Naruto:A New Path

No Holding Back

Night fell on the quiet forests that stretched around the Land of Fire. Shikamaru, Shino, Lee and Kiba leapt from tree to tree, hoping to make it to their destination soon. Soon after their break they had set off again. Lee's and Kiba's wounds had been patched up with the little medical knowledge the group had. The other two hadn't been too hurt aside from having a light case of chakra exhaustion and were okay to travel after a quick rest.
As of now they were getting closer to the western border of the Land of Fire. They had passed many small rivers and Shikamaru instantly knew that they were almost to the Land of Rivers, where one of the Sound's bases was said to be. It bothered the Chunin to have been assigned with such a mission since he didn't think that they were really ready since their conflict with Sound could be seen as a kind of war.
Shikamaru shook his head, getting rid of those thoughts. He was close to his destination and he had no more time to think on the matter.
"We're stopping here," he suddenly declared, breaking the utter silence that surrounded the forest. He landed on the ground with no trouble and turned to his team, watching him do the same. A frown appeared on his face when he noticed the wince on Lee's face when landing.
"Why here?" Shino asked in a calm voice. They had stopped in a small clearing near a cliff with a river running on the bottom of it. A waterfall could be heard in the distance but couldn't be seen due to the darkness of the night.
Shikamaru crossed his arms and sighed. "We're waiting for another team to show up, remember that," he stated with a tired look on his face. "There's no doubt that they have a tracker ninja or someone with those kinds of abilities on their team. We're close to the next base and this spot is hidden from where it supposedly is, yet we'll still be visible to the other team."
Lee grinned. "A much youthful decision," he praised in his usual cheerful voice, "It always warms my soul when a ninja thinks of others first. Such an act of youth! Such a beautiful flame!"
"Calm down already," Kiba growled in an annoyed tone as he nursed his ears, having been standing next to Lee hadn't been one of his brightest ideas. Akamaru barked in agreement as it jumped to Kiba's head.
"But such an act of youth demands praise," Lee argued with a frown.
"Enough," Shikamaru sighed out, "We're supposed to be quiet or else we'll be spotted."
"He's right," Shino agreed as he leaned against a tree, still feeling a little fatigue from the earlier fights.
"Who are we waiting for anyway?" Kiba asked with a cocky grin, "I bet they aren't stronger than us but let's just hope that they'll be able to keep up."
Shikamaru sighed once again, his assigned team already getting on his nerves. "The Hokage chose the teams," he began with his gaze on the star-filled sky, slightly disappointed at the lack of clouds, "I'm sure that the Hokage sent a group of smart and mature ninja."
"Naruto and Ino sitting in a tree!" sang Choji with a smile on his face.
"Will you shut up already!" Naruto and Ino exclaimed with matching blushes on their faces. Choji simply chuckled and turned his gaze away from them with a knowing look, making the two blonds think that telling their friends about their relationship hadn't been a smart idea.
Neji simply watched the three ninja with an amused grin. They had been like this for a few hours and yet he never grew tired of Naruto and Ino's flushed expressions whenever Choji would tease them. It was all good fun and he felt glad to be part of it, not like before when he would look at people in annoyance.
"We're almost there anyway so be quiet," Naruto growled with the blush still on his face.
Team Naruto had been on the move for a few hours. They had taken a small break in order to check over each other's wounds and found that Choji was the most hurt, though it was only a few cuts on his back. The rest of the team had suffered from a case of chakra exhaustion, though it wasn't too serious they were forced to take a rest.
Seeing the large number of rivers in the distance, Neji frowned. "Haven't we been here before?" he pointed out with an annoyed expression on his face.
"Yeah," Naruto answered with a grin, finding Neji's annoyance amusing.
"Then why are we going through here again?" Choji wondered, "Why didn't we just stop here before going to the other base?"
Ino sighed. "If I find out that you got the wrong base, you'll regret it Naruto," she threatened in a tone that made Naruto gulp in fear.
