Hello Everyone, I'm back once again. I know it seems like I repeat this every update lol, but I'm slowly getting back into pumping out more chapters and writing again. I have finally finished college and got my degree. It's taken forever (5 years to be exact), but I'm done now so therefore I'm free to write again. I apologize for the delay in this chapter, but I barely signed in to during the last two months of school. I was simply to busy and worn down from school and everything else. On top of all that my computer was stolen, which had all my documents on it. Actually my car was stolen and it just so happened that my laptop was in the car.

The good thing is the idiot who stole my car never bothered to look in the back and take my laptop. I guess he was too focused on running from the cops. 9 hours after reporting my stolen car it was in an accident. Long story short the guy ran, and it took a few days until I even got my laptop back. That was two weeks ago lol.

Before getting into the chapter I want to say a big thanks to those who have followed this story so far, and I hope you have enjoyed it all up until this point. Also a thanks goes out to all the reviewers, and those who put this story onto their favorites list. I really appreciate the feedback and I hope it continues...

Also to those who messaged me about if I was done writing I'm Not, so rest assured :)

Well I'm done yapping, so once again lets get to it...

Chapter 11

After securing their tents and setting up camp, the team gathered around Nanao. With the daylight quickly turning dark, the slender woman wanted to explain the details of their next mission.

"All right everyone, does anyone know where we are?" she asked. There was no reply. Her students were exhausted from their two-day trek.

"We are at the southern border, near Ishi. Ishi (Stone) country is the country that separates Earth and Wind. It used to be part of our territory but we lost that land after the last war. Our next mission is a simple C-rank, but has potential to be a B-rank or higher depending on the situation. The mission is border patrol."

"The Tsuchikage is issuing the next rotation for the border patrol units, and since he knew we would be out at this time, he gave us this mission for a week. After the week is up the next border team from the village will replace us. Usually border patrol lasts up to a month, but the next team scheduled for this area had something come up so we are filling in for them in the meantime. "

"This area is not known for much traffic, but that still does not mean we won't see any. We will be pairing up for this mission and each team will be on there own for most of the day. We will meet back at up at 1900 hours each night, where I will have my summons take over while we get rest. If we do come across trouble or anything peculiar I want to be notified immediately and then we will change things up accordingly. Anyone have questions?" spoke Nanao.

"Who is paired with who sensei?" asked Aizen with a yawn. He glanced at Naruto, hoping to be paired with his best friend.

"The two pairings are Aizen and I," spoke Nanao, "and Naruto and Kurotsuchi. We are directly 1 mile from our rendezvous point, which is where we will switch with the current team tomorrow morning. That will also be the place where we will meet each night and set up camp. We will be covering a 10-mile area from that point. I want everyone on long distance radios while we work this mission. Both teams are responsible for their respective areas, so you guys need to work out a routine to thoroughly patrol and cover your area." She said looking at her lone female pupil and Naruto. "We will be starting in the morning at 0500 so I suggest everyone get some rest. I will wake you up when its time."

The next morning Team Sigma woke up to a thick blanket of fog and hazy darkness of dawn. The fog didn't bother the genin however, because the previous two days they had experienced it every morning as well. The area that they were to patrol was situated in a small mountainous pass.

The whole country of Ishi, to the south of Earth Country, was covered in mountains, and most of those mountains extended well into the north. The fog was a byproduct of the precipitation that settled in Ishi. Coincidentally, Ishi is a one reason Wind Country is so dry. The mountains stop the water from reaching Wind, creating a desert like climate.

After being woke up by their sensei, Kuro, Naruto, and Aizen gathered around Nanao eating a quick breakfast. The three genin remained quite as they munched on their warm porridge in peace.

After quickly finishing hers, Team Sigma's sensei broke the silence. "Kuro and Naruto I want you guys to take the eastern portion of the border, while we take the west. Signal me if you see anything out of the ordinary. Very few civilians live in this area, but it is not uncommon that we see some traveling. We are in a mountain pass that is mainly used for trade. Stay alert and you should know not to stay in one area too long. You guys should be fine."

Turning to Aizen she continued, "The same goes for us Aizen. We have to stay moving so be prepared."

