The lazy Maelstrom
By The Obsidian Blade
Chapter five-the real start of wave
Team seven each were placed at certain spots in the forest that surrounded Konoha. Naruto landed on the tree above a single female cat with a red ribbon and tiger like fur quietly as to not disturb the sleeping cat. His hand went into the left coat pocket and pulled out a grey walky-talky. He flipped the witch on and whispered into the thing. "Shadow one in position."
"Avenger two in position," Sasuke's voice crackled.
"Pink three in position," Sakura's voice crackled.
"Alright team this is Cyclops four. You have permission to capture the target." In an instant Naruto drew Yami no Seishin (Spirit of the dark if I am correct is the name of Naruto's sword) and flung it towards the cat. Yami no Seishin missed the tail and stabbed into the branch with a dull thud. The cat woke up and bolted forward. A hail of kunai and shuriken blocked the path. She moved her body in an instant right and stopped right in its tracks as a kunai thudded in front of it. She tried to move backwards but found herself unable to. "Kage-Mane-no-jutsu success," she heard from behind her. Her heart almost jumped out of her chest at the sound. She was happy that it wasn't team eight as the dog by and his pet was bound to kill her. She felt the net go over her and the shadow bindings release. Naruto gripped Yami no Seishin and walked up to her. When he removed the net and carried it that cat purred contently.
The other three looked at the blonde strangely. Why was he petting and scratching that abomination of a cat? The thing needed to be burned. Naruto looked at the three and cocked his head to the side. "You know you three are starting to make me uncomfortable." The two genin and the jounin sweat dropped at the lazy remark before shaking their heads. "Now come on, we have to bring Tora-hime back to her 'rightful;' owner." Naruto grumbled the last part in distain while Tora stiffened slightly before purring again. The rest of the group shook their heads at the blonde before disappearing out of the forest.
They quickly arrived inside the Sandaime's office with Tora purring contently in Naruto's arms. Inside there was a rather large lady. She was apparently the Fire Daimyo's wife. She quickly shoved everyone out of the way while screaming 'Tora-chan!' Naruto was almost mauled by the lady as she took Tora out of his arms and started to crush it. Naruto started to think of many ways to get Tora out of her fate. He smiled slightly as he thought of a way. As he got up he dusted of his clothes and tapped the Daimyo's wife on the shoulder. She turned around to look at Naruto. "What do you want child. Can't you see I am busy with Tora chan here?"
Naruto shook his head before speaking. "Sorry ma'am but that isn't the right animal for you." The lady cocked her head to the side before motioning Naruto to explain. Naruto mentally smirked. "The way you act is not suited for a cat. It's much more suited for an animal who doesn't mind it. I think a dog would be more suited for you do to the fact that cats are prone to laziness. Dogs are an animal that need constant attention." The woman seemed to accept it if giving her cat to the blonde and running off in search of a dog was any indicator. Every ninja in that room looked at him as if he was Kami himself. Naruto looked at the aged Hokage and sighed. "Can we get our mission now?" the blonde asked lazily.
The Hokage nodded. "Yes you can." The aged man turned around and pulled out a manila folder with a large C printed on it. "I believe it has been three months since your team has been undergoing in missions and I believe you three have undergone the required amount of missions for a C-rank mission. Your mission is to escort a bridge builder back to Nami and protect him while he completes a bridge between here and Nami. He will be here tomorrow at eight. For now you three have the rest of the day off." Sasuke and Sakura whooped for joy as Naruto just stared blankly. He looked at Kakashi as he nodded. Naruto mentally groaned at the glint in the man's eye. Great, he had to learn the sharingan genjutsu again.
After the team left the office Kakashi took Naruto up to an isolated location. It was virtually a waste land. Naruto managed to drop off Tora at his house with Yoshino watching over her. Right now however Naruto was sitting cross-legged in front of Kakashi. Naruto stared at the man lazily. "Alright, we are not going to learn genjutsu this time." Naruto silently sighed to himself. "We are going to boost up your prediction with the eye. As you know the main uses of the sharingan were for prediction and copying. There are many other uses but those two were the main. Now I want you to activate it and look at me closely. Don't just copy my movements; react to them accordingly and quickly." The blonde Jinchuriki nodded before getting up and taking off his sunglasses and activating his eyes with a quick pulse of constant chakra to his eyes. Kakashi slowly slipped into a taijutsu stance and Naruto followed suit. "And before I forget no jutsus." Naruto nodded before looking at Kakashi as he dashed forward. Naruto's eyes narrowed as he blocked an incoming fist from the right. The blonde quickly pushed the hand down and went for a swift kick to the man's ribs. Kakashi's hand went to block the kick and forced the leg down. The silver haired man quickly jumped back and slowly slipped into a stance.
