Disclaimer: I own approximately the excrement of Jack… maybe the plot.
Naruto: Fractured Fate
"Narutooo…" came the voice, floating to me as I lay on a cloud, eating ramen surrounded by wisp and vapor.
"NA-rutooo…" the cloud started to dissolve, and I plummeted towards unseen depths.
"WAKE UP"
The shout cast me out of my dream as I sat up quickly, colliding with something hard, and collapsing back onto whatever it was I was laying on. It felt like a rock. And painful.
"The Hell was that for?" Ami shouted holding her nose.
I shook my head, trying to ignore the large amount of pain I was feeling as well. "You startled me."
"Oh yeah, right!" Ami said sarcastically. When she saw my frown she pointed to her right, "I startled you, and the entire fucking BATTLE that you slept through, what? Was mildly displeasing? Ruffled your feathers? Maybe it didn't even register because it wasn't an earthquake."
I stared at the broken wagons, charred and blackened from the explosive tags, and the sides torn to shreds. The moans of the men around the wagons were clearly discernible even at a fifty foot distance.
"What…" I said in a small voice, Ami's vindictive grin slowly slid off of her face, as the hand that clenched her nose moved to cradle her elbow.
"Yeah, it was pretty bad. If Anko-sensei hadn't been there…"she just shrugged away the rest of the conjecture, before turning away, no longer desiring to speak.
I nodded somberly, getting up from my rock and walking towards the bones of the caravan.
I saw a pair of bodies, bowels opened, dumped to the side of the road. That set the tone for seeing the rest of the makeshift camp.
Everywhere I looked there were either injuries, carcasses, or the smears of blood and gore that meant one of the previous had been there at some point.
I found Anko kneeling over Hibachi, eyes looking far more desolate than I had ever scene, and her hands illuminated in a green light that I had only seen a few times previous. I walked over by them and stood silently.
She looked up for a moment, acknowledging me, before turning her eyes back to her work.
I looked down at her hands, and saw Hibachi's bared stomach beneath them. Not the skin mind you, his stomach. His inside, never to be exposed organ, writhing beneath her green enshrouded hands.
I almost wretched at the sight, but managed to hold it in.
"Naruto," Sensei said not sparing another glance up from her work. " I need you to turn Hibachi over to his side."
I nodded shakily, getting down on the opposite side of my teammate, and gently turning him with weak hands, and then holding him on his side.
"Hold him now, this part is going to get bad, but I need you to be strong for him, ok?" sensei asked, glancing at me until she got a weary nod.
"Good" she said, right before the light around her hands flared. Then Hibachi started vomiting, and shaking.
I unwisely glanced over, and saw the bloody vomit coating the ground beside him.
"That's it Hibachi-chan, better out than in." Anko said, in what was most likely her soothing voice.
"B-But what if I want to keep it in?" The now conscious Hibachi croaked out in a horse whisper.
"Aww," Anko cooed, "That's cute. Stupid, but cute." She waited a beat, her hands still over his open cavity. "And you really need to work on your phrasing. I could have taken that a dozen different ways."
"Speaking of phrasing," I muttered back softly, only to be caught by Anko smiling softly.
We descended into comfortable silence for a few minutes, with Anko continuing to heal Hibachi, and me turning Hibachi over so he could vomit more blood. It was only broken by more retching, and later, an observation from Hibachi.
"It's nice to see, right?" He said, looking up at me, a delirious smile on his face.
I frowned for a minute, looking around for what he could possibly be speaking of.
"Her," He said, pointing at Anko, to both of our surprise.
"Like this." He attempted to explain gesturing at his stomach. It only served to increase my confusion.
"It's nice seeing that she cares." Hibachi said, closing his eyes, apparently exhausted from his strenuous activities.
Everything was quiet for a minute before Anko-sempai spoke up.
"Hibachi, Naruto, listen up, cause I am only going to say this once." She said, still not looking up from Hibachi's grievous wound.
"I may push you. I may yell, or swear, or do terrible things. I may make you wish at times that you had never been born, or that you no longer want to be ninja. But never, not even for a second, think that I don't care. I chose you all to be my team. Even with all that we've been through and all that we'll ever go through, we are a genin team. That makes us practically family." He shoulder slumped as she finished her speech, seemingly as a load was lifted off of her shoulders. "And that kind of thing matters to me."
Relationship Level Increased
Anko Mitarashi - Level 2 – Close Friend
I ignored the type as Hibachi, apparently re-energized by her impromptu speech, opened his eyes to stare at her.
"What about all of the anal penetrations?"
Anko shrugged that away, her old devious grin coming back to her face.
"I was just being friendly."
I arched an eyebrow at that.
"I don't think that there is such a thing as friendly sodomy."
Her grin turned to me. "Wait 'till you get older."
Hibachi closed his eyes and started laughing at what I could only assume was the absurdity of the situation, before wincing as his laughs turned to painful, wracking coughs.
"Don't laugh," Anko warned, "I don't want you making your condition worse."
"I don't think it can get much worse." Hibachi responded through gritted teeth.
"Oh yeah?" I asked, unable to resist such a tempting target. "Just ask for a friendly sodomy."
His cough/laughs were enough for me to weather Anko's withering glare as she finished healing Hibachi, before advising both of us to get some sleep while she moved onto her next patient.
Naruto: Fractured Fate
The next morning started before the sun began its obnoxiously jolly trek in the sky. Anko went around to each of us in the hours before daybreak going over our condition before giving each of us tasks and going off to help the wounded herself. Hibachi and I received the tasks of looting and burying the dead, and Ami was with Anko, learning the Mystical palm, in order to speed up their progress with the injured.
After stripping the corpses of the bandits and moving them to the side of the road, and doing the same with the merchant corpses, Hibachi and I piled up the weapons and equipment, and started tearing the clothing, to be made into make shift bandages, and cots for the injured.
Out of the original twenty some that had been with us on the trip, three were uninjured eight were wounded, five were dead, and the rest were missing. According to Anko and Hibachi, both having been in the thick of the fighting, the remainders were taken by a group of bandits led by the man (teenager according to Anko) in the fine white robe.
It wasn't until midday that I sat down, legs beginning to scream in protest, with Hibachi across from me. We sat in silence, not wanting really to talk about what had happened, nor what was going on. I think we just didn't want to acknowledge it, as if it would all go away if we just shut our eyes and wished really hard.
A flustered Ami disrupted our silence, sitting down with a huff. It was only three seconds more of silence before she broke it again.
"This technique is Impossible!" She cried throwing her head into her hands. At the silence from both Hibachi and I, she turned her head just enough to glare at us.
"Don't you even want to know what it is?"
"I'm going to go out on a limb and say Shosen Jutsu, the same technique that Sensei was just using." I said, watching as Ami glared a bit more before deflating.
"Yeah…" She sighed.
I gave a shrug and gently clapped her shoulder.
"Just means that she has a lot of faith in you. That's supposed to be an A-ranked technique, with large amounts of Medical knowledge and precise Chakra Control required."
"Yeah, I'm better than you assholes." Ami said, smirking like she would have just a few days ago before once again falling into a depressed state. "But that just means that I am failing her more, if she thinks that I was good enough to learn it when I keep failing."
