Disclaimer: I do not, nor have I ever, owned anything related to Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto franchise.
Legend:
"A human is talking."
'A human is thinking.'
"A Tailed Beast or a Summon is talking."
'A Tailed Beast or a Summon is thinking.'
"A type of jutsu is being performed."
Chapter Seven
-Land of Fire: An unnamed path-
Three and a half days had passed since Squad Eight had left the Hidden Leaf Village for their first C-rank mission. It had allowed the three Genin their first taste of the world beyond the Hidden Leaf Village.
As the days progressed, the Genin's skills in geography and herbology grew. They learned how to search the land for suitable shelter, find edible food sources, and find reliable drinking water.
Naruto, Shino, and Hinata had also learned the basics of telling the current time by looking at the position of the sun in the sky. They had learned this skill quickly because it would directly affect when they would set up camp.
Anko would randomly ask one of her Genin what time it was at any given time during the day. For every wrong answer, an hour would be added to the answerer's watch schedule.
At precisely 7:45 p.m., Squad Eight would erect a temporary campsite within 200 meters of the road. Naruto and Shino would collect the firewood while Hinata and Tazuna would set up the three tents.
Once everyone was inside the campsite, Anko would seal it with a couple of Barrier Ninjutsu. Then, on a rotating basis, a member of Squad Eight would cook dinner.
After their dinner, Anko would give each of her Genin their watch schedules. She had assured them that it was only a precaution because her Barrier Ninjutsu would protect the group from any bandit that might show his/her face.
In the morning, the current ninja on watch would wake the others. They would then have some breakfast, usually ration bars and water, before they would pack their supplies.
After all of their supplies were packed, Anko would take down her Barrier Ninjutsu. She would then use a couple of earth and wind-based Ninjutsu to make it seem like they were never there.
The group would then go back on the road and their routine would begin once more. Everything seemed to be going well.
Only one person knew the danger ahead of the group but his mouth was sealed. He wouldn't be telling anyone anything unless he was forced to.
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-Land of Fire: An unnamed path-
The group had just turned from a bend in the man-made path, continuing their way east, when they spotted something.
Before them, in the middle of the dry, dirt pathway was a rather small puddle. At the sight of this abnormality, Anko and Naruto tensed.
Naruto had sensed the two chakras hiding within the puddle through Samehada.
'Those two are using the Hidden in Water Technique.' Naruto mused.
Anko had noticed the absurdity of the puddle in a place that hadn't rain in a week. She sent out a mild pulse of chakra, scanning the environment around her, and confirmed it. There were two ninja in that puddle.
As no one else seemed to notice anything was wrong, Naruto and Anko played it cool. They kept pace with their teammates, discreetly moving one of their hands to their weapons.
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-Land of Fire: An unnamed path-
As soon as the Jonin had passed their puddle, Gozu's head rose from the water. He saw the coast was clear, informing Meizu, before they slowly rose to the surface.
Both Meizu and Gozu wore black pants, black shits, and ragged black cloaks. They wore respirators on their faces as well as chakra-conductive gauntlets on their arms.
On each of their foreheads lay slashed Hidden Mist forehead protectors, proclaiming them to be Rouge Hidden Mist ninja. Their gauntlets were connected together by a long chain made of shuriken.
Gozu quickly tossed his brother into the air, towards the group walking ahead of them, before following on foot. Their movements made no noise at all.
Meizu landed as their chain began to wrap around the Jonin, both brothers pulling taut. There was a brief cloud of smoke before their chain dug into a rock.
'The Body Replacement Technique.' Gozu and Meizu thought.
The brothers then spotted the Jonin, crouching before her team, with a kunai in her hand. Behind her, the three Genin were already getting into a diamond formation, the Jonin at point.
"Protect Tazuna!" The purple-haired woman ordered.
Gozu and Meizu were given no time to react as the Jonin quickly threw her kunai at them. Meizu scoffed, raising his gauntlet to block the weapon, when one kunai become 200.
"Shit!" Gozu cursed.
The brothers quickly jumped into the air, dodging the majority of the kunai, but a few kunai still grazed them. Blood began to trickle out of their shallow wounds.
"Many Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!" The woman announced.
The sleeves of the Jonin's trench coat erupted into twin spears of poisonous, hissing snakes. Gozu and Meizu quickly switched places with some dirt, avoiding the snakes, but were forced to separate when the Jonin came at them.
Meizu vanished before he reappeared in front of the Jonin, his poisoned gauntlet poised to strike. Her kunai met his gauntlet's claws in a shower of sparks. Neither one of them was willing to give in.
The black-haired ninja felt the woman shift her stance before he felt something hard hit his stomach. He flew, sliding down a tree he crashed into.
Before he could react, Meizu was enveloped in the snakes from the Jonin's previous jutsu. He struggled, trying to fight them off, but failed. There was simply too many of them.
He felt a snake slither up towards his head, eyes widening, before something sharp bit him in the neck.
The last thing he saw was the purple-haired Jonin turning around to go and assist her Genin in the midst of his brother's battle.
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-Land of Fire: An unnamed path-
When Gozu was forced to separate from Meizu, Meizu went after the Jonin directly. Gozu had decided to attack the three Genin.
'I'll just take care of the brats and the Old Man. Then Meizu and I can fight the Jonin together.' He thought.
