Team Dead-Last

by Muledragon

For the new batch of Academy graduates, the Hokage decides to abandon the tradition of putting the top genin and dead-last together on a team. As a result, Naruto finds himself on a team with fellow dead-lasts and failures. Under the tutelage of their unorthodox sensei, Naruto and his new teammates must learn to survive and thrive in the brutal and unforgiving shinobi world.

7. The Janin's Assault

Ch. 7 The Janin's Assault

---

The sun had completely set by the time the caravan and their shinobi guardians finally bid one another farewell. Though the daylight at this point was little more than a purplish smudge on the horizon, the moon was large in the sky and provided ample light for the caravaners as they made their way down the small side road that lead away from the main route. As the caravan had grown smaller in the distance, Naruto, Hinata, and Chouji had waved to the friendly people they had gotten to know for only a day. Momiji, whom Chouji, in particular, had grown rather fond of in a short period of time, could be seen standing atop the clone-driven cart, waving goodbye until the caravan had gone around a bend and been lost from sight.

Princess Haruna had watched all of this with a frown. She apparently still thought that the caravaners would be useful to her as decoys. Not that Asuma really cared what she thought. For him, his primary goal at this point was to make sure that the merchants were completely safe and out of the line of fire. His plan for doing so was simple: while the caravan moved off down the side road and took cover in the village it led to, the Leaf shinobi and the trio from the Land of Greens would set up camp not far from the fork in the road, deliberately drawing any pursuit toward them and away from the caravan. Naturally, the princess had been none too pleased with this plan, but Asuma had refused to help her otherwise. She had placed the merchants in harm's way, and now she would help get them out by acting as their decoy instead.

After the caravan had gone, the six combined shinobi had set about creating their camp. Yurinojou and Kikunojou had been allowed to select the exact location, and had chosen a wide clearing amidst the trees, one filled with a variety of Greens Country flowers. Asuma had even gone to the length of building a fire, which was sure to draw any pursuers right to them, but that was what he was expecting.

Asuma was sitting on a log by the fire, staring into the flames, a burned-out cigarette held loosely in his mouth when Kikunojou approached and sat next to him.

"We've placed the last of the traps, Asuma-san," the Greens Country shinobi said over the crackling of the fire. "Chouji-san is just checking the perimeter one last time."

Asuma nodded in reply, "We're as ready as we'll ever be. Now we just have to wait for the enemy to show up."

The two fell silent for a moment, listening to the sounds of the fire and the various animal life that inhabited the wilds around them. Eventually, Kikunojou spoke up again, "I'd like to thank you, Asuma-san...on behalf of the princess. I know you're under no obligation to help us, but you're doing so, anyway. Whatever your reasons, I'm grateful that you're willing to place yourselves in danger to protect Lady Haruna."

Asuma smirked slightly through his cigarette, and observed mildly, "I suppose you have to thank me on the princess's behalf...seeing as how she'll never do it herself."

Kikunojou sighed, "That is, unfortunately, probably true. Her Highness...wasn't always like that…"

Asuma nodded, "I figured as much. You and Yurinojou wouldn't be as devoted to her as you are if you didn't care for her personally." Taking out his cigarette and flicking it into the flames, he asked, "So, what's her story exactly?"

Kikunojou looked away from Asuma and toward the fire. Staring deeply into the flames, he began relating the story, "When we were younger, Lady Haruna was an innocent and friendly child. She loved roaming throughout the capital of the Land of Greens, meeting various people and leading Yurinojou and myself on all kinds of childish adventures. The two of us grew up with her, we were her bodyguards, but also her friends. In those days, everything was peaceful, and it seemed to us like things would go on that way forever." Sighing deeply now, he continued, "They didn't, of course. In time, the Land of Greens was threatened by the stronger nations surrounding it. The princess was sent away to the court of another country's feudal lord, in name as a guest, but in truth…"

"...As a hostage." Asuma finished for him. He understood. Such things were sadly common amongst small nations living in the shadow of much more powerful lands. The greater shinobi nations, in particular, cast a very large shadow over the nations surrounding them.

Kikunojou nodded in confirmation, "Some years later, when Lady Haruna finally returned to the Land of Greens, she had changed. The innocent girl we had once known was gone. She had completely lost her ability to trust people, and kept everyone at arm's length. She pushed away everyone who tried to get close to her, including Yurinojou and myself...and even her own father. The humiliation she experienced all those years as a hostage taught her to use other people, just as she herself was used. Lady Haruna is also a victim of a chaotic world."

Asuma was silent for a moment before responding, "I understand, better than you might think. But even so, it doesn't help anything to allow her to victimize others just because she herself was a victim. That's just continuing the cycle that she herself was caught up in."

"I know," Kikunojou replied, "and I'll do all in my power to make sure no one else becomes a victim, including the Lady Haruna herself." Turning to Asuma, Kikunojou leaned forward, speaking earnestly now, "That's why I wanted to tell you, Asuma-san...if the battle looks to be going poorly, you should take your students and flee. There's no reason why you all should sacrifice your lives on our account. If any more sacrifices need to be made, Yurinojou and I will be the ones to make them. We'll protect the princess somehow, even if it costs us our lives."

"Don't be too ready to sacrifice yourself, either, Kikunojou-san," Asuma cautioned. "I understand you pity her, but…"

"It's not that," Kikunojou interrupted, shaking his head vehemently. "It's just that...when we were younger, Yurinojou and I promised to keep Lady Haruna safe. It was a child's oath, but still, we meant it. We thought we could protect Lady Haruna from anything." Clenching his fists tightly, he went on, "And yet, that day...the day Lady Haruna was taken away...we did nothing. We couldn't do anything. All we could do was watch as she was carried off to another nation. Yurinojou and I swore an oath after that...we swore that we would never let anything like that happen again. We will protect the princess this time, no matter what the price. Even if it costs us our lives we won't let the princess be taken away."

Now growing quiet, Kikunojou turned and looked back into the fire. Speaking softly, he finished, "I'm certain...that Lady Haruna's father felt the same."

Joining him in looking into the flames, Asuma replied, "My father is the Third Hokage, the leader of our village, so I understand a little the position the feudal lord was put in. Being the leader is never easy. It's tough, but, sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the sake of those you lead...even personal ones."

Kikunojou nodded, "That may true, but...I think there's more to it than that. I don't know this for sure, but I've heard that all those years ago there were also other nations that had designs on Lady Haruna herself. Whatever the case, I'm convinced that the feudal lord did what he did to protect Lady Haruna, as well." Leaning back and looking up at the stars, Kikunojou continued, "For any parent...for any adult, really...protecting the next generation is always the most important thing. More so than any other duty…"

As Kikunojou trailed off, Asuma mulled over his words in the ensuing silence that followed.

The two were still sitting together silently when Naruto approached. "Sensei," he said, getting his commander's attention, "the rearguard shadow-clones spotted the enemy. They're moving in more cautiously this time, but they'll be here within the next ten minutes."

As he and Kikunojou rose together from their seats, Asuma queried his student, "I see, the clone managed to get a good look at them this time? How many are there?"

Nodding, Naruto answered, "Yeah, there are at least a dozen of them this time. That guy from before is back, and there's another guy with him that also looks pretty tough. A big guy with a kusarigama."

"That matches the description we got for one of the other Janin brothers," Kikunojou stated.

"Hm, they're earlier than we expected, too," Asuma remarked, "Ruiga must have run into reinforcements on his way back to the capital."

Asuma checked over his equipment one last time. "Leave any of the Janin that show up to me, you focus on taking care of as many of the lesser enemies as you can," he instructed Kikunojou, before turning to Naruto, "Go and get Chouji, Naruto, and get everyone into formation."

"Roger," the two responded promptly, each moving off to get into position. Naruto headed off to the edge of the camp to retrieve Chouji, while Kikunojou put out the fire that he and Asuma had been sitting around.

As the minutes passed, the group all assumed their assigned positions. Asuma stood out front, preparing to meet the two Janin head-on. Kikunojou stood just behind him and to his right, ready to intercept and counterattack any other enemies who went around Asuma. Finally, the four remaining shinobi, Naruto, Chouji, Hinata, and Yurinojou, stood in a circle around Haruna, ready to deflect attacks on the princess from any direction.

The enemy didn't bother to try to disguise their approach. Likely they knew that they had already been detected. The twelve rogue shinobi appeared at the edge of the clearing, Ruiga standing at the fore, flanked by another man who must have been his brother, though the two bore little resemblance to one another. The other Janin was a large, heavyset man with shoulder-length hair and two jagged red tattoos on each cheek. His outfit was mostly the same as all the others of his party, except the kilt-like wrapping at his waist was a pale orange.

"Hmm, so, that's the one who kicked your ass, Ruiga?" the large man spoke up first, questioning his brother.

Ruiga ground his teeth in irritation but didn't rise to his brother's barb. "The one at the front is the Jounin," he confirmed.

"Right," Jiga resumed, scanning over the rest of the party, "and a bunch of snotty little brats, like we thought, and…" As his eyes settled on Kikunojou, Jiga's face twisted into a nasty smirk, "Oh, look, there are a couple of so-called flower ninjas still scurrying about. The last of their kind, unless I'm mistaken. I'd say your comrades put up a good fight, but they all died so quickly I didn't actually get a chance to fight any of them."

This time it was Kikunojou's turn to grind his teeth. "Scum!" he snarled, "Your rule over our nation will be short, I swear it!"

Jiga's response was to snicker. "I've heard that before," he replied. Turning slightly, he addressed his men, "Alright you slugs...my brother and I will take the leader...you lot deal with the rest. No prisoners! The man who kills the princess will be rewarded, so don't hold back!"

With a roar, the Janin's minions drew their weapons and charged, half of them circling around Asuma to the left, and half of them to right, moving to attack the group surrounding the princess.

"Not so fast!" Kikunojou drew his own sword and dashed to the right, moving to intercept one of the two groups.

And with that, the battle was joined.

Asuma found himself defending with his trench knives as a flurry of tonfa blows tried to make contact with his head. "Hey there, Ruiga," he said blithely as he held off the rogue ninja, "I see you managed to get yourself some new weapons. Were you smart enough to bring spares, or did someone else give you those?"

Ruiga snarled. Not answering the question, he ground out, "This time...this time you won't get away!"

Asuma quirked an eyebrow in response. "Uuhhhh...You were the one who ran away, last time."

Before either ninja could say anything more, they were both forced to leap back and away from each other as a spiked flail smashed into the ground where the two had been standing a second before.

"Oi! Be careful with that, Jiga!" Ruiga barked at his brother angrily, "You almost hit me!"

"Don't get in my way then," Jiga chuckled in reply, yanking hard on the chain of his kusarigama and bringing the metal ball back to him. Beginning to once again spin the flail end of his weapon in a circle, he spoke to Asuma, "Well then, Leaf ninja, you're in luck! When you get to the next life, you'll be able to brag to people that you were killed by the esteemed Jiga-sama."

"Neat," Asuma replied, gamely. "Say more cliché bad-guy things."

"Heh, we'll see if you're still joking after I'm done with you!"

Lashing out again, Jiga swung his weapon in a wide arc from right to left that sent the spiked ball flying toward Asuma's left side. The attack was fast and powerful, but fairly predictable in its course. It would have been easy enough to dodge simply by jumping back...but Asuma wasn't fooled. That attack is designed to drive me back...into the water that Ruiga is pulling up from underground behind me right now. Instead of falling back, Asuma ran forward, charging right at Jiga. He leapt over the kusarigama's chain, lashing out with one of his trench knives at Jiga, forcing the Janin to defend with his kusarigama's scythe blade as Asuma passed overhead. Landing on the other side of his two opponents, Asuma launched a pair of shurikens at Jiga, before channelling some wind chakra into his knives and slashing into the streams of water that Ruiga had indeed been bringing up behind him.

Laughing as he knocked away the two shurikens that Asuma had sent his way, Jiga spoke once again, "Ha, you really are pretty good! I can see why you were able to beat Ruiga. Still, it was a mistake for you to try to attack me." Swinging out with his flail yet again, Jiga sent the weapon flying in a wide, lazy arc in Asuma's general direction.

