Previously
Sarutobi cut in with a forced smile on his face. "Well, you leave through the West gate in an hour. Good luck Kakashi."
The masked nin could only glare as he dragged his student out of the room, followed closely by Hinata and Shino.
Similarities in Opposites
Chapter 10
The night was silent and cool, nothing but the rustling of leaves could be heard for miles. A full moon illuminated the forests of Fire country with a soft white hue, making for a very calming affect on anyone that was awake to see it.
It was under this moonlight that Naruto lay sprawled out at the base of a tree located on the edge of the clearing that the Konoha nin had made camp in.
It was his turn to keep watch, Kakashi having just gone to bed, and he was on the verge of falling asleep. Shadow clones were currently patrolling the nearby area for any signs of hostility though, so he wasn't too concerned.
Nights like this always made him long for nothing more than a warm bed to fall asleep in, after all.
He sighed and shifted about against the tree until he found a comfortable position, silently grumbling about how unfair it was that Tayuya was able to fall asleep whenever she wanted to, no matter the weather, while he typically tossed and turned for a half hour before sleep claimed him.
A rustling sound was heard at that moment. Naruto looked towards the tent he and Tayuya were sharing, just in time to see his red headed partner clumsily exit the tiny shelter.
She rubbed at her eyes blearily, clearly having just woken up.
The blond smirked, while he couldn't fall asleep without a fight, he was always able to be fully awake and aware in less than a minute after first opening his eyes, the same could not be said for Tayuya.
They were like that in many ways, completely opposite of each other. Naruto preferred being cold over being warm any day, while Tayuya couldn't stand feeling chilly. He was unorganized and messy while she took on a perfectionist attitude and couldn't stand anything that wasn't organized or sorted.
It was for those last reasons that their small rooms back at the apartment looked like exact opposites of each other.
Naruto turned back to his partner and watched as she blinked several times, her searching eyes eventually finding him at the base of a tree.
She stood and made her way over to him whilst muttered out excuses under her breath.
"Couldn't sleep...damn fucking ground feels like...fucking sleeping bag is complete shit..."
Naruto chuckled to himself, thoughts of sleep now far from his mind, as he watched his partner practically throw herself down next to him and attempt to get comfortable. She fidgeted around for nearly a minute before finally settling down and closing her eyes, only to open them seconds later with an annoyed sigh.
"Fucking...forgot the stupid ass..."
She heaved herself up, seemingly unaware that Naruto was even there, and crawled back into their tent.
The blond was grinning at this point, his head tilted back while his shoulders shook with suppressed laughter, as he watched the girl come back out with her sleeping bag. She clumsily forced her body into it while standing and fell back against the tree again, about foot from her partner.
The Kyuubi vessel shook his head amusedly before refocusing on his task of guarding the camp.
Seconds later, he found himself starting to get drowsy again.
"Hate guard duty..." He lazily closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the tree, fighting to stay awake in what had to be the most peaceful night he'd felt.
As Naruto felt himself start to drift in and out of sleep nearly fifteen minutes later though, a pressure on his shoulder and arm brought back his awareness. He looked over to find that Tayuya had shifted to her side in her sleep, latching on and curling up against the closest source of warmth, which just happened to be him. He felt a small smile tug at his lips as his eyes found her face, framed by messy red hair.
The peaceful look that was present there almost made her seem like a completely different person. Someone who hadn't had a past any grown man would shudder at. The frown that always marred her features and the attitude she took towards people she didn't know wouldn't even seem possible for the beautiful face in front of him.
He felt his cheeks become slightly tinged with red, he had no problems admitting that he thought she looked great no matter what she was doing, just as long as he didn't have to do it out loud.
The blond lightly pressed his lips against her forehead before he realized what he was doing, but didn't miss the smile that appeared on the red head's face as he pulled away, cheeks a little darker.
"How fucking cute. Cut the sappy shit before you force me to slit my wrists you worthless sack of blood and bones."
Naruto sighed. "Don't you have anything better to do?"
"I'm locked inside a fucking sewer for all of eternity you mindless skin bag. What the fuck do you think?"
