The Lonely Road | Book Ichi

Page IV - Kaze no Kuni.

"So, I hired ninja to protect me from people after my life and who do I get assigned? A man with one working eye and a six-year-old child." - said the blond man who Naruto was supposed to escort.

"I mean... If you have that little confidence in us then you might as well go to Suna by yourself, right?" - taunts Kakashi in response to which the man pales.

"N-Nah, I would rather have you with me." - stuttered the man, taking a few steps backward.

"Well great, let's get moving then. If we are lucky we can get there in a week!" - said Naruto as they started leaving the village and heading towards Sunagakure no Sato.

"So, how come a kid so young is a ninja already, much less sent on missions that are dangerous." - asks the man, to which Naruto thinks for a minute.

"I have been trained as a shinobi since I was three since both of my parents are regarded as one of the strongest ever in the leaf. I also have worked very hard over the years and you could say I am somewhat of a prodigy as well." - responds Naruto, mentally berating himself for calling himself a prodigy. He knew that people classify him as one but he himself regards it as the result of all his hard work.

Hearing this the man raised an eyebrow. "I like you kid, what's your name?" - asks the man.

"Did he not plan on asking our names at all?"  - wondered Naruto as both he and Kakashi sweatdropped.

Naruto stared at the man for a second before answering. "I'm Namikaze Naruto, what about you, you never informed us of your name." - said Naruto in response, not noticing that the man's eyes widened.

"Namikaze huh, no wonder you are a prodigy. I apologize for my earlier rudeness, my name is Fukuhara Taishira." - informed Taishira.

Both Naruto and Kakashi nodded. The three continued the journey, not encountering any major threats, and got to know the noble Taishira more.

"He is not a stuck-up noble." - thinks Naruto, as they are just starting to move again after a quick break since Taishira is not a shinobi he got tired rather quickly.

As they began moving again, suddenly they could feel strong winds blowing at them which quickly evolved into a typhoon coming straight at them.

Naruto quickly used 'Shunshin' to get himself away from there and so did Kakashi as he took Taishira with him.

Naruto could sense movement behind him so he pulled a kunai from his pouch and threw it towards the animal that was hiding in the bush behind him.

As the kunai was about to hit the said animal, it transformed into a purple-haired man, with a squared jaw, wearing a light green vest with a dark green kimono type suit below.

Before the kunai could do any damage to the man, randomly a black wall rose from the ground blocking said kunai.

Seeing this, Naruto raised an eyebrow, not exactly sure what just happened. "A kekkei Genkai of a sort?" - he wondered in his thought but was cut off by the man sending medium-sized black spheres towards Naruto.

Naruto quickly reacted by making the 'Bird' hand seal and saying - 'Wind Style: Air Bullets' and sending air bullets at the black balls, destroying them.

After the balls were destroyed, Naruto saw the man rushing towards him, trying to land a kick but before the kick could land, naruto dodged and landed a punch at the man's face in turn.

"Bastard" - uttered the man as he created a massive wall with the same mysterious material as the previous attacks.

"He is creating a distraction, hoping for me to get caught up in making hand seals... I'm going to hit him with a direct approach, I have always wanted to test the destructiveness of 'that' Jutsu." - thought Naruto as he disabled his gravity seals and rushed towards the wall with a dark purple spiraling sphere building up in his hand.