It was just about midnight when the mists began to build up again. Instantly, Kurenai signaled for a stop and dropped down into the clearing with the others, back-to-back, tense. She glanced over her shoulder at Hinata, who was instantly alert, Byakugan blazing through the darkness and the mist to find their enemy.

"Hinata?"

"Just gimme a minute," she replied insistently, scanning the treeline.

Kurenai took stock of the terrain. They'd made it just inside of the Fire Country, near a small river that streamed down into the Tea Country. Water could be a problem if it was a Mist-nin. A lot of their strength was drawn from natural resources like that.

On the other hand, Sanbi might be able to tap that sort of power as well. Kurenai glanced over at Aoimaru, who stood near Naruto and Shino, both Genin acting as a guard for him. Naruto had palmed a kunai and was holding it at the ready. Shino was outwardly relaxed, but she could see bugs streaming out from underneath his coat, awaiting his orders. Aoimaru didn't look too badly frightened, but she suspected most of that was an act. He was shaking from head to toe.

No attack came, and Hinata could find nothing with her Byakugan. Whoever was creating the mist, they were keeping out of range of her sight. Admittedly, her range wasn't as long as her cousin Neji's. She could see 360 degrees in all directions, as well as spot tiny things he might miss, but her maximum range was only fifty meters. "We need to keep moving," stated Kurenai. "Move slowly, stay together." They nodded, and the team slowly walked, tense, towards the river. They'd have to cross it slowly, but thankfully it was seeded with a number of boulders, even a non-shinobi would've been able to hop-skip their way across with little trouble.

The mist grew thicker, and Kurenai hesitated, but only for a moment. They'd be safer if they kept moving.

"We'll go first," she said, indicating herself and Hinata, still clinging to her back. "Naruto, be right behind us, and catch Hinata if anything goes wrong. She's in your care."

"Understood," Naruto said.

Hinata was glad the mist made her blush hard to see.

Cautiously, Kurenai made her way across the rocks, leaping lightly from one to another as she made her way across the river. She was halfway there when...

"Kurenai-sensei! That r-!"

Kurenai's sandaled foot slammed down an instant too late, the warning delivered seconds too late. Hinata's gaze had been focused on the treetops and the water, searching for enemies, and she'd missed the hidden exploding tag set to the bottom of the stone, the stone deliberately planted there by the squad commander. Kurenai and Hinata were flung backwards by the explosion and sent hurtling into the water, where they landed with an undignified splash.

Hinata gasped. "Oh god!"

Kurenai's head snapped up, her own keen senses detecting danger too late.

The squad leader was -right- behind them!

"Suirou no Jutsu," intoned a harsh, deep voice behind them.

Before Kurenai or Hinata could act, the water of the river sprang up and encased them both in a pulsating blue dome of chakra-charged water. Instantly, Kurenai froze, and in no uncertain terms told Hinata to do the same. If they tried to disrupt the sphere the Hunter-nin would just drown them.

Shino, Aoimaru, and Naruto stood on the rocks, weapons and fists raised, regarding their new foe.

He was dressed and equipped much like his subordinates had been, in dark greys and blacks, armed with typical shinobi equipment. His white mask bore the four squiggly lines of Hidden Mist, and behind it his eyes peered out, yellow and tinged with malice. He was a muscular individual, covered in scars where ever flesh could be seen, and his every motion bespoke of experience and skill.

He wouldn't go down easily.

Naruto smirked. -He- wouldn't go down at all.

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The Hunter smirked behind his mask, glancing over his shoulder casually at Kurenai and Hinata, imprisoned in his water sphere. "I'll deal with you two later... after I finish off the brats and the monster," he intoned, holding up his hand and forming a seal.

"Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu."

With a muffled poof, more like a splash, another Hunter stood before them, this one free of having to maintain the water prison. Instantly, Naruto recognized his plan. Zabuza had pulled the exact same trick on them during his first mission. Maintain the water sphere with the original while the clone does all the fighting. Crude, but effective. But there was a gap in his plan, and Naruto knew it from experience.

"Shino!" he called out. "All we have to do is take down the original... if we can shake him up, he'll drop the prison, and we get the girls back."

"No!"

All eyes turned to Kurenai.

"Naruto, you have a mission to finish up! Take Aoimaru and run! He won't be able to keep up with just the two of you. Water clones only have a limited range, they can't get too far from the original!"

Behind his mask, the Hunter's eyes narrowed.

