I'm back with chapter 36!
I really missed writing this story tbh, feels great to publish another one. But anyways, I'll try to write more from now on.
I also saw some recent reviews, and I would appreciate if you were a bit more specific with your criticism, but it's still appreciated anyways, so thanks for reviewing.
And with that said, here's chapter 36, enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN DBZ OR NARUTO, ALL CREDITS GO TO AKIRA TORIYAMA AND MASASHI KISHIMOTO.
As in most villages within the Land of Fire, Noen had a park in its center, abundant in green areas and trees. It had a couple of fountains, as many other parks, but its peculiarity was the statue of the Daimyo that stood in the middle of the park. The figure of the leader of the Land of Fire stood firmly, looking towards the horizon, a sword held in his hand.
Shikamaru glanced at it as they passed by, wondering what was the point on making a statue for someone. He diverted his attention back to his partners quickly, though, as he had a mission to focus on.
Tenten walked faster than the couple of boys she'd been assigned to be with during their exploration of the town. She made this with the intend of leaving them behind as she didn't really want to deal with them, thinking they'd be as immature as Lee was. However, she'd started to notice how they weren't really annoying as they remained silent most of the time and checked on the parts of the park she didn't.
Chouji helped in what he could, though it wasn't much as Tenten pretty much checked everywhere, and they only followed her. }
"Alright, we'll take too long if we keep doing it this way, so let's divide and check the park faster," Tenten proposed as she took a scroll from the bag she was carrying on her back, and checked it. "How about each one of us goes in a different direction?"
"How about Shikamaru and I go there," Chouji pointed to the opposite side of the park, through the statue of the Daimyo, "and you keep going forward?"
"I guess that's fine." She nodded as she put the scroll back in her bag. "Good luck, then." And just as she waved them off, she left.
Nara shrugged, turning back towards the statue. Akimichi followed, catching up to his teammate once he realised he'd started walking.
This time, Shikamaru had the chance of observing the statue closer than before. Just then did he notice the level of detail it had been made with. But even with such realization, he still struggled to find the sense on building one of them for a person.
Chouji continued to walk forward, not giving much importance to the statue. What he did watch was the people passing by and the kids running through the grass. He couldn't say he didn't envy them, as he missed the days when he also played with his friends as a little kid.
These thoughts quickly vanished, as out of nowhere, something caused an explosion that absorbed several civilians that were enjoying themselves in the park. Once the only thing left was smoke, Shikamaru react, immediately running in search for survivors. Meanwhile, a drop of sweat ran down Akimichi's face.
And of course, Tenten didn't take long to head there as she had noticed the explosion from afar. She slapped Akimichi in the face as she saw his shock, snapping him out of it.
"Get your shit together, we've got things to do."
All Chouji could do was nod and run to the same direction Shikamaru had gone some minutes prior.
"That must be the town hall," Asuma pointed at a bigger building than any other that was next to it.
Might Guy didn't need much more than those words from his partner to go to the building and ask for a meeting with the mayor himself, while Sarutobi ignited a cigarette so he could smoke as he waited.
It didn't take long for them to have a meeting as the mayor was free at that time, though Asuma guessed it could be related to them being high-rank shinobi. The wait lasted around 15 minutes.
The office of the mayor was as fancy as expected. A bookshelf—and a pretty full one—stood behind the old man's desk, which was filled with paperwork, similar to the Hokage's own desk.
The old man, the mayor, smiled at the sight of the two Jounin. "How can I help you?"
The standing jounin glanced at each other before speaking. Asuma removed the cigarette from his mouth. "We came on the Hokage's orders, and we noticed the lack of security of the town."
"Oh, that, probably the guards were just having lunch when you arrived, a mere coincidence!" The man's forehead started to look shiny.
Guy raised an eyebrow. "And don't you think you should have other guards ready for when the others have lunch?"
"Yep, we just went through a foreign invasion, and as far as we know, the Hokage made sure that his orders reached the feudal Lord and every town within the Land of Fire," Asuma added as he played with the cigarette he'd just taken out of his mouth.
"You have a point, however, we don't have the required men to keep constant guarding on the town," the man lowered his sight, focusing it on the paper he'd just signed, "you see, young men and women don't want to perform as guards recently."
Guy submerged into his thoughts as he processed the information. Sarutobi glanced at his partner before looking back at the mayor.
"Then we'll inform the Leaf so you receive more men temporarily," Asuma said before finally taking the cigarette back to his mouth, "for now, we'll continue our way."
"That would be much appreciated." The mayor said. "May your journey be safe."
The two jounin bowed at the man as a sign of gratitude before leaving the room, and then the building.
Once the door closed, the mayor sighed and a drop of sweat finally went down his forehead. He turned to his assistant, and the younger man next to him knew what he'd order him to do.
"Inform the Sound-nin about this."
Ino tried her best to avoid eye contact with the Hyuga genius. Every time she looked at his face she couldn't help but remember the thrashing he gave to Hinata on the Chunin Exams, and for such she couldn't avoid feeling slight rejection towards him. Maybe it wasn't fair, maybe she wasn't in the position to judge him, but she couldn't avoid it.
