DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO
Yoritomo Takeda dismounted his steed and adjusted his ornate armor accordingly before taking in the sight of the most repulsive shack he had ever seen. The structure looked as if it could fall at any time should a strong gust of wind blow through. The moss covered logs that served as the walls appeared to be dry rotten and the roof looked no better, most likely result of many years of wear and tear. Meeting some worthless pheasant in such a place was beneath him.
The daimyo was being too generous, this land should just be taken by force. What was the point of diplomacy when you had the power to take whatever you desire? Takeda spit on the ground and cursed under his breath. He was the head of one of the most respected samurai clans in Earth country, this shouldn't have been his responsibility. This should have been left up to a lesser man than he.
"I was born for the battlefield not sitting across from some worthless bag of flesh listening to him beg for what he has already lost." Takeda muttered before turning back to his men.
The trek across Earth country had not been easy on the squadron of samurai, hours upon hours of treturous mountain passes without rest had taken its toll on them. They hadn't made camp until they had reach the Grass border and even then it had only been to rest the horses. Takeda had wanted to reach the rendezvous point as quickly as possible so he could get these negotiations over with and get back to the battlefront in Waterfall country. Iwagakure's shinobi forces would make quick work of those poor bastards. No, it wasn't that battle in particular that Takeda wanted so badly. It was what would come next.
Waterfall's border leads directly into the Land of Iron, home of the most powerful Samurai force in existence. That was the battle that Takeda yearned for, conquering the famous Mifune's army would put the Yoritomo clan back where it belonged, on top.
"Saigo!" Takeda barked while tying his horse's lead to a tree branch. A young man in standard Earth country armor, a mix of brown and tan armor with their Damiyo's insignia on the chest, trotted over and gave a crisp salute but stayed silent.
"Instruct the men to form a perimeter around the shack and stay with them, I will attend to this... meeting alone." Takeda's face contorted as if he had bad taste in his mouth. "Reports state that what little bit of Fire support is here is stationed much closer to Kusagakure. So I don't foresee any conflict but nevertheless stay diligent."
Saigo snapped out another salute, "Yes, Captain Yoritomo!" With that he turned on his heel and rushed over to the other men and began shouting orders. Mere moments later samurai armed with traditional katanas and longbows began to spread out along the perimeter as instructed.
Takeda watched his men move about with a pleased expression. This may have been a joke of a mission but at least he had good soldiers behind him. He sighed dramatically, "Well let's get this over with." He entered the building and shut the door behind him.
There wasn't much to the rickety shack, several dusty cupboards and a pitiful looking dining table stationed in the middle of the floor. The fat man who sat at the table looked just as sad as the room that Takeda stood in. His pudgy face was covered with a greying beard that matched the mop of hair atop his head. The green kimono that he wore barely contained his bulging belly and he looked as if he was going pass out at any second.
"I-it's an honor s-sir. My name is A-atsushi a-and I..." Atsushi took a deep breath in an attempt to calm his fraying nerves. " I will represent G-grass country in.. our nego-negotiations."
Takeda suddenly double over into a fit of condescending laughter that lasted for several moments while the other man just watched nervously. "This is just too much!" The samurai shouted between fits of laughter. Then just as suddenly as the Takeda's odd sense of humor appeared it morphed into an almost enraged expression.
"Your people know what is at stake here! My lord was merciful enough to send me here with an attempt at diplomacy instead of an army that would raze your very culture to the ground! Yet they send you." Takeda rushed forward and slammed both hands down on the table in front of Atsushi causing the round man to whimper in fear. Takeda's face was mere inches from Atsushi's when he snarled, "A fat man who can't even complete a single sentence without almost pissing himself."
The samurai then leaned back into his own personal space and sat in the chair opposite of Atsushi and crossed his arms across his chest. "You have not made any progress in convincing me that Grass should remain Grass." He pulled a small scroll from a pouch on his belt and rolled it across the table before refolding his arms. Takeda watched the Grass representative unroll the scroll with shaky hands and begin to read. He rolled his eyes and spoke, "My lord's demands are almost too generous if you ask me but I am merely the messenger."
Atsushi looked up at Takeda with wide eyes, "This is nearly triple what Fire takes from our fields! How are we supposed to s-survive if m-my people agree to this?" The samurai chuckled darkly but said nothing for several long moments.
"I suppose that is something your people better figure out. Although, there is another option. You could turn this offer down and my army can just take it from you forcefully, making sure we erase everything that you hold dear along the way." Oh how Takeda loved seeing fear in the eyes of his adversaries and Atsushi's brown eyes were positively brimming with it.
