Kumogakure Ninja
Posted: 16-03-11
Updated:28-06-11
CH17: The Forest of Death
(Hokage Tower)
The sixty-nine year old Hokage sat behind his desk in his spacious office in the Hokage Tower. He was in a meeting with one of his most trusted jōnin and was nodding as he listened closely and looked on to the list in his hand. A surprisingly high numbers of teams had passed the first part of the Chūnin Exam, despite the looming threat of perpetual status as a genin.
60 Teams (180 genin): 8 Konohagakure, 7 Kumogakure, 5 Sunagakure, 6 Iwagakure, 5 Kirigakure, 3 Otogakure, 3 Shimogakure (Hidden Frost), 3 Takigakure, 3 Gesugakure (Hidden Moon), 3 Jōkigakure (Hidden Steam), 3 Amegakure, 3 Tanigakure (Hidden Valley), 3 Morigakure (Hidden Forest), 3 Hoshigakure (Hidden Star), 3 Ishigakure (Hidden Stone).
"An amazing number of teams this year," Hiruzen nodded, placing the document on his desk. "It appears our informants were right. I have just have gotten word there was indeed a meeting between Kusa, Shimo, Jōki and Getsura. I fear there could be a usual high concentration of foul play this year."
"I assume it is too late to stop them now, Hokage-sama?" the jōnin questioned.
"That it is. Then there's the issue between Iwa and Ishi," Hiruzen leaned back in his chair as the jōnin laid out another stack of documents on his desk. "Those two villages have nothing but bad blood between them. However, our Daimyō had cleared both villages due to his relation to the Tsuchi no Kuni (Earth Country) royal family."
"That is most unfortunate, Hokage-sama."
"Indeed," Hiruzen entangled his fingers with a nod. "Now, I sense there is more you have to say, Ibiki. Please, confide in me."
"Yes, Hokage-sama," Morino Ibiki nodded and placed another document on the Hokage's desk. "Former Konoha citizen and jinchūriki of the Kyūbi no Yokō, Uzumaki is quite the interesting participant, Hokage-sama," Ibiki slid a document across the table to the elderly Hokage. "He answered the two hardest questions about sealing methods and then gave up on it. His answers are detailed and of a high degree. I didn't even know half of this."
"Oh?" Hiruzen glanced at the document and picked it up, his eyes slightly bulged. "Indeed, Naruto is quite proficient and well versed with seals. It is quite unfortunate we had not been able to be there for him as a child. He would have made a powerful shinobi. Now, we have lost him to Kumogakure."
"I see, Hokage-sama. That is now all," Ibiki took a moment to phrase his next sentence. "Uzumaki Naruto has astounding charisma. With a short speech he had eliminate any doubt in the room when I was eliminating the weak willed ones. It was quite interesting."
Sarutobi Hiruzen laughed good-naturedly. "Uzumaki Naruto is just like his father. Powerful and fearless," Hiruzen looked to the portrait of Namikaze Minato on the wall. The Yondaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato. "Just like him."
Ibiki's eyes widened as he did a double take. "Hokage-sama! Is he truly- I thought he looked similar but he truly is the son of our Yondaime?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen merely laughed. "I trust you will keep this between us. You are dismissed, Ibiki."
-ooo-
(Forest of Death)
"Let's GO!"
As Naruto had said those words, they ran past the gates as the sun was setting. Naruto took to the trees, his nose flaring with hundreds of different odours as he took in the Shi no Mori (Forest of Death). The forest was one colossal being full of life; full of different flora and fauna- it was incredible yet its beauty did not hide its dangerousness and its hostile environment. Team Kirabi took to the trees and began jumping from branch to branch in a one row formation they had discussed with their temporary jōnin instructors, Darui and Shi.
The formation was a single file formation with Naruto up front. The blond was up first because he was their "tanker" as Darui had put it. He could use Doton (Earth Release) jutsu for defensive purposes in case they came under attack and had Suiton (Water Release) jutsu in his disposal top subdue their targets. Yugito was second in line as she could support Naruto with a vast array of Raiton (Lightning Release) jutsu to take out their targets and break enemy defenses. Lastly was Hari who had his subconscious focusing constantly on sensing for close by enemies and was a high priority as the medic. It was his job to take care of both this teammates and himself as well as provide support with his destructive fire based techniques. However due to the nature of their environment, Darui had cautioned him to control his fire in case he would start a forest fire.
"Remember to stay in formation and suppress your chakra at all times," Yugito cautioned pulling out the map they been supplied with. They were not in the southern part of the forest, approximately nine miles away from the tower. According to the map there was a stream close by they could make use off.
"It's late already. The sun has set," Hari pointed out. The sky had taken a brilliant blue and orange hue as the sun was setting but now stars appeared in the sky as the sky turned dark blue with a shade of purple. Reaching for his chest Hari held on to the green and silver pendant he had gotten from his younger brother and stuffed it in his pouch he held his three personal sealing scrolls.
In preparation for the Chūnin Exam Naruto had prepared several sealing scrolls for the teams. Individually they all had three scrolls for clothing that could store up to ten different sets of clothing, weaponry scrolls that held up seventy-five kilograms of kunai, shuriken, explosive tags, makibishi and other blades and lastly a personal equipment scroll that stored up to fifty kilograms of personal equipment such as fitted body armour, spare scabbards and books. Naruto had even meticulously colour-coded them as he slaved over these scrolls. And so the clothing scrolls were green, weapons red and personal equipment blue. For the team, Naruto had prepared another two scrolls for storage: equipment and food. The equipment scroll was a thick yellow scroll that contained their campsite equipments ranging from sleeping bags, flash lights, cooking equipment, and dry wood packed in plastic bags, aid kits to battery powered lamps, multiple spray cans to ward off insects to tools to set up traps. Their food scroll contained two weeks' worth of provisions and included giant barrels with attached taps, canned drinks and beans, additional flasks for water, canned foods such as beans and fruit salads and even a freezer that contained packs of salted fish, chicken and beef. One thing was definitely established and that was that Team Kirabi came prepared for this part of the Chūnin Exam.
Naruto hoped branch after branch while suppressing his chakra level carefully. It was a useful technique Kirabi had thought him while they covered chakra control and manipulation when he was a child. Although his chakra control was excellent when he used ninjutsu, most of it was purely out reflex. Naruto would continuously repeat a new ninjutsu and teach his body to recognize how much chakra output was necessary for the jutsu. Not because he was afraid of chakra exhaustion due to the Kyūbi's own limitless chakra to fall back on and the fact his body dealt with chakra exhaustion rather quickly. The reason why Naruto would do this was so that his jutsu wouldn't be overloaded and those beside him and himself would not suffer from painful explosions and chakra burns. Repressing his chakra however was a tough task for Naruto since he had so much chakra to suppress in the first place. Though, he reminded himself with a rather wry expression, it wasn't exactly shinobi like or wise to begin with to be flaring his chakra others from miles away could sense. Hari had mentioned it a few times he could sense Naruto from much longer distances than most people. The only person who had more chakra than him was Kirabi but that due to the fact the Hachibi had been with him for longer.
"Hari?"
"You've done it. Your signal is much weaker."
