Akuma Sannin
Hey everybody! I know it's been a while but I've been busy, what with me and my wife moving into our first house together at the beginning of this year. Been having a blast dealing with all of that, as well as the fact that as of right now on 4/17/22 I'm on my last week of college courses. By the end of May this year I'll have my Bachelor's Degree in Criminal Justice, with a Major in Justice Administration, and 2 Minors, one in Policing and the other in Homeland Security & Counter Terrorism. So now that I've managed to get all of that situated I went ahead and took time getting back into the story so far, I did a final update on the Pairings List. With all of the names some shit got messed up, but it's all good. Now we get to dive into the story, and remember! This is the story that goes into the Wave Arc, meaning the story is now up to date with the original timeline. So now Naruto is nearly 18 when he meets Team 7, who are all 12-13 years old in comparison. Enjoy!
UPDATE: To all of my readers I would like to apologize for how long it took for this chapter to come out, 2022 was pretty crazy for me. Having to run around and deal with an unpredictable schedule that got in my way a bunch of times, as well as dealing with moving into mine and my wife's first house. Thankfully things have settled down, and I'm now in a position where I can write far more frequently.
Pairings List - Updated
Naruto: Kurama(fem. Kyuubi), Hinata,Tayuya, Konan, Tsume Inuzuka, Yugito
Yota: Samui, Kin Tsuchi, Sasame
Gyuki: Matatabi
Sasuke Uchiha: Sakura Haruno, Karin Uzumaki,
Sai: Ino Yamanaka
Kiba Inuzuka: Isaribi
Kakuzu: Hitome(fem. Hidan)...a match made in Hell…literally!
Jiraiya: Tsunade
A the Raikage: Mabui
Killer B: Chaha Velar Rusa
Darui: Ayame Ichiraku
C: Shizuka
Iruka: Anko Mitarashi
Neji Hyuuga: Tenten Higurashi
Shikamaru Nara: Temari Sabaku
Shino Aburame: Suzumebachi, Fuu
Omoi: fem. Haku Yuki…..good luck getting Zabuza's blessing!
Choji Akamichi: Karui
Jirobo: Yakumo Kurama
Kakashi: Mikoto Uchiha, Mebuki Haruno
Yamato(Tenzo): Hana Inuzuka…..Kiba's older sister
Itachi Uchiha: Yugao Uzuki…...after she nearly kills him of course….LOL
Asuma Sarutobi: Kurenai Yuhi, Mei Terumi…..the lucky bastard….
Zabuza Momochi: Tsunami
Rock Lee: Kurotsuchi
Akatsuchi: Kotohime Tsuchi
Kankuro: Pakura…...this one is going to be fun to write
Chojuro: Orca Hoshigaki..…..Kisame's little sister….
Jugo: Guren
Gaara Sabaku: Matsuri, Yukata, Sari
Ibiki: Shizune….what?...the scarred guy needs some lovin too!
Konohamaru: Hanabi Hyuuga
Udon: Moegi
Utakata: Hotaru….meh figured this would've happened eventually in the OS if he wasn't captured and killed off by Pein, especially with how attached she was to him. She most likely would've fallen for him after growing up a little more, afterall she's 17 when Utakata(26) is killed in the OS.
It was now 10:00 am as Naruto leisurely sipped some sake before passing the jug over to his girlfriend Yugito, who took a long drought before passing it on to Kurama. Who then drank as well before passing the jug over to Chah Velar Rusa, so that the Tengu Demoness could enjoy the liquor as well. It has been nearly 6 years since Naruto began living in Kumogakure, and in that time many things had happened. He was getting close to turning 18 this year while Yota, who had become like a little brother to him, was already 12.5 years old and top of his class at the Academy! Naruto was pretty happy with how things had turned out, he had gotten along amazingly well with Yugito and Killer Bee right from the start, both of them being Jinchuriki's meant that they knew much of what Naruto had to deal with personally. This led to the three of them becoming very close as a result, and when it was revealed to them that Kurama was able to come and go from her seal, this led to both Jinchuriki and their respective Bijuu having to all make some hard decisions. Ultimately both Matatabi and Gyuuki decided they would take the deal so that they could spend time with their hosts in the real world, as opposed to pulling their consciousness into the Mindscape whenever they needed to talk face to face.
Everyone was surprised to see what both Bijuu looked like when in their 'human' forms, Matatabi looked like a woman in her late 20's with long black hair, dark skin, with heterochromatic eyes, and a pair of cat ears on her head. (think Yoruichi from Bleach with cat ears on her head) Meanwhile Gyuki was almost as tall as Naruto was standing at an even 7 ft tall, with dark skin just like Matatabi,but with pure white hair that went down to his shoulders and was slicked back to stay out of his way. From there on it was very usual for all three Jinchuriki to be found loungin around their favorite mountain top, drinking tea or sake while their respective Bijuu were there drinking alongside with them. This led to their mountain gaining the nickname 'Oni's Peak', not that any of them minded since the reason they all loved the spot was due to the view it gave of the whole village.
The relationship that had sprung up between Naruto and Yugito was something that most of the Bijuu as well as Bee and Ay had all seen coming, what with how the two got along and acted towards one another. Most had believed that it would be tense seeing how Naruto and Kurama were already an item, but this apparently hadn't deterred Yugito in the slightest as her and Kurama had come to an agreement to share the now large Hanyou between the two of them. And whenever anyone dared to ask Yugito how she felt about dating a younger guy, with her being 21 and Naruto not even 18, she simply told them how he more than made up for it with how mature he could be. When he wanted to be mature, at least. This led to Naruto being seen taking both Yugito and Kurama out on dates throughout Lightning country, at the same time.
Something that no one aside from Kurama had seen coming, was how Gyuki and Matatabi had become a couple. Seeing how the two had always been very close and affectionate with one another, Kurama had seen the signs right away that her two older siblings were becoming closer. Eventually, 4 years into their stay at Kumo, the two had gotten married. It had been a small ceremony, as they didn't care for anyone outside of their immediate circle to know about it. The guests were all terrified when Ryuk had presided over the wedding, as since two of the great Bijuu were coming together in matrimony, only a God could suffice to officially marry them off. Thankfully no one had suffered a heart attack like Sarutobi had when first seeing the bizarre God, and the ceremony had gone off without a hitch. Now the two of them shared a suite within Naruto's home, secluded from the rest of the compound so that they could be left alone.
Naruto for himself had made the most of his time while here in Kumo with his shinobi career, having already been made a Jonin of Kumo since joining their Shinobi Corps at 11. Naruto had gone on to join the Hunter Corps when he was 12.5 years old, where he would show the Hunter Corps several tricks that he had picked up from Kakuzu over the years. The near overnight results from employing such methods was staggering, and would wind up being a very strong factor along with Naruto's success record, when they considered promoting him to Commander of the Hunter Corps at the age of 15. From there Naruto would go on to train the rest of the Hunter Corps in even more of what he knew, as well as making the age-old 'game' that he and Kakuzu used to play a new standard for training purposes. Most were shocked to learn of the type of training that Naruto went through before joining Kumo, moreso to learn how a S Rank shinobi would basically hunt Naruto down like a wild animal every single day. Regardless, the training was so effective for the Hunter Corps that even Kumo's version of black ops, BOLT, adopted the training to suit their own purposes.
Naruto even took this a step further and started teaching Kumo's BOLT and Hunter shinobi, as well as many of the Jonin and the more talented Chunnin many of the things he knew about Fuinjutsu. While spamming Shadow Clones so that each student got some form of one-on-one training every day, Naruto was able to teach a class of over 100 throughout the course of a year while still performing his duties. This would lead to Kumo starting up a Fuinjutsu training program that would begin in the academy that all students would have to attend since they were already learning the basics of a shinobi lifestyle. All of which would begin with Calligraphy classes, which would become the most hated class in the entire school, at least for the first and second year students. From there anyone who at least had graduated and became a Gennin was eligible for more instruction in the Art of Fuinjutsu, and could attend classes twice a week. The classes were uniquely set up, being focussed on making sure every student learned everything that they would need to know, so that way they could understand seals, and make their new skills their own going forward.
While Naruto was immensely proud of himself for his accomplishments, the one thing that he was truly proud of were his Anti-Rape Seals that he had perfected when he was 13.5 years old. These had spread like wildfire throughout the Elemental Nations, giving them to Kumo for free so that all Kumo Kunoichi had them readily available was easy enough. But when it came to selling them to all of the other Shinobi Villages and civilians, this had been difficult. This alone had required Naruto to go round and round with the Raikage, the Lightning Daimyo, and several other officials due to the complexity of what Naruto was proposing. Rival villages weren't just going to sign up to have another village's seals be put on the shinobi or kunoichi within their Corps., and risk one of them being a bomb that detonated the moment one of their ninjas tried to mold their chakra.
Thankfully though they were able to make a deal after Naruto petitioned the Lightning Daimyo for help, the first batch of seals that had been shipped out was very small. While many villages were very well aware of Naruto's story, and personal stake in this, they were still cautious on principle. However after several months of waiting for a feedback response on how everyone thought of the seals, there was an overwhelming surge in demand as villages had taken time to first study the seals and break them down so that they knew what was being sold to them. Then came actually allowing civilians and shinobi, men and women alike, to purchase the seals.
