A/N: Hello everyone, so here we are with another chapter of Guardian of the Tailed Beasts to keep you entertained. Previously we saw our favorite couple won their first bet against Tsunade and then the Senju princess made them accept a second one which would compel her to return to Konoha should NaruHina win. Can they win? Well, the title of the chapter suggests as such. But anyways, lets see what kind of hard work the cute lovebirds have to put together to get their task done. Apart from that, nothing much to discuss here. So...Happy readings.
CHAPTER 24: WINNING THE BET (AGAIN) AND GATHERING THE TEAM
*The day after Naruto and Hinata won their first bet with Tsunade
Kakashi did somehow manage to convince Tsunade and Shizune and of course Tonton (Don't look at me like that, sorry I forgot to add you…) to come and stay in their hotel.
Meanwhile Naruto and Hinata threw themselves into practice from sunrise, just beyond the fences of their hotel, where there was a large open grassland with some big trees and boulders here and there. The Hyuuga along with three shadow clones of herself began practicing the third step of the Rasengan training. But the task at hand proved to be very difficult. After all this was indeed the hardest step. Although Minato was quite sure that his future daughter in law would get it down rather quickly as her chakra control was better than his son's.
Meanwhile Naruto's task was even more difficult. He had to cut a stone into two just using wind chakra. Since it was a time bound bet, Naruto didn't hold back and put 100 of his clones to work. (In the previous timeline, Kakashi was restraining Naruto from using too many clones in the fear of Naruto losing control to Kurama but this time as Kurama was already friendly and fully cooperative, there was no fear of Naruto going out of control and hence, no need to hold back either.)
"AAAAAAHHHHH! This is goddamned difficult!" Naruto groaned in pain after working hard on a piece of rock for 3 hours straight. The blonde boy had to sit down to catch his breath. Hinata didn't waste a second to get to him and wrapped her arm around his shoulder. She was tired as well. The lovebirds had their clones dispel. For Hinata it was rather easy since she only had to deal with the feedback from 3 clones but Naruto…well, he almost puked receiving feedback from 100 clones at once. He got a massive headache, sensing his unease, Hinata immediately pulled him into her lap and began massaging his head.
"Are you okay, Naruto!?" She asked in concern, momentarily forgetting her affectionate honorific.
"Yeah…it's just…remind me not to dispel…too many clones…at once…I totally forgot in…excitement and…hurry." Naruto said in between pants as Hinata's massaging of his head gave him some comfort, he closed his eyes and enjoyed the moment.
"Your hands…they have magic in them, Hinata-chan." He commented.
"I-It's not magic, Naruto-kun… its affection." Hinata softly replied. "So, how is it going?"
"No headway, Hime…not yet. I mean, it's really hard to cut that rock, you need to strengthen the chakra you put into it and then you have to do the balance. I bet it's 100 times harder than the leaf cutting exercise."
"I see…don't worry. I know you'll get it done. You always do." Hinata reassured. "Why don't you start with small rocks and then go for bigger sized ones. I think that way it might be easier and you will be able to get the hang of it too." The Hyuuga girl suggested.
"Hmm….All right I'll try that from now on. So, how are things on your end?" The jinchuuriki asked, wrapping his arm around his girlfriend's waist.
"Nothing much either. Though I am able to keep the water balloon stabilized for at least 30 seconds now but still it's nowhere close to the 3-minute mark you and Minato-tou-san said."
"Your chakra control is really good, Hinata-chan, trust me you are doing well. I bet you'll be having a perfect Rasengan on your palm day after tomorrow at the latest. Dattebayo!" The Uzumaki boy commented with a grin.
"Thanks for the trust, honey." Hinata acknowledged with a smile and then placed a kiss on his forehead (as the blonde wasn't wearing his forehead protector at the moment.)
From a distance, Kakashi was observing their training with satisfaction and an eye-smile.
'The way they support each other… Hinata should have been on Team-7 from the get go, I can only imagine the level they would be at right now had they been together from the day the Genin teams were formed. Anyways, that's all in the past. At least, now Hinata is on Team-7 and they are already deep into a relationship. I am sure Sensei and Kushina-sama are quite happy with Naruto's progress and Hinata's as well and also that Obito would have liked them a lot had he seen them.' Kakashi sighed. 'I hope that the possibility of you being Madara is wrong, Obito. I pray that one of the other possibilities Itachi suggested turn out to be the case, not that one…You can't be a monster like that Obito. You can't be sensei's and Kushina-sama's killer, although ironically, it's thanks to the very being Sensei defeated and sealed into Naruto that they are semi-alive right now, but to imagine that you killed them… And then killed the Uchiha along with Itachi…I can't accept it Obito, please tell me this is not true!'
