Chapter 49

"Never again." Suigetsu hissed at Naruto quietly in the dingy light of the Otogakure base that he, Naruto, and Haku were all inside of, "Don't you ever make me do something like that again. That was completely gross." They had managed to infiltrate the island after breaking off from the others via the inside of one of Naruto's toads.

"Shut up." Naruto replied, gesturing to Haku, "She was cool with it, and consider it payback for trying to attack me when we first met you jerk." Honestly, he had a toad jutsu that could obstruct their chakra from within and protect them from being detected and Suigetsu was more concerned with how nasty it was.

"You shouldn't treat animals like that either man, that's cruel. I'm sure it was uncomfortable."

"That's what he's meant to do! And I give the toads stuff all the time out of gratitude!"

Haku shushed both of them before they could continue arguing any further. Focus was needed because they were deep in the belly of the enemy now. It was surprising that they hadn't run into any enemies yet, since the last one of these that had been discovered by Kiri had been teeming with bad guys, but as much as she didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth it would have been pure negligence not to.

"What should we do from here on out?" Haku asked her current teammates as they moved through the halls, "Naruto-kun can you feel any life in here?"

A frowning Naruto shook his head, "Not a chance. Too many walls in the way to get a feeling past a few feet. Maybe if I had to feel something behind a wall in a room right next to me, but it's like an anthill down here, just a bunch of tunnels." The sonar effect of his sensory jutsu was affected by walls.

"Real smooth Konoha kid."

"I will suplex you on your head." Naruto said to Suigetsu following his remark until they came to multiple splits in an open corridor. What was with the whole labyrinth thing that this place had going on? Did they set this place up to travel underneath the whole island?

Four directions. One to the prisons, one to the barracks, one to the labs, one back the way they came. And Uchiha Itachi had gone down one of these paths because Naruto's toad had seen that he had beaten them there. And since he hadn't ambushed them yet it was the only option.

"Okay…" With a sigh Naruto crouched down to one knee on the ground to take a minute to think. It was a different style, but it was a little something he had inherited from working with Shikamaru so much and watching him stop in the middle of a mission to plan, "How long did you say it would be until your message gets to those ANBU waiting on us?"

According to what Haku and Suigetsu had told the team on the way there, the ANBU that the Mizukage dispatched to support them would have to remain in definite Mizu no Kuni lands until they were summoned as ANBU couldn't be risked being discovered in disputed territories like the southern islands. The moment their boat came into view of the appropriate island, Haku sent off a messenger hawk that they had taken with them.

That had been thirty minutes ago, "Another hour until the strike force arrives I believe." Haku informed Naruto, knowing how fast the hawk she had taken for the mission was, "I don't think we should hold up and wait though." Because their secondary mission deemed that they had to return with the jinchuuriki of the Sanbi. If they waited they would probably miss their window to obtain him before Akatsuki did.

"Well then we'll have to search to make sure we can trap these guys in here." Suigetsu said, taking Kubikiribouchou from his back and pointing down one of the pathways, "We'll look down these things one by one, but someone needs to stay here because I think this is a good choke point."

Naruto was about to suggest using clones to sweep the area but realized that in a close quarters environment like this his clones wouldn't do too well without space to move around and avoid being damaged. And trying to fix that by sending them in en masse would only end terribly.

If she were here Guren would cut a swatch straight through them with her crystal release without even having to try, and Itachi would only have to fire one decently sized fireball down a tunnel and he'd wipe them all out. As far as he knew between both Haku and Suigetsu's abilities they could deal with the flames, and if they were weak they'd have never been dispatched to do this mission.

He'd have to trust in his comrades to handle themselves, "I don't like the idea of splitting everybody up more than we already are… but an hour's too long to wait for backup." Naruto stood back up and shook his head, "Okay. You guys can check these three tunnels one-by-one, I'll keep this spot locked down."

"Holler if you're about to die." Suigetsu quipped as he and Haku took off running down the path leading to the barracks, "We'll be right back if we get wind of something."

As they left him behind, Naruto let out a sigh and decided to try and find a place to hide and get the drop on anyone that might wind up coming his way, just in case, "…People from Kirigakure are weird."

XxX

(Elsewhere on the Island – Kimimaro vs. Kisame)

"Hold still punk!" Kisame demanded as Kimimaro seemed to dodge every swing of Samehada, even in some of the most inescapable positions. It wasn't a just a matter of speed despite the fact that Kimimaro really was that much faster than he was, it was the general flexibility that the abnormal body possessed by the Oto ninja that made him so hard to make contact with, "Damn taijutsu virtuosos…"

The way Kimimaro was dodging was incredible. It seemed as if he didn't even have a spine at times, because that was the way he had to bend himself from time to time to avoid being cut into two. But he wasn't long enough to take advantage of this and respond by stabbing or slashing at the blue-skinned man with the bones sticking out all over his body. The length that Samehada gave Kisame in terms of his attacks was simply staggering.

Kimimaro backflipped on his hands out of range of one of Kisame's attacks and pointed his hand at him fingers first, "Teshi Sendan (Ten-Finger Drilling Bullets)!" From his fingertips flew small bone projectiles with the consistency of metal. He was using only one hand instead of two, but there was a murderous rate of fire being sent out Kisame's way, uncountable as bones were being replaced and shot out.

Samehada was set down straight up on the ground and fed chakra straight from Kisame's body, shirking off some of the bandages that covered it allowing more scales to show through. It grew a bit, allowing Kisame to take refuge behind it to protect him from being shot and riddled with bone bullets by Kimimaro, "Heh, I can't tell whether I hate this guy or I like him." He said while holding onto a snake hand-seal to build his chakra properly for his next move.

From his slight distance away where he was trying to slowly move around Samehada to target Kisame, Kimimaro still had his one hand outstretched to fire at the nearest availability to gun his foe down, "It doesn't matter what other people in the world seem to believe you to be. Even if someone like you is perceived as S-rank, all that makes you to me is S-ranked trash."

And when it came to dealing with the trash of the shinobi world, Kimimaro would count no one better than him in that department.

"Suiton: Bakusui Shouha (Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave)!"

Kisame turned his head from around the cover provided to him by his trusty sword and opened his mouth to let loose a torrent of water as if someone had just opened a set of floodgates. A massive wave started advancing toward Kimimaro who found that he couldn't outrun it and wound up being swept off of his feet as Kisame seemed to ride the current. The engulfed Kimimaro was left a sitting duck as Kisame passed near him.

With a chuckle and a massive grunt of effort, Kisame finally managed to strike heavily at Kimimaro and slashed at him repeatedly in the water before he was carried past him by the water, "Finally got you! Your fancy little moves don't work when you can't even stand on your own two feet do they?"

Much to Kisame's displeasure however, Kimimaro's lifeless body didn't float up to the surface of the newly made lake. He climbed out and stood on the surface of the water, clothes shredded to tatters and flesh rendered to the same state via the scales on Samehada. While he was a bloody mess, underneath the surface of his flesh there was a white shell.