"Ok no problem Nanao-sensei."

"Any questions?" asked the dark haired beauty. With no questions again she turned to Aizen and signaled that they were leaving. Soundlessly they took off slightly northwest, heading towards the tallest of the nearby mountains.

"Well I guess this leaves us huh?" inquired Kuro with a sigh. "How do you want to tackle this?"

"Good question," spoke Naruto, his brain going through the different ways to accomplish his mission.

Breaking his train of thought Kuro chimed in again. "I say we stick together. My grandfather says border teams travel in pairs. At least those outside of the ANBU do. We should be ok, but covering 5 miles means we would have to move quickly."

"Actually I think I have a way where we can move relatively freely. We would have to still move swiftly, but we would also cover more ground in the process so to speak."

"Oh really? How is that Mr. Know-It-All?" asked Kuro as she checked her weapons stash.

Rolling his eyes, Naruto answered her, "We use clones."

"Clones?" she asked slightly confused. After thinking about it for a second a small light bulb went off in her head. "I think I'm following you but how would we use them. My clones don't let me know when exactly they die or see something," replied Kuro.

"Don't worry about that. They will just act as a buffer and alert system," Naruto explained. "I say we both make 2 clones each and have them travel 100 to 200 yards in front and behind us. If something were to happen to either clone at that distance we should be close enough to respond."

Thinking over the idea one more time Kurotsuchi was convinced. "That's makes some sense. Well what are we waiting for? Lets do this," said the older genin as she moved toward the border. After a quick stretch Naruto silently followed.

Otogakure

The Hidden Village of Sound was strangely quiet, yet unusually busy and full of activity. Many of the village's citizens and shinobi would attest this to Oto's growing rise in prominence and prestige, but the select few higher ups knew not to be so easily deceived. The biggest change in the last month for the Hidden Sound was that it's leader was not present. Oddly no one had seen nor heard from the serpentine man but orders were still being given out. In fact the last order from the man had been to recall 85% of his shinobi back into the village. For a village not widely known to the shinobi world this small detail did not seem significant. Otogakure's leader was not even considered a Kage, and only recently in the last 2 years had Rice Country's shinobi taken missions outside of their territory.

But to Hidden Sound's leaders something big was about to take place. Otogakure was gearing up for what seemed like war. Supplies and food were steadily coming into the city, and missions were at an all time low. The shinobi morale was high and many were unaware that they were being manipulated for something.

Calmly one man stood on the outskirts observing the bustle and activity of the city. Beside him stood the top 4 jounin in Oto and a select contingent of Sound ANBU.

"Continue getting all the supplies ready. We will probably move towards Konoha within a month or so. I'm waiting on our Master to give the order. But be prepared. We will be taking approximately 300 shinobi for this attack. Our allies will aid, but I'm unsure of their number at the moment," spoke Kabuto with a small push of his glasses.

"When will we give the order for our forces to mobilize?" questioned a man to his left.

"There is no need to worry everyone at the moment," said Kabuto once again. "As you can see Hidden Sound is excited, and we don't wanna spoil the mood. When Lord Orochimaru gives the order you can rely the message and prepare the forces. Until then I don't expect anyone to even suspect our plans. If Konoha were to get word of this attack, things would not be pleasant. Not only for who fibbed, but all of us. You don't want your loved ones to experience something like that right?"

"Of course not my lord," spoke the man once more.

After a small moment of silence. Kabuto turned and put on a cloak and mask bearing a leaf insignia.

Confused by what appeared to be a disguise or act of a traitorous nature. The jounin who spoke earlier raised his voice once more.

"Are you going to lead us into battle Kabuto-sama?"

The silverheaded Kabuto just chuckled behind his mask. "No I'm afraid I have a different mission given to me by Orochimaru-sama. I will be controlling things from the inside. I'm going in before you, to make sure things stay on track. Plus there are some things I want to see more closely."

With a flourish the talented medic took off in route to Konoha.

Konoha

The chunnin exams.