"You're not getting it Naruto," Kakashi remarked. "You are reacting up on your own instincts. That is not the point of this exercise. The point of this exercise is to copy and react." Naruto nodded before slipping into the same stance as Kakashi. Both of them blurred out of sight before reappearing in the center of the field. Kakashi lashed out in a flurry of punches. Naruto reacted quickly to the punches, blocking them with ease. The blonde narrowed his eyes as he jumped back from the man and slipped into the stance he was using earlier. Kakashi blurred out of view. Naruto's eyes narrowed. The blonde brought up his right hand and caught Kakashi's fist. The blonde threw the fist down and kneed the man in the gut before hitting him in the chest with an open palm and hurling him backwards. The man's body scraped against the floor before he flipped himself to his feet. Naruto's eyes narrowed as the man slipped in the same stance.
And that is how it went on for most of the day, tow jounin level ninja attacking each other. When it was said and done both of them had a few bruises form the impacting fists and kicks. Both of them were in a similar taijutsu stance with their breaths ragged. Kakashi was the first to break his stance and relax into a standing position with his hand open, stopping Naruto. "That's enough for today Naruto. I don't want to keep you after hours so go home and get some rest. You're going to need it since we have to keep up at a civilians pace." Naruto nodded before cutting of the chakra flow to his eyes and slipping on his red lenses. Kakashi eyes smiled at the teen before taking out an orange book. Naruto sighed before shaking his head. Why most of the powerful males were perverts he would never know, and the sad fact was that they were all role models to the blonde kitsune in disguise.
The two began walking towards the village making small talk along the way. A question then struck Kakashi and he acted upon it. "So how far are you on that jutsu?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. Naruto sighed before tracing his left arm till his fingers reached the bracelet.
"I still can't get the seals to say in one place long enough to cover the field," the blonde replied. "They keep going back to the arm. I think it's a chakra problem but I'm not completely sure. If I can figure a way around that then I can complete the jutsu." Naruto looked at the road and sighed. "Well my house is coming up, see you tomorrow Kakashi-sensei." The man nodded before walking home. Naruto sighed as he walked up the stairs to the house.
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The team was outside the office five minutes before eight waiting for Kakashi to arrive. Naruto knew that the man was going to appear on time for once. This was not something to appear late on. The blonde kept running his hand over his bandaged arm. He should not have been trying to make the jutsu work. It has been almost a year since he started the jutsu and it still was not complete. It was infuriating that he could not make it work. In a puff of smoke Kakashi appeared. Sasuke and Sakura looked at the man slacked jaw. They were expecting the man to appear two hours late like usual, not early. This was something that was a first to them. Kakashi looked at the two with a raised eyebrow. "What, do I have something on my face?" Naruto sweat dropped at the question. The man was surely one of a kind that was for sure. Kakashi shook his head before ordering his team to go inside the office.
When they got inside they saw practically no one. The only two people inside there were the aged Hokage and an old fisherman with a beer gut and a large bottle of sake in his hand. Naruto looked at the man before asking a question. "Is that the man we're supposed to protect? He doesn't look like he's sober enough to even stand." The comment seemed to piss of the man as he growled out in anger.
"What do you mean brat, I am the great bridge builder Tazuna. You kids seem pretty useless to me anyway. I thought I asked for a group ninja, not a bunch of kids." His attention turned to the aged Hokage. "The one with the sword doesn't even look like he can cut down a blade of grass." As soon as he said that a kunai cut the bottle of sake he had in his hand at the neck. The bridge builder's body couldn't move as the bottle shattered on the floor. How could have the blonde been so quickly for this to happen? He knew it was him, it just had to be but he could see the blonde's hand movement. Was this what it meant to be a ninja, was this the power of a trained killer, or was it something else; something that only the blonde with the sunglasses?
"Now, now Naruto, there is no need to prove a point," Kakashi reprimanded. The man's gaze turned towards Tazuna. "I assure you that my team is fully capable of this mission. If they are not then I am here backup." Tazuna nodded slowly still in fear of the blonde and what he could do to him if he went to sleep. At first the blonde appeared to be a lazy good for nothing but now he was not so sure about that assumption. He watched as the blonde looked around lazily. Kakashi cleared his throat to gain the other's attention. "Well team, let's head out. The earlier we leave the earlier we get there." The group nodded before heading out.
