A.N. Viewers, I have a dilemma; I'm a terrible uploader. When I set goals for myself, I often disregard them, and when I have no goal whatsoever I neglect the fanfic and completely forget to write it like an idiot, which is the reason I took forever to write/upload chapter 4 (in my defense, my birthday, Christmas and new years with friends/family took priority). Instead of setting my own goals, which I'll just disregard, I want you guys to reach out to me and suggest how often you want me to upload. When I have someone counting on me to do something, I make sure to get it done (hopefully that makes sense). So there's that. Anyways, hopefully you enjoy the chapter. Please read and review. Happy new years by the way :D !
"Get down!" Naruto yelled as he grabbed Ino and tackled her to the ground, barely dodging the assault.
Kiba on Naruto's command also dodged the technique with a swift dodge roll.
Asuma who was also prepared for the attack, substituted with a nearby stone.
He then, in the blink of an eye, dashed to give a strong punch to his assailant's jaw, knocking the man instantly unconscious.
"Tunneling Fang!" Kiba yelled as he spun with ferocious speed for a tornado like attack.
Kiba tore at the other man's abdomen through his armor leaving his stomach bare and bloody, knocking the man to the ground.
Before the man could regain his footing, Asuma quickly intercepted him with a chokehold.
"That was a nice and solid attack Kiba! Swift move Naruto!" Asuma complemented as he effortlessly picked up the two, restraining the conscious one, and leaned them onto a nearby tree. He then pulled out some robe from his backpack and tied the two up.
Naruto, letting go of Ino, stood up and held out his hand to help the girl up.
"T-Thanks Naruto." Ino said as she grabbed the boy's hand and stood up.
"No sweat, its what I'm here for. We are teammates after all." The boy said with a smile earning a reminiscent smile and a nod from Ino.
Naruto, Ino, Kiba and Tazuna followed Asuma and stood in front of the tree.
"You knocked that guy out with one punch, and he was wearing face armor too! You hit hard man!" Kiba complemented.
"Eh, not that hard. These guys are just lightweights." Asuma semi-humbly said.
"Who are these guys?" Naruto aggressively asked with his arms crossed.
"They're Gozu and Meizu, the demon brothers of the mist. Chunin missing nin who defected from their village four years ago. They specialize in relentless attack." Asuma informed.
"I took down a chunin, heheh!" Kiba cockily gloated as he performed a fist pump.
"How did you know about our ambush?" the conscious assailant asked.
"You two are idiots. If you wanted to blend in, transforming into a tree would have been more suitable. You shouldn't have transformed into a puddle on the ground when it hasn't rained around here in weeks. If a rookie like me spotted that, how didn't you?" Naruto rhetorically asked with a pointed finger.
"Asuma-sensei, why did these guys attack us? Didn't you say no ninjas should even be after us?" Ino asked.
"Good question. Meizu, you heard the lady." Asuma said turning to the demon brother.
"Fuck you." Meizu said vainly.
"Okay. I think Tazuna should explain this one then." The jonin said as he glared at the older man.
"…" the man was silent for a moment before eventually beginning.
"There… is a man named Gato after me." Tazuna began.
"Are you referring to Gato, of Gato Transports?" Asuma asked.
"Yes. However, he isn't only in charge of importing and exporting goods. Under the surface, he sells illegal things, like drugs." Tazuna continued.
"What does this have to do with why you're being targeted!?" Kiba complained.
"I'm getting to it!" Tazuna rebutted.
"Now where was I… Oh, yes. He's completely in charge of the land of waves seeing as we're a single island nation without the rights or power to stop his tyranny. There's one thing he fears however; the bridge. There is a bridge being constructed that will connect us to the land, which in turn would free us from his control. I am the head bridge builder, and the one man who stands in his way. That's why he wants me gone." Tazuna finished.
"He's been sending assassins after you?" Ino asked.
"This is the first time I've been directly attacked." Tazuna informed.
"So it's likely that he's going to end up sending more than just those two chunin after you, right?" Naruto questioned.
The bridge builder nodded.
"This doesn't sound like a C-rank mission to me…" Ino stated.
"You're right Ino. This is at the very least a B-rank mission; I'd even say A-rank. This is too risky for genin like you guys. We've been operating outside of our duties. This mission is officially-" Asuma started.
"Hey, wait a minute! We can handle something like this!" Kiba blurted out alongside his puppy's bark.
"Kiba, we're genin. A-rank missions are for jonin. Don't you see a problem with that?" Ino asked.
"Didn't you just see us take out those runts no problem? This'll be easy; as long as we get paid the normal amount for an A-rank, no worries." Kiba added.
'He's such an idiot…' the girl thought to herself.
