Everyone was tense, that was to be expected however. The utter silence that hung in the air didn't help things. Naruto was still holding and defensive stance as he stood in the middle of the road, he could barely see past the thick mist that had descended on all of them. He knew that Satsuki should still be by the bridge builder, he wasn't sure if Satsuki would be able to hold off this enemy all by herself if she came after them. Hinata was with Kakashi trying to give as best medical help as she could. Not much but hopefully enough to make that wound a non-issue for the time being.

The woman that they were fighting was good… scary good. Good enough to go toe to toe with a someone who had been given Gifts from the Gods. Thanks to Slaanesh, he had perfect muscle memory when it came to any form of combat. He simply instinctively could fight in any style like a master once he had learned it. But even with that, he was only able to bring his and the assassin's fight to a draw. Though he saw it more as a loss because even throughout the fight it felt more like she was playing with him than anything.

Not only that… but she was fighting him with a what could be described as a kitchen knife while he had a custom made Power Sword infused with all sorts of powers. True… its Power Sword function was turned off at the moment. But still! The disparity between their weapons was wide enough to where it shouldn't have mattered. Something very wrong was going on here.

"Naruto! Behind you!" He heard Hinata call out and with god given reflexes he snapped around and sliced through the body that was attempting to sneak behind him. Only for that body to fall to the ground as a puddle of water.

"Shit… clones… she's using water clones on top of this mist." Naruto thought as he briefly glared at the small puddle of water. But then noted that there were small flecks of red in the blue liquid. "Is she… using her blood in the clones?" Naruto mumbled to himself.

"Naruto! What happened? She was there and now she's gone?" Hinata called out again, her question brought something to Naruto's mind that just added to the confusion of all of this. Hinata had the Byakugan, she should be able to see through this mist… or at least see the Chakra of the enemy. As far as Naruto knew… Shadow Clones were the only clone that had a Chakra network. Other Elemental type clones just had a blob of Chakra to use as a power source. Or at least that's what Hinata had told him when she explained what she saw with her eyes.

"She should have seen the difference between a clone and the real thing… but she's acting like it was the real thing. What the hell is going on?" He needed to buy some time. Enough to where he and his team could regroup. "Fine… two can play the Clone game… Shadow Clone Jutsu!" And with that Naruto summoned twenty copies of himself… that instantly popped back into nothing. And in their place, twenty smiling clones of the Mist Village assassin.

"Ooo… neat trick… but I can do it better." She said with a disturbing musical note before all the clones rushed him. A quick duck under the first swing and then a return destroyed the first water clone sent after him. And he continued to reduce them all into various puddles of water now pooling beneath him. "That's right… just a little bit more…" Nei whispered to herself with a hitch of anticipation, below her hands forming a combination of seals.

"ARGH! There… done…" Naruto breathed out having defeated all the clones. He knew full well that this was some kind of trap, they went down far too easily. But right now he could allow himself to be drawn into a trap. Her focus was on him, not the bridge builder or his team. So long as they were safe he would keep on fighting. He looked around for any incoming danger, but only when a took a small step did he hear where it would be coming from. The second his foot landed on the shallow but rather large puddle, he figured it out.

"Blood Barb Jutsu." Nei waited with great glee in the seconds leading to her trap activating on the little sunflower that had been her secondary target this whole time. Sure, Kakashi the Copy Ninja was a powerful Shinobi in all and then there was her money ticket the old man… but this kid looked so damn yummy she had to get a small taste. Once she did she would finish off the real threat here and then do her job.

Nei watched as finally the seconds passed and her Chakra reached the slivers of blood that she had put in her water clones. And then, instant carnage. The best kind. The puddle of water turned crimson red and from it shot up several spikes of solid iron. But then she frowned as she took a closer look. He was still alive. Poo. Yes… he was basically a pincushion at this point but he had dodged most of the spikes that would have hit a vital organ or two. Oh well… she'll still get a taste once his blood reached down into the water. But Nei's frown deepened as she noticed that something was even more off about this… was that blood steaming?

"Fuck! That hurt…ag… come on…" Naruto struggled to get free of the many iron spikes that had struck him from the ground. He had never heard of a Jutsu like this before. He couldn't even begin to think what kind it could be. Which meant only one… it was a Bloodline Trait.