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Naruto was behind with Kakashi while Sakura was on right of Tazuna and Sasuke was on the left. They have been walking for about a day in a half. At a civilians pace it would take about two days to get to a boat, about a half day boat ride and another half day to get to the bridge builder's house. Then they have a week to get the bridge finished and about a day's rest. Then they would have two days to get back home. They had two weeks to complete this mission so they had one day to burn and do whatever they wanted. Naruto sighed; there was nothing to do basically. No thieves attacked them as there were only a few things that seemed to have any value on them and those were the backpacks that Sakura, Sasuke and Tazuna brought along with them. Sakura was getting board. When she got board she began to question everything and this time was no different. She began to question why she was here if they had something that had to be similar to a ninja village there. "Uhm Tazuna-san, why are we here if there is a ninja village there?"
Kakashi sighed. He knew he would have to explain this once, he just knew it. But it was so late; he thought one of them would ask sooner but now? Why now? "Sakura, only a select few countries have ninja villages and even fewer are actually recognized. The five main ones you hear about are Sunagakure, Kirigakure, Iwagakure, Kumogakure, and of course Konohagakure. Each one of those villages is ruled by a Kage. Suna has the Kazekage, Kiri has the Mizukage, Iwa has the Tsuchikage, Kumo has the Raikage, and Konoha has the Hokage. We are the main villages people hear about and ask for to have a job done." Sakura absorbed the information like a sponge, trying to retain it and hope that it was not lost. Naruto pretty much zoned out of everything else, his body keeping on autopilot as he walked through the forest.
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The group was nearing the boat. They stopped last night with Naruto taking up first shift Sasuke taking up after the blonde, Sakura taking up after Sasuke and Kakashi taking the last shift. Tazuna didn't take up a shift due to the fact that his body probably couldn't take it. Naruto kept his lazy gaze on the road ahead, inspecting it with a skeptical eye. The road ahead was more interesting then what was happening now. Then his eyes hit it- a puddle of water out on the side of the path. Anyone would have just passed by as a normal puddle but the peculiar thing was that it hasn't rained in weeks. Naruto's eyes narrowed a little before looking at Kakashi. "There are two nins in the puddle, at least chuunin class. They can probably know which one of us are stronger and they most likely would go after those ones which would be you since I don't have a name to pin on me as of yet."
Kakashi looked at the path before looking at Naruto. "Best course of action is for you to take up lead and pass them up. If you are correct then I should be in the back. They could also be surveillance since we have always been on bad terms with Kiri." Naruto nodded before taking up the lead. And as planned they passed up the puddle of water. When Kakashi stepped passed the two they swirled out of the puddle. Both were wearing some tan cammo. Both of their Kiri head bands had horns on it, on had a single horn and the other had two, making it appear as though they were demons. On opposite arm one had a gauntlet with talon like claws and a chain shooter making up the large forearm. Above the gauntlet they had their arms taped up. The two 'demons' jumped out of the puddle and wrapped Kakashi in some spiked chain. With quick hand movements the two pulled as hard as they can, shredding the man in a glorious fountain of blood, or at least it seemed like that.
Sasuke and Sakura stood there shocked while Naruto kept is gaze on the two. "One down," Naruto heard them say. The tow blurred out of sight making Naruto cringe. This was not the time to lose track of your enemies. He heard feet softly padding the ground behind him, Naruto's eyes turned behind him catching the two 'demons' with their gauntlets behind them, ready to hurl the chains. The blonde jumped back and ran through a series of hand seals. He raised his hand to his mouth for steady aim. "Suiton-Mizurappa-no-jutsu!" Naruto shot out water in a concentrated blast at one of the men, knocking them backwards. The blonde drew Yami no Seishin before the chain of the other demon could reach him and had it wrap around it. His free hand went for his weapon's pouch and pulled out a kunai. Naruto stabbed the kunai in one of the links of chains and moved in such a way that the links of chain broke.
The demon cursed under his breath. The kid was good, there was no denying that. But he was still just a genin and a fresh one if he remembered correctly. The kid could not be that good. He had to be broken with ease if he was fought in close range. The man smirked under his gas mask and tried to move but found that he couldn't. He looked at the blonde to find him lazily looking at him. Then he felt his head force itself to look to the side. He could see another blonde looking the same way he was near a tree just off the path. He saw the blonde look down. There in plain day light was his shadow fused with the blonde's own shadow. "Kage Mane-no-jutsu success," the blonde muttered to himself.
This could not be happening. How could this happen to him, a chuunin?! "How?!" the man practically yelled out at the top of his lungs.
Naruto sighed as he walked forward. "You made several mistakes. Naruto raised his hand as if to count off something. "One: you guy's used a puddle of water. Normally I would have not thought anything of it but it was the fact that this is not a common path to take so a spill was not likely and it hasn't rained in days set me off. Two: you guys are terrible at stealth. If you want to sneak up on someone don't make so much noise at the gate of Konoha. And finally pay attention to your surroundings. I had a clone trail us since morning. Details are everything in a murder. There can't be any screw ups in a successful kill if you expect to get away with it." Naruto nodded to his clone as if signifying it to do something. The man was shocked as he was forced to raise the hand without a claw. The hand forced itself into a fist and was brought close to his face several times before it had itself pointed at his temple. Before he could do anything his fist hit him hard in the temple, knocking him unconscious.
