The Iconic Starter Stepping Stones

Flap, Flap! Flap, Flap!

About fifty thousand feet high on the ground, a giant eagle was soaring through the clouds as it overlooked the land of the waves; Enkai was here.

When the eagle was on top of a nearby forest, Enkai unsummoned it and started descending. About fifty feet above the ground he blinked towards the left direction, from there he blinked rightwards and then repeated this movement.

If he hadn't done this zig-zag movement and landed straight on the ground his legs would have been squashed.

Thud!

Even though Enkai tried his best to lessen the impact of the fall it still hit him pretty hard, but it wasn't damaging.

Right now, Enkai was at the borders of the land of the waves. Even though he was inside of a forest. It was pretty windy, causing his black poncho to flutter.

Enkai felt the air for a bit before blinking towards the direction of Tazuna's house. 

Enkai had roughly estimated the time when canon would start but, he wasn't sure how accurate it was; he needed to see if Tazuna was in his house or not, because if he wasn't then that's a problem.

In the canon, Tazuna, a master bridge builder, would request an escort mission in konohagakure. 

This mission was originally graded as a C-rank mission, which is still something a genin can do under proper supervision. Except, Tazuna was lying the whole time, and left out the part about an entire gang of shinobis attacking them.

This was a big deal, because if the team assigned this mission were anybody else but team seven then they would have likely died under the assault of Haku and Zabuza; Two S-class Ninjas.

Swoosh!

Enkai, who just landed on a tree behind Tazuna's house, activated his sharingan and searched his house only to find Tazuna's Daughter and her son there.

This means, the leaf ninja appointed for this mission either hasn't arrived here or worse they had failed their mission. If they failed their mission then that meant Tazuna was likely Dead which was the worst case scenario.

Thinking that, he quickly turned back and blinked towards the entrance of the land of the wave; neither any leaf nins nor Tazuna was there.

Enkai bit his lips and blinked towards the direction of Konoha, following the usual route that people take to travel between Konoha and the land of waves. 

Enkai was travelling for ten minutes straight; so far he had travelled twelve kilometres and he had yet to see any signs of leaf nins or Tazuna.

He thought maybe Haku and Zabuza would try to travel back towards the land of waves but he hadn't noticed them either. Enkai was starting to get restless.

"Aahh!!"

Woo-Woosh!

All of a sudden, Enkai heard the sound of someone screaming to his right, inside a forest. Quickly changing his direction mid-air he blinked towards the source of the scream. His sharingan, now activated.

There he saw Asuma, the third Hokage's son, lying down on the ground unconsciously. While the infamous Ino–Shika–Chō Trio were battling against Zabuza and Haku.

Shikamaru was holding Zabuza down with his shadow limitation jutsu. Meanwhile, Chōji and Ino were having an intense battle with Haku. 

Chōji, who looked a lot slimmer now, and had two butterfly-like wings made of chakra on his back, was destroying a tree with a punch. Meanwhile, what Ino couldn't make up for in strength she did with her speed. Their teamwork was impeccable it was like nothing he had ever seen in Amegakure.

But none of this amounted to anything to Enkai, he needs to locate Tazuna whom he still hasn't seen ye- "Oh, found him." Enkai didn't notice him before, but on a second look, Tazuna was right there beside Asuma – curled up like a ball beside the luggage.

'T-That's a great camouflage technique," Enkai tried to rationalise his mistake with a flimsy excuse.

Anyways, considering Tazuna was alive and well, Zabuza and Haku won't leave now. In other words, he can relax.

From the beginning, his target was never Tazuna but Zabuza instead, and he feared that he wouldn't be able to find Zabuza in time if he couldn't find him when he was out hunting Tazuna.

After all, he was very short on time, he needed to infiltrate konoha before the chunin exam begins, and he needed a jinchuriki before that.

"Ahhh!! Hurry up, you two!" His train of thought was interrupted by another scream of Shikamaru. 

He looked towards Shikamaru and noticed how he was coughing up blood, looking all weary and exhausted. looks like the scale of the battle would soon tip towards team Haku and Zabuza. After all, Chōji and Ino haven't even landed a single hit on Haku yet.

Seeing that, he sat down on a tree branch pretty far away and took out some jerky that he was carrying inside of his storage glove. 

It's time to wait for an opportune moment to intervene in this battle. He can enter anytime and beat the shit out of people like Haku and Zabuza but he chose not to, after all the first impression matters.

Munch, Munch, Munch..!!

"It's so delicious, I am such a good cook~"

...

Shikamaru was having a really hard time holding on.

To be honest, this was a battle they had no chance of winning and Shikamaru knew that. But he still chose to fight them because he was sure that he wouldn't be able to run away with his unconscious sensei and a civilian while being chased by two S-rank ninjas.

But all hope isn't lost yet. He looked towards the fight that was happening beside him, this masked ninja was smaller and much weaker looking than Zabuza, and even though she looked very skilled Shikamaru was sure that the masked nin would tire herself out. 

And then maybe, just maybe, Ino and Chōji will join him here, winning this batt- "No! Chōji..!!"

"Huh??" Shikamaru was awe-struck when he saw Chōji flying towards a tree and crashing into it. Even though Chōji stood up, he was panting hard.