"You're losing a lot of blood there kid… you better thank the bloody fool that he gave you a free pass on blood loss." Kurama chuckled as she knew that Naruto wasn't in any real danger here. Pain, yes, there was a lot of pain. But danger? No. Between her healing powers and Khorne's gift of endless blood wounds like this were nothing but a short-term hindrance. Now losing a limb or too many hits to a vital organ was a whole other problem together. "Just hurry and rust those things and get yourself out of there before it gets worse."

"Oh yeah… I forgot I could do that." Naruto admitted sheepishly. He had completely forgotten about Nurgle's Gift in that he could rust any metal that came in contact with his body. Internally the Plaguefather was sulking about once again being dismissed. The iron spikes quickly began turning a rusty brown starting from where they had impaled the blond, once that was done it didn't take much for him to dislodge himself. Naruto broke free with a single tug of his body and fell to the ground. "These things still hurt… damn it, when I…" Naruto grumbled as he pulled out the spikes still stuck in his body. Said grumblings were interrupted by the sound of a woman screaming, shrill and filled with pain.

"Hinata… can you see what's happening?" Kakashi asked after he heard the scream echo around him. He could tell that it wasn't Satsuki… the voice didn't match up. Even if it was a bit hard to identify given the level of distortion the pain in the scream gave.

"I'm… not sure what's happening. One second the enemy ninja was sneaking behind Naruto and then she was gone. Then there was twenty of her, then Naruto beat them… and then Naruto… and can tell something happened to him after that but I'm not sure what." All she could see was the Chakra networks of certain bodies through the mist. She could tell which one was Naruto by memory alone.

"She's using clones... which should be water clones." Kakashi hated this… he was the Jōnin here and yet he was on the sidelines. He should have never let his guard down even if this was just supposed to be a C-ranked mission. There was no way he could fight effectively with his arm in this state. Too much movement and his wound would open up and he'd die from blood loss. Exactly as Nei planned. Now it was up to his Genin to handle as rouge Jōnin level Shinobi that was rumored to have an extremely rare Bloodline Trait.

"No… that can't be it. They all have a Chakra network… or at least I think they do." Hinata was unsure of what she saw in the other bodies around Naruto. It was happening so fast that she couldn't pick out small details. But now that the fight seemed to have fallen into a small lull, she thought back. The lines of the Chakra network in the clones fighting Naruto weren't right. Normal network lines were static, they flowed back and forth but they stayed in the same place in the body. The lines in Nei's clones shifted with every movement the clone made, the wadded like something suspended in water.

"Nei is from the Mist before the Bloodline purges… however the fact she had one only came out when she turned traitor. She had hid it all her life because of the deep persecution people like her faced. So we don't really know what she could be capable of." Kakashi thought aloud before he glanced toward where Satsuki and Tazuna were. Or at least where they had been before the mist came. "Come on… while Nei is distracted by Naruto we need to make it to Sasuke and Tazuna."

It stung… no it burned! She had never tasted blood like this. The searing heat that the one drop had sent ripples of pain like a smoothing fire all across her body. But at the same time… it felt so damn good! Nei never thought herself a masochist… she liked to be the one dealing the pain instead of taking it. But whatever that Blood had in it… it energized her with a fiery fury that she never thought possible.

In a brief glimpse she saw a never-ending ocean of blood on fire. Towers of black stone and bronze stuck out like jagged daggers impaling flesh. The sky just as red as the sea of blood beneath but unmistakably different. And at the center of this glorious sea of genocide, was an island as big as a world. Covering it was battlefields and fortresses, all in constant states of use and siege. Only times they were being used as killing field and charnel houses were when strange creatures came and picked them over for the skulls of the fallen. She wanted nothing more than to see where those skulls where being taken to. But then the vision ended… it was such a painful loss to her that she screamed as loud as she could.

"More… I need more!" Nei screamed with reckless abandon as she ran towards the boy that had that deliciously burning blood.

Naruto just stared at the woman he had been fighting with wide eyes as he blocked another slash from her. He had just gotten out of her trap and then heard a blood-chilling scream. Then she came running at him with a frenzied look on her face… something about that seemed familiar to him for some reason. Then the two returned back to a fight of blades only without any of the grace and skill that their last one had. Now it was just one side brutally rampaging at the other. Naruto was at a lack of words at the deepening of this woman's madness, before it had just been a creepy kind of crazy. Now it was full on Khorne level of bloodlust.

