Hello everyone, thanks to all those that reviewed, fav and followed the story I really appreciate it. Hope to see more reviews and also tell me what you think should happen in regards to the Sound-Sand invasion of Konoha? Updates might be slow due to school, but I'll have it up as fast as I can. Till then!


"Now what?" Kiba asked as the explosions rocked the village as the group turned to see the same bandits rushing towards them again, "They just never learn do they?" Kiba asked with a feral grin on his face as the group got into a defensive formation.

"We'll protect the parcel while you guys take care of the bandits, anyone get too close we'll shoot them," Alice said as the soldiers drew their handguns as the shinobis looked at Kurenai who nodded. The shinobis then spread out as they began engaging the enemy, Kiba using his clan's attacks to take care of large groups of enemies, Shino engulfing people with his insects, Hinata taking care of individual people with expert precision while Kureai used her Genjutsus to trap and kill her enemies. Anyone else that got through the shinobis, or were missed, found themselves with bullets in their head as the bandits got the idea that the solders were no ordinary people. It should have been an easy win, but their advantage were soon evened out when several wind blades threw the shinobis backwards as a lone shinobi with black hair and a long beard dressed in oriental robe walked towards them.

"Who's he?" Kiba asked as the soldiers fired bullets at him only for them to be deflected by the wind.

"I've heard of strange people who use strange weapons to kill even the strongest bandits, it seems the stories are not mistaken," the shinobi said.

"Damn…I know who he is," Kurenai said biting her lip, "he's an A-rank missing nin from Sunagakure who specializes in wind jutsus."

"Oh great, just our luck to get the wind guy," John said, "can you handle him?"

"I can," Kurenai said as she stepped up.

"Ah…Kurenai Yuhi, the Genjutsu mistress, how ideal that you should fight me," the man said, "I've been looking forward to it."

"Why's that?" Kurenai asked.

"Simply for the thrill of fighting a powerful opponent," the man replied as Kurenai took out a kunai as she then casted a series of hand seals before she seemingly vanished. The man then looked down to see trees coiling around him as he smiled, "ah yes…Magen: Jubaku Satsu…your signature genjutsu," he said as he smirked, "however…a simple pain is sufficient," he said as he bit his cheek as the genjutsu broke surprising Kurenai before he then backhanded her into a tree.

"Kurenai-sensei!" Kiba called out as he charged at the man, but he was then stopped by a young girl no older then 16 who kicked Kiba in the face and sent him flying backwards. Like the man she was dressed in oriental robes and had black hair that was tied in two braids as her black eyes bore deeply into the Genins.

"You will not interrupt master's fight," she said softly, "that is his order."

"Damn it, who are you?" Kiba asked.

"I have no name, master only calls me Doll," Doll replied.

"Okay that's just some sick naming convention this guy has," Alex muttered.

"What else is new in this world?" John asked, "Uh…hate to break it to you guys, but can you handle her? We don't really want to shoot her unless we have to," he said nervously.

"The hell? Aren't you guys soldiers?" Kiba asked angrily.

"They have different ethics when it comes to combat Kiba," Shino said, "to them people our age are not warriors, they are still children, but we are not bounded by those same conventions," he said as his bugs crawled out of his sleeves.

"Ew, are those bugs coming out of his sleeves?" Alice asked a little bit green.

"They are called Kikaichu, we the Aburame clan are instilled with them at birth, they feed on our chakra and in return they do our bidding," Shino said calmly revealing no emotion at Alice's words.

"And I thought I've seen everything," John said scratching his head, "man this world just keeps on surprising me," as Kiba and Hinata looked at him before Kiba shrugged, "alright we'll protect the parcel while you guys deal with her."

"Sounds good to me," Kiba said as he charged at Doll, "Akamaru!" he called out as his dog barked in response, "Gatsuga!" he called out as he and Akamaru spun at a ferocious speed as it tunneled towards Doll who simply jumped up high in the air.

"Hijutsu: Mushidama," Shino called out as a stream of insects flew out of his sleeve and began to head towards Doll. However the girl then drew a sword from her back as she pointed at the approaching insects, "Kakushi ken tekunikku: Kaze no uzu (Hidden Sword Technique: Wind Vortex)," as a wind vortex shot out of the tip of her sword and destroyed the insects inside of it.

"Crap, she's a wind user too?" Kiba said.

"My insects," Shino said.

"H-how do we fight her now?" Hinata asked as Doll merely landed on her feet and stood in between the two shinobis and the Genins.

