Chapter 4: Meetings, seeing some old friends
Hey ya'll, Iskander Mandoraekon here. Thank you all for the delicious reviews. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter.
Warning to all of those who decide to read my Orochimaru's Weapon X story and decide they still want to bitch about the one that was up in the past… Leave my pages and don't come back or I will report each and every one of you for harassment, I'm looking at you Mr. Watcher. Have a good day.
I don't own Naruto
(Cave somewhere in Land of Fire)
Deep within a dark cave in the Land of Fire, astral images of nine figures could be seen standing in a half circle on what appeared to be massive fingertips of a massive statue. One of them, what appeared to be a tall man with spiky hair and metallic silver, rippling eyes, spoke first. "It appears that the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi has been spotted after all these years." The man said in a monotone voice before turning his attention to another person, a male of average height that had the unusual appearance of having a venus fly-trap attached to his body and one half of his body being a shade darker in the projection. "Zetsu, if you would." The ripple eyed man said.
Zetsu spoke to the others in his two different voices. "It turns out that she has been staying for an undetermined amount of time on one of the islands of the Land of Waves, she was spotted while escorting the Daimyo of Wave to the Land of Fire capital by her former sensei, Kakashi Hatake and a temporary squad that was with him." White Zetsu said. "She was attacked by the squad minus Hatake and she killed them all except for a single chunin with just sword skill alone, she was seen heading towards the Land of Rivers by a few people leaving Keishi." Black Zetsu finished.
"So now the squirt is back in the world after so long." Kisame Hoshigaki, a man named the Monster of the Hidden Mist and a former member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist that had a shark like appearance, said with a grin stretching his face as he heard about her dispatching an entire Konoha squad with just her sword. "I can't wait to cross blades with her."
"Maybe but its most likely that she won't stay in one place for long." Konan, a stunningly beautiful woman with blue hair, said. "According to Zetsu the jinchuuriki was seen by Hatake and a Konoha chunin that survived and they most likely reported it to the Hokage. Meaning they will be sending a team to retrieve her when they find her again."
"It seems that she'll be a challenge to take down." Hidan, the occultist of Akatsuki, said with a feral smirk covering his face surprisingly enough his partner Kakuzu, the Akatsuki's banker, agreed with him until he spoke again. "She will make a great sacrifice for Lord Jashin!"
"Perhaps we should ignore her for now." Sasori, a man made legend for his mastery over Suna's puppet's technique, suggested from inside his puppet Hiruko. "While this is the first sighting we have had of the girl for over six years, we do not know what the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki's full abilities are at the moment. Going after her unprepared would be unwise."
Pein nodded in agreement with the man turned puppet though he was confident he could handle the girl anytime the need arised. "Agreed besides we need to seal the Kyuubi last anyway."
"The Ichibi is in Suna as you already know. The Nibi has only been leaving Kumo when she is training or takes missions, so there will be an opening the next time she takes a mission. The Sanbi is still missing in action. The Yonbi we have found out is living in a log cabin on the border of the Land of Stone. The Gobi is still evading any spy networks and is currently missing in action. The Rokubi was last seen traveling around Demon Country with a female from the Tsuchigumo Clan a few months ago but they have been laying low. The Nanabi is currently in Takigakure living with her new husband Shibuki and child though she does take missions so we can wait for the next time she leaves the village. But she's also gain more control over her bijuu. The Hachibi Jinchuuriki we should also avoid until we have more members to fight him because he as rumored has full control over the Hachibi and its power." Both sides of Zetsu said.
"I see" Pein said before looking at the rest of the members of Akatsuki. "Well first I want Kakuzu to work on where we could find the Sanbi, Deidara you and Sasori will go to capture the Ichibi Jinchuuriki since your skills will be useful with the jinchuuriki being in the village most of the time as their Godaime Kazekage." The rogue Suna puppeteer and the Iwa bomber nodded, while Kakuzu just grunted as he mentally counted the money he would get on his next bounty.
Pain continued soon after. "It is doubtful that the Hachibi will stray very far from Kumo being the brother of the Raikage. So we'll ignore him along with the missing Gobi and the Kyuubi for the time being, which leaves us the Nibi and Yonbi. The Demon Cat is assigned to Hidan while the Yonbi will be taken by Kisame due to his Water jutsu's being able to cancel the Yonbi's Lava."
