What's up everyone, it is very flattering to know that you guys really liked the last chapter, after reading the reviews I decided that I will try to put Omake every now and then if I have time.
Now onto the story
Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.
.
.
.
.
"Hyoton: Frozen needles of death."
"Dense Shadow clone jutsu."
Two shadow clones appeared in front of the hundred charging frozen needles just in time for Naruto to escape Haku's range.
"Damn almost had her in the close range fight. She is getting better at ice style, and here she said she does not want to train on ice style that much." Naruto thought while he jumped back further.
"If Naruto-kun wants to finish this fight he has to come closer, and that's when I will beat him." Haku thought while readying more needles.
"Time to go all out." Naruto shouted, "Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu." Hundreds of clone came out in the clearing and all charged towards Haku. Seeing the waves of clones coming at her, she started making the hand signs while jumping back; she waited a bit and smiled,
"All in place."
Pumping up her chakra, she smirked, "Hyoton: Certain kill ice spears."
Suddenly lots of giant ice spikes came from underneath and destroyed a good amount of clones. Haku release a breath of relief but it was short lived when she heard,
"Uzumaki Style: Flash Clone Step." To her shock Naruto was now holding his blade to her neck.
"Crafty move, isn't it Haku-nee?"
"Not crafty enough." The moment she said that the part of the blade that was touching her skin froze and before he could do anything Haku moved closer and exploded into snow parts which fell fully on Naruto half-freezing him.
"W-Wha….i-i-is…t-t-this?" Naruto said with chattering teeth.
"Hyoton: Ice clone and Hyoton: Showering snow. The last one me and Yamato sensei came up together to capture a weakened enemy by freezing them albeit not completely." Haku replied calmly while coming out from behind a tree. She moved in closer to Naruto but that sealed her fate,
"Storm Release: Laser Circus." One energy beam came and struck in front of Haku, seeing the aftereffect of the attack Yamato came and shouted, "Stop, it's over. Naruto wins."
Haku just shook her head, if that attack hit her she would be on her way to hospital. And as usual Naruto started cheering for his own victory, "Yahoo! That makes two wins and one loss."
"Could have won if I knew you mastered that move." Haku pouted.
"Ya but you said you are not gonna train on ice release that much, but all I can see you are using new ice release jutsu every time." Naruto said accusingly.
Yamato was pleased to see their progress. After last week's break they started their usual D rank mission but they did them solo. After that they would do their training although sometimes they had all-out sparring. And every spar each of them would come up with different tactics to outdo other.
Naruto knew from his first win that if he could bring Haku into close range, the fight was his but because he let the first win got to his head he lost the second one but the third one was the most interesting. He brought Haku into a close range fight but when things started looking bad for Haku she used frozen needle jutsu to put some distance between them, ice version of her water needle. Moving into safe place Naruto used shadow clone army but was wiped out by the same move that beat him last time but interesting thing was Naruto's clone acted as a line from his place to Haku and he used kawarimi on them simultaneously to move closer to Haku really fast and in a zigzag way. Although this time Haku caught him off-guard with two of her new Hyoton moves but the one she caught was a shadow clone, even Yamato didn't see when Naruto switched with the clone.
"Nice fight you guys, the way you fight and think ahead makes me believe that you are already on chunin level but only in combat, there is more you need to learn." Yamato lightened the mood, and then he asked Naruto, "When did you switch with the clone Naruto? Even I didn't see that."
Naruto smiled brightly, "I didn't switch because from the beginning I wasn't the one who went in with clone step, it was another dense clone." Yamato just laughed, most unpredictable ninja indeed.
"What is a dense clone, Naruto-kun?" Haku asked.
"It is one of my own original moves, an improvised version of Shadow clone. I pump up Shadow clone with lots of chakra. If I stabilize the chakra it is a dense version that can withstand a few good solid hits but will dispel automatically after some uncertain amount of time. And if I don't stabilize the chakra it will become an explosion version which will do you know what." Naruto laughed.
"Well guess you guys are ready for another C rank mission." Yamato smiled knowing they had enough team training; the reaction was a cheering Naruto and a smiling Haku.
