Anko slammed her hands to the ground.
"Shadow Snake Hands!"
Hundreds of snakes spewed from the ground and converged on the man who leapt over them, leaving a clay clone in his wake. The explosion sent snakes flying everywhere.
Anko leapt to meet and the two exchanged blows before they landed, still brawling fiercely. The man was stronger than Anko, but not by much. She was a lot more vicious. He threw her off and stood panting as she rose. A cut on his face trickled a little blood.
She had punched the lens he wore over his eye back into face, and his face now bled around the area. He tore the device away angrily.
"You bitch! That took me years to perfect."
Anko grinned.
"Oh you don't even know the half of it. Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
A huge serpent suddenly filled a fair portion of the forest. It stared at the man with large, hungry eyes and lunged. The man started running.
Naruto leapt up after it and Anko followed. Now he had the upper hand. The man would talk or he would die.
The serpent was fast, but the man was more nimble. Every lunge was avoided and tiny explosions rippled of the smooth hard scales and the beast gave an enraged hiss as some were broken or torn off by the constant tiny assault.
Naruto tracked him with his crossbow. He hungered for a good shot. The last one he had fired had missed. This one would hit. This one would stay true. He could feel it.
The tip of the bolt weaved around, following and tracking. But he was moving too fast, he needed to get closer.
Anko was following too, but even with the three of them they couldn't force the man to move where they wanted. The trees were too thick and too many to really force him around properly and trap him.
Anko fell back into line with him as they leapt tree to tree. She shouted to him as they weaved through the Forest of Death.
"Any ideas?"
"More backup."
"Any plausible ideas?"
"No."
They kept following the man. Despite keeping his aim, bouncing from tree to tree and tracking the man with his Byakugan, his brain whirred. A hundred scenarios were found, examined and found wanting again, then discarded into the cesspit of wasted thought.
He needed more space, or for the man to turn and run. The fact he hadn't simply made a dragon meant he was low on clay. That was a good thing. The fact he could only annoy the large snake was also good.
He stopped for a moment and placed his own hand down.
Fitch appeared in a puff of smoke on his shoulder.
"Move boy, keep moving and we'll talk on the way."
He did so, the rat clinging to his shoulder, the claws digging in slightly uncomfortably.
"How would you trap someone who doesn't want to be trapped?"
The rat considered the proposition and scratched his rat chin.
"You either force them to fight or you let them go and let them trap themselves. But be wary, you know what happens when you trap someone."
"They fight harder."
The rat nodded out of his vision.
"Be careful. I sense there is more to come from him. I will assist you in trapping him."
The rat leapt from his shoulders and into the trees around him. Naruto realised he didn't know the capabilities of one of his closest allies and mentally chided himself for it.
He kept is aim moving as the man kept going. Naruto felt glad that his stamina was now higher than his opponents. He realised he want to know their name.
Then he realised the plan.
"Anko, force him downwards!"
"Got it!"
The snake and Anko went high as Naruto kept chasing. How the man was keeping up with it he had no idea, but it didn't matter. You could only run so long.
He had left himself open, and Anko had capitalised. He could still taste his own blood, but that was a small price to pay.
Slowly the man descended, towards the ground. Twenty metres, fifteen metres, ten metres. Then he ran out of space.
He hit the ground and suddenly stopped running as something stopped him rising as fast as he could.
A carpet of rats littered the forest floor, running in a giant pack at least ten metres wide and twenty metres long. It was more rats than Naruto had ever seen. The snake plunged after him with Anko as they started weighting him down.
He threw them off, but the damage was done. He couldn't run any further.
Explosions began to litter the area, sending small furry bodies into the air a hundred at a time. The rats were relentless and swarmed closer, clawing and scratching at him, biting him where they could.
Anko got a good kick in and launched him a few metres, the rats closing in on his fallen body.
Then it all changed.
The man started laughing, rising slowly until he was standing despite the weight of rats. Fitch landed on Naruto's shoulder.
"Fire now boy, don't stare."
Naruto raised the bow and fired cleanly.
He watched as the bolt flew towards the man and impacted on his neck. The arterial spray thrown up as the bolt passed through his neck. The man gurgled slightly, his hands faltering in their last hand signs and keeled over.
He felt the pang of satisfaction as the memory of his last shot faded. This was him. He was in command.
