A New Path

Ch.46 The Copy Ninja Arrives!

Kakashi ran through the woods at a fast pace. His clone had dispelled after making it to the village's gate and left Choji with two ninja that had been standing guard. The state he had been in only helped to worry him even more about the team sent to retrieve Sasuke. He didn't know who was in it but if Choji had been part of it, then he assumed that they would be Genin.

"There's someone nearby," Pakkun suddenly spoke. Kakashi turned his attention to his summon, watching him sniff about in the air before turning to him once more, "There's two of them."

Kakashi nodded to himself before he and his summon made it into a clearing. There were webs around the trees and parts of the ground had been dug up, clearly a jutsu, Kakashi's trained eye easily noted. He heard movement to his right and turned to see Kiba helping a hurt Shino to his feet.

"You've got things under control here, I see," Kakashi deadpanned. His presence seemed to alarm Kiba as he quickly turned to him with his right hand reaching for a kunai. The Inuzuka relaxed once he took in the appearance of Kakashi, "What happened in here?"

"Shino fought some Sound ninja with freakish arms," Kiba explained with a scowl on his face, "I manage to get here on time to help Shino out. But he pretty much took him down by himself."

"I see..." Kakashi muttered as he glanced at the bug-user. It was difficult to see due to the glasses he wore but he seemed to be unconscious. "Shadow Clone Jutsu," a single clone appeared at his side, walking over to Kiba and slinging Shino over its shoulder. Kakashi gave the clone a nod before speaking, "Take him back to the Leaf."

The clone left without a word, jumping through the trees on the wooded area. Once they were gone Kiba gave the Jounin a look of confusion, "What do we do now?"

"We'll keep going forward," Kakashi replied as he turned to his summon, "Are there any others nearby Pakkun?"

The summon sniffed the air before nodding to the two ninja. "There's two more battles up ahead but I smell a lot of smoke from one of them."

"Let's go to that one then," Kakashi nodded to his summon before turning to Kiba, "Let's get going."

Kakashi, Kiba and Pakkun sped through the woods with Kiba wondering how the small summon could run so fast.

"We're getting closer," Pakkun announced as they came upon changed scenery.

"What the hell happened here?" Kiba wondered out loud, looking over the area. There were many craters on the ground, apparently from explosions, which were filled with pieces of wood and some branches from the nearby broken trees.

"Over here!" they heard a voice from deeper in the area.

Kakashi turned to Kiba and gave him a nod, "I'll lead."

They walked through the debris before finally running into Neji, the latter looking a bit tired. Next to him, tied to a tree, was a Sound kunoichi with red hair.

"I managed to knock her unconscious but don't know what to do with her," Neji explained, "I thought of just leaving her here but she might escape if left unattended."

"Don't worry about it," Kakashi waved him off before making a single clone. "The clone will take her to the Leaf while we-"

"Kakashi!" Pakkun suddenly exclaimed, a look of alarm on his face. "There's a heavy scent of blood coming from deeper in the woods. We have to move quickly!"

"Is there anybody else nearby?

Pakkun inhaled once more before nodding, "Yeah, it's coming from the opposite direction. I can smell Naruto there."