Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
AN: Been a long time since an update, forgive me for that. Every day I come up with a new idea for a story, plan it out and the next day I don't want to do it and start working on a new one. I can't help it happens every single day. However I don't plan to make you guys wait forever for the next chapter. Oh and the harem idea is out of the window… Expect the next chapter soon, it'll be shorter but at least it will be this month.
"Talking"
'Thinking'
Chapter 21: Choice of Target
"Stop it Sora, your job is to guard me, not to sleep with me. Besides I don't think this is a good idea." He said and backed away from the woman.
"WHY!? Tell me why. Am I too ugly for you? Am I not good enough for you? Or is it that you want me to stay a virgin so you can get a better deal whenever you decided to sell me?" She yelled. This was the first time she has lost her temper at Naruto but was far from the first time that she wanted to.
"How you look has nothing to do with it and I have no intentions of selling you. However you're right, I have thought about sleeping with you all and it's true that if I did Hinata wouldn't do anything. Yes, I am the Hokage and no one would condemn me for sleeping around. Everyone in Konoha already believes that I sleep with you all. Hell, I'm pretty sure that one of these days that I will sleep with another woman besides Hinata. However right now I won't be sleeping with you." Naruto said.
"Why?" She asked again confused because of what he just said.
"The best part of being Hokage is that I don't have to explain myself to anyone. I think you should leave so I can enjoy my bath. If you don't I'll have Temari remove you." Naruto said.
Not even a second later Temari was standing on the water of the indoor hot spring but unlike Sora she was completely dressed. She had on all her gear as she was the one currently on duty to guard Naruto. She had been there since before Sora came in and seen everything that happened. Temari hopped Sora would leave on her own because if she didn't, well orders are orders.
Ino looked at her 'teammates' and then looked back at her targets and wondered if she should try and convince Naruto to let her blow up the dinky little Waterfall village after they were done with Oto. There were about 100 Oto ninja in a clearing in front of her when there was only supposed to be 5 tops. She and her team were well hidden and she doubted they would be spotted anytime soon. There were probably all 'Instant Gennin' anyway but still being off by 95 ninja was ridiculous. Instant Gennin are what kept Oto alive for all this time. They abducted normal civilians, brainwashed them, places a cursed seal on them, taught them the basics of the basics and sent them out to fight. The whole process only took about a month and so Oto always had a good supply of ninja.
Another reason the war is lasting so long was because Taki is dragging its feet. Some nobles were paying them to put them in control of the country and the other nobles, the ones in charge of Rice Country were funding Oto to keep their power. Taki found this very profitable and were doing everything they could to milk the situation. Since the beginning of the conflict Konoha estimated that the small village profited billions of dollars. Konoha lost money since it paid the ninja from the village funds but it was hardly enough money to care about.
Oto was fighting for its existence, Taki was fighting so it could expand, Kumo was fighting to train their fighters, and Konoha was fighting for its pride and revenge. None of the four villages cared about the wellbeing of the others, only their own goals. Kumo was using Oto's country as a training ground but without them Konoha would rush in and wipe Oto out. Kumo treated the war like a game called it training much to the anger of Taki whom was being played with. Taki wanted everything they could get so they could become stronger yet Konoha threatened that. Konoha wanted Oto gone as soon as possible and that was a problem for the other three villages.
"So tell me, are Taki scouts so incompetent that they overlooked about 95% of the ninja in this area or did you bastards set me up?" Ino asked. Both were very possible as Taki seemed to use guess work for its intelligence half the time and as the number 1 killer of Oto shinobi neither side liked her. Not to mention that over the years she lost a total of 13 Taki teammates however she never lost a single Konoha shinobi whenever she was teamed with one. They blamed her for purposely letting Taki shinobi die and it was safe to say that they wanted her dead.
That wasn't the only thing blamed on Konoha shinobi. In war, no matter who's fighting or what they're fighting for there are always tragedies. One of the tragedies of this war was a village burned to the ground and no survivors to tell what happened. Before there could be an investigation of what happened Taki had already officially placed the blame on Konoha. Whether or not it was actually done by a Konoha ninja, Ino doesn't know, nor does she really care. The point was that a Konoha ninja could only trust another Konoha ninja in this country.
