Blue and Red

I don't own Naruto or The Gamer

"Life comes at a cost. Wouldn't it be arrogant to die before you've repaid that debt?"– Yuuji Kazami

AGHHHHHHHHH I JUST FINISHED EDGERUNNERS AND I'M CRYINNGGGGG. OOOGAAAAAAA. TIME FOR THE CHAPTER THOUGH SO HERES THE RECAP.

Previously on Cloud Gamer

'Objective: The defeat of the third mizukage, Azel Terumi'

"That wasn't expected!"

The voices of the gods were drowned out by the hopelessness of the mission. Danzo expected us to make a power move and attack the Mizukage's convoy? Kill a kage level fighter with only 7 shinobi? HE WAS FUCKING INSANE!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I'M STILL CRYING AGHHHH ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Minato looked back at us with a soft gaze before he turned back to our new tent. It was one of the large green ones that were fit for about 10 people but we had one to ourselves.

"Sensei, what are the parameters for this mission?" Kakashi asked, dropping his bag and Rin's which he was carrying. "I'll explain when we collect our ANBU members for this mission, don't want to have to repeat this multiple times."

"Okay sensei, are we moving out immediately?"

"Yes. Yes, we are. Grab any supplies you might need and make sure to check your weapons carefully, grab extra pills anything you think we might need."

"Yes sir!" We chorused, I looked towards Rin who was very uncomfortable and rubbing her arm. Kakashi was checking his bag and not paying her any attention, so I walked over.

"How are you feeling Rin?"

"I – I'm scared to be honest. Going out on missions back-to-back without rest is new for me, for us, and I think my arm is going to hold us back."

I gave her a quick smile and patted her shoulder. "Don't worry Rin, we'll be back here after another completed mission before you know it." I didn't feel good lying, but it was also something I wanted someone to say to me. I knew we couldn't beat a kage level opponent with an entourage, we definitely couldn't, Danzo was trying to kill us!

I turned away and opened my bag, taking down a mental note of everything I would need to restock and carry extra of. "Do you two need anything? I'm going to go grab my supplies."

"Yeah, can you grab me some more pills and a few kunai?" Kakashi requested, I nodded at him and looked to Rin, who looked very scared.

"Don't worry Rin, we can do this. Plus, Minato will be there if we need him."

"Yeah… right!" She perked up a bit, but her eyes betrayed her expression, that didn't soothe her in the slightest. Maybe she lost some confidence since Minato was a bit late last time, if that was what she thought.

I left the tent and entered the main office, writing down the supplies we needed and handing them over to the clerk. She left quickly and came back with a seal that held our items, I thanked her and left quickly.

When I entered back in the tent, Minato was there with our entire group. Rin looked horrified while Kakashi had despair in his eyes. "Oh Shin, you're back. Let me explain the mission to you."

"We will be attacking the convoy that is currently taking the 3rd mizukage onto the coast. The expected guards for him are 6 jonin and 8 chunin level opponents not including the kage level opponent of the mizukage himself. We have 7 members for this mission and no reinforcements will be sent, even if we request. There will also be a second ship arriving later on to bring the rest of their forces, so we're on a time limit." Minato explained, my stomach dropped at the explanation. This was a suicide mission! No doubt about it!

I placed the supply tag on the ground and summoned all of the requested things from Kakashi and myself. We both restocked and Minato brought our group to the exit of the compound. My palms were sweaty, knees weak, my arms were heavy, there was almost no way we survived this mission, and I knew it.

"Squad, we will be moving towards the fault coast and will arrive there by midnight tonight. The convoy should arrive at 9:00 am with the mizukage and his guards. This is an important mission for Konoha so we must succeed!" Minato barked; the ANBU had a fire lit in their eyes while Kakashi was petrified.

Minato and the ANBU hopped towards the trees which left just us there. We were silent until Rin spoke up, shocking both of us. "We can do this! C'mon guys, we will win!" She chanted, hopping into the trees with as shout.

Kakashi had his right eye in a small curve as he jumped to follow her. I stared at the moon up above and felt a tear drip down my face, 'when did I grow attached to this world so much?' I jumped into the brush to follow them and soon caught up with the ANBU and Minato.

The next morning, Fault coast – 8:00 am

"Shin, I didn't know you for long. But you were pretty alright, especially taking that fight for me." Kakashi said. He had barely spoken while we travelled until now and we were eating a quick breakfast. "You make it sound like we're going to die Kakashi. Trust in our group, or that will of fire you all carry."

"I'm not making it sound like that. We are going to die, one of us will, at least."

"And who said that? Who decided that we all won't survive today?"

"Logic did."

"Then fuck logic, we'll all live, every single one of us, and we'll be regarded as heroes or whatever. Team Minato, the squad who defeated the 3rd mizukage when they were all under the age of 16!"

