~Soutarou POV~
Blankly staring and walking alongside Naori, Soutarou thoughts ran amuck.
'Man the academy's been such a weird experience… from going from revered to revealing my real laziness… Oh well… In all honesty can you blame me? It's boring as hell… especially for someone of my level…'
'Speaking of… Even then there's a few things I'm curious about… Itachi is much the same… though my presence seems to have dissuaded him from graduating early and the fact that I pushed Itachi towards Izumi has changed their relationship too… So how will that affect the Uchiha massacre? Will it even happen now? No if anything… My class having three Uchiha with activated sharingan should be making Monkey and Danzo get their Uchiha racist itch ache.'
'Well… No point in worrying about it… Though… Naori is someone who needs to be monitored… While I don't mind playing around and I actually consider her a friend… If my gut is right… I'm the golden ticket to her mangekyo. Which is exactly what I was trying to avoid…
'Still… I'm very stupid now that I've looked back on my actions… I jumped the gun on too many things… My previous knowledge is most definitely going to shit… Since it's come to this… I'll just work with the flow…'
'For now I should just focus on this old man… I swear trying to scam him turned into me getting scammed for my time… Now where is that old man…?'
'Hmm…? This isn't a chakra signature I recognize…. Still it's at the meeting spot… Maybe that old man's messing around with chakra hiding tricks… Better be a bit more careful…'
Soutarou's voice whispered, "Naori be careful. Put your guard up-"
Soutarou's eyes widened as he realized Naori was no longer walking behind him. His pupils dilated and he immediately disrupted his chakra, with no reaction. Soutaoru's expression turned grim and he sensed around for Naori's chakra, finding nothing, only that larger chakra.
'Something's interrupting my chakra field and sensing… Damn…'
Soutarou raised his guard to the maximum and cursed for not even bringing his full ninja tool kit.
'Seven kunai, ten shuriken, a few smoke bombs, and one spool of wire. A few bandages and dozens of wooden practice tools… Curse my luck… This old man plays around too much…'
Soutarou's voice echoed outwards, "Old man, this isn't funny anymore!!"
Soutarou in turn, was only met with the soft sounds of the trees swaying in the wind and the occasional bird's cry.
Soutarou's eyes narrowed further, his eyes shot down towards the ground for a moment.
'Vibrations? Very soft ones… Something obscured in the ground too…'
Soutarou immediately stomped the ground with as much force as possible. His chakra coating lit up all across his body and he began forming handsigns only to be interrupted with a horrifying view.
A head breaking through the ground and another copy of the head appearing. Standing tall at nearly 5'10'' a scarred middle aged man with a jonin vest and a Konoha headband, smirked and said, "Sorry, but I'm not the person you were expecting."
Soutarou's instincts flared and he immediately jumped, revealing a stone spike appearing beneath his feet.
Soutarou jumped backwards and retreated to the treeline as he stared at the head of the man that had broken through the ground. Revealing a captured purple haired figure.
Soutarou's gaze turned sharp and he said, "Why are you doing this? Did the old man set you up to this?"
The man chuckled and said, "You mean Kosuke Maruboshi? No. No, I was not sent by him… As for why I'm doing this… Isn't it obvious?"
The man formed a handsign and a transformation jutsu dispelled revealing a red jonin vest and a Iwagakure headband as he said, "It's to kill a future threat! Don't resist or the girl dies. So come down boy… or else…"
Soutarou grit his teeth and clenched his fist and stared at the struggling Naori who had a kunai pressed against her throat.
'KAKASHI YOU BASTARD WHERE ARE YOU?'
Soutarou's chakra field spread out around him revealing another grim situation… there were four chakra signatures clashing on the edge of the forest… Two were Kakashi and Tekuno.
Soutarou's eyes widened again and the man's smirk turned deeper and he said, "Aww look it's despairing… You didn't think we wouldn't account for your guards did you? Be proud… You made Kumo and Iwa move together… For the first time since the second great shinobi war our two shinobi villages had to coordinate an attack… You're too dangerous to be left alive! So be a good little boy and come down from the tree."
The man's clone kicked a kunai towards the edge of the tree's base and said, "Stab your hand and I'll let the girl go."
Soutarou's face turned into a scowl while he shouted curses in his mind…
'Dammit! Dammit! Do I abandon Naori? I know I can get out of here if I create a proper distraction… But… Dammit!'
Just as Soutarou's thoughts began to move towards a conclusion a voice finally broke through, "SOUTAROU! RUN! DON'T DO IT-!"
Naori made a begging expression as her face then showed a resolute expression determined to die to give Soutarou a gap to leave. Her mouth got clamped down by the man's clone, yet her eyes still conveyed her words clearly.
Soutarou who had just made the decision to regretfully abandon her grit his teeth and cursed internally as he thought, 'How could I even think of that… Dammit Naori!'
Soutarou's mind ran through calculations before coming to a conclusion… his eyes blazed with determination.
And he dropped down from the tree and picked up the kunai and stabbed it through his hand after a bit of hesitation and said, "Let her go… I'm your target right? She's just an ordinary kid."
The Iwa man pondered for a moment before smiling and saying nothing, just staring and motioning for Soutarou to get closer.
