Chapter 16
Naruto hated Shimogakure. Hated it with a passion just as she hated Danzo. Even with her body temperature running higher than the average person's the village was cold like the land of iron.
Snow covered the land and trees, however tree walking wasn't an issue with the use of chakra so they made it to their destination half a day before they needed to be there. It helped that Orochimaru didn't allow them many breaks only resting when it was dark out.
However despite the cold weather she was on high alert and it wasn't because they were practically in enemy territory. No, it was because that damnable snake was watching her every move and she knew he knew that she knew he was watching, yet he did nothing about it. She tried to ignore it, tried focusing on the discussion Team Kushina and team Choza were having with Anko yet she could feel those yellow eyes bearing holes into her, as if gazing into her soul.
Finally she had enough, she turned to look at him with a heated glare, "What is your problem? Why the hell do you keep staring at me?" all conversation stopped as everyone watched the two of them.
Instead of answering her straight away he licked his lips and his eyes began to glow. "I enjoy puzzles. And you Naruto Namikaze are a very great puzzle."
Unbeknownst to her, she shuffled closer to Shisui and Iruka shuffled closer to her, "Yeah well, quit staring. I don't like being looked at as if I'm a lab experiment, I don't care how much you love to do them either." she added when he drew in closer.
"You are truly puzzling. You have large chakra reserves for a child your age and have very good control over it. If I didn't know you were a Namikaze I'd wager you were a Senju or Uzumaki." He gave a pointed look at Kushina and Naruto paled.
"I'm half Uzumaki. My mother was an Uzumaki and my father Minato's dad." She snapped, not wanting him to draw to the conclusion of her being Kushina's daughter.
"Would you mind a blood sample? I should very much like to run some-"
She cut him off before he could continue, "The only way you're getting a blood sample from me is if I don't give my consent. I don't like my blood being looked at and you won't go near me with any of your damn needles either."
"Kukuku… I will get a blood sample one way or another. This is a dangerous mission and we're on enemy territory. You'll bleed during this mission and I'll get a sample then."
"If you can catch her before she heals." Muttered Iruka and Naruto jabbed him with her elbow. She didn't need Orochimaru to know she healed quickly, that would draw way too much attention to her from the sennin and she wanted none of it.
"I mean no offence Lord Orochimaru, however you are… unsettling to my student." Spoke Kushina in a kind voice however the smile on her face was cold and made everyone's back, except Orochimaru, straighten.
The arrival of a gama caught her attention and by the turning of her head, the others followed her line of vision. She furrowed her brows when the gama went to Orochimaru instead of her, "Message for you." He gave Orochimaru a scroll he had in his mouth before jumping onto Naruto for a pat and she gave it along with a sweet before returning to Mount Myoboku.
Orochimaru ordered they get some rest and would be woken for their shifts in turn. They went into their tents, three per tent and each in their own sleeping bags. It was going to be a long and cold night for them.
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Naruto woke up how she usually did on long missions, with Iruka and Shisui cuddled into her; Iruka on her back and Shisui in her stomach, literally. The Uchiha had a habit of lowering himself in his sleep and clinging onto her stomach, both of the boys trying to absorb as much warmth as they could and Naruto was normally their radiator.
Orochimaru, Choza and Kushina had left them to go and deal with business up ahead which, details were not given. They had left the two chunin, Anko and Genma, in charge. If anything should happen Anko could use a snake summon to alert the sennin and they would come immediately and Naruto could do the same with her toads.
Team Kushina had another trick up their sleeve, curtesy of Kushina. She had placed seals on each of them, when pumped with a small amount of chakra it would alert the other seals that that person was in distress. It was only to be used in emergencies and so far none of them had had a use for it, they all prayed they would have no use for it either.
She got up just as Genma entered the tent, the boy raised a brow and pointed his head for her to leave the tent to go on her shift.
Disentangling herself from Shisui she got up and stretched outside, groaning at the kink in her back from the awkward position the boys always put her in.
She sat down next to Gai who was being very quiet thanks to his professional persona whilst on missions, which Naruto was thankful for. She wouldn't know what to do if the enemy heard Gai's boisterous voice yelling about youth so close to their base.
She took her meditating pose and began to reach out her senjutsu to sense if anything or anyone was approaching, managing to reach out all the way to what she assumed was a Kumo base. She muttered under her breath, to her they were way too close for comfort even though they were a half day's march from them.