"Hey, it can't be so hard, you just have to try again." I said, immediately regretting my words as she leveled a glare at me, shrugging off my hand.
"Oh yeah? And what do you know about it? Do you even know anything about Medical Chakra?" She sniped at me.
I frowned before coming up with an answer. "It is the specific type of Chakra used to bypass cellular and Chakra resistance, much in the same way the Hyuuga Jyuuken does, and accelerate cell division, and therefore accelerate the process of healing."
SKILL CHECK (MEDICINE) 22/20 PASS!
'Hmm, no experience awarded. That's odd.' I thought facing Ami's squinty eyes. She held her face as if she had just eaten the most sour lemon in the world before throwing her arms up in the air.
"Fuck it all! You're so smart, YOU learn it!" She said, getting up and tossing a book at me back handed.
Barely catching it, I immediately opened my inventory, found the book, and selected it.
DUN-DUN, roared the sound of a double drum beat echoing in my mind forcing me close my eyes in pain.
When I opened my eyes again I saw a small script on the screen.
MEDICINE NOT HIGH ENOUGH
'What? I totally got that question right though, wasn't that enough?' I thought cancelling out of the script to take another look at the requirements for the technique.
'Shosen jutsu (Stage 1). Stage one? What's that about? Does it get better as you go along, or does it require multiple pieces in order to be used like the Rasengan?' I shook my head trying to organize my errant thoughts again. 'Whatever, I'll think about that later. Ok, Chakra Control 60, I have that. Ninjutsu 30, I've got a lot more than that. Ok, Medicine 25…' I thought about that for a second before turning to my skills page to check my skill level. 'It has me beat by, what, three points?' I double checked the numbers. 'Yep, three points.'
I exited out of the menu and reality resumed around me. 'Well that was an exercise in frustration.'
I looked up to find an exhausted looking Anko dragging Ami back to the group.
'Wow, she looks like absolute shit.' I thought, looking over the form of my sensei. The infamous tan trench coat was nowhere to be found, leaving a torn mesh shirt. I averted my eyes away from the important bits due to a nagging voice in the back of my head telling me it wasn't nice to look. Her hair was thrown into complete disarray, the right front of her hair had come completely free of her trademark ponytail, and came down to form rough bangs, looking kind of like Ami's, now that I think about it. He hands were dirtied with blood and crud, and her eyes had huge black and blue bags hanging underneath them.
"All right, siddown." She said in a tired, but authoritative voice, brooking no argument, taking a moment to get situated against the wheel of a broke wagon before speaking again.
"It's time to catch you all up to speed. Two days ago, we were attacked by a large force of bandits, led by someone who was decidedly not. By his attire, weapons, and his style of attack, I would wager a guess and say that he either is a samurai of the land of Iron, or was at some point in the past. Based on how the bandits acted, I would say that that samurai has been shaping them up and disciplining his men, and that he has gathered enough of them to assemble a small army, possibly even a small village."
"Can they really do that?" Ami interrupted. "Just make a village?"
Anko gave a nod. "Yeah, it's happened a few times in the past. A group of bandits get's large enough that they start attracting other people, and they eventually get large enough to all come together and decide to overthrow whatever country they're situated in. Then someone pays the nearest ninja village to come in and wipe them out. You'd think that they'd learn after awhile, but then again, they didn't become bandits because they studied history." Anko rambled before her head lolled and she shook herself awake.
"Anyway, so we have three people who are fine, eight people who are still injured, and who will probably live with scars, five more who won't and the other six who were taken by the bandits. While I was working on healing I sent a summoned snake and a scroll to Konoha to appraise the Hokage of our situation. I just received a message back. It says that we are to be relieved tomorrow. During that time we are to essentially stay put, and wait to be relieved." She finished, closing her eyes and letting her head fall against the hard wood of the wheel.
I frowned at the information, but put it aside in favor of a question that neither Hibachi nor Ami had been able to answer.
"Sensei, why did the bandits leave? I mean, I was knocked out, Hibachi was injured, you and Ami were probably getting tired. So why did they leave?"
She opened on eye onto me, partially glazed over. "Arrogance and laziness." She answered. Before I could work up another question she continued. "They had already taken what they wanted, or more accurately, who they wanted. After that, finishing us off probably seemed to be more effort than it we were worth. Or perhaps they thought after they had got what they wanted that we couldn't hurt them."
"Or maybe the boss thought that it would be simpler to come back in a day or two and finish us off as we took care of the wounded." I said.
SPECIAL CHECK (INTELLIGENCE) 8/6 PASS! 40 XP AWARDED
Another nod came from Anko. "Yeah, but that's why I sent a summoned snake as soon as possible. That way, the ninja taking over for us will be here tonight, beefing up our chances of walking away from this alive."
I ground my teeth a little at that. "Our chances, sure, but what about the people that are missing?"
Anko grimaced as her closed eyes resumed their skyward tilt. "Bandits usually offer them up for ransom money to their companies. And a man like Yamamoto, vice president of a trading corporation, would be worth quite a lot of money indeed. So while he will have to be hung onto, the others are likely just going to be an additional payday, and while they won't need to stay alive in the bandit's eyes, they won't want to kill them and spoil the chance to get more money. So it's doubtful that any of the merchants will be injured, let alone killed."
My teeth grinding had evolved to a full blown snarl "But you don't know that!"
"No, I don't. What I do know, however, is that I am not taking my genins in an assault on a bandit camp containing who knows how many raiders left, not to mention a nin or samurai of at least B-rank, possibly A, just to rescue a group of merchants who are more than likely going to wind up fine anyway." Said Anko, leaning away from the wheel as her face gained a cold sternness.
Ami's head and shoulders sagged from where she sat. "We wouldn't survive against that again."
To my great and eternal surprise, my support came from the most unlikely of sources. "We could if we had proper firepower, the element of surprise and they were clustered in a single location, or in small groups." We turned our eyes to Hibachi, who sat across from me nonchalantly poking a rock with a stick. The group was silent as he looked back up and immediately back down, nervously poking his rock with a stick.
A slow smile developed across my face. "Somewhere where they would be clustered and not expecting an attack. Like their camp, perhaps in the early hours of the night?"
SKILL CHECK (STEALTH) 37/30 PASS!
Hibachi nodded hesitantly. "That could work."
"No, absolutely not!" Anko said, getting to her feet. "Even if we didn't get detected, we would still need that 'overwhelming firepower'."
I took on a triumphant grin as I turned back to Hibachi. "Hey, where did we put all those explosive tags we looted off of the dead bandits?"
SKILL CHECK (FUUINJUTSU) 32/20 PASS!
He just shrugged. "Between the swords, and the kunai and shuriken pile."
"And how are you planning on getting past our exhaustion? Some of us are running on fumes!"
It took some quick thinking before I came up with an idea for that one. "What about the soldier pills we were giving to the wounded? Wouldn't a couple of those be enough for us to make an attempt at a rescue?"
SKILL CHECK (MEDICINE) 22/20 PASS!
Anko was beginning to look frantic in her ragged condition. "How are you going to make it past the guards for the camp? You have no idea what the area is like, or how the numbers are going to play into it! How are you going to handle the samurai when he shows? Are you feeling cocky enough to take on an A-ranked opponent, genin?"