"Oh…" Kisame said, seemingly annoyed by what he saw, "That's right. That damn Kaguya kekkei genkai lets you do anything with bones." Even create an armor of bone beneath his skin. That was going to make him annoying to kill. Thank goodness it was a rarity even within Kimimaro's lineage, "Yeah, I'm from Kiri, I should have thought about that."

In his defense though, Kimimaro was the only one that had been noted to have it in well over a decade.

That's not to say that he wasn't up for the challenge though. He was quite certain that if it came down to it he could make that young man's body break somehow, and if all else failed he had never heard of a tough skeleton keeping someone from drowning.

From Kimimaro's point of view though, things had taken a turn for the negative. With all of this water around, Kisame's repertoire of techniques available to him doubled. Even so he would not be deterred. This battle was far from unwinnable.

"You think transforming our area of battle to your liking puts you at that much of an advantage do you?" Kimimaro asked, casting away the remnants of his shirt, leaving his mangled upper body bare, "You underestimate my power."

Cruelly smirking in return, Kisame gestured for Kimimaro to come toward him with his hand, "Come show me then boy, or are you just mostly talk like your master was?"

From the small seal mark on his clavicle, black marks began to spread all across Kimimaro's body as he glared hatefully at Kisame, "A worthless, traitorous brute such as yourself would know nothing of the things that Orochimaru-sama desires to achieve. One day he will crush you Akatsuki fools, and with the very power that you seek for yourselves." And he was going to be right there by his side, leading the way and drenching the path in the blood of his master's enemies.

Kisame opened his mouth to make a snide remark, but when Kimimaro moved whatever he had to say died in his throat as he had to block a thunderous kick from Kimimaro that sent him sliding back across the surface of the water.

So this was what those freaky seals that Orochimaru's top pawns possessed did to them? Interesting. That chakra seemed to be getting Samehada a bit excited. Well he would simply have to indulge it then.

He didn't have much time to ponder however when Kimimaro didn't let just one kick be the end of things. As Kisame slid back, Kimimaro ran and kept pace alongside him, sharp bones extended from his torso and legs as he began to spin like a top once he moved past the sword that Kisame had just used to block his first kick.

Samehada automatically bent itself to protect Kisame's side, but Kimimaro nimbly jumped directly over the weapon trying to defend its wielder and delivered a brutal kick directly to Kisame's face that sent him skipping across the surface of the water like a stone on a pond.

"Do the world a favor and die." Kimimaro said coldly as he pursued his adversary's body to follow up on his opening.

Kisame flipped himself back upright and as the entire time he had been making hand-seals while flying away. The second he got back on his feet he finished his last two and slammed palm on the ground, "Suiton: Amesuikouha (Water Release: Rain Water Shark Wave)!" He slapped a large amount of water into the air that fell and formed into multiple small sharks for an aerial bombardment.

Not willing to hang back any, Kimimaro destroyed the sharks with rapid-fire shots of his finger bullets, but had to cover up as best he could when he realized that even when destroyed he simply couldn't directly move through this attack. The water droplets formed from the destroyed sharks fell onto him and cut at his flesh like tiny blades.

Still moving forward, unwilling to let his advantage fade, Kimimaro put his arms down from his face just in time to see Samehada incoming from above that he then had to take while holding his forearms up as a method of flimsy protection.

Kisame slammed Samehada down on Kimimaro with a jumping overhand slash that drove up a splash fifteen feet high. His body probably cratered the floor that was only twenty feet down, "No way you're dancing your way out of this one twinkletoes! Suiton: Suikoudan no Jutsu (Water Release: Water Shark Bullet Jutsu)!" In the water a shark was formed from part of the lake that went down after Kimimaro.

Beneath the waves Kisame could see his shark snatching up something and chewing away on it, thrashing it around and maiming it in its powerful jaws. No matter how strong someone's body was, good luck standing up to a shark's bite.

But as the jutsu-comprised shark dissipated, there was no blood where the body was starting to drop to the lake floor. And why wasn't it floating to the surface?

No. It couldn't be a tangible clone that he replaced himself with. Clones were supposed to dispel when taking a certain amount of damage, and how much more damage could you deal someone than having a shark go to town on them?

Feeling a presence behind him due to Samehada's ability to feel the intense chakra radiating from the cursed seal, Kisame turned around to see Kimimaro rise from the water, completely unharmed, with his attack attempt neutralized due to being felt, "What in the world was that? You keep copses on you just to substitute?"

"That was no dead body." Kimimaro stated cryptically.

A confused Kisame stared at him until he felt something grab him around the ankles. Looking down he saw two pairs of bony hands holding onto his legs, leaving him a sitting duck. Now that the figure was closer and more visible, it was apparent that his shark had attacked a skeleton. Kimimaro's skeleton to be exact. And there had been another one down there.

That had to be the freakiest thing ever. A true skeleton, animated by Kimimaro's chakra and toughened by his kekkei genkai to the durability of steel.

"You are the sickest kid I've ever-." Kisame started to state dryly before he was dragged underwater by Kimimaro's skeleton and wrapped up tightly, leaving Samehada floating on the surface.

A scoff came from Kimimaro as he made to leave before noticing Samehada. He slowly walked over to it and picked it up by the handle before spikes jutted out of the grip and tried to impale his hand, only managing to break the skin.

The real threat though was the fact that it was trying to suck out his chakra, and Kimimaro threw away the wretched weapon as if he were touching nothing but filth. He planned on bringing that weapon into the Oto fold as a gift for Orochimaru, but if it was really that picky about its users to the point that it wouldn't even let him hold it then it was worthless to them.

Besides, it would have to choose a new wielder soon enough because even though Kisame looked like a fish, he was still a man, and being held down by his animated skeletons that were just as strong as him he would drown before they ran out of the chakra that allowed them to move.

XxX

Underneath the water, Kisame grew angrier and angrier as he tried to struggle against Kimimaro's clones trying to keep their death holds on him. He couldn't move his hands to make any hand-seals and even if he could there wasn't anything down there that he could substitute himself with.

They had managed to drag him to the bottom of the lake that he himself had created due to the sheer density of their bone structure, weighing him down with how they had his arms and legs bound.

'To hell with this crap.' These things were allowed to move due to the visible chakra running through them. Well he didn't need Samehada to absorb chakra. All he needed was a water source and contact. He had both. Pulling the chakra straight out of Kimimaro's skeletons, they fell uselessly to the side and freed him up, 'The little shit!'

Kimimaro had already started walking away as if he had been leaving Kisame for dead. That upset him like nothing else. Who did he think he was? With that in mind, underwater Kisame decided to roll through hand-seals and show Kimimaro just how 'dead' he was.

'Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu (Water Release: Great Waterfall Jutsu)!'

XxX

Now back on regular land again after leaving Kisame behind to die, Kimimaro was thoroughly on his way back to the hidden base to take care of Itachi before he got there, but stopped and turned around when he heard the sound of crashing water weaving its way through the trees.

Without saying another word, he turned and ran away from the sound as fast as he could as a massive wave came his way, high enough to break some of the flimsier trees up at their heights.

