Land of Waves (2)

"Took you long enough." Sasuke remarked while channelling chakra into his family's ancestral blade, Satori before violently ripping it out Gozu's metalled grasp while leaving a deep gash on the missing-nin's palm.

"Pfft, still saved your ass, didn't I?" Naruto shot back as he formed a handseal, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Two dozen shadow clones popped into existence and moved, each settled in to a fighting stance, their fists and feet pointed towards the downed Mezu.

Rather than charging in, as was his usual strategy before Shinji hammered battle tactics and a conservative fighting style into his head, Naruto now positioned his clones in tactically advantageous formations – as exemplified by the shadow clones currently surrounding Mezu in a circular formation, with two concentric circles of clones with each staggered to reveal no loop holes.

Naruto was also careful not to rush in to attack a downed enemy, a painful lesson learned in those very same inter-team training sessions when an overeager assault more often than not landed him in more trouble than before.

Smart too, because Mezu had been biding his time, waiting for his opponent, a foolish genin, to rush in and get cut down by his claws.

The missing-nin, upon realizing the dumb-looking kid was sharper than he expected, picked himself and looked around at the clones surrounding him. The first step when facing an enemy using the elementary bunshin jutsu was to spot for the real one's shadow, since the illusionary clones were not able to cast their own.

It was a simple tactic to find the original without wasting time tearing through the clones; a simple tactic that the kid's sensei must have forgotten to teach him, Mezu sneeringly thought. But as he looked around him, he realized he made one mistake – those weren't illusionary clones.

All of the blonde, orange-jump suit wearing clones surrounding him casted their own shadow. Which meant that the two dozen genin around him were all physical ones!

'Mizu Bunshin? Not enough water. Then they must be Tsuchi Bunshin. This is bad, they are sturdier than even their original creator – but the trade off being they aren't smart enough for autonomous action! But I can't use jutsu with this gauntlet on my arm and I can't perform single handed seals like Haku. No choice but to…' Mezu concluded before pulling on his bladed chain using the gauntlet they were attached to, his intention being to rip through a portion of the clones before they attacked.

However, his arm was stuck in mid air as the chain refused to budge. His eyes trailed down before noticing the chain being stepped on by one of the clones, or the original, with the kid's full weight holding it down.

"You must think I'm dumb, huh, if you think I would let you use that chain!" Naruto jeered, as the clones around him clenched their fist and moved forward. Even if he wasn't as strategically brilliant as Shikamaru, the blonde could still recognize an opportunity when he saw one.

The horde of shadow clones rushed forward, while Naruto himself hung back. There was no point in him risking injury when he had more than enough chakra capacity to support the creation of hundreds more clones. If it came down to a war of attrition, Naruto could boast that he would lose to no one – not even Shinji!

Mezu cursed and clicked a mechanism that detached the chain. With it being held down, it would only do more harm than good having it attached to his gauntlet. With his freedom of mobility now returned, Mezu turned to slaughter what he thought were Tsuchi Bunshin.

Over on the other side, after Sasuke carved into Gozu's palm, the missing-nin had hissed in pain and made to retreat from the Uchiha. But Sasuke followed closely, not letting his opponent a chance to breathe.

Gozu was forced to evade slashes that became narrower and narrower to avoid with every passing second. The genin before him was not only fast, but he moved like he knew each and every movement Gozu wanted to make. Which made sense, since the kid was actually a goddamn Uchiha! He thought those bastards were supposed to be extinct! Their mission was supposed to be simple; kill a drunk bridge-builder and get paid. Easy money. How in the world they ended up fighting against a freaking Uchiha was beyond him.

The Demon Brothers' forte had never been prolonged, head on combat. Even when they were promoted to chunin back when they were still loyal shinobi of Kirigakure, it was only on the basis of their assassination techniques rather than pure combat ability.

Their modus operandi was always to strike first, deliver a sneak attack, kill their target and retreat, not staying any longer than was necessary. Trained by Momochi Zabuza, the Demon of the Hidden Mist himself who was recognized as the greatest master of Silent Killing, the Demon Brothers were assassins first and fighters second.

Being forced into head to head combat meant that their mission success rate was getting slimmer and slimmer. From the corner of his eyes, Gozu spotted his brother taking on a dozen clones, and they weren't illusionary ones by the looks of it. This was getting dangerous, he had to go help his brother and then kill the target before escaping, all the while evading this damn-

"You think you can afford to look away!?" Sasuke derided, his fingers flashing forward and flinging a couple of chakra enhanced shurikens towards Gozu.

