"N-nothing Anko-senei." replied hinata to her rhetorical question,though Naruto wasn't quite quick enough to catch on in time. Though instead of saying some smart assed remark, he settled for one of shock and curiosity. after all, their are few things that he's learned that his sensei hates, and punctuality is one her biggest peves. After smacking her blonde haired charge in the back of his head, they headed off twords the location of the bandit camp they were to eradicate. hours later they stopped at the side of the road for a quick lunch and bathroom break. once they were back in the tree tops and heading in the direction of the camp again, Anko called shikamaru up to the front of the formation to work out an attack stratagy. as soon as their course of action was agreed upon, the blonde was reminded of something from one of their training sesions.
-flash back-
"Ok you little bastards, today were going to cover tactics and interogation. Lazy ass here is going to be your instructor for tactics, since the lazy fucker likes them kind of games. Now get to it!" their sensei then walked over to a stump about 50 yards or so away inorder to observe without being in the way. after several hours and several games the nara seemed to have gotten the point across that with good tactics a victory can almost always be ensured. although it wasnt as productive as an actual battle, the blonde of the group seemed to of had a knack for oddball stratagies that he would literaly create on the spot. Hinata on the other hand wasnt all that great compared to the lazy bum, but than again he was a genius with an IQ larger than his 'bigboned' friends families combined appatite.
"Damn it shikamaru, cant you at least let me win once?" asked a rather anoyed naruto, due to loosing several times in a row without even coming close to winning.
"No. you wouldn't learn anything if i did, and the point is to learn to think about what your doing instead of just doing it and hoping it works." replied the lazy nara, causing the reprimanded blonde to graon in anoyance.
-end flash back-
hours later, team 8 landed in a clearing about a quarter of a mile away from their target and decided to make camp. after getting the campsituated they then drew lots as to who was going to be doing the first watch. once that was decided, they all went about their given tasks before heading to sleep for the night.
the next day was cloudy with a slight fog that seemed to cling to things, perfect weather for a day time sneak assault. team 8 observed the camp for a couple hours before Anko gave the signal to move in and eliminate the camp and any bandits their in. each member of the group was in a diferent location, splitting the camp into four sections and as soon as they saw the signal they all sprang into action.
-anko-
After sending out the signal for the comencement of the attack, she then summoned up about a dozen 30 foot long vipers as poisonous as their orange and pink skins were grotesque, and sent them into the camp to exterminate the pests. She then juped up onto a nearby branch to watch thecarnage unfold wit a glee filled smile.
-naruto-
Naruto sat on a a tree branch behind an academy level genjutsu waching as a couple of his origami bunshin walked amongst the sleeping bandits, placing explosive tags on each tent they passed before setting them all off at once. the clones then went to the nerest tents to them and pulled out their respective swords before unleashing waves of slicing paper deep into the tents, anialating everything. he then dropped the illusion and headed into the camp himself. as he aprached the camp he pulled out seferal peices of orage paper, realeasing them into an aproaching bandit.
about 20 bandits came running twords the blonde, inspecting the source of the explosion, only to run into a couple of identicle blonde ninjas.
-hinata-
Ducking a wild swing, she slammed her palm into the bandits stomach, before turning to her left placing her chakra enforced foot in anothers stomach and bouncing off him as she expelled it. Hinata then landed several feet away and was soon suroundedby 5 bandits, each with either a machete or hatchet.
one of the bandits decided to make the first move, swinging their machette horizontaly at about chest hight.stepping back half a step, she then lashed out at him, placinging several hits along his sword arm and finaly placing one above his heart, dropping him to the ground with a bloody froth slowly draining from his mouth as he hit the ground. not giving the others the time to follow up, she rapidly went through a few seals.
"Doton: Iwa Supia Sennen no jutsu" the indigo haired teen called out as she finished the seals and stomped, creating a masive upheaval of earthen spikes that pierced through the bandits, killing them.
-shikamaru-
as he slowly made his way through the camp one bandit at a time, shikamaru finaly realized that the path of the shinobi is one of death and destruction, the trail of corpses behided proof enough. ariving at a tent that was bigger than the others he radiod in that he might have found the leaders quarters before sending in a low level katon jutsu to incenerate the sleeping area. the next tent he came upon had a few prisoners in it, specificly captured women. they looked as if they had all been used for various uspeakable things, if the smell of sex was to be any indication.
cursing to himself about how troublesome this situation was becoming, he untied the captives and called in for their sensei to extract the nearly nude women, before telling them that there was someone on the way to help them get out of the camp. 10 minutes later he met up with hinata, who despite looking like she was mentaly tormented, was absolutly fine physicaly. after neutralizing a few more bandits, the two of them watched as their blonde teammate let loose a ball of paper that exploded on impact, eliminating around 10 or so threats in one shot. the shrapnel from the impact formed into shuriken before embedding themselves in neck of another machette weilding thug.
as the two of them watched their blonde teammate systematicly eliminate treat after threat they noticed that every time blood splatered upon him, it would just fall off as a peice of paper floated twords the ground. the two of them then noticed a trail of paper that marked his path.
half an hour later the camp was neutralized and all the captives freed, the four of them sat down to rest in a clearing a few hundred yards from the now descimated bandit camp. the four of them then decided that itd be best if they made camp for the night right whare they were.
-------------------------------------------------------
that night as every one was sleeping, naruto stood gaurd and tended the small fire that had slowly been dieing down, tossing kinling in along with a few peices of paper on occasion. He then shifted when he noticed his senseis presence aproach and sit by him. "mornin Anko sensei" he greeted in an almost bored tone. the only response he recieved was a quiet snort as she poked the fire with a stick. after a few minutes of silence between the two, naruto found himself some how compelled to discuss his thaughts with his teacher. "Sensei, why is it i dont feel anything tword my actions back at the camp? i know i should be feeling remourse for taking their lives, but i dont. does that make me the monster that every one thinks i am? am i realy nothing but the kyuubi incarnate?"
after a few moments of thaught, she placed a hand on his shoulder. "no, that makes you a shinobi. i wont lie to you and say that you shouldnt feel anything, since by all rights you should, since most people do. i will say this though. only a monster would derive pleasure from killing others and the fact that you dont only proves that your not the monster that the villagers believe you to be. remember that." she then removed her hand from his shoulder and ruffled his hair.
"thank you sensei." he replied as a single tear ran from his eye and down across his whisker marked cheek before falling to the ground.
noticing the tear she shook her head in understanding. "Get some sleep brat, youre going to need it, were going back first thing in the morning and were stepping up the pace." nodding his head, he got up and headed to his tent, a depressing air about him.
the next day was rather uneventfull as they made their way back to konoha, the only thing of interest was a conversation between hinata and their sensei.
AN: after this chapter is up i doubt there will be an update for atleast 2 months. fair warning. now, normaly im not the most creative person, so your already lucky that you get a new chapter practicly every month. but if anybodies curious as to why, well, lets just say i need to recharge my creative batery.
I wasnt quite sure how to write a slaughter, but I hope I did it well enough to convey the imiges that went through my head as I wrote the scene. if nothing else i know it could of used more detail (always can use more detail), but all in all i hope it was decent.