Kakashi frowned slightly as the deadline struck. Out of the nine potential teammates he could have, good for two teams, he only saw Choji and Shikamaru from team Asuma. Neji from team Gai and Kiba from team Kurenai.
"Where is Hinata, Neji?" he asked. "I do not know" the Hyuuga replied neutrally, keeping his worry for himself. 'This mission is not to retrieve Hinata and Hanabi if he asks for her.'
Kakashi sighed 'This has to do.' "This is an emergency A-Rank mission assigned by the Hokage." He started, gaining all their attention. At the mention of 'A-rank' they stiffened. "An unknown infiltrator has stolen the scroll of sealing and several other vital documents. We are to track this infiltrator and retrieve the documents, if possible we are to capture him."
He presented an book that had the infiltrators scent on it, gesturing for Kiba and Akamaru to smell it. Without thinking, Kiba spoke up "Smells like Naruto." Kakashi withheld the urge to put his face into his palm. 'And that is why you are not ready to become chunin' he thought idly.
Taking in the startled expressions "I suspect the same thing, you need to remember he is now a traitor to Konoha, so do not hold back if it is him understood?" 'Should I warn them about Kyuubi? I do not know if the law has been lifted yet.' He thought with a frown.
"Furthermore, Uchiha Sasuke has been murdered this night, I suspect that the three perpetrators of that crime are with the infiltrator. Meaning we are going to face a four man team." The genin looked shocked that one of their own was killed. Their faces turned grim.
"I will take the lead, tracking the scent of the infiltrator. Kiba will behind me to double check the trail. Choji will be next, focus on keeping an eye on our left side. Shikamaru will be after Choji, keep your eyes our right side. Neji will take up the rear. He will be using his Byakugan to watch on backs. Should we be forced to split up, Choji will come with me, the second team will be under Shikamaru's command, with Neji and Kiba with him." The genins nodded at the formation information. "Should I be disabled in any way, Shikamaru will take over, no complaints about that understood?" They nodded again.
"Any questions?" Kakashi asked. "Who is the priority target, the infiltrator or Sasuke's murders?" Shikamaru asked. "Retrieving the documents in vital. Focus on whoever is carrying those." Shikamaru nodded at Kakashi's reply.
"Then, we are off." And he followed Pakkun who locked into the fox-scent.
Earlier: Outside Konoha's walls.
Naruto quietly snuck through the trees. Although he was initially on schedule, he had to stop and hide for another unexpected patrol. He was not if they were ROOT men, or that he had forgotten a patrol route, but the result was the same, he had to quickly duck into a civilian home. Thankfully the family's dog was very friendly, and didn't make any loud sounds giving him away. A quick petting session and Naruto was gone again, leaving one happy dog behind.
He hoped the team was still waiting, and was surprised when he suddenly heard Karin's voice coming out of the tree "Did you get spotted?" she asked. Naruto shook his head, relieve the team was there as the genjutsu dispelled, showing the sound four, Karin, and to his relief, Hinata and Hanabi.
Naruto greeted the Hyuuga sisters, who were relieved to see him after he pulled down his facemask. The wait on him with all those strangers claiming to be with Naruto was nerve wrecking for them both, the idea that they might be lied to came harshly to Hinata's forefront, her unpleasant memories of her kidnapping coming to the forefront.
Jirobo walked towards Naruto and the sisters, and kneeled down "Hanabi correct?" he asked as friendly as he could. The girl nodded. He turned around "Climb on my back, I will be carrying you." Hanabi shot a glance towards Hinata, who looked at Naruto. He nodded, and Hanabi climbed onto Jirobo's back. Using the robe decoration as a foothold.
Jirobo rose, and Tayuya snapped out the formation "Kidomaru, take the lead, I will be behind you. Karin and Jirobo in the center. Hinata and Naruto behind them. Sakon and Ukon take up the rear. Ukon, keep an eye out will you. I am not going to rely solely on Karin's ability."
The group set off. Following the formation given, they initially easily snuck between the patrols. But it would not be a clean escape.
"We got four people behind us" Hinata spoke shyly shortly after she activated her Byakugan. Tayuya cursed, having heard that, she glanced back at Karin, who nodded, the team having just entered her sensing range.
"Are they masked shitheads?" Tayuya asked. Hinata gasped at the language before nodding. "Colored masks or black and white?" "Black and white" Hinata replied. Tayuya let loose another string of curses. "Dammit, some of those ROOT goons must be on our trail. Kidomaru, up those trees. Ambush those shitheads! Naruto, with me, we will be the follow-up punch, Sakon, Jirobo, keep those Hyuuga and Karin safe!"
