Chapter XIV: Mission Accomplished

By this time, Katashi had found that his cattle had been all cleared out of the pen that they had been put in after they had been allowed to graze for the day. The young rancher was panicking until Asuma calmed him down, "It's fine. My kids are already on it."

"How do you know?" Katashi said in a panicky fashion, "They could have been killed, or caught, or got lost or who knows! Aw man, I was just starting to get this place to work out for me!" He said, crying heavy anime tears.

Asuma cleared his ears out, not really wanting to see or hear a grown man cry in front of him, "Because one of the guys that took your animals is laying dead just over the hill over there." He said, pointing to the left, "They probably headed on ahead to catch up and take the others on. But don't you worry. I'll be right behind them." He scratched his head, "Tracking isn't my strong suit, but with a large herd of cattle there aren't many places they could take them out of here. I doubt whoever took them knew we were even here."

"Why?" Kakashi wondered.

Asuma smirked, "Because they actually tried taking the cattle in the first place."

XxX

"Kei hasn't returned yet Satoshi-oniisama." Manabu remarked as he brought up the rear of the cattle that they had managed to steal from the Kojima Ranch as they directed them down the forest path leading away from said ranch. Manabu was a thickly muscled man that had a brown Mohawk on his head and red war paint over his eyes. He wore a tan pair of shorts and an open sleeveless jacket, and around his mouth he had a facemask that had a demonic mouth printed on it. The facemask had tubes coming from the back going into his jacket, "He should have caught up by now, we can't keep going slow like this if we want to get away clean."

A tall, lanky man with a long mustache and shoulder-length brown hair made a pondering noise. He wore an olive sleeveless shirt and brown pants to go with the red bandanna around his head as he calmly lead the herd forward at the head, "Well then I guess we'll just have to leave him behind won't we? He was the most expendable of us anyway. As long as I'm still here then everything is fine, the plan will still go off without a hitch."

"Of course Satoshi-oniisama." Manabu said, not really caring much for the fate of their brother, "If he is a liability then his fate is his own. He was only supposed to be the diversion anyway. If he was unable to get away from a ranch hand and the brats he keeps with him then he wasn't strong enough clearly. Not like you and I."

"My sentiments exactly." Satoshi replied coolly in an even manner, "Get these cattle to pick up the pace, it's time to get moving."

XxX

(With Team 10)

Naruto, Menma, Ino, and Shikamaru leapt through the thick trees of the forest surrounding the path that the cattle had been driven down. Menma looked over at his brother, "Can you sense anyone yet?"

Naruto shook his head, "No, there are too many trees in the way. My range is getting better, but with all of this solid stuff in the way there's only so far I can scan out. All I can do is half a mile from an open spot anyway." He frowned visibly, "Like this, I can barely sense 500 feet."

Menma grunted, "Fine. Ino? How about you, any ideas?"

"Don't look at me." She said in a stumped manner, "Maybe if we run into an owl or something I can take over a bird that wouldn't be too weird to be seen flying around so I can find them, but other than that I've got nothing."

A few moments passed and Shikamaru let out a sigh, but put his game face on as he got himself ready to put that brain of his to work, "Fine... they have to use the path through the woods if they really do have all of the cattle. We all know that the path is a troublesome bitch... I mean why not just make the thing a straight shot right through? What's with all of the twists and turns? Who the hell designed this thing, a-?"

"Shikamaru!" Ino, Menma, and Naruto yelled at him to get him back on track, "The plan?"

"Oh, right." He said, looking sheepish at being caught rambling, "Anyway, what I mean is; there's no reason for us to try to look for them and jump right into a fight against whoever took the stupid cows. The path in the woods has a ton of choke points, Ino uses some poisons and can take over bodies, I'm smarter than hell apparently, and we have with us the two of the most powerful genin in all of Konoha that have inexhaustible manpower by way of their clones. So who thinks that a little ambush is in order?" He finished with a smirk that his teammates returned.

"Just find a good spot and see if we don't blow them away." Ino said with a gleam in her eyes that scared Menma, Naruto, and Shikamaru slightly.

"Um Ino..." Menma said matter-of-factly, "We can't really 'blow them away'. We can't kill the cattle, just remember that. They still belong to that Katashi guy and our job is kind of dependant on them staying alive."

"Of course." Ino said with her cheeks showing her embarrassment about actually forgetting about that fact, "I knew that. It was a figure of speech." She turned away from Menma, Naruto, and Shikamaru giving her deadpan looks with a huff, "Just shut up and find an ambush spot so we can put the damn plan together already!"

XxX

The cattle were steadily charging down the path directed from behind by Manabu who was smirking behind his facemask, "My jutsu is perfect for getting these stupid animals to tow the line."

Satoshi ran ahead of the pack that he was directing, "As is my own for making sure they stay together Manabu. Kei really served us no purpose towards our steering these cattle. When we cash in I think his cut should be smaller than ours. It's only fair for amount of work done by each of us. How hard can it be to ensure a simple rancher doesn't come after us?"

"He never was the brightest you know." Manabu commented on their youngest brother Kei, "He could have gotten himself lost... even though there's only one trail to follow he's done simpler things in his time." He chuckled at their absent brother's expense.

"Keep Kei off of your mind at the moment." Satoshi said seriously, "We're still busy." He pointed ahead, "Make sure they stay together, we can't lose any on that cliff, if any fall off then injured cattle are no good to us." Up ahead of them the sides of the path elevated into pair of forested cliffs surrounding the path on both sides.

One of the cattle seemed to stumble in their steps before turning away from the pack and heading up into the exact area that Manabu was instructed to keep them herded away from, as if the thing just went crazy. Manabu blanched before breaking away from his spot at the back of the pack. He was on it before Satoshi ever even barked out his order.

