The world around me was a blur as I leapt through the foliage, my body covered in mud after my swim underground while trying to take out the group that was currently chasing me.
They were too far to catch sight of me, but unfortunately, the bastards were very quick in figuring out where I was going as Gari and his men were slowly but surely figuring out exactly where I am.
'Hopefully, the other two had finished the trap.' I thought with a frown as I cleared through the forest, grunting as I landed with a roll before taking off and leaping down a cliff.
The moment I did, I quickly ducked as a rock bullet sailed past my head while I skated down the mountainside, looking back and cursing at the sight of Gari and Kitsuchi along with the twenty or so Iwa shinobi racing right behind them.
'Konan! Now!' I thought in panic as I spun around and leapt away from the mountainside, watching as numerous flashes of light appeared around it before tucking myself in a ball right as dozens of explosions rippled through the air.
The shockwaves from them sent me flipping through the air, but I quickly spun around and landed with a few rolls across the ground before leaping to my feet, taking a deep breath as I gathered chakra in my stomach.
"Wind Style: Vacuum Blade Barrage!" Swinging my head from side to side while blowing out numerous razor sharp wind blades, I watched as they sliced through a few of the men and let their limbs fall to the ground while the rest managed to dodge.
As they landed around me, I ducked right as an orange figure shot over me and parried a blow from the shinobi behind me, to which I quickly spun around and shot a wind blade right as Yahiko moved out of the way.
The air blade sliced the man's arm off right as a barrage of paper shuriken curved through the air and stabbed deep into his neck, but I ignored that as I watched the rest of the shinobi charging towards us.
"Yahiko!" I called out as I readied myself, Yahiko nodding as he gripped his sword with both hands as it was just mere moments before the group was upon us.
Ducking under a kunai slash, I quickly punched the attacker's chest and slid backwards while spinning around, Yahiko flipping over my back as he kicked the man's kunai down before caving his skull in with a few slams from the pommel of his sword.
I left him to take on a few as I quickly moved my head around the punches of my new opponent, waiting perfectly before smirking as a blue-haired figure leapt through the air.
Drawing some of their attention, Konan smirked as she pointed down and unleashed a flurry of paper shuriken, to which I smirked as I grabbed Yahiko and pushed us out of the way with a wind blast.
That was the right call as Konan made a Tiger seal and exploded the paper tags mixed in with her regular paper, the ground rumbling as the men were obscured by repeated explosions before I frowned as I saw some of the explosions being a bit stronger than the rest.
My eyes widened as a blur shot out of the fireworks and rushed towards us, a glaring Gari holding his arms behind him as both were emitting an eerie orange glow.
"Water Style: Water Wall!" Quickly weaving through hand signs because I did not want to be the Shiguchi to his Killer Queen, I spat out a torrent of water that formed into a dense wall in front of us before all three of us leapt back.
It was a good thing we did as a disastrous explosion ripped through the water wall like a hot knife through butter, Gari confused at not seeing our bodies before frowning as I rushed towards him.
Yahiko wanted to follow up, but I quickly flipped over a hand grabbing me as Kitsuchi shot out of the ground, a bit concerned as I saw him rushing towards the other two before shaking my head right as I didn't have a choice.
Gari didn't waste any time as he weaved and swerved out of the way of my rapid punches, blocking a spinning kick before gripping my leg and lighting his hands up with a burning heat.
However, I quickly spat out a wind bullet at his arms and forced him to let go, but the following explosion sent me blasting backwards and rolling across the ground.
My vision spun with each roll, but I forced myself to my feet right as another explosion ripped into the ground when Gari landed, both of us glaring at each other as I placed a hand on my leg and healed the burns he made.
"A kid? Hehe…Most of my battalion…taken out by a single kid?!" The man sounded pissed as he spoke and I would be too if I found out that trained shinobi were struggling to take out a kid, but unfortunately for him, I was no normal kid.
"No, not just a kid. A kid with a doujutsu…and an Uzumaki as well? Huh, and here I thought you Uzumaki didn't venture too far from Uzushiogakure." His words surprised me heavily as I thought that the village was already destroyed, but then again, it was never stated when the village was destroyed, was it?
'Wait, could…could I go to there if I survive here? Damn, that's a good incentive to win this fight.'
"So, you know I'm going to have to kill you, right?" Gari asked with a malicious grin as an eerie orange glow appeared on his hands and I frowned as I went into a stance with my legs spread shoulder-width and my hands up and ready to parry.
The next moment, a blast of wind to my left was the only reason I was still alive as Gari's sparking hand pierced through the space where my head was, a concentrated explosion shooting out of his hand and nearly bursting my ear drums.