I shook my head, before smiling and looking her straight in the eye. "No, but I know someone up to the task."
That just made her frown even more pronounced.
"And what has gotten into you? Why would you go to risk your life for someone you barely know? Why would you do it, against orders, to try to save someone who doesn't even need you?"
'Why do they need me, and why am I getting so emotional about this?' I thought to myself. In the empty seconds that followed, I remembered a conversation I was having with a pleasant old man. An old man who had nothing to give me, save for some advice that helped me feel a little better about death.
I remembered his weathered face as he told me what I did was right, saving the innocent from certain death. He told me how he feared what would have happened if we weren't there.
Then the bandits attacked, and now his body lay under a pile of others on the side of the road.
"Well?" Anko asked, impatient for my answer.
And the old man's words came to me.
"Because it's right. When we took this mission, we made a promise. By taking this mission we said that we were going to protect these people, that they were under our care. That while they were with us no harm would come to them." I let out a large breath. "We failed. The people we were supposed to protect are injured, dead, or captured and we owe it to the ones lef alive to try our hardest to get them to where they need to go. Because we owe it to them for allowing them to be captured in the first place. Because we gave our word. Because it is right. We aren't going to abandon them to some murky future where death is a likelihood and we aren't just going to sit around twiddling our thumbs until someone else comes to do our job for us. We are going to go, find the bandit camp, ambush them bringing upon them all the justice for the crimes they have done against so many others, and we are going to rescue our friends. Because we are Ninja, and that's what we do." I finished, energy spent as I closed my eyes, waiting for the angry voice of my sensei to kick in. A rude awakening that never came.
In the seconds after my impromptu speech, you could probably hear a cricket chirp at a hundred yards, such was the silence.
I slowly opened my eyes to see a happy orange text glowing in front of me.
SKILL CHECK (SPEECH) 32/30 PASS! 200 XP AWARDED!
KARMA GAINED
GAINED REPUTATION WITH KONOHAGAKURE
GAINED REPUTATION WITH YAMAMATO TRADING
ACHIEMENT EARNED IT'LL TAKE A MIRACLE
KARMA IS A REFLECTION OF THE NATURE OF YOUR ACTIONS THROUGHOUT THE GAME. SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO PERFORM SELFISH OR HATEFUL ACTIONS, YOUR KARMA WILL BE REDUCED, AFFECTING YOUR APPEARANCE AND OPENING NEW CONVERSATION OPTIONS WHILE CLOSING OTHERS AS YOU BECOME MORE 'EVIL. VICE VERSA OCCURS WHEN YOU PERFORM GENEROUS OR INSPIRATIONAL ACTS, AS YOU BECOME MORE 'GOOD.
I slowly grinned as the positive reinforcement hit me, like a warm glow settling in my chest. I canceled out the message and waited for my sensei's response.
"All right brat, you win."
I met her approving eyes, a wicked grin spelling out trouble developed on her face..
"We'll take a two hour rest, even with the soldier pills we won't be at our peak without it. Then the explosive tags will be given to you, me, and Hibachi. I'll hand out the soldier pills, and we'll track the bandits from there. Now I'm warning you all here and now, you are all going to have to be completely on board with this." She looked at Hibachi, and he nodded solemnly. Anko looked at Ami, who looked worried, but still gave a quick and decisive nod. She looked back at me, and my grin was all the answer she needed.
"All right then. Get some rest. We start in two hours."
Naruto: Fractured Fate
The hours flew by faster than I could have imagined.
The two hour rest felt like it was over in a breath. Anko woke us, and we all gathered around the piles of equipment. Ami took up a straight double dged sword, approximately two feet in length. Hibachi took up an additional pack of kunai and shuriken. Anko replaced her trench coat filling her pockets with various weaponry and other gadgets like smokebombs, flash bombs, chains, blades, and other things of either a serious or lethal nature. I simply loaded up all of the kunai and shuriken I could gather. And then we all descended upon the pile of explosive tags like ravenous dogs. Once we had gorged ourselves on killing implements, we took to the forest Anko leading the way.
Using nearly unseen marks to track where the raiders had come from, and where they went after, thankfully both along the same route we immediately left aiming to get to the camp by around sundown. Several times throughout the trip we had to stop and search for clues to figure out which way they went. Sometimes it was marked by burned tobacco on the ground, or an accidental scratch marring a tree's bark, but each time we found one, it brought us that much closer to the raiders and the captured merchants. But as the sun continued towards the horizon, I began to lose hope of finding them.
I raced after Anko, leaping from tree to tree just to keep up. My legs screamed in pain and stiffness, a testament to our run. The sun was beginning to sink below the tree-line before we saw fires lighting in the distant forest.
Jumping down out of our respective trees, the gang and I started a stealthier approach. Slipping through the shadows surrounding the Bandit Camp, the four of us gathered in the shade of a great tree, overlooking the men gathered below.
There were two or three clusters in the encampment.
One was a mass gathering of the bandits, a hundred tents spread out over half an acre, all centered around a large fire, around which men gathered to cook their evening meal.
The other was a single tent set up on a hill, white silk, and gold embroidery marking it as the station of someone far above the drudgery below. Outside only one man sat, keeping careful watch over the campfire below him and anyone who even looked like they were approaching the tent.
Between them, in the woods at the foot of the hill, were great bamboo cages, holding in the prisoners
"Ok, kiddies," Came the silky voice of sensei. "It's time for the big leagues."
Ignoring the prompt telling me of my quest update, the team and I sat around sensei in a circle, and began putting a plan together.
Naruto: Fractured Fate
The sun had set over two hours ago, and the bandits had started to disperse from the bonfire, seeming as if they took to the old limerick about 'early to bed and early to rise'.
'Health-conscious bandits, what is this world coming to?' I thought, slipping between the tents, my face hidden in a transformation in the guise of a grizzled mercenary.
I stayed low to the ground, determined to make as little noise as possible.
Every ten feet I went I dropped a small crumpled up piece of paper, attached to a rock. I dropped them by tent openings, I dropped them by small assembly areas, and I dropped them by the cook-pots by the main bonfire, where most of the men were lining up. 'I'm like a lethal rice farmer.' I mused, bending down to 'plant' the next bundle. 'Next crop? Destruction and chaos!'
Stepping around a pair of bandits, one of whom nodded to me ('Thank kami for transformations' I thought), I thought back to the plan.
/Flashback/
"Stage one of this has to go off without a hitch." Sensei said, bending over a model of the camp below us. "All three of you are going to Henge into one of the bandits. Then you are going to go around to all of the assembly areas, and virtually anywhere that is going to hold a lot of people once the alarm is sounded, and you are going to put these there."
She reached into a large basket at her side and pulled out a dozen paper slips, covered with calligraphy.
"Before you detonate, go tent to tent and slit the throats of anyone you can find asleep." Anko said with a bloodthirsty grin, ignoring Ami's large gulp.
"Where are you going to be?" asked Hibachi, already loading the slips into various pockets.
"I'll be keeping an eye on the big guy." She said, pointing towards the model's version of the tent on the hill.