"What will I be doing leader-sama?" White Zetsu asked as his other half calmly watched the proceedings to inform Tobi later on.
"You will continue to survey the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki so we can get a better grasp of her abilities." Pain said before eventually ending the meeting and one by one the images faded away as he and Konan returned to Ame while the others went about their jobs.
(Land of Waterfall)
Within the center of the village known as Takigakure, where the Leader's tower was, Takigakure's Leader, Shibuki, was currently in his office. Normally, like almost every day, the young village leader would always be sitting behind his desk doing the bane of any type of leader, paperwork.
Today fortunately for the young man, Shibuki managed to finish up early and was now spending time by sitting on the couch of his office next to his once again pregnant wife, Fuu the Nanabi Jinchuuriki, who was already holding a one and a half year old infant, and reading a picture book to the sleeping infant and his soon to be born sister.
The infant was a little boy and was almost an exact replica of the young leader, except the babe had inherited his mother's mint green hair and orange pupiless eyes, already making him a hit among the kunoichi of the village. The baby, wearing a light brown sleeping suit, was snoring lightly with it's little chest going up and down, while the man's green haired bride held him with love and affection in her once cold eyes.
Shibuki heard a knock on the door to his office and he looked towards the large oaken slab. He had told all of Taki's shinobi not to bother him while he was with his family. "Who is it? I told everyone not to disturb me!"
The door opened and revealed a blonde haired nineteen year old girl, one Naruko Uzumaki, who just gave a smirk to her old friend. "So you don't have time for little old me?"
She got starts from Fuu and Shibuki as the village leader put down his book and helped his wife stand. "Well we weren't really expecting you to be popping by for a visit, especially with konoha acting up after your stunt in the Land of Fire." Fuu told her fellow Jinchuuriki in a mock scolding tone, she had read the letter her husband received from Tsunade about her fellow Jinchuuriki's reappearance. Naruko just smiled cockily in her friend's scolding, she and Fuu always had slight competitions when they met up, then the blonde looked down at the green haired baby in Fuu's arms who had woken up from all the movement and was staring back at the blonde with a curious look in his orange eyes and a chubby finger poking into his nose. "Hi Chomei-chan how have you been?" Naruko asked with a sweet tone as she poked her godson's stomach. Fuu and Shibuki had decided to name the blonde their children's godmother after all she had done for Taki and saving Fuu from an Akatsuki member that had tried to kidnap the pregnant Jinchuuriki two years ago.
The baby only gurgled happily before stretching his other arm out towards his mother and father, his eyelids becoming heavy once again as he succumbed to the blessed sleep. "Heh Shaolin-chan is going to be all over the little one when she and Renji finish checking into the hotel?" Naruko said as Fuu placed the baby into it's crib, she had named her child after her tailed beast, the Nanabi, after learning the lucky seven's real name in a show of trust.
"So if I might ask, what is the reason for your appearance?" Shibuki asked as he had one of his guards put everything in his office back in place while he sealed up Chomei's toys and books into a scroll he kept on his hip. "We've been getting messengers from Konoha almost daily due to you resurfacing, heck Lady Tsunade is supposed to be coming here herself in a week to talk about reforming the treaty."
Naruko shrugged and followed the husband and wife out of their office. "Well if you're going home then I might as well follow you. I have to meet up with Tayuya-chan soon in Kakarot village that is close to here, Bee and Yugito said they would meet me there as well, so I decided to drop by since you guys were on the way." Naruko said as she listened to Fuu about how the pregnancy was going and the green haired Jinchuuriki's teasing about her blonde friend still being a virgin, getting a blush from the young woman.
Shibuki raised an eyebrow at that before narrowing his eyes, understanding the hidden message, having gotten better as a ninja to protect his people better after the incident with the Hero's Water. "So you are gathering the team."
It was not a question.
Naruko shrugged as she took Chomei from Fuu and tickled the giggling baby's gut. "Yeah I figured it would be better to pick everyone up and going to meet Killer Bee and Yugito instead of just waiting for the egotistical bastards from Konoha and Akatsuki to give up searching for me."
Shibuki said nothing at first as they exited the building and headed back towards the young Leader's house. While jumping along the rooftops Shibuki looked back at Naruko as he carried his pregnant wife in his arms. "You know you could always accept my, Koyuki, Gaara or Michiru's offer of giving you asylum, saying that you're staying here under my protection. Heck why haven't the other nations or villages that you've saved done the same thing?" The Taki Leader said.