2 times a year genin come from all across the globe to display their talents and represent their villages in order to become chunnin. This particular even holds importance for a number of reasons. The biggest reason is due to the current peace time. With no war, the chunnin exams are one of the dominant indicators of a villages strength. Each village sends their cream of the crop, which goes to show which countries are the most dominant and which ones are on the rise. The final round of the exam is always held in front of a massive audience, which also exposes the various countries to more shinobi work. Although the exam represents many positives, there are also tons of negatives to the event.

'Each year these things get worse and worse,' thought Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage.

For some reason teams began to come earlier than expected and it brought a headache to the wise old man. With the increase in shinobi more security was needed as well as accommodations to handle the influx of people. For the past two weeks the Sandaime had been particularly busy. Even his own village upset him. It seemed some of his jounin forgot about the event even after he gave them numerous warnings and notices in advance. Three of his jounin really pushed him to his limit. Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai, jounin of the three rookie genin teams forgot about the big event. After being reminded, they tried to save face, and went on to nominate their respective teams for the exam anyway. The Hokage did not think either of their teams were ready, but he let it go seeing as the exam was held in his village. A little part of him was excited by the idea, because he was expecting better things from that generation. Maybe one of the genin would surprise him.

After his meeting with his own jounin on the matter, things began to snowball for the chunnin exams. With more and more shinobi from other countries in his village. Reports of aggression and violence began to increase. It was not a surprise to Sarutobi, and many of the reports he brushed aside. The reason for the fighting was simple. These genin did not want to seem weak and they wanted to express their dominance to their peers. It made the Hokage smile, as he remembered his genin days, oh so long ago. But while he could brush off and ignore some of these reports, one particular report from his ANBU, upset the Hokage greatly. He was ready to throw the perpetrators out of his village, possibly even go to war. No one attacked his family.

FLASHBACK

Without looking up from his paperwork scattered across his desk. Sarutobi spoke up to the 4 shinobi standing on the other side of him. Living up to his name of the Professor, he let his killing intent creep over the shinobi like a thick blanket of fog.

"Ah Baki-san is it?" he spoke, his eyes still scanning over a document that caught his interest. "Can you explain to me why one of the genin on your watch decided to attack one of the people in my village?"

Startled by the question, Baki struggled to speak. He knew something about this situation was not right. "Hokage-sama, I'm sorry for the actions of my genin. Young Kankuro told me he was attacked and thus that was the reason he fought back. I believe it was self defense."

With Baki's admission the Sandaime chuckled to himself. "Baki-san how much damage could an 8 year old do? Explain to me how self defense resulted in a broken collarbone as well as a paralyzed arm due to a slight poison. As was explained to me the 8 year old bumped into Kankuro while running in the streets. Even the boy's friends and a local witness explained the same story to me. So again I ask, why would your genin attack an 8 year old child?"

"Hokage-sama I apologize. But I think that maybe this is all a misunders..." With a burst of killing intent, Baki's words were cut short.

Once again the Hokage laughed, but this time he laughed more audibly and shook his head. He put his document down and turned his eyes on the Suna ninja before him. "No Baki-san, this is not a misunderstanding between us. One of your genin attacked a citizen of my village for no reason at all. An 8 year old citizen, who also happens to be my grandchild."

After learning the small boy was a relative to the Hokage, Baki and the genin behind him, Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari, stood with wide eyes. Surprise and shock was on each of their faces, including Gaara. As the killing intent from the Hokage became heavier Kankuro, in particular, began to hyperventilate. He had just attacked a member of the Hokage's house, within the said man's village. He just knew he was going to die. He had royally screwed up.

After a few minutes of silence with the Hokage's eyes glued on them Gaara surprisingly spook up.

"Lord Hokage, I am sorry for the actions of my foolish brother. How can we fix this situation?"

Silently thinking over the redheads words, Sarutobi lifted his blanket of killing intent in the blink of an eye.

'Yes, young raccoon, how will we fix this?' thought Sarutobi.

"Please do not put us out of the exams Hokage-sama," spoke Baki once more. "We will do anything, but I ask do not take my students out of the exams."

"It seems these exams are very important to your team. I'm not sure why, but rest assured that the Kazekage will be notified by what has transpired. I will be expecting something for him. No one attacks my family and just walks off. Wars have been started for less." At the word wars, Temari, Kankuro, and Baki took huge gulps.

