Chapter 117: Naruto Chapter 117
Three days of watching the guards abuse the workers and boast about their strength and that of their leader really got onto the nerves of the Konoha team. But they knew that the tactical advantage was too important to give up over their personal feelings.
As long as the prisoners behaved within certain perimeters, they wouldn't be hurt too badly and they would be able to heal those injuries.
When the night of the new moon finally arrived, they were ready to strike. They had Naruto supply them with all kinds of seals, which he produced during the days. Shifts for guarding the mine had been done and they knew the schedules of the guards by heart now.
The plan was simple, but could go wrong if something didn't work out like planned. Then things would turn nasty quickly. Naruto would pretend to be on a scouting mission for Konoha and accidentally trigger one of the well-hidden alarms, getting through a large number of other alarms without triggering them.
Simply because Raiga wouldn't believe that any chunin of Konoha wouldn't at least notice the most basic ones. And Naruto was a special jonin. Naruto would document things around the mine, as if he was going to report to the Hokage and then return with a team. Basically what they had all done over the last days.
Then he would engage Raiga like any spy that realised that he was stuck would do and the other three would act and free the prisoners. For emergencies they all carried the tri-pronged kunai for the Flying Thundergod jutsu on their person. Naruto had also placed a large number of his seals all around possible battle spots. He didn't want to risk getting fried by lightning if there was an easy way around it.
The group split up and went to their respective spots. Then they had to wait. Shikamaru was the first one to enter the mine, cloaked in his shadows nobody noticed him. He was tasked with defending the prisoners when the guards would be attacked by Hinata and Sasuke.
The plan that they hoped they would manage to pull off was letting Sasuke trap everybody he came across in a sharingan-based genjutsu, which had the advantage that he could apply it silently.
Hinata was meant to be his backup, especially as she had her jutsu of the sixty-four protective palms mastered by now. And her training under Tsunade allowed her to hit certain areas on the body precisely to shut it down. She had called it a standard procedure to knock out unruly patients.
The three boys filed that away under not getting any medic nin angry enough to do that to them.
...
Sasuke and Hinata were hidden close to the entrance and waited for Raiga to react to the alarm. They expected that some lower level guards would first be dispatched, but once they didn't return, Raiga would have to take care of things himself. He was the only fully-trained ninja that they had noticed after all.
It didn't take longer than half an hour for the first guards to run off into the direction where Naruto wanted to trigger the alarm. After another twenty minutes of them not reporting back, another group, this time double the size of the first one, was sent out, only to also vanish without a trace.
"I will have to deal with this in person," Raiga told the guards at the entrance to the main cell tract of the mine, "Make sure that everything here goes as normal. I doubt that anybody could give me trouble and if the guard didn't return, well, they probably met a ninja with some skill."
"Of course, Raiga," A man confirmed, "We will keep everything running smoothly. Should we prepare for trouble here as well?"
"I doubt it, otherwise we would have noticed something before. I suspect that some scout from Konoha found our operations here. We are operating in Fire Country after all. Well, if it is one, we will soon have another burial to hold. I so love burials. Everything bad is forgiven when you bury somebody," Raiga stated with a dreamy voice.
"Of course, Raiga," The men nodded and Raiga jumped away, up the stone walls of the mine.
Sasuke and Hinata waited for five minutes before starting. Sasuke rushed through the shadows and the guards didn't know what hit them before he had ensnared them in a genjutsu.
Just eye contact was enough for him to cast genjutsu up to B-level by now. Hinata then proceeded to knock them out with her jutsu and they left them hidden in a dark corner to not have any coincidental alarm being raised, if anybody found them.
They coordinated taking out any guards they crossed paths with through hand signs and soon had made their way over to where Shikamaru was waiting for them.
"Everything done on your part?" Sasuke asked.
"Wasn't too difficult. I just had my shadows sneak up on them and strangled them into unconsciousness," Shikamaru replied, "I got the twenty-three guards that were around this area once the alarm was noticed. How many did you get?"
"Twenty-eight. And we counted three men being sent out after the first alarm was triggered and then another six twenty minutes after it," Sasuke answered.
"Means we have eliminated all sixty guards that we counted, and Raiga is going to face Naruto. Well, then let's wrap this up so that we can back Naruto up if he needs it. I don't like that he has to face Raiga on his own. Even if he is the only one that has the suitable element to pull it off," Shikamaru sighed.
"I would rather pity Raiga. Naruto is irritable if his chakra control is thrown off by growth spurts," Sasuke told the other two.
"He can't be worse than Tsunade sensei in the morning with a hangover," Hinata deadpanned.
The two boys looked at each other, somewhat surprised how much the formerly really shy Hyuga heiress had changed to even give a comment like that. Training under the female sannin seemed to really bring out a different part of her personality.
...
Naruto waited for Raiga to appear after he had dispatched the second group easily. It didn't take too long for him to appear.
"So you are the one that hurt my men," Raiga stated dangerously.
"They attacked me first, I just defended myself," Naruto replied, staying calm.
"This is my territory," Raiga continued.
"This is the territory of Fire Country and the only ninja force that has any authority over here is Konoha," Naruto declared, "On behalf of the Hokage, I demand that you cease any aggressive behaviour and come with me peacefully."
"And you truly think I would listen to a child like you?" Raiga laughed.