Even with his best efforts, there wasn't going to be any outrunning that water once it decided to descend and crash down the way it looked like it was going to, and Kimimaro knew it. But he didn't have to run that far. At the risk of dead-ending himself, Kimimaro ran towards a cliff wall with a small fissure in the rock. A death trap in a situation like this, as once the water hit it, it simply pushed on through.

He ran until he finally reached a small opening in the ground and slid for home, depositing himself inside before he could be effectively smashed to oblivion by the raging waves against the rocks and the cliff walls around him.

XxX

Asuma, Shikamaru, and Yamato were all thoroughly soaked and panting heavily at what they had just managed to avoid thanks in part to some quick thinking and the special abilities of Yamato. When a wave began pouring through the forest they were getting recon on, the Mokuton saved their collective asses and allowed them to ride it out.

"What the hell just happened?" Asuma asked, a bit bewildered at what he had just dealt with. There hadn't been any warning or anything. Who had discovered them? They had been very quiet as they moved along and hadn't come across a hostile soul yet.

Shikamaru spit out a good amount of water and dragged a hand down his drenched face with a scowl replacing it afterwards, "I don't know why you're asking us. We were right here with you the whole time. No one else saw anything you didn't Asuma."

Taking note of the fact that the team was alright, Yamato just shook his head at Asuma beginning to bemoan the loss of the pack of cigarettes he had stashed in the pocket of his flak jacket, "There's a chance that one of the other teams were discovered and that was an attack from that battle."

"Or…" Shikamaru said in return, "Maybe Akatsuki is already here? Naruto said that they were supposed to be on the way too, just like we were." He should have stayed on the ship. But then again, his friends were there and his sensei was too. No way he'd let them walk onto that rock of doom without him, "So what's the call taichou?"

Yamato already had a plan of action, as they were only meant to observe and report to the Kiri ANBU team when they finally arrived within the hour, but he heard the splitting of a tree over in the direction that the wave had come from and turned that way to see something fast coming their way, "Scatter!"

Through the trees there was a path being made that seemed to be turning the ground into some kind of fluid, making it easy for whatever was inside of it to pass through it and toward the Konoha group quickly, as if it cutting straight through.

Appropriate because Samehada was sticking out of the ground like a shark fin sticking out of the ocean as it moved inside of the jutsu. After getting close enough, Kisame burst from the ground up at the evading Yamato, spinning like a top and intending to slash through him had Yamato not been quick to act with three hand-seals that he had prepared the moment he became aware of the threat, "Moku Bunshin no Jutsu (Wood Clone Jutsu)!"

A wooden dummy emerged from Yamato's body in front of him and was then rendered to splinters by the attack of Kisame, but that was what it had been meant for the entire time so that Yamato could get himself farther away from their new assailant.

"Heh." Kisame looked around at Yamato, Shikamaru, and Asuma who were all ready to fight in their own particular ways, "Well I was looking for some Oto punk that tried to cut loose from me before we were done, but when Samehada started searching for him you guys where what we felt closest." The scales on the massive sword twitched and Kisame looked over at Yamato, "Samehada really likes the cut of your chakra friend."

All of them took note of the red clouds on Kisame's black cloak, and all of them knew of Kisame's description from the bingo books. It was obvious to anyone ninja-savvy who he was. He didn't have features that were hard to distinguish.

With what stood before them, Asuma voiced the concern that all three of the Konoha ninjas felt at the same time, "Crap…"

"I'm not sure, but I think I'd rather have to fight Uchiha Itachi." Shikamaru commented as things seemed to have slowed to a bit of a standoff.

This was not a mere standoff though. While Kisame would never dazzle anyone with his general intellect, he was one of the greatest shinobi ever produced by Kirigakure, and he got to that level with an intellect molded for the battlefield, 'I'm facing a Nara that probably won't fight me directly, Sarutobi Asuma who could be a bit of a threat here, and Mokuton no Tenzo… enough said.' He thought about his chances for a split second before grinning sharply, "I like these odds."

Itachi could handle capturing the Sanbi. If Kimimaro retreated to the base he would just wind up getting himself killed anyway.

Great, so there was going to be a fight regardless.

"That makes one of us." Shikamaru quipped before feigning a move forward. Instead of him stepping forth, Asuma was the first to lead the way in attacking Kisame. Trench knives in hand he was set to launch a punching attack that Kisame seemed prepared to defend against before at the last second he jumped over Asuma's head out of the way completely.

"Wind chakra eh?" Kisame remarked as he avoided the move, "Thought you could try to get me with an invisible blade at the end of those knives of yours? It would have gone right around Samehada's guard." Once his feet touched the ground he immediately set himself after Shikamaru, "Best to kill of the brain first!"

"Doton: Doryuusou (Earth Release: Earth Flow Spears)!"

Spikes shot out of the ground and diverted Kisame's path away from Shikamaru who moved seamlessly with the opening presented to him. Making the rat seal he quickly snaked his shadow through the spikes and wound up getting Kisame in a trapped position. Asuma moved to immediately close in for the kill the moment that Shikamaru immobilized him.

It was not to be though, as Kisame stabbed the top of Samehada right into the ground to cut Shikamaru's shadow before it attached to his own. Much to Shikamaru's surprise it actually worked, and Kisame immediately turned around and punched the attacking Asuma in the face before he could behead him.

The fact that Samehada could absorb chakra wasn't exactly a mystery to those that were studious enough to know of such a dangerous man's abilities, but Shikamaru never knew that it could do such a thing to the chakra that allowed his shadow to stretch, 'His sword can cut through chakra-based techniques even if the chakra's been nature transformed…'

Asuma was floored from the shot and sent flying back from the impact of the punch. His body rolled about on the ground until he came to a stop and looked up at Kisame with a wince and a heavily swollen jaw, "Oh man… I haven't been punched like that in a long time."

Gritting his teeth at their difficult enemy, Shikamaru switched his rat hand-seal to a bird one and altered his shadow ninjutsu, "Kage Nui no Jutsu (Shadow Sewing Jutsu)!" The shadow that had been cut off by Samehada warped into several sharp tendrils and sped at Kisame again to try and get an angle on him to stab into him.

"No chance kid!" Kisame began dexterously fending off Shikamaru's shadow threads with Samehada. The sword managed to cut through them, but it did nothing to keep the attack from continuing, as more shadow stretched from where he had cut them, "You're not getting around my guard and Samehada is having a good day eating your chakra like this!"

'Damn it.' Shikamaru pulled his shadow back, looking a bit winded, 'He wasn't just stealing the chakra I was putting into the attack.' So how was he going to detain him then? His shadow was not working here. As long as Kisame had a hold of Samehada even if he managed to latch his shadow onto the other man's, Samehada being in his hand made the sword's shadow a part of his own.

And that was basically the same as touching it.

Yamato had been scrutinizing the scene near Shikamaru and noticed the look of tension on the younger man's face, "What's on your mind Shikamaru?"

"As long as he's got that sword I can't get him." If Kisame could defend against his Kage Nui that just outright stabbed him, and regular shadow possession didn't work, something had to change or he was no good in this battle, "There's not much I can do from here."

