Bonds That Bind
"Alright I understand. I'll inform the Hokage immediately." The ANBU that was standing in front of Shizune disappears without a trace, and Shizune exits the room and heads down the circular hallway. She appears at the Hokage's door and knocks.
"Come in." Shizune enters to find the Hokage studying different seals. "Oh, Shizune. Has anything regarding the Jinchuuriki come to the surface?"
"Some what Tsunade-sama. A report from ANBU indicates that Naruto located a kunoichi from Kumogakure by the name of Yugito Nii. Naruto suspects that this person could possibly be the Jinchuuriki and is currently trailing her team through the forest of death."
"Interesting, Shizune could you please bring me the file on Yugito Nii."
"Right away Tsunade-sama." And with that Shizune left the Hokage to her thoughts.
'Kumogakure. I've read in the archives that Konoha had a run in recently with a nin from Kumogakure. They attempted to steal the Byakugan through the unsuccessful kidnapping of Hinata Hyuuga. I have to consider every possibility; there is only a loose treaty between us and Kumogakure... Please don't do anything rash Naruto.'
Naruto was trailing Yugito's team beyond visible range and had a clone henge into a hawk and was observing them from the air. They had been in the forest of death for about 3 hours now and neither Naruto or is suspect's team has run into another group of genin.
Now that Yugito's team was together, Naruto had gotten a chance to look at her teammates. One of them had long brown hair that was really messy; he had a scar on his left arm from the shoulder to the forearm. He wore loose fitting grey clothing that was also raggedy and had several holes in it. The other had short green hair and was very clean. He wore black long sleeves and pants that hugged his body and didn't have any physical markings anywhere on his body. One glance at him and you couldn't tell if he was a shinobi or a civilian.
Suddenly, Yugito's team stopped in a small clearing within the forest. There was a small river running nearby and a huge tree trunk that was hollow within. Naruto stopped and had his clone fly off and then dispel the kage bunshin jutsu. Naruto held his position and just estimated their position through the chakra he could feel from them. 'Hmm, it's too early for them to be tired already. They must be setting up an ambush point near that stream.' Naruto estimated that he was roughly 120 yards away from them, and after an hour of their chakra not going far from where they stopped, he concluded that his ambush hypothesis was correct and decided to set himself up in a tree where he could gain a visual on them from a distance. He found one of the few higher trees that could give a visual at Yugito's team without them easily noticing him and began his stakeout.
Naruto watched as Yugito's team set up their ambush. He noticed that the green haired member was particularly good at manipulating his chakra, he had set up small chakra lines from his fingers and placed them upstream and had the ends flow naturally flow downstream. Effectively alerting him should anyone or anything either pass the stream or get something to drink. The brown haired teammate had set up numerous traps surrounding them. Ranging from concealed holes in the ground to explosive tags set up in the trees and bushes surrounding them. Yugito had hollowed out three of the surrounding trees, each facing the already hollowed one, for each of her teammates. Once all of them were done, they created bunshins of themselves and had their bunshins all act asleep in the main hollowed tree.
'Very clever.' Thought Naruto, 'They seem to work very well together as a team, I wonder if their fighting is in sync with each other as well.' Suddenly Naruto felt another presence coming from behind him. 'Weak chakra output, they must be relatively new genin. Whatever, at least now I'll be able to find out how well their ambush works.' The three newcomers continued to get closer. Naruto was waiting for them to rush past him and have the explosive tags go off, and watch one of the best ambush's unfold before him. 'Just a little more.' Naruto tensed from the excitement. The three mysterious shinobi passed Naruto's position. Then, Naruto was abruptly forced down from his observation tower as two kunai flew past him and into the tree he was on. 'Damnit, this would only happen with my luck.'
"All right you guys, we finally found someone! And look! He's all alone, this will be easy." In front of Naruto stood three genin, all female. They looked like something from a superhero team. They all wore red short sleeved tops and blue shorts with blue backpacks on their backs. They sported the headbands from Takigakure that shone through their blue hair. The one in the middle of them spoke to Naruto, "You there, which scroll do you have?" Naruto hadn't even checked the scroll when he first received it. He searched around his jumpsuit to find that he had been given the "heaven" scroll.