I was going to say something. Something like, how we should try to take them alive, or something like we shouldn't stoop to their level.
Then I thought about the merchants in the ditch by the road. I thought about some of the wounded crying into the sky in pain, as tears coursed down bloody faces. I though about how the camp looked like it had been here for awhile. And I thought about how this probably wasn't the first caravan they had hit.
Then I had a realization. All of that, don't stoop to someone else's level stuff. That stuff didn't survive the playground. There was a time for mercy, a time to show generosity to a downed foe, times to turn an enemy into an ally. Then there were times to make sure that victims are never hurt again, times to strike without mercy or generosity, times to simply put the dogs down.
And I was ready for what I had to do.
And only one question remained.
"What will the signal be?" I queried in a low, hoarse voice. I looked back at sensei in time to catch a maniacal grin.
"Ohh, you'll know it when you see it…"
/Flashback end/
I dropped another note next to a bundle of swords, and axes.
Checking my pockets, I saw that I only had two explosive notes remaining. Deciding to hold onto those in case of a rainy day, I attached myself to the nearest group of bandits, hoping that none of them would accidentally bump into me and dispel the henge.
"Did you guys see that bitch came in yesterday?" One of the bandits near the front of the group said.
"The blonde one or the brunette?" Asked another.
"The brunette."
"Yeah? What about her?"
"Kinda hot, you know? And the way she squeals just gets me running!"
There was a pause before the answer came. "Dude, she's like twelve."
"So?"
"That's seriously fucked man." The second bandit said with the laugh.
"What? You know she wants it! Just look at the way she dresses! Listen to how she screams!" Cried the first bandit, defending his perversity.
One of the other bandits only shook his head. "She's had all her clothes ripped off and she was crying out 'No' and 'Stop' because she was being raped in front of her father."
The first bandit gave an exaggerated shake of his head. "Nooo…. No I'm pretty sure she was screaming, 'Yes' and 'More'."
His answer was met with the laughs of more than a few in the bandit cluster. "Kami you're fucked in the head."
I listened to the entire conversation, and only withheld my baser, violent instincts by slipping one of the remaining explosive notes into the pocket of one of the bandits.
'No way you live.' I thought, pulling away from the group. 'No way.'
As I started making my way back towards the bonfire to await Anko's signal, there was suddenly a mass of shouting coming from my left, away from the fire, and in the direction of the command tent.
'Is this the signal?' I thought rushing over to see what was going on.
"We have in our midst, a SPY!" a shout came over the din.
'Ok, so maybe not the signal.' I thought, holding myself off from sprinting over there and blowing my cover as well.
I came upon a circle of men already grown to about forty people or so. Grabbing a chair from beside a tent, I stood at the outer edge of the circle of bandits, trying to see what was going on.
In the center of the circle was a 15 or 16 year old boy. 'Well I say boy, he's older than I am.' He was dressed in fine silk, and at his waist two swords were held. His blond hair was held in a ponytail which held escaped strands, giving evidence of a lack of sleep. And next two him, held in under the tight grasp of a pair of burly mercenaries, was an exact duplicate of the wannabe samurai.
"This spy," spat the blond haired swordsman, unsheathing a long blade, "has infiltrated our camp, and taken our form."
He drew his blade and placed it at his dopplegangers chin. Making a sharp twirsting motion with his arm, his doppleganger disappeared in a puff of smoke, and a moment later, Hibachi knelt in his place.
'How the hell did he let himself get captured?' I silently fumed as calls from the men around me reached a peak, all promising Hibachi a painful end.
'Where is sensei?' I thought, gritting my teeth.
"So, Spy," said the samurai grandly, waving his katana about. "What is it we call you?"
Both of the thugs holding him started to cruelly twist Hibachi's arms. "Hibachi!" He ground out, hiding no small amount of pain in his voice.
The leader apparent smirked at the crowd before turning back to Hibachi. "And from whence do you hail, Hibachi-Spy?"
An audible pop echoed around the ring as Hibachi screamed. "Konoha!"
The jeering men settled down quickly after that, beginning to whisper to one another, fear etched into their faces.
The leader put his sword at Hibachi's neck. "And how many of your fellow ninja," the leader spat contemptuously, "are here with us?"
Hibachi panted into the ground a moment as the whole area grew quiet, and from where I was, I could only imagine the face he made when he spoke a single sentence of defiance.
"Enough to kill you."
The men began to roar once again, calling for Hibachi's death.
The boy in silk just laughed.
"Enough to kill me?" He chuckled out pompously. "Not if you brought your whole village in your pocket!"
Rounding to face the gathered crowd, the silk clad swordsman said loudly. "So, is there any last words you would like to say? A prayer to the spirits? Or perhaps some piece of information that might save your worthless hide?"
Giving a grunt of pain, Hibachi responded. "Yes, I do."
The shinobi pulled his chest up vertical to the ground, shaking his arms loose, from the thugs holding him. "Just one word." He said looking into the eyes of the silk laden man across the circle from him.
"Katsu."
Hibachi's arms jerked and from all around the camp, dozens of explosions started going off, throwing fire and blood into the air.
Taking my cue from Hibachi, I threw my only remaining explosive note into the thickest part of the ring of enemies. A quick handsign, and short burst of chakra expenditure later, blood and limbs began their rain.
+420 XP
Doom-De-De-Doom-DOOOM
LEVEL UP
'Yeah, that's nice.' I thought sarcastically dodging a leg that came down on the stool where I was satnding.. 'I'll get right on that.'
My henge now dispelled into smoke after I set of the detonation, I was free to impart justice onto the evil do'ers all around.
Ducking the blade of one very aware bandit, I delivered the justice in the form of seven stab wounds across his torso, focused mainly on his heart. 'A bit more durable than the bandits yesterday.' I thought, ignoring the gore splattering over me.
+20 XP
Taking a quick look around, I saw that the majority of the bandits previously arrayed in a nice circle, all set to be slaughtered, were running away. 'Probably towards the weapons.' I thought, rolling to avoid the downward swipe of an axe. A pair of kunai to the neck thrown at that bandits neck allowed me enough time open his stomach, spilling his intestines onto the ground.
+20 XP
The numbers shone orange in hellish light as I gagged on the smell coming from the dying man, but I had no time to console myself. From the corner of my eye, I saw Hibachi fighting a losing battle against the silk clad swordsman.
Hibachi had gotten a kunai from somewhere and was futilely trying to stave off the blows of the much larger boy.
The swordsman made a horizontal slash at his chest. Hibachi lept backwards, but his kunai was caught by the larger blades edge, and sent spinning off into the distance.
Hibachi stumbled backwards, falling down, and crying out in pain as he landed on his wounded arm. I saw the older boy smirk, and I saw his lips move, whispering something to Hibachi as he drew his sword backwards.
Furiously throwing my hands into the 'Ram' handsign, I gave a call. "Body Flicker Technique!"
The world blurred as tunnel vision set in for the twenty yards or so. My vision ahead of me was thankfully unclouded, otherwise I would have missed several things. For instance, the look on the samurai wannabe's face as my fist ploughed into his face.
He was sent tumbling ass over teakettle into a pair of his associates, giving me the time I needed to help Hibachi to his feet.
