Naruto: Cautious Ninja

"The guy also wanted us to snuff you out as a sort of added bonus to the whole gig," Kureha said while shrugging. "Personally, we have no problem with that."

"While instead of finishing one job, we kill two birds with one stone," Shuko exclaimed with a smirk. "Well… three. We get Intel, a portion of the Scroll of Seal's secrets and your blood."

"All in all, it's a damn good day," Noriko said while tightening her grip on the knife and driving it further into the kid's side.

"See? Now was that so hard?" Naruto asked while smiling at the woman kneeling behind him and peering over his shoulder. He sounded surprisingly chipper and back-to-his-usual-self for someone with a knife in his side. "Instead of killing your target swiftly you can kill him with theatrical style. I'm thinking of adding that to my repertoire when I finally get to go out to do big missions for my village. Saving damsels, assassinating criminals, helping people… man, I'm really looking forward to becoming a Jonin."

"Well good luck with that. I just hope that… hey! Hang on a second!" Realizing something was wrong, Noriko glared suspiciously at the boy now blankly staring at her from over his shoulder, "How come you're able to talk normally now?"

The boy tried to look confused. "Hmm? Whatever do you mean?"

The two kunoichi in the room also noticed his change from outright suffering to trading casual pleasantries. Wasn't he supposed to be in absolute agony right now?

Noriko then looked him up and down. "Second of all, why aren't you on the floor yet? You're bleeding internally and have a knife shoved into you. You should be half-passed dead right now."

"Oh that… well," Naruto grinned sheepishly at the woman. "Magician's secret."

Looking alarmed, the leader of the kunoichi then lifted up the boy's jacket to find out what the fuck was going on. When she did and had his mid-section exposed, she saw to her utter shock a thick body cast the same color as Naruto's skin wrapped around his waist. Acting like a protective vest, the cast prevented the knife from slipping into his ribs and into his lung. It merely redirected it and had the blade poking sideways.

"H-How? What?" Noriko looked up at her grinning victim in alarm.

How the hell did he know he was going to get stabbed? There was no way he could have seen this coming and acted against it! There was no way!

Their strategy was flawless.

Naruto, who still had 'blood' running down from his mouth, chuckled. "You fell for the fake 'waist line' trick." He then stuck out his tongue, where he revealed a packet of ketchup sitting and had been torn open with his teeth.

Noriko's eyes widened a split second before the jinchuriki suddenly and without warning dropped straight down and out of her hold. Back-flipping right off the floor, the blonde then rammed a knee straight into her startled face, the blow smashing into her nose and sending the kunoichi's body reeling back with blood flying from the offending orifice. While the silver haired kunoichi was recoiling, her partner Shuko rushed forward and drew her sword to slice at the still airborne Naruto.

While suspended in mid-attack, Naruto dropped a hand to the floor, pivoted on it and pushed off. Jumping even higher upside-down, he then spun a kick straight into the approaching woman's sword, the momentum allowing him to kick it out of her hand before slapping his against her side.

"Jet Hand!"

A loud whoosh blasted off of the shocked woman's side and sent her careening across the room to plow straight into the wall beside the television. The loud crack echoed throughout the entire apartment before her body dropped to the floor unconscious.

Landing in a crouched stance at the same time Noriko fell back onto the floor Naruto looked behind him to see Kureha charging at him with her sword thrusting downward. Before she even had the chance to finish swinging, her target leapt back off the ground and slid underneath her legs, appearing behind her when she stumbled forwards, missing her mark entirely.

When she turned to face him alongside the downed team leader, who was now holding her broken nose between her fingers, they saw the blonde crouched on the floor like a monkey grinning deviously before holding up a pink-laced bra and matching panties. He dangled them before the puzzled kunoichi teasingly. "Missing something?"

Recognizing the articles, Kureha squealed in fright, dropped her sword, held herself on the ground and crossed all her limbs. While blushing a brilliant shade of red, the woman glared furiously up at the boy, "YOU LITTLE PERVERT!"

Naruto laughed hysterically. "You would think that you girls would learn from the last time you met me."

Noriko glared hatefully across at the child while her friend crouched shivering on the ground next to her, muttering endlessly about how in the seven levels of hell the boy had managed to get his hands on her undergarments. "This is bad. He's gotten even faster and stronger since the last time we met, while we were all just sitting around and rotting in jail. Not only that, the fact that he's so small makes his speed even more ridiculous. What the hell is this boy?"

Shaking her head, the team leader glared at her partner. "Finish him and let's go!"

"What about Shuko?" Kureha asked.

"Take her! But deal with the rat first! He fights by avoiding a direct exchange and he's damn good at it, and we're on his turf!" The woman then hopped into a crouching position and rotated towards the window. "Do whatever you can then meet at the rendezvous point! I'll set off the explosives!" After receiving a nod from her still conscious partner the woman then leapt straight out the nearby window, not even bothering that it was closed and ruining another part of the apartment.

"Oh, no you don't!" Naruto shouted, tossing the underwear and rushing forward. He was quickly intercepted by Kureha who sliced at him with her katana, which he swayed under and leapt to the other side of her when she spun to meet him.

"You're not going anywhere you little shit!" she shouted, lunging at him with another slash.

Naruto ducked that and the follow-ups when she advanced on him as she tried to dice up his upper body. He kept swaying, bobbing and weaving under all of her strikes, before wordlessly grabbing a hold of one of her arms when it came back around and kicking off the floor. Using her momentum, the boy suddenly flipped up till he was literally hand-standing on her arm. As if he was viewing the world in slow motion, he saw her expression widen into shock.

"As long as I believe I can do something… nothing is impossible for me!" He flipped over her so that he started descending to the ground behind the woman. Kureha spun around to intercept, but he was already spinning his body like a top while upside-down in mid-fall, sending a kick flying for her head. "This is why I can keep fighting and win, even against you!"

His kick slammed across Kureha's face and had her spinning to the ground, which then allowed him to land as well. Naruto landed atop his solid floor the exact same time her body crashed into it.

Just as the woman struggled to her feet and backed away in a daze, Naruto lunged swiftly at her and slapped his hand against her stomach. A second Jet Hand propelled her off her feet and sent her crashing straight through his lounge room wall, across the street and into another apartment block through the closed window. She was unconscious the moment she was sent flying through his wall, so she was spared from the pain of land fall.

The brief spar between them showed just how much Naruto had improved over the years. However, he could also attribute his victory tonight because his opponents were also two years out of practice from being stuck in a jail cell the entire time, so it took some of the fun out of it.

Not forgetting that one of them got away, the boy ran over to the window and looked out, intent on following…

However, this plan was cut short when he looked down at the street below and saw a familiar face looking up at him.

"Tayuya-chan?!"

"What the hell was that, Naruto?" the red head shouted, pointing after the escaping woman.

It was crazy. She just saw a person leap out of their apartment, fly across the street, land on top of a telephone pole, and look down long enough for the musician to get a good shot of her face before disappearing across the rooftops.

"Gate crasher!" the jinchuriki shouted back and pointed after her. "She tried to knife me!"

Eyes widening, Tayuya dropped the shopping bags in her hands and immediately leapt up towards their building. Kicking off the wall, she sprang after the retreating figure. "I'm on it!" She was gone before Naruto could get another word in.

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