(A/N) Hi!
"What was that about?" Tazuna asked, ever the innocent civilian.
Taroko shook her head and snorted. She chirped to Danromi to translate while she was walking. "Just a bit of body disposal. Nothing you needed to see, Tazuna-san."
Danromi translated that, curling deeper into the spot she had claimed on Kakashi's head.
"Body disposal, she calls it," Sakura muttered.
"They were getting rid of the bodies," Sasuke pointed out. "I would've thought you would've recognized that."
Sakura blinked a few times, then frowned minutely.
Taroko snorted, rolling her eyes.
"Lets pause here, shall we?" Kakashi asked, eye smiling. "We can get an early start on the boat."
Tazuna nodded, and pulled his backpack off to drop it on the floor. "Works for me."
Taroko chirped in agreement, moving so Naruto could find the scroll he had put his tent in. Personally, Taroko much preferred sleeping without a tent, so they never bothered with one for her.
With camp set up, Taroko trotted up to Kakashi. 'Permission to hunt, captain?'
"Y'know, 'sensei' is the usual address here," Kakashi noted blandly, not bothering to look up from his book.
'With all due respect, captain, when you teach us something, I will address you as my teacher. Until then, you are simply the mission leader.'
Kakashi raised an eyebrow at her. "And if I give an order?"
'Still my captain. Sensei teach things, usually. Captains give orders and lead missions.'
"Fine, you can hunt," Kakashi said after a long period of silence.
Taroko chirped happily, perhaps a bit louder than was necessary, but no one could prove anything, and darted off, basically disappearing as she hit the trees and blended in.
Sasuke had started a fire and set up sticks for cooking meat by the time she had gotten back with her catch. Two rabbits and a random grouse that really shouldn't be wandering this area.
'Who's cooking?' Taroko tapped, carefully not dripping blood everywhere.
"I can," Naruto sighed after a moment when nobody volunteered. He took the two rabbits from Taroko, leaving the area to skin and gut them. Taroko set the grouse to the side, spitting out a few feathers.
'Stupid grouse. Freaked out and got feathers everywhere.' Taroko tapped, settling down next to the fire, curling slightly so her entire left side was close to the heat.
"They do that," Danromi noted, hopping down to nose the grouse. "Smells weird."
Taroko sniffed the grouse too. 'I figured that was just the difference between chicken and grouse. We haven't had grouse.'
Danromi picked it up flapping over to offer it to Kakashi. "Check," she demanded.
Kakashi obligingly sniffed it closely. "Smells like grouse, but I'll do a poison check." He did it quickly, checking the results. "It's a common pesticide. Not lethal to humans or large predators. Even Danromi should've been fine. Although use of this pesticide has been banned from the Land of Fire for a while. The grouse must be from outside of the Land of Fire. Was probably brought in and escaped. It's fine to eat. Probably more dangerous to leave to decay, actually."
"Oh, cool," Danromi muttered, flapping up to curl up on his head again.
Other than the pesticide thing, most of the trip went fine.
Taroko smelled the people following them first, then Naruto found the rabbit, which did not smell like any of the indigions species, and their followers attacked.
Taroko let out a piercing screech to warn her teammates, and Kakashi apparently got it, because he tackled his students to the ground, leaving Taroko to get Tazuna. Which she managed just in time, hooking her teeth into his shirt and pulling him down as she flattened herself against the ground. The massive sword flew over their heads, embedding in a tree across the road.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" A mocking voice asked, it's owner materializing on the sword.
Taroko stood up and growled at him.
"A nin animal?" He asked suspiciously.
Kakashi managed to stand up as well, Danromi standing on his head and puffing up her feathers to look bigger.
"Two then," he amended, raising an eyebrow at the tiny dragon. "Second one looks pretty useless though."
Danromi's feathers puffed up further, and smoke came from her mouth, but she held down her fire.
"Hey! Don't diss my nin animals!" Naruto shouted at him, getting a little puffed up himself.
The nin snorted. "Please, they're more like nin shrimps. Although the bigger one looks like it might even be able to kill a bunny rabbit."
Taroko growled again, louder this time, and flashed her teeth.
The nin growled right back and flashed his own sharp teeth. Taroko was of the opinion that her teeth were far more impressive.