Naruto sighed relaxing himself and his chakra coils and then looked up ahead and used his strong sense of sense and hearing to detect any teams around him. The team continued travelling at a rushed pace intending to cover as much land as they could before it got too dark. It was an hour or so later after exploring some of the forest they called it quits.
"Time to break for camp," Yugito announced, stopping on a branch with the map in her hand once again. There was enough cover from trees around and there was a stream close by.
Hari stopped on a branch behind Yugito and slapped his hands into a ram hand seal and senses the area. "No other shinobi from what I can tell. We should be careful in case there are shinobi out there suppressing their chakra."
Naruto launched himself over Yugito and stuck to a high branch and hung upside down crossing his arms waiting for instructions. "This a good place? I can smell tons of animals and whatnot."
"As can I," Yugito reminded him. The Nibi had given her a strong sense of smell and hearing much like the Kyūbi had done for Naruto though she wasn't sure whose senses were stronger. "This is a good spot," the kunoichi announced rolling up the map and placing it in her pouch. Aiming to her right she indicated a large tree that towered above others at sixty feet tall and twenty feet in width. On ground level there was a large gap in the tree that went ten feet in height and fifteen in width. It was the perfect camping spot.
Naruto turned, priming his nose one more time for any foreign body odours and shot out of the tree, diving for the small clearing. Naruto focused on his hearing and sense of smell with his eyes closed while Yugito and Hari landed beside him and entered the giant tree cavern. Neither hearing or smelling anyone, Naruto slumped his shoulders dropping his tensed guard and joined his team in setting up the camp and traps around their campsite. By the time they were finished it had begun to pour and they could hear thunderclaps coming from distance.
"Quickly, inside," Naruto told Hari who was making one last sweep on his sensory radar. Naruto slapped his hands together and entangled his fingers to make a serpent hand seal. Chakra flowed throughout his body freely for a split moment as Naruto pushed it into the soil, raising the earth into a ten inch thick wall, "Doton! Doryūheki!"
The cave was illuminated by the battery charged lamps Yugito had placed around in the corners. Naruto took the scroll of her and unsealed all the equipment they would need in an instant. Yugito and Hari were still struggling with unsealing items in bulk at a rapid rate.
"Thank you."
"No problem."
Hari dried of his hair with a towel and slapped it on his shoulder and begun to unseal a package of dry wood to start a fire while Naruto placed a hand on the soil and focused on evening the ground and softening the surface. Yugito in the meanwhile had placed the final touches on their hideout and cast a genjutsu on the earth wall to make it look a part of the tree.
Naruto unzipped his sleeping bag and sat in it, reaching over and setting up the dry wood for Hari to set alight with a small controlled jet fire coming from his mouth. The blond took out his personal equipment scroll and unsealed a fat roll of tickets from it. The tickets were four by two inches and had the kanji for 'Privacy' written on them. They were a convenient way for novices to use his privacy seal since all they to do was rip of a ticket and stick it to a surface where it would burn purple fire for ten minutes and prevent noise emitting from their hideout but not prevent noise being heard on the inside.
"We'll need to make the best of tomorrow considering we had to break for camp much sooner than anticipated," Yugito sat down next to Naruto on his sleeping back rather muddy up her own with her dirty boots. Ignoring the annoyed look Naruto gave her she pressed on, "We'll make use of the headsets tomorrow too, in case we need to split up. Though we should aim to stick together and have meeting places set up in case we do need to split up."
"Sounds good to me," Hari reached into the freeze box he had unsealed and took out a pack of salted fish with sticks and began to prepare their meal. None of them had eaten all day so he figured to break out the 'good stuff' before it got spoiled, although admittedly he didn't know whether sealed foods could spoil. Thinking he ought to ask Naruto about that some time, the genin placed several surfaces over the fire to prevent smoke to emit from their hideout. Naruto's privacy seals apparently absorbed odours at the cost of burning out earlier- again, Hari made a note to find out how Naruto's seals worked.
Naruto shifted his weigh moving away from Yugito a little, an awkward act they both pretended not to notice, and reached in his breast pocket for his handbook on seals. This was the third edition from the volumes he had bought before they embarked on their journey to Konoha.
They sat in silence for the next fifteen minutes while they pretended to be listening to the crispy noise emitted by the fire. Truth be told, they were all deep in thought about the Chūnin Exam. Months ago they had been ecstatic at the prospect of participating and testing their mettle against other chūnin hopefuls. Yet, here they were and already on the second part of the exam, much sooner than they had anticipated. Would they make it, they wondered. Would they find out how far they had gone, and if so, would they be satisfied with the knowledge?
"Thanks, buddy," the Kyūbi no Yokō's jinchūriki said holding up the fist with a curt nod to his best friend. 'Hari makes one mean salted fish on a stick,' Naruto noted munching on the fish whilst eyeing his friend. 'I'll look out for you, pal. You've got my word.'
"Huh? What are you talking about, Naruto?" Hari said with an unnerved laugh wondering what the blond just said out loud.
Yugito actually giggled, "Hari, it looks like he's degenerated so much he can't keep his thoughts in his head."
Hari laughed loudly going into a laughing his fit as he held his sides, his eyes tearing up.
"Yeah, laugh it up! You too Mrs. Gigglepants!" Naruto stood up in shocking realization and pointed at Yugito with comically wide eyes and pointed at her as if a awe struck toddler. "Y- You giggled!"
"I did NOT," Yugito hissed, as though he accused of some heinous crime.
Hari's laughter ceased instantly as he sat up instantly sharing a comical 'shocked and awed' expression with Naruto. "No way!"
"Sh- shut up and finish your food!" Yugito said with a blush flaring up in her cheeks. She never giggled.
"You're blushing! Hahaha!" Naruto pointed at her childishly, going into a fit of his own while Yugito looked away with sour expression and her cheeks a pinkish hue that looked cute rather dismayed. "Oh that's just adorable!"
"Y- You're right! That's cute! Yugito's cute!"
"I said shut up!" Yugito jumped to her feet with lightning sparking from her palms and her eyes shining red like a demon from the Netherworld. The temperature in the cave suddenly dropped as if the fire had burned up. Her teammates simultaneously shot to a corner holding on to each other as they screamed at high pitches as Yugito stepped towards them.
…
Five minutes later after a dosage of electricity and a harsh beating follow by girly screams and Naruto quoting "Oh the humanity" and "Oh lawd" which lead to more electric shocks, Yugito sat on her sleeping bag sighing contently as she nibbled at her salted fish on a stick.
Naruto and Hari looked at her with matching deadpan expressions with balled up pieces of tissues up their noses to stop the bleeding and ice packs attached to her jaws with gauze. "Sh- she's crazy... po- possessed."
"Na- Naruto I'm scared."
"What was that?" Yugito curved her head sideways with an uncharacteristically pleasant smile. "Did you say anything?"
"P- Pass the salt please?" Naruto stammered as Hari moved away from him. "Pl- please?"
"You're eating salted fish on a stick. What more salt would you need?"
"Y- You're right, haha taic-" Naruto spotted her narrowing eyes and swallowed thickly bowing his head, "Yugito-senpai!" Naruto and Hari bowed their heads, cowering in fear from the absolute terror that was Nii Yugito. Never again would they repeat the lethal mistake of pointing out her giggles or calling her cute.
