Chapter 7

"We've lost contact with two dozen border outposts in the last two months. They were understaffed with Genin and Chunin due to their distance from combat zones and we believed the rebels wouldn't open our lands to outside attack" Reported a kneeling Kiri-nin in the dark office.

"Well obviously you were wrong!" Roared Yagura, the Yondaime Mizukage "I want Hunter-nin sent out to the border before we are invaded from Hi no Kuni!"

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"Mei-sama we have trouble" Aoi said entering the command tent of the Kiri Rebels.

"Calm down Ao" She chided fromher spot at the head of a large map table with Mizu no Kuni laid out in detail "What's got you so worked up?"

We moved to the table and began removing fort pieces along the edge of the county "Our agents have intercepted reports that Kiri has lost several outpost along the border of Hi no Kuni"

"Is Konoha or on of the others making a play while we're fighting each other?" She mused aloud.

"There's no reason for anyone to attack in the middle of our war when they can just wait until only one side remains" Ao reasoned "This seems more like someone is trying to get noticed"

The woman hummed in thought "The question is who they are trying to get noticed by, us or Kiri?"

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"At this point we can assume Kiragakure is much deeper in the country" Kira said to his partner as they walked down the road in the thin mist that covered most of the islands of Mizu no Kuni.

Izumi groaned "If you'd stolen some scrolls I'd know how to use my Sharingan and ask for directions with a genjutsu!"

"Stop whining" Kira chided "Not a lot of time to loot a place when there's a pair of powerful ninja killing everything in sight"

At the sad look that flashed on her face he sighed "Sorry but it's the truth. Arashi can't fight S-class nin at the moment. Neither can you unless we can unlock the secrets to your eyes"

"I know" She breathed "I just miss them"

Kira raised a brow at that "The Uchiha or the other world?"

"I miss all of them" She admitted.

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"I'M BORED!"

Arashi groaned from his chair in the living room at the annoyance that was his brother who was laid out over the couch.

"Go find something to do" Arashi said without looking up from his book. Hand written notes from Minato on the ins and outs of Fuinjutsu was not something he wanted to put aside to entertain the child.

"I'd go hang out with Hinata-chan but she's busy at home" The boy whined "You aren't doing anything but reading. Let's train!"

Arashi sighed "Naruto you know reading is important. You used to like reading my books"

"That was before I started learning to be a ninja!" The boy replied "Now I wanna train and get stronger! I'm going to be the Hokage dattebayo! "

"Hokage are book smart as well as physically strong Naruto" Arashi chided.

"I know that!" Naruto roared which shocked Arashi who saw the boy drop his head to hide the coming tears "Hinata-chan's busy all the time and the Uchiha are all gone. You have time now" He looked up to his brother with tears running down his face "Why won't you train me like you did them dattebayo!?"

Arashi looked into his brother's teary eyes with a schooled blank face. Here was the happy child who never let anything get to him and all he wanted was to spend time with his brother. Arashi had better things to do than play ninja with a child but honestly he was bored too. He had spent his new free time reading his father's handwritten teachings.

"Fine I'll teach you a jutsu from the academy so you can show off when we get to that lesson" Arashi said as he stood to his feet and smoke covered him to reveal the Yondaime "Henge, the ability to appear as another person"

"Wow that's so cool!" Naruto cheered.

Arashi smiled "I have a feeling you will find a good use for this jutsu in the future"

Teach him a jutsu he'll already learn and make him happy at the same time. Not like it would help him much in the future anyway.

Ao looked out to the last bastion between the lands of Fire and Water. At his back were two of his fellow rebels who awaited the arrival of the unknown force responsible for weakening the country's perimeter.

"It's too quiet here" Ao mused.

"The guards aren't at their posts" a young man with long black hair stated.

The young teen with white hair in a high ponytail scowled "Are we too late?"

"No you're just in time rebel scum!"

The trio spun around to face the squad of six masked ninja.

"So the reports were bait" Ao growled "And we fell for it"

"Trying to confuse us now that you're trapped?" questioned the forward masked nin.

That piqued the interest of Ao "So you didn't bait us here and we aren't the ones attacking the border"

"Think we'll let you go because some foreigners are moving in?" The man asked.

"That would be the smart option" Ao stated "It does no side any good if there is no Kirigakure to fight over"

The man laughed "They have no chance of making it inland and these bases will be filled again soon enough"

At that Ao gasped "That's the plan"

Clapping filled the clearing and a dark laugh brought shivers to the two forces. There in the dark mist were two pairs of eyes, one set of swirling red and one set of rippled purple.

"Yes we've forced the Mizukage to move a considerable number of his ninja from fighting you to defending the border" Came the laughing red head. His pale skin was striking with his dark cloak.

"You welcome by the way" The brunette said ending her clap. Her old Uchiha battle robe in a dark purple left no doubt as to her heritage as much as her blazing eyes and the slashed headband of Konohagakure.

What shocked Ao the most was their ages which the girl seemed to be a young teen while the boy was a mere child.