"O-of course not," he assured with a nervous laugh. "There's a base around here but we were supposed to take care of it with the help of another team since there's more ninja in this one."
"More enemy ninja?" Neji asked with a frown.
Naruto's face grew serious as he continued to leap from tree to tree. "Yeah… hopefully not like the last ones we fought," he stated, "Even with the help of another team, I'm sure we wouldn't survive it."
Those words brought silence to the team as they continued on their way to the last base. They knew that Naruto was right since they had barely scraped by due to getting surprise attacks on their enemies. If they needed the assistance of another team then that meant that the next base was more dangerous than the first, they only hoped to be able to return to the village in one piece.
Shikamaru yawned as he stretched his body. He sat on a branch of a tree with a clear view of the surrounding area. There was no moon today meaning that everything was pitch black, with the only source of light coming from the small fire they had going. It had been almost an hour and there was still no sign of the other team. He guessed that the other team had run into some trouble on their base. An irritated sigh left his lips, if they weren't back then he would need to give them backup somehow.
"I got something!" Kiba suddenly exclaimed.
' Or not,' Shikamaru thought with a sigh of relief, glad to have one less thing to worry about.
"But it smells familiar…" Kiba muttered with his arms crossed, "What do you think Akamaru?" The small pup barked in agreement as it smelled the scent that was growing stronger.
"Maybe it has to do with us being from the same village," Shino suggested.
The Inuzuka nodded. "That might be it," he said with a thoughtful look on his face, he was sure he had smelt it before but it was still too faint to tell.
"Well then let's go meet up with them," Shikamaru ordered as he jumped off the branch and landed on the ground, "We've already wasted enough time, let's just get this over with already."
"Such determination!" Lee praised with a grin on his face, "I say we meet up with them!"
"Might as well," Kiba stated with a shrug as he jumped up a tree.
"Kiba should lead, his nose should be able to guide us," Shino said as he prepared to leave, dispersing the small fire they had going.
"Right," Shikamaru agreed as he turned to Kiba, "Let's go."
Naruto watched the distant waterfall with a small smile, it reminded him of his first training session with Jiraiya. It seemed so long ago yet it had been only a month since he first met his master, a very perverted man that held to that perversion with pride. The sage was a very complex person he had found out. Despite the way he acted, Jiraiya kept many secrets and would rarely give out any sort of hints and if he did then they were incredibly complex. He knew for a fact that Jiraiya hid things from him but didn't really question him, if the sage kept his mouth shut it was for a reason. He dismissed those thoughts, he was in the middle of a mission and couldn't afford to mess up.
The team was running alongside a cliff, choosing not to go through the trees this time since the darkness would cover them easily. There was a dense forest to their side but it ended on the rocky ground that the team was currently in; a river could be seen at the bottom of the cliff and many caves scattered throughout it, though some were barely visible due to the lack of light. From what Naruto heard, this particular base was located in the cliff meaning that it should be in one of the caves. Several ideas on how to take care of the base had already entered his mind but they would only work if the base was really where it was supposed to.
The Chunin's eyes suddenly narrowed as he skidded to a stop, raising a hand to his team. The three Genin stopped on their tracks and looked at Naruto in slight worry. "Neji, activate your byakuugan and tell me if you see anything," he ordered with a frown.
Veins appeared around Neji's eyes, showing the activation of his bloodline. The Hyuuga narrowed his eyes when he spotted four chakra signatures going straight at them.
"There's four of them, but…" he informed with a little hesitation.
Ino frowned when she noted the slight hesitation on Neji's voice. "But…?" she asked as she motioned him to continue.
"I'm not sure but from the looks of it I'll say three of them have Genin level chakra while one of them is around Chunin level," Neji stated with a frown.
"So what's the big deal?" Choji asked, "We're around the same level so it'll be easy to beat them."
"That's exactly it," Naruto pointed out with his gaze never leaving the dense forest, "If they're around our own level then they're probably the team we were supposed to meet."