Yugito laughed dropping her fish. It wasn't a chuckle or a giggle, but a real, genuinely infectious laugh. Naruto couldn't help but join her laughing at their stupidity. It was a while before the laughing stopped and they continued their dinner, discussing the Chūnin Exam and specific contenders.
"There's one guy we need to be on the lookout for," Naruto pulled out the card he had taken from Kabuto by force earlier that day and held it up. Met with questioning looks, Naruto explained what had happened. "So this guy, Yakushi, he isn't too strong from what I can tell. I took this off with hardly any effort and he seemed to be scared shitless. Anyway, the guy may not seem strong but he's definitely dangerous. He's got these cards," he held up the card with his picture on it, "That record data on other ninja. Just check what mine reads," Naruto told them passing the card to Yugito.
Yugito eyed the card with much suspicion. "How did he get his hands on this? He's no ordinary genin if he's got this much information on you. It's a little outdated since it lists Shippū Shūren as your latest technique but it's still quite a lot of info," Yugito eyed the card once more and passed it on to Hari.
"I didn't know you could pull of a few Kumo kenjutsu attacks," Hari joked, flicking the card back to Naruto. "How come you never use them when we're sparring? You're not holding back to make me feel better are you?"
"What do you think? I never hold back. Anyway, that's not the point. My point is that we need to keep an eye on this Kabuto douche bag 'cause he can cause a lot of problems for us."
Yugito waved off his concerns. "For now he's got practically nothing on you except for your signature moves. You still have plenty to use against him. It's unfortunate he's got even that but there's not much we can do for now."
"Guess you're right," Naruto pocketed the card with a sigh. Yugito was right, there was nothing he could do for now. He counted himself lucky Kabuto only knew about his techniques up till their mission in Ritoru Haaku.
"I think it's a pile of bullshit Kirabi-sensei had to include our new jutsu in the report," Hari complained as if reading his mind. "We're supposed to have some degree of secrecy with our own jutsu, aren't we? We are ninja, aren't we?"
"It's protocol. The commanding shinobi must know what their forces are capable of. They assign us missions by our ninjutsu, which is why some teams miss a member once every while. As far as I know, only a few shinobi are given permission to hold hijutsu and ōgijutsu."
"Still stupid if you ask me," Naruto mumbled.
"It's getting late. You two go to sleep, I'll go on guard first," Yugito told them while she unzipped her own sleeping bag and used it as a cushion. "Naruto, you can go second. Hari, Naruto will wake you up when it's his turn."
"I think you should go last instead. I'll go first and Hari can go after me and you go last," Naruto closed the book and shoved it back in his pocket.
"He's right, Yugito. You're our leader so you should be fully rested. At least for tonight, we can change the order once we've gotten used to the surroundings," Hari set the dry wood between rocks and spat a small ball of fire to light them up. Hari reached for a few tins of beans Naruto passed him and looked at Yugito. "Okay, taicho?"
Yugito took a moment before nodding, "Alright. Just for tonight. Tomorrow Naruto goes last one duty and the day after you. We'll take turns for the last shift."
(TL: Hijutsu translates to 'hidden technique' and ōgijutsu translates to 'secret technique'.)
-ooo-
The following morning Naruto awoke to the disgusting stench of Hari's toe under his nose. Gasping for clean breathable air he gave the fourteen year old the finger and looked at his digital watch. It was the second of October today which meant it was his fourteenth birthday eight days from now. Wondering what Kirabi would get him this year he got up and accepted the cup of tea Yugito offered him and absent-mindedly wished he wouldn't get another karaoke machine this year. 'Honestly it was more of a gift to himself,' Naruto thought sourly. 'Wait, why am I thinking of Kirabi anyway? That guy ditched us to go on some super secret S-ranked mission… When he gets back, let's see if he likes orange. Really, he should learn by now to keep his shampoo out of sight…'Naruto took a chug of his drink only to violently resist the urge to spew the hot tea.
Karma was a bitch.
Naruto picked his nose with his pinkie finger ignoring Yugito's disgusted grimace. It wasn't an attractive habit but Naruto didn't care figuring it wasn't like girls didn't do it. "Say Yugito-"
"We don't."
"Ah," the knucklehead got on his feet wondering how Yugito knew what he was thinking but chalked it up to the fact they had known each other for seven years. Naruto shivered darkly, flashbacks of solid thrashings Yugito had given him when they were younger most definitely were not the best way to start his morning. "What time is it?"
"Six. Get your stuff, we're getting ready to leave," Hari told him gripping on the storage scroll and systematically beginning to seal up all the sleeping backs, water dispensers and lamps.
Naruto yawned as columns of smoke surrounded him and put on his shinobi sandals. By the time he had his ninja-to strapped to his back the cavern was void of their equipment. Naruto lowered the wall, cancelling Yugito's genjutsu with his interference, after Hari had confirmed no one was around.
They travelled a few hundred yards through the forest on the surface before taking to the trees due to a high density of predators coming after them, including a giant bear Naruto had to subdue with a dozen other clones. Naruto tucked the microphone under the neck cover of his flak jacket, stretched his arms, the sleepiness having not quite left him, reached for his flask and took a chug of water. Yugito had Hari scan their location every five minutes. It was putting a considerable strain on him but he gritted his teeth and kept at it.
"Three up ahead!" Hari announced while releasing his hand seal and snapping his eyes open. "They're not a threat from what I can tell, though they could be hiding their chakra signatures." Hari reached for his sword but Naruto held up a hand.
"Leave it to me!" Naruto was fully awake now, ready to move. Banking left and going through a few hand seals while he closed in on the team from Amegakure (Hidden Rain), his chakra levels spiking. "Fūton! Akkai Genshuku!" Naruto jumped out of the tree he had just vacated, climbed thirty feet in the air and began to repeatedly palm strike the air to send a barrage of thirty air bludgeons to hit the Amegakure (Hidden Rain) genin that tore down trees as they struck the earth leaving deep holes.
The air assault caught on off guard and sent him crashing out of the tree into the ground amongst a handful of torn down trees. The female team member shouted out to her leader, who turned around and made a few hand seals and spat a haze of fire towards Naruto. Quick on his feet, the knucklehead ninja made a hand seal and created two Kage Bunshin to pull him aside and pass him onto another clone that seized the momentum and spun the original around and launch him at the Ame genin. Naruto flipped through the air and went for a heel drop but was blocked by the female genin who wielded an umbrella. Naruto shifted his weight and back flipped and drew two kunai and stormed at her and launched a vicious assault with the blades. The girl was hard pressed and fell back with a broken umbrella and a deep cut on her arm. Naruto ducked to the right and rolled on his shoulder to avoid a hail of needles and went through a string of hand seals of his own and took a death breath shouting, "Fūton! Dangan!" The Wind Bullet spun through the air with a screeching noise and smashed into the leader and shot him out of the air causing him to land in a sprawl and nurse his broken ribs.
"Hand over your scroll," Naruto ordered the girl who stepped back in fear and covered her chest. "Hand over your scroll," Naruto repeated forcibly. "You don't want me to take it off you."
"I- I don't have it!" the girl said in panic and backing up to a tree. Her eyes suddenly glinted with relieve and she shouted, "Get him!"