The blond decided not to answer, instead shifting around for a few seconds until he found a position comfortable enough to sleep in. He absentmindedly wrapped an arm around Tayuya's waist, pulling her body heat closer to him, before he finally succumbed to the blissful darkness.
Tayuya kept her gaze firmly locked on the road ahead of her, refusing to give that damnable silver haired pervert any more amusement. She and Naruto had slept through the night without any disturbances, but to their great misfortune, Kakashi had been the first to wake up.
The copy nin had immediately set out to make their lives as embarrassing as possible, taking no less than 26 pictures of the sleeping pair.
At least that's the number of them he'd shown to the five genin, much to Sasuke's vindicative pleasure. Shino didn't experience any visible reaction to them and Hinata had just given them a small smile.
Those two hadn't been so bad, but the two sharingan users were currently making Tayuya want to kill something, slowly...and with her bare hands.
"Ahh young love, such a be," Tayuya flinched, "-a," flinch, "-u," flinch, "-tiful thing, eh Sasuke?"
The boy in question grinned cruely, sarcasm lacing his voice. "One of the most important parts of being a ninja."
Kakashi didn't seem to know what to respond with, so the torture stopped there as silence fell over the group.
Tayuya let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding and chanced a look over at Naruto. He was wearing a clearly exasperated look on his face, but seemed resigned in a way, not annoyed in the slightest.
The red head growled under her breath, ready to tell the blond off quite vocally for allowed her to suffer through the insults while he was able to completely ignore them, when Kakashi's voice caused her to look back up at the road.
"Well, this is Tea Country. We only need to travel for a few more hours until we reach our clients."
The forests were indeed finally clearing, signifying the end of Fire Country. They broke off into wide open grassy plains, spotted with the occasional farm or town here and there. A steady wind caused the grass to bend and flow while the few trees that were scattered across the land shook with the breeze. Tea Country was a beautiful place.
A familiar brushing sound gained Tayuya's attention. She turned to find her partner had taken out a small scroll and started practicing his seal work while he walked.
The blond dove head first into fuinjutsu as soon as they had gotten back from Wave several days earlier, using shadow clones to memorize all the seals he could. He had gotten many of the basic seals down and could now draw them purely from memory, things such as the explosion seal and a few variations of the storage seal. Anything beyond that was when Naruto became liable to blow himself up, as well as anything near him.
Tayuya sighed in boredom, coming to the realization that nearly everyone had something to do but her.
It was going to be a long walk to their client.
Baku, the kanji used on exploding notes to cause all the damage.
Naruto was currently tweaking one of these seals to see if he could get different reactions out of the chakra laced paper. Thus far he'd made about three changes to the original seal, and one, out of pure dumb luck, had made the explosion more volatile.
The other ones just managed to fizzle out, much to the blond's disappointment.
He had still made a change to the kanji that caused it to be more effective though, which was much more than any other novice fuinjutsu user could say.
He set down the seal he'd been toying with, a grin on his face, and exited the tent he shared with Tayuya.
The Konoha team had meant up with their clients, an elderly couple that owned a nearby farm, and gotten enough information to find the first bandit camp rather quickly.
Not like smoke from a massive bonfire and shouted drunken lyrics to made upsongs were hard to find though.
Nonetheless, the six ninja had set up camp a good distance from the bandits and set about observing them until nightfall, when they would strike.
Kakashi had the genin do most of the information gathering for experience, and had gone into his tent hours ago after telling them to meet back here an hour before sundown to discuss and plan a strategy.
Naruto looked up at the sky and judged that it was nearly time for the genin to report back, in fact, the only one that was still missing was Tayuya.
The blond shot down the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach almost immediately, scolding himself for his lapse of faith in his partner's abilities. She was just as good at hiding as he was and probably better when it came to infiltrating an enemy camp. He usually approached situations with far less tact and subtlety than she did, after all.
A rustling in the bushes announced Tayuya's return to the camp, and not a second later, Kakashi exited his tent.
The man gave his patented one-eyed smile. "Well team, what'd you find?"
The genin looked around amongst themselves, silently attempting to determine who would go first. In the end, Sasuke spoke up with a hint of impatience to his voice.