"Coug-Cough!" Shikamaru looked towards the ground in front of him where fresh blood splattered, replacing the dried-up blood that was previously there. 

"Ahh." Suddenly, Shikamaru realised something, there was a huge miscalculation in his thinking. 

It looks like he wasn't the only one pushing himself to his limits, Chōji and Ino too were exhausted beyond their best shape.

It looked like they wouldn't be able to get out of here alive. Shikamaru smiled as he closed his eyes, at least if he smiled then if Konoha found their bodies his parents would know that their son died with a smile on his face.

Boom! Crack! Boom! Crack! Boom!

All of a sudden, Shikamaru opened his eyes only to see the masked ninja was sent flying; she crashed into multiple trees before stopping. Then a kunai followed the track where she came flying from and hit her straight at her throat, killing her immediately.

'Wha-' 

"Haku!!!!!!" Shikamaru couldn't even think much, however, as he also felt himself leaving the ground. He looked around only to see Zabuza, who was pretty tame this whole time, forcefully moving his body. 

Zabuza was using so much strength that even with his 'shadow limitation technique' he could no longer keep him down.

When Zabuza broke free he ran towards Haku's side. He held the masked ninja's hand with both of his hands and started weeping and wailing.

Shikamaru barely stood up and looked towards Zabuza when a black shadow appeared in the middle of his vision. Before he could even react he saw the black shadow holding Ino in a princess carry.

Then he extended his hands as if he was trying to give Ino to him as he said, "Grab her, for some reason she isn't letting me go, and I am not quite comfortable with it..." 

For some reason, Shikamaru felt pity for the poor black shadow and said, "Drop her." to which the black shadow happily obliged, causing Ino to let out a cute yelp.

Then the shadow disappeared again, only to reappear behind Zabuza. Zabuza, who sensed something; turned around but it was too late as he found a kunai lunged at his throat.

Then he disappeared again; appearing in front of Shikamaru.

Then he said, "Since you're the only...able ninja right now, let's negotiate." 

Shikamaru didn't quite understand what he meant but then he looked around to see Ino had already fallen asleep the moment Enkai put her on the ground, Asuma was still unconscious and Chōji was in a very critical condition as he kneeled on the ground; his body filled with countless senbons.

Shikamaru grasped and said, "Let me help my friends first." Shikamaru was about to leave but Enkai grabbed him by the shoulder and said, 

"That comes after the negotiations, also unless you're a medic nin I don't think it's a good idea to touch him right now." Enkai finished up with, "Don't worry, he is still alive."

Shikamaru looked at him for a second, at first he thought he was from Konoha but now that he was taking a closer look, he looked nothing like a Konoha nin. 

He might not be their Ally like he initially thought. 

Not wanting to offend a guy who can make short work of two S-rank shinobis, Shikamaru nodded and said, "Okay, what do you have to say?" 

To which Enkai replied, "I am sure you know Zabuza stole one of the seven mist swords and ran with it. As you can see, one of your friends is half-dead and I am faster than all of you combined." Then Enkai took a deep breath and said, "My proposal is simple; in exchange for letting me have the executioner's blade and both of these bodies, I will make sure that your friend lives."

Shikamaru didn't like the terms of the negotiations but he still nodded in agreement. 

Then he reached out his hand and said, "I am Shikamaru. You are..?"

Enkai shook his hand while saying, "Oh I can't tell you that. Well, it's not like I can't tell you, but I will have to kill you after I tell you. Still curious?" 

"No, but how am I supposed to call you then?" Shikamaru shook his hand and said seriously.

Enkai rubbed his chin with his fingers for a bit before saying, "...you can call me with a nickname, yeah! Call me Kai!"

"Understood, Kai." Shikamaru nodded.

Almost immediately after Shikamaru nodded, he saw Kai disappearing towards Zabuza's corpse. From there he grabbed Zabuza's executioner's blade and then he saw the blade disappearing with a puff of smoke.

Kai disappeared again only to this time reappear while holding Chōji, Shikamaru noted how carefully Kai was holding it as if to not worsen the injuries by pressing him too much. 

"Alright then, I am off. Also, don't damage their corpses. If I see them even an inch different from how they are now, prepare to become corpses yourself, Shikamaru Nara." Shikamaru gulped his saliva when he saw the blue-eyed shadow's cold glare.

Shikamaru watched him disappear again. When Kai was gone, he felt his knees getting weaker as he sat down on the ground; beads of sweat started forming on his face.

What...was that? Who was that Kai guy? He was slightly taller than him, but the young Nara felt that they were around the same age. So how can someone like that be so strong?

Multiple questions popped up in his head one after the other and then, he sighed and decided that he needed more information to think things through.

At least, for now, Chōji was safe and he could calm down as well. 

There was always the possibility that Kai would kidnap Chōji but he was sure that Kai would never do that. After all, he does not need to do such elaborate planning when he can just kill all of them and then kidnap him.

Somehow, Kai also knew his full name even though he never told him that, confusing him quite a bit. But he is safe for now and so are his team members, and that's all that matters.

Thud.

Shikamaru fell to the ground with a soft thud, sound asleep; with a genuine smile on his face that said he was happy to be alive.