Chapter 35

The Wasabi Family house was huge and there was plenty of space for Team 10 as guests, especially since they were treated as guests of the boss himself. Naruto, Shikamaru, and Ino were given a room to stay in with plenty of room for their bedrolls. Despite the rather unpleasant first impression that they had received upon entering Degarashi Port and from being led to the house in the first place by Idate, the trio of new chunin were up bright and early to get started on their assignment.

The only thing was, they needed to know where to start in the first place.

"So you were attacked a week before we got here?" Shikamaru said, trying to recap what he had been told of the trouble going on in the area, "Any idea who it was? Did someone hire an assassin to take you out?"

Jirouchou shook his head with a grave look on his face as he took a sip of his tea at the table for the morning meal, "At first I believed it was Kyuuroku and the Wagarashi Family…" He admitted before letting out a sigh, "But he had an attempt on his life as well with a similar attack style used against him. We believe it was the work of a ninja, so after some discussion we both agreed to hire a Konoha team to try and deal with the issue."

From getting up so early, Ino let out a yawn as she looked around the room, "Asuma-sensei is late getting here. Do you think one of us should pop over to the other place to go and get him?"

"About that…" Jirouchou said, referring to Asuma and Ino's comment on him being late, "A messenger from the Wagarashi has been sent to inform me that your sensei has been requested to stay with Kyuuroku as his bodyguard for the duration of your mission and the trouble plaguing Degarashi Port… in case of another attempt on him from the assassin from before. Your sensei assured us that you were all able to handle the active portion of the mission."

Well that certainly wasn't satisfactory… even with the shining, ringing endorsement from Asuma.

"You know, we can give you some protection too while we look for whatever's messing with things in your town. Do you want us to do that?" Shikamaru asked, mostly out of courtesy and so they could make sure one of their clients didn't die.

It wasn't exactly their preferred method of operation to split up so they probably weren't going to do that to keep one team member with Jirouchou at all times. Naruto could keep a mess of clones with him though. If those weren't enough to deter an attack on their own they could at least be the team's early-warning radar and buy some time for them to make it to the scene of the attack while they were searching around town.

From the comfortable smile on Jirouchou's face he seemed to like the idea of some protection being left for him as well. He had his men to keep him safe, but he wasn't daft enough to turn down any extra security. A nod gave the team their answer on the matter, "But I would like to extend as much assistance as I'm able to provide to help you out with your mission. I'll send a guide to see to it that you find your way around easily."

Ino frowned deeply as she had a bad, nagging feeling at what they were about to hear, "If this is who I think it is, I don't think I'm going to like this guide so much…"

XxX

(With Asuma)

While Asuma was the jounin that was really in charge of the mission, it was still Naruto, Shikamaru, and Ino's show. This was why Asuma didn't really mind that much that one of the clients, the one whose home he happened to be in, was a sniveling rat of a man that requested (demanded) that he provide protection from assassination for him.

Not only was this a chance for the kids to show their stuff, in case of an assassin… well if Asuma was hypothetically slated to kill either Jirouchou or Kyuuroku he'd definitely kill the asshole first. If the assassin thought like him then Asuma would be the one to run into whoever it was anyway since Kyuuroku was far ahead in the asshole department.

Apparently the two of them were rivals for the control of Degarashi Port's affairs. Like the mayor, or pretty much the person that oversaw all interest involving the town which was a rather prosperous site of commerce and travel. Kyuuroku could see dollar signs in that kind of position, thus he endeavored to somehow wrest the position away from Jirouchou by gaining more influence in town than him, and after sticking around the man he seemed to want to take control by bullying the small business owners and undermining the Wasabi Family's way of handling day-to-day affairs in the town.

Yeah, in the case of an assassin that was slated to take out both of them he'd definitely be shooting for putting down Kyuuroku first… just out of general principle if nothing else.

Asuma was served towards trying to get as much dirt on the current state of affairs as he could for the sake of his team, thus he began questioning Kyuuroku while they were walking through town as he and a contingent of the man's underlings went about their daily rounds, "So did you see your attacker when it occurred?" Asuma asked, inquiring about the assassination attempt on Kyuuroku, "Did you see a certain insignia on the metal plates on their headbands like the ones we wear or anything?

"Attackers." Kyuuroku corrected as he saw kids clearing the street as he and his men walked. It was good to be a man in charge in his opinion, "There were more than one but they were wearing those stupid full-head facemasks so no one saw anything that really stood out about them. It was dark as well so if they had those metal plates none of us were paying attention to them."

So there wasn't enough info to identify a particular village, "How many attacked you?"

"Not sure." Kyuuroku said as they passed a fruit stand and he absent-mindedly snatched a piece of fruit without paying, "Like I said, it was dark and they stuck to the rooftops and shot bows at us… damn ninja. No offense." The vendor did nothing due to the copious amounts of armed men with him, but when he looked down at his stand again he found the proper amount of money laying there to pay.

"None taken." Asuma said dryly as he put his wallet back in his pocket unseen by anyone else after paying for the fruit that Kyuuroku swiped on a whim, "But bows… those are weird weapons for a ninja to use. That's more of a samurai thing… archers." Konoha sure didn't have anyone that used a bow.

"One of them guys didn't have a mask Boss Kyuuroku." One of the Wagarashi thugs said, trying to be helpful as the surrounding men had no choice but to eavesdrop on the conversation at hand, "Remember? The last one to leave."

"Oh yeah." Kyuuroku said as if his memory had been jogged by his henchman, "After the attack when we had finally gotten cover to hide from the arrows we looked out and saw one lady standing out in plain sight on one of the roofs, just looking at us.

"She was good looking too boss."

"Damn right she was." Kyuuroku said, scratching his chin, "If the bitch weren't trying to kill me and if we'd met somewhere else then I'd have probably been trying to make a pass or two at her if you know what I'm saying."

So they saw someone? Now they were getting somewhere with this whole thing. Maybe whoever it was and their affiliation could be identified in the Bingo Book if they had enough info on her, "So did you get a good enough look at that person to tell me what she looked like?" It was worth a shot to ask in case one of them had been able to.

XxX

(Degarashi Port – Shipping Area – Onboard a Transport Ship)

The town of Degarashi Port had a rather bustling trade as it sat at the tip of a peninsula that pointed southeast from the mainland. Thus they were able to get loads of business from maritime travelers of all sorts and were able to import various sundry goods and export their copious amounts of different teas to interested merchants, giving them a lucrative export.

This meant that the docks were always very busy, and with all of the ships in the area, checks were very lax with the lack of trouble the nation of Cha no Kuni saw. With no shinobi villages and a daimyo that did not engage in conflicts they saw no danger.

Which was why in the hold of one ship emblazoned with the Gato Company tag on the side a rather decent-sized force of shinobi sat around waiting for their next dispatch. At a table, men were betting their pay in games of poker, all of them wearing long grey tunics, grey belts, black pants, and black facemasks with the symbol of a musical note on the metal plate sitting on the masks' foreheads.

