Chapter Seven: The Fight for Survival

Momiji Hayabusa sat quietly inside the office of the Hokage as she waited for the Sandaime Hokage to arrive with the Patriarch of the Uchiha clan. They were going to discuss about possible solutions that could mend the multiple rifts between the Hayabusa clan and the Uchiha clan. Personally, the Shrine Maiden didn't really think that it was possible for some of the tensions to be removed as many members of the Uchiha clan were related to the Black Spider Ninja clan in some way. The fact that Naruto had murdered the previous head of the Uchiha clan in self-defense also needed to be taken into account as she had overheard the hushed whispers of some Uchiha wanting revenge for that slight to their clan's honor. The fact that the clan had a dōjutsu kekkei genkai that allowed them to steal the techniques of other shinobi that had earned those abilities through years of hard training didn't sit very well with her.

"I'm more concerned that so many of the civilian villagers believe that the Uchiha should be allowed to copy the techniques of other shinobi that are loyal to the village." Momiji thought to herself as she continued to wait for the Hokage and Genshin to arrive.

During the few weeks that she had been in the village, she had discreetly gathered information on the major power players in the village. The Uchiha clan was a particularly fascinating case as it was hated and beloved by the people of the village. The shinobi of the village were openly disdainful towards the clan for the Sharingan's ability to copy any justu that they had spent years to master. On the flipside, the civilians in the village openly praised the clan like they were a pantheon of gods. The fact that the civilian council was openly encouraging the civilians in the village to be sycophants was also very concerning to her.

"It's like they're trying to keep the Uchiha clan happy at the expense of others." Momiji spoke to herself.

However, neither of the two Uchiha was in a position to meet with her. Itachi was currently an international criminal for massacring over a third of the clan, while Shisui had supposedly committed suicide under very mysterious circumstances. She would openly admit that she found it suspicious that Itachi's mind would just snap without warning, when the Yamanaka clan was supposedly the leading village experts in psychology. One of them should have notice the signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. It was pretty clear that the village government was covering something up, but the question is what?

"Perhaps, I'll ask the Hokage about this supposed massacre of a clan that helped found this village alongside the Senju clan. If I find that things don't add up, I'll confront him and demand the real reason why Itachi murdered a third of his clan." The dragon shrine maiden mused to herself as she heard the sound of two men talking to each other as they walked towards the office.

She instantly recognized that the voices belonged to the Third Hokage and Genshin. The two of them were talking about the possibility of Genshin becoming the Godaime Hokage as Sarutobi wanted to return to retirement as soon as possible. The idea of a ninja retiring from the shinobi life simply because of old age was an insulting concept for the regent of the Hayabusa clan to even think about. In the Hayabusa village, the elderly were given the daunting task of teaching the skills that they had gained during their service as ninja to the next generation.

"Can you two please just get in here so that we can discuss about the poor relations between the Hayabusa clan and the Uchiha clan." Momiji mentally commanded to the two men as they had stopped just outside of the office's door to continue their discussion.

As if on cue, the two men entered into the office with joyful laughs like the two had been sharing a joke between themselves. She suddenly felt a twang of sadness in her heart as it reminded her of the bonds that she had once shared with her fellow dragon ninja before the dragon god that resided in the Ryū no Magatama had granted her eternal youth and near-immortality. She had been forced to watch as her fellow clansmen grew old and fragile, while she remained in her youthful prime. By the time that the great calamities occurred, she had taken to living on Mount Fuji alone for about three hundred years after Ryū saved the world from the Lords of Alchemy's plans on reshaping the world as they saw fit.

"I'm so glad the two of you finally decided to show up to this little meeting that the third Hokage had arranged between us." Momiji commented in an overly-sweet manner that sent shivers down the two men's spines.

The two shinobi let out a nervous chuckle as the tone that Momiji had used with them was reminding them of the time that Tsunade had nearly killed Jiraiya for peeking on her in the village's hot springs for the very first time. While the both of them were Kage-level shinobi that were fully capable of fighting off normal kunoichi, Momiji wasn't a normal kunoichi by a long shot. She had personally debunked a lot of the previous notions that they had about the age before the sage of six paths. Of course, many of the elder generation were reluctant to accept the fact that so much of their knowledge was incorrect.

"I'm glad that you're here, Momiji-san. I want you to explain why you and Naruto have been so disrespectful towards members the Uchiha clan and the village's civilian council." Sarutobi calmly demanded from the ancient kunoichi as he walked over to leather chair.