"Stop being so optimistic, I can tell you're lying." He looked down at my hand, it was shaking along with my legs while I held my knees up to my chest and overlooked the ocean.

"Shut up asshole, you weren't supposed to point it out." A couple of tears shed from my eye as the awoken sun reflected into my retinas. Minato came up behind me and patted my head. "We will all live, just trust me."

Rin followed and sat beside Kakashi, putting her hand on his. "Kakashi, if we survive this, I have something to tell you."

Me and Minato deadpanned at her. "It wasn't already obvious what you were going to?"

Kakashi chuckled a bit and Rin started to blush. "Obviously not!" She yelled out at us. Minato put his hand over her mouth and his face hardened while pointing to the beach.

A large boat pulled in silently with several shinobi walking onto the shore. I knew our ANBU were waiting under the sand, but I was still extremely anxious. When the final chunin stepped onto the beach, all of our ANBU popped up and attacked 2 each. Killing them all swiftly.

I heard a siren go off and looked towards Minato. He bit his thumbnail and was staring down at the beach where even more shinobis sprung up from under the boat and on top of the deck. This was far more than we were told of, there were at least 40 shinobi there, not adding in the mizukage who was still inside.

Our ANBU put up a good fight but were all defeated before we could act, only taking out around 10 of the enemy before dying. I clutched my knee so hard my nails dug into my skin and stared down at the carnage.

The ANBU were slaughtered by the enemies, several water sharks were flung into the sand and huge waves crashed against the cliffs where we were seated, the ANBU barely got to fight back before they were decimated.

"We're not doing this. At least, you're not." Minato said behind us. I turned to face him, but I blacked out before I could fully turn around, in my last moments of consciousness, I heard Kakashi, and Rin also fall to the ground with Minato grumbling.

Minato POV 400m away from the convoy

"Alright, you got this Minato, you got this." I shook my hands and jumped from side to side to get rid of my nerves. I had just knocked out my team after seeing what happened to the trained ANBU soldiers and I knew they would get decimated.

I pulled out several kunai and laid them on the ground. I had seven left from the 10 I carried on this mission, since they took up a ton of space compared to the normal kunai. I threw them all over the beach and before they started to fall down, I did a quick few hand seals.

"Kunai shadow clone jutsu!" My 7 kunai duplicated to over 50 as they slammed onto the beach, cutting through several shinobi on their way down but not killing any. I built up my chakra and focused on the first kunai *FLASH*, then the second, then the third.

I vanished all over the beach and depleted a third of my chakra from the constant spam. Though I did manage to kill most of the extra forces that showed up, there were still over 20 jonin level combatants plus the mizukage.

I blasted my killing intent over the area but none of my adversaries backed down. I threw one of my kunai I picked up and threw it towards the ship, charging up a rasengan in my left hand.

It flew straight onto the deck, and I teleported to it, slamming my orb of chakra into the boat and destroying the front half of it, causing the back half to sink backwards into the shallows. Several silhouettes flew out from the back half and landed on the beach to face me.

I stood on the head of the ship, staring down at my enemies spread across the beach. I counted 36 jonin, 4 chunin, and 1 mizukage, the big fish. A shark person launched several water bullets at me, but I flashed behind them and slit their throat. '1 down' I counted in my mind, only 40 to go.

Shin POV 10 minutes later

I woke up to a blaring alert from my system, a new quest had formed from the current mission, and I looked over the cliff.

"New quest formed 'Steamy Waters'

Objective 1: defeat all Kiri affiliated shinobi

Objective 2: defeat the mizukage, Azel Terumi

Objective 3: Do not allow Minato Namikaze to die

Rewards: 20x 5 skill voucher, 40,000 ryo, 200 reputation with Minato Namikaze"

I accepted the quest and stared in disbelief at the beach. Minato was standing there, panting heavily with lots of scratches and his clothes in tatters. The mizukage was standing across from him, not wounded seriously at all, but in between them, laid the bodies of over 40 kiri shinobi.

"Minato Namikaze, the yellow flash of Konoha. Your head will make a great trophy for my wall." The mizukage said, smirking devilishly as he stared down Minato's form.

I leaped off of the cliff with a chakra enhanced jump, flying straight down towards the mizukage like a rocket. "RASENGAN!" I slammed the ball of energy straight into his back, surprising not only Azel, but Minato as well who was staring at the jutsu I formed.

I jumped towards Minato and turned around to face Azel, he took off the tattered robes he was wearing and pulled his long black hair out of the bun he had it in. His eyes were no longer squinting and revealed a beautiful violet colour that struck fear into me.

"An ant? Namikaze, I did not expect you to use such low-level pawns to face me. Surely you don't underestimate me that much?"