"The commander is coming!" A bald man said with authority in his voice as he walked into the room. He had a scar on his right eye, a grey sleeveless tunic, very long arms, and black pants. With him was a man wearing a long brown tunic with a high round collar and another man that was hunchbacked with matted brown hair and buckteeth wearing a dark blue cloak, "Present yourselves accordingly!"

The Otogakure shinobi did just that as they stood up at attention without a second thought.

Footsteps sounded out as another person walked into the room to oversee the ninja in attendance. A young woman with dark eyes, light blue hair kept in a high spiky ponytail with two long strands of hair framing her face, red lipstick, a green dress with one long sleeve and one short, underneath that she had a one piece red suit with short sleeves and a high neck that stopped at her thighs. On her feet were a pair of high, brown, boot-like sandals and on her hands were a pair of brown gloves.

The scowl on her face turned to a smirk as she looked around at the three men that had entered prior to her arrival, "You Fuuma Clan guys certainly do work well. Everything's going just fine at the moment."

"Why didn't we kill the two during the outright attack?" One of the Fuuma Clan men said, the one with the brown tunic and dark hair, "Wagarashi was especially a sitting duck."

The woman walked over to him and gave him several hard pats on the cheek, "Because if we killed Wagarashi or Wasabi their land wouldn't be up for open grabs. All of their assets would be requisitioned by Cha no Kuni's daimyo. That's not what Gato wanted. He wants the prices of this land driven down so that he can pick it up for the cheap. Of course we could have killed them whenever. That's not the point of the mission and it wouldn't help anything." The look on her face was pleasant, as was her tone, but there was an edge to her tone that was clear to all listening, "Any other questions on my directions Kamikiri?"

The man Kamikiri shook his head rapidly, "No Guren. That's all. I was just asking." He said a little fearfully, letting go of a breath once Guren ghosted past him, 'Damn… I can see why she was slated to lead this thing. Orochimaru-sama has some scary ninja on his side.'

The bald man with the scar spoke next, "Those two called for assistance from Konoha and got a team of chunin and a jounin to find us and get rid of us."

"I expected that much from them Jigumo. Hi no Kuni is the closest nation with ninja in it after all." Guren said to the bald man before continuing, "We've gotten confirmation from Gato that we've driven down the prices in the region enough we can leave this hellhole and go back to Oto no Kuni to prepare for the next big mission. For good measure we should make some noise one last time to get Gato the best deal. His arrangement with Orochimaru-sama is too important to half-ass missions for him."

"What about the Konoha ninja?" One of the multiple masked Oto shinobi said, balking slightly behind his mask when Guren turned to him to see who had spoken.

"It's Sarutobi Asuma." Jigumo said, informing the female commander of the one heading up the Konoha side of things, "What do we do about him? The second we try anything he'll know it and he'll attempt to take us down."

"Then I'll take his life." Guren responded matter-of-factly before continuing her breakdown of what was to happen, "You Fuuma can take the men for one last big press on the town. I'll make my own ruckus this time and split their attention. Expect to fight and be ready."

Jigumo nodded and looked around the room as if preparing the setup of their forces in his head, "I think that one of us should go with you. Take Hanzaki with you just in case. If you'll allow it, then Kamikiri, Kagerou, and myself will be the ones to head out with most of the men."

Guren frowned deeply, not particularly liking the thought of having a tagalong, but figured that she better take one of them with her. Anything could happen after all, "I don't like it, but you have a point. I'll find that idiot later and tell him he's with me tonight. You all work out your own plan and remember; we pull out no later than daybreak. If you aren't with us then you're either dead or you can find your own way back home."

XxX

(Meanwhile – Degarashi Port – Town Streets)

Of course as luck would have it, Team 10 were saddled with Idate as their guide around the town as they searched around for a sign of the attackers or if anyone had any information on the matter since the problems seemed to be centered around Degarashi Port.

And as they did this, eventually while Ino and Shikamaru were speaking with a group of dockworkers with the day off sitting outside of a bar, Naruto stood staring at a sign that had caught his attention across the street with a scowl on his face.

"Hey, what are you looking so hard at?"

Naruto turned around to see Idate looking at him and then at the sign on the fence he had been staring at. All Naruto did was point at the sign.

Idate squinted and read the sign out loud, "Coming soon: a future site of Gato Company." He then shrugged as if it didn't matter and ignored the rather brutish looking men lounging around the building site. They didn't seem to be workers so who were they? Weird, "So what? Gato is a rich guy. I'm surprised he didn't try setting up shop around here any sooner."

"That's because he was too busy leeching the life out of Nami no Kuni until a few months ago…" Naruto said, kicking the chain link fence surrounding the facility wishing he could take a swing at that bite-sized sack of crap, "But after all that happened he just wound up walking away." Well… running away. But the point was that he managed to escape without a single repercussion for his actions.

Clearly there was a lot that Idate didn't know about Gato, but it wasn't the issue at hand at the moment. He'd have to look into it later, "Your teammates are asking around about anything strange, trying to find out who attacked Boss Jirouchou. I'm guessing you want to see the place where we were jumped?" Naruto nodded and they proceeded towards the area where it had occurred.

So Idate was actually going to help them? From the way he was speaking it could be perceived that he just cared a lot about the boss of the Wasabi Family for some reason. Still his beef with ninja was annoying. As long as he kept that toned down he was tolerable, and he was a worker of their client so it would have been in his best interest to find some common ground. It wouldn't do to have him in the mindset to knock Idate's lights out like he and Shikamaru had the inclination to do the previous night.

"What's your problem with ninja? …Other than the fact that they attacked you guys I mean." Naruto decided to ask out of the blue as they walked to the place where Jirouchou and other members of the Wasabi Family had been attacked, "Or are you just a dick to everyone you meet out of the blue?"

Idate scoffed at the question as he led Naruto to the locale, "You wouldn't understand so don't worry about it."

"Try me."

"Alright." Idate said before launching into his explanation, "Did you get promoted from the chunin exams or was it a field kind of thing?"

"Exams." Naruto admitted before thinking to himself, 'Wait, we didn't have to go through all of that crap to get promoted? We could have just worked missions until someone pushed us up the ladder? Son of a bitch.' It would have probably taken years of stellar mission track records though.

"What was your first test in the exams then?" Idate asked, paying attention due to his interest in the information.

The memory of the first test forced Naruto to subconsciously work his jaw to get the phantom pain out of it, "I got tied to a chair and got the crap kicked out of me until I could either break free or Ino and Shikamaru got a password to get me out. That Ibiki guy with the scars is a sadistic bastard." Especially since he seemed to get a kick out of the blood leaking out the young blonde's face after they advanced to the next portion of the exams.

"He went with a physical torture for his exam this time?" Idate said to himself mostly, "I guess it was because I heard that all of the villages were collaborating on the last exam. He can do straight physical torture, but it's not really my brother's style."

"You don't say." Naruto said before almost tripping over his feet in the street after registering what Idate had said, "Wait, brother? You're telling me that the freaky interrogation guy Ibiki is your brother?"

"Yeah." Idate said before pointing at himself, "My name's Morino Idate."