Naruko shrugged her armored shoulders. "Well for one I told them that I don't want to be a burden to my friends and two giving me asylum would cause too much political problems with Konoha and most likely Fire Country if I accepted yours or any of the other's offers." Naruto answered.
Shibuki gave the blonde before him a questionable look, then blinked in a bored tone and spoke again as he deadpanned, "Since when has any of that stopped you?" Naruko gave a cheeky smirk to the comment from her old friend. "True, but I didn't have people precious to me back then, plus I wasn't banished for doing my job and still had a home."
Shibuki and Fuu snorted as they guided the blonde to their home at the base of the massive tree, sending one of their few Jounin level shinobi to collect Renji and Shaolin later.
(Three Days Later, Land of Waterfalls, Team 7)
Team Seven, consisting of two Jounin, an Anbu and a chunin, had recently made it into the Land of Waterfalls yesterday evening and after camping out in a cave with a warm fire courtesy of Sasuke to avoid the nighttime cold, the team had continued on its way towards Taki, carrying the new treaty for the two villages.
Their second objective once the treaty was delivered was to confirm whether or not Naruko Uzumaki was or had been staying in or around Taki since the Mokuton using Anbu Tora hadn't found a trace of her in Wave for the past two weeks, meaning she had long since moved on or never returned after escorting Tazuna to Keishi. They were to try and convince the missing blonde to return with them to Konoha for safety against whatever the Akatsuki was planning to do with the Jinchuuriki and their Bijuu. Team Asuma was currently going towards Suna in their search and Team Kurenai was sent to check out the Land of Spring/Snow, while Team Gai was tasked with finishing an accidental A-Rank mission that a team of newly made Genin had stumbled upon, turns out Tazuna isn't the only one that could lie about mission parameters and Team Konohamaru, the three genin refused to name their team after the closet pervert, was currently carrying the new treaty for the Land of Lightning.
Hopefully none of the recovery teams would have to resort to using force to make their objectives possible.
Tsunade sent Team Seven to Taki because they were possibly the only team that Naruko would trust, slightly forgetting about the report of the injuries Sakura had inflicted on Naruko when she learned of Sasuke's condition, something the Uchiha Heir was still angry about and the fact that the Uchiha had shoved a chidori into her chest. But as explained by an angry Jiraiya, force might open right as they met her, due to the history that this team had with Naruko Uzumaki, who was originally a member of it. Kakashi Hatake, who was the jounin sensei when they started as genin, was ashamed of himself for not trying to be a better teacher to his team and having only concentrated solely on his Uchiha student in the beginning. That tidbit had caused him to lose the respect he had from his fellow Jounin along with Tsunade and Jiraiya when the Godaime called Kakashi to give a progress report of how his team had been before Naruko left. For the past six years he has been doing everything he could to fix his mistakes.
Sasuke was hoping for redemption like his depressed sensei and being able to right the wrongs he caused his former teammate on his part that caused Naruko's banishment and injuries. He was ashamed of what his clan had become forcing his older brother Itachi to kill them and while he understood why his brother did it when he was told by Tsunade, much to the Danzo and the elder's ire.
Sasuke intended to bring Itachi back to the village just like he planned to do with Naruko. Though he knew that trying to get the blonde kunoichi to return to a village that treated her like trash when she protected them for so long wasn't going to be easy.
Sakura of course has changed very little over the past six years, the only improvement being mainly only her skills. She still held a large amount of hatred for her former teammate, even practising her Bukijutsu skills in secret with a mannequin shaped as the missing Jinchuuriki.
The fourth and final member who was serving as Naruko's replacement on their team so they could have the complete four man squad, Sai didn't have an opinion on what he thought of Naruko. The pale boy didn't know the hyperactive blonde personally before she left.
"Kakashi-Taicho, I feel my ink birds returning." The Anbu said to the team leader, a man many in Anbu, be it ROOT or normal, had a lot of respect for.
Everyone stopped when Sai announced the news and turned to look at him. Kakashi had their teammate send several of his ink creatures ahead to scout the land around Taki in case Naruko was nearby. Quickly the Ink birds dropped from the sky and fell into the paper that Sai held out, taking the form of words that only Sai could read.
"Report Sai," Kakashi said as he stared at the black haired boy while he deciphered the words covering the page.