-ooo-
Hari's eyes darted left and right as he sat perched in a tree while Naruto was dispatching the Ame team on his own. Sensing nobody aside from the Ame team and his own, Hari watched the fight. Grinning as Naruto steamrolled the team singlehandedly, Hari looked back to when they were preparing for this day. For months they had trained for the Chūnin Exam, every day and all day, working tirelessly to improve. Hari eyed the genin getting up to attack Naruto from behind and flicked his blade open.
… Flashback
"So what are you teaching me today, Darui-sensei?" Hari asked, dropping to the grass with a content sigh. This was one of the few lessons he had with Darui while Naruto was with Kirabi to learn new Fūinjutsu and Shi was teaching Yugito genjutsu. Unable to teach Hari medical jutsu at the same time, it had left him alone with Darui to improve on kenjutsu.
Darui slid his massive broadsword in its sheath strapped to his back. "Huh? I thought you were busy with your kenjutsu style," the sluggish jōnin sat on the ground and yawned tiredly, despite having even broken a sweat in their one-sided duel. All he had to do to beat Hari was remain stationary and block and parry every slash, stab or lunge until he had enough and wanted to end the fight. "Having a tough time?"
"Yup," Hari cracked a smile, although he felt nothing but frustration, ripping grass out the ground. "It's solid in theory, just damn hard in actual practice. It's complicated."
"Would help if you explained what it was you were trying to achieve. I'm here to help," Darui yawned.
Hari chuckled, "Sorry, Darui-sensei. I want to keep it a secret so I can defeat you one day. I'll get it eventually, but in the meanwhile… you can teach me something else? The Cloud kenjutsu style is effective against normal fighters but I keep meeting stronger and stronger people. I need something that doesn't rely on power but on speed."
"Oh?" Darui got back up and smiled lazily. "Then I've got just the thing."
"Really, Darui-sensei?" Hari stood with a excited grin. "What kind of technique is it?"
"It's not a technique, Hari. It's a whole new kenjutsu style that relies on speed and precision. Many samurai practice it. I may not look like it, but I occasionally make use of it against opponents stronger than me."
"What's it called?"
"Iaidō."
… End Flashback
Hari grinned predatorily, flicking the ninja-to back into its sheath and darted out of the tree at an amazing speed.
-ooo-
"Get him!"
Naruto turned around to see the genin he had taken out by surprised raise a kunai but before he could move Hari shot past him and the male, landing in a crouch and sheathing his blade as he genin fell down in a shower of blood.
"Iaidō! Senkō Giri!"
"No!" the girl shrieked in hysteria, "No!"
Naruto turned back to the girl closing in on her and looked her in the eye. "Hand over your scroll and I'll let you guys leave."
"N- no! You're not going to let us live, are you? Y- You're just gonna take my scroll an- and kill us! For all I know, th- the second I give you our scroll you'll kill me or w- worse!"
"No, he's not," Yugito refuted, replying for Naruto as she landed next to Hari and nodded to him, giving him the signal to check up on the genin he had cut down. "We're here for your scroll, not for your life. As for that, these guys aren't like that."
"Wh- what are you doing to him?" the girl shouted at Hari, whose hand had started to glow with green chakra.
"Don't worry, he's just stopping the bleeding," Yugito waved off her concerns dismissively and stepped forward, brushing Naruto aside and locked eyes with the girl. "Now, your scroll, hand it over."
"Do as they say," the leader of the team croaked. "We can still retrieve ours, just let them have the scroll- ugh." Naruto's attacked seemed to have taken it out of him as the genin passed out.
The girl pulled out their scroll and passed it to Yugito, "Th- there you go!" The scroll turned out to be another Earth scroll but Yugito pocketed nonetheless. "Pl- please just let us go."
Yugito merely nodded and stepped aside. "Hari."
"Just a second," Hari continued to stop the bleeding and close the wounds and stood up, the green chakra dissipating from his hand. Hari gave his handiwork a quick look over and nodded and then turned to the girl and tossed the strip of painkillers. "He shouldn't move too much, my partner went a little overboard and probably broke two or three ribs. You should clean your own wounds too in case they get infected, which is guaranteed with the humidity of this forest."
"Th- thank you," the girl stammered as she caught the painkillers and popped it opened to give a few to their leader before taking one herself. Hari and Yugito took the trees but as Naruto jumped up she cried out, "Wait!"
Naruto looked at her whilst his teammates paused on their branches, "What is it?"
"Wh- why did you help us? Wh- why did you treat their wounds after defeating them? It doesn't make sense!"
Naruto merely grinned and winked at her. "There's a lotta pressure riding on this exam, but that doesn't mean we should lose our way. I'm not here to kill anyone, simply to win." Naruto didn't wait for a reply and took to the trees and left the girl with her disbelieving expression.
(Iaidō! Senkō Giri - Draw and Re-sheath Art! Flashing Slash!)
-ooo-
Naruto jumped over the branches and overtook Yugito, retaking his place in their formation. The sun had settled high in the sky now and was glowing brilliantly. "Fat load of good that did us," Naruto continued his frog like leaps from branch to branch.
"It's not a complete loss," Yugito consoled him and pulled out the Earth scroll they had taken from the other team. "If the need arises, we could simply trade scrolls or prevent another team from succeeding."
There was irrefutable logic and that so Naruto let it go with a simple nod. There would be enough time to capture the other three scrolls. Naruto looked up to the sky and noted the clouds forming. "Not good," Naruto frowned, "Looks like we're going to experience a storm soon."
"We should find some shelter. I can't use my Raiton jutsu out in the open," Yugito said. They already had an additional scroll, they could afford this break she told herself as Naruto led them to shelter and the clouds began to rumble.
Rain soon followed.
"So Naruto, what's with this Uchiha Sasuke guy?" Hari asked loudly over the pouring rain and thunder.
"Huh?" Naruto kept his eyes on the branches in front of him while sniffing the air every so often before the rain erased all odours. What was the deal with Sasuke, he asked to himself. Naruto chuckled and laughed rather that giving a straight answer. "Why do you ask?"
"You seem to be focused on him a lot. Did you know him?"
"He's the guy I'm the most interested in fighting," Naruto looked over his shoulder with huge grin. "He's the guy I hate the most!" Naruto sped his pace and paying his teammates' confused faces no heed and laughed to himself with an unusual sense of happiness and contentment mixed with excitement.
He could still clearly remember the days when he would watch Sasuke from afar. Never approaching him, but always watching. Naruto felt drawn to the Uchiha scion ever since he could remember, even before the Uchiha Massacre. Naruto could relate to Sasuke despite them being completely different in every possible way. Yet, the blond thought, in more ways than one he was exactly the same as Sasuke. They both knew the relentless pain of loneliness. What it meant to feel solitary and abandoned without any out there to truly understand them. They once shared anger at the world for their loneliness and pain of such magnitude it was unbearable. "I wonder if he's still the same. Has he let go of his hate like I did or did he embrace it?"
Naruto continued to head the formation north of the Shi no Mori. The trees began to become denser and closer to each other they had to keep talking at a minimum to focus on their branch hoping. Naruto spotted several foxes below them. They fled once he locked eyes with them. Apparently having a giant fox as your tenant didn't ease their fear, Naruto cracked a smile at the irony. The prankster smelled the stench of blood in the distance through the pouring rain.
"Up ahead, Hari."
