Raito rolled his eyes as he saw Naruto too eager to fight. How can a ninja blindly attack? Iruksensei and Mari-nee had always lectured them to plan before the attack. How could Naruto forget about it? He sure doesn't forget to plan before playing a prank though.

Looking at the scene, Raito saw the three s.h.i.+n.o.bis of the Otogakure stalking patiently, a little bit too patiently. It had been almost two hours since Naruto's clones were dispelled into clouds of chakra smoke and they were still waiting, showing no signs of attacking.

'Don't they know they are against a Hyūga?' Raito snorted. In the meantime, Raito studied their data and started devising a counterattack.

"Raito, when are we going?" Naruto shook Raito's shoulder and asked.

"Those stupid Oto-nin are stalking a stalker. Don't you think those stalkers are stupid?" Raito laughed lightly and patted Naruto's back.

"Stalker? Stalking a stalker?" Naruto tilted his head in confusion. Simple twister like these were enough…

Raito took out a few stone beads from the inventory and threw them into the air.

Snake… (Hand Seal)

The stone beads quickly transformed into his replica, [Earth Clone]. As the earth clones landed on the tree branch, the branch gave a sharp squeaking sound, causing Raito to hold his breath. He 'looked' at the Oto-ninja and finally heaved a sigh of relief, seeing them not reacting to it at all.

"It seems that they want to ambush Hinata and the guys." Raito smiled evilly then nodded towards his clones. "But their target must be Sasuke."

"Sasuke again? Why are people after him?" Naruto frowned a little.

'First Kusnin and now Oto-nin… Jiichan shouldn't have allowed Sasuke to partic.i.p.ate.' Raito pouted and the same time gave Naruto a Fuinjutsu talisman. "This is… my new seal. Let's try it on them."

Dosu sighed, looking at Hinata, he had to give her some praise. Taking care of three people, only with the help of a small dog. Her teammates were probably having fun somewhere, letting her do all the grunt work.

The clones helping her had disappeared in smoke some time ago, which meant that the one who used it had exhausted their chakra or was severely injured.

Dosu didn't know but Naruto had just canceled his jutsu without controlling it. The act of a spendthrift.

The other teammate who talked bad about 'Otogakure' was nowhere to be seen. He must have gone for scouting, not returning even after four hours, which means that something must have happened.

Dosu communicated with Kin and Zaku silently using his sound techniques, making as little noise as possible. It was time for them to attack, the time decided by their lord.

Hinata, of course, had seen Dosu and gang, and not only them but also Naruto and Raito who were also hiding quite a distance away. When Dosu started to talk about his plans, Raito had already communicated with her using the mind voice transmission technique, telling her about their own plans.

Just as the Oto-nin stood up to prepare for their attack a kunai appeared in front of Dosu. If it wasn't caught by him then, the kunai would have gone through his neck.

Hinata took out another kunai from her pouch and looked at Oto-s.h.i.+n.o.bi. Akamaru also jumped forward, standing in front of Hinata.

"d.a.m.n! All this wait for nothing." Zaku jumped and stretched his back. He looked at Dosu, who was staring at Sasuke behind Hinata.

"That guy sleeping is… Sasuke? He is cute." Kin stretched her neck and looked towards Sasuke, a small smile forming on her face.

Dosu who was quiet till now, let out an incomprehensible sound.

"Dosu, what's the matter?" Dosu was the brain as well as the powerhouse of the team. Zaku had been with Dosu for the longest period of time and had already gotten used to his small actions a long time ago. Dosu would never make sounds like that without a reason.

"Zaku, Kin, do you see the 'Curse Mark' at Uchiha's neck?" Dosu with his chin at the faint flickering mark at Sasuke's neck. Since Hinata had stood up, Sasuke was now in full view, even the flickering tomoe in his neck was for everyone to see.

"That's…." Kin looked at the curse mark and thought for a while but she couldn't remember much about it as she wasn't strong enough in the village to know about these things.

"Curse mark. How can he get it? …Why him?" Zaku balled his hands into a fist. Only top ninjas in the village are eligible to get those seals from the Lord. Why would the Lord give such a precious thing to an outsider?

Gnas.h.i.+ng his teeth, Zaku looked sideways at Dosu and said in a low voice, "Dosu, if we kill that Uchiha guy… We can prove ourselves to be stronger than him, then maybe we can get the 'Curse Seal' for ourselves. Orochimaru-sama did say that only strong deserve the 'Curse Seal'."

Kin's eye sparkled as she nodded in approval, sticking to Zaku's reasoning. While she had not seen everything, she had heard about it in the village. The curse seal will provide you with abilities to fill your deficiency and make you far stronger than an average ninja.