"He's right. What the hell are you doing Shin?"

"Sorry, but I've got an extra big fish to catch today. Want to help me Minato?"

"Hah, guess we don't really have a choice now." Minato brought out a kunai and held it in reverse grip while I grabbed my new sword from the base out.

I chucked Minato a soldier pill and he swallowed it quickly, the mizukage waiting patiently for our preparations to be finished. "All done now? Can we please move forward, you have wasted enough of my time."

We didn't respond as Minato through his kunai forward and I raced up to Azel, empowering my body with swift chakra. He barely responded as he made two hand signs and Minato teleported to attack, but it went straight through.

"Boil release: recollection" His body exploded into a huge cloud of scalding vapour that burned my face and arms. It circled around us before collecting together and forming his body on top of his broken ship.

"See? An ant and a house cat can't hope to fight a wolf. Survival of the fittest, simple as that."

"Shut up." I spat, picking up one of Minato's kunai from the sand and throwing it at Azel. It went straight through his head and he snickered a little, but Minato vanished to the kunai and swing a rasengan straight through his torso, missing again.

Azel exploded into hot steam and blasted Minato into the water before he reformed in front of me. "Little ant, stay back while the grownups fight, okay?"

I slashed my sword at his neck, but he stopped it with 2 fingers pinching the blade, smiling at me cheekily. "Ohh, you didn't think that would work, did you?"

I grit my teeth and made a thunder spear with my right hand, attempting to stab him straight through the chest, but he dodged it and grabbed my forearm. "Don't say I didn't warn you." He grabbed my right shoulder and kept his hand on my forearm, dislocating the bone with a sickening snap.

"Oh ho, how fragile. I told you little ant, don't mess with the grownups." He threw me to the floor, and I clutched my arm in pain. "FUCK!"

"Such crass language! I will have to beat that out of you, won't I?" He slammed his foot onto my dislocated shoulder, and I screamed out in pain. He dragged me by my leg over the beach, filling my mouth with sand until he threw me roughly through the air and over the water.

Luckily, before I could fall in, Minato appeared and caught me, popping my shoulder back into place on the beach while the mizukage watched. "This is so boring; I'm just waiting over and over again for you to get back up. Then, there are these ANTS!" He caught Kakashi's arm that was charged with a Chidori behind him, "THAT KEEP GETTING IN THE WAY!" He flipped Kakashi over and threw him at me.

I caught Kakashi's body and Minato rushed forward, engaging in a taijutsu match with the third mizukage. Minato attempted a barrage of attacks, but they passed through the mizukage who slammed his fist into Minato's mouth, launching him back towards the ship and through the steel hull.

"I honestly thought you would give more of a fight Namikaze. The 'yellow flash' has become stained with his own blood, hasn't he? His ANBU are dead, aren't they? And he can't do a FUCKING THING ABOUT IT!" He made 12 hand seals and the water around the ship started to lift up, forming 8 large spears over 2 meters in diameter each.

"Water style: Great spear destruction!" They all skewered through the ship, and we heard a scream from inside. "MINATO SENSEI!" Kakashi yelled out, breaking free from my grasp and running towards the ship, only to be met by the mizukage's fist. "Ants stay out of the way."

Kakashi screamed and ran straight back with a chidori in his hand, stabbing straight into the Mizukage's stomach. But he vanished into a cloud of steam that collected behind him, he grabbed Kakashi by the back of the neck and threw him 30 meters into the air, performing hand seals while he went up.

"SUMMONING JUTSU!" I shouted out, summoning one of my bats to save Kakashi and carry me over the beach. Komuri appeared and instantly flew to catch Kakashi, with me riding his back.

"Kakashi, we need a plan!"

"Tch, I know! Minato sensei isn't going to win without us!"

Komuri swerved to dodge a few large spikes of water that spawned from the ground, rolling to the left to avoid certain death. "Alright, he dodged my lightning natured attack, so we should use those maybe?"

"Yeah, and he caught mine, okay, so lightning style attacks will work better?"

"Maybe, I'm not too sure." For all I knew he was bating us into making him stronger, but we needed to use any chance we could get, especially to defeat his invulnerability.

Kakashi stood up on Komuri's back and started to do hand seals while Komuri kept dodging the pillars of deadly liquid that continued to fire upwards. "Lightning style: lightning ball!" Several orbs of yellow energy surrounded Kakhi before flying down to the Mizukage's position. He dodged out of the way and let a teleporting slash from Minato pass through him.

"Hah – hah, alright." Minato panted out, starting to understand our plan a bit, even if it was a simple one. "Lightning style: lightning web!" A large blue web of electricity sprouted from Minato's position and lined the battlefield.