"Your leader will be warned, and he is lucky that you guys are under the non-aggression pact while under this village due to the exams. Rest assured that you will be heavily watched from now and I will not tolerate anything of this nature again, non-aggression pact be damned! Now get out of my office before my patience wares thin."

END FLASHBACK

After that episode the chunnin exams started. With more shinobi than ever, close to 200 genin made it to the second round. The Hokage needed to speak to Ibiki, he should have eliminated more shinobi from passing his test. The second exam was currently in progress and this made the Leaf Shadow happy. The 5 day second test gave the man a small moment of relaxation. And even if shinobi were killed during this portion he was not responsible so it was a win-win. Thinking back on it, maybe he should have sent some teams after the one's who hurt Konohamaru.

'Well it's a good idea that I didn't. Somehow those Suna-kids passed the second exam with not a scratch. They didn't even look tired. I know that they are the Kazekage's children, but I didn't expect them to be that good. They also sent their jinchuruki, which makes me wonder. I should keep an even closer eye on them,' he thought.

Still in his thoughts, an ANBU loudly burst into his office.

"Hokage-sama we need you. Near the forest of death, we have found something peculiar. Anko was investigating it, but she took off. She said something that you should hear as she headed for the forest."

"What did she say Boar?"

"Orochimaru!"

'Shit,' thought Sarutobi, his paperwork on his desk long forgotten. 'At all times, why now...'

"Let's move out. Inform me on the way on everything you have found out."

Earth Country

After three days of patrolling the eastern portion of their section Naruto and Kurotsuchi were doubling back for their last pass of the day.

Border patrol was a relatively easy job and it was peaceful. During their 3 days of patrolling they had not encountered one thing out of the ordinary. In fact there only time of activity came on the first day, when they observed a trade caravan headed into Ishi. After seeing the caravan, Naruto had to stop Kuro from making her presence known to the group. After asking why, Naruto explained to her that the trade group bore the Iwa insignia and he recognized the genin team escorting the caravan.

After that event things went back to normal for the two genin. They patrolled swiftly and fell into a routine.

Naruto loved the moments of silence provided by the mission. It helped him stretch his senses and get more in tune with nature; something the Kyuubi urged him to work on. His partner, however thought slightly different.

Kurotsuchi loved the outdoors and nature, but she was not a fan of the soundlessness. Naruto watched her when they went without talking. The older girl could only stay quiet for so long, before she snapped. With no one for miles to talk to she directed everything to her grey headed teammate.

During a short lunch break (they still patrolled albeit much more slowly) Kuro asked Naruto a long overdue question.

FLASHBACK

"Hey baka, why do I keep getting this feeling that we've met before. I mean from the first day you and Aizen joined our team, I felt like I had met you before or something. Did we meet before Team Sigma?"

Naruto stopped mid stride and stared at his brunette teammate. "We have met before but we did not exchange names. We actually exchanges fists and coincidentally that was the same day that I met Aizen," he said with a smile.

"Huh? I don't remember meeting you or fighting you and I beat up a lot of kids when I was younger," she replied with a smirk. Naruto could tell she was reminiscing her previous victories.

With her confession of her childhood, Naruto chuckled. "I don't remember much of how it started, but I remember that we were all at a playground. You know the one with all the rock walls. I jumped in the fight after you attacked Aizen. When me and you fought he went to get help."

"Wait a second! I fought that weakling too? I don't remember fighting him..." Then she gasped in remembrance. "Oh wow, you were that little grey headed brat? Hahaha...yeah that was you. Man, that was the day after grandfather told me about my eyes. I had thought I was special before that. I was just trying to push my limits with my eyes when someone threw something at me. Then I beat all those kids up. I was just about to hit Aizen, now that I think about it, when you showed up. You actually kept up with me a lil, before I put you down. I don't remember how it ended but I woke up in my grandfather's office. Wow, so that is where we met. I remembered you because it took so long for me to land a punch on you. I see now that you were always fast huh?"

Naruto just rolled his eyes and continued on. He would never figure out what his friend saw in girls.

