"Yeah, like what?" demanded Naruto.
The cat smiled and his tail lashed from side to side.
Naruto hesitated. He'd always taken a right here, and it would lead to Ichiraku's. What was THIS way?
The six year old scampered along, ignoring the looks of hatred directed at him. The way people turned and shunned him. After all, he could always keep a line of retreat and...
"GET HIM!"
"DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY!"
Naruto felt a moment of panic, but then realized that something else was going on. The voices were ahead of him. Watching someone else get into trouble sounded good to him, as long as they couldn't turn and blame him.
Naruto scrambled ahead, not really noticing the way the passerby were all diving into their shops.
What he saw though - that caused him to stop and reconsider a lot of things that he'd taken for granted.
The Hokage stood in front of the gates to Konoha, his gaze sweeping the four missing-nin that had dared to bring their quarrel into HIS village.
He DID spot Naruto, hiding behind a trashcan. Actually, that brought a smirk to his face. He didn't get the chance to show off a lot.
"FIRE CANNON JUTSU!" shouted one of the missing-nin, making a quick set of handsigns and sending a column of fire towards the old man.
"Thousand Blades!" was another missing-nin's attack, launching a handful of kunai which multiplied in midair.
"VORTEX WIND!" was another missing-nin's attack.
"SLIME BULLET!" was the final one's attack.
The Hokage noted that he felt almost buoyant, charged with energy. He wasn't sure if it was the chance to show off before someone who'd declared his own desire to be Hokage. Maybe it was that he was facing opponents again instead of paperwork. Maybe it was something else.
The Hokage's hands blurred through the signs. "Earth Style Wall!"
Naruto stared as he watched the Hokage block the combined attacks with a wall of rock that sprung out of the ground at his command. Then the old man was blurring and gone?!
Naruto's head snapped to the side at the sound of a major impact, to see the Hokage was now way over there and had his knee connecting to the blade user's head. Then the old man was leaping clear, his hands blurring again.
"SLIME BULLET! HOMING ROUND!" tried one of the attackers.
The Hokage landed, one foot coming down on a bucket sitting abandoned near a produce cart, flipping it up to where he could snag it. He looked almost bored, using one hand to pluck an apple off the cart and begin eating it while the other hand used the bucket to block the various kunai and the green goop of the "slime bullet" attack. Hiruzen Sarutobi then dropped the now-melting bucket, catching the handle with his foot, and idly flinging it towards his opponents.
The weapon-wielder decided to charge, dodging the bucket and then drawing two swords.
"Stone Dragon Trap. Release!" said the Hokage, finishing off his apple and making a one-handed sign.
The ground rumbled and flexed, causing the weapons-nin to stagger and try to keep his footing. As soon as he stopped though, a massive dragon head erupted from the ground and swallowed him whole. With a rumbling noise, the head retracted back into the ground with the weapon-using nin still swallowed.
"Vortex Wind!" tried the wind-user, having manuevered to the side.
"Slime Bullet! Multishot!" tried the slime-user, having moved to flank the old man from the other side.
Naruto started to call out a warning, only to see the old man smile and wink at him.
Both attacks went through the image of the old man, who then simply wasn't there.
"Did... did we get him?!" asked the slime nin.
"Nope," cheerfully said the Hokage, appearing behind the nin and bringing a wooden staff down on top of the slime-wielder's head.
The slime-wielder drew a couple of batons out of his sleeves and counter-attacked, but the Hokage was almost casually blocking all the strikes and occasionally whacking the top of the slime-wielder's head in return. Finally he just brought his staff down particularly hard and brought that opponent down.
The wind user nin had crouched down, his hands held ready as he looked around.
"If you're looking for your fire-using friend," said the old man, stretching and popping his back, "he tried to escape while you kept me busy. And no, he didn't make it."
"Storm Scythe Jutsu!" tried the missing nin, his hands going through seals quickly.
The Hokage held one hand in front of his mouth, breathing a torrent of flames that seemed to absorb the wind attack and then go on past to engulf the wind-user.
With his opponents either having disappeared or lying in defeat or even lying in defeat while smouldering, the Hokage let out a breath and muttered something about "full of themselves chunin level opponents" before speaking a bit louder. "Ibiki?"
A large scarred man appeared next to the Hokage. "Sir?"
"Take charge of the prisoners, find out what you can," said the Hokage. "This may have been a diversion, make sure the other guards remain alert."
The Hokage then turned and calmly walked away, choosing to walk directly past Naruto as he did.
Naruto's eyes met the Hokage's as the old man walked away, seeing a glint of amusement in those eyes.
It took nearly two minutes for Naruto to get control of himself at that point, but his next words wouldn't surprise anyone. "That. Was. Thoroughly. AWESOME!"
From then on, Naruto had a different definition of what an 'awesome ninja' was actually capable of.
Later:
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(Posted Sat, 12 Feb 2011 22:45)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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