"Zabuza Momochi," Kakashi said. "A-ranked missing nin in the bingo book. Demon of the Mist."
"Aww, you know me," Zabuza remarked sarcastically. "Shall I return the favor? Kakashi Hatake, A-ranked Konoha shinobi in the bingo book. Sharingan no Kakashi."
Sasuke looked so confused, Taroko almost pitied him. But he hadn't bothered looking up their teacher in a bingo book, so he wouldn't know that. Taroko had bothered looking him up, and it said he had copied over a thousand jutsu. Personally, Taroko was wondering why he couldn't just teach them a few of them. He had to know at least a few D-ranked ones.
"Suiton: Hiding in the mist," Zabuza said, grinning as he disappeared into the fast encroaching mist.
Danromi breathed in deeply, blowing out a stream of fire, vaporizing some of the mist in the surrounding area just in time for Zabuza to have to redirect an attack on Kakashi.
"Heart, liver, spine," Zabuza remarked lazily.
"All wonderful places to kill a human, yes we know," Danromi replied, spreading her wings in an unsuccessful intimidation technique.
"Oh, the small one can talk," he sounded almost disinterested, and Taroko put her nose to the air, trying to find him by scent alone. Confusingly, she could smell him from four different locations. Wait, three smelled more like fresh water, rather than the salt water he stunk of.
Taroko lunged for the one that smelled right, snapping her jaws shut on thin air. He had moved. There were more fresh water versions of him, and Taroko quickly sorted through the influx of fresh water scents to find him again. She narrowly dodged a clumsy kunai thrown by Naruto. She let out a bark of warning before lunging and deflecting the massive blade off her side, quite a few scales coming off with the sword.
Taroko grunted, feeling the blood begin to drip, and smelling it as it hit the ground. His blood needed to be spilled today. Also, that would need to be bandaged soon. She could afford to lose a bit of blood, but not that much. She nodded to Tazuna, then leaped after the real one again, only to be intercepted by Kakashi, who looked sternly at her.
"Protect Tazuna, Taroko."
Taroko growled at him and shook her head. Danromi figured out the problem and translated, after blowing out another stream of fire and evaporating some of the mist. "She's the only one that can find the actual him, instead of all these water clones."
Kakashi looked frustrated, but acquiesced. "Fine. But I do the actual fighting."
Taroko growled, but lunged at where she could smell the actual one. He tried to attack her again, but Kakashi intercepted, holding the massive blade with a pair of kunai.
A water clone attacked Taroko from the side, but when she tore into it and it exploded into water, she realized they were far less powerful than the original. She lunged after another, tearing it apart as well, pausing momentarily to shake off the water before lunging again.
A kunai impaled itself in a clone she had pinned down, and she paused to nod to Sasuke, who'd thrown it, before leaping at another clone.
With the clones down, and Kakashi and Zabuza fighting with jutsu on the water, Taroko limped back to Naruto and the others, standing in front of them, ready for anything else he'd try and throw at them.
Naruto tried to touch the large wound on her side, and she absently hissed at him. He stopped quickly, and instead set about removing her harness with it's scrolls. A few of the straps had gotten damaged, and it was about to fall off anyway. Naruto quickly tied it to his own back with a bit of assistance from Sakura, who apparently knew how to tie knots.
Taroko kept a close eye on Zabuza and Kakashi while she checked her injuries. Long scrape on her tail, from being thrown into a few trees, the large wound on her side that was already clotting, the slice on her lower left leg, the one on her right thigh, and the smaller scrape on her neck. All in all, not too bad. She had gotten worse as a hatchling, trying to take down stuff bigger than her. She would heal in time.
The boys executed an interesting maneuver, stunning Zabuza and allowing Kakashi to pin him down.
Taroko glared as the second person that had been following them appeared and took Zabuza. Unfortunately, as she couldn't walk on water, she couldn't stop the person. Kakashi managed to stumble back to land before he passed out, Leaving Taroko to hold him up, despite her own injuries.
"We should get those cleaned out and bandaged," Tazuna spoke, gesturing to Taroko's injuries.
(A/N) And that's enough! A fun show, don't'cha think? Also, poll for SDC, those of you who haven't voted yet. Don't worry, those choices will show up again. Bye!