The rats scattered as the snake lunged for them, seeing a thousand tiny snacks as opposed to allies. Anko dismissed her minion.
She surveyed the body.
"Not bad, perfectly clean shot."
Then he saw the chakra rise.
"Anko move!"
She leapt just as the body exploded, throwing her backwards. Naruto moved to catch her and was bowled over by the weight.
He felt the fatigue of the battle creeping up on him as he tried to rise. Fooled by a clone. His Byakugan searched for a signature and found one.
"Underground, he's moving away underground."
Anko rose blearily and stumbled a little. The smell of burnt hair and flesh was wafting from her. Fitch surveyed her body.
"She is in no state to continue. You must hunt him Naruto. Go. I will stay with her."
He turned but the rat's voice called out again.
"Other's approach. Three and a dog. Do you know them?"
He looked out and his heart leapt a little. Three familiar signatures were moving towards him at speed. He kept his eye locked on the faint patch that denoted his quarry. It was moving away slightly quickly now.
He began to move off slowly, making sure the squad could catch him. He heard his name called by Kiba and beckoned for them to catch him up.
He saw Shino and Kiba enter his peripheral vision and he smiled as the recognised the faces.
"Naruto! What the hell is going on now?"
"Tracking someone underground. He's weakened and we can take him."
He couldn't see her, his vision was at full stretch, but her voice was soothing to him.
"I can see him Naruto-kun. You can relax now if you need to, you look tired."
He let his Byakugan deactivate and felt his head feel lighter and more free, the headache from eye overuse wouldn't get any worse.
Hinata took up the lead, here teammates behind her. Naruto couldn't help but notice how Kiba was running differently to before. His leg was moving differently. It looked like Kiba was struggling with it a little more than he wanted to let on.
Despite being underground, the man was making good progress. Even so, Naruto knew he couldn't keep it up forever. The man was low on chakra. He would surface eventually.
Hopefully he couldn't sense them following him.
Naruto checked his bow was loaded and held it loosely as he followed. He was going to take the man's head off.
Shino checked behind and saw Naruto's intention.
"Naruto-san, it would be illogical to kill him immediately. If we can capture him, he undoubtedly holds a lot of valuable information. We need to try and extract that. I can drain him dry in short order, Hinata can then disable him."
He nodded.
"He is still dangerous. If it comes to it, I will not hesitate to kill him."
Shino didn't look round.
"Let us hope it does not come to that."
They kept following. Hinata was moving fast and differently to how he'd seen her move before. There was more freedom to it, more intensity.
Shino was the same as he remembered him. He felt a pang that he had missed so much time with them.
They were still the same team, although someone was missing.
"Where is Kurenai-sensei?"
Kiba turned a little. He could see the boy had grown older, the marks on his cheeks were more pronounced on a longer face.
"She's on a mission elsewhere, but we're good enough to look after ourselves. Right boy?"
The dog barked and Naruto then realised quite how big he now was. The dog was bigger than he was and slobbered a little as it ran. He took in how sharp the claws were and how easily it bounded alongside the shinobi.
Yet it too walked a little like oddly, like Kiba. He could see no deformity in the dog's legs though. It was healthy just walking oddly.
He looked back at Kiba and realised the dog was imitating his movements out of empathy. He'd never seen a better illustration of the concept.
But what was wrong with Kiba?
"Kiba-san, what happened to your leg?"
Shino looked at him sharply. His expression was hidden under his hood and sunglasses and Naruto had no idea what it was.
He heard the sigh from Kiba.
"It was that mission where everything changed Naruto. None of us made it out the same."
Hinata nodded from the front trying to remain focused on the task at hand. The figure was still moving underground, but he was slowing.
"Choji made it ok, but he came close to dying from exhaustion after using a clan technique. Neji took a pounding, and he actually came out of it better. I think the fact you beat him as well helped with that."
Naruto remembered the occasion. He had beaten Neji, but the boy had still been angry about it.
"Lee got...nearly destroyed. Both arms and a leg broken and he would have died if the guy beating him up hadn't gone to protect Sasuke. Seriously, he was out for a year."
Shino nodded and took up the tale.
"Kiba fought his opponent to a standstill for a long time until they got the advantage. The fact is he only lived because they wanted to kill him and Akamaru slowly. They tried to do it by eating his body away from the inside. His leg was...
"It will never be the same. I've accepted this Shino. I had it light compared to Lee and Shikamaru."
