Chương 9: Interlude 2

Border between Fire Country and Tea Country Asuma Sarutobi, Veteran Genin He and his big mouth, getting them into trouble yet again. He had forgotten his toothpicks back home, so it was only a matter of time before he said something that he'd regret. This time around it was taunting fate. Easy mission, that was a pretty stupid thing to say aloud, huh?

"Cause I'm the bomb, baby!" Because now they were being attacked by an unknown, a streaker, and potentially a group of bandits coming up along the road. Their sensei had moved out to take the unknown out, leaving them to work with a former enemy. A former enemy that Asuma was beginning to suspect was actually only about as old as any of them were, but already a Jonin.

"Formation two!" He commanded. They had figured out fairly early that he was probably the one best suited for taking command if their sensei was unavailable for whatever reason. Raido was quick on the draw, and Kurenai was good at details, but neither had as much sense for tactics. Asuma, meanwhile, had to deal with his dad being the 'God of Shinobi' and every conversation being some sort of tiny lesson in disguise. It was honestly a pain in the ass, even if he could appreciate it in the abstract sense.

Formation two was pretty standard, Kurenai would be in the middle pretending to be a midrange specialist while looking for opportunities to perform genjutsu. Raido would be in the front, pretending to be a close range specialist while actually being their medic and still a pretty good close range combatant, and he'd be in the back pretending to be a pure tactician.

The way it usually went was that the enemy would avoid the close range specialist and potentially midrange, go for the tactician to disrupt their command structure. Issue was, of course, that Asuma was by far the best in close range. Of course, now that he had thought of that- their enemy could make himself detonate. Getting in close at all would be a major challenge here, and range would be the safest option.

Projectiles might turn into shrapnel and hit their clients though, which meant they needed to avoid using those too. This was honestly just the worst enemy, wasn't he? Asuma was getting irritated just looking at him.

"Genin!" The Strawhat nin from Suna called out, drawing a pair of kunai from his belt.

"I'm a ninjutsu specialist- I'll need time to deploy my wind, can you buy it for me?" This was clearly a lie, the strawhat was a puppeteer and Asuma hadn't seen any wind techniques from him at all yet. Moreover, if he was a ninjutsu specialist, drawing the kunai out would be completely pointless. He narrowed his eyes, immediately understanding what the Jonin was conveying.

"We'll do our best!" He called out.

"Form three-b, buy him some time!" Three-b was a form that indicated whatever he was about to say next was the opposite of true. The truth was that the Jonin was buying them time to make plays. He started to shape chakra through his kunai, half-hiding it behind his back. Raido maintained his defensive posture, and Kurenai slackened her grip on her shuriken.

"Hah, like I'd let you!" The streaker laughed, throwing himself forwards towards the strawhat and starting to glow. Strawhat jumped back and away, up along the massive rock in the center of the road. The streaker followed, jumping up before prematurely detonating to deflect a thrown kunai.

"Flying Swallow." Asuma whispered, hurling the kunai in his hands and rapidly clasping them in a controlling handseal. The kunai, wreathed cutting wind chakra, soared wide through the air and then around as he focused. He had gotten the idea from Suna puppeteers. If he could figure out how to sheath his blade in wind, then couldn't he make it fly too? Made for a nasty little surprise when it worked.

Half a second after the streaker exploded, he heard the razorwinds and threw himself backwards, flipping down the rock just in time for a kunai wreathed in chakra to cut through the rock with a shearing boom and then impact the road on the otherside. He grit his teeth in a show of frustration, pulling out another kunai. Streaker had chosen to dodge instead of blowing up again, limited use, timer, or instinct?

"Haha! Holy shit! You almost got me there you brat!" The streaker laughed, before reaching up to tap his temple.

"It's not wise to show off all your tricks this early, you know?"

"You didn't even notice it, did you?" Strawhat called out with a flat voice, standing atop the rock and looking down at the streaker. He raised a finger and pointed down.

"He didn't miss. He bought me more than enough time to complete my jutsu." The streaker narrowed his muddy eyes at that, moving into a wary posture and taking half a step back.

"Yeah right, I'm not seeing any wind, buddy."

"I lied." Strawhat kept talking, then making several long casual steps down along the side of the rock, circling widely around the bombman as he did. Bombman jumped back towards the trees, warily keeping all enemies in his sight.

"I bet you think you jumped towards the trees there." Streaker's eyes widened.

"W-what?!"

"How familiar are you with genjutsu?" Strawhat threw his hands up, tossing the kunai as he did and rushing through handseals. The kunai was a bit sloppy, going shallow across the ground and angling towards the feet. Immediately Streaker raised his hands in clasp, jumping up over the hurled blade and away as he did.

"Release!" Now in the air, Streaker realized that he wasn't actually in an illusion. His eyes widened and his mouth opened in frustrated disbelief. Strawhat completed his jutsu, leaning forwards and giving a mighty, shouting exhale.

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" A massive gust of wind followed, projected forwards like the waving of a giant's fan. An immense cylinder of pushing air that had no trouble hitting a target that couldn't push off anything to dodge.

