Chapter 35: Vegeta vs Gohan? The bandits of Hi no Kuni.
Vegeta was walking around his wilderness home, perfectly content. He had spent nearly four weeks training himself with a gravity belt and weighted clothes, including an extra weight for his tail, which was now wrapped around his waist. "It's been awhile since I've seen the brats, maybe I should go pay them a visit." He pondered to himself.
"Well, one of us came to see you, Vegeta." A voice from the edge of the woods came, causing the Saiyan prince to move into his battle stance.
"Who's there?" Vegeta asked, he recognised the voice, but the ki signature was strange, familiar yet foreign, at the same time.
"Vegeta, I found a way home, unfortunately I can only send a single person right now." Gohan appeared behind the man, causing Vegeta to instinctively send a kick towards the teenager's head. Gohan was now his original height, as Puralis' eye had slowly changed him into his true self, a tall black haired man with onyx colored eyes. Gohan had received a few scars from his training with the tiger god, the most apparent one crossing over his right eye, he also had a new set of clothes, a black ninja suit with a tiger patterned cloak that was white instead of orange. Gohan stopped the kick with ease, grabbing Vegeta's ankle and twisting, sending the prince to the floor. "Sorry." He offered Vegeta his hand, only to have it slapped away.
Vegeta stood on his own, clearly embarrassed, "Saiyan warriors do not need help." He said, "Now, how is it that you will send us home?"
"I won't yet, but I can get my mission done a lot quicker with some help from you." Gohan said.
"What will you have me do?"
"I need you to come with me and help me either recruit or kill members of Zodyak's army."
"I refuse, do it yourself."
"Why?"
"I need to train, besides, you're strong enough on your own."
"Not to defeat a god-class!"
"A what-class?"
"Platinum, there are five classes of zodiac warriors, most are basic-class, then there are silver, gold, and platinum, they make up the Zodiac Squad, Zodyak's equivalent to the Ginyu Force." Gohan began explaining, "I can take them, maybe not Leo but I'll deal with that later, anyways, I'm a god-class, there are three others who are more powerful than I am, and I need to find a replacement for each before I can kill them, otherwise the Time-Space-Portal will stop working."
"Come tell me when you've decided who'll do what, and then maybe I'll join your little team."
"I plan to recruit Konoha, but I want your help first."
Vegeta smirked, "If you can defeat me."
"What?" Gohan was surprised.
"I said if you can beat me."
"I know what you said, but why?"
"I refuse to follow someone weaker than me."
"Of course you do, fine." Gohan sighed, throwing his cloak away and pulling out two daggers. The daggers had white blades and the handles were made of ivory that was painted with black stripes.
"Nice blades boy, can they keep up with me though?" Vegeta taunted, springing towards Gohan, who moved around the prince's attack and used the but of one dagger to strike him in the back and the other to leave a large gash on his left arm.
"I thought you'd be faster." Gohan smirked, dodging another attack from Vegeta.
"BRAT!" Vegeta screamed, angry at the fact that Gohan was toying with him, the prince removed his weights, stretching a little then beginning to attack again.
'He's a lot faster!' Goha noticed as he attempted to dodge a punch but was struck in the face, causing him to go flying. "Eye of Puralis!" Gohan shouted, his black eyes changing to white with a single golden slit that had a line going to each said. Gohan now saw Vegeta's attack a little better, and moved out of the way from a powerful punch and sent a knee flying into Vegeta's stomach, causing the prince to bend forwards, "Tiger King's Claw!" Gohan shouted, his right foot covered with a visible white aura, the tiger god's prodige then flung his foot at the Saiyan prince's face, causing blood to fly everywhere, "Sorry Vegeta!" Gohan shouted, appearing above the man's head, "Tiger God's Fist!" Gohan threw his knives in the air and filled his fists with the same white aura as before, "HU!" He delivered a powerful flurry of punches to Vegeta's face, sending the older man flying. "I'll come and get you when I have a team ready." Gohan said, catching his knives and putting them away, he then went and picked up his cloak, slipping it back on. "See you."
'The brat is stronger now, Kakarot would be proud.' Vegeta smiled as he stood up, "Gohan, don't forget to come and get me when you're ready." The prince said.
"Of course." Gohan smiled, "I'll see you then." Then, a lightning bolt struck Gohan, and the boy was gone.
Naruto was running along the road, he was bored, neither Shikamaru nor Yamato would talk to him, and he didn't dare try Sasuke. Everyone was too focussed on the mission, they would be arriving in just under an hour and according to the information they had, there was nearly four hundred bandits at this camp, that meant each of them would need to take out one hundred, of course each of them could easily handle someone of a bandit's caliber normally, but a hundred enemies was tough for even experienced Jonin, yet here they were, three new Chunin and one Jonin, against four hundred.