The sheer success of the seals was unlike anything that anyone had ever seen before, as reports came in for more of the seals by the day. Naruto was forced to spam Shadow Clones for weeks in order to keep up with the demand till things finally settled down, after the dust had settled the sheer profits that he had made for Kumo was equivalent to a 31% increase in the village's standard budget for that year. As things stand, throughout every city and shinobi village that orders them from Kumo, a single Anti-Rape Seal costs that same as 2 standard D Rank missions. This is done so that they can remain affordable for just about anyone regardless of their situation, though vendors are instructed to give them away for free if they feel the buyer is in desperate need and doesn't have the cash. (2,500 - 10,000 ryo for a D Rank. the high end in USD is $143)
Something else that Naruto was proud of, was the new Uzumaki Clan Compound that was finally finished only 4 months ago. Being built into one of the mountains that surrounded Kumo, Naruto literally bought the mountain from Kumo and Lightning Country and got to work. Naruto chose one of the mountains that acted as a natural barrier between Kumo and the rest of the world, so that it could also serve as a sort of military base for defense purposes. After spending the last couple of years going over different designs for underground and mountain bases, Naruto used a disgusting amount of Shadow Clones to hollow out the mountain on his own. After furnishing the whole mountain so that it was livable, Naruto made sure to move himself, Kurama and Yota into the compound the very next day.
Naruto was broken from his musings as Yugito softly nuzzled his chin. "A ryo for your thoughts?" she asked sweetly as Naruto pressed his forehead against hers.
"Not much, just thinking about some things while we wait." he responded.
"Ha! Not surprised there, probably still trying to think up an excuse so that way you can have a Genin Squad of your own." commented a buzzed Chaha who was sitting next to an equally flushed Kurama, who was only just managing to look a little better off than the winged demoness.
"*hic*...Oh stop it Chaha, you remember the reasonssss the Raikage gave." responded Kurama as she drank the last of the saki the group had brought with them.
"Nope." responded Chaha, causing everyone present to sweatdrop.
"But you were there when he told everyone!" exclaimed Yugito, a tick mark appearing on her forehead. "I mean seriously, what a bird brain!" she thought.
"If I spent all of my time paying attention to important looking men in funny hats, I would never have become the leader of the Tengu Demons." Chaha stubbornly huffed as she tried to stand up with great help from her shakujo staff.
"And where do you think you're going in that state?" asked Naruto, who was already not looking forward to having to catch the demoness from falling out of the sky…..again.
"Well if you must know I'm heading back home to attend to my duties." Chaha huffed.
"Bullshit!" everyone simultaneously thought.
"Yeah right, you're probably just hoping to avoid getting chased by Bee again. You know he's got another poem that he wrote up just for you…" Kurama remarked, grinning as she tried not to openly laugh at Chaha's expense. It was a very poor secret amongst everyone in Kumo that Killer Bee was smitten for the winged demoness. To the point where he took to spouting off poetry whenever he saw her, and would constantly try to woo her. The crazy part however, was that it turned out that his poetry was actually very beautiful, and Bee had even published a book of the stuff…his rapping still sucked balls though as there was simply no fixing that. Still, progress is progress.
"Sh-Shut up!" yelled a blushing Chaha.
"~Chaha and Killer Bee sitting in a tree~." sang Yugito playfully.
"~P-L-O-W-~" everyone began to sing.
"ALRIGHT THAT'S IT, I'M LEAVING!" yelled an angrily blushing Chaha who then flew away before they could continue singing. The end result being that the three of them started laughing themselves silly for several minutes, eventually though they did calm down enough to speak.
"So who wants to bet on how long it'll take those two to finally hook up?" asked Yugito.
"My money's on 6 months." said Kurama.
"Put me down for another year." chimed in Naruto.
"Will do." said Yugito as she wrote down in a little note pad, seeing how she was in charge of the pool that she had going for how long it would take Bee and Chaha to become an item. So far she had managed to also rope in Mabui, Karui, the Raikage, Gyuki, Matatabi, and several of the higher ups from both BOLT and the Hunter Corps.
"It's about time to go and collect the kids isn't it?" asked Naruto checking the position of the sun to confirm the time.
"Yep!" chirped Yugito who quickly got up and dusted herself off while Matatabi purged the alcohol from her system.
"Alright then, me and Kyu-chan will see you later." said Naruto as he quickly gave his blonde girlfriend a kiss before finishing with a quick peck on her nose, something that always caused her to scrunch her face up like an actual cat for a moment.
"See you two later." Yugito said with a mischievous wink to the two demons before shunshinning away.
"Oh, and whatever are we to do now Naruto-kun?" asked Kurama as she started to give him a certain look.
Naruto smirked at this. "Oh you're about to find out." he said before quickly pouncing on the demoness causing her to let out a loud squeal as Naruto peppered her face and neck with quick soft kisses. Even after all of this time she still couldn't believe that she was in a relationship with him, or that her life could simply be this happy. True neither of them or Yugito had gone any further than kissing or some light petting, but that was fine for her having never been close like this with anyone else. They both knew what would undoubtedly happen to Naruto after he turned 18, and they would deal with it when the time came. For now they simply spent time enjoying each other's company.
Kumo Academy
Yota was buzzed as he sat down in his seat, stealing a quick glance at the friends he'd made from way back on his first day at the academy, the young boy couldn't help the smirk that spread across his face as his three friends each gave him a quick nod. Their names were Samui, Karui, and Omoi, he still remembered when he met them, being seated randomly in a classroom in between all three of them on the first day, not much had happened at first. That was until the class started, and for that lesson he was paired up with them as a group, and the rest was pretty much history.
Omoi, was a dark skinned boy with light hair that was normal for a native of Lightning Country, Yota couldn't remember a day where Omoi didn't have a lollipop in his mouth. Karui, was a dark skinned girl with fiery red hair that perfectly matched her spirit, as she often challenged all of them to a spar. And then there was Samui, who was a pale skinned blonde haired girl, she tended to stand out in the class since she was already very developed for her age, and had a very cool demeanor. Some of the boys in the school had already started calling her an Ice Queen because of this, though they all learned never to say it to her face.
Checking the clock Yota noticed it was time for the teacher to announce the teams, this was a moment that caused Yota and his friends to all hold their breaths as their Teacher announced the new Genin Squads. All four of them were relieved when they heard that they were going to be on the same team, considering how their graduating class had Yota added later than usual, which made them an odd numbered batch of students. This meant there was a chance that Yota would've been forced to either wait a year to graduate as part of another team, be taken in as an apprentice by a Jounin, or simply be turned into a 4 man squad. And as luck would have it, the four of them got their wish! As the Jounin all started filing in to collect their Gennins, the four of them scooted closer so they could talk.
"I can't believe that this is happening!" Karui exclaimed in a somewhat hushed voice, the excitement clearly evident on her face.
"I know right?!" responded a very happy Omoi.
"I am curious though…" said Samui as she tried to suppress her own smile, she had wanted dearly to be on a squad with her friends. "Who do you think the Raikage assigned to be our sensei?"
"Mmmmm, good point Samui-chan." remarked Yota, who was oblivious to the light dusting of pink on Samui's cheeks. Seeing this Karui and Omoi briefly rolled their eyes as they noticed this some months back, it was clear to the both of them that Yota and Samui liked one another more than just friends. Even if one of them didn't realize it at the moment.
"Personally I don't know who they're gonna give us as a sensei, I mean they're definitely not gonna allow Naruto-niichan to do it cause he's head of the Hunter Corps. And Darui is out since he's supposed to be the bodyguard for Raikage-sama." said Yota.
"Whoever it is, is gonna have to be badass." stated Karui. "You guys know by now how they set up the teams, it's the same for any village. The Jonin sensei is always someone who is perfect for the students to learn from, wouldn't want to pair anyone up with a sensei who's specialty doesn't mesh with the Gennins right?"
"True." remarked Omoi as he started on a fresh lollipop. Before any of them could say anything else however a familiar voice spoke up.
"You know I've been standing here for the last few minutes right?" Looking over the four of them saw a smirking Yugito who was leaning against the doorway, with a look on her face like she just ate several canaries.
"You're our Jonin Sensei?!" exclaimed a very excited Karui and Yota.
"Last time I checked." Yugito replied. "Team 13, follow me!" she said suddenly getting very stern as she was now all business. This seemed to have the intended effect on the 4 Gennin as they immediately all straightened up their postures, upon seeing that their ew Jonin sensei was already heading out the door they quickly took off after her.
1 hour later
The four Genin were officially drenched in sweat as they stopped to catch their breath, after making it to the roof of the Academy, they noticed Yugito standing on the roof of the adjacent building on the other side of the street. Not even giving them a chance to say anything, Yugito quickly told them that if they didn't want to be sent back to the Academy for another year then they needed to try to keep up with her. What followed then was one of the most terrifying and exhausting ordeals of their lives, as Yugito led them on a chase across most of Kumo. Now this for the most part wouldn't be a problem in most Hidden Villages, the problem with Kumo was that many parts of the village were also built into the literal sides of the surrounding mountains! Meaning if any one of them fell it was going to be a very long way down, before it ended with them being turned into soup upon hitting the ground.
