Lost in the Whirlwind (Naruto Fanfic)

Chapter 31

The mission was more difficult than I'd thought, but I wasn't one of those C-Rank-turned-A-Rank-Missing-Nin kind of difficult. 

Once we saw the hideout, a small wooden home that stood innocently in the middle of the forest, we crouched on a high tree branch, overlooking the whole place.

Shisui activated his sharingan. "Three known presence inside, two on the first floor, and one in the basement."

Huh, there's a basement?

"The stairs leading downwards are under the fake floor next to the kitchen sink. There's one person at the kitchen table, and the other is in another room. There are two small rooms in the basement, one on the left and the other on right." He frowned. "The one person in the right underground room has higher chakra levels than the other two, but probably a low-level genin or a high Academy student."

"Do you think you can handle this?" He asked, his red eyes landing on me and I quickly looked away because of how vicious they looked.

"Yeah."

"Good. I'll keep watch outside." The Uchiha then gave the universal hand signal for 'go' and I shunshined myself to the open window sill.

I slid open the window, which was unlocked, and I cockily smirked. Dimwits. 

With the speed that Yamada-sensei and Shisui had ruthlessly trained me for years, I swiftly appeared behind a bald, muscular man and attacked the pressure point on his neck, effectively knocking him out before he was alerted of my presence.

His head lightly thumped into the bowl of porridge he had been having, and I silently made my way over to the carpeted area beside the sink, no doubt with the stairway underneath. I slid the red carpet over, grabbed hold of a metal handle and lifted the rectangular floor board up.

Putting in extra effort to mask my chakra, I advanced down the stairs. True to Shisui's words, there were too rooms facing opposite of one another. Forcing my eyes to adjust to the dark, my hand reached for the left room, the one without the more-trained bandit. 

Opening the door, disappointment took over the feeling of exhilaration. There were only golds and coins in there, along with some statues. Jade, possibly?

I quickly turned to look at the closed door of another room, realizing that that the other presence had disappeared. The abrupt disappearance could only mean one thing: they had suppressed their chakra.

Muttering some curse words that would have Shori appalled, I pulled out my chakra blades, tensing my muscles in anticipation for my first real fight.

Not a spar, but a fight.

I stood my ground, getting into a fighting stance. The one who opens the door would have the underhand in this fight, so there was absolutely no way that I was going to walk one more step towards that wooden door.

To Shisui's accurate words of 'all brawn and no brain', the person slammed the door open, revealing a muscled, shirtless guy. He gave a war cry (big mistake on his part wasting his energy) when his eyes landed on me.

I allowed myself to be distracted for a millisecond when I caught rows of scrolls in the room behind him, but managed to instinctively duck a kunai whizzing past my head in time.

"You Konoha people are a snoopy bunch." He said through his gritted teeth.

Ah, here it was, the essential trash talk before a fight. And to think that I would experience it on my very first fight.

I cocked my head to the side, not sure what his point was. "Your hideout is in Konoha, dumbass." I propelled my chakra into my blades, forming a light blue hue around them. "If anything, you bandits are the ones snooping around."

The guy dashed forward, aiming a punch at my head, which was an Academy student rookie mistake because that left his stomach prone to any attack. I ducked his punch and thrusted my knee into the center of his abdomen, making him stumble backwards.

That didn't deter him at all but instead, his hand quickly went through seals and a faint scent of smoke hit my nose. My eyes widened. This guy knew how to perform a fire jutsu? Clearly both Shisui and I had underestimated these bandits.

Pushing my water chakra into the blades, I quickly formed a water barrier in front of me. The giant puff of smoke and the loud sizzling when fire came into contact with water felt almost as exhilarating as it was dangerous. 

I bolted forward before all the smoke dissipated and caught the bandit by surprise. He wasn't able to dodge the attack that sliced his arm from his body, and wasn't prepared for the overwhelming pain that was accompanied by the big puddle of blood.

There was no thoughts flying through my head. The only thing driving me forward was my survival instincts, the need to win this fight.

I raised my hands and did a couple of hand signs, and a powerful stream of water gushed from my mouth. Raising my index and middle fingers, I zapped electricity into the stream, watching as the man in front of me spasmed until he was no longer able to stand, his eyes rolling to the back of his head.

The loud thud of his body slamming against the floor bought my senses back. 

My eyes trailed along the body, looking at the blisters and redness that covered his entire body. His face is indistinguishable and there were parts of his chest that looked like all the skin had peeled away, leaving no muscle to imagination.

The worst part, he was still alive.

If Naruto had been here, he would've been able to talk some sense into this guy and there would be no fighting in the first place. If Shisui had been here, this would've been a clean kill, handled in a few seconds with no pain whatsoever. If Sasuke had been here, he would've performed a killing strike on this guy to put him out of misery.

I watched as whatever remnants of what was once his mouth moved, trying to form words.

"...he..lp."

If Naruto, Sasuke or Shisui had been here, they would've done things differently. 

But they weren't here.

I dusted off my shirt and pants before leaving the room, walking over a detached bloody arm.

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"Do you have it?" Shisui asked once I came out of the house. He gave me a once over for wounds, but when he realized that the blood staining my dark shirt was not mine, his eyes slid back to my face.

"Yeah." I tossed him the green scroll with the Hyuuga symbol in front.

"...Good job." His usual bright smile appeared on the was-serious face. "I knew you could do it, Naka-chan."

His right hand pocketed the scroll into his weapon holster before landing on my head, ruffling it. "I'm proud of you."

I froze, stunned by the statement. He was... proud of me? It took all my will to suppress the giant grin threatening to stretch across my face, but alas, it was to no avail. 

"Wow, I think that's the widest grin I've ever seen on your face, Naka." Shisui noted, a teasing lilt to his voice.

I knew I would be teased by my friends and teacher about being ecstatic at those four words for the years to come, but right now? Right now, I didn't care. A teacher that had been training me for the past eight years had just told me that he was proud of me for the very first time.

"That's because this is by far the happiest moment of my life."

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Author's note:

did i go overboard with the violence depiction and graphic? please let me know, cause i might have to change the rating of this story.

and 300k reads and 16.5k likes???? omg this wouldn't have been possible without you guys💕💕💕

thanks guys ily😊😊!

Kono