"Be careful Raiga, he is really strong," A different voice sounded softly, which made Naruto be on guard.
"I can take him on," Raiga stated confidently and crossed the two swords he held in his hands.
The swords were a normal length, but each sword had two fang-like extensions, making Naruto understand how the swords had got the name Kiba. Immediately lightning started running along the blades, and they cracked with energy.
Naruto wasn't intimidated and pulled out a sword of his own, coating it in wind chakra. Then Raiga jumped towards him, yelling in fury. Naruto stayed calm. He met the twin swords with his one sword, parrying the strike, his wind chakra nullifying the effect of the lightning chakra.
"You little pest!" Raiga cried out annoyed.
"Careful, another behind you," The soft voice said.
Raiga directed a bolt of lightning behind himself and it hit one of the clones Naruto had prepared beforehand.
"You can't take me with this kind of simple trick, boy," Raiga boasted.
"Hm, then how about this?" Naruto asked unbothered and a rain of shuriken came down on Raiga from all around them, with Naruto leaving his position by flashing to one of his prepared seals.
Raiga frantically deflected all the weapons, but basically panicked when some of them got through his defence and hit his back. Naruto heard the other voice cry out in pain.
"No, Ranmaru," Raiga exclaimed.
"It's not too bad," The voice got out, "Just a grazing hit."
Still, it told Naruto what he needed to know. Raiga's ability to detect what was going on around him was due to another person, which was connected to his back.
Well, he would deal with that before continuing the fight to take Raiga himself out. He seemed to be little more than a berserker without that voice telling him what to do. Well, time to get the poisoned weapons out. He let five shadow clones attack Raiga to keep him distracted.
With how difficult it was by now to hit his clones, it should be more than enough time to let Naruto and four other clones take position to fire a barrage of senbons coated in sleeping drugs.
As he didn't know what kind of assistant Raiga had with him, he wouldn't go for the deadly kind just yet. And that ability was interesting enough to have the village's specialists examine that assistant. Once the last clone was fried by lightning, the barrage of senbons started.
And each and every hit would count towards taking this opponent out. Naruto could hear some grunts from Raiga and small cries of pain in the other voice before he had used up the senbons for this barrage. Now he only needed to wait for a short time.
"Some stupid needles won't defeat me!" Raiga shouted into the darkness.
"Raiga, I'm so tired," The second voice stated.
"No, you can't go," Raiga protested.
"Can't stay awake," Was the last thing the voice said.
"Ranmaru, Ranmaru!" Raiga cried in despair, "Speak to me Ranmaru. No, you will die, you killed Ranmaru!"
Naruto could only shake his head. Raiga was not only a wild animal it seemed, he was also incredibly stupid. Well, the poison would also send him to sleep very soon. Probably this Ranmaru person was small, as the poison had worked very quickly. Normally it would take longer for it to have any effect. Then he saw Raiga stumbling as well.
"No, I won't die without avenging Ranmaru," Raiga stated, firing more lightning bolts around, not hitting anything.
Naruto made sure to stay out of sight, as he didn't want to risk a stray bolt of lightning finding its target before Raiga crumpled to the ground. He waited for another minute to make sure the poison had fully worked before stepping out from his hiding place. Really, for a member of the famous seven swordsmen this fight had been a real disappointment.
He hadn't used any really high level techniques, except the one flying thundergod jump. But he could as well have used the standard body flicker to reach the same results. Compared to the fight between Zabuza Momochi and Kakashi sensei, Raiga was a sore disappointment.
Well, nothing to do about it but securing him, his weapons and finding out who this Ranmaru character was. Once he pulled off the hood of the cape Raiga wore, he found that he indeed had another person on his back.
A child in fact, probably around nine years old. It was a boy with pale violet hair, which he wore to chin length. A quick check of his vitals told him that the boy was just drugged and otherwise okay. Raiga really jumped to conclusions way too fast. Well, nothing to do about it.
Naruto took the boy from Raiga's back and tied his hands up with some ninja wire. He didn't know how well the boy was trained, as no report about Raiga mentioned a child travelling with him. Not even Danzo had any information on that part, even if the file he had read about Raiga mentioned that he had taken to always wearing that coat with hood.
Now it was clear why. Then Raiga was tied up as well and additionally he put chakra suppression seals onto his body before putting him into a prisoner scroll. Capturing Raiga alive would add a nice bounty to the mission and the Kiba swords would also be a great addition for the village.
If he didn't already have the sword of his great grandfather, he might have been tempted to keep the swords, as they could naturally create lightning chakra.
While he didn't use the sword much, as he didn't have a need for it so far, simply because it would be total overkill to use such a sword against opponents on C-rank missions, he was pretty good at using it by now. The Sandaime had agreed that, as it was a family heirloom, Naruto had the right to the sword, and had signed the form to give it into Naruto's custody.
The sword he had used in this fight was simply one made of chakra conductive metal. While expensive to buy, it wasn't as special as a sword belonging to the seven great swords of Kiri or the sword of the thundergod.
He also sealed the child into a second prisoner scroll, but, as a surface examination told him that the child wasn't trained as a ninja and actually had a fairly weak body, he didn't consider chakra suppressors necessary.
After finishing and undoing the traps he had set up in case he would need them, he turned his steps towards the direction of the gold mine. He was sure the others had already done their part.
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