.
.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
.
.
Next Day Hokage Tower
"So you think they are ready for another joint C rank mission?" Hiruzen inquired.
"Yes, their team work and performance were more than satisfactory." Yamato eagerly replied back.
"Ok, we have one rookie team that will do a C rank mission. They were already briefed but I will give you the mission parameter. Check with their team, I think they said they will go to the BBQ place to meet with the client." Hiruzen eyed Naruto, he wondered if he would be able to see him smile in front of him again.
"Will do; alright team, move out." Yamato ordered.
.
BBQ place
.
"Hello Kurenai san." Yamato politely greeted their partnered team.
"Hell Ya!" Naruto jumped with joy inwardly but didn't show anything outside except grinning wildly.
"Guess you guys will be our partner in this mission. Nice knowing we have a good backup." Kurenai laughed, the declaration had different reaction from the genins, Naruto's face-splitting grin told everything, Haku was glad that her first official C rank mission with someone she knew, Kiba looked pissed for some reason, Hinata was ecstatic that her second C rank mission would be with her boyfriend and Shino was, being Shino.
"So, where is the client?" Yamato asked.
"He should be here any minute; ah, there he is." Kurenai pointed at an old man.
Everyone looked to see an old man came there walking with a cane; he was wearing a silver shirt, with a light black colored robe over the top of it covering slightly below from his knee, to just over his left shoulder. The robe concealed his left side of the upper body but from the outline anyone can see he was missing his left hand.
"Hello everyone, I am guessing you are my treasure retrieval team." The old man joked.
"Treasure?!" was the only thought that went around all the genins' heads.
"Everyone meet Karashi, he is the client for this mission and as he just said we are to retrieve his belonging which was recently stolen by bandits." Kurenai informed everyone.
"So sensei we are going to look for some treasure?" Kiba asked enthusiastically.
"I said my treasure so I am not sure that the object would hold same value to you guys. But it is very important to me." Karashi corrected Kiba.
"Like Karashi said, it is an important object to him so we have to track down the bandits and make sure that he gets his treasure back to him safely. " Kurenai summarized their mission.
"Ok guys, for now go and pack your stuffs; we will be leaving early in the morning." Yamato ordered everyone.
"Yo Hinata, want to….." Before Kiba could even finish out of nowhere a cat came and hissed at Akamaru after which it bolted leaving the dog hot on its tail, giving Kiba no other choice but to follow after them.
"Now with the nuisance being taken care of, Hina-chan let me walk you to your house." Naruto asked his girlfriend politely.
Hinata blushed hotly, she requested Naruto to keep their relationship secret for now because she was afraid that if her clan found out they might cause troubles for Naruto. Although Naruto reluctantly agreed, his behavior showed otherwise. He would openly try to flirt with her which she found cute, would give her flowers and presents occasionally that showed his sweet side and would lash out at anyone who would try to approach at her romantically which worried her.
"Well, I guess that's what makes him very special." Hinata squeaked inwardly.
Only four people knows of their relationship, three being told by them, Haku, Yamato and Kurenai while the last one cause of his observant eyes, Hiashi. For Hiashi, he knew of his daughter's crush and so few months back when they started training together he had a feeling that things might escalate in near future but he didn't wanted it to be this soon, for now he would tolerate their relationship as this was having a huge positive impact on Hinata's life, both physically and mentally.
"That boy has to have a man to man talk with me sometime soon." That was the only thought that went through Hiashi's head when he learned about their relationship.
.
With Naruto
.
"Hinata-chan, how is your gentle fist project going?" Naruto asked Hinata remembering her wish to create her own style.
"Not that good, I combined some of the snake style movements to make mine more flexible but I feel like it is not enough." Hinata said dejectedly, Anko did show her some of the basic snake styles but she couldn't combine everything with gentle fist. Because both style being so different from one another.
"Ya about that, Hinata-chan; here take this." Naruto gave her a scroll, "I found it at Wave as well, first I thought it was a taijutsu scroll after taking a peek but it is not. It is for some kind of dance moves I think, fan or cloth dance or something like that. I thought it might help you." Naruto explained sheepishly.
