Naruto Chapter 116

The way to the goldmine was fairly uneventful, if you didn't count the brief stop at a restaurant that the team took, shortly before reaching the area directly around the goldmine.

The restaurant was led by an old woman called Sansho. She told them the story about many people being drawn towards the mine, but never returning, including her grandson Kabashi. She served them her specialty, which was called the Curry of Life.

Well, the curry certainly had a noticeable effect onto the ninja team, as Sansho had somehow made it devilishly hot and they needed a litre of water each to deal with the burning of their mouths and throats.

"Damn, that was worse than my mother's special chili recipe. Uchiha extra hot version," Sasuke coughed when they had left the restaurant, after Sansho had described the last part of the way to the mine and gave them a picture of her grandson, asking them to see if they could convince him to return to her.

"If a pyromaniac like you complains about it being too hot, there has to be something to it," Naruto commented, "But yes, I think she totally overdid it on hot spices and the like. I wouldn't be surprised if a bottle of something tipped over while she was distracted. Thanks for the quick help, Hinata."

"You're welcome, Naruto. I'm just glad that I always first try a small bite of something before I eat it. But even that was burning my mouth. And I normally like hot and spicy food," Hinata replied.

"I vote that we don't try that curry again. But perhaps we could give Anko and Ibiki the recipe to use on uncooperative captives," Shikamaru suggested.

"Anybody confronted with that curry would spill all secrets, just for enough water to drink to get rid of the burning," Sasuke nodded, "What plan will we follow now?"

"We need more information about the site itself to see where the workers are held captive by Raiga Kurosuki and his minions. This will be a job for our scouting techniques before we work out the final plan. We can't risk the workers there. We need to draw the fighters away to defeat them," Naruto answered.

"Then we should probably let Hinata spy with her byakugan first, then you and I can add to that with my shadow sneaking technique and your shadow clones, transformed into unsuspicious things and animals, like stones, small birds and the like," Shikamaru pointed out.

"Yes. Hinata, how far can you look with your byakugan by now?" Naruto wanted to know.

"About five kilometres," Hinata answered confidently.

"That should be far enough to not attract attention too early on," Shikamaru happily noted, "We need to know the position of the guards, how far apart they are and the like."

"I will take care of that. Sansho mentioned that the mine was about eight kilometres away from the restaurant, so we should soon be close enough for me to find out what we need," Hinata stated.

"Then let's go, but be vigilant for anything out of the norm. We don't know yet what kind of jutsus Raiga can use, but if he managed to keep control over this mine for such a long time, he can't be underestimated," Naruto warned.

The others nodded and they ran off to find a good point from where to start their scouting.

...

The scouting was quite informative. There was clearly a strong presence of Raiga's underlings, but they didn't seem to be highly trained. At best the stronger ones were chunin level. Not a problem for the Konoha team at all. Shikamaru managed to get past all guards, cloaking himself into his shadow, and he investigated the set-up of the main mine's area.

The workers were kept in cells inside the mine during the time they didn't have to work, which happened in four shifts of six hours on end. They were only allowed to sleep six hours on end as well, with the remaining twelve hours being spent inside the cells. The guards kept a strict schedule and anybody not obeying was punished harshly.

The ones that mouthed off the most were buried alive, with Raiga pretending to grieve for them. Shikamaru had kept away from Raiga himself, as there were rumours that Raiga always knew everything that went on around him, which Shikamaru suspected could be some kind of bloodline limit that they didn't have any information about.

He wasn't about to risk being spotted while his job was gathering as much information for his team as possible to come up with a workable plan to free the workers at the mine and bring down Raiga and his men.

He currently sat opposite of Naruto and Hinata, with Sasuke next to him.

"So, we will be dealing with about sixty guards, next to Raiga himself," Naruto summed it up.

"That shouldn't be too much of a problem, Naruto. If they are all at most chunin level, we can take them out easily," Sasuke commented.

"True. The important part will be to make sure that the prisoners aren't harmed while we fight the guards. And I need to neutralise Raiga," Naruto stated, "Which probably means I won't be able to help with the other part."

"What about your clones?" Shikamaru asked, knowing that Naruto could throw them around like confetti.

"I will need them to deal with Raiga," Naruto answered, "And thanks to a growth spurt my chakra control is too volatile to risk anything outside of the fight I'm involved in directly. I might accidentally overload a clone and turn it into an exploding one, which would endanger your group."

"I knew it was a bad idea when you told me that you wanted to learn exploding shadow clones," Sasuke groaned.

"Hey, as soon as my control is back to normal, which normally would only take a week tops, they will be a valuable part of my arsenal," Naruto gave back, "And I'm sure that it won't be a big problem. In doubt you have more than enough fire power among you three to deal with the guards."

"Troublesome, but alright, we will definitely manage. In doubt we can trap them in genjutsu or something like that," Shikamaru stated.

"Oh, I have one that I've been waiting for a good opportunity to test," Sasuke grinned.

"Meaning that Kakashi sensei told you that you were forbidden to test it on Konoha shinobi because it would annoy Tsunade too much if they came to her after experiencing it and she would bitch to him about not keeping his students under control," Naruto translated.

"Well, it's really your fault. You shouldn't have tested your new seals where idiots could feel the effects and forced her to work while being hung-over," Sasuke gave back.

"I could hardly do so underground. They would have complained much more about earthquakes disturbing the village," Naruto shook his head, "And she really shouldn't go out drinking in the evenings with the Pervy Sage. She always gets annoyed when he hits on her."

"So that is the reason why the training sessions on certain mornings are much worse than others," Hinata realised.

"Yes, Tsunade uses those sessions for stress relief when Jiraiya got under her skin again and isn't there to punt all over the village," Naruto confirmed.

Hinata grumbled a bit over unfairness and nightmares of exploding lead balls.

"Back to the matter at hand," Shikamaru stated, "When will we strike?"

"I think we should use the night of the new moon," Hinata suggested, "That's in three days. It will offer us more natural cover than other nights. Or we could use it if there are clouds in front of the moon, but that would mean finding out the weather forecast, which I have no idea about how to manage that."

"True. Normally there is little rain around this time of the year. I'm all for using the night of the full moon," Sasuke nodded, "And I think a rainy night wouldn't do us any favours, as Raiga would have an easier time using his lightning jutsus if there was too much moisture in the air.

Though he might be capable, if he has enough time to prepare something, to create his own thunderstorm. He is from Kiri after all and I would be truly surprised if he couldn't use water jutsus. With charging the air with lightning on top of that, it would create a thunderstorm."

"I will be on guard for that. Then you three will infiltrate the mine in three days, while I will draw Raiga away. If I cause enough of a ruckus, he should come out to face me in person," Naruto pondered.

"Just don't do so before we are in there," Shikamaru stated, "That could be bad."

"In doubt he gets fed with some 'Curry of Life' and will be too busy dealing with his burning throat," Naruto grinned evilly.

"You kept it?" Sasuke asked shocked.

"What did you think? That stuff is worth being examined by our T & I department. And I wouldn't have tried eating more of it after the first bite. I used a quick substitution jutsu with something from one of my scrolls to not offend Sansho too much," Naruto admitted.

"Her look of being proud of her curry was really difficult to deal with," Hinata agreed, "Especially when she told that story about Neji's teammate Lee getting so much better after her grandson fed it to him."

"Either that was a different recipe, or Lee is a monster of more kinds than I thought so far," Sasuke commented.

The others could only nod. They all were familiar with the eccentric genin from Gai's team.

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