Yamato saw Asuma get back up, ready to fight again after getting his clock cleaned just a moment ago, "Yes there is. I believe in you, you're smart. Just watch us while we fight him. You'll find an opening. I know you will." Looking over at Shikamaru he saw the genius glaring at him over his plan of action, "I know you hate being put in situations where someone has to get hurt for you to find an advantage, but in ANBU you don't always have the luxury of saving everyone. I know you can do it, and Asuma does too."

"…"

"Would it help you if I said that this was a direct order?"

"Troublesome…"

Not waiting for an actual answer, Yamato went to go and fight Kisame along with Asuma, locking eyes with his fellow jounin to let the man know that it was time to attack. He got a grim nod in response and both of them looked over at Shikamaru almost unnoticeably.

But Shikamaru did notice, and he had to bite back a groan. He really was going to have to wait for his shot wasn't he?

XxX

(With Ino and Anko)

Just because her abilities dealt with the mind more often than not, this didn't mean that Ino had to be the one to deal with the crazies. But here she and Anko stood, facing off with some lunatic by themselves… by a huge cliff.

"So should we, I don't know, run?" Ino said quietly to Anko nearby.

Well it was just supposed to be a reconnaissance mission. The real fighting wasn't supposed to take place at least until the ANBU team arrived from their position within Mizu no Kuni's undisputed borders.

"I don't think this guy is much for letting people get away." Anko's words were then echoed when Juugo seemed to be tired of just staring at his prey and made to make his move on them, "He's a big one though, isn't he?" She asked rhetorically before both she and Ino had to separate to avoid being impaled when his right arm transformed into a bulky, grey multipronged spear that jutted out at them.

Upon clearing Juugo's attempt to skewer them, Ino saw that the large and unstable young man was seemingly targeting Anko as his priority in this battle, at least for now. Who knew what he'd do later? But for the time being she could take advantage of that.

Risking getting close enough to hit him with Shintenshin no Jutsu or Shinranshin no Jutsu was a no-no for now. Not until she was certain one or the other would land, and she wasn't about to project her spirit at a time like this. Not without certainty that her actual body would be safe.

But she had other avenues of attack. She just had to make sure she had a clear line that would avoid Anko first.

"Dokusei Tanki-sha (Toxic Spitfire)!" Ino shot multiple rapid-fire black balls of some sort of fluid from her mouth at Juugo. The poison projectiles missed, but the area on the ground where they hit started to melt, "Damn it, how'd I miss him? He's huge!" And he managed to dodge her jutsu while focusing on getting nearer and nearer to Anko.

After making a pair of hand-seals and jabbing out with a hand, snakes flew from inside of Anko's coat sleeve right at the advancing Juugo, "Sen'eijashu (Hidden Shadow Snake Hands)!"

He merely cleaved the serpents away and kept coming toward his target, not willing to let her live any longer than it took to kill her, "Die! Die! Die! Die!"

Anko meanwhile was grateful that Juugo's attacks were so slow. His right arm was now an axe and he seemed dead set on splitting her into two, but he found it quite difficult to make contact with her. Hate him or not, the simple lessons that Orochimaru taught her as a child held strong; if you get hit you die, so don't get hit. Yeah, he was the best at that.

She managed to retaliate with a punch to the face to make him cease his assault, but it was like punching a rhinoceros when her fist smacked off of the grey flesh on the right side of his face. Seriously, it felt like leather and it didn't even faze him. It just left her open for the tank of a man's large ax arm to cut down on her.

With no chance at moving out of the way it was left to Ino to tackle her out of the way as the weapon split the ground, "Ugh…" Anko groaned as she was pulled back up to her feet, "Why didn't you take him out?"

With a roll of her eyes, Ino set herself back at the ready to fight alongside her senior kunoichi, "Right, because stopping you from getting axed was the wrong move and all." A damn thank you would have been nice, but of course that wasn't Anko's style.

"Whatever." Anko said, dusting her overcoat off as best she could, "We're going to need to hit him together to put this guy down." Yeah, definitely. Working in tandem would definitely take this guy down. For all of that size of his he wasn't exactly the fastest.

Many engine propulsion-like protrusions formed on Juugo's back that began building chakra before he suddenly rocketed himself directly at both Anko and Ino, plowing his entire body into them both and bulldozing them off of their feet, sending them flying toward the cliffside, "Both of you die already!"

Both ladies slid over the edge, seemingly falling into the rocky ocean to their deaths. Just to make sure though, Juugo walked to the edge and looked down to see nothing hanging onto the side, nothing sticking to the walls on the way down. He really knocked the wind out of their sails when he plowed into them.

His partial transformations faded and the killer expression on Juugo's face faded, going back to the normal and peaceful look that usually accompanied him. There was a bit of remorse in his eyes, but these people were there to try and harm Kimimaro or Yukimaru, and this was to help his friend.

As unfortunate as it was that they had to die, if nothing else at least his bloodlust was sated against people that were supposed to be enemies anyway instead of against allies.

Turning away from the cliff and walking back to the forest nearby he resolved that he had to get back to the base. These were not the Akatsuki members that Guren had warned them of, which meant that they were still at large as a threat.

Juugo found his legs ensnared by a pair of hands wrapped around his large ankles, keeping him from leaving the area, "Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu (Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Jutsu)!"

While yanking Juugo underground, Anko pulled herself back above ground with Ino in tow. Both of them looked extremely ruffled from the nasty impact they suffered from Juugo's attack, Anko favoring one of her arms that she now held at her side and both breathing heavily.

A confused Juugo was still wondering what happened, barely given any time at all to register his newfound lack of freedom when a needle was placed in his neck that shut his systems down in a matter of seconds.

Anko looked down at Juugo as he nodded off and turned toward Ino, "I was going to just break his neck, but that works too I guess." She placed her foot on the top of his head and shook his head around, "What was with this guy?"

Ino just shrugged in confusion and looked down at Juugo as well until things grew too silent and she realized that Anko was looking at her expectantly, "What? You want me to find out? Do you know how long that could take?" A smiling Anko was all the answer she needed, "Fine… I should have been a medic."

Not saying a word, Anko placed a hand on her neck where her seal was located, "Focus on looking for memories that have to do with the Cursed Seals until we get summoned to meet back up with the others. I'll keep guard."

Obeying the request of her superior with a nod, Ino kneeled down and placed a hand on the unconscious Juugo's head to begin sifting through his memories. At least he didn't have any blocks on his mind the way that Guren had. This wouldn't take that long then.

But due to the fact that his hands were concealed underground, neither of them noticed that only after a few seconds of being subjugated to Ino's poison, Juugo's fingers twitched.

XxX

(Inside of the Otogakure Base – Laboratory)

Itachi looked through a distorted set of clean beakers placed in a row according to content size on a table. He had come to that portion of the base in order to search for the jinchuuriki that Orochimaru had created for the Sanbi; Yukimaru. Given Orochimaru's penchant for experimentation it wouldn't have surprised him to find the boy strapped to a table and sedated for docility.