He was well-aware that the tensions between the shrine maiden and the villagers were extremely high. Most of the elderly tended to view her as a relic from a less-civilized time. At the same time, Momiji had made her distain perfectly clear towards the people that held positions of power within the village. She had also flat out refused to work with members of the Uchiha clan on numerous occasions. It didn't help that she viewed most modern-day ninja as common mercenary thugs with special powers that they didn't deserve.

"The Hayabusa clan will not show any form of respect towards a group of people with the ability to steal the techniques by watching comrades that had worked hard to master those skills." Momiji coldly stated as she glared at the Hokage for allowing such a thing to happen in the first place.

Genshin let out a sigh as he heard his clan being compared to a group of thieves by another clan head. Despite his best efforts to rehabilitate the clan's reputation, it had been a slow process as elements within his own clan was undoing his work. The civilian council putting enormous pressure on the village's shinobi to allow Uchiha ninja to copy their techniques wasn't helping the matter at all. It was one of the main reasons that he openly supported the Hayabusa head's constant disrespect towards the council.

"Be as that may, it doesn't excuse the fact that you have constantly disrespected towards a fellow clan head that has done nothing to warrant such hostilities." Sarutobi commented in a way that the Dragon shrine maiden found extremely disrespectful.

Genshin watched as Momiji's amber eyes briefly turned to a golden hue and her irises turning into slits. It was clear that she didn't appreciate the tone that the Third Hokage had taken with her as it sounded like a parent talking down to a disobedient child.

"The fact that he is named after the dreaded overlord of the Black Spider ninja clan and has blood connections to a clan that has attacked the Hayabusa on numerous occasions is more than enough to warrant my attitude, Hokage-dono." Momiji commented as she unconsciously leaked her killer intent into the room.

Both men were extremely wary about asking the reasons behind her dislike towards the legendary Genshin and the Black Spider clan. The clan had been dependable allies with the village in the past as Genshin Uchiha was living proof of the relationship. However, Sarutobi wasn't going to allow a clan of the village to treat any ally with distrust.

"The black spider clan has been a steady ally of the Hidden leaf village for over a hundred years. I will not tolerate you showing any disrespect towards them because of some vendetta. Do I make myself clear?" He spoke in a threatening manner.

Whatever Momiji was going to say got cutoff by a sudden poof of smoke that covered the Hokage's desk. She was instantly on high-alert in case the smoke was being used as a cover for an attack. However, she relaxed as she noticed the concealed figure of a small dog in the smoke. Once the smoke completely, the canine figure was reveled to be a brown-furred pug that was wearing a blue vest with a Heno-heno-moheji seal on the back and a standard Konoha headband.

"Hokage-dono, Team Seven and Eight have encountered an unknown creature with blood-red skin and are requesting reinforcements." The pug spoke in a deep and gruff male voice.

At hearing the dog's voice, Momiji became even more serious as very few creatures in the world could match that vague description. Most of them were creatures that had appeared following the great calamities that devastated the Earth. She needed more information before she jumped to any conclusions.

"Mutt, did Kakashi describe any other details about the creature that attacked them." She demanded with voice that was cold as ice.

Pakkun had been called a lot of things over the years, but stupid was definitely not one of them. So when a woman that smelled like a dragon demanded something, he was going to give it to her and avoid pissing her off. It also didn't hurt that she was extremely beautiful by human standards.

"Yeah, he may have mentioned that the creature had the horns of a goat on top of its head." The brown pug commented as he rolled over onto his back as a clear sign of submission.

Momiji sat in her seat in utter silence as she pondered over the list of fiends that had blood red-skin and the horns of a goat. She instantly eliminated several species of fiends from her mental list as they had been rendered extinct by the efforts of her kinsmen and human encroachment on their habitats. That left only a species of fiend that Master Ryū had encountered during his incursion into the Vigoorian Empire to get revenge on the Greater Fiend that led the attack on Hayabusa village.

"So it seems that teams seven and eight have encountered a Galla on their trip. If they had encountered one then there's a very distinct possibility that there's more of them are in the area." She finally commented as she got up from her seat and started walking towards the office door.

Neither Hiruzen nor Genshin said anything to try and stop her as they knew that nothing was going to change Momiji's mind. Besides, it was probably for the better if she left the village for a couple of days as some villagers had been complaining about her presence for awhile.

Elsewhere

A lone merchant ship with three large masts was steadily sailing towards the northern coast of Nami no Kuni to deliver some cargo. On the ship's red sails was four diamonds within a solid ring that signified that the ship was from the land of lightning. Unlike other nations, merchants from Kaminari no Kuni were proud to fly the Daimyō's family crest on their sails. To further separate themselves from their peers, each ship always carried a small detachment of samurai. This gave them a noticeable presence on the high seas with only Hi no Kuni and Mizu no Kuni having a larger naval presence than them.