"The Ink beasts report that a young woman with long blonde hair and whisker marks is now leaving Taki and would appear to be moving towards the border between the Land of Waterfalls and Land of Lightning." Sai said in his usual monotone voice as he mentally prepared himself to take on the missing Jinchuuriki, knowing that if they had to fight then they would most likely lose; especially if the team that attacked Tazuna was any indication, the ROOT Anbu that had been on that squad had been one of the higher ranking members of Danzo's forces and he was killed by a single strike from what was reported to be the Jinchuuriki's sword.
Kakashi's eye widened for a moment, "Which way?" He asked placing a hand on the tanto that was gracing his hip.
Sai nodded and took off in the direction his beasts had told him, leading the team towards their lost comrade.
"Okay everyone, remember that we're to try and convince her to peacefully return to Konoha. Force is to be used only as a last resort, understand?" Kakashi commanded as he looked towards his pink haired student, the student that had a dark look in her eyes at the mention that the object of her hatred was close by.
All three of his teammates nodded before they took off tree jumping towards the direction Sai was leading them to.
"You know the chances of us even getting Naruko to agree to come back to the village with us are very, very low?" Sasuke asked as he looked at the silver haired cyclopean, unknowingly getting a glare from Sakura at the show of more concern for Naruko from her crush than he ever gave her.
Kakashi didn't reply, he merely gave a stiff nod.
"It doesn't matter if the Jinchuuriki agrees or not, dickless. We are to bring her back whether it be peacefully or forcefully." Sai said, his answer from his team was a glare from Sasuke's Mangekyou Sharingan that he had acquired from the curse mark induced state of shoving his hand through Naruko's chest.
(With Naruko)
Naruko suddenly stopped in her examination of Fuu's former home in Taki's bug glade. Her eyes narrowing dangerously as she detected several familiar chakra signatures. "Kurama…"
"I sense them too, Naruko," Kurama said as he raised his head inside his cage. "Approximately four chakra signatures are currently heading this way. Three of them appear to be from your former team and the fourth one I have no memory of."
Naruko's eyes widened at the mention that her old team was here, before they narrowed with a feral growl escaping her throat. 'Of course the old bitch would send them to collect me, it appears that my message didn't get through...'
"Whelp that sucks, looks like we'll get to have some fun, kit."
The Uzumaki woman knew now that nothing would stop her former village from trying to bring her back to Konoha for her 'safety', as if she didn't already know about the Akatsuki. Naruko gave a smirk as another thought invaded her mind, she could evaluate how strong her old team had become since it was apparent they were coming to capture her. She could see if any of them had actually taken their training seriously over the past six years that she had been gone.
With her mind made up, Naruko pulled her sword from its sheath on her back and sat down on Fuu's favorite natural wooden chair with her sword impaled into the ground in front of her. Her cerulean blue eyes planted firmly on the opposite side of the clearing, where the chakra signatures were quickly approaching.
A couple minutes later, Naruko saw that the trackers were about to enter the clearing, though they appeared to be observing their former comrade first. "May I help you with something Hatake-san, Uchiha-san? I thought I made my message clear last time we met..." Naruko asked in a hard voice as her cold eyes turned to glare at Sasuke's position, startling the four of them and making the Uchiha flinch as he noticed her cold, emotionless gaze.
Kakashi was the first to recover from the surprise of Naruko noticing them as the four of them jumped down to the clearing, probably having sensed them while they were still a ways away, already having forgotten that the young woman had sensed him while she took down the assault team. Snapping out of his stupor Kakashi gave his signature upside 'U' eye smile. "Yo Naruko-chan! How've you been?"
Naruko raised an elegant eyebrow, as if she was trying to figure out what Kakashi's idiot meter was. "Kakashi and my old friends… well I would call you friends, but seeing how one of you is a traitor who shoved a chidori into my chest and got me banished for doing my job; and the other one is a bitchy whore that attacked me for keeping my promise to her about retrieving the first one from a pedophile, I won't even bother." Naruko said as her gaze never faltered though it did turn to take in the others of the team.
'I guess I had that one coming,' Sasuke thought as he flinched at the hard tone his old teammate had addressed him in. "Naruko, we've been sent on Lady Tsunade's orders to-"
"I have no intentions of going back to a piece of shit village that deserves to be burned to the ground for its crimes." Naruko said in a serious voice as she didn't even blink at the dark glare Sakura sent her way, having faced worse Killing intent when she spared with Bee and Yugito or stood in front of Kurama or Raikage when he was angry.