"So you are the one responsible for these attacks" Ao stated to the kids "Impressive strategy"

"Thanks for revealing yourselves Konoha brats" The hunter-nin leader said with a snicker "We were under orders to find out who was responsible and now we don't have to worry about taking anyone alive"

A smile crossed Kira's face "Well let's get this show on the road. Some of us have places to be"

The three forces tensed and with an unspoken sign they all leapt into action. Three Hunter-nin on the rebel squad and the other three which included the leader went for Kira and Izumi.

The lead hunter drew his sword as he sped at Kira. He went to end it with a quick swipe to the neck but the boy crouched and made to uppercut the man but the man spun in the air to kick the boy to the side. When he skid across the ground another hunter was there and slashed at the boy but Kira pushed off the ground to fly over the man and land on his feet away from the pair.

At the same time Izumi was faced with a single hunter. She was armed with a pair of kunai as she deflected the barrage of senbon from the female hunter, her Sharingan seeing all trajectories the needles would take.

"Nice moves kid, let's see how well you dodge when those eyes can't see" The hunter sneered before raising her arm and holder the other in a handsign "Kirigakure no Jutsu!"

The light mist that was once in the area was now blindingly thick.

"Damn!" Izumi cursed when even her Sharingan was blinded by the mist.

It was then that the senbon began raining in from multiple angles.

Kira smirked when the mist blinded covered the area. The Kiri-nin were trained to use sound to track as he knew from Arashi's memories of the Zabuza fight. Kira didn't need to resort to that as his Rinnegan even without all of its power was still able to see through the mist and to the chakra of his enemies.

"Suiton: Suiryƫdan no Jutsu!"

"Suiton: Suiryƫdan no Jutsu!"

Kira watched the two dragons rise from the marshy ground and race on either side of him. With the massive watery explosion the men smirked at that.

"Well there's one down" The leader chuckled.

Across the field Izumi jumped back in large skips trying to get out of the mist as she made attempts to dodge and deflect the few senbon she could.

"This fucking mist goes on forever!" She growled as she ripped another batch of senbon from her arm.

The other woman laugh was echoing in the mist "No matter how far you run little Uchiha the mist will follow"

Suddenly a volley kunai appeared from the mist. The larger projectile appeared sooner so Izumi was able to bend around them and deflect the few that would hit.

'I need to do something here!' Izumi thought desperately. She was wounded, slowing and nearly blind.

'Focus your chakra outside of your body' Arashi's voice sounded in her mind

"Focus it, shape it into any shape you want and then give it power" Arashi said standing in her back yard. In his hand fell his chain "By doing this I can make my chain and with some changes I can spin my chakra into the Rasengan. The limit to the potential of chakra is our own imagination and our level of control. For this reason I will train you to increase your control beyond any ninja in this village"

The Mangekyo flared to life in Izumi's eyes and chakra exploded from her which blew back the mist.

"What the fuck is that!?" The Hunter gasp.

Standing before her was Izumi Uchiha wrapped in a black cage of rips.

With that distraction Kira emerged from a black puddle behind the leader of the hunters and grabbed the man's arm.

"Your soul is mine!" He declared and pulled the chakra from the man who then dropped. The other hunter attacked then but Kira pushed the leader's body into the attack and twisted to pull the attacker. As the man fell forward Kira's hand rose with an overpowered Rasengan which pulverized the man's head to nothing before exploding so large it completely cleared the mist from the area.

This was in time for all to see the pair of skeletal arms that slammed down on the female hunter reducing her to a crimson puddle.

"Good job unleashing the Susanoo" Kira said as she stepped before Izumi.

Said girl was panting as she smiled at the dark bones she created "Thanks Arashi-kun"

Kira caught her as she passed out.

"What interest does Konoha missing-nin have with our war?" Ao asked alerting Kira to the fact that they were not done yet.

When he looked around he saw the corpse of what he assumed was a Kaguya girl by her white hair and face markings. The young man was still alive but was fading fast as his life spilled from the hole in his chest and the gash on his side. They were obiviouslly not a combat squad so Kira assumed their mission was to just investigate the situation.

"We're here to help" Kira said as he stepped towards the wounded man.

"Stop!" Ao ordered before jumping to stand between Kira and the man.

Kira stared off with the veteran shinobi "I can save him if you let me Ao-san" The twitch in the man's eye was the only sign he was surprised "I'm sure Mei-sama would not only want as many of her loyal shinobi alive but also the aid of one of the last Uchiha and Uzumaki"

"I saw you absorb the chakra of that hunter-nin with a simple touch" The man stated "What's stopping you from doing the same to this man?"

Kira shrugged nonchalantly "The fact that I want Yagura dead just as much as you do"

Ao glared at the boy for a long moment before nodding. The man would die without immediate help either way. This just gave him a chance to test these new arrivals.

Kira placed a hand on the man's chest and Ao watched in astonishment as he saw the boy turn black and mold himself over his subordinate.

"I can keep him alive until we get to your medics" Kira said as the combined man stood.

Ao had no words to explain what just happened but he knew Mei wasn't going to like this.

END

AN:

Short and sweet little introduction of the team to the Kiri Rebels.