"The camp looks to be no more than 100 meters in length or width and the bandits in it are almost always drunk or asleep. I didn't spot any ninja in the group, going off of what their postures and stances looked like. The whole lot of them looked like untrained idiots."
Kakashi nodded. "Good work Sasuke."
Hinata started next, her voice significantly softer than her teammate's. "The tents are set up with the smallest on the outer edge of the clearing, while the larger ones are right at the center. The biggest tent had several people who appeared to move like a ninja might in it, so I believe they are the leaders of the group."
The white haired ninja nodded again. "Nice work Hinata, particularly your use of the Byakugan."
The monotone voice of Shino was heard throughout the small clearing next. "My insects managed to gather that patrols are switched every three hours, starting at eight tonight. The ninja in the main tent, where my insects heard the information, also mentioned that the bandits were lazy and often late to their patrols. Sometimes they don't even show up for them."
Kakashi smirked under his mask. "Well, it looks like we found the time when it's best to attack. Good job, Shino."
Naruto started next. "I surrounded the clearing with hidden shadow clones and can confirm both Hinata's and Sasuke's reports. My copies overheard some not-so-quiet bandits going on about a party tonight at ten. It's supposed to be a big one too, most of the group should be involved and drunk by the time the first patrol shift is done at eleven."
The Sharingan nin nodded. "Eleven seems to be the best time to attack thus far. Good work Naruto."
Tayuya didn't wait for Kakashi to turn to her before she started. "I sneaked into the place and managed to copy a patrol route and schedule down. I also got a closer look at the ninja in the main tent too. Most of them could barely pass as ninja, their stances were as fucked up as blondie's before I came along," she ignored Naruto's indignant cry. "There's a couple of the little shits that seem like they might put up a fight though, chuunin or jounin, most likely."
The Konoha jounin nodded again, taking the offered patrol schedule and falling silent for several moments.
Not much later, Kakashi looked up at his team with a serious aspect to his visible eye. "Alright, here's what we'll do. At eleven the north side defenses will likely be the weakest, so once the patrol changes there, Sasuke, Hinata and I will take care whoever actually shows up for their shift. From there, we'll make our way into the camp, drawing as little attention to ourselves as possible, before going on an all out attack."
The man took in a breath. "Tayuya, I need you to dispose of one of the ninja that was in the main tent before elven tonight. You will take his or her place and assassinate as many of the other higher-ups that you can as soon as you here the first sounds of battle. Naruto, you'll be her support. Stay as close to her as you can without drawing suspicion. Once the fighting starts, I want the two of you to work your way north through the camp, until you meet up with me, Sasuke and Hinata."
He took in a deep breath again and turned to the last nin of his team. "Shino, I want you positioned on the south end of the camp, as close as you can get while staying safe. You'll be alone down there, so don't take any risks. You will need to spread your bugs throughout as much of the camp as you can. Once you here the sounds of battle start up, leave them to kill as many bandits as they can and make your way north around the perimeter of the clearing.
"Am I understood?"
The masked nin received five nods as a reply.
"Alright then, we have just over two hours before the attack begins, get to your positions and ready yourselves for the fight."
"Kakashi, Hinata and Sasuke in position. Report in."
"Shino, ready to begin."
"This is Naruto, Tayuya and I are ready whenever."
"Alright, standby team, fifteen minutes remaining."
Naruto lowered his hand from the somewhat bulky communicator that all ninja were issued, already missing the specially made pair that he and Tayuya shared.
He was currently perched high in a tall tree on the perimeter of the camp, at least ten meters off the ground. From his view point, he could see the entire camp, including the tent a disguised Tayuya had entered not minutes earlier.
The two of them had gotten lucky in their search for a ninja for the red head to replace, finding not one, but two of the weaker nin.
Naruto had killed one while Tayuya swiftly knocked the other unconscious, before the man even knew he had been hit. The foul mouthed girl then placed a genjutsu over herself to disguise her voice and looks as that of the man her partner had killed.
After the body of the dead nin had been disposed of, Tayuya had surprised Naruto by placing a minor genjutsu over the unconscious ninja as well, causing his eyes to become dilated.