But the area was empty. The lab had samples of blood, strange machines with massive wires running from the tops of them that seemed to have chakra samples coursing through them, and many other things. However it also seemed as if no one had been there in months. Apparently the lab was off limits to everyone other than an extremely select few.

Interesting. So that had to mean that Orochimaru hadn't been there in a few months. He probably found it too bothersome to come all the way out there himself those days now that his human trafficking system was set to ferry people back to the mainland from Mizu no Kuni. There was nothing there that he could use though. Damn it, Orochimaru wasn't much for working on things that were medical.

Either way, the target wasn't there.

Well… the intended target wasn't there at least.

"Hello Naruto-kun." Itachi said, not even bothering to turn to the entrance of the open room to address the blond chunin standing there. He wasn't being attacked, so there wasn't much reason to attack in return, "Are you certain that it was wise to come and confront me here?"

Naruto just remained in place where Itachi had discovered him, his goggles down over his eyes in preparation for a conflict, "Well process of elimination. There are friends of mine checking another place in the base which left this part and the jail area, and I sent a clone that way to leave this part for myself."

"Why didn't you send a clone here as well?"

"I did. It found you. I'm not going to make a clone to fight you and blow my cover. I know who you are."

Itachi was amused, but one couldn't tell from the look on his face. It looked just as stony as always, "I wonder why I was able to sense you and not your clone then." Naruto just shrugged in response, "It doesn't matter. You are not our target here. You should wait and take your time to prepare for what will inevitably be coming your way." Was he warning him?

Even so, whether he was or not, Naruto didn't want to have to hear any of that, "I've been preparing for years already." Naruto said, slowly lowering himself to prepare for a fight, "If I'm not ready by now then I guess I just wasn't good enough." Admittedly though, Naruto had better ideas in the past than taking on someone like this, "It doesn't matter, because when you came back the way you got here to begin with we would have fought then."

With a raised eyebrow, Itachi took Naruto's words into account before paying attention to something else, "Are you looking into my eyes right now? That is a grave mistake."

"These lenses are special." Naruto tapped the sides of his goggles, "I've done a lot of work on these for years, and put a chakra dampening seal on them… so that I could definitely kick your brother's ass when we fight again." If you suck at genjutsu why go there? Hide it and avoid it coming into play altogether.

Naruto could break them, but he hated it and the chance of getting stuck in one from mere eye contact was a pain that he just didn't need. Luckily as a kid Sasuke wasn't much for the eye tricks, but as he got older and stronger he would be, and they were still rivals that hadn't fought it out in a definite match yet, something that was still pretty important to Naruto.

This was before he knew that the only other remaining Uchiha Clan member alive was in Akatsuki. Now he felt like a damn prophet for modifying his eyewear. Kami knows that it took long enough to work down the necessary seal to the size it needed to be for each lens without blocking his actual vision.

"You're friends with Sasuke?" Itachi asked, seeming actually interested in something that Naruto said for the first time since they'd met up. He got a sheepish rubbing of the back of Naruto's own neck in response, "So I'd take that as a no."

Hey, it was kind of complicated, "Well we are, but we don't really act like it." There had to be a word created for that kind of thing. It would help him explain it better, "I mean we have our moments. We don't hate each other, I think, but are dead-set on proving that we're better than each other." Come to think of it he hadn't seen that bastard since he'd come back to Konoha.

Nodding in understanding at what Naruto was saying, Itachi deactivated his Sharingan to Naruto's confusion, "I think you'll find that all Uchiha are not created alike. I fight nothing like my brother. I'm certain of it."

'He turned his Sharingan off?' Naruto thought to himself. Damn it, he was banking on random up close flashes of his sonar jutsu to throw Itachi off. It was the template for battling doujutsu users that he'd set up back as a kid. While it would bother a Sharingan user instead of flashbanging a Byakugan user, it was still a weapon and an advantage he had held. But not if Itachi was willing to fight him without it, "You might need that to beat me."

"We'll see." Itachi said before he threw dozens of shuriken at Naruto, utterly shocking him with the raw hand speed displayed. It was as if his hands hadn't even moved from his side. It wasn't even enough time for Naruto to draw his machete to parry, he had to actually move and dodge the metal projectiles, "What a strange weapon."

Almost freezing up in sheer shock, Naruto still managed to jump as far away as he could, turning around to find Itachi at his back, 'That was incredible! Even Ero-sensei isn't that fast!' He didn't even allow Naruto the time to muster a counter-effort after missing with his shuriken. Naruto put his hand up to take his machete from his back, but Itachi was right in his face before he even touched the handle.

His hand lashed out like lightning for Naruto's neck, but Naruto's reflexes and experience with people trying to overpower him in the past allowed him to catch Itachi's wrist short of his hand grasping his throat. Naruto held tight in an iron grip that Itachi couldn't pull away from.

Once more, surprising Naruto with his speed, Itachi lashed out with a kunai utilizing his free hand that Naruto had to lean back and let go to avoid. He never even saw Itachi reach for or draw the weapon, and it came before Naruto could even make a fight-ending move. Itachi managed to lash out with a kick to the chest that hit Naruto and knocked both combatants away from each other, spinning from the separate impacts before they faced off again.

Finally given an opening to draw his weapon of choice, Naruto pulled out his machete and went forward to attack Itachi head-on, but when he didn't move to dodge or react Naruto stopped his approach and leapt away just as Itachi blew up, "Exploding clones! Oh you bastard." He almost got too close to avoid that move.

Retreating from the laboratory, Naruto made his way back down the hall and found Itachi not far behind him. Naruto let out a pulse of his sonar jutsu to make sure that Itachi had his Sharingan deactivated before jumping off of a side wall in the corridor and turning to face him after concealing his hand-seals, "Moegara Nagare no Jutsu (Cinder Stream Jutsu)!"

Naruto spewed a billowing cloud of hot ash from his mouth directly at Itachi who had no way to go around the attack due to the constrictive hallway that they were in. There was no advancing his way from the lab for Itachi. Not unless he wanted to be burned to the bone.

A lack of further pursuit prompted Naruto to turn around and venture a daring move, spinning his machete like a fan blade, "Suishinki Haretsu Bunkatsu-sen (Propeller Burst Splitter)!" With wind chakra he blew the ash in Itachi's direction, placing some slicing force behind the gale as a little extra for him. His offensive rush ended when a flock of crows flew through the ash and the wind past Naruto.

But following them there came a large fireball that filled the hallway and flew directly toward Naruto. Turning on his heels Naruto ran in the exact opposite direction to escape flaming death. Damn those Uchiha and their kickass fire ninjutsu. Why were they so good at them?

Eventually though, the hall split into a fork and Naruto dove toward the left turn, letting Itachi's fireball slam against the wall and engulf it in flames that continued to burn. Getting up from the ground where he dove, Naruto got near the corner of the wall and stuck an explosive tag there before backing away and preparing for Itachi to make the turn to face him, his hands in a ram seal prepared to remotely activate it the second he did.