Finally they had managed to catch up to their sensei who was sitting on a rock comfortably eating out of a bento box, well outside the village in what could only be described as the middle of nowhere. As they stood there panting, the heavenly aroma of Yugito's bento wafted into their nostrils causing all of their stomachs to growl. Yugito smirked at this a bit before finishing up her bento, she had too much fun with them, and she blamed hanging around her boyfriend so much for it.
"Alright you guys, now that you're finally here…." yep, Yugito had definitely been hanging around Naruto for too long. Ignoring the glares the Genin were leveling her way, as well as her own amusement she pressed on. "What we're going to do now is break tradition, normally what would happen is that I'd have you all introduce yourselves one at a time. You'd tell everyone your name, likes and dislikes, as well as what you perhaps specialize in, and maybe whatever dreams for the future that you have, yadda yadda yadda…. But since you all have been close friends for such a long time, having you go through all of that would just be a waste of time."
"So…..what will we be doing then?" asked Omoi after catching his breath.
"Oh that's simple, you're going to be given your real test." Yugito responded, quietly taking note of the Genin's faces.
"What?! But I thought we already passed?" exclaimed Yota and Karui at the same time.
"Yugito-sensei, could you please explain?" asked Samui after getting over her initial shock.
"Certainly." said Yugito, pleased that Samui was keeping her shit together, and so polite too!
"The Final Exam that the Academy gives to Genin hopefuls is meant purely to weed out those who can't hack it, we need Genin who are strong, capable, smart, and resourceful. No matter how much you may learn at the Academy, it will never truly prepare you for being out in the field. If you can't even pass something as easy as that exam, then what the Hell do you think is going to happen when you encounter an enemy shinobi?" Yugito explained, seeing the looks of realization dawn on each of their faces.
"And what about this test Yugito-sensei? Is it supposed to act as a final step?" asked Karui, who was surprisingly calm at the moment.
"Precisely, there are always those who are just naturally good test takers who have it easy taking the Academy Exam. But the moment they face this last test, is when it shows just how good their skills and knowledge truly are." Yugito answered, getting up she reached behind the rock she had been sitting on and grabbed 4 bento boxes that looked hot and ready to eat.
"First things first, lunch." she said before handing each of them a box to eat. She watched in silence as they each thanked her before digging into their bento boxes, each of them rolling their eyes and groaning at how delicious it was.
"Kami this is soooo good." moaned Karui.
"Divine." Samui said before digging back in.
"Hehe, I'm glad you like the bento, I'll make sure to tell Bee that you liked his cooking." Yugito responded, stifling a laugh as she saw the looks on her Genins' faces.
"Bee-sama made this?!" they all exclaimed, not believing it for a moment.
"Surprisingly yes, something that not many people know is that most experienced shinobi are very good in the kitchen. Having to prepare meals is important for daily shinobi life, so being able to make something fast when you're on the go, that tastes great is something that all ninjas eventually learn to do." explained Yugito. "Bee, like myself, just so happens to have an extremely refined pallet and sense of taste thanks to our tenants."
"Tenants?" asked a confused Omoi. "Oh! You mean Nibi-sama and Hachibi-sama!"
"Got it in one." confirmed Yugito, who noticed that they were done eating. "Alright now that you're done eating it's time for your test." Hearing this the four Genin stood up and braced themselves, they knew from not only her reputation but also spending time with her over the years that she could be merciless.
"Your test is going to be a survival test, simulating a scenario where you're behind enemy lines having escaped with valuable intelligence that could turn the tide of a possible war." Yugito stated, before pointing her thumb behind her at a respectably large forest that was at the base of a mountain. "Somewhere above the base of that mountain is a red flag that you need to make it to that represents the safety of the village, the forest is the enemy territory that you are going to be hunted down in."
"Wait….hunted?!" exclaimed Yota, not liking where this was going.
"You're going to be the one doing the 'hunting' aren't you?" asked Omoi, dreading the answer.
"Yep!" Yugito chirped. "And considering how you've been prepared for this test, none of you will have any type of excuse if you fail."
"Prepared? We haven't been 'prepared' for this at all, minus the lunch you gave us." stated a confused Karui, gaining a few nods from the other Genin.
"Haven't you?" inquired Yugito. "Did you really think that lovely little romp through the village was for nothing? You all had to work together at some point that whole hour, just to try to keep up with someone who's speed was far superior to yours. And considering the unique terrain that Kumo provides, there were times where you were all in some form of danger, and yet as a team you managed to make it to this point together." Yugito explained, gaining looks of realization from the four Genin.
"So all of that wasn't just you fucking with us?" asked Karui.
"Watch your mouth young lady." Yugito frowned. "But yes it was. Imagine if you were sent on a mission just the four of you, to sneak into an enemy village like Iwa to steal valuable documents. That little hour or so of Hell I put you through could be considered your attempt of escaping from the enemy village, having successfully acquired the documents."
"And now we're here…" started Omoi.
"In the final stretch towards safety." finished Yota.
"Precisely." confirmed a smiling Yugito.
"But unfortunately shit happened that was out of your control, call it Murphy's Law fucking you without a condom, and now a powerful enemy is on your tail. You have exactly 10 minute's head start on your enemy, before your enemy enters this area and starts to hunt you down. Capture means torture and death, so the question is whether you all choose to live, or die screaming." Yugito finished as she held a stop watch up in her hand.
"Clock starts now." she said before clicking one of the buttons to start the time. Not even waiting, the four Genin all took off at full speed, each trying to put as much distance between them and Yugito as they could. After several minutes of sprinting through the trees of the forest, Omoi chose to speak up.
"Uhhh, guys?"
"What?" they all asked.
"I just realized, we should probably try to set up some sort of trap to slow Yugito-sensei down."
"Oh! I know something that we could use!" exclaimed Karui as she fished something out of her shinobi pouch, looking closely the other three finally figured out what it was as they stopped in a small clearing.
"Where the hell did you get those?" Yota asked, recognizing the seal tags Karui was holding.
"I bought them while Henged to look like one of the other Chunin I've seen running around the village." answered Karui. "Took me 7 whole months of saving up my allowance to be able to buy all 3 of them."
"Karui, don't you think using those seals is a bit excessive?" asked Omoi.
"Actually, I think that might be just what we need." said Yota, getting the others' attention. "Yugito-sensei is an Elite Jounin for a reason, and that's not taking into account that she's a Jinchurriki who's been training with Naruto-nee."
"As much as I hate it, this may be the best way for us to slow her down." said Samui who fished out a pair of seals of her own. "Let's get to work, we don't have much time."
26 minutes later
Yugito huffed as she dusted herself off, she'd give the little shits credit, they definitely surprised her with that array of traps that they left for her. Sealing tags like Spellbinding Chains were one thing, she could handle those any time of the week. But what she hadn't expected was for them to tie them off to Hell Zone Tags! Even she didn't mess around with them! One of Naruto-kun's first real seals that he ever invented, essentially a combination of a storage seal filled with kunai, shuriken of various sizes, and senbon needles. That damn thing could explode multiple times, releasing these weapons with each explosion that got bigger and bigger! Yugito had heard and read reports from members of the BOLT and Hunter Corps about their effectiveness, she only ever really used them during spars where she was going all out with Bee-sama or Ay-sama.
"Where the HELL did they get their hands on those seals?!" Yugito thought as she gritted her teeth, it didn't help that Matatabi was laughing her ass off from within the seal.
"Pffffff HAAAA! HAHAHAHA! Oh WOW they got you good!" howled the feline Bijuu as she literally rolled around on a cushion that was large enough for her massive frame.
"Just wait till I get my hands on them, they're going to wish they were never born!" Yugito mentally snarled as she took off through the trees at full speed, channeling large amounts of Katon and Raiton chakra to boost her speed. They did a marvelous job setting those traps, but unfortunately for them she had their scent.
Somewhere in the middle of the forest
"Come on guys, we need to hurry!" said a nervous Omoi.
"Don't need telling twice!" Karui responded as she picked up the pace, she was now really regretting using those Hell Zone seals.
They had made great use of the rest of their head start, planting the first set of tags at that clearing, as well as to the left or right of the clearing as well. Effectively covering a very large area of the forest that was guaranteed death for most Chunnin, but would surely slow Yugito-sensei down as well. Afterwards they simply started running straight for the mountain, the last 20 or so minutes of explosions had been deafening. But now that the explosions had stopped, all they could feel was large amounts of chakra and Killer Intent saturating the entire forest.
"Guys I don't think we're going to make it to the mountain at this rate." stated Yota.
"I agree, we're only halfway there as it is. We need some plan of attack for when Yugito-sensei catches up to us." agreed Samui, as they all came to a stop on some of the tree branches.
"Let's take a quick inventory of what we got left." said Yota as he started rummaging around in his shinobi pouch, something the other three mirrored.