"Get the thing back in line with the others! That's good money that's running away you fool!" Satoshi shouted at Manabu as the latter took off after the wayward livestock, "I'm not stopping for you either so you had better hurry up, we've had enough hindrances to what should have been an easy job tonight."

"I'll get it back quickly onii-sama!" Manabu said fearfully as he chased after the single far-gone animal.

Satoshi glared as his brother disappeared into the foliage to chase after their potential money, "Why are my family members so incompetent?" He said to himself before shrugging, "Fine, I don't need them anyway. My skills are more than enough to get these cattle to market to sell..."

XxX

"Stupid steer." Manabu muttered out loud as the animal came into sight. For a stupid cow that thing took to the woods as if it knew where it was going, but it could only go so fast and with his ability he could get the damn thing back to the rest of the herd in no time flat.

Eventually the fleeing animal came to a stop in the middle of the woods and looked around in confusion as if it didn't know how it had just gotten there. What, did it realize that cows and cattle have no business being anywhere inside of a forest or what?

'Wait.' Manabu thought, 'This was too easy, it should have kept running no matter where it was going.' He narrowed his eyes as in the moonlit forest he could see shadows stirring and jumped into the trees to avoid one of those moving shadows that just so happened to be moving towards him, "A trap." He growled out, "I didn't know there were even any other ninja in the area besides us."

In hiding nearby, Menma turned his head as he sat crouched down ready to use Three Sword Style. Ino was stirring from her place being carried on his back, her body coming back into use after her successful Shintenshin no Jutsu (Mind Body Switch Jutsu) on the steer, "That was good Ino. We couldn't finish him because he smartened up, but we separated them, that's good."

Ino's sense of awareness quickly returned to her and she got off of Menma's back, "Shika didn't get him?" Naruto who was standing behind Menma and Ino shook his head, "Damn."

Meanwhile, where Shikamaru had been hiding, away from Ino, Menma, and Naruto, the boy didn't seem to be too concerned with his shadow missing its mark. Even a genin like him or one of his teammates would have felt the suspicion of walking into this situation. It wasn't that big of a deal that he dodged the first move, every good opening ploy is a gambit after all; something that could end the battle or set the tone for the entire engagement.

Shikamaru pulled out a kunai and cut a nearby wire that released a spring-loaded trap that launched over a dozen kunai in Manabu's direction. The large man vacated his spot from the tree he had taken refuge from Shikamaru's shadow in and landed back on the ground. Shikamaru didn't panic and launch his shadow in a desperate bid to capture the man, he had to be smart and pick his spot. There would be plenty of times to end things, it was three-on-one, they knew where he was, he didn't have that advantage.

"Whoever you are..." Manabu said, cracking his knuckles in a foreboding manner, "I suggest you leave right now and let me get back to my work. You don't want to tangle with me tonight, ruining what had been a good mood for me would be a bad idea."

From their hiding place, Menma was ready to pull out his three katanas and take the bastard on at the first opening, "How you feeling Ino?"

"Good enough to take this guy down a peg." She said, pulling a senbon from her supply pouch. Hey, Haku had made using them seem like something worth picking up, "I'm not very good with these yet, but if I hit him with even one, wherever I hit it'll be no more good for a few minutes at least. If I get a leg he'll slow down enough to be easy to finish. It's coated in the paralyzing poison I used on myself earlier." Her eyes darted towards his and blue met blue, "Whenever you're ready."

Naruto nodded and braced his muscles to prepare to attack, "The second I take off, let 'em fly, Menma incase this doesn't work you'll be my back up."

"Right."

Ino cocked her arm back and the second she saw Naruto make a step forward out from their cover she threw the senbon she had in her hand and frowned when she could just feel that it didn't fly right, 'Damn it, my aim from far away is still terrible! How'd Haku get so good with those things?'

Naruto ignored Ino's miss as he saw Manabu turn his head after easily dodging her senbon. Naruto reached towards his waist for the handle of his Kunai, but he saw Manabu's eyes widen as he got closer, "A stupid brat?" He rushed forward to meet Naruto and just as Naruto pulled back to unsheathe his weapon, Manabu grabbed him by the wrist he was using to pull out the weapon and threw him hard away from himself, "Are you kidding me? Fine, I'll just squash you quickly and get back to business." He said, marching towards Naruto before finding himself caught in place.

A smirk came to Naruto's face as he picked himself up off of the ground, "Wow Shikamaru, did I give you enough of an opening there or do you want him to throw me harder?"

Manabu's eyes turned towards the direction where he heard a chuckle, "Well it's not like I thought he was actually going to grab you and throw you. That's more your thing isn't it?" Shikamaru sighed and made a motion with his foot to ensure that he had Manabu caught.

"You think this can hold me you brats?" Manabu said with a growl, beginning to use brute force to power his way out of the hold.

Menma and Ino who was still in hiding noticed Shikamaru focusing on holding his rat seal, straining heavily, "Man this guy's a powerhouse. He's actually breaking my hold on him."

"Damn it!" Menma and Ino both said simultaneously, one moving with a machete to hurriedly end the man's life before he broke free, the other moving from her cover to attempt to cut him off with her Shintenshin no Jutsu to stop his struggling.

The noise of Manabu biting into something from behind his facemask sounded out before a loud slurping noise followed it. Menma was the first to reach Manabu due to his being faster than Ino, prompting her to back off lest she wind up getting herself killed after switching bodies. This time Menma freely drew his Kubikiribōchō and held it over his head to unleash a downward slash to Manabu.