"If you don't talk I can decide. It's important that I know which it is because if it's the former that I will carry your bodies back because there is no way you're going to survive this fight. If it's the latter then I'll just take your hitai-ate after I kill you. So which is it?" She asked.
"We don't have time to be playing games with you, Oni. We have to retreat now and get this new information back to base." Oni was a nickname she was given not long after the war started. It was her name Ino backwards and it meant demon. It was because of the amount of official kills she had and Taki had even blamed her for a war crime or two.
"We have to retreat? Why? Besides I'm the leader of this team and I say when we retreat. There may be may be more of them that we thought but it's not the numbers that count in a battle between ninja." Ino said. What she said was true not to mention the large bonus she would get after this and if she estimated right she would pull in about 3 million.
"You're insane! If you want to charge in on a large group of enemy ninja then that's you but don't expect us to follow you." One of the Taki ninja said.
"Heh, I always knew Taki Nin were weak and couldn't get anything done without help but I didn't know they were cowards as well. To think three grown men would leave a girl like me to fight against a force of about 100 enemies all by herself." Ino said.
"Don't try that shit with us. If you attack them you're going to die. If we follow you were going to die as well, it's that simple." Again a Taki ninja said.
"How about a bet since you're so sure. If I defeat them all and do it without getting hit then you all to do whatever I ask. If I get hit then you can have the money I'll get from this mission. If I die then, well you'll probably be happy with just that." She said.
"Fine, but don't expect us to help when they overwhelm you." The Taki Nin said.
Ino smiled and got in the right mindset for what she was about to do. There were a lot of people who were about to die because of her, people who probably never wanted to be in this situation in the first place. Most likely dragged from their homes or abducted in the streets. People who had had their mind twisted and their bodies changed by a cursed seal. There were some people who would pity them and try to help them regain their former lives but Ino wasn't one of those people.
Ino was a ninja and her mission was to kill them all and profit doing it.
While looking at the force in front of her Ino sent a small bit of chakra to her eyes and anyone looking at her would instantly notice the difference. Her light blue eyes now had slits not unlike those of Orochimaru or Naruto's when he used Kyuubi's chakra. The change in her eyes didn't affect her sight, it's most mostly a cosmetic Jutsu used to scare her opponents. She then grabbed both of her swords and held each in one hand before she crouched and then lunged into the air high above the gathered Shinobi.
When she above the center of the gathered Oto ninja she started to fall and when she landed it was directly on the head of an Oto shinobi. His neck was crushed and he was killed instantly. This caused everyone in the area to look her way and recognize her as an enemy. Before they could react Ino lifted both of her arms outwards and released a large number of snakes from her sleeves. They would be enough to stop them all from attacking her at once, not that it really mattered.
Immediately after the serpents stopped flowing from her sleeves she made one hand seal and made 10 Kage Bunshin. Each clone had a replica of both of her swords and all took off to different areas of the battle. The snakes did their job by biting and poisoning the Oto at the same time causing a distraction for the clones. The clones themselves were doing an excellent job of killing the enemies in one hit. Either by decapitation, being stabbed in a vital spot, or simply being cut in half, either way they were all being killed with one single blow.
Ino, the real Ino, simply stood in the middle of the battle, or massacre, whichever you called it, and waited for her summons and clones to finish off the few remaining Oto ninja. There were easier ways of dealing with large numbers but those methods would have destroyed their Hitai-ate and she needed those to collect her bonuses. To a Jounin like Ino, killing these instant Gennin was no more difficult than killing civilians. They were simply too slow and too unskilled to be a threat to her.
After all of the Oto shinobi were dead Ino heard clapping coming from the area she was in before she attacked the Oto Nin. Moments later 3 people came into her view and Ino sighed in annoyance because her team of Taki shinobi was probably already dead. They were decently strong but not nearly enough so to put up even a decent fight from anyone those 3 people. Black cloaks with red clouds, Naruto had told her about them, they were Akatsuki.
"Well what do we have here? Heh, it's one of Hokage-sama's pet whores. I'm surprised he let you out of his out of his bedroom. I guess you're just not as fun as his Hyuuga." One of the Akatsuki members said. From his voice Ino knew exactly who it was.
"That's the best insult you have, Sasuke? You didn't come all this way just to say that did you?" Ino said. She then put both of her swords back in their sheath. "If you three wouldn't mind, I'm busy don't have time for idiots who run away from their villages. Hell, it's not like I have a Bijuu sealed in anyway." Ino said.