"Heaven." Naruto replied nonchalantly. "But I really don't feel like fighting right now, how about you guys just continue towards that way. There is a stream you can drink from and a nice resting place." Naruto practically pleaded this part out; he really wanted to watch that ambush go underway. Plus he wasn't really too ecstatic about beating up three girls who dressed alike. It gave him the same creepy feeling he gets when he sees Lee and Guy-sensei together.
"Hah, you're the one who will need a resting place after we get through! We have the 'Earth' scroll, so we must meet through destiny."
'Well, if anything I can acquire the 'Earth' scroll from them.' Naruto pleaded with the three Takigakurian kunoichi once more only to be shot down again. 'So be it.'
The three kunoichi leaped forward towards Naruto with kunai ready in their hands. Naruto dodged the first swipe by bending under the sideways strike and then proceeded to flip multiple times backwards until he was out of the onslaught. He then jumped onto a tree branch and preformed the hand sign for his kage bunshin. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." There were now a total of three Narutos standing on the branch. They jumped down from the branch propelling themselves towards the kunoichi trio. Two of the girls prepared for the oncoming Narutos while the third jumped back and started performing hand signs. "Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu!" Naruto's eyes became wide with both fear and admiration. Spouts of water shot out of the three backpacks the kunoichi's wore and formed into a water dragon. Naruto cursed in his mind as the dragon flew at him and his clones. He jumped up away from his bunshins and the dragon and landed on a branch overlooking the battlefield.
Naruto analyzed the situation in front of him, 'These three don't seem to posses a lot of chakra, but they do know some fierce jutsu. I have to end this quickly less I want Yugito's team to arrive while I'm still here.' Naruto preformed the required hand sign had another bunshin appear next to him which started to spin chakra into Naruto's hand. Once the bunshin had finished, he was dispelled along with the one remaining kage bunshin who was fighting the three kunoichi. They looked up toward Naruto to see that he was holding a violently spinning orb of chakra in his right hand. "Forgive me." Just as Naruto said that he was instantly beside the water dragon driving his swirling ball of chakra into the side of its head. "Rasengan!" Water flew splashed in every direction, blown back to its natural liquid state by the rasengan. Then Naruto was in front of the kunoichi who had preformed the necessary hand signs for the jutsu and sent her flying with an upward kick to her jaw. As her teammates turned to see what had become of her Naruto had already vanished and appeared behind one of the two remaining and knocked her out with a quick strike to her neck. He then slowly approached the last one who was standing still, shocked that her team had been taken out so easily. Naruto saw the look of fear in her eyes and then with a quick punch to her gut had her keel over to the ground.
He had knocked every one of them out without any serious injuries. He approached the leader of the group and found the "Earth" scroll within a pocket on her backpack. And with that he jumped up into the trees to find another location to observe Yugito's team.
Naruto abandoned the idea of another high up stakeout position and moved in close to teams set up ambush. He ended up hiding in a bush behind the hollowed out tree of one of the teams members. Naruto was impressed with how long they were keeping their bunshins up. He stayed silent and waited patiently for someone to move.
Morning came, and along with it, was three chakra sources. They were moving slowly and had hardly any chakra output. Even less than the three kunoichis from Takigakure. 'This is bad; these three seem to be strong. They're hiding their chakra signals, stopping all but a small amount from coming out.' Naruto had trouble finding the sources at first because of how faint the signal was, but he now calculated that they would be approaching from the water-side of the perimeter. Naruto had a concealed location, but it would be in his best interests to move to a higher point once the battle was underway. He felt uneasy about the readiness Yugito's squad. He had a feeling that they were asleep, but he was unsure if he should interfere. 'No, this is an ambush. It would completely ruin their entire plan if I were to make an effort to make sure they were awake. It would definitely make the approaching shinobi know that Yugito's team was here.' Naruto waited for what seemed like an eternity until…
"BOOM!" An explosive tag was set off and then suddenly dozens of kunai and shuriken screamed as they flew into the ball of fire. 'Oh good, they're awake.' Naruto witnessed as Yugito and her teammates jumped high in the treetops and ran towards where the explosion had occurred. They arrived to find nothing but a burnt piece of wood with several shuriken and kunai lodged into it. "Damn, keep an eye out. Someone is definitely here." The raggedy brown haired shinobi stated.
"You don't have to state the obvious Taka, I'm sure we all knew that already." Stated the green haired squad member.
