Naruto : Path of Wind

"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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I feel your pain, I mouth at my glaring Uchiha teammate, and turn and chase after the veteran genin. He's within arms reach before the moron of a warrior can even transfer his sword from his teeth to his hand, gracefully ducks a panicked haymaker, and jabs the man in his stomach and his chest in quick succession. The bandit collapses in a convulsing heap and my partner disappears into the building.

I stop just short of the door, perhaps my gut or perhaps straight paranoia prompting me to take a glimpse in through the small glass window on next to the door first.

I see Neji, crouched in the signature Hyuuga Taijutsu stance, and a naked man holding an equally naked and sobbing woman up with a short blade pressed against her throat. My partner is saying something, but I can't hear it over the blood roaring in my ears. I duck back, breathing heavily and focusing on my clenched, shaking fists.

I glance around, see Sasuke and Lee taking on three more bandits on the other side of the fortress, and nothing else. All clear. Then I turn and scale the shack's walls, silent as a shadow. I pull myself up onto the roof, creep across its wooden surface to the cobble chimney, and ease into it. Stealth training don't fail me now. I slide down into the fireplace, and get an immediate eyeful of bare bandit ass. Then I get an earful of stupid bandit voice.

"And if you don't get the hell out of here right the fuck now, you stupid little shit, I'm going to open her up ear to ear and-"

I slam the ring of one of my standard kunai into his neck as hard as I can, and he collapses like a rotten tree in a hurricane. The clatter of his blade hitting the wood floor mingles with his desperate wheezing and the naked woman's sobbing. She collapses to her knees and I drop down beside her, placing a hand on her shoulder. It's horrifically bruised, along with most of the rest of her skin. What small amount that isn't is pale and fair. I'm reminded uncomfortably of Sakura.

"Hey," I say softly. She flinches away from my hand, shaking her brown haired head side to side. "You're going to be fine." I assure her, trying a different approach. "My team and I aren't going to let them touch you guys, you have my word as a shinobi." She only sobs harder.

"Leave her," Neji says, suddenly beside me. He reaches down and taps two fingers to the struggling bandit's forehead. He falls limp, mid weeze. "She'll be safer in here anyway. Gai-sensei can handle her when we're done."

"That makes sense," I agree reluctantly. I make sure to throw a blanket from the nearby cot over her shoulders before we leave, though, and drag the unconscious body out with us.

Sasuke and Lee are putting the finishing touches on the last bandit by the time I've deposited the man up face-first against the ass of a dead ox. The finishing blow on the bandit ends up coming from afar, however, in the form of a throwing axe of all things lodging itself in the ratty woman's head after cutting a path just past Lee's head. I find myself too incredulous to be revolted as I turn towards the tower.

"Are you serious!?" I shout. "You could have missed and taken your own teammate's head off! And who even uses throwing axes anyway?" Tenten appears in front of me in a cloud of smoke, swinging another axe around on her finger like some oversized kunai, a condescending smile on her face.

"Silly boy," she coos. "I never miss."

"I'm going to assist Gai-sensei," Neji announces suddenly, nodding once to Tenten and Lee, and turning and sprinting deeper into the maze of plots and buildings.

"A magnificent idea! I will join you, my rival!" Lee declares. He bows quickly and takes off in the same direction at breakneck speed.

"Well that's nice of them," Tenten says wryly. "I think I'm going to gather up the civilians, myself." She turns to holler at the guard tower. "Hey Sakura! You want to help me out?" Sakura appears in an identical cloud of chakra smoke next to her and nods shyly.

"And then there were two," I drawl as they trot away to the nearest shack. "So what do you think? Not bad for our first mission, eh?" I ask Sasuke as he makes a round of the open plot, gathering up his kunai and shuriken. He grunts.

"Oh come on," I say in exasperation. "Lighten up. We got to kick a few bandits around, rescued some civilians, and you got the bulk of the action! You didn't even get paired with the jerk." I slap him on the back in the middle of reaching for a kunai and send him stumbling.

"Anyway," I continue, skillfully ignoring his poisonous look. "Think of it this way: We're one step closer to not having to put up with him anymore. How many joint missions can they give us before we prove we're capable?" I wonderful thought occurs to me, and I grin. "And if you want to be really optimistic, you can say we're one step closer to becoming chunin and not having to put up with Kakashi!" I finish happily.

Sasuke pockets the last of his weapons, shaking his head. "I'll count this as a step when I've got the mission payment in my hands."

"Isn't that a pity," A deep voice drawls. I spin around with a startled shout, calling chakra to my hands, only to see a gray blur swooping in past my guard. The punch hits me like a freight train in the stomach, and I see stars.

I fly back, rolling across torn up ground and broken wood, and vomit my rations all over the dirt. Something whistles sharply in my ears, followed by a clanging of metal on metal. A shadow falls over me, which I decide is Sasuke after a few seconds fighting to see through the tears in my eyes.

"I hate to piss on your festival just when you thought you had it in the bag, but the fun's just starting, kids." The man says mockingly. I grit my teeth and stand, clutching my stomach, and step out from behind my teammate.

The man who sucker punched me stands in the gouge my feet tore up in the process of being sent flying, arms crossed over his chest. He's as tall as Kakashi, and even more muscular than Gai. Tattered gray cargos cover his legs and filthy gray bandages coil tightly around his biceps.

A headband decorated with three clouds slashed through the middle shines from its place wrapped overtop the bandages on his right bicep. The ashen skin of his chest is bare except for a bulky, unzipped vest.

A chunin vest.

"Sasuke," I say lowly, fingers digging into the thin fabric of the shirt covering my stomach. "Go get Sakura and Tenten."

"Are you out of your mind?" Sasuke demands out of the corner of his mouth. "He just downed you in one hit."

"It was a sucker punch," I insist. "I can take him while you get them."

"That's stupid. Let's just take care of him ourselves."

"Four genin are better than one. And what if he's not alone?" I ask. Realization sparks in his eyes. "Exactly. Go."

I can see him about to protest, maybe tell me to go instead, but suddenly the nukenin from Kumo sighs dramatically and disappears in a flash of chakra, appearing in front of him. The chunin draws a fist back, crackling with white lightning, and sends a punch at Sasuke's face. Instinct shoves me forward, sends chakra screaming through my veins, and I slam an open palm strike into his side. Wind explodes from my skin, sending him skidding.

"Go!" I shout, pulling upon more chakra and relishing in the feel of it rising in my stomach, chasing the pain away. Sasuke nods curtly, vanishing in a shunshin. I relax into my taijutsu stance.

"Smart move," The nukenin allows, studying me with a bit more critically. "Too bad for him my buddy isn't going to be as easy as these weaklings were." He spits on a bandit riddled with senbon.

"You're one of the B-ranks," I guess. "Couldn't handle the jounin, then? Had to make do with the genin instead?" An angry opponent is a reckless opponent, Iruka lectures me. And a reckless opponent is a dead opponent.

"Of course," he agrees. "I just got my rank, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let the Copy Cat take it away from me."

"Then why don't you run?"

He shrugs. "Because my superiors are probably going to kill your sensei eventually. I'm just making sure I don't get caught in any unnecessary crossfire, you know? Oh, and I'm waiting on my buddy while he plays with your little kunoichi friends." A vile grin creeps across his face. "He likes 'em young."

I explode forward, a kunai clutched in each hand, nearly spitting with rage. Electricity dances around the nukenin's biceps down to his hands, and with one hands he lashes out. I drift just outside of his reach, then dart in, lashing out at his vulnerable chest. He jerks back and slaps my hand away, and my arm goes numb.

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