Shadow and Wind: New legends

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Disclaimer: Everything that isn't Kishimoto's is mine. There's not a lot left, now is there? -_-'

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10. The First Mission: The Village

Finally, civilization! Time for break... or maybe not.

Shikamaru and Naruto were finally walking on a normal road. It was a welcome change from the tree traveling they had been doing from the start of their departure. They had finally left the country border. Vegetation was still present, but there was nothing taller than bushes as far as the eye could see. Still the fields were brimming with color, a sign that they were still near the rich soil of the Country of Fire. Far to the distance, the mountains of Konoha could still be seen if they turned around.

Nara's pace was a tad faster than usual: he seemed he wanted to avoid the company of his teammate, who was desperately trying to get his attention. His hands were held together behind his head, and a pronounced scowl betrayed his mood. Naruto attempted to appease his partner, a sheepish smile plastered on his face.

"Shikamaru…?"

"…"

"Come on, don't be like that! I said I was sorry."

"…"

"How could I have known anyway?"

Shikamaru finally snapped, judging that the last statement was too much. "How could you have known that you already knew the Body Switch Technique? I really don't know… that's beyond me…" his tone was sarcastic and angry enough for Naruto to wince.

"Well… okay, let's say I forgot."

"…"

"Bah," said Naruto, feeling like pouting himself, "it's not like you wasted precious time either: you basically slacked off during all the time I was training."

"Well, it might be because I was going crazy trying to help a certain shinobi to learn a jutsu he already knew." The lazy chuunin hoped that focus on Naruto's blunder would throw him off the fact that he had been right on target about Shikamaru's activities. "If I had known that earlier we'd already be in the village right now."

"W-well, it's not like the time was completely wasted, right? I got better control than before…"

Shikamaru snorted, but in truth he was content. Naruto's chakra handling wasn't as good as his own, but he was rapidly going there. Before they had left, they had a last spar on top of the water. This fight allowed the use of tools and ninjutsu, but the Kyuubi host wasn't able to use them; as soon as he gathered chakra in order to perform a technique, he sank. This gave a huge advantage to Shikamaru who won using his Mass Shadow Biding technique. When the genin asked in awe how come he had so much better control than he did, he grinned.

At first, Shikamaru didn't think he had much worth as a shinobi besides his shadow skills. After spending enough time with his team, he had realized that even Ino, a girl, was better than him in the stamina department. Instead of trying to improve on his shortcomings – too much of a hassle, he opted to overcome his problem by strengthening his chakra control, which was already pretty decent. Not only did it require less work than working on his chakra capacity, in end the same result was achieved, which was to facilitate the use of the Shadow Biding skill more often and on longer periods of time.

Of, course Naruto felt obligated to burst his bubble by telling him that Haruno Sakura, a person he considered below her, was a control chakra freak. Needless to say Shikamaru had spent the remaining of that day sulking.

When the chuunin finally focused on what was in front of him, the gates of the village were only within a mile's reach. The town was much smaller than the Hidden leaf Village; still it was big enough to be considered a small city. Around the village many fields could be seen: it varied from cereals to fruits and vegetables. The fact that these fields were found outside of town proved that it lived in peace. It was quite a feat considering it was right between the Fire and Lightning countries.

The village itself was bursting life. Many kids could be seen playing which was always a good sign when determining the prosperity of a region. The inside structure wasn't as complex as the hidden village, but it wasn't like there was a need for that either. Various shops could be seen throughout the streets garnished with noisy buyers and window-shoppers; Naruto immediately spotted the ramen stand. Near the shops were the workshops and near the center of the town the inns and the residential area could be found.

The duo quickly realized that something was wrong; here and there were clusters of villagers nervously talking to each other. Shikamaru had also read from his father's notes that this town was pretty hospitable, yet he had not heard a word of greeting since he and Naruto had gotten here. Not to say they went by unnoticed however; as they walked towards the square, the pair had ample time to feel the various side glances and find them uncomfortable. The thing about these glances though, was they were filled with apprehension rather than suspicion.

Shikamaru didn't like the palpable tension residing amidst the townsfolk. He subtly told Naruto they were directly heading to the inn they were supposed to go and were staying there at least until whatever happened here subsided. Naruto was curious and silently objected, but the glances were seriously starting to creep him out and he caved in.

