he probably wouldn't take those words very well

Sakon went on the offensive, Asuma knew he had the advantage with the wind-coated weapons, but this ninja was no pushover, he was fast and it seemed his hits packed quite a punch, he wasn't sure but he could swear he saw some multi-image from his punches, the Jounin was hard pressed when he had to block an unexpected strike, coming from his enemy's head 'did that punch came from his forehead?' asked himself Asuma

Just then, Jirobo's prison exploded, after some analysis, Chouji used his partial expansion to enlarge both his arms and make pressure from two opposite points at the same time, bursting the earth dome, Asuma capitalized the distraction that provided and used his two knives to stab Sakon's abdomen

Then he went to his students "Are you okay?" asked the concerned Jounin sensei, getting nods from the genin, "Asuma!" shouted Shikamaru before catching the enemy with his shadow, said ninja looked surprised, he just gave this guy two fatal wounds and now he was fighting as if nothing happened 'that must be some healing factor' supposed looking at him

"We must take this seriously Sakon" stated Jirobo, before his chakra rose very quickly and his look changed drastically, Asuma knew it was the cursed seal's doing, but this was the first time he saw the level 2

"Guys stay behind me…if you can find an opening use it, but in that form I don't know if I can protect all of you and fight both of them at the same time" confessed the Sarutobi ninja, before gathering his own chakra, he was going to take this seriously

Asuma just vanished, appearing behind Jirobo, the fat guy was using the level 2 of the curse mark, but he wasn't fast enough to engage Asuma Sarutobi in combat and said Jounin used his wind-enhanced blades to cut his throat and get a one-hit kill, Sakon looked surprised usually people said Konoha's ninjas were nicer, they fight to incapacitate not to kill, but this guys was something else

"Wait…aren't you guys supposed to be nicer?" asked an afraid Ukon from the inside of his brother "Not when we're protecting our students" replied Asuma, before dashing to this guy…guys, whatever he was, but suddenly he was thrown away by a wind blast "Move Sakon, you have no chance" shouted someone hidden around, making the Oto ninja escape, Shikamaru was about to chase him, but some exploding tags came from the same place from the voice, forcing him to take cover

When their enemies were gone, Asuma checked one last time and looked to his students "Are you alright?" asked them "Yes Asuma-sensei" answered Chouji with a smile

"Chouji gave us some soldier pills on the inside of that thing so we're fine" added Shikamaru to assure the Jounin, who told them they had to go back with the client

With Mr Itoko

Naruto's team was in the house with the family when Hinata called them, so the four Chunin got outside "What is the problem Hinata-san?" asked a very polite Kabuto, because he knew this was about Oto-shinobi and they could give him away

"There is something weird, two chakra signatures are kind of waiting outside…one of them is very powerful, but they seem to be waiting for us to reach them" said the Hyuga, making Kabuto worry, if it was the person he thought, this was going to become very serious

"Hinata-san can you tell me if this powerful man has two red dots on his forehead?" asked a serious Kabuto, before getting the confirmation from the Hyuga, who shared a surprised look with his teammates "Kids…I can't explain right now, but you have to trust me, that guy is very powerful, probably on Kakashi's level so I need at least two of you with me to take him down" shared the medic nin, making the other Chunin look at him carefully

"We're very clear there is something strange about this and that it involves you, but if our sensei sent you with us, he has a reason and we trust him, so we'll play along" replies Shino on one of his longest speeches ever

Hinata warned to the client about the enemies outside before going for them, the Konoha's team saw Kimimaro and Tayuya, "I'll take care of her" said Hinata before charging her way, and force her to back some distance away

"What are you doing with this trash Kabuto?" asked Kimimaro to the ex Orochimaru's right hand

"I'm not discussing about this with a zealot like you" said Kabuto adjusting his glasses "You must be very careful kids, this man uses his bones as weapons and has a flawless taijutsu…his only weakness is his lung-illness, that will kill him sometime soon" explained Kabuto, making Kimimaro angry, the Kaguya kept on guard when Akamaru transformed and the two Inuzukas charged at him

"Dance of the camellia" said Kimimaro before a hard bone came out of his forearm to be used as a blade to parry both Kiba's attacks, the Inuzuka was going to try another time, but he was forced to jump back to avoid a lethal slash across his head, and then the enemy opened his hands saying "Ten-Finger Drilling Bullets" and his fingertips became dangerous projectiles that Shino blocked with his insects

"Be more careful Kiba" said the stoic Aburame, when Shino was going to look at Kabuto to ask him something, he wasn't there, the medic was facing Kimimaro after a snake trapped his leg, but the Kaguya was very resilient to the chakra scalpels, this were dangerous tools, but weren't that effective against the hardened bone "Dance of the Larch" shouted Kimimaro before a lot of sharp bones came out from his whole body, forcing Kabuto to take some distance, Kimimaro was going for Kabuto, but some insects got on the way, he tried to toss them away, but when he touched them, he felt a powerful current trough his body, but after some seconds he composed himself and retracted most of his protruding bones

"Dance of the Clematis: Vine" said before he pulled out his own spine showing a very dangerous weapon, and then used it as a whip to make all of his enemies take some distance "Dance of the Clematis: Flower" added the sound ninja, before making a drill-like weapon on his left hand, Shino and Kabuto saw most of the contraction this bone had received, they were practically indestructible

