Chapter 16: Land of Whirlpools (2): A Huge Disadvantage.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto. Naruto is the work of Masashi Kishimoto.
A/N: Thank you for reading!
"There's so many?"
100 chunins and 14 jonins, are you kidding me? To make it worse, one of them has the same chakra level as me? What is he, a secret Uzumaki?!
"Is this accurate?!"
The blindfolded Uzumaki nodded vigorously, his head nearly falling off from nodding too fast.
"Siii—!"
Anger can't solve world hunger. Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to calm down. As a ninja, my mental strength is naturally high, lest I won't know who kills me.
For the first time in my life, I felt a life-or-death crisis.
My encounter with Orochimaru was a fluke. At that time, I didn't know how to differentiate between a mortal a god. I dared to challenge Danzo's ROOT and the Hyuuga clan, what's a little snake sannin in my eyes?
But now, after leaving the safety of the village walls, I realized that I was too naïve. Not only that, I was kissed by the god of luck, to be able to survive not only Danzo's ROOT but also Orochimaru.
When I think about those incidents, I gradually calmed down and formulated a plan.
"Prince, what should we do?" Ichiro asked
"It's simple. We run away. Are we surrounded yet?" Naruto asked the Uzumaki who had a blindfold on.
"Prince, we are surrounded on all sides," the blindfolded Uzumaki said and pointed at the ink on the borders of the scroll. Naruto didn't notice it at first since he wasn't familiar with how the seal worked. He thought it was just an ink border, he didn't know that those ink represented humans as well.
"So we're surrounded on all sides. Then find the weakest link," Naruto ordered. The blindfolded Uzumaki immediately went to work and channeled all his chakra into the scroll. The scroll trembled when the blindfolded, and then after ten seconds, the blindfolded Uzumaki retracted his hands and gasped for air.
"Great Master, the weakest bandit group is at the far left, exactly 9 o'clock of our location."
"Good, inform the rest, you all are heading out this instant. I will hold the bandit army on my own, that person with a similar chakra level to mine definitely has a sensing ability, and he'll target me first," Naruto said and warned the Uzumaki to be careful. They would still face off against the bandit army, but they would face off against the cannon fodder. That is, the genins of the bandits.
As to how he knew that the bandit's main force can sense him, it was thanks to the fox's sensing ability. The fox sensed malicious emotions focused on him and not the other Uzumaki.
"Sir, the Uzumaki are escaping," Takumashii whispered to Shirokuma, who narrowed his eyes.
"Don't worry about them. They barely count as chunin level," Shirokuma scowled. What Uzumaki? They were disgracing the Uzumaki clan! Being full grown adults, yet they didn't have jonin-level chakra, what a humiliation to the once noble clan.
"Our target is the person who remained in place," Shirokuma added and Takumashii nodded. He knew that Shirokuma had an innate sensing ability. He couldn't sense in an orthodox way, but he could "feel" the chakra level of others in a 5-kilometer radius. Such an ability made him a living, mobile radar.
Shirokuma didn't know who was bold enough to stay and hold back the main force, but he didn't care. The person had slightly higher chakra than him, but he had an army behind him. Who would win and who would lose was too obvious. No matter how many ants gather, they can't kill an elephant.
"If we can capture him alive, do so. With his level of chakra, and with him staying with the Uzumaki, he must be an Uzumaki 'elder'," Shirokuma mused. He had seen these "Uzumaki elders" before. Last night, he encountered a small group of Uzumaki, and half of them were "elders."
They claimed to be elders, but they only had chakra volume but no wisdom, Shirokuma sneered.
"As you command, sir," Takumashii bowed. He was aware of Shirokuma's plan.
Their bandit army focused on slave trading. They sold slaves to many rich clients, and most of them wanted ninja slaves. They have one particular client who wanted to buy every Uzumaki slave they could find at a high price.
They sold off a lot of Uzumaki clan members before, but all of them were untalented. They were adults, but like this group of Uzumaki, their chakra barely reached the chunin level, making that client displeased.