"I've got some homemade explosive tags, a sealing scroll full of shuriken, and some ninja wire." offered Samui.
"Same here with the explosive tags." said Karui as she held them out in her hand along with a scroll of some sort.
"Me too." Omoi chimed in. "I also have a sealing scroll full of water, maybe we use that to douse her then hit her with a Raiton jutsu." he said while holding up the scroll for the rest to see.
"Okay, this is a really good start." Yota began. "Now let's put it all together as best we can, otherwise Yugito-sensei is going to…..is….going…to…." Yota stopped as he looked up at the trees while the whole area was flooded with Killing Intent, as the rest looked up they all saw Yugito looking down at them from a tree branch.
"Oh no, don't mind me. By all means…give me some ideas." she said whilst cracking her knuckles, her voice going full blown demonic near the end.
40 minutes and a vicious beating later
A very pleased Yugito was sitting on a stone bench a little ways up from the base of the mountain humming to herself, behind her was the flag that her Genin Team was supposed to reach. Sipping on some tea, Yugito took a look at the Genin, all 4 of them had various bruises or lumps on their heads and were more than just a little singed. Some of them still had smoke coming off them as they all laid on the ground hog-tied, Yugito had to stifle another laugh as she saw just how poofy her raiton jutsus had made Samui's and Karui's hair, they practically had afros! Yota's hair was by far the worst though.
"I hope you guys know that while I was just going to shock you all a little before tying you up, y'all basically earned the ass kicking with those damn Hell Zone seals." she told them in between sips of tea, before leveling a glare at all four of them.
"Now I know for a fact that none of you could have legally bought those seals before today, so I'll make this short and simple. First one to give up the culprit gets to pass, but if the culprit gives themselves up first then only they will be sent back to the Academy while the rest get to become a standard 3 man Genin Squad." Getting up, Yugito quickly took the gags out of each of their mouths and untied their restraints before sitting back on her bench.
"Well, what is it going to be?" she asked, crossing her arms. She waited for a few moments while the 4 Genin quickly exchanged looks, afterwards it was Yota who spoke up.
"You might as well fail all of us, cause we've got nothing to say to you."
"Ohhh? Is that right?" asked Yugito as she took a look at the others.
"Yeah! That's right, either you take all of us as your Genin or we'll just find another sensei next year!" Karui said stubbornly.
"Well now, if that really is how you all feel…" stated Yugito, as she took one final look at the Genins' determined faces as she reached into her ninja pouch causing them all to stiffen.
"Then you all pass! Congratulations!" Yugito cheered, as she pulled out a small object and pulled the string attached to it, causing it to 'pop' and shoot a bunch of confetti at them.
"EHHHHHHH?!" was their collective response.
"Yep! You all passed with flying colors." Yugito chirped.
"B-B-But, w-what about…" Samui began.
"All that shit about you all either going to the Academy, or one of you going back?" Yugito asked, gaining a nod from the 4 Genin. "That was just something that I decided to throw in at the end to see what you would do, you all actually passed a while ago."
"What do you mean Yugito-sensei?" asked Omoi.
"The whole purpose of this test was designed around a mission that occurred back during the First Shinobi World War." began Yugito. "Back then Kumo was in a bad way, so a crack team of shinobi was sent out to obtain valuable intelligence. They were able to get what they were looking for, but wound up being hunted by our enemies. They survived for seven days, avoiding capture just to make it back to Lightning Country. The enemy had pooled their forces together in order to stop the team, they flooded the area with thousands of shinobi in order to stop the Kumo team." she explained, gaining a bunch of raised eyebrows from the Genin.
"What happened then?" asked Yota.
"Eventually the team was greeted by the Shodaime Raikage himself at the extraction point, with just over 10,000 enemy shinobi hot on their tail." answered Yugito. "This led to the Shodaime Raikage's Last Stand, where he single-handedly fought off all of the enemy forces bare handed for 3 days and nights."
"Impossible." muttered Karui in disbelief, while the others shared her sentiments.
"Not for the Shodaime it wasn't, in the end he would die of his heart giving out after the last of the enemy had been killed. But that valuable intel managed to make its way to the right people, and it led to every single major and minor victory that we had throughout the rest of that war." Yugito informed them.
"So that's how you came up with this test, we were basically trying to reenact history." stated Samui.
"It was one of the most important moments in our village's history, and because of its significance, as well as the unique nature of the mission it is often used for training purposes." informed Yugito. "In fact, it's thanks to Naruto-kun that this exercise has become even more popular for training."
"What do you mean Yugito-sensei?" asked Yota.
"Given Naruto-kun's job as the Head of the Hunter Corps, he's amazing at hunting people down, as well as stealth and survival for obvious reasons. All of which are skills that all Jonin are supposed to know, but he came up with well over a dozen different training methods to incorporate all of those skills into the exercises. As well as a couple of ways to improve the exercise you just went through." explained Yugito.
"Are these the kind of things we're going to learn Yugito-sensei?" asked an excited Yota, who had a certain gleam in his eye.
"Oh yes, you absolutely are. Along with so much more." answered Yugito, who suddenly had a look on her face like she just ate another canarie. "But first we need to take care of something." she said as she fished out a strange crystal from her ninja pouch.
"Wait, is that a chakra crystal?" interrupted Samui.
"Yes it is, good eye." complemented Yugito. "For those of you who don't know, chakra crystals perform the same function as chakra paper. In that they allow you to figure out what natural affinities you might have for certain elements."
"But we already know what our primary affinities are, they gave us this test at the end of last year." said Karui.
"Oh I know, I was the one who suggested that all students be given that test at the end of their second to last year. This way they would have that valuable information going into their final years at that Academy, and could spend time researching jutsu of their primary affinity before they even graduate " answered Yugito.
"That's explaining a lot." muttered Yota, getting a stern glare from Yugito.
"You're damn right it does young man, and don't think that I don't know that you were slacking off in class by sleeping." said Yugito, gaining a sheepish look from Yota. "Just because you were already researching jutsus to compliment your Kekkei Genkai, does not give you an excuse to slack off. What if you had found out that you had a primary affinity for Doton despite your bloodline limit?"
"You're right Yugito-sensei." a somewhat down Yota replied.
"It's fine Yota-kun, just don't slack off anymore. Alright?" Yugito responded kindly, getting a happy nod from the newly minted Genin.
"Good. Now you all are naturally born with a primary affinity for Doton, Suiton, Fuuton, Raiton, or Katon." said Yugito, getting back to business. "Some of you might already have a slightly weaker, secondary affinity for another element, it is important to know all of this as it will affect your skillset and jutsu repertoire."
"Yugito-sensei, I heard from Naruto-nii that jutsu you have an affinity for are easier to learn and dont cost as much chakra. Is that true?" asked Yota.
"Correct, that also makes those jutsus more powerful. And if you have any other elemental affinities, then they will also be easier to learn than other elements." answered Yugito. "For instance, I have a powerful primary affinity for Katon, a strong secondary affinity for Raiton, and a third affinity for Fuuton thanks to my training with Naruto-kun."
"Well we all already know that our primary affinities are for Raiton, let's see what else we've got. Could I go first please?" asked Karui, extending her hand for the crystal.
"Sure, here you go. Just try to pump as much chakra as you can into it." responded Yugito, before tossing the crystal to her. After a brief moment or two the crystal turned yellow with sparks coming out of the ende, before turning red and heating up.
Cutting off the chakra, Karui looked up at Yugito excitedly. "Awesome! So what element was that for? Katon?"
"Yep! And this is good because it means that you have an affinity for the one element that perfectly covers up your Raiton affinity's weakness to Fuuton." stated Yugito, as she watched Karui pass the crystal to the others.
Over the next few minutes they would all learn that Omoi's Secondary Affinity was for Doton, while Samui's was for Fuuton. Things got strange as expected when it became Yota's turn, as the crystal indicated his primary affinities for Raiton(yellow), Suiton(blue), and Fuuton(green). However it then turned dark red for a strong Katon affinity, as well as ending in with Doton where the crystal looked much like a diamond before reverting to normal.
"Uhhhh, Yugito-sensei is that supposed to happen?" asked Omoi, as the others gathered in closer to see.
"Normally no." answered Yugito. "However, due to certain unique circumstances this was very much expected."
"You mean because of the…" Yota trailed off, not really sure how or what to say.
"It's alright Yota, you can tell them if you're ready." Yugito said gently, knowing that this was a very sensitive topic. One that she was grateful Naruto explained to her in detail so that she would understand, that for those who receive the Jiongu it is only under the worst of circumstances that one receives the gift. And considering the story she was told of how Naruto himself received it, along with Yota, she knew this was a touchy subject at best.
"I-It's fine Yugito-sensei, I'm ready." Yota said with a sad smile as he looked back at his friends' confused faces. "I sort of have a second Kekkei Genkai, one that was given to me so that I wouldn't die."
"What do you mean?" asked Samui.
"It's called Jiongu, or Earth Grudge Fear." replied Yota. "I'm the last of the Bofuu Clan because we were captured by slavers or wiped out, eventually I was the last to survive but was dying from a disease."