The brown haired genin nodded and made a hand seal to focus on his sensory skills. Hari looked at Naruto and Yugito and held up three fingers and then all five fingers to indicate a fifty yard distance. Naruto nodded to him questioningly as if to ask whether it was safe to attack to which Hari nodded confidently.
Naruto stopped on a branch with Yugito crouching to him and Hari next to her a moment later. "I'm smelling blood and gun powder. They might be the types that overdo it with the explosives. Yugito go from the right, I take them from the left. Hari, I'm counting on you to light them up while we get them close to each other. Try not to kill them."
A thunderclap roared in the sky as if a giant beast hid behind the clouds.
"No," a drenched Yugito said firmly and turned to Hari and placed a hand on his shoulder and gripped it tightly as she locked eyes with him. "Aim to kill. We can't afford to pull any punches." Yugito's tone was ice cold, far colder than the rain and fiercer than the thunder, and thoroughly unnerved her teammates and she was aware of this. "Shinobi must forget about compassion and their emotions on the battlefield. This is a battlefield, you two."
Naruto swallowed thickly. She was jaded, she always had been but did she mean it for real? "Yugito-"
"Aim to kill," she cut him off before disappearing to ambush their targets from the right with her ninja-to already drawn.
Naruto did attempt to call her back and nodded to Hari, "She's the boss," he told him before placing his hand on his own ninja-to handle and diving out to another tree to get into ambush position.
…
"I'm in position. Wait for my signal, over."
Naruto tapped the headset button on his neck, relieved it was water proof, "I'm in position. What about you, Hari? Over." He could see the team of Iwa (Rock) shinobi preparing their lunch. Naruto spotted the source of the blood he smelled: a few freshly slaughtered boars were strung up to a tree close to them. Oddly enough the genin team were apparently confident enough to have their meal out in the open under the rain and thunderclouds. Naruto spotted two bulky looking shinobi clad in brown shinobi garb sit on a fallen tree with a slim female dressed in brown shinobi garb. From what Naruto could see and hear the males appeared to be attempting to persuade the girl to take care of their 'morning wood' (ironically enough it was already noon) whilst fondling her with their grubby paws. Naruto felt nauseated, wondering why the girl merely giggled.
"I'm ready whenever you are, over."
Naruto took a deep breath and exhaled slowly to calm his nerves and to harden his resolve. The exam was truly a battlefield like Yugito had said and as a shinobi he could not afford to hesitate, not even for a second. This was what it meant to be a true ninja. "You can do this, Uzumaki. You can do this!" The ninja-to slid out of his scabbard gleaming brightly under the leaves, the rain and the thunder clouds' brilliant flashes of light.
"They're breaking their camp. Now is our chance!"
Naruto's eyes snapped open and he launched himself out of the tree with his ninja-to drawn towards the group of genin and landed with a loud thud on the grass in front of them. "Yo."
-ooo-
"Yo." Naruto took a offensive stance while Yugito appeared on the other side of the Iwa shinobi's campsite. "We're here for your scrolls. Do me and yourselves a favour and hand them over."
The Hidden Stone genin jumped off their makeshift bench and got in position. Naruto grinned ferociously but quickly wiped the smile of his face when he noticed only the girl was facing him and the two brutes walked over to Yugito licking their lips as if they saw a tasty treat.
"Looks like action found us. About time, I was getting sick of tending to those two's needs. My hips still hurt," the young woman said pulling down her hood and sensually rubbing her thighs. She was a blond haired kunoichi with green eyes, full lips and glasses that accentuated her sexual appeal.
"Wh- What?" Naruto's face flared up at the woman's callous statement. "Their ne- needs? Your hips- what the fuck are you talking about?" Naruto flared loosening his grip on his blade in his outburst. He had heard Iwagakure was strict on the old traditions but kunoichi still being used for sexual desires was mind boggling.
"Oh that's right!" the kunoichi placed a hand on her mouth and giggled, her voice at a high pitch. "Kumo doesn't enforce the old tradition, do they? A shame, your partner has quite the body as you would know, no doubt."
"Shut the fuck up!"
The kunoichi stopped rubbing her thighs and placed her finger on her chin as if in thought. "What do you do to, you know, release tension? A quick jerk off, the good old 'Chokin' the Chicken' while she's sleeping, mhm?"
The young ninja shouted at her with a furious blush, "Shut up! There's no tension! Zero tension! TENSION IS A MYTH!" Naruto screamed at her, raising his blade above him and charging at the kunoichi for an overhead slash to cut her down.
The kunoichi effortlessly side-stepped the attack and stepped forward and brushed her hair behind her ear and gripped onto Naruto's manhood. "Still a virgin then? How cute," her eyes narrowed instantly however as shot out a kunai from her sleeve and held it in reverse grip. "I hate virgins."
"You're fucking crazy!" Naruto said jumping backwards with a slash at her hand and batting the kunai aside with his blade. The young ninja held up his blade in a horizontal guard, sliding into an offence kata and charged at her at an impressive speed. Naruto sure he had hit landed a clean hit but it turned out to be a clone. The real enemy appeared from behind throwing a hail of kunai at the blond. Naruto rested his ninja-to on his right should and threw a hail of shuriken with his left hand, causing the projectiles to ricochet of each other and fall to the ground. Whoever she was, Naruto knew she was not to be underestimated. A sudden heat wave indicated Hari had joined the battle, having thrown their plan to the winds and launched a barrage of fire balls instead. Naruto sighed in relieve knowing he could focus on his own opponent now and charged his left arm while whispering, "Shippū Shūren." His left arm was swallowed by a massive wind drill that screeched softly through the wind. Naruto raised his arm and swiped it his left, cracking the mound of earth it looked at. "Let's get started, baita!"
"The name's Kōgyoku," she growled reaching down to the surface and pulled at the mud. The mud shifted and spiraled upwards and formed into a large katana with a vicious curve. "Tsuchi no Yaiba! Let's see what you got, Dokuo!"
(TL: Dokuo translates to 'male virgin'. Baita translates to 'loose woman' or more commonly, 'slut.')
Naruto shot forward to meet in a class shouting, "Stop calling me a virgin, you BAITA!" The impact of the crash was significantly more than his female adversary had braced herself for and a result she was sent flying back and was about to into a tree but she swiftly twirled midair and landed in a crouch against the tree, cracking it slightly on impact. She saw the tip of her earth blade fly through the air and land behind Naruto, causing her to curse and examine her own blade before charging at her opponent, throwing another hail of kunai with her left whilst dragging what remained of her Earth Blade through the ground to repair it. Naruto moved his ninja-to effortlessly, deflected the projectiles blade and blocked Kōgyoku's smash-like swipe at his face his Hurricane Drill encased arm with ease, Raising his ninja-to he attempted slash down on her, aiming to crack open her head but only managed to cause a deep gash down the side of her bespectacled face due to her quick reflexes. Naruto pressed on and stomp kicked her in the abdomen and sent her crashing to the ground however before she touched the ground he shot forward and raised his ninja-to and cut the Tsuchi no Yaiba from the hilt. By the time Kōgyoku fell on her back and struggled to open her eyes, he rested his Shippū Shūren close to her face, indicating he had won and discouraging her from attempting to further retaliate.
"I surrender," she stuttered.