"Thank you Naruto-kun." Hinata smiled, taking the scroll she opened it to take a look. She might not be a professional dancer though she was taught basic dancing. But she really enjoyed dancing and she could tell from looking at some moves that this was not a normal regular kind of dancing, the dance moves needed perfect balance while for the successive execution one had to be a far too flexible. She knew that this was what she needed. Looking around to see if the coast was clear, than to express her thanks, she kissed Naruto on the cheek. Naruto went rigid for a while, then start dancing like a monkey.
"SCORE!"
"Cute!"
.
.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
.
.
Next Day, In the Morning
Naruto was on cloud nine, why? He and Hinata decided to come early to have some alone time together, after Hinata kissed him, on the cheeks, and hugged him for some time to show that how much she appreciated his latest present, she told him that that scroll had what she needed to improve her gentle fist further.
The scroll was about an exotic kind of dancing that was deemed to be lost, dance of the mermaids. Normally people would ask how some dancing moves could be useful to an assault fighting style; well, Naruto did ask Hinata; she explained that those dancing moves required one to be perfectly flexible and also gave some training tips of how to increase one's flexibility. Higher level of the dancing moves even needed some chakra control to have proper balance between speed and flexibility. She already formed some moves combining gentle fist, water manipulation, snake style and dance of the mermaid. All that was left was to create and master them. And the best part was that it had been only one day since she got the scroll and she already got so many ideas. She just couldn't wait to start on them. So it was perfectly sensible for her to show Naruto just how much she cherished it, well she did her best considering her shyness but by the looks of it Naruto enjoyed it very much.
"Note to self, bring in more ninja scrolls as a present." Naruto mentally made a note about it.
.
After a while
.
Haku and Yamato came first and was followed by the rest of the group.
"So guys, here are the picture of the object," Yamato handed pictures to all the genins.
"It is a silver colored metal box with a star symbol engraved on the top. As far we know the bandits that raided the place was last seen around Kinzan town, so our first stop is that place and from there we have to track down the bandits and retrieve the item, clear?" Kurenai summarized their mission.
Everyone nodded.
"Well then, let's move out." Yamato ordered.
.
.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
.
.
Kinzan Town
Luckily for them no problems occurred on their journey to the town. So they reached there after few hours.
"All right guys, everyone will be split into groups and will be given assignments." Yamato told the teams.
"Shino and Kiba will go and recon the area for any bandits but DO NOT engage them if you find any. Haku and I will go talk to the chief of this town, and Yamato will be looking for a hotel while Naruto and Hinata will be gathering information from inside the village. We will be meeting here in the town center." Kurenai laid out the formation.
The reactions were the same as expected but before any could cheer or voice their opinion Yamato butted in, "No time to disagree guys, you heard the lady, move out and by the way, I will be leaving a shadow clone here so if you need anything ask the clone. Now go." Yamato said leaving no room for any arguments.
.
With Hinata and Naruto
.
"So we have to gather information inside the village?" Naruto asked while grinning mischievously which was never a good sign, Hinata nodded but she knew something was coming.
"You know Hinata-chan we can rest and chill for a while before we start." Naruto said cheekily making Hinata blush.
"Naruto-kun, we are on a mi-mission; concentrate." Hinata chided.
"Who said we are gonna slack off," Naruto's grin increased while he made his favorite sigh, "Shadow clone jutsu." Ten clones popped in front of them,
"Spy formation." Immediately the clones henged themselves into normal civilian of different ages,
"Scatter!" Naruto howled making all the clones dashing off inside the village. Hinata was stunned seeing this.
"They will do the investigation for a while," Naruto started to scratch the back of his head while his cheeks sported a soft blush, "You know I don't think you thanked me enough for the present I gave you this morning."
.
With Kurenai and Haku
.
"Are you sure about this?" Kurenai asked while rubbing her head.
"Yes, but to their defense they didn't know about this." Haku replied back.