She opened her eyes as Ebisu and Anko left their tents, "There's an enemy camp a half day's march from here. I can't sense anyone close to us but I'm not great with my senjutsu yet, if someone was hiding their presence completely I wouldn't be able to tell since there's a lot of animals here, including summoning animals, which have a lot of chakra."
Anko bit her lip as she cursed under her breath, "We were given orders to stay here, and that's what we'll do. Keep on guard though, and carry on with the sensor thingy. You're our only way of knowing if we're going to get ambushed. I'll send out my snake summons to Orochimaru-sensei to let him know and we'll be given orders accordingly." No one argued with her, she was a chunin along with Genma and their opinions were needed.
Naruto would have much preferred to just storm over to where the enemy camp was and tear them limb by limb however she had to remind herself she wasn't a hunter-nin anymore. It hadn't been a problem when she first arrived, however discussing war strategies with Jiraiya, going out for mission and doing ninjutsu training seemed to have put her back into the hunter mind-set and that would most likely get people killed more than keep them safe.
She closed her eyes after she nodded and carried on releasing her senjutsu, there was something wrong. Shimogakure was the only way Kumo could get in or out of their country unless they went by water in which case they would be intercepted by Kiri so that was out of the question.
So where were all of Kumo's camps?
Biting her lip she entered her mindscape to be greeted by Kurama in a lotus position caused her brows to raise, Kurama only ever did that when he needed to concentrate.
'What's up Kurama?'
He didn't answer straight away and opened his eyes, eyeing her appearance despite the fact she was there only a half hour ago. 'You cannot sense the enemy however I can.'
Her brows furrowed, 'Odd… where are they?'
'A lot closer than you think. I can feel a barrier around them. That is why you cannot sense them.'
'Barriers have never stopped me from sensing before. What's different about this one?'
'It is not the barrier but you. I'm blocking some of my chakra from you and have been since trying to merge with the version of me within your mother.'
'What by the shodai for?' she asked confused as she sat against one of her trees.
He grumbled, 'It's more corrosive since that version has a lot more anger to vent out. Once I've tamed the chakra I'll let it flow bit by bit into you. Till then, you'll have to come to me for sensing the hidden.'
She sighed and nodded. She didn't like it, but she didn't have much choice in the matter. Once upon a time Kurama's chakra would burn her and travelling back in time had caused that to happen again.
She opened her eyes which she hadn't noticed she had closed, alarm evident in them, 'How close are Kumo's ninjas?!'
Kurama flinched slightly, having forgot to tell her, '… a few hours away at best, depending on how fast they travel.'
Her eyes, if possible, seemed to widen further before she left her mindscape and stood up in the real world, causing everyone to jostle at her sudden movements, "Kumo are a lot closer than I thought. They're using a moving barrier seal and are less than a few hours from here." She stated causing all eyes to widen.
Anko stood at attention and immediately summoned two snakes and ordered they go and inform the snake sennin of Naruto's findings. Whilst she did so Naruto woke up the three boys, Iruka, Shisui and Genma. They were groggy to do so however after stating the enemy was a mere few hours away at best they bolted right up and got ready in record time.
"We can't stay." Spoke Genma when everyone was assembled, drawing in everyone's attention. "If what Naruto says is true, and I believe it is, we don't stand a chance. The enemy will most likely have jonin there and all we have are three chunin and four genin." He waited to look at everyone before his expression turned grim, "We're going to have to move south-west back in the direction where we came. Orochimaru-sama showed us all a place to meet up if anything should happen and we'll go there." He paused once again and only continued when he received nods and understanding grunts.
"Anko-san has already sent her snake summons to inform them so they should be on their way as soon as possible-"
"I really hate to interrupt but they're getting closer." Spoke Naruto causing everyone to whip their heads to her, "I assumed the snow would slow them down but it seems it doesn't bother them nearly as much as it does us. One hour, less if they keep up that pace."
Anko and Genma cursed under their breaths and the latter bit his senbon harder before nodding stiffly. "Pack up, quickly." Was the only thing he said before doing just that.
Naruto made ten clones to help hasten their departure, removing any evidence that they were even there. Ten minutes after the order was given, the fire had been put out and hidden, their tents put away, their sleeping equipment had been sealing along with it and they jumped into the trees, giving them somewhat of a home-court advantage. Kumo was mostly mountains without many trees meaning they should be able to get out of harm's way, barely.
She hoped.
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Naruto hated her life, however that wasn't news to her, she had always hated her life. One could debate she had more hatred within her life than Sasuke did and that was saying something.
They had been doing well, running through the snow covered trees and gaining quite some distance from Kumo's ninjas, however Naruto hadn't sensed this, nor had Kurama.