"Chikara no Honshitsu (Essence of Power)!" Manabu exclaimed in a gravelly voice before actually breaking through Shikamaru's jutsu and unloading a vicious punch directly to Naruto's body that sent him bouncing off of it like a rubber ball, "I told you that wouldn't hold me!" He said as his body seemed to double in size and mass, veins clearly visible all over the bared parts of his body; arms, legs, and all over his forehead just to name a few places.

"Menma!" Ino ran towards him as she saw his body bounce off of the ground a few times before smacking into the trunk of a tree. Menma let out a pained groan as he pulled himself into a sitting position, "Are you alright?"

Menma's breathing was slightly labored as Ino helped him back up, "Luckily this tree was here to stop me..." He muttered, holding his back, "Am I too young to slip a disk?" He asked, holding his back as his legs shook underneath him.

Naruto looked at Menma who was on the ground and then glared at Manabu. "You'll die for that!"

Meanwhile Shikamaru was being pursued by Manabu, intent on not letting the hulking menace hit him. He somehow had to keep the man busy while Menma recovered. Ino would be helpful in that regard, but after seeing Menma get cracked it would probably have been better to have someone with him while he got his legs back beneath him... if he would be able to recover.

So that left it up to him.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru said to himself as he got on his proverbial bicycle and got the hell out of Manabu's way, as the punch aimed at him hit the ground where he had been and formed a crater, 'This guy's all size and no brain... but even with no brain all that muscle he could still beat us.'

Ino and Menma could see Shikamaru keeping Manabu's attention by being elusive, but his jutsu could simply be broken by this monster of a man so his shadows were useless at the moment, "He needs our help." Ino said, preparing to help now that it was clear all Menma needed was a moment to rest up.

Menma moved himself before cringing in pain and holding his torso, "Gah, it hurts... I swear he must have broken some." He said, talking about his ribs as he slid to the ground.

"I guess it can't be helped Menma you'll have to stay here while we fight."

Ino walked over towards Naruto and Shikamaru. Naruto wiggled his arms and legs and stood back up on spaghetti legs, "This guy's so slow, but he's like a bull."

"You're telling me. He's bigger than an actual bull." Ino said almost fearfully before her eyes locked onto something nearby, "Huh... I'll be right back." She said almost trance-like as she ran off somewhere.

Shikamaru grunted in effort as he could feel the wind from a missed punch by Manabu's hulking arms, 'Man that one would have ripped my head off if it hit me. Come on, I can't just keep running away, doesn't this guy ever get tired with all of that muscle?'

"Incoming!" Multiple Naruto voices shouted as they jumped from the trees around both Shikamaru and Manabu. Shikamaru got the hell out of the way as twenty Naruto clones surrounded their enemy, with a few even landing on Manabu's massive shoulders. These clones were prepared to cut into the man's neck, but they were grabbed and thrown away violently, dispelling on impact with whatever they hit. The remaining clones however, were able to charge in and deliver slashes to his body, "Oh am I glad to see you we need some fire power now that Menma is down." Shikamaru said as the original Naruto stopped at his side.

"One sucker punch isn't going to beat him no matter who it is he'll be fine anyway." A frown then crossed the blonde's face as he looked at his brother lying on the ground, "Besides, I doubt we're going to get hit by too many people stronger than this guy anyway..."

XxX

(Elsewhere in Hi no Kuni)

"Achoo!" A blonde woman at a bar sneezed, alerting the sleeping pet pig nearby that freaked out momentarily at being abruptly jolted awake. The well endowed lady wiped her nose and grunted as the cup of sake she had been holding spilled all over the place. She just shrugged and filled it back up happily, not letting that ruin her night. She had given her assistant the slip for once, this was her night.

XxX

Naruto and Shikamaru didn't know what to make of it once they saw Manabu begin wildly swinging his arms, knocking Naruto's clones away in multiple amounts, "Um, I know I didn't cut his throat or anything, but shouldn't he be bleeding out by now. This is a wind style kunai. I him all over the place."

"Yeah..." Shikamaru scutaid with a bead of sweat rolling down his face, "This is getting annoying more than anything."

"You stupid brats!" Manabu yelled at the top of his lungs once he finished off the last of Naruto's clones, "You can't beat me like that! My muscles are expanded and tempered by the effects of a secret serum my village created. He started laughing to himself, "It's like cutting through layers and layers of nothing but the toughest muscle! You'll never hit anything vital enough to even slow me down, let alone wound me badly enough to kill me!"

"Ideas?" Naruto asked, holding up his machete, ready to keep fighting, "Because my plan would have been to just keep cutting chunks out of his ass until he stopped moving."

"Brilliant." Shikamaru quipped sarcastically, "I think I've got an idea, but it's going to be explosive as all hell. You remember that time we were supposed to clear that noble's house in Konoha of rats and vermin and how that worked out?" Naruto nodded in remembrance, "Yeah, we're going to be doing that again, only on purpose this time. Now where's the stupid cow Ino led out here?" He wondered, as he would have to account for where it was to make sure whatever their next move was didn't kill it or injure it.

"Moo!"

And just like that, Manabu was smashed from behind and knocked away by the cattle that had been forced to head away from the herd by Ino's jutsu. The speed and momentum that the animal had built up had been placed behind that smash that seemed to knock even the steer itself for a loop.

Naruto pointed at the valuable animal and exclaimed, "Holy crap, did you see that? That was awesome!" Naruto waved his arms at the thing that had just given them some help, "Thanks a lot, that was great!" He was taken back slightly when he saw the animal apparently wink at him, "Ok?"

Shikamaru smirked, "That was Ino Naruto." When he saw the cow seemingly stumble about for a moment he nodded accordingly, 'Great. This guy still doesn't know that Ino can do Shintenshin no Jutsu. She still has her trump in her back pocket.'