Taka retaliated saying, "Yea and you don't have to be a jerk all of the time Retsu, if it weren't for us being on a team I'd…"
"Would you both just shut up! We need to focus!" Yugito was nervous; they had their ambush called out as if it were nothing. Suddenly the ground in between the team split open and large rocks shot out of the ground at them. Taka was caught off guard and felt the full force of the flying boulder as it hurled him into a nearby tree. Yugito jumped over one boulder and used it as a platform to leap over a second which was thrown her way. Once airborne she used a fire technique and blew it into the newly split earth. "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" the hot fireball fused the torn earth back together. Retsu too had a boulder shot his direction but he easily cut it with his chakra lines, using them as whips.
'That's it. When Yugito used that last Katon Jutsu, her Biju's chakra appeared. Yugito. You are the other Jinchuuriki!' Naruto watched from his position as the one-sided battle continued.
"Impressive fire technique girl, it seems that we underestimated you three." A voice from the shadows danced into their ears, not giving away the location of its owner. Yugito, obviously irritated at the voice fired multiple fireballs in the surrounding forest area. "Foolish girl, you would be wise to conserve your chakra. You're going to need it." Taka, stunned from the boulder that hit him, stumbled next to Yugito and Retsu.
"Shut up and show yourselves you cowards!" Taka demanded.
"As you wish" The voice replied. Three shadowy figures appeared in front of them. They wore long dark brown cloaks and displayed their forehead protectors proudly which represented Iwagakure. One of them had a masked face and only allowed his dark eyes to be seen. The one in the center had short brown hair and multiple scars and slashes across his face, he displayed a wicked smile and had the eyes to match. The last one was relatively calm, he displayed no emotion whatsoever and was bald. The two teams looked upon one another in disgust. "Now, which one of you is currently carrying the scroll?"
"Why should we answer that question?" Yugito fiercely replied.
"Because I wish to know whose body to leave intact, the scroll does me no good if it's chopped into pieces." Said the scarred one in the middle.
"Enough of this!" Taka yelled and charged at the three Iwagakurian shinobi. He raised his hands high and was suddenly holding a solid bolt of lightning. "This is for hitting me with that oversized pebble!" Taka threw the lightning bolt into the masked ninja hitting him square in the chest. The masked nin then dematerialized into a rock which then broke apart. 'Damn!' Taka looked up just in the knick of time to see masked ninja falling at him with a stone pole. He dodged the attack right as the pole smashed into the ground creating a crater several feet in diameter. Taka didn't have time to rest for the nin was back on him swinging the pole in every direction. 'I need to create some space so I can summon another lightning bolt.' Taka pulled out a kunai with an explosive tag and threw it at his opponent's feet. It exploded creating a stall in the barrage, just enough time needed for Taka to rearm himself. He then went on the offensive using his bolt of lightning as a sword.
As Taka and the masked nin from Iwagakure were fighting, the scarred one lunged at Retsu throwing several more boulders in the process. Retsu responded with his chakra whips and effectively sliced the boulders into pieces which fell down harmlessly. "Interesting talent you have there, might I ask how you made your little whips so potent?" asked the scarred shinobi.
"I am a shinobi of Kumogakure, we specialize in electrical ninjutsu. I simply run chakra lines out of my hands and run an electrical current down them, easily allowing them to slice through anything." Retsu replied with a grin on his face.
"Oh I see, well then. Allow me to change tactics." The scarred ninja then reached into his cloak and pulled out two large rocks. The rocks were tainted black and very evenly portioned to each other. "Lets see how your whips do against these!" He through the two rocks at Retsu who then sliced them into eight different pieces.
"I told you, my chakra whips can cut through anything." Retsu replied in a monotone voice.
"That's what I was expecting." The scarred one grinned devilishly at Retsu and then preformed hand signs. "Doton: Iwa Soujuu no Jutsu!" The black rocks around Retsu began to rise into the air and surround him. "It's true that your whips can cut through anything I suppose, however that doesn't matter in this situation."
Yugito saw her teammates in trouble and then looked at her own opponent. He had not moved from the spot he had appeared in, nor did he look at the battles going on around him. He just looked straight forward, not at Yugito, but just staring straight forward, as if he were lost in a dream. "Shall we get started?" He said, no emotion in his voice. "I'll allow you to make the first move if you wish."
