The Price of the Past?!?!

Naruto and the Mist shinobi were staring off with one another at ground level as the three Genin stayed up in the trees as a way to stay out of their way. The two Jounin looked as if they were content on just staring at one another from the Genin’s point of view as the level of their nervousness continued to grow.

“What’s going on?” Meikyou asked, as he wasn’t completely sure what was going on.

“Nothing that important as Naruto-sensei is going to deal with that guy now.” Kouriha replied, as he continued to stare down at his sensei and the enemy shinobi wondering who it would that make the first move.

“I was actually hoping to get a chance to fight you.” The Mist shinobi announced, as he readied his mace. “I’ve got some business with you.”

“Really? What kind of business could you have with me?” Naruto replied, looking slightly confused as he doesn’t recall ever meeting this shinobi before today.

“Revenge!” The Mist shinobi yelled, as he charged Naruto, swinging his mace with the hope of knocking the Leaf shinobi’s head off. Naruto bent over, underneath the clobbering weapon, hearing the sound of the air being displaced above his head. While the Mist shinobi was still off guard from missing his attack, Naruto performed several hand seals, while taking a deep breath.

“Fire style: Phoenix Fireball Jutsu!” Naruto expelled a giant fireball to the shock of the Genin, but mainly Meikyou as it looked like his own fire jutsu, but it was weaker. The smoke didn’t even have a chance to clear before he felt the Mist shinobi rushing at him again. “Figures.” Naruto thought, to himself, as he jumped over the next swing of the enemy’s mace. As he rolled on the ground, after the jump, he started another chain of hand seals.

“Your not getting away that easy! Water style: Water Dragon Vortex!” The Mist shinobi yelled, calling forth the water dragon for the second time, but at the same time…

“Water style Water Dragon Vortex!” Naruto yelled, causing a second water dragon to spring up from the stream to attack the first one. When the mist from the exploding water dragons clears the Genin are able to see Naruto blocking the Mist shinobi’s mace with one of his arm guards.

“There so fast…” Kouriha thought, as he could believe what he was saying considering they were able to survive against the Mist shinobi for so long.

“What were you trying to do?” Naruto asked, with a smile on his face. “Catch me with the oldest trick in the book? I thought I’d get better from you.”

“Defeating you won’t be as easy, as I thought.” The Mist shinobi responded, “Guess I should start getting serious, but before that, mind telling me how in the world you’ve master not only an Uchiha clan technique, but a technique from the Hidden Mist village?”

“When you been on the receiving end of the Phoenix Fireball jutsu the hand signs are burned into your brain even with out the Sharingan.” Naruto replied, as the two of the Jounin jumped back from one another. “As for the other one… Kakashi The Copy Ninja is my sensei and taught me the jutsu in case I wanted to go for ANBU.” Naruto despite the way that he was feeling he was starting to feel better as if the physical exertion is doing him so good. Suddenly several more Naruto’s came in to existence.

“This jutsu? What’s Naruto-sensei thinking?” Kioiko though to herself as she started to sense the Naruto copies as they started to surround the Mist shinobi.

“Shadow clones, eh?” The Mist shinobi sounded a little disappointed that the great Crimson Fox of Konoha was falling back to his signature move. Which just happens to be the easiest to counter. “That may work against a weaker shinobi, but my water clones are more than enough to match them.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” Naruto yelled, as he charged at the Mist shinobi before he could start making the hand signs. Instead the enemy shinobi goes to nail Naruto with his mace once he’s in range, but Naruto flickers out of sight! All of the sudden from the right side of the Mist shinobi Naruto appears hitting him with a right cross while yelling, “NA…”. Naruto flicked out of a sight again until he appeared on the left side of the Mist shinobi hitting him with a left hook while yelling, “RU…”. Naruto flickered out of existence as the enemy shinobi was still off balance from the previous attacks before Naruto appears in front of him nailing him with a uppercut that sends him flying up in to the air while Naruto yelled, “TO…” Naruto and his clones all flickered out of sight until they appeared above the Mist shinobi in the air.

“UZUMAKI…” The Clones yelled, as the real Naruto nailed the Mist shinobi with a spinning heel drop that sends him crashing down to the ground violently. The Mist shinobi laid on the ground barely conscious as he felt as the chakra was being concentrated in to Naruto’s and his clones hands. The Mist shinobi forces his eyes open and looked up at the sight as the chakra eight times over took on the form of a spinning, blue ball.

