Behind the Waterfall

#42 Fighting

Naruto called on Kurama's chakra as Fuu jumped away from him. As he had expected, the masked shinobi let her pass as Hinata and her team quickly followed his girlfriend. There were no words spoken, his body glowing orange with Kurama's energy covering his body. The blonde jumped towards the shinobi on his right, his hands glowing brighter as he punched towards his opponent's face. However it was blocked and countered by a kick that Naruto had to avoid by jumping upwards. Looking down, he saw two of the other three Anbu go through hand seals before spitting out fire. The fire combined and formed a giant flaming dragon that made its way upwards towards Naruto. Flashing through a small sequence of hand signs himself, the teen took a big breath and spit out a wave of water, stopping the dragon in its tracks, as the fire was extinguished. As he fell down, he landed in roughly the same spot where he had started, although the entire ground was now wet. Smiling to himself, he went through a series of hand signs, his hands starting to tingle with electricity as he gathered his chakra.

"Watch out!" He heard Kurama's voice, but it was too late, he got hit by a powerful punch that sent him back into the air and knocked the wind out of his lungs. Looking around, he was slightly disoriented for a second, before he saw the second attack coming that brought him even higher. He couldn't block it, however he had braced himself for it, so he immediately saw when the third attacker jumped up, his hands already glowing red with chakra. He quickly gathered a bit of chakra and looked for a safe place to land. Having found one that was far enough away from the other shinobi, he concentrated and disappeared in a flash.

He didn't want to give the squad time to regroup, so he quickly went through another set of hand seals, his breath transforming into fire as he created over a dozen small water balls that flew towards the area where the squad had landed. However, a big wall of dirt rose and blocked his attack, creating a temporary cloud of mist and further soaking the ground. The wall gave him a bit of time to think about how he and Fu had separated for the fight, as he felt a giant wave of chakra come from her direction.

Naruto and Fuu appeared back at the edge of the woods within seconds. The blonde had just flashed his former team towards safety as this would be a fight where the pair had to get serious if they wanted to come out on top. The four white masked shinobi looked at them when they came back, not having moved in the short span of time.

There were no words spoken as Naruto and Fuu stood back to back, while the squad repositioned around them.

"Come with us and nobody has to get hurt." The leader offered, as four tantos were pointed at the pair.

"I don't think so. I don't really like the leaf." Naruto replied, his surface level humor masking his mind racing to come up with a plan.

"They are too strong for you to take them out without me and Chomei. This will be messy and destructive." Kurama's voice echoed through his mind.

"Probably. We will have to keep them away from the village. They have nothing to do with this." Naruto replied, still trying to think of a way to let this end without a fight.

"Why do you think we would take you to the leaf?" The leader asked, his voice showing signs of amusement.

"Because the contract on our heads is from them and I can only presume that you are here because of that." The blonde replied.

"There are four people incoming." Kurama announced for the second time that day.

"What? Why would they come back?" Naruto asked, furious thinking they were Hawk and her group.

"It is not her. They are from Konoha. It's the group that was following you while in the land of stone." The fox clarified.

"The contract is to bring you to the gates of Yugakure. I don't know anything about Konoha." The man's voice brought Naruto back to the real world.