"So what do we do?" Ino asked with a sigh.
"Wait…" Neji began with his byakuugan still looking ahead, "There's one more chakra signature though small."
"How small?" Naruto asked with a raised brow.
Neji shook his head before breaking into a smirk. "Inuzuka dog small," he stated with a hint of relieve on his voice as he deactivated his byakuugan.
"Good," the Chunin sighed out, "Let's wait for them here since we're closer to the base."
"I have arrived!" came a loud cheerful voice from the woods. Lee jumped out of the woods and landed in front of the group, with a light wince.
"I take it you're part of the back-up team?" Neji assumed with his arms crossed.
"Yes I am," Lee said with a grin on his face, "It's good to see you all made it!"
Ino smiled, happy to see a familiar face. "Of course we made it," she stated with a smug look, "We have the best team of the village, there's no way we'll be beaten."
"What are you talking about?" a voice came from the woods as Kiba, Shikamaru and Shino landed in front of them, "When you say best team, I'm pretty sure you mean us."
"Whatever dog breath," Ino responded with a frown on her face.
"Why you…" Kiba growled in anger. Ino had always been a person he really couldn't stand. Ever since the academy he found her to be annoying for her attitude in general. He crossed his arms with a frown, he was really getting tired of her.
"It's great to see we get to work with familiar faces," Shikamaru stated with a small smile.
"You said it," Choji answered with a smile of his own, "We get to have Team 10 together for this."
"So how did you're base go?" Naruto asked Shikamaru with a grin.
The lazy Chunin sighed. "It was way too troublesome. So troublesome that I don't want to even talk about it now," he sighed out, remembering the trouble they went through. "What about you guys?"
Naruto chuckled and crossed his arms. "It was hard but we managed," he admitted with a small smile.
"How should we go about the next base?" Shino wondered out loud.
Neji nodded in agreement. "It's best to think of a plan beforehand," he said, throwing a glance at the ever impatient Lee.
"Well I was thinking of-" Naruto started but was interrupted when Kiba busted out laughing, finding the turn of events to be funny.
"Are we really taking ideas from Naruto?" he asked, putting emphasis on the Chunin's name. "He was the dead last of the academy, why are we taking orders from him. I admit that he's strong but he's still an idiot. The loser can't even lead Choji to a bag of food and you expect him to come up with a plan?."
"That's enough!" Ino yelled with a glare at the Inuzuka. The fool had just insulted two very important people to her and she wouldn't stay quiet, "What makes you think you can talk to them like that? They are twice the shinobi you'll ever be. Just for the record, Naruto is the Chunin here not some flea-infested mutt!"
Kiba growled in anger, she had just gone to far. Nobody insulted him and got away unscratched. He snarled before taking a step towards Ino but stopped when he felt a hand grip his shoulder. He growled and turned to see Shino standing behind him, shaking his head in disapproval.
"What gives Shino? Why did you stop me?" he asked in annoyance.
Shino simply pointed ahead of them to the blond Chunin that glared at Kiba with his right fist clenched, ready to fight if need be. "I was not stopping you, rather, I was preventing you from being badly hurt," he stated, remembering how the blond had defeated Gaara, "You're lucky you didn't take another step."
Naruto simply glared at Kiba, daring him to take another step towards Ino. The mutt would be unconscious before he could even reach her. He suddenly felt a hand on his own, he turned to see Ino with a sad smile on her face. She squeezed his hand reassuringly, telling him to calm down. He sighed, deciding that starting a fight with Kiba would only endanger the mission.
"Fine," he muttered as he turned to Ino and gave her an apologetic smile. Ino smiled back and gripped his hand a little tighter.
Shino let go off Kiba's shoulder and watched as his teammate relaxed. The Inuzuka looked a little mad but Shino knew that he wouldn't do anything stupid again. Naruto was clearly stronger and wouldn't hesitate to attack Kiba if he threatened to hit Ino.