“Is that the infamous Rasengan?” The Mist shinobi thought, as he weakly started to make a series of hand signs in the hope of surviving this next attack.

“The Rasengan? I read that only three people in the Leaf village history, who have mastered that jutsu.” Kouriha thought, as he couldn’t believe the sight that he saw in front of him. That not only is his sensei one of the few people that have mastered the technique, but that his Shadow Clones are strong enough to use the technique themselves.

“RASENGAN WHIRLWIND BARRAGE!” The Naruto’s called out, as the started diving bombing towards the Mist shinobi. However, the Mist shinobi didn’t move in fact he just laid there with a smile on his face. Before Naruto knew what was going on him and his clones were smacked by a wall of water! Naruto’s clones were dispersed moments after the impact leaving Naruto alone to try to power through the water to hit the mark. However, Naruto himself started to feel light headed and the new found vigor was waning to a dangerous as the Rasengan broke down, leaving Naruto to fall in to the water, to get knocked down to the ground.

“I’m afraid the Rasengan is all hype…” The Mist shinobi said, mocking not only Naruto, Jiraiya, and his father’s jutsu. The enemy shinobi was pulling himself up to his feet with the help of his mace, using it more like a crutch than a weapon for the moment. It’s at the moment that Naruto understands what is going on with his body. As the Mist Shinobi’s head is bent down he recalls the scene from the bar. It had looked as if someone, as if he put something in to his Miso soup, but Naruto hadn’t been sure… until now.

“What have you done to me!” Naruto yelled, as he struggled to get to his feet his breathing more labored than it should be right now.

“I’ve poisoned you.” The Mist shinobi says, “It’s non-lethal as long as I choose to let it be, because it allows me to control your chakra, blood, and breathing for seventy two hours. Take any antidote you want, but there is no cure… well the expectation would be to kill me, but your not in the shape to do that.

“YOU BASTARD!” Naruto yelled, as suddenly his breathing started to return to where it should be, but it started to feel as if his left leg was falling asleep as if the circulation of blood to it had been cut off.

“Now it’s time to take my revenge… Water style: Twin Water Dragon jutsu!” The Mist shinobi yelled, as the two giant water dragons launched themselves at Naruto. The young Jounin knew that he wouldn’t be able to evade either one of them this time on his own.

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Kakashi tries to find his way to his feet, but his body is too weak for the strain. However, he is doing everything in his power to will himself past the pain and the weakness, because the last thing that he wanted to see was Aya get hurt any more for attempting to help him escape captivity. Even more so when the Mist ninja that threw the Senbon entering the cell placing a kunai knife to the young woman’s neck. Kakashi even with just one of his eyes could tell what the man was trying to do and that was use Aya’s life as a bargaining chip to find out the location of the cursed eye they are so desperately seeking.

“Don’t worry about me…” Aya says, “I was dead the moment I let them change my face.”

“Don’t listen to her… tell us where the eye is and she lives as simple as that.” The Mist shinobi said, as he pulled back on a clunk of Aya’s hair, pulling her head back, to expose her neck to the cold steel of the kunai that’s pressing against her throat. Kakashi just lays there thinking about his options at the moment considering that he has a feeling that this might be a well played rouse to get him to talk, because of the news that Kabuto got earlier. Kakashi was about to tell the Mist shinobi to go to hell again, but stops when he feels a pain in his thigh. Reaching down his fingers probed the tenders spot to find that a Senbon from one of the torture sessions had been left behind. Kakashi slowly pulls the slim metal projectile out of his thigh in the hopes of not bringing any attention to what he’s up to at the moment.

“He’s lying, don’t listen to him.” Aya pleaded, and Kakashi didn’t know if it was just who she looks like, but for some reason he wants to believe that she is really on his side. Kakashi without a second thought about it throws the Senbon the best that he can in his current state hitting the Mist Shinobi in the same spot that he had hit Aya. He quickly dropped the kunai down to the ground harmlessly as he dropped to his knees.

“I believe you.” Kakashi said, as he was finally able to will himself up to a sitting position close enough to Aya that he could pull the Senbon out of her neck. After a few second pass Aya regains movement of her body and she quickly moves to help Kakashi up to his feet, but he simply pushes her away leaving her confused. “Save yourself.”