To Naruto's surprise, the tag fizzled out on the wall, getting him to growl lowly. Itachi was really troubling. How in the world he deactivated his tag without even touching it Naruto would never know, but he wished he did because that just didn't seem fair.

Taking his machete in hand, Naruto channeled wind chakra through it and hurled it at the wall trying to take an angle on the corner that separated both he and Itachi from one another, "Setsudanki Hassha (Slingshot Guillotine)!" It sliced right through the wall like it was butter and with a jerk of the chain attached, Naruto sliced out an entire segment of the wall that Itachi had to leap into view to avoid.

While yanking his machete back into his hand, Naruto dashed toward the visible Itachi and caught the weapon just as he got within range. A clash of blades followed, with Naruto meeting his machete with Itachi's kunai.

Itachi tried to knee at one of Naruto's legs to knock his balance off, but Naruto's taijutsu wasn't too shabby at all and he merely blocked him, instead turning Itachi and pushing him against the wall as he slowly started overpowering him, "What does Akatsuki want with the biju?" Naruto asked Itachi as he slowly started gaining a pushing edge, moving the blade of his machete closer to Itachi.

"It is of no importance." Itachi said, struggling in return. It was lucky Naruto was only using one hand, "You've grown quite a bit from the chunin exams all those years ago Naruto-kun. Several of your moves have been quite surprising." Making small talk during a death struggle that he was apparently losing? Powerful ninjas were weird.

"You're really good too." Naruto begrudgingly admitted, "If you fight this good without even pulling out your Sharingan, it's kind of hard to think about what you'd do if you had it on." But that was neither here nor there. It wasn't on, and with that in mind Naruto still had one free hand to use while pinning Itachi to the wall with his machete. A spinning blue ball of chakra formed in his left hand that he then slammed forward, "Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)!"

The wall behind Itachi was rendered to rubble via the attack making contact, but as the debris and dust flew, both Naruto and Itachi jumped away from each other, separated by the midair rubbish. The Akatsuki cloak of Itachi was filthy as was Naruto's own attire.

Naruto stared at his left hand and then at the stuff in the air hindering his view of Itachi. A small amount of blood dripped from the tip of Naruto's machete onto the ground indicating that he had indeed scored a wound, but not nearly the kind that he wanted and had skillfully set up, 'He took the cut so he could free up a hand to knock my Rasengan arm off.'

If his Rasengan had connected they probably would have had to peel Itachi off of the wall. But ifs didn't win battles, fretting over them while you were still fighting just managed to get you killed.

Itachi's bicep had taken a pretty nasty injury to it, bleeding down his arm and onto the ground, but other than that his face didn't show any worry. It was clear that Naruto would have rather taken that arm home with him if he'd done that much to force him to choose an ultimatum.

"That was a good try." Itachi said, holding up his arm and showing Naruto how much it was bleeding. Damn it, if he could do that then all of that blood was just for show. Nothing serious had been done to it, "Making me choose either option A or option B. Too bad I created an option C for myself." His reflexes just weren't fair.

Before choosing to proceed forward and continue fighting, Naruto stopped completely and took notice of the side of the hall that he was on. Without saying another word, Naruto placed the flat of one of his palms onto the wall, much to Itachi's confusion.

He didn't make another move until he started breathing slowly and his whisker-marks seemed to darken and deepen on his cheeks. A red aura began to form around his body in the outline of a fox with one tail and he twisted his hand against the wall before suddenly clinching it into a fist and pulling it away, "Giga Shintou (Giga Impact)!"

A deep fissure formed in the wall and spider-webbed to the roof and to the floor, cracking them both and beginning to cause a cave-in of the hall.

'He utilized the chakra of the Kyuubi to generate the power he needed to destroy the entire pathway in one move.' Itachi thought to himself as he saw things beginning to come down around them, 'What is he doing?' He then watched Naruto grin with his extra sharp canines before vanishing in a red blur in the opposite direction, 'He's trapping me?'

The last place Itachi wanted to be was trapped inside of the underground base of Orochimaru. He would be damned if he found himself trapped underground to be crushed in that tiny little corridor. He turned his Sharingan on and dodged the falling rocks to head off in the same direction as Naruto in pursuit. He was fast enough to catch up and see the bright red beacon that was Naruto's chakra as the place came down around them.

As they ran Naruto could feel Itachi's presence behind him and turned to see that he was actually catching up, 'How fast is this guy?' He thought to himself before turning back ahead and lashing out with his chakra tail to strike at the walls and help it come down faster. It did little good as Itachi still kept advancing. Even thrusting the tail out at Itachi directly did nothing as he jumped and stuck to the roof while running until it retracted.

Light at the end of the tunnel came and both Naruto and Itachi shot out of there like bullets just as the entrance to it collapsed, leaving them both in the main chamber that led to the three paths where Naruto had started from.

Both Itachi and a Kyuubi-charge Naruto stared at each other tentatively, "That was a dirty trick Naruto-kun." Itachi said as Naruto's tail swished behind him impatiently, "Trying to bury me alive."

All Naruto did was shrug in return, "You're trying to kill me and capture the Kyuubi. I'll fight fair when I'm in a situation where I won't die painfully after I lose."

"How do you know it will be painful?"

"You're seriously telling me it wouldn't be?"

"No… I was just wondering how you came to the conclusion that it was."

A visible frown came upon Naruto's face while Itachi remained deadpan, but that didn't mean anything. Naruto was quite certain that Itachi was messing with him verbally. Damn it he was good at mid-fight banter. Totally unflappable. Nothing shook the guy, and nothing seemed to surprise him no matter what Naruto tried, "So… round two?"

"If we must." Itachi said in consent to continuing the fight. For someone that killed his entire clan and was after Naruto's still-beating heart or however they were going to extract his biju, he wasn't such a bad guy. He definitely wasn't an outright jerk.

Too bad that didn't mean anything. They were still on exact opposite sides.

Naruto's muscles tensed in preparation for the next move to be made, but before anything else could happen, countless sharp bones rained down on both of them from above, busting through the ventilation shaft in the ceiling meant to provide air to that part of the facility.

Both Naruto and Itachi stuck to the walls of the chamber as Kimimaro dropped down, covered in the marks from his Cursed Seal, "It seems as if we have an infestation problem." And in response to the little problem that had befallen the base that he was in charge of, Kimimaro let his seal spread.

Naruto's eyes widened at the sight of it, 'That's like the seal that's on Sasuke.' Naruto noted in remembrance as he watched Kimimaro transform, "What the hell?"

Kimimaro's skin grey dark grey with six large bones sticking out of the sides of his back and a long thick tail with bones sticking out of it forming on his backside. Both Naruto and Itachi could only stare at the sight of watching Kimimaro's body composition change entirely.

'This…' Itachi thought to himself, visibly alarmed at what he was seeing, 'Orochimaru put this on my brother?'

After finishing his grotesque metamorphosis, Kimimaro held out his hands at both Naruto and Itachi as the sharp tips of bones emerged from his palms, "Tsuin Kussaku Hassha (Twin Drilling Missiles)!" More of the bones poked out to reveal that the tips were to tight spirals, which were how the bones had been manipulated, and just like that they both fired at Naruto and Itachi each with speed as if they were shot from cannons.

