The Craven

Naruto and Kakashi fell through the dark abyss of the seemly endless hole. Horrifying screams came from their mouths. Crumbling rocks came plummeting down after them.

Naruto bit down on his teeth. He managed to look up to see the rocks chasing after them. "There's no way I'm going to let it end like this." Both Kakashi and Naruto managed to flip around in mid-air.

They leaped on the closet boulders. They continued to jump from boulder to boulder so that they wouldn't be crush. They tried to climb back up by jumping on the descending rocks, but they were falling too fast and they ran out of them before long.

They landed at the bottom of the hole on top of the pile of rocks. Dust flew up from the pile before the dust settled. The two stood back up on their feet, looking up for the only way out.

Naruto balled up his fists in front of himself. "We can't let them get away. They're after Rin." Naruto jumped onto the wall, sending charka to his feet.

Kakashi reached his hand out. "Naruto, wait!"

The glowing seal fluttered down until it reached halfway down the hole. The paper tag flattened, shooting blue kanji from the four corners of the paper that formed a circle on the wall. The words then ran down the rocky walls.

Naruto's charka disappeared. He fell off the wall, dropping on his head and back. Naruto yelped in pain. He flipped onto his knees, elbow, and hand. He looked up at the wall. "What just happened?"

Kakashi looked around at the color walls. He then focused on Naruto. "It's a trap."

Naruto stood back up with his arms hanging in front of him. He slid his eyes over to the side to look at Kakashi. "I know that."

Kakashi had a serious expression on his face. "No, I mean they set another trap so we can't climb the walls. We're stuck here as long as that seals remains." They both looked up at the glowing seal.

-M-

Meanwhile Minato stood up against the hidden cloud shinobi in the middle of a forest. His only allies around were an Inuzuka, Hyuga, and Akimichi. He held one of his specially design kunai as he focused on his opponents. "And you're unruly A, son of Kumogakure's third Raikage. I've heard you're quite fast yourself."

"We can take him, the two of us, Bro, fool ya fool!" a young Bee said.

"Hmp!" A responded.

Minato reached back into his pouch. He pulled out his kunai, swinging his arm in an arch in front of himself. He sent the kunai flying all over the area, stabbing into the trees and ground. "No one move! I'll fight them!"

Minato and A focused on the other. In an instant A was in front of Minato surrounded in lightning about to deck him right in the face. His fist just an inch away from the blond man's face. Minato vanished.

He reappeared on a tree right below one of his kunai. He looked down at A who was still charging forward.

A looked up at the leaf shinobi. He outdid my top speed?!

Minato appeared directly behind A in mid-air. He was just about to stab his kunai into the man's back when a tentacle came flying, knocking the future Raikage out of the way. Minato sliced through the tentacle. "That's…!" Minato started to say.

A leaped back. "Thanks, Bee!" A landed beside Bee who had a tentacle growing out of his back. "Are you okay, Bee?"

"No way!" the Akimichi said.

"Eight Tails jinchuriki?!" the Inuzuka shouted. A loud noise then got the three back-up leaf shinobi. "The retreat signal! Minato! We need to pull out!"

Minato started to walk away.

"That was nuthin'," Bee said. "For Eight Tails, that be me, Da rappin' Killer Bee."

Minato looked back at them with a smile. "You're brave. You overcome being the Eight Tails Jinchuriki to be your own ninja."

"Humph! He's more talented than even I!" A shouted.

"No," Minato responded. "It's more than that. He already has something even more important."

"Hunh?!"

"A, your lineage is strong," Minato said. "I suspect that the next time we meet, we'll be fighting as one kage against another. But if you don't figure out soon what your little brother considers most precious to him…he won't be Jinchuriki or even human."

A threw his arm to the side. "Humph! Spout all the nonsense you want, but you're not getting away." He looked around at all of the special kunai. He surrounded himself in lightning and charge forward. "I've got my own responsibilities."

A was right behind Minato. "Go fly!" He looked back to see which kunai the yellow flash would appear at.

Minato appeared down on one knee with his kunai rose above his head behind Bee. "I can't fail!"

-M-

The four Hidden Mist ANBU ninjas leaped through the trees of the forest. "How much longer until we reach our destination?" one of the male ANBU questioned.

"Twenty minutes," a second one spoke. "Now pay attention we can't afford to mess this up."

The last one looked under his arm. "At least this brat is finally quiet." Rin was held by the man unconscious. The four continued forward.

-M-

"There has to be away to break that thing," Naruto said. Naruto crossed his fingers as he looked up at the seal. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto looked around to see that nothing happened. "What's going on? Why didn't my jutsu work?"

"Because that seal blocks our charka," Kakashi explained.

Naruto stomped his foot, throwing his fists down. "Then what are we suppose to do?"

Kakashi narrowed his eyes to get a better look at the seal. "There might be another way." The white haired shinobi reached back inside his porch and threw it straight at seal. A blue barrier appeared around the paper tag. The kunai slowly turned around and shot back straight down.

Kakashi and Naruto leaped out of the way. The kunai stabbed into a rock. "Well, that didn't work," Naruto said.

"Nope," Kakashi agreed. He looked over at the walls. "But there be another way to beat this seal without directly destroying the tag."

Naruto looked over at his teacher. "Huh?"
Kakashi pulled out more kunai. He wrapped paper bombs at the end of the knives and threw them up the wall in a line. He had cut the paper bombs in a way so that the paper bombs were light up automatically rather than by a charka signal.

The explosions went off one after the other. Naruto stepped back. "What did you do?"

The dust cleared, revealing several holes on the wall. "Making a path for us to walk on." He pointed to the wall. "Look, the seal hasn't reappeared on the spots I destroyed. We can use that to get out of here."

Naruto brought his fists in front of his chest. "Yeah, that's amazing, Kakashi sensei."

"Let's get moving."

Yeah."

-M-

Naruto and Kakashi leaped out of the hole, landing on one knee with their hands on the ground. They stood up. "Let's get moving," Naruto said.

Suddenly large volumes of water gushed up out of the holes. Kakashi and Naruto looked back at the sight in fear. "Now what?"

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