“I can’t leave you here like this.” Aya moved back up to Kakashi to attempt to help him up again, but again he just pushed her away the best he could. They both knew that it would take someone else to figure out that something is up and come check on the situation. However, neither one of them wanted to break and give in to the other. “You’ll die if I leave you here like this.”

“No I won’t.” Kakashi said, as he started to sense a familiar chakra off in the distance. He can’t explain why he can sense it now and not before. Sure, it was in a fight against someone, but it was close. Close enough that there is hope that he will make it back to Konoha to see all his friends again. “Listen, there is a Jounin with some Genin from the Leaf village. Go find them and led them back here.”

“But what if I don’t find them?” Aya said, grasping for straws to get Kakashi to see her point of view, but it was worthless now. As he now knows why Kabuto was so shaken when he received the news, but even more so why he didn‘t want him to hear about it.

“I have faith in you, but even more in him… he has a way of finding people he needs to whether or not he knows it.” Kakashi said, as he weakly tried to laugh thinking about how Naruto was able to find Jiraiya of the Legendary Sannin when he was in need of a trainer when ANBU member who had been trained in the art of tracking couldn’t find him for years.

“What could one Jounin and a couple of Genin do against a whole village?” Aya asked, as her last resort and normally that kind of logic would have worked on any one including Kakashi. However, because it’s Naruto who is infamously know as the Crimson Fox can put fear in to a whole village, because he was the vessel for the Nine Tails Fox. The only thing that they really have going in their favor is that most of the Mist Shinobi don’t know what happened during Naruto’s battle against Orochimaru and even if they did… they probably still wouldn’t risk anything.

“Don’t worry about it.” Kakashi said, to reassure her before she finally left his side as the sound of more shinobi’s were heard headed towards the cell which means that things were about to get ugly.

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Naruto managed to make his own chain of hand seals, but not in time as the two dragons slammed in to him. The young Genin watch on in horror as their sensei is pulverized by the water for several moments with out a break until the water finally receded back to the stream from which it came. The Mist Shinobi drops down to a knee as the fatigue of the prolonged battle is finally starting to get to him. The Genin on the other hand jumped down from their hiding spot within the trees to run to the side of their Sensei. The closer the three young shinobi’s got to their teacher they could see or in Kioiko’s case sense that Naruto wasn’t breathing. Kioiko dropped to her knees and quickly attempted to revive her sensei with the basic medical techniques that Sakura had shown her, but what she found was disturbing.

“Kioiko, is Naruto-sensei going to be all right?” Meikyou asked, as he used his left hand to try and wipe away some of the drying blood from underneath his eye.

“There’s no heart beat…” Kioiko said, the fear in her voice was enough to give both of the boys the chills. However, it looked as if she had something else that she wanted to say, but didn’t get a chance to as Kouriha started pointing relentless away from Naruto’s body until he blurted out.

“He’s coming!” Kouriha yelled, “We have to get out of here!”

“Man up, Kouriha! Let’s take him down for Naruto-sensei… fight like a man!” Meikyou snapped, at his frightened teammate as he pulled out a pair of kunai knives taking off towards the Mist shinobi.

“I’m not a man… I’m a mouse! Squeak, squeak scar-face!” Kouriha said, as he stared on in disbelief that his friend hasn’t grasped the seriousness of the situation yet. Kouriha, however wasn’t going to do anything to put his life or Kioiko’s on the line as he grabbed her by the wrist pulling her away from Naruto’s dead body. The pulling from Kouriha makes Kioiko yelp in pain which draws Meikyou attention away from the Mist shinobi…

“…” Meikyou was about to yell at Kouriha to let go of Kioiko, but doesn’t get the chance to as he catches a forward thrust kick to the sternum from the Mist shinobi knocking him down to the ground. As Meikyou lays on the ground near passing out he can feel as blood starts to fill his right lung more than likely from a broken rib that pierced the organ. As fear of the situation now starts to surface in Meikyou’s mind Kioiko senses what happened, and reels back kicking Kouriha in the groin to make him let go of her.

“Meikyou!” Kioiko screamed, as ran forward towards the hurt young man with tears soaking the fabric of her hitae.

