Behind the Waterfall

#17 Intercepted

His weapon at the ready, he eyed the two shinobi in front of him. They both didn't wear masks, indicating that they were not rogues, however they also didn't wear any insignia that showed which village they belonged to. Pushing that thought back, he raised his sword, blocking the strike from the taller of the two before jumping back, avoiding the second. Switching his sword to his left hand, Naruto quickly went through a series of hand signs, before blowing out air through his fingers. The air formed into a series of wind blades that sped towards the two shinobi, who avoided it by creating a mud wall in front of them. The justus clashed and the wall stood tall. Using the opportunity that there was no line of sight, Naruto quickly made two reinforced shadow clones, jumping back into the grass as the mud wall crumbled away, revealing the two attackers. The pair was smiling however as they had just placed their hands in a sign that was apparently the last in a series of hand signs. Naruto felt the large chakra pulse coming from them as they pushed their hands into the ground. Moments later, his two clones were impaled by earth spikes. He consciously dissolved one of them, letting the other stay on the spike, giving the appearance as if they had gotten him. He saw the two relax a bit, turning their heads towards the fighting sounds of Fuu and their partner. That was when he struck. A quick shushin and he stood behind the taller of the two, his sword already piercing through his chest. The other shinobi looked back in surprise and was not quick enough to get his kunai up. He failed to block Naruto's jab, which hit him in the right shoulder. Screaming, he dropped his weapon, holding his shoulder as his right arm went limp. Thinking that it would be better to figure out who they were, Naruto quickly jabbed him on the neck, knocking him out. Unsealing a length of rope, he tied the unconscious man up, applying a chakra suppression seal for good measure. Looking at the corpse of the other, he was sure that neither of them would be able to move, so he dissolved his other clone, before jumping through the grass, following the sounds of battle.

Arriving at the battleground, Naruto couldn't help but smile a bit as he watched Fuu fly around, using some kind of wings that had sprouted from her lower back. She was evading every attack her opponent was throwing at her with ease. Going through a set of hand signs, a low howling sound was heard. When it reached Naruto his eyes widened as he heard Fuu's voice.

"I'm just distracting him and letting him deplete his chakra. If you see an opening, feel free to jump in." It sounded almost like she was standing right next to him. Shaking his head, Naruto watched closely. The shinobi on the ground apparently hadn't noticed him, since his full focus was still on the black haired girl. Taking out his sword again, Naruto crouched down, ready to jump whenever he saw an opportunity.

The man went through another set of hand signs, before breathing a ball of fire towards Fuu. He saw Fuu spit out a string of water, creating a large cloud of steam as the two jutsus collided. The man stopped, looking at the steam waiting for it to dissipate. This was his moment, Naruto realized. Quickly raising his sword he jumped down. Giving the man no time to react, the red haired teen placed his blade under his chin, applying light pressure.

"Surrender." He demanded. The man was tense, as one could imagine, however he didn't say anything. Increasing the pressure a bit, Naruto saw blood running down his blade.

"Surrender." He demanded again. Again, there was no answer. However Naruto felt the muscles in the man's back tense even more, before he tried to quickly move his arm. The teen didn't wait to see what the shinobi wanted to do with the arm as he slit his throat. Taking a step back Naruto watched as the man stood for a moment unsupported, before falling down on the ground, drenching the grass with his blood.

Fuu landed next to him, a thankful smile on her lips.

"Are you alright?" Naruto asked, seeing the various cuts and bruises the girl had gotten.

"Yeah, it's nothing. He was better in close combat than I am, so he got me a few times. That's why I stalled him. I was planning to let him run out of chakra and then attack again, but then you came." The girl explained.

"Well, let's find out why they attacked us." Naruto said, as the two jumped back towards Naruto's battleground. Finding the still alive shinobi where he had left him, Naruto smiled at his glare.

"Let's start simple. Where are you from?" Fuu asked, squatting down in front of the man. He didn't answer, simply closing his eyes and smiling.

"I won't ask again." The girl threatened, earning no reaction at all from the bound man. Sighing she raised her hand and laid it on his head. It took a moment but soon enough the man screamed in pain.

"Now, ready to play fair?" Fuu asked after half a minute. The man was panting, having slumped down onto his side. A few moments later he looked up at the black haired girl and nodded.

"Great, where are you from?" She asked again.

"Sogengakure." The man answered, stopped by a fit of coughs.

"Why would Sogengakure attack shinobi traveling towards it?" Naruto butted it, lying to hopefully get a bit more information out of him.

"We didn't know you were going to Sogen. We thought you were passing through towards Kusagakure to tell them about the invites to all the rogues." The prisoner stated.

"Why didn't you ask first? We were literally waiting for you." Fuu asked, not understanding why they would act in such a way.

"I don't know. Our team leader ordered us to attack. We were all a bit on edge with the coming war and all." Came the reply between coughs.

"Are there any more jumpy squads out there?" Naruto questioned.

"A few, but you should have passed almost all of them already. Most are already in Takigakure's lands, scouting in case they send an army towards Sogen." The man stated.

"Well, I hope that they come back quickly, maybe they will find you before you die of thirst." Naruto coldly announced, before knocking the man out again.

"Why?" Fuu asked.

"This fight blasted a lot of chakra into the world. It would be a miracle if no squads have noticed it. We need to go." The red haired teen stated, pulling her up.

"Yeah, you are right." Fuu admitted, before they jumped further into the land of grass.

Hiya Dragons, 

I know, I know.... Gleam-eyes doesnt do announcements at the end of a chapter. However, I am making an exception just this once, since I want to reach as many people as possible with this. I started this book with the hope of connecting a bit more with my readers and letting you guys have a bit of influence in how the story goes. I wanted to establish a base (the first 17 chapters) on which we could build a compelling story with y'all having a say in what's going on.  This base has been now established. A few of you already know, I am announcing on my profile whenever a new chapter for this story is released. I will be starting to include questions about future events in these announcements. For example, in the announcement for this chapter I asked, what you guys would think about the possibility of a threeway relationship in this story ( check out the announcement for more details ). I have not had a reply to that question yet, but that is no problem. That particular decision will not be too relevant until a couple of chapters from now. However, if you have suggestions about the story, an opinion on the question, or just some thoughts that you want answered / discussed, you can always reply to the announcements, I promise that I will do my best to read and reply to every one of you. I think it goes without saying, that if you follow me, you will get notified when I post a new announcement, so make sure you do that if you want to be the first to reply.

Anyways, enough talking for now. There will not be another announcement like this in the story, I will keep it to the conversations on my profile. 

Take care and stay safe,

Gleam-eyes