END FLASHBACK

On their final sweep of the border for the day Naruto and Kuro had to be cautious. It was now night time and since they were doubling back they were also furthest alway from where they set up camp every night. The area that they were in was a rough patch of mountain with many loose rocks beneath their feet. This area also contained numerous caves and the duo had seen more than one mountain lion as well as a few bears.

As they reached the crest of a jagged hill, Naruto heard voices in the distance. He quickly stopped and signaled Kuro to stop as the voices grew slightly louder. While trying to pinpoint the location of the noise, Naruto was rudely interrupted as his teammate landed beside him.

"What's the deal Naruto? You told me to halt. Is it another bear? Don't tell me you are scared of those things."

"No this time I heard voices," was his reply.

"Voices? I don't hear anything," she spoke in disbelief. "Which way did you hear it?"

"The noise isn't close Kurotsuchi, but it sounded like more than one person." After a slight pause he continued on with his ears focusing on the noise. "It sounds like they are heading in the same direction we are. I would say a mile, at most, away."

5 minutes later the two genin stood atop a ridge overlooking what they had heard. It turned out Naruto was right, there was definitely more than one person there. Below them sat a group of bandits who were setting up camp.

"Wow this is my first time seeing bandits this far out in Earth Country?" whispered Kuro. "I wonder where they came from."

"They must have passed over the border after we came through on the last sweep. We would have noticed them earlier but the timing was off I would guess. But why would they come over the border now? I read that Ishi country does not have shinobi, so it would have been much safer over there."

"Hmm I don't know," replied the brunette. "But we can't stay here forever. What should we do?"

Before Naruto could answer her question a scream broke out from among the camp below them.

"GET AWAY FROM ME! AHH!"

Suddenly one of the tents shifted and a young redheaded woman came running out from it. By the look on her face she was terrified and scared for her life. Her hair was loose and disheveled and her once elegant olive-colored kimono was torn at the shoulder and thigh. As she ran away from the tent, with eyes darting around for escape, she tripped on the end of her kimono, which dragged on the ground, and landed face first in the dirt. The bandit camp stared at her briefly before erupting in laughter. From the same tent, two guys came walking out.

"Look at her," cried a short man with a scar on his neck. "Poor girl can't realize she is doomed. Chokugen will have his way with her whether she likes it or not."

"Yeah it's a shame he gets to take someone so pretty and leaves us the servant girls. But I guess I can't complain, they are pretty fun," spoke a taller dark man to his right.

"Speaking of fun, I think I will toy with one of those ladies tonight. Lets hurry up and get this princess back to the boss. He's probably tired of waiting."

With little more talk between the two, the men quickly picked up the fallen redhead. As they grabbed her, the girl kicked and screamed in a desperate attempt to get away once more. She even managed to catch the taller thug looking man in the face with a punch causing his nose to bleed.

"Ah you bitch," he screamed grabbing his nose. His shorter partner laughed at him. When the girl struggled again to get free the taller man couldn't take the drama no more.

"Stay the fuck still." To cease her movement he punched her squarely across her temple. She crumpled like a rag doll. "Finally geez..." he spoke again.

"A little over the top don't you think?" asked the shorter man as they carried the unconscious girl back to her tent. He had a smirk on his face.

"You would do the same. Just be lucky I didn't stab the bitch, cause that freaking hurt."

"Ahh, stop being a wuss. It was your fault we're out here in the first place. Tie her up better this time."

"Shut up you old geezer. That princess is crazy. I don't know what her father did to Chokugen, but it must suck. This is like the 10th time she's tried to run. It's ridiculous. "

"Yeah boss man is kinda cruel, but she should know by now she ain't getting away. Tie her up good this time," said the man with the scar as they dragged the princess back into her tent.

After observing the exchange Naruto looked at his partner and teammate and slowly frowned. The older girl had a look of utter fury on her face and Naruto could tell she was itching to go down and rescue the redhead. If he didn't stop her, she would try to destroy the camp, blowing their cover in the process.

"Kuro, we need to let sensei know what is going on. Let's radio over to her what we have found."

"That woman needs help! They are going to..."

"I know Kurotsuchi," Naruto interrupted, "but we need to let sensei know what we've found. Plus there are close to 50 bandits here. We can't rush in without a plan, too many things could go wrong."