When questioned, the red head said that she discovered the ninja thought there was a spy in their midst. So to cover up any slips she might make, Tayuya made a distraction out of the other ninja. Dilated eyes made it hard for an individual not to wince and twitch when they looked anywhere near something bright, an action that would quickly draw suspicion of treason amongst seasoned ninja.
Of course, Tayuya was counting on the fact that the ninja wouldn't notice the man's dilated eyes.
Naruto could only grin and shake his head as she woke the man and gave him a cover story as to why he was unconscious, before climbing the tree he was currently sitting in.
The blond sighed as he withdrew himself from his thoughts, idly stretching out his muscles before the upcoming fight, almost impatiently waiting for the sign to attack.
The signal soon came, far too early to be planned, in the form of an explosion from the tent Tayuya had entered.
Naruto stood up and attempted to see what had happened, only to find that even his improved vision was at a loss.
He grit his teeth and clenched his fist, worry for his partner and responsibility to follow orders fighting for influential dominance in his mind.
He looked back toward the tent, finding that the explosion had gotten the attention of several bandits who were currently heading towards Tayuya's position.
Worry won out, the blond jumped towards the camp and used his wind chakra to slow his fall, a dangerous looking snarl on his face.
Tayuya ducked under a kunai slash that would have left her without a head, allowing her momentum to bring her into a sideways roll. The moment she regained her footing she started to backpedal, nearly losing her balance in the suddenness of the action, to avoid a searing hot katon jutsu. She forced a breath through her lungs, using the split second break to her advantage, before starting a rapid chain of hand seals.
The red head never even got a fourth of the way through the sequence before the two chuunin ninja she was facing were upon her, both simultaneously lashing out with their kunai in a rare show of teamwork. She cursed to herself and broke the hand seals to block one of the enemy kunai with her dagger while twisting her body up and over the other one, using the first one she was blocking as a point of balance.
Tayuya allowed her momentum to enforce the hard kick aimed at the head of one of her opponents and grinned at the flawless result.
However, a sudden loss of support caused her grin to fade and eyes to widen.
The red head twisted in the middle of her attack in an attempt to at least regain the balance she'd lost when her opponent had pulled his kunai out from under her blade. She landed on her feet but had to throw her arms out to keep herself upright, a move that left her wide open for attack.
It didn't exactly help that her back was turned to her opponents either.
Tayuya was in the middle of turning around when she felt a burning sensation travel across a large section of her back, followed swiftly by a similar feeling on the side of her left thigh.
The red head lost her balance again and fell to the ground on her injured side. She quickly turned on her back, but the chuunin were already on her, kunai poised for the kill.
"Stop."
The jounin who led this particular bandit camp, a nasty looking fellow with a large burn scar covering the right side of his face, decided to intervene at that moment.
"Cock sucking bastard's just been watching this entire time, now the fucktard just wants all the credit for himself." Tayuya's mind was a mix of anger and panic, being held at kunai point by two chuunin level ninja wasn't good for one's nerves, after all.
"Tie her up. She's bound to have comrades around here somewhere. We can use her to our advantage."
The red head seethed over finding the sole bandit camp with a jounin who actually used his brain, and that said jounin's chakra sensory abilities were beyond her comprehension. Had he not been here, her genjutsu would've gone perfectly and one of the very chuunin she was just fighting would be dead for treason.
Tayuya shook her head clear of her thoughts of she felt her hands being tied together behind her back and her kunai pouch being taken off her hip. She'd have to think of a new way to escape now...
A gust of wind blew several small stones and pebbles through the open flap of the tent.
The red head grinned. Maybe she wouldn't have to escape after all.
Just as the chuunin had finished tying her hands together, moving to her feet with his back facing the enterance of the tent, he let out a strangled gasp before collapsing to the ground.
Both the remaining chunnin and the jounin in the tent twisted towards the sound, warily searching for their new enemy.
That enemy came in the form of a blond boy holding a kunai near the front of the tent.
Tayuya grinned. "S'about time you got here blondie. Support my ass."
"Not my fault you can't do a genjutsu right to save your life." Came the oh-so-witty reply from Naruto, a matching superior grin plastered on his face.
