I do not own Naruto it is the property of Masashi Kishimoto.

Technique names are translated at the bottom.

"Hello, Naruto-sensei!"

"Hakaiteki? Nobori? Imei? What are you three doing here?"

"We were assigned patrols duties on the border, when we felt you rush out of the country we decided to tag along and make sure you didn't get in over your head."

"You were just getting as bored of patrol as I was Nobori."

"That too."

"You two have no one to blame for your boardom but yourselves. After all if you two didn't leave such distinctive evidence of your battles the enemy would never have known to be afraid of us. After all without our reputation we would be getting attacked just as much as the other patrols."

"And just what have you three been up to that you can secure the border on your reputation alone?"

"Just the usual."

"Hakaiteki now has created a jutsu which converts chakra into thermal energy. Nobori's skill with his blade is as infamous as Hokage-sama's strength."

"What about you Imei?"

"I'm only listed in the Bingo Book as a footnote in their entries. Specifically it says, "A young women is regularly seen alongside them. She is believed to be either an apprentice to one of them or a medic-nin tasked with keeping them in the field as long as possible. Threat level is minimal as she likely spends most of her chakra healing their wounds." It is quite humorous actually since I have more confirmed kills then either of them."

"That's only because I don't leave enough pieces of my enemies for an accurate count to be taken."

"My strikes are unfortunately easy to dodge. Most of my kills are from unskilled opponents and those who try to block my strikes."

"Well sounds like you three can be useful on this mission. Tsunade assigned me with the mission to break the blockade on Wind Country. I have complete authority on how to do so, how long the mission will last, and when the mission is accomplished."

"I think if we are going to break the blockade we need to first need to aid the Suna ninja in clearing Wind Country of enemy presence. Then we will need to take the fight to Earth country to discourage them simply sending more troops in to enforce the blockade."

"We should just level Iwagakure."

"I'm so glad you three listened to what few lessons I managed to teach. Now off to make sure Gaara still has ninja under his command to have assist us."

In a snowy forest a group of ninja without hitai-ite face off against a ninja from Konoha with mismatched eyes. As the ninja from an unknown village begin attacking with jutsu and kunai the konoha-nin closes his right eye and gazes at his foes with his scarred, baleful, red, left eye. As the various ninja complete their jutsu and the kunai rapidly approach their target the man places his hands in a seal and duplicates of him spread out to each side with incredible speed. The now five Konoha-nin each pick an enemy and begin their attack while dodging the incoming jutsu and kunai. One of the Konoha-nin grabs a kunai by the ring on its end and redirects it at the enemy ninja he is rushing towards. The enemy ninja deflects it with another of his kunai, but while doing so he takes his eyes off his attacker. He quickly realizes his mistake but it is tolate to save him as his neck is broken from behind.

Another of the Konoha-nin nimbly dodges between incoming jutsu to close in on his target. As he reaches striking distance the enemy ninja launches a barrage of shuriken to attempt to force a retreat. The Konoha-nin smirks as the projectiles pass through him harmlessly before he vanishes. "They're just clones! Find the real one!" As the ninja calls out his warning to his allies the real Konoha-nin comes up behind him and quickly jams a kunai into the back of his head. Dodging an unidentified fire jutsu the Konoha-nin looks over his remaining foes. He sees two still trying to get a solid hit on his clones so they can see if they are real or fakes, and he sees another one going through handsigns at a fairly decent speed. Recognizing the jutsu as a C-rank fire jutsu the Konoha-nin decides to deal with this one with just taijutsu as well. He jumps clear of the incoming flames and then moves with such speed he seems to disappear. The enemy ninja seems to be able to keep up with him just barely as he quickly jumps back to avoid some shuriken and then turns to his right a throws a rather sloppy punch which is caught by the Konoha-nin. Before the enemy ninja has a chance to free his hand the sound a bones breaking can be heard as the Konoha-nin closes his fist. As he is crushing his enemies hand the man pulls the broken hand towards him and smashes his knee into the nemies chest. Releasing his grip on the broken hand he steps to one side as the enemy ninja falls to the ground, but as the enemy falls the Konoha-nin slams his fist into his enemies neck and a barely audible cracking sound can be heard alongside the sound of flesh impacting flesh.

During the few seconds since the start of the fight the two remaining enemy ninja managed to discover they were fighting clones and can up with a plan while watching the man with one red eye defeat a third member of their unit. Seeing one of his remaining enemies charging straight at him while the other stays back with his hands edging towards his weapon pouches the red-eyed man quickly pulls out a kunai and a piece of paper with strange writing on it. The man quickly wraps the paper around the kunai's handle baeefore lazily throwing it into the snow a few feet in front of his charging enemy. The charging one puts on an impressive burst of speed and just as he makes it past the point where the weapon buried itself into the snow before a small explosion occurs at that same location. The blast makes the charging enemy stumble off balance a bit, and throws up so much snow that the one standing back can't see what is going on. The man closes the distance between him and his nearest enemy in two quick steps before jamming a kunai in the off balanced ninja's stomach. Not quite dead the enemy ninja grabs onto the Konoha-nin's arm and holds it with a surprising amount of strength for a dying person. "Take him out now!" At his enemy's shout the man narrows his one open eye before breaking out of the grip and ripping the kunai out of his opponent's stomach. Kicking his enemy in the face and jumping back the Konoha-nin looks for any sign of his last enemy, but the snow thrown up earlier serves to hide his enemy as well as himself.