Asuma watched the attack warily, but with some confusion. He hasn't let out enough of the chain...that attack's not even going to reach me. Judging by the course of the weapon, the metal ball would not hit Asuma but would pass through the air a few meters in front of him. Either the Janin had serious issues with depth perception, or this attack was meant for another purpose. Unfortunately, before Asuma could think too much more about it, he suddenly felt his left hand being pulled harshly forward. Looking down at his hand, Asuma found that, to his shock, his trench knife was seemingly pulling him into his opponent's attack. As his grip loosened on the weapon for an instant, Asuma watched as the unseen force yanked the knife right out of his grasp, sending it flying through the air, where it met with Jiga's flail and seemingly became attached.

"I'll be taking that, then," Jiga said with a smirk, spinning his flail above his head with Asuma's trench knife still stuck to it. "But I guess that's rude of me. Here...have it back!"

As Jiga once more whipped his weapon forward, the trench knife suddenly detached from the metal ball and soared right at Asuma at an alarming speed. Asuma was forced to duck quickly out of the way as his own weapon, still aglow with ethereal wind chakra, narrowly passed over him and flew into the trees behind him. Buffed with wind chakra as it was, the knife passed right through the first tree it came across, blasting a hole straight through the solid trunk, before impacting with another tree right behind it, causing the tree to creak ominously as the dissipating wind chakra tore apart the trunk from inside.

That...what the heck was that? Asuma thought to himself as he rose from the ground. As he moved to stand, though, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his legs. Looking down he saw, to his shock, a shuriken was lodged into each of his upper legs. Those are...the shuriken that I threw at him? Dang it! He sent those back at me too?

From a few meters away, Jiga chuckled while dusting off the front of his shirt, "Heh, you may be good...but you're no match for my magnet-jutsu!"

Asuma grit his teeth. You've got to be kidding me. Ruiga's water trick is bad enough, but now Magnet-style!? That's a legit bloodline-limit! Falling back to retrieve his trench knife from the tree, Asuma squared off with his two opponents once more.

This wasn't going to be easy.

---

As Asuma was facing off against the two Janin brothers, Kikunojou likewise moved to engage half of the subordinates the Janin had brought along. Outnumbered five to one, Kikunojou knew that he couldn't afford to be defensive. If he fought reactively against so many opponents he would just be overwhelmed and cut down. Instead, he started the fight by going on the offensive.

Swinging his sword low, Kikunojou sliced through the flowers by his feet, expertly cutting the plants right where the blossoms met the stems, sending dozens of flowers flying into the air around him. Jabbing his right arm forward, Kikunojou sent out a burst of chakra, and launched his first attack, "Bloom: Flower-shuriken jutsu!" As he activated his technique, the flowers in the air around Kikunojou were infused with his chakra, hardening, becoming as hard and sharp as steel, and beginning to spin. At Kikunojou's command, the newly created flower shurikens launched through the air, soaring toward his opponents in a beautiful cloud of death.

The five Janin henchmen dealt with the attack relatively easily, dodging the shurikens or deflecting them with their weapons. The attack did very little in the way of damage, nonetheless, it forced the five rogue shinobi to break off their attack on the Princess's group and focus on the shinobi before them.

As one group of henchmen turned to face Kikunojou, the other group made a beeline straight for the group surrounding Haruna.

"Let's go! Overwhelm them, and kill the princess!" the lead shinobi called to his cohorts. So intent was this man on his prey, that he failed to notice it when he stepped on a concealed tripwire.

"Lookout!" one of the other men called to the group, frantically dodging away. The majority of the group was able to leap back and away to safety. However, the man in the lead failed to react in time and was promptly cut down in a hail of kunai. "They've trapped the area, be careful!" The group of criminal ninjas, now minus one, began moving cautiously around the group protecting the princess, attacking from a distance with kunai and shuriken while carefully probing the defences, looking for a way through.

Kikunojou, meanwhile, had to move quickly to avoid being surrounded by the five enemies who were now focused on him. Falling back to a heavily-flowered area that he knew would be free of traps, Kikunojou prepared his next jutsu by cutting more flowers from the earth. "Bloom: Dance of a Thousand Petals!" As Kikunojou called out his jutsu, the flowers surrounding him once again hardened and began spinning like shurikens.

In the Land of Greens, flower-based ninjutsu had been used for centuries and had been developed to provide a variety of useful abilities. The Flower-shuriken jutsu was a flower shinobi's bread and butter and was always the first ninjutsu a young flower ninja was taught. The Dance of a Thousand Petals was technically just a variation of this jutsu, as it also primarily involved turning flower blossoms into spinning shurikens. Regardless, this jutsu was considered A-rank by the shinobi of Greens Country, due to how incredibly difficult it was to master. Unlike the standard Flower-shuriken jutsu, the Dance of a Thousand Petals didn't send the shurikens flying forward toward one's enemies but instead caused them to revolve around the jutsu caster in a seemingly random pattern, creating a storm of blades surrounding the flower shinobi. It took years to use effectively, and decades to truly master the art of controlling the various flower shurikens while remaining in motion oneself. It was very much like dance to be able to move and fight while also maintaining the deadly jutsu. If one wasn't careful, the user could easily impale himself with his own shurikens. Typically, only the most senior of flower ninjas were even permitted to attempt the jutsu, much less use it in battle. Kikunojou, however, was considered a genius amongst his fellow flower-nins and had mastered the ability while still a teenager. As a true adept, he could even direct the flowers to cut more flowers up from the ground and add them to the jutsu, creating a practically self-sustaining vortex of blades.

This jutsu, Kikunojou judged, would be most useful for allowing him to take on so many opponents at once.

Leaping forward, Kikunojou engaged the first enemy he came across, sword clashing against sword in a deadly melee. His opponent was decent with a blade, but couldn't match Kikunojou's skill, and soon Kikunojou managed to deflect the man's sword away, leaving him open for a finishing strike. Before he could do so, however, Kikunojou was swiftly flanked by a pair of the man's cohorts, and he was forced to turn and defend himself rather than finish his current opponent. He was forced onto the defensive for a few seconds as the two double-teamed him, but fortunately, he was able to push back one of them, while the other was hit solidly by one of Kikunojou's flower-shurikens, and was forced to fall back, cursing loudly.

The fight went on like this for a while. Kikunojou was unable to make any headway as he was constantly under threat from five enemies at once, while his opponents were forced to contend with both Kikunojou's own attacks, as well as the shurikens that filled the air around him. Though outnumbered, Kikunojou did his best to press the attack, never letting any of his opponents get too far away from him and give them time to think. Kikunojou was unable to successfully strike a mortal blow on any of them, but nonetheless, the Janin's henchmen were taking steady damage from the wildly rotating shurikens.

Eventually, though, his opponents did begin to become accustomed to fighting within his technique. More and more they were able to deflect or avoid his flower shurikens and began pressing him even more heavily.

"His jutsu's not so tough!" one of the men called to the others as he dodged between the razor-edged flowers, "Everyone attack at once and take him down!"

Kikunojou smirked internally as he watched the man attempt to force his way through the flower jutsu. That's right, he thought to himself, just ignore the pretty flowers…

As the enemy ninja attempted to dodge another pair of flowers on his way toward Kikunojou, the flower shinobi swiftly brought one of his hands up into a seal and sent out a directed burst of chakra that would activate the paper seals. Unbeknownst to his opponents, Kikunojou had several explosive tags mixed in with his jutsu, folded in the shape of origami flowers. Unfortunately for the man who had just spoken, he had just disregarded a pair of such tags. Just as he dodged past a pair of what he thought were flower shurikens, the flowers suddenly exploded, engulfing him in the resulting detonation. The man cried out briefly and then went down in a smoldering heap. Faced with yet another new threat, the remaining four rogue shinobi fell back hastily.

Given a bit of breathing room, Kikunojou took a moment to take stock of the situation on the surrounding battlefield. He saw that nearby, one member of the enemy group that was focused on the princess had also gone down, apparently having fallen to the traps they had laid. Currently, the remaining four were holding back, attempting to snipe the princess from range with kunai and shurikens, all of which were neatly deflected with kunais by Chouji and the others surrounding the princess. Kikunojou couldn't see Asuma and the two Janin at the moment, but he could still hear the sounds of combat coming from off to his left, that let him know that Asuma was still in the fight.

Things were going as they'd hoped. They had managed to survive the initial onslaught without being overwhelmed by the enemy's superior numbers and had now forced the enemy into a slow war of attrition.

Looks like the first phase is successful, Kikunojou thought as he prepared to engage his opponents again. Now I just need to actually win this fight…

---

From his seat within the personal chambers of the feudal lord in the capital of the Land of Greens, Renga watched his two brothers' battle with the Leaf Village jounin. Looking into a glass-like lens, Renga was able to watch the battle play out as though he was right there, even though he was still dozens of miles away.

His brothers both had their tricks, but he was the only one of the three to have a true bloodline limit. His ice jutsu was both incredibly powerful and amazingly versatile. Though he was essentially entirely self-taught in its use, he had nonetheless managed to mold his Ice-style into a number of incredibly useful abilities, both for combat and otherwise. One of his most useful non-combat jutsus was his Ice Style: Extending-Eye Jutsu. By shaping his ice into a series of incredibly thin lenses, and then linking those lenses together into a snake-like chain, Renga was able to create an ever-expanding telescope that allowed him to observe events at great distances. He had used this jutsu frequently in the past few months to keep tabs on events happening all over the Land of Greens, watching gleefully as his plan for the coup d'etat fell into place piece by piece. What he was seeing through his jutsu now, though, pleased him far less than it had before.

On the face of it, the battle appeared to be going well. Jiga and Ruiga had their enemy on the run, constantly forcing him back through the combination of their powers. Though the other two fights weren't going especially well, this wasn't a serious problem. It didn't particularly matter how their subordinates faired, so long as his brothers were able to defeat the jounin, they would be able to roll up the rest of their opponents fairly easily.

Regardless, Renga was beginning to become seriously annoyed, and not just a little bit worried.

Those fools still haven't noticed yet, he thought. With every passing moment, the princess was getting farther out of their reach, and their chances of successfully obtaining her were becoming slimmer and slimmer. If his brothers didn't get their act together soon, all his planning and work might yet come to naught. Still keeping an eye on the lens before him, Renga leaned over in his cushioned seat and rang a small bell that lay on the table next to him, summoning one of his subordinates. It looks like I may have to take action after all…

---

Swinging his sword as fast as he could, Kikunojou knocked another pair of kunai out of the air before him. Unfortunately, as he did so he felt a shuriken slicing across his back, cutting a gash from shoulder to shoulder. Gritting his teeth against the pain, Kikunojou kept moving, trying to maneuver into a position where he could again see all four of his opponents at once.

Like their comrades in the other part of the clearing, the four rogue shinobi facing Kikunojou had elected to fall back and engage him from a distance with kunai and shurikens, a move which proved to be wise as they started experiencing some success after their change in tactics. Having spread out and put some distance between them, the four were able to surround Kikunojou from four directions and hammer him from all sides. Though his Dance of a Thousand Petals helped somewhat, Kikunojou was still unable to deflect the attacks coming from every direction and had begun to take some considerable damage as a result. The real trouble was that he was unable to even see all of his opponents. No matter how much he moved, at least one of them was constantly able to maneuver into his blind spot. Counter-attacking proved difficult too, as he was unable to focus on any one of them without exposing himself to attacks from the other three.

"Keep it up!" One of the remaining enemies called out to the others, "He can't take down all four of us!"

Grimly, Kikunojou realized that the enemy shinobi was right. If this continues on much longer, they'll be able to wear me out and finish me. Looking over at the other group, he saw that they were still holding their own against the enemy's ranged fire, even as their opponents slowly but surely found their way through the many traps that littered the area. Even though things were going okay for them at the moment, he knew that if his remaining opponents were able to join with their allies, his own comrades would be swiftly overwhelmed and wiped out, and he couldn't allow that to happen. Looks like I've got no choice...It's a little earlier than we wanted, but I'll need to move things to the next phase.

Releasing his Dance of a Thousand Petals jutsu and allowing the flower shurikens, now reduced to ordinary flowers once more, to flutter to the ground, Kikunojou turned to face the two opponents on his right and channelled his chakra into a new jutsu. "Bloom: Flower Water Mirror!" As Kikunojou extended his left hand forward, a stream of petals appeared to burst forth from his palm and flow toward the two rogue shinobi. The petals themselves were, of course, illusionary, merely the byproduct of his jutsu. As he watched, the two enemies were surrounded by his petals, staggering slightly as they became engulfed within his genjutsu. The Flower Water Mirror was a fairly basic genjutsu, simply trapping his opponents briefly within a world of silent darkness, rendering them temporarily deaf and blind to all that was going on around them. The illusion wouldn't take them very long to break out of, so he needed to work fast.

