The hunt
The moment Maki smelled something the trap was already sprung, from her left came flying a very big shuriken of some kind, she luckily was able to parry it with her kunai, but it propelled her into a nearby tree, the impact left her breathless. Takeshi was already fighting against two ninjas, his entire surroundings were littered with kunais and shurikens that were thrown his way.
"Let's kill those kids fast. The captain may need some help." ordered the ninja with bright green hair, picking up his Fūma Shuriken that just sent Maki flying.
He was a team leader, a chūnin for about 3 years, his team consisted of his other two genin partners.
"*Growl* Just wait till Kana-chan comes! We will -" Maki slowly stood up and got ready for a fight.
"You mean the last kunoichi in your formation? Hahaha, I'm sorry to inform you, she is most likely dying or is dead already, she alone got hit with my senpai's team. Now, it's your turn to join your little friend." He said, preparing for a fight.
"*Growl* Mother fucker, Takeshi! We need to end this fast!" She loudly called out to her friend.
"Sorry Maki, I'm busy at the moment! Try to break through your opponent, I have a plan, but we need to talk without them hearing it." Takeshi loudly replied while dodging tens of shurikens thrown at him from two opposite sides.
"Hami-chan, are you ready?" Maki asked, throwing a brown soldier pill to her partner ninken.
-----------------
Inoichi had a tough nut to crack. His opponent was a walking mountain, any of his fast jutsus were just brushed off, any of the powerful ones were blocked with this, as Takeshi would say, troublesome sword. He heard from his back the sound of explosions, he had to defeat his opponent fast to help his pupils, it would be heartbreaking if he lost his team on their first mission.
"I repeat, give me the scroll, and I will withdraw my forces. Or every Konoha ninja will die here. It doesn't matter to me, the scroll will be mine either way!" Hanzaki gave him two choices, each one bad.
"Heh, you know what? My team versus yours, I will take those chances.
"You don't understand Konoha-scum, there are three teams with me, two of them are attacking your pupils. Give me the scroll or die!" demanded the leader of the Fūma Clan.
'I'm sorry, kids, I will be there as soon as possible.' Inoichi charged at the man, restarting the fight.
-----------------------------
For Kaname, the rushed retreat to Konoha was an easy one so far, while fast, it wasn't anything beyond her abilities. At least to the moment, when from the corner of her eye, she discerned a small paper seal starting to turn brighter and brighter.
'Ah!' It was too close to do anything, Kaname used her hands to secure her head, she pulled her legs up to try and mitigate damage to her chest, then in a flash of light and scorching heat she was sent flying and tumbling on the ground.
"Guh..." she wailed in pain for a moment. 'Ugh, I'm still alive?... The enemy didn't find me, I suppose I was sent flying further then they thought.' was her first thought a minute after the explosion and regaining her consciousness. 'I don't feel my left hand, most likely dislocated or broken. It's hard to breathe, I suppose at least one of the ribs is broken as well.' she did a fast check on herself.
'I need to hide, scout the enemy, optionally prank the fuck out of him or her in revenge, and survive the fight. But first I need my left hand, please work this time' she used the Mystical Palm to return the feeling in her left sprained hand, but was unsuccessful in easing her breathing, 'Damn, I need more training with this, who I can ask in Konoha to help me with Mystical Palm?' she thought.
Kaname left her additional weights on the ground, gaining a boost in speed and jumped to the top of the trees to hide in the leaves. Soon she found out who was her enemy. Three men zoomed in on her previous position, ready to finish their job.
One of them had a body full of muscles and scars, but Kaname's first thought looking at his face was that he was an idiot bull-charging type. The other one was clothed in a full-black outfit, and on his back, Kaname saw a beautiful, curved sword, in the library, she read that such swords come from the Land of Iron. The last one in Kaname's opinion was hideous, his face looked like a rat.
"Shit! Where is she?!" screeched the rat-face.
"Calm down, she is only a genin, let's split up and look for her. Rode, you use your summons, Uru, if you find her, I don't know, make as much noise as possible or something." ordered the swordsman.
'So you like to use explosions, let's see how you like them used against you, fuckers. Good, I brought some from Konoha.' Kaname listened to them from above.
She went around planting almost twenty of the explosive seals. At this moment she saw a brown mouse's head looking at her from the nearby bush, it raised it's head and started screeching, the sound was way too loud for a standard-wild mouse.
