Chapter 26 – Deception

Without looking at her daughter Kurenai whispered back, "Can they see us? Which direction are they following us from and how many are there?"

"There are two of them to the southeast at the moment. They can probably see us but, given their current distance, not very well. Taking into account their level of stealth and the fact they are moving through the trees they are undoubtedly ninjas," Naruko replied quietly.

Ninjas…? This was certainly unexpected, what could this mean? The thought her daughter might be wrong crossed her mind for a second but given her previous experience and her title as a sensor-nin there was very little room for error. The fact they were being followed was certainly important, but who they were after and their intentions was key. Could this have anything to with Naruko's long disappearance? She wondered. "Have they made any hostile movements?"

"Not yet and though they do seem intent on keeping their presence hidden, there is a metal chain of some kind linking them so I heard them coming from much farther than usual. And by the rustling of their clothing they are strangely dressed. It could be a cloak of some kind or very loose fitting clothing to hide weapons. Their physical conditioning and movements are also similar, so they are probably used to working together," Naruko explained.

Kurenai was impressed at her daughter's detailed analysis, especially since she herself still couldn't even detect the two ninjas. Shifting her eyes over to Tazuna, who was chatting with Kiba and Hinata about something, she was reminded of his strange attitude at the start of the mission. It was more likely that this had something to do with that rather than anything involving Naruko— the timing was too convenient. They had the element of surprise on their side now, which was likely to be outside of the expectation of the ones following, should they try anything.

"Keep tracking their movements and let me know if anything changes. We need to know what their objective is before we can act properly," Kurenai said in a hushed whisper.

"I will sensei, but do you think this has anything to do with Tazuna?" Naruko inquired.

"It's very possible. And that would mean it falls outside of the scope of the mission, since we're only supposed to be dealing with bandits or hired thugs at best. We don't have a choice right now though, so keep acting natural and don't tell the others yet. Kiba and Hinata will probably be okay, but Tazuna won't be able to remain composed," Kurenai replied.

Naruko remained silent for a few moments before asking, "Do you want to try to capture them?"

Kurenai understood the meaning behind those words. There was already some risk involved in fighting enemies of unknown strength, particularly since the other two genin lacked practical experience. However trying to capture them would increase this risk substantially and their duty right now also involved protecting a civilian. "No, if they attack us, don't hold back Naruko," she said finally, after considering their options.

"I understand," her daughter replied firmly.

In the end their safety took priority, Kurenai thought. They could always give Tazuna an ultimatum to tell the truth if it came to it. Attempting capture would have also meant revealing their plan to the others which could very well lose them their element of surprise.


A fair distance away two heavily cloaked men with re-breathing masks stood on a tree branch overlooking the road Team 8 was walking on.

"What do you think brother? Should we rip apart the Jounin first?" the long haired man asked the other one nearby darkly.

Looking over at the group traveling on along the road the other man with short hair replied, "It's probably best Meizu, but there is something strange about one of the genin. She looks likes she has a sword on her back… I didn't think anyone other than ANBU from Konoha use swords."

Gazing over, Meizu's eyebrows wrinkled somewhat, "Do you think the brat might be one then Gozu?"

"It's possible, and if so, that makes her more dangerous than the Jounin," Gozu replied evenly. There was no guarantee of it of course, and the odds were also quite low. "We'll kill the Jounin first as you suggested, but remember the old man is the target."


Naruko's ears twitched slightly, so those two are after Tazuna, it was just as they thought. Hearing them planning to murder her mother, however, and subsequently moving on past them, she felt something usual well up inside of her. What was that strange overpowering sensation? It compelled her to go after them immediately, making her chest and head heat up, while clouding her thinking. The feeling passed all too quickly for some reason, and left her confused. It was like something had snatched it away from her and she stopped walking. Having become dazed, she brought her hand up to her face.

Hinata, who was chatting idly with her, stopped as well, a concerned look on her face, "What's wrong Naruko?"

The rest of the group halted as well, with Kiba and Tazuna looking questioning at the girl.

Kurenai looked around carefully, but she couldn't detect or see anyone in the vicinity.

Whatever was happening didn't seem to be directly related to the ninjas after them, "Let's take a short break here everyone." Moving up next to Naruko, she spoke softly, "Look around with your doujutsu and see if you can spot anyone Hinata, I'll take a look at Naruko."

Hinata was a bit perplexed initially, but finally nodded in reply then moved away and said, "Byakugan." The veins around the girl's eyes became pronounced as she began scanning the area.

Seeing Hinata's behavior, Kiba and Akamaru became guarded as well and started sniffing the air to help in the search.

Tazuna shifted uncomfortably and put away his sake bottle.

Staring at her daughter, Kurenai could immediately tell something was definitely wrong. Naruko appeared confused and was unsteady on her feet.