But with this newcomer Uzumaki who had a similar chakra level as his boss, that client was sure to be delighted. Obviously, the bandit army would be ecstatic too. A higher chakra level meant a higher price, after all.
"Sir!"
When Shirokuma was about to leave the tent, a bandit wearing a white belt and fingerless gloves entered the tent in a hurry. Like Takumashii, he wasn't wearing a shirt, showing off his muscular, chiseled body.
"What is it?" Shirokuma asked, frowning.
"Sir, there's someone attacking our camp," the man said.
"Huh?" Hearing that, Shirokuma closed his eyes and tried to "feel" the massive chakra signature and sure enough, that chakra signature was now attacking one of their camps. If was camp E, it had 20 chunins and 2 jonin.
"Quick, notify all the main camps. All bandits will attack that person, GO!" Shirokuma roared and ran toward camp E like a thunderbolt.
"Dodge!"
"Fucking bastard, I'll skin you alive!"
BOOM!
When he arrived at camp E, he saw 20 scorched, incomplete corpses and two wounded jonin fighting off against a black-haired boy. The earth was dyed red, mysterious chunks of meat littered the ground, and a pungent stench assaulted his nostrils.
So young, was Shirokuma's thought when he saw the boy take out a scroll and throw it at him. The two wounded jonin looked at Shirokuma and paled, shouting out a warning.
"Boss, dodge!"
Shirokuma wasn't an idiot. Even without the two jonin warning him, he would dodge that suspicious scroll. When he leaped from his previous position toward the two wounded jonin, the scroll exploded, making him cover his ears.
The ground shook violently as if an earthquake had been triggered. Soil and rocks were flying all over the place, some landed on the trees, some back on the ground, and some on Shirokuma and the two jonin.
"Bastard!"
Having already witnessed the dreadful power of the scroll twice, and now for the third time, the two jonins cursed.
"Tsk, so stubborn. That was my last… Oops," the black-haired boy quickly covered his mouth but realized that it was too late and cursed, "I should learn how to shut up."
On the other hand, the two bandits were laughing merrily, "That's your last scroll? Well, come to daddy, I'll punish you, I'll make you wail, skin you alive. I'll make you beg for death!"
"Stop!"
Seeing one of the two jonins charge at the black-haired boy, Shirokuma ordered him to stop, but the jonin's head had already sunken into a sea of madness. 'What the hell happened before I arrived?' Shirokuma thought.
These bandits were baptized with blood and cruelty, so how did they go mad with anger in just a few minutes? Shirokuma's doubts were answered by the other jonin.
"Boss, Tonin was struck by a sealing scroll. I don't know what that sealing scroll was, but he suddenly went insane afterward. I barely managed to calm him down earlier, but it seems that he's still under the scroll's effect," the jonin explained, spitting out saliva from speaking too fast.
"Is he under a genjutsu?" Shirokuma thought but had no time to think further when he saw the black-haired boy take out another scroll and was about to throw it to Tonin, the jonin who went crazy.
"Tsk, idiot," Shirokuma cursed and charged toward Tonin, pulling him back in the nick of time to avoid the scroll. When the scroll passed them, it opened and tried to wrap around Tonin and Shirokuma, making the latter scoff and jump away.
When Shirokuma landed next to the other jonin, he forced Tonin's chakra system to stabilize, getting rid of the genjutsu.
"Fucking idiot, do you even know how to free yourself from a genjutsu?!" Shirokuma wanted to punch Tonin as he cursed, but his eyes never left the black-haired boy. Likewise, the black-haired boy was also observing him.
The boy knew he couldn't retreat. His whole purpose was to delay them, retreating was out of the question. The boy knew that, so how could Shirokuma not?
"Are you the bandit's leader?" The boy asked.
"No, I'm just a traveling merchant," Shirokuma lied without even licking his dry lips. The boy grinned and waved his middle finger, "I believe you," the boy said.
