A strange new life

2.8

“Shut up!” Naruto hollered. “I’m prepared to do anything to become Hokage! Once I do, you’ll acknowledge me!”

“No, I won’t you brat. Even if you become Hokage.”

Naruto walked ahead, bickering with Tazuna. They’ve been at it for days. Ever since we left the village. Between the two, it was hard to decide who was the kid. Kakashi-sensei had gone over the ninja lands overview, and the five hidden villages. I knew most of it already. Sasuke listened intently. I doubt Naruto remembered anything other than five kages.

To our left, among the trees, I felt it again. I skipped ahead, catching up to Naruto and Tazuna. I clapped a few times to get Naruto’s attention. When he looked, I popped my board. Wrote a message. “Naruto-kun, be respectful to Client-sama.”

The clap was a coded message. Shinobi, two, west, affiliation unknown. I don’t think anyone other than Kakashi understood the message.

Kakashi-nodded. Tazuna laughed. “You listen to the girl brat.”

The bundles of chakra moved away, ran ahead of us. Out of my range. But not for long. The dirt path continued ahead. A conspicuous puddle of water by the side of the path. Naruto, Tazuna and Sasuke walked past the water without even looking at it. I’ll admit that if I couldn’t feel the chakra, I’d probably not even notice as well. It had been years since I last read Naruto, and some of the finer details had become… hazy.

From the Land of Waves arc, I remembered the broad strokes. Gato, Zabuza, Haku. Was there any other attack? I hackled my brain, but couldn’t really remember. I glanced at Kakashi-sensei. He was at the back of the group. I didn’t notice him moving there. He scratched his hair. The fingers movement held his message. Observe. Find target.

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I tapped Naruto to get his attention. Popped my board. Wrote. “What you think this bridge will look like?” Naruto chattered away. My tapping held the code. Understood. I had to hold in my smile, and my squirming, and my dancing, and my jumping. This was so cool! I’m so glad I learned all the shinobi coded messages. I felt like an bad-ass actress in a action flick. Difficult to hold all my excitement.

It happened fast. With no sound or warning, the chakra behind us flared. I turned around. There were two shinobi by Kakashi-sensei’s side. A bladed chain held sensei trapped. The chain connected to each of the shinobi strange metal claw.

“What?” Kakashi-sensei asked, surprised.

“One down.” The shinobi with the forehead protector that looked like an super sentai helmet said. They pulled the chain. Blood splattered everywhere. Pieces of Kakashi-sensei fell down in a messy carnage.

“Kakashi-sensei!” Naruto yelled. Panicked.

I remember it now. Yeah. I might have panicked as well if wasn’t for the familiar bundle of chakra hidden nearby.

The ninjas moved again. Chains flying to envelop Naruto. “Two down.” They said.

I cursed. Naruto had frozen up. I Prepared to create a clone, abandoned the idea when I saw Sasuke moving. I rushed in front of Tazuna, special explosive kunai in hand. Sasuke leaped, threw a kunai disrupting the chains, tying it to one of the nearby trees. His jump landed him on the ninjas’ claws. He was a whirlwind of movement, feet hitting each of the ninjas’ face.

I had to admit. That was cool-ish. Even if he was still emo.

The enemy jerked black, but soon regained balance. Chain disconnected from their metal hands. The enemy with the super sentai protector went for Naruto. The second one, with the horn, went for Tazuna, who hid behind me. I knew Naruto would be fine, he was ninja Jesus after all.

Sasuke, dear emo Sasuke had moved in front of me, open arms to intercept the Ninja attack. Damn brat thought I needed his help. I flickered forward. Sasuke’s eyes were wide when I appeared in front of him. Enemy ninja’s eyes bugged out. I stabbed the kunai into the enemy stomach, pivoted, used his momentum to thrown him away. Sasuke still didn’t seem to know what was happening. The enemy ninja screamed. My kunai exploded.

A rain of gore and body parts fell on us.

Kakashi-sensei was by my side. Second ninja unconscious under his arm. “Good job.” He patted my head. “But try to get them alive when possible.” The man added.

I nodded. I felt a bit icky right now. My fan-girl powers had dominated that moment, and I never stopped to think exactly what I was doing. I just killed a person. Should I feel anything? I mean, I did felt icky and gross. I was covered in body bits and gore and blood. But aside from that? I felt… good? Yeah, good. Not about killing the man. About that, I felt nothing. But about doing a good job, protecting the client. And the awesome explosion.

“I’m sorry I didn’t save you immediately Naruto. You got injured. I didn’t think you’d freeze like that.” Kakashi-sensei turned to Sasuke, who was still staring at me. Naruto was staring as well, his face was a mix of conflicting emotions. “Nice job, Sasuke.” Kakashi praised Emosuke.

Sasuke shook his head, like dismissing a bad idea. Looked at Naruto. Smirked. “You alright there, mister I froze up?”

Naruto finally got out of his funk. Face a scowl. Kakashi cut him before the hollering started. “Naruto, save it for later. Their claws are soaked in poison. We have to remove it quickly. We must open up the wound and release the poison. Don’t move much, or the poison will spread.”

Naruto locked up again. This time a different kind of panic. Kakashi-sensei tied the surviving ninja to a tree. Called Tazuna over.

“This guy is a chunin from Hidden Mist. They don’t give up on their mission.” He looked at the old drunkard. “I waited to see who their real target was.” Kakashi-sensei said, voice serious. “They weren’t after us. You were the target.”

The man stood silent. Facing Kakashi-sensei.

“You lied. This has become at least a B-rank mission. I’m sure you have your reasons, but it causes problems when you lie about the details of the mission. We are operating now outside our duties.” He looked around, the splattered gore, Naruto’s ever worsening face. Sweat beaded Naruto’s brown. The poison perhaps?

“This might be too much.” Kakashi-sensei said. “I guess we should return to the village.”