"B-But why are you not a ninja? If you're asking about the exams then you must have taken them before right?" Naruto asked. Idate had asked him about the exam as if he was about to compare Naruto's experience to his own. That meant he had taken it before, so what was he doing in a whole different country?

Idate glared at the ground and clenched his hands into fists, "Ibiki failed me in the first test and because I failed it I could never take the chunin exams again… that was what he said. He even said I wasn't cut out to even be a ninja. And then I was tricked into stealing something for my instructor that swore he had a way to get me a promotion. It was a trick that made me into a criminal, so I ran… and I kept running. And now I'm here."

Well that sucked. What exactly did he steal? And how was this guy related to creepy Ibiki? He must have been adopted because the two didn't even look alike, let alone act alike.

"It's not important though." Idate said as they turned a corner and ended up on the street they had been after the entire time, "I was 11… it was three years ago. It's in the past. And this is the place. So go ahead and take a look. I don't think you'll find anything here though… no one else did. They didn't leave any tracks other than a few shuriken and kunai they used to fight."

And not only that, but it had been a week at that point. Any remnants from the attack were probably long gone. Still, it was worth a try though, "Well… we might as well give it a try anyway." He was not going to find a damn thing, he was not one to look for clues or search scenes, but it was his job.

XxX

(Ta no Kuni/Hi no Kuni Border Area – Sundown)

The patrol route that Team 7 had been running for the last day or so had been dipping in and out of the Ta/Oto no Kuni line. One more day and they'd reach the original road where their patrol had begun, the marker to let them know that they had gone up and back and could return home to the village.

Still, there was always a chance to sightsee, even in the middle of nowhere. As the Valley of the End was notoriously the natural border of the two countries and the river sitting down the waterfall and the span of the valley was the border all the way across.

Following the river and the cliffside that the river travelled along as they moved through the trees, Team 7 returned to their original patrol point, "Well that was a fun little field trip wasn't it gang?" Kakashi said with an eye-smile.

Sakura nodded with a smile. It was a little bit out of the way, but the bookworm in her thought that visiting the site of the two founders of Konoha's epic battle was too cool to pass up. It was amazing that two shinobi could carve out that valley with their own abilities. A scary thought was wondering if there were anyone alive like that at that time that could do something similar, "Why'd they build those statues of Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama that far out from the village sensei? Wouldn't more people remember it if there were something commemorating the battle in the village?"

"It wasn't exactly an event that people back then liked to think about." Kakashi said, "Madara was just as important and was every bit as powerful as Hashirama, and their falling out was a major event. I don't know what led to this, but Madara left his clan to battle for control of Konoha with Hashirama and lost in the end."

'Uchiha Madara…' Sasuke thought to himself. An Uchiha was powerful enough to carve his mark into the earth forever. As powerful as Itachi was, he doubted that even his older brother could hold a candle to that man. That was the kind of power he needed. But even with all of the skill and strength he possessed he was still defeated in the end by the Shodai Hokage, 'And that means that no one is unbeatable… no matter how far ahead they seem to be. Itachi, I'll get you one day. I know I will.'

But for now, despite the field trip that had something to do with his own clan history, Sasuke was still bored. At least they'd be heading home the next morning. He would note that from then on whenever possible, Kakashi was not allowed to select the missions.

Chouji noticed Sasuke's smoldering bad mood and nudged his teammate to get his attention, "Hey Sasuke, what's the matter? The mission's going great so far. Nothing's happened."

"Exactly." Sasuke said, rolling his eyes at the attitude of the good-natured Akimichi boy, "Nothing's happened. Doesn't being a chunin mean that there are supposed to be more chances to prove myself?" He needed to find out if his training was bearing fruit or not, and running around the backwoods flinching at crickets chirping was no way to learn if he was getting any better. Even with enemies like Fuu, he knew Itachi was miles ahead of her.

Which meant that he still wasn't even close.

Kakashi could hear the annoyance in Sasuke's voice at the action-less mission that they were currently on, "Sasuke, not every mission can be action-packed. Trust me, eventually you'll come to love missions like this. Later you'll get more than your share of the kind that you think you want right now." Sasuke simply let out a 'hn', seemingly regressing as he apparently wanted the combat.

Oh well. It wasn't going to be an overnight change to being a cool, well-adjusted adult like himself, and he was never going to see Sasuke emote. That was fine, and Sasuke was beginning to trust more in his comrades either way. Being on a team was good for him in that regard. Kakashi hadn't been through anything nearly as bad as Sasuke had when he was Sasuke's age, even though his father committed suicide. Sasuke watched his entire clan die and came to accept his team… all without anyone having to die first.

He idly wondered how Sasuke would take reading certain literary works. It might help the kid mellow out like himself… and learn to accept and embrace the copious amounts of fangirls that it was clear still wanted him.

While he was thinking though, his attention was diverted by the sound of something ripping through the leaves of the trees around them, and it wasn't a bird or another woodland creature, "Cover!"

Hearing the easygoing voice of Kakashi change into one of urgency at the drop of a hat, all of Team 7 stopped advancing through the trees and took cover behind the nearest trunk that each of them could reach while staying in the branches.

Their decision to do so was a good one as a barrage of weaponry deposited themselves into the trunks of the trees that they covered behind. Mostly the very oversized and dangerous fuuma shuriken that were thrown in abundance.

'An attack?' Kakashi thought to himself, narrowing his visible eye before looking over to where his students were taking cover, all of them having to split up due to the lack of room on the branches for all of them to share hiding spots, 'That new village…' They were traipsing about on the border of the new country's boundaries, "Get ready to attack." He ordered his genin.

Sasuke simply turned his Sharingan on and drew a kunai to use in case of close-quarters fighting, "I've been ready for a week." With that, he was the first to move out from behind cover, using his eyes to keep track of any possible attackers that would try to take advantage of him leaving the safety of behind the tree trunk.

In response, a group of fifteen armed shinobi with Oto headbands dove out of the woodwork to attack the Konoha team.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu)!"

Kakashi wasted no time in catching six of the ten hapless foes sent directly after him specifically in a fireball from his mouth, showing that he wasn't world-renown for no reason.

While an ironic thought went through Sasuke's head at the sight of it, thinking that Kakashi needed to stop stealing his moves, Sasuke moved to begin fighting as well. He reached into his supply pouch and quickly threw a handful of shuriken at the ten remaining Oto shinobi to split them up so that they could be dealt with in bits and parts.

The three of them; Sasuke, Sakura, and Chouji against five Otogakure ninja while Kakashi mopped up the rest. Sounded fair.

Sakura seemed to throw a single kunai at the lot that had gone after her, missing before diving out from behind her cover of the tree trunk and trying to get some distance from them as in a close-range fight she would have been toast.

Still, it didn't take much for them to bear down on her, all drawing kunai to stab the poor genin girl, "We don't have to keep them all alive right? Just the one?" One of the Oto ninja said, not waiting for an answer as they all dropped down on and stabbed into Sakura.