"Did that bastard corrupt her when I wasn't looking?" Naruto thought as dipped around another poorly made attack. It was truly now just a fight between a wild animal and skilled hunter. Naruto just had to deal with the sheer number of slices and jabs that the woman was making, giving him little room to make an attack of his own.

"Nope… everyone one in here is just as confused as you are. Khorne is pretty happy but confused." Kurama confirmed and if this had been any of the other gods they were talking about they would still be suspicious. But Khorne being Khorne… there was a certainty that he didn't do anything if he didn't outright claim it was his doing right away. He was not the sneaky type at all.

"I need to get her to back off." Naruto thought before he activated the sword's energy field. With a simple block he cut the knife his opponent was using like there was no resistance at all. The front half of the blade flung up into the air and landed into the ground nearby. The assassin stared at her blade for a few moments and then blinked with a small groan.

"W-what… what just happened?" Everything just fell back into place. The bloodthirsty haze that clouded her mind returned back to normal levels. She still wanted to kill and maim this brat but it wasn't the only thing she could think about. "Just what the hell is wrong with you kid?"

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you?!" Naruto snapped back feeling that she was in no place to be asking things like that. Even before the crazy berserker trip she just went through she wasn't at all acting right in the head. But she just huffed indignantly and eyed where the bridge builder had been. The word there was had been.

"Looks like my target has wandered off somewhere… I need to find him." She said before making a quick number of hand signs and summoning a squad of Water clones. Then Naruto watched with both disgust and morbid interest as she stabbed her broken knife into her arm. When she pulled the blade back out it was good as new and covered in her blood. With an easy flick of the knife she sent several drops of her blood into the clones.

"So that's what you did… I guess Bloodline Trait means a whole other thing for you huh?" Naruto chuckled as he performed his own Shadow Clone Jutsu and summoned around fifty copies. Bringing a whistle from his opponent.

"Damn… the little sunflower just keeps spamming out more weeds. More like a dandelion really." Nei really didn't need this right now. This kid blood was worrying her… it made her lose control and that was something she hated with a passion. "I already have to deal with my brother screwing with my head… I don't need something new taking the reins from me." Nei grumbled in the safety of her mind before falling in single file line with her clones. Making him lose track of her. The squad of Nei copies and original then lunged forward with blades drawn. She would get rid of him quickly and avoid at all costs taking in his blood again.

"Oh no… we're not having that." Naruto smirked as he and the front row of clones and took out their own Dark Joke and drew their favorite seal on the ground. He himself had to work the seals worked into Dark Joke to allow for its drawing ability to work when cloned. He couldn't get the Power Sword function to work as the Shadow Clone Jutsu couldn't replicate the highly complex technology in the field generator. The seal drawing power was all seal work and was a simple thing to copy and paste but real moving parts and circuitry was a whole other matter.

"Ooo… what sort of little trick is playing this time? Doesn't matter… he'll still never tell which one of us is which." Nei internally smirked but the second she stepped over the seal line Naruto and his clones had drawn, she and her own clones were splatted with orange paint. It didn't stop her attack, she was a trained Jōnin with years of experience… plus her own rattled mind allowed for some ignoring of sudden and strange surprises.

But what she didn't expect was the ignoring of her clones and the spearhead of blond Shadow Clones toward the real her. It was only out of decades of fighting that she was able to pull her arms across her chest and pull the dormant blood in her clones to create a shield of iron spikes. Popping all the Shadow clones that had come for her. With a few steps back narrowed her eyes at what just happened… and then finally noticed that she covered in paint.

"I think I'm starting to get what your Bloodline Trait is." The Leaf Ninja said but from where Nei couldn't tell. While she was the only one that could see through the mist, that didn't give her omnipresent sight in it. Since it was her Chakra that was saturated in the mist she could get a feel of where other chakra was, but the Shadow Clones threw that method out the window. "You can imbue your blood with your Chakra and remote control it from anywhere… even take advantage the natural iron that is in blood."