"Not so fast Kiba. Gato will send out stronger ninjas now that he knows that chunin level ninjas aren't enough. This could be too dangerous." Asuma interjected.
"Finally, someone agrees with me." Ino said in relief.
"But then again, I doubt that its anything I wouldn't be able to handle." Asuma concluded gaining cheer from Kiba.
"This doesn't make any sense. It breaks so many rules too! Naruto, you agree with me right?" The girl asked desperately.
"I'm all for it." Naruto stated.
"Ino, think about it. What kind of ninja would we be if we left this poor old man right here on the road? He'd be dead within an hour." Naruto said seriously.
Ino sighed in defeat and reluctantly agreed.
"Tazuna, if you agree to pay our village the proper fee for our services, we will continue the mission. Deal?" Asuma asked.
"…"
"Fine." The bridge builder hesitantly agreed.
"Okay team, this is now unofficially an A-rank mission. Protect the bridge builder at all costs, O-formation."
Asuma took the lead with Tazuna directly behind him, Naruto behind Tazuna, Ino to the left of Tazuna and Kiba to the left.
The group continued along the long road ahead.
After about sixty seconds with the group reasonably far away from where they were, two figures stepped out from the forest and looked towards the direction that the group headed.
"What do you make of Naruto?" the taller of the duo asked.
"Disgustingly sloppy and weak. I can tell just by looking at him that somebody's gotta break that loser in." the much younger of the two said.
"Not yet you won't. The time is not opportune." The tallest interjected.
"I know that. He just needs a little incentive to train harder, or he'll die before I get the chance to choke the life out of him." The shorter one replied as the two disappeared into a swirling void.
A while later…
"Welcome to the glorious Land of Waves." The boat rower said sarcastically. The four ninja did not respond, as it was difficult to think anything of the area as it was quite foggy. The genin had barely seen fog more than 7 days of their lives in total, as the leaf village had a naturally sunny climate. Naruto specifically felt uneasy from his lack of clear vision. He'd normally think nothing of it, but being hunted by enemy ninja in an area where he couldn't see well was quite spine chilling.
The boat the group had been traveling in was compact and unbearably slow. It did have a motor, but since they were attempting to silently reach the Land of Waves, the motor was simply too loud to use.
"Hey look at that!" Kiba yelled pointing to the huge unfinished bridge earning glares from everyone aboard.
"Pipe down kid. We're trying to get in unnoticed and you're too damn loud." the boat rower said quietly.
Kiba turned and pouted immaturely with Akamaru sitting on his head.
With everyone sitting quietly, the boat moved towards the docks
Two mysterious figures stood atop the unfinished bridge in silence, analyzing who they were up against. The first was a teen whose gender was difficult to determine, but was likely a male. He wore a white mist ninja mask, which had two small slits for his eyes.
The other was a tall muscular man who lacked a shirt. He wore long, grey pants and bandages that covered more than half of his face and neck. He had a strap going over his chest with an abnormally large sword on his back.
"The bridge builder… right on time." The bandaged man said callously.
"The man down there, the oldest leaf ninja, who is he?" the masked teen asked in a quiet voice.
"According to my bingo book…" The man replied having the book already pulled from his pocket.
"He's Asuma Sarutobi, son of the current Hokage." The shirtless man continued.
The masked boy was silent as he looked towards his partner.
"Why does it matter? Do you think he's beyond my skills, Haku?" he asked.
"Not at all. I just believe that this will be much tougher than we originally predicted." Haku stated honestly.
"Probably. I'll still be going in alone though. Those genin are like flies to me. Once the Sarutobi is taken care of, I'll take out the bridge builder and we'll be able to put all of this behind us. I want you to spectate the battle though. Its unlikely, but if things get rough I want you to step in, alright?" The man commanded.
"Understood Master Zabuza." The masked boy said respectfully.
Zabuza faded away with the surrounding mist.
Haku took one last look at the genin in which he wondered what they were doing on a mission like this. They would surely lose their lives soon.
"The tragic fate of a ninja…" Haku said as he too faded away.
The group had left the boat and continued along another trail.
"We're nearing my village. Its not much farther everyone." Tazuna announced to the relief of everyone.
"About time, I'm starving!" Naruto said gaining nods from Kiba and Ino.
"Forget the food, I just need some slee- GET DOWN!" Asuma yelled abruptly.
The genin dropped to the ground just missing the giant sword that twirled over their heads. The sword flew and lodged itself halfway through a nearby tree.
Seconds later, a man dropped from the top of the same tree and stood atop the sword with his back turned. He looked over his shoulder towards the group, more specifically the Jonin
"Asuma Sarutobi…" the swordsman said menacingly.
"Judging by the fact that you wield the Executioners Blade, you must be Zabuza Momochi of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist." Asuma responded.
