25 Confrontation

Nawaki and 17 other ninjas ran across the treetops at breakneck speeds. The Third Hokage created five emergency response squads and sent his own disciples to lead this S-rank mission.

Nawaki was paired with two ninjas from the Aburame and Inuzuka clans. Their reconnaissance abilities complemented his destructive abilities.

The mission leader, Orochimaru, suddenly stopped on the last large branch before the border clearing. The other ninjas landed next to him gracefully.

In his confident, raspy voice, he gave out his instructions.

"We all split up. Nawaki, Kei, take your teams to check the area across the land of hot water. It is an easy place to land. The rest of you spread out across the coast and check all the port towns. We meet back here by noon tomorrow if we don't find anything. Not returning means you found something. Disperse."

Having received their orders, the ninja scattered. 

Nawaki engaged in some small talk with his two teammates. The Inuzuka and his canine partner were named Shuji and Kenzo. They were far more talkative than Aburame Katsumi.

All Nawaki got out of him was his name and the fact he wasn't single after much pestering. Inuzuka Shuji, on the other hand, was more than willing to talk with him.

Shuji had a little boy on the way, hated alcohol and loved barbecue. Barbecue was also adored by his ninken Kenzo, a rather obvious thing but one he was persistent in sharing. 

Kenzo was a large wolf hound with a thick double coat and a friendly demeanour. However, you could see the powerful muscles honed through tireless effort underneath that fluffy exterior.

After discussing their love of different kinds of barbecue, they arrived at the border of the land of hot water. Almost immediately, Katsumi and Kenzo tensed up.

Without any need for communication, the three ninjas got ready for combat.

In a blur, six figures appeared in front of their team. Each one wore a painted mask to hide their faces. On the forehead of the masks, there were four squiggly lines.

It only took a glance to understand who they were facing: Kirigakure Anbu.

There was a moment of stillness as if we were all holding our breath. Then, as if an invisible signal went off, everyone exploded into action.

Katsumi unleashed a massive wave of his chakra, devouring insects and the six opponents scattered in three directions.

Each Konohagakure ninja took on two enemies.

Nawaki chased after his opponents, and once they were within range, he made a few hand seals and fired a Water Release, Water Dragon Bullet, toward the two.

The targets dodged with a substitution jutsu, and the two ninjas stopped running. 

Nawaki didn't know how far they were from the others, but it wasn't close. It also seemed like the two ninjas were confident in their teamwork.

They split up, one running in close with a sword drawn while the other made hand seals for a jutsu. 

Nawaki used the flicker technique to keep them both in his vision and make distance. He made two hand seals in a second and performed the Earth Release, Swamp of the Underworld

With a great chakra expenditure, the ground turned to mud, limiting their movement. The ninja with the sword jumped away before he could make contact with the mud. On the other hand, his partner waited an extra second to finish his jutsu. 

"Water Release, Wild Water Wave."

As he slowly sank into the swampy ground, the Kirigakure ninja shot a massive quantity of water out of his mouth. Within seconds, he had sunk to his knees in the swamp, but the water was enough to distract Nawaki long enough for his partner to get close.

Nawaki was forced to block the sword with a kunai coated in Lightning to counteract his opponent's Wind coating. After exchanging 20 blows in a few seconds, It was clear these guys were elite shinobi; he was in trouble.

There was no way he would win against the two of them in a protracted fight, so he had no choice but to try to kill at least one of them in a blitz. The only problem was that this Kenjutsu specialist was sticking to him like glue so much that his partner could escape from the swamp safely.

With only a small amount of time, he gathered chakra into his mouth before a new jutsu was sent at him.

'Water Release, Heavenly Weeping.' 

He mentally called out the jutsu before spitting several ice-covered senbons from his mouth. They shot towards his opponent, catching him off guard. 

Nawaki didn't stick around to see how much damage they did since he was already flickering away and preparing his next jutsu.

He only had one shot before they would move in together. 

Forming the seven hand seals, Rat, Ox, Dog, Horse, Monkey, Boar, and Tiger, to help mould his chakra. He took a deep breath before expelling all the chakra through his mouth to perform the overcharged jutsu, the only S-Rank jutsu in his arsenal.

'Fire Release, Great Fire Destruction.'

A massive stream of orange fire shot out of his mouth, which engulfed the swordsman and then the second ninja as he turned his head.

The ninja screamed in pain for a few seconds before they fell silent. Knowing the result of being caught in the Jutsu, Nawaki cut off the flames and collapsed onto his knees. The smell of burnt flesh filled his heaving lungs.

"That was close. If that jutsu hadn't taken them out, I don't think I would have survived. I didn't know Kirigakure kept such monsters."

After a minute of rest, Nawaki checked on their corpses. Unfortunately, all that was left was piles of horrible-smelling ash and clumps of half-melted ninja tools.

His senses alerted him to the presence of approaching shinobi, so he drew a kunai with both hands. He was running low on chakra, so he would have to keep track of his reserves in this fight.

Three figures appeared in a blur before him, and Nawaki felt his stomach drop. He tightened his grip on the Kunai but realized something.

They all had bright red hair.

A few months ago, he wouldn't have reacted as he did, but upon seeing the hair colour of the trio, he put away his knives.

"Look at the headband. He's from Konoha, you know. Looks like he didn't need our help after all. I could have finished my tea." The ninja on the left complained.

"Yeah, but did you know that before we arrived? Nooo, if we didn't come so fast, he could have been offed for all we knew. All because you had just made tea while we were on guard duty. That's not a good way to make an impression, you know."

The two ninjas seemed closed based on their banter.

The leader of the trio stepped forward with a greeting.

"Hello! We heard the sounds of fighting and came to see what was going on. I am Uzumaki Shinji, and these are Uzumaki Osamu & Takara. Who are you?"

"I am Senju Nawaki, Elite Konohagakure Jonin sent to escort any Uzumaki refugees to our village."

A/N:

What do you think of the fight scene? It was brutal to put together. Nothing seemed to be coming to mind, but I ended up finishing it. Constructive criticism please, insults don't do anything :)