Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I'm not sure who does…but I don't.

I got more reviews, thx btw :), They gave me some interesting suggestions. I think I might try to incorporate some of them, at some point.

Chapter 7: The Quality of Life

The skies were starting to darken…the two warriors were standing before each other. The grinning giant was staring down at the small child before him. The young man was kneeling before his overwhelming power. The blood slowly spilling from his various cuts.

"KID GET UP!", screamed a older male voice.

"He's…to…much…I'm…not…ready…for…him…", said the black haired youth between pants.

"YAMI RUN!", screamed a female voice.

The Giant was getting closer…sword in hand. His sick grin promised only one thing…death.

"YAMI PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER!", screamed a familiar voice.

Various emotions came over the boy…

Fear…he was going to die…

Anger…he wasn't strong enough…

Regret…he couldn't stop this man from hurting his friends…

Loneliness…he was all alone and no one could help him…

Animosity…for the giant who would soon take his life…

And most of all Malice…against this man…

"YAMI GET YOUR ASS UP!" screamed another familiar voice.

"No….it can't end like this…", The young warrior started to rise with nothing but hatred, malice, and the promise of pain in his Cold Blue Eyes.

The Giant stopped a few feet away from the boy when he saw him rise. He was surprised to see various markings burning across the boy's face and lower arms…and then they stopped burning...all that was left was black flame like marks around the boy...killer intent started radiating off the two warriors.

"End Game", both warriors said at precisely the same time.

Yami suddenly jolts awake. "Oh shit!", a scared Ookami falls back right on his ass. "Damn it man don't do that! Nearly gave me a heart attack."

Yami stared around nervously… "What the hell happened?"

"I came to wake you up when you suddenly jumped up like a madman…Come on we wanna go!"

Yami looked around again…both Rei and Inochi were staring at him worriedly…Vann and the traders were off preparing breakfast… Yami sighed, 'Just a dream.'

"You must've had one hell of a nightmare. Come on…we gotta go, today we're going into the Cerulean Forest…sure to be lots of action there."

"Umm…yea probably…", With that the psychic rose out of bed and joined his party. 'Just a dream'…he repeated mentally.

---Cerulean forest---

The group looked towards the entrance to the forest. It was huge. There was a long trail that would lead them out the forest to the King's Valley…However they would be surrounded by trees on all sides…

One of the traders spoke, "Alright...this is what we hired your group for...there will probably be trouble in this forest."

Rei turned to look at her group. "Alright everyone, chances are we'll encounter enemies in here so stay alert." When she saw everyone nod she started walking.

The same formation as yesterday…Rei was in front, byakkugan ablazing; and then came Inochi and Vann on the sides of the wagon; finally Yami and Ookami were in back…So far they were walking without incident…hopefully they wouldn't be attacked…

---Several hours later---

Nothing has happened. Thus far…Yami was getting bored like hell. The most fun he was having was the fact that he kept seeing a rather large Black dog out of the corner of his eye. 'Stray dog? Kinda looks like a wolf though? Probably watching us to see if we'll drop something to eat.' With that Yami dropped a small snack for the poor animal. The second it hit the floor, it was gone, the dog had grabbed it and ran back into the forest. 'Wow…fast sucker…must've been hungry…'

He turned his attention back to the road when suddenly he heard Rei's yell. "Get ready here they come."

The group surrounded the wagon and the terrified traders within it.

"Rei how many of these bastards are we dealing with", screamed Vann.

"Twelve total! Four from the front, five from the side, and three from the back", replied the byakkugan user.

Everyone looked aware…Rei was in her Jyuuken stance; Vann was just standing there, his hand in a Ram Seal; Inochi was holding several Senbon needles; Ookami was holding one of his swords, in his right hand, and a kunai, in his left hand; Yami moved into his regular Taijutsu stance. This was the most nerve-racking moment before any fight…the calm before the storm…Then suddenly bandits started popping up all around the group…It had begun.