Asuma had expected to run into a few high level ninja, but a legendary swordsman? He wasn't sure that he would be able to win. It had been a long time since he faced an opponent that wasn't laughably weak.
The genin having stood up began to eyeball the mysterious man.
"Hey Asuma-sensei, want me to take care of this guy for ya?" Kiba asked cockily
"No way! Let me take this one, you got the last guy Kiba." Naruto said while cracking his knuckles.
"No. He'll kill you in an instant. Don't interfere, and that's an order." Asuma demanded in a tone much more serious than the laid back tone he normally had.
It was now common sense that the genin needed not to interfere so they nodded, and formed a triangular "barrier" around Tazuna with kunai drawn.
Asuma retrieved what seemed to be trench knives and placed them on his hands like brass knuckles. He then got into a brawler battle stance with his fists.
"Straight to business eh? As you wish." Zabuza said chuckling as he performed a hand seal and stretched his arm into the air. No more than a second later, thick, dense fog began to envelop the area making it near impossible to see anything further than a few feet in front of you. For the genin and Tazuna, the swordsman and their sensei seemed to disappear into the mist.
"Where'd they go?" Ino asked scanning her surroundings. The only ones she was able to see were Tazuna and her genin teammates.
"I wish I knew…" Naruto replied.
'Damn, its no use. All I smell is mist…' Kiba thought to himself after trying to sniff out Asuma and Zabuza's locations.
"So this is the famous hidden mist jutsu. Normally this would be a problem but…" Asuma smirked.
"Wind Style: Passive Breeze!" Asuma yelled as an enormous gust of wind flew from his mouth and blew over the entire battlefield blowing everyone's hair back.
The mist seemed to dissolve into the air as it was blown away with ease.
"Unfortunately, you're up against a master of wind style." Asuma said with a smile.
'Damn it, without the mist this will be much more difficult… but I should still be able to take him out' Zabuza thought
"Zabuza" reappeared and was revealed to be a few feet behind Asuma and ready to decapitate him with the edge of his blade.
Asuma then turned to punch the sword with his left chakra blade knocking "Zabuza's" arm back. The leaf jonin then took his right arm to punch the assassin directly in the face gashing his face and leaving a nasty scar. However, instead of blood, water came from the injury.
'Water clone-!' Asuma noticed as "Zabuza" turned into nothing but a pool of water.
The real Zabuza then appeared in the air above Asuma attempting to slash Asuma with a diving attack.
Asuma dodge rolled out of the way only for Zabuza to body flicker behind him and kick him into the air.
Asuma then landed into a nearby lake. Zabuza then sprinted into the same lake and placed his hand above Asuma.
'This water… its heavy?!" The jonin thought as he noticed his enemy above him.
"Too slow." The assassin taunted.
"Shit!" Asuma muttered as an orb of water that the swordsman created from the lake trapped him.
"Water prison jutsu." Zabuza informed aloud as he cackled at his now trapped enemy.
"Asuma sensei!" Ino yelled.
"No!" Kiba shouted.
"This is bad…" Naruto muttered.
"Now to take care of those brats, and then the bridge builder. Water clone jutsu!" Zabuza said as he performed a hand seal forming a clone from the water.
"Guys, take Tazuna and run! He'll eventually have to let me out of here to give chase, so I'll take care of him then! Just get out of here I can take him!" Asuma commanded.
"That wont work. Running away isn't an option anymore. The clone will just hunt us down and kill us." Naruto said.
Naruto began to whisper.
"Alright, you guys listening?"
"Im all ears." Kiba replied.
"I hear ya." Ino responded.
"I've got a plan, but I'll need both of you guy's help." Naruto whispered.
"Plan all you want kids, but you wont be able to defeat someone like me." The Zabuza clone taunted. He was merciful however, and allowed them to strategize since he was positive they wouldn't be able to defeat him.
No more than 30 seconds went by as Naruto and Kiba stepped up and smirked. Akamaru had hopped off of Kiba's head and stood alongside the boys.
"Ready Kiba?" Naruto asked as he retrieved a second kunai from his belt to dual wield.
"Yeah!" Kiba replied
"Okay, lets GO!" Naruto said as the two dashed towards the clone.
A.N. I doubt I'll do it often, but whenever I create a new jutsu, I'll give a description of it at the end so that you guys can better understand what it is and what it does.
Wind Style: Passive Breeze; C-rank; Support Class; Requires no hand seals if the user is skilled enough
A technique where the user builds up chakra inside of his or her body and expels it from their mouth in the form of wind. The technique however is not an attack, but a support move that is used to blow things away. The force of the wind can be channeled depending on the skill level of the user. It can be used as nothing more than a cooling breeze on a hot summer day, or a defensive move to blow away smoke, mist, steam, etc.