Manabu slowly got back up holding his back, "Gah! Am I too young to slip a disk?" He said to himself as he slowly straightened out, his back cracking.

"Get him now Naruto!"

Manabu was then seemingly mobbed by a gang of Naruto's Kage Bunshin that seemed to latch onto his every appendage, holding him down. When it looked as if he would begin to move to get rid of them they would seem to multiply and hold him down even more, "Your jutsu!" Manabu managed to grit out from between his teeth, "It's different from his... but it has so many advantages of its own."

Naruto didn't know what he was talking about and didn't care, all he knew was that Manabu was primed and ready for the finish.

Naruto pulled out a kunai with wind style chakra and he began to charge at their enemy.

"You idiotic punk kids can't kill me like this!" He exclaimed as they could see the cloth of his facemask ruffle.

"Yeah we can." Naruto replied before throwing the kunai, "Just like this." He said right as the weapon impaled itself into Manabu's chest that the clones left exposed. The wind style chakra was so strong that is blew through the mans chest he let out a gasp and coughed up tons of blood and fell to the ground and began to bleed out, Naruto glared at the enemies dead body, "I told you you'd die for that..."

Ino wandered out of the surrounding area holding her head and walked towards Menma to help him up and walk, "Kami, I swear headbutting that jerk in the cow's body gave me a concussion. What was he made of, bricks?"

"Let's go." Shikamaru said, pulling himself back up to his feet, "We've still got to get the other guy before this really ends. I don't even want to think of how far away he got while we were fighting. We're going to have to move it to catch up to him."

"Stupid brats!" The trees that had fallen on top of Manabu after Shikamaru's explosive note were tossed casually aside as Manabu stood back up, towering above the kids larger than ever, smoke billowing from his mouth. His clothes were in smoldering tatters, he had a wound that didn't seem to be bleeding at all on his chest, and his skin was covered in burns. In some places on his body he was burned enough for the muscle to be seen underneath his flesh.

Naruto's eyes widened, "Holy shit, did he get bigger?" The blonde asked, machete back up and ready to fight.

Shikamaru shook his head as if he were hallucinating, "He took a point-blank explosion and wind style chakra, his arms were spread wide open, and his mouth was wide open when it went off. Why isn't he dead?"

"You can't kill me!" Manabu yelled to the wilderness, "No matter what you do my body can just create more muscle to make my body denser and protect my vital areas! You can't reach anything that can kill me! You can't win! With my serum fueling me you can't win!"

"I don't know." Menma spoke up being propped up by Ino around them, "I think they've been kicking your ass pretty good so far." Menma let go of Ino and began to walk on his own and pulled out his three katana blades and put one in each hand and one in his mouth, "You three get moving and get to the cattle. Guys like this are stubborn ones. Hard to take down fast, kind of like cockroaches."

Ino looked over at Menma worriedly, "Menma he's tough as nails. And aren't you still hurt."

"I can take him Ino, it's okay." Asuma said with a smile, reassuring her, "Besides my body been healing itself the entire time you guys were fighting. Now go on and get out of here."

Manabu sneered from behind his facemask, "You think I'll just let them leave?"

"Yes." Each member of Team 10 said blandly before Shikamaru reached into his supply pouch and threw a flash bomb. After the flash, the only one still there was Menma, "I guess Shikamaru being number one at running away works out after all. Now let's get acquainted shall we?"

"I'll make short work of you..." Manabu said, punching into his palm, "Now that I don't have those kids splitting my attention I can focus on just one target. Easy."

Menma didn't seem very concerned by his large opponent, "That's funny. I was just about to say the same thing, I was just going to be nicer about it than you seemed to be."

Manabu used even more of his serum and bulked up to now over three times Menma's size, "I'm going to kill you, and if your teammates catch Satoshi-oniisama then he'll kill them too."

"You sure?" Menma asked, "Because we seemed to have killed your other brother back on the ranch and handled you pretty well."

A scoff came from Manabu, "Kei was easily the weakest of the three of us. That fool probably killed himself by holding his own kunai the wrong way. But onii-sama, he's stronger than me." A shake of the head came from the towering man, "You kids don't have a chance..." He shouted before grabbing into the ground and ripping up a chunk to throw at Menma.

Menma moved out of the way of the earthen projectile that had been directed at him and rushed towards Manabu who cocked his fist back to meet the man. Menma slashed as Manabu threw his punch and cut clean through his punching arm, leaving a stump attached where it had been cut from, "RARGH! You cut off my arm!"

"Duh." Menma said as he watched his opponent recoil and step backwards as blood poured from his wound, "What did you think would happen?"

Manabu was only grateful that his jutsu made his wounds close quickly or else he would have bled out. He may have been missing an arm, but at least he was still alive, "Nothing has cut through my entire body before when I've used this much of the serum..." He then began chuckling darkly through his pain, "I guess I just need more!"

"I guess I just need to kill you now." Menma said, not wanting to see how much of that serum he spoke of the man could use. From the looks of him he had been using it to fight his teammates the entire time and if he could still use more that would make things harder than they needed to be. Menma muttered the name of his technique that had severed Manabu's arm as he planned to end the battle right there, "Hien (Flying Swallow)."

Menma kept himself far wide of Manabu's arm as he cut into the right side of his chest with his extended wind chakra blades from a slight range. Blood spurted from the wound and from Manabu's mouth as Menma had managed to cut all the way through his tough muscle not once but twice, "How?" He asked as he dropped to his knees.