Soutarou's expression darkened but he stared at Naori for a moment who was crying and struggling even harder, worse her eyes were now lit up with her sharingan and her one tomoe was transforming staring at Soutarou's hand… One became two…
Soutarou said nothing hoping that man wouldn't notice and said, "Let her go… Please…"
The Iwa man just smiled deeper as if finding something even more entertaining. He smiled and finally said, "You want her so badly? Take her!"
The Iwa man shoved Naori at Soutarou, but her freedom was not for free, as the man immediately launched backwards and began forming handsigns. Worse the man's clone formed a single handsign that sent warning signs down Soutarou's entire being.
'EXPLOSIVE TAGS!'
Naori cried out, "SOUTAROU GET AWAY!"
Her two tomoe's began spinning faster and faster and a third appeared, as she tried to get away from Soutarou and formed a peaceful expression trying to flicker towards the man's main body, only for her eyes to close and her body to begin to sway.
Soutarou's pupil dilated to a crazy amount before he yanked Naori back and threw her explosive tag covered shirt into a daze. Before flickering away from a massive explosion and grimaced as his hand with a kunai stabbed through it made itself glaringly evident.
A voice rang out in the areas around them, "Hoho? You survived that…? And even managed to get away with the girl? Not bad… Genuinely impressive…"
Soutarou's expression turned dark beyond words, yet his hand never stopped moving as he spat out a massive column of water.
'Water Style: Wild Water Wave!'
Soutarou held Naori pressed against him with his kunai stabbed hand holding her tightly. The bleeding wasn't stopping and the pain was messing with his focus, all together Soutarou could tell this was a shitty siutation… The only saving grace was the man genuinely hadn't noticed Naori's eyes and Naori was currently passed out.
The moment the wild water wave shot out in a wide spread Soutarou slammed down all of his smoke bombs and used the cover to create half a dozen shadow clones with minimal chakra flickering off in each direction to throw off his opponent while one shadow clone with slightly more chakra took Naori and used the distraction to drag Naori away and hide her directly under him.
'I get he's an Iwagakure shinobi, but I have no other choice, fighting with dead weight right now will be my end…'
Soutarou's shadow clone with Naori formed handsigns rapidly and cast, 'Earth Style: Camp Jutsu!'
Before forming handsigns and sealing Naori's chakra and forcing her underground, under a tree, leaving a gap between the roots as her breathing hole, before flickering away and using the remaining amount of its chakra to try to figure out where the man could be and dispelling itself.
Soutarou, using the short time he had left before the man found him again, suppressed his chakra and pulled the kunai free before beginning to heal his hand slowly. Before cursing again, as he felt a vibration from the ground, he jumped upwards and formed handsigns with one hand, albeit with difficulty.
Just as a figure broke through the ground, Soutarou spat out an even greater amount of water than last time.
'Water Style: Water Colliding Wave!'
Soutarou's chakra significantly dropped as he had to continuously draw in atmospheric water, and his mouth became increasingly dry and he continued to pour out water to try to flush the man away.
As the environment around them became a wet marsh. The Iwa shinobi's face turned annoyed before his fist became coated with earth and he charged up a tree and flickered towards Soutarou, closing the gap almost immediately.
Using his only good hand Soutarou charged with as much chakra as possible and met the fist head on with his chakra coating lighting up across his arm with vigor casting a blue hue across his entire arm. The earth fist punched out only to be pushed back slightly as Soutarou swung his leg in a sweeping movement using a partial body flicker application forming handsigns with his injured hand, before giving up deciding the pain wasn't worth it. The clash of fist force knocked both off the tree and into the marsh.
The Iwa shinobi had used the force to land gracefully back into the marsh that Soutarou had created and immediately formed handsigns, with Soutarou having begun his handsign formation they got forced away from each other.
The Iwa Shinobi was just about to unleash a technique when lightning hit the muddied water around him as Soutarou cast 'Lightning Ball Jutsu' to crash directly into the pooled water that now had particles flowing around in it all while he jumped away.
The Iwa shinobi's eyes widened and he immediately abandoned his half formed technique and jumped onto a nearby tree. The aftermath of Soutarou's jutsu had been electrified water.
'Good… I've restrained his earth style jutsu… By forcing him away from the ground… Now I just need to stall him until reinforcements arrive.'
The Iwa shinobi smirked and said, "Waiting on reinforcements? This entire area is covered in a barrier… You won't be getting any help any time soon and your chakra must be running low after that many jutsu… Though I must say… Now I understand why Lord Tsuchikage said you have to die. Even if my earth jutsu are restricted… Do you seriously think a six year old brat can deal with, me, the great Tetsuro Ishikawa? This is your grave. Not to mention… You've restricted yourself as well…!"
The man flicked dozens of kunai with explosive tags at Soutarou making him curse as he realized he really didn't have many options to move around with. He flickered from tree to tree only for the trees to each be blown up by a rampaging Tetsuro who followed Soutarou. Worse, Soutarou couldn't leave a certain range or he'd led Tetsuro back into an area with usable earth…
Soutarou's hope began to run out as the pair had circled the entire marsh Soutarou had made and few usable trees remained as Tetsuro had used a dozen explosive tags and then begun chasing Soutarou down with basic fire style jutsu. Soutarou began to despair, 'Damn… Is this the end?'