"How do we handle the next base?" Shikamaru cut in, trying to lighten the situation before it got out of hand, "My team tried to use stealth but we ended up failing badly."
The blond Chunin sighed before turning to Shikamaru. "Let's just end this already," he deadpanned, "I don't think that we'll need to place any explosive tags inside the base since we can just destroy it by blowing part of the cliff off. If we want to do this right then we have to finish with the base before the enemy has time to even know what's going on while at the same time making them look away from our real objective, getting the information we need. Why don't we just have someone look for the research papers while someone distracts the enemy ninja outside? That should give the chance to enter the base undetected because they'll be focused on the fight."
"That sounds like a smart plan. We can't afford to risk sneaking through the base since they could have tracker ninja," Shikamaru agreed with a nod, "Any ideas on who's going into the base?"
Naruto nodded. "I think that you and the rest of Team 10 should go in... with Kiba. He has good tracking skills and he'll be able to find an exit fairly fast," he suggested with his hand still gripping Ino's, "I'll be able to hold off the enemy ninja with Neji, Lee and Shino. We have the high ground so it'll be easy."
"That does make sense," Shikamaru muttered with a serious look on his face, thinking of any other options before letting out a tired sigh, "Fine let's do it your way, we'll contact you when we're done. When are we moving?"
Ino rolled her eyes when she saw the determination in Naruto's eyes, he was just too impatient despite how much he had changed. 'I guess that's what makes him Naruto,' she mused with a small smile, 'I bet he's about to say-'
"Right now," Naruto announced with a determined grin on his face, "Why should we wait anyway? The faster we get through this the better."
"I'll go tell Choji," Ino informed, knowing that Naruto would probably want to continue talking to Shikamaru.
Naruto watched Ino leave with a small smile. He turned to Shikamaru and his face grew serious. "I really didn't want Kiba going into the base with Ino," he stated. Shikamaru nodded in agreement, knowing that Kiba wasn't on the best of terms with her. "I want you to take care of her. I know it was selfish of me but I put you and Choji with her so that you could watch over her."
Shikamaru sighed with a grin. "She's important to us too," he said, "I see her as a sister and Choji does too. There's no need to worry about her, we'll make sure she's safe."
"Thanks Shikamaru," Naruto responded with a smile, feeling a lot better to know that Ino would have someone watching over her. He knew that she was capable of defending herself but he couldn't help but feel worried. "Good luck," he said with a grin.
"What do we need luck for," Shikamaru said with a grin, "We'll be running around the base, you're the one that'll have to deal with the Sound ninja." (Linebreak)
Some time later Naruto, Neji, Lee and Shino stood on top of the large waterfall that overlooked the cliff, waiting to make their move. According to their simple yet dangerous plan, they had to make a big diversion that would alert most of the ninja at the base. It was no surprise that Naruto would handle this part of the mission, big entrances being his old specialty.
"How are you going to get their attention?" Neji asked, turning his gaze to the Chunin.
A foxy grin made its way to Naruto's face as he took out a single kunai. "We'll just knock on their door," he explained as he wrapped an explosive tag around the kunai's hilt. "Get ready."
With a flick of his wrist, the kunai sailed through the air in a fast speed. The four ninja watched as the projectile headed for the lower part of the cliff, not wanting to bury the base before the other team could look around it. As the kunai grew closer to the cliff Naruto took out his blade, Neji activated his byakuugan, Lee got into his taijutsu stance and Shino gathered bugs on his arms.
' BOOM'
The kunai crashed against the cliff in a loud explosion that caused many boulders to break off of it. In an instant a Sound ninja came out of one of the caves, looking around for any intruder. His eyes landed on the group of Leaf ninja and instantly called for back-up.
Naruto watched as more and more enemy ninja came out of the caves around the cliff, they jumped on the river before charging at them with the intent to kill. "Let's go!" the Chunin ordered as he jumped off the waterfall with a kunai held on his left hand. His team jumped after him, ready to fight.