"I will not fight you, but I will be forced to if you continue to insist on disturbing my master's fight," she said as Kurenai cried out in pain as she slammed onto the ground.

"Kurenai-sensei!" Kiba called out as he growled in anger.

"Damn it, we can't just sit here and do nothing," Alex said to Alice and John.

"I know, but I don't want to kill her, she's only a kid," John said.

"So are they," Alex said gesturing to the Genins, "and if we don't help them they're going to be dead as well as us."

"Then what do you suggest we do?" John asked as Alex pondered on this for a moment before going to Shino and whispered something in his ear. Shino perked his ears as he listened to him before nodding, he then sent a stream of insects towards Doll as she widened her eyes.

"It's useless," she told him as she used the same sword technique again, but Shino pressed on the attack as Doll continued to demolish the insects until a small round object rolled next to Doll as she looked at it.

"Sorry kiddo, hope you understand," Alex said as Doll gasped and attempted to jump away from the blast, however the M67 grenade exploded sending shrapnel everywhere as Doll cried out in pain and was sent flying backwards before landing and laying still.

"Doll!" the shinobi cried out as he kicked Kurenai away from him before going to her, numerous wounds were around her, and although she got out of the 5 meters range where it would be fatal she was still heavily injured, "damn you…I didn't think you would have more weapons," he growled as he carried Doll bridal style and quickly beat a hasty retreat.

"That was close," Kurenai said, "a few more minutes and he would have beaten me senseless," she said as her face was heavily bruised and she was limping a bit as Hinata went up to her.

"Are you alright Kurenai-sensei?" Hinata asked.

"I will be…once I rest," Kurenai said resting against a tree as she panted slightly.

"I know C rank missions pose a threat, but do they include enemy shinobis?" John asked as Kurenai shook her head.

"Sometimes yes, but this was supposed to be a simple delivery mission, we expected bandits but nothing more then that," Kurenai replied tiredly.

"I understand," John said, "rest, we'll cover you," he said as Kurenai nodded and drifted off to sleep while Alice tended to her.

"She's bad, like really bad, she needs to go back to Konoha pronto," Alice said.

"Can we consider this mission a success?" Alex asked Shino, who seemed to be the most calm of the group.

"Technically the mission has already been accomplished because we delivered the parcel to its intended destination," Shino replied.

"So we can just get out of here now right?" John asked as Shino nodded.

"However," he added making John stop, "we encountered enemy forces who clearly want the parcel and therefore we must still protect it until we are certain the threat is over."

"Damn," John muttered, "we're going to need reinforcements," John said.

"But it'll still take at least a whole day even if they did use the Bradley to get here, we don't know when the ninja will attack again," Alice said.

"It'll take him most of the day to dress those wounds if he can," Alex said, "I mean dress Doll's wound, plus he has to rest up after his fight with Kurenai, so it should be enough time for reinforcements to get here."

"But still, sending a request for help will take a week," Kiba protested.

"That's if you're using old fashioned dogs or bird messengers," Alex said as John smirked as Alex went on one knee, "boys and girls I give you the future," he said as John began fiddling with a portable army radio that squads carry around when on missions, it was already dialed back to the communication quarter of Fort Hood so they would get a direct response.

"This is PFC Bradley requesting Fort Hood, do you read me?" John said.

"This is Fort Hood, what's your situation?" an operator asked.

"Requesting reinforcements at location," as John took out a GPS and called out the latitude and longitude displayed, "we've got an enemy shinobi and our only Jounin's in critical condition."

"How many hostile?" the operator asked.

"One, no make that two, enemy shinobis and god knows how many bandits heading towards us," John said.

"Roger that, we'll try to coordinate something and send reinforcements, for now standby and hold out," the operator said before blinking out.

"Well that's that, now let's get Kurenai to a safe place so she can heal," John said as Alex and Kiba picked up Kurenai and placed her inside the village's head home. When the elder came in John approached him.

"No more games, you tell us right now what's in that parcel or we're leaving you here for the wolves," he warned.

"J-John! You can't threaten a client!" Alice exclaimed as the old man quivered in fear.

"It's nothing, it's just supposed to be an ordinary jewel, it's said that it has the power to find rare materials in the earth, we're a poor village and we just want money to sustain ourselves. We never thought that others would seek the same object," the old man said.

John looked at the old man to see if he was lying before sighing and pushing him away, "Just get inside and stay there until I tell you that it's safe," he said as the old man nodded and quickly went into his home and hid inside.