I threw a few thunder spears while Kakashi kept throwing orbs of lightning down. Eventually, Azel stepped onto one of the strings of lightning and shouted in pain. Minato used that opportunity to plant a seal for the flying thunder god on him, and also slamming a rasengan that sent him into the cliffside.

"THAT'S IT, NO MORE GAME TIME!" Azel shouted out, sticking to the cliffside and going through hand seals. "Boil release: skilled mist technique!" A large cloud of acidic vapour covered the entire beach and Minato teleported up to us on Komuri, panting heavily with a few burns on his face.

Rin's body was on the top of the cliffside still and the mist was slowly crawling up the cliff, but Minato didn't have enough chakra to teleport there and back. "Shit! What about Rin?!"

"Damn it!" Kakashi yelled out, unveiling his sharingan and looking straight towards her while forming hand seals. "Lightning style: Chidori!" he blasted off of Komuri and made us sway a bit as he flew through the cloud of acidic vapour. A huge crash was heard, and we saw Kakashi jump out of the cloud with Rin's body in his hands.

"Komuri! Can you blow away this steam?"

"Of course, Shin. Wind style: Great breakthrough!" He flapped his wings heavily and blasted the vapour down towards the ocean. Azel stood there while looking up at his with a frown.

"I think… its about time you come down from there."

A large shadow appeared above us, and I looked behind us, a huge 60-meter-long tentacle was coming out from the ocean and slammed us into the ground, forcing Komuri to return to the bat realm and Minato and I to be stuck under the it.

Minato was sweating heavily and had bags under his eyes, he was nearing his limit and so was I. My strength buff was only at 6 times since I hadn't been hit much, but my chakra was extremely low after all of my high powered jutsu and then summoning, I was running near dry.

"Looky here, I caught me a war hero and an ant! Don't worry though, I'll give you a proper send off yellow flash. But for your little kid here, sadly, he still needs to grow before I can catch him legally!" The tentacle gripped around me and lifted me up, leaving Minato to lay in the sand while I was dragged into the sky. The tentacle stopped lifting me and flicked itself towards the ocean, letting me go so I went flying.

I started to fall over 400 meters out from the shore, barely being able to hear anything from how fast I was moving. It had been a solid few seconds since I was thrown and I was staring up at the sky, the midday sun glaring down into my eyes and stopping me from sleeping.

I put my hand up to my shoulder and thought back to my promise with Kushina. 'Only for life or death huh? I think this counts.' I felt a flow of strength course through my veins and black markings slowly covered my body.

"Hoooooo" I breathed out loud, flipping mid air several times and landing on the water, causing several large waves to spread out from my location. I poured swift chakra into my entire body and extra chakra into my legs, vanishing from my place and activating my dojutsu.

In a matter of seconds, I was on the shore and stabbing the Mizukage with a thunder spear. He stumbled back a little bit from the sneak attack and looked into my eyes. "You are no simple ant, are you?"

"Not at all, I'm the fucking devil of em."

"Funny, the devil of ants huh? IS STILL AN ANT!" He rushed forward and landed a solid punch to my stomach. I growled and rolled with the punch, sliding backwards against the sand and making 4 hand seals, "lightning style: Current!" I channelled electricity into my palm and attempted to slam it into Azel. He dodged it easily and kicked me in the torso, I spat out some blood, adding to the crimson sand we were standing on from Minato's slaughter.

I put my hand into some of the red sand, channelling my chakra through it and making hand signs. I formed the sand on top to be like a sinkhole where underneath were several needles of solidified blood.

I vanished from my position to try and kick Azel in the chin, he blocked the kick and grabbed my ankle, slamming me into the sand floor and throwing me away. "C'mon devil ant, where's all of your strength?"

I spat out more blood and thought about my curse mark. Because of the buffs it gives, and my current health, my strength stat is almost at 4,000. I grabbed some sand and threw it towards Azel, he put his hand up to block his eyes and I empowered my fist with lightning chakra, slamming it into Azel. "OOF!" He groaned, flying backwards from my full power hit. When he was about to slam into the cliff, he dispersed into mist and reformed in front of Minato, bleeding a bit from his mouth.

"There it is devil ant, your power! Now… what would you do… If I did this perhaps?" He grabbed Minato and pulled him up to eye level by his hair. "Now, I'll count to three. You will stop attempting to fight before then, or I'll kill him. Simple."

"1." I stood steadfast and thought about it, 'I'm not fast enough to stop him, but maybe I could bluff, and he would give up?'

"2." 'Obviously, he's not going to do that!'

"3." 'SHIT!' I stored my curse mark and fell to my knees, my stamina drained from the prolonged use and my own exhaustion. Azel sprouted a grin on his face, staring down at me. "Would. You. Look. At. That. Where's your will of fire now, little ant?"