He could tell she was thinking it over in her head. The situation was odd and came up so suddenly. There was also the reason why the bandits even crossed the border in the first place. It left Naruto confused.

It took Nanao and Aizen roughly 10 minutes to make it to Naruto and Kuro's location. When they radioed in the situation their sensei and teammate were waiting on them at camp, and had even begun setting up camp for a small dinner. Nanao had been worried that her team had found trouble, but was relieved when Kurotsuchi radioed in that they found something and needed assistance.

When their sensei arrived on the scene she quickly took control.

"Ok, what have you guys found?"

Deciding not to waste time Kuro spoke up first. "Sensei we found a bandit camp, that is relatively large. They must have crossed the border roughly two hours ago, because we did not see them before our last pass. They also have hostages, all female women."

After explaining the hostages Nanao and Aizen both had a look cross their faces. Rape was one of the most vile things in their minds. Nanao knew first hand some of the dangers women faced, and Aizen had experience because he had seen his fare share of rape victims at the hospital.

"How many bandits are we talking about here?" asked Aizen. "And how many hostages?"

"Naruto and I both did head counts and we confirmed 56 bandits in the camp. From just simple observation there are around 8 women who are being held prisoner,' said Kurotsuchi with balled fists.

"They look like simple bandits to me Nanao-sensei, but neither Kuro nor I have seen the leader of the camp. His tent is up against the north side of camp and guards regularly patrol around it. The only thing we were able to find out was that he goes by the name of Chokugen," stated Naruto.

"He also has a hostage with him. We saw her earlier. I don't know who she is but she was dressed in formal wear and wore a lot of jewelry. She looked kinda important," spoke Kuro once more. "She tried to run away earlier but was stopped by some guards outside of Chokugen's tent."

"Well let me have a closer look," said Nanao. "I might recognize her and then we can plan from there. None of this explains why they crossed the border."

After observing the camp for herself, Nanao came to a few conclusions. One was that her genin had done a fine job describing the camp. She did her own head-count and came up with the same number of bandits and hostages. She also noted that the camp was set up in a sloppy way. There was a certain order and neatness near their leaders tent, but the bandits towards the outer edges of the camp had no form of organization in their setup whatsoever. The second major obstacle in her observation were the hostages. Some of the woman had been brutally injured and not just physically. A few of them were not right in the mind, and welcomed some of the treatment given to them by the bandits. Team sigma's sensei recognized that these women were slightly older than the other girls. Nanao mentally marked those women, and by listening to them she knew they could become a problem.

Nanao's last observation was on the leader who she couldn't see. She could tell that he was crafty, by the way his tent was placed. It was holed up against the side of a mountain and surrounded by other bandits for protection. He also placed three men on guard. One stood right outside the tent, but she could make out two others acting inconspicuous close by for protection. Also she thought that she had heard the name Chokugen somewhere before.

"Alright listen up," she spoke as her genin gathered around her. "Our mission might have gotten slightly harder but we have a responsibility to guard our borders and home. Our first priority will be to save the women who are being used and abused. I know that we can easily defeat the bandits but with hostages involved this is more complicated. To keep it simple we will strike just after midnight, which I suspect will be the best time that they are defenseless. We will also be splitting up. Aizen I want you to go with me on this one. I need you specifically for your sensor and healing abilities. You will help me find the women."

"I understand sensei," replied Aizen. His thoughts were focused on the jutsu he would need if things were bad. It was like a button had been pressed on him, and his demeanor was one of all seriousness.

"Naruto and Kuro you guys will be the distraction as we get the hostages out. They are just bandits, but don't hesitate to kill. I am sure these men would not treat you any differently."

"Hai sensei."

"I will give the signal to attack. After I do, Naruto and Kuro will both hit the camp on the east and west sides. Make sure you stay on the move and be alert. While you guys are fighting Aizen and I will try to find and save the women. We will move as fast as we can. Once we get the women to safety, we will meet at our location earlier. If you get separated get back to base camp. Clear?" Nanao asked.

"Hai," was her answer.