The copy ninja had to shake his head to discard these depressing and horrifying thoughts. Ever since Obito's 'death', Kakashi had been working his hardest to be the ninja Obito would have become had he lived and would have wanted him to be as well.
Kakashi was about to leave the young ninja to themselves when something caught his eye. 'Oh? That's not something you see every day… don't get to see my move copied like that. Copied the copy nin, huh? That's a bit ironic. Wonder if it's a bastardization or an improvement? Just means I need to keep improving if I don't want to be overtaken by them before they even become real adults.'
Naruto was having a hard time moving past that failure with the rock exercise.
Hinata decided to use example to get him to move past it.
And what better way than to demonstrate it in front of him.
"Naruto-kun, have you ever heard of Shock Touch?" Hinata asked after a moment.
Naruto frowned: "Yeah…it's that one move where you put some electricity in your hand to give a punch some extra punch to it, right?"
Hinata nodded. "Ever since I started trying to expand and move into elemental Ninjutsu, I've been practicing with Shock Touch for quite some time. It uses Static charges to create its effect. And I've made something…"
Naruto looked like a kid who just got offered the whole cookie jar. "You have got to show me!"
Hinata smiled indulgently: "Well, okay, I guess. Don't twist my arm or anything." She said playfully.
Hinata wove her hands through the sequence and clutched the wrist of her right arm, as static charges began visibly gathering in her palm, forming a ball that shaped into a crude blade, with lightning arcing and crackling.
Naruto looked awed: "Wow, it's like Kakashi-sensei's Chidori! The move he taught Sasuke."
Hinata laughed softly, "Well…Sasuke-san's usage was an inspiration, to go this direction."
Hinata let the jutsu disperse, and groaned as she saw she had held it for long enough for blisters to form.
Naruto looked shocked: "What happened?"
Hinata sighed: "It has its flaws…not sure if this actually a sustainable technique that can be perfected or it's been explored as far as I can. I might have to find a better more stable technique to take everything Shock Blade has taught me to actually make those lessons useable in the long term. These burns are just from holding it for too long. It's worse if I actually use it against something."
Naruto reached for her hand: "At least let me handle it for you."
Hinata shook her head and held her hand out: "Watch." And Naruto saw as the blisters healed up before his eyes. "It's been like this since the day of the invasion, I heal fast and my reserves are growing far faster than ever before and much of it can't be attributed to training. Something else is at play. And I'm more scared that all the progress I've made isn't actually my own."
Hinata started tearing up only for Naruto to reach up and wipe the tears from her eyes. "Relax, I know how it feels, truth be told, after I started talking with Kurama and my parents, I started getting scared that my achievements weren't my own. Then it hit me, sometimes we need help to get anywhere, to truly grow. So maybe you are getting a leg up from whatever freaky thing is going on with you…make it your own advantage; I've got Kurama and my parents and you to help me, now you have this and me to help you."
Hinata chuckled softly, "My, My. When did you start being so introspective? Thanks for it though." Naruto smiled softly as she resumed her soothing massaging of his head.
"Alright. Enough lying around, I think we should get back to training, Hinata-chan." Naruto suggested trying to get up from her lap but she pushed him back.
"We need to have breakfast first. I'm not letting you go on with an empty stomach." She admonished and Naruto gave up though with a slight pout… he knew he couldn't win over this shy girl who had absolute control over him and he was quite content being that way. Didn't mean he wasn't going to be a little miffed about it or at least put on a show.
"Fine Hime, let's do that then." He said with a sigh, Hinata only gave him a smile and ruffled his hair before whispering, "Good boy" into his ear and going to fetch them breakfast.
Once the light meal was done, the lovers again got to work with full focus and vigour.
This time, Kiba and Shino also watched just how much effort their friends were putting into the training. Needless to say, Kiba felt a bit jealous of them. The Inuzuka always had some sort of rivalry with his blonde friend and seeing the sudden growth in Naruto and knowing that he was one of the two that got promoted, the dog expert was feeling obviously a bit jealous and insecure.
