Chapter 40 - Konohamaru
"He created clones, two are running away in different directions! Two incoming!" The Kumogakure sensor-nin shouted. "Shit! I can't tell which is the real one!"
A jōnin shinobi in a dark grey uniform and glasses shouted at the other shinobi. "Defensive formation! Protect Jun! We'll deal with the clones coming at us, then continue our pursuit!" He had an idea of what Hizashi's plan was, but he didn't expect that one of the two coming towards them wasn't a clone.
The hunter-nin formed a defensive formation around the sensor-nin, Jun, and readied themselves for the impending fight. Jun began counting down. "400 meters… 300 meters.. 200 meters.. 100 meters.. He's here!" He shouted, alerting the others right before Hizashi arrived.
As soon as Hizashi and his clone jumped down the cliff towards the group, they were instantly pelted with kunai and shuriken. Both Hizashis rotated their bodies while they were still in the air, using the eight trigrams: palm rotation, and formed a blue shield of incredibly fast rotating chakra that blocked the projectiles.
Each Hizashi landed on the ground on opposite sides of the group, in front of a chūnin, striking out at the same time. "Hakke Kūshō!" Hizashi's palm exploded with chakra and a wave of pressure hit the two chūnins right as they brought up their guard. Hizashi's palm was angled slightly upwards and the chakra pressure blasted each of the chūnins into the air, leaving a direct path into the center of the formation.
Hizashi took a step forward towards the chūnin sensor-nin that watched with wide eyes as two of his allies were blown away. Both he and his clone struck forward with a palm strike aimed at a different vital, but the two jōnins weren't just going to let him kill their comrade.
"Raigeki no Yoroi!" One of the jōnin shouted, dashing between the sensor and Hizashi's palm. The surrounding area was lit up by the bright light of the radiant lightning armor that now coated his body. The second jōnin swung a large sword towards Hizashi's clone and forced it to jump back in order to dodge before its attack landed.
Hizashi's palm struck the lightning armor, sending an electric current through Hizashi's body and causing his muscles to seize for a moment. At the same time though, he was able to expel a burst of chakra through the armor, forcing the enemy jōnin to take a few steps back, coughing up a mouthful of blood. Hizashi had been able to block one of his tenketsu at the point of impact.
'Not good..' Hizashi grit his teeth and forced his body to move to the side, despite his spasming muscles screaming in pain. Just as he moved, a chūnin wielding a sword, slashed through the space he had been standing in not a second before.
Hizashi's clone suddenly rotated again, forming another wall of chakra as the two chūnin that were sent flying, righted themselves, and threw kunai down at him from the air. The kunai were deflected harmlessly, and the wind and light that was generated by the shield, momentarily caused the chūnin that had just attacked Hizashi with the sword to glance its way.
Hizashi noticed and used that opportunity to duck under a punch from the lightning-covered jōnin and throw a kunai into the chūnin's thigh. "Fuck!" The chūnin cried out, jumping back and ripping the kunai out.
"Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms!" Hizashi's clone shouted, ending his rotation and attacking out at the sword wielding jōnin. The jōnin managed to block about half of the attacks before they managed to break his guard, causing him to stumble back, grunting in pain.
Hizashi jumped back to make distance and the jōnin covered in lightning pressed the attack. He spent all his time dodging the attacks, unwilling to make contact with the armor, as he slowly retreated step by step.
As Hizashi was being pressed back, the other chūnin turned to help fight against the clone. The sword wielding jōnin was moving sluggishly, unable to control his chakra well, and did his best to rely on kenjutsu. With the help of three chūnin, however, they were slowly forcing Hizashi's clone into a dead end.
Hizashi gauged it to be about time, as he needed to make his move before his clone perished. He stumbled, barely dodging one of the punches, and tried to dodge the follow up strike, only to fail and end up getting punched in the chest. Lightning coursed through Hizashi and he burst into a puff of smoke.
'That's one clone down.. No, wait! A substitution!?' The lightning clad jōnin's eyes widened as he realized his mistake, looking at the tattered grey cloak that was scorched from his attack. "Jun! Watch out!" He shouted, spinning around to rush towards the sensor. It was too late though, Hizashi appeared in front of the boy, slamming his palm into the shinobi's chest, right above his heart.
Jun spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed to the ground on his knees, before rolling over onto his side. "Raiton Dan: Ibuki!" The lightning armored jōnin shouted, punching forward with both fists, and sending out a line of lightning straight at Hizashi.