---Rei---

Rei had a look of pure concentration on her face. She knew for a fact that four bandits were nothing to bad. Being a chunin she could easily fight off four bandits.

The first of the bandits reach her. She started off by closing his tenketsu points and smashing him in the chest, right above his heart. The man dropped to the ground, he wouldn't be getting back up without proper medical treatment. She saw the other three, with her byakkugan, and noticed that they were all going to rush her at the same time. Easily taken care of she got into an odd stance and started blowing chakra out of all her Tenketsu; afterwards she started to spin, "Hakkeshō Kaiten". The Three bandits were thrown back against the force of the Kaiten. After she stopped spinning she pulled out three kunai and threw one at each of the bandits. Two of the kunai connected with the bandits, killing them via stab wound in the neck; however the third bandit managed to get to his feet and dodge the kunai. He quickly rushed the women. Rei merely ran to the bandit and grounded him the same way she grounded the first bandit.

Rei sighed, "Ordinary bandits like you could never kill someone with ninja training…you shouldn't have attacked."

---Vann---

Vann looked at the bandits who were staring him down. There were three of them. The bandits were very bulky…obviously worked out…they was holding swords…they were starting to close in on him slowly…and Vann…could only smirk.

Suddenly the bandits were surrounded by pitch-black darkness. They tried to look around to see anything but they couldn't see a thing. Suddenly one of the bandits got his throat slashed…he dropped dead. His companions looked at him terrified. Suddenly another one dropped to the ground, suffering the same fate. The last one was absolutely terrified…he tried to look all around for an attacker…but all he could see was darkness. Finally it happened he could feel something sharp stab him in the heart…a few seconds later he dropped to the ground dead.

The darkness dissipated…and all that was left was a smirking Vann, holding a bloody kunai, standing over three bodies. "Genjutsu: Eternal Darkness no jutsu"

---Inochi---

Inochi was staring down his opponent's…two bandits. Inochi did a back flip and landed on the wagon. He then started doing some hand seals. "Raiton: Lightning Shurikan no jutsu", with that Inochi pulled out multiple senbon which suddenly started sparking with electricity. He switftly started throwing the senbon needles at his opponents. Usually the needles wouldn't merely hurt his opponents, especially since he had yet to learn a thing about pressure points. However the electric charged senbon started shocking the bandits causing their muscles to spasm. They dropped to the ground shaking slightly. "Unless you know how to concentrate you chakra…you wont be getting up anytime soon."

---Ookami---

Ookami was still in his battle position. He was staring down at both of his opponents. The first one came after Ookami, sword drawn. Both warriors clashed swords with each other. However, the bandit didn't count on Ookami's free hand, which promptly slashed the bandit's throat with the kunai. He quickly threw the kunai at the other bandit who seemingly easily blocked it with his sword. Ookami grab his other wakizashi and rushed the bandit. Both warriors got into a rythmatic dance with each other. Both were trying to slash each other and block the other's slash.

'This guy's kinda good', thought Ookami.

The two warriors continued their battle for a while, however the bandit was starting to get tired. 'Training or not…he's still not up to the standard of a trained ninja!', thought the smirking youth. He finally saw an opening in the bandit's defense and he took it. He stabbed the bandit with in the chest…and it was over.

---Yami---

Yami stared at his opponent. The bandit smirked at the "child". He rushed the boy, sword drawn. Yami launched himself at the bandit. Yami slid, feet first, at the bandit; swiped the back of the bandit's leg, behind the knee, with his foot; and quickly rolled out of the way, before the bandit hit the ground; and jumped back up. The bandit quickly jumped back up as well, anger plastered on his face. He rushed the Psychic once again and started attacking the boy with his sword. Said boy started dodging each hit with ease. 'This guy is even worse than Jiman.' Yami saw his opening and went for it. He punched the bandit in this face. After the first initial punch he started sending a flurry at the bandit. His eyes shifted silver; Yami did a back flip, enhancing his speed with his power, and kicked the bandit in the face with his leg. When Yami landed, the bandit was still shocked by the back flipped, he launched himself at the bandit and grabbed his face in his hand. Yami pushed the bandit's head against a nearby tree, effectively knocking him out.

