Fox of Nine and Wolf of Seven
Setsuna Kaori Hitsugya
Summary – Working on it
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Some ideas in this story may belong to other writers that I fail to recall
"Speech"
'thoughts'
Demons/inner selves
Jutsus
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Chapter 5:
The group had been traveling for several hours in a standard five-point defensive formation; Naruto at point several paces in front of Tazuna, Sasuke and Sakura flanked Tazuna on the sides, while Setsuna and Kakashi followed at the rear. Everyone was doing their own thing; Naruto was excitedly looking around, Sasuke was simply walking while thinking of ways to get stronger, Sakura was trying the kunai balancing exercise Setsuna had shown them, Setsuna was still spinning a kunai over his palm while calmly looking around, Kakashi was, of course, reading his porn, giggling perversely every once in a while.
"Hey Kakashi-sensei are there any ninja in the land of waves?" Sakura asked as her kunai fell again.
"Not really, but it is possible some nukenin may have taken up residence there in order to escape pursuing hunter nin," Kakashi replied, "We have received reports of a high concentration of mercenaries around the area though."
"So there's a low chance we'll actually fight another ninja?" Sakura asked.
"Yes, although it may be a little higher since Setsuna is here," Kakashi replied jokingly.
"Shut up, it isn't my fault we were attacked on that mission," Setsuna exclaimed, glaring at the lazy jonin.
"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked.
"Not to long ago, Setsuna, myself and two chunin were sent on a simple information gathering mission with a minimal combat probability," Kakashi explained, "As we were returning to Konoha, Setsuna spotted a squad of Iwa nins heading along the same route we were."
"Yeah, I also suggested that we go around the Iwa shinobi and avoid the inevitable fight, but the other two wanted to show off and charged them," Setsuna added, "Hell those two are still stuck on gate duty for that."
"That sounds like it was the chunin's fault not Setsuna-sempai's," Sakura stated.
"Well the fight with the Iwa nins wasn't but the three squads of Kumo shinobi had Setsuna's name all over it," Kakashi explained, "Of course Setsuna defeated them all easily by himself."
"It was you're idea to travel close to the Lightning country border," Setsuna reminded, "especially after I reminded you that I still haven't been able to fix that particular annoyance."
Kakashi simply shrugged and flipped the page in his book. Sensing the end of the conversation, the other three went back to their previous activities.
Further up the road.
Hiding in plain sight, watching the six travelers, two shinobi wearing headbands from Kirigakure, waited.
They both wore long black cloaks and both had a large metal gauntlet on one hand.
"It seems the bridge-builder has hired shinobi bodyguards," One commented.
"It matters not, simply more to kill," the second replied, "Come! We must prepare for our guests, brother."
With that the two nukenin vanished.
With the group
Sakura growled in frustration as the kunai she was trying to balance fell again. A light chuckle behind her caused her to blush and glance behind her. Setsuna was casually walking while spinning not one but TWO kunai over his hand. Sakura had to refrain from getting angry since Setsuna had been spinning the same two kunai since they left.
"Do you need any help Sakura-san?" Setsuna asked.
Sakura's moth betrayed her better judgment, "how can you still be spinning those kunai after all this time?"
"I have much larger chakra reserves, and much higher control so I'm not wasting as much chakra to maintain the spin as well as balance," Setsuna explained.
"I just can't seem to get this," Sakura admitted, bowing her head.
"Well, this is a high-level chunin control exercise," Setsuna suggested, "Here, why don't you try it with something lighter, that way it requires less chakra to lift."
While Setsuna was helping Sakura, Kakashi noticed a puddle a little ways ahead. 'Hmm... It hasn't rained in several days and the ground is to dry for any water to be on the path, that means a genjutsu,' the jonin thought before glancing at his students, 'Let's see how they react to an enemy ambush.'
The team passed the puddle, none of the others had even spared the puddle a thought (Setsuna didn't notice it since he was assisting Sakura.) No one even saw the two mist shinobi who seemed to raise from the puddle until they attacked, wrapping Kakashi with their bladed chain.
