Naruto : Path of Wind

The village is bigger than I thought it would be. A lot bigger.

When I first read through the missions scroll I'd assumed it would be smaller than the residential district back in Konoha, maybe the focus of a lumber company or some such. In reality, it looks like an abandoned fortress more than anything else.

Sprawling out several miles wide and surrounded by stone walls rising at least twenty feet high, decorated with dozens of miniature guard towers atop each corner and along the tops of the walls, it looks like someone tore it out of an Academy textbook.

"How did a few crappy bandits take this place?" I murmur, peering out from behind my bush. My partner rolls his eyes. Or I think he does, at least. Never can tell with those pale eyes.

"It was obviously abandoned years ago, if not decades," he says scornfully, though he keeps his voice equally quiet. "There are empty spaces peppering the walls where stones have fallen or been broken off, and the nearest tower is half-rotted. It was likely left behind after the Second Great Shinobi War, and some weakling farmers came along to repopulate it." I squint at the distant structure.

"I can't see any holes," I admit.

"Pity."

"Watch it, Hyuuga," I warn. Unfortunately, Sasuke and his easily pushable buttons have spoiled me, and the veteran genin only sneers at the use of his clan name. Silence reigns, and I spot a bandit appearing atop of the wall. It's probably unnecessary with a Byakugan user right next to me, but I watch him closely anyway.

He makes a few lazy circuits about the wall, disappearing out of my sight for two or three minutes at a time and then reappearing on the other side of the wall, throwing his head back every so often to take a swig of whatever drink it is he has on him.

Suddenly, he halts and turns, staring right at my bush. My muscles coil tightly, my teeth clench, and the man watches. He reaches for his belt, and my breath freezes in my throat. A stream of piss arcs off the wall, shining in the light of the rising sun.

"Nice," I sigh, relaxing. I pull my hand back, allowing the leaves to snap back into place, and lean into the stiff foliage, studying my partner. He sits cross-legged just behind me, eyes wide open and seemingly staring off into space.

The veins around them bulge grotesquely, shining dimly with chakra. If I'm honest with myself, he's probably perusing the selection of scrolls the bandits have locked away in chests deep inside the fortress instead of tracking any enemy traffic. And looking through my clothes.

Damn Hyuuga.

"So what's the deal with you and Sasuke?" I ask. He doesn't reply. Different question, then. "Why was he getting all down and dirty with your teammate in old man Hokage's office?"

Uh, wait. That didn't come out right at all.

"The Uchiha tried to attack me," Neji says coolly, ignoring my unfortunate innuendo. A little smirk curls his lips. "Lee educated him as to the skill gap between us."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I challenge.

"It means you're weak."

"We'll see who's weak when I beat your girly ass into the dirt," I growl.

He scoffs. "Big talk and nothing to back it up. A sure sign of a weakling."

"What is your problem?" I ask, gripping my hair in frustration. "What did you say to Sasuke to get him so angry? Whydid you say it?" If possible, his face becomes even more stoic.

"I merely pointed out a few truths," he says softly. Dangerously. I lower my hands, watching him carefully. "He couldn't handle them." He turns his head sharply away. "Few can."

We lapse into a tense silence, while I chew on his words and he stares unblinkingly through our cover at the fortress. A few truths, huh? It really was just more clan nonsense, then. I scowl, leaning back into my bush. I swear, if I had a jutsu for every time I've seen the Uchiha and the Hyuuga being jerks to each other, I'd be the old man.

"They're approaching the wall." The words snap me from my musings instantly, and I scramble back into my given position. My partner untangles his legs, creeping forward. "They've gained the wall. Splitting off."

Something settles uncomfortably in my stomach, hot and heavy. I finger a shuriken in my pouch while my heartbeat slams against my chest.

"Contact," he reports. A moment later a fire dragon lunges up into the air from inside the fortress, arcing up with a thunderous roar and crashing back down. A monstrous crash echoes in my ears. "Lee is moving in."

"What about Sasuke?" I ask, alarmed.

"Him too," he admits grudgingly. Fucking Hyuuga.

I find myself with a kunai in my hand, flipping my grip back and forth, eyes wide with anticipation. My partner tenses.

"Tenten and your teammate have reached the northmost guard tower. They've established contact." He tenses, not moving a single muscle. "Now!"

I explode out of the bush like a wrathful Bijuu, any and all semblance of stealth literally gone with the wind as I push my chakra as hard as I can at my back. I fly down the road at the fortress, homing in on a gaping hole in the wall that wasn't there a minute ago. Neji pulls up beside me, the veins around his eyes standing even starker against his skin, and ghosts past me up and through the hole in the wall. I leap clean through it.

The abandoned stronghold is just as impressive on the inside as it is on the outside, filled with stout wooden huts pressed up against the village walls.

The center of the village looks to have been converted from whatever it was in the past to a massive plot for farming, complete with gutted oxen corpses and shattered wooden plows strewn across the dirt. Sasuke and Lee are in the center of the ruined plots, locked into hand to hand with a hulking bandit swinging a warhammer and a smaller man sporting a slashed headband with a katana respectively.

There are already three bandits down for the count, two out cold in the plot and one lying on the ground just inside the wall with an oozing cut across his neck. The skin he'd been drinking from leaks a liquid of the same color, mingling with the blood. I turn away from the corpse, Iruka's lectures on the rules of shinobi rushing to the forefront of my thoughts.

Rule 25, a shinobi must never show emotion. Always remember. Put them out of your mind if you must, shuffle them away for a later date, but do not let them control you.

Neji slips in between Lee and the nukenin and gets to poking, and I set my sights on the behemoth Sasuke is dancing around. I put on a burst of speed and soar over a rotting ox, right arm swinging out wide. The bandit notices me at the last second, but by then it's far too late.

"Lariat!"

This one doesn't trip.

My arm curls around his thick bull neck and is nearly yanked out of its socket. The bandit chokes, teeters, and falls on his back, dropping his warhammer and scrabbling at his neck while I back off and thank anything and everything that might be listening for chakra and momentum. Sasuke darts in and kicks him once, right in the temple, and he's out.

I point at the downed enemy, throwing a look Sasuke's way. "That's how you take a hit."

Sasuke rolls his eyes. "Maybe if you weren't coming at me with wrestling moves you'd hit me more often." He counters. My partner steps in before I can respond with something equally witty, a harsh expression on his face.

"Talk when the mission is over," he says acidly. He flicks his head towards one of the shacks where a bandit is stumbling out, fumbling with his pants and gripping the hilt of his sword in his teeth, and takes off.

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