Rather than finishing off the two incapacitated ninjas, however, Kikunojou instead turned to face the other two opponents, deflecting a few more kunai and shurikens as he did so. Though he had gained a temporary respite from half of his opponents, he knew that he still couldn't move in to finish them without taking attacks from the remaining pair. If he was going to win this, it would have to be all at once. His hands making seals, Kikunojou poured a tremendous amount of chakra into his next jutsu, using up much of what remained of his chakra reserves in a single technique, "Bloom: Riot of Flowers jutsu!"

As Kikunojou's jutsu activated, several flowers in the surrounding area began to catch flame. The final, most devastating technique of the Land of Green's Flower-ninja-art, the Riot of Flowers jutsu was a technique that transmuted the pollen within flowers into an explosive powder, turning any field of flowers into an enormous powder keg. As Kikunojou watched, several trails of flame spread through the field of flowers, moving concentrically inward toward the two hostile shinobi. As the fire trails met in the middle they erupted into a huge explosion that tore apart the ground and turned the field of flowers into ash.

Unfortunately, the two Janin henchmen were not caught in the explosion as they leaped safely out of the way. The Riot of Flowers was a slow but powerful jutsu, best used as a finishing strike against opponents who were slowed or otherwise incapacitated. Kikunojou typically used it only after hitting his opponents with the Flower Water Mirror to hold them in place while the jutsu moved in. In this case, the two unhindered shinobi had had plenty of time to move out of the way as the fires moved toward them. What's more, the two had jumped right over to their two entrapped associates, placing their hands on them and giving them a burst of chakra to free them from Kikunojou's genjutsu. Kikunojou now found himself facing all four of his opponents once more.

He smiled, savagely. Things had gone just as he'd hoped. He was once again facing four combat-capable enemies, but he was no longer surrounded. Even better, all four were now grouped up, standing in one of the few remaining patches of wildflowers. Kikunojou's chakra was almost spent, but even so, he summoned up the last of his chakra reserves for one final technique. He made just a couple of seals and then slammed his hand to the ground, "Bloom: Grasping Thorns jutsu!"

As his enemies were busy trying to collect themselves and regroup, Kikunojou's jutsu caused the flowers on the ground around them to suddenly spring into motion. Stems extending up from the ground, the flowers wrapped themselves around the ankles and legs of the four criminal ninjas, holding them in place even as they struggled to free themselves. Their efforts were in vain; as long as Kikunojou sustained the jutsu the flower stems would be as hard as steel wire, and the hooked thorns that the jutsu caused to grow from the stems would make them incredibly painful and damaging to yank out. This, of course, meant that Kikunojou was immobilized as well, as he had to keep a steady flow of chakra flowing through his hand into the ground in order to sustain the jutsu.

Kikunojou felt a wave of exhaustion pass through him. His hands trembled, one of the earliest signs of chakra exhaustion. It was all he could do just to maintain the jutsu for now...but that was fine. He smirked. I never intended to defeat you all by myself.

Speaking up suddenly, Kikunojou's voice carried across the battlefield, "Chouji-san...now!"

"On it!" Suddenly breaking formation, Chouji separated from the others on his side of the battlefield and dashed towards Kikunojou. Chouji knew the exact location of all the traps in the surrounding area, having placed most of them himself, and was thus able to break from the engagement before the Janin's henchmen were properly able to respond.

As Chouji ran, his hands came together in a single, unique seal, "Body Expansion jutsu!" All at once, Chouji's torso expanded tremendously, taking on a spherical shape until his body resembled nothing more than a massive ball with comically tiny arms, legs, and head sticking out. Just as quickly, though, said arms, legs, and head seemed to retract within his enlarged torso, replaced by jets of chakra that burst forth. The jets of chakra propelled his body in a circle, causing the human ball to begin rolling. "Take this! Human Boulder!"

With a crashing sound almost like a landslide, Chouji's signature jutsu left a gouge in the earth as it passed, accelerating him straight toward the four entrapped shinobi. What had mere moments ago seemed almost comical swiftly became terrifying, as the enemy ninjas realized the immense weight and power of the jutsu that was currently bearing down on them. They redoubled their efforts to escape, but to no avail, as Kikunojou steadfastly held them in place. The four barely had time to cry out as the Human Boulder crashed into them. Kikunojou relaxed as he felt his jutsu release on its own. The flowers he had been using his jutsu on had been destroyed, along with everything else in the Akimichi jutsu's path. In a single move, they had managed to wipe out half of the remaining enemies in their area.

Of course, though they had succeeded in taking out an entire group of enemies, there was still a price to be paid for their bold strategy. As soon as Chouji had broken formation with the rest of his group, the remaining enemies targeting Haruna, seeing an opening, had redoubled their attack. Now left with three to guard the princess, Naruto, Hinata, and Yurinojou did their best to block the incoming projectiles, but soon found themselves being overwhelmed. A mere moment after Chouji's jutsu had devastated the other group of rogue ninjas, one stray kunai managed to find its way through their defences. Sailing past Naruto's desperate attempt to deflect it, the deadly weapon flew into the midst of the group and struck Haruna right in the chest.

The princess stood frozen for an instant, looking shocked…

...before vanishing in a puff of smoke.

---

Naruto winced in pain as another batch of memories flooded into his consciousness. His long-term clones had been dispelling one after another all night, and the effects were beginning to make themselves felt. Already a sharp pain was building up behind his eyes, along with a dull throbbing beneath his temples. In addition to this he felt a strange sort of exhaustion beginning to take hold, not physical tiredness, but a vague, indescribable weariness that made him want to lay his head down and not do anything.

This must be...the mental feedback Asuma-sensei warned me about, he thought while massaging his temples to try to ease the pain slightly. Ah...this really is annoying.

Nevertheless, Naruto pushed the pain aside for a moment and spoke up, addressing the others with him, "Everyone, the decoy princess-clone was just destroyed."

The others all turned to look at him. Hinata and Yurinojou both nodded in confirmation while Haruna scowled fretfully. "If the decoy has been destroyed already...then that means they'll be on our trail soon enough," the princess said anxiously.

"Not necessarily, Haruna-sama," Yurinojou replied, trying to placate the erstwhile royal. "They may have now realized that the princess they were targeting was a fake, but they still do not know exactly where we are. Even if they started looking immediately, it will take them some time to track us down. Not to mention they still have to contend with Asuma-san and the others. I'm certain that they won't be able to disengage with their full force, which gives us even more of an advantage."

At present, the three shinobi and one civilian were travelling through the forest, roughly parallel to but not on the main Eastbound road. They had been moving for nearly an hour now and were several miles away from their apparent campsite. This had been Asuma's plan all along. The "campsite" was set up to hold off the Janin and their men for as long as possible, making them believe that the Leaf shinobi and their allies were attempting to make their stand in a defensive position. However, unbeknownst to their enemies, the small sub-group of Naruto, Hinata, Yurinojou and Haruna had actually left the site almost as soon as the location had been chosen, leaving behind a quartet of Naruto-clones disguised using the transformation jutsu. During the intervening time, the group had been moving steadily Eastward, toward the border.

In spite of her guardian shinobi's assurances, Haruna still appeared unconvinced. "In that case they'll just focus on wiping the others out, and then come after us with their full strength," she said, pessimistically.

Now it was Naruto's turn to scowl. "Oi...don't say that!" he snapped, "Asuma-sensei's super strong, he won't lose! What's more, you should have a little more faith in Kikunojou-san. He's risking everything to protect you, you know."

Haruna drew herself up haughtily, "As he should! It's his duty. In any case, I have plenty of faith in Kikunojou's ability. I'm just disappointed that I was forced to forgo his protection and I was only able to replace him with a couple of children."

Before Naruto could bite off an angry retort, Hinata spoke up softly from next to him, "I...I sure hope Chouji-kun is okay…"

Turning away from the infuriating noblewoman, Naruto addressed his teammate, "Don't worry, Hinata...Chouji's pretty strong too. Besides, he's with Kikunojou and Asuma-sensei. I'm sure he'll be fine."

Internally though, Naruto was worried about his other teammate as well. It had been galling for Naruto when Asuma-sensei had informed them that Chouji would stay behind to face the enemy, while Naruto was part of the group whose job it was to run away. Nevertheless, he knew better than to object to Sensei's orders...at least at this point in time. Chouji had paled slightly on being given his orders but had nonetheless assented to Asuma's instructions. From the memories he gained from the shadow clone, Naruto knew that Chouji had successfully launched his attack, and acquitted himself well in the fight so far. Even so, he would still be facing the remainder of the enemy with only Kikunojou, Asuma-sensei, and a handful of his clones as backup.

It was only a moment later, however, that Naruto received a new batch of memories from one of his clones, and he realized that his concerns belonged elsewhere…

---

Though he was still engaged with the Leaf Village jounin, from where he was on the battlefield, Jiga could still see the fights happening in the other areas. As such, he was able to see the instant the "princess" disintegrated into smoke, disappearing as though she had never been there, which Jiga rapidly began to suspect was actually the case. He gritted his teeth in irritation. Damn it, we've been had!

"Oi, Ruiga!" he called to his younger brother, "That princess was a decoy! The target's not here."

"She what!?" Ruiga exclaimed before turning to Asuma with a snarl, "Bastard, you tricked us! Where did you hide that bitch of a princess?"

Asuma simply shrugged and replied mildly, "Don't look at me. I never actually said the princess was here, did I? You guys just assumed that. And you don't honestly think I'm going to answer that, do you?"

Teeth grinding in impotent rage, Ruiga did a quick scan of the battlefield. Eventually, his gaze settled on Chouji and Kikunojou. The considerate young genin had moved over and was now supporting the Greens Country shinobi, who appeared to be on his last legs. Ruiga smirked evilly, "Fine then! In that case, we'll just finish you off, and then drag the information out of your student, piece by piece!" Turning to his brother, Ruiga shouted, "Come on Jiga, let's finish this and then go after the princess together!"

As Ruiga made threats against Chouji, Asuma's eyes narrowed. Though the battle had been progressing favourably thus far, the current situation was still quite dire for the three who had stayed behind, especially now that the enemy was no longer distracted by the decoy. From what he could see on the other part of the battlefield, the four rogue shinobi who had been targeting Naruto's clone disguised as Haruna had now ceased their efforts and had pulled back slightly, possibly waiting for orders from the Janin as to what to do now. If those four were to turn their attention to Chouji and Kikunojou, things would get very bad. Kikunojou didn't look like he would be able to fight much more for the time being, and Chouji wouldn't last long fighting alone against four, especially while trying to protect Kikunojou.

This isn't good. I need to finish this fast…he thought to himself. It looked like he had no choice, he was going to have to use that jutsu. He had been hoping not to have to use it too early, given its massive chakra cost and the fact that he hadn't fully mastered it yet, but the situation afforded him few options. He was the only one left who could take on all of the remaining opponents. With that in mind, he began gathering chakra for one of his most powerful jutsus.

For his part, Jiga was torn. On the one hand, he very much wanted to make the Leaf villagers pay for their deception as well. However, far more importantly, he now realized that they were operating on a time limit, and time was no longer in their favor. They had no way of knowing how long ago the princess had left the camp, nor exactly where she was, though it was a safe bet that she was headed straight for the border. If the princess succeeded in crossing the border into another country, things would get very sticky for them very fast. Any attempt to cross the border with their men could be taken as a hostile invasion, and while the Land of Greens itself was weak, the nations surrounding it weren't quite so soft. Given that they were still trying to establish their power base in this country, they couldn't afford that kind of attention right now. Damn it...we need to find a way to go after them now!

It was at this moment that Jiga spotted a familiar writhing, crystalline form. A 'creature' made out of ice...which on closer inspection was revealed to be a series of ice mirrors and lenses interconnected into a chain such that it resembled an insanely long snake...was currently poking its head out of the forest two dozen or so meters away from where the Janin and the Leaf Village jounin were currently having their battle. That's...Renga's Extending Eye jutsu, Jiga thought upon spotting the serpentine ice construct. At the moment the snake-like object was several meters away, writhing back and forth, seemingly trying to get his attention. Don't tell me...Renga's already found them! Jiga smirked. No doubt he would end up owing his elder brother for this, but he would worry about that later. For now, there was no time to lose.