He cackled a bit before dropping Minato in a collapsed heap. "Well now, I'm a tad bit bored of this. So, I'll just kill him and go, alright?"

"B-But you said that- "

"It's war kid, get used to it." He said, dropping the games and giving me a cold look. He started to form hand seals but stopped and flipped backwards. "CHIDORI!" Kakashi yelled, attempting to spear through Azel.

He stumbled a little bit and picked up Minato, shooting me a thumbs up and attempting to jump off, but Azel would not let his prey run away like that. He vanished and appeared in front of Kakashi blowing a large amount of acidic mist into his face and kicking him in the stomach.

"Yeah, this is really getting boring now. Goodbye little ants, and Konoha's yellow flash." He said, forming a few water spears above us. I looked up and grit my teeth, using the last of my stamina to bring my hand up, forming a small needle of wind. I threw it forward, and it actually landed?

The small sharp piece of wind chakra blasted through his pointer finger before dissipating, making the small flesh appendage fall into the sand. Azel's eyes widened, and he looked down at his finger, "what is it with you Konoha pieces of shit, and not dying quietly?"

"Because…" Azel looked over to where Minato was, or, used to be. "That's not the will of fire." Azel's body froze, and he spat out some blood, stumbling forward and losing control of his jutsu, causing the water up above to softly fall on us like a cold shower.

A 3-pronged kunai was embedded deep into his back, he tripped over his own foot and faceplanted into the sand. Minato walked over to me and Kakashi, picking us up and using most of his remaining chakra to teleport us to Rin. Who was alive and awake near where our camp was set up.

I looked to the horizon and saw a large metal ship heading towards our position. Our group didn't care though, at least we were all alive. Rin immediately started to heal using first aid on Minato and give him some chakra while I used a bit of mine to use phoenix breath on Kakashi's burns.

"That… was the worst fight I've ever been apart of." I groaned, laying on my back while the rest of our group sat in the grass. We would have to move soon, to prevent being sensed, but for now, I wanted to relax. "I'll say" Kakashi replied, sounding exhausted himself. He popped a soldier pill and stood up, picking Minato up on his back and telling Rin to take me. She obliged and put me over her back, where I immediately fell asleep, causing her no small amount of discomfort.

"That. Was. Awesome! This guy is the best!"

"I know right? I didn't expect this much when I revived him, but he has given us such a good show!"

"Maybe we should up the difficulty a bit?"

"Hell no! It's already pretty tough right now, no way are we increasing the difficulty."

"Fine, it was just a suggestion."

"We might do that when he goes through a few more lives, no sooner than that though!"

"I get it, I get it. Any news on Nika?"

"Dumbass actually made himself into a fruit! Who cares about him!"

"Heyyyy, that isn't nice!"

"Shut it dumbass! You can't even watch this spectacular show because you made your warden into a fucking idiot!"

"He is not an idiot! He's just a bit special! I like them this way perfectly!"

"Yeah! Especially stupid!"

"Hey!"

"All of you shut the fuck up! Let's just keep watching!"

I groaned and sat up from the grass. Rin and Kakashi had stopped for a short break before continuing, we were about 4 hours away from the base, meaning I had been unconscious for well over 24 hours.

"Oh, your awake!" Rin called out happily, she was currently redressing my wounds with 1 hand, and pushed me back down to lie on the grass. Kakashi popped his head out of the tent where he was treating Minato, giving me a small wave before dipping back inside.

"Kakashi looks pretty chipper." I said, laying back on the grass while Rin finished wrapping my arm in bandages.

"Yeah, he's been like that since the fight. Maybe he's happy we won?"

"Maybe, so can I move now? Or do you want to keep staring at my shirtless body."

She blushed and moved off of me, apologising quietly and moving into the tent where Minato was being treated. "Ahhh! Kakashi! Don't tie them so tight, you'll hurt him!"

"Huh? Isn't it the tighter the better?"

"Not always, just let me do it and you can go set up everyone's tents."

"Mm, okay."

Kakashi left the tent and saw me laughing at him, he flipped me off and reached into my bag, taking out my tent and unfolding it on the floor, making 3 clones to help him set them all up.

"So Kakashi, what happened to make you so happy?"

"Not sure what you're talking about."

"Well, you were pretty down 2 days ago, and now you're all happy. You on your period?"

"Fuck off, and I think I've acted the same way the entire time."

"I think not but keep your secrets."

"Whatever."

Kakashi finished setting up my tent and made up his, then Rin's finally and we all went to sleep. Hopefully Danzo would let us rest a while when we got back, and if he didn't, I'll make sure he never gets to see the massacre.

I collected my rewards from the quest completion before going to sleep, gaining tons of money and skill vouchers put me in a better mood.