However, unlike me who needed a moment to stop the ringing, the shinobi had already spun around with a spinning roundhouse and I quickly moved out of the way as the kick missed me and cratered the ground besides me.
"Wind Style: Breakthrough!" Blowing out a strong gust, I could see him quickly raising his arms in front of him to push against the attack, but his eyes widened as I aimed the gust at the ground to unleash a vicious dust storm.
"Wind Style: Vacuum Bullets!" Taking a deep breath, I spat out a barrage of pressurized wind bullets that sliced through the air and into the dust cloud, frowning as I watched him contort his body around the attacks.
However, I grinned as I saw blood splashing on the ground, quickly leaping back while blowing out another gust to send more dust flying up as he let out a powerful explosion from his hands that sent him flying backwards while also dispersing the dust clouds
"Fire Style: Toad Flame Bombs!" Rapidly spitting out flaming oil bombs up into the air, I frowned as Gari rushed towards me in a zigzag to dodge them all, the man pulling a fist back as he drew closer before I cursed myself as I quickly made a few hand signs and hoped this worked.
"Lightning Style: Thunderbolt!" Slapping a hand on the ground right as he swung at me, a burst of electricity shot out in all directions from my hand and I grinned as I felt just a heavy punch being delivered to my shoulder.
Gari himself looked surprised at the fact that there was no explosion before he wheezed as I slammed an uppercut to his chest, but I cursed as the man leaned to the side while also jumping back as I spat out a high-pressure blast of water at his head.
"Four element-No, five since you were swimming through the ground when you first attacked. All five elements and you're this young. You're wasting your time and your talents here, kid. Why not join Iwa? We could show and teach you so much more if you let us."
'He's getting cautious now. That's not good. I need him to keep underestimating me.' If he starts taking me serious, I'm very certain I'm not making it through the fight, which means I need him to keep seeing me as a kid as much as I can.
"Don't worry. I'm still struggling with more advanced stuff." I answered as I took a quick glance to where Yahiko and Konan were fighting against Kitsuchi, frowning as I saw them struggling a bit even though it was two on one.
Yep, we most definitely bit off more than we can chew.
"Nope, I know a future monster when I see one. I have not seen a headband on any of you which means that you three do not belong to a village. To be honest, Kitsuchi over there is going to lose despite how close the fight looks and I do not wish to return to the village with news of the Tsuchikage's dead son."
"We both know you'd be able to beat me." I spoke and he chuckled as he nodded while placing his hands on his hips.
"I can, but you are also too versatile so you'd keep me at bay while your friends kill him. Tell you what, we'll retreat for now so you three can think about my offer."
"Hmm, that sounds agreeable, but how do I know you won't head back to the village and come back with more fighters?"
"You don't. So, it's either you all let us go or I start taking you all serious." He said with a frown and I took a deep breath before letting out softly and nodding.
"Fine, we'll let you go. Konan, Yahiko!" I called out, drawing their attention as both of them leapt away while Gari held up a hand to stop Kitsuchi from pursuing.
"What's going on?"
"We're leaving."
"What?!" Yahiko exclaimed as he processed Gari's words, the man simply giving Kitsuchi a stern glance as he nodded with a curse while the orange-haired boy glared at me as I watched the two Iwa shinobi running up the mountain.
"What the hell?! Why are we letting them go?"
"Because Gari wasn't taking us seriously. If he was, I would be dead and the two of you would be joining me even if you did kill Kitsuchi. I hate to say it, but despite how much we trained with Sensei, we're most definitely not strong enough to take him out."
"Urgh, damnit!" Yahiko grunted as he stomped the ground, Konan looking just as disgruntled as I looked up at the cliff where they vanished over the edge.
The next moment, both Yahiko and Konan looked surprised as I grabbed their wrists and took off, looking at me as I let go of them and sped up.
"We need to go now!" I whispered/ shouted as I rushed away as fast as I could, the two of them just looking confused even as they followed my order and rushed away along with me.
It was not seconds later that a colossal explosion roared to life, both Yahiko and Konan yelping while I cursed as I spun around and weaved through hand signs.
"Earth Style: Earth Wall!" A bit disgruntled at the taste of mud in my mouth before I spat it out, a large rock wall grew out from the ground and I pulled us behind it right as a powerful shockwave ripped through the land.
"What the hell was that?!" I was barely able to hear Yahiko's shout and turned to see him giving me a shocked look, smirking as I shrugged.
"About half of the couple thousand of explosive tags we had. I had them all on me so I gave them to a clone while I was running away and it was his job to make sure that the top of the cliff was a death zone! Now come, we don't have much time!"I shouted back as I took a few deep breaths before charging off once more.
