Naruto wasn't sure how much time had passed since he had begun training with Hidan-sensei in the Land of Swamps; it was hard to tell when the majority of one's time was spent underground. It was harder still to tell seeing as his body had ceased to grow and was no longer available to use as a gauge of time but he was pleased to say that his skills had been steadily improving. His ninjutsu and the finer points of his chakra control were still rather lacking but he supposed since his sensei had stunted chakra coils and as such had no use for either of those particular skill sets it wasn't very surprising. What was surprising was the announcement Hidan-sensei had made one morning over breakfast. It seemed as though the Land of Waves was in the midst of heavy inner turmoil and was being held under the thumb of a vicious little business man named Gato. Gato had hired a company of mercenaries and missing nin to help him control and terrorize the land and secure the reluctant cooperation of the lands inhabitants. This provided a rather unique situation perfect for murder and mayhem. To capitalize on this Hidan-sensei had decided they were to go there as quickly as possible and begin working on both of their soul quotas that were due at the upcoming solstice.

That was how Naruto found himself ankle deep in water on one of the flooded streets of Sector D in the Land of Waves facing down a small company of mercenaries.

Naruto swung his scythe in a loping horizontal arc, neatly cleaving off the mercenary's head. Blood sprayed from the wound and flecked the blonde's face with red. His tongue snaked out and licked his lips clean. A swift boot to the chest sent the man's corpse flying backwards, knocking one of his compatriots off her feet. With a single leap Naruto closed the distance between them and slammed his scythe downwards through one corpse and into the body below it, creating another. His weapon came free with a grinding squelch and he leaped back to his previous position in the street.

The blonde swung his scythe around his body lazily, using the momentum to clean the blood from its blade.

"Damn heathens" he said with a scowl, "Your blood will be a substandard sacrifice to Jashin-sama."

The three remaining mercenaries scrambled into a haphazard half circle in the flooded street in front of him, each readying their weapons shakily.

"Who the hell is this?" The black haired mercenary muttered, nervously adjusting the grip on his katana. "Gato said that we'd be dealing with disgruntled villagers not…this fucking psycho." He glanced at the woman to his left. "What do we do Senshi?"

Senshi, a small woman with a scored Amekagure headband marking her as a missing nin, growled and began to flick through handsigns. "We kill him Yowai you fucking idiot. He's obviously a ninja the villagers hired to try and impede Gato-sama's progress. Mizu: Tatsumaki"

The flooded street in from of her exploded upward into a violent vortex of water that she promptly sent careening towards the blonde.

Naruto chuckled and launched himself to the side, avoiding the vortex and landing several yards away from his original starting point. He ducked; avoiding the staff the unnamed mercenary had swung at his head, and lashed out quickly with his scythe intent on cutting the man in two. The man stumbled backwards in surprise, barely avoiding the crimson blade as it left a long cut across the front of his flak jacket.

With a near feral growl Naruto reversed the direction of his swing and brought it back around. Inches away from cutting into the staff wielder it was deflected by a powerful jet stream launched by the female missing nin. He cursed and leapt backwards, pulling a kunai from his weapons pouch as he did so. While still in the air he threw it with deadly precision at the staff wielder. The man brought his staff up in a vain attempt to knock the projectile off course but was too late. The kunai buried itself in his throat with a meaty thud and he fell onto the pavement choking on his own blood.

Naruto landed in a roll and propelled himself back onto his feet mentally cursing up a storm. If Hidan-sensei had taught him any of Jashin-sama's Curse Techniques by now this battle would have been over already and he would have at least been able to make these pathetic wastes scream and writhe as he offered them up to Jashin-sama. Unfortunately the silver haired man had been far more adamant about teaching Naruto taijutsu and weapon handling in the previous months, stating that Naruto needed to know how to kill and maim as easily as breathing before learning a technique that was facilitated by killing and maiming. It made a certain amount of sense to be sure but in times like this Naruto would gladly cut off one of his own hands to have been able to use Jujutsu: Shiji Hyōketsu on these wretches.

The two remaining mercenaries regrouped in the center of the street. The woman began to flick through handseals again as the man pulled handfuls of shuriken from the pouches attached to his thighs.

Without waiting to see what they were planning Naruto bolted forward, holding his scythe out to one side and screaming a bloodthirsty war cry.

As he approached the two mercenaries synchronized their attacks. The man threw a barrage of shuriken that the woman incased in a powerful stream of water which went barreling towards Naruto.

Naruto slammed the butt of his scythe into the ground and used his momentum to vault over the water stream and clear it by mere inches. The man's frightened cry was cut short as Naruto brought his foot down on the top of his head, crushing his skull inward and puncturing his brain with bone fragments. He collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut as Naruto landed back on the ground, already bringing his scythe around to gut the remaining mercenary.

The woman leapt backwards just in time and settled herself into a battle stance.

Naruto slowly brought himself up to his full height and smirked, "Get ready to meet Jashin-sama heathen. I'm about to send you to Him in pieces!"

He rushed towards her.

The screams started a short time later.