The red head raised a delicate eyebrow. "Really. So it wasn't you that tripped over a piece of string hidden under an academy level illusion?"
Her partner shook his head. "I have no recollection of such an event."
Before either could say anymore though, the scarred jounin interrupted.
"As charming as this conversation is, I can't allow you to help the girl."
Without any further warning, the jounin started a chain of hand seals while the remaining chuunin dashed forward.
Naruto pulled out a kunai and started his own chain of hand seals with his free hand, waiting for the chuunin to reach him.
Not even a second later, the blond finished his hand seals and punched forward with his free hand.
"Fuuton: Daitoppa!"
The burst of wind caught the charging nin completely off guard, blowing him back to collapse in a heap near his jounin comrade's feet.
Naruto grinned, but it quickly faded as the jounin seemly appeared in front of him at that moment, lashing out with a kunai. He blocked the enemy strike easily enough, the man obviously didn't favor fighting in close combat, and twisted to send a kick at his opponent's midsection.
Before the blond could make contact though, the jounin disappeared again.
Naruto twisted around in an attempt to relocate his opponent, only to find him appearing again at his side.
The Kyuubi vessel threw himself to the right to avoid a kunai strike and immediately got into a defensive stance facing the jounin.
The man disappeared again, this time showing up inside the blond's guard.
Before Naruto could anything though, he felt the back of his head erupt in pain. He fell forward, the jounin fading from existance again, as Tayuya's voice suddenly made it to his ears.
"-was a genjutsu you idiot! You were standing in the same place for a good five seconds straight before he-"
Naruto moaned quietly, his vision blurry and currently fading in and out. He was on the verge of losing consciousness from the blow, and the pulsing that was afflicting his head wasn't helping in the slightest. He vaguely felt his hands and feet being bound and the chuunin from earlier dragging him over towards where Tayuya was.
The man put him back to back with the red head and threw a small amount of water into the blond's face.
It was enough to shake Naruto into staying conscious. His vision became more focused as he blinked several times, his hearing and other senses returning to him soon after.
"You alright blondie?" Tayuya's whispered with a hint of concern in her voice.
The blond nodded against the back of Tayuya's head, still not trusting his voice in his dazed state quite yet.
"When we get back to Konoha, I'm forcing you to let me teach you how to recognize a damned genjutsu."
Naruto laughed quietly, nodding again.
Further conversation was halted as they fell into a somewhat depressed silence.
Kakashi lazily dodged around the blows from several bandits, effortlessly moving between enemies and striking them down when the chance presented itself. These men could probably match an average genin at the speed they were moving, some might be able to survive against a rookie chuunin, but against a former ANBU captain...there'd be a cold day in hell before they survived more than two seconds.
The white haired nin sighed, sorely tempted to bring out his favorite reading material to help pass the time. He, Sasuke and Hinata had been steadily making their way through the bandits towards the center of the camp for the past five minutes, and it didn't look like it'd be getting interesting anytime soon.
Kakashi tossed a look towards Sasuke while simultaneously ducking under an sloppy attempt at a decapitation.
The Uchiha was holding his own against a large amount of bandits at once, his signature Sharingan blazing with excitement in his eyes.
Sensei watched student as the blue haired boy parried an attack before flashing through a short chain of hand seals to send a searing hot fire ball at a group of bandits. Before the screams of those having their flesh charred off them ended, the young ninja had sent several shuriken ladened with ninja wire at a clustered group of bandits. The boy waited until the shuriken had struck ground before using another Katon jutsu, the Uchiha clan's specialty, to ignite the wire and burn an even greater amount of bandits alive than before.
Kakashi nodded to himself as he idly tilted his head to the side, avoiding another blow from a sword, before turning towards his other student.
The Hyuuga heiress seemed to have scared her bandit opponents into staying a good ten feet from her at all times, if the circle formed around the blue haired girl was any indication.
The white haired jounin chuckled to himself, the thought of his quiet student causing so much fear in grown men was quite humorous to him, before focusing on her fight.