The group hastily redeployed, and the approaching ROOT squad ran under Kidomaru's ambush point, who dropped down, shooting webbing along the way. A veritable horde of spiders right behind him. The ROOT agents however nimbley dodged his ranged assault, and in a burst of speed, dove under the ambush area.
Three of the squad shot forward, one clashing with Naruto who hastily blocked a rapid vertical slash, unbalanced, he tumbled backward, the experienced agent not expecting the odd movement, tumbled down with him, sending both to the ground.
The remaining agent double backed, re-engaging the off-balance Kidomaru, this agent had also drawn a tanto, but it cackled with lightning, easily cutting through Kidomaru's webbing, and hacked his way through the regrouping spider summons.
One of the pair shot towards Tayuya, who swerved to the side with a curse. Rapidly pocketing her flute in favor for an elongated dagger. Before she could counter attack however, the man shot away, regrouping with his partner as the pair dived headlong into Sakon, Ukon and Jirobo.
Jirobo already had handed Hanabi to Hinata, quickly gathering earth natured chakra around the cloth on his arms, he improvised it as an armguard, blocking the slash from the agent who bypassed Tayuya, having seen it in action, he did not fall for the same trick again. 'They must have heard Tayuya's order somehow, and decided to kill Karin and the Hyuuga's first.' He thought. 'I will not fail' he declared to himself, narrowing his eyes.
The wins battled the final agent, using their bloodline to their advantage, they handily countered the initial taijutsu assault, staying fast and close to the man to prevent him from drawing his own tanto, he drove the man away from Karin and the sisters.
Down on the ground, Naruto landed with a grunt of pain, before rapidly rolling away from the falling ROOT agent, who tried an opportunistic slash. Naruto hastily formed his cross sign, summoning multiple clones into existence. 'Aside from summoning, I cannot use any other jutsu without risking the rest.' He lamented in his mind, the chaos above making it hard for him to judge where his allies where. 'Kyuubi's chakra is too risky, but we need to finish this fast.' He thought on as he ducked under a swipe, two of his clones dispelled by an skillful twirl of the blade.
It did give him the time to create more clones, who promptly tried to dog pile the agent, forcing him back. Using this opportunity, he backpedaled, forming the handsigns for the summoning jutsu. He did not have a lot of practice, but he was able to summon up to children sized snakes.
He was aiming for smaller ones however, and summoned a pack of 'normal' sized snakes, all quite venomous. "Encircle the agent, wait for an opening, go through my clones if you have to" he hissed towards the snakes, who set off to follow his order.
He made another group of clones, this time charging straight ahead. He himself shot a rather obvious chakra-chain shot straight towards the agent, who used a powerful two handed slash to disperse it. Having no room to dodge with all the clones to dodge it. 'I don't have enough control to use my chains otherwise in this environment' Naruto thought.
The man however stood strong even with the new wave, dispelling clones and snakes alike in a graceful dance. However, he missed the one snake who risked being trampled, slithering between the feet of the clones, its skin the same color of the dark grass. It struck the moment Naruto shot another chain, forcing the man to focus on it momentarily to properly deflect it.
The snake chomped down on his foot, a reflex kick removed the snake, but the poison was in his body. The agent quickly sensed this, and suddenly shot towards Naruto, ignoring the blows the clones landed. Naruto nearly managed to dodge the suicidal charge, a swallow but long cut appeared on his left arm, and he was grateful a pair of clone shad the state of mind to grapple with the agent, preventing him from giving chase to give a more deadly blow.
The man was pulled down, unbalanced by the grappling pair, and the rest descended like a pack of wolves. Killing the man in a rain of fists and feet.
Back up in the trees, Tayuya quickly observed the unfolding battles.
"I am the wrong class for this fight!" Kidomaru complained as he narrowly managed to avoid getting one of his six arms cut off. He tried to counter by forming his golden web, lightly tapping into the seal, causing it to paint a swirling pattern over his arms and upper body.
He managed to form two clubs, which barely held up against the rapid swordplay of his opponent, deep cuts into the material appeared with every cut. Suddenly, a flute started playing, disorientating the ROOT warrior. Kidomaru lashed out without hesitation, scoring a hard blow on the shoulder.
With a crack, something broke, breaking the ROOT warrior out of his stupor, who lashed out, Kidomaru handily dodged. "Oh yeah, Support class reinforcements ftw!" he boasted as he formed four more golden clubs. Charging in for a counterattack as the flute played again. This time the ROOT warrior was not affected by the genjutsu, but took a vital second to dispel it.
The ROOT man put up a desperate defense, but between his injury and the fact the enemy had four more arms than him, his faltered, and was pummeled to death. Kidomaru heaved a sigh as the markings receded, the short fight taking more than he had anticipated.