"Oi, Ruiga! I'm going ahead after the princess! You deal with things here," he called to his younger sibling, before shouting at their remaining henchmen, "You four, with me!"

"What!?" the youngest Janin sputtered angrily as his brother leaped away, taking the last of their underlings with him. "Bastard! You can't just leave me here!"

Meanwhile, Asuma watched with confusion that rapidly transformed into extreme worry. He had, by now, also noticed the strange serpentine creature that Jiga had seen. The snake-like construct appeared to be made out of some kind of crystal (or maybe ice?) and was now disappearing into the brush as Jiga and the others made to follow after it. More important though, was how Jiga's attitude had changed as soon as he had seen it. He went from readying himself for the final confrontation to suddenly disengaging altogether and stating an intention to pursue the princess...as though he already knew where she was.

If that thing can lead them to Haruna and the others...then I can't let them get away!

Dropping the jutsu that he had been preparing, Asuma made to follow after Jiga. "I'm afraid I agree with Ruiga on this one," he shouted at the fleeing Janin, "You're not going anywhere!"

Unfortunately, Asuma didn't make it far before he was intercepted by a huge sphere of water, the largest one he had yet seen. Floating within the large pool was a massive, shadowy shape that slowly resolved itself into yet another aquatic summon animal. Asuma found himself staring into the maw of an enormous great white shark.

I was not expecting today. Asuma thought sardonically as he grudgingly turned to face Ruiga once more. "You sure about that, Ruiga? This didn't go so well for you last time."

Ruiga ground his teeth, but stood his ground, regardless. "Screw you," he snapped. Furious with his older brother as he was, Ruiga also recognized the significance of Jiga's actions. Everything would be for nothing if they didn't recover the princess. Though he knew himself to be outmatched, Ruiga also knew that he only had to hold Asuma off for a few minutes. Just buy enough time for Jiga to deal with the princess, and they would be successful. "You won't beat me this time."

Unfortunately for Asuma, Ruiga's jutsu, with its wide area of control, was the sort of jutsu that was difficult to shake off. Now that Asuma had missed his chance to stop Jiga from leaving the clearing, Ruiga could simply slow Asuma down and prevent him from catching up to Jiga before he reached the other group. Loathe as he was to leave them on their own for the time being, Asuma knew that he'd be doing the others few favors by bringing both of the Janin down on top of them. I've got no choice, he thought, I'll just have to finish this as fast as I can and then go after them.

---

From their position in the middle of the clearing, Chouji and Kikunojou watched as the battlefield went from crowded to nearly empty in a very short period of time. After their successful attack on one group of enemies, and the withdrawal of the other along with Jiga, the only enemy remaining in the area was Ruiga, who was still locked in combat with Asuma. Thus the Leaf and Flower ninjas found themselves alone in the blasted out clearing but for a trio of Naruto clones, two of whom were still disguised as Hinata and Yurinojou, respectively.

Looking back and forth between Asuma's ongoing battle and the direction that Jiga had fled in, Chouji spoke up worriedly, "What...what should we do now, Kikunojou-san?"

Turning and looking down, Kikunojou regarded the young Leaf shinobi on whose shoulder he was leaning. The first thing Chouji had done after completing his jutsu had been to run over to Kikunojou and help him stay standing. He was truly a compassionate young man, and his concern for his teammates shone through in his expression.

"We're out of the fight, for now," he answered the genin honestly. "The first thing we should do is let the others know what's coming."

Blinking, Chouji's eyes lit up quickly with comprehension. "Oh, right!" Turning to the three remaining shadow clones, Chouji shouted to get their attention, "Hey, Naruto! One of you hurry and dispel yourself!"

Turning to face them in response, the female-disguised clone gave a most un-Hinata-like thumbs-up and then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Looking up at Kikunojou, Chouji asked, "Is that really all we can do?"

Grunting slightly with the effort, Kikunojou moved to shift his weight off of Chouji and sat down, turning himself so he could keep a wary eye on the running battle in the distance. "I need to rest a minute and recover some chakra. As soon as I'm able to move again, we'll go after them, whether Asuma-san is finished with his battle or not."

Internally, Kikunojou was as frustrated with the situation as Chouji was. He hated not being able to move off immediately to backup Yurinojou and the others, but he also knew that in his present condition he would be little help to them. Worse, without enough chakra to at least put up a decent fight, he would more likely add to their problems. Chouji was still at full strength, but Kikunojou didn't think sending off a genin alone in pursuit of five more experienced ninjas to be a good idea. For the time being, he would just have to put his faith in Yurinojou, Hinata, and Naruto to keep the princess safe. Yurinojou was the man he trusted more than any other, and even though he had only known them for a day, he believed that Hinata and Naruto had the strength within them to pull through.

Besides that, he thought, if the worst should happen, Yurinojou still has that with him. Secreted on Yurinojou's person, he knew, was a certain special item, their last contingency in case of a disaster. The final gift given to them by the slug princess, so long ago.

An idea coming to him, Chouji brightened a bit, recalling the many snacks he had secreted in his pack, including some Akimichi Clan Special Jerky. "You need to recover some chakra? Hang on a second, I've got something for that!" Turning to face the far end of the clearing where his pack and other supplies were stashed, Chouji moved to retrieve it and the food hidden within to help Kikunojou recover as quickly as possible.

Watching the young genin move away, Kikunojou spoke up with concern, "Ah, be careful Chouji-san, that's…"

As Chouji was turning to ask Kikunojou what was the matter, he suddenly stumbled. Looking down, he noticed that he had staggered into a shallow ditch. After a second he realized that this was the rivet in the earth that had been carved by the passing of his Human Boulder Jutsu just a short time before. He hadn't noticed it as he had been running toward his pack in the distance. This wasn't too unusual, he had practiced this jutsu many times back at home and had witnessed this effect before. He really should have noticed it before falling into it, but he put that down to nerves from being involved in his first ever battle. What captured his attention now, however, was the sensation of wetness touching his feet. Looking down at them, Chouji saw that he was currently standing in a shallow pool. It wasn't deep enough to even come past the soles of his shinobi sandals, however, some of the stuff had splashed onto his exposed toes when he had stumbled in. Strangely, the liquid looked too dark to be water. In the pale moonlight, it was almost black. It appeared to be streaming from a source further up the ditch…

"Chouji-san…" Kikunojou called from nearby, his voice now containing worry.

Turning to look to his right, Chouji came face to face with the corpses of the four men he had just killed.

---

Following after his brother's jutsu, Jiga and his four subordinates ran at top speed through the forest of the Land of Greens. Ahead of them, Renga's Extending-Eye Jutsu advanced at an astonishing rate, slithering over rocks and around trees almost like a real snake. In reality, Jiga knew that the snake-like construct wasn't actually "moving", rather, the chain of ice connecting it all the way back to Renga was growing longer. Jiga grudgingly had to admit that his brother's jutsu was undeniably incredible.

Of course, any goodwill he may have had for his brother at that moment vanished an instant later, when the Extending-Eye Jutsu suddenly disintegrated right before their eyes, turning into water and then evaporating into vapor in less than a second.

Dammit, Renga! What the hell!?

"Jiga-sama!" One of his subordinates spoke up from behind him, "What should we do now?"

Jiga's mind churned quickly. The one weakness he knew of for the Extending-Eye Jutsu was that Renga was unable to maintain it while moving. If Renga's on the move that means...he's on his way here. Jiga grit his teeth. I need to finish this before he catches up.

Speaking aloud to his four underlings, Jiga announced, "My brother wouldn't have canceled his jutsu unless we were close. The princess must be somewhere nearby. You four spread out and canvass the area. They'll be trying to escape to the East. If you encounter the princess send up an explosive tag as a signal flare. Remember that the enemy is using fakes to throw us off, so make sure it's her before you signal the rest of us."

"Sir!" The four responded promptly, spreading out to continue combing the area in a generally Eastward direction.

As his henchmen split up, Jiga continued running along the same path they had already been following. This current path was the fastest way out of Greens Country. If the enemy was anywhere they'd be here. Still, it was best that he covered all his bases.

As Jiga ran, he suddenly spotted a thin black line running across his path just ahead. A tripwire, crudely setup and barely concealed just above the ground. The trap was so poorly set up, it was almost as though it was meant to be found. Jiga smirked. That tripwire's not connected to anything. It's a fake trap, which means…Jiga casually jumped over the shinobi wire that stretched across the path, and as he did so a half-dozen blond, orange-clad shinobi leapt out at him from all sides, kunai drawn and poised to strike.

"Too easy!" Jiga shouted, flinging out the flail end of his kusarigama in a vicious circle. The clones were destroyed instantly and the original was forced to fall back out of the way.

Jiga looked over his opponent, a short, blond-haired boy in a ridiculous orange jumpsuit. He had seen the boy back at the clearing, amongst the group standing guard over the princess, but hadn't paid the boy any mind as he had been focussed on the jonin. Still, the fact that there had been six of the boy just now allowed one of the missing pieces to click into place in Jiga's mind.

"I see…" Jiga mused aloud, "So you're the source of the clones, are you? Good, I owe you for tricking us earlier with that fake princess."

Landing a few meters away, the orange boy taunted, "Oh? You mad about that?"

Smiling jovially, Jiga replied, his voice not matching his expression, "Livid, actually. I'd like to hurry and find the princess as soon as possible...but seeing as you're here now, I think I can afford to take a bit of time to teach you a lesson in the realities of the shinobi world. It won't take more than a minute for me to show you what happens to little punks like you who try to punch above their weight. Unless, of course, you tell me where I can find the princess now." His smile twisted into a nasty smirk, "What do you say? Tell me what I want to know, and I'll consider letting you off easy."

Naruto snarled back at the Janin, "We're not telling you anything!"

Jiga smirked internally. 'We', huh? Shrugging, he began spinning his kusarigama again, "Fair enough. If you prefer to die, then…!"

Whipping his arm forward, Jiga sent out his ball and chain once again. The spiked metal ball moved at such an incredible speed Naruto was barely able to avoid it, dodge-rolling out of the way at the last second. The metal ball soared past him and impacted with a tree a few feet behind him. So great was the force behind the attack, the metal ball smashed straight through the tree, shattering the trunk instantly and causing it to topple to the ground with a resounding crash.

Rolling across the ground and springing back to his feet, Naruto instantly put his hands together into a ram seal and created a new batch of clones. Instantly upon bursting into existence the shadow clones all charged toward the Janin together, drawing their kunai knives and attempting to stab and slash the criminal ninja. Though outnumbered, Jiga was far faster and stronger than Naruto, and he held the clones off easily, destroying a few more in the process, and forcing the rest to disengage.

"Come on, kid. Don't make this so hard on yourself. You're just drawing out the inevitable."

Gritting his teeth, Naruto remained undaunted. "I'm not finished yet! Try this one!" As one, Naruto and his remaining clones flung their kunai knives at the Janin all together, forcing him to deal with incoming knives from all directions.

Jiga couldn't help but chuckle as he activated his magnet jutsu. As the clones had been attacking him earlier he had made sure to tag each of their weapons with his power, and now he took pleasure in the dumbfounded expressions that appeared on the faces of the orange-clad genin and his clones as nearly all of their weapons changed trajectory in mid-air and became attached to his kusarigama. The only kunai he really had to pay attention to was the one thrown by the original which he managed to catch easily enough with his kusarigama anyway.

The first part of the enemy's attack dealt with, Jiga then turned to deal with the second. It hadn't escaped his notice during the earlier melee that one of the orange boy's clones had been attempting to maneuver into his blind spot while the others attacked. Spinning around, he caught said clone as it attempted to strike him in the back with a palm thrust, catching it off guard and knocking it away with a vicious backhand to the face, which sent it flying. As the clone tumbled along the ground and eventually came to a stop, it burst into smoke. This time, though, the copy did not disappear, instead, the smoke cleared to reveal a young girl, roughly the same age as the other genin with dark hair and white eyes.

"Hinata!" Naruto shouted, looking on with concern as his teammate slowly pulled herself up off the ground. "Are you alright?"