"Can we go a little faster?" Naruto called out, he wanted to try and finish this.
"We need to save our energy." Yamato said, "Shikamaru, any strategies?"
"We should stay together, Naruto you use your clones and battle up close, captain-yamato you're on defense, protect us with your Mokuton Jutsu. Sasuke, I want you and I to use long ranged Katon jutsu to thin them out." The Nara heir answered.
"Got it." Naruto said.
"Good plan." Yamato replied.
"Hn." Sasuke grunted.
About half an hour later, the four arrived at a small cliff that overlooked the bandit's camp, it was a large camp, nearly the size of a small city. Tents were scattered about and in the center there was a few women that were strung up.
"We have to do something!" Naruto growled, he hated people that mistreated others for no reason.
"Look, the towers are heavily armed." Shikamaru pointed at the four towers that surrounded the camp -one in each corner- in the towers there were large cannons and bandits armed with bows.
"I'll take them out with my fire dragon jutsu." Sasuke said, his jutsu could easily destroy a wooden tower.
"Bad idea, those cannons have gunpowder in them, and probably a lot considering the size, it could hurt the prisoners." Yamato interrupted, "We'll have to go for the old fashioned stealth approach."
"Alright." Naruto nodded, taking off his jacket and sealing it away, then placing Hi no Kitsune on his belt, "Don't wanna make things too obvious."
Yamato took three radios out and gave one to each Chunin, "We'll all get into position to attack one tower, when you're ready report it, and Shikamaru will give the go ahead, don't get caught until you're close enough to kill the bandit who'll raise the alarm, and remember, no Katon techniques."
"Roger." The three Chunin said, then disappeared.
"Naruto at the south tower"
"Sasuke at the west tower"
"Shikamaru at the east tower"
"Yamato at the north tower"
"On my cue," Shikamaru started, "Go when ready!" He ordered, springing from his hiding place and charging the tower, channeling chakra into his feet as he climbed the tower, throwing a kunai into the throat of one bandit and continuing upwards, he jumped onto the top of the tower and saw two bandits, "Shadow Imitation Jutsu!" Shikamaru shouted, getting into the same position as the two as his shadow attached to theirs, causing the bandits to lose control of their bodies. Shikamaru made them drop their bows and reached to his shuriken pouch, taking a few shuriken in either hand, the bandits copied his movements, but had no shuriken to take from their thighs, "Checkmate." Shikamaru said, throwing the shuriken into the throats of the two bandits, killing them. "Troublesome." Shikamaru said, pushing the fact that he had just killed two people out of his mind for now.
The Nara heir then went and cut the alarm bell, "Alarm disabled at east tower." He whispered into his radio.
"Good, now disable the cannons if you can, then work your way to the center." Yamato responded.
"Got it." The Nara heir went to work emptying the tower of any remaining bandits and destroying the cannons by cutting the wicks off.
Sasuke charged at the tower as Shikamaru gave the order, using chakra to jump to the top immediately and then using a kunai in either hand to kill the three guards at the top, cutting the bell off and dropping down, eliminating the remaining bandits in the tower and heading to the center, eager to kill more bandits. He ran into a group of three who were checking out the commotion, but quickly dispatched them with swift kicks and a kunai to the back of the head, he relished the feeling of blood splattering on his hands.
Naruto, much like Sasuke, had gone for the top instantly, with a few hundred clones. In a matter of seconds he had dispatched all of the bandits in the tower and moved towards the middle with his small army, "Uzumaki Cannon!" He shouted as he saw a group of fifteen or so bandits running at him, one of his clones had used a henge to become a cannon and fired a few clones out, and the clones used Rasengans to kill the bandits that they hit. "To the middle!" Naruto shouted, getting the attention of more bandits, "Let's get 'em!" The small army of blonds charged and killed the bandits in their way as they headed for the middle.
Yamato had merely used a Mokuton jutsu to cover the tower in a large wooden pillar, and began moving towards the center, he heard the commotion that Naruto was causing and smiled, the boy was trying to attract all the bandits so the others could rescue the women. "Shikamaru, new plan, we'll let Naruto and Sasuke deal with as many bandits as possible while we go and rescue the prisoners and capture the boss." Yamato said to his mic.
"Sounds good, I'll meet you in the middle." The Nara responded.
Sasuke was tearing through bandits,using his Jinton: Shadowless Flight to move quickly through them all, while he laughed sadistically. He stopped laughing, however, as he attempted to kill one bandit who had grabbed him by the wrist and smashed him into the ground, hard.
