Naruto: Sacred Scroll

Hanabi wanted to give a retort, but she couldn't think of a thing to say as Naruto's words were circulating through her mind; not to mention, her butt was still a little sore. Naruto went and held Hanabi before he body flickered with her back to her bedroom.

"It's been a long night for you, and I know you must be tired and worn out," Naruto said. "I'm not expecting an immediate reply from you about my offer. I'll give you some time to think things over. Let me know when you decide what you want to do."

Naruto picked up her champagne flute and drank the rest of her wine. Putting the champagne flute back down, he then body flickered from her room, leaving Hanabi alone with much to think about. While she stood there to think about things, she found that she, in fact, had found some answers to her questions about Naruto that Hinata refused to give her. A certain satisfactory smile appeared on her face as her curiosity about who Naruto truly is became more aroused. At the same time, though, Naruto's match with her and his words to her afterwards planted a seed of interest in his offer, and it led her to question if her clan's Juuken was completely reliable.

(End Flashback: Present Time)

Hanabi was still debating with herself about whether she ought to accept Naruto's offer, but she also wondered how he was able to learn the Drunken Fist so fast, when he was said to be the worst at everything in his class.

So much about him is a mystery, Hanabi thought. He's like a living embodiment of inconsistencies that only Neesan understands, and she refuses to tell me the truth about who Naruto-kun really is. She gave a determined smile. Well, who needs Neesan? I'll learn and find out the truth about the real Naruto-kun on my own, even if I must go beyond the sight of my Byakugan.

Hanabi got the rest of her things together before making her way out of her room, heading for the ninja academy.

(Meanwhile; Far From Konoha)

So far, things had been calm, and no trouble had arisen for the team. Naruto was continuing his pace at the front of the group until he noticed that there was a small puddle of water. Kakashi also took note of that peculiar puddle of water that was a few feet from them.

A puddle of water out here? Naruto and Kakashi thought. It's summertime now, and no rain has fallen for days.

Naruto and Kakashi turned back around and continued on their way. As they did, the puddle they just passed morphed into two ninja. They wore black clothes, and each sported a single huge metal gauntlet, equipped with massive claws covered with poison. They were connected by a sharp-looking chain that extended from one gauntlet to the other. They jumped towards the group and wrapped their chain around Kakashi, who, of course, was behind everyone, making him the easiest to attack.

"First one," the two ninja said as Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Tazuna turned around to see Kakashi torn to pieces.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura cried out as Kakashi's body parts rained down from the air and onto the ground in a cloud of smoke.

Taking out the team leader first, Naruto thought as he and Sasuke placed their guard up in front of Tazuna when the ninja turned their attention toward them.

"Second one," one of the two killers said as they rushed at Sakura with their chain in hand, ready to do what they did to Kakashi once again. That was until Sasuke jumped into the air and pulled out a shuriken and a kunai. He threw the shuriken at the chain. The shuriken brought the chain to a nearby tree, and Sasuke threw the kunai, lodging the chain into the tree. The two attackers tried to pull it out, but it wouldn't budge.

"It won't come out," one of them said as Sasuke landed down on their gauntlets. Grabbing their weapons, he kicked them both in their faces before they detached the chain and dashed away from each other. One went after Sakura, who now had her kunai out in front of her, while the other went for Tazuna, who was being guarded by Naruto.

Sasuke moved speedily to intercept the Mist nin going for Sakura, getting ready to stop him. Neither of the Mist nins managed to reach their intended targets, however, when two shadow clones of Naruto suddenly appeared and knocked the two Mist nins in their jaws with their feet. The two killers were flipped backwards, and, as they flew, the two clones exploded on them, burning them partially as they were sent flying further into the nearby trees before crashing hard into them, causing them to fall to the ground. They two ninja were in too much pain to move.

Sasuke and Sakura were shocked to see that Naruto's clones had exploded violently in flames instead of just bursting into white smoke.

That jutsu! Sasuke thought. How did Naruto learn it?

"Nice job everyone," Kakashi smiled underneath his mask as he appeared from the bushes. "You three made effective use of your teamwork before Naruto delivered the finishing blow."

"Kakashi-sensei! You're alive!" Sakura said happily, relieved that Kakashi wasn't dead.

"Is it that obvious?" Kakashi remarked while Sasuke looked at him with a mixed expression of amazement and curiosity. That was when he and the others looked to see pieces of chopped logs lying where they thought the scarecrow had been torn to pieces.

Kawarimi no Jutsu, Naruto thought. Why am I not surprised?

Naruto turned and said, "Yo Sasuke. I must admit that you surprised me. I didn't think you had it in you to use yourself as a human shield to protect Sakura. I guess you took Kakashi-sensei's words about not abandoning your comrades to heart."

"Whatever, Dobe," Sasuke replied. Sakura, blushing, was about to say something, but Sasuke had already left and turned his attention back to Kakashi. Kakashi was examining the two ninja Naruto had immobilized.

"There's poison in these guys' claws," Kakashi pointed out. "Should they have cut any of you, we would have had to open up the wound and leech out the poison before it turned fatal."

Sasuke said nothing in return as Kakashi turned to Tazuna and said, "I need to talk to you."

The others joined Kakashi after tying up the two wounded ninja.

"These two are Chuunin-level ninja from the Mist Village," Kakashi said. "They're known to keep fighting no matter what."

"Tell me. How were you able to detect us?" one of the two asked.

"You dumbasses!" Naruto mocked. "Any fool should know that there shouldn't be a puddle in an area that hasn't had rain for days!"

"That's true," Kakashi admitted.

Tazuna turned to the Jounin and asked, "Why did you allow these kids to fight when you knew that?"

"If I wanted to, I could have killed those two in the blink of an eye. However," Kakashi explained before looking at the older man suspiciously and finishing, "I needed to know who their target was."

"What do you mean?" Tazuna asked nervously.

"In other words," Naruto answered for Kakashi as he turned toward Tazuna, "were you being targeted, or was it somebody from our team? Kakashi-sensei and the rest of us haven't heard anything about you being targeted by ninja."

"Your request was for us to protect you from armed groups like gangs and robbers," Kakashi added. "This is a mission that's above C-rank. Our job was to support and safeguard you until you completed the bridge. If ninja are our enemies, then it would be an expensive B-rank mission. We're sure you have your reasons. However, we're in trouble if you lied in your request details. This wasn't part of the mission."

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