The sealed kunai

Chapter 22: Land of my Forefathers

Waking up after getting your ass kicked is never a very fun thing to do. Waking up after getting your ass kicked while stuck down under a pool of water? Well...

"*cough cough cough*"

Naruto emerged from an underground lake, dragging Sai to the rocky shore before collapsing on his back, clearing his lungs of the copious amounts of liquid he had ingested., "*cough cough* You alright Sai-kouhai?"

"..."

Naruto frowned and took Sai's pulse. He was still alive and well, but it was now abundantly clear that the pale ninja was indeed suffering from chakra exhaustion. Naruto checked to see if he was still properly breathing and the results gave his eye something of a twitch, 'How can I be the one that actually woke up and dragged us out of the water and yet he's the one that didn't get a drop of excess water in his lungs?'

Naruto sighed and let Sai be for the time being. He took the time to look around the cave they were stuck in. From the roof, the water from the whirlpool was coming through, obviously how they had gotten in, but where was all of the water going?

Naruto formed a Kage Bunshin and had it jump into the water to look for a path to move towards while he rested and took stock of the situation at hand. As the clone submerged itself under the lake, Naruto leaned against a rock near Sai. Well their mission was an utter failure he had to say. All of the things that they looked through brought them nothing but misery, pain, anger (if Sai could even get angry, Naruto wasn't sure), and a lot of wasted time. Before they could even check the last tower to see if there was anything of use in there the thing was blown to hell by Deidara, an explosives specialist.

After a short fight, Naruto had attempted to flee from the rooftop they had managed to be trapped on by jumping into the raging waters below, right into a whirlpool. Needless to say, the fight didn't go so well for the two Konoha ninja. Deidara's ability to keep the battle at a range that Naruto and Sai couldn't contend at was the real issue of the battle. Deidara and his clay bombs were far too versatile for them to attempt fighting him at a distance, and with their inability to close the distance it was only a matter of time. They had been fighting all day long, whether it be the traps they were forced to survive, or the soulless golem that tried to kill them in the first tower, by the time they fought Deidara they had been fighting all day long.

Naruto started checking his equipment, but when he reached for the ninjato on his back he got an unpleasant surprise, "Fuck! My sword is broken again?" Naruto's sheath and blade had been busted, possibly when he fell onto the rooftop from so high in the air during the fight with Deidara. A few explosions caught him as well when he attempted to flee towards the edge so there could have been another way they broke as well. Who knew where he had deposited the broken pieces? There was no way for him to repair it this time.

This was just not his day. He and his partner had been run ragged the entire time and were attacked by a fresh opponent with superior tactics and the means to execute his gameplan.

Naruto's body didn't really register the fatigue, the things he did for his own personal training saw to that. However Sai didn't have his level of stamina, nor his ability to instantly heal the wounds he suffered getting through the traps, and injuries accumulate.

Naruto sighed as he looked at Sai's unconscious form, "Damn it kouhai, I told you to tell me if you were hurt or overexerted..." Naruto checked himself over, he didn't have anything hurt on him, he was absolutely fine other than his pride. And that had taken a vicious beating, as he didn't land a single shot on Deidara the entire time. Even his new super-charged explosive tag wasn't enough to finish him off.

"Why didn't you use my chakra? That would have made the results of the battle an afterthought." The Kyuubi decided to chime in. Naruto couldn't say he was ungrateful for the distraction, there wasn't much he could do at the moment and reflecting on what happened with a second opinion until Sai woke up was as good a time waster as he was going to get.