Bringing up her other hand to her face. Naruko started speaking, as if in a trance. Repeating the words, "I won't let them", over and over again with her eyelids twitching. Her emotions were in turmoil— the earlier feeling kept rising up and disappearing continuously.

Kurenai's face clouded, a grave look of concern washing over her. Placing her hands on her daughter's shoulders, she spoke as calmly as possible, "Are you alright Naruko? What is it you won't let them do?"

Feeling her mother's touch, and hearing her words, Naruko stopped speaking and her hands moved away from her face. Her eyelids were open and she gazed up at Kurenai, saying softly, "I won't let them hurt you haha-ue."

Her own eyes opened wide and Kurenai was momentarily startled by what she saw— Naruko's irises were changing colors back and forth between blue and green, the normal color of her eyes and that of the other girl inside of her, why was this happening? What did it mean?

The shifting stopped and Naruko's eyelids began to flutter, like she was becoming sleepy then they suddenly closed and she hugged her mother fiercely.

The abrupt action disrupted her thoughts and Kurenai reflexively embraced her daughter in return. She was still quite unsure of what happening, but this natural feeling eased her mind.

Several moments of silence passed between them.

Releasing Kurenai, Naruko stared at her and spoke up calmly, "They said they are planning to kill you sensei, but their target is Tazuna just like we thought. The two of them moved on ahead, and I lost them."

So her daughter reacted like that because she knew they were planning to kill me? Kurenai thought. Looking at Naruko, it was apparent she was very composed now, not a hint of the earlier disorientation. However, it also seemed like she wasn't aware of what just happened. She decided to store this away for now, there were more pressing matters at hand. "Did they get out of your detection range?" Kurenai asked.

"Yes, at least while I was walking, though I can't feel or hear them around us anymore, even now while standing still," Naruko replied, then added. "The only things I can sense now are the animals around us, and a stream a little ways ahead. Should we question Tazuna about this now?"

"No, let's hold off on that until after they have been dealt with. We need to get moving soon too, so we don't make the ones after us suspicious," Kurenai said quickly.

Naruko nodded.

"I have a plan now that we know what their objectives are," she added.


As the group continued along the road, they started coming up on the stream that Naruko had sensed earlier. It was relatively small and had a walkway spanning the gap in the road, which was just wide enough to allow a large cart to go over. Hinata was walking up front with Tazuna. A bit behind her, Kiba was reading a map with Akamaru next to him. Following behind him, Naruko appeared to be walking casually but she was completely on guard, still not having detected the two ninjas from earlier. Kurenai trailed a ways behind her daughter, seemingly lost in thought about something.

When everyone had crossed the walkway, the two brothers acted quickly. Springing out from the water in the stream, they landed to either side, behind the woman. There was a spike ridden chain between them connected by two large wicked claw gauntlets.

Naruko noticed them immediately and spun around rapidly, hand on her sword.

With a quick jerk of their gauntlet arms the chain coiled and looped around Kurenai, who had been caught unaware by their ambush.

Rushing forward to aid her mother, Naruko reached into her pouch and tossed one of her black smoke bombs on the ground near Kurenai.

Catching hold of their target, the brothers braced themselves and yelled out at the same time, "Die!" They lost sight of the woman quickly however, in the smoke that billowed forth.

Naruko had disappeared into the smoke as well.

Kiba, Hinata, and Akamaru heard them cry out behind them and made a defensive circle around Tazuna.

The two men still feeling the tension between them jerked their chain apart. The motion caused the bands around the woman to tighten and tear through her body. The brothers exulted in the sensation, but it was only momentary, as their link suddenly became taut.

Kurenai, who had been following the group stealthily through the trees on the left side of the road, stopped just short of the attackers and made very fast series of hand symbols.

Making a quick slash through the spot her mother once stood, Naruko severed the chain which caused the two men to stagger backwards.

Meizu abruptly bumped against a tree trunk. He felt something beginning to snake around his legs, body and arms. Looking down in a panic, he saw a tree was wrapping itself around his body. Too late, he realized they themselves had been ambushed. The man struggled intensely, but it was futile then he sensed something in front of him.

A figure was taking shape from nothing but mud before the long haired man. Solidifying, the body colored and Kurenai's visage became clear— there was a kunai in her hand. "This is the end for you," she said severly, then threw the weapon at the man's throat.

Seeing the girl with the sword coming out of the smoke at him, Gozu realized how incredibly fast she was and barely had time to react. Releasing the chain mechanism quickly, he made a hard swing at her with his claw gauntlet, as he reeled backwards trying to get his footing.

Naruko dodged backwards to avoid the man's attack, then made lightning fast downward slash that took his gloved arm off. Immediately leaning sideways, she followed up with a vicious kick to his midsection.