The clone was currently rotating again, using a shield to block the attacks of four shinobi, but instantly stopped and started to sprint away as soon as its enemies turned to look at Jun. "Shit! He's retreating!" One of the hunter-nin yelled out, whipping back around to look at the clone.
Hizashi felt the lightning as it zipped towards him, barely forcing chakra out of his tenketsu on the side of his body in time. The force of the expelled chakra blasted him away from the line of attack and the other shinobi. As soon as he regained his balance, he took off running in the opposite direction of his clone.
The first action of the jōnin was to run up and check on Jun. 'He's still alive.. Did he let him live on purpose..?' He narrowed his eyes, looking up in the direction that Hizashi ran off in. "Jun's still alive, but he's severely wounded. "We'll bring him back and get him treated as soon as possible." He ordered, acting decisively.
"We're not going after him..?" One of the chūnins asked in confusion. He was a bit resentful that Hiashi had just made fools out of them.
"The man that attacked us was Hyūga Hizashi; the S-rank missing-nin that has been stalking around our territory for the past decade. Tango and I would already have a hard time taking him on by ourselves, and frankly the rest of you will just be a burden. It's likely that his real body was one of the two that escaped at the start, while the two we just fought with were clones. With Jun incapacitated, it will be harder to track him down. Reporting this to C should be our main priority." The jōnin that was wearing glasses said, analyzing the situation.
He was right, Hizashi was stronger than typical jōnin because of his kekkei genkai and mastery of the Hyūga clan arts. He had managed to avoid capture while staying in Kaminari no Kuni for almost a decade, and the glasses wearing jōnin, Furui, was not confident in being able to defeat him. It was clear to him that Hizashi's goal here was just to take out the sensor, otherwise it's likely that they would have all been killed.
'Why was Jun his only target though.. Is he too wounded or tired for a prolonged battle..?' Furui was thinking over many possibilities as to why Hizashi prioritized escaping to the extent that he left Jun alive. 'It doesn't matter.. C might not like my decision to not follow him, but he's been avoiding us for years.. Without a sensor, it will be nearly impossible to follow him.'
"Understood.." One of the chūnin shinobi said, clutching his hands into fists.
Tango nodded, understanding Furui's decision. "Let's hurry back quickly then. Mark this location down, as well as the directions he and his clones ran off in." He ordered, picking up Jun and running back towards the village. It would take them a few hours to return, and he didn't want to spend anymore time standing around discussing things.
In truth, if Furui and Tango knew that the real Hizashi had been one of the two shinobi that had attacked their group, they likely would've followed him. It would have been safer for Hizashi to have kept running and only sent clones to attack, but he didn't know the strength of the two jōnin shinobi, and he didn't want to risk the clones not being able to take out the sensor. If the sensor didn't fall, there would have been no point in attacking at all. Luckily, the strength of the two jōnin wasn't high, and they proved to be little more than a nuisance to him.
Hizashi ran, dismissing his shadow clones, and continuing on his way towards the border. His first priority was finding a spot to rest and recover his chakra and stamina, then he could focus on leaving Kaminari no Kuni. Luckily, he knew of many different locations to hole up in for a while. That was the benefit of being on the run for so long; he knew the terrain of Kaminari no Kuni about as well as he knew Hi no Kuni by now.
He ran for a while longer, eventually coming to a stop on a ledge that was only a few meters above the flowing river at the base of the chasm he was standing in. He looked behind one of the bushes that was growing out of the side of the craggy cliff face, and spotted what he was looking for. A small crack in the rock, about one and a half meters long, was hidden behind the bush. He lowered his body into the crack and let himself fall. His feet touched solid stone after dropping a few meters, and he found himself in a small cave.
The cave was only big enough for about three fully grown men to stand comfortably, and was quite claustrophobic. The only light that entered was coming from the small, half-hidden crack in the ceiling of the cave, but Hizashi didn't mind. He had stayed here many times in the past, and he sat down, leaning his back against the cave wall. It didn't take long before he let his eyes close as he fell into a light sleep, ready to wake up at any sign of danger.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Sarutobi Konohamaru was the grandson of Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage. He hadn't been informed of the reason his grandfather had retired, and still held great respect for his grandfather. Hiruzen was one of the two main role models in his life, and was the reason that he so desperately wanted to become Hokage some day.
The second role model of Konohamaru was someone that most people wouldn't expect. It was someone that was also aiming for the title of Hokage, and Konohamaru grew up admiring his kindness, willpower, and perseverance. It was none other than Uzumaki Naruto.