That was when everything changed. Atsushi clear uncertainty and frightful composure were suddenly replaced with a cold and calculating confidence. The look in his eyes was something Takeda had only seen in the most seasoned of warrior, the look of a true killer. What had just happened? But before Takeda could think on it any further Atsushi let out a throaty laugh.
He stood and leaned forward stopping inches from Takeda's face. "You and your spineless daimyo can take his demands and shove it up each other's asses. Our loyalties lay with Fire country."
What insolence! No, Takeda could not let such blatant disrespect for his lord stand. He attempted to reach for his sword to cut the fat man down, to make him beg for his worthless life but found that he couldn't move at all. The silence dissolved into the scream of his men and the sound of battle, Takeda found that he couldn't speak either. Complete paralysis. That was when Atsushi's face seemed blow away like smoke in the wind and the eyes that Takeda was staring into now were unmistakable.
The sharingan...
Nekomata Daisuke stared at his adversaries from his perch in one of the few trees in the area. Hiding in this country was a real pain in the ass when compared to fighting in Fire country where there are no shortage of trees to camouflage yourself in. Luckily he had found one while his two teammates had burrowed under the ground. He slowly unsheathed his katana making sure that there was no noise as the blade left its scabbard.
There were approximately twenty-one samurai patrolling the meeting area and they all looked armed to the teeth. There wasn't much to the plan that Shinji had formulated and related back to Daisuke and their resident Hyuuga kunoichi. It was a basic three-point ambush that genin-hopefuls were taught during their third year at the academy. Something so simple typically wouldn't work on a squad of seasoned shinobi but they were playing with samurai. These guys didn't even know any jutsu. Hopefully they would be more competent than most of Fire's samurai otherwise this wouldn't be any fun at all.
Daisuke checked over his equipment pouches once more and then the radio in his ear went off. "Commence operation." Shinji's command was simple. It was killing time. The chuunin's gaze hardened and then he fell into a shunshin.
When he reappeared in a haze of chakra residue he immediately drove his blade completely through the closest enemy and twisted the blade. He heard the telltale sounds of his comrades exploding from the earth and then jerked his sword free causing a spray of blood. There was a battle-cry to his left and he responded appropriately, bringing his katana up at an angle blocking the samurai's overhead slash. "This is Konoha's territory!" Daisuke snarled and kicked the man in the chest which sent the man sliding back several feet.
The samurai roared in reply and charged again, Daisuke met him halfway. As the man released a diagonal slash the chuunin dropped to his knees and slide under it. His blade shot out and sliced cleanly through armor and flesh severing both achilles tendons simultaneously. The unfortunate samurai fell face first to the ground screaming in pain. Daisuke stood to finish him off but was interrupted when his left shoulder exploded with pain as an arrow ripped through it. He cried out and quickly stepped into another shunshin to vacate the archer's range.
How sloppy..
Aburame Shinji erupted from the ground and immediately executed a textbook roundhouse kick to the neck of his first victim. The kick connected with a resounding crack and enough force that it broke the surprised Earth warrior's neck on contact. As the rapidly cooling corpse crumpled to the ground the Aburame shinobi turned to confront his next opponent but was met with a nodachi being drove completely through his chest and erupting from his back. His expression was of shock and extreme pain.
The samurai grinned and pushed the sword all the way to the hilt. "The rest of your Konoha filth will fall very soon!" He crowed and twisted the blade hoping to inflict as much pain as possible before the boy died. Except death never came.
A wicked grin suddenly spread across Shinji's pale face as his body melted into a horde kikiachuu. The samurai shouted in fear and tried to jerk back but the flying insects had already enveloped both of his arms. A voice spoke seemingly from nowhere, "The Aburame's pride and power, the Kikiachuu. Most of my clansmen have allies who crave the chakra of their enemies but my brethren are something of an exception." The voice chuckled before continuing. "You see mine seem to prefer the taste of flesh and unfortunately for you... They are very hungry." It was then that the samurai was able to tell that the kikiachu were eating him alive, his dying screams were muffled as the insects completely engulfed him.
The real Shinji rose from the earth and drew two kunai from the pouch on his thigh. He couldn't deny the pure extacy that slaughtering his enemies provided him. The next few moments were filled with blood splatters and screams as the shinobi wreaked havoc on his enemies. Just as he finished off another weakling Shinji heard Daisuke shout in pain and immediately searched the already blood-coated battlefield in concern. Relief flooded through the stoic boy when he finally located Daisuke as he unleashed a lightning jutsu that literally fried the archer responsible for his injury.
Despite being a near-jounin level shinobi his best friend could be so reckless sometimes. "Idiot.." Shinji muttered as he turned to watch Isaribi dancing around her opponents killing and disabling with the slightest touch. The Hyuuga's gentle fist style was truly devastating.