The next morning

Kakashi woke me up at 6:00am and we left the camp quickly after packing. Minato was awake now, but not combat ready. He could move around and was staying a bit behind Kakashi in our group, we were going to soon reach the base and boy was I ever as relieved at that fact considering the events of the past few days. Well, being unconscious for one of them.

When we reached the gate, we made our way through the security and walked into the main building. The clerk sent us uptairs to write a report and then we could get checked out at the medical bay.

It was almost worth the pain when I got to see Danzo's face when we walked in, but not quite. "Namikaze, I didn't expect to see you back here for another few days."

"Yes, well, the mission did not go quite as expected. There were double the number of enemies the mission outline stated, and the reinforcement ship showed up after only 3 hours."

"Did you complete the mission?"

"I don't know, I fell unconscious before I could check for the kill."

"Hmm, alright, have a in detail mission report on my desk by tomorrow. This could have been a great opportunity."

Minato grumbled a bit and we all left, heading downstairs to the med bay where Rin finally got her arm properly healed and all of the injuries I received were also cured. Minato wasn't quite as lucky since they couldn't transfer chakra here since there were other people coming back from missions and Kakashi was in the same boat besides his minimal injuries, prolonged use of the sharingan drained him low enough that I was surprised I was the one on the floor.

After getting checked up I went straight to our tent to rest more while Minato stayed up to write the mission report, Rin helped out in the med bay and Kakashi did some training in the field. Overall, that day was extremely chilled out for us, especially compared to the next one.

The next day, 4:00pm

"What do you mean Danzo?"

"We are lacking in soldiers; I need team Minato to go out on another mission into the land of water. One of our skirmishes has ended up a bit poorly on our end, so we are sending your group in to help with the effort. This will also help you cover up that mistake with the mizukage."

"There was no mistake with the mizukage, we didn't have enough information and it nearly ended with my entire team being wiped out!"

"Do not get snappy with me Namikaze, take your mission and complete it in a timely and proper manner!"

Minato grabbed the file and left the room, us following him like good little subordinates. He opened up the file and sighed in relief, meaning it was probably an easier mission this time.

"Alright team, its just us this time and we are to retake Point Acron about a 3-hour trip from here. It is riddled with Kiri shinobi and is a useful area for us to control since we can survey the ocean and any incoming forces. Pack for a week trip and we will leave tonight."

"Yes sir!"

I grabbed the supplies for everyone and Kakashi did a maintenance check while Rin grabbed our medical stuff since I was clueless about that. Minato met with us at the gate and had already sorted out our stuff to leave. "Let's do this team!"

It was a short trip, with everyone chatting amiably while hopping through trees. Kakashi was very talkative ever since we fought the mizukage, which was a good thing, I think?

When we reached the point though, it was a not as fun atmosphere. In the middle was a huge pile of bodies with the Kiri flag at the top, around the entire area were a bunch of Kiri shinobi who were geared with poison tipped weapons and lots of water in scrolls.

At the cliff over the coast was a large lighthouse with several Kiri shinobi stationed at the top to survey and sense any presences around the camp. Minato sighed in annoyance and pointed out our jobs, I was to attack the northern area with Kakashi, and Minato would go with Rin to capture the light house.

We split up after a few encouraging words to each other and I landed in some tall grass around the fence surrounding the camp. Kakashi took a higher route and was currently inside while sticking to the rooftops.

I walked towards the front gate and put a kunai straight into the guard's throat, holding him up for a bit while my clone killed the one on the other side. I slowly placed the body on the floor and activated my dojutsu, no other guards were around. I moved through the gate and stuck to the shadows under the buildings. A group of shinobi walked past me and noticed the corpses outside the gate, they called out and sounded an alarm while I moulded wind chakra in my palms.

'Wind style: Wind needle' I threw the two needles, and they pierced cleanly through their heads. "Hey! He's over here!" Another shinobi ran towards me and activated the circuit that all lanterns were connected by, illuminating the entire camp.

I cursed mentally and formed another wind needle, piercing the shinobi in the head and jumping onto a roof. Several Kiri shinobi started to surround the building, making hand seals and spitting out water bullets. I dodged them all by ducking and jumping through, stopping time while I was mid air to look at all of their positions.

Once the time was up, I continued to sail upwards and flipped upside down, forming quick hand seals and spitting out orbs of wind chakra that blasted through the shinobi. They screamed in pain while the vacuum spheres pierced their bodies, coating the ground and streets in blood. I dropped down to the floor and added my chakra to it before hopping back up to the roof to meet Kakashi.

"Shin! We were supposed to be quiet!" Kakashi yelled out, landing in front of me with a scowl.

"Hey, I didn't know they had a huge alarm ready." I replied nonchalantly, staring back at him with a smirk.