"So now what? We just sit here until the shinobi shows up again?" Kiba asked.

"No we gotta plan, we can't hope that reinforcements get here before they come back again, our best shot is to ambush the enemy shinobi and let us take care of him," John said.

"And how do you plan on ambushing the guy?" Alice asked, "He knows about us already."

"Don't worry, I have a plan," John said as he gathered everyone and began to discuss his plan.

When the enemy shinobi next appeared he had a retinue of bandits with him as he looked around the village, "Now where are those annoying Genins and those strange warriors?" he asked himself.

"Over here!" Kiba said jumping out as he faced the enemy shinobi as he gave a feral grin.

"You again? Where's that teacher of yours?" he asked.

"I'm enough to handle you," Kiba said with a grin, "you're not that tough."

"It would be wise to keep your mouth shut, especially when you're facing against a higher class shinobi," the man said.

"Shouldn't you be taking care of your charge? The girl named Doll," Kiba asked.

"She is fine, she is but a mere tool for my grand designs, she has no qualms with a little pain," the shinobi said as Kiba grinned.

"You are one sick person, come on Akamaru!" Kiba said as Akamaru yelped, "Gatsuga!" Kiba cried out before he and Akamaru spun at a fast speed as they zoned in on the shinobi who merely jumped higher.

"You will need to do better then that," the shinobi said as he made some hand seals, "Earth Release: Mud Shot," as he fired some muds from his mouth but they were immediately broken by the Gatsuga. Shino then came out of the bushes and fired his own jutsu at the man as streams of insects as he fired a blast of wind from his hand to disperse the insects as he grimaced, "not a bad try, but individually you will not be able to defeat me."

"Then perhaps that means we'll just need to work together," Kiba said as he spun around again and went into the air while at the same time Shino continued to keep the shinobi occupied so that Kiba was able to get a hit, however the shinobi was able to isolate them quickly and then take them down as Kiba and Akamaru were smashed onto the ground while Shino was having difficult in a taijutsu battle as he wasn't used to it, Hinata then jumped from the bush as she tried to use her family style to cripple the shinobi but the man was able to dodge it at the last minute as he landed on the ground.

"Your team work isn't bad, but you lack…finesse," the man said, "you will need to improve before you can defeat me."

"I think we're plenty enough for you," Kiba said.

"Hmm indeed though you seemed to hide behind those strange warriors of yours, speaking of which where are they? I would have assumed they came out to defend the parcel as soon as I arrived," the man asked looking around.

"Ran away, couldn't handle it," Kiba said with a shrug, "don't need them anyways."

"I think you do need them, children like you, cannot defeat someone like me," the shinobi said spreading his arm out, "I'm sure you would've begged them to stay with you."

"Like we'll ever beg," Kiba growled, he was really getting on Kiba's nerve, although John and the others didn't run away and were doing their part of the plan it still pissed him off that they did have to ask for his help. He then shook his head, no he couldn't think like that, John and the others were allies, Kiba would ask for their help and they'll give it willingly.

"Hit a nerve did I? How pathetic," the shinobi drawled, "let me put you out of your misery," he then bent his legs to go on the attack when three grenades rolled beside him, recognizing it as the object that hurt Doll the man jumped back as the grenades exploded, when the dust settled the man was injured only on his left leg as it was shredded to pieces and blood was coming out of it as he grunted and fell on one knee.

"Gotcha!" Kiba said with a grin as the three soldiers came out of their hiding spots, "that wasn't a bad idea John."

"Eh you learn things once you go into combat," John said as he pointed his weapon at the man, "who are you and what do you want with the parcel?"

"I go by many names," the shinobi said forcing a grin though it turned into a semi-grimace, semi-grin at the same time, "as for the parcel? My employers have use for it, far more use then what this village would use it for."

"Well it's our job to protect it, so I guess we'll just have to take down your employer as well hmm?" John asked.

"Heh…you'll never be able to beat him, he has all the local bandits under his thumb, even with your superior weapons, you cannot defeat sheer numbers," the man said, he didn't know that John had already called for reinforcements nor would he need to know.

"We'll just see about that," John said, "tie him up and make sure it's tight."

"Uhm…a shinobi has different methods for escaping…" Hinata commented.

"Indeed, the best way to ensure a shinobi stays still is to knock him out," Shino agreed.