"Naruto and Hinata are indeed putting a tremendous amount of effort to succeed in their endeavour and thereby fulfilling the mission since Tsunade-sama's return to the village now depends upon their winning of the bet." Shino commented from Kiba's right.
"I get it Shino, honestly I get it. But I don't want them to be the only ones to train and grow. Let's ask Kakashi-sensei to train us. I can't just let Naruto outshine me all the time." Kiba commented, Shino could only nod.
"I admit that I also wouldn't want Naruto and Hinata to be the ones to steal the spotlight in our generation and if we don't put ourselves to training, they will move on straight ahead." The Aburame heir commented nodding to himself, then turning to Kiba he found that the space where his teammate was standing was now empty, the Inuzuka had already made haste towards Kakashi.
"I better hurry too otherwise; I'll be the only one left behind." Shino mumbled to himself and then made a dash for Kakashi to ask for some training.
"So, you two want some training so as not to be left behind but have no idea, what to work upon, is that correct?" Kakashi asked putting the orange book he had just taken out to read in order to drive his mind away from the possibility of Obito being a mass murder.
"Unfortunately, that's correct sensei." Shino said looking down, while Kiba only made an embarrassed expression.
"That's not a problem, it's what senseis are for? It's also our duty to figure out what you need to learn in case you have no idea about it yourselves. It's okay to be confused, you have the right spirit, that's what matters." Kakashi reassured with an eye-smile.
"So where do we get started….yes! Do you two know about your elemental affinities?" Kakashi asked.
"Not yet sensei." Shino replied. "Hinata's was probably determined by her clan so she knows hers but we never tested ours." He added.
"All right, why don't we start with that?" Kakashi said handing a piece of chakra paper to each genin. "Hold it between your middle and index fingers and channel chakra into it." The copy ninja ordered and the order was immediately followed. Kiba's paper crumbled as did Shino's but the latter's paper had its edges burnt a bit.
"Interesting, so you two both have earth affinities with Shino having a secondary affinity to fire. Good. So we will start with the earth element then." Kakashi mused to himself. "Then let's start with the leaf crumbling exercise and then once you two manage to do it, I'll teach you guys a jutsu or two and then we will see where to go from there. What do you think?" Kakashi suggested, Kiba enthusiastically nodded. "We will be on it Sensei!" The Inuzuka commented with a grin as Akamaru yipped in his support.
"Good, get to work then, all the best." Kakashi said with a thumbs up and then took out his orange book as the two genin got to work. Soon he began giggling.
Meanwhile, Naruto finally began making a cut into a piece of rock he was holding. Finally, some progress! For Hinata, she was able to keep her water balloon stable for 45 seconds now. Then Naruto noticed his sensei totally immersed in that smut he was reading. An idea of a prank formed in his prankster brain as a sly and foxy grin got pasted on his face.
"Hinata-chan, I guess it won't be too bad to try the wind prison on Kakashi-sensei right now." He whispered to his girlfriend, walking up to her. Hinata took a sideways glance towards the jonin and she had no problem with the idea, she began giggling with her hands covering her mouth.
"Let's do it, Naruto-kun." She whispered back.
"Hehe…it'll be fun." Naruto responded as the duo made their way to the totally submerged in the book copy ninja.
'You said that a Shinobi should always be alert, let's see how much you put your own words into action then Kakashi-sensei.' Naruto thought as he silently went through the hand-signs and slammed his palm on the ground, immediately Kakashi was enveloped in a dome of violently spinning wind. His book slipped out of his hands and began flying around.
"NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOO, mmmmmyyyyyy precioussssssss!" Kakashi screamed girlishly with an extremely horrified expression and began chasing the book around instead of trying to dispel the 'Wind Prison Jutsu'. As he comically tried to catch the book fully ignoring the low oxygen levels inside the dome or the cuts it made on his skin whenever he came in contact with it, Naruto and Hinata couldn't help burst out laughing, well Hinata only giggled but Naruto…he just began rolling on the floor in laughter.
"Ohhh…Naru-chan…you're such a genius!" Kushina commented from the mindscape with a fit of laughter. Minato also couldn't help giggle at the predicament of his prodigious student. Kurama also was laughing and enjoying the scene.