I knew the other two wanted to ask more questions, but I would rather want to get out of here seeing as that might not have been enough to stop Gari and Kitsuchi.
Oh, who am I kidding? That was most definitely not enough and I didn't want to face off against the man now that he's pissed off at my clone doing a kamikaze attack.
"Hah…hah…are we…clear?" Yahiko gasped out as he lied on the floor of the cave I created in one of the mountains, to which I frowned as I looked in the direction we were running.
Seeing no chakra drawing closer, I shook my head and Yahiko let out a relieved groan as Konan sat next to him while looking just as tired.
I on the other hand was only feeling a bit sluggish, but thanks to those Uzumaki genes, even that was vanishing rather quick along with my chakra restoring itself.
"Yeah, we're in the clear."
"So, was that…was that the plan?" Konan asked after taking a swig from the three canteens of water I unsealed and I gave a nod as I sat against the wall and took a sip from mine.
"Kind of. That plan was just to be activated when I needed us to get a way out. However, I did not expect for us to even be able to make it out with minimal injuries…apart from me being burned."
"And me getting a rock to the chest." Yahiko spoke up and I simply rolled my eyes as I placed a glowing green hand onto his chest, to which he groaned in relief as I restored his wound while looking in the direction we came from.
"We need to head out soon. If we stay here, we risk the chance of Gari founding us and this time, he might not hold back."
"A few more minutes?" Yahiko pleaded and I smiled before he groaned as I picked him up from the ground and onto his feet, Konan giggling as I helped her up as well before opening up a pathway towards the top of the cliff.
"We'll head back home and then, we'll figure out our next move."
"Okay, so we can scratch off the camps on the north and north-east of the map." I muttered as I marked off those camps, Yahiko and Konan nodding in agreement as I bit the end of the brush in my grasp.
'Konoha is still busy with Iwa and Kusa to the east and Suna to the West. Ame's forces are trying their best to make sure that Konoha and Suna keep their combat as far away from Amegakure as possible to the south.' That meant that the only spot that Gari would most likely be sent to keep Suna from attacking too deep into Ame is in the West.
That was good as our shelter was more near the north than the north-west and with how many we eliminated from the northern camps, they would think twice before trying to attack those villages again.
"So, the next points are perhaps the north-western point or the western point to make sure they won't invade them. Which would you all prefer?" I asked before blinking as Yahiko took the brush and circled the most eastern part of the Land of Rains.
"That's where we'll hit. With Iwa and Kusa taking on Konoha and most likely destroying everything in their path to win, the people there would need something to look to especially since Amegakure is too busy in the south."
"That…is true. Hmm, nice catch. Okay, so the eastern point is where we'll hit, taking care of any camps along the way as well as liberating any that was taken over. You hear that, bud? You finally get to show off your training." I spoke with a smirk and chuckled as I got a happy bark in response.
"Really? I thought you said that he's not ready yet." Konan spoke with a slight frown and I smiled as I shook my head, reaching down to scratch Sessho's jaw while answering.
"The reason we didn't bring him on the camps is because we needed stealth and he sticks out like a sore thumb. No offence, buddy."
"So, we're going to let him fight now?" Yahiko asked and I nodded in response.
"Yep. Besides, we're going to need a symbol and why not this big goofball here? Look at you, buddy~ Oh, you're going to be such a cool symbol."
"Uh, I was thinking more of a black and red coat to be honest." Yahiko said with a sheepish smile and both Sessho and I looked at him before I snorted as Sessho huffed.
"Don't listen to him, buddy. We'll find a way to add you in some way to our symbol." I said with a smile and he barked before we smirked as Yahiko grumbled while Konan giggled.
'Hah, looks like the work of a liberator never ends.'
A/N: And a short end to the chapter~!
Also, Nagato was never going to take on Gari as the guy was strong enough that Orochimaru took notice of him, which in itself is a huge compliment in my eyes.
So, it was not a full loss, but Nagato feels like it was a loss and not a draw as Gari let them go instead of the two of them fighting to a draw.
Also, before anyone gets mad about the whole explosion thing, remember the clone from last chapter that grabbed him and helped him speed up through the ground? I never said that Nagato saw his memories nor that he popped.
Ah, you gotta love it when you forget something and then remember it while you're writing, huh?
Like always, you can go to my Pat-reon-.-com-/-KingCrimsonNova to read ahead on this as well as many other stories & even some that haven't been released out to this site yet. If you want to, you are free to, but if you don't want, all's good as I will still be uploading here. This is just me trying to get some extra cash.
Anyway, as always, read, enjoy, review and until the next one...
Ba-Bye~!