"One little piggy."
"Tch! Sakura cover Tazuna!" Setsuna barked, catching and stowing his kunai.
"Two little piggies," the mist-nin exclaimed as they attempted to wrap Naruto in their chain.
Setsuna pulled a kawarmi with Naruto and drew his sword.
"Hah!!" Setsuna yelled as he sliced through the chain easily.
The enemy ninja attempted to fall back but were yanked to a stop by the severed chain. Looking at the severed ends they noticed that Setsuna and Sasuke had nailed the severed ends to the ground.
The two nins released the chains and separated.
"Tazuna-san! Get back!" Sakura yelled as she jumped in front of the old drunk, kunai held in front of her chest, as the shorter of the two enemies approached. Suddenly, before the enemy could connect, Setsuna was in front of her his sword held out from his waist.
"Raijin: Hono Ikazura," Setsuna muttered.
Setsuna's sword sparked slightly before it and the enemy nin erupted in a fiery burst of lightning.
When the dust from the explosion cleared the enemy was on the ground, "Tch, and I even held back on that attack," Setsuna scoffed, resetting his sword across his back, "Are you alright, Sakura-san, Tazuna-san?"
"Yeah, I think so," Sakura replied shakily, while Tazuna simply stood there, dumbfounded.
"Alright, lets see how the others are doing," Setsuna smiled reassuringly.
"The other two are fine," Kakashi explained, walking up with the other nin on his shoulder, "Wow, you really fried this one, didn't you?"
"I held back, that was nowhere near a full power attack," Setsuna replied defensively, "besides I left him alive."
"Kakashi-sensei how are you...?" Sakura began, stopping when Kakashi pointed to a shredded log not too far off.
"A simple kawarmi," Kakashi replied, giving Sakura an eye-smile.
"Well I never thought we'd be attacked by kiri-nin," Setsuna stated before thinking, "I don't know anyone who'd be after me from Kirigakure."
"Well, it's obvious they were watching and waiting for us," Kakashi added, "It hasn't rained in several days, and the sun is out so there shouldn't have been any puddles on the ground."
"If you knew that, then why did you let those creeps attack you?" Tazuna asked.
"I could've killed them at any time, but..." Kakashi paused to glance at the bridge-builder, "I wanted to find out who their real target was."
"What do you mean by that?" Tazuna asked.
"Were you really their intended target or was it one of us ninja?" Kakashi clarified. "There had been no word of any shinobi seeking your life. The request you relayed to the village was to escort you back to your home and protect you from bandits and thieves. In any case with the involvement of other shinobi this is more than a "B" ranked mission."
"To protect you from ordinary threats until you complete your next project would be exceedingly simple," Setsuna explained, "But if you expected to be the target of a ninja assault, then the mission would've been ranked as either a 'B' or 'A' ranked mission depending on rank and number of expected enemy shinobi."
"Correct, you may of had your reasons, but it's never a good idea to withhold vital information when your asking for help," Kakashi added, "As it is, this task falls well beyond the boundaries of the job we were originally assigned."
"What do we do then?" Sakura asked, quivering lightly from the shock of being attacked, "We aren't good enough for something like this."
"In a normal case I'd agree with you Sakura," Kakashi replied, "but seeing how you three reacted to an enemy ambush has made me reconsider."
"What about Naruto's injury?" Sakura asked, pointing at Naruto's bleeding hand.
"Well... we will need to flush out the poison as soon as we can," Kakashi began, but was cut off by Naruto shoving a kunai into the back of his hand, startling everyone.
'Why am I always so different?!' Naruto thought fiercly, pushing the kunai in further, 'I hate not fitting in. I train with nii-san every chance I get and I still freeze up in my first real battle!'
Naruto's thoughts began to race as he thought about all the hardwork he had put into becoming a ninja, "With this kunai knife I promise you; I will protect the old man!" Naruto announced, "Reporting fit for duty Master!"