"I admit, humans are truly an interesting breed, they know how to entertain." The legendary fox commented in between his laughs.
Finally, after 3 harrowing minutes of struggle, Kakashi somehow managed to grab the book and held it tightly on his chest, making Naruto, Hinata and the tenants of Naruto's mind laugh even harder. Meanwhile, Kakashi realized the perilous situation he was in, in his desperate catching attempts, he had totally forgotten that he was actually captured in Naruto's 'Wind Prison' technique and inside that dome, oxygen levels were lower. The copy ninja realized that it was now really hard for him to breath, as he had desperately run and jumped behind his flying 'precious' book. The masked ninja fell to his knees, panting hard and struggling to breathe, now Naruto and Hinata got really concerned and the blonde immediately dispelled his jutsu before he and his girlfriend ran to their sensei to check on him.
"Kakashi-sensei! Are you okay!?" Naruto asked in concern, shaking the copy ninja so as to not let him loose consciousness. For some seconds, Kakashi panted before his breathing finally returned to normal and upon seeing Naruto, he began glaring at the boy, letting loose some of his killing intent even.
"WHAT WAS THAT FOR!?" The copy ninja demanded. "You almost got my precious destroyed!" He added, making both Naruto and Hinata sweatdrop seeing that the jonin was actually more concerned about that smut book rather than his own breathless state.
"THAT WAS PAYBACK FOR PRANKING US WITH A MASK UNDER ANOTHER MASK, YOU, SNEAKY SENSEI!" Naruto shot back just as loud, making Kakashi sweatdrop as well. Now the copy ninja had no argument, he had indeed pranked the kids with his second mask and those kids included Naruto, the greatest prankster, Konoha…no perhaps the world had ever produced. Kakashi should have just seen it coming. He let out a sigh of defeat.
"Fine, all right, we are even now." He said allowing his features to relax a bit. This boy and his girlfriend were indeed a handful. Kakashi carefully tucked the Icha-Icha book in his pocket.
"But the thing to consider here is that if a shinobi is distracted when I use this jutsu upon him and if I am able to keep him/her distracted for about 3-4 minutes, then they will be rendered unconscious with the lack of oxygen inside the wind prison." Naruto commented.
"That's an…interesting observation, I must say." Kakashi admitted. "But I would suggest making the dome strong enough that the captive wouldn't be able to break out that easily, at least for 7 minutes, that way with his repeated attempts at breaking the jutsu, he will quickly exhaust himself and then the lower oxygen levels would render him unconscious." The copy ninja explained further.
"Got it sensei! Just watch, I'll make the dome strong enough in no time!" Naruto exclaimed. "Let's get back to training then, Hime."
"Hai."
And with that, our favourite lovebirds got back to their training and kept up with their current tasks.
At sunset, when they finally finished training for the day, Hinata was able to keep the water balloon stabilized for almost a minute while Naruto was able to make a 20% cut in a small rock. While it seemed slow, the two were indeed making some definite and noteworthy progress.
The next day also passed like that, with Naruto continuing the rock cutting exercise and having some of his clones try practicing the 'Wind Prison' jutsu simultaneously. Coming to Hinata, she had totally focused herself into completing the 3rd step of Rasengan training. Her boyfriend had predicted that she would be able to complete the Rasengan training by the end of the next day at the latest. That would give her 3 days more to work upon the 'Air Palm', a technique she was already halfway through mastering. She also was sure that her lover would complete his training before time and would have time to master something new, perhaps a fire jutsu or two from Kakashi. By the time the sun reached over their heads, the Hyuuga girl was able to keep the water balloon stabilized with the rotating chakra for almost 2 minutes. She was close! Just a bit more.
Meanwhile, Kiba and Shino also kept up with their end of the training. They came to know firsthand just how difficult the leaf related elemental chakra exercises were. Kiba grumbled something about Naruto being a lucky bastard by having abnormally large chakra reserves (he didn't yet know why but still) and shadow clones due to which he could complete these kinds of exercises rather quickly. Shino of course didn't complain. He was mature enough to understand that with each step they took further in their advancement of shinobi arts, the training would only get more and more difficult. He was also grateful that Kakashi started training them in something other than the specialities of their clan, it would make their arsenal more versatile. So, he just silently kept up with his practice.