Without waiting for Shirokuma to rebut, the boy took out three scrolls and threw them on the ground.
When the scroll hit the ground, they rolled open and three puppets crawled out from each scroll. A total of nine puppets surrounded Shirokuma and the other two jonin.
"Deal with the puppets, I'll deal with the boy," Shirokuma ordered and leaped toward the black-haired boy while unsheathing his katana. The katana's body shimmered under the bright sun, shining in silver light.
"Boy, tell me your name before I kill you."
"No, tell me your name before I kill you," the boy said and took out a total of four scrolls, two in each hand.
'Sealing scrolls again?' Shirokuma cursed and halted his advance. Sealing scrolls were tricky to deal with since you never know what was written inside the sealing scroll. If he kept charging forward, he would be gambling his life.
"Stopping is useless," the boy grunted and threw the four scrolls toward him. When the scrolls were airborne, they flew around and surrounded Shirokuma. Seeing the scrolls circling around him, Shirokuma scoffed and raised his sword, ready to react.
"Fuuinjutsu: Door to Fantasy," the boy whispered and in an instant, the scrolls started unrolling themselves, completely blocking Shirokuma's view. Realizing the situation, Shirokuma sliced at the scrolls around him, cutting them down as fast as he could.
Chhhh—! Chhhh—!
The sounds of paper being torn apart echoed in his ears, but his frown only deepened. When he sliced through the first scroll, he got a glimpse of the outside world and paled. He quickly roused his chakra and dodged at the last moment, barely avoiding the scroll that was heading toward his face.
"Fuck, Claw of the White Bear: Slash!"
Finally getting serious, Shirokuma infused chakra into his katana and slashed at the flying scrolls. His katana glowed in white light, destroying all four scrolls at once. Then, the scroll that passed by him made a U-turn and returned to the boy's hand.
Looking at the black-haired boy, who hadn't spent a drop of his chakra, Shirokuma tensed his muscles and ran toward the boy, and engaged in close combat. The boy didn't even take out a kunai, only dodging his katana.
"What's wrong, close-combat is your weakness?" Shirokuma grinned. "Well, you've found your match today!"
Shirokuma threw a faint, and the boy took the bait, hook, line, and sinker. Shirokuma sliced heavily at the wide-eyed black-haired boy. The boy twisted his body, as if wanting to break his spine while doing so, but he managed to avoid a deadly blow.
Blood spurted from his right shoulder. When the boy looked at his shoulder, there was a deep cut, nearly separating his arm from his shoulder. "Fuck, these damned scrolls are useless!"
With bloodshot eyes, the boy took out more than a dozen scrolls and threw them on the ground. Seeing those scrolls, Shirokuma leaped as far as he could, only for his face to chill with gloom. He wanted to advance forward, but he was already retreating. If he forcefully charged now, he would trip.
He was a bandit, not a ninja who could adjust their body position even while in mid-air.
As the boy said, the scrolls were useless. Most of them shot out water or mud, some of them sucked the moisture of the soil beneath them, while most didn't even work.
The boy threw them out to give himself enough time to take out a brush and a blank scroll.
'Not good,' Shirokuma thought, 'I can't let him write new scrolls!'
Shirokuma charged toward the black-haired boy, but the boy's hand that was jumping around the scroll's surface suddenly halted. Shirokuma tensed and stood on the spot, warily eying the boy who had just finished writing a scroll.
'What a fast hand speed, he finished writing a scroll in just one second,' Shirokuma cursed. He didn't bet his life on the boy's success rate when creating a seal. Even if the seal the boy wrote was a failure, he wouldn't dare charge thoughtlessly.
The two were at a standstill, listening to the clashing sounds behind them. The nine puppets and the two jonins were fiercely engaged in combat, fighting for life or death. When Shirokuma blinked for a split second, he saw the boy take out another blank scroll, chuck away the previous scroll, and then write another seal formula.