"Fucker!" Streaker shouted as the galeforce winds smashed into him, tossing him back like a ragdoll, over the treeline, and far back enough to become a fly in the sky before disappearing into the forest distance. Distantly, a crash-boom sounded out, muffled by the woods. A double-bluff, the puppeteer actually did have wind jutsu. Asuma wasn't on the frontlines in the battle that almost took out Gaku, but he was starting to see how the puppeteer might've managed it.

"No way that killed him." Raido called out with a scowl and furrowed brows.

"Pushed him around, sure, but any ninja worth their salt could roll that landing."

"I agree, genin- strategy meeting!" Strawhat called back, withdrawing a scroll and rolling it out across the ground, slapping a hand down on it and disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"Asuma- he dodged your kunai instead of blowing up again, minimum window between explosions is point six seconds. I don't know what you other two do, but there's still a small army of bandits coming this way, can you handle them?" The smoke cleared, revealing three more of those insect-like shooter-puppets, floating around the puppeteer as he rolled up the scroll again and put it back in his vest.

"How many?" Asuma asked quickly, eyes alternating on the treeline and roadways and mind churning. Both of his teammates were single-target specialists, the only one who had a crowd-clearing option was himself. If there was few enough-"Upwards of fifty." Asuma cursed quietly, narrowing his eyes in frustration. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"Not easily." Kurenai answered with her own troubled expression. That was downplaying it, that many enemies would be trouble for almost anyone to handle.

"Can you handle this guy on your own, Strawhat?" Asuma asked quickly and sharply.

"From what I've seen? Easily." Strawhat huffed with some confidence, tilting his hat in their direction.

"Go take out the bandits and head over to relieve your sensei- I get the feeling the boulder-tosser is the most dangerous one here. Me and the Samurai can handle Boom Boom here." A reminder that their clients weren't defenseless even if the puppeteer wasn't accounted for. Asuma furrowed his brows in slight frustration, once more mentally going through the various factors of the fight. Enemy would be expecting genjutsu now, Kurenai was less effective against a target actively cycling their chakra.

Enemy could make himself explode at will, he and Raido couldn't get close without taking damage and they lacked good ranged options to handle it. Their ability to contribute to this particular fight was limited, but the bandits would be a problem if allowed to arrive. They needed to be taken out before they got within range of the client, otherwise defending them would be vastly more difficult.

Raido was the only one with significant medical skill, if sensei or the other Suna jonin was injured and needed recovery from the unknown. Meanwhile, the exploding nin was best countered by someone like the puppeteer, who was strongest in a defensive position and could make ranged attacks from multiple angles in quick succession.

"We'll leave him to you!" Asuma made the decision, snapping his eyes open and nodding at Strawhat.

"Move out team, we can't let those bandits get close."""Got it!"" Raido and Kurenai nodded, all three of them jumping away in unison, up and over or to the side of the boulder in the road, then forwards and onwards along the roadway. A series of quick jumps later and the carriages behind them were out of sight.

"Sure that was wise, Asuma?" Kurenai asked with a troubled glance behind.

"Not really- but tactically it's our best move." Asuma replied, biting his thumb and swiping it across the seal on the interior of his vest. A small puff of smoke later and the finely-engraved short-barreled tanegashima settled into his hand.

"You're seriously going to use one of those?" Raido asked dryly.

"Hey, hey now." Asuma started defensively.

"This is part of my strongest combination technique, you know? Moreover, it's a gift from the Fire Daimyo himself, are you implying it's not all that?!"

"You're lucky it's not raining." Raido huffed, turning his eyes ahead again as they made another leap.

"I wouldn't be considering it if it was raining, you dip. I just need the spark, alright?" Asuma grumbled, holding his cool weapon close to his chest. Sure it wasn't all that practical, and it was pretty expensive, and the engravings didn't add any actual benefit, and it wasn't even loaded right now… But it was cool, damnit!

"Make some noise when we reach the bandits, but don't overexpose yourselves. I just need a few moments to clear the crowd." Asuma pushed away the defensive thoughts related to his precious tanegashima and refocused on the present battle.

"After the explosion, move in to clear out the stragglers. We're moving out and over to sensei as soon as they're taken down, got it?"

"Chakra expenditure?" Kurenai asked with a cute little scrunch of her face. Red lips pressed together and black hair whipping around as she jumped. Man, she was so damn pretty.

"Conservative as usual." He declared shortly, then nodded.

"I'm off, I'll be on the flank." He declared, jumping to the side once to enter the treeline before proceeding forwards again. He was just close enough to keep some awareness on the road and his teammates. He made sure to feel the air out in the few moments of silent jumping.

"T-there they are!" Came the shout of one of the bandits, muffled by the trees. The noise of shuriken being tossed followed, as did a few shouts of pain. He jumped over, careful to avoid things that would announce his presence as he closed in on the road again. There was a handful on the road, stragglers who had run ahead of the larger group behind them. Some of them were starting to attack one another, credit to Kurenai's quick genjutsu there, and the ones that weren't were being harassed by Raido's shuriken.