However, Sakura's body burst into petals the moment that they made contact with her. The five of them looked around for her only to hear a thunk sound, looking to see a kunai with an explosive tag burning down stabbed into the branch they were standing on.

"Sakura Fubuki no Jutsu (Cherry Blossom Blizzard Jutsu)!"

Mixed in with the blossoms were tiny explosive tags that floated around, something that many of the ninja saw and immediately dove away from, clearing out off of the branch before the single explosive tag blew up, causing a chain reaction of smaller explosions that rippled and combined, tearing down the tree that it had been centered on.

Three of the Oto ninja jumped in one particular direction and smirked when they saw Chouji jumping directly at them. Until his body expanded into ball-like form as he tucked his arms, legs, and head into his torso and began to rapidly roll mid-jump, "Nikudan Sensha (Human Bullet Tank)!" Chouji then proceeded to plow into them and knock them out of the air like flies with one hit.

Sasuke dove at one of the ninja that had vacated the branch after Sakura's attack and kicked him right in the face, knocking him upside down before Sasuke wrapped his legs around his upsided down body and dropped with him to the ground, driving him into the ground on the forest floor headfirst, "Hayabusa Otoshi (Peregrine Falcon Drop)!"

If his neck wasn't broken then he simply didn't have a bone structure, and with that in mind Sasuke left his recently killed enemy on the ground to ascend the trees once again and continue the battle, at least until he heard something from behind him.

Turning he saw someone grey hair, pale skin, turquoise lipstick, a brown tunic, long black wristbands, and a thick purple rope tied around his waist coming right at him, more specifically he paid particular attention to the fact that it looked like he was about to be hit with two arms being sprouted from the same elbow… or maybe he was seeing things. No, because the Sharingan saw everything correctly.

And that was why he saw the punch that hit him right in the face and made him see stars as clear as day.

Maybe Kakashi was right after all?

XxX

(With Sakura and Chouji)

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura shouted as she saw the strange young man punch Sasuke in the face, "Chouji where is Kakashi-sensei?" She asked after not seeing the masked man anywhere in sight. Had they really gone that far away from him when they broke off to fight their own respective battles?

Chouji shook his head as he saw Sasuke's body rolling along the ground after taking the first punch from the strange new arrival, "I don't know, but we've got to do something Sakura. Come on!" Sakura nodded and was about to drop down to the forest floor to try and assist Sasuke, but Chouji grabbed her arm and held her up, keeping her from changing levels right before a spider web stuck itself between the trees where she would have fallen towards.

As she was hoisted back onto the branch along with Chouji they both looked towards another one to see a young man with tan skin, black hair in a spiky upright ponytail, an Otogakure headband around his forehead, a grey sleeveless tunic with a purple rope belt around his waist, and six arms, "Sorry, but we've got him off playing with our other characters. He'll get here eventually I'll bet, but by then we'll be done with what we need to do."

"We don't have to keep these cocksuckers alive Kidomaru." Both Sakura and Chouji looked down to see a girl with long red hair, a hat with bandages around the sides on her head, a tan tunic with a purple rope belt, and black wristbands, "Sakon's the only one that has to, so we can just kill these two before Hatake shows back up."

Kidomaru let out a laugh as he crossed his six arms over his torso, still smirking at the two genin, "Tayuya, come on and calm down already. If these two last five minutes I'll eat your hat."

"You won't touch my fucking hat!" The red haired girl Tayuya snapped at her six-armed teammate, "What, are you turning into that fatass Jiroubou now or what?" She turned towards Chouji and gestured her head at him with a smirk, "Those two fat fucks would probably get along pretty well don't you think?"

Chouji grit his teeth at hearing the jibe at him, but set it aside at the moment and narrowed his eyes at their new enemies. There was something more important than his own self-esteem at the moment, "What did you do to Kakashi-sensei?"

XxX

(With Kakashi)

"Hmm, this is a strange situation." Kakashi said to himself as he stood looking around in a pitch black dome of rock. One minute he had been fighting off hordes and hordes of Otogakure shinobi, the next he wound up trapped within the current structure that housed him, "I had figured that it was all too easy." The people he had mostly been slaying were more like bodies meant to fill spots than anything else.

"Well now you're stuck in there, and your chakra's going to be mine Copy Ninja Kakashi." Said a burly voice from outside of the dome that Kakashi figured was the one that attacked him, "I can't believe trash like you is considered elite. I thought you were supposed to be the pinnacle of shinobi excellence."

It didn't matter if someone took jabs at Kakashi's skill to him. He was never really one for tooting his own horn on his talent and just did what he had to for his village and to survive, if he wound up getting famous off of how well he did his job that was just a byproduct. But there was something more significant than trying to defend his reputation at the moment, "What is this all about? Are you after my team as well?"

He heard the burly man let out a laugh in response, "Well you're trespassing on Oto no Kuni's border. We're well within our rights as a village to expunge possible invaders." That old excuse for initiating a battle eh? Otogakure was probably more bloodthirsty than was first figured, "The weak pink-haired girl and the fat kid are as good as dead by now if my team has anything to say about it. We're the best." What humility.

So his genin and Sasuke were fighting others as well? And if this man was that confident then they might have been as strong or stronger, "I see…" Kakashi said before forming three hand-seals and clutching his right wrist as blue lightning began to circulate around his body, but most specifically around his right hand, "Well in that case I'm afraid I can't let you keep me here any longer. If my students are in danger I'll have to be in a bit of a rush. Sorry."

"What could you possibly do from-?"

"Raikiri (Lightning Cutter)!"

From the back of the dome, Kakashi punched a massive hole right through it with his jutsu that he proceeded to burst the rest of the way through sliding to a kneeling stop on the forest floor as he was now able to observe his enemy. It was a young man that was larger than himself both in height and girth, he had an orange Mohawk, a grey sleeveless tunic that showed off his massive arms, black wristbands, a purple rope tied around his waist.

"You were saying?" Kakashi said, narrowing his single visible eye at the young man as he was prepared to blow right past him and get to his team as quickly as he could. Hopefully they were where he left them before he wound up being corralled by the dozens of shinobi that came at him, "You know me, but I don't know about you. Trapping me even for just a moment is a big deal, especially for a young man like you. What's your name?"

"Jiroubou of the South Gate." The large teen said as a black marking began to spread across the left half of his body, looking like chains of triangular arrows, "And with all of that chakra I absorbed from you I guess now would be as good a time as any to start off using this."

The foul chakra radiating off of Jiroubou caught Kakashi's immediate attention. He didn't even need to utilize his Sharingan to pay attention to how intense the power was, "Well that's certainly interesting." Not interesting enough for him to draw this battle out any longer than necessary, but something to keep in mind if more powerful Oto shinobi had the same ability. Especially if the ones sent after Sasuke, Sakura, and Chouji had the same ability.

XxX

(Cha no Kuni – Degarashi Port – Nightfall)

Naruto's forensic skills left much to be desired as his investigation of the attack site bore no fruit. Thus he and Idate simply returned to Shikamaru and Ino to see if their asking around had gotten them anywhere.