"Yeah you do," Naruto's wind drill disappeared with a low screech whilst Naruto placed his arm on his hip and his ninja-to on his shoulder, laughing loudly. "Who's the virgin now, huh?"
Kōgyoku sweat-dropped feeling an immense shame she had just lost to perhaps the biggest moron she had ever met, including her two brutish teammates. "No... you're still the virgin you know? Winning this fight doesn't make any difference as to your virginal status-"
"Shut up, I'm trying to bask in glory! Hohahaha!" Naruto laughed loudly rubbing his finger his nose and pulling a moronic expression. While he celebrated he suddenly felt a chakra spike behind him and quickly turned to see one of the brutes who was bleeding profusely and sporting flesh burns raising a giant boulder he expected to be a Doryō Dango the size of a small house and throw it at Yugito who had her back turned to him to finish Hari finish of the last one. "YUGITO!" Naruto shouted out aiming his hands at the brutish genin's back and shooting the strongest Shūrai he had ever done. The Lightning Bolt shot out of the palms of his hands, the size of a thick water stream, and flew at the brute's back at hit him directly shocking the brute so much he could no longer support the giant Earth Mausoleum Dumpling and dropped it, crushing himself on the crushing weight. Naruto sighed in relieve feeling completely drained from the sudden lightning jutsu and slumped over and fell to his knees, nearly falling over. He was twitching with lightning sparks and his insides felt fried. He got up struggling and waved at them however with his bloodied and burned hands. Yugito and Hari shouted, "WATCH OUT!" but it was already too late. Kōgyoku had taken the opportunity she saw and picked up the ninja-to he had dropped and ran it through Naruto's back in a shower of rain and blood.
"Goodbye!"
The world went dark for Naruto. The last thing he could hear before he fell were the cries of his teammates.
"NARUTO!"
-ooo-
(Ten minutes earlier)
Yugito gripped the ninja-to in her hands tightly, her arrows narrowed while the two brutish genin approached her. They towered over her in height easily at seven foot tall. Yugito noted they looked to be in their early twenties, an unusually high age for genin and their dark skin tone and matte grey hair made them resemble golems.
"Yo, nee-chan," one of them said as he linked his lips with longing as he approached her with his large paw like hands outstretched. If you let us hit it a few times and ger' rid of our mornin' wood we'll let you and yer midget friend live. Wha' de yer say? We'll be gentle, I promise."
Yugito's eyes darkened and her grip on her blade tightened. In the blink an eye she had post past the brute and sliced the skin under his eye open. Yugito landed in a crouch, her eyes widening when she was the brutish genin and his twin dip his fingers in his own blood and lick at it. "What are these monsters?" Yugito regained her composure and her eyes darted around looking over at Naruto fighting the female briefly before she turned back to the two brutes. "Guess it can't be helped," Yugito sheathed her blade and pulled on second pair of rubber gloves while she channeled chakra to her finger tips. "Raigan!" bolts of electricity shot from her index and middle finger and hit the brothers who held up their arms to defend themselves. Yugito held up the barrage for a few moments before ceasing her Lightning Gun and waited for the smoke to clear up. There was no way anyone could survive a barrage of her Lightning Gun bullets.
"Oi, nee-chan, it'll take a lot more than that to defeat the Obake Kyōdai!" said the younger looking twin as the smoke cleared up. He grinned at her with a twisted expression and cracked his fists. "Looks like we'll have to take you by force! OUARGH!" the brute bent over and grabbed at the earth and pulled out an earth boulder the side of Yugito and threw it at her.
Yugito charged her left fist with lightning chakra and jumped to meet the boulder midair and ran over it and launched herself at the younger Demon Brother and smashed her fist in his eyes shouting, "Raiken!" The Lightning Fist cracked the brute's face bones and mutilated his face and left him howling in pain while Yugito back flipped gracefully to avoid an earth spear thrown at her. Yugito sprinted at the older brother as soon as she landed and charged another Raiken in her hand and launched herself ten feet in the air with a chakra enhanced length. Just as she brought her sparkling fist down on the older brother she felt something grip on to her ankle monstrous roar, "AYARGH!"
Yugito flew so fast through the air she couldn't possibly move out of the way and avoid the boulder she was flying at. Yugito closed her eyes bracing herself significant pain but only heard a rush of wind and a grunt when she crashed into a rather soft in comparison surface. Opening her eyes she was caught midair by Hari who had appeared to save her and held her under his left arm as he reared back his head and spat out a gulf of fire. "Katon! RYŪKA NO JUTSU!"
Hari fell wheezed in pain and dropped Yugito rather unceremoniously. "That took the wind out of me!" The genin dropped to a knee and held his ribs and coughed a spatter of blood.
"Hari!" Yugito got up gripping onto Hari but he pushed her away shaking his head. She then saw he was already busy healing himself as green chakra emitted out of his hand. Yugito berated herself for underestimating the Obake no Kyōdai from Iwagakure. "Can you fight?" Yugito asked sheathing her ninja-to and pulling her gloves on tighter. "These two are no intellect whatsoever but they are extremely strong."
The Goblin Brothers had protected themselves from the Dragon Fire by erecting up a double layered Doryūheki, although the walls had collapsed a split second they had escaped the fire.
Hari leaned onto his blade's scabbard and struggled to his feet still coughing a little and nodded to Yugito, already smiling and shaking with what he knew was excitement. "I got the one on the left."
Yugito nodded, "Alright. I'll watch your back and you watch mine. I will have to go all out on these two if we want to put them out for good," Yugito paused a moment as she put on another pair of gloves, noting she was running out of rubber gloves she asked Hari, "Can you do it? Can you kill them?"
"Yes," Hari said without a sign of wavering in his voice. The ninja got up and stood next to the kunoichi and held sheathed his prized ninja-to in front of him and hung it under his belt. "Let's go!" Hari rushed forward simultaneously with Yugito and focused chakra to his arms and legs. "HYAH!" Hari's feet carried him faster than he had anticipated, however this technique was far from completion. As he made his mad dash towards his opponent Hari jumped forward between the brothers, his blade unsheathed for the briefest of moments gleaming blindingly under the thunderclouds' blinding light. Hari touched down on the ground, dragging across the earth due to his speed, his facial expression was one of absolute concentration. Hari slid his blade back into its scabbard.
Click!
"Iaidō! Hitotachi!"
(Jutsu: Iiadō! Hitotachi - Stroke of the Blade!)
A rain of blood followed the sickening noise of flesh and bone being ripped when Hari turned around. A giant forearm flew through the air and spurted blood all over. Hari's eyes had become cold and calculative as he stood as a true warrior of the blade. Not once in the months of training had Hari neglected his sword training. Everything about his posture indicated he was level-headed. The genin did not move as the brute cried out to the skies holding his stump and screaming to his younger brother, "GANBAN!"
"GANSEKI- AURAGH!"
Yugito silenced the younger brother with a Raikyū to his massive neck and toppled the giant, jumping off him before he landed with a loud thud that shook the ground. Yugito peeled the dripping rubber that had been right glove of her right hand and pulled on another pair of gloves while Hari appeared next to her, both of them watching Ganban crawl over to his older brother, Ganseki. Both of the giants were in tears and bleeding.