"If you refuse to come back willingly then we will capture you and force you to come back as a prisoner." Sai said as Sasuke fell into a small cloud of depression, though the former ROOT agent flinched back a bit from the cold gaze that turned to him, it felt like she was dissecting him with her eyes.
"I'm guessing that dickless here is my replacement, eh Kakashi?" Naruko asked, getting a nod from Kakashi and a tick mark from Sai, he was supposed to be calling people dickless!
"Look Naruko, Lady Hokage made a mistake and she's sorry. She even executed and imprisoned several of the council members that had a hand in banishing you. She is willing to compromise for your return. Also there's a group of-" Kakashi began, only to be cut off impatiently by Naruko as she waved her hand.
"S-class missing-nin called the Akatsuki, who are after me and all of the other Jinchuuriki for the Bijuu we hold," Naruko said in a monotone voice, surprising Team Seven about her knowledge. "I already know about them from my sources and I've been doing a wonderful job of staying off of their radar until you idiots decided to reveal me, plus the fact that I've already killed one of their members, though of course they don't know that it was me."
"I am giving you one chance to go away and never bother me again traitors." Naruko said as she interrupted Sakura who was about to talk, unknown to them, sending out a discrete pulse of chakra to warn her comrades about what was happening. "Or I'll use more… extreme methods that will most likely end up with you as crippled and unfit to continue your careers or in the ground… Your choice."
Kakashi sighed at his ex-student's tone, this was not going the way they had planned.
"I guess there really isn't anything we can do to convince you to return home with us." Sasuke said, as he closed his eyes before snapping them open again to reveal his sharingan.
"No there isn't Uchiha," The Jinchuuriki finished as she stood and pulled her sword from the ground with her eyes closed. "You idiots closed that door a long time ago…"
Before they could react Naruko leaned forward with her sword in her hand angled away from her body and she disappeared, uprooting the stone behind her much to her team's surprise, she was in between Sakura and Sasuke in an instant; swinging her sword from the side to hopefully remove the pinkette's upper half. Sai moved between the two of them just in time to save Sakura from having her stomach ripped open, sacrificing his tanto which snapped after a couple seconds under the large sword and the two Konoha ninja were thrown back from the blast of wind that was distilled behind the force of the attack. Scaring the rest of the squad at the show that she wasn't even using any nature manipulation, just pure strength.
Kakashi was the first to recover from his shock about her speed, having performed a backflip and he landed on the ground before he rushed forward to place himself between his students and his former student.
Sasuke moved to join his sensei while Sai and Sakura, were sent crashing into the large tree behind where the pinkette had been standing, snapping the tree in half before they fell to the ground.
"So I guess negotiation just flew out the window." Sasuke commented as he pulled his chokuto from it's sheath on his back. "We don't even know the full extent of her abilities yet, so we need to take things carefully Kakashi-sensei."
"What makes you think that I'll even give you the time needed to react to my attack?" Naruko asked focusing fire chakra onto the edge of her blade.
With that said, true to her word Naruko launched towards the two sharingan users swinging her superheated chakra metal sword.
Fortunately for the two Leaf shinobi, Kakashi's previous experience from the Last War and being a veteran shinobi came in handy as he quickly grabbed Sasuke's collar and jumped back while performing one handed signs.
"Water Style: Water Encampment Wall!" The silver haired man shouted and water burst from the leaves on the ground, cooling down the sword and sending up a burst of steam, though it appeared that the defense jutsu didn't stop his ex-student's sword from slicing through the front of his Jounin flak jacket, ruining the scrolls in his vest pouches as he jumped back.
Once he recovered from his tree hugging experience, Sai quickly drew several ink birds on his scroll to ambush Naruko while his pink haired teammate charged towards Naruko with a large boulder in her hand, using the small amount of chakra enhanced strength that Tsunade had taught her, though the Sannin hadn't taught her how to complete it meaning the Haruno could only use small bursts, no where near the Hokage's level. Watching as Kakashi dodged, Sakura threw the boulder towards Naruko just as her strength ran out. In response Naruko merely sliced the large stone in half unimpressed, she had seen Tsunade and even Shizune do far better.