They all looked down. Even Hinata took a moment to look away.
Naruto didn't know what they who they were talking about. Was there another team his age he hadn't met?
"Who was Shikamaru?"
Kiba gave a small laugh.
"You never met him?"
"No."
Kiba continued the tale.
"He came an inch from death. His opponent was probably the worst for him and she had him beaten. He got outmuscled and he couldn't quite outthink her in time. He had to use tactics that he should never have had to use."
Naruto considered the proposition. It was just like what would have happened to him if he had been cornered. Shikamaru sounded like a thinker, like himself. He wished he'd been able to meet him.
"He detonated an explosive tag at point blank distance. He got just far enough away that it didn't kill him. But the damage..."
Kiba trailed off.
"It makes me look like I got a scratch."
Naruto considered this.
"What were the injuries?"
Kiba looked at Shino with a pleading expression for him to take over. Shino bowed his head.
"He lost an arm. He was lucky the blast cauterised the wound enough that he didn't bleed out. He was in a coma for six months. Six months. He's had to retire. He didn't even call it troublesome; he spends a lot of time alone these days. None of the people who went on that mission were ever the same again. Choji and Ino were..."
Shino trailed off too. The silence was tense.
"There were distraught. We all were. We nearly lost half our friends, and we lost one of them who was possibly the best of us all. We all miss him."
Shino and Kiba stared at Hinata. She was talking about it differently. Normally she would be in tears, or at least quiet. She seemed to have moved to a different place. There were still flecks of tears, but her words had been strong.
"We need to focus. He's rising."
Kiba looked at Shino and pinched himself with a wide eyed expression. Shino merely raised his hands a little before readying himself.
Hinata stopped and held up a hand. The team gathered to her.
"Shino, do you have a plan?"
Shino nodded.
"It would be logical to capture our opponent as opposed to outright killing him. We will surround him, and I should be able to drain him with my bugs. Then Hinata and Kiba can subdue him. Naruto will hold back until he is needed.
I will initiate any action, Naruto and Hinata can follow by using their eyes."
Naruto nodded. The plan was logical and he had expected no less. Shino and Hinata departed, leaving Kiba on his side. The boy's nose sniffed the air.
"I can smell him; he's close to breaking the surface. About fifty metres in that direction."
Naruto nodded. His head ached from overuse of his eye in combat.
Kiba rubbed his leg gingerly, and let out a small growl or irritation. Akamaru placed a paw on his hand softly, the soft pad of his paw pressing gently onto Kiba's hand.
He looked at his dog with a warm smile and ruffled the dog's head.
"You're right boy, no time to worry about a little pain. Naruto, can you get visual?"
He nodded and felt the throb of the headache intensify a little bit as his vision adjusted again. Hinata and Shino were in position, and Shino had begun to move inwards. The man had only just broken out of the earth, and his dull signature was rising unsteadily.
He was clearly tired. He shut off his eye as the team landed around the man who laughed.
"Oh you just do not give up. Fucking Hyuuga as well! Well this is going to be fun."
Shino spoke first.
"Surrender and will need not hurt you."
The man cocked his head and laughed.
"You think I'll surrender?"
He leapt for Shino and Kiba spun into his side, driving him down. The man wasn't a highly skilled ninja for nothing and kicked Kiba away. Hinata came in again, and the man being more circumspect against the Hyuuga girl.
Shino was manoeuvring, readying himself. Hinata leapt away from a punch and the bugs swarmed the man.
He thrashed but the bugs were locked in, absorbing more and more of his chakra. Hinata and Kiba stayed warily out of the way. Naruto kept his crossbow aimed for the swarm of insects.
Shino warily withdrew his insects from the man who was surprisingly still conscious.
He started laughing as the insects moved to surround Shino again.
"I've always wanted to do this to one of you bug freaks!"
Naruto realised the danger just in the nick of time.
"Shino! Scatter your insects!"
The tone and urgency got to Shino just in time as he scattered his swarm.
"KATSU!"
Every bug filled with the man's chakra exploded at once, filling the air with smoke. Shino fell with an anguished cry as some bugs which were too close caused him pain. Hinata and Kiba were knocked to the ground. Naruto kept his aim trained on the man.
Fortunately the man seemed not to have the energy to continue. He was still laughing on one knee. The bugs had done the damage, eating at open wounds, draining chakra, forcing them man down.