'Okay, so these are the summons I need to be wary of.' Kaname used a small fireball to kill the creature. 'Hehehe, now let's wait for its summoner to show up,' she cut and left a small part of her sleeve next to the hidden explosive seal and hid upon the tree leaves and waited with a smirk on her face.
"Hihihi, Come out little girl, I promise I will kill you fast. I know you're somewhere near!" the rat-face said in a sweet sing-song voice, at this moment he saw a small part of her dark outfit three steps away from his position.
To Kaname's displeasure, he summoned another mouse instead of checking out her bait, 'Well... It was worth it.' she used a hand seal to trigger the explosion.
*Boom*
Her enemy was flung, he crashed into a tree with his right arm first. Kaname heard a loud snap of a broken bone and rat screeching many vulgarities her way. 'This explosion most likely alarmed the others. I need to move.' she jumped across the tree branches.
Two minutes later, towards her new hiding spot, Uru - the muscle guy, came close. 'Hmm, big, most likely sturdy but stupid like a brick. This one will be easy.' Kaname thought, she took her last five seals and placed them one after the other creating a narrow path leading to her. "Hey, big guy! Are you looking for someone?" she shouted out.
"Kill!" her enemy started charging at her from the front.
'If this is the level of enemy ninjas, then I know why Konoha's winning at the frontlines, what we lack in numbers we compensate in quality.' Kaname jeered, readying her seals for some shock treatment.
After the big guy gained his momentum, his run was stopped by an explosion that made him lose his footing and hitting a nearby tree and smashing through it. He didn't stop, he was still pushing to Kaname's location. After four other explosions in quick succession, his eyes were swimming and his ears ringing, he couldn't catch the fast-moving black-haired kid he was tasked to kill. The last thing he saw was a blade coming for his head.
'That could end badly for me if he came closer without notice. Hmm-?' Kaname turned herself towards a small whisper behind her. From behind a bush, a pointy rock stake came hurling towards her head. She tried to dodge it, but her left cheek got grazed and started to let out blood. She responded with a fireball centering it on the thicket from where the stake flew from. Two silhouettes dodged the fireball and showed themselves to Kaname, the rat-face with his hand in a sling, and his team leader.
"Rode, you are wounded, stay back, I will finish it... Good job, little girl, for a moment from the hunted, you became a hunter. I approve of a ninja showing so much strong will, but I'm sorry you need to die." he disappeared in a Shunshin only to appear right behind Kaname with a blade aiming at her heart.
Kaname replaced herself with substitution jutsu in her place spawned an explosive seal, but it was cut through before it could explode. She aimed for the wounded rat, she remembered an academy lesson that said - leaving an enemy behind your back was never too smart. Instead of killing another ninja, she was stopped by a wall created from rocks and earth.
The swordsman stopped Kaname, "No, no, no little girl. We're fighting one on one, I won't let you kill my underling. I see you have a blade, come, show me how good you're with it. Let's test it against a just looted samurai steel."
'Damn, I'm overshadowed by him in power, speed, ninjutsu, and experience, likely he is way better in swordsmanship as well. Think Kaname, think!' she was brainstorming.
Her enemy showed himself before her in a flash, a sword ready to impale her. Kaname tried to dodge sideways, the blade scuffed her armor missing key organs, but it cut deeply into her left arm.
'Fuck!' she jumped away, only to be again met with the more experienced shinobi ready for her swinging the sword at her head. This time she tried to block it with her blade without much success, her sword hand got easily overpowered by the two-handed strike that cut into her right cheek. Her block saved her from the decapitation but chipped the tip of her blade. She felt a powerful kick to her chest that sent her tumbling on the ground. For five seconds, Kaname had trouble breathing, she was lying on the ground holding the kicked spot with her right hand.
'Damn! It hurts! I think another rib is broken now...'
"Get up, I will have some fun with you for killing one of my underlings," he ordered.
'Fuck, it's the last hope, let's try it.' she slowly stood up and prepared the seals for another fireball.
"This again? You know it won't work!" the enemy derided her, stopping the fireball with an earthen wall, next time he saw Kaname she disappeared in a swirl of red butterflies.
"Where the heck is she?! Wait, this a genjutsu!
"You bitch! No more holding back! After I kill you, I will go for your friends!" he screamed at her, swinging the sword way faster than before.