At noon, Naruto increased the number of clones attempting the rock cutting exercise to 200, double the number he was using until now. Hinata was a bit concerned about him having to suffer from an even more painful feedback when he dispelled the clones but her blonde lover reassured that he wouldn't dispel them all at once, rather in groups of ten.
Although pretending to be unconcerned about the training these kids were doing, Tsunade was actually watching them with a lot of interest and at the same time she was also getting increasingly emotional. Since just watching Naruto train like crazy, her mind was showing her the visages of Nawaki training like that as well and exclaiming that he will become the youngest Hokage of the village.
'Only if you were here, Nawaki, Dan…I am sure you two would have loved these kids, especially this couple.' Tsunade thought to herself as she watched Naruto and Hinata train with absolute dedication, she was finding it hard to stop her tears. She could only wipe them out continuously so that somebody didn't see her in such a vulnerable state. The day passed without any more incidents or pranks. With the assistance of double the clones, Naruto was able to cut through the rock, almost 60%, while Hinata remained only 30 seconds away from the completion of the third step. Coming to Kiba and Shino, they were now almost halfway through their exercises, they hoped that if they completed their tasks before the start of the poker tournament, Kakashi would start teaching them some earth jutsus.
*Next day, about noon*
"YESSSS!" Hinata exclaimed in jubilation as the balloon finally remained stable in her hand for more than 3 minutes.
"Hell yeah! You did it Hinata-chan! I knew you'll do it! I am proud of you! Dattebayo!" Naruto exclaimed coming over to her and enveloping her in a bear hug. Hinata wrapped her arms around him and hugged him back.
"Thank you so much for trusting me and being with me." She said a bit teary eyed before kissing his cheeks affectionately.
"You don't have to thank me for being with you. I promised you that I will be with you forever and it's me who is blessed to have you in my life." Naruto replied cupping her cheeks.
"Although I might just be repeating myself again, but I love you and I'll forever and always be with you. I promise." Hinata replied as Naruto carefully and affectionately wiped the tears from her face.
The lovers then just shared a romantic moment with each other.
"Now that all the steps of the Rasengan training are done, all you have to do is to practice the Rasengan a bit and get used to attacking with it." Naruto said with a smile.
"Okay, dear." Hinata acknowledged. "I'll practice the Rasengan till sunset then."
"Yeah, and I am going to cut through the rock today, I am almost 80% done with it and then I'll attempt the wind prison on sensei." Naruto declared. "Let's get back to work then Hime." He suggested and both got back to their respective training again with renewed vigour.
Hinata spotted some huge boulders lying around and held out her palm. Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, she concentrated on whatever she had trained up to that moment, she felt the chakra spiral over her palm, then becoming condensed and finally taking the shape of a bluish sphere. She opened her eyes and watched with satisfaction as a stable Rasengan kept violently rotating over her palm. Then she dashed for the boulder before her.
"Rasengan!" The Hyuuga yelled, slamming the chakra sphere upon the large rock, immediately the Rasengan drilled a hole through it and caused significant damage but now there was no recoil.
"I did it…it worked perfectly. Thank you Naruto-kun and Minato-tou-san." She whispered to herself before steeling herself again to repeat the process until getting the hang of it.
*Two hours later*
"Hell yeah! I DID IT! I DID IT!" Naruto and several of his clones danced in celebration throwing around pieces of 'cleanly sliced into two rocks of several sizes'. Hearing the celebration, Hinata immediately ran to her lover. He had indeed done it.
"Yes! You did it, Naruto-kun! I knew it! I knew this won't stop you." She said giving him a congratulatory kiss.
"Thanks Hime…now let's try the wind prison again." Naruto said going through the hand signs once the kiss was over.
"Wind Style: Wind Prison!" the blonde yelled slamming his palm on the ground and the dome of violently rotating wind appeared in a far more stable form than anything the lovebirds had previously noticed. And it stayed that way until, Naruto himself dispelled it, by taking his hand off the dome.
"I am really proud of the both of you. Hinata-chan mastered the Rasengan and you were able to invent a jutsu my boy. The only thing that remains is to have Kakashi examine it and assign a rank to your jutsu." Minato explained beaming with pride and excitement.
'Thanks a lot Dad. It's all thanks you, Mom and Hinata-chan believing in me.' Naruto mentally replied before calling for his sensei.
"KAKASHI-SENSEI!" The blonde yelled in excitement, eager to show what he had created to the jonin, who appeared before the couple two minutes later via a shunshin.