Team 10 plus Idate regrouped at a small seafood stand where Ino and Shikamaru had been waiting to grab a bite to eat before continuing their work. The setting of the sun didn't mean that their job was done by a long shot. Night was probably the best time for them to be out and searching for trouble.

Poking at the grilled squid that had been set on his plate with his chopsticks as he wished it were ramen, Naruto let out a sigh at their luck, "All there is from the site is one stupid, weird shuriken." He said, picking up said shuriken from his flak jacket pocket and dropping it on the table. It was pink in color and looked crystalline, shaped in the form of a sharply bladed snowflake.

"We're not exactly trackers you know." Ino said before taking a bite of her own modest meal, "It's been a week since the request was sent to Konoha. If someone was going to track them they'd need a specialist because any sign that could be trailed would be gone by now. How hard did you have to look for that shuriken anyway?"

"Idate already had it from the night of the attack." Naruto said before picking up his squid and taking a bite of the tentacles, chewing with considerable effort, "That's just great. Are you sure you didn't see anything?" Idate glared at Naruto for pressing the same issue they had been going over all day long, "Okay, nevermind."

In front of Shikamaru's own half-eaten plate was a map of the town, "We didn't check the northern side because we were kicked out by the workers. With all of the storehouses and dockside shipping places over there it could be a good chance of something."

Idate raised an eyebrow, "You guys got kicked out? Did you say you were here to help the Wasabi Family solve their problems going on in town?"

"They didn't seem to care…" Ino said before her eyes then narrowed, "It was a site that belonged to Gato Company." The next time they had to take a mission it would definitely be C-ranked. This B-rank stuff was giving her a migraine, "I think we should drop in on that spot just out of principle."

"You guys again with your Gato Company stuff." Idate said in exasperation, "Look, I understand what Naruto told me about Nami no Kuni but there's no way that would happen here. If Boss Jirouchou went down, or even if both he and the Wagarashi Head went down we'd still fight them back. We wouldn't let ourselves get bullied."

Ino shrugged her shoulders and finished eating before turning on her stool towards Idate, "Fine. We're still going to the north docks though. It doesn't make any sense not to. Not at a time like this."

A groan left Idate as he palmed his face, "If you guys are caught trespassing in the dead of night, even if it's on Gato Company's property and others find out about it then Boss is going to lose support with all of them together. People are already doubting both the Wasabi and Wagarashi's ability to keep the town safe with all of this ninja stuff."

Naruto good-naturedly slapped Idate on his back hard enough to almost make him stumble forward in his stool, "Don't be so nervous! We can handle this. You were a ninja before, right? If it's just a few dock workers and thugs we can slip right past them. You know that."

Idate nodded despite himself. When he first started working for Jirouchou and the Wasabi Family he distinguished himself even as nothing more than a former genin. His knowledge of basic ninjutsu and his own natural advantages that had been developed through training in his Academy years kept him head and shoulders above other fighters in the area. Even at the age of fifteen as he currently was he still stood above most on both sides of the Degarashi Port conflict between the two families.

So he had to admit, if things were really just about the dock workers and there was no shinobi hideout over there then Team 10, a group of chunin, could easily handle anything without starting trouble.

"…Just do it then." Idate said before making another point, "But I'm coming with you just in case you need someone to vouch for you."

XxX

(With Asuma)

Working for Wagarashi Kyuuroku was going to drive Asuma to drinking. But at least he was in a good place for it as he had been required to accompany the man to a bar as he and some of his more favored underlings celebrated. What they were celebrating, he had no idea, but he was working Asuma's nerves.

He drank without even having anyone test the source of the drink, he was a lightweight that couldn't hold his liquor and when inebriated he was a complete scumbag. Asuma swore, the moment he tried to grab a girl or something along those lines he was going to knock him the fuck out and drag him home.

"Heyyy, Mister Ninja." Kyuuroku said sliding up to Asuma's side with a drink in his hand that sloshed about wildly due to his rocking and rolling in his seat, "You don't drink?"

"Not while I'm supposed to be your protection detail." Asuma said, wishing he would just go back to getting annihilated with his dumb muscle, "You don't want me fighting for your life drunk do you?"

Kyuuroku slid away from him and stroked his chin, "That's a good point ninja-man." He said before turning towards his crew and shouting, "Hey! No more drinking for you dumbasses! I need you sharp to cover my ass tonight! Who knows what could happen?" There was a unanimous groan of disappointment from the mass of flunkies while Kyuuroku was directing the bartender to hand over particular bottles to him to take on the go, "Okay… I'm responsible so I'm turning in early tonight. The man that runs this town's gotta know when enough is enough right?"

The eye of Asuma twitched as Kyuuroku's goons came over to carry his handpicked drinks for him on the way back to the house, 'Then why are you getting even more to drink?' He sincerely wished he had a nice, calming cigarette in his hand right then. This mission had put him in a foul mood, 'Naruto, Shikamaru, Ino… you three better be working to get this shit over with and done before I have to kill somebody.'

Eventually the party spilled out into the street and with the raucous noise of the disruptive Wagarashi Family it was a wonder why they didn't get attacked more often just for disturbing the peace.

Kyuuroku was a total target with how he was the center of his own entourage and Asuma kept his eyes peeled. It was his ears however that picked up something of interest. Asuma had been so accustomed to using wind as a weapon that he could hear the shifts in the air, and he heard the sound of sharpened metal flying through the air, "Hit the deck!"

Upon hearing Asuma's shout, the more sober members of the Wagarashi Family grabbed Kyuuroku and fell to the ground. Those that did not wound up getting riddled with shuriken and kunai. Unable to do anything for them from the surprise attack, Asuma pulled out his trench knives and immediately began his chakra flow to extend the length of the blades as five men jumped from a rooftop to attack what was left of the Wagarashi Family.

His patience having long since reached the breaking point, Asuma jumped into battle with not a second thought. Asuma immediately cut through two of the attackers and delivered a powerful kick to another man that sent him crashing right through the front display of a building. By then the remaining two from the initial ground attack turned to fight Asuma, but as they did so he disappeared from their sight and reappeared behind them as blood began to spray from their chests and necks, as he had cut them down before they had ever even realized it.

The petrified Kyuuroku looked up at Asuma in fear as he stared down with the man, "Stick with me and listen to my every word. I don't want any bullshit here."

Kyuuroku nodded and the remaining four members of the outgoing Wagarashi Family party got up off of the ground as from down the street several more Oto shinobi ran towards them along the rooftop and jumped into the air to strike Asuma down all at once.

Instead of telling Kyuuroku to run while he fought them off, Asuma formed the bird hand-seal and placed his hands to his mouth in a cupping motion, "Fuuton: Fuujin no Jutsu (Wind Release: Dust Cloud Jutsu)!" A stream of wind filled with dust particles flew at the lot of them from Asuma's mouth. Upon making contact with the airborne bodies of the attacking ninja it began to tear their clothes off, and then their skin, decimating them and tearing them asunder before they even hit the ground dead, 'Otogakure…' Asuma thought as he looked at the metal plate on one of the masked ninja's heads.