Not enough of them in one place yet. He frowned, flipping around the side of the tree and jumping again, catching a branch with his foot and looping around to hang upside down and overlooking a later section of the road. Still not enough. He placed his tanegashima under one arm and raised his hands, ready to start part one of the jutsu when the moment came. Three, four, seven, eight, ten, thirteen, sixteen.

They were beginning to press forwards, even through the harassment and friendly-fire of kurenai's genjutsu, probably one designed to make them think that their friends were enemy ninja. Seventeen, twenty, twenty four, thirty. Good enough. He inhaled. Snake, Rat, Tiger, Snake. He exhaled, a great cloud of black powder descending from the trees and over the crowd of bandits. He held the jutsu for several long seconds, allowing the powder to accumulate and build just in case.

The powder hung in the air, lightly swirling in the almost breezeless air and down the road, away from his comrades.

"H-hey! What the hell!"

"There's more in the trees!"

"Fuck! It's in my eyes!" He released his hands, still breathing out the smoky residue as he took hold of the tanegashima and raised it up to the stream of powder, cocking it back and placing a finger on the trigger. He stopped the jutsu with a smirk, pulling the trigger. The hammer of the weapon clicked forwards and smashed into the prepared flint, sending a shower of sparks.

"Fire Style: Ash Pile Burning." He had asked pops for a jutsu that might work with the new gift, and as much as the old man annoyed him at times, he knew exactly what Asuma was looking for. The sparks ignited the cloud of gunpowder with an ear-ringing boom and searing wave of heat, he had to shield his face with another raised hand as the explosion washed over him. He lowered it after a few moments to inspect the scene.

There was a lot of smoke that was gradually clearing to reveal an angry black stain on the world, littered with charred corpses. The men around the edges of the blackened crater gave tiny groans and twitches, still alive but barely after the impact and detonation. The rest of the bandits were loudly running away, deciding that discretion was the better part of valor and that not being exploded was a good idea. No need to chase them down in this case, they just needed to eliminate the attackers as a threat.

He kicked the branch with the side of his foot, swinging him around it again and letting him spin around to hit a more flexible branch, which springboarded him forwards out of the treeline and over the blackened road. He landed, kicking up a small cloud of soot and drawing and kunai to start taking out stragglers. A little cough brought his attention along the road.

"Ah." He announced sheepishly, raising his tanegashima to scratch the side of his head.

"I uhh… I suppose I should've warned about the soot, huh?" Kurenai and Raido were standing there, the fronts of their bodies stained in a layer of black, the whites of their eyes contrasting greatly against their otherwise charcoal-black faces. They looked distinctly unimpressed by his super-cool combination jutsu.

"I uh… I'll treat you guys to some barbeque after this?" He offered apologetically. Raido rolled his eyes, drawing his sword and jumping forwards to start stabbing twitching bodies.

"I'm getting extra." Kurenai grumbled, drawing a kunai and jumping forwards to do the same.

"I'm gonna have to wash this a dozen times to get the charring out."

"Tch." Asuma grumbled, jumping forwards and making his own stab-clears to put the poor burned bandits out of their misery.

"Finish up quick- we need to go support sensei immediately after." It took them about half a minute to finish giving all of the stragglers a merciful little stab, then they were well on their way to the other side of the bridged crevasse in the earth. It was narrow enough that his team was able to get across by jumping off his cupped hands as he threw them, and he was able to get across with the help of another flexible branch to catapult him over.

Rolling as he landed, they immediately started jumping again, all senses straining as they moved to the expected location of the battle. It was easy enough to see because of the several sections where the treeline stopped existing and trunks took over. His eyes widened as he emerged from the last set of branches and beheld the battlefield, immediately pouring wind chakra into a kunai and hurling it.

"Flying Swallow!" He hissed out, slapping his hands into a seal as the blade soared. A woman wearing a thoroughly torn kimono flipped back and away from the blade, barely avoiding its curving flight and landing on the lip of a great crater.

"More brats huh…?" She muttered, one arm holding her side and muscular arms covered in tears.

"Guess the others fucked up. I be-" She staggered back and grabbed at her forehead, making a substantially more massive leap away as Raido landed with a sweep of his sword.

"Which one of you brats are using genjutsu?!" The woman roared out, before gritting her teeth.

"Fuck this." She muttered, stomping the earth with a titanic boom and disappearing in a blur of chakra-enhanced motion. A shushin. The reason for their immediate aggression was the state of their comrades. Sensei was laid out and barely breathing, the Suna Jonin was leaning against her battered warfan, and both were being guarded by a snarling and blood-soaked Chairomaru.

"Raido, Kurenai, first aid now! Back to the escort as soon as they're stable!" Asuma knew he should be putting on a calm air right now, but it was kinda hard to think that through the sight of sensei's mangled limbs, and the Suna Jonin's clearly-missing arm.