This time Kimimaro took the offensive, he went straight for Kabuto recognizing him as the most dangerous foe, the medic was able to dodge the main weapon, but the Kaguya capitalized this distraction, trapping Shino with the whip, Kimimaro retracted this weapon to make him fall on the drill, but when he did, the stabbed Shino was nothing but a swarm of insects, before Kiba started to throw some very stinky mud, Kimimaro evaded most of it, blocking the rest, so when Akamaru started to exhale the fire, he wasn't very surprised, and was able to avoid the flames

Shino used his electric insects to ignite some of the mud, making it a dangerous place for Kimimaro to fight, but the Kaguya decided to take them seriously and activated the cursed seal, using the level two, transforming into a dinosaur-like look that was very frightening

Kimimaro made blades from most of his bones, coming out of his body and charged at the Konoha's ninjas, ignoring the fire or electricity around, he just charged at his enemies with his drill as the main weapon and his whole body was support, because every spin and twist was very dangerous thanks to his bloodline, Kiba and Akamaru were avoiding the attacks with ease, they were quite fast, but Shino wasn't so much, even Kabuto had to take a hit on his place to keep him safe

In that moment Akamaru jumped to Kiba's back and both said "Human Beast Combination Transformation: Double-Headed Wolf" and after a smoke cloud formed, a giant two headed wolf came out, this was a very powerful, but it was still on development phase "Collaboration jutsu: Blazing Shapeshift" added before getting on flames, so now it was a giant two headed wolf…on fire, said creature thrown a very big fire blast at Kimimaro, who made some kind of helmet with his own bones and charged towards this new Kiba, even Kabuto was amazed at the technique, it was something never seen before, and when the Kaguya was nearing his target, the creature started spinning to the other side of the field, in a deadly "Super Fang Wolf Fang" said Kiba, making many slashes on Kimimaro's bone armor

Kabuto noticed Kimimaro was breathing hard, even coughing some blood sometimes and probably the kids picked it too, because Kiba was making fire as if there was no tomorrow, probably to saturate the air and consume all the oxygen, Shino was gathering some of his insects, but the main fighter was Kiba, this new form was something else

But when he was charging to Kimimaro, the Kaguya moved aside and trapped him with the whip, making stop the flames on his body, "Get him out of that grip, I'll cover you" shouted Shino to Kabuto who ran to the fighters "Secret Technique: Insect Sphere" said before a great swarm of insect came from his sleeves and covered Kimimaro, trying to concentrate on his nose and mouth, they were trying to suffocate him

Kabuto used a momentum-enhanced chakra scalpel to free Kiba and Akamaru of the Kaguya's spine and put them on a safe place, before going for the prideful Kaguya, Kabuto jumped to the transformed ninja shoulders, and jumped again before being stabbed for his arm-bones protruding, then he kept close and enduring the pain from Kimimaro's ribs he punctured his lung, making him start coughing a lot of blood before falling to the ground

It was anticlimactic, but in the end, Kimimaro was suffocated to death with a punctured lung and surrounded by fire, and ended lying on the burned ground

….

..

Hinata on the other hand, was dealing with Tayuya, thanks to her Byakugan she didn't fall for any illusion, she could see the real Tayuya and any image she tried to make, so they weren't effective at all, the sound kunoichi was forced to summon her doki demons and going to level two or the Hyuga's speed would have been her end, but even in those conditions, Hinata was more versatile

When one of the summons tried to attack Hinata, she used her clan's absolute defense "Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven" but she gathered some water around the technique, so when it ended, the water was spinning around her "Water Release: Slicer disc" said Hinata before throwing some water disc to Tayuya, who used her dokis as shields, but they were cut down without stopping the attack that ended her life

….

..

At the end of the day, most enemies were dead, the remaining ones were very far because they ran for their lives, and the Konoha's ninjas were in good shape, some were a little shaken, but nothing to worry, in the end, Mr Itoko and the city's mayor thanked them and both teams got back to Konoha

….

..

"Well guys, congratulations for the successful mission, you'll be paid for the upgraded A-rank mission" said Naruto to the two teams, asking for his students to stay "I think you want to ask something" added Naruto looking at their faces

"There was something weird with Kabuto and those freaks!" confessed Kiba very loudly, making Hinata and Shino nod

"Well, you probably don't know, but Kabuto's life has been quite hard, I'm not going to explain everything, but in the end he was Orochimaru's spy just because he was the only that showed some purpose in life…after sensei killed him, I found some archives with this information and confronted him, so I gave him a choice, he could run away from Konoha and never return or become my secret agent and find things for me…and that's what he chose" explained Naruto leaving many thing out, but they didn't need to know Konoha and Danzou were responsible of this twisted man, so he had some kind of debt with the medic and that's why he gave him a chance

"If you think he can be trusted, we'll support you sensei" replied Hinata, speaking for the three of them

"Speaking of something else…I want to congratulate you Kiba, this new transformation is something incredible…I'm proud of you guys" confessed Naruto with a happy smile on his face "let's go to celebrate" said before getting out of the office

….

..

"Are you sure of this Nagato?" asked a very concerned Konan, this was a risky move, because despite their loss at Konoha, they still had a large number of shinobi

"Yes Konan…you know nothing can stand in a god's way" answered Pain 'in the past Ame cried for their losses in the ninja wars, this time we have to change the place of the fights' thought to himself, he knew his own power but even him couldn't win a war on himself so he had to use tactics and diversions

"Okay Nagato, if you think it's possible…we'll take Sunagakure" finally said Konan, taking Nagato's words to the heart