"Not so fast, Uchiha." The man smiled, he had a large frame, easily twice the width of Choji and taller than Jiraiya. His teeth were stained yellow and his face was littered with battle scars. His black eyes stared into Sasuke's as he lifted the Chunin up and pulled out a large club, "You don't know me, but I know you, Sasuke, and my master would like me to bring you back with me."
"Try me." Sasuke spat, activating his Sharingan and kicking the man in the chin, causing his head to get knocked upwards, but other than that nothing happened.
"Oooh, feisty." The large man grinned, looking back at Sasuke and slamming the boys head into the ground, "Don't hit me in the face!" He growled, slamming the boy over and over again, after the fifth slam, he picked him back up and looked him in the eyes, "Do it again and I'll kill you."
"Try me." Sasuke glared directly into the man's eyes, hoping that he wouldn't notice the kunai that the boy had pulled out.
"Lord Orochimaru ordered me to bring you in alive, but if I break anything I'm sure Kabuto could fix it." The man smiled as he smashed his club into Sasuke's gut, causing blood and bile to fly from the Uchiha.
"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, he had left his clones to defeat the bandits so he could regroup with the others, "You let him go!" THe blond shouted at the large man as he charged, grabbing a kunai and throwing it at the man.
"Doton: Earth Wall." The man said, causing a large wall to appear behind him, the kunai clanging against it weakly.
"Fuuton: Bullet Storm!" Naruto shouted, breaking the wall with a flurry of bullets.
"Naruto, don't get involved." Sasuke ordered.
"Shut up, you're my friend and I'll help you." Naruto retorted.
"Both of you be quiet." The large man said, "I'm taking the Uchiha and there's nothing that a dead last like you can do about it." He glared at Naruto.
Sasuke started laughing, "The dobe may be stupid, but he's no dead last powerwise, as much as I hate to admit it, he's probably nearly my strength now."
"I can totally take you!" Naruto argued.
"SHUT IT! Doton: Earth Dragon!" The man shouted, making a large stone dragon appear, unlike the other elemental dragon jutsu however, this was a western dragon, a large lizard like body, no wings, and a lizard like mouth. "Kill the blond." The dragon roared and charged Naruto.
"Shit!" THe blond jumped over the dragon as it charged him, plowing into a few tents and setting off an explosion, sending rocks flying off the dragon to fly everywhere. "Rasengan!" Naruto shouted, he dropped down onto the dragon and slammed his attack into it's back, causing a small hole in it's back and a large hole in the stomach, leaving the dragon lifeless. "Now, let Sasuke go." Naruto growled.
"Fine, but I have a message for him," The large man put Sasuke down and looked at him, "If you want to unlock the true power of your cursed seal, then Orochimaru will teach you to utilise it to it's fullest, and one more thing, the technique to awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan is hidden in your clan's tomb." The man then crumbled to dust.
"Let's go Sasuke." Naruto helped his friend walk by supporting the boy on his shoulder.
Yamato and Shikamaru were helping the women escape when they were stopped by nearly fifty bandits, all heavily armed, at the front of them was a tall man with purple hair and eyes who brandished a katana.
"Hold it, those are my prisoners." The man said, his voice was rough. He unsheathed his katana and pointed it towards Yamato, "Drop the girls and walk away, or I'll kill you."
"Mokuton: Great Spear Tree!" Yamato shouted, making large, pointed roots sprout from the ground and pierce into many bandits, "How's that for an answer?" He asked, putting the woman he was carrying down and getting her to hide behind Shikamaru.
"That's it." The bandit leader shouted, charging Yamato and attempting to slash downwards with his katana, but was sent flying when a large pillar of wood struck him in the stomach.
"Just give up and come peacefully." Yamato said, his right hand cocked back in case the bandit made any sudden moves.
"NO!" The bandit yelled, throwing his sword towards Shikamaru, who wasn't suspecting it.
Suddenly, a bullet of wind smacked the sword away, Naruto and Sasuke were a few yards away, watching the battle, "The rest of them are gone." Naruto waved.
"This one is wanted, alive. We'll bring him in." Yamato said, making a pillar of wood to tie up the man.
So that's that, I know that the bandit fight is a little short, but really it was only for Sasuke to receive the message from Orochimaru. Anyways, for those of you who don't know, I'm taking any ideas for original jutsu that you may have so if you do have any I would love to hear them. Also, who do you guys want to join Gohan's team, other than the Konoha ninja? I'd love to hear some ideas about it. Anyways, thanks for reading!