"I'm...I'm fine, Naruto-kun," Hinata said slowly as she forced herself to stand up straight. The blow to the head had rattled her, and the numbness on the left side of her face told her that she would likely have a nasty bruise soon enough, but nevertheless, she steadied herself on her feet as best she could and prepared to continue fighting. Naruto was still fighting, after all, and she refused to let him face this enemy on his own.

Jiga chuckled as he turned to regard his new opponent, "Heh, I figured as much. There were actually two of you here all along. You used the transformation jutsu and hid a second person amongst all the shadow-clones to try to get the drop on me, a reversal of your earlier strategy back at the clearing, where you used transformed clones to disguise your true numbers. Not a bad plan, honestly." Turning back to look at Naruto, he smirked, "Or at least it would have been...if the orange idiot hadn't referred to himself as 'we' earlier."

Naruto cringed as he belatedly realized his earlier mistake. Asuma-sensei's voice echoed faintly in the back of Naruto's mind: You're not thinking enough!

Gritting his teeth in frustration, Naruto forced himself to calm down and think things through. Taking a step back, he took stock of the situation. Regrettably, their opening gambits had all completely failed. They had placed a fake trap in the road in order to get the enemy to jump over it, hoping to catch him while in mid-air when he would be unable to dodge. Unfortunately, not only had the enemy apparently anticipated this, but his weapon proved to be ideal for fending off such an attack. Their further strategy of hiding Hinata in with his clones in the hope of getting a surprise Gentle Fist strike had also been sussed out by the enemy, due in no small part to Naruto's big mouth.

Mentally, Naruto berated himself further. It was bad enough that he had made another crucial blunder, but this time Hinata had also gotten hurt as a result. He had to be better, he couldn't afford to keep making stupid mistakes.

Asuma-sensei's earlier advice came back to him once again: It's not enough to just react on instinct. What are the strengths and weaknesses of yourself and your opponent? How can you create an advantage for yourself? You have to think about these things, and create a plan.

Warily watching the hefty Janin, Naruto tried to take his measure. It was already clear that this opponent was far stronger than the two they had faced earlier in the day. He obviously held the ranged advantage, his kusarigama was both fast and horrendously powerful. From the way it had smashed through that tree earlier, Naruto didn't even want to know what would happen if he or Hinata were hit directly by the large metal ball at the end of the chain. As if that wasn't bad enough, the Janin's magnet jutsu essentially negated all ranged attacks directed at himself, at least those made utilizing metal weapons, anyway. That said, the man was hardly at a disadvantage up close, either. He was large and physically powerful. Naruto could tell from when his clones had attacked the man in melee earlier that overpowering him would likely not be possible.

Worse still, Naruto was far from peak condition, himself. The growing pain in his head, courtesy of his shadow-clones' mental feedback, had now solidified into a full-blown migraine. He wasn't willing to use this as an excuse for his earlier slip-up, but even so, the pain had proved a constant distraction, something he could ill afford in the present situation. Even now it threatened to ruin his concentration as he tried to think of a plan. He was fairly certain that the clones he was making to fight weren't contributing to the problem, but nonetheless, a paranoid part of his mind wondered if he was at risk of putting himself into a coma.

Shaking off such thoughts, Naruto refocussed on the enemy. His own issues aside, they still had one advantage in this fight: the enemy was all alone, they outnumbered him, and Naruto had shadow-clones. There's really only one option here, Naruto decided, we've got to overwhelm him with pure numbers!

For her part, Hinata was thinking along similar lines. Like Naruto, she was also carefully looking over their opponent, trying to come up with the best plan possible. As she observed the Janin with her byakugan, she began to notice something strange. Within the man's body were hundreds of tiny, dark foreign objects. They were too small for her to discern what they were, indeed if they had been any smaller her weak byakugan may not have been able to see them at all. They were scattered all throughout his body, within his organs and even moving through the bloodstream. She may not have been able to tell what they were exactly, but she knew enough about the body to know that they didn't naturally belong there.

Before Hinata could think any more about the Janin's abnormal body, she was forced to come back to the present as she spotted one of the Narutos in the area forming a ram seal with his hands.

"Shadow-clone Jutsu!" Naruto shouted as he summoned yet another batch of clones to supplement the ones he already had out. Turning to his teammate, he called to her, "Hinata, back up! Let me deal with this guy!"

"What!?" Hinata stammered out in shock, surprised to hear Naruto telling her not to fight. "But, I…"

"Don't worry about it," Naruto said, smiling at her. "My shadow-clones are the only ones who can safely fight him. Remember what Asuma-sensei said? 'Don't risk anything if you don't have to.'"

Hinata blinked in confusion. That's not what Asuma-sensei told me...that's not what he said at all! If anything it was the opposite. He said, 'If you risk nothing, you'll lose everything.' Hinata's eyes widened as comprehension dawned on her. Looking across the clearing at her teammate, their gazes met, his deep-blue eyes burning into her clear white ones. Naruto's expression shone with absolute trust and confidence. The message was as clear as if Naruto had said it to her out loud.

I'll create an opening for you, so be ready!

Nodding back at Naruto, Hinata took several steps backward and replied, "Alright, I understand."

Jiga snorted, "'Don't risk anything if you don't have to,' huh? That's good advice actually! I never take any unnecessary risks, myself. Of course, if you and your sensei were really smart, neither one of you would have ever picked a fight with me in the first place!"

Naruto snarled, "I'll show you how risky it is to try to take on a future Hokage!" Addressing his shadow-clones, he shouted, "Attack!"

As one, the collected Naruto clones roared and charged at Jiga. Sneering contemptuously, Jiga once more set about eliminating the mass of clones, lashing out with both ends of his kusarigama, causing one clone after another to disappear in bursts of smoke. The clones, now attacking with fists instead of kunai, weren't even able to land a single hit on the Janin as they vanished one after the other. As more and more of his clones were destroyed, Naruto put his hands together in a ram seal again and again, creating new batches of clones to send against the enemy.

After a while of this, Jiga decided he'd humored the boy long enough. It was time for him to wrap things up. Leaping away from the clones, the Janin began swinging the flail above his head once more. "Your clones are impressive, I'll give you that," he called to the Leaf Village genin. "But there's one problem in how you use them…"

Whipping his arm forward, Jiga sent the ball and chain soaring forward once more. Snaking its way between all the clones, the chain wrapped itself around the one Naruto who stayed back from the melee. Caught off guard, Naruto was unable to react as the Janin yanked back hard on the chain, pulling him clear off his feet and sending him flying straight toward the enemy. With his arms pinned at his sides by the chain, Naruto couldn't make any moves at all as he soared through the air towards the waiting Janin.

Jiga smirked as he prepared his kusarigama's scythe blade. "If one of you is always hanging back, it's only too obvious who the real one is!" As the little brat came into range, Jiga lashed out with his sickle, burying the blade straight into the leaf boy's skull…only to be thrown off balance as the enemy disintegrated into smoke.

Before Jiga could react, a small fist attached to an orange-sleeved arm came flying through the smoke of the disintegrating shadow-clone. "You think I'm scared to attack you myself!?" Naruto roared as he clocked the Janin square in the jaw, sending the man staggering back. "Don't underestimate me!"

As Jiga caught himself mid-stumble, he did the only thing he could at the moment, lashing out with his fist, managing to make contact with the Leaf genin's headband, and shoving him away. Unfortunately no sooner had he pushed the real one away then the boy's remaining shadow-clones closed in, pummeling him with their fists from all directions. These attacks, by themselves, wouldn't have mattered much, if not for what came along with them. From behind, he felt several light blows landing on his back. These strikes felt like little more than pats on the back against his big frame, and would have been almost laughably weak...except that everywhere on his body that the strikes landed seemed to explode with pain an instant later. It was almost as if the attacks were bypassing the surface and attacking him internally. Managing to glance over his shoulder for a moment, he saw the girl who had stepped back before, her hands glowing with chakra as she drove them into his back again and again.

Roaring with wounded fury, Jiga whipped the chain around and slammed the large metal ball of his kusarigama into the ground directly in front of him. The blow threw up clouds of dust and rock and caused the shadow-clones around him to stumble. Bringing his scythe blade around, Jiga sliced through the surrounding clones in a single wide swipe, eliminating them all, and turned to deal with the attacker behind him. By the time he had turned around, though, he saw the small kunoichi already jumping back, putting herself out of range of his counter-attack.

"Ha! Nice one, Hinata!" Naruto, having landed on his feet, called to his teammate. "We've got this guy on the ropes now!"

"N...Naruto-kun," Hinata, in spite of herself, managed a small smile back at her teammate.

Gritting his teeth against the flaring pain in his back, Jiga steadied himself on his feet and prepared himself for the next exchange. "I...am going to make you both hurt for that," he growled at the two genins.

"Not likely!" Naruto retorted, "We're only just getting started!"

His eyes glinting, Jiga sneered, "Actually, you're finished!" Once again taking up his kusarigama, Jiga swung the ball and chain straight at Naruto's head.

By now, Naruto had become accustomed to the speed of his enemy's attacks and easily dodged the straightforward attack by simply bending back and allowing the metal ball to fly right over him. Unfortunately, that was when something unexpected happened. The ball and chain continued flying past Naruto for a few feet, before suddenly twisting around in midair and flying straight towards Naruto's face. Naruto had an instant of panicked realization...That guy touched my headband when I attacked him earlier!... before the metal sphere struck Naruto right in the forehead, attaching itself to his forehead protector. Fortunately, the blow to the head wasn't too strong and was mostly blocked by the metal plate on his headband. Unfortunately, this time when Jiga pulled back on the chain, Naruto was sent flying through the air for real.

Jiga laughed contemptuously as he swung the leaf genin in the air above his head, "Ha ha ha! Have me on the ropes do you!?"

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata, witnessing her teammate's plight, charged toward the Janin, her hands once more aglow with chakra as she prepared another Gentle Fist strike.

Chuckling, Jiga simply swung his weapon at the charging genin. Hinata, seeing the attack coming with her byakugan, managed to dodge back in time to avoid the metal sphere, but not in time to completely avoid the Naruto hanging off the end of it. The ends of Naruto's feet made contact with Hinata's side, knocking the wind out of her and sending her rolling back.

"Hinata!" Naruto called in panic as he saw his teammate get knocked away. If the pain in his feet from the blow were anything to go by, he imagined that Hinata must have been hurt far worse. Still flying through the air at the end of Jiga's chain, Naruto reached up to the back of his head and tried to untie his headband. Unfortunately, the knot was tied far too tightly, and Naruto couldn't even get the thing to budge. The Leaf Village forehead protector he wore had been given to him by Iruka-sensei that night several months ago when he had fought Mizuki-sensei and become a genin. It was one of his most treasured possessions and as such he always made sure to tie it extra securely to his head, a fact which came back to bite him now, as the Janin swung him through the air.

"I guess I won't be learning about the risks of facing a future Hokage today, will I?" Jiga taunted as he spun Naruto around again. Before Naruto could respond or take any other action, Jiga swung Naruto straight into the trunk of a nearby tree. So strong was the Janin's swing, that the tree trunk shattered as Naruto smashed through it, sending yet another tree crashing to the ground.

Unfortunately, the tree wasn't the only thing that broke. Naruto screamed in pain as he felt his shoulder joint being wrenched harshly out of its socket. He was also fairly certain that his collarbone had been broken by the impact. To make matters worse, a moment later the Janin finally released his jutsu's hold on Naruto, sending the boy flying through the air to crash into yet another tree. Naruto felt several more bones breaking in both his arm and ribs as he impacted solidly into the side of the tree.

At long last, Naruto fell the rest of the way to the ground, his injured body crying out in protest as he landed in the dirt. He lay there for several seconds, unable to move, gritting his teeth against the pain, before slowly trying to rise. Eventually, he was able to push himself up a small way using his left hand (his entire right arm refused to listen to his commands at all, and likely would have been useless even if it had).

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata called out in panic, having witnessed what had happened to her teammate after recovering herself from the Janin's earlier attack.

Naruto finally managed to push himself into a kneeling position. His whole body felt like it hurt, to the point of being nearly overwhelming. His thoughts were slow and muddled, and his vision was clouded with pain. Nevertheless, he managed to focus his sight on his teammate standing several meters away, looking like she was about to rush over to him. "Hinata…" he managed to rasp out, "Get...out of here. Quickly...run…" Naruto was under no illusions about the situation, now. There was no way he would be able to continue fighting at this point, meaning that Hinata would be left to fight the mostly full-strength Janin alone, likely while still protecting him. Their chances of defeating the more powerful ninja, if they had ever existed, had now dropped to zero. At the very least, he hoped that Hinata would be able to escape alive.

