Chapter 016

The brown haired ninja had no idea what hit her until she was smashed in the face by her pintsized attacker and sent careening into the back of her partner.

Naruto dashed right passed the group when the rearguard was bowled over and jumped straight into a tree, the silver haired kunoichi spinning around and tossing a barrage of shuriken after him in response. The weapons thumped against the trunk when he swung around it and returned fire from the other side, letting loose his own barrage.

The leader of the three drew her sword and smacked away the five projectiles effortlessly, before tossing a couple of kunai up at him. The blonde however took to the canopy and vanished, the knives hitting the branches obstructing his person. The last one thrown hit a branch higher up in the leaves, where the paper bomb wrapped around the handle ignited and detonated, knocking the canopy about with a staggering shockwave and setting the whole area ablaze.

Forest came raining down in ashes, splinters and cinders, leaving the kunoichi down below looking up towards the tops in frustration.

"Fucking brat!" the leader growled, her head snapping left and right in search of their quarry. "Where did he go?" She looked back down at her comrades, one of them rubbing the side of their face from the little fist that went plowing across it, which also tore her mask open. The fair-faced kunoichi expressed her annoyance visually and also turned toward the burning canopy, ripping away the remains of her ruined covering. "I don't care what it takes! Get that kunai!"

All of a sudden, before they could completely recover from the sneak attack, the bush on the forest floor directly behind the silver haired kunoichi burst outwards and the quick on his toes academy student came sprinting out from a new position. The woman heard the disturbance and spun around, but was met with a face full of paint when the kid threw his right hand across and fired off pellets from the brace on his wrist.

It was a new edition he had recently added to the device for his escapades inside the village and while it seemed like a waste of time, it was pretty damn effective as a supplementary tool designed with a lot of spread.

The insignificant projectiles exploded across the leader and, not only did it repaint her outfit in an interesting blend of colors but also blinded her when the spray got through the eye line in her covering.

Staggering back in surprise, the woman moved to clear the blockage, only to feel a sharp sting hit her side that caused her to collapse to the ground. Grabbing her waist, she looked down to see a kunai buried part way into her midriff, thankfully protected by her body armor. This didn't stop her mental response though, which came in the form of a low growl and a swivel when she glared after the child, who managed to disappear into the bushes once again.

"KILL HIM!" the leader kunoichi roared to her subordinates, who obeyed instantaneously.

They tossed kunai and shuriken in their dozens into the undergrowth, toward the area where there target had disappeared. Realizing they were hitting nothing the leader ripped the mask off of her face as well as the kunai in her side and rose to her feet, showing just how pissed off she was.

This kid was good. Not just that, he was crafty and quick; not something you'd find so easily in your everyday neighborhood. He was deceptively good. Clearly he'd done this kind of crap many times before and knew this terrain well. Just what the hell was he?

"He's running circles around us in the shadows while we're exposed out here in the clearing! What a clever little punk," the boss thought before rounding on her teammates. "Into the trees! Don't let him box us in!" With that command given they immediately leapt towards the upper branches, only to get a very nasty surprise.

From the bushes the hidden Naruto began firing more pellets up at them, nailing the exposed ones in the face with shocking accuracy and hitting the only masked one left all over her body from toe to head in that exact order. Though they were paintballs and shouldn't have hurt, it definitely threw them off their game. A stunning barrage of well-aimed hits knocked all three of them out of the air and, while her teammates crashed back down to the forest floor, the leader was able to keep her footing and continue leaping up towards the canopy.

"Damn it! Where is he?"

Looking towards the ground, the team leader tried to locate the hidden assailant before she suddenly saw leaves fall passed her. She looked up in puzzlement, only to get tackled by the jinchuriki dropping down on her from above and straddling her chest. The force he hit her with sent both of them plummeting back toward level zero, with Naruto taking his time ramming hooks across the startled kunoichi's face one after the other. Though she attempted to guard, the blows he plowed into her still managed to rattle her.

The blonde cheered as they crashed through the branches on their way down one after the other, yelling out with each hit, "BEST! RIDE! EVER!"

They slammed into the forest floor seconds later. Well… the kunoichi did. The woman gave out a sharp cough when she was slammed into the earth at full speed despite the branches breaking her fall, with Naruto jumping off of her like a springboard and back into the trees. He hooked his leg around a high branch and hung off of it, grinning down at the fallen trio now struggling back up a couple stories below.

"This is totally cool! I've never been in a real shinobi fight before!" Naruto exclaimed almost enjoyably, watching the woman glare up at him with blind fury. "This will be an awesome story to tell the others when I get back to the academy!"

"Don't screw with us you little shit!" the unmasked subordinate shouted before flipping through hand seals. "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" The woman then breathed out a massive ball of fire and sent it rocketing towards the boy, burning through branches at breakneck speed.

The blonde gave a started yell and dove away. "Whoa! That's hot!" he shouted, disappearing around the other side of the tree he was dangling off so that the sphere of flames slammed into it instead of him, ripping into the side before engulfing everything in a great inferno. This attack was many times bigger than the explosive tag used against him earlier and carried much more force, tearing up the tree and sending its top-half collapsing to the forest floor, bathed in flames.

Though this put their objective at risk, at least it satisfied the kunoichi knowing they were able to scare the living daylights out of the kid. Hopefully they managed to actually get him with that one too.

.

.

.

✨Subscribe to my Patreon for advanced content✨

✨The novel is available in PDF with more than 400 chapters, visit us in our Patreon store✨

✨https://patreon.com/Konekochan222✨