As they headed in the opposite direction, they were stopped by a tall chubby middle aged woman that suddenly walked in front of them. Naruto and Shikamaru gave each other troubled glances as the villager looked at them, focusing on every part of their body. She stopped at the blonde's forehead protector for a second. Finally recognizing the Konoha leaf symbol, she talked to Naruto.

"Please forgive my eagerness, but wouldn't be one of the Shinobi of the Konoha Hidden Village to the south west, would you?"

"Sure I am!" claimed Naruto, pumping his chest and fixing his already perfectly placed headband.

Shikamaru shook his head: he had forgotten about their forehead protectors. He wanted to pass unnoticed in town; his goal was to prevent them of being in even more trouble than they were already in. Looking at the relieved expression appearing on the woman's face, all the enthusiastic murmurs and the eyes brimming with hope, he already knew he had failed miserably.

"Oh! Thank goodness! We were just on our way to send a messenger to Konoha. You have to help us!"

"Hold on a second!" The voice belonged to man probably in his late twenties. He looked burly; from what he could see Naruto guessed he was a farmer. "Why should we trust these kids to be any help to us. I mean look at them: they're not even older than my eldest kid!"

Naruto already angered by the comment was ready to tell the man a piece of his mind, but as he stepped forward, Shikamaru's hand blocked his way. The chuunin had a smug grin on his face: he didn't want any part in the village's troubles but being called a useless kid by a normal citizen was an insult for any self-respecting shinobi.

"Oh? Care to tell me in what way does it prevent us of being good shinobi?" he asked nonchalantly. "Or maybe you're implying you'd rather wait a week for a messenger to go to Konoha in order to get the help you need; either way, we're already on duty so it's not like we're obligated to help you."

The effects chuunin expected to produce appeared sooner than he thought. People had started whispering very nervously to one another. It seemed the topics varied; Naruto discerned people talking about them, some were commenting on the urgency of the situation, most of them were condemning the beefy farmer's rude remarks – apparently, his name was Ryo. Eventually all eyes were accusingly fixed on him. Naruto was grinning: partly because the man got what he deserved; partly because the villagers had finally stopped watching them like they were some sort of freak show. Finally a smaller, older man stepped out of the mass and cleared his throat.

"We apologize; surely it was not our intention to insult you in anyway," he said as he glared the culprit into a confused state of shame. "We would be truly honored and relieved if you could lend us your assistance."

Naruto made an exaggerated but encouraging gesture and the old man continued.

"Well you see this village is at the mercy of a band of thieves: they suddenly came two months ago from the North and almost destroyed our town. We simply endured it and thought of rebuilding what had been destroyed, putting what happened behind us, but that wasn't meant to be: the thieves had not completely left; they established their base not to far to the east of the village and have been raiding us ever since."

Shikamaru was hesitant to give an answer. The more he heard, the less he wanted to get involve in this situation. He was especially wary of bandits; he had no idea of their numbers, not to mention the fact that could very well be missing nin. He finally decided that the only reasonable thing he could do is help them defend the village against the next raid. He was about to ask more questions to the person he deemed to be the village's mayor when he was interrupted by a shriek.

Moments later, a young woman came running to the aged man, desperation could be read on her face.

"Elder, I can't find my son; Toshiro is gone!"

"Now, Mayuri, he can't be far."

"No, I looked for him everywhere: he can't be found. He also said he wanted to go against the bandits. Oh, if they should ever gets their hands on him I-…"

This was all she could say before she burst into tears. She was pulled into the embrace of her husband who coincidently was none other than the burly Ryo. The man shot Shikamaru a very expressive glance. The chuunin in turn face the elder, asking him a physical description of the missing person. Once this was done he informed the man about his intentions.

"We'll go and bring the boy back; in the mean time send a messenger to Konoha. I have no idea what will be needed to face the situation but I don't want to be unprepared. Naruto let's…"

But when he faced the direction Naruto had been only moments ago, there was nothing other than villagers. A quick glance around confirmed his fears; he had already left. Shikamaru slapped his forehead out of exasperation before heading out east.

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To the east of the village was the coast. Sand could be found as far as the eye could see. A little ways to North, the beach made way for a small cliff. The cliff had a large opening; and that's where the thieves set camp.

The small camp was full of people; every one of them was busy doing something. Near the beach bandits were playing cards and telling jokes by a fire. Not too far from them a fight erupted between two of the more muscular looking ruffians. Some of them were sharpening their weapons while some were drinking themselves silly. From the looks of things the group wasn't very organized.