Both of the boys grew up being viewed by the people of Konohagakure in completely different ways, but they had the same reason for wanting to become Hokage; they wanted to prove and validate themselves to others.
Konohamaru was always in the shadow of his grandfather, and was referred to by most people as 'The Hokage's grandson'. It was to the point that Konohamaru wasn't sure if people actually knew what his name was. He loved and took pride in his grandfather, but he wanted everyone to see him for who he was, and not just who his grandfather was.
Naruto, on the other hand, was always viewed by people with disdain and fear. He was constantly being called 'demon' or 'fox' by people behind his back, and sometimes to his own face. When people saw him, they didn't see him as a person, just a reminder of what happened on the tragic night of the bijū's release. He wanted to prove to people that he was more than what they believed him to be.
When the two boys met so many years ago, at first they didn't really get along. They viewed each other as rivals, and competed with each other over who would become the next Hokage. The rivalry eventually turned into a friendship of sorts over time, and eventually Konohamaru came to see Naruto as an older brother of sorts. He always followed him around calling him 'boss', forcing Naruto into playing with him, or ambushing Naruto in streets to test the efforts of his training with him.
For the past few months though, Naruto had a lot less time to spare for Konohamaru. He was so busy training with either team seven, or his shishou, that the two boys spent less and less time together. Today, however, was one of the few free days that Naruto had, as he and the rest of team seven had been told to spend the next couple days relaxing before the exams.
Konohamaru and his two best friends, Ise Udon and Kazamatsuri Moegi, were currently focused on running away from Naruto and Sakura. Team seven had been planning on going to get lunch in the market, but had been ambushed by Konohamaru and his friends, only to be cajoled into playing a game of tag. Sakura and Naruto weren't trying very hard to catch them, choosing instead to humor the kids as they corralled them towards the destination where they were planning on meeting Sasuke.
"Hah! How do you like the results of our training!? Great right? Come on boss! You'll never catch us with that type of speed!" Konohamaru laughed, rounding a corner and turning his head around to look behind him.
"Konohama-" Moegi, began to say, trying to warn him to look where he was going.
Unfortunately, she didn't speak up in time, and Konohamaru ran straight into the back of a shinobi that was wearing an all-black bodysuit, and a black hood that had some sort of animal ears sewn on top of it.
Konohamaru bounced off of the older boy's back and fell on his butt. "Sorry, sorry!" He said apologetically, trying to laugh it off. "I wasn't watching where I was ru-" He stopped mid-sentence when the shinobi turned around to look at him.
"Hm?" Kankūro said, making an annoyed sound.
Konohamaru's voice was caught in his throat, he was just startled by the guy's strange appearance and the unfriendly look in his eyes. He had purple paint on his face that was drawn out in a strange pattern, and most worrying of all, he was wearing the headband of a different village.
"Sorry..? That's all you have to say for running into me..?" Kankūro asked, staring down his nose at the boy. "You people from Konoha really have no manners do you?" He smirked. 'Just when I was starting to get bored. Guess I'll pass the time here a bit.'
"Oi brat.. That really hurt, y'know?" Kankūro said, making a nasty smile and lifting Konohamaru up by the long blue scarf he was always wearing around his neck.
Konohamaru grabbed onto the boy's arm with both hands. He grimaced a bit as the scarf tightened around his throat, choking him. "Let.. me go.." He choked out, trying to pry the man's fingers open.
"Kankūro.. Knock it off if you don't want to get in trouble.." The kids looked over behind the older boy. They hadn't noticed the girl that was standing there until she spoke. She had sandy blonde hair that was tied up into four spiky ponytails, and wore a light-purple dress that hung loosely on her shoulders. She seemed to have some sort of long, black metal object on her back.
Now that they were looking, both of the foreign shinobi had objects on their backs. The boy had a strangely shaped object, wrapped completely in gauze, that seemed to have brown hair or fur of some sort sticking out of the top of it.
Kankūro ignored his sister's warning, and instead looked back towards the corner of the street when he heard footsteps headed their way. Naruto and Sakura rounded the corner at the same time, walking at a relaxed pace, but froze when they saw Konohamaru being held up by a strange looking teen.
Naruto and Sakura looked at the situation, and the both of them started to frown. "What's going on? Who are you two?" Sakura asked, eyeing the two strangers warily.
"More importantly, let Konohamaru go!" Naruto commanded, narrowing his eyes at Kankūro.