"Lightning chakra can cut through pretty much anything." Menma said, putting his Katanas up, "Bad luck for you, but even if I hadn't fought you, my teammates would have beaten you themselves. It was just a matter of time. I like my teammates way more than I thought I would at first. Konoha's got some good future stock we 'brats' are any indication."

"Konoha..." Manabu said, his eyes growing heavy, "I see. No wonder they were so persistent and rather talented... and why you were so overwhelmingly strong. But Satoshi-oniisama won't be as easy as me. His jutsu is the most powerful one that we took from our village of Kusagakure, the most troublesome one out of all of us. They referred to him as... Fukusei no Satoshi..." Manabu said as his eyes closed and he slumped forward, still on his knees.

"Satoshi the Replicator?" Menma said, translating Manabu's brother's apparent epithet. A grin slowly formed on his face before he started laughing harder and harder and walked over to the dead body, planning on possibly taking it back to Konoha with him much like the other. Pulling out a sealing scroll, Menma set it down as his laughter subsided, "Replicator..." He cracked up and started laughing again, "Okay, I guess I need to hurry this up and get that cow back to the ranch..."

XxX

(With Naruto, Ino, and Shikamaru)

"Damn this is wildery..." Ino complained as another branch smacked her across the face, "Why are we taking the way covered in the most underbrush?"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, "So we can cut off the last guy who still has to take a beaten path with all of the cattle." His eyes then widened in inspiration, "Wait, I have an idea. Naruto, how good are you at Henge?"

Naruto shrugged his shoulders, "You guys both know that I'm awesome at Henge."

Shikamaru looked over at Ino and then back at Naruto, "Do you think you and Ino could work out a single transformation?"

"Anytime." Naruto said with a smile while Ino looked apprehensive, "Come on Ino, we've got this. It's just a Henge."

"Good." Shikamaru said, his plan for approaching the final cattle rustler all mapped out in his head, "When we get close be ready for it."

XxX

Satoshi found it far easier to move the cattle once the path he was on set itself into being surrounded by the cliffs. The walls that had raised up basically kept the cattle corralled as they moved along. His job was simpler this way.

"Satoshi-oniisama."

He turned his head to see Manabu making his way back over to the back of the pack with the missing cow back in the lineup, "I see, you've returned." A smirk came to his lips, "Did you have trouble finding the cow?"

Manabu grunted, "The stupid creature had me running all through the woods chasing it down."

"Did you have to use your serum to get it back here?" Satoshi asked off-handedly.

Manabu nodded, not that his brother could see it, "Yes I did." A nod came from Satoshi before he abruptly turned, stopping the herd, and launched himself at Manabu who wound up being kicked in the stomach away from the herd. Upon being hit, Manabu turned into Shikamaru who sat on his butt holding his stomach, "Troublesome..."

Satoshi slowly walked towards him, glaring at the Konoha genin, "If you had been Manabu and you had used the serum the way you said you did then you wouldn't be that large. You would be rather puny. The serum was always running through his system as long as he stayed hooked to it, it was just that taking it directly through his mouth allowed him to greatly increase his mass and strength." He then smirked, "Good try though, and a good gamble by bringing me the actual cow that ran away."

Shikamaru returned his smirk and Satoshi wondered why he was when he heard a popping noise behind him and turned to backstep out of the way of a machete slash that was aimed right at his face. Ino however, was able to take advantage and launch a kick that hit Satoshi right in the body and sent him stumbling back towards Shikamaru who had initiated his own attack, "Kagemane no Jutsu (Shadow Possession Jutsu)!"

Satoshi backflipped over Shikamaru's shadow and Shikamaru himself, kicking him in the back to get him away from him, "I see... so you must have defeated Kei and Manabu, hence why they aren't here." He shook his head, "Very well. I didn't need them anyway."

Ino narrowed her eyes at the uncaring man, "They were your teammates, don't you care about them?"

"They were more than my teammates, they were my brothers." Satoshi said, putting his right hand over his head before deadpanning at them, "And no, I don't. Who needs a team when you're your own team! I didn't even need them for this job, I could have done it myself!"

"How?" Naruto asked, "Even if you were good at solo missions you still need a team for something like this. How could you keep all of the cattle going how you wanted them to?"

"Because of my jutsu!" He exclaimed as he brought his hands up to form a seal that made all of Team 10's eyes widen, "I'm more than a one man team, I'm a one man army!" His hands were in the cross-seal that Naruto used pretty much every day, "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu)!"

In a puff of smoke that surrounded them all, Team 10 found themselves surrounded by thirty copies of Satoshi, "Wow..." Ino said, looking around, "He can do this jutsu?"

"Looks like it." Shikamaru said.

"Do you see?" Satoshi said, all of his clones smirking in a manner similar to him, "All I had to do was steal this kinjutsu given to Kusagakure as a show of good faith from Konoha, and now I am my own army. No team of ninja can defeat me!" He said, sweat on his brow from the exertion of the jutsu.

Naruto however, was far from impressed, "So this is all you can do? You and your clones look half-dead."

"Shut up brat!" Satoshi growled, sneering at Naruto who didn't seem to be shaken in the least, "What would you know about my magnificent technique?"

Naruto simply brought his own hands up in the same seal that Satoshi had formed. The missing-ninja's jaw dropped as he felt his advantage fall immensely after seeing the grin form on Naruto's face and hearing the boy call out his jutsu in response to Satoshi's own, "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu)!" In an even larger puff of smoke, surrounding all of Satoshi's clones as well as Ino, Shikamaru, and the original Naruto in the center, there stood Naruto's clones, all drawing their machetes and smirking, "I think I know a little more than you about it."