"What happened Naruto?" The white haired Jonin tardily asked.
"Hinata-chan mastered the Rasengan! And I got my 'Wind Prison' stabilized for more than 10 minutes!" Naruto exclaimed.
"Impressive, Naruto, Hinata. But let me just see it. You first Hinata." Kakashi ordered. The Hyuuga immediately complied and formed a Rasengan on her palm, she then proceeded to slam it on the trunk of a nearby unsuspecting tree, making a hole all the way through the trunk.
"Very nice, Hinata. Well done." The copy ninja praised with an eye-smile before turning his attention to his boisterous blonde student.
"Now then, Naruto, let's test the 'wind prison' shall we?"
"Yes sensei! Prepare yourself." Naruto said in excitement going through the required hand-signs of the jutsu.
"Wind Style: Wind Prison!" Naruto exclaimed, trapping his jonin instructor in a dome of violently rotating wind, which was much more stabilized than any of his attempts at the jutsu so far.
Kakashi carefully observed the working and the effects the jutsu was having on him, the most significant of which was the low oxygen levels inside the dome and needless to say it was quite difficult to escape from the dome as the wind would violently cut the skin of the captive should he come in contact with it.
'Not bad. Let's see how this jutsu stacks up against elemental attacks. I'll start with my Chidori or Raikiri, Lightning is weak against Wind and so we should directly test it with an A or S-rank Lightning jutsu.' Kakashi thought to himself and making the decision, went through the hand-signs of his dreaded technique, soon his hand was engulfed in lightning.
"Chidori!" Kakashi stabbed his lightning engulfed hand through the wind dome. The endeavour didn't pay off well for the copy-nin, although his hand managed to cut through the wind dome, he had to take a number of cuts on it, forcing him to dispel the Chidori before he could fully break out of the wind prison.
'So, the Chidori doesn't work that well against this jutsu. Perhaps it can be classified as B-rank.' Kakashi mused as Naruto dispelled the jutsu.
"Hey Sensei! Your hand, it's bleeding!" He shouted.
"It's okay, Naruto. I will request Shizune-san to heal it. I wanted to test my Chidori against it and although the Chidori managed to cut through to some extent, your jutsu still forced me back. Now all we need to verify is how it stacks up against fire-style jutsus." Kakashi explained. "Let's do this again, I won't try cutting through it this time." The masked jonin reassured.
With a bit of hesitation, Naruto went through the hand-signs again and once more put his sensei in the dome of violently rotating wind.
'All right let's try something at least C or B-rank with Fire.' Kakashi thought and then went through some hand-signs.
"Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!" Kakashi released a series of small but powerful fireballs and made them strike the dome in the direction opposite of the wind flow in the dome, the wind ignited the fire and soon the whole dome got engulfed in it and in a second it vanished, leaving a huge amount of smoke behind.
"Sensei!" Naruto yelled in concern again. Much to his relief as the smoke subsided, a wall of earth and mud was revealed.
"I must say, your jutsu is really good, Naruto." Kakashi said in acknowledgement, emerging from the back of the wall. "It seems, B-rank fire jutsus are indeed effective against the 'Wind Prison' but it has the recoil effect of engulfing the whole dome in flames, hence if anyone wants to escape from this jutsu, then alongside knowledge of at least one or two B-ranked fire jutsu and the 'Earth style: Mud Wall' is necessary." Kakashi explained. "I think we should classify this jutsu as B-rank for the time being. I am sure that the rank will be increased in the future when you use it with some more chakra." The copy ninja added. "Now I guess I should go find Shizune-san and have her treat my cuts. Anyways congratulations Naruto, Hinata. Both of you completed your tasks ahead of schedule, I am really impressed." Kakashi said with an eye-smile, before walking off to find Shizune.
Naruto and Hinata first looked at each other for a second or two and then just hugged each other tightly, celebrating their success. They couldn't wait to show a certain gambling obsessed blonde woman, how they had won their bets. Her expression would be a sight to remember. After that, since they already expected that Tsunade wouldn't be going anywhere without taking part in the Gambling tournament, they would have time to learn and practice some new moves, such as the 'Air Palm' for Hinata and some fire jutsus for Naruto.