Gozu was completely shocked when he saw an orb of water appear before the blonde brat's mouth. He recognized that jutsu.
"Water Release: Gunshot!" The blonde yelled.
In an instant, the 10-foot orb shot forward. Gozu narrowed his eyes, charging his gauntlet with chakra, as prepared to slice through the water-based jutsu.
He cut the orb in half, the water dropping to his sides, only to see a swarm of insects in his face. They converged upon him, sticking to his skin and draining his chakra.
"What are these things?" Gozu screeched.
"Those "things" are my Parasitic Insects… They will cover your body, draining your chakra unless I ask them not to do so… You have 11 seconds… 10 seconds…" The brown-haired brat said.
Gozu felt the air shift behind him before something heavy rested on his throat. The warm breath of the blonde hit the back of his neck, sending shivers up his spine.
"Not that you have that long…" The blonde said. "I'll make sure that both of you live."
Before Gozu could question the blonde, he felt the rest of his chakra leave him. He then fell into blissful unconsciousness, wondering why the blonde brat would promise him such a thing.
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-The Hidden Stone Village: The Tsuchikage's Residence -
Onoki of Both Scales, the Third Tsuchikage, looked at his former two students standing before him, a small frown on his face.
Akatsuchi seemed to have accepted the recent revelations well. He had seemed to shrug off every resentful and/or angry feeling since that day three years ago.
On the other hand, his granddaughter was still having doubts. She had cornered him today and was now demanding answers she thought she deserved to know.
"You assigned him an S-rank mission to get information on Akatsuki… You staged his betrayal of the Hidden Stone Village?" Kurotsuchi asked.
"I did." Onoki replied.
"You gave him that Kinjutsu? He didn't actually steal it?" She asked.
"Yes. I gave it to him because he needed a crime to defect the village from… It suited his Explosion Release quite well." The Tsuchikage answered.
"… You made him destroy half of the village?" Kurotsuchi asked.
"Yes… I did. He needed to make an elaborate escape from the village that would showcase his skills. I didn't want anyone to be questioning his motives." Onoki replied.
At that moment, he noticed that the edges of his granddaughter's eyes began to grow wet. She was silent for a minute, her eyes narrowed, before she wiped her eyes with the back of her glove.
She then slammed her hands on his desk, leaning forward to stare him in the eye. A sickeningly sweet smile formed on her face before she closed her eyes.
"Alright… I can accept that. I can forgive Deidara for what he did. I can forget what he did… But, if you ever do something like this ever again, I will MELT your wrinkly ass! Capiche?" She said.
Onoki nodded to show his acceptance of her demands. Kurotsuchi smiled once more before she asked Akatsuchi to accompany her. They soon left the office to go and find Deidara.
When the Third Tsuchikage was alone, his shoulders slumped in defeat. A single tear fell from his usually cold, uncaring eyes as he remembered things best left forgotten.
"I will do anything to protect this village Kurotsuchi." He whispered. "Surely you can understand that."
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-Blue Stream Hospital: Room 18A-
Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep…
Tsubaki Yuki woke up to the low beeping sound. She opened her eyes, slowly accumulating them to the light, before she looked around in slight confusion. What was she doing in the Hospital?
The room she was in had two doors; one to the hallway and one to a bathroom. A small cabinet stood in between a pair of chairs.
When she moved, Tsubaki became aware of the I.V. in her arm. She traced the I.V. wire back to its source and found that it was giving her a steady stream of Saline.
'At least I'm not dehydrated.' Tsubaki thought.
She then proceeded to find the controller to her bed. The black-haired woman thought of pressing the button to call a doctor and/or nurse to her, weighing the pros and cons in her mind, when the door to her room opened.
A tall man with brown hair stood in the doorway. He wore a pair of black pants, a white shirt, a white lab coat, and shiny black shoes. The tag above his left breast identified him as Dr. Akeru Usu.
"Good morning Ms. Yuki." Dr. Usu greeted. "How are you feeling? Any aches or pains?"
"No. I feel fine Dr. Usu… Do you know why I am here?" Tsubaki asked.
Dr. Usu nodded before he closed the door, walking over to check her I.V. bag.
"I do. You went into a coma after the Hokage disabled those two Juinjutsu on you. I don't know much about Juinjutsu, being a civilian doctor, but Lord Hokage assured me that you just needed some rest. You have been asleep three days now Ms. Yuki."
After he finished talking, Dr. Usu gave her a good checkup, making sure everything was fine, before he gave her a clean bill of health.
"Just check out at the Front Desk before you leave Ms. Yuki..." Dr. Usu said.
Jutsu:
1. Body Replacement Technique: A jutsu that allows the user to switch places with another person, object, or thing.
2. Many Hidden Shadow Snake Hands: Summons a swarm of big snakes in an instant. Each snake will be doing something individually like intimidating, diverting, or even capturing the enemy in a cooperative attack.
3. Water Release: Gunshot: The user kneads chakra, and converts it into water, and then spits it out in the form of condensed balls. The high-speed waterball attack possesses just as much power to kill as an actual gunshot. While this is a water release technique, it can still be employed someplace where no water is available, which is a great advantage.
A/N: Author's Note:
Shino: You updated again. Congratulations
Author: *Glares at Shino* It is not like I had a choice. You wouldn't leave me alone.
Shino: Someone had to keep bugging you until you updated again.