Kaname tried to dodge it by jumping away, but it cut very deeply into her left leg, stopping the blade at her thigh bone.
"Arggh!" she screamed in pain, the momentum of her previous jump sent her away from the enemy. She landed on her right leg holding most of her mass on the single limb, her skin got paler and paler, she was losing a lot of blood. In just a moment, she was met with another swing, but this time it was slower than before, she easily pirouetted on her leg dodging it.
Kaname didn't understand why, but the next swing was just as slow aimed at her heart, she effortlessly parried it. Tired of waiting for her enemy's next move she slashed at his left hand, she saw anger, incomprehension and then fear on his face, he didn't expect her to counter-attack, for Kaname her swing was normal but her enemy couldn't respond to it, as a result of that he lost his left palm.
"Argh! You! You're an Uchiha?!" He screamed in pain and fear holding his left stump, looking in Kaname's red blood eyes with a single black tomoe.
'Oh, so that's what happened! Hahaha, Aniki will be proud.' Kaname thought happily.
'Okay, it sounds weird when you perceive the world in slow-mode… "YYYooouuu caaannn'ttt juuuummmppp...", he is preparing something!' Kaname had a brilliant plan.
"
"Eh?" he didn't understand what happened.
She aimed her tanto blade at her enemy's neck and slashed, decapitating the chūnin. Landing in a heap close to the headless body, she found his katana lying next to her. 'Thank you, my partner, you saved my life today. But from now on, I will use your bigger sister.' she said in her mind thanking her chipped tanto. Just a moment after she took HER new weapon into a small hand, she heard a loud screech.
"How dare you! First, you killed my little brother, then you killed my captain, and now you're taking his sword!" screamed the rat-face.
"Oh come on, it's not like I was the one that attacked you, why are you the victim now? Wait a moment this big burly monster was your little brother?" she replied, abashed at the idea.
"Die already you monster!" he said, spewing purple poison cloud that started heading her way.
'Okay, this is bad. A fast status check: chakra reserves, thanks to the last clone, is empty already; dodging, not possible with one leg; holding my breath and hoping for a miracle… okay, that plan sucks.' before purple cloud got to her, Kaname took a very deep breath.
At this moment, a quake went through the entire battlefield. Her body left the ground for a second to come crashing back down the next one. Next to Kaname landed three-stories height orange toad, easily dispersing the poisonous cloud around her, "Hahaha, a miracle for the wi-" Kaname laughed out, almost losing her consciousness.
"Kana-chan!" Anko jumped down from the toad and hugged her bloodied friend. "You lost too much blood, stay awake we will take you to hospital."
"Hi Anko-chan, what are you doing here?"
"Long-story-short, I came here with my sensei and his old teammate to watch their spar further north, see this white-haired pervert on top of frogs head talking with the scared shitless genin?"
"What about my team?" Kaname asked with fear in her voice.
"Maki-chan and Takeshi-kun were safe but tired, we left another toad and my teammates with them. About your captain, I'm not sure how to say it, I think you should look yourself," Anko pulled her friend on her back raising her head.
From far away, you could see a massive purple triple-headed snake spewing poison clouds and flames.
"Is that who my sensei is fighting?" Kaname asked worriedly.
"Nah, that's one of my sensei's snakes which he summons when he is mildly displeased. Your sensei was okay but was having a hard time fighting his opponent. Good job surviving, Kana-chan."
"Hello, young lady! I'm Mount Myoboku-Gama's Holy Master Sennin, also known as Toad Sennin, remember it!" Jiraya loudly proclaimed, standing in a funny pose. (AN: ch 91)
"Hi, I'm Kaname nice to meet you, but Jiraya-sama can you check on my teammates as well, all of us had a hard fight, and I want to be sure they're safe. *Cough*." Kaname spat out lots of blood, painting Anko's left side red.
"KANA-CHAN!" the saw-ponytailed girl shouted out.
'So battered up and still thinking about her team, an Uchiha with a heart.' Jiraya's evaluation of Kaname's jumped a couple of grades up.
"Don't worry, they were safe. Now, with the backup, nothing bad will happen to your little teammates. As I see it, Orochimaru-kun finished with your captain's enemy and will join with your teammates. Your condition is much more critical, Kaname-chan. I will take you to the hospital. Anko-chan, no matter what - don't let her fall asleep. Hop on!" Jiraya took Anko by under her arm and flickered with the two of them on top of his toad.