After several hours, during which they made fast progress, Naruto suddenly came to a halt and winced. One of the shadow clones he had sent out twenty minutes ago had just fallen into a pit full of fat larvae before promptly dissipating.
Shivering at the sensation of crawling all over his body, he narrowly almost missed the extra shadow that flickered behind them.
...
Without reacting or changing his expression, Naruto began to walk again. Raising his hand to brush a lock of his hair out of his eyes, he twitched his pinky. Glancing sideways, he made eye contact with Rai, who gave an imperceptible nod. Dramatically making groaning sounds, Rai slumped down on the ground.
"Man, I'm starving," he complained. "It's about time for lunch, isn't it? We've come pretty far, let's find some food now!"
"I agree," said Naruto, crossing his arms. "Let's take a break for now."
"Well, alright then," said Mayu. "I'll collect some vegetables, so how about you two get the moles?"
"Sounds good," said Rai, pulling out a kunai and twirling it in his hand. "C'mon, Naruto. Let's go find some...moles." At his last words, he jumped up and disappeared. A moment later, he reappeared at the opposite end of the tunnel, holding his kunai to the neck of a dark-skinned male genin.
At the same time, Naruto swiftly threw a shuriken up at the ceiling. The other genin who had been hanging above them, a stocky blond male, managed to avoid the shuriken as he scuttled down the wall to the ground. Without a look back at his teammate, he fled to the nearest hole and disappeared. Naruto didn't move, watching the hole expectantly.
Several seconds later, there was a yelp of shock and pain from the direction the genin had ran to. The sound of something being dragged across rough ground reverberated through the hollow tunnel, and soon, his shadow clone emerged, dragging the unconscious genin behind him by his collar. The shadow clone tossed the body to the ground beside where Rai stood with the other struggling genin.
They tied the two genin together against a boulder, and as Mayu searched their bodies for their team plate, Naruto looked around the surrounding tunnels warily. Judging from their hitai-ate, they were from Takigakure, but it looked like they were just a two-man team. When he had first detected their presences behind him, he had thought that perhaps their third member was farther behind and acting as backup.
But he couldn't detect a third presence anywhere, meaning that their third member was either too far away, or that they had somehow lost their third member. Naruto played with the idea that their third had managed to conceal their presence from him, but he dismissed that almost instantly; though poorly lit with ample shadows to hide in, these tunnels were far too narrow and cramped for anyone to continuously hide from him for this long.
"Where's your third? Is he waiting to ambush us, or what?" Rai voiced Naruto's thoughts, nudging the dark one who was still conscious.
The genin scowled ferociously, glaring at them through narrowed eyes. "Like I'd tell you little br...ow, ow!" He broke off as Naruto's shadow clone shoved him down with his foot.
Naruto kneeled beside the genin, and looked him directly in the eye. As the genin watched with horror growing in his eyes, he then pressed the tip of his kunai against the inside of the genin's fingernail, putting in just enough pressure to induce pain. "First it'll be your fingernails, and then your fingers...that is, unless you talk. Where is your other teammate?"
"Didn't you hear me the first time?" the genin spat at his feet. "You're not gonna get nothing outta – " he broke off and let out a howl of pain as Naruto thrust his kunai up. With a sick popping sound, his nail fell off.
"Naruto!" said Mayu, her face pale. She stepped forward, but Rai held her back. He looked a little green as well, but his jaw was set.
"That was just a fingernail," said Naruto softly. The genin's eyes widened, tears of pain leaking out. "Imagine how much more it would hurt if I did that to a finger."
"Alright, alright! She's not here, we ditched her!" he yelped. "We don't know where she is!"
Naruto stood up; he could tell from his body language that the genin was telling the truth – or at least, believed it. Swinging his kunai up, he hit the head of the genin with its blunt end, knocking him out. The genin's head crumpled down against his chest.
He looked up to see Mayu staring at him with wide eyes. Internally, he let out a sigh as he saw something in her face that he hadn't seen in a while – fear.
"Was that really necessary?" she asked.
"We're ninja, Mayu," snapped Rai. "This is what we do. Stop being such a baby."
Mayu didn't respond. Instead, she put the hood of her cloak up over her head.
Rai grabbed the team plate she had been clutching in her hand; the number 44 was engraved on it. He tossed it into the air, and then grabbed it before tucking it into his pocket. "Ha! That was easy."
...