"You may not a demon sealed in you but I'm sure we could get you to talk about someone who does. Someone like a certain blonde Hokage." Sasuke said.
"If you think you can get information out of me then try it." Ino said before getting ready to fight. Even if there are three of them she was confident of her ability to win, or at least escape. She then 2 of her clones to attack Sasuke. When one of them was about 20 feet from the boy the clone jumped in the air and thrust downward with the sword of Kusanagi. Sasuke easily moved out of the way and slashed at the clone with a Kunai. However the kunai was sliced in half by the clones wind sword.
Sasuke then jumped in the air to avoid a slash from another clone that snuck behind him and tried to cut him in half. While in the air Sasuke made two needles of lightning chakra and threw them at both clones. The second clone was hit in the head but the first clone blocked the attack with its wind sword.
"Ever wonder why you're not in Konoha's bingo book, why there is no bounty on your head? It's pretty simple really, no one cares about you. You may have left Konoha and joined Akatsuki but the truth is you aren't a threat to Konoha." Ino said.
"After what Konoha did to my clan and what the Hokage did to me there is no way I'm not going to get my revenge. We're going capture you and use you as bait. When that bastard comes to rescue you we'll capture him as well and then rip the Kyuubi out of him. You may be a little skilled but compared to an Uchiha you're nothing." Sasuke said.
"Sasuke-san, there is 3 of us and only one enemy. We should work together and quickly end this." One of the other Akatsuki members said.
"Don't say cowardly things like that Haku. Even though I'm the demon of the mist I'd feel bad about teaming up on a little girl 3-1." Momochi Zabuza said. Even though he didn't like it he would accept it, Zabuza was his master after all.
Sasuke then activated his Sharingan and then quickly killed the Kage Bunshin of Ino he was fighting. The remaining 8 clones now decided to watch Zabuza and Haku and to help Ino should they join the fight. The real Ino threw five Shuriken at Sasuke however she placed wind chakra into them and now their cutting size was larger than a Fuuma Shuriken. Sasuke saw what she did with his Sharingan and instead of trying the block them he simple dodged them instead. After the blades went past him he dashed towards Ino. When he was close enough he starred into her eyes casting an illusion of darkness of the girl.
Sasuke then brought his first down on the girl but he noticed a moment too late that what he had hit was no longer the real Ino. She had replaced herself with leaves and the last time he seen her do that she used them to cut her opponent. 'I'm not going to be killed by a bunch stupid leaves.' Sasuke thought before using Chidori Nagashi to destroy all of the leaves with electricity before they could cut him.
A snake then burst the ground below Sasuke and attempted to wrap around his leg but it was stopped by a kunai going into its head. Sasuke then had to dodge to the right to avoid being stabbed in the back but when he turned around Ino was already gone. He then felts the tip of her sword touching his back and he performed a quick Kawarimi to avoid being killed. Again we he turned around to find the girl Ino was nowhere to be found. Was she just moving so fast that she got behind him faster than he could notice or was it some kind of trick? He figured it couldn't be Genjutsu because he's using his Sharingan.
The truth was simple, Ino was too fast for him to keep up with. Since she wanted to end the fight soon she moved behind Sasuke one more and tried to decapitate him this time.
However before her sword reached Sasuke's neck it caught by another Akatsuki member. What amazed her most was that it was her wind sword and it was being held in the boy's hand as if it was a stick. It should have cut all of his fingers off. Also why hadn't her clones stopped him from getting this close to her? Suddenly the sword started to get cold and then the boy twisted his hand and broke her wind sword in half. Ino let go of the broken sword and jumped back to a safe distance, this was getting dangerous.
Naruto had just finishing gather a little information from the clones of Konan and Pain and he knew he would have to go back for a lot more information from the two. The amount of things he learned about Akatsuki, Ame, Pain, Nagato, and other matters put a wide grin on the Hokage's face. The most important was that he now knew a few different ways to find Madara and he would be going after the man soon, very soon. He would give Hinata time to return and then he chose a plan before gathering his forces and go after the man. But first he had to help out a blonde who seemed to have gotten into a troublesome situation.