It was over…suddenly a kunai embedded itself in the bandit's throat…Yami looked at it wide eyes and then followed the path of the projectile to, "Rei? Why did you kill him? There was no reason to do such a thing", stated a horrified Yami. Rei frowned at the young man. But it was the bandanna wearing chunin who spoke.

"Get over it kid! This was a life or death situation if we hadn't had killed these bandits they would've come after us again. Probably with reinforcements. We had no choice but to kill them all.", explained Vann. Yami's eyes widened as he looked around…All the bandits he could see were bleeding profusely…they wouldn't live much long, if they were still alive that is.

"But they were beaten!"

"Yes but that doesn't mean they wouldn't have returned to come after us."

"Yami…you have to understand…sometimes in this life we have all chosen…we must kill", explained Rei putting her hands on his shoulders. "If we don't we may come to regret it later. In order for a ninja village to survive, some will end up dieing its as simple as that."

"Some will end up dieing…", muttered the still partially horrified psychic.

"Yes…"

They stood like that for a long time…Yami finally started to look at his companions…Rei was staring at him patiently…Inochi was looking had him sadly…Vann was looking at him with an odd grin…and Ookami…was smirking and winking at him…? Yami gasp…it was at this point that he noticed just how close he was to the female chunin or as Ookami dubbed her "The Hot Chunin." Making his face blushed ten shades of red. He quickly turned his face to look at anything but her, which ended up being a laughing Vann and smirking Ooakmi. Rei sighed…

'Two perverts and one overly shy kid…Great…'thought Rei. "Well let's start moving! Get back into formation…we're moving out",

"Yes Maam!"

No one paid any attention to the same "stray dog" that was watching the whole thing. The dog sunk into the forest and faded into the shadows.

---In the forest---

The dog was running through the forest at high speed. To the untrained eye it would look like a black blur. It finally stopped its sprint coming up to a cave. It slowly walked in.

The cave itself was pitch black…the only thing visible on the animal was his yellow eyes. Finally a figure came up to the dog.

"Hello Shadow, catch anything nice today." Said a voice. "What was that boy?"

"What's he saying Kouichi?", asked a Feminim voice.

"Worms have been screwing with our dogs…they killed twelve of them." (Kouichi)

"Now now now, we can't have that now can we?", said a third voice.

"No! We can't. I'll take care of them myself!", exclaimed a fourth voice

"Calm down Zaku we don't even know who we're dealing with yet", a fifth voice called out.

"There are a total of eight of them. Three of them are merely traders. Three snot nose punks. Finally two wearing chunin vest.", stated Kouichi.

"And what about the Jounin? If there are three genins there ought to be a jounin crawling around", a sixth voice explained.

"None according to Shadow", stated Kouichi.

"No surprise…that mutt is about as useful as you are!", called a seventh voice, which caused a growl to come from both Kouichi and Shadow.

"Calm down!", screamed the third voice. "Jounin or not those brats must be taught a lesson. Now who's willing to get there hands dirty?"

"I will!", called Zaku (fourth voice)

"Me and Shadow will help out." (Kouichi)

"Good…now one more…" (Third)

"Hey Mimiru, two of the nins in this group are Hizuuga." (Kouichi)

The owner of the second voice grinned… "Ok…I'm in.?" (Mimiru)

"Good…after you deal with those punks get out of here…they'll probably send someone to find the bodies…they'll probably be Jounin level as well. It's best if we abandon the Cerulean forest. We'll meet back in the usual town. Now move!", With that…four figures suddenly disappeared.

"Alright lets take care of these worms and go", (Kouichi). With that four more figures disappear.

A/N: Hey everyone. Glad to get this next chapter up...I hope I did well on my fight scenes...Anyway, as always please read and review...let me know what you think.