"I know that!" shouted back Naruto angrily. "We're not running!"

"That's an order!" she shouted, on the verge of screaming. "Shino, take Aoimaru and run now!"

To her shock, Shino simply shook his head. "No."

"What?"

"There is no way we can outrun our enemy, Kurenai-sensei," he stated respectfully. "Even if we did manage to elude the Water Clone until it dispersed, you and Hinata-san would be helpless. It would be short work for the Hunter-nin to kill you both, and then overtake us. We only have one suitable option."

"Knock his lights out!" roared Naruto, throwing a punch into the air. "Believe it!"

"Exactly," replied Shino, rolling his eyes behind his sunglasses. Not quite how he'd phrase it, but it did cut to the heart of things quickly enough.

Evil laughter interrupted their heroics and posturing, and the Hunter took a menacing step towards them, grabbing a pair of kunai from the holster at his waist. "Please. Two of you? You're not even real ninjas, you're just stupid little brats who got in over their heads..." Without warning, both kunai went flying towards Naruto. He dodged the first, the second whizzing clear over his head. But the distraction had been good enough to allow the Hunter a chance to charge forward (how fast!) and slam his fist into Naruto's gut, sending him hurtling through the air to crash down on the ground.

"Naruto-kun!" cried Hinata.

The Hunter whirled onto Shino, who stood in a defensive stance, arms outspread, protecting Aoimaru who cowered behind him. "Your turn!"

Shino's bugs streamed out of his coat en mass and whirled up in front of him as a barrier around himself and Aoimaru, protecting them in a small shield of swarming black insects. "You think that'll stop me?" scoffed the Hunter, reaching behind his back and grabbing something from his pack. In a moment, he let fly a series of shuriken and kunai with both arms. Most smashed ineffectually against the barrier, the insects were too thick, and there were too many of them.

"Alright fine kid, gloves are off..." said the Hunter, his voice a low growl. His hands slipped together, forming a long, complicated series of hand-seals that Shino didn't recognize. But anything that complex couldn't be good, and he braced himself.

Naruto, largely unhurt (just terribly bruised) from his impromptu flight, had managed to push himself back up to his knees just in time to see the Hunter's seals and recognize the technique he was about to unleash. "Shino! Look out!"

"Suiryuudan no Jutsu!"

Behind the Hunter, the water of the river reared up, defying gravity and forming into a long funnel, the end of which split into the mawed fangs of a fearsome dragon. Without warning it sped towards Shino's barrier, and even he had no illusions that it could hold. Quick as he could, he grabbed Aoimaru by the scruff of his collar and none-too-gently threw him out of harm's way the instant the dragon's head smashed through the barrier and full into Shino, sending the bug-user crashing into a nearby tree with a little less force than a tidal wave.

"Shino!" cried out Naruto. Then, angrily, he whirled on the Hunter. "You lousy bastard!" Hands quickly formed a familiar seal.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Six Naruto's appeared in a puff of smoke, and the first four charged forward at the Hunter. Two were swept aside by an expert swing of his arm, bursting back into smoke, but the other two grabbed a hold of his legs and held him down. The Hunter's eyes snapped open as the remaining two Naruto's came charging at him, the first with his palm out, the second running behind him, filling it with chakra.

"Eat this! Rasengan!"

Pure chakra smashed into the water clone, reducing it to it's base element and splashing the substance all over the area. Naruto wasn't quite done, however, as he brought up his free hand and hurled three kunai at the real Hunter. He barely batted an eye behind his facial mask, simply lifted up his other hand and caught the kunai by their hilts with a single hand. Flawlessly.

Naruto silently cursed, his ploy having been thwarted. But he wasn't out of tricks yet. And the sooner he got Kurenai and Hinata free the sooner they'd tear the Hunter to pieces. His hands formed a seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

But so did the Hunter. "Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu."

Shadow and Water clones filled the clearing and charged towards one another. The water clones had the advantage of sheer size and brute strength, to say nothing of technique, but Naruto's had numbers on his, and the air was alive with the splash of water and the puff of smoke as the two clone groups duked it out. This served an excellent purpose, however, apart from wasting chakra. It allowed Shino's motions to go unnoticed.

The attack -had- hurt, of course, but he'd over-reacted to the pain and allowed himself to fall flat onto the ground, appearing unconscious. He was, in truth, anything but. He couldn't move just yet, he was in pain all over, and fairly positive at least two of his ribs were broken. To fight headfirst would've been foolish, but Shino didn't care for frontal assaults anyway. So, he silently sent orders to his destruction bugs, which streamed out from his body in very thin lines, unnoticed by the distracted combatants. Then, they congregated behind the Hunter.