But the sight of a lone Kaminari merchant ship being this far south was extremely unusual as they generally stayed in conveys to deter pirates. However, this lone ship was currently holding some very special cargo that the Raikage had personally requested to be delivered to the small collection of islands. The cargo was in the form of a blonde-haired kunoichi that had a giant war hammer and a somewhat exotic weapon strapped to her back. Despite being extremely beautiful, all of the crew knew better than to pester the woman as she carrying out a mission on the behalf of the Daimyō.

"Ma'am, we're about to be in rowing distance of the coast in a few minutes. I suggest that you get all of your gear ready as we need to move fast before one of Gato's patrols spots us." One of the ship's sailors muttered to the Kumo Kunoichi in a hushed tone.

The woman nodded her head in understanding before heading below deck to gather the things that she would need for this mission. Once the crew was sure that the kunoichi was out of hearing range, they let out a collective sigh of relief. For some stranger and unknown reason, all of them would feel a great sense of unease and dread every time that they were around her. The general thought amongst the crew was that the sooner that she was off of their ship, the better that they were off in the long run.

"No matter how many times that I've seen her, I still can't shake the sinister feeling that I get from being around her." A sailor whispered to one of his friend as they helped raised the raise the sails to stop the ship from getting closer to shore.

His friend nodded in agreement as they had broken several maritime taboos by allowing a woman to sail aboard the ship with them. However, the payment for delivering a single woman to shores of Nami no Kuni was too much for the ship's captain to ignore. Of course, many of the crew had openly objected to the idea of allowing a woman onboard as most of them were extremely superstitious.

"But the captain has promised us that the ship will dock at Tsuki no Kuni for some rest and relaxation." The second sailor as they tied the sail down to horizontal part of the mast.

All of the ship's crew were well-aware that the Captain's promise was essentially a bribe to get them to obey his decision on bring a woman on board. Such a promise was enough to get them to cooperate as the port towns of Tsuki no Kuni were a sailor's paradise. Unlike ports on the mainland that had strict regulations in place, the ports of Tsuki no Kuni was a sailor's earthly and sinful paradise.

It was at this moment that the blonde-haired woman reappeared from below the decks with a large Seabag slung over her right shoulder. None of the sailors were really surprised by the fact that she was carrying such a hundred-pound bag without any difficulties. Earlier in the trip, some of them had tried to lift her warhammer to prove their masculinity without any success.

"Prepare to lower the whaleboat!" the captain of the ship yelled out to the crew.

The crew quickly began making the necessary preparations to get the kunoichi off of their ship. The sooner they got rid of her, the quicker that they got to Tsuki no Kuni.

With Team Seven & Eight

It was pure chaos as Kakashi and Kurenai tried their hardest to protect their students and the client from the strange creature. They weren't having much success in that endeavor as their genin were scattered around the area. It seemed like Shino and Hinata were the only genin that had placed the client's safety ahead of their own. Sasuke had been easily knocked-out by a vicious backhand from the creature after he had foolishly charged the beast head-on. Sakura was busy hiding behind Tazuna and screaming her head off to be of any real help. Finally, Kiba had fled with Akamaru to a nearby tree and climbed up to its highest branches like a scared cat.

Zabuza had long since withdrawn from the area in the belief that the creature would be able to kill them for him. To be fair to the rogue ninja, the creature was powerful enough to hold its own against two Jōnin ninja that were veterans of the third shinobi world war and numerous missions. He also knew that once the abomination was finished with the leaf ninja, it would quickly turn and try to attack him. So it was better for him to fall back and allow the creature to do his dirty work.

"Damn it! It seems that none of our attacks are having any affect on the beast." Kakashi yelled out in frustration as the creature's leathery hide was reminiscent to the prototype chakra armor that shinobi from the land of snow had worn during his Anbu days.

Kurenai could only mentally agree with her colleague as she had other things to worry about at the moment. Not only was she focused on fighting with the creature, she was also worrying about her students and the client at the same time. Unless they knew the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, the idea of multitasking in the middle of a fight was a ninja's worse nightmare.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" Kakashi yelled out as he made the correct hand signs before taking a big inhale of air.

A second later, he exhaled and unleashed a giant fireball at the creature in the hopes of burning it to death. The fireball quickly consumed the creature and hovered in the same location that the monster had been standing at the time of impact. With a temperature of eighteen-hundred degree Fahrenheit, most beings would have been reduced to ash in a matter of seconds. However, Kakashi didn't know that the fiends had gradually evolved over the millennia with the introduction of chakra.