Hinata charged the nearest bandit, her Byukugan pulsing, and delivered what seemed to be no more than a tap to where the man's heart was. The bandit died instantly, never able to see the Hyuuga heiress take out five more of his comrades before his body even hit the ground.
Kakashi turned away from her, having seen all he needed to. Both his students were doing very well, he could only hope Shino, Naruto and Tayuya had the same luck.
Naruto was silently seething at the situation he and Tayuya had landed themselves into.
The genjutsu using jounin was sitting at a table a couple meters from the blond's position, pouring over a map of some sorts while muttering to himself every so often. A few bandits were inside the tent now as well, having come to see what the commotion was and ended up getting guard duty for the new prisoners.
Naruto snorted to himself, if his captors knew about the attack the rest of the Konoha party was making on the camp, they were doing a damned good job at hiding it.
The jinchuuriki fidgeted again, trying in vain to get out of the chakra sapping ropes that bound him.
How a group of bandits had gotten a hold of them, he didn't know. All he knew was they were damned annoying to be tied up with.
The sound of movement caused the Kyuubi vessel's attention to snap back into awareness.
One of the bandits that had been suckered into guarding them was walking towards him and Tayuya, a dark glint in his eyes.
"Hey boss...can we have some fun with the girl?"
Anger and rage immediately erupted inside Naruto. He'd die before he let that happen.
"Do what you will, just don't kill her."
The boy could feel his teeth sharpening and his nails growing into claws. He was about to tear through his rope bindings and rip the bandits to shreds, but a pressure against the palm of his hand stopped him.
For reasons Naruto was unaware of, the touch calmed him greatly and even managed to spread a warm feeling through his entire arms.
It took the boy a moment to figure out that it was actually Tayuya's fingers causing the calming effect that was currently overcoming him.
The red head didn't say a word, but Naruto understood enough to know that she didn't want him to interfere.
He sighed in resignation, forcing himself to be content with trusting in whatever his partner had planned.
The disgusting looking bandit, as Naruto decided to label him, had made it to Tayuya's feet. The man pulled out his sword and grabbed the ropes around her ankles to cut it loose.
A grin nearly split the blond's face, thanking kami that the jounin wasn't watching his subordinate practically kill himself out of stupidity.
He felt a small object fall into his hand as the bandit started cutting the rope. After feeling it for a moment, he realized it was the small blade Tayuya carried inside her sleeve at all times, in case something like this ever happened.
Naruto got to work on cutting the ropes around his and his partner's wrists, while Tayuya started to build up chakra in one of her legs.
The ropes from around both their wrists fell to the ground as the bandit took his first step forward.
It was then that Tayuya struck.
The girl released the chakra she'd built up in one large burst, resulting in a massive boost of speed and strength to the kick she had lined up.
Right at the man's groin.
The man howled in pain, immediately falling into a fetal position, as Tayuya quickly shot to her feet and started towards where the bandits had put her weapon pouch.
The red head reached said objects just as her partner had finished cutting through the ropes around his ankles and the jounin had realized just what was going on. She threw one of the bags at Naruto and took a kunai out of the other before charging the jounin head on.
Said scarred man was already starting on a chain of hand seals, but never got to finish them, courtesy of a well aimed Daitoppa.
Tayuya had reached him at this point and quickly slashed out with her kunai. The man flipped backwards to avoid the blow, again attempting another chain of hand seals once he had regained his footing.
A hail of shuriken from Naruto cut off his progress this time, quickly followed by the irate blond himself. He had forgone the use of a kunai, instead settling for jumping at the off balanced man, his momentum behind him, and planting both his feet in the enemy jounin's gut.
The nin went flying backwards, a burst of pure wind laced chakra from Naruto's feet following close behind.
By then, the remaining two bandits had managed to get close enough to make an attempt at defending their leader.
They didn't last half a second.
Naruto and Tayuya turned back towards the downed jounin after dealing with the annoyances, and saw that the man was still struggling to his feet. They advanced on him cautiously.
Tayuya stopped about half way though, and held up her hands in a chakra molding position while muttering "kai".
The red head saw the bloodied jounin struggling to stand disappear, instead being replaced with the real one that was currently charging Naruto. She sprinted forward, yelling out a warning to her partner on the way.