The speed and sound of the wind whistling signalled to Gozu that those shuriken weren't normal ones – having seen and heard the sound of chakra enhanced projectiles on multiple occasions, Gozu recognized them for what they were. And he knew that blocking with his gauntlet would only see his hand shredded apart.

Lacking the ability to use Chakra Flow himself, the missing-nin could only dive out of the way at the last second, before skilfully manipulating the chain attached to his gauntlet to whip towards his enemy.

Unfortunately for Gozu however, Sasuke's Sharingan could see right through that surprise attack, letting him stick a kunai through one of the links and forcefully pull Gozu towards him, "Get over here!"

Gozu, who felt his arm being pulled, was quick to detach the chain with the same mechanism Mezu used as well. Sasuke could only pull on the chain, now missing the intended recipient for his sword to pierce through.

The missing-nin took the opportunity to rush towards Tazuna, concluding that if they could kill their target, even if they were captured afterwards, the mission objective would at least be accomplished. In front of his target was another boy, obviously less experienced than his cohorts judging by the fact that he did not join his teammates. Their sensei hung back a distance away, merely observing. Big mistake.

Gozu sprinted at Tazuna, his clawed arm cocked back, ready to take his target's life. As long as he could move faster than the kid could react, he would succeed! …Was what he thought before his movements froze.

Gozu's eyes widened, as he tried to force his body to move. But it was only a futile attempt.

"Kage Mane no Jutsu success." Shikamaru confidently uttered, his hands together in a rat seal and his shadow extended like a blade across the ground, connecting to the missing-nin's own shadow.

"A… Nara!?" Gozu breathed out with regret, before his eyes slunk back into unconsciousness as Sasuke landed a heavy kick to the back of his head.

Shikamaru's head was similarly snapped forward violently as he released his jutsu while glaring at the Uchiha, "I told you already, don't attack the head when I bind their movements. It hurts my neck when you do something like that."

Sasuke shrugged, "My bad, but I definitely had him already. Thanks for nothing though."

The Nara tsked and massaged the back of his neck, "Whatever." He looked over to the other side where Naruto had just finished up a combo with his clones, landing fists and kicks on his opponent.

Their fight was a sight of orderly chaos. Naruto's shadow clones moved in conjunction with each other, though each strategically targeted different parts of his opponent's body to maximize what he called 'beat down surface area'.

Mezu, like his brother, was not at all proficient in hand-to-hand combat beyond what was necessary. Facing off against a veritable endless tide of shadow clones Naruto produced with relative ease… he had no chance at all in a taijutsu bout.

Naruto easily finished him off, as his clones landed a devastating right hook to the liver, a sharp kick to the groin, elbow to the ribs, front kick to the torso, a barrage of punches to the back and seven different fists and feet striking Mezu's face all at once. One would have pitied the man, if he hadn't been aiming to assassinate the bridge builder that was literally the last hope of the Land of Waves.

The last remaining Demon Brother collapsed to the ground in a bruised and battered heap. Unconsciousness was a kinder alternative to what would have assuredly been mind numbing pain throughout the entirety of his injured body.

And honestly, this was Naruto holding back. After the initial twenty four shadow clones he created, he only made eighteen more to fill their ranks before Gozu was overwhelmed. Furthermore, they didn't use any bladed weapons – only sturdy fists and sharp kicks. Otherwise, the end result would more closely resemble a bloody pile of flesh than a human.

Tazuna watched the battle in shock. The genin he had insulted and looked down on early on had easily defeated the assassins that came for his head. Truly, when facing shinobi, one could not underestimate even children! Tazuna jumped as he heard an applause from behind him.

Kakashi slowly approached his genin, clapping, "Well done, kids. I was waiting for the moment I had to jump in to help, but I didn't have to. Good job. Although…"

He then turned towards Naruto, "Naruto, your shadow clone coordination is getting better and your taijutsu has improved as well. But you were a little slow on the draw, and not to mention you spoiled the surprise. Overall – I give you a B+."

The blonde responded with an embarrassed chuckle.

"Sasuke, you handled your opponent well, but the fact that you let even let him approach the client we were hired to protect at all is a minus. And you were talking too much. What's the point of all that chatting when you could just take them down quick and easy? A-."

The Uchiha, to his credit, just nodded quietly, taking down notes mentally.

"Shikamaru, you didn't do much, but your last action saved our client. Though you could have intervened a lot earlier on and helped out your teammates, and I know you only hung back cause you were lazy. So you get a solid B."

The Nara shrugged, "Good enough."

Kakashi then looked at Tazuna, a stern gaze replacing his usual apathetic expression, "And finally we have you. Tazuna-san. I think we need to have a talk."