"Anko, gather everyone, including Itachi and prepare for a fight with 3 Akatsuki members. They're attacking Ino right now so be ready in 2 minutes or less." Naruto said to Anko who was following behind him. She gave no reply but then again she didn't need to. The instant that he finished giving his orders the woman was already gone to complete them.
How did Naruto know Ino was in trouble? She didn't use one of his tri-kunai, however that wasn't the only way he had of know if someone needed help. There were plenty of seals on each of the girls and the ones on Ino told Naruto that she was nervous, angry, a little scared, and was using a lot of chakra. There were other seals and Jutsu that showed him what was going on around her as well. Some would call that spying but Naruto had her permission to put the seals on her.
Ino had to admit things were bad and getting worse by the second. Ever since that boy broke her sword they decided to just triple team her to get done quicker. While she could take on anyone of them by herself, 3 vs. 1 would probably not end well for her. 'I could try that Jutsu but I can't really control it well. I might end up killing myself as well.' She thought. She was surrounded by three Akatsuki members who wanted to capture her to get to the Hokage. She could fight them to death, she could use a Jutsu that was more than likely to kill her as well as them, or she could call the Hokage here to help her.
All those options were rendered useless when five flashes of lighting struck the ground around her and revealed that this fight had been tipped so far in her favor that truthfully it wasn't really fair.
"We get called way out here in the middle of a bunch of dead bodies and you don't even have a scratch on you. Really, you should be ashamed that the Hokage has to come out to save your ass." Anko said sarcastically.
"I don't mind, it's been a long time since I've been in a real fight." Temari said taking her black and gold fan from her back. It was a special fan that made by Naruto and a really good weapons maker in Konoha and the ability and power it had made it the perfect weapon for her.
"Naruto-sama does this mean we can go all out? I mean we can't exactly use our strongest Jutsu while we're in the village." Sora said. Over the years she has refined her bloodline limit to a point that no one in her clan could even imagine. She sometimes wished she could show her family back in Kusa but she knew that was impossible.
"Sure but don't hurt them too badly, I would like to get some information out and I can't do that if they can't talk." They knew he really meant that he was planning to take over Akatsuki and it wouldn't be smart to kill off three of the members, but Ino didn't know that.
"Hokage-sama, we'll take care of these three you can just take a seat with the blonde and enjoy the show. Maybe she'll learn a thing or two." Anko said.
"That's sounds good." Naruto then used Shadow Creation to make a large comfortable chair, or throne, whichever you would call it and sat down in it. "Ino, sit with me." He said and she did. He didn't make a second seat he just had her sit on his lap. Itachi, who was wearing an ANBU uniform, took up a position behind the chair to make sure no attacks came from behind. Honestly he was the reason why Sasuke wasn't in the bingo book or even listed as a missing-nin. The Hokage had put in quite a few measures to make sure Sasuke would be no threat before he left Konoha and Itachi was the test subject for them.
"Ino after this you're coming back to Konoha with us, we have something important to do." He whispered in the girl's ear. She nodded knowing that it was probably really dangerous and important if he was going to bring her back to Konoha for it.
"Even if you are a Kage you're acting too arrogant for my liking." Zabuza said. He was amazed that the boy would come here take out a chair and sit in the middle of a fight with their target on his lap. Well their former target as Naruto was their target now.
"You should be grateful that Hokage-sama won't be participating in this fight because if he was it would already be over." Sora said before placing both of her hands on the ground. Suddenly all the plant life in the area started to die and crumple into dust. Sasuke could see what was happening with his Sharingan, chakra was flowing from the ground and the tree into the girl and now she had more chakra than he ever seen someone with. When she was done the area around them as far as the eye could see was a waste land. Sora however started to glow subtly from all the chakra she had now.
"That was one the abilities of my bloodline limit, Hiru no Seimei (Leech Life)." Sora told. There was no need to explain what it did as the results were rather obvious.
Temari opened her fan and small amounts of sand started to fall to the ground around it. She then gathered Chakra to a crystal that's on her fan and took one good swing. "Suna Arashi (Sand Storm)." She said. Not only did a strong wind come from the fan but tons of sand as well. Her fan was made out of a hollow metal that was filled with wood made by Tenzo the Mokuton user. The metal on the outside was riddled with seals made by Naruto and the crystal held the one tailed demon Shukaku. With the fan she can create and control Sand almost at the same level that her brother Gaara had been able to, as well as other things. It was truly a powerful weapon.