*Meanwhile at a clearing, a few kilometres away from Tanzaku town*
A man with dark hair, wearing a light blue kimono walked to the place. He had a grim expression on his face. Although, those who had seen him after he had left Kiri, would say that that kind of expression was pretty normal for him. He closed his eyes and contemplated whether he was doing the right thing or not.
'I don't think there is any room for reconsideration anymore, I have already come this far, there would be no going back. I have to be a part of this despicable mission now. I know it's not right but I have no other way. If I go searching for Hotaru on my own, they might sell her before I could find her and then…..' Utakata shook his head to drive such dark and terrifying thoughts away, he could only hope to get the girl back after he completes this mission, regardless of how morally wrong it sounded.
"Didn't really think I would be seeing you of all people here." A voice known to Utakata said with a snarl. As soon as he recognized the voice, Utakata's frowned and rolled his eyes before looking back. Raiga Kurosuki, the holder of the Kiba blades looked back at him with a smirk.
"I didn't really think I would have to work with you of all people on this mission." Utakata said with an irritated face.
"Heh… looks like you really don't like me boy. I wouldn't mind giving you a funeral once this mission is done."
Utakata only gave the swordsman a frown in return.
"I wouldn't be so confident if I were in your place." The Rokubi jinchuuriki replied with a serious expression, only for Raiga to take his blades out and charge them up with lightning as he licked his lips in anticipation.
"I know who you are, but still, I must say, you are really cocky. Fine by me, since that would make the funeral I arrange for you, even more entertaining." The swordsman stated, jumping down from the tree he was standing on and taking a fighting stance. Utakata also immediately prepared himself to fight. But before the two could begin their spar, they sensed the arrival of two more figures and got into attention.
"Hehe, well look what we have here, two strong sacrifices for Jashin-sama." Hidan said taking a hold of the Scythe on his back. Saiken shuddered in recollection of the previous timeline and his encounters with the Jashinists alongside Utakata.
"Hidan, we are here to complete a mission and get the money out of it. If you create any mess here, I'll kill you." His masked partner. "I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU FUCKING TRY, ASSHOLE!"
Meanwhile Raiga and Utakata raised their eyebrows, looking at the peculiar cloaks these men were wearing. The man with the scythe was looking at them like they were his prey, something that made both the former shinobi wish to kill this guy immediately. As for the other, neither Utakata nor Raiga could get a read on him, however their instincts told them not to take this person lightly at all. For some reason, both the former mist nins felt like they had seen these two people somewhere. Suddenly it clicked in Utakata's mind.
"You two…your faces were on the Bingo book. Hidan of the Jashinist cult and Kakuzu, the traitor of Taki. I have heard that you once tried assassinating the Shodai Hokage, to think that you could still be alive after all these years, the shinobi world is full of nasty wonders indeed." Utakata said with a frown and disgust.
"We are supposed to be working on this mission to capture Tsunade and get the money, don't waste your time in petty introductions. All I care for is the money we will get out of this mission, if your petty rivalries come in the way of the mission, I won't mind killing all of you and take the entire reward for myself." Kakuzu stated in an intimidating tone. The three, present with him immediately stopped their bickering and glares at each other. It was just one mission, after that they would all be on their own paths again.
"Fine, I will hold back arranging funerals for you three until this mission is complete." Raiga said with a bit of a serious expression.
Utakata simply let out a sigh but nevertheless he simply looked ready to cooperate for the time being. And Hidan, he could just hold back cutting off these people for some time, Jashin-sama surely wouldn't mind waiting for a few hours or days to get his fill. The 'Tsunade capture squad' was now ready for action.
Though within the recesses of Utakata's mind, Saiken (through the still closed door that Utakata was still trying to figure out how it even existed) whispered a warning to Utakata: "Beware ninja wearing black cloaks adorned with red clouds like those seen at dawn. These men mean nothing good for Jinchuriki and the Biju they hold." The Rokubi warned cryptically like it had done to Utakata for the last 8 years almost.
Utakata had been saved so much pain and trouble by heeding the almost prophetic warnings, so he prepped himself for a mess once the mission was near complete.
A/N: And done. Well, to those expecting for the fights to start in this chapter, sorry for being unable to deliver right now, you have to wait for the following chapters, I apologize for having to keep you waiting. I hope you all had a good read. I will always be grateful and extremely appreciative of your continued support and love. Thanks a lot. See ya all in the next chapter; RaNK001 out.