A sharp and loud clicking noise directed Asuma's attention to behind himself and the Wagarashi Family, but when he turned there was no one there. It was merely a feint allowing both Jigumo and Kamikiri to attack him from behind with kunai. Asuma was able to turn and block both with his trench knives though, "Well it looks like we've got easy pickings here don't we?" Kamikiri said as both he and Jigumo struggled against Asuma, unable to make him budge.

"So who hired Otogakure?" Asuma decided to press the issue, "Obviously if you're trying to assassinate this jackass here I don't see how that'd have anything to do with the country your village originates from."

"It's important enough to someone for us to take this mission." The scar-faced bald man Jigumo said as he and Kamikiri broke off from clashing with Asuma, "We don't care why. It's our job to make a mess of things in this place and that's just what we're going to do."

"Admirable I guess." Asuma said, backing up closer to Kyuuroku before hearing the man cry out in fear. Asuma turned around to see him facing behind them and dove in that direction to divert another attacker with a sudden kick that sent them flying off onto a wall. They landed on the wall on their feet however and landed on the ground to stand with Jigumo and Kamikiri. The grotesque hunchbacked figure of Kagerou stared at him, prepared to fight him to get past Asuma as well.

"Sarutobi Asuma." Kagerou said, correctly identifying the Konoha jounin before turning eyes toward Kyuuroku, "He's more important a person in the grand scheme of things than you Wagarashi. Leave now or die where you stand."

Kyuuroku snapped to action after hearing himself be addressed by the strange looking trio of shinobi, "N-No problem!" He said before turning tail and running with a speed that Asuma figured wouldn't be obtained by a regular person, "Don't just gawk you idiots! Run!" He yelled in the distance.

Well apparently it was true that fear gave men wings… on their feet from the looks of how fast Kyuuroku proceeded to haul ass out of dodge.

Asuma turned to see the last remaining living Wagarashi Family members standing there with their own small weapons drawn; clubs, pocket knives, short blades. But they were absolutely shaking in their boots. Well he had to at least give them credit on deciding not to try and run, but if they stayed they'd be shredded like cheese, and for as much of an advantage in openings as that would potentially bring him Asuma wasn't that kind of guy.

"Go on, get out of here." Asuma said to the lot of them. They didn't need to be told twice as they ran as well… though not as fast as Kyuuroku. He had probably made it back to his house by now and had ordered his men to put the place on lockdown. But with the riffraff gone he could focus on the three Oto shinobi remaining out of the twenty he had originally put down on his own, "So why'd you let him go? I thought you were after the leaders of this village."

Kamikiri shook his head, "He's not even the leader of this town. We don't want them dead anyway. We just want this place good and scared so that businesses leave in the droves. Our client wants some cheap dockside property for his own business. And you dying right in the middle of town would totally work on that front."

"Why?" Asuma asked.

"You're the son of the current reigning Hokage. Not only that, but you're an absurdly dangerous man in your own right with your bounty of 35 million ryo." Jigumo said to answer his question, "Killing you is doubly significant."

Now that got Asuma to puff out his chest a little bit with pride, "Oh. They've got that listed even in Otogakure's bingo book? I'm flattered. At least I would be if you weren't all about to try and kill me." He then blinked before grinning in a very Naruto-like manner as he rubbed the back of his neck, "Oh hell, who am I kidding? I'm still flattered. So bring it on." He finished, setting back in his boxing-looking stance prepared to take the three of them on.

XxX

(Meanwhile – Northern Docks of Degarashi Port)

"He is taking way too long." Ino said, kneeling down on the roof of a warehouse along with Naruto and Idate as they looked over the rest of the area being that their position was high enough to get a good view of most of the other storage facilities in the area, "Why'd he actually choose to look around the place himself? He doesn't volunteer to do anything… ever." Ino kind of wanted to try and use her new hard-earned jutsu to check things out by herself. She could have at least taken over someone's actual body with her original clan jutsu and went around like that.

"Well…" Idate said, trying to generalize why Shikamaru took point on doing preliminary scouting, "He seems to be smarter than both of you, so I guess that's why he figured he'd be better off searching." He then noticed the two blondes glaring at him, "No offense."

"I have clones…" Naruto said, trying to argue.

Shaking her head, Ino responded, "You already have like a hundred of them watching over the Wasabi Family place. And if one of them gets caught it wouldn't matter if they were clones or not, our cover would still be blown."

"So?" Naruto responded as if it didn't even matter.

"One hundred clones?" Idate said, as if he were coming to terms with what Ino was saying about Naruto, "No way. You can make one hundred solid clones and still make more on your own? How much chakra do you have?" And he was trying to pick a fight with this guy the other night? He would have gotten slaughtered.

Hearing the awe in Idate's voice at her partner's amount of sheer chakra, Ino chose to simply talk to Naruto, "Goldie-kun he's really late coming back. Go ahead and use your jutsu again, we need to make sure Shika's alright and didn't get into any trouble."

Naruto nodded and proceeded to make the hand-seal to let out a pulse to try and pinpoint Shikamaru, "Uh-oh."

"Uh-oh what?" Ino raised a delicate eyebrow once she heard Naruto's exclamation, "I don't like 'uh-oh'. What does uh-oh mean?"

"Uh-oh means move your ass before Shika loses his." Naruto said, getting up and jumping from one rooftop to another, heading towards Shikamaru's location. Both Ino and Idate got up and quickly followed after him.

XxX

"Troublesome…" Shikamaru quietly muttered as he hid within a pile of crates near a ship that sat outside of a warehouse, a dozen workers were busy moving things off of the ship. The thing that caught his original interest was the fact that the guards of the Gato Company warehouse were shinobi with that sound note plate on their facemasks. That explained the shinobi attack and where they had been hiding. The Wasabi Family couldn't simply search private property without just cause or they'd have lost standing.

Too bad they didn't know Gato Company's secret policy of playing dirty for getting an advantage over the competition. But what particular thing could Gato be coming after in Degarashi Port? If it was just to assassinate the Wasabi and Wagarashi Heads as originally thought to try and get control of the port that way then they would have been far more aggressive with their actions.

Ugh… the smell of the crates were messing with Shikamaru's head. He couldn't think. Why'd he have to hide in the mess of crates that were used to carry Gato's illegal drugs? Shipping heroin into the port? That was just great. He could smell the remnants of the chemicals used to cut the drugs.

They had long since hidden their stores of the drug. Where and in which of the dozen warehouses lining the dock, he didn't know since he had been hiding for quite a while. Maybe he should have let Naruto or Ino do this themselves? Nah, if either of them got caught they would have just tried to fight their way out.

Fighting his way out was not the plan. He could get out, all he needed was enough time to think of a way-.

-To get the hell out of the way of the giant sword that was being slammed down on his hiding place. Damn it!

