Contact!

I had lost sight of the village hours ago and I could tell from the position of the sun that it was just past midday. Few words had been said since we left. I could tell everyone wanted to say something, but no one could find the right words.

"We've been walking for a few hours with no sign of the Cloud rogues. Let's take a break and think over some formations," Kai said.

She led us to the outside of a small clearing off the main path. We took cover just inside the tree line beside the clearing. As I was looking through my bag for my mom's homemade rice balls, I could hear Kai whistle to get our attention.

"I could look at your stat cards all day, but they won't show me how you really are in a fight or what you feel like your strengths are as a ninja."

After a moment of silence, I swallowed my bite of rice and answered first, "I'm a master of the Gentle Fist style of the Hyuga Clan and very confident in my use of earth style ninjutsu."

"That is what your card says too. That is what I expected to hear," she replied back.

Renki responded next, "I'm not very gifted in ninjutsu but my taijutsu and genjutsu make up for it. I-"

Before he could finish, I stood up and made a signal for them to stop talking. I thought I heard a twig snap in the distance, and I wanted to make sure we were still alone. I could feel the muscles around my eyes tense as I activated my Byakugan to get a clearer picture of my surroundings. I could hear everyone getting up and looking around, waiting for something to happen. I was about to signal the all clear when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I followed the movement with my eyes to figure out what was causing it. When my eyes finally stopped, I realized that the movement was caused by a cluster of smoke bombs that just landed where we were sitting just moments before. Before I could say anything, purple smoke was filling the clearing.

I made my way out of the smoke screen just in time to see a shadow stretching into the clearing farther than any other in the area. At the end of the shadow was a man that was trapped and paralyzed. I followed the shadow to find Kai casting her clan's trademark jutsu. Beside her stood Renki, still holding a hand sign and looking into the eyes of a man in white armor. I could tell between the armor and the symbol on his headband that this was one of the Cloud rogues. I made eye contact with Kai and she yelled at me to hurry up and start fighting. Without a second thought, I ran towards the enemy and hit every chakra point in his body before finishing off with a direct hit to his heart. Which is a standard kill technique taught to those that can use the Gentle Fist style of my clan. Watching the former shinobi of the Hidden Cloud fall to the ground and the shadow release from beneath him, I saw the life quickly leave his eyes. I turned around to check on the team and to check if there were any more threats left towards us.

"That was easy, huh guys? This might be easier than we thought," I smiled in the direction of my team. Little did I know that the crackle of lightning started to ring in my ear. As I began to realize where it was, it also came to my attention that the dead ninja at my feet was not alone.