The pair of genin walked through an alley they'd previously visited, with the need of crossing it again to reach the place they'd left unexplored. Buildings, though abandoned, blocked the right and left sides of the abandoned alley. Their walk was slow and relaxing, as silence filled the place and they had made sure the opposing buildings were empty, as they were told they should by locals.
Neji, on the other hand, limited himself to following orders and completing the mission, remaining silent at mostly every moment. This last detail was mainly because he noticed the blonde girl acting uncomfortably towards him. Until then, he didn't notice that the image people had of him wasn't as good as he thought. Yes, he was the prodigy of one of the most prestigious clans in the village, and yes he was one of the biggest talents of his generations, but other genin despised him, or at least that's what he saw on Naruto's face back on the exams.
Steps. He suddenly heard steps, so he turned to the blonde kunoichi and beckoned her to stop walking. Veins made their appearance all around his eyes, and he started looking around.
"There shouldn't be any steps here, this were abandoned last time we checked, right?"
Yamanaka nodded, her breath starting to get louder as she noticed the activated Byakugan. She turned to the opposite direction that Neji was looking at, behind them, and sighed as she saw no one. She raised an eyebrow and turned back at her partner, her arms relieving the tension that had gotten accumulated during the couple of seconds she got nervous.
"Are you sure you heard steps?" She managed to finish her question, but the two genin knew there was no need to answer, as the answer stood on the opposite end of the alley.
"Good morning, leaf-nin," A white-haired sound-nin greeted, even bowing at their sight. No hostility could be traced from his voice.
Next to him, two other shinobi from the Sound stood, replicating the relaxed stance from their taller partner. The blonde kunoichi's hands started to shake, which only became more evident when she grabbed a kunai from a pocket she had on a side of her thigh.
"Oh, no need to be so scared," a smirk formed on the face of the kunoichi from the Sound, "this will be over quickly."
Neji didn't waste a single second and immediately charged against the sound-nin, nailing a palm on the kunoichi's jaw while his other attempt was blocked by the white-haired shinobi. The third sound shinobi attempted multiple times to stab Hyuga with a kunai, but the prodigy managed to dodge every attempt thanks to his Byakugan. And once the sound-nin's movements became slower, he focused his chakra on his left hand and landed a palm on his opponent's face.
As the first sound-nin fell to the floor, Ino snapped out of her shock. She knew she had to help. However, as she processed what was happening and saw Neji single-handedly dealing with two shinobi after knocking one off, she started to doubt if she should even try to do anything. What if she only made things harder for the prodigy?
Neji landed one palm directly at the white-haired shinobi's chest and pushed him back, while he low-kicked the kunoichi. He decided to jump back, and it was only then that he realized how tired he already was.
The dark pink-haired kunoichi laughed at the sound of him gasping for air. Up until now, she'd been impressed by his performance, but seeing the genin gasping for air at such an early stage of their battle erased any trait of her surprise.
The blonde kunoichi finally decided to do her first move, throwing a kunai at the white-haired sound-nin. However, as she positioned herself next to her partner, she regretted having decided to participate in the confrontation rather than escaping.
"Classic Kimimaro," said the dark pink-haired girl as a bone came out of her teammate's hand, blocking the kunai.
"Great aim, but that's not enough."
Next thing the Hyuga prodigy saw was a kunai almost in front of his face. And while he managed to deflect it at the last second, he failed to notice the explosive scroll tied to it due to his sudden exhaustion. Both leaf-nin were propelled on the opposite direction of their enemies.
Ino found herself on the entrance of the alley, slight burns on her arms after she tried to cover herself from the explosion. She slowly stood up, only to be met by the sound kunoichi already running towards her.
Meanwhile, Neji struggled to stand up after crashing against a building, wondering why he got tired to quickly. He snapped out of his thoughts at the sight of the white-haired sound-nin approaching him. He blocked the hit from the bone that came out of his hand, noticing that it was as sharp as a kunai. He blocked to more attempts before counter attacking.
"Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four palms!" Hyuga exclaimed before starting an intense and swift barrage of attacks.
However, by the end of it, only fifteen had managed to land on the objective. With shock, Neji barely managed to dodge the bone attack again, only for his back to touch the wall again.
On the entrance of the alley, Ino did her best to keep the pace of the kunai battle the two kunoichi had gotten into. Sparks came from the two ninja weapons as they clashed. Apparently, their battle was at a stalemate, with no one managing to land a hit. That was, at least, until the dark pink-haired destined more chakra to her attacks and finally managed to overwhelm the blonde girl with her strength, even barely cutting a bit of her cheek, leaving a small bruise.
"Told you it'd be over quickly," she smirked confidently as she aimed her final attack.
Welp, that was the chapter, hope you liked it!
I'll try to write the next one this same weekend as I'm kinda inspired and have a bit more free time than normal, but I don't promise anything so don't get mad if I don't manage to do so.
But anyways, see you soon with the next one!