"Kami-sama…" muttered Omoi in shock, as neither of his female teammates could even find the strength to speak.
"I was about to die when he found me, he gave me the Jiongu while sacrificing the life of one of my captors in order to save me." continued Yota. "Receiving the Jiongu also cured me of my disease….and I got…another heart because of it."
"What do you mean by another heart?" asked Samui. "Like a transplant?"
"No, I mean I literally have 2 hearts." answered Yota, before he slowly took off his shirt and turned around to show them his back. As he expected his three teammates all gasped at what they saw, as his back was covered in stitches. And there on his left shoulder was a small animal mask that seemed to be attached to his back, quickly pulling his shirt back down he turned to face his team once again.
"Well….." Karui began, as she found her voice. "That at least explains why you like baggy clothes."
"Whatl can your Jiongu do?" asked Samui.
"Would you like to see?" asked a voice from behind, causing all four of them to jump. Turning around they all came face to face with Naruto, who was wearing what had quickly become his standard shinobi attire. Consisting of a loose black sleeveless shirt identical to what Kakuzu wears meaning there is almost no back to the shirt whatsoever, allowing his Mask Beasts can leave or enter his body unobstructed. Wearing heavy black shinobi pants with cargo pockets that belted on tight, and tucked into steel-toed black combat boots, they also noticed how he had a large bamboo and straw hat on that perfectly covered his large fox ears. The entire ensemble was rounded off with a large blood red coat with black flames at the bottom hem, and a heavy duty shinobi belt that had a wicked looking kukri on his left hip, with the rest of the belt covered in shinobi pouches of various sizes.
"Naruto-nii/san!" the Genin exclaimed.
"Yo." replied Naruto with a small wave. "I'll go ahead and take things from here Yota, if you don't mind."
"S-Sure." Yota replied meekly.
"For starters, Jiongu is nothing short of ancient. It predates so many things that there's no telling how old it truly is, and it is unbelievably dangerous." began Naruto, who then unhooked a large saki gourd that was hanging off of his right hip. What happened next shocked all of the Genin but Yota, when Naruto's right arm extended almost 15 ft. towards Yugito.
"Thanks." Yugito said softly, as she took the offered guard and took a few gulps of saki before handing it back. The Genin all watched as Naruto's arm, which had separated just below the elbow, retracted back while attached to these innumerable black and red threads.
"Holy shit." muttered Karui.
"W-What can it do?" asked Omoi, after finding his voice once more.
"So many things it's not even funny." answered an uncharacteristically serious Naruto. "Now that's about all I'm going to show you for now as I'm going to be teaching Yota everything else that he can do with Jiongu, you guys will learn more about it later when it comes time for teamwork exercises."
"How come?" asked Karui.
"This is considered a Clan Secret for all intents and purposes, and besides none of you need to worry about what I teach him for now since me and Yugi-chan are going to be training you all into the ground. Once we've gotten you all up to a standard that we're comfortable with, we're going to train you how to work together as a unit." answered Naruto.
"Teamwork may be a great concept, but zero times four is still zero." explained Yugito. "You could have the best teamwork in the world, but if none of you have any real individual skills then there's no point in sending you out into the field."
"So when do we start?" asked an excited Omoi.
"Is now good for you?" asked Yugito, who suddenly had a feral grin spread across her face as she drew several kunai from God only knows where. Suddenly not liking the close proximity to their official sensei, the four Genin looked over only to see Naruto smiling at them with what looked like rows of razor sharp teeth.
"Run." was all the Hanyou needed to say to get all four Genin running for their lives once again.
"This…is gonna be fun." commented Yugito as she stood up, briefly stretching out her legs before taking off after their victims.
5 months later
It had been nothing short of Hell for the four Genin, as Yugito personally saw to it that they all went home after training each day sore, battered and bruised. Seeing how they all knew the Tree Walking Exercise from the Academy, she had forced them to learn Water Walking. From there they also were forced to play 'games' with Yugito and Naruto, such as 'Shovel Tag', or 'Dodge the Kunai', and 'Don't get Caught by the Psychotic Killer'. None of them were any real good at the first or third one for a very long time, though they did at least get to the point where they could go 15 minutes without getting caught. Essentially copying some of the training exercises that Naruto was forced to endure at Kakuzu and Hitome's hands, though none of the Genin could really complain since it was making them noticeably stronger.
Another thing that they were drilled in was jutsus according to their elemental affinities, this was something that really showed Yota and his friends why Yugito had been chosen as their sensei. On her own she was able to help them to become proficient with multiple D Rank jutsus with each of their elements, though Naruto had to help Omoi out with his affinity for Doton. When it came to other areas of their training however, this is where their individual strengths and preferences began to reveal themselves. All four of them were drilled in Kenjutsu and Bukijutsu, something that is a standard practice for all Kumo shinobi, but it quickly became evident how different each of them were.
For starters, Karui and Omoi both preferred Katanas which they kept slung across their backs at all times. Something that Yugito taught all of them how to do, was how to best incorporate the usage of kunai, shuriken, and even Fuuma Shuriken with their primary weapons. This way they had an answer for if someone slipped past their guard, or they needed some ranged options. They had asked if they could learn Santoryu or Acrobat from Naruto and Bee, but that was something that they would have to wait on further down the road.
With Samui it was different, she not only had her tanto for close quarters combat, but she also had a massive kusarigama that used to be her mother's. This was something that had everyone nervous seeing how the scythe, or kama, was large enough to hold with 2 hands, and had a wicked blade that was big enough to easily cut a man in two or lop off a horse's head. The real scary part was the large spiked ball at the other end of the 30 ft. chain, weighing in at 25 lbs, the nightmarish thing was very unique. After inspecting the spiked ball, they noticed how it had built in vernier thrusters that were powered by the user's chakra allowing for truly devastating hits. This was something that was outside of either Naruto's or Yugito's expertise, luckily Samui had already spent her last year in the Academy learning the basics of the weapon. Everyone was relieved to hear that, especially when she told everyone how she was already learning from her older brother C on how to use the weapon. Seeing how he had his own version of the weapon that their father had helped him forge.
With Yota however things were even more complicated, as he had already taken up learning how to wield a very special weapon when he started his final year in the Academy. Naruto, wanting to make sure his surrogate little brother would be safe, had started training him on how to wield Little Crow, the personal weapon of the 2nd Mizukage. It had been smooth sailing at first, since Yota had a natural talent with the weapon, but when Naruto tried teaching Yota the basics of channeling elemental chakra through the weapon, that was when they discovered the true ability of Little Crow. The double bladed saber was not only a perfect conduit for elemental chakra, but also had the ability to combine multiple elemental natures together for more powerful elements! The very first time Yota tried to channel Raiton and Suiton through the weapon, the resulting element that was flung from Little Crow's edge was a perfect replication of Darui's Ranton Kekkei Tota. Afterwards Naruto, Darui, and even the Raikage all agreed that Yota should never attempt such a thing again till he was at least a Chunnin. And even then it would be under strict supervision, as combining multiple elements is something that is meant for high Chunin and low Jonin to start learning.
Despite all of the training that they had been receiving, the looks on Team 13's faces when they were given their first D Rank mission was priceless. Especially since both Yugito and Naruto had been building the four of them up to thinking that their first mission was going to be something badass…..instead they were tasked with capturing the pet cat of the Lightning Daimyo's Wife. The poor Genin quickly found out that that damn thing escaped at every possible chance that it could find, and was the bane of every Genin's existence. Rumor has it that Genin in Konoha had a similar problem with the pet cat of the Fire Daimyo's wife. Thankfully the D Ranks only lasted for so long, eventually Yugito couldn't stomach doing over glorified chores with her Genin anymore and put in a request after the second month for their first C Rank Mission.
Flashback
"S-So you mean we're really gonna…" began Omoi, as he stood next to his teammates. Nearly all of whom looked just as perturbed as he did, not surprisingly, Yota was taking the news fairly well given his past.
"Yep." answered Yugito as looked over her team. They were standing over a ledge some 60 miles away from the village, she hadn't bothered to bring them to the Raikage's office for a mission like usual and instead had simply met them at their usual training ground and told them to follow her.
"Better to simply rip the band aid off and get it over with, you're all shinobi now, and this is a part of the shinobi life. You don't have to like it at all, but it is something that you're going to be doing on a very regular basis." explained Yugito.
"Okay, I understand that part." Karui slowly began. "But why weren't we at least allowed to…..I don't know…take some more gear with us?"
"Oh that's easy, it's so that you can get used to having to leave for a mission with little to no preparation. Sometimes you will barely have enough time to even throw your clothes on before running off to join others on an emergency mission, Hell there've been several times I had to go commando on a mission." Yugito answered shamelessly, causing the four Gennin to blush.
"Sensei, is that why you made us start carrying those 'General Purpose' scrolls with us wherever we go?" asked Samui.
"Got it in one squirt." chirped Yugito. "Those scrolls carry spare sets of clothes, basic camping equipment, food rations, and other such things. The perfect scroll to take when you're suddenly called to duty with no prep time. The opportunity for you guys to get a taste of that on this mission was just too good to pass up, and it's in that spirit that I'm putting a few restrictions on you for this mission."