"Why can't I get a simple C rank mission?" Kurenai sighed, "Go look for Yamato first and then regroup with Naruto and Hinata fast, I will go look for the other two. Hopefully those two won't get into any trouble. Meet me with everyone else at the square."
"Hai, Kurenai-sensei." With that Haku dashed off.
"Damn, hope things don't get too complicated." Kurenai only wished.
.
.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
.
.
With Kiba and Shino
"Shit! This is bad." Kiba yelled.
"This wouldn't have happened if you acted as you were told." Shino said with an edgy voice.
"Hey, how come this is my fault?" Kiba barked.
"Let's have a look back then, we were ordered to scout the area only, in case we find any enemy we were not supposed engage them but you acted illogically yet again, deciding you can take on the enemy." Shino said while he narrowly dodged a shuriken.
"Come on, aren't you suppose to back me up? We are here for bandits, not ninjas. You can't blame me." Kiba replied while he ducked just in time to save his head.
"Logically, as a comrade I ought to stand by your side in tough times to watch your back." Shino said while breathing hard, running while dodging was taking its toll on the newly genins.
Before Kiba could reply, "But right now I doubt I will live long if I act logically. So for now let us use our energy in running instead of bickering." Shino suggested. Before Kiba could reply he dashed to the side after hearing the warning from Akamaru just in time to dodge an arrow. Both of them looked back to see the attacker.
"Oh shit!"
.
With Naruto and Hinata
.
Naruto was having a great time, Hinata was giving him a lap pillow while with one hand she was scratching his whiskers and with other she was stroking his hair gently. He really liked her touches. It was not for perverted reason, well maybe a bit but mostly because he was not used to gentle physical touches, he envied other kids for this when he was little. But now that Hinata was his girlfriend, she allowed him to touch her as much as he wanted, not sexually though. Those were still high level stuffs for our young couple.
Hinata blushed cutely when Naruto started rubbing his cheeks against her thighs, she learned one new thing about Naruto that he liked to cuddle a lot, she knew the reason why and for that she would let him had his fill, she would blush a lot but was thankful that Naruto till now never touched her inappropriately in any way. Normally she would faint with the excessive physical contacts but when she would see Naruto's happy and content face, her embarrassment would be replaced with happiness.
But their private moment was interrupted by a huge explosion that came further away from the village. They got up hurriedly, fixing themselves they ran towards the explosion site. But before going Naruto made few shadow clones and told them to find others.
.
.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
.
.
Battle Site
Moments Before the large Explosion,
Kiba and Shino had to admit they were lucky. They went out to scout the area as instructed but while scouting they found a few bandits in a small camp. Despite Shino's acute protesting, Kiba engaged them and beat them. But to their surprise more bandits started showing up and before they could do anything, they were attacked with jutsu showing them that some enemy ninjas were in the premise. They made a hasty retreat with the enemy hot on their tail, from the attack and precision Shino deduced that the enemy ninja was at least Chunin level or higher. They were cornered and when all hope seemed lost,
"Lightning Ball."
"Wood Release: Wood Locking Wall."
An intense lightning sphere hit directly at the wooden shield which at the last minute protected the two fresh genin. Yamato landed directly in front of Kiba and Shino while a few enemies landed opposite of them.
But the one that took everyone's attention was a guy who wore a dark-brown sleeveless vest falling to his knees where the inside was purple, a light brown belt, a light grey pants and he had bandages covering most of his body, his neck down to his chest, including his arms and his tibias.
"Raiga Kurosuki, the Thunder of the Hidden Mist." Yamato grunted, he cursed his luck bitterly, from the look of it only Raiga looked an experienced fighter while others looked mostly low to elite genin level.
"I didn't know that Konoha had another wood user." Raiga smirked, "Boys leave this one to me and get the others." Before any of the bandits could move, needles started to fly towards them, and few unlucky ones got hit dead on at the vital points, seeing that every bandit took cover except Raiga.
"Guess you got to see your skill as well, heh No.5, take care of the hidden pest." Raiga talked as if there was another person there. Haku got a bad feeling hearing that. Suddenly all of her instincts told her to get away from there fast and like she was taught, she followed her instincts just in time to dodge an arrow.