Satoshi counted out a number that dwarfed his clones as he stopped counting once he saw the number reach one hundred and fifty, "How? I had to steal this jutsu! I had to be outlawed from my own village to learn this jutsu! Why does a brat like you know it! It's a Konoha kinjutsu!"

Naruto flicked the metal of the headband tied around his neck bandanna-style, drawing attention to the leaf insignia on it basically saying he was from Konoha, "You did it just to be greedy though, and for your information you suck at using this jutsu." With that, Ino and Shikamaru were switched out from being surrounded by Naruto's clones who used Kawarimi to quickly get them out of the circle they were in.

"You can't beat me!" Satoshi shouted, "I'm the master of this jutsu!"

"Not anymore." Naruto said as his clones moved in to attack while other clones bombarded the surrounded clones of Satoshi from the cliffs with weaponry. Meanwhile Ino, Shikamaru, and a few other Naruto clones led the cattle away.

The original Satoshi crawled away from the melee of his clones being obliterated by the sheer numbers and coordinated assault from Naruto's own. He got back to his feet and prepared to run when he found himself caught in place, "Gotcha..." Behind him, Shikamaru had managed to catch him in his family's signature jutsu, "Kagemane no Jutsu (Shadow Possession Jutsu)... and I don't think this guy is going anywhere this time."

Satoshi growled before he felt a pull and smirked. In a puff of smoke a clone had managed to switch places with the original, allowing him to escape Shikamaru's grasp.

"Naruto!" Ino yelled out as she ran back towards the fray between Naruto and the few remaining Satoshi clones, "Give me a boost!"

One of the Narutos heard her yell and held his hands in a way that allowed him to boost and throw Ino into the air per her request. While in the air she saw one Satoshi escaping the battle and aimed herself at him, smirking as she drew a pair of senbon and held one in each hand, "Incoming you asshole!" Ino said as she descended upon him and stabbed him, once in lower back, once in the upper back, and she smiled brightly once he dropped to the ground bonelessly, "Got him!"

"Whoo!" Naruto's clones all cheered after getting rid of Satoshi's. The clones went overboard with their celebration, throwing their weaponry into the air, "Oh... what the fuck did you idiots do?" The original Naruto yelled as he freaked out and ran away from the falling weapons before cancelling his clones and their raining weapons of death. Shikamaru and Ino watched him with a sweatdrop as he checked himself over for any 'self-inflicted' injuries before finding none and crossing his arms, squinting his eyes, "Yep... I'm the master." He said with a grin.

"Great." Shikamaru said as he pointed at the paralyzed Satoshi and then at the cattle that Naruto's clones had been keeping from wandering off, "Now have to drag that guy back to the ranch and get the stupid cows back there too."

"Easy." Ino and Naruto both said simultaneously. They both grabbed the paralyzed Satoshi and threw him on the back of one of the cows while Ino tied him to it. Ino grabbed Shikamaru and forced him to climb onto one as well, while Naruto got behind the cows and made more clones while pulling out his machete, "Get your asses back to the ranch or you will be my dinner tonight! He yelled manically, waving his machete wildly, "I didn't get to eat tonight damn it!"

XxX

(Two Days Later - Konohagakure no Sato)

The mission concluded the next day, as the amount of work Katashi forced his younger cousin Shigeru to do put the majority of the protective fence up double-time than what had been put up the previous day. Menma still found it hilarious that the brat couldn't even look at him or Ino and make direct eye contact, and also found it hilarious that the girl Kiyomi spent the rest of the time trying in vain to hit on Shikamaru, something that he, Naruto, and Ino teased him about all the way back to the village.

From that point everything went smoothly, and the Konoha ninja, with Satoshi in tow, headed back to their village to conclude their mission that probably got raised a level again.

As Team 10 returned from their latest mission dragging their prisoner behind them, Naruto held his arms open and turned his head up to the sky, "Oh man... thank goodness. That mission sucked!"

Asuma let go of the end up the rope that Satoshi was tied up with and grabbed a cigarette as a pair of ANBU dropped down surrounding the prisoner, "Yeah, this guy is supposed to be a missing-ninja from Kusa." He then tossed them two scrolls, "They are too, but they're dead. I'll report it to Hokage-sama myself though." The two ANBU nodded and took Satoshi away, allowing Asuma to light his cigarette, "And that's the mission kids. You can all go on home now."

"Yay..." Naruto, Shikamaru, Menma, and Ino all said in a half-hearted manner.

"Lazy punks..." Asuma muttered, exhaling some smoke as he shook his head, "Alright, meet me tomorrow somewhere for lunch so-."

"Ichiraku Ramen!" Naruto perked right back up as he bounced in place excitedly.

Asuma just stared at him before continuing to speak, "Yeah, sure. Anyway, meet me tomorrow for lunch at noon, at Ichiraku Ramen." He added, getting a grin from Naruto, "No training, no missions. Just so we can meet up for a bit. Got it?" He got nods from all of them, "Good, now I'm going to go debrief and then spend the rest of the afternoon doing Asuma-stuff." He finished as he began to walk away.

Menma smirked looking up from his book, "Tell Kurenai-sensei I said hi." He said slyly.

"I wi-." He turned and gave a glare at the black haired Uzumaki before sighing and continuing to walk away, "A team full of smartasses... I'm so lucky." He muttered sarcastically.

"And I-!" Naruto said loudly, getting everyone's attention before getting a conspiratory look on his face, "-Am going to split a goddamn leaf if it's the last thing I ever do!" He growled and started stomping off with Menma.

"Where are you guys going?" Ino asked them.

"Home." Menna said waving over his shoulder.

"See you guys later." Naruto said.