The Suna shinobi had been in Konohagakure for a little over a day now, and honestly it had been pretty boring, in Kankūro's opinion at least. He missed the hot climate of the desert, and the harsh winds that he was used to. He chuckled to himself as he looked at the indignant hostility radiating from the brat with yellow hair.
"No.. I don't think that I will." Kankūro said, smiling provocatively. He tightened his grip even more, and twisted the fabric of the scarf, causing Konohamaru to grunt out uncomfortably.
"You bastard.." Naruto said through gritted teeth. He started to take a step forward when Sakura put a hand on his shoulder.
"Naruto, wait. See their headbands? They aren't from here." She pointed out to him.
Naruto looked at the headbands of the two shinobi and tried to remember what he learned in the academy about the different villages. "You're from.. Kumogakure..?" He asked, unsure of if he was right or not.
"Idiot. That's Sunagakure!" Sakura corrected him.
"Well, it doesn't matter either way!" Naruto stated defiantly. "I'm still going to make him release Konohamaru!"
"Boss.." Konohamaru said, looking relieved. 'I believe in you boss! Kick his butt!'
"Hmph.. You're going to make me? You?" Kankūro scoffed, looking like he heard something funny. "Alright, let's see you try. I'm sure this will be interesting, and I've been wondering just how good you Konoha shinobi are."
Temari just sighed, covering her face with a hand. 'Whatever happens isn't on me..'
"You asked for it!" Naruto shouted, taking off at a sprint towards Kankūro. Sakura just watched him, biting her lip. She hoped that he wasn't biting off more than he could chew. The two teens looked a few years older than she and Naruto were, and they had no idea how strong they were.
"Yeah! Get him!'
"Save Konohamaru!"
Udon and Moegi cheered, watching Naruto run towards the boy that was holding their friend. They were often with Konohamaru when he ambushed Naruto, and they fully believed in him.
'Attacking directly? What a fool.' Kankūro sneered at Naruto in his mind. He clutched the fingers of the hand he had behind his back and went to attach his chakra threads to the foot of Naruto.
'Hm..?" Naruto noticed something was wrong as soon as he took his next step, but he was a second too late to dodge it. He felt his foot suddenly get yanked upwards, and he was thrown backwards. He was surprised but he didn't panic, instead moving with the momentum, flipping backwards, and landing on his feet.
Kankūro started to laugh at the surprised look on the boy's face, when his eyes widened. The kid he was about to laugh at, suddenly made a hand seal and disappeared. 'Shunshin!?' Kankūro was taken aback. 'From the left!' He noticed just in time to raise his arms up to guard a kick that was coming straight towards his head.
"Nice try, brat! But not good eno.." He trailed off, blinking at the look of satisfaction on Naruto's face. Kankūro just realized what had happened. He had dropped the pipsqueak in order to block the kick, and the kid he had been holding was now running back over to his friends, sticking out his tongue and mocking him.
"You.." Kankūro said angrily, as Naruto jumped back a few feet away from him. He reached into his pouch and pulled out a kunai, lifting it up to throw at the kid.
As he started to raise his hand, he felt a sharp sting and dropped the kunai in pain. "Agh!" He gasped out, holding his bleeding hand. He glared upwards towards a tree and saw another brat with dark hair, and dressed in a blue shirt, sitting lazily on a branch and looking down at him with a dismissive look on his face.
"Don't even try it." The kid said, tossing another rock up into the air and catching it.
'He's kind of cute..' Temari thought, checking out the newcomer. She was pretty surprised that both of the kids had been able to catch her brother off guard, but she knew that Kankūro hadn't been serious at all; he was just trying to pass the time. Hopefully he'd let it go at that though, and they could leave without Gaara finding out about all this.
"Who the hell are you..?" Kankūro asked, looking up at Sasuke, annoyed. "You going to come down here, or do I have to make you?" He asked, narrowing his eyes at Sasuke. He moved one of his hands to shift the object off of his back.
Temari looked at Kankūro with surprised worry. "Hey.. What are you thinking about doing!?"
"Kankūro. Enough." A voice said, surprising the group that was on the street. They all looked up and saw a boy with red hair and a gourd on his back, standing upside down on a branch on the other side of the tree as Sasuke.
Sasuke snorted lightly to himself, dropping the rock he was holding. 'I wondered when he was going to stop hiding..' He turned his head to look at the kid and met the boy's eyes. They stared at each other for a moment, sizing the other person up.
'He's strong.'
'He could be dangerous..'
Sasuke and Gaara each came to similar conclusions about each other.
'Kill him now.. He's a threat.. End him..' The voice in Gaara's head started whispering again.