"Oh man, this just gets more complicated by the second," John groaned before he used the butt of his rifle to hit the side of the man's head as he went out cold, "alright let's take him in now, hopefully reinforcements gets here before we get swarmed by those bandits."

"They should be no problem," Shino said, "the greatest threat has been eliminated."

"Not yet, still got that kid remember?" John said, "If she comes back for him then we gotta be prepared," as a vortex of wind then sliced through the forest, "or she comes now and we gotta fight again," John sighed turning to see a wounded Doll panting and looking at them.

"Give him back…" she panted, "give him back now!"

"You surrender first, then we'll talk," John said.

"No, no surrender," Doll said, "give him back now!"

"Surrender now!" John retorted louder.

"Give him back now!" Doll said as a powerful whirlwind surrounded her before she dashed towards the group.

"Oh crap, not good," Alex said firing off several rounds, but they were merely deflected sideways as the whirlwind got closer to them, however it then stopped as Doll skidded to a halt in front of them, her wounds opening up as she looked utterly exhausted.

"Your wounds are too great," Shino stated, "you cannot fight us in that condition, surrender is your most optimal choice."

"Damn it," Doll cursed before losing consciousness as she was also carried to the same place as the shinobi where she was tied up along with him.

"Now what?" Kiba asked, "What if the bandits come?"

"I think we can take on some bandits," John said, "nothing we didn't fight before."

"Yeah I suppose so," Kiba said, "but I just can't shake the feeling when that guy said that his employer had all the local bandits on his payroll…this area isn't know for its bandits, but…"

"Don't worry about it too much," John said, "hopefully reinforcements will come long before the bandits start showing up, right now let's just relax a bit and take care of our wounded." The rest of the day was spent in taking of Kurenai and anyone else that was wounded in the attack, they also made sure that the two shinobis were kept in a safe place where they wouldn't be able to cause any problems as they made sure that the parcel was in a safe place.

"Hard to imagine that one small thing can cause this much of a problem," Alice said as the two of them looked at the package.

"Greed is the number one bane of human existence," John said as Alice laughed.

"That is so like you, having some sort of 'quote' handy," Alice said, "but seriously…have you ever seen anyone hire assassins just to get a single jewel?"

"I've heard of armies being hired to get a single person, but no this is kind of different I guess," John said, "everything here is different…much different then our world."

"Well at least we're kind of adapting well to it," Alice said, "Adam's…adapting, but slowly."

"He's still hung up on the whole 'children are soldiers' thing isn't he?" John asked tiredly, "I'm getting tired of his arguments."

"I'm sorry," Alice said apologetically, "he's usually not like this…I don't know what's got him so riled up."

"Me neither, he was already like that when me and you first met him," John said, "I was hoping to know the reason further down the track, but it seems he's closed off to everyone except a few these days."

"He'll get better, I'm sure of it," Alice said as John nodded and the group then spent the rest of the day resting and building some basic defenses in case the bandits do show up. John then woke up the next morning with the portal radio calling in as he walked to it and picked up the receiver.

"Team Omega report in," the receiver said.

"Team Omega reporting," John said, "are we getting that back up or not?"

"Backup has just been approved and they're on enroute, ETA is at least six hours, what's your status?" the operator asked.

"The two shinobi hostiles are down, all that's left are just some bandits," John said, "however we do not know how many bandits we're going to be facing so back up is still needed."

"Roger that we'll relay that information back to the back up team, until then hold out your position," the operator replied.

"Got it," John said as he put the receiver down and sighed, six hours…six hours was a long time and anything could happen in between then. However he took comfort in the fact that their biggest threat were neutralized and all that remained were the small fries, they shouldn't have any problems with those.

"What's going on?" Kurenai asked as John turned his head.

"Hey, feeling better?" he asked as Kurenai smiled and nodded.

"Yes I am, Shino already filled me in on what happened, I'm impressed that you were able to take down two shinobis," she said.

"Well one of them was already incapacitated long before we even did anything," John admitted, "but yeah we took them down."

"Thank you," Kurenai said, "for taking care of my Genins."

"No problem, it's what we do," John said, "back up is on the way though it'll take around six hours for them to get here. We only have the bandits left, if they decide to attack us that is, though the guy did warn us about his employer…something about having the local bandits under his thumb."

"That shouldn't pose a problem," Kurenai said, "at best it's probably twenty to forty bandits…Kiba's Gatsuga should get rid the majority of them easily."

"True," John replied as silence took over the conversation before John got up, "I better wake the others."