Sakura used the brief moment that the rock obscured Naruko's vision to jump forward, preparing to deliver a strong punch to the girl's face to knock her former comrade out or kill her. But instead of getting the bloody results of the latter that she hoped for, Sakura was shocked to see Naruko merely blocking her punch with the flat of her sword, not moving an inch while the earth behind the Jinchuuriki was destroyed from the force of the punch.
"You are useless even after all these years," Naruko remarked with a smirk at the shocked look on the young woman's face, before she raised her own gloved hand clenching it into a fist. "I watched Tsunade when she made her strength and that little tap was a far cry from her's, only about the force behind her pointer finger."
Everyone's eyes widened as they saw her fist glow in a golden aura, "Let me show you how it is done, Haruno…" With that said, Naruko flung the girl back into a tree with the flick of her sword before slamming her glowing fist into the ground. Causing the Leaf team to lose their balance as the entire area around the nineteen year old buckled and heaved in a miniature earthquake that had large stones flying up.
As she stood to relax watching her former team getting the shit beaten out of them, Naruko felt several shadows form above her. Looking up as the blonde saw the Sai on the ground turn to ink, she saw the Anbu on a large bird of ink with two more same sized ones next to it.
Naruko stood still as she noticed the explosive tags and moved her sword to her side as she pushed some Fire chakra into the edge of her sword as the birds got closer; suddenly in a swift movement that surprised Sai, she swung her sword up and around, unleashing a flying blade of fire. "Art of the Burning Sword: Taimatsu!"
Taking advantage of Naruko's current attention of admiring her attack that destroyed Sai's birds in a blaze of fire that caused the tags to explode in the air and forcing Sai to fall to the trees, burnt and twitching. Sasuke charged forward in an attempt to paralyze her with a shock of his lightning chakra as he formed a smaller non-lethal version of Kakashi's chidori. Kakashi himself ran forward with his tanto to distract Naruko long enough for his strongest student to work his magic.
But none of them expected what appeared to be chakra chains, the same ones Naruko's neglectful mother could use, flying from her armored back and wrapping around Kakashi and Sasuke with both of them losing their grips on their weapons. Naruko with a devious smirk on her face began swinging them around like toys much to Kakashi's discomfort remembering this happening when he was first introduced to Kushina by his late sensei and he had challenged her. The blonde slammed the two Jounin into the ground several times before slamming them together to further disorinate them. She then threw them back towards where Sakura and Sai were struggling to stand.
Pulling the chains back into her back with a smug smirk on her face, Naruko stared at the four downed ninja, only to frown as she saw Kakashi's body go up in a puff of smoke. She looked behind herself and saw her former silver haired sensei leap towards her, his tanto in his right hand as Sasuke's chokuto graced his left. However when Kakashi swung the longer of the two blades at Naruko with his signature lightning chakra being channeled into the sword.
Naruko just lifted her sword and to everyone's surprise sent her own Lightning chakra through it. Causing the elder shinobi's sword to halt at the opposing forces.
"You're moving way slower compared to when I was a genin, Kakashi-san. Is your age finally catching up to you?" Naruko asked with a smirk that irritated the older man. 'I'm not old!' He cried indignantly in his mind.
She launched the man away from her as she jumped over his sword and kicked him in the chest and she landed on top of a half of the boulder Sakura had thrown earlier. "Lightning Style: Chidori Rain!" Sasuke shouted as he came up behind the blonde with his sharingan spinning as he launched what seemed to be an endless barrage of his chidori senbon attack. The Kunoichi spun around and reacted quickly swinging her sword in a wide arc, flaring one of the seals on her blade, to the shock of the Uchiha and his team the blade lit up and all of his senbon disappeared into the blade as the Uzumaki spun it.
Naruko smirked as she noticed the stunned faces and then the approaching chakra signatures of her friends and a few Taki Jounin. With a roar that startled Team Seven out of it's spunk, Naruko swung her sword unleashing the seal that absorbed the senbon, sending all of Sasuke's lightning senbon flying right back at the still shocked Uchiha.
A few seconds before his own attack would have made contact with him, Sasuke performed a quick substitution with a nearby rock. When the rain of Lightning struck the stone, said stone exploded violently sending electrified shrapnel everywhere; forcing Kakashi and Sasuke to throw up Earth style domes around them and the teammate they landed next to.