The creature let out an ear-splitting screech like it was dying in agony before using its massive wings to disperse the fireball. Both Jōnin were stunned speechless to find that the fire jutsu hadn't harmed the creature in any way. While they had been frightened at the sight of the creature like their students, they had been able to control that fear to a certain degree. However, they were now starting to feel a new kind of fear in their hearts.

"We'll need a serious miracle if we're going to survive this mess!" Kurenai thought to herself as she pulled out a kunai knife and got into a defensive stance.

It was in critical situations like this that the genjustu mistress really wished that she had learned Kenjutsu from Kushina-sensei. Unlike a certain purple-haired member of Team Kushina, the red-eyed beauty didn't believe that Kenjutsu was a necessary skill to learn at the time. Now it seemed like her ignorance in the matter was coming back to bite her in the ass.

"Kurenai, I want you to gather the genin and the client and fallback to Konoha. Report to the Hokage and tell him that the Anbu Black Ops needs to deal with these creatures as soon as possible." Kakashi ordered as he prepared to stall the creature to buy his comrades some time to retreat.

Before the plan could be enacted, several roppoken-style shuriken flew through the air and stuck the creature in the chest. It wasn't enough to cause serious damage to the Van Gelf, but it did catch the attention of the demonic minion and everybody else.

"It seems like I can't leave any of you guys alone for a couple of minutes without having you run off and bumping into another fiend." A deeply-familiar voice commented from the tree that Zabuza had used for his introduction.

Everybody that was still conscious managed to look up at the tree and find Naruto standing on a tree branch with his arms folded across his chest. Kakashi and Kurenai let out a sigh of relief at the sight of Naruto as it meant that he had dealt with the creature from earlier. It meant that they didn't have to worry about being attacked by the same dinosaur-like creature on the way back.

The brief moment of relief quickly turned into horror as Naruto jumped down from the tree branch and drew his ninjatō sword. While Kakashi was confidant in his student's ability to handle most situations, he was trying to face off against a creature that held its own against two Jōnin.

"Naruto, we need to fall back and regroup! You're no match for this thing!" Kakashi yelled out in horror as his sensei's son prepared to fight that monster by himself.

Naruto simply ignored the silver-haired man and charged at the creature with blinding speed that was almost impossible to follow. Once he was a few feet away from the creature, the Van Gelf took a swing at him and he dodged it easily. With practiced skill, he jumped into the air and prepared to strike at the base of the creature's head. Once he had reached the zenith of his jump, he began to bring his sword down.

The sound of metal quickly slicing through the skin, and bone of the monster echoed throughout the forest clearing. Everybody that was still conscious and had paying attention to the fight was shocked by the sheer easy that Naruto had in dispatching the creature.

"That was absolute amazing! He managed to kill the creature with a single blow and not receive any damage." Kurenai whispered as she stared at Kushina's son with eyes filled with wonder.

While Kakashi could mentally agree with his fellow Jōnin, he still needed to punish Naruto for disobeying him in a life or death situation. The silver-haired man watched as his student flicked the blood off of the blade before resheathing it into its saya. Granted, he really hasn't been able to teach much as any effort on his part was thwarted by Sakura's constant fangirlism and Sasuke's arrogance. Perhaps, this incident will drive home the realities of the shinobi lifestyle to them.

"Kurenai, I think we need to gather our students and get to Tazuna's place before anymore of those things decided to show up." Kakashi spoke as he walked over to Sasuke's unconscious form.

Kurenai nodded her head in agreement as she tried to sense Kiba's chakra in the area. She found the coward hiding in a tree that was fifty yards away from the battlefield and trying to come up with a plausible excuse as to why he had survived the attack. Without any hesitation, she grabbed him by the ear and dragged him back to the rest of group with verbal promises that his mother would hear about his cowardice.

Once they had been resembled at the lake, they quickly departed the area with a level of urgency that they didn't have before.

Alright, a brand new chapter for you guys to enjoy. I apologize for taking so long to publish it, but I had to ensure the introduction of Yugito in this chapter went the way that I wanted it to. As you already can tell by her equipment, Yugito is the direct descendant of the fiend hunter known as Rachel that debuted in the first game of the Ninja Gaiden series remake. So I'll be adjusting her body measurements to match the figure that her ancestor has in Dead or Alive Five. For the record, I don't plan on having he joining Naruto's harem right away.

So with being said, please leave a review about your opinion on the chapter.

Until next time, Hoorah to Ashes!