Shikamaru rubbed the back of his neck, "Hey, do you guys want to hang out or something?" He looked towards Naruto and Menma, "At your guys house, because if we went to my house my mom would be troublesome."

Ino then thought about how her dad picked on her and Menma when he showed up at the flower shop and agreed with Shikamaru's idea of not going to her house either, "Yeah, I could do that, but it's your choice."

Now this was rather confusing. The two Uzumaki had never really had anyone at their house except for the Hokage who only showed up once a month just to check up on them. Other than that, they was unaccustomed to anyone else's company besides each others. But they were their teammates, and friends as far as they was concerned, so what the hell, why not? "Sure." They said, somewhat thrown off, but other than that they just decided to roll with it.

XxX

(Meanwhile - Hokage Tower)

Asuma found his way into the mission control room only to find the room full of some of the more prominent jounin in the village and many of the chunin, "Uh, I was going to debrief, but it looks like it's kind of busy in here." He looked over and saw a man with brown hair and dark eyes with bags under them that wore his headband like a bandanna on his head and had a katana on his back, "Hayate, what's going on?"

Hayate coughed before speaking, "Well Hokage-sama called for a meeting after it was told that you were back in the village from your mission. So I guess your debrief is going to have to wait."

"Shit..." Asuma said, palming his face, "I just got back, I don't want to sit through a long-ass meeting. I've got places to be, people to see."

Hayate pointed his thumb deeper into the room, "Kurenai's over there *cough*."

Asuma face-faulted and stood back up abruptly, "How come all of you motherf-?" He regained his composure, "Nevermind. What's this one all about?"

"Chunin exams. *cough*" Hayate said, answering Asuma's question, "Yeah, apparently this time around it's supposed to be some kind of big deal. Messages have been going out and coming in about it for a while now."

"It's that time already huh?" Asuma said, stroking his beard as his thoughts immediately flickered towards his own team, 'You know, I wonder how they'd stack up to be quite honest.'

The room quieted down once Hiruzen walked in through the opening in the crowd that cleared for him once he entered. Standing at the head of the room he looked out at his shinobi and smiled, "Good to see everyone here. I would have called this meeting sooner but many of you were away and busy, my apologies." He cleared his throat and continued, "As I'm sure you've all heard by now, this is about the upcoming chunin exam."

A woman with a spiky purple ponytail that wore a mesh bodysuit and a tan trenchcoat spoke up, "I heard that it was a total clusterfuck getting it together this time around."

Hiruzen chuckled, "That it was Anko, but it's finally come together. The major sticking point was the meeting place that the villages would all go to for the exams. Each village did not trust any of the other five major hidden villages to run an impartial competition after the last few years, so a neutral site has been established. The exams will take place in Tetsu no Kuni. The samurai of the realm have already given their consent, though there will be no room for any ulterior activities. Security will be tight the entire time. This is so no village will overstep their bounds, lest they find themselves punished by the samurai."

A whistle sounded out as a random chunin spoke, "That place is no joke. I can only imagine what the tests are going to be like."

"Indeed." Hiruzen said, "There will be joint proctors from all villages for the tests so there can be no foul play nor can any village accuse the other of any. If there are any of you interested I will be accepting volunteers, and you will be dispatched to Tetsu no Kuni to prepare the exam with proctors from other villages. I anticipate this exam to be the largest in recorded history." He then smiled, "Which leads me to my next topic. If there are any jounin-sensei abound that wish for their teams to participate in the exams, you know what they are capable of better than anyone, and if you so desire to send them, speak now."

A man with a bowl-cut and a green jumpsuit with a flak jacket stepped forward, "I, Maito Gai, nominate my Team 9; Hyuuga Neji, Tenten, and Rock Lee for the upcoming chunin exam! Their flames of youth will burn right through the infamous cold climates of the country!"

"Here too."

"I nominate my team too."

And so it went around the room, several more jounin spoke up and entered their teams into the exams before Kurenai spoke, "I, Yuhi Kurenai, nominate my squad, Team 8; Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino, and Inuzuka Kiba for participation in the upcoming exams."

Asuma saw and heard her do this and figured why not? If she was doing it then why shouldn't he? Lifting his hand he voiced his own support for his team, "I, Sarutobi Asuma, nominate Team 10; Yamanaka Ino, Uzumaki Menma, Uzumaki Naruto, and Nara Shikamaru for the chunin exams."

Kakashi decided not to be left out on the fun as well, "Hatake Kakashi nominates Team 7; Akimichi Chouji, Uchiha Sasuke, and Haruno Sakura for the exams in Tetsu no Kuni."

"Now wait just a minute!" Iruka said from where he had been listening in the room, "You're nominating the rookies? Are you trying to destroy these kids?" He said in bewilderment.

Asuma sighed, "I was a chunin when I was their age. These kids are damn good Iruka, I wouldn't send them otherwise."

"Do you know what's going to happen to them out there?" Iruka said, keeping up his argument, "If this thing is really going to be as big as you say it's going to be there are going to be tons of teams, teams with more experience, all gunning for easy prey."

Kakashi spoke at that point, "Well then they're in for a rude awakening when they find out that there's nothing easy about these kids at all." Iruka opened his mouth to keep disputing, but Kakashi cut him off, "They aren't babies Iruka, they're ninja, and we know them better than you would at this point. You're underestimating them all, just like the others at the actual exams will, and that's one reason why they won't lose. Age means nothing."

Asuma put a hand on the man's shoulder, "They'll be fine, just watch. You won't even know that you're watching the same kids you were teaching in the Academy."

XxX

(Naruto's House)

"I'm just saying Menma." Ino said as she stood out on Menma and Naruto's balcony with the door open so that they could hear her, "We could keep some things over here, maybe get an extra bed or two, help you pay your bills and all of that, and this could be like the official team house or something. This place is big for a place that a genin can afford."