"What do you mean Yugito-sensei?" asked Yota, as he started to munch on a ration bar.
"For starters, none of you are allowed to use any ninjutsu unless attacked by an enemy ninja." stated Yugito, getting surprised looks from Team 13. "This is to be a purely skill based test of what you know, we're shinobi, this means that about 99% of the time when we're out on a mission we're not using a bunch of flash jutsu. Why waste time and chakra doing over 20 hand signs to do a big jutsu on someone, when you can kill your opponent with something as simple as a kunai to the throat?" explained Yugito as looks of realization dawned on her Genin.
"Sooooo, basically you want us to do nothing but stealth kills?" asked Omoi.
"Yep." answered Yugito before getting serious. "Now listen close, down there at the bottom is a camp of bandits that have been raiding merchant caravans for the last month. They've murdered over 40 people at this point, and several young women have gone missing thanks to them. I'm pretty sure I don't need to explain to you four what that means, right?"
"Nope, I'm good."
"Understood."
"Got it."
"What do we do about the hostages?" asked Samui.
"You don't do anything, I'll handle that part on my own." answered Yugito. "You guys just worry about killing the bandits, now you have your orders, time to move out."
"Hai Sensei!" they all responded in unison before disappearing from her sight.
"I hope they're ready." Yugito said quietly to herself before she left to go see about any possible hostages.
Karui POV
After running down the face of the cliff, Karui had jumped off to land in the tops of some trees overlooking a part of the camp. After settling down, Karui spent the next several minutes getting an idea of her surroundings. It was so surreal for her as she looked around at what would soon become her victims, she watched how some of them kept guard at certain spots while others walked around drinking sake. Karui tried first thinking of how she should do it, what would be the best way to dispatch the bandits in her area. Almost immediately several different ideas started bombarding her as she tried to think of what to do, she couldn't make a decision on what to do or where to go, let alone when to start. It started to drive home something for her as she realized just how easy it would be to take a life, especially the way she was about to.
Fidgeting in her spot, Karui spent what seemed to be an eternity mulling it over till she eventually decided that she wouldn't get anywhere unless she at least chose someone to be her first. Looking around she dropped down to the ground near some tents, moving as quietly as she could, she made her way over to some man who was pissing into some bushes. Kunai in hand, Karui waited till the man was almost done with his business, before quickly wrapping her slender arm around his neck tightly and pulling as hard as she could back towards herself. Catching the man off guard he tilted back just the way she had planned, her kunai was driven up through the right side of his ribs into his lung. Crumpling to the ground almost immediately, the bandit wasn't able to make a sound as blood gushed out of his mouth as Karui quickly wrenched the kunai out and slid it across the bandit's throat. Shimmying out from underneath him, Karui looked down at the bandit as he slowly died, noticing how his eyes just barely seemed to register that she was there before the pupils dilated and whatever light was still in them left for good.
Samui POV
After making her way around the camp, Samui had seen that there was a lone bandit that was walking around some 30 or so yards away from the camp. Apparently acting as a sentry of sorts, Samui watched the man for the next 20 minutes or so as he walked along the same general route. It became clear that the bandit wasn't really paying too much attention as on several occasions he walked right past her when all she did was hide behind a bush! Now knowing what point was the farthest away from camp on his route, Samui made her way so that she could ambush the sentry with her tanto. Feeling her heart pounding as she made her way closer to the ambush point, Samui did her best to steel her nerves despite the fact that her palms were becoming noticeably more and more sweaty.
Eventually she made her way around the sentry and up into a tree, as the bandit came closer Samui's heart began to pound even harder in her chest. Scrunching her eyes shut for a moment, she forced herself to calm down as best she could, taking a few deep breaths she opened her eyes to find the bandit was now standing underneath the tree lighting up a cigarette. Taking her tanto she got ready to drop down and kill the bandit, however as she shifted her weight the branch she was standing on creaked loudly causing the bandit to look up and spot her.
"Shit!" Samui hissed as she quickly tackled the alarmed bandit to the ground. What would have been a loud wrestling match quickly came to an end as Samui's tanto was driven into the bandit's heart, breathing heavily as the adrenaline coursed through her body Samui sat on the ground looking at her first kill. But before Samui could even process what had just happened a snapping of a small twig alerted her, whipping her head over she saw a fairly young looking bandit who couldn't have been more than a few years older than her. Standing about 15 yards away staring at her with a shocked look on his face, the young bandit quickly turned around and tried to make a run for it.
As fear and adrenaline shot through her system at being caught, Samui didn't even realize that she had thrown her tanto into the teenager's neck. Her aim was a little off though, as all it seemed to do was pierce the right side of his neck causing him to fall to the ground. Surprisingly the bandit crawled back up and tried to keep running towards the camp, thinking quickly Samui unsealed her mother's kusarigama and gave chase. Catching up to the injured bandit, Samui quickly wrapped the chain around the bandit's neck and started to pull as hard as she could while taking him to the ground. A smart move, as they were now only about 40 feet away from the camp with only a large rock in front of them.
Straddling the young bandit, Samui continued to pull at the chain as she strangled him to death, the look on his young face being one of horror as he made eye contact with her. His face now a bright shade of purple as his efforts to save himself quickly died down, till eventually he stopped moving altogether. Taking the chain off of the dead bandit's neck, Samui released a large breath she didn't know she had been holding as she retrieved her tanto. Checking her surroundings real fast, she wiped the blood off of her tanto using the dead bandit's sleeve before moving on towards the nearest tent.
Omoi's POV
Things had gone downhill for Omoi almost right from the beginning, and in an extremely unexpected way. After making his way over to a part of the camp that had some fairly large tents, Omoi had looked for the largest one he could find. Figuring that would be where the Bandit Leader would be, and maybe after taking him out, he would be able to grab anything of value before moving on to the next tent. This did not happen, instead almost as soon as he snuck into the tent, he had to hide as the Bandit Leader walked in laughing while holding a giggling female bandit. If the young Kumo shinobi could blush he'd be doing an amazing impression of a tomato, as he saw both bandits strip each other of their clothes and get into bed. Hiding behind a dresser, Omoi tried to get over his embarrassment over the two adults that were fucking each other sensless only 6 feet away from him.
Drowning out the lewd noises and cries of pleasure coming from the bandits, Omoi tried to go over his options and figure out what to do. Something that he found increasingly difficult, as it's not like there was ever a day in the Academy where they covered situations like the one he found himself in at that moment. Not really knowing what else to do, Omoi resigned himself to his fate and decided to wait it out, and hopefully strike after they fell asleep. Afterall, how long could they go at it right?
50 minutes later
A seriously pissed off Omoi was sitting behind the dresser with his eye twitching, the two bandits had FINALLY stopped screwing around and were now lying in bed talking to one another. Something that surprised Omoi was when at one point he peeked over the top of the dresser, he noticed a pair of wedding rings lying on top of the dresser. Apparently these two were married! This had Omoi confused as he couldn't figure out why the both of them were pursuing this type of a lifestyle, prompting him to listen closer to what they were talking about. The surprises seemed to just keep coming as it turned out that the Bandit Leader's wife wasn't just in on it from the beginning, but also helped the bandits to capture many of the women and children that had gone missing!
Acting quickly and without much of a plan, Omoi sprung up from around the dresser with a kunai in each hand, before either bandit could react he quickly stabbed them both in the temples killing them instantly. Taking a breath to steady himself, Omoi closed the eyes of the bandits before covering them up with the sheets. Thinking quickly he started going through the tent for anything of value, finding a large amount of what looked like maps and important documents. Confused, Omoi decided to seal all of it up so that he could show it to Yugito later. Taking a brief look outside the tent to make sure the coast was clear, Omoi slipped out and made his way to another tent, figuring he'd start slitting the throats of sleeping bandits.
Yota's POV
Yota had felt a certain calmness ever since getting the mission details from Yugito-sensei, he'd just felt a sort of….acceptance about it, and wasn't surprised at all by what he was being told to do. Thinking back he remembered all of the lessons that he had had with Naruto in private, the closest that could be considered Clan Training between the two of them, a lot of it had been nothing short of gruesome. Yota still remembered the different cuts that Naruto had made on his body, using that strange kukri of his, Naruto had first shocked Yota by cutting both his arms off just below the elbows. After freaking out for several minutes, Yota had finally calmed down enough to realize that he was barely bleeding at all and that he felt almost no pain. Yota watched in wonder as masses of black thread shot out of the stumps of his arms, only to quickly attach to the rest of his arms that were lying on the ground. The whole process had felt weird since as soon as the threads attached to the rest of his arms, he was able to feel with them again, the experience of his arms shooting back toward him and attaching to the rest of his body once again was equally strange though not unpleasant.