From nearby, Jiga snorted with amusement. "That's probably the first good idea you've had all day, boy," he said, walking slowly forward while appearing to brush something off from his torso. "Unfortunately for you, I don't intend on letting either of you escape from here. So why don't you go ahead and stay still over there for a while?" Bringing his hands up, the Janin made a couple of hand seals, before pointing his fist at Naruto. When the man opened his hand, a cloud of black particles burst forth, flowing straight toward Naruto. "Magnetic Ninja Art: Electromagnetic Illusion!"

The injured genin was completely unable to dodge as the cloud surrounded him, and in the end could only bring his left arm up in front of him in a desperate defense, little good though it did. A crackling noise was heard, as sparks of electricity arced through the air around him. To Naruto's eyes, the black particles appeared to be glowing, the light from them growing brighter and brighter, filling his vision until with a sudden flash everything went white.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata called to her teammate. Naruto appeared to be frozen, his formerly tense body had gone slack, seemingly immobile. His facial expression was blank and listless, his pupils dilated, his eyes staring emptily forward, unseeing. "Naruto-kun, are you alright?"

To the side, Jiga laughed, "Don't bother! He can't hear you anymore. I've used my jutsu to interfere with the electric current within his brain. He can't even think at the moment, much less move." Smirking evilly, he continued, "That little brat has caused me a lot of trouble. I'm going to save him for later and finish him off slowly...after I deal with you."

Ordinarily, the elder ninja's threats would've terrified Hinata, but at the moment she barely even heard them, as she was too busy thinking. Electrical currents? But I thought his jutsu was Magnet Style? Also, those particles he threw at Naruto, he gathered them off the surface of his body when he brushed himself off earlier. What's more, they're the same kind of particle as what's inside his body…

All at once, several things came together within Hinata's mind. "Your jutsu…" she spoke, gaining the Janin's attention, "...it's not Magnet Style at all! Magnet Style ninjutsu is a combination of wind and earth chakra natures, but your justu's true form...is a modified lightning jutsu that you use in combination with the metal particles inside your body."

Jiga's eyebrows rose in surprise as he heard the girl correctly analyze his jutsu. For the first time, he turned and truly looked closely at the small female Leaf Ninja, noting her pale white eyes and the bulging veins surrounding them. "I see...those eyes," Jiga mused. "You must be part of the Leaf Village's Hyuuga clan, right? I've heard of you. Those special eye powers you have...the Byakugan was it? They allow you to see a great many things, even look inside a person." He snorted in passive amusement. "That's impressive! I'll have to remember that in the future...if I ever come across another of your clan."

Jiga continued, "As it happens, you're right. My real elemental affinity is lightning. I learned a long time ago, you see, that electric currents have the power to affect magnetic fields. So since I was very young, I've been ingesting large amounts of iron into my body. As a result, I discovered that I could use my lightning element chakra, in conjunction with the iron inside my body, to turn myself and anything I touch into magnets. It may not have the sheer attack power of some lightning style jutsus, but it's a lot more versatile and doesn't expend nearly as much chakra in the using. What's more, on a battlefield where shinobi are constantly using metal weapons, my jutsu renders me all but untouchable!"

Hinata listened carefully as the Janin described his power (it was fortunate that the rogue shinobi seemed to want to brag about his unique jutsu). The way the man described it, he made it sound as though his technique was invincible.

That's not quite true though, Hinata realized, his jutsu actually has a critical weakness. He unintentionally just showed it to me. If I can somehow take advantage of that, there could be a way to stop him. But…

The more Hinata thought about it, the more certain she became that the enemy's jutsu would be particularly vulnerable to a disruption in the chakra network. But the trouble was that doing so would require her to target her opponent's chakra points. Hinata's byakugan was by far the weakest in the Hyuuga clan, both in terms of range and perception. While she could clearly see the chakra pathways themselves, the chakra points, the three-hundred-sixty-one nodes that regulated the flow of chakra within the body, were still invisible to her. This meant that she was still precluded from using the most powerful aspect of the Gentle-Fist style, the ability to manipulate an opponent's chakra at will.

If she could just strike a single one of the enemy's chakra points, she was certain she could turn his own jutsu against him, but without even being able to see what she was targeting, she would be going in blind. It was true that she had studied her family's chakra scroll extensively, so she knew approximately where all the chakra points in the body would be, but the chakra points themselves were incredibly small, no larger than the tip of a needle. Even if she could see them, at her level hitting something that small with her gentle fist would be a challenge in itself. And add to that not even being able to see what she was striking...Hinata shook her head.

There's just no way! I'm too weak...Even if I tried I would just end up failing and losing everything…

You're thinking too much!

Hinata started as Asuma-sensei's voice suddenly echoed in her mind, her thoughts travelling back to that moment after her first battle, only a few hours ago.

Every action comes with risk, but trying not to risk anything concedes the battle before it's even begun. You have to choose what risks to take. If you can't, it's not just you, your teammates will be placed in danger. If you risk nothing, you'll lose everything.

Hinata glanced to the right, over to where her teammate was kneeled on the ground. Naruto was still frozen, his eyes staring sightlessly, seemingly dead to the world. Subconsciously, Hinata's posture straightened. That's right, Hinata thought, if I don't do anything, I'll lose everything anyway. Man...I'm so stupid. I haven't got time to be worrying about failing right now. Naruto-kun's in trouble, and I'm the only one who can protect him. If I can't do that, I don't deserve to be his teammate. If I can't risk anything now, I don't deserve to even be alive!

Know what it is you have to do...and decide what you're prepared to sacrifice to make it happen.

Lowering herself into a ready stance, Hinata prepared to face down her opponent. For Naruto-kun...everything.

Seeing his opponent getting ready to continue fighting, Jiga quirked an eyebrow. "Oh, you're not going to try to run? Are you sure about that? Your teammate told you to get away."

Swallowing down her fear and self-doubt, Hinata prepared to move. "I...I'm not going to let you do whatever you want. I'll st-stop you!" Hinata's voice didn't sound very convincing, even to her.

Rolling his eyes, Jiga responded, "So, you're just as stupid and suicidal as your teammate. How ridiculous. I swear, there must be something wrong with you Leaf ninjas."

Ignoring the jibe, Hinata dug into her weapons pouch behind her back, taking stock of all her remaining tools. It would take every kunai and shuriken she had left, but she would make it work. Pulling out a trio of shurikens, she hurled them as hard as she could at the enemy, not caring at the moment about her accuracy. She immediately started running to her left, moving to lure her opponent out of the immediate clearing. For this to work, she needed to put as much distance as possible between her opponent and Naruto. As she ran, she pulled more and more weapons out of her pouch and hurled them haphazardly at Jiga.

Jiga snorted with derision as he easily fended off the genin's attack while following almost lazily behind her. Of the first three shurikens the girl had thrown, only one even needed to be deflected, which Jiga did easily with his kusarigama. The other two didn't even require him to dodge, as both went wide by several inches. The Leaf kunoichi's subsequent attacks were just as wild, only a few even coming close to hitting their target. She's panicking, Jiga thought with amusement, she can't even throw her weapons straight. Besides that, did she already forget that metal weapons are no good against me? Deciding to remind her, Jiga caught one of the incoming shurikens on his kusarigama, then sent it right back at her, propelled with magnetic force.

Hinata staggered slightly as the returned kunai grazed her upper leg, leaving a gash along her thigh, but dauntlessly kept going, throwing her weapons wildly as she ran. She just needed to draw him in a little farther, and she'd be ready. At long last, Hinata pulled her very last kunai out of her weapons pouch. Halting her retreat, she spun around to face her opponent and flung her final weapon straight at him.

Jiga swatted the kunai aside, as he had so many others. "Well, little leaf ninja," he said casually, "looks like that's your last weapon. What are you going to do now?"

Setting herself into a ready stance, Hinata stood her ground, "I...I'm not giving up! I will beat you!"

Shaking his head pityingly, Jiga replied, "Come on, don't be a fool. It's clear that you're terrified. There's no glory in being a hero if you just die uselessly. I'll give you one last chance...tell me where the princess is, and I'll let you run away. You don't really want to die here over some princess you don't even know, do you?"

Hinata shook her head fiercely, "It doesn't matter! It doesn't matter that I don't even really know Princess Haruna. Naruto-kun was willing to risk his life in order to defeat you. If I run away now, I'd never be able to live with myself. Naruto-kun would never give up if he was fighting for me...so I'll do the same for him! Even if it costs me my life...this time I won't give up!"

Before Jiga could respond, there was a sudden thunderous bang in the distance, drawing the attention of both shinobi away from their fight. Off in the distance, about a mile away from where Hinata and the Janin stood, a large explosion lit up the night sky, briefly illuminating the dark forest and drawing the gaze of every living thing for miles around.

Wait...that direction is...Hinata thought, nervously.

For some reason, Jiga started chuckling when he saw this, before throwing his head back and laughing uproariously. "Ha ha ha...fair enough! It looks like I don't need your help anymore, anyway. That signal means that my men have found the princess. That means that I can wrap things up here and finally get back to business." Swinging his kusarigama in a circle, Jiga lashed out with it once more. "You should've accepted my generosity when you had the chance!"

Hinata once more dodged to the side as the ball and chain shattered the ground at her feet. This time Jiga swept the chain to the side, seeking to bring the flail around into his opponent's ribs or else tangle her up in the chain. Hinata evaded this strike as well by leaping over the chain, causing Jiga to pull the chain back toward him to prepare for another strike.

It was at this moment, though, that the Leaf genin made a move the Janin hadn't expected. As the chain passed through the air beneath her, Hinata suddenly reached out a hand and latched onto the chain itself, causing her to be pulled back along with it as the Janin moved to retrieve his weapon, sending her flying through the air straight at her opponent. As his weapon flew back toward him, with small kunoichi in tow, Jiga smirked, pulling his other fist back in preparation for a full-strength punch. Alright...if that's how you want it.

Hinata soared through the air toward the waiting Janin. One chance...I'll only get one chance at this! Hinata thought, mentally focussing on what she had to do.

Twenty feet away...

Time itself seemed to slow down as the target came closer and closer. All thought fled from Hinata's mind except for her one objective.

Ten feet…

All of Hinata's senses were focussed solely on the enemy. The world and her surroundings faded away as her entire world was reduced to herself and her opponent.

Five feet…

As her enemy came into range, something changed. Hinata's eyes focussed as they never had before, and there appeared, overlaying the Janin's chakra network, a tiny, infinitesimal pinprick of light.

Right there!

Hinata stretched out with all of her might, reaching with everything she had for that small speck of light.

Jiga's massive fist buried itself in Hinata's stomach. With a great whoosh, all the air was forced out of Hinata's lungs, blood and spittle flying out of her mouth as the attack landed home. Hinata doubled over, gasping for air as she tried to recover her breath. The pain in her midsection grew stronger with every breath, and she was fairly certain more than one of her ribs were broken. Her knees knocked together, and it was all she could do to just barely remain standing.

"Come on, now…" the Janin spoke in a lecturing tone, "...you didn't really think that was going to work, did you?"

Hinata struggled to speak through her lack of air and the pain in her abdomen, "It...it did...huff...what it needed...huff...to do…"

"Huh?" Jiga looked down, for the first time noticing that the genin's left hand had made contact with him, her two fingers poking into his side. Strangely, the spot she had struck seemed to feel almost numb. Still, it was far too small a strike to do any real damage. "Pfft...you did all of that, just for this? Is that supposed to impress me?"

Hinata tried to respond but found that she couldn't, the growing pain in her gut suddenly becoming too much. Before she could react, she suddenly bent over and, with a retching noise, emptied the contents of her stomach all over the ground before her...and right onto the Janin's shoes.

"Ugh…" Jiga growled in annoyance as he looked down at his vomit covered feet. The fact that he was wearing shinobi sandals that left his toes exposed made it even worse. "Disgusting…" he griped. Reeling his arm back he once more levelled a strong backhanded strike toward the small Leaf kunoichi, sending her flying away from him, to come to a slow rolling stop several yards away.