Above the activity a single shinobi was observing the scene with interest. From what he could see, there was about thirty bandits below, a number he felt pretty capable of handling. The observer tried to figure the best way to confuse his opponents. When he got his great idea, the ninja got ready for some action… only to be punched behind the head.

When the orange clad shinobi turned around in surprise, he saw an angry and exhausted teammate.

"That hurt!" he whispered, which surprised his interlocutor; it was the first time he had ever heard the blond say anything under a hundred decibels. "What's wrong with you; you look out of breath."

"I ran after two idiots at full speed."

"Hey!"

"Have you seen the kid?"

"What kid?"

From that answer, Shikamaru understood that the genin had left as soon as he heard the direction of the thieves' whereabouts. He explained the current situation to Naruto and asked again.

"…Must be that kid."

The chuunin took a look at the direction his partner's finger was pointing. There was a small child about a meter tall. From the distance, all he could tell was that he was a red haired boy wearing an oversized shirt so big it covered most of his black shorts. From what he heard from his mother he was named Toshiro, and from the way he simply waltzed in the bandits' lair he could judge that he probably had a hot temper and was very stupid, which contributed to make the palm of his hand reach for his forehead once again.

Judging he didn't have much time before the brat got himself killed due to a severe lack of reasoning skills, he quickly grabbed Naruto's attention and explained him what he wanted from him.

"Listen, what ever you were preparing to do, wait till you see me make a signal, got it?"

"Right, but what are you going to do?

"I'm going to rescue the kid." Before he jumped down however, he gave his partner a severe warning. "Naruto, the only objective here is to secure the brat and nothing else; don't try to take them on all by yourself. And don't try to do anything too reckless either."

"Roger."

The chuunin silently made his way down into the lair. Meanwhile the boy had enough time to announce his presence and was currently being carried by the collar of shirt, ineffectively trying to punch and kick is way to freedom. Shikamaru got closer: the kid wasn't crying or afraid, instead he seemed to be more and more furious as the thugs one by one noticed their guest.

"Hey, look what I found guys; a little rat came in to play."

"Let me go you damn Jerk! And gimme back what you stole from us."

"My, my, what a brave little guy! And it so happens that I hate courageous idiots, too," said one of the bandits.

Shikamaru knew that if the other outlaws got too close to Toshiro, it would make things too complicated for Naruto to interfere; another diversion was needed. Without hesitation, the chuunin quickly jumped out from hiding in order to kick the brat's captor. Since he came from the side, the thug never saw anything coming and was knocked out cold with a solidly placed hit to the back of the head, dropping the stunned kid. The chuunin grabbed the kid's collar before his feet could even touch the ground.

He lifted the kid until they he could look at him in the eye without having to lower his head and proceeded to start a conversation with Toshiro among the bewildered men.

"You're an idiot, you know that?"

"Shut up! Let me go," said the brat, still flailing his arms "…who're you anyway?"

"Your mom sent me to get you," the tone of his reply sounded like he was a simple babysitter coming to get a misbehaving kid.

"Not until I find my toy!"

"You're telling me that you came all this way because of a stupid toy!"

"…So?"

The chuunin let got of the boy, concluding further reasoning with him wasn't worth the effort. Toshiro landed painfully on his rear. Vexed by his savior's attitude, he got up and tried to kick his leg. The older boy saw it coming and dodged at the last second. The orange haired brat got carried away by the momentum of his own kick and once again landed on his butt. The child quickly understood that struggling would only become more troublesome – and painful, so he stayed put.

Meanwhile the thieves were still a little shaken by the apparition of the older kid who KO'd their second in command like he was a pushover. However, after noticing his age and the fact that he was all alone they soon gained enough confidence to think about eliminating the intruder.

Noticing the change in their behavior, the young Nara raised his hand for no apparent reason. He hoped Naruto would pick the gesture as his cue to join the party, but he still prepared his Mass Shadow Binding technique on the off chance that his teammate couldn't see him. Fortunately it wasn't the case: as his foes came closer they stopped in their tracks when they heard a voice yelling above them: "[Mass Shadow Clone Technique]".

When the thugs looked up, they saw that they were encircled by two rows of identical orange wearing kids. Before they had time to figure out how they had been surrounded so fast, the Narutos leap into the air. Amidst the orange mass covering part of the sky another shout was heard: "[Naruto missile bombardment technique]!" Immediately, each genin grabbed the Naruto next to him and threw him into the group of outlaws.