"Menma and I don't really pay rent." Naruto said loud enough for her to hear him as he unpacked his stuff from his mission inside of his room, "I mean we do, but it's really cut down from what it should be. Hokage-jiji was really good about that." He said, laughing a bit.

Ino turned and saw Shikamaru sitting at the kitchen table with his head down on, asleep, "Really Shikamaru? Yeah, this is you hanging out. Sleeping on their table."

"I'm tired woman." Shikamaru said, cracking an eye to get a look at her.

Shaking her head, Ino walked inside from the balcony and shut the door, walking over to Menma who was still in his room, "How are your ribs?"

"Ribs are fine." Menma said with a grin, tapping himself with his fist right where the horrible bruises had been during their last battles, "See? I'm good. I was all good by the next morning. If I wasn't I would have said something."

"How?" Ino said, not understanding much about medicine, but knowing enough from her work with senbon and poison to comprehend that people don't just heal from injured ribs over one night with some good sleep. Actually, people with broken ribs don't get good sleep so that was another thing, "You should be limping or walking gingerly all over the place."

Menma knew that it was the Ten Tails healing his injuries but he didn't want them to know so he acted like he didn't really know, "I don't understand."

"People don't just do that Menma." Ino explained to him, kneeling down next to him where he was sitting and unpacking as she poked him in his torso, "You're telling the truth... that's actually really weird Menma. Nobody gets over broken ribs that fast and yours were definitely broken. Did you use a jutsu to heal yourself?"

Menma's eyes widened, "Whoa, I could have been doing that?" He squinted his eyes in thought, "But I probably won't be able to find anything like that either..." He muttered, put off at not being able to learn any ninjutsu despite having been going to the library for months now.

'So it wasn't a jutsu either?' Shikamaru thought to himself. Menma had gotten hit by a guy that could fell a tree with the same punch and he had not only survived, he had gotten over it by the following morning enough to travel with no hindrances to the group, 'He really does heal like that. What is it? I've never even heard of anything like that before.'

"I don't really see why you guys are so surprised by that ever since we were kids our injuries always healed pretty quickly." Naruto said as he went towards the kitchen.

"See." Naruto said as he grabbed a kitchen knife and cut his finger a little as it began to bleed. A moment later his finger completely like he had never cut himself in the first place.

Ino's mouth nearly dropped to the floor as Shikamaru's eyes widened.

"Well..." Naruto stood up and walked over to his bed, falling on it and yawning, "It doesn't matter. I've still got to split Asuma-sensei's leaf." He said, fishing one out of his windbreaker pocket before jumping back up and channeling chakra to it, not getting anything for his trouble.

Menma got up from the table and walked in to see Naruto struggling, "Well I have a question about that, are you only cutting it from one side or both?" Naruto stopped training and looked at him like a confused deer, "I mean with your clones you should have gotten this by now, so either your element isn't really wind or you're not doing it completely right. So why don't you try whatever you were just doing, only from both sides of the leaf."

Naruto just stared at him before glaring at the leaf and focusing again. After around five seconds of work, he cut the leaf right down the middle, and threw the scraps to the ground, "I can't believe that crap! Why didn't I think of that?" He yelled, grabbing his head.

Menma shrugged before patting him on the shoulder, "Because you were following orders and you didn't even think about other ways of doing it. There is never only one way to do something Naruto, but if you'd have kept doing it that way then eventually you probably would have gotten it once you got the skill to use enough power with your wind to cut right through it." Ino deadpanned him a look, "Is it that weird that I would have picked the process up? I see him do stuff with leaves every single day."

Ino's look didn't lessen a bit as Naruto marched around the room cursing about how he could have finished this two weeks ago if he had even just thought about doing it that way, "I still have no idea how we make this team work the way it does..."

Shikamaru chose to ignore Naruto's ranting about how he was going to freak Asuma out tomorrow when he showed him that he could cut the leaf to respond to Ino's statement, "Our dynamic is... unique? I want to say unique but I really know that-."

"It makes absolutely no logical sense that we even survived what happened in Nami no Kuni, let alone that we keep on winning, and that you have no idea at all how we work so well together." Ino seemed to finish for him as Menma sat on the couch sharpening his Kubikiribōchō and Naruto's ranting seemed to start losing steam, "Yeah, it's not like we have generational experience to work with like our parents do. Those two are kind of the odd man out in our team makeup."

"I heard someone say my name, what's up?" Naruto said, catching Ino's last lines, now officially done with his insane ramblings.

Shikamaru looked at Naruto and then at Menma with an appraising eye, 'Maybe they are the odd ones out, but there's something about Menma and Naruto that we're just not getting. They don't have any family history? There has to be someone that knows of their parents since they aren't apart of a clan and they have a very particular look, and they are good people, why didn't anyone ever try to take them in? Then there's this healing stuff, and all of that chakra they have. There has to be something genetic that does that; maybe a clan or something? On top of that there was their appearance Naruto and Menma have two completely different hair colors Naruto looked more like he was apart of the Yamanaka clan due to his blond hair the only problem was he wasn't and Menma's jet black hair made it seem like he had some Uchiha ancestory but he didn't or else he would have a sharingan. Another problem was they didn't act anything alike and they are twins aren't they? Then were the hell did Menma come from....from what he knew about Menma he showed up in the Acedemy around the time they were seven or eight and ever since then Naruto had claimed they were twins it didn't make sense because he had never seen Menma in the village before then, which could only have meant that Menma was born outside the Village' A frown came over his face, 'This is going to bother me until I figure it all out, I swear...'