"Well, I suppose I should congratulate you," Jiga said snidely as the girl slowly picked herself up off the ground. "You managed to poke me in the side, and you got my shoes dirty. You can die being proud of those accomplishments at least. But now, it's time to put an end to this farce. I have more important business to get back to." As he spoke, Jiga once more gathered up his ball and chain and began swinging it, preparing for the coup de grace. The Leaf genin was just barely managing to remain standing, there would be no escape for her this time.

"It's over," Hinata spoke, just loudly enough to be heard by her opponent.

Jiga laughed, "On that much, we're agreed!"

Whipping the chain forward, he sent the flail careening toward the girl one final time. The spiked metal ball ripped through air, promising death to its intended target. It was at this moment, however, that Jiga first realized that something was seriously off. It almost appeared as though his kusarigama was slowing down as it approached the enemy. Indeed, even as he watched, the metal ball's speed through the air slowed to a crawl until, shockingly, it came to a halt in midair, mere inches away from the Leaf genin's face. Jiga blinked, staring at the strange sight uncomprehendingly, "What the hell?"

"It's over," Hinata clarified, speaking more clearly this time. "You lose."

Suddenly, the metal ball from his kusarigama began moving again, though this time in the opposite direction. The spiked flail was now heading right toward Jiga himself!

"Shit!" Jiga tried to dodge, leaping out of the way of the oncoming weapon. Incredibly though, the metal ball turned in midair, following after Jiga as though seeking him. Unable to escape, the object struck Jiga right in the center. This time, it was Jiga who had the wind knocked out of him as his own ninja tool impacted right into his abdomen.

Bent over, Jiga struggled to recover his breath. His attempts to do so were further hampered by something heavy weighing down his chest, making it even more of a struggle to breathe deeply. Looking down, Jiga saw that the spiked ball from his kusarigama had not yet fallen to the ground, but was somehow still stuck to his abdomen, hanging there in clear defiance of gravity. Reaching down, Jiga took hold of the metal sphere, attempting to pull it off of himself. The ball resisted his attempts to move it, pushing into him and remaining stuck where it was. What's more, as he pushed against the object he felt something poking him in the side and realized that the scythe end of his kusarigama was similarly stuck to him. This couldn't possibly be...my magnet jutsu!? Focussing his chakra, Jiga attempted to deactivate his jutsu, but no matter what he did, the metal tools remained in place. "What the hell is going on?"

"Earlier, you said your jutsu renders you untouchable," Hinata replied, drawing the Janin's attention, "but that's not quite right. Your ability is actually a double-edged sword. Every time you activate your jutsu, you create a magnetic field within your own body. You're not able to affect the magnetism of other objects without becoming a magnet yourself. What's more, the magnetic field inside you grows stronger the longer your jutsu is active. That's the reason that you have to shut your jutsu off every few minutes, and brush yourself off to remove the metallic particles that have accumulated."

Jiga's jaw dropped in surprise. He hadn't imagined that the girl had seen through his jutsu to this extent! "H...how…?"

Hinata, though, wasn't finished and continued talking right over him, "A moment ago, when I struck you, I sent a burst of my chakra into one of your chakra points, forcing it open. The chakra points regulate the flow of chakra within the body, so right now your chakra is running out of control. You can no longer turn your jutsu off, and the rate at which the magnetic field inside you grows in intensity has increased drastically as well. You can't make use of your weapons anymore because the magnetic field inside you is overwhelming any other magnet you can create."

Jiga stared at the Hyuuga girl quietly for several seconds, before suddenly chuckling, "Alright, alright...I suppose I have to give you credit for that one. You managed to disarm me and prevent me from using my jutsu. Bravo. Still…," at this Jiga became serious again, glaring at Hinata in annoyance, "it's not going to be enough. I'm more than strong enough with my bare hands to crush you like an insec…"

Something stabbed into the back of Jiga's shoulder, catching him off guard and sending spikes of pain shooting down his back. Glancing quickly over his shoulder, Jiga saw a kunai buried in it, blood from the wound beginning to stain the back of his shirt. Spinning around swiftly, the Janin attempted to detect whoever had attacked him. Who was it? Had the other Leaf genin somehow escaped from his genjutsu? Or had one of the others from earlier somehow caught up and come to help? He hadn't detected a presence behind him, so he was extra wary.

Before he could detect any other opponents, however, Jiga heard the familiar sound of flying shurikens from off to his left. Turning, he saw two of them flying toward him from that direction. He attempted to dodge them, but was struck anyway as the spinning weapons changed course in midair to come after him.

"I told you, didn't I?" Hinata spoke once again, "The magnetic field inside you is becoming stronger every second. As it grows, more and more metallic objects will be attracted right to you. And we're currently surrounded by metal. I made sure of that."

Jiga's eyes widened as he suddenly understood. Looking around hastily he realized there were kunai and shurikens all around him, lying on the ground or buried in tree trunks, the very weapons that the girl had thrown around seemingly haphazardly earlier. As he watched, the weapons all began moving toward him, flying through the air and picking up speed as they got closer. First one, then five, then a dozen. The next thing Jiga knew, a swarm of kunai and shurikens were flying toward him from all directions.

Jiga swore as he mounted the only defense he could think of. Using all of his strength, he managed to yank his scythe blade away from where it was attached to his body and attempted to use it to deflect as many of the weapons as he could. This strategy proved mostly fruitless, as every weapon he knocked away simply spun back around after a few feet and came right back toward him. In the end, Jiga was forced to focus simply on keeping the weapons from hitting any of his vital areas, and gritted his teeth in pain as the rain of metal weapons slammed one after another into his arms, legs, and torso.

After several agonizing seconds, the stream of weapons finally slowed and stopped. Jiga stood in the middle of the clearing, breathing heavily, knives and shurikens sticking out of him from every angle. As if the pain wasn't excruciating enough already, it felt as though the weapons were actually digging further into his flesh, the magnetic field that drew them pulling them even further in. Slowly, Jiga reached down and yanked the first kunai out of his body, laying it back down such that the flat of the blade was pressed against his skin, rather than the edge or the point. Next, he did the same for a shuriken that was sticking out of his shoulder, and then another. One by one he pulled the weapons out of his flesh, ignoring the spurts of blood and flashes of pain that accompanied each extraction.

At long last Jiga was able to remove the last weapon, laying it flat against his skin as he had with all the others. He could still feel them all pressing into his body, the magnetic field still seeking to pull them even farther into him, but at least they were no longer digging into his flesh point first. When he finished he simply stood there for a moment, bleeding freely from a dozen wounds all over.

After a moment he slowly raised his gaze to look again at his opponent. His expression was pure murder as he looked down on the small kunoichi that had dared to hurt him. "You...little...bitch!" he ground out, taking a step toward where the girl still stood. His vision was clouded with rage and pain, but he pressed forward, regardless. "I am going to make you suffer for that like you can't even imagine! First I'm going to break you, not enough to kill you, just enough to keep you still. Then I'm going to bring your little orange friend back and kill him slowly in front of you. Then I'll do the same with all your other teammates, and maybe even the princess too. Then...then I'll start getting creative…"

"No, you will not!" Hinata shouted, speaking with more anger than she ever had before. Pure white eyes flashed with righteous fury as she raised her gaze to meet her enemy's. "You are never going to hurt me, or Naruto-kun, or anyone ever again! My attack...still isn't finished yet!" Raising her right hand up before her, she created a hand seal and sent out a burst of concentrated chakra.

"Wha…?" Jiga looked down as he heard what sounded like a sizzling noise below him. Belatedly, he noticed that the hilt-wrappings of several of the kunai were different from the others and that they were smoking slightly. All too late, he realized that these kunai were wrapped in explosive tags. Jiga's fury vanished in an instant, replaced with an unfamiliar emotion. For the first time that night...for the first time in a long time...Jiga felt fear. "W...wait a second…!"

Hinata's posture straightened where she stood. She threw her head back so she could glare down her nose at her opponent, her expression a picture of regal disdain and contempt. "You should not have hurt Naruto-kun!"

"WAIT…!"

There was a bright flash…

...and Jiga of the Janin thought no more.

---

Naruto's return to consciousness was not quite the same as waking up after having been asleep. There were no lingering dreams fading from his mind as his awareness of the world returned. He was vaguely aware that some time had passed and he had been sitting in his current position for a while but was unable to really summon any memories of what he had been doing. The last thing he recalled was raising his arm to defend himself from Jiga's last attack, and yet that felt as though it had happened some time ago. His heart rate had long since slowed and there was no longer adrenaline rushing through his veins. His mind told him that he should still be prepared for danger, but his body had relaxed from its state of readiness for a fight. The jarring dissonance between the two left Naruto considerably off balance.

Of course, with the return of consciousness came the return of pain. All at once his mangled right arm reminded him of the damage it had suffered, as a lance of pain worse than anything Naruto had ever felt shot through him. As if that wasn't enough, his headache also returned with a vengeance, his brief hiatus from thought having done nothing to relieve it. Without the adrenaline keeping him going, the pain was all the worse. Naruto doubled over and moaned as his mind tried to come to terms with his body's current agony.

After a while, Naruto was finally able to get control of himself again. Standing up, he looked around to check what was happening in the area. There was no one else but him in the clearing, and the forest around him was strangely silent. It seemed as though all the local wildlife had fled, and thus the usual sounds of night in a forest were completely absent. Also, it seemed to Naruto that there was a strange amount of dust in the air. Perhaps most notable, though, there was a slight orange glow coming from somewhere just ahead of him, emanating through the trees a short distance beyond the clearing he now stood in.

With nothing else to do, Naruto decided to walk toward the source of the light. Even wounded as he was, It didn't take long for Naruto to reach said source. Emerging into another clearing, Naruto found himself looking at a shallow crater, maybe 20 feet across in diameter. The orange light was coming from several small fires where leaves or underbrush had caught flame, no doubt caused by the same explosion that had created the crater. There was a queer smell in the air, that for some reason reminded Naruto of the smells that often came wafting out of Yakiniku Q, Chouji and Asuma-sensei's favorite barbecue joint.

Before Naruto could observe anything more about the place, he heard a familiar voice calling to him, "Naruto-kun?"

Turning to his left he saw Hinata walking slowly toward him, more bruised than before and clutching her abdomen, but otherwise seemingly okay.

"Hinata! You're alright!"

Hinata nodded, "I...I was just coming to look for you. Are you okay?"

Naruto shrugged, then cringed as the motion caused a spasm of pain to shoot through his right shoulder. "I've...been better," Naruto answered honestly, "but I'm okay. I always heal pretty quickly, so I should be fine. Never mind that...what happened to the enemy? Did he get away?"

Hinata shook her head slowly, not meeting Naruto's gaze. "No...he's gone. I...uh, he…" she nodded over towards the crater in the earth a few feet away.

Naruto looked over at the crater once more, this time noticing that there were shattered weapon fragments all over the clearing. Also scattered about were several still smoking objects, throwing off the strange smell Naruto had noticed, earlier. Something in the back of Naruto's mind warned him not to look at these objects too closely.

Slowly turning back to his teammate, Naruto spoke in wonder, "You...you got him? I mean...you won!?"

She nodded again. Hinata explained briefly how she had turned the Janin's jutsu around on him.

"That's incredible Hinata!" Naruto exclaimed, genuinely amazed. "I thought we were done for after I got taken out of the fight, but you beat him all by yourself! That's really something else!"

Hinata blushed, "I...I just got lucky…"

"Who cares?!" Naruto laughed off the girl's objections. "Even if you could only win against him one time out of a hundred, the fact that you won means that you were skilled enough to make that one-in-a-hundred chance happen. Gotta say, you're really amazing sometimes."

In spite of herself, Hinata let out a small smile, blushing even harder. Despite how serious the situation had been and still was, she couldn't help but feel elated at Naruto's praise.

"Ha, you know, when we meet back up with the others, you should totally shove this in that jerk Haruna's smug face," Naruto joked.

Instead of laughing, though, Hinata sobered instantly, as she remembered a detail from her earlier fight. "Oh, right...Naruto-kun! Just now when I was fighting that man, I saw a signal flare go up in that direction," she said, pointing off to the northeast in the direction of a rocky area where a series of ravines cut through the earth. "The enemy said that it was a signal that his men had located the princess!"

Naruto's eyes widened, "Oh crap, really? That's not good...Yurinojou's guarding her alone right now."