Realizing that he had been tricked, Shirokuma's eyes turned bloodshot, madly rushing toward the boy.
"I won't let you!"
Shirokuma shortened the distance between the two of them in an instant and launched an attack.
"Claw of the White Bear: Slash!"
"Humph, say goodbye to your jonin! Ninjutsu: Substitution Technique!"
When Shirokuma's sword slash reached the boy, he was suddenly replaced by a wooden puppet. It was the wooden puppet fighting against the two jonin.
"Fuck!"
Seeing the puppet neatly cut in half, Shirokuma cursed and rushed toward the two jonin. He arrived just in time to see the boy finish writing a seal.
"Fuuinjutsu: Whisper of the Dreaming Goddess!"
The scroll that the boy threw struck the jonin next to Tonin.
"Shiya!"
Tonin yelled and pulled Shiya away, but the seal formula on the scroll had already wrapped around Shiya, making him fall unconscious. Tonin placed a finger under Shiya's nose and sighed in relief when he felt warm breath. Then, he quickly retreated to Shirokuma's side.
"Two on one, better than three. Don't you think so?" The boy asked and took out another blank scroll.
"Stop him!"
While Shirokuma and Tonin were charging at the boy, the boy suddenly stopped writing and discarded the scroll, jumping away as far as he could. Then, a sword slash appeared where the boy once stood, making Shirokuma and Tonin look at the newcomer. The boy also looked at the newcomer.
"Takumashii, perfect timing."
"Sir, the other camps will arrive in… soon."
Takumashii said, his eyes focused on the boy who had an ugly expression.
"Fuck my luck," the boy cursed and took out another blank scroll, but the three jonin weren't senile yet to allow him to finish writing seals.
"Claw of the White Bear: Ravage!"
The three of them simultaneously yelled and slashed their katana toward the boy, making countless sword slashes that wanted to cut the boy into tiny bits of pieces like a rampaging bear. The boy dodge to his left, but Shirokuma and the others weren't idle. They quickly surrounded the boy and charged toward him, not giving him any breathing room.
"God damn it!" The boy howled and wrote frantically on the scroll. To Shirokuma and the other two jonin's surprise, the boy bit his finger and wrote a seal using his blood.
"Quick, don't let him finish!"
Although they were already close to the boy, the three of them ran like they were a mile away. In a flash, the three of them were close enough to dice the boy, but the boy had already finished writing the seal.
All of this happened in less than two seconds.
"Fuuinjutsu: Giant Earth Dragon!"
Before the three could bring down their swords, they were forced to jump back as a giant earth dragon rose from the ground and tried to bite the three of them in half. The three bandits were fighting with all their strength, so after failing to kill the boy, they were in a bad mood, panting like dogs. Only Shirokuma was a bit better off and managed to keep his dignity, calmly breathing in a leisurely manner.
'It's been too long since we faced off against a strong enemy, the White Bear Bandits are getting rusty,' Shirokuma thought while looking at the boy on top of the earth dragon.
The boy wasn't any better than the three of them. His right shoulder was bleeding, his eyes were bloodshot, he was covered in sweat, dirt, blood, and human meat, and he was panting for air like a dog in heat. For a moment, Shirokuma wanted to give the boy a glass of water, he looked like he ran across a desert without stopping.
"Fucking wastes, I actually had to use my blood," the boy mumbled so the three couldn't hear him.
'He must be an Uzumaki,' Shirokuma thought. Even without hearing the boy, he could read lip movement. Although the boy had black hair, he believed that he was an Uzumaki in disguise. Only an Uzumaki could write seal formulas in the heat of a battle, anyone else would keep making mistakes, not to mention that the boy used his blood to write a seal.
When the boy took out another blank scroll, Shirokuma and the other two were about to attack him but stopped. The giant earth dragon was protecting the boy, so they couldn't get too close. They were one of the bandit armies who fought against the Uzumaki clan, they knew how their sealing technique worked.
