Naruto: Systematic Shinobi

Chapter 24: Waterfall 3

After Naruto managed to wash the clumps of dog shit from his sandal's and between his toes, the blonde haired boy collapsed on his backside, "You know, I'm pretty hungry!" he declared and looked over at everyone, "What do you say we take a break and eat some food?"

"Actually, I could go for-" Daiki began, but, before he could fully agree, he was cut off.

"If you're going to eat, you can leave," Shibuki scoffed, rudely, "You're pretty much done already, so we can call it here and part ways now."

Daiki worked his jaw back and forth, and resisted the urge to smack him one. The guy was already annoying him, cutting him off like that, was grating on top of it.

"Hah!?" Naruto growled, jumping to his feet, wet sandals making squishing noises in the grass, "What a thing to say after us helping you back here! You're a real lousy jerk dattebayo!"

Daiki found himself nodding in agreement.

Not that any of it really mattered, since he already knew where the entrance to the village was.

"Enough Naruto, we'll do just that," Sasuke cut in, giving Shibuki a terse nod, before turning on his feet and walking away. Sakura called after him and rushed over to him, making him pause, "The entrance to his village must be nearby, he doesn't want us finding the entrance."

"But Leaf and Waterfall are allies right?" Sakura protested, "So what if we know where the entrance is?"

"Feh!" Shibuki spat to the side, "Maybe, for now. But, can you say that you'll always be loyal to your village and never betray it? If you ever did, you'd pose a massive risk to our village!"

"Sound logic." Daiki shrugged, an annoying ass coward he may have been, but he was right on the money there at the very least.

"That's right." Sasuke agreed.

Naruto growled, "Now your questioning how loyal we are?! You bastard!" he snarled at Shibuki.

"He's right you know!" Sakura for once, was in agreement with Naruto, "At least say thanks!"

'Well, he was definitely an ungrateful prick about it.' Daiki mused, hopping off the tree trunk he was sitting on and walking over to join Sasuke.

Shibuki ignored him, growling right back at Naruto, before huffing and looking away, "Just leave already."

"Keh, we will!" Naruto scoffed, turning on his heel and walking over to the rest of the squad, "We want nothing to do with a place like this anyway!"

"See you later Naruto, Daiki-nii-chan!" Shizuku opted to wave them goodbye instead of getting absorbed in the nonsense.

"Y-yeah!" Naruto stammered, unable to hold his angry expression at her earnest goodbye and waved his hand over his shoulder.

"Later Shizuku." Daiki bid her goodbye.

Maybe he was wrong about things going south? Like, he remembered Naruto freely using Kurama's chakra in Waterfall, he didn't learn to do that until the Chunin Exams, which were two and a half months away.

He was about to turn and leave with Team 7, when he froze, a tingle running down his spine and Daiki whipped around, glaring at the huge waterfall, and at the same time-

"Mom!" Shizuku's horrified scream an instant later made him whip around again, just in time to see a heavy set, warm faced woman stumbling out of the forest.

She was struggling step by step, panting deeply and pale faced, "..Shi..buki-sama…danger…in the village…" she managed to utter, before falling forward.

She would have landed flat on her face if Daiki didn't leap into action, crossing the distance between them in a blink and catching her.

As he did, he noticed a kunai was lodged pretty deep into her back.

'A lady of this age, and a civilian, making her way here with this in her…' he grimaced.

It was impressive of her. The strength of a mother fearing for her child, huh?

"Mom, mom!" Shizuku rushed over in tears, "Please be okay!" she begged.

Daiki plastered a reassuring smile on his face, "She'll be fine Shizuku, I promise." he told her, before gently laying the woman down to the ground, as he did, he caught sight of Shibuki, he'd completely locked up and was shaking with terror at the news she brought.

…Some fucking Takikage!

"Daiki!" Sasuke shouted, getting his attention.

"I know!" he nodded in reply, hiding they may have been, but they weren't any good at concealing their presence properly, "Sakura, come over here and keep pressure on this ladies wound, Naruto, guard them!"

"Right!" Sakura agreed, rushing over, dropping to her knees over the lady and doing just that.

"…Don't tell me what to do!" Naruto griped, but he did as asked, pulling out a pair of kunai and taking up a guard position.

Just as he did, there was a chorus of splashing water, and from the waterfall, a group of shinobi, all dressed in grey and light blue burst of the waterfall, eight in total, and only one of them stood out, a tall muscular man, wearing a sleeveless black muscle shirt and a pair of arm warmers.

"Gotcha!" the stand out leader gleefully shouted, whipping his hand out alongside his apparent subordinates, each of them unleashing a bevy of shuriken and kunai towards the biggest target, Daiki, and those around him.

Like hell!

Daiki thrust both arms out, palms wide open and flared his chakra through his palms, "Force Palm Jutsu!" he shouted.

Twin corona's of pure wind force erupted, merging together into a huge gale of force and tore the rain of weapons from the sky, in the process, slamming into two of the attacking shinobi, while the others avoided the concussive blast.