Yugito stared at him, his face just seemed so empty. She readied herself for another fire attack. "Alright then! Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu." She fired her massive fireball in her opponent's direction and watched as it engulfed where he was standing. The smoke cleared to reveal a glassed area where he had been standing, but there was no sign of him. Then she felt it, a kunai into her leg. She buckled from the pain and then struggled to get back up. 'When did he…'
Taka had the advantage in his fight; his lightning bolt could slice through the pole of solid rock his opponent was wielding. Yet, he was losing. He could never land a hit on the masked shinobi, and if he did, it revealed itself as a boulder. Taka had to maintain the chakra flow into his weapon or it would disappear soon. He went back on the offensive attempting to even graze his opponent, but never came close to the masked ninja's real body. "Lets end this already, I want to defeat some more useless teams before the time limit expires." And with that the masked shinobi threw his rock pole at Taka who sliced it in two. But in the time it took Taka to destroy the hurled object, his opponent had already formed the required seals for his technique and had them flat on the ground. "ITS OVER! Doton: Iwa Yuushuu no Jutsu!" Two giant slabs of rock burst from the ground and smashed Taka in between them.
Retsu had been holding off the now twenty-four pieces of black rocks that were controlled by his opponent, but he was reaching his limit. His chakra reserves were at their end. "Now you will meet your end!" Retsu's opponent chimed. Retsu braced for the impact as his chakra whips disappeared and his body was penetrated by the twenty-four pieces rock. Retsu's body went limp and he fell to the floor which was already coated in his blood. He had his eyes fixed on Yugito struggling to regain a battle stance as blood flowed down her leg. Then, his vision faded and he passed out from blood loss.
Yugito now positioned herself against the trunk of a tree. The kunai in her leg had severed the nerve endings and she was unable to move it, and on top of that, she hasn't seen her opponent since the beginning of their match when she fired the fireball. "Stop toying with me and come out!" She yelled into the abyss that was the forest of death.
"As you wish, how about we trade places. Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu." Yugito was suddenly pulled underground until only her head was the only part of her body on the surface. She then witnessed as the emotionless ninja from Iwagakure jumped out of the ground. Her eyes widened with fear as she saw the kunai in his hand.
"Ok, we give up. Take the scroll it's hidden under that big hollowed out tree. You win." Yugito pleaded with her soon to be assailant.
"Very well, after you are dead we will go and add your scroll to our collection."
"Collection? Just how many scrolls have you and your team taken?"
"Yours will be our fourth one."
"What?! You guys have already defeated three other teams? Then why are you doing this? Why when you already have what you want?"
"For amusement." The emotionless nin replied as monotone as ever.
Naruto had witnessed the entire battle and was horrified. He knew that Yugito's two teammates weren't dead, but they needed medical attention quickly. Then he saw it, Yugito's chakra soared. She was using her Biju. 'This is bad, I have to stop this now!' Naruto jumped out of his observatory and prepared the seal he had received from Tsunade. He watched as the chakra shield started to envelope Yugito and the Iwagakurian shinobi start his decent with his kunai aimed to decapitate Yugito. Naruto rushed towards them at his full speed and barely manage to deflect the kunai away from Yugito's neck while simultaneously placing the seal on Yugito and forcing the demon's chakra back inside her.
"That's enough, You guys have your scrolls now go." Naruto stated with a hint of authority in his tone of voice.
"And just who are you to make such a demand?"
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, the future Hokage of Konoha!"
"Fool, we'll see if you live long enough to become that pathetic Hokage." And with that, the emotionless nin sank back into the ground. Naruto closed his eyes, keeping his senses in sync with his surroundings. Then, after a few minutes, his eyes shot open. "Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu" His leg was pulled under the ground as his captor came out. "Now you die Naruto Uzumaki!" He lunged forward towards Naruto's head with nothing but pure killing intent, when Naruto suddenly disappeared. 'What, a bunshin? But I was able to pull it down, was it a kage bunshin?' He was lost in his train of thought when the real Naruto dropped down beside him, rasengan in hand.
"Its over." Naruto slammed his attack into the back of the stunned Iwagakurian shinobi. "Rasengan!" Naruto's opponent went flying through the tree that Yugito had been supporting herself on and straight into one of the boulders from his teammates' earlier attacks. His back revealed a twisted and misshapen piece of meat that was once his skin and muscle.
"Jousho!" His teammates cried out. "C'mon lets retreat, we have enough scrolls already." His teammates lifted Jousho up and then jumped off in retreat.
