Chapter 039

Naruto ducked the string of globs before drawing back his left and chucking a barrage of kunai at his attacker. His aim was right on the mark when his lightning fast blades sliced into the man's extended limb and flung it back. Jako looked up from his spot to see the tube and his arm skewered by throwing knives, a sight which further infuriated him and his efforts to destroy this wretched boy.

"Hold still!" the man roared, throwing his only free hand forward as a stream of powerful liquid jetted out. The torrent remained attached to his limb as he whipped it across, striking straight down at the blonde standing directly in his line of sight. The length of elastic slammed into the ground and split the earth with a terrifying crack, just like the individual, high-pressure shots he'd fired off before.

The swing was way off though, and Jako soon turned skywards to see the blonde haired boy he had tried to smite finishing his three story leap of evasion before diving straight back down at him feet first. The gang leader responded by relinquishing his hold of his whip and firing off a couple more rounds at the agile jinchuriki. Naruto saw them coming though, spinning and contorting this way and that accordingly before bringing his own gauntlet hand around and firing off a response.

In the blink of an eye, Jako suddenly found himself seeing red when multi-colored paint splattered across his eyes and left him with a make-up nightmare he just did not need right now. The boss cried out in agony when a burning sensation started gnawing at his face and he stumbled backwards along the road, clutching his painted visage. At the exact moment he started staggering, Naruto made landfall and grinned up at his handiwork.

"My eyes!" Jako cried out. "My eyes! I can't see!"

"That's great, because you're not going to like what I'm going to do next!" Naruto exclaimed, charging at the wounded enemy for one final attack. As he was making his approach, Jako began firing at him blindly with his liquid chakra launcher, but the nimble troublemaker from Konoha dodged every one of them with ease before jumping straight at the man and landing in a crouched position on top of his chest, while he was still upright. Securing his position, Naruto then grabbed both sides of the gangster's face, reared his head back, and slammed his forehead straight into his.

A loud crunching sound rang out, seconds before Jako's body went limp and he crashed to the floor with a bloody, swollen bruise on his forehead. Still perched on top of his opponent, Naruto chuckled and pulled his goggles back up, grinning brightly at his victory.

"Good fight."

Hopping off, the blonde dusted his hands on his jacket and looked around at the results of his hard work. The entire street was littered with unconscious and wounded mercenaries, all of whom had been laid out in a way that it was almost reminiscent of a massacre. The fact that they were still alive didn't make this genocide, but a completely one-sided battle that had ended in the protagonist's favor. It was a total victory for the blonde who celebrated it the only way he knew how; by nodding approvingly and smiling proudly.

A small shadow flew over Naruto's head, followed shortly by the red-breasted swallow that had traveled with him all the way out here fluttering down to perch on his shoulder. The boy grinned across at his companion, who gave him a chirp in greeting.

"Awesome, huh?" Naruto asked, before spinning around to see Tayuya and a whole mass of villagers in the background gaping at him. He looked at them one after the other and, upon giving them a cheerful grin, gestured over his shoulder at the various stricken individuals lying around him. "I think we should tie these guys up so that they don't run off when they regain consciousness. Yeah?"

Not getting an immediate response Naruto quickly went about dragging mercenaries safely across to one side of the street and, using whatever rope he could find, bound their hands, feet and bodies together. Making sure that they had no more weapons on them and that the most dangerous of the platoon, Jako, had his hands especially bound to keep him from using his chakra tubes, the jinchuriki then proceeded to make a head count. He whistled when he got to the grand total.

"Thirty eight? Damn. I'm just running through these people like bowls of ramen," Naruto chuckled. He then turned to see Tayuya looking curiously at him, his sudden swivel causing the girl to jump back at how close they were, "Not bad for an academy student, huh?"

"N-No. Not at all," Tayuya replied with a warm smile. "Y-You were amazing."

Naruto grinned bashfully and rubbed the back of his head, "Thanks. I've had a lot of practice."

The sound of clapping from the sidelines then caught the pair's attention. When they looked across the street to see what it was, they saw a young shop keeper come walking out from behind a stall applauding them with a big smile on his face. Villagers standing nearby slowly caught onto the rhythm and, one after the other, joined in the revelry. Applause and cheers came down upon the two children from all around, baffling the one on the receiving end of it all as he looked around at the crowd now starting to gather.

After a few minutes of nothing but whistling and ovations of approval, the clapping stopped, leaving Naruto to confront a street filled with beaming villagers.

"Hello!" Naruto exclaimed, waving toward the throng with a cheerful smile, "What's up everyone?"

"You beat them all!" the shopkeeper that had started the clapping chain exclaimed, stepping toward him with an excited smile. "You defeated the Jako Gang singlehandedly!"

"This boy defeated the most notorious gang in the village! All of them!" another man shouted.

"He stood up to Gato's men and won!" a woman called.

"Let's hear it for the stranger!" With that, another cheer came up from the group of onlookers, who raised their hands in the air and praised the youngster once more for his victory. Naruto blushed at the amount of attention he received, whereas Tayuya quietly smiled in his direction and congratulated him in her own little way.

As cries of liberation went up and the villagers in the area applauded for a second time, attracting more and more people to the circle, a clearing of a person's throat amongst a small portion of the crowd had everyone stop and turn. Those closest to the interruption quickly parted, allowing the unknown interloper through to the center. When silence eventually came to reign amongst the people, the next thing Naruto and Tayuya became aware of was an elderly man around his eighties, dressed in traditional village robes, wooden sandals, a kazaori eboshi, and holding a long walking staff, suddenly come shuffling towards them from the back.

Tayuya moved aside, allowing the village elder a place to stand and gaze down at Naruto, who looked back up at the octogenarian curiously.