The Konoha Shinobi had started their assault.

I stood up and left our half-eaten food behind before heading towards the door. We didn’t know much about this ninja other than he was a Jounin. The other two brothers had extraordinary techniques, though, so it stood to reason that this guy either had something just as strange going on.

Obviously, something to do with fire if he was the guy starting all the fires.

So the plan that Naruto had come up with was pretty simple, but that was fine because simple plans usually worked, complicated ones often fucked up somewhere along the way. Naruto, Choji, Hinata would be assaulting the front gates and making a lot of noise. They also had Haruna with them who was being guarded by Yurinojo, because she had wanted to be there when we took Renga down.

Crazy lady.

They would be drawing out Renga, and Karenbana would be sneaking around to take out the other Genin that was supposedly working with the guy, more of the same that had attacked Karenbana and me already. I could feel about twelve ninjas around that had less chakra then Hinata.

Could Karenbana beat twelve genins?

If they worked together, it would be difficult; supposedly three was enough to take down a ‘Jounin’ in the anime, what a load of bullshit that was. I’d seen hundreds of Naruto clones get killed by one Jounin just last night, and Naruto was far above these guys.

Karenbana had her invisibility trick as well; it would be completely one-sided.

As far as anyone should know, I was just a random civilian wandering around so I would make my way to somewhere where I could get an angle at the Jounin guy and then snipe him. When it enviable failed, or I missed, I was going to run to a new location and try again while the others distracted him.

I headed out onto the street, tracking the Jounin’s chakra to make sure I keep at least a dozen buildings in between us at all times. The enemy Genin was all over the place already. Karenbana had even managed to take one of them down, already judging by how his signature just disappeared.

Renga was somehow a great deal higher than even the buildings were standing now, and when I stared up into the air, I almost immediately noticed him in the distance, he was casually walking across the sky like it was nothing, on some kind of invisible chakra platform. What the hell, that was some Bleach nonsense right there? Why hadn’t I seen these three in the show? I moved closer to the building to stay out of his sight, making sure to move slowly and not draw his attention. Each step he took, something shined briefly under his feet, an invisible circular platform of some kind.

I observed him while I had the chance.

Name: Renga

Title: Janin

Gender: Male

Age: 33

Level: 237

Next Level: 39.37%

Health Points - 2070/2070

Chakra Points - 4160/4160

Vitality 207

Strength 203

Speed 200

Perception 107

Intelligence 112

Chakra 416

Status Effects: N/A.

Emotions: Suspicion, Anger.

History: Renga is one of the three brothers that share the title Janin. They are from a distant nation and are all powerful, Jounin. Renga has assumed the role of Daimyo within the Land of the Vegetables after he killed the previous Daimyo. Renga is a master of the katana and uses a rare form of Ice Release.

Ice release? I guess I was wrong about him being the guy lighting the fires.

So what was he doing now exactly? Making platforms with thin sheets of clear ice? I remembered Haku being able to make mirrors that floated effortlessly; I guess this was something similar? He was out of the range for Line Spear at the moment, so I would need to make my way closer.

I could feel more than twenty Naruto clones running around. I could also hear them because they were shouting and making a large amount of noise. Renga was just walking right over the top of them fearlessly, heading for where the three Konoha were protecting Haruna near the gates.

I started walking faster.

I was going to assume this guy had some kind of ranged ice attack, like the needles that Haku had; it seems likely that he was a long-range fighter considering he was just staying up there, which was a bad matchup for us. I could certainly try and gank him, but he might just retreat higher.

I stared in disbelief as the guy actually came closer to the ground, apparently to talk to them first. It gave me ample time to get into position if nothing else.

Abruptly he sent some kind of chakra attack towards the Konoha ninja that I could feel but not see, it moved quickly, and it was shaped like a thick disc, precisely like the platforms he was standing on. The discs smashed into the ground with a strangely high amount of force, shattering the hard-packed dirt, and leaving craters behind.

The guy was also just standing calmly on his platform with his arms crossed and giving them the Gaara treatment while watching the Genin desperately trying to avoid his invisible assault. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I took my time lining him up and shot him in the back.

It honestly wasn’t an awfully hard shot to land with him standing perfectly still with nothing in the way.

A second later, he fell off his platform like his strings had been cut.

I checked the Observe window for Status Effects and found that he was partially paralyzed because I had managed to hit him in the spine. He fell out of sight, and I started heading towards where I could still feel his chakra.

I gave up on that idea immediately because I could feel one of the Genin heading towards my position. They must have seen my attack. Five seconds later, ‘Yoko,’ according to the name tag, was staring down at me from the roof. She was wearing the same black bandana and face mask combo the others had been wearing.