"Naruto! Genjutsu!"
The jounin's eyes narrowed, his attention now focused on the red head closing in on him. The burst of razor sharp wind the blond had sent at him had glanced his right leg though, forcing him to focus most of his weight to the left side.
Tayuya picked up on that fact instantly.
She threw several shuriken at the left side of the jounin, watching with a calculating stare as he struggled to, predictably, move to the right.
The red head hurled the kunai she'd been carrying at a position to the right of the enemy nin in a move that would seem like an absolutely ridiculous thing to do.
The meaning behind the action soon revealed itself though, as the jounin stepped right into the path of the kunai.
He tried the jump backwards, but stumbled over his injured leg, causing him to fall flat on his back with a kunai firmly piercing his shoulder.
"Fuuton: Kaze no Yaiba!"
Tayuya smirked. That was the strongest, and fastest, ninjutsu Naruto knew and with the jounin's current condition...
Sure enough, even as the man was twisting his head towards the blond, a razor sharp burst of wind pierced him straight through the chest.
In seconds, the man lay on the ground, completely unmoving.
Both Naruto and Tayuya breathed a sigh of relief, now they just had to worry about fighting their way through hordes of bandits...
A/N: Well, that's all for this time. Sorry it's a bit late, but it's a good 1.5k words longer than my usual...I figure it evens out.
If any of you feel the fight with the jounin leading the bandits went a little to easily, he was specialized in Genjutsu and weaker when it came to the other ninja aspects. Tayuya and Naruto are fairly well rounded, each achieving around a chuunin level nin's skill in each area (Except for certain parts, ex: Genjutsu for Naruto)
Going off of the previous paragraph, I decided to clarify the level that both Naruto and Tayuya are at for the readers, both out of boredom and necessity. I've seen someone else do something like this...I don't know if he got it from a site or made it himself, but if it's the latter, credit goes to him.
1: Academy Student.
2: Genin
3: Chuunin
4: Jounin
5: Sannin/Kage
6: god level (Kyuubi)
Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto
Taijutsu: 3.5
Genjutsu: 2.0
Ninjutsu: 3.5
Kinjutsu: 4.5
Fuinjutsu: 2.5
Weapons: 2.5
Stamina: 5.5
Speed: 4.0
Chakra Control: 3.0
Bloodline: 0.0
Overall: 3.1 (Rookie Chuunin level)
Tayuya
Taijutsu: 3.5
Genjutsu: 4.5
Ninjutsu: 3.0
Kinjutsu: 3.0
Fuinjutsu: 0.5
Weapons: 3.5
Stamina: 3.5
Speed: 3.5
Chakra Control: 4.5
Bloodline: 0.0
Overall: 2.95 (Veteran Genin/Rookie Chuunin level)
Kyuubi Naruto (No tails)
Taijutsu: 3.5
Genjutsu: 4.0
Ninjutsu: 3.5
Kinjutsu: 4.5
Fuinjutsu 2.5
Weapons: 3.5
Stamina: 6
Speed: 5.0
Chakra Control 3.0
Bloodline: 2.5
Overall: 3.8 (Veteran Chuunin/Rookie Jounin level)
Every time something happens that dramatically increases the power levels of Tayuya or Naruto in the story, I'll do another one of these. I find them fun.
Anyway, if you have any questions or concerns about how I ranked their skills, ask them and I'll answer when I get the next chapter out.
Be ready for the start of the Iwa mission next time...I'm sure you'll find what I have planned to your liking.
Till next time.
Namikaze Minato's: Fuinjutsu for Idiots
Four types (Containment, Support, Storage, and Action).
# of points on a seal the power of it. (3 is a triangle, 4 is a square, 5 is a pentagon, etc...)
No even point seals with odd point seals, it's liable to blow you up.
Support seals must be put on binding circles around the main seal. (Just what the name says it is, a circle you place Support seals on that surrounds the main seal you're using)
Support seals cannot have more than three points each.
Coordinating seals is a general term for doing things like using a binding circle when appropriate, no overlapping seals, and figuring out how to combine two kanji for a desired effect.