Naruto found himself resisting the temptation to shoot again and kill the man where he knelt. Hinata approached him cautiously, and he started to laugh.
"I would rather die."
He clapped his hands together and Naruto saw the chakra build-up.
He fired and for the second time his bolt caught the man squarely. The man wasn't moving, and this was an execution shot. It hit right where he aimed, between the eyes.
The man dropped, his hands pressed to his chest. Whatever techniques he had been about to use, Naruto suspected it would have been deadly.
Hinata ran to Shino, whose body gently smoked.
"Shino-kun, are you alright?"
Shino struggled to rise a little and groaned.
"I...am alright. My hive is nearly destroyed."
Naruto held his arm out and Shino took it, rising gently to his feet. They surveyed the defeated body of their opponent. Naruto could tell this one wasn't a clone.
He realised with a pang of regret he didn't know the man's name either. In fact, how many of the people he had killed had he known the name of? Sasuke for sure, but otherwise.
He decided it was a topic for future reflection. He was still on a mission, even if it was that was self imposed.
Hinata applied some paste to Shino's wounds, and his sigh at the pain relief was a welcome noise. Parts of his jacket had burned away, and more of his face than normal was visible. He seemed unsure of this.
Naruto dropped his own hood out of empathy. It felt right to do so when his comrade could not cover his own.
Shino dusted himself down a little.
"We should return to Konoha with the body and report to Hokage-sama."
Naruto nodded and picked up the body. It was a lot bigger than his own, and he staggered a little under the weight. Kiba chuckled.
"Don't worry Naruto, Akamaru can carry him easily. Don't strain yourself Shorty."
Hinata giggled a little. Naruto suddenly felt this was a little unfair.
"My size is to my advantage most of the time."
Kiba gave him an odd grin, but dropped it at Naruto's lack of reaction. Kiba helped the body onto Akamaru's back and they set off out of the Forest of Death.
Hinata kept her eyes open and guided them around anything that looked too dangerous. There were certainly enough reasons for this place to be described as the Forest of Death.
They found their way back to Anko who was sitting up and rubbing her side. She saw the body.
"Did you have to kill him?"
Naruto nodded.
"Aw. If he had lived I would have tortured the shit out of him."
"Don't you want the information and not his excrement?"
Anko shrugged.
"I suppose I'd want the information as well, but I'd do it mostly to get the fun of torturing him. I've actually literally tortured the shit out of anyone. I wonder if it is actually possible."
Naruto shrugged himself. The gesture was odd to him. Fitch gave him a nod, and then disappeared back into smoke. Kiba looked a little astonished?
"Rat summons?"
Naruto nodded.
"Wouldn't they be kinda...useless? Are there giant battle rats? Otherwise what exactly do they do?"
Naruto sighed. The focus on the flashy was annoying even now.
"Intelligence gathering, swarm tactics, distractions, message carrying. Fitch-sama is also wise council and skilled."
Kiba shrugged.
"I'd rather have Akamaru and my clan dogs. Right boy?"
The dog yipped a little. Shino coughed.
"We need to return to Konoha. Although we have taken out one of the assailants, there was another in Konoha itself. Tsunade-sama was preparing to deal with it."
The 'it' caught Naruto's attention.
"Surely such an opponent would be a he or she?"
Hinata shook her head.
"It was more of a machine, like a scorpion. It looked odd and our team was unable to help in fighting it. Then we noticed the fight here and came to help."
"Did nobody else other than you or Anko notice?"
Anko laughed.
"Probably, but they were probably preoccupied with helping civilians or dealing with the flame throwing scorpion thing. Or being cowards."
They began to move back towards Konoha. Anko turned to Hinata.
"Good thing you did or Darkie-kun might not have made it. Any reasons in particular you came to his rescue?
Naruto heard the tone of voice shift into the one Anko used when she was implying sexual relations. He sighed. He'd already denied this particular accusation.
Fortunately Shino was ready to make the save.
"Anko-san, please desist from teasing Hinata-chan about relationships. She is too reserved for such joking to cause anything but negative feelings."
Anko pouted at him.
"Spoilsport."
A/N- so apparently pretty much everyone hates Naruto x Hinata. Please don't review in response to NaruHina discussions, please PM instead. Review the story not the author's notes!
All I'll say is that all will become clear in time. Patience will be rewarded.