"Thanks for the save." Hibachi grunted, as I helped him up.
"No problem." I said back, eyeing the bandits disentangling themselves. "But right now, you need to go find Ami, or sensei. Get up high, take these bastards at range."
He looked at me, curiosity clear in his eyes. I nodded to the swordsman getting to his feet.
"I got this asshole."
He nodded and simply said, "Good luck." Before vanishing in a smoke cloud, not unlike the one I had arrived in.
The swordsman stalked over, murder clear in his snarl. "You will pay for that, whelp!"
I drew forth a kunai. "Cash or credit, bitch?."
The distance between us was closed quickly. He lunged, I blocked to the side, he came back with rising diagnanal slash, and I spun away, throwing my kunai. He whipped his sword around, parrying the knife, and the three shuriken I threw after it. He closed the distance again, coming in with a horizontal slash I backstepped and tried to catch him with a spinning back kick. He leaned like a reed and avoided, trying a rising vertical slash. He kicked at my back, supporting leg and slashed at my chest and I flipped to avoid his blade, tossing another brace of shuriken to cover my retreat.
He blocked the only shuriken that was a threat to him with contemptuous ease. "And here I thought that this might be a workout." He said with that same, fucking, smirk, as he placed his blade at his hip. "It merely demonstrates what I know of a most plebian ninja."
"Don't underestimate me!" I shouted, throwing another pair of kunai. His sword came up, but his eyes narrowed as I clapped my hands together.
"Fuuton Reppoushou!"
The kunai accelerated, and the samurai's eyes widened as he tried to get his blade to block.
Two wet impacts signaled his lack of success, followed by another explosion in the distance, and the screams of the newly wounded.
'I guess Ami just set off her tags.' I thought, my eyes never leaving my opponent
The silk he wore was stained red around the two kunai, one impacted upon his chest, and the other impacted upon his hip. He panted heavily, using his sword to hold himself up.
Looking up at me, he slowly moved his free hand, and with great care, pulled the kunai out of himself.
"That," he said, standing up once again to face me. "Is the only time that trick will work!"
He shifted his weight forward and I readied my fists, but we both stopped moving at the high pitched whistling sound that pervaded the air. We looked inquisitively, before a man shaped projectile impacted the ground between us.
"Master!" the wannabe samurai cried out.
The man stood, his very expensive looking armor painted black and dark red. He stood tall, at least six and a half feet, his head topped with coal black hair drawn into a pony tail. His face was pulled into a harsh frown, accentuating the scar running over his milky eye. His visage could only be thought of as cold, distant and cruel.
He drew forth the longer of the two swords at his waist, before tossing away the scabbards. And then he spoke, his eye still upon the smoldering remains of his command tent.
"Riosho," He ground out, his voice deep, as if he had been gargling gravel before making his appearance. "Deal with the upstarts, then gather the men. I will deal with the bitch!"
Before the apprentice apparent could ask, 'What bitch?' there appeared Anko, in all her glory.
She fell twenty feet away from the armored samurai seemingly in a ball of fire. Then she too stood, and I saw that it was only her cloak that was shrouded in flames.
"Aww," she said, cocking her head to the side and putting on a babying accent. "Does the wittle armowed man wanna pway?"
"I would scold your for your tongues insolence," says the armored man, assuming a ready stance, "Would it not soon be parted from your body."
Anko then started to chuckle. Then it grew into a full blown belly laugh, her hands on her stomach as if it could not contain her mirth. Her head rolled back as the laugh then evolved into a full blown cackle.
Then, faster than the civilian eye could follow, she grabbed her fiery cloak and started whipping it around, faster and faster, continuing to cackle all the while and all at once the motion stopped, and the fire seemed to grow in on itself.
Over the roar of the flames and the screaming of the wounded, I could almost not make out the faint hissing. My eyes widened as I ducked a second before the trench coat exploded.
Shrapnel and shuriken were sent whizzing everywhere, even a few pieces managed to penetrate my leather armor, giving me long gashes on my arms and back, both lowered to shield me from the explosion.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the armored samurai back pedaling, deflecting multiple shuriken and pieces of metal that would otherwise pierce his armor.
The fire died down as the samurai's apprentice and I both stood back up, each looking for where my sensei had gone.
A grunt from the armored man turned our attention back to him, as Anko appeared out of nowhere, kunai in hand as she took wide swipes followed by shorter, faster jabs.
The cruel seeming man was too good for shuch elementary tactics however, as after one deflection, he grabbed sensei's arm, pulling her into a blade lock.
"I shall rend you limb from limb whore!" The samurai shouted, spitting in her face. I couldn't quite make out what Anko-sempai said to that. But all I could see was her smile, then opening her mouth and spitting a five foot viper at the samurai's face.
The armored swordsman bent at the waist and slashed upwards at the reptile, dissipating it in a cloud of black chakra smoke.
Sensei, however, had not squandered this opportunity inside of her enemies guard. She lashed down, burying her blade into the meet of the samurai's leg.
Twisting upward to snap at Anko, the samurai's katana met nothing but air, as sensei danced away again, laughing all the while.
She lept into the trees to the side of the camp, and after a moment of righting himself, the armored samurai followed.
I turned back to the apprentice, and he looked at me with the most peculiar expression.
"That's your teacher?" He said, disbelief evident in his voice.
"Yep." I said with a nod.
He looked back at the area she had recently vacated, burnt grass and metal littering the ground. "She was just half-naked, and on fire…" He said, most likely trying to come to grips with what just happened.
"Must be a Tuesday." I respond dryly.
He shook his head. "You have my sympathies."
'Why she was pretty hot.' I thought before shaking my head and saying aloud. "I don't want your sympathies, I want your life."
The apprentice snarled and got into a ready position again. "Then you shall have only my blade!"
Six large men came rushing over to join the apprentice, before he held up his hand.
"No! Find the other ninja," He shouted at his men, before leveling a glare back at me.
"This one is mine!"
I got another pair of kunai at the ready.
"No, you're mine!" I said, launching myself at him.
He intercepts me with a well-placed kick. I feel my breath leave me, as I am sent tumbling back down to the ground. Looking up, I barely roll to the side fast enough to avoid his downward swipe.
Jumping to my feet, I grab one of my last kunai, intercepting his second slash, and returning with a kick to the chest, sending him skidding back over the dirt, but still on his feet.
"Why don't you just be a good boy and die?" The apprentice said with venom, launching another series of slashes at me.
I dodge for the most part, but part of the blade goes into one of my kidneys when I tried to clear some space with a backwards handspring.
Clutching my side, I curse as the swordsman closes the distance again. 'He's not giving me any room to breathe now.' I thought tossing four kunai and two shuriken as a stalling tactic.
I clapped my hands together, already forming the words for my wind technique, when the samurai's apprentice appeared right beside me.
"CHARGING SLASH!" he screamed into my ear, as I was two slow to dodge completely.
White hot pain tore through my chest as the leather armor and my flesh both were rendered. Pressing a hand to my chest to staunch the bleeding, I looked up finding my opponent standing above me.
"This is the end!" He shouted exaggeratedly, holding his sword on high. I quickly formed three handsigns and shouted.
My opponent's blade met a water barrel and my life was spared for the time being.