Dosu silently looked at his teammates then at Sasuke. He sighed knowing what he was here for. Simply said, he or they were here as meat bags, live targets for Sasuke.

Dosu had seen the scenes of people waking up after receiving the 'Curse Seal'. The person recovering from his first mark would most probably start a slaughter due to uncontrollable rage or power, bottled inside himself. The negative emotions would flood you and make you do all kinds of bad things. The only way to stop was to vent all those emotions.

Dosu had decided that he needs to 'accidentally' kill Sasuke right now before there was a chance for Sasuke to wake up. He couldn't back down right now because the Lord himself, had given them strict orders. And there probably were surveillance for something like this, just like there always was, in one way or other.

Dosu looked at Hinata and shouted, "Give Sasuke to us. Our Lord only wants Sasuke and not anyone else." Dosu opened his arms signaling Hinata that there were no other intentions.

But Hinata who had her share of bloodline stealing scandal felt that Sasuke was currently in the same boat as she was in the past. These people who wanted to capture people from bloodline families were always after their bloodline and in this case, Sasuke's eyes, the Sharingan.

However horrible it may sound but there are people who want the power of bloodline, just like that incident that happened nine years ago. After she was mature enough, the last year of the academy, her father revealed some of the things that could have happened to her. Like they would first try to make you loyal to the village and if that idea doesn't work then they would extract blood, saliva, organs and various other things from her body either for research or for some other purpose. They would keep her alive at all costs and only at the very last possible moment would they try to remove her eyes and transplant to some loyal member. After removing the eyes the man would be used to make women pregnant and the women would be made to conceive a child.

Hinata could only close her eyes in sorrow learning the matters of the world.

"Arf! Grrrrr." Akamaru showed hostility, telling Hinata not to agree with them.

"I am sorry but I will have to ask you to leave." Hinata threw the kunai couple of meters in front of her then stood in Jūken fighting stance, showing a dangerous face.

"This b.i.t.c.h!" Zaku narrowed his eyes then crossed his arms and a click sound could be heard. "She will not listen."

Dosu stared intently at Hinata then raised his hands, uncovering his right hand, showing the large metallic sound amplifier. Giving it a flick, a small noise hummed through it, only audible to Dosu himself.

"Hah!" Kin waved her hands and threw senbons towards Hinata starting the fight.

Hinata took a deep breath in, gathering chakra on her hands. As senbon drew close, she lightly waved her hands, deflecting them without even touching.

Continuing the wave, she quickly pulled back her hand behind her waist before striking out in full force.

"[Eight Trigrams: Air Palm]"

Chakra exploded turning into invisible force, aiming at the enemy trio.

Although they were still far away, Zaku could feel the change in the air. He narrowed his eyes then smiled. Straightening his arms, Zaku activated his chakra. From the small metallic holes in his hands, chakra exploded turning into currents of winds, aiming at Hinata.

"[Decapitating Airwaves]"

Attacks collided as the ground below exploded into bits and pieces, letting out a cloud of dust.

Dosu tried to listen but he could only hear messy sounds but the things that shocked him right now were these footsteps, which were coming from different directions. The main problem was that these footsteps were from the same person.

People have a different built, different personality and different thoughts of mind which causes different reactions to the same action.

Dosu used this understanding to differentiated people using his extreme observation techniques. Plus through weight differentiation, he could, in a kind, differentiate individual. Of course, it was only possible due to chakra enhancement and intensive learning.

"Zaku." Dosu shouted signaling him to clear the field.

"OK!" Zaku nodded and stretched his hand releasing a gust of air, clearing all the dust smoke.

Hinata, who was using the dust cloud as a cover to move her friends, looked at the trio in shock. She was holding s.h.i.+no and dragging him behind the tree before getting exposed.

Dosu looked at the barren area around the tree then looked at Hinata who was not stopping. The main thing was that Sasuke wasn't anywhere to be seen.

Taking out a kunai from his sleeves, Dosu struck the amplifier with full force which let out a loud screech.

Step. BOOM!

In an instant, Dosu appeared near Hinata. His arm corked back ready to deliver a fatal hit.

But he didn't expect for 'Hinata' to let out a small smile before disappearing into a cloud of smoke, even 's.h.i.+no' disappeared into a cloud of smoke.

"W-What's happening!?" Dosu looked at the chakra cloud in anguish, letting out a loud shout.

In his anger, Dosu forgot about his surroundings allowing a small pebble near him or more specifically, his amplifier.

