Chapter Twenty Seven- Running From A Tanuki Part 1

[Suna Genin Killed!.... +400xp]

That had been my first kill in three days.

After the debacle that was me getting separated from the squad Captain Nara became….. Annoying. I was ordered to play a supporting role from then on, which meant, genjutsu and ranged support. Don't get me wrong I excelled at the position, I gave over fifty shinobi to my teammates on a silver platter. Sleepwalking genin, blinded genin, a kunai to the wrist creating an opening for a killing blow.

Multiple sensory depriving genjutsu.

The problem was the scroll didn't care about an assist.

As I let my arm fall after I threw a kunai into a genin's neck I could practically feel Yura staring me down. Though I was done caring about orders that held me back in such a way. But I was a shinobi so I wouldn't outwardly disobey but if this shit continued there would be slightly more mistakes like what I had just happened to the Suna genin fifty yards away.

Would've been nice if that genin was worth just a hundred experience points more, what bad luck. Only a hundred points away, guess I'll have to really piss him off…..

{War Quest Complete}

A Boy At War llI

Objective: Kill fifty enemies during the Second Shinobi War.

Rewards: 15 stat points, 5,000xp, Uncommon Loot Cache

[Level 12 Reached!.....+10 stat points]

'Or not, completely forgot about that questline, now I'm more than halfway to thirteen. Not even to mention the thirty-five stat points I have now'

"Should've aimed higher, a few more millimeters and he would've bled out thirty seconds faster." The shadow ninjutsu user commented from behind me, standing casually with his hands in his pockets. Seven already dead shinobi stood around him in the exact same posture as him.

Roku appeared in a swirl of leaves next to him, as a drop of blood fell from his tanto so too did the bodies hit the sand.

"Fuck 'em," I said still irritable about the punishment I'd been 'rightfully' delivered. How the man figured out that not letting me kill Shinobi would piss me off, I had no idea.

But he's a Nara so he probably did some big roundabout calculations based on my behavior, past mission records, and personally watching me the first day. It was obvious I paid special attention to 'double tap' enemies if the scroll hadn't rewarded me for the kill, so might have gave me away.

"Troublesome... fine. Go ahead you bloodthirsty bastar….." Captain Yura was just about to say the magic words moments before my head snapped over ninety degrees to the right. So fast my neck popped but I didn't even notice it as a cold sweat took me.

If there was one thing that these three days of punishment gave me, then it was time to get a basic handle on my new sensing abilities. It took me less than ten seconds to fully expand my range, which was four kilometers in all directions. I did so periodically out of boredom and a desire to knock a few seconds off.

So when I felt a chakra signature nearly on par with Sakumo? That I didn't recognize?

"We need to run, back towards the front line," I said as I took off, I gave my warning.

"Tometsu, what are you talking about?!" Yoru yelled to me causing me to pause.

"Run you stupid fuckers, it's almost right on top of ...us….." I almost wanted to scream in absolute fury as a young bald man materialized in the sands between all of us. The real question was, why had I stopped? I could've been gone in those few seconds with the help of my half-baked movement jutsu.

"Yuka behind me now!" I said in an order which she quickly complied with, whether that was due to my blazing eyes or the appearance of a new threat. I had no idea. But priority one when fighting a powerful enemy was protecting the healer.

"SORRY KIDDIES, YAHOOOOOO. I'M ALMOST FREEEEEEEEE!" The bald man screamed in an otherworldly and crazed voice that caused me to cringe. But when his chakra doubled right after my knees almost buckled.

[Bunpuku The One Tail Jinchuriki. Lvl 40]

{Emergency Quest}

Shukaku Of The One Tail

Objective: Survive

Bonus Objective: Kill Bunpuku

Reward:???,???,???

"Everyone, back away from him!" I yelled moments after I felt him mold an ungodly amount of chakra.

I prayed as I grabbed the healer and disappeared in a flicker moments before the sands around us came alive.

Thirty seconds later and around half a kilometer in distance I stopped and focused my senses. Good everyone made it out of there, I quickly threw three smoke bombs into the sky. Two black and one red colored the sky for a few seconds.

It was a predetermined code, they could tell where I was after throwing them based on the clouds and their color. Three bombs meant to meet me three kilometers to the west, we'd be dangerously close to the frontline but anywhere was safer than fighting an S-rank shinobi that could control sand. Even worse when we were in a desert full of the shit.

I felt their signatures pause at my signal then quickly change trajectory toward the meeting point, well all of them except one.