Shikamaru dove out of the pile of crates as a zanbatou sliced through his crate and would have cut him clean in half if it had hit him. Stopping to size up his attacker, Shikamaru saw an incredibly large man with shoulder-length brown hair, a red headband with the Otogakure symbol emblazoned on the metal plate on his forehead, a dark purple high collared shirt, and black trousers, "Great… I've got to fight a behemoth now."

"A little Konoha brat." The man said, holding his zanbatou up to rest on his shoulder, "I didn't know they sent baby chunin on missions this far away from home. Does your mother know you're out here kid?"

"I think my mother is actually glad I'm out and about now that you ask me about it." Shikamaru said, still with his mostly uncaring expression on his face as he seemingly tried to make light of his situation.

"You're in the wrong place little man." The shinobi said, lifting his zanbatou before rushing to attack Shikamaru again. However instead of having to draw a weapon to try and defend himself, Shikamaru only had to barely use his right hand to reach into a pocket of his chunin flak jacket to pull out a small explosive ball that he threw at his adversary, exploding in a flash of light that blinded him, "Gah! Why haven't the others attacked you yet?"

"Because we already kicked their asses!"

The air was driven out of the exceedingly large man's lungs when a pair of Naruto clones delivered powerful driving kicks to his belly, followed by another Naruto delivering a heavy uppercut to his chin that sent him stumbling back, "Ino-chan!" The Naruto clones yelled before a swing of the zanbatou dispelled them.

"On it!" Ino said with her hands placed in her clan's signature hand-seal, "Shintenshin no Jutsu (Mind Body Switch Jutsu)!" As Ino fired her own consciousness at the burly Oto ninja and took over his body, "Got him… now someone finish this please. I hate being in this guy's body."

"Yeah, yeah. Just make sure your timing for the release is spot on." Shikamaru said as he formed the rat seal and his shadow began to slink out towards the body Ino currently had under her possession, "Kagemane no Jutsu (Shadow Possesion Jutsu)!" Ino released her control over the body just as Shikamaru's shadow grabbed a hold of him, "Naruto, finish him now before he gets his senses back!"

"Whatever!" Naruto charged towards the man and made three clones that all leapt right at the stunned and trapped man, "Kakeyapakto (Flash Mallet)!" All four versions of Naruto smashed a jumping knee strike into the head of the man. He seemingly became aware right before the four knees struck him throughout the face and head and rendered him unconscious.

As the man's body thudded off of the dock, motionless after falling, Idate walked up to the trio of chunin looking at the fallen Otogakure ninja, "Wow you guys sure kicked their asses." He said, looking back towards the warehouse where the other Otogakure ninja stationed there were in similar or more serious condition, "So are we done?"

"You beat Hanzaki pretty easily… useless as he was. Good job kids."

Team 10 and Idate turned towards the ship to see a lady with blue hair in a spiky ponytail looking down at them with a smirk on her red lips as she held a crystal ball in her hands, "That was an entertaining little scrape to watch from the hold of the ship."

"We'll beat you too!" Naruto shouted at her with his four clones having his back as well as his teammates, "Get out of Degarashi Port and leave this place alone!"

The smirk that was on the lady's face dropped as she looked down at the blonde boy and his tangible doppelgangers, "You know… I actually was going to leave by sunrise. But now I think I'll take a few scalps with me when I go."

Even faced down with three shinobi and one former ninja, this strange woman didn't seem to care in the slightest, "Who the hell are you anyway?"

"My name is Guren." The woman said before crushing the crystal ball in her hands, allowing the shards to fall to the ground, "Remember to take that name to hell with you when the demons ask who sent you."

Omake: Training Day 2

A mountain with one hand tied behind his back and he couldn't even use his chakra to try and stick. It was all supposed to be him and nothing more. Now Naruto figured he was strong, but it was an entire body kind of strength. Most of his strength-related taijutsu attacks revolved around sudden and quick bursts of energy. That wouldn't serve him any good when climbing a mountain… with one hand, "Damn you Ero-sensei you really screwed me over this time."

He did not want to obsess about this, but with Shikamaru and Ino constantly training with their fathers his own training was what he had to hyperfocus on.

"Dynamic Entry!"

Like a post-traumatic stress disorder flashback, Naruto immediately grouped those two words with getting brutally blindsided with a kick that probably gave him a 2nd degree concussion the day after his graduation from the Academy.

Thus when the foot of his nightmares plowed into the back of his head it wasn't a big surprise when his body was replaced in a puff of smoke with a log. The attacking Rock Lee blinked until he turned around to block a diving ax kick from Naruto, "Naruto-kun! I have come for my rematch! This time I will not exhaust myself with the Eight Gates and I will defeat you!"

"You could have just asked me to fight damn it!" Naruto snapped before dropping to the ground and launching at Lee with a follow-up punch that Lee blocked, "I don't want to do this right now Lee! I've got some serious stuff to worry about!"

"More serious than a challenge from your eternal rival?"

"So we're rivals now?"

"Of course!"

Naruto grabbed a hold of Lee's wrist after the green-clad genin blocked his punch and pulled him in to slam his shoulder harshly against Lee's own shoulder and chest only for Lee to barely budge. Wow. That should have put him on his back and at worst dislocated his shoulder.

No time to think about that as Lee threw a punch of his own that Naruto had to let go of Lee to avoid, with Lee's reach being far longer than his and with Naruto not wanting to test Lee's actual strength.

"Lee go away!" Naruto snapped irritably, "I need to go train!"

"This is training!" Lee insisted, not taking no for an answer, "A hot-blooded, spirited competition between two youthful rivals! What could be a more effective way to train than this?" He then launched at Naruto again to engage him once more.

XxX

(Two Hours Later)

Both Naruto and Lee were staring at each other looking exhausted and bruised but still trying to stand in their fighting stances, "Can we stop now?" Naruto asked desperately. He just wanted to go home at that point. He'd figure out what to do about his training tomorrow since Lee wasted so much of his time, "All I wanted was to find a training exercise…"

"Lee where have you been!"

"Gai-sensei!" Lee said, immediately perking back up as his larger green jumpsuit-sporting sense arrived in the clearing that he and Naruto had been going back and forth in, "I was just training with Naruto-kun here."

Gai gave Lee a disapproving look, "While I understand your desire to train, we had a mission to begin at noon. It's late in the afternoon now. We have to postpone the trip until tomorrow."

Lee looked down in shame at being admonished by his idol, "I am sorry Gai-sensei. I simply wanted to fight Naruto-kun again at full strength to see who was better. I completely forgot about today's mission."

Shaking his head at his student, Gai put a hand on Lee's bowl-cut head, "You must have better prioritizing skills than this." He then turned his attention to Naruto, "I heard you say that all you wanted was a training exercise. What kind of training were you thinking about."

Hey, Maito Gai was a strong guy. He could probably climb that cliff one-handed in his sleep. He was definitely the guy to ask about something like this, "Well I was looking for an exercise to make me stronger and-." He was never able to finish his sentence that would have said that he needed to increase his ability to focus as well since Gai grabbed him by his arm and lifted him off of the ground.