“Hey,” I said reasonably, “Let’s not be hasty-”

I had to dive out of the way as she came down at me with a kick that cracked the ground, I stumbled backward before lashing out with a hook that missed as she ducked below it. I kept on attacking, having learned my lesson from the last fight that if I let them attack me, I would get my ass kicked.

I had to keep the pressure on.

Yoko blocked, deflected, and dodged every single thing I threw her way seemingly without any issues, but she was retreating, which had to mean that I was kind of winning! This is what all my training had been for, this moment right here when I was finally able to kick a ninjas ass!

“Fear me, for I am strong!” I shouted gleefully.

Yoko hopped backward to get some space and then immediately started throwing shuriken at me.

I covered my face desperately with my hands and tried to jump backward out of the alleyway, but she just adjusted her aim and hit me multiple times. At least five of the dozens she had thrown struck me, a couple were glancing hits, but many of them remained stuck in my body.

“Fuck!” I cried painfully. “Fuck off, you cheater!”

Iron Hide had taken a great deal of force out of the projectiles, but they had still gone through, and it hurt far more than shooting myself in the foot had. I could have used Line Spear, but I didn’t want to kill every single person I fought, I really needed to make a non-lethal attack. I didn’t pull the shuriken out because I was sure it would hurt a lot more than leaving them in would, and I was a total wuss when it came to inflicting pain upon myself.

I took off down the street, and I could feel her move up onto the rooftops to follow me.

Yoko continued to pelt me with throwing weapons without mercy; I did my best to cover the back of my head with my hands and kept on casting Heal whenever my health got low. How the hell did I get her to come back down here and fight me where I could actually win?

“Stop throwing shit at me!” I cried in pain, “I swear to god. I’ll come up there and kick your ass!”

Yoko didn’t seem to take my threat seriously because she just continued to chase me, I headed directly towards where I could feel Karenbana fighting three of the Genin. Yoko must have finally run out of shuriken because she stopped throwing shit but kept on chasing me.

“Karenbana!” I shouted as I came around the corner. “How do I get her to come down and fight me!”

Karenbana had one of the Genin by the throat and was standing on the chest of another one; the third was on the ground unconscious, she stared at me with wide eyes, it was probably the twenty-odd metal stars sticking out of me, or all of the blood, who knows. Yoko remained on the roof, taking in the scene for a second before immediately going after Karenbana to save her comrades.

“Hey!” I said in disbelief, “Fight me, dammit!”

This fucking hurt goddammit, and I wasn’t going to get any exp out of this stupid fight if Karenbana did all the work. Karenbana spun around and threw the guy in her hand at Yoko, who ducked under the body before stabbing at Karenbana’s throat with a knife-hand strike. Karenbana just moved out of the way and smashed her knee into Yoko’s chest, dropping her without fanfare.

Your level has increased by 1.

“Karenbana!” I said outraged. “I wanted to fight her dammit.”

It was going to take forever to get to a decent level at this rate; meanwhile, people were running around at level two hundred for fuck's sake.

As soon as the fight was over, Karenbana immediately moved towards me, and I took a step back from her in alarm as she reached out to grab one of the shurikens in my shoulder.

“Stop moving!” Karenbana hissed.

Fuck no, she was going to pull it out. The idea physically sickened me.

“Let’s just leave it in!” I said urgently. “It’s fine where it is!”

I stumbled back away from her, and she hemmed me up against the wall of a building before grabbing me by the shoulder to keep me still.

“It’s fine like this, doesn’t hurt at all honest!” I lied desperately.

Karenbana yanked the one stuck in my chest out, and it hurt just as must as I thought it would.

“Karen-!” I snarled, “Stop!”

I tried to push her arm off my shoulder, but her stupid ninja strength was far out of my ability to overwhelm.

“Karenbana!” I said furiously, “Fucking stop!”

Karenbana just systematically yanked them out one after another, it was the most painful thing I had ever felt, even worse than getting hit with them in the first place, and I was left panting after she had removed them all.

“Fix yourself,” Karenbana demanded.

I was so angry that I tried to punch her in the face, but she just pulled her head out of the way and trapped my arm against her side. I struggled against her for a moment, but she just shoved me back against the wall again. I stared down at her darkly for a long moment before I finally managed to calm myself down enough to use Heal.

“That should be all of the Genin,” Karenbana said quietly, “Twelve total, how are the others doing?”

“Renga’s down,” I said furiously, “Naruto and the others are standing around him.”

“Come on then,” Karenbana said evenly, “Let’s get this over with.”

I pushed past her angrily and stomped off towards the main gate.

When we made it back to the group, we found Renga lying on his back with his hands and fingers tied up with wire, a growing red stain slowly spreading through the white bandages that were wrapped around the man's torso. Naruto had already dismissed his clones, and Hinata had been watching us approach with her Byakugan, while Haruna was standing behind them. Choji was eating a bag of chips nervously.