Naruto free Yugito from the ground; she was in a state of shock. He set her down next to a tree and went to rescue her teammates. Taka was conscious but in no condition to move, and Retsu had lost a lot of blood, he was in critical condition. "Yugito, stay here and look after your team. I'm going to go get a medical team here, I'll be back before you know it." And with that, Naruto flashed his big grin and jumped off. Leaving behind a very stunned and grateful Yugito.
"Hey ANBU guys! Where are you? ANBU come out!" Naruto was yelling frantically as he approached the edge of the forest of death. "I need a medical team now!" Several exam administrators and ANBU had heard the blonde ninja's cries for assistance and came to his aid. Naruto explained his story and got a medical squad to follow him back to Yugito's position.
"Naruto-kun!" Yugito greeted Naruto and then she saw the medical team that Naruto had brought to them. "Thank you Naruto-kun, I am in debt to you now."
"Haha, it was nothing Yugito. You can thank me by treating me to ramen sometime." Naruto flashed his grin again as the medical squad took Yugito and her teammates away from the forest.
Suddenly eight ANBU members landed around Naruto "Naruto, did you locate the Jinchuuriki?"
"Yea, it is the kunoichi that was just taken away. Yugito Nii." Naruto said in a low tone.
"Very well Naruto, go now and report to the Hokage."
"Yea, I understand." Naruto left the chuunin exams, his mission now over, and went towards the Hokage's office. He arrived at the Hokage's office in a very solemn mood.
"Congratulations on a job well done Naruto, you preformed above expectations. Not only did you locate the Jinchuuriki, but you also trailed her, and stopped her from using her demon chakra. I give you a passing grade on your mission. You are now a Chuunin." Tsunade was incredibly pleased with Naruto's performance. Not only did he save Konoha from a potential Jinchuuriki release, but he also rescued a team from Kumogakure from almost certain death. Tsunade was sure that if Kumogakure were to find out that they had a squad ruthlessly murdered within Konoha's boundaries, they would want reprimands for it, probably in the form of bodies.
"Tsunade-Obaachan."
"Huh? What is it Naruto?" Naruto had pulled Tsunade out of her thoughts.
"Can you please make sure that Yugito will be safe?"
"Of course Naruto, right now she has a team of ANBU guarding her."
"That's what I mean. People hold a general hatred for Jinchuuriki, what if the ANBU attempt something?" Naruto was tense, he knew that not all of the ANBU hated him, but that was only because he had gotten a chance to converse with them and become friends. He had no idea what they would do to a Jinchuuriki that they had connections with.
"It's ok Naruto, the ANBU currently on the guard list for Yugito are all people that I trust with my own life. I can guarantee you that they won't do anything to harm Yugito."
"But can you please check on them, make sure that they don't?"
"I'll go by the hospital room and make sure that everything is ok. Alright?"
"Ok Baachan." Naruto was still moody. It was driving Tsunade insane.
"Naruto! For God sakes, you're a Chuunin now! Go and make Iruka treat you to some ramen."
"Oh Yea! Ok later Baachan, and don't forget to check on Yugito for me!"
"I won't Naruto, enjoy your achievement!"
Naruto left the Hokage's office and headed towards the Ninja Academy. He abandoned the rooftops and decided to take the street. Observing all the tourism that the Chuunin Exams bring to Konoha. He was leaving the business district of Konoha when he heard a voice calling out to him. Naruto turned around to see a kunoichi with short brown hair and a Sunagakure headband hanging around her neck. He waited until she had caught up with him.
"Naruto-san! How have you been?" the kunoichi asked, making small talk.
"Umm, good I guess. I'm sorry but who are you?" Naruto asked the kunoichi, dumbfounded at the girl's identity.
"Oh, well it has been a long time. It's me, Matsuri. You helped me and Gaara-sensei around three years ago."
Naruto noticed Matsuri cringe when she spoke about where they knew each other from. "Oh yea that's right. Wow I'm sorry I forgot about that. Hey how is Gaara doing nowadays? I can't wait to tell him that I'm a Chuunin now. I wonder what shinobi rank he is?" Naruto looked down at Matsuri to see that she was crying. "Hey Matsuri, what's wrong? Are you ok?" Matsuri's body fell limp to the ground as she continued sobbing heavily.
Matsuri looked up at a confused Naruto, she wiped the tears from her eyes and coughed in an attempt to gain her voice. "Gaara-sensei… Gaara-sensei… Gaara-sensei died… last year."