From there Naruto started training him in how to extend his arms across great distances, as well as how to best incorporate that into his fighting style. The knowledge that he would be able to literally throw people around like rag dolls put a certain gleam in his eye, but it was some of the other abilities that the Jiongu gave him that blew his mind. One of which he was going to try out right now, moving forward Yota spied a pair of bandits that were sitting in front of a small fire talking to one another. Looking around Yota saw how no one else in the camp seemed to be paying attention, and due to how late it was many had already retired to their tents for the night. Gauging the distance between himself and his two targets from behind some large rocks, Yota figured it to be about 60 feet. Yota took his time analyzing the other bandits, for what he planned to do he didn't want anyone to notice the abrupt disappearance of two of their own.
With the timing being right, Yota shot both of his arms forward, extending them across the large distance from where he stood. The two bandits didn't know what hit them as Yota's arms wrapped around their necks and tightened, cutting off their air supply. With his smaller hands firmly clamped over their mouths to further prevent them from making a sound, Yota pulled as hard as he could upward and backward. The results were better than he could have predicted as both bandits shot back up into the air before crashing down in front of him. With the Jiongu threads pouring even more out of his arms, Yota was able to completely immobilize the both of them before they could ever scream. Quickly peeking out from around the rocks to make sure everything was fine, Yota was delighted to learn that none of the bandits at the camp had noticed a thing.
Turning back to his two victims, Yota took out the short sword of Little Crow and deftly cut open their shirts. Remembering Naruto's instructions Yota willed his Jiongu to quickly pierce into the bandits' skin, within moments the information he had been searching for came to him. Something that Naruto had explained once before, was that it didn't matter if someone had their chakra network activated like a shinobi or not, the act of taking a person's heart would yield the same results every time. Naruto had discovered this after executing a traitorous Village Councilmember a few years ago, the man had been a civilian all his life and had never activated his chakra network. That man still yielded a workable Fuuton heart just the same, and apparently the same could be said for the two bandits on the ground before him. Yota was going to leave this mission with a Katon and Doton heart in his collection, not wasting any time Yota quickly got started.
Pulling out a seal tag from one of his ninja pouches, he placed it down on the ground in front of him and poured some chakra into it causing it to activate. With a soft pulse of light through its lettering, the seal's lettering then spread over the ground around Yota and the bandits covering a radius of 15 ft. around them.
"That was a privacy seal that my nii-san made for me." Yota said, as he finally decided to speak to the bandits who were looking around wondering what had just happened. Seeing that he had their attention, he went into further detail. "What it does is prevent any sound from escaping from this immediate area, meaning you can scream as loud as you want, no one's going to hear you."
As a look of realization began to dawn on the two bandits, Yota's Jiongu then began to dig into their bodies causing them to scream through their gags in agony. As this was going on a certain ripping sound could be heard as the Jiongu forcefully opened up their chest cavities. Unzipping his loose shirt, he tied the sleeves around his waist in order to keep it in place since the bottom was already tucked under his utility belt. His chest and back held a number of what looked like deliberate surgical scars stitched shut, a gift from Naruto so that he could open up his body whenever he needed to. Reaching down Yota grabbed the two pulsing masses of black threads that held the two now deceased bandits' hearts, and placed them inside his chest.
Yota's pupils dilated fully as he felt a surge of power flow through his body, he could tell that both hearts had only added a small amount to his overall reserves but that was fine. With time he could use them to grow his reserves even further, looking around he started picking his next target.
Flashback End
It had taken the Genin almost an hour and a half before all of them made a kill, after that they started slowly making more and more kills and picked up the pace. By the time they were done they had killed a little over 30 of the 53 bandits that night, when one of them noticed all of the dead bodies and sounded the alarm. It didn't do the bandits any good as the Genin quickly dispatched the rest of them out in the open, Omoi even bisected 3 of them with a Fuuma Shuriken.
After everything had settled down, Omoi showed Yugito and the others what he had found in the Bandit Leader's tent, when they all looked through the Bandit Leader's tent they found a large chest full of money and jewelry. Quickly deciding to take everything with them back to the village, Yugito had the Genin seal everything of value up in sealing scrolls before using a large Katon jutsu to reduce the camp and the bodies to ashes.
Making it back to Kumo the next morning, Yugito and her team gave their report to Ay, showing the map and the documents that they had collected from the Bandit Leader's tent. Ay went ahead and gave the team the next 10 days off to rest and come to terms with what they just had to do, and that when they report back in he'll have some more missions for them. The next several days were hard for Team 13 as none of them had ever taken a life, Yota had it the easiest given what he had gone through in the past as well as all of the time that he had spent with Naruto, Kakuzu, and Hitome. He was fine after the first 2 days needing only time to process what had happened and what he had done, Omoi and Karui took a little bit longer needing an entire work week to get to the same place as Yota. Surprisingly, it was Samui who had the toughest time dealing with it, something that led to Yota having to spend time every day comforting her till she eventually felt better by the 9th day.
Team 13 was still a bit shaken by the time their 10 day furlough was over, but they were all at least ready to go on another mission. When reporting in to Ay for another mission they were sent on another mission to clear out a bandit camp, apparently the map and those documents that they had found confirmed the locations of other bandit camps. The strange thing however was that they appeared to be organized, something that only ever really is seen in underworld criminal organizations, as simple bandits don't ever work together like those documents would suggest. Because of that Team 13 is being tasked with wiping out the other 15 bandit camps, as well as bringing back any documents or intelligence that they find, along with any hostages that may still be alive.
Over the next couple of months they cleared out all of the remaining bandit camps, finding more and more intelligence that all of the camps were connected, and a part of a larger smuggling and trafficking operation. They even liberated 3 different human trafficking warehouses along the way as well, all of which had been guarded by enemy shinobi making each a B Rank mission. It wasn't till the last raid that Team 13 came into contact with higher level enemy shinobi, automatically turning the mission from a B Rank to an A Rank. While Karui and Omoi made use of a pair of Hell Zone Seals to cut off both main entrances and exits to the bandit camp, Yota and Samui used Spellbinding Chains seals to capture a couple dozen bandits who were near the center of the camp. All four of the Genin had then launched several Fuuma Shuriken each into the crowd of bandits, mincing them to shreds right before the enemy shinobi had arrived.
This was where Yugito stepped in as the leader was a former Jonin of Kumo, leaving Team 13 to deal with the Chunin level subordinates. Karui and Omoi wound up fighting back to back against one who was wielding a large 2 handed scythe with a single blood red blade, something that nearly cost them both their lives was when they learned the hard way that their opponent's scythe was connected to a long metal cable. That the enemy shinobi used to swing the damn thing around from various angles, consequently lengthening his overall reach. In the end both of them were able to channel Raiton chakra into their katanas to cut the cable while the scythe was in mid-swing, disarming him, and then Karui and Omoi each bisected him. The nukenin hit the ground in 4 separate pieces.
With Samui and Yota however, they were forced to deal with a Ninjutsu specialist who was high Chunin level and was content to keep the both of them at a distance with Suiton jutsus and shuriken. The both of them had a very tough time dealing with their opponent at first, especially since Yota had been forbidden from using his Kekai Tota or the special abilities of Little Crow unless it was absolutely necessary. In the end, Samui and Yota overpowered her Water Dragon Bullet with a Doton/Fuuton combination jutsu, sending a stream of condensed mud that was empowered and accelerated by the wind.
Afterwards, once Yugito had allowed the team to rest, they started sealing the bodies of the Nukenin as well as grabbing whatever intel they could find. They weren't disappointed either, as they discovered that a rich businessman named Gato had been bankrolling the entire operation from the start. Gato had apparently been the one to not only organize all of the bandit camps, but chose where they were to set up, what targets they were to hit, as well as using them for a human and narcotics trafficking ring. One that stretched from Lightning Country down South through Frost and Hot Springs Country, before going through Fire Country, and ending in the Land of Noodles. Knowing that the Raikage would want to know about what they had found, Team 13 quickly made their way back home to make their report. It turned out they were right, as Ay(predictably) flew into a rage once he heard the news and read through the intel. Ay then congratulated Team 13 on a very successful B Rank turned A Rank mission, telling him that their pay would reflect as such and that they would have the next 2 days off to rest. They wound up not hearing anything from the Raikage for a little over a week, as Ay had left the village later that same day to the Lightning Country Capital in order to speak to the Lightning Country Daimyo.
When Ay returned he quickly called Team 13 in to see him, it was then that he told them the news of how he had needed to talk to the Lightning Daimyo about what they had uncovered and what they would do next. They had both agreed that due to the fact that Gato had a massive smuggling and trafficking ring stretching through multiple countries that it was only fair that they let those countries' respective Daimyo know what was going on. As well as tell them what steps they were about to take to deal with Gato. The Lightning Daimyo himself had personally placed the Kill Order on Gato's head, whom they discovered was somewhere in Wavy Country. Both the Raikage and the Lightning Daimyo had then contacted the Hokage in Konoha to let him know what was going on, and that they were going to be sending a team out to take care of Gato. Apparently the Sandaime Hokage wasn't able to respond fast enough as he sent one of his best personal Monkey Summons to deliver the response, wanting to know what all Gato had been up to.