"Wh...what should we do?" Hinata asked.

Naruto shrugged, "What else? We gotta go help."

"But...but Naruto kun…" Hinata protested, "Are you sure we're in good enough condition to help? Maybe we should wait for Asuma-sensei and the others to catch up…"

Shaking his head, Naruto replied, "We can't do that. We don't know when Sensei will catch up. The fight back at the camp could still be going on for all we know. And besides...we can't just leave Yurinojou all alone. We've still got a job to do."

"But...you're…" Hinata looked over the many injuries that Naruto had sustained, particularly at his mangled right arm, which still hung limply at his side.

"Don't worry about me," Naruto said, pulling out a kunai with his left hand. "I can't use jutsus anymore, but I can still fight a little. Just do me a favor and watch my back, okay?"

Hinata looked at Naruto worriedly for a moment, before slowly nodding her head, "Al...alright."

"Okay then," Naruto stated, turning to look in the direction Hinata had indicated earlier, "where exactly did you see this signal go up?"

Hinata pointed toward one of the ravines off in the distance, "I'm pretty sure it went up from that big ravine over ther…"

Hinata cut off suddenly, not finishing her sentence, her eyes drawn toward the trees off behind Naruto. Before Naruto could even ask, he suddenly heard the sound that had apparently drawn Hinata's attention: the rustling of foliage that marked someone or something moving swiftly through the trees. An instant later the worst possible scenario played out before them, as a pair of the Janin's henchmen emerged from the forest and landed in the clearing.

For a split second, everything froze. Both sides stared at one another, the two rogue shinobi apparently as surprised to run into the Leaf genin as they were by the other's arrival. The moment was broken just as suddenly when the two criminals reached swiftly for their weapons.

"Run!" Hinata screamed, turning to dart into the treeline and away from the two enemies.

For his part, Naruto didn't hesitate to follow after his teammate. Much as he had been planning on rejoining the fight in some capacity, he had hoped to do so on their terms. He recognized that attempting to fight the two enemies in the open at this point, with the injuries that he and Hinata had sustained, would likely be suicide. Even as the two moved to disengage, kunai and shurikens thrown by their opponents began to slice through the air around them.

As they broke through the first layer of trees, Naruto spotted a small stone outcropping a few meters away that looked like it might offer them some cover. "This way!" he called to his teammate, leading them toward the potential refuge. Hinata wasted no time in following after him.

They were only a few feet away from their intended concealment when Naruto heard Hinata call his name. Before he could respond, Hinata suddenly shoved him from his side, sending him staggering off to his left. Unfortunately, the shove had come from his right side, jarring his injury and sending mind-numbing pain searing through his crippled arm. Naruto's mind went fuzzy for a moment as he struggled to keep moving in spite of the pain. Somehow or other, though, he managed to keep going long enough to jump over the rocky outcropping, landing on the other side of the rocks and leaning against them for cover. Hinata landed next to him a second later.

Naruto wanted very much to ask his teammate why she had run into him, but at the time it was all he could do to stay standing. He stayed there for a moment, leaning against the stone, clutching his right arm in his left, careful not jar the appendage any more but desperately willing the pain to subside.

As the pain slowly cleared from Naruto's mind, he became aware of words being spoken in the distance. The two rogue shinobi were talking to each other, loudly enough that the Leaf genins could hear them, even from where they hid.

"They ran off over that way," one of the enemy ninjas said to the other. "Think we should go after them?"

The other shinobi replied quickly, "Nah, it doesn't look like the princess is around here. That first explosion we saw must have been the real signal. Looks like this one was just a diversion."

As Naruto listened, a few pieces of information came together in his mind, and he started to get a clear picture of what must have happened. From the sound of it, the two had been heading toward the signal Hinata had mentioned earlier that marked the position of the princess. Along the way, they must have seen the explosion created by Hinata's fight with Jiga, and come to investigate.

"Naruto-kun…" Hinata whispered to him, her voice sounding somewhat urgent.

"Shh!" Naruto shushed his teammate. It sounded like they weren't going to pursue them any further. Unfortunately, though, it also sounded like the two were going to head right for the princess. Naruto strained to hear the rest of the criminal nin's conversation.

"Are you sure about that?" the first shinobi spoke again, questioning his comrade. "If this explosion was a diversion, what's all this stuff then?"

"Huh,...you're right. It does look like somebody bought it in this blast here…"

"Hey wait, look at this. Isn't that…"

"That's...Jiga-sama's kusarigama! You...you don't think…" the man spoke with rising shock.

"They got him? Those kids?!" the other replied, equally surprised.

Meanwhile, back behind the stone outcropping, Naruto heard Hinata whisper to him again, "Naruto-kun…"

Naruto was about to hush his teammate again, but something about the tone of Hinata's words caused him to think better of it. Her voice sounded oddly weak. Naruto had just turned to face her, when Hinata suddenly collapsed forward, her body going limp. Naruto reached out quickly and held his teammate up with his good arm. He was about to ask her what was wrong but didn't get the chance. As his arm wrapped around Hinata, his hand came into contact with something wet. Slowly, carefully, Naruto turned Hinata around so he could see behind her. What he saw caused his mouth to go dry. There, sticking out of Hinata's jacket, were the hilts of two kunai knives, their blades buried more than half their length into her back.

"Y...you're alright…" Naruto stammered, having just enough presence of mind to still keep his voice low. "...you're alright…" His voice cracked a little. It was an obvious lie, but Naruto couldn't think of anything else to say, shock driving away his common sense. The back of Hinata's jacket was already turning bright red, her blood soaking through the fabric.

"You'll be okay...I'll, uh…" Naruto's mind reeled. Desperately he tried to get a handle on his thoughts. He needed to do first aid, he was certain of that much. But...what exactly did he need to do? With a cringe, Naruto remembered...the days when they had studied first aid at the academy, he had only half paid attention. The information hadn't seemed like anything that was going to help him become the strongest shinobi in the class, so he had alternated between listening and thinking about other things, like his next big prank.

Panicking, Naruto struggled to remember anything he could. He was pretty sure he needed to put pressure on the wounds, but he wasn't certain what to do after that. Didn't he need to put bandages on the wounds? Should he take the knives out, or leave them in? In his current state, he struggled to grasp hold of even that which he did remember. All he could think about was how Hinata must have shoved him out of the way of incoming fire, and gotten hit in his place. The vague memory of Iruka's droning lecture about human anatomy and how best to deal with puncture wounds seemed to become fuzzier the more he tried to focus on it.

Damn it, damn it, damn it! Naruto screamed internally, panic gripping him. Why didn't I pay attention in class? Why am I such a stupid idiot?!

For some reason, Hinata was still trying to speak, "Naruto-kun...I…"

"Shh! Hush...I've got you," Naruto whispered urgently. He knew that she desperately needed to save her strength right now. Easing her down, Naruto slowly laid Hinata across his lap, careful not to brush against the kunai and potentially make the girl's injuries even worse. He needed to think about where to start putting pressure. Biting the inside of his lip, Naruto belatedly realized that with only one good arm he would only be able to pressure one of the injuries at a time.

"Naruto-kun…" In spite of his orders, Hinata still continued to talk, even attempting to turn herself over in his lap so she could look at him. "I...I wanted…"

"Don't talk!" Naruto hissed.

Finally, she turned herself enough to face him. Her eyes were slightly clouded, but even so, she still managed to find his eyes with her own, those deep white pools capturing his gaze once again. She whispered, her voice becoming quieter and weaker with each word, "I wanted...to see you...become...Hokage…"

Seemingly having used the last of her strength, Hinata's eyes fluttered closed.

Naruto stared down at the girl in his arms. A short distance away, the two rogue nins continued their conversation.

"What should we do about this?" the first one asked. "We'll have to report this to Renga-sama and Ruiga-sama. What do you think they'll say?"

"I wouldn't worry too much about them," the other replied. "Knowing those two, they'll probably have a good laugh about it. Still, they'll want to make sure that whoever did it is dealt with...so we should probably go after those two kids."

"More like one," the first shinobi responded, smirk evident in his tone. "We got that one little bitch pretty good. If she's not dead already, she will be soon enough. We can just follow the blood trail right to the other one."

"Assuming he hasn't abandoned her already. If he's smart he'll leave her behind. There's no sense in risking yourself over someone who's just dead weight."

"True."

Carefully, as gently as he could, Naruto laid Hinata down on the ground.

His headache had completely vanished, gone like a distant memory. The enemy ninja's words echoed loudly in Naruto's thoughts.

If he's smart he'll leave her behind.

Ever so slowly, Naruto stood up, not caring if he accidentally exposed himself to the nearby enemies.

With an audible pop, his right arm slid back into its shoulder joint.

If she's not dead already, she will be soon enough.

His arm emitted grinding and cracking noises as the bones fused themselves back together. All of his wounds vanished one after the other until his body was in near perfect condition once again.

His hands curled into fists, fingers clenched so tightly his suddenly elongated fingernails drew blood, but Naruto didn't feel any pain. He didn't feel anything anymore. All his emotions, his fear, self-loathing, despair...all were sucked into a black hole in his heart from which emerged a deep, all-consuming rage.

I wanted...to see you...become...Hokage…

Naruto's world turned red.

---

Chapter End

A/N:

Thanks as always for reading. If you enjoyed it, please leave a review. Even just a few words are highly appreciated.

Uuuuuuuugggggghhhhhh… This chapter did not want to be written. To be perfectly honest, I'm still not 100% satisfied with it, but I know I need to go ahead and move on with the story. I know I'm not updating with anything approaching consistency, but I do still plan to continue writing this story at least through the Chunin Exams.

This chapter contained a whole lot of fighting, and not just a little bit of brutality. I recognize that some of this is a bit darker than is typical, but for my part this is what I believe shinobi combat really would be. It's life or death, and the main characters aren't going to escape without blood on their hands. This all ties in to what I have planned for each characters development. I plan to fully deal with the fallout of all of this in future chapters.

Anyway, on to the notes for this chapter.

(1.) One of the major things that caused this chapter to take so long was the major fight of the chapter between Hinata, Naruto, and Jiga. From the time I decided to do the Land of Greens arc I knew I wanted to include a version of the Hinata vs Jiga fight, which is one of the best in the original series filler arcs. I really like it because it perfectly displays the strengths of the gentle fist style (the ability to turn an opponent's jutsu against them) and gives Hinata a great chance to shine using it. Actually getting it out proved to be another thing altogether, though.

This fight went through multiple versions. At first it was basically just going to be the same as what happened in the show, but for one thing this did not fit very well given the differences in the scenario, and also I decided that I wasn't comfortable just rehashing the show. I thought the conclusion I came up with for the fight was pretty neat, accomplishing what the original did while accounting for the fact that they are not currently in an iron dust pit, though I worry it might still be too close to the original. Let me know what you thought of it and the fight as a whole.

(2.) Almost all of the jutsus used by the flower ninjas were taken directly from the show, though some were renamed (as the jutsu names they use in the show are really terrible). The sole exception is, of course, the Dance of a Thousand Petals, which just a variation of the flower shuriken jutsu. I think I gave enough of a description in the story itself, but let me know if it needs more or less detail. For the sake of this story, Bloom is the Greens Country version of Ninja Art, and is used as the precursor for all of their original techniques.

(3.) For the sake of this story, I am assuming that the jutsu used by Renga is, in fact, the same bloodline limit possessed by Haku. As to why their jutsus are so different: both Haku and Renga are entirely self-taught in the use of Ice-style. All the jutsus they use are whatever they themselves could come up with. As a result, their use of Ice-style is entirely different.

(4.) The Naruto Wiki specifies that Magnet Style is a combination of wind and earth element, and also specifies that Jiga's jutsu is not Magnet style, though the effect is rather similar. All we know for sure about Jiga's jutsu is that he gained the ability after consuming copious amounts of iron in his youth, we are never told how this works. In the show, however, he does directly mention interfering with the electrical currents in Naruto's brain, via his Electromagnetic Illusion jutsu. It was this that gave me the idea to interpret his technique as a modified Lightning Jutsu.

---

Anyway, the next chapter will be the last chapter for the Land of Greens arc. After that I plan to jump straight into the Chunin Exams, which I am very much looking forward to. We'll also check in with the other members of the rookie nine between then and now.

Hope you'll all stick with me.

Regards,

MD