Acting quickly Naruko once again sent chakra to her sword, forming a much larger blade to encase the chakra metal in a massive sword that was twice as long as Zabuza's head cleaver. Though it looked like it would have been heavy if it had been steel, Naruko lifted it like it weighed no more than a mere feather.
The Uzumaki then entered a form of stare off with Kakashi as he stood by Sakura who was running a diagnostic medical jutsu on her sensei's apparently broken ribs from a piece of shrapnel that had managed to get passed the dome as it went up. In front of them, Sai was standing shakily, having not expected this much damage to a team with two close to low Kage ninja and two special jounin level shinobi working together; the ROOT agent was currently drawing several of his signature ink lions, birds, snakes and several other creatures that were jumping off of the page with each beast drawn until the young ninja had a small army of Ink creatures surrounding him and his team.
"This is not going like we hoped it would." Kakashi murmured, loud enough for Sakura to hear, making the young medic snarl unhappily under her breath at the slight admiration she had been hearing in Kakashi and Sasuke's voices the entire battle. Though she wisely didn't say anything in the presence of her silver haired sensei that had made it clear in the past that he wouldn't allow any bad talk of Naruko in his presence, same going for Sasuke.
"Where is Sasuke?" The tired and beat up Jounin asked as he looked around for what he believed to be the most powerful member of the team, he hadn't seen him since the young Uchiha had dived in front of Sai to throw up the defence.
"Uchiha-san protected me from the explosion, though he was knocked unconscious and left extremely battered. I left an Ink clone with him in case she tries to go after him." Sai replied from where he stood without looking at his team leader. "I'm sorry Kakashi-senpai, I can't keep this Jutsu going for long and so far none of my attacks have even gotten close to her."
"That and she doesn't even seem winded from our fight so far…" Sakura said with a glare in the Uzumaki's direction, said woman not even caring in the slightest.
"She is an Uzumaki, they never tire out like the rest of us mere mortals." Kakashi said, quoting an Uzumaki member he had met in the Land of Demons several years ago as he stood up, the glaring pinkette having finished healing his ribs. "Just like her mother and clan, they have an unrelenting stamina and extremely high natural chakra levels; Naruko's I'd say is at low to mid-Kage just from the fact that she is taking on two high-Jounin to Low-Kage level shinobi with the addition of two special jounin level shinobi and she hasn't broken a sweat."
His teammates looked over at the blonde to find that he was right, she didn't even look exhausted as she still held the massive sword of chakra.
"We will most likely need to subdue her now and quickly with an incapacitation seal. We won't get another chance like this in a while or at all and she is already beating the crap out of us." Kakashi said, his pride a little broken at having his ass handed to him by a girl half his age.
The copy-cat and his remaining students were about to rush forward with weapons in hand alongside the Ink beasts and Naruko smirked as she got ready to swing the massive blade, when a voice interrupted the fight and startled the Leaf ninja.
"I do so hope you aren't trying to destroy my favorite glade,"
The Leaf shinobi all looked to their left to see Shibuki and Fuu standing on a tree branch making the Leaf ninja pale even further than they already were from exhaustion at the sight of Taki's leader, Kakashi heard a twig snap and turned to find the clearing surrounded by Taki's Jounin and two other individuals. One of the individuals looking like a silver haired girl that was glaring at them in hate.
"S-Shibuki-sama, W-We can explain…" Kakashi stuttered out, knowing that all chances of getting the treaty resigned had just flown out the proverbial window.
"Explain…?" Shibuki said as he stroked his chin in mock thought. "Ok Hatake-san, explain to me why a team of Konoha ninja, a village that is trying so hard to regain a treaty with my village, is not only assaulting an honored guest of the Leader of Taki and a Hero of Taki, but is also defacing a natural monument of Taki's Nanabi Jinchuuriki…"
The team grew pale except for the unconscious Sasuke as Sai attempted to pick the Uchiha heir up onto his burnt shoulders. Kakashi looked back at Naruko who had dispelled her chakra and sheathed her sword before leaping up to stand with the two non-Waterfall ninja. Shibuki and Fuu both looking down at the Konoha ninja with their eyebrows cocked.
"Well Hatake-san?" Shibuki asked as he stared down at the veteran shinobi, "What is your explanation for that and why I shouldn't arrest you and your team for destruction of Taki's property?"