Shikamaru was impressed by Naruto's new technique. Sure, it was a waste of chakra when you thought about it, but it was a trivial matter in the genin's case. Naruto was surprised by the results himself: thanks to the chakra control training, he had been able to summon so much more clones which contributed in the jutsu's success.

And a success it was: confusion reigned on the new battlegrounds. Panicked brigands scrambled in every direction looking for cover as they were mercilessly assaulted by a rain of Kamikaze Narutos. Even when they missed their targets, the force with which the clones were hitting the sandy ground was strong enough to create a cloud of dust, adding to the general disorder.

The chuunin thought the time was appropriate for his great exit. He waited for the real Naruto to find him before they took the kid and ran in the direction of the beach. Their pathway was blocked however by twenty men or so, the apparent leader of the bandits at its head.

The trio quickly backed into the campsite, hoping to seize a chance to escape in the confusion. Unfortunately for them, most of the bandits were renegade soldiers. Once they had calmed down they focused their efforts on capturing the troublemakers. As they ran into the smoke, Naruto suddenly felt a hand grabbing his shoulder. Next thing he knew, he was pinned down by five mean looking guys.

Shikamaru turned around when he noticed that the blond wasn't following anymore. Big mistake: this moment of inattention allowed one of the pursuers to get close to him. This particular thug was wielding a huge club that he swung at the chuunin's head. It was too late for the chuunin to dodge; all he could do was drop the boy he was carrying and protect himself using both arms.

As the chuunin rolled on the floor, the smoke cleared. Naruto managed to raise his head enough to see his partner. "Shikamaru!" he yelled, but there was no answer. Fearing the worst for his companion the Kyuubi host struggled to break free, shouting and trying to bite. Meanwhile, one of the bandits threw a solid punch at Toshiro, knocking him down. Naruto's blood was boiling.

As he struggled he saw someone wielding a blade walk into Shikamaru's direction, mumbling about making sure the kid was dead. Seeing the potential pain his death could inflict Naruto, the men pinning him down raised him high enough so he could assist the execution.

"You bastards, don't you even dare! Shikamaru, move! Please get up!"

The thug's blade rose, then fell on chuunin's body; which was partly hidden by the other members of group wanting to see the show. His thoughts rapidly became less focused on Shikamaru: Must rescue Shikamaru… must get rid of the people holding me down… must destroy the people holding me down… must destroy the people… destroy… then Naruto's mind went blank.

As for Shikamaru, Naruto's cries brought him back to his senses. He didn't know what he was doing on the floor or when it happened, but his blurry vision did distinguish a sword being menacingly raised. Fully awake now, the chuunin turned his body enough to dodge the lethal sword blow, ending with a small wound to his side instead.

His executioner was surprised that he had missed, but he was even more startled when he heard a loud cry sounding more beastly than human. When he turned around, he saw that the orange, annoying looking kid was gone, replaced with a huge storm of red. He looked around and noticed the people previously in charge of the blonde were on the floor unconscious, or worse. The last thing he saw was the red storm heading into his direction with blinding speed…

The now possessed Naruto was on a rampage. After taking care of his captors and Shikamaru's executioner, the Kyuubi was now attacking anything that moved. The panic such a display of brute power created was even greater than first one: by the time the demon kid had dealt with the sword wielding bandit, everybody ran away from him.

Shikamaru looked at the scene like he wasn't part of it. Naruto's transformation filled him with an awe mixed with pure terror. All around him he could hear things like "demon!" and "monster". It was the first time he had ever seen the blonde show this kind of savagery. When he stopped looking at the chaos, his eyes fell on Toshiro. The young kid had woozily gotten up, looking totally confused. The genius felt that the current Naruto might very well assault the kid in his current form and rushed to get him to safety. As he ran towards the pumpkin head, he saw from the corner of his eyes that the Kyuubi possessed genin had noticed the boy and was heading into his direction. Both shinobi dashed madly towards Toshiro…

Naruto finally regained control himself, feeling like he had just woken up from a bad dream. The first thing he saw was Shikamaru. He looked serious for a moment, but a smile appeared on his face. Naruto was relieved to see his teammate unharmed.

"You're alive! I thought they killed you."

"I'm happy to see you're back to your old self as well; for a second there I thought you were going to kill me."