They had been so focused on looking out for ninja's they forgot to be wary of summons. As soon as they had been attacked, they fought back, allowing a handful of Kumo jonin to attack them.
Naruto had no time to summon any of her gama and Anko was in a similar situation as she fought off a tall male.
She was jolted out of her gazing when she barely managed to dodge a kunai aimed to her jugular. She landed in a couch as she glared through squinted eyes, pumping her feet with chakra and from behind slit her from her shoulder to the small of her back.
She turned around, allowing the woman to simply bleed to death by one of her poisoned kunai. She went through the necessary hand signs and used the gale palm, forcing the enemy away from Iruka and Ebisu.
Her eyes widened when she sensed someone behind her and managed to escape getting completely cut down and instead getting a large gash on her hip. She discreetly made a few shadow-clones and had them attack with her, the woman didn't manage to dodge them all and Naruto took that chance to stab her through the stomach, leaving a large hole in her and allowed her to simply bleed to death, the poison on her kunai making sure she'd be unable to move.
She whipped her head round when she heard Ebisu scream only to see that he had been stabbed through the arm, Gai attacking the offender with one of his kicks. She couldn't pay much attention as she was given a surprise attack from underneath and before she could think about how odd it was, the man lashed out.
He was holding a sword the size of the executioner's blade and his face was covered by white mask, meaning he was from Kumo's ANBU.
The man struck again with his sword and that was when she noticed he wasn't very good at using it, meaning he didn't specialize in kenjutsu and was trying to distract her. Landing in a crouch a few meters from his she made six clones and together they used vacuum serial waves, cutting him in several places before she charged Kurama's chakra through her arm and pierced it through his heart.
He fell forwards with a thud and Naruto released his still beating heart from her hand. Looking back to Ebisu she was he was covered in his own blood as was the ground below him. Gai was fighting off another offender with Shisui whilst Anko, Iruka and Genma fought off another person.
Naruto heard a feint heartbeat coming from the person Gai had knocked unconscious and walked over to her. She swallowed the bile in her throat and stabbed the woman through her neck and throat, killing her. Ebisu looked at her wide eyed yet didn't say anything due to the pain in his arm.
She frowned and as she was about to bandage his arm up an arm shot through her stomach. She coughed up a small trickle of blood as she turned her face to glare at the offender, seeing another Kumo ninja.
The bastards didn't know when to give up. If possible, Ebisu's eyes widened and she heard Iruka yell her name however she was having a bad enough day and dispelled one of her clones from Mount Myoboku, entering sage mode. She pushed forwards and turned to her side, kicking the man in the chest before grasping her stomach. Kurama was going to have a hard time healing that up quickly, thankfully she didn't need to use his chakra in sage mode nor could she soldiered on.
She cursed when she remembered she couldn't use the rasengan nor the rasenshuriken since Minato still hadn't finished making the damn thing.
She decided to make use of the snow around her, snow that could be used as part of a water justu. Jumping away from his next attack, Anko through a kunai at him the same time Genma did as well, giving Naruto enough time to go through the hand signs for a thousand feeding sharks, washing away or preferably killing their enemy.
She felt the pain of her wound and fell to her knees, wincing at the sting it caused through her legs, arms and back. She laid on her side to avoid pressing on the wound as Kurama healed it and when she looked down she saw it was half healed.
Anko, Iruka and Shisu began to fuss on her till she scolded them and told them to treat Ebisu's arm as unlike her, he didn't have Uzumaki blood in him to help heal.
Ebisu was half unconscious by the time Genma finished bandaging his arm up however it was what he said to Anko next that concerned her. She heard him state he would most likely not be able to fight with that arm anymore and she couldn't stop the feel of guilt that consumed her.
If she had been paying better attention to her surroundings she would have been able to help them however a whack on the back of her head from Kurama's tails bought her out of her miserable thoughts and remembered an interesting little detail about Uzumaki blood.
She bit her lip and contemplated whether it was worth the risk before shaking her head, it was Ebisu sensei. Of course it was worth the risk.
Kind of.
She reached into her pouch and took out the one she knew had a bowl in and took it out, pouring some of her blood into it and charged her nature chakra into it. Her sage mode hadn't faded off and she was going to use it as best she could before it did.
She pumped in a bit of the sun power the sage of six paths had given her, affectively getting rid of anything corrosive whilst adding a dash of healing powers into it as well.
She winced as she got up and asked one of them to feed her blood to Ebisu as it would help him to heal, no one questioned it and after a half hour the affects were starting to show.