"Aren't you such a smart boy… but you do know I'm going to have to kill you now that you've found out my secret." She said trying to return back to her innocent voice… but failed. She worked very hard to keep her powers a secret, even if the kid only scratched the surface of it that was still too much.

"And what were you planning on before?" Naruto deadpanned as he snuck away from the woman. He was leaving his clones to distract her while he regrouped with his team.

"You think you were so smart back there… diluting her water clones with paint so you could figure out which was which. I'm proud of you for not being as stupid as i thought you were." Kurama hummed at Naruto's grumbling on that comment. But she did have to admit that it was a neat trick. Taking advantage of the element of the clones like that. It was only for a second before they were destroyed to make that wall of iron spikes but they had all been turned and orange tinted versions of the assassin. While the real one was just covered in solid orange.

"Unless you can help me find my team… shut up." Naruto thought back to the voice in his head.

"Fine Mr. Grouchy… Satsuki is right ahead of you." Kurama smirked at the next few seconds as both the teens collided with each other… they seemed to do that a lot. Thankfully this time nothing too distracting happened. After all small moment of untangling themselves from each other both Naruto and Satsuki stood back up and kept their eyes away from each other.

"Well I'm glad that everyone's back together." Kakashi said with a small eye smile at seeing his two genin so flustered by the sudden contact with each other. But he needed to get back to seriousness quickly. "Naruto, what's the state of the enemy?"

"Right now she's fight thirty or so of my Shadow clones." Naruto said picking up on his sensei urgency. "But that number is going down fast."

"You've done good so far, not many genin can say they've fought against a Jōnin as strong as the one you did. But right now our priority is to get the bridge builder out of harm's way." Kakashi looked down the path that would lead to the coast. They had a boat waiting for them but it wouldn't be worth much if they had Nei on their tail. Naruto, Hinata, and Satsuki all didn't know the water walking technique yet so being in the open water would be a massive disadvantage if Nei caught them on their way to the Land of Waves. Kakashi knew that they needed to take her out now. "Okay… so this is what we're going to do."

Nei finished off the last of the Shadow clones that the little dandelion had left for her. Annoying but thankfully lacking in any of that blood that drove her crazy…er. She looked around and felt out for any chakra in the mist that wasn't hers. Only finding two at the edge near the forest wasn't what she wanted. They weren't going to be her target or Kakashi, both of them were dead weight at this point and wouldn't be so exposed.

"Fuck it… they're my only lead for right now. Maybe the sound of their screaming will draw them friends out." Nei giggled as she rushed toward the chakra signs… only to find the people she was least expecting. "What the?"

"Hello Nei Sen… terrible weather we're having aren't we?" Kakashi said casually as he rested against a tree while reading a small orange book. The bridge builder sitting next to him, looking a bit nervous but also a bit buzzed. Nei just stared at the two relaxing men for a few moments before she pricked her finger and flicked a small bit of blood toward them. Mid-air the small drop of blood turned into a lethal sharp needle, but was destroyed upon crossing a ring of seals painted onto the ground.

"Okay…" Nei said with a small click of her tongue. "… first off… page." She said pointing to the book in Kakashi's hand.

"Thirteen."

"Oh that's good."

"It is isn't it."

"But I still think thirty-six is the best."

"I'm partial to twenty-two myself."

"Oh… dirty boy." Nei giggled before she began flicking drops of blood toward the protected men. A look of tiny irritation and curiosity on her face as she experimented with the shield that surrounded them. "Sooooo… this is a bit of impressive seal work. There's no way that you pulled this out of your ass since the fight began. Hell… this looks like something you would find on a Shinobi Clan's secret vault of goodies. Old and powerful clan at that." She said as she flicked another drop of blood, this time the shape turned from a formless liquid into a small pony, still was destroyed.

"That boy you were fighting is an Uzumaki… and prodigy seal master at that." Kakashi shrugged, though he was very impressed that Naruto had been able to do this. At first he had asked the blond to just make a simple repelling ward but then Naruto asked why half-ass it and go for the full package. A seal ring that destroyed any organic matter that entered. It had taken Kakashi and the other two genin a second to comprehend that Naruto could do something like that so quickly. Never mind power it. But then Kakashi nodded his head in acceptance that it was in fact fully in his range of ability. After all, Naruto had the Nine-Tails chakra to power it and the natural talent of the Uzumaki to draw it in a timely fashion.