Each bone utterly pulverized the wall that it hit on impact, turning them to rubble. But both Naruto and Itachi moved, seeming to take offense to Kimimaro interrupting their ongoing tiff, as both moved to incorporate him into the fray if he was so dead set on interjecting himself.

Naruto hurled rudimentary balls of sheer wind chakra compacted by the Kyuubi's chakra using his hands and chakra tail while Itachi threw a handful of shuriken while simultaneously breathing fire on them and infusing them with fire release, "Katon: Housenka Tsumabeni (Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Flower Nail Crimson)!"

Both attacks were aimed at Kimimaro and mixed to cause a fiery explosion that filled the chamber and rocked the base to its core.

XxX

(Elsewhere in the Base)

The sounds of battle reached deeply inside of the barracks area of the hideout as Guren felt like things were closing in. If she could hear the battle from all the way where she was, that idiot Kimimaro was going to probably go overboard which would result in the entire place coming down. When that asshole chose to go all out and kill someone he didn't know when to stop.

"Come on Yukimaru, we've got to get out of here." Guren said, leading Yukimaru along, running and allowing the younger boy to keep pace with her so that she didn't lose him, "We need to take the back way. I'll get us somewhere safe. We can't let them get you."

Orochimaru needed this boy's body. A jinchuuriki host was far too valuable to be allowed to slip out of his grasp. A body that potentially strong could do anything he dreamed to with his physiology.

Struggling to keep up with the kunoichi that was his keeper for the time being, Yukimaru felt a sense of dread inside of his chest, "Is it the Akatsuki group?" He had been around in Otogakure long enough to know that that group was the absolute worst of the worst, and he knew exactly what they wanted from them. They wanted him, to take his life and steal the Sanbi from within his body.

From where they were in the base they could see the ocean through the openings carved out in the wall to somewhat resemble windows. It was still a rough one hundred foot descent to the jagged rocky water before they could make it there.

"It probably is." Guren told him, not seeing the point in hiding the truth from him. There was no need to sugarcoat it, "It could also be Konoha, it could also be Kiri. Don't worry about that, you just worry about getting out of here." For some reason the air began to chill sharply, but it was ignored until she pulled Yukimaru out of the way of a pair of needles aimed for the both of them. At that point a thick wall of solid ice inexplicably formed in front of them, blocking them from continuing on their path.

Narrowing her eyes, Guren turned around and found Haku and Suigetsu standing behind her. Haku's hand was on the wall with a frost trail leading to the point where an ice barrier blocked them off.

"Sorry." Haku said, actually sounding apologetic about what they were doing despite the hunter-nin mask on her face, "But we can't let you just leave with that boy." She remarked, getting a flinch out of Yukimaru, "He needs to come with us back to Kirigakure."

Guren let out a scoff and stood in front of Yukimaru, shielding him from possible danger, "So that your village can have that military superiority it needs to save face from that war of yours? You're just going to use him as a weapon."

Both Haku and Suigetsu looked at each other momentarily before the latter shrugged and addressed Guren's point, "Yeah, and? It's better than making him into a human trench coat like how Orochimaru's going to do." He heard Yukimaru gasp and lazily cleaned out his ear with a finger as if he were just shooting the breeze, "Yeah kid, you didn't know? That's not too surprising since I doubt that snake wants you going full biju freak out on him when he tries to take your body."

"Stop talking." Guren demanded sharply, narrowing her eyes at Suigetsu before speaking to her young charge, "Yukimaru, if these people wind up taking you they'll just try to condition you, and if that fails they'll just take the Sanbi out of you and place it into another. Everything that Orochimaru-sama saw that was special in you will be wasted."

Yukimaru's eyes quivered at the thought of dying after finding a place like Otogakure where he had finally been able to fall in with others that found something in him worth taking stock in, "No… this is my home. My place is here."

Haku just shook her head and Suigetsu let out a sigh as he slung Kubikiribouchou from his back and the blade of the massive sword hit the ground with a clang, "Listen kid… that thing you've got inside of you, it used to be in Kiri's Mizukage until Orochimaru took him out, so it's ours anyway. Now we'll take the whole package deal of you with it and treat you like a Kiri ninja with the full concessions, no stress, but if you're gonna be a pain I can just kick this chick's ass and Haku-chan here can flash-freeze you so we can take you back. Either way works just fine with me."

While she wished that Suigetsu had a more subtle way of putting things into perspective, Haku wasn't about to lie and claim that they weren't going to do exactly that if it came to it. It was a mission, one of great importance, and it didn't necessarily involve killing so it wasn't one she was about to fail on purpose.

A crystal blade formed on Guren's forearm, but Haku didn't seem alarmed by this, "You have a rare kekkei genkai too. From what I've been told of your abilities by my friends you can crystallize things down to their cellular level can you not? I think you'll find that this presents you with no advantage in a battle with me."

"Don't spoil the surprise honey." Suigetsu joked, holding up his legendary sword with two hands as he prepared to fight, "Let her find out the fun way if she really wants to keep the brat from us like this."

A growl came from Guren's throat at the prospect of fighting these people two-on-one. She wasn't accustomed to being on the wrong end of a numbers advantage, she normally had hordes of flunkies to throw at the enemy to fight, but all she had here was Yukimaru, and he was strictly VIP status.

But that didn't mean he was entirely useless either, even if they were technically cornered.

"Yukimaru." Guren said lowly, "Have you progressed farther in your control of the Sanbi since the last time I was in Mizu no Kuni?" She asked, getting a nod out of the youngster, "Well I want you to cut loose as much as you can."

"What if I lose control?" Yukimaru asked worriedly. His powers let him tame the Sanbi by sheer will and call upon some of its abilities, but he was afraid that if things got too intense he'd slip up and get Guren hurt. He didn't want that, he actually liked her a lot, "You might get-."

"Who do you think I am kid?" A confident-looking Guren said, putting up a front to get him to fight with her, "If things go bad I can bring you back under control. There's a reason I spent all of that time with you back when it first got sealed inside of you." Emboldened a bit from her statement, Yukimaru prepared himself to fight while Guren turned back to Haku and Suigetsu, "You both made the last mistakes of your lives coming here. Yukimaru has the Sanbi now, you lost it, your village should have just dealt with it."

"Oh but it did." Haku said, brandishing more senbon for use in battle, "Or should I say it is… because that of course is why we were dispatched; to handle Otogakure's thievery and kidnapping accordingly."

Omake: Guardian Days 5

(Nine Months after Naruto and Shikamaru's Acceptance)

Another day, another protection detail for a traveling noble. Most of the job was obviously protecting others as the name of the group was the Twelve Guardian Ninja, but most of the time they never really got to protect anyone that tended to get into many scrapes.

Naruto was promised that there would be more trouble when the daimyo took his yearly tour of the country, and it was always fun when they'd travel with him on his trips to the chunin exams twice a year, so there was that to look forward to.