“…” Kouriha tries to call out to the young girl to stop her, but the words just wouldn’t come to him thanks to the paralyzing pain that he is in right now. As he was fighting back the tears from the pain though he saw someone run past him, but at the same time it looked as if the person was standing right in front of him.

“What the…” The Mist shinobi thought, as he saw the new young man running up to him, but with several more following right behind him. In his stupor at the moment he loses sight of the young man leading the charge while he realizes that the technique wasn’t mere Shadow Clones, but it was on another level than regular clones.

“Shadow Punch!” The Young man exclaimed, as he punched the Mist ninja in the face. However, the Mist shinobi didn’t move after the punch to the shock of Kioiko who sensed what was going on, but even more to Kouriha who could watch it. In fact they only grew in confusion when the Mist Shinobi finally did stumble when the last of the young man’s “shadows” caught up with him. Kouriha forgot about his pain when he realized that standing where the Mist Shinobi had been is Takumi Kajou!

“What kind of technique was that…” The Mist shinobi pondered so that he could find a way to guard against it the next time he comes at him with it. However, he doesn’t see the second young man come out of the brush holding on to a pair of Tonfa’s. The second young man was none other than Makoto Yoshikuni, who nailed the Mist shinobi with a blow from one of the Tonfa’s right to the back of the knee, which resonated with a sickening crunch that even Kouriha a non-medical knew that the Mist Shinobi’s knee was just blown out by the strike. Makoto spun the other tonfa in his hand as twisted his body to strike him right in the chest with the weapon taking him down to the ground.

“Don’t worry your going to be okay.” A girl’s voice draws Kouriha’s attention back to Meikyou to see Asuka Yamaguchi already healing his punctured lung. It left Kouriha laying there shocked to see the very former classmates they foiled during the war helping them out right now. Kouriha’s attention though was grabbed away from Asuka, Kioiko, and Meikyou when he heard right next to his head. Turning to see what was going on, he saw a black knee high boot, but the further he got to seeing the person’s face stopped the moment he saw the bottom of a mini skirt and white panties. As Kouriha’s face started to show the signs of blushing and his nose started to bleed from the excitement of the visual before him. He noticed a drop of water fall down to the ground. It is then that he hears the sobs of the person standing in front of him… which leaves nothing to guess about who it was. It was his sensei’s fiancée, Sakura Haruno.

“That technique…” Sakura said, as she was even trying to hid the sadness in her voice. “I’ve saw it before, but it was used by someone else then.” She added, as she recalled the sight of the twin water dragons as she and the three Genin she’s temporarily leading as they got closer.

“There’s no mistake… that was a message.” The Mist shinobi said, through gritted teeth from the pain that’s radiating through is body from his knee. “Your, Sakura Haruno, aren’t you? So let me announce that you are going to die here just like he did to pay for what happened eight years ago.”

“Eight years ago?” Sakura whispered, as she tried to think back eight go to remember who this man might be and what he has against Naruto and herself. However, the only run in with anyone from the Hidden Mist from eight years go that Team Seven had was with Zabuza and Haku.

“My name is Nagi… your executioner!” The Mist shinobi said, defiantly even though he was still seriously handicapped and pinned down by Makoto.

“The Hunter ninja?” Sakura said, sounding a little dumbfound for a moment until a conversation with Kakashi was recalled. “I’ve heard about you from Kakashi-sensei. You’re the Hunter ninja that vowed to single-handedly bring Zabuza and Haku down, but when the news of their deaths spread… you fell out of grace with the Mizukage and resigned from the Hunter-nin core.”

“The situation is a little more complicated than that, but it’s useless to talk about it here and now.” Nagi replied, “Your team was the one who killed them taking from me the biggest bounty that would have allowed me to retire in peace. I’ve waited eight years for this moment. Tonight the remaining members of Team Kakashi… DIE!” Nagi punched at Makoto catching him off guard just enough to make the young man stumble back. Once he was free he quickly pulled out a scroll wiping some blood away from his bloody lip. Nagi with a sadistic looking smile wiped the blood on to the scroll. “Summoning jutsu: Black Scorpion!” In a cloud of smoking a scorpion the size of an elephant appeared with Nagi sitting on it’s back.

“What kind of jutsu is that?” All of the Genin thought, as they moved to safer ground with Makoto and Takumi grabbing Kouriha while Kioiko and Asuka worked together to move Meikyou.