Several more shinobi appeared to surround us, standing into the pools of blood as I put my hands into the tiger seal. Suddenly, all of the blood in the area formed into large spikes that stabbed through each shinobi, puncturing lungs, separating limbs and destroying bodies.

"Pretty brutal Shin." Kakashi said, looking down at the bodies of several bleeding out shinobi.

"Brutal, but effective." I replied, looking towards the light house where a light was flashing. "Morse code?" I asked Kakashi, he nodded and watched silently.

"Mission. Complete. Rendezvous. Perfect, we can go." He communicated, looking back towards our meeting point. A bright flash appeared among the trees, and we started to head towards it before being blind sided by a heavy kick to my chin.

I hit the ground hard and Kakashi landed next to me, looking up at our new enemy. "Can any mission go according to plan?" He sighed, pulling his tanto out and lifting up his headband, revealing a 2 tomoe sharingan.

"Alright, just two brats and I can head back home." A feminine voice called out from our surroundings. Her chakra filled the entire area so I couldn't locate her presence exactly.

The ground under me liquified and my feet began to sink, Kakashi jumped out while my ankles were grabbed, and I was dragged deep into the ground. Piercing jade eyes bore into me below the surface with a bored face, she twirled a small knife around before jabbing it into my thigh and kicking me downwards, further sinking me into the mud.

I let out a gasp in pain, but mud filled my mouth, and the taste was just as pleasant as the knife wound. I formed a rasengan in my right hand and felt the ground twirl around it, forming a whirlpool as I shoved more chakra into the jutsu. Before long, I could see the night sky again let go of my rasengan, quickly forming hand seals to substitute with one of the corpses I knew was nearby.

I coughed up some mud and washed my mouth out with my canteen. "Ugh, couldn't you have just made this easy?" My jaw was slammed upwards, and I sailed through the air.

"Earth style: falling earth spears." I heard her say out loud. A rumbling came from below the ground and several large spikes of stone pierced my body. I received 2 to my right thigh and one through my right shoulder, rendering me motionless while I was held up by my own body.

I grit my teeth and put chakra towards the wound, compressing the blood like an iron cuff and slowly crushing the stone spikes. They exploded from the pressure and now I had some gnarly stone spikes inside of my body as I stood before my opponent.

She stared me down before going through another 2 hand signs and making her pale fists darken into a black stone like substance. Before I could dodge, a heavy punch slammed into my torso and sent me recoiling in pain.

"I honestly don't know what it is with you leaf shinobi, you try so hard, every single time, but you all meet the same fate." She said emotionlessly, punching me several times in the face. "Do you all think we won't kill you? That's silly, but I suppose this whole will of fire and ninja way shit is silly. You know what my 'ninja way' is? Money, pay me and I'll do anything, from this!" She punched me again and I felt my jaw creak as is snapped to the left. "Or this!" She slammed another fist into the left side of my face, causing my jaw to completely break. "Or maybe even this!" She kicked me hard in the stomach and I fell to my knees.

My face was bleeding from every orifice and my ears were ringing, where the hell was Kakashi? I closed my eyes and looked up, 'this week really can't get any worse, can it? Several suicide missions, all for one technique? Wow, maybe I'm the legendary sucker' I chuckled mentally, but I wasn't wrong, no other shinobi group would have to do this sort of shit unless they were ANBU, so why us? Was Minato all that great?

The Kiri shinobi waved a hand in front of my face, looking a bit peeved that I was still alive. Little did she know, I was on death row every other fucking day! I reached up with the last of my strength and grabbed her palm, using my 10x strength boost to crush it, but it didn't work, her earth reinforced hand could withstand over 2000 points in strength, how bullshit was that?

"Impressive grip, but you can rest now." She said calmly, then I remembered a new perk I picked up a few weeks ago. I activated it in my mind with a short command, 'second wind'. I felt all of my energy return as I stood up and punched her right in the face.

"Maybe you should be the one who rests bitch, because it's my time to shine!" I activated my curse seal and felt the power course through my body. If 2000 strength wasn't enough, how about 4000?

I jumped into the air and slammed a rasengan into her torso, she coughed up some blood but grabbed my forearm, throwing me away into a building. She looked a bit surprised at my new burst of energy but went through more hand seals. "Earth style: Earth dragon."

A large serpent made of mud slammed into my torso, pushing me through several walls and wiping out most of my recovered health. A loud crackle of lightning resonated from within the dragon as it exploded into bits. "Sorry I'm late Shin, got pushed away from another one of these things."

"Better late than ever, I'll be passing out in about 10 seconds, so finish her off for me after this last one yeah?"

"I have no idea how you know that, but I'll do it." He readied into a fighting stance with his tanto humming in the wind. I stood up and made another rasengan, this one with a darker colour to the usual one. "This is my last attack, so make use of it."