"I don't Shibuki-sama, we will leave now…" Sai said as he attempted another go at diplomacy to get his team out of trouble. Everyone just cocked their eyebrows at the ink user before Shibuki motioned for three of his Jounin to come forward to escort them, one of them roughly grabbing Sakura's arm, much to the girl's protest.
"Silence Haruno…" Shibuki snapped at her complaint, "If any of you cause anymore trouble in the borders of Waterfall country, I don't care about a possible alliance or war, I will have you and your team executed."
That instantly got her to shut up as the three Jounin prepared to lead them away.
"Well I have to say that this little reunion was fun Hatake-san, I did get a good warm-up to start the day." Naruko said with a smirk causing the man and his team to look over at her tiredly. "But I'm afraid I have to be going now! See ya later Shibuki-kun, Fuu-chan; tell Chomei-chan goodbye for me!"
At those words the conscious Leaf ninja watched in shock as the brown haired boy next to Naruko placed his palm on the blonde and silver haired girl's shoulder before they disappeared in a distortion of air resembling a colorless Hiraishin.
"No one is seriously wounded I presume." The leader of the Taki Jounin asked with a smirk as he and his men left the four injured leaf nin after an hour of walking. Kakashi winced as the man jabbed him with an elbow as he walked back towards since his ribs were still tender and fragile.
"I am fine," Sasuke said as he finally woke up, still leaning on Sai as they walked. That battle was nothing like what happened at the Valley of the End, showing just how much stronger the Uzumaki girl had become and he knew he would be sore for days as he healed.
"I'm fine except for a mild case of chakra exhaustion, my tanto breaking and I didn't bring any soldier pills with me for refuel." Sai said sadly as he threw away the remains of his tanto with a look of longing.
"I don't think we can even continue the mission on our own as a four member team Kakashi-sensei, even if we were in our peak condition." Sakura said adding her own input about the fight, angry that the girl she used to push around had grown so much stronger than she had and had shown it by tossing her team around like ragdolls. "... Naruko is strong enough to not only beat the shit out of the four of us when we are fighting together, and as loath as I am to admit it, she didn't even break a sweat."
"You're right," Kakashi said as he pulled out an aged med-kit he had recieved from Rin years ago before she died. "That teleportation technique the brown haired boy used seemed like my sensei's Hiraishin technique. Plus, Naruko did tear us apart like she wasn't even trying and then there is the matter of the third person that went with them, we don't even know what she is capable of."
"I'm going to send Tsunade-sama a report of what happened, though Naruko will most likely not stay in the Land of Waterfalls after this." Kakashi said as he pulled out a scroll and began writing in it. Once he finished writing, he summoned one of his faster ninja dogs and handed it the scroll in his hand. Said dog nodded to Kakashi with a form of a salute with it's paw and ran off in Konoha's direction.
With their injuries and the amount of chakra they expended in that fight, it would take the shinobi team a while longer to return home. "We need to tell Tsunade-sama that she needs to send teams out to the different countries Naruko has helped or is friends with in case she is headed to any one of them." Kakashi said as he wrapped some of Sasuke's injuries up due to their resident Kunoichi being low on chakra. "My summon will most likely arrive at the village a few days ahead of us with the amount we have been injured. We need to get back to Konoha as soon as possible to think of our next move before any other interested parties try their hands at hunting Naruko." Kakashi stated, referencing to Akatsuki and Danzo's ROOT.
"I doubt anybody short of a Kage will give Naruko much trouble," Sasuke chuckled mirthlessly as the memory of being used as a portable pinata came back to him.
"Hopefully when we find her next we will have the full retrieval team with us." Kakashi said quietly but enough for the rest of his team to hear. "Because if we don't, I think things will get a hell of a lot harder."
The team shared tired nods as they moved to stand back up and begin their long trek back to Konoha, knowing that this encounter was just the beginning of a long and tiring challenge.
For info on Naruko's sword technique that she used against Sai, Taimatsu means Torch, it is a technique from Ryujin Jakka of Bleach.
I spent a while on this cause I couldn't think of a way for their first meeting to go. At first I intended for either Shaolin or Renji to aid her, but I want to keep their capabilities secret from the Konoha and/or Akatsuki ninja until the big encounter that will be stationed on Uzushiogakure later on. Next chapter, we will be introducing Killer Bee, Yugito Nii and our favorite cursing sailor of a girl Tayuya! I might also have them go to Suna to save Gaara in the chapter, I don't know yet.