Spinning around the chakra-charged swords of her enemies Isaribi stopped and struck out hitting the samurai's chest with a open palm. Her byakugan provided the Hyuuga kunoichi a front row seat to the man's heart exploding like a bomb. Isaribi wondered when the time would come that she would truly be numb to killing her enemies because the feeling she got each time she took a life made her want to vomit.
Despite how brutal and bloody this one sided battle had been she couldn't deny that it was good practice. War was coming. A war with an empire that was growing larger and more powerful with each passing day. Their next battles would most likely be with seasoned shinobi and they would have to be ready.
Isaribi danced around another samurai and planted a exploding tag on his back. A perfectly timed shunshin put her out of the blast radius just as the man exploded taking out his two comrades with him. She couldn't help but be pleased out how powerful her self-made tags were. Fuuinjutsu was so addictive. Perhaps Naruto-senpai would be willing to tutor her some more once they got back home.
Daisuke's cry of pain jerked her back to reality just in time to see an arrow had hit her teammate's shoulder. "Daisuke!" Isaribi shouted in concern and moved to help but stopped when he shunshined away and swiftly dealt with his attacker. That foolish boy was going to be the death of her one day. The battle was over, she deactivated her bloodline. Isaribi sighed quietly as she began to make her way over to Daisuke to heal his wound. She was by no means a experienced medic but she knew enough to manage the superficial wounds her team would from time to time.
"Isaribi! Watch out!" That was Shinji voice. Why had she deactivated her byakugan?!
Daisuke spit on the corpse of the archer he had just cut down with a lightning jutsu. "Serves you right.." He muttered as he stepped over the dead man and starting to make his way over to his teammates. The arrows sticking out his shoulder was becoming increasingly harder to ignore but he didn't touch it. Daisuke had habit of making his own injuries worse when he tried to tend to them himself. Yeah, it was much simpler to just let Isaribi deal with it.
"Isaribi! Watch out!" Shinji's shout echoed across the field.
His eyes frantically searched for the threat and found him perched on top of the meeting shack, an archer was drawing back on his bow in Isaribi's direction. Without even thinking he stepped into yet another shunshin. No one made a move to hurt his team and got away with it.
Chirping birds. Thousands of them filled the air as Daisuke appeared in a poof of leaves and chakra residue directly inside the archer's guard. With blinding speed he thrust his lightning encased hand up and completely through the man's chest, completely destroying his heart and the upper halves of both lungs. Death was instantaneous.
The chidori had been a difficult technique for Daisuke to learn but Sasuke had been adamant that he do so. It became increasingly obvious to both him and his sensei that he just didn't have the speed to perform the jutsu. Sasuke had eventually produced a theory of incorporating the shunshin to supplement his speed. Up until a few moments ago it had yet to work. It was crazy what a major adrenaline dump could achieve.
After kicking the man off the roof Daisuke followed the body to the ground with a graceful hop. His two teammates trotted over to meet him. Isaribi slapped him in the back of the head, "Must you always be so wreckless, Dai-kun?" She couldn't help but smile at him and immediately sat him down. Daisuke bit down on his lip as she pushed the arrow through and out but the green glow of a medical jutsu alleviated his discomfort.
Shinji squatted down beside him and propped his elbows on his knees directing a neutral stare at Daisuke. The Nekomata clansman ignored him for several moments before finally cutting his eyes in the bug-user's direction. "What is it? You don't ever give me that stupid look unless you've got something to say." Shinji didn't budge for a few more seconds before smirking slightly and slapping Daisuke on his good shoulder.
"About time you nailed that jutsu down." Daisuke smirked and Isaribi fell back into a sitting position with a giggle.
The door to the shack suddenly burst open and their sensei emerged from the darkness dragging the samurai captain behind by the his hair. He dropped the battered samurai in front of the chuunin, "Isaribi, heal him just enough that he will survive the trip back to Earth country." The Hyuuga nodded and went to work on the man.
Daisuke stood up and walked over to stand beside his sensei, "What now?"
Sasuke was silent for several moments before speaking in a measured tone, "We let the little captain crawl back to his hole with a message." He made eye contact with each of his students. "Hi no kuni will protect what is hers."
Daisuke nodded and knew that his teammates did the same. This was what their jobs were all about. Konohagakure shinobi were to protect Fire country and its citizens or die trying. Isaribi straightened and moved to stand beside Daisuke apparently done with her work. "He should wake in several hours.. I don't have the skills to heal all of his wounds but I stabilized him enough for him to get back." She said softly. Apparently satisfied, Sasuke nodded and motioned for them to follow.
"Let's go home, shall we?"
AUTHOR NOTE:
Okay so the next chapter came a lot sooner than I thought it would. Hope you enjoy it. The next chapter will focus on getting know each member of Team Thirteen and what they are all about.