The blow was so powerful it broke Gozu's ribs where it connected, rupturing several of his internal organs, and causing him to fly back a few dozen feet. He crashed roughly through several pieces of shrubbery, before skidding limply to a halt.

Landing a short distance away from the man, Naruko gazed down at him. She noticed his breathing was very weak and immensely strained.

The man was so disoriented and in so much shock, he could barely feel the pain from his lost limb. Vaguely looking up at her, Gozu saw her sword in hand and blinked slowly. He was unable to speak.

With a sad expression on her face, Naruko said quietly, "May you find peace in death."

Gozu felt something pierce his heart, and he lost consciousness.

Placing her hands together before her, Naruko bowed then walked away listlessly.


The group stood staring at the fresh graves they had prepared for the two brothers. Kurenai seemed fairly calm, but Hinata and Naruko both wore sad expressions. Tazuna appeared quite nervous about the state of affairs— they hadn't said anything to him yet regarding the issue. Though it was clear from Kurenai's gaze at him earlier that they knew something of what was going on. Kiba had a strange mixture of expressions and appeared to be wrestling with something in this mind.

Everything had happened so quickly, he didn't have time to do anything when the ambush occurred. Apparently Kurenai and Naruko had known about these two beforehand, but only stressed earlier they should guard Tazuna carefully, not mentioning anything about these ninja. He was more upset than anything that he had been left out of the loop, but understood somewhat why the other two didn't mention anything. "Who were they?" Kiba asked roughly.

"They were missing-nin from the village of Kirigakure, known as the 'Demon Brothers'. The two were apparently twins who had defected some years ago, along with several others," Kurenai explained.

Though frightened and startled initially by what occurred earlier, Hinata had mostly calmed down now. The main reason for this had been Naruko's sad expression when she returned from the woods, after having killed the other ninja. This was the first time she had ever seen her friend make that kind of face and it moved her even more deeply than the deaths she had witnessed. Her father had talked about what it was like when people died, but being around it like this was so much different. "Why did they attack us?" Hinata asked quietly.

Naruko spoke up this time, "They were after Tazuna."

Looking directly at the man, Kurenai spoke in a severe tone, "Someone hired them to kill you, but they were Chuunin level ninjas and were not what we expected to face on a C-Rank mission. Why did you lie to us about what the mission would entail?"

Glancing over at her serious face the man knew he didn't have any choice left in the matter, so he decided to tell them everything. He spoke about his countries poor economic state and how they couldn't afford to pay for a higher ranking mission. The desperate situation they were in, trying to build a bridge to have a free link to the outside world, and the fact a powerful corrupt business man named Gato was behind all of their troubles.

"So without this bridge your country will likely fall into ruin," Naruko said after he finished. "Did you know anything about this sensei?"

Kurenai shook her head, "We typically don't pay much attention to the smaller countries that lack ninja forces and this was something that occurred within the past six months."

"Those poor people…" Hinata said distressed.

Scratching his head Kiba said, "So basically right now we're doing a mission, we aren't being paid enough for and that's more dangerous than it was supposed to be. What should we do Kurenai-sensei?"

Glancing at the graves then back at her team, she knew things would likely become even more serious from here on out. If what Tazuna said was true however, denying him help would be condemning a lot of people. She wanted to hear what they had to say, "What does everyone else think we should do?"

Hinata looked at her team leader and replied firmly, "We should keep guarding him Kurenai-sensei." Though Tazuna had lied to them, she couldn't help but feel a degree of responsibility and obligation towards the livelihood of the people in Wave Country.

"I'm down for this," Kiba said confidently, this would mean more chances for him to prove himself to the girls and help those people. Even though he wasn't quite sure he could actually kill anyone yet, he had seen Naruko attack that Chuunin without hesitation and subsequently end his life afterwards. He thought it might have been to protect Kurenai at first, but when he discovered that had been a clone of hers, it was clear Naruko's actions were more instinctual or basic. Kiba couldn't help but be a bit awed and scared at the same time by her, and he was glad she was on his team.

Naruko spoke up last, "This will be dangerous, but those people will be lost without us." In reality, logic and rules dictated that this wasn't something they should be going forth with. The man's lie could have cost one of her team members lives had the situation been different. If he had admitted what they would be up against from the beginning, she would have been much more agreeable to the mission. Hinata's own decisive reply was what made her concede.

Though her daughter's words weren't so much an agreement, she felt this was probably the closest thing. She knew Naruko had been weighing the options in her mind and was still reluctant about it, much like herself, given the circumstances. They would no doubt be facing even stronger opponents from here on out, possibly Jounin in level, which was not a task for typical genin. "Alright then, we'll continue on with the mission Tazuna," Kurenai finished.

The man appeared very relieved and bowed to them, "Thank you very much Konoha ninjas."