I poured the remainder of my returned chakra into my feet and changed it into swift release, vanishing from my spot with a crash and appearing in front of the Kiri kunoichi. "Surprise!" I slammed the dark orb of energy into her face and listened to her hiss out in pain before stumbling backwards and laying on my back to face the sky. "That's all Kakashi, 10 seconds are up."

"Yeah, I'll finish her off."

My eyes closed and I fell into a deep sleep, unaware to the rest of the fight that would soon take place.

Kakashi POV 10 minutes prior

"SHIN!" I called out, he was suddenly dragged into a pit of mud that appeared from the ground around us. I luckily jumped away in time, but a woman popped up from the pool along with 4 wolves of mud with glowing green eyes. They each latched onto one of my limbs and held them in place while the kunoichi booted me in the stomach, causing me to roll backwards through the air and hit a roof.

I coughed up some spit and looked up, the 4 wolves were back to attacking me and I slashed through the first one with my tanto, but it reformed. I dodged a bite but got tackled by a third one, then my ankle was caught in the jaws of another one.

"Earth style: Rending drill fang"

The kunoichi slammed her fist into my back and I flew into the air, putting my hands together and flipping to face the roof below me. "Fire style: Fireball jutsu!"

I spat out a large glob of flames that caught all of the kunoichi's wolves, and herself, inside. When I landed on the roof, my foot was caught by a duplicate of the kunoichi, she threw me away over a few buildings, but I recovered mid-air, just fast enough to see her perform hand signs and a dragon of mud sprout up from the dirt road underneath the roof she was standing on. It roared ferociously and I was caught in its maw around my body. I blocked it with my tanto but was still blown back over a few blocks of buildings.

When I eventually recovered and hopped up to the rooftops, I heard loud crashes and saw clouds of dust flowing out of a line of buildings and I raced over, Shin must have been fighting her alone.

When the serpent finally slowed down a bit, probably from lack of chakra or the kunoichi's interest, I charged up a Chidori and slammed it into the technique, shattering it to pieces all over the walls.

"Sorry if I'm late Shin, got pushed away from another one of these things." I said, looking around at the shattered mud construct that painted the walls. After a quick conversation, Shin told me he had 10 seconds to do his last attack, I have no idea how he put a timer on his consciousness, probably from the stone spikes sticking out from his body, but I tried to focus on our main objective.

Shin vanished in a burst of speed I wasn't sure I could match, and I heard a scream from the kunoichi several buildings down. I ran forward, using chakra to enhance my speed and I saw Shin falling back with a smirk on his face. Apparently the ten seconds were over, and I would be alone to fight.

The kunoichi stood back up and cracked her bloodied nose back into place after snorting out some blood. "Why. Just why does everyone have to make this so hard?" She said, stumbling forward and making some hand seals.

I copied them using my sharingan and we both shouted at the same time the name of our techniques. "Earth style: Earth dragon bullet!" 2 heads of a dragon appeared from next to us, firing rounds of mud balls like a machinegun.

The kunoichi started to pant a bit from the constant use of techniques but continued to make more hand signs. I made a set of my own, much shorter than hers and spat out a stream of fire to ignite the mud balls, forcing her to dodge while her creation was blown up by my mud bombs.

"Lightning style: Call of the thunderbird!" She shouted out while jumping away. A large ball of lightning was created in the air and exploded, releasing a extremely high pitch ringing sound and a bright flash of light, far more painful than a flash tag.

After 2 minutes, the effects finally cleared, and my enemy was no where to be found. I grit my teeth in anger, 'Damn it! Why can I never finish the job! Some jonin I am, I can't even finish off a close to dead enemy!' I reprimanded myself mentally, picking up Shin and flickering to the rendezvous point where Minato and Rin were sitting.

"Kakashi, how did you go?"

"Y-You knew?"

"Well, I am a sensor, plus, even a blind person could tell combat was going on with that stupidly loud flash of thunder. Is Shin, okay?"

"Does he look okay?" I placed Shin on the floor, his body had 3 large spikes sticking out from various points, not to mention the several broken bones over his body. Luckily the spikes were holding in most of the blood, so he wasn't bleeding out, but he still needed urgent medical attention.

Rin stepped up to the plate and we waited patiently for several minutes until she sighed, wiping her forehead with a rag. She had cleared out all of the spikes and patched him up fine, but he was still unconscious.

"I-I don't even know how he's alive."

Chapter done, that's all, I'm going to sleep and all that. The fights in this chapter were shit and I admit it. Though I did kind of like the one with the kunoichi while the one against the mizukage felt like a toddler's writing, I'll be sure to rewrite it someday probably, but for now, that's what ya get.

Love you all, cya! - tired