Leaving the trussed up genin behind them, they silently walked through the dark tunnel while Naruto's shadow clone slunk back into the darkness to trail them. As Naruto watched Mayu stiffly move away from him, he felt his heart sink a little. He didn't feel any remorse for having handled the situation in that way; torture was a proven and surefire way of quickly retrieving necessary information. But he wondered if he should have held back for Mayu's sake.
It was unfortunate that despite her valuable skill of perception, she had always been the least desensitized of the three and the most averse to solutions to situations that required violence.
Naruto sometimes questioned whether she was truly suited for the life of a ninja; as someone who clearly didn't have the heart or the stomach for a ninja's work, it was a wonder how she'd come into it in the first place. Not for the first time, he wondered what he would do if Mayu ever got in the way of a mission. So far, it hadn't proved to be much of an issue, but the missions that awaited them in the future could only be filled with more bloodshed.
Suddenly, Naruto came to a halt. In one sleek motion, he pulled out his tantō from its sheath as the memories of his shadow clone flooded his mind; it had just been attacked from behind. The last thing it had seen before disappearing was a flash of white.
Before he could let out a warning, a high-pitched voice called out from behind them: "Stop right there!"
Shock flooding his system, Naruto spun around, dropping into an offensive stance. Besides him, his teammates mirrored his actions. However, the genin that they saw remained calm and seemingly defenseless even as she casually walked towards them. She had short, spiky hair and curious orange eyes.
Naruto's eyes flickered to the hitai-ate slung around her right arm; the waterfall symbol of Takigakure stared back at him. That, and judging from the way she was alone, she was likely the third teammate that had been abandoned by the genin they'd captured their plate from. Naruto's grip on the tantō in his hand tightened. His shadow clone hadn't even sensed her coming up behind him. He had thought that was impossible in such a closed space...
He could feel it in his bones: Despite her seemingly harmless exterior, his every nerve was screaming that she was dangerous.
There was something foreign about the girl that caused a chill to wrack his body: Foreign, and yet at the same time, somewhat familiar. But before he could puzzle over it further, his teammates sprung into action beside him. Rai released a barrage of shuriken at the girl, while Mayu's bluebirds shrilled, taking off into the air.
Dodging the shuriken, the girl picked up speed and began to run towards them. Jumping up over the birds, her hands blurred as she opened her mouth: "Hiden: Rinpungakure no Jutsu (Secret: Hiding in Scale Powder Technique)!"
Prepared to counter it, Naruto gathered his chakra into his lungs, his hands blurring through the signs: "Fūton: Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)!" He blew, expelling a strong wind from his lips.
However, to his surprise, what came out of her mouth was something powdery that sparkled, lighting up the tunnel around them. Before Naruto could wonder at its purpose, it made itself clear as the powder rapidly brightened into an intense light akin to that of the afternoon sun, sending searing hot pain into his eyeballs.
Rai howled in agony besides him, and Naruto shut his eyes reflexively. He heard the wind he had exhaled continue blowing through the tunnel, but it was too late – the powder had done its work. Opening his eyes, he could only see throbbing circles of yellow and orange that threw him off balance; he staggered.
"Shouldn't have done that!" said the girl. Judging from her voice, she was standing right in front of them, and yet, to his growing alarm, Naruto couldn't sense her presence at all.
"What the hell is this?!" Rai snarled. The intense white light was gradually dimming, but Naruto could still only make out, at best, several blobs around him.
"The name's Fū," she said. "That was my Scale Powder technique, but don't worry, the effects aren't permanent. Usually, anyways. Well, I'm just here to get my team plate back. So, which one of you has it?" Rai must have given himself away with an involuntary twitch, for the girl immediately pounced on him.
"Ah, so you do!" There was a muffled yelp and a rustle of clothing. "Thanks. See ya laters, alligators!" There was a pause. "Or not."
His vision was restored enough now so that he could see a faint shadowy figure bouncing up and running away from them. Rai made to get up, but Naruto held out a hand to stop him.
Rai growled in frustration. "What is it?!"
"Don't," panted Naruto. "We're at a disadvantage right now. It'll be easier to obtain another team's plate than to try and attack her – it isn't worth the effort."
Rai let out another snarl of anger, spitting on the ground, but sat back down. "Damn that girl." Picking up a pebble from the ground, he flung it at the wall. "And that genin bastard. He lied to us! I'm gonna kill him!"
"I don't think he was," said Mayu quietly. "They were probably traveling separately."
"Why the hell would they do that, when she's got that technique?"
But none of them had an answer for that.
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