As the snow finishes falling back to the ground the Konoha-nin sees his last enemy impaled with tree roots. Another man with a Konoha hitai-ite walks out from behind a tree and calls out, "Seventeen."

Opening his right eye and pulling his hitai-ite down over the left the first man says, "Looks like I win again then Tenzo. I got twenty-three."

"So what is it? Five to three now Kakashi?"

"Yep, and since this is the last patrol before our mission is over it looks like you lose the bet. You better be ready to pay up when we get back."

Watching the now one-eyed man pull out an orange book while smiling behind a mask Tenzo complains, "I can't believe you're actually holding me to that bet."

"Why not?"

"We made it years ago on our first mission here together."

"So?"

"Why the hell are you holding me to such an old bet?"

"Because I can, and besides we never stated a time limit on the bet."

"Can't you at least not make me go through with the parts of the bet concerning Anko?"

"We'll see."

In a vast desert a group of about ten Suna ninja was surrounded by nearly two hundred ninja from various other villages, with ninja from Iwagakure and Otogakure making up most of the force. "Turn over the Kazekage and we'll let you live."

"Run away now and you might live."

"Get them!"

"Kankuro don't bother disguising them, bring all your puppets out. Temari make sure nobody gets too close to him. I'll take the hundred on the right while you two take the hundred on the left."

"Alright Gaara I guess it's time to show them why you don't mess with a puppeteer."

"Kankuro stop making so much hot air, I know your just trying to help my jutsu out but it isn't necessary."

"Hey stop mocking us! We have you outnumbered twenty to one!"

"Actually it was closer to sixty-six to one, but it is already down to sixty to one. Sabaku Sousou." Twenty non-sand ninja were crushed into bloody ooze by Gaara's jutsu as he spoke. The gathered ninja stood shocked at how quickly he killed them before attacking with various methods. The seven nondescript ninja accompanying Gaara and his siblings were quickly revealed to be puppets under Kankuro's control. These seven were quickly joined by Karasu, Kuraori, and Salamander. The enemy ninja fell with ease to Kankuro's ten puppets, but the slaughter they caused amongst the enemy was nothing compared to the groups of enemy shinobi reduced to bloody chunks by Temari's devastating wind jutsu. The two quickly took care of half of the ninja Gaara assigned to them before they had to start fighting seriously due to the skill those remaining showed. Gaara however brutally delt with those unfortunate enough to have become his targets. The ninja facing the Kazekage were mostly killed in short order by a combination of spikes of sand, being buried under sand, having sand strike them with incredible force, and being crushed by Gaara's sand. Gaara's portion of the battlefield seemed to be a living thing as he manipulated the desert itself to attack his foes.

Once the enemy forces were down to about forty ninja things became difficult for the three. With the less skilled and weaker ninja dead the remaining forty could use their full skills and began a ferocious counterattack on the siblings. The enemy ninja avoided Kankuro's puppets instead of fighting them, they closed with Temari to engage her in taijutsu, and they used various raiton jutsu to break through Gaara's defenses. Kankuro was the least effected by the change in the pace of battle as it just meant he had to use his puppets to chase down his foes instead of letting them come to him. Temari became rather bloody in a hurry due to the change, but most of the blood was just the blood of her enemies staining her clothes and fan. Gaara actually was injured, this was more because most of the surviving enemies were focusing on him then due to the ration jutsu however. Even with the sudden increase of effort put forth by the enemy ninja they were quickly reduced to just one survivor.

The last enemy ninja was a sound ninja and apparently one of Orochimaru's elite. When all her allies had fallen she activated a curse seal to its second level. Her first attack was against Kankuro, she moved with incredible speed and kicked him in the head. The blow sent him flying and knocked him out. She next went after Temari. Temari was ready for the kunoichi and stopped a devastating punch with her closed fan. The sound kunoichi was forced to break off her attack when Gaara tried to catch her with his sand. She used her speed to get through Gaara's sand shield and then ripped through his sand armor with her claws. She only managed a slight scratch on his chest and a kick to his jaw before Temari knocked the kunoichi away with a heavy blow from her fan. Kankuro regained conciousness just in time to force the curse seal using enemy back. While Kankuro distracted the sound ninja with his puppets Temari began performing her Kuchiyose : Kirikrimai. As Temari unleased her summoned weasel on the sound ninja Kankuro called his puppets back. The jutsu kicked up a large amount of sand and shredded the numerous corpses in the area, but none of the siblings could tell if it got the sound kunoichi. Kankuro stood ready with his puppets before the other two, Temari held her fan ready to unleash another jutsu, and Gaara swirled the sand kicked up, into clusters that could quickly be turned into Suna Shuriken and launched at the enemy. When the sound kunoichi walked out of the obscuring sand clouds they tensed, but as she approached they saw the discoloration of her skin was no longer due to an active curse seal, but due to the blood coating her. As they realized this she fell to the ground, dead.