"Strength training?" Gai said, his eyes burning over with passion for hard work, "Say no more! You've come to the number one shinobi in physical exercise and conditioning! Lee!" He said, getting his younger counterpart to snap to attention, "As your punishment for the missed mission today you will train with Naruto-kun and myself until tomorrow when we are to leave for our assignment!"

"Yes Gai-sensei! I will help Naruto-kun improve his own physical strength for as long as it takes!"

And with that, the two taijutsu specializing shinobi grabbed Naruto and dragged him off for a long training session revolving entirely around taijutsu and body workouts… none of which had anything to do with what Naruto actually needed to have done or needed to improve on.

He did learn a very valuable lesson though; only train with Gai and Lee if he had lots of time to kill, if he hated himself, and if he felt the need to feel arduous amounts of pain in places he didn't know he had.

Omake: Wake Up Call

Naruto sat up in his bedroll with his sleeping cap on his head and pajamas adorning his frame. With a yawn he stretched out and looked around the room that he, Shikamaru, and Ino were staying in for the duration of their mission. Shikamaru was still curled up in his own accommodations, sleeping soundly, while Ino's own was neatly made up and the girl was not in sight.

Taking Ino to just be an early riser as he had been used to seeing her up and about at that time of the morning in the past, Naruto stood up and stretched his legs out before heading to the bathroom that was connected to their room.

If he had been in a sound state of mind he would have noticed that the light in the bathroom was on by noticing it through the crack at the bottom, but he did not, and thus Naruto opened the door to the bathroom only to wonder why the hell it was so hazy and hot in there before his half-conscious morning brain kicked in and he noticed that the bathroom was not empty.

And he then went wide-eyed with a small trickle of blood creeping from his nose before slowly creeping backwards and shutting the door with not a sound for his efforts. Naruto just stood in place staring at the door he had just come through both ways.

He had just seen his female teammate Ino naked… and the only thing that saved him from a horrible fate of Ino taking over his body and doing horrible things to it was the fact that she had her back turned to him and the mirror she had been standing in front of was fogged over due to the shower she had obviously just taken. Though he had only seen her from the back that was certainly more than enough for him.

Now having swiped his own share of dirty magazines right off of bookstore shelves in the past to develop Oiroke no Jutsu (Sexy Jutsu), despite Naruto's open debunking of Jiraiya's exploits and pervert lifestyle was no stranger to the female form himself. He could appreciate a pretty girl just as easily as the next guy. Still, it was something else completely to see such a thing from a girl he saw every day and found rather attractive. 'An obtainable kind of beautiful' was what he would refer to Ino as if he were that articulate since he knew her quite well.

It didn't help that Ino fell right in with the tradition of every kunoichi on the face of the planet as being too damn good looking for their own good, even going on 13. And she looked good with her hair down too… but he wouldn't be able to bring that opinion up without his mind reaching back to this incident in the future that he was lucky to escape without a bump or a bruise.

As a matter of fact he felt kind of wrong that he wasn't going to suffer any repercussions for his accidental actions, unintentional though they may have been.

With that in mind he walked over to Shikamaru and shook him awake, not taking no for an answer until Shikamaru began to stir, "Shikamaru I need you to-! Oof!" Naruto exhaled sharply when Shikamaru's fist deposited itself firmly into his stomach without warning, "*cough* Thanks…" Naruto wheezed out with a pained smile, "How'd you know I wanted you to punch me in the stomach?"

Taking a second to rub the sleep from his eyes Shikamaru looked at the doubled-over Naruto groggily before yawning and lying back down in his bedroll, "I didn't… I just hit you because you woke me up asshole. You should know better than that." He then turned over and stared at Naruto since he was awake anyway and had a question, "Why did you want me to punch you in the first place?"

Naruto didn't answer. He simply averted his eyes from Shikamaru, unknowingly directing his gaze towards the bathroom door. Shikamaru saw this and noticed a few things.

Namely the drying blood trail coming from Naruto's nose, the fact that Ino was not in the room with the two of them, and the light that was on in the bathroom with the closed door that had slight amounts of steam coming from the cracks.

Linking these things up into a possible logical conclusion was simple for Shikamaru, even in the morning because it was staring him right in the face, "Troublesome…" He muttered with a red face.

Jutsu List

Sakura Bunshin no Jutsu (Cherry Blossom Clone). C-rank ninjutsu, bunshinjutsu, supplementary. A technique that produces a clone by projecting one's chakra to maintain a shape and form using sakura petals. Due to the clone's flimsy make it cannot actively participate in battle, bursting into petals once it makes contact with opposition, though it works as a good distraction. However Sakura's usage of the jutsu of her own creation revolves around the fact that once the clone dispels she can use the petals for another special attack of her choosing.

Ongoing Stats (Out of 5)

Wasabi Family

Morino Idate

Ninjutsu: 1

Taijutsu: 2

Genjutsu: 1

Intelligence: 2

Strength: 1.5

Speed: 4

Stamina: 3

Hand-Seals: 1

Total Score: 15.5

Otogakure Shinobi

Guren

Ninjutsu: 4.5

Taijutsu: 4

Genjutsu: 3

Intelligence: 3.5

Strength: 3

Speed: 4

Stamina: 3.5

Hand-Seals: 3.5

Total Score: 30

Fuuma Clan (Otogakure)

Jigumo

Ninjutsu: 2

Taijutsu: 2

Genjutsu: 2

Intelligence: 2

Strength: 2.5

Speed: 2

Stamina: 3.5

Hand-Seals: 2

Total Score: 18

Kamikiri

Ninjutsu: 2

Taijutsu: 2.5

Genjutsu: 2.5

Intelligence: 3

Strength: 1.5

Speed: 3

Stamina: 2

Hand-Seals: 1.5

Total Score: 18

Kagerou

Ninjutsu: 3.5

Taijutsu: 2

Genjutsu: 2

Intelligence: 2

Strength: 1.5

Speed: 3.5

Stamina: 2.5

Hand-Seals: 3

Total Score: 20

Hanzaki

Ninjutsu: 0.5

Taijutsu: 3.5

Genjutsu: 0.5

Intelligence: 2

Strength: 4

Speed: 2

Stamina: 3.5

Hand-Seals: 1

Total Score: 17

Sound Four

Jiroubou

Ninjutsu: 3

Taijutsu: 4

Genjutsu: 1

Intelligence: 2.5

Strength: 5

Speed: 2

Stamina: 4

Hand-Seals: 2

Total Score: 23.5

Tayuya

Ninjutsu: 3

Taijutsu: 2

Genjutsu: 5

Intelligence: 3.5

Strength: 1

Speed: 3

Stamina: 3

Hand-Seals: 4

Total Score: 24.5

Kidomaru

Ninjutsu: 4

Taijutsu: 2.5

Genjutsu: 1.5

Intelligence: 4

Strength: 2

Speed: 3

Stamina: 4

Hand-Seals: 4

Total Score: 25

Sakon

Ninjutsu: 4

Taijutsu: 3

Genjutsu: 1

Intelligence: 2.5

Strength: 3.5

Speed: 3

Stamina: 4

Hand-Seals: 4

Total Score: 25