The sand storm that Temari created was strong enough to sand a person down to nothing but that's only if they didn't protect themselves. Temari, Sora, and Anko were protected by the fact that Temari didn't let the sand get close to them. Naruto, Ino, Itachi were protected by a simple barrier around them that Naruto made. The Akatsuki members were protected by a suiton Jutsu Zabuza made.
When the winds calmed down and the sand settled on the ground the grassy clearing that was there before they arrived was now a sand filled desert. There was a good 3 inches of sand on the ground as far as the eye could see. The sand around the Akatsuki members then jumped and tried to grab them however it was dodged. Temari kept trying though and managed to do what she was aiming for, splitting them up.
Zabuza didn't like the idea of fighting on top of sand that the enemy controlled so he decided to fix the situation. "Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu (Tidal Wave)." He yelled and water, tons upon tons of water started to flow from the ground under him. Again the environment had been changed to suit the style of the ninja. With the amount of water under them it could classified as a small lake. Naruto however was still in his chair which he used chakra to make float on top of the water.
Chakra then started to flow from Haku and he then lifted his hand to the air and the water in front of him rose up and formed into a dragon made of ice that then flew towards Temari. Zabuza grabbed his sword and dashed towards Anko. Sasuke decided that he couldn't afford to waste more time fighting Naruto's guards when the person he wanted dead was right in front of him so he closed his eyes for a moment and opened them to reveal the Mangekyou Sharingan.
When the Ice dragon was about 40 feet away from her Temari put her fan in front her and made sand shoot out of it and hit the ice dragon head on stopping it from reaching her. She then noticed that while she was doing that a mirror made of Ice appeared behind her. Before she could react a hand reached out of the ice and grabbed the back of her neck and dragged her into the mirror.
The Temari that was stuck in the mirror suddenly started to dissolve into sand. Haku then looked around and found that the real Temari was floating in the air on her fan. "Suna Shigure (Desert Rain)." Temari yelled while in the air and from the bottom of her fan clumps of hard sand started to shoot down towards the Ice user.
Haku sank under the water to avoided being hit with the sand. While underwater Haku used Hijutsu Sensatsu Suishou (Thousand Flying Water Needles) to send water needles into the air hoping to destroy the girl's weapon as he found the fan very dangerous. If he could get her back on top of the water he was certain of his victory as water and ice were his specialties.
Temari grabbed the bottom of her and jumped off it while spinning, spinning her fan with her. While doing so she sent a gust of wind down knocking all of the water needles away. She then got back onto her fan and then used the wind to fly higher into the air. She's a long range fighter so it was best she stayed away from her opponent. She could stay in the air and control the sand from where she was.
While Zabuza was running towards Anko she bit her finger to draw a bit of blood and then quickly made a few hand seals before placing her hands on the water and performing Kuchiyose no Jutsu. Zabuza stopped running to see what kind of creature she summoned and found himself having to quickly dodge the lunge of a snake, a sea snake.
"Kirigakure no Jutsu (Hidden Mist no Jutsu)." Zabuza said and a heavy mist covered the area and Anko could no longer see the man. "It's been a while since I've fought Konoha shinobi. The last time it was the Copy Ninja Kakashi and his brats. Both of us almost lost our lives over a pathetic little country but in the end I decided that it wasn't worth it. Who would have thought that a few years later one of those brats would recommend that I be brought into Akatsuki?"
"Don't get too confident. I don't need to see you to know where you are!" Anko yelled before moving around in the mist to find Zabuza.
Sasuke had run towards Sora with a Chidori in his hand in attempt to pierce through her body but he didn't expect her to spit out a cloud of poison gas forcing him to stop and keep his distance from her. Tsukiyomi was out of the question because she simply wasn't looking into his eyes and he had a strong feeling that she wouldn't anytime soon either. In all honesty he didn't want to have to use any of the special Jutsu of his Mangekyou Sharingan, at least not on one of the guards but if he wanted to end this fast he would have to. There were still two more female guards, the ANBU, Ino, and then the Hokage himself to fight after all. 'Wait who said I had to fight them all to get to the Hokage?'
Sasuke closes one eye and concentrates on his target and then said one word. "Amatesaru"