"Time to end this, brat," hissed the Hunter through one of his water clones, unaware of his imposing doom. From his back, he drew a wicked sharp katana blade, holding it up before him. "And after you, I'll kill that little monster first... and then all of your friends."

Naruto growled. A low, feral sound. "You're the only monster around here."

The Hunter raised up his katana, intended to attack, but suddenly froze in mid-swing, giving a strangled gasp of shock. As Naruto watched in equal shock, the destruction bugs began swarming up around the original Hunter, overwhelming him.

"Ackt!"

"Naruto... now..." Shino weakly spat out.

"Hear you loud and clear!" shouted Naruto, grinning with joy now. Without hesitation he charged forward, ducking under the swing of a startled water clone, and with his left hand, began to fill his right with whirling chakra. Not a proper rasengan, it would serve it's purpose well enough. He reared back his hand, and the Hunter raised an arm to block, but his attack wasn't aimed at him. He thrust out his hand and let loose his attack on the water sphere itself.

And, as he'd guessed (and even hoped a little) the de-powered rasengan hit the water and immediately it swirled and twirled like a miniature maelstrom, just like back when he'd first learned the technique. He thrust his fist in deeper, powering up more chakra, and the water split and parted and splashed every which way, soaking him instantly but, more importantly...

... shattering the water prison.

"WHAT!"

As water splashed everywhere and the barrier dissolved, Hinata and Kurenai hurled themselves forward. Kurenai ducked low and Hinata reared back her free hand, hanging on to Kurenai's shoulders with the other. He open palm slammed into the Hunter's chest as they passed, giving him a full dose of violent chakra. Between that and the weakening from the bugs, he went flying backwards into the river, vanishing from sight under the cascading depths.

"Alright! Nice shot, Hinata!"

"T-thank you, Naruto-kun."

Naruto smiled broadly, and Hinata blushed brightly. Kurenai almost laughed aloud, she was so very relieved their troubles were...

... over?

A katana whizzed over her head, and she was forced to drop Hinata and roll away out of the next attack as the water clone suddenly divided between her and Naruto. Naruto's clones were quick to protect the original, but their moment of panic was enough of a distraction. They'd assumed the clones would have dispersed with the Hunter defeated.

But he hadn't been.

Soaked and irritated, he clawed his way at the rocky bank of the river to crawl out, coughing up water but thankfully alive. All of Shino's bugs had been washed off of his body when he'd been hurled into the river, so Hinata's attack had been a cloud with a silver lining, so to speak.

"I'm not beat yet," grumbled the Hinter, lifting up his mask just enough to expose his mouth and tossing the object in... a tiny little black pill. A soldier pill. Instantly, the damage from Hinata's attack to his chakra circulatory system was healed, and his power redoubled. With a speed bordering on blurring, his hands formed seals.

"Suiryuudan no Jutsu!"

Behind the Hunter, the water of the river reared up once more, forming into a long snake-like dragon. Without warning it sped towards Naruto, slamming full force into the blonde ninja with enough force to break every bone in his body, sending him flying off into the distance to smash into a tree, hard enough to leave a dent with his body and hang their suspended.

"Naruto-kun!" screamed Hinata.

Kurenai took quick stock of the situation. Naruto was badly hurt. Shino was down and unable to move, exhausted, and low on chakra from his earlier efforts. Hinata was unable to stand properly. She herself was low on ideas, most of her tricks wouldn't work against a capable strategist like this Hunter, her genjutsu would be shrugged off with ease. At least his water clones had all been defeated, however. And after an attack like that, even he had to be running low on chakra.

She grabbed up a pair of shuriken and prepared to fight.

"Stop!"

To Kurenai's shock, the one who'd just spoken was Aoimaru, who stood on the edge of the river, standing atop of the flowing water as if it was solid ground. His eyes were alight with an inner green fire, and his dark blue hair stood on end as he clenched his tiny hands into fists.

"Leave... them... alone."

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Author's Notes:

For the record, I'm not positive if Naruto's rasengan could break down a water barrier like that, but it seems likely, since he'd created a whirlpool using rasengan before. Also, I did my research, Neji once made his Byakugan range over 800 meters, but Hinata's only shown the standard Hyuuga 50 so far.