That earth dragon wouldn't fall as long as the boy had chakra, so they decided to surround the boy instead, letting him write on the blank scrolls he took out. Their eyes twitched when they saw the boy create over 40 sealing scrolls in just one minute, but they couldn't do anything before their reinforcements arrived.
Speak of the devil and he shall come. Shirokuma sensed a group of bandits hurrying toward the battlefield, making him relieved.
They launched a couple of sword slashes toward the dragon, but it only regenerated the damage they did in the blink of an eye. They didn't attack the boy after that to save chakra.
"Good, the others are here. Make the chunins retreat, only the jonin will fight," Shirokuma ordered to the newly arrived reinforcements. His eyes never left the black-haired boy's figure, so he clearly saw the boy's expression turn ugly by the second.
When the bandit jonins surrounded the black-haired boy, Shirokuma couldn't help but laugh, "Ready for round two?"
"Damned barbarians," Naruto scowled and threw a scroll high up in the air, "Fuuinjutsu: Curse of the Demonic Fox."
As Ichiro led the group of Uzumaki to escape, they met hundreds of bandits who tried to stop their escape.
"GO! Don't stop marching onwards! Break through the enemy's encompassment," Ichiro yelled. He was carrying a young boy on his back with a nasty shoulder wound.
Without their sealing supplies, the group of Uzumaki was greatly weakened. Not to mention that their chakra barely reached chunin level, and they didn't know a lot of ninjutsu. They could only rely on their tough bodies and their taijutsu to survive. Those with weapons like Ichiro were the ones who confronted most of the bandit enemies so as to give the others breathing room.
"Ichiro-senpai, what about Menma-sama?"
Hearing Moriko, an Uzumaki who was one year younger than him, Ichiro gritted his teeth and resisted the urge to turn back and aid the last Uzumaki with the royal bloodline.
"Keep marching! Menma-sama's efforts will go to waste if we fall back now!"
Ichiro's howl boosted the remaining Uzumaki's morale, making them roar in anger, desperation, and hope.
Out of the 50 Uzumaki that Naruto grouped up, 17 were injured, 9 were dead, and the rest were still fighting. Barely half of them were capable of fighting, but the saving grace was that they'd already escaped the bandit's encompassment.
"Move! MOVE! Quickly set up camp near the rendezvous point!"
Overjoyed at escaping death, the Uzumaki didn't dare delay and ran as fast as they could toward a massive cave hidden deep inside a forest.
When Ichiro and the rest arrived at the cave, they used their chakra to help their injured comrade's healing speed, but it would take them at least another week before their injuries fully heal.
As Ichiro was taking care of the wounded, two bandits were watching each and every one of their movements.
"Are you sure they can't sense us?" A bandit asked.
"Yes. According to the main camp, they gave most, if not all of their sealing supplies to that person," the other bandit said. They didn't know who attacked the main camp, but they knew that he was powerful.
He managed to hold back the main camp, which had the White Bear Kings and the White Bear Emperor, as well as 100 chunins, for more than three days. That's a fifth of the army's entire chunin force, and all of their elite force, most of the bandits couldn't believe that one person could hold back such a force.
"Remember the last three days? These guys didn't even use a single sealing technique," the bandit said. It was true. Whenever the group of Uzumaki fought, they only used taijutsu and kenjutsu. They didn't even use ninjutsu, almost making them laugh in ridicule.
Almost.
Although these Uzumaki had fallen from the heavens to the earth, they were still worthy of being revered in the past. Even using only taijutsu and kenjutsu, because of their large chakra pools and their high stamina, as well as their skill, they could resist and push back hundreds of bandits for three days straight.
During the first day of their escape, the Uzumaki were bulldozing through the bandit's formation. However, the next day and the third day, the bandit army focused solely on them. That meant a thousand bandits and four hundred chunin-level bandits were trying to stop these 50 Uzumaki, but the Uzumaki still managed to flee.