At approximately 12:21 AM in the morning the camp was relatively quiet. Light sounds of chatter could be heard from the few remaining bandits still awake as the others had long since passed out from their night of relaxation and enjoyment. After traveling for 4 hours on foot many of the bandits were tired and fatigued, but their leader had allowed them the chance to drink and relax freely. It was obvious that many would not waste the precious opportunity they were given. For Chokugen worked his men pretty hard.

Near the western side of the camp a young bandit drunkenly made his way into his tent missing the dark silhouette that flickered nearby.

Nanao watched on silently as the smelly man stumbled past her and with one last look at her young medically gifted genin she started a lengthy set of hand seals. "Doton: Doryuso," she spoke softly in concentration.

Directly in the center of the camp stood the huge fire pit that the bandits had gathered around only hours earlier. 8 bandits were still seated around the burning flames talking amongst themselves. Without warning a massive piece of rock broke through the middle of the flames tossing the still burning fire and kettle directly on three of the surprised bandits burning them alive instantly. As the remaining five bandits moved to run smaller spikes started jutting out below them. Two bandits tripped and fell catching spikes that went straight through them. They died instantaneously with painful and horrifying looks on their faces. Within moments the camp erupted in shouts and screams as more of the pikes of death caught bandits unaware inside of their tents.

"I guess that is our signal," Kurotsuchi spoke to Naruto near the southeastern corner of the camp. "I bet I will kill more than you can!"

With one more look at her younger teammate Kuro jumped down the small cliff toward the camp in an effort to swoop north on its western side. As Naruto watched her go he silently made 5 earth clones that rose from the ground behind him. Without missing a beat he bounded down the cliff in the same manner as his female counterpart casting one more glance at her as she jumped over the first tent in her path. Slowly a smile formed on his face from her little challenge.

As Kuro moved into the camp, bandits were struggling left and right to quickly get dressed and grab there weapons. As a couple came out of there tents armed and ready she crouched down smoothly running through the hand seals of one of her favorite attacks. While she ran through her seals many of the closest bandits made a run for her, not knowing the danger of their stupidity.

"Doton: Sunaarashi," she uttered as her right arm swept across the ground in front of her. In her left hand was the tora seal.

The bandits in front of her quickly stopped as dust appeared in the air around them from out of nowhere. Many of them began coughing and struggling to breathe as the dust was thick and even hard to see through. In a matter of seconds a dust cloud nearly 30 feet in diameter had formed covering close to a sixth of the camp. As she watched the men try to fight their way through the mini sand-storm Kuro smiled.

Bringing her right arm back up to her lips she shouted out the name of her jutsu while letting go of her tora seal. "Yoton: Maguma hai o nenshō!" To complete the technique she blew towards the dust cloud.

As soon as the bandits heard her jutsu they froze waiting for some type of super technique. For five seconds all that met them was silence and sandy dust. None of the bandits had seen her blow towards the cloud but if they had they would have been slightly confused. It appeared as if the girl's blowing had done nothing but that was a vast understatement. Kurotsuchi had blew her chakra into the cloud which set off a chain reaction.

After the five seconds of silence, screams of agony and pain began to come from within the cloud, which was quickly beginning to blacken. The sand and dust in the air was rapidly turning into hot ash and airborne magma. It was burning the numerous bandits alive inside. However that was not the only purpose for the unique jutsu. As the ash fell unto the ground, the ground began to melt and turn to magma as well further burning and even drowning those who fell over onto it.

Satisfied with her work, Kuro slowly continued on creeping deeper into the camp.

End

Sorry for the abrupt ending, but I didn't want to keep everyone waiting as I finalize more and more content. Hopefully this and last chapter will be the only chapters like this (Quick ending).

Last chapter, this one, and my next chapter were all actually one really longgggg chapter (20-22k words) but altogether I didn't like how it flowed so that is one of the major reasons it took so long among other things I mentioned earlier. The reason for my stop here is that I'm satisfied with everything up until this point.

I hope to keep this going, please be patient.

Also to those who are wondering Naruto will be fighting very soon. He is the main character!

xxx

Jutsu List

Doton: Doryuso - Rising Stone Spears

Doton: Sunaarashi - Sandstorm

Yoton: Maguma hai o nenshō - Burning Magma Ash

Please review...