I clapped my hands together. "Fuuton Reppushou!" I shouted.
But before my blast of air could reach its target, the apprentice rolled out of the way, and the blast of air hit the ground harmlessly kicking up dust. And already Riosho, or whatever his name was, was charging me again!
Grabbing a pair of kunai, I hold off his swipes and lunges just long enough for him to run out of breath and disengage.
'All right, I can hold him here, now I just need to find some weakness I can exploit.'
He came in again, this time with a very overt high chop. I raised my kunai in a cross shaped block before I noticed something odd about his blade. The air around it was starting to waver, like on a hot day and you're looking at something far away.
Suddenly, an instant before our blades clashed, his sword sparked and was wreathed in fire. Striking my guard, I was forced once again to backpedal. Not from the strength of his blow, but due to the fact that despite my successful guard, he still had burned my hands.
"My master has given me powers beyond your primitive understanding." The wannabe said, waving his fiery sword. "And now, I'm going to slay you with them"
'Kami does this guy love hearing himself talk.' I thought, retreating through a tent, the samurai hot on my tail.
Passing a chest, I 'Looted it on the way, finding nothing but a bauble or two, and some Ryo.
'I don't need money right now,' I thought, rolling to the side to avoid the fiery extension coming from the samurai's sword. 'I need a way to get a leg up in this fight!'
As I ran I thought over everything that I had done in my previous life, trying to see if anything could be done to match the present circumstances.
'Nothing without either the bastard or my clones, and neither are available to me now.' I thought before calling out my clone technique, buying me some breathing room as Riosho finished off the illusionary projections before coming after me.
'Nothing I've done in this life comes to mind either! The only thing that even comes close were those enemy jutsu recognition sessions with sensei, and even then those were … just to…' Brilliance struck. 'And now I have a plan.'
Unfortunately, my plan came at the same time as a wave of fire extended from Riosho's blade. I formed seals, but the blaze hit me before I could replace myself.
Feeling some of my skin melting, I saw my health bar plummet to just a third of it's capacity.
"Feel the BURN!" shouted my opponent.
I groaned. Partly in pain, and partly from the terrible pun…but it was mostly the pain.
'I need to finish this quickly.' I thought, forming another set of Bunshin.
They were met with a single wave of fire, canceling all of them, but it was time enough for me to loot a nearby body.
'Ok, so sword, c-rank, explosive tag, score, 12 ryo, and a genjutsu, look at that later.'
A quick Kawarimi sent me away from the flame that had downed my clones. I attached the explosive tag to my last kunai, and threw it at him before he had finished turning towards me.
Like expected, his blade came up to block the knife. Then the tag exploded, blowing him back into a tree on the camp forest border and separating him from his sword, but only by about a foot or so.
Then I started clapping, sending out Reppushou after Reppushou, hitting Riosho again and again taking away small chunks of his health. Every time he started struggling to his feet another wave of air would flatten him against the bark of the tree.
Finally, my chakra started to lag after the twentieth or thirtieth technique, so I drew the sword I had picked up from a corpse, and started walking towards Riosho.
"COME ON!" I shouted, at the downed swordsman. "Is that all you got, you Pussy?"
Rage in his eyes, Riosho grabbed his sword, and took to his feet. With a wordless snarl he flicked his sword, fire sprouting along his blade.
Now there are several very important factors to take in here.
The first? I had hit Riosho with around twenty or thirty Fuuton: Reppushou's, which are essentially just chakra laced air concentrated between the hands and sent out with a clap, like a big bubble of hyper concentrated air.
Two, or the second, is that because that air was laced with my chakra, it kind of sticks around, stuck together for a few moments before dispersing. When combined with the sheer number of techniques that I sent his way, that's a fair sized pocket of hyper condensed air.
The third thing to keep in mind is what happens to when fire, even a spark, is introduced to such an atmosphere.
Riosho obviously didn't have those things in mind as he gave a very surprised gasp as the world around him turned to a massive inferno.
"Don't play with fire." I said. 'Haha, pun champion.'
As the fire settled down, Riosho lay inside of a circle of burned grass, and a crisped tree, gasping for breath and barely hanging onto his life.
I walked over to him, slowly, carefully avoiding the dying fires. Standing over him, his eye (the other had apparently popped during the explosion, and was gushing fluid) found its way over to me.
I place my sword over his chest.
CRITICAL HIT
RIOSHO'S LEFT ARM CRIPPLED
"You fight," he panted out, "without Honor."
I looked down at him for a moment, before flicking my forehead protector.
"Ninja."
He nodded, the flesh on his neck bleeding from the exercise, as if that settled everything, which it did.
Then my sword plunged down through his heart ending his life.
+50 XP
QUEST UPDATE
-DESTROY THE CAMP
-FREE THE PRISONERS
I sighed, and heard felt someone walking up behind me.
I turned and saw a limping Hibachi.
"You win?" He asked unnecessarily.
"Yeah."
"You good?"
"Will be."
"Good." He finished, ending that conversation.
He gestured at the broken field that once was a camp around us. "We won."
I grunted in agreement. "Almost, still need to free the hostages."
"No," Hibachi responded, and I looked at him with an inquisitive brow raised. "Sempai and Ami are with them now, they sent me out looking for you."
"Thanks." I nodded.
"You good to go?" He asked turning around back to the direction he came from.
"Almost." I said.
I reached down, and began looting the samurai wanted-to-be on the ground.
It was a good thing I found several baubles, several hundred ryo, his kimono, my looted sword ('Must count as his since it's still in his body' I thought), a fire ninjutsu, and his sword.
A sword that on closer inspection, was worth my entire apartment building.
'What the hell?' I thought, going over the sword's stats.
"Blade of the Lion," I read aloud from my inventory screen. "Damage is twenty, weight is five, it's A-rank, and … what the hell is this?" I asked myself as I kept reading down. "Enhanced Damage, Enhanced Fire Manipulation, Bleeding Damage? This sword is fucking Awesome! No wonder that guy was so tough!"
Quickly canceling out of that screen (after equipping that sword, of course) I was feeling much better.
"Allright, I'm good." I told Hibachi before following him up the hill.
Half way there, I was once again interrupted by a familiar looking screen.
LEVEL UP
SKILL POINTS REMAINING 21
BARTER – -17+
BUUKIJUTSU, MELEE- -30+
BUUKIJUTSU, RANGED- -35+
CHAKRA CONTROL- -61+
FUUINJUTSU- -32+
GENJUTSU- -30+
LOCKPICKING – -30+
MEDICINE- -22+
NINJUTSU- -61+
SMITHING- -25+
STEALTH- -37+
SPEECH – -32+
TAIJUTSU- -50+
'Oh yeah, awesome!' I thought before quickly coming to a decision on my skills.
'Easily ten points into Melee, because I am going to use the crap out of that sword! Then eight into fuuinjutsu, because those explosives were phenomenal, and let me level up, and everyone knows explosive tags are fuuinjutsu products, so I'll just bring that up to a nice even forty, and then my last three I'll put into Medicine, so I can use that Mystical Palm technique and heal me or my allies if it ever comes to that.'