Naruto was confused by what his partner was saying for a moment. His confusion turned into horror when he took a look at his arm: his right hand was currently inside Shikamaru's body just below the shoulder. His whole body was shaking uncontrollably. The blonde was filled with disgust; unable to believe what he had just did to Shikamaru. When his gaze cam back to the chuunin he noticed that every shake of his arm resulted in a wince.

"Shikamaru, I… I…"

"You did a good job" he replied, surprising the demon container. "What I need from you right now is to not throw me a panic attack, so calm down. …good, now take out you hand, slowly."

The genin obeyed hesitantly. Each time he pulled back his arm the young Nara changed color, becoming ever so white. When he finally extracted his hand, blood poured out abundantly. Shikamaru sighed. The genin did not know if was due to pain or relief.

"Now we go back to the village."

"Wait, where's the kid? Let me carry him."

"I don't really think he'd want that after what just happened."

Indeed, Toshiro was behind Shikamaru, his hands grabbing onto his legs like they were some sort of lifebuoy. From the look in his eyes Naruto understood that the boy had not missed a thing of what happened. Shikamaru talked to the kid.

"Now kid, this is what happens when you don't stay at home where you're supposed to be," he said with a trembling voice. "You'll have to keep this a secret from the other villagers alright?"

The boy nodded, way too afraid of what could happen if he didn't comply. Before leaving the deserted campsite, Shikamaru made a makeshift bandage out of the few pieces of clothes left on the ground.

The trip back to the village was longer, mostly because neither Shikamaru nor Toshiro could move as fast as the genin or jump around so they had to walk along the cliff and move through the beach. Every movement the chuunin made was painful, making the walk much more of chore. As for the kid he wouldn't let go of lazy genius under any circumstance. Not a word was muttered during the voyage; all of them wanting to sort out the events they had experienced.

When the trio entered village, Toshiro ran directly to his parents, crying and mumbling incomprehensive things between sobs. Once again the shinobi pair found themselves surrounded by the villagers, this time cheers and thanks could be heard from every direction. Once again, the elder stepped up, this time to officially thank them for saving the boy.

"I don't think you'll have to worry about the thieves for a while now. We scared them away. They might be back though, so I hope you sent that messenger to the hidden village already."

The villagers couldn't hold their joy at that announcement. As they were celebrating however, Naruto heard a "thud" right next to him. When he turned around he saw his partner collapsed on the floor. The blood loss and his wounds, not to mention the exhausting trip back to the Village had finally taken their toll on the poor chuunin.

Shikamaru and Naruto are wounded, and in more ways than one! Can the team ever recover!

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A/N: The tenth chapter! Isn't this great? Bet you didn't expect Naruto would be the one hurting Shikamaru in the end, right? Anyways I think a tenth chapter is reason for me to celebrate, especially considering I'm a procrastinator at a genetic level. More training coming up next chapter.

Don't worry, this is the last time I'll mention this: I made a Jutsu-pedia. You can find it in my profile, should any question about a jutsu seen in this fic arise.

Btw: I mentioned this earlier, but I tweaked chapter 7 somewhat, but I didn't here anything about that... is the chapter still no good?

Mentions:

Blazing Demon: the first reviewer of this fic. Believe it or not as short as was your review I keep re-reading it. Really motivates me.

Paosheep: because you keep writing reviews and because you're very encouraging.

bleedingwrist: because he used the word awesome in his review. Awesome = win

adamrpg: First criticism that got me thinking. Mostly because of the stories you suggested. Chunin Exam Day was Awesome! I'm going to read the others soon.

RogerDering: Gave me links to the Databooks.

Review & Reply: I didn't have the time to answer to some of the reviews this time around so here it goes…

Rev: Arbitrary question; do you plan to remove the seals on Naruto in this story anytime soon?

Rep: You mean the one Orochimaru gave him? It was removed by Jiraiya before the invasion day.

Rev: Aside from the Body Switch (Replacement) technique part (could've just focused on better utilizing it with clone switching 'a la' Kakashi bell test) and molding chakra without a hand sign which Team 7 only did due to the feet being difficult to mold chakra to and something that all shinobi can do even in the academy otherwise.

Rep: I'll just tell you that I have my own idea for the whole chakra theory so there's a reason Naruto's working on it. As for the Body Switch… well I guess this chapter could be considered an answer, no?

Rev: Also if the databooks are any indication, Shikamaru's Genjutsu should be C, if not B along with his Ninjutsu.

Rep: One thing I didn't mention in my reply to you was that those answers are based on what the character thinks of himself, therefore they're not necessarily correct.