"Ah… that explains a few things. Like the swordplay and the seals. But I thought all the Uzumaki were dead though." Didn't really care about the clan of seal masters or their fate. But now she had another reason to cut the dandelion in half. She glanced down to the ring of black seals that surrounded the two men. "If it connects around like that… and it would have to keep me out on all sides… then that means it doesn't have an internal power supplier taking in ambient chakra to fuel it. Meaning its on some kind of limit."

"Apparently not." Kakashi said noncommittedly while the assassin stared at the seals. Nei had only a rudimentary understanding of how seals work but that was enough. She knew that there were three types of seals, self-power, use limited, and time-limited. The first was the type that people used to ward places or on weapons. Basically permanent. Then the other two were restricted by times of use where all the power was used in one go, like paper bombs. Or were given a set amount of power on their creation and would keep functioning until they ran out. This Seal ring was likely the latter of the two.

"It will run out eventually… meaning all I have to do is wait. And I know exactly how I can kill some time." She thought as she flicked one more drop toward the seal then suddenly flicked another but toward the right of her. Nei smiled as she heard the sound of pain as the sharp shard of iron grazed the Hyūga readying to strike. The former Mist Jōnin then ducked an anger filled swing of a sword, and then her smile grew even bigger at a familiar sight of blond hair. "Aw… did I hurt your little girlfriend?"

"Shut up!" Naruto barked as he clashed once again with blade pressing against blade. He was getting really tired of how even they seemed to be. But the deadlock was quickly broken by Satsuki throwing several kunai toward Nei. The woman quickly jumped out of the way and found herself in the range of the Hyūga already in her Gentle Fist stance. Any Shinobi worth a damn knew that stance and knew it was suicide to get into range of it.

"Not so fast little girl!" Nei shouted with glee before activating her Bloodline Trait. And then her smile grew nearly from ear to ear as she watched the Hyūga fall over in pain as she held onto the grazing cut that Nei's earlier attack had caused. Nei was disappointed in that it wasn't a bigger wound, if it had been then maybe she could have done of lethal damage but she would have to settle for frenzying the small pieces of her own blood in the wound. It would do too much lasting damage to the girl but it worked to trip her up enough into a nonthreat.

"Hinata!" Naruto had no idea what Nei had done but only knew that she had done something. He just like before went after the woman with reckless abandon. Just as she knew he would. Nei expertly dodged the heavy blows Naruto made in his anger over seeing Hinata hurt.

"Oh how the tables have turned… now he's the careless one." Nei purred in her mind before she suddenly grabbed ahold of the incoming Dark Joke. If it weren't for her hardening the blood in her palms it likely would have cut her arms in half. Instead it granted her an opening right at the boy's neck. She thrusted her knife right toward the soft flesh of Naruto's juggler, but the attack never came. Satsuki dove between them and with a spin kicked upward into Nei's jaw. Sending the former Mist Jōnin flying into the air and hitting the ground a few feet away.

"Been wanting to break that jaw since the start of this." Satsuki grumbled as she stood next to Naruto. Who quickly broke off to run over to Hinata. She watched as Naruto helped their teammate up but Satsuki quickly returned her attention back to the enemy. Who was making a pained effort to fix her jaw. Satsuki wasn't going to give her a chance, the Uchiha pulled out several more kunai and threw them toward the assassin.

Nei wasn't happy… no one would be if they had their jaw broken and their kill stolen from them. She had that little dandelion right in her grasp. And that bastard had taken that from her while delivering a hit that had been one of the worst in the whole fight. The former mist shinobi perked up at the reflex of blocking incoming kunai, a reflex every experienced shinobi had. And one that Satsuki had planned on. Nei had focused on the incoming kunai and opened herself back up.