"Throw."

From a hidden area, Raito threw a pebble, which appeared instantly in front of the metallic gauntlet. This pebble was, in fact, the biggest stone inscribed with explosion seal by Raito back then and now it was compacted into this small pebble. Even though it is small, it contains a total of one thousand chakra points transformed into an explosion seal.

"Explode!"

[Perk activated - Hidden Weapon Expert]

(Increase accuracy by 100%)

[Perk activated - Explosion Expert]

(Fire release and explosion type attacks deal 30% more damage.)

(This is a one-time only. Only new perks will be shown in the future and please forget about the addition of stats perks.)

BOOM!!!

The explosion not only destroyed Dosu's sound amplifier but also burned his furry jacket and whatever was covering him above his waist. His right hand had severe burn injuries reaching up to the bones. But strangely, he was not dead. Even after the explosion had burned his hand, Dosu could move his body to protect his other vital parts. It was like… he was doing it unconsciously.

Raito who was hiding in the bushes with Naruto and Hinata looked strangely at Dosu.

[Dosu Kinuta Lvl 32]

HP: 1,000/5,000

[Status: Burn injuries (Complex), broken bones (Humerus, radius, ulna...), extensive soft tissue damage, etc.]

[Modified Body]

Even with so much damage Dosu was living and breathing.

Raito looked towards Hinata then gave a nod. Then looking at Naruto, he gave a strange smile and a thumbs up.

Although the explosion didn't spread, Dosu suffered heavily and at the same time created a lot of smoke, covering the whole area.

Zaku ran randomly, creating a gust of winds and shouted, calling for Dosu. He started panicking, not hearing Dosu reply. If something had happened to Dosu then the whole thing would turn even uglier.

"There." Kin cried out pointing to a half charred body on the ground.

"Dosu!" Zaku cried out and turned to Kin and glared at her for not acting fast enough.

Slapping Dosu a couple of times, Zaku frowned. Taking out a red bead-shaped item from his pouch, he hesitated for a bit before making Dosu swallow it. He even used chakra to help Dosu digest it faster.

[Instant Healing pill]

Effect: Quickly restores the Flesh and bones, and at the same time recover some chakra.

Duration: 30 minutes

Side Effect: After one use, the user will go into the state of chakra exhaustion and will require chakra supplementation for the next six hours. The exhaustion will lead to death if not supplemented.

[Made by Yakus.h.i.+ Kabuto]

"Kabuto? So it was that person…" Raito nodded his head, looking at the stats of the Pill and trying to remember Kabuto's face.

Zaku helped Dosu dissolve the pill and shouted, "Lord Orochimaru will abandon us if we don't complete this mission. Get up!"

'Orochimaru.' Raito looked at Zaku's back, ready to run a kunai through him.

"Ah…" Dosu gave a weak reply, showing that the pill has shown its effect.

It was a disgusting show then. The bones were starting to get covered by a thin transparent layer, then muscle started growing like wriggling b.l.o.o.d.y threadworms. Thin yellow threads started drilling through the muscles before getting covered with skin. Like heads popping up and down, there was movement under Dosu's skin but Zaku didn't care. He only wanted for Dosu to wake up right now.

It seemed that the situation had turned worse for them. Their mission was to make contact and fight with Uchiha Sasuke in what so every way possible. Zaku though that it would be very easy but the situation right now was really bad.

Right now Zaku had a frown in his face. Preparing his chakra, Zaku turned around to face Kin with his hands, pointing towards her.

Seeing that Kin was unfazed, Zaku frowned. Kin had her kunai out looking at a distance, at Hinata who also had her kunai out.

Both threw their kunai at the same time, making a 'ding' sound in the air.

"d.a.m.n." Zaku cursed, turned and pointed his hand forward towards Hinata. "You should just die!"

"How boring." 'Kin' sighed taking out a talisman from her pocket, which she threw down.

The characters in the talisman paper lit up, signifying the activating of the seals.

"Zaku!" Dosu suddenly opened his eyes and shouted. He used whatever power left in his body and grabbed Zaku. With a fierce stomp, Dosu jumped a couple of meters away.

Puff!

Black smoke was released from the talisman covering the whole of the area.

"We were tricked!" Dosu immediately activated his super hearing "To your ten… that Konohkunoichi is coming. Go all out!"

Dosu grabbed Zaku's back pouch and took out two extendable metallic rods.

"It's good that you carry this." Dosu nodded then struck the metals together then activated his chakra, connecting with the rod core.

Dosu waved the rods then looked at Zaku, "Then I will go first. Be alert."

It seemed that