“Sora-san.” Hinata said quietly, “Are you well?”

Naruto spun around to spot us, and his eyes went wide.

“You’re covered in blood!” Naruto cried hysterically, “We need to get you to a hospital!”

His horrified face was enough to draw me out of my dark mood for a moment, but before I could say anything, Renga started coughing. I glanced down at the guy again; his face was a mess of blood on one side; it looked like he had either landed on it or hit something else on the way down.

Judging by the amount of blood seeping into the dirt, and his rapidly dropping hp he wasn’t going to last more than a half an hour at most, I’d fix him up enough, so he didn’t die after everyone was back to full strength. Renga was staring around vaguely, not really focusing on anything; it was either from the blood loss or a result of the head injury I wasn’t sure.

I turned away as his expression twisted painfully.

“I’m fine,” I said simply, “How are you guys doing? Any injuries?”

“Fine!?” Naruto cried.

“Um,” Hinata said quietly.

I gave her a look over, she had a tear in her thick jacket at her right hip, and when she turned around, I could see the blood had stained the surrounding area. Haruna started arguing quietly with Yurinojo, but I ignored them, before patting the short girl on the head and dumping enough Mana into it to fill her HP back up to full. Haruna’s argument started getting louder, and I glanced over at them briefly before turning to Naruto.

“You alright?” I asked easily.

“I didn’t even get hit, Hinata-chan pushed me out of the way,” Naruto said embarrassedly.

I smirked at him.

“You’ll have to make it up to her then,” I said seriously, “Take her out on a date when you finish up here.”

Hinata made a muffled noise while Naruto seemingly gave my suggestion some serious thought, before glancing over at the short girl.

“We can go get ramen before I leave with pervy-sage!” Naruto said happily.

Hinata looked elated, but the comment had entirely derailed my thoughts. That’s right, he hadn’t even left with Jiraiya yet, its already been three months, hadn’t it? What the hell was he even doing here? Wasn’t the entire point of leaving Konoha with Jiraiya was so he wouldn’t get ganked by Akatsuki? Why did they send him out without at least a Jounin?

I’d completely forgotten after we had got involved in their mission with all the people being killed everywhere I’d been pretty distracted.

“Pervy-sage?” I asked with feigned curiosity, “are you going somewhere, Naruto?”

“Yeah, I’m going on a training trip!” Naruto said excitedly, “I’m going to get that old pervert to teach me all of his moves!”

I glanced over at Hinata and raised my eyebrow expectantly.

“Jiraiya of the Sannin,” Hinata said politely.

“Nice.” I said honestly, “I just remembered; you wanted me to drop by Konoha sometime, when will you be back?”

“A year at least,” Naruto said easily, “Probably more.”

That was strange, only a year? He left for two in the series, or was it three? I studied him for a second; he was a little bit taller than when I had last seen him, two or three inches at least. Perhaps because he was going on all of these non-main story missions, this was how it worked out? Would Akatsuki still arrive at the same time, or had that changed as well? Fuck.

“Hey, are you a chunin yet?” I asked curiously.

“Nah.” Naruto complained, “I’ll have to wait till I get back to take the exams again.”

I nodded thoughtfully, still ignoring the growing argument behind us.

“Where are the next few exams at, I might come to watch you compete. If they allow spectators, I mean,” I chirped.

“Awesome! Uh, the last one was Iwa? Like a month ago?” Naruto said unsurely.

Naruto glanced over at Hinata for support, and she nodded.

“Konoha was before that one as well, so,” Naruto scrunched up his face in thought. “Cloud is next?”

“Cloud and then Mist,” Hinata said quietly, “Suna would have been next, but they recently lost there Kazekage, so there have been some talks about doing a joint exam between Konoha and Suna.”

Interesting, six months between exams, five months until Cloud, eleven months until Mist, fifteen months until Suna was supposed to host. Fifteen months until the most likely time for the Suna-Konoha exams, which meant that I only had fifteen months until I had to try and kill Hidan and Kakazu.

That didn’t seem nearly long enough.

Your level has increased by 3.

I stared at the notification for a long moment before slowly turning around. Haruna had Yurinojo’s sword in her hand and had stabbed Renga in the chest with it. Karenbana was just watching the other woman curiously while Yurinojo looked ashamed that he had let her do it.

I couldn’t believe it, Haruna had stolen most of my EXP, she didn’t even fight! How did this keep on happening!?

Haruna had a bright smile on her face, an expression that I had never seen her wear before, and it transformed her face into a beautiful visage.

“It’s finally over,” Haruna said triumphantly.

I wanted to punch her in the nose.