"Should we be concerned that they're sending curse mark bearers or should we be insulted that they only sent one to kill Gaara?"

"Neither, the people Orochimaru gives his cursed seal to are only a little less pathetic then the rest of his forces."

"Temari, Kankuro, return to the rest of the forces. Tell them to continue their current course of actions. You two will join them until I reunite with them. Go, I have a different mission to perform."

"Good luck Gaara."

"Don't take too long little brother."

The winds picked up and a small sandstorm obscured the three from view. When it died down the three were gone and the bodies of their enemies lay hidden beneath the desert sands.

Appearing behind an Iwa-nin, Naruto quickly cut his throat with a kunai. As the body fell to the sand Naruto looked over his team. "You got all of them?"

"Yes."

"How many more of these patrols are we going to take out before we meet up with the Suna ninja?"

"As many as we find." As he looked over his team for injuries and his fallen enemies for anything useful Naruto felt someone approach. The ninja appeared in the middle of the Konoha-nin and their dead enemies with a flicker of movement and a swirl of sand. As he got a look at the possible enemy Naruto relaxed his guard. "Gaara? What are you doing here?"

With his usually impassive look in place Gaara turned to Naruto and said, "I'm the Kazekage. Why shouldn't I be here?"

A smile appeared on Naruto's face at that and he relaxed his guard fully. When he saw his team was still on guard he signaled them to stand down, which they did. "So Gaara, did you know that I was here or we you just looking for some enemy ninja to take out the frustrations of your job on?"

"I came here to meet up with you. We need to deal with the patrols and various other groups of invaders in Wind Country before we meet up with my forces and go on the offensive."

"What will your ninja be doing while we hunt down enemies?"

"The same thing as us. They'll just be doing it in larger groups with a concentrated effort. Hopefully they'll attribute any disappearance of their troops to just me and any squads sent after me won't be prepared for all of us."

"Sounds like a plan, but it seems to be missing something."

"Its not like you have a better one Naruto-sensei."

"Good point. Alright, where to first Gaara?"

"Doton jutsu were used to make a fortress of sorts by the enemy. They use it as a forward base. It will be our first target."

Hakaiteki and Gaara appeared in front of a small fortress made of rock and sand without a sound. Hakaiteki quickly fixed this by using his jutsu to turn the chakra in the door of the fortress into heat. The door promptly exploded into a large fireball. Gaara shielded them with his sand as Naruto and Nobori charged through the opening and engaged the enemy. Imei appeared beside Hakaiteki grabbed him and both of them disappeared. Gaara just stood there and made spikes of sand impale anything trying to leave.

As he pulled a kunai out of an enemy's throat Naruto said, "Think there is anyone in here capable of being a challenge?"

Slicing a pair of Chunin in half Nobori spoke, "Doubtful. They considered Wind Country already conquered and thus left only a guard force behind. If you want a challenge you should head to Iwagakure itself at least. Even then the chances of a worthy opponent being found are low."

"Why?"

"Iwa is little more then a shell of what it once was. It is doubtful anyone of significance will be there. Unless of course they find out you are going there with minimal backup, then we will likely encounter Hyuuga Hiashi at the very least."

Creating some clones to explore the rest of the fortress Naruto and Nobori charged into its depths while eliminating any enemy ninja they encountered with ease. Outside the innermost chamber they met up with Hakaiteki and Imei. Upon seeing them Imei said, "You're late."

"Well you see we had to stop and kill a bunch of ninja wannabes every now and then on the way here."

"Naruto-sensei, if you're going to lie at least make it believable. You wouldn't need to stop to kill ninja wannabes."

"Hakaiteki have you set the place to blow up yet?"

"I'm insulted! All these missions we've done together and you ask me such a thing. For shame Nobori."

"Naruto-sensei, please use Hiraishin no Jutsu to get us out of here before giving Hakaiteki the order to blow it up."

"Sure, now lets clear out this room and finish looking for useful information."

Nobori cut through the door and Naruto kicked it in just before Imei and Hakaiteki rushed past him and began to kill the few Jounin inside. Hakaiteki even managed to avoid using to many explosions. They still found no useful information, like troop positions or Iwagakure's defenses, but after Naruto got them out of the fortress and Gaara protected them from the oversized explosion it caused when it blew up everyone still considered it a success.

Sabaku Sousou - Desert Funeral

Kuchiyose : Kirikirimai - Summoning : Whirl

Suna Shuriken - Sand Shuriken

Hiraishin no Jutsu - Flying Thunder God Technique