"Son of a bit…." My curse was censored as a small explosion of smoke appeared next to me, My clone and I locked eyes for a few moments before he disappeared with Yuka in toe.

"Why did it have to be the one bastard on this team that I respect the most, hero complex, self-sacrificing son of…" I disappeared in a burst of speed as I reached my tenth flicker in what felt like moments. Gliding past dunes, practically flying over the sands.

The man did his job in that single minute he stayed behind, and led the monster away. From his squad as well as our army where that shinobi would've done the most damage.

It took me an entire two minutes to reach his signature moments before it started to wane.

The sand around me was alive, like a tree without leaves and moving branches and linked to tendrils of sand. In a moment my eyes tracked my target encased in a tomb of sand twenty feet in the air.

The guard of my sword clicked as I made two quick slashes freeing my companion and grabbing him by his collar. Once I touched down I didn't stop, going full blast as I tried my best to get the hell away. But there was a problem I failed to realize, I never tried to carry somebody over a long distance, especially at this speed. 

Luckily I felt that my ankle was about to give out and I quickly came to a stop and dropped the idiot at my feet as I collapsed next to him. Two more jumps maybe even one and I would've fully broken my ankle.

"You alive….." I asked as I looked down at the idiot next to me throwing up. Luckily he was moving but the entire left side of his body looked crushed. Well almost crushed, arm was bent at an awkward angle as well as his knee, yet he was alive.

"How-w am I…." After he finished throwing up his lunch he looked down at his shaking hands in shock. He was moments away from dying, if I were a second slower he would've been crushed to paste.

"Maybe that's why you're a genin because you're stupid….." I jabbed as I began vigorously messaging my ankle.

"Kid? You were nothing but a blur…. I thought it was sensei…" I tuned him as I decided it was time to think of a plan, we were extremely close to Suna's walls now and a crazy S-rank shinobi was blocking our retreat. 

An enemy village in front of us and S-rank shinobi behind us, what kind of situation am I in on my fourth day on this war front? 

Kosuke was still mumbling in a trance-like state. It was rare to see an established and seasoned shinobi like him go through shock. Usually, they've been through so many close calls that their used to making it out of one by the skin of their teeth. 

It was understandable given that he was less than a second from death but I needed the near-Jonin-level shinobi right now. Injured or not.

"Shut up, information now" I growled in pure annoyance at the fact that this shinobi was still in shock. That quickly shook him out of it as his eyes gained clarity and he began speaking roboticly.

"Danger Level, easily S-rank. Abilities, Sand manipulation, down to the very grain. Hardening and lightening capabilities. Sealess wind ninjutsu. Mental state, horrid. I speculate a split personality disorder." Kosuke said. My stomach dropped at that list, that sounded worse than some of the Kage entries in the Bingo Book. 

What kind of monster did Suna have hidden? What in the hell was a jinchuriki and what for the love of the Sage is wrong with his chakra? 

It was rare that I got a feeling from somebody's chakra but that bald-headed shinobi radiated pure madness. Almost as if he were cursed.

Still, I might have moved fast enough to escape unnoticed. Based on the mental profile it was possible he'd give up on us and head towards other less slippery prey.

"Is the leg broken?" I asked the big question, I doubted I could carry him and return to the army. If I couldn't this entire ordeal would've been for nothing.

"Just out of socket…. Urggggg, not anymore" Kosuke continued speaking like a trained killer as he set his bum leg straight and punched it into place. That was going to hurt later, I knew the arm would as I didn't have to ask to know it was broken in a few places.

"Nasty but good job. Now I need your experience, we're less than a few clicks away from Suna. With an S-rank shinobi and Suna's army between us and salvation. Any ideas?" I asked with a small bit of hope, I obviously had a backup plan in the works but it was a toss-up whether it worked out or not.

"Honestly we have one option, we run towards the west until we hit the land of rivers. We are giving us a chance to get a message to command about this new threat. Once we reach there we could travel down the border and return to the army by tomorrow afternoon.

It was now or never if we wanted to make a break for it, we had both already done more than what would be expected of any normal shinobi. It was really too bad I failed to notice an eye floating about thirty feet away from us in time.

It was something I wasn't used to, the signature was so faint that I easily overlooked it thinking it was a bird. But when it stayed stationary for more than a minute…..

I slowly turned my head and blazing red met a crazed gold. My blood turned cold as I felt the sand under my feet begin to vibrate.