I nodded to myself before adding the appropriate points and hitting 'Next'
'Even more awesome' I thought as the perk screen came up. 'New Perks!'
Scrounger:
Level Required: 8
Stats Required: Luck 5
Ranks Available: 1
Description: Considerably more Kunai, Shuriken, Arrows, Darts, and Ninja Wire will be found in containers.
Bigger is Better:
Level Required: 8
Stats Required: Endurance 5
Ranks Available: 3
Description: Plus 10 to your Ninjutsu Skill
Strong Back:
Level Required: 8
Stats Required: Strength 5, Endurance 5
Ranks Available: 1
Description: +50 Carry Weight
Now You See Me…:
Level Required: 8
Stats Required: Chakra Control 50
Ranks Available: 1
Description: Expelling Chakra out of every pore, you have gained the ability of Chakra Shroud, granting you a temporary disruption field. While this talent is active, you gain + 10 to Stealth, and +10 to Damage Resistance.
Double Trouble:
Level Required: 8
Stats Required: Ninjutsu 50
Ranks Available: 3
Description: You are Legion. The one who is many, an army by yourself. Rank 1: Clones can travel up to twice the distance away from the character and go for twice as long before dispersing. Rank 2: Clones can use all of the characters Ninjutsu from the element that they are conceived. Rank 3: The character earns the experience from any enemy a clone dispatches.
'This choice requires almost no thought!' I laughed, almost dancing in joy at the prospect of having another ten skill points in Ninjutsu. "Wait," I thought, looking back at the previous perks. "I said I would get Nature Transformation this level…" Looking back at the 'Bigger is Better' perk, I could almost feel some small part of myself die as I was torn between two impossible choices.
'Do I go with something that makes me better all around, or do I go with the chunin level skill?' I thought, fervently trying to find some flaw in one of the products that would allow me to make my decision.
'Ok, wait' I thought closing my eyes into a heavy frown. 'Anko-sempai said that Nature Manipulation was a chunin level skill that gave a person greater control and ability with that single element, but improving my ninjutsu skill gives me greater skill and ability with all types of ninjutsu, so the obvious choice to be a better, or at least more dangerous, ninja is the 'Bigger is Better' perk!'
I put my arms behind my head, and gave a trademarked smile. 'Kami do I love being more intelligent, it just makes so many things easier!' Selecting the perk, I exited the menu and, finally done with my latest improvement, I continued up the hill with Hibachi.
Back into the tree's behind the command tent, large cages made of bamboo sheltered a crowd of dirty, scared looking people. And one very well dressed merchant.
I smiled and made my way over to the ladies, whom were now directing everyone out of the cages.
Ami turned around and saw us first.
She rushed over to me before immediately pulling short and, gasping aloud, pointed at my head.
"Oh my kami, Naruto, you're missing an ear!"
First I frowned. 'Really?' I thought raising a hand to the accused missing ear. Sure enough, my fingers only brushed against a bloody stump. 'Oh shit, I guess I am…when did that happen?'
I gave a shrug at this turn of events. "Meh, don't worry about it." Her worried face probably meant she thought I had a concussion.
"It'll grow back tomorrow." I finished weakly, and she stared at me, and then shook her head in disbelief.
"You are, without a doubt, the strangest boy I have ever met." She chuckled
Encouraged by her chuckle I joked a bit. "Don't worry, you don't know that many guys yet. Or maybe you do," I said slyly putting on a great look of concern. "You haven't been doing naughty things while I'm not around, are you?"
She pouted then. "But how will I ever get good if I don't practice?"
Shocked by her pseudo confession I stammered for a moment, while sensei just laughed.
"That's my girl!" Came the throaty encouragement from sensei.
Turning to look at her, my face immediately went bright red.
It seemed that the only things to have survived the course of the battle were sensei's boots and part of her miniskirt.
Hands at her hips, Anko-sama proudly displayed a very large, very perky set of creamy skinned breasts, each one fuller than both of my hands could grasp. They bounced and jiggled joyously, the small rose colored nipple on the end practically bouncing up and down as sensei walked-
My perverted thoughts were interrupted by sensei's fist coming down on my head.
Ami giggled at my reaction and sensei's reaction to it.
"Hey, I said we are like family, and family does not look at each other like that, ok?" Anko drawled, her crossed arms pushing up those rose tipped-
Her fist came down on my head again.
"Damnit, sensei! I just got out of a fight!" I shouted closing my eyes and rubbing my head.
"Also," came the hesitant voice of Hibachi. "I don't think family goes around half-naked around each other."
"What are you talking about?" Anko said. "Of course they do!"
"No, I'm pretty sure they don't!" I said, exasperated. "But could you please either put a shirt on or stop hitting me for looking?"
"Looking at what, Naruto-kun?" Sensei said, in a slow drawling voice that promoted even more perverted thoughts.
"Sensei," whined Ami.
"All right, fine." Anko said, and I opened my eyes to see sensei cupping her breasts. "But it seems such a shame to hide the two best wonders of the world."
I nearly passed out from the nosebleed that ensued.
Ami stood over where I lay on the ground, stifling her giggles with one hand.
"I'm glad my misery is so amusing to you." I groused, wiping away the surely arterial blood still leaking from my nose.
"Oh but Naruto-kun," Ami said cutely, brushing her bang behind her ear. "You don't look miserable."
"Mock me as you will, I will have the last laugh." I said, my finger pointed accusingly at her from where I lay.
This only set off another round of giggles.
"What transpires here." Came a gravelly voice.
Getting up quickly, I saw a squad of twelve armed samurai, their armor a sleek silver in the pale moonlit night. Upon each head sat a helmet of steel, equipped with a rebreather, and eyes glowing red in the darkness.
"Hi there!", Sensei called out, bouncing on her feet and waving at the samurai. "How are you guys?"
It should be mentioned, that she had not put on that shirt yet.
The group of samurai stared for a moment, before one of the samurai coughed. "What was that?
'Still has nothing on my sexy jutsu' I thought.
The samurai in front shook his head and addressed us again in the same gravelly tone.
"We hail from the land of Iron, and we search for one of our own who has fallen to the path of banditry." He said waving at the camp around him. "This was his camp. You would recognize him by his armor, that of red and black."
"Uhuh!" Anko said nodding her head before pointing at a form slumped on the ground. "He's right here."
"Very well then, we shall take the prisoner, or corpse, and go." The samurai responded, taking a step forward before being stopped by Anko-sempai's upraised hand.
"Now see, that's where we have a problem." Anko said, making a nodding her head in false sympathy. "You see, he, and those under his command, attacked Konohagakure shinobi in the process of a mission. That makes him ours, and our bounty."
A grumble came from the samurai group before being stopped by the leaders upraised fist.
"He is a Land of Iron fugitive, and former Samurai, he will be Land of Iron prisoner.
"Yes, that's true, but he is in shinobi lands, violating shinobi laws and attacking shinobi." Anko said in a level voice. "So that's a no on him being your prisoner."
"This man is a B-ranked ronin, or was before he began to dabble in your shinobi arts." The armored man spat, giving everyone a clear idea of what he thought of shinobi and their arts. "He will be our prisoner!"