Yugito watched them coldly uncaring to their pain. "You lose," she said with her impassive tone aiming her palm at Ganseki and charging lightning to her hand.
Hari's hand shot out and grabbed on to her wrist. Ignoring the stinging pain he looked at her and shook his head. "This is not the kind of shinobi we are, Yugito. Not me, not Naruto and not you," Hari let go of her hand and gripped her by the shoulder. "You're the too focused on making yourself prepared to kill or be killed, but you forget that is not always the only option. Being prepared to kill someone is fine, but that doesn't mean we should make a point of killing whoever we fight here."
Yugito cancelled her fishing move and brushed Hari's hand of her shoulder. "That's not why I was going to kill them." In truth, she wanted to kill them to prevent these beasts to force themselves on any other female genin in the forest. Yugito felt physically ill being even remotely close to these Iwagakure genin, however she sighed and mumbled, "It is of no importance" when Hari gave her a curious look.
Suddenly the earth shifted under them and before Yugito could move Hari took her by surprise and kicked her back, saving her from the earth spike only to have his left arm pierced through. Hari screamed out in horrible pain and dropping his blade and fell back.
With his last breath Ganseki charged at him however he was stopped by Yugito whose chakra spiked tremendously as she screamed, "Katon! Hōenka no Jutsu!" The Flame Flower enveloped the elder Demon Brother causing him to scream out in pain before he fell forward as his eyes rolled to back of his head. He was dead before he hit the ground, burnt to a crisp. His enormous body was still on fire after his death being burned by the Flame Flower.
Yugito ran over to Hari, her breath raspy as she inspected the collapsed genin's gruesome arm injury. She helped up Hari and ripped open his shirt and refused to gag at the revolting sight of tore up flesh and shattered bone clearly visible under the bloody appendage that was Hari's arm.
Hari shouted out in pain as soon as Yugito touched his arms and swore profoundly under his breath. "It's okay, I've got it. Inspect your own wounds, I can take care of it."
Yugito shook her head, smiling softly. Even when in so much pain Hari tried to be tell her to back off in the nicest of ways. Figuring she would let their team medic heal himself she reached for a bottle of painkillers she had in her pouch. As she dug into her pouch she heard a monstrous, ear splitting roar. Yugito's eyes widened as she turned around to see Ganban hoisting a ball of earth the size of a small house.
"YUGITO!"
A flash of light blinded Yugito. As she and Hari covered their eyes they could hear a colossal thump and the ground shake. By the time they could see they found Naruto half slumped and his hands steaming even from the distance.
Yugito felt a relieved smile creep up to her face when she suddenly saw Naruto's opponent dart for the ninja-to Naruto must have dropped and stab Naruto through the back.
"NARUTO!"
-ooo-
(Team Kirabi Hideout)
It was in the afternoon when Naruto woke up with a groan to a crisping noise and warmth. Naruto looked up seeing a faint light out of the corner of his eyes. Fire. Its warmth was welcomed but he did not particularly enjoy having the light destroy his retinas. Naruto shuffled his weight, pulling his blanket over his shoulder and turned his head on his pillow and groaned contently until he suddenly felt the a jolt of pain in his chest. Feeling as if he had just stabbed himself, Naruto instinctively reached for the source of his pain under his blanket. "Wet?" Naruto's eyes fluttered as he inspected his palm to find it completely drenched with blood. As if triggered, his body screamed out in pain making Naruto involuntary arch and cough blood repeatedly as he tried to desperately breathe. Suddenly his pillow moved from under him-
Naruto's eyes bulged finding himself staring into Yugito's dark orbs distantly noting he had been resting his head on her lap while he struggled controlling himself as the pain shocked his body. A tearing sound indicated he had ripped his stitches that Hari must have sown.
"Hari, he's awake, get over here!"
There was a rustling and call back that sounded muffled. Had Naruto not in pain he would have concluded Hari was outside of their hideout on guard duty, unfortunately for the young shinobi this was not the case. The pain increased so much Naruto's hand shot out and gripped onto Yugito's hand and he held it tightly. Yugito held onto his hand, attempting to ease him back into the bed.
"My che- chest!" Naruto wheezed finding it harder to breath with every word. He couldn't breathe, even the slightest inhale felt like he was getting stabbed in the chest.
"Calm down!" Yugito said forcibly forcing him down and ignoring his yelp. The kunoichi forced chakra her arms and held the genin pinned down. "Naruto- Naruto, listen to me carefully. You were stabbed from the back and you had a collapsed lung. You need to stay still otherwise breathing will be next to impossible."
Naruto slowly nodded feeling Yugito take his hand in her own soft grasp. Yugito sighed in relief pulling back his hair. Naruto could not for the life of him remember the last time he had ever seen her so worried- especially about him. He shifted his head comfortably in her lap, noticing she had dirt on her cheeks and not caring; she looked beautiful regardless. "W- water," Naruto rasped, his throat parched after nearly coughing up a lung in his fit.
Yugito nodded to Naruto and got up and laid him down while shouting, "Hari, get in here!" at the Earth Style Wall she had erected. Naruto remembered teaching her that jutsu when it had proven difficult for her.
A moment later Hari emerged from the ground, nearly sending Naruto another surprise-induced coughing fit. Hari grumbled something Yugito for not retracting the wall and quickly picked up his medic kit from the floor kneeled down by Naruto and said smiling, "Naruto buddy you lung collapsed. Try not to breathe too deeply okay?"
"Tell him something he doesn't know by now," Yugito spat at him returning with a flask of water, sitting down on Naruto's other side. She gently lifted his head and rested it on her elbow and tipped some water down his lips, washing away the coppery taste of blood and moistening his parched throat.
Naruto nodded indicating he had enough after two cups and chuckled, locking eyes with Yugito directly and wincing every once in a while when Hari's examination of his wound would give a jolt of pain.
"What's so funny?" Yugito asked him gently resting his head against her wondering how the knucklehead could possibly be laughing in his state.
Naruto chuckle died in his throat as he grunted in pain, a smile etched on his face nonetheless. "You're worried about me. That's not like you, haha-" Naruto slipped into another coughing fit but recovered quickly. "I didn't know you cared," Naruto sounded as if he was mocking her, yet they both knew there was a true sense of relief in his statement.
"Shut up," Yugito told him pressing embracing his head to her chest and sighing in relief. "If you die, Kirabi-sensei, Hari, Raiden-sama, Darui-senei and Shi-sensei and a lot more people will be sad."
"Including you?" Naruto sounded weak, as though he was slipping back into unconsciousness. His brief time awake had taken its toll on him already.
"Yes, me too," Yugito told him softly, "Now go to sleep," she told him, letting out of the embrace and allowed him to rest on her lap for the duration of Hari's inspection.
Hari hid his smile while Yugito stroked Naruto's locks. "About time she admitted she cared about him," genin smile's expanded into a grin as he cleaned his best friend's wound with disinfectant. "You sure did worry us this time, Naruto." Hari's expression darkened remembering what had triggered Naruto's actions in the first place.
"What is it, Hari?" Yugito read his expression as an open book. Months of being both teammates and friends had brought them together. Yugito could tell what her teammates feeling simply by looking at her faces. She chalked it up to her observant trait due to the Nibi. "What happened, it wasn't your fault."