"Yes I'll go out front and see if there's any enemy lurking about," Kurenai said as she walked out the front door, John looking at her intently before he shook his head and walked into the living room where the others were sleeping.

He shook Alice awake as she jolted up, "What happened?" she asked.

"Nothing, I'm just waking you up, back up's on the way," John said as Alice stood up and stretched her arms.

"How long?" she asked.

"Six hours away," John said.

"Well it's shorter then normal," Alice said, "but do we need them anymore since we got the bigger threat eliminated."

"I'm not taking any chances, until we got other orders I'm going to stay here with Kurenai's team," John said, "and that means taking into account every worst scenario."

"You do know that's my job as a Corporal right?" Alice smirked.

"Well…I might as well do it since I'm that kind of guy," John said with a shrug as the rest of the team began to woke up.

"Is Kurenai-sensei alright?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah she's fine," John said, "she's out front now checking the area. Reinforcements going to arrive soon, once they're here they'll give us our next set of orders, if we're lucky we'll be home soon."

"Well the mission is completed, we got two shinobi enemies in our custody, it's a good morning indeed," Kiba said with a grin.

"Don't be too lax now," Alice warned, "you can never relax in a battlefield until you're back at base and in friendly territory."

"Words of wisdom from a veteran of combat," Shino said as Kurenai came back.

"Well there doesn't seem to be any more bandits laying around, I think we'll be safe until the others get here," she reported as suddenly explosions rang out the place, "what? Impossible I checked the area just now," she exclaimed as everyone got their gear and went out of the house to see that the bandits were approaching the village in full force as they threw makeshift bombs at the village.

"IEDs…god I hate them," Alice groaned.

"IED?" Kiba asked.

"It stands for Improvised Explosive Device, basically a home-made bomb very dangerous, and it could be in the shape of anything, even a dead body," Alex said wrinkling his nose.

"Uh…yeah sure," Kiba said half getting the explanation.

"Alright let's just stand our ground and hang on until reinforcements arrived, they shouldn't have too much of those IEDs right?" John said as one went flying over him and exploding spectacularly above them forcing them to duck for cover; the shinobis then went in and fought the bandits head on while the soldiers provided them with covering fire, as much as they can without hitting their own allies, however this proved to be quite difficult as the bombs kept hitting the shinobis even if it wasn't directly as soon most of them had scratches on them from the shrapnel.

Before long they were backed against the wall, even with John's team backing them up there were just too many home-made grenades being thrown around, even John had taken one as his leg was a mess, not enough to completely make him a disable but enough to cause a lot of pain, "Where the hell is that back up?" Alex asked.

"Beats me," John yelled back as he fired his handgun at an approaching bandit.

"Well they better get here soon or else we're finished," Alice said before ducking beneath a blade and countering. Similarily the shinobis were hard pressed and they were running out of energy, Kurenai's team were exactly the type of team for battle or long fights, therefore they were unprepared for something like this. Then just when it seemed that they were out of energy a blaze of gunfire echoed in as bandits fell by the dozens. John then looked up to see several Humvees rushing towards them, their guns blazing, before soldiers clambered out of the vehicle and began providing assistance to them. It wasn't long before the bandits were routed as they began to flee from the onslaught, the leader tried to escape but Shino captured him with his bugs as he was dragged before them. "Well, well what do we have here?" John asked, "The leader of the local bandits around this region?"

"Please spare me, I'm just a simple warlord," the man pleaded now all of his bravado gone in front of the shinobis.

"Easy we're not going to kill you," Alice said, "we're just going to take you in for that bounty on your head."

"Wait! I can provide you with information!" the man said, "There isn't anything that goes around this place that I don't know about, I can even provide you with men if you need them."

"We don't need men," Alice said, "but…we could use the information depending on what it is."

"Are you sure Alice?" John asked.

"Sure, I'll clear it with Burton, I'm sure he'll agree with me," Alice before shooing the man away and warning him not to attack the village unless he wants the US troops knocking on his door.

"Thank you," the elder said, "now we can find those minerals and expand our village."

"Yeah," Alice said partially caring, "just be careful alright guys?"

"Thank you," the villagers said as the troops began to move out.

"Didn't think they send this many," John said to a nearby soldier, "why the large numbers?"

"Well when we heard 'enemy shinobi' we thought we might just overdo it a little," the soldier said as John took a rest, "rough mission?"

"Yeah…yeah you can say that," John said as he closed his eyes for a moment before he was out cold from exhaustion.