Anko held up a hand. "Careful there." She said, in a patient tone of voice. "you are insulting shinobi arts in shinobi lands to kunoichi." A dangerous glint came into her eye. "Who knows what might happen?"
"You and your team would die if you initiate combat." Asshat said with a growl. "And you hold a prisoner belonging to the Iron Nation, and you speak with a flippant tongue to one of it's lords! I would take care how you speak woman, lest your be cleft in twain for your insolence!"
"Rightfully yours!" Anko said with a scoff. "I don't know what part of the definition 'rightfully' you got wrong, but you're going to have to double check with a dictionary or a sage. That'll be after we left with OUR prisoner, however.
The samurai's red eyes seemed to narrow, and his hand drifted towards his sword. "You would challenge me on this?"
Anko smiled at his dangerous tone.
"I don't need to!" She said enthusiastically. "Article fifty three of the Iron-Fire non-hostility agreement stipulates that in the event of a dispute over a prisoner, the matter is resolved first by who claimed the prisoner first. That would be moi, as I have already sent my mid-mission report over fifteen minutes ago."
The samurai were still as sensei continued on in the same perky tone. "So unless you are willing to be the reason that our countries went to war, at worst, or at best be levied such terrible fees that you will be working well into the afterlife to pay them off, I advise you to pull your head out of your ass and walk away."
Silence reigned for a full thirty seconds after she had stopped talking, before she continued, that same maniacal glint promising death and pain returning to her eye. "Unless you wish to challenge me on this…bitch."
The assembled men were silent for a moment, before their leader spoke again.
"Have it your way whore, but we are taking the weapons. I cannot allow Iron Nation steel in the hands of those not of our lands."
Anko nodded her acceptance. "Very well, but nothing that our bounty wore, or wielded. That is the law."
The leader seemed to be developing a twitch as acquiesced to her words.
"But sensei!" I said, not very eager to lose perfection made steel that I had only recently acquired.
"No but's Naruto-kun, they are well within their rights to make such a demand." She said before leaning down and conspirrationaly saying to me. "Besides, it's just a sword."
Asshat's twitch became more pronounced.
I handed him the sword of the apprentice, and the samurai squad turned to leave. Little gust of wind hailed the disappearance of each samurai, all but Asshat.
Asshat turned to our group, and said in a low growl, "I will not forget this slight."
Anko nodded. "That's nice sweetie, run along now!" she said with a wave. And then he too, left the camp.
"Hey sensei," I asked after they had been gone for a minute or two. "How did you know all of that about the treaty?"
She shrugged. "I just made that shit up."
"It's really no wonder you're so memorable." Came a voice from behind us.
I cursed inwardly. 'Damnit! This is why I got the higher perception and that detecting chakra thing! So people would stop sneaking up on me!'
There, leaning against the bamboo cages, stood the legendary Copy Ninja, Kakashi Hatake, reading his favorite Icha Icha novel.
Anko crossed her arms and pouted. "Really? This gorgeous body is almost entirely bare, and you still stand around reading porn?"
Kaka-sensei shrugged. "Maa, maa, I like the plot."
"What are you doing here Hatake?" Anko said, amusement creeping into her tone.
"You sent for backup." He said before waving a hand over himself. "I'm here."
"Nooo, you were supposed to be guarding the merchants." Anko said.
"My team is on it." Kakashi said simply, turning a page.
"Your team?" Anko said doubtfully.
"Yep." He grunted.
"Your genin team" She said again, eyebrow cocking and her hands going to her hips.
"That's them."
"The one's who are barely out of the academy?"
"That's right."
"They're the ones who are supposed to be guarding the caravan of merchants from what was supposed to be impending bandit attack."
"I'm sensing some skepticism." Kakashi said suspiciously.
Sensei just sighed in exasperation, and towards back towards us.
"Ok, kiddies, lets round up these people and get this show on the road!"
AN
Firstly, the much requested level compilation
STATUS UPDATE
Naruto Lv.8
SPECIAL
STRENGTH 7
PERCEPTION 4
ENDURANCE 9
CHARISMA 3
INTELLIGENCE 8
AGILITY 5
LUCK 7
SKILLS
BARTER –CHARISMA- 17
BUUKIJUTSU, MELEE-STRENGTH- 40
BUUKIJUTSU, RANGED-AGILITY- 35
CHAKRA CONTROL-INTELLIGENCE-61
FUUINJUTSU-INTELLIGENCE- 40
GENJUTSU-PERCEPTION- 30
LOCKPICKING –PERCEPTION-30
MEDICINE-INTELLIGENCE-25
NINJUTSU-ENDURANCE- 71
SMITHING-STRENGTH- 25
STEALTH-AGILITY- 37
SPEECH –CHARISMA-32
TAIJUTSU-ENDURANCE-50
Perks
Intense Training (3)
Stick It To The Leaf
Does Whatever A Ninja Can
Educated
Tales of Tails
Oliver, Oliver
FEEL IT! - Level 2
Bigger is Better (1)
AN (IE, the rest of it)
WOOT WOOT!
All aboard the Kick Ass express!
Or the 'This took way too long, what the hell' caboose.
One or the other
Anyway, fantastic to be back writing this everyone, and yes, before you all say it, I know this took way too long.
But I've been busy.
So I'm sure that a lot of people will have questions about stuff.
The first of those questions will most likely be, why did you do random jackoff A and not the mission to Wave?
Well, for multiple reasons.
First, in the wake of Wave, all four members of team Kakashi should have walked away learning a valuable lesson. Sakura should have learned that in her present state, she could do nothing to aid the team, and had to become stronger in order to match, or even keep pace with, her teammates. Sasuke should have learned to share his burdens. Kakashi should have learned to supply his team with training ahead of time, and not right before they might be facing a life or death scenario. Naruto should have learned that idealism doesn't survive a battle, and that he would need to kill, or put his life on the line, in order to protect what was precious to him.
But they don't, so here is my version of a sensei doing a modest job over Kakashi's lack of response.
In the Wave scenario, a decent shinobi (or kunoichi) would have called the mission off, so I tried to craft a new scenario where the skilled opposition would want a protectorate alive as a hostage, and I went from there. Maybe not the best way, or the most fluent, but there we go.
Second, is because I think each team should have their own little start up mission, making them unique from other teams. Team 8's mission should be different from Team 9's which is different from Team 10's, etc.
Third, is because after reading so many fics that just regurgitate the same events but slightly differently, my writer senses were craving diversity.
Next question you will most likely have (or maybe not, but still a good answer anyway), 'Hey 10k, you magnificent stud you, what are you doing with the Chunin exams? Will Naruto be going? Will he still try to spare Sasuke the curse mark? Will things go the same as they always do?
The answer to all of that in order right now.
Something different, Of course he is, Yes and will fail but for different reasons than you might expect, and no of course not I just said that I hate that.
I won't give too much away though, as that spoils the appetite for more.
But all on a more serious Note, I regret to say that resident beta HTM is no longer with us. He has become a victim of what we in the biz call, 'Life'. Not to say that he is dead, but he has too much right now in his life to continue beta'ing this story. So with that being said, I want each and every one of you to comment on previous chapters, for every time there wasn't a gross error or spelling mistake, and I want you to thank HTM for it.
Thanks man.