But at the moment he was walking alongside a carriage rolling down a countryside road slowly. He was one of three guardians on this mission. It was him taking point and walking out in front with his clones securing the perimeter off-road, the colorful kimono-clad Kotoko who was sitting on the roof of the carriage above the driver's seat seemingly without a care in the world as she strummed at her shamisen serenely.

The third member of their team taking the rear of the carriage was someone that had been in the group before Naruto. A monk of some sort named Kenta. He was older than both Naruto and even Kotoko, being a grown man, and he towered over both of them. He was an extremely muscular dark-skinned man that wore a wicker helmet covering his entire head and keeping his face from view. Not even his eyes were visible. He wore no shirt, just loose lavender pants with his ankles bandaged down at his sandals and the guardian sash around his waist. In his hand he carried a long staff with multiple golden rings at the top of it.

A pretty scary looking guy really.

It had been the first mission that Naruto had ever gone on with this particular member of the Guardian Ninja group, and he had only met him once back during his training. He had been gone on a long mission and had stopped back for a week or so to meet the new blood before going off on another one.

"Man…" Naruto complained aloud, "Why do I have to take point?" He asked, craning his neck to look back and up at Kotoko, "My clones are all over the place keeping track of what's around us." If Shikamaru had been there he'd have been bitching from the very start about having to walk. They'd been travelling for two days.

"It's standard operating procedure Naruto-kun." Kotoko chimed melodiously, eyes closed in her permanent smile, "You're down there and I'm up here because I am a virtuous lady of refinement and purity. And you are a ragamuffin with a foul mouth that I had to clean out with soap." Seriously, she took a bar of soap to his mouth after he cursed them following a rather brutal training session, "Aside from that, would you really force me to walk all the way to the town we'll be stopping at for the night?"

He would. Without question he would, and he'd smile while he did it. Chivalry didn't mean jack when you were a ninja.

Still, he would not stop harping on her about why he couldn't sit on top of the carriage. She could go inside. That was where she had been when they had started, right along with their protectee until a few hours ago, "Well why can't Kenta take point and you go inside while I sit on the roof? He's huge! He'll be fine. He's like three of me."

Kotoko just laughed slightly at his query and shook her head, "Oh, but Naruto-kun… compared to Kenta-chan you're brand new. He's done this a million-billion times so he's earned the right to take the cushier assignment. He is your senpai. He already knows how this goes. You're the one that needs seasoning. The only reason he's not up here too with me is because he's massive."

Naruto looked back at the silent and hulking brand new guardian and just stared for a bit. He was well over twenty years old and probably had twice or three times the experience he did. It was surprising that with everything Naruto had been saying for the past three hours trying to start up some conversation he hadn't responded or cracked him in the head to get him to shut up.

As far as Naruto knew Kenta never talked. The imposing man had yet to say more than two words to anyone, and apparently none of them had ever seen him without that fucking basket on his head.

"Besides." Kotoko continued idly while beginning a new song on her instrument of death, "I think if I go back inside I might wind up killing one of the nobles of the court. He's a little handsy. I told him that he was a married man, but no that didn't seem to matter. So I knocked him out."

That prompted Naruto to look at the borderline insane woman with an owlish expression before he moved back and opened the door to look inside. And indeed the fancily dressed noble was out cold with a contusion on his noggin. Probably from where Kotoko had dinged him with her shamisen. Also in the carriage was the frightened attendant of the noble seemingly frozen in shock or fear of Kotoko, either one or the other.

"Nobuyuki's not gonna like this." Naruto mentioned under his breath as he retook his position at the front, even though he really didn't care other than how it affected his job, "…Shizune-nee will though, she hates that guy." And that made him feel better. Anything that made that sweet dark-haired medic smile was great.

Kenta just kept walking behind them, not seeming to have an opinion on what they had both just learned, but then again with that damn basket on his head who really knew what he was thinking.

"You don't talk much do you?" Naruto asked Kenta, only for the man to continue walking as if he were ignoring him, something that annoyed Naruto greatly, "Oi, don't think just because you're huge that I can't-."

"He's taken a vow of silence Naruto-kun." Kotoko mentioned, keeping Naruto from bristling up too heavily for no real reason. He was so easy to rile up, like a big orange-clad puppy. As cute as she found it, this was not the time or the place, "He can't speak or take that helmet off while the sun is up. Though I do think he should carry a notepad or something to communicate with. Ooh, or we could all learn sign language! But Sadao-kun is a monk of a different sect and has his own things that he can't do too. He just muttered something about stupid when I brought it up and walked away."

Naruto's mouth formed a silent 'oh' and he turned back to Kenta with a sheepish grin, "Sorry about that. If it makes you feel any better you can yell at me later when the sun goes down." Kenta just nodded in acknowledgment. Naruto didn't know what that meant, but at least he assumed that the man forgave him.

"Aww, that's so cute." Kotoko remarked, starting a new tune, more upbeat than the previous one, "Naruto-kun and Kenta-chan are friends. I will play us a song commemorating the occasion!"

"Play one that commemorates us getting suspended when we get back." Naruto spoke up over the sound of Kotoko's next song, hands placed behind his neck a bit lazily, "Because you knocked out the guy we're supposed to be protecting."

It was unknown what was weirder... the fact that she stopped and took Naruto's clearly sarcastic request, or the fact that Kotoko apparently did have a song that she played to commemorate getting suspended. That meant that this kind of thing happened enough for her to endeavor to learn it.

So when it came to seniors to defer to on this mission he had to pick between a scary-big functional mute and a beautiful homicidal maniac. It had to be a cold day in hell, because Uzumaki Naruto was currently the sanest member of his squad.

For how long that would last was to be determined.

This job man…

Jutsu List

Kutai Bunshin no Jutsu (Skeleton Clone Jutsu). B-rank ninjutsu, kekkei genkai, clone technique. With the power of the cursed seal increasing the regenerative power of Kimimaro's Shikotsumyaku bloodline he expunges an entire skeleton from his body. It is just as durable as Kimimaro's own skeleton due to the chakra passing through the bones animating it temporarily and is extremely difficult to destroy, but it is unable to utilize ninjutsu. A weakness of this technique is the time it takes to generate the clone due to the fact that it must keep Kimimaro's existing skeleton in mind while it is being formed. It takes five seconds for a complete skeleton to fully emerge from his body.

Tsuin Kussaku Hassha (Twin Drilling Missiles). Taijutsu, kekkei genkai, offensive, mid-to-long range. This jutsu melds the ulna and radius bones of the user, twisting them into a spiral pattern before firing them from the arms via the palms. The design of the attack is constructed so that the sharpened bones spin for added speed and accuracy. While the rate of fire is lower than Teshi Sendan (Ten-Finger Drilling Bullets), the potential destructive power of this jutsu is frighteningly high, easily able to obliterate rock on contact.

Ongoing Stats (Out of 5)

Guardian Ninja

Kenta

Ninjutsu: 3

Taijutsu: 4

Genjutsu: 2.5

Intelligence: 4

Strength: 4.5

Speed: 2.5

Stamina: 3.5

Hand-Seals: 2

Total Score: 26