The Chunin watched as more Sound ninja came closer and threw the kunai at the side of the cliff with a whizzing sound. The kunai exploded against the top part of the cliff, making a small landslide. Boulders and sand fell from the cliff, towards the oncoming group of ninja.
"Scatter!" One of the Sound ninja ordered as they tried their best to dodge the boulders. The apparent leader moved through the boulders easily but found himself unable to dodge a particularly large boulder. He raised his fist and punched at the rock, shattering it to thousands of pieces as if it were nothing.
The group of Leaf ninja landed on the river with ease and looked at the mess they had caused. Rocks were being carried away by the current while some boulders were sticking out of the water. A crimson color could be seen in the water and a much shorter number of Sound ninja charged at them in fury.
Naruto watched the leader with a frown, he would prove to be trouble. The man had a tall and lean body with short brown hair, black eyes and a scar running from his forehead to his jawline. He looked strong but he still had tricks up his sleeve.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" the Chunin exclaimed as ten clones appeared at his side, "Do it now guys!" The three Genin took out two kunais each and launched them at the group as the group of Naruto clones ran through hand signs, "Wind Style: Gale Palm!"
A stream of wind came out of each clone's palms, making the kunai go even faster. The group of Sound ninja was taken aback by the speed of the kunai and stopped on their tracks before jumping away from the incoming projectiles.
The leader stood behind his group of ninja, glad to see that they had dodged the attack. "What?" he asked himself as he narrowed his eyes on the water. His eyes widened, there were shadows in the water, "Look out from behind!"
Three Naruto clones jumped out of the river, catching each of the kunai in hand. The group of Sound ninja could do nothing as the clones launched the weapons at them, with the light sound of burning paper. One of the ninja's eyes widened when he saw the burning tag on the kunai, they were all explosive.
' BOOM'
The kunai exploded against the group of Sound ninja, kicking up a large cloud of smoke. The leader of the Sound ninja frowned, his ninja had been easily fooled by a surprise attack. He couldn't blame them though, he had been almost fooled himself. Those Sound ninja had been around Genin level, nothing but trash in his opinion, he was actually glad that some of those weaklings had died. He would much rather fight without them but some things seemed a little off. He didn't understand why a group of Leaf ninja would attack so openly, it didn't make sense, they would usually attack as discretely as possible. He was sure that they had some kind of plan but he had no idea what it was.
The smoke cleared to reveal Naruto standing next to his team with his blade on hand. The Sound ninja frowned, it had been a group of kids that had been able to take out a platoon of ninja as if they were nothing. One of them had a Chunin jacket on, meaning that he was the leader of the group of kids. Things made more sense now, kids liked to show off their skills without really thinking. It was rare for young ninja to have plans but he wouldn't take it easy on them, he would go all out.
"I guess I should applaud your performance but surprise attacks are the only way Leaf shinobi attack like the cowards they are," the Sound ninja said with a frown on his face. The green-clad ninja frowned but the rest of the team seemed to keep their emotions in check, "You're no ordinary bunch. I'll have fun killing you." Black marks stretched around the man's face, making Naruto's eyes widened.
' Those are the same markings as Sasuke,' he thought with a frown on his face. He remembered that Sasuke's abilities would increase overall but it would make him paranoid, maybe this base would actually hold some information.
"I'll kill you here and now," he announced with a smirk on his face as his marking began to meld together, making his skin turn a light black color. His eyes turned black with yellow irises, his hair turned gray and grew up to his mid-back, fangs came out of his lips and two bat-like wings came out of his back. "Remember this brats…" he began in a much deeper voice as a vile purple chakra swirled around him. A whirlpool formed beneath his feet from the intensity of the chakra, he began to flap his wings, kicking up strong winds that pushed the group of ninja back. The Sound ninja broke into an evil smirk, "I am Katsu! One blessed with the powers of Lord Orochimaru! I will prove myself to him and kill you!"