12 - Battle and Rescue

The path in front was long forest and connected to the border of Land of fire and Land of Lightning.

Three Kumo ninja were running fast while one was holding Kushina in his arms.

Cold light flashed in Nori's eyes when he saw the rough treatment his sister Kushina was experiencing and her slightly painful expression. He did not leak any sort of intentions outside though because that would be a stupid move as enemies will notice him.

The aura of the enemies was not that strong and they were elite chunin level each by best. Nori was worried that they would not hesitate to hurt Kushina if they discovered his presence.

Not a single chakra fluctuation was leaking out of Nori's body as he only relied on his powerful physical body to keep up with enemies' pace. His talent at the art of chakra suppresion was being fully displayed.

Nori was thankful to Orochimaru because he could see that the results of his training were showing in the critical time now. His breath was controlled and steps were almost completely silent and nimble. Orochimaru hammered the basics of anbu tracking in his mind and Nori was now grateful for it.

The information he gained from observation of the enemies was that they were simply weak compared to him. The one with peak chunin level chakra should be the leader and his rank could be special jounin.

He was the main reason why Nori was being more cautious of the group. Tokibetsu jounin were elite chunin who had excellent mastery in some aspects for example tracking , intelligence gathering or combat techniques like kenjutsu.

Nori's chakra had broken through jounin level more than three months ago and now after using his special power plus intense body training, it had reached close to mid jounin level. There were three main levels - beginner, mid and peak. So Nori was quite strong right now.

The problem was his lack of battle experience during life and death battles. Nori was confident that he had sufficient battle experience for one on one battles as he had trained with Orochimaru who was a low Kage level expert and ranked as elite jounin.

But during life and death situations , human behaviour would become too unpredictable. Nori could not risk Kushina's safely so he chose to chase them from behind without letting them notice his presence while inside his mind he was building a plan to swiftly solve the enemies.

Time did not wait for anyone. By the time, Nori had finished building his battle strategy, the group had came few hours distance away from Konoha.

The enemies seemed to be well informed as they were skillfully avoiding Konoha's outposts but they were still steady advancing towards the border. Nori decided to take action now as the possibility of enemy meeting up with some reinforcements was not low either.

Nori's chakra surged as he started forming hand sign and easily created two shadow clones. The enemies had some experience so it was impossible for them to not notice the sudden spike in chakra.

Cold search formed on Tanaka's forehead as he looked back and saw three identical figures reaching them with fast speed.

He was angry because the enemy was just a kid and he , a special jounin failed to notice him until the last second but he was feeling very scared inwardly too as this also meant that they may be discoverd by Konoha already.

The thought being chased by hundreds of elites at the same time sent chill down his spine.

The other two chunin also noticed this after thinking for a few seconds and were visibly pale from fear now.

" What do we do now Tanaka san? Didnt the informer say that the possibility of us being discovered on this route was zero for at least three days?"

One of the chunin said in a loud voice which reached into Nori's ears too. Tanaka frowned as he was extremely disappointed by this stupid behavior.

Now Nori who was chasing them, knew the information that they had an informer in Konoha's higher management! Such a stupid mistake..

Tanaka did not know the identity of the informer but this mission was issued by Raikage himself so the source of information must be solid!

Tanaka signaled them immediately stopped his legs. After all they had no choice expect killing Nori to prevent the leak of information. They would be delayed but minimizing the risk became more important now.

Nori and his shadow clones also stopped few meters away from the group. Nori's expression was indifferent but his eyes were leaking extreme anger right now.

Kushina was unconscious and now he had confirmed from enemy's mouth that there was really a spy or traitor in the village.

Such careless behavior! Nori swore to kill the bastard who was responding for leaking the information about Kushina to Kumo!

A figure flashed in his mind for a second.

Danzo!

That pirate bastard was the main suspect for now. After all he had the authority and connections to easily achieve this feat. More over he would benefit from the success of this enemy operation too as he could nominate someone else he could control as the new Kyuubi's jinchuriki! That control freak could definitely do this.

Nori swore to get to bottom of this and besides he was going to get rid of Danzo sooner or later anyway. That maniac was better of dead as he created too many problems in the story.

When these thoughts flashed, Nori calmed down his anger and shifted his focus completely towards the enemy in front of him.

The enemies were also focusing on him and were very relaxed compared to few seconds ago.

" Hahaha.. a kid? Tanaka san, looks like we were worried for nothing after all!!"

" Shut up! Kid or not , it does not matter. We are already delayed so our main priority is to solve this enemy as soon as possible! This kid is not simple either as he can use shadow clones at such young age." Tanaka's time was harsh and his reasoning was correct but his expression was relaxed one too.

Nori did speak as there was no reason to and he was feeling angry at their behaviour too. They were clearly underestimating him!

' This is actualy better for me , you idots!'

Nori sneered at them inwardly as this battle became more easy due to them underestimating him already without having proper idea about his abilities.

Nori's expression was serious as he stared at them but inwardly he was relaxed now.

He formed a hand sign and with a Cloud of smoke, there more shadow clones appeared beside him. Now there was 6 Nori standing there in total.

Without any warning , six of them kicked the ground at the same time and instantly covered the few meters distance between them and the enemies.

Tanaka and the two chunin were caught off guard by the insane explosive speed and could not react in time.

Five of the Nori, blocked the sights of the enemies , while the real Nori appeared from behind them and his hand reaching for Kushina at great speed.

Tanaka was as expected more experienced and he noticed Nori's plan and tried to move back to avoid Nori's hand. Sadly for him, Nori's speed was faster than him and he easily snatched the bag in which Kushina was wrapped inside from him.

" Shit! He got the target !!"

Tanaka's loud shout was heard by the other two enemies too and they were shocked as they watched Nori getting far and far away from them while the three of them were being untangled by the shadow clone group.

Tanaka was anxious as Nori's speed was too fast and he knew that he would lose him if they they did not start chasing him as soon as possible.

Unexpectedly Nori stopped when he was more than fifty meters away from them.

Tanaka and the other two chunin did not even have time to think before they heard " Boom" and the shadier clones exploded at the same time.

The shockwave of the blast killed the three of them before they could even react and many trees in the surrounding were forceful uprooted by the wind pressure too.

Nori smirked as he witsneed the scene and felt very satisfied with the power of the blast. He had deliberately stopped more than 50 meters away from them so he and Kushina were not affected by the blast at all.

Just some wind caused his clothes and hair to flutter and that's all.

The bodies that were flung into the air by the blast were scattered now and were badly mangled. Nori swifty fired some shuriken aiming at their vitals even though he was already pretty sure that they were dead.

Suddenly Nori felt uncomfortable as strength started leaving his body. He fell down on his butt while his face was pale.

It was expected as no matter what , it was Nori's first time killing a human being. Naturaly he would feel uncomfortable.

His gaze fell upon the unconscious Kushina lying beside him and his mood became somewhat relieved.

' That's right , I have saved here so instead of feeling bad about my enemy's death, I should feel happy as Kushina if fine!'

Nori's gaze became gentle as he stroked her crimson red sliky hair slowly with care.

One thing was sure though. Nori wont be forgetting this battle in future as through this battle, he was reminded about the cruel truth of the world he now lived in.

Nori's chakra was not depleted but he had used up quite a lot of his mental power. So he only left the scene while carrying Kushina after resting for twenty minutes.

Meanwhile Minato was also running in their direction as he followed the trail while picking up Kushina's hair. Nori had thought that maybe he would come after all and looks like he was correct in the assumption. Some events are just fated to happen after all!