The blonde sighed as he got a rush of information from the dispelled clone. He reached into one of the slots on his belt and unfurled a scroll. He swiped a chakra infused thumb over one of the many storage seals on it and unsealed a length of rope. He watched as the demon that he blown away with the Mizurappa-no-jutsu get closed lined by Kakashi as the man got to close to Tazuna. Naruto sighed. The silver haired chuunin just had to show off to the genin. The blonde just shook his head as he sheathed Yami no Seishin and tied the 'demon' to the same tree that his brother got tied to. "The Demon Brothers eh? Makes you wonder why they are here," Naruto muttered to himself. He looked at Tazuna as he sweated, possibly from shock of the ninja. Kakashi just finished explaining how he read their movements. Kakashi focused his gaze on Tazuna as he asked a question. "If you know that then why did you let the brats fight?"
Kakashi looked at the man with his black eye. "I needed to figure out what they were after." Tazuna stiffened under the man's critical gaze. His body didn't want to move at all. He looked at the man, thinking that he could get his way out of this. The man asked the silver haired man what he meant by it. "Simple, it was either they were trying to hunt down one of you or one of us. Either way we are being hunted. This is now a B-class mission and that is at the very least."
Sakura raised her hand and suggested they go back, telling them that they were not ready. Naruto shook his head. "That is not an option right now. We can have people watching us right now, telling their higher up our movements. If we retreat we give them time to make traps that could be lethal. If we send someone to get backup we are just sitting ducks. Kage Bunshin won't work either as we are too far away from the village. The best thing to do is to keep going forward and hope to reach the boat before shit hits the fan." Sakura and Sasuke nodded as Naruto looked at Tazuna. "You're a terrible liar Tazuna-san." Tazuna visibly straightened at the comment. "You're life is in our hands. If you don't come cleanly then we can easily leave you here for someone else to pick up. You might not want to take that chance."
Tazuna sighed. He did not think that he would get ninja sent after him to get his carcass for Gatou. Sure, he expected gangs and swords men but never this. This was unreal; he was not worth that much. He looked at them with a sad melancholy look. "This job is most likely outside your duties. A dangerous man by the name of Gatou is after my life." Naruto's eyes widened behind his sunglasses, Gatou, the same man who runs a major shipping industry was in on this. What could the bridge builder have done to have that man after his hide? "It was about a year ago when that man set his eyes on Nami. With money and violence he quickly took control of Nami's shipping industry. He now has a monopoly over the business traffic there. The only thing he fears now is the completion of the bridge."
Naruto's eyes narrowed. "So he sent ninja to kill you so the bridge wouldn't get completed if I am correct? And by the way you're telling this I guess the only way for you to get this mission is to lie about it and say the only threats are gangs due to the fact that this man sucks away your money like no others. Please stop if I hit something you like." Tazuna glared at the lazy teen as he talked. He nailed why he did everything.
"You're right," the man said in a sad voice. He then smiled widely at the group. "But don't worry about it!! If I die my cute ten year old grandson will just cry for a few days. And my daughter will liver a sad life saying that she hates the Konoha forever. But don't worry; it's not your fault!!!"
Naruto looked at the man before hanging his head. "Way to lay on the guilt trip."
A/N Well here is the real start of wave. The jutsu that Kakashi talks about is the jutsu that is a secret. Again the hint is nexus. And before I forget I am trying to do something that is a first with Tora, I think anyway but yeah, bye and if you don't review I can use my minions to hunt you down ands put you in a cage fight with Chuck Norris for a few days.
The jutsus used were:
Mizurappa-no-jutsu (Violent Water Wave technique) - this is one of my personal favorite jutsus and this is one of Naruto's main water jutsus if Mar's Maelstrom is any indication. After you form the proper hand seals you will spit out a strong jet of water at your enemies. The jutsu is mainly offensive
Kage-Mane-no-jutsu (Shadow imitation technique) - this is a pretty cool jutsu really. The caster can have his shadow travel along any surface yet it can't jump form surface to surface like all shadows unless there is a way across. By using other shadows near by you can extend the reach, however your reach is limited to the surface are relevant to the shadow. Once the target is 'caught' they are frozen to do what the caster does like a mirror until the caster run out of chakra. The move was originally built to stall people hence why it is a supplementary jutsu but it has other uses.
*This is a rough draft*