"Yes, it was," Hari answered forcibly finishing up with Naruto's stitches and looking up at Yugito. "If I had let you finish off those two like you wanted to this wouldn't have happened!" Hari got up and paced their tree cavern angrily. "If I hadn't fucking told you to let them live they wouldn't have attacked us and Naruto sure as hell wouldn't have end up with a collapsed lung! FUCK!" Hari turned to the wall and punched it with all his might, sinking his fist through the earth wall. "It's my fault... all of it," he repeated.
"You were right to stop me," Yugito told him firmly. She tightened her grip on Naruto's hand. "I was going to kill those two in case they- in case they got their hands on one of the other girls out there in forest. Just thinking of what they said to me makes me sick. I wanted to kill them for it."
Hari said nothing and began to submerge through the ground, "I'll be on guard. Keep an eye on him for me, will you? If he wakes up again or his wounds open, don't shout for me. I've got my headset with me."
Yugito looked at the ground where Hari had stood before he sunk through the ground and looked back to Naruto and continued to play with his locks. "Why isn't the Kyūbi healing you, Naruto?" Yugito had often experienced it when the Nibi would punish her by making her suffer from her wounds to learn or lesson or it would have difficulties finding the source of her injuries but Naruto on the other hand always healed almost instantaneously if it was a life threatening wound like this. "Is the Kyūbi teaching you a lesson?"
Author's Notes
What. Up.
Daniel 29correctly pointed out that Naruto tends to flirt and make callous comments to most women he knows. That's very true; Naruto doesn't quite know how to talk to girls so he sticks to jokes and compulsively asking them to go out with him on dates. He's hardly ever serious when he's asking out girls. It's more of a defense mechanism for him to avoid emotional confrontation. As you know, Naruto's got very limited experience with women at this stage and considering he's been living with Kirabi, who expresses his emotions through his fists, you can imagine how much further he's been stunted.
Easter eggs! Last chapter quite a few missed out on references I left out. The one I thought was most obvious was the question about seals regarding Ikamuzu Irrotah – which is Uzumaki Hattori written backwards! Then there was the gate number for Team Kirabi, which was number 25. In the anime, episode 25 is when they enter the Forest of Death! Ha, none of you caught on (although that was ridiculously random).
Remember reviews make me happy!
…
Jutsu Used:
(Jutsu: Doton! Doryūheki no Jutsu – Earth Style Wall!) - B rank, defensive, short range. This ninjutsu is used to defend against an incoming attack by creating a solid wall of earth. Chakra is converted to earth within the body and then spat out. This earth then instantly rises up and takes form. The barrier itself is also coated with chakra, making its strength incomparable to that of a normal mud wall. Because of the earth's special characteristics, the wall is highly resistant against, for instance, fire and water.
(Jutsu: Fūton! Dangan – Bullet!) - C rank, offensive, mid range. The Bullet is a powerful, grapefruit-sized ball of wind spat from the mouth using the wind element. It's powerful enough to penetrate trees and even crack boulders. If one were to experience a direct hit, death or long term convalescence are like to follow.
(Iaidō! Senkō Giri (Draw and Re-sheath Art! Flashing Slash) – ? rank, offensive, close range. A technique Hari has learned under Darui's tutelage; the Senkō Giri is a technique that requires the user to withdraw his blade, slash at the opponent and re-sheath the blade instantaneously. Due to its quick motion, it appears to be to a flashing as it moves. Parent jutsu: Iaidō (Draw and Re-sheath Art).
(Jutsu: Shūrai no Jutsu – Lightning Bolt!) – A rank, offensive, long ranged. The Shūrai no Jutsu is Yugito's first original technique. This technique does not require hand seals, but is more less chakra taxing with it. Yugito summons an enormous amount of chakra into her hands, instantly converts it to lightning chakra and shoots it off as lightning bolt. Despite its name, it not as powerful or as fast as a real lightning bolt or as fast. Nonetheless, this technique is extremely powerful and heavy on chakra taxation and can shoot up to five hundred meters distance. Yugito has since creation passed this jutsu on to one other person: Uzumaki Naruto.
(Jutsu: Tsuchi no Yaiba - Earth Blade!) – C rank, supplementary, ? range. A common jutsu taught by jōnin to their genin teams to create substitute weapons of earth when in short or no supply of actual weapons. The user focuses chakra on the earth to spiral upwards to form into a blade type weapon, most commonly a ninja-to or katana.
(Jutsu: Doryō Dango - Earth Mausoleum Dumpling!) - B rank, offensive, short to mid range. With chakra work and superhuman strength, shinobi are able to lift up the very surface of the Earth. The lump of earth is gigantic and, the destructive power is obvious, but even just the visual impact can be enough to make enemies lose their fighting spirits and run away. The ball of earth is then hurled it at his opponent, flattening everything in its path.
(Jutsu: Iaidō! Hitotachi - Stroke of the Blade!) – ? rank, offensive, close range. The second technique Hari learned of the Iadō kenjutsu style. A rather simple technique in theory, yet proving difficult for many seasoned swordsman. Hari unsheathes his blade and stroke the blade in an odd curve. This technique depends on fluid movements and high precision and is used to dismember limbs. Parent jutsu: Iaidō (Draw and Re-sheath Art).
(Jutsu: Katon! Hōenka no Jutsu – Flame Flower!) - C rank, offensive, mid to long range. The Flame Flower is a relatively simple Katon jutsu that requires the user to spit fire in the shape of flowers. This jutsu resembles the Hōsenka due to its similar nature.
Kumo Nin Character Corner
Name: Yamaken Takezo.
Alias(es): Takeshi Takezo.
Date of Birth: August 18th.
Age: Forty-five.
Blood Type: B.
Affiliation(s): Akumu Shokō, Yama-Ken Clan.
Occupation: Samurai.
Rank: None.
Classification: A-ranked samurai.
Bounty: Two million ryō.
Mini biography: Yama-Ken Takezo, or as preferred Takeshi Takezo, was already a renown samurai before he was approached by the Akumu Shokō. He was known for his exploits across the regions. He had spent many years being a wandering samurai, learning under notable figures such as Torimaru, the blade master of the east and Kendo, the legendary smith that travelled in the south. Takezo left his clan at the age of twenty-eight, tired of their tireless arguments and changed his last name to Takeshi to become his own man, free from his clan once proud warrior clan. Takeshi lives by his personal honour code, however he broke down in tears when confronted by Naruto who painfully pointed out he had broken his own honour code by affiliating himself with the Akumu Shokō who had their samurai kill the villagers, take their women and plunder their village. Takeshi Takezo does not believe in suppressing one's emotions and will there for always encourage those to give it their all and fuel their power with their emotions. Currently Takezo is serving a life sentence in Kumogakure's high security prison for chakra using enemies of state.
Weapon: Takenzo makes use of a Kyōsei Ken named Tsuchi Kuma. In Hakkei Release form it takes the form of a giant bear that can turn into mud as well as rock and use this to change it shape in battle.
Nature Type: Earth.
Fighting Style: Takezo is proficient with Doton jutsu however relies mostly only his Kyōsei Ken, Tsuchi Kuma, who is very affectionate towards him. With his blade Takezo manipulates the earth around him to use in battle.
Techniques (2):
Hakkei (Release of Internal Power), Tomeoku (Detain).