If they laughed in ridicule at these warriors, then these bandits might as well bury themselves. They couldn't even stop 50 people who were barely chunin, they felt humiliated.
"Okay, but they only have 24 people capable of fighting, do we really need to bring three hundred bandits with us?" Asked the first bandit. He was the one in charge of leading the siege against these fleeing Uzumaki.
"Yes. I know you have doubts, but trust me on this one. It's better to bring more than enough than not enough," the bandit advised his doubtful friend before bidding goodbye. He wasn't supposed to be here, he was supposed to be capturing a group of merchants who happened to enter the White Bear Bandits' territory.
"That meddlesome bastard…" After cursing off his friend who left without looking back, the bandit turned to watch as the group of Uzumaki settle down in the cave before leaving himself. He felt uncomfortable nearby these mad, red-haired lunatics.
He didn't know that when he left, Ichiro glanced at the place he was hiding in.
"They left. Quick, flee this place!" Ichiro ordered, and like a staged performance, the Uzumaki sprang into action and swiftly abandoned the cave. When the three-hundred-man bandit army arrived at the cave the next day, they were livid.
"Those bandits, they underestimate us and overestimate themselves too much!" An Uzumaki roared in fury.
"Kaiso, you should be thankful for their ignorance," Ichiro glanced at him and said, "because they are stupid and arrogant, we were able to escape despite being chased around by a thousand bandits," Ichiro laughed.
To him, the bandits were like headless chickens. When they were fleeing from their siege three days ago, the bandits were out of order, which led to their downfall. Although the Uzumaki group lost half of their fighting power, the bandits lost hundreds of their men.
And then, yesterday, when the bandits had a chance to ambush them or set up traps, they did none of it and left, giving them a chance to quietly escape. What were they if not headless chickens?
"Enough talking. We need to swiftly leave this place and group up with the prince at the shore," Ichiro ordered and the Uzumaki followed.
The Uzumaki were deep inside the forest, so they had a long way to go before they reach the shore. From there, Menma would use a sealing technique to create a boat that can move at high speeds using chakra.
As they were traveling, the Uzumaki would take multiple breaks to take care of the wounded and reapply bandages when necessary.
A week passed without rats showing their ugly heads, making Ichiro itchy. He would shiver from time to time, making him curse out loud, "Did the goddess of misfortune set her eyes on me?"
The forest was too quiet. The last time Ichiro and the others saw a bird was two days ago, and they were all feeling tense. They secretly roused their chakra to the extreme. Because the wounded had been healed, all 41 Uzumaki could fight, but that number was too small compared to the thousand-strong bandit army.
Finally, on the next day, Ichiro found out why he was feeling so apprehensive.
The wind was cold, biting their skin as if invisible ants. The air was suffocating, no matter how much they breathed, they felt like their lungs were being crushed under the tense atmosphere.
The bandit leader was standing in front of them, his left arm was missing, and a huge scar was added to his middle-aged face, making him look like a pirate.
"It's you," Ichiro said, gloom taking over his face.
"Yes, it's me. I'm glad you know," Shirokuma growled. After three long days of fighting, although his elite troops didn't lose a single man, they were all severely wounded. Especially him, he lost a goddamned arm. He couldn't pour his anger into words, so he silently ordered his bandit army to follow the group of Uzumaki.
He even used several antique treasures to hide their chakra signatures, preventing the Uzumaki from sensing them.
Seeing the fury on Shirokuma's face, Ichiro felt a little better, but at the same time, he feared the worst. "What happened to the prince?"
"Don't worry about the prince, you'll meet him after I'm done with you," Shirokuma said and ordered his men to attack the group of Uzumaki.
A/N: Naruto will refer to himself as "Naruto" in his thoughts, but he is currently "Menma" because he wants to hide his identity, but the Uzumaki know that he is Naruto. Likewise, the bandits don't know Naruto or Menma, so they refer to him as "the black-haired boy". I hope it doesn't cause too much confusion.
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