"First Axiom of Stealth is to be other than where the enemy believes you to be." Satsuki internally smirked as she looked down at her enemy. She then weaved the signs that had been branded into her brain by her family. "Fire Style, Fire Ball Jutsu!" Satsuki breathed down an inferno of fire down on the unexpecting woman, engulfing her in the flames of the jutsu. Everyone looked on as the air was filled with a second scream of shrill pain. The fire dissipated once the Jutsu was finished and Satsuki landed back on the ground. "First Axiom of Victory is to be other than where the enemy desire you to be." Satsuki repeated the Raven's teachings, happy that she had been successful in her tactic. But then frowned at the sight that she saw when the smoke cleared. In Nei's place was a statue of solid iron. "She couldn't have…" Satsuki mumbled in awestruck fear at that possibility. The Uchiha then watched as a crack appeared over the statue's face, then a large piece broke off. That was followed by another and another until the all of the iron surface crumbled off leaving a naked woman with severe third degree burns all over her body. Satsuki recoiled at the fury behind the woman's eyes she looked toward her.

"Y-you… I'm g-going to-" She couldn't finish that sentence as a massive shadow loomed over her. Then the Leaf Shinobi watched as out from nowhere a man nearly the size of the Brothers stood behind Nei. Then with a few simple hands signs ended the fight.

"Earth style Slate Slab Trap." With that Nei was encased from the neck down in solid stone. Naruto, Hinata, Satsuki, Kakashi, and Tazuna all looked at the sight with a mix of relief, awe, and shock. Only Kakashi was able to recover quick enough to see what happened. The Leaf Jōnin instantly recognized the mask the great man wore as part of the Hunter Corp of the Mist Village. His attire was, while a bit on the large size, was line with the Hunter Corp.

"Did you have to deprive my genin of their hard-won victory?" Kakashi asked as he stood up and rubbed out part of the seal ring with his foot. Deactivating it.

"I apologize for that Shinobi of the Leaf, but Nei Sen has been a priority for my village for decades. I could not take the chance of her escaping from you." His voice was incredibly deep and as solid as the stone that now trapped Nei. Who was spewing out a string of curses, many of which none of the teens had ever heard of. Even Kakashi was surprised by one or two of them.

"Understandable… but you could have assisted us at any point." Kakashi pointed out but knew the answer to that.

"Your village and mine have not had the best of histories… if I had saved the lives of Leaf Village Shinobi… there would be a bit of trouble for me back home by my peers. I don't care for you lot enough to risk that." The man said as he ripped the entrapped Nei out of the ground and placed the massive stone prison on his shoulders like it was nothing. Naruto and Satsuki wanted to make a fuss about what he said… until they saw that. Then they rethought their words. "Even so, I congratulate your success in matching and even to a degree beating Nei Sen. That is an achievement that will have many watching your progress as Shinobi." He said before vanishing from the spot he stood on. They all just stared for a bit before Satsuki was the first to fall back on her hands and butt in exhaustion. Meanwhile Naruto after a few seconds fell on his back laughing that they just had fought a famous rouge ninja on their very first real mission.

"Well, now that that is over with..." Kakashi said before looking back at Tazuna who knew he wasn't going to like the next conversation. "… I think we need to talk about why we all just nearly died."

Author's notes

Damn… that turned out to be easier than I though it would be. Fighting is not my best writing skill so I was worried about how this chapter would turn out. But I feel happy with it. But I would really like it if I could get some feed back on how I might do better with action scenes.

Reviews

Reads too much – Yes it was… next chapter should be more of that. Maybe lemon… or that might be the chapter after the next. And yes… but this only really is happening because Chaos and Chakra don't mix well and create all sorts of unique situations.

Rmarcano321 – 1. Many. 2. Define Big Bad, there are several in this story. 3. (Pinky to mouth) Maybe…

Blaze1992 – yes… but Z and H will show up sooner rather than later. And yes… many perverted giggles to that.

zerochance117 – You can not put the Man-Emperor on the same level as so called gods. Just look at what you would be comparing the glory that is the Man-Emperor of Mankind to. Nurgle, A supernatural garbage! Khorne, a paraplegic sociopath! Tzeentch, a indecisive mollusk! Slaanesh, never went to rehab! Gork and Mork, literal mushrooms! Kaine, Big Daddy Calgar's personal pleasure object! Isha, supernatural garbage can! Cegorach; a fucking clown! The Nightbringer, has no friends. And the Deceiver, who's just straight up a idiot! Do not bring the majesty of the Emperor into the realm of godhood, for his is a man. The Greatest man that ever lived!

Master kill712 – thank you, and yes… that should be what you think of.

Hurzysm – thank you. And yes… always changing… but at the same time all possible realities exist out there somewhere.