Gaara turned his focus back onto his siblings after a second, ignoring the whispers. "Don't embarrass the village any further." Gaara said shortly, looking at Kankūro in the eyes.
"G-Gaara.." Kankūro said nervously. "We were just wondering where you were.."
Temari grimaced; Kankūro wasn't going to have a good time later. Hopefully Gaara was in a decent mood though and would be lenient with him. She sighed, pulling Kankūro's arm to stop him from speaking any further.
"We're sorry about that, we were just having some fun." Temari said, nodding over towards the group of kids. "Come on Kankūro, let's get out of here." She pulled her brother behind her as they jumped over the fence and disappeared with Gaara following after them.
Sasuke watched Gaara as he trailed away. 'His name is Gaara, huh? Interesting..' He jumped down, landing in front of Naruto and the others. "Really? Getting into trouble already?" He said, looking at Naruto and scoffing a bit.
"It was nothing much." Naruto said simply, crossing his arms across his chest. "What do you think about them though?"
"They're strong, but nothing we can't handle." Sasuke stated, looking back in the direction the trio ran off in. "But.."
"That kid with the gourd? He's scary.." Sakura said, picking up where Sasuke trailed off. "He had a whole different feeling around him."
"Mhmm.. Well, whatever. No need to worry about it, we'll just take them on like any other!" Naruto said, laughing it off and breaking the tension.
Sasuke frowned a bit, but ultimately nodded. "Right.. Let's get going."
"We're heading out, you guys. Try not to get into any more trouble ok?" Naruto looked down at Konohamaru and his two friends.
"Alright, thanks boss!" Konohamaru grinned, rubbing his nose. "Make sure you beat those guys up real good in the exams!"
"Of course! Who do you think I am? I won't even break a sweat!" Naruto laughed confidently, before waving and running off after Sasuke and Sakura.
Konohamaru watched the three older kids as they left. He balled his hand up into a fist and bit his lip. "Come on you two! We have to get stronger as well!"
Moegi and Udon looked at each other for a second before smiling. "Right!" They nodded happily, chasing after Konohamaru down the alley. They couldn't rely on Naruto for help forever, and Konohamaru could feel the gap between them getting further and further away, every time they met.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
The guards at the front gate of Konohagakure were kept busy all day long with the constant influx of merchants and visitors that were coming for the chūnin exams. For the past two days though, they had several more guards on duty than they normally did, and they were all talented jōnin. The shinobi from Sunagakure had come yesterday, and the ones from Takigakure arrived a short while ago, but neither of them were the reason for the heavy guard. They had increased their security for a different reason, and that reason was currently smiling at one of the guards, handing over an entrance permit.
"So it's true." Kō said, handing the permit back to the shinobi in front of him. "You actually decided to show up in person, Orochimaru.." Kō narrowed his eyes a bit as he looked over the man that had betrayed his own village. Orochimaru gave off a creepy vibe, and his current smile just made it even worse.
"Oh..? You were expecting me..?" Orochimaru asked in his raspy voice. He didn't show it, but he was taken off guard a bit. He was hoping to be able to surprise Jiraiya when they met face to face. "Interesting.." He smiled, looking at the jōnin in front of him.
Kō didn't let the fact that he was unnerved show on his face. He kept it professional as he spoke to Orochimaru. "As you're an important guest for the upcoming exams, you and your men have been issued an estate where you will live for the duration of your stay in Konohagakure. My team and I will escort you to your residence."
"All these men, just for me?" Orochimaru chuckled, looking over at the squad of eight jōnin shinobi. He could also identify at least four ANBU watching over them as well, it seems that Jiraiya really had known he was coming. 'But how did he know..?' He thought to himself, narrowing his eyes a bit as he looked at Kō.
Kō felt a wave of bloodlust wash over him for a split-second. He had the sudden urge to jump back and put some distance between himself and Orochimaru, but the feeling left as soon as it came. He let out a breath and responded. "All the arriving shinobi from foreign villages were arranged an escort, please don't take it personally. Now then, let's get moving."
"Very well.. I'm looking forward to seeing what's changed since last I was here.." Orochimaru followed along behind Kō, still smiling.
Kō felt a chill run down his spine as he ran. Orochimaru and the Oto-nin following him all gave off dangerous vibes. Orochimaru especially, gave him the sense that a predator was locked onto him, getting ready to strike. He tried not to think about it as he ran, choosing instead to maintain his byakugan that he had activated as soon as he turned his back on Orochimaru. He wanted to keep that snake in view at all times.