Jirobo grunted in pain as the tanto bit through his improvised arm guard. He countered with a bone crushing punch, but the agent ducked under it. With a rapid slash, he cut deeply into Jirobo's leg. Who lost his balance by the hit, instead of finishing him, the agent shot away towards Karin and the Hyuuga sisters. He tried to follow, activating his mark as he went.
Karin managed to block the attempt to slice her in two with a kunai, the agent steadied himself, before kicking her hard, head first, into a tree. The agent turned to slash at the Hyuuga girls, but instead of facing a meek shy girl, he stood against a lioness protecting her young, a rare fierce look was in Hinata's eyes as her fists enshrouded themselves into lions shaped by chakra.
With a furious shout she buried both her fists in the turning root agent, who was caught off guard, blasting him into another tree. With a sickening crack, something vital broke, and the agent fell down like a broke ragdoll.
Sakon, Ukon on his back landed near Hinata, whistling while looking at the tree she shot the ROOT agent into. "You got bite" he commented as his seal completely retreated into its compact form. His fight took longer than expected, the man quicker then he thought, despite his advantage of an extra set of limbs, he had a hard time landing the deciding blow.
Naruto, after defeating his opponent, heard the impact of person on wood, running on the ground towards the sounds of fighting above him, he saw a flash of red hair falling. "Karin!" he shouted, dashing forward to catch her.
He caught his sister, bleeding from cut on the head. He quickly undid his bandana, and used it as an improvised bandage to stem the bleeding. 'Dammit, I know head wounds are bad… but what can I do' he cursed to himself.
He climbed up, Karin bridal style in his hands. Once up, he saw Jirobo tended by a cursing Tayuya. "Am I the only one who didn't have to use the mark you weak shitheads?" she asked. "I only tapped for a temp boost" Kidomaru defended. Jirobo merely grunted while Sakon, with Ukon looked over his shoulder, glared holes into the redhead.
"Dammit, fatty here…" Tayuya started, ignoring Jirobo's complaint "… got his leg chopped up. And glasses…" she referred to Karin "… is in dreamland." 'Our medic and sensor is down dammit, why couldn't I and fatty stop the bastards properly.' She lamented.
"Kidomaru will lead, his spiders will scout ahead, we will go at a slower pace." She started to order 'Cant linger here, we are too close to Konoha, and we have no certainity other patrols will find the traces of our battle, or our tracks.' "Blondie, carry Glasses, Big pale eyes, can you carry the tiny one?" she asked Hinata, ignoring Hanabi's glare to be referred as 'tiny'. Hinata nodded, having heard worse. "Right, follow Kidomaru, Twips, support Fatty, I'll take the rear." Tayuya finished, the stress cuasing her to use the nicknames she had for everybody.
Thankfully, everybody understood, and they took off at an slower pace.
Konoha chase group: Outside the walls
"The fox scent is joined by multiple other scents here, including the ones I smelled at the Uchiha place" Pakkun reported as the pack sniffed around the clearing. Once again, Kiba showed his lack of discretion "Hinata's scent and scent smelling very closely like it is here! They kidnapped her!" he shouted, startling the group.
Kakashi turned towards Neji "What is the meaning of this?" he asked with a narrowed eye. "I do not know." Neji replied haughtily "When the call for the mission came in, I just found their empty rooms." He conveniently skipped over the fact personal belongings were missing. "I do believe she had a crush on him, which might explain her.. rash action." 'She proves just like Naruto faith can be fought…. If she escapes successfully… perhaps…' he thought.
"They must have kidnapped both of them" Kiba argued. "We will see" Kakashi said suspicious. "The main objective is still the scrolls from the Hokage tower." Kakashi said, well aware that he was breaking his own motto. 'Can't risk the wrath of Danzo on these kids' he thought with a frown.
The group set off, some prepared for the upcoming fight, some unprepared.
AN: Dog may be inspired by a certain dog in the family. Karin is an sensor, hence no complicated passwords for Naruto.
In Naruto's fight, I wanted the agent to appear stronger, but luck and cunning making it end in Naruto's favor.
NARUTO1: Haha, never crossed my mind, shame!
Zecht: Saves her the trouble for robbing his grave later
Dregus, Skeek622: Did you double check your package? ;)
Guest: Kushina is a smart woman, she is both prepared for the future, and tries to deny the enemy as much as she can. What her preparations are for the future?...well…read on.
Ncpfan: Drat, seems like I am failing to properly convey Tayuya. Attempting to correct in future chapters.
Deathmvp: Naruto got cocky in a high security location.
Wyrtha: She declared him bat-shit crazy in the forest, and gave up on him then and there.
Time Sea Sky Primordial: Achievement unlocked!: traumatized a reader
Wew, more reviewers out for Sasukes blood than I expected. I am aiming to have the next chapter on Monday, but writing the sound four in battle is harder then I thought, so there might be a day delay.