Yugito and Team 13 were in awe as the realized just how badly Gato had fucked up, as Ay told them how he had spent the last couple of days communicating back and forth between the Hokage and 5 other Daimyos as to what they were going to do about Gato. And how they were all going to sue his company for punitive damages to their respective nations, Ay had just gotten a reply from the Hokage telling him how he was about to send 2 Genin teams and their respective Jonin Sensei's on an escort mission really soon. Apparently the client was a bridge builder who 'was worried about bandits and highwaymen on the road', and wanted an escort back to his home in Wave. Yugito and her team left that very next morning.
2 Days Later
Sakura let out a sigh of boredom as she and teams 7 and 8 made their way down the road, she was wearing a short sleeved blood red qipao dress with slits along the sides accompanied by a zipper and white circular designs. She was also wearing tight dark green bike shorts with 2 kunai holsters around her right thigh, blue sandals, and the standard Konoha forehead protector worn as a hairband. On top of that, she had a utility belt around her waist that had shuriken pouches on each of her hips, with 2 shinobi pouches at the small of her back. And slung across her back with large leather belts, was a sealing scroll that had been gifted to her by the Academy upon graduation. Something that she was very proud of since it was only given to those who showed high marks in all of their Fuinjutsu classes, only herself and one other Kunoichi had earned it so far.
Things had been slow going as they walked along a well traveled road. Ever since graduating from the Academy things had been very awkward for her, she had no troubles with her studies and had even excelled to the point where she aced all of the classes regarding Fuinjutsu. However things took a slight turn as she found out who she was on a team with, one being a pale skinned boy who was always drawing in a sketchbook, and the other was him. She didn't really know how to feel about him ever since it came out that his father had been 'The Ghost' all along, she admittedly had a monster crush on him when they were younger however.
But that all changed when the news of his father broke, and then later when over half his clan committed suicide the way that they did. Sakura decided to simply keep her distance, especially given how her mother never seemed to miss an opportunity to tell her not to be mad at Sasuke for what his father had done. Sakura had tried to be as polite and cordial with him over the years that they went to the Academy, electing to watch him from afar for the most part. But after being placed on a team with him Sakura didn't really know what to do or say around him, if it wasn't related to training or a mission then she was at a loss for words on how to approach Sasuke.
Things weren't that much better when they finally got their first C Rank mission out of the village, guarding this old bridge builder who reeked of sake, only to find out that it was going to be a joint mission shared between them and Team 8. Team 8 which was led by this extremely beautiful woman named Kurenai Yuhi, and had Hinata Hyuuga, Shino Aburame, and worst of all Kiba Inuzuka. It was a well known fact by just about everyone that Kiba hated Sasuke, Kiba's father died protecting the village from Fugaku and Kiba was content with making that Sasuke's problem at every opportunity. Needless to say, the both came to blows at least once a week when they were in the Academy. It was such an often occurrence that the one month where they didn't fight each other, it had the entire faculty on edge. Even the Hokage had dropped by to see if everything was alright.
As luck would have it, the last 5 months or so of not seeing one another had done wonders for them both. Ever since the mission started neither of them had so much as said a word to one another, which was awesome in her books. She still remembered the last time she saw the two of them fight, actual jutsus had been thrown around, and Iruka-sensei had to knock the both of them out. Looking over at her two teammates, Sakura took stock of what they had brought with them for the mission. Sasuke was wearing blue ninja sandals with white cargo shorts, as well as the standard Uchiha high collared dark blue shirt with white arm warmers. Like her Sasuke also had a utility belt, though he possessed a large ninja pouch at the small of his back, with two smaller pouches on either side of the main compartment pouch. He also had shuriken holsters on his hips, with a pair of kunai holsters on each leg, and across his back on a large leather belt rested a large straight sheathed sword. Now Sakura wasn't aware of the significance of the sword personally, but one thing that she did notice was that Kiba had immediately tensed when seeing it. Sakura couldn't blame him though, it was wicked looking with it's skulled crossguard hilt and pommel.
Then there was Sai, Sai had a strange shirt that left his stomach exposed while wearing black shorts and shinobi sandals. He also had a tipless tanto strapped across his back, his belt however was covered in small pouches and ink supplies, with a standard shinobi pouch at the back. He always gave her the creeps, even Sasuke during one of the few times they ever spoke outside of training had admitted that he thought there was something wrong with the guy. Despite that however, he had proved to be very competent, especially with his use of ink-based ninjutsu. This had even Sasuke floored when he first saw it, and over the months that they trained both of them came to see just how all around useful Sai's ink beasts could be. As all of Sai's jutsus seemed to come made-to-order depending on whatever the situation was, making him the most versatile member of their team.
Taking a look at Team 8 Sakura noticed their Jonin sensei Kurenai, she was wearing a very unique dress that looked to be made partially of large bandages with black vines running throughout it. With a single large left red sleeve covering her arm it was hard to see just what she might have hidden up there, while her right was covered in bandages. Completing her ensemble were a pair of standard ninja pouches at the small of her back. Meanwhile her squad was set up in a diamond formation just ahead of them, leading them all was the only other girl there, Hinata Hyuuga. Hinata wore dark blue shinobi sandals and pants with a pair of kunai holsters on each leg, and a large cream colored coat that was open in the front. While she wore a dark shirt and ninja mesh for a top, no one could really see much of the pouches that she had on her belt due to her coat. With a Hime style haircut and the tell-tale Hyuuga eyes of her clan which, in her opinion, gave her a very cute look, she was very popular with the boys back at the Academy. All throughout the Academy she was this strange mixture of limitless, ADHD energy that could have her bouncing off of the walls, but was also incredibly shy as well. This led to countless times in school where she would do a complete 180 in social situations, regardless her heart was always in the right place and everyone adored her.
Next was Kiba Inuzuka, a tall boy for his age whose muscles were already starting to really fill in, who had dark brown hair and slitted eyes like all members of his clan. As well as his clan's markings of red fang tattoos on his cheeks. Kiba's attire consisted of dark greyish pants reaching to his calves and a grey, hooded fur-lined coat, with the hood once again placed on his head. He was walking next to his ninken puppy Akamaru, a sweet white furred wolf pup whom Kiba usually listened to whenever he 'spoke up'. With the exception of a backpack he had on, there was nothing else to say about his ensemble.
Lastly there was Shino Aburame, as typical was, sporting the same style as the rest of his clan, meaning dark round sunglasses and a jacket with a high, upturned collar. Seriously, it's like those glasses are treated as a Kekkei Genkai cause everyone in his clan wears them! And it's a shame in her opinion, cause he actually has some pretty eyes based on one of the few times where he took them off to clean them. Shino was always the quiet one in the class, only ever speaking when he felt it was necessary, which led to many in the Academy listening to him. Since he was always right and made very valid points about whatever he was talking about, Sakura appreciated that, Shino thought before he did or said anything. His bugs still kind of grossed her out at times, but she could admit they were cool in a way.
Shaking her head, Sakura decided to refocus on her mission, this was her first one outside the village and what Kakashi-sensei had said to her team yesterday was till ringing in her head. Thanks to her time spent with Shino in the Academy, as well as how things went with her team surviving the Bell Test, she figured out that everything he did or said was for a reason. Sure Kakashi-sensei was lazy and chronically late to everything, seriously he'd be late to his own funeral, but took time after the client had left for his hotel to talk to them. Saying how this mission was going to be unique for other reasons, and that there were several 'powerful' people who were watching things closely. Sakura didn't know what to make of this part, however it was the last thing he said before Shunshinning away that hit home. That there was a guarantee that they were going to see shinobi from other villages on this mission, and that that was the real reason why Team 7 and Team 8 were doing a joint mission.
"I can't believe we're going to be seeing enemy ninja!" Sakura thought to herself. "That should make this a B Rank Mission, so why is this being treated as a C Rank Mission instead? Wait…..Kakashi-sensei said that we would be 'seeing' ninja from other villages, not that we would be fighting them specifically. So is this a mission that is starting off as a C Rank but could get bumped up to B Rank?"
As Sakura wondered what was really going on she made a point to keep scanning around her, she had initially wondered why for all of those D Ranks her team had to suffer through, why their sensei always told them no matter what to keep alert. Eventually after the second week of Dog Walking and Picking Weeds she noticed that Kakashi was always there in the background, popping up in places that were 'just' out of sight for someone not looking. It would take another 3 weeks for it to dawn on her that he had been subtly getting them all to keep their heads on a swivel, and to stay alert at all times. After bringing this up to him at one of their team meetings, he had confirmed it, along with a few other things that he had done to make them all more aware of their surroundings. As a reward, he had gifted her with a jutsu scroll for her to learn that had 3 Doton jutsus for her to learn. She had been very proud of herself for that, and had thrown herself into learning everything she could that was in that scroll.
As she continued to look around her eyes scanned the road up ahead a bit, like before there wasn't much to see on a fairly hot day like this one but…..
"Wait a second….is that a puddle?" she thought to herself as they made their way closer to the small body of water. "Didn't it rain a week ago?"
Aaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnddd DONE! Hey y'all, hope you liked this chapter, I'm going to be jumping into writing the next one immediately so that I can get that out to all of you ASAP. I'm going to be trying for the end of March at the latest to upload the next chapter. Till then I'm out!