Setsuna sighed and ran a hand through his hair, pausing to scratch the back of his head, "Seriously ototou? Masochistic much," he chuckled, "It's true we did need a free flow of blood to flush out the poison, but... you've exceeded the need."
"You could bleed to death, seriously," Kakashi added, crouching in front of the blonde and giving him an eye-smile.
Naruto blinked for a second, "Noooo! No way! Nuh-uh! Not happening! I'm not going to die like this!" he exclaimed causing everyone to fall over (except Setsuna who started laughing hysterically.)
"Here let me see it," Kakashi said, gingerly taking Naruto's hand while Sakura attempted to calm Setsuna down.
Kakashi quickly fished a bandage from his pack and began wrapping Naruto's hand pausing as he noticed it was almost healed.
'Hmm... must be the power of the Nine-Tails. I've seen a similar thing happen to Setsuna after a fight,' Kakashi thought making a mental note to discuss it with his azure-haired ward at first opportunity.
"It's alright, isn't it?" Naruto asked fearfully.
"It looks like you'll be fine," Kakashi replied, shooting the now calm Setsuna a glance.
Setsuna nodded knowing what the look ment, 'Great another question about a bijuu,' he thought.
Well you are the only jinchuriki who has actual contact with their charge, the Nanabi remarked.
'Yeah, Yeah,' Setsuna mentally grumbled.
"Master..., Mr. Sensei, sir," Tazuna began, "I have something to say,"
Setsuna and Kakashi exchanged another look. "Well let's stop here for the night," Setsuna suggested.
"Why, we aren't tired," Sasuke scoffed, not even careing how the others felt.
"Because, rookie, one of us is still slightly shell-shocked from our earlier encounter," Setsuna snapped back, scaring everyone.
"He's right, teme," Naruto added, "We should give Sakura-chan a chance to rest."
"Shut up!" Sasuke snapped, "I'm not weak like the two of you!"
"No, you're not," Sakura stated, startling everyone again, "You're weaker because you don't care about anyone except yourself."
With that the pinkette huffed off into the forest.
"I'll go follow her," Setsuna announced, "We'll bring back some firewood."
"Alright," Kakashi agreed, leading the others a little off the road.
In the forest
"Yo! Sakura-san!" Setsuna called. He knew where she was, but he didn't want to scare her by popping up unexpectedly, "Hey, are you alright?"
*Sniff*"Yeah," Sakura replied, quickly wiping her eyes.
"Wanna talk about it?" Setsuna offered, sitting next to the pink-haired kunoichi.
"Not really," Sakura replied resting her forehead on her knees.
"It'll help, I promise," Setsuna said hesitantly rubbing the girl's shoulder.
"I just finally realized how blind I've been," Sakura exclaimed, "I mean I ended my friendship with Ino over that cold bastard."
"You made a mistake," Setsuna replied simply, "Everyone make them. You should be grateful that you're mistake can be easily fixed."
"How?"
"Easy, just talk with Ino and explain you'd like to be friends again," Setsuna replied with a smirk.
"What if she doesn't want to be my friend again?"
"That's her loss then," Setsuna shrugged, "I'm sure you'd have no problem making more friends anyway."
Sakura sniffed again.
"And don't worry about love just yet," Setsuna added, "You're young enough you'll find someone eventually. What you should do is focus on your training, that way you can survive long enough to meet that person."
"What about you, Setsuna-sempai? Have you met someone?"
"No, I haven't looked at all," Setsuna stood up and smiled, "C'mon, I told Kaka-ootoji that we'd pick up some firewood before we headed back to camp."
Setsuna offered Sakura his hand which she took and he pulled her to her feet, "Alright let's go," The kunoichi replied.
With that the two shinobi headed off.
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Alright, end chap. 5
techniques-
Hono Ikazura- Fiery Thunder (Samurai Deeper Kyo)