"Someone is out there." Haku started scanning the area but she kept moving randomly.
"That girl is good, this ought to be interesting." An unknown figure smirked.
"Shit, what was that?" Yamato panicked a bit, an unknown factor in a shinobi world was always a dangerous thing.
"Are you sure you can concentrate on other people, wood user?" Raiga smirked and readied his swords.
"Fangs of Lightning." He shouted.
Seeing the danger Yamato once again used his wooden defense but the wooden dome was badly damage indicating that it could not go against that attack.
"Kiba, Shino leave the area and go find Kurenai. NOW!" Yamato shouted, if the battle dragged they would get into the cross-fire. Kiba and Shino didn't wait any second longer before they dashed towards the village.
"After them!" Raiga yelled but immediately needles came and hit in front of the would-be pursuers, showing that the hidden ally was still there. Raiga grunted.
"Guess It is just you and me, wood-user." With that Raiga charged at Yamato who started to analyze the situation instantly, Raiga was a lightning user with one of the mist sword, Kiba, whereas he had wood element which was an advanced natural element based on earth.
"Not a good choice but I can't back out now." Yamato thought to himself. He threw some shuriken at him to get some distance. After landing a bit far away from Raiga he pull out a tanto, he used it to practice with Naruto. But he knew he had to avoid getting into a sword fight at any cost, they were not known as the best kenjutsu users for nothing.
"What's wrong? Is running away all you can do?" Raiga snickered.
"His attacks are straightforward and packs power, well lucky enough my student is the same. Let's see if this works or not." With that thought Yamato rushed forward. Raiga smirked and steadied himself but what he didn't expect for Yamato to throw a smoke bomb at him.
"Seriously? A smoke bomb? Do you…" Before Raiga could finish,
"Water release: Water bowl." He got hit by a jet of water point blank throwing him off his feet. He crashed at a tree hard; Yamato seeing the chance didn't waste any time, he threw some shuriken and charged at him. To Raiga's credit he was able to dodge the shurikens but got some cuts and bruises when Yamato attacked him on close range; he took a kick on the stomach and using the force he jumped back to put distance between them.
"Nice one, and let me guess you soaked me thinking that if I use lightning jutsus now I will electrocute myself? You are not the first one to try that." He smirked when he saw Yamato narrowed his eyes. "Take this for size, bastard!"
"Lightning dragon tornado."
"Shit."
.
Current Situation
.
"Thanks Haku, you just saved me from getting fried." Yamato chuckled.
Moments before Raiga's lightning dragon hit Yamato, Haku came and used her ice mirror to pull Yamato away from the dragon's path. So when the lightning dragon hit the frozen mirrors, it caused a huge explosion.
"No worries sensei, but I think he can still use the attack; his body is emitting strong lightning chakra. I don't think he is going to fall for the same trick twice." Haku said nervously while still not moving her eyes from Raiga.
"An ice user, wow. You got some nice bloodlines there. Don't shoot! We will take the girl, we…." Raiga stopped in time and dodged an incoming lightning kunai while blocking the other two with his swords.
"You ain't taking shit asshole." Naruto came and landed in front of everyone while Hinata landed close to Yamato to check his injuries.
"A Hyuuga, and from the looks of it a seal-less one. Lucky break for me!" Raiga laughed, Naruto growled loudly, he pulled out his swords and took his stance.
"Checkmate." Raiga smirked, "Lightning dragon tornado."
But unlike last time where he had to collect the lightning in his body and spin to use the jutsu, this time it was fast and direct which caught off guard everyone and Naruto was right in its path. But Naruto knew if he were to move everyone else would get caught in the attack as they were directly behind him. Determined, he stood his ground.
"Naruto-kun, NO!" Hinata yelled and rushed but was caught by Yamato.
To everyone's horror, Naruto took the attack full force.
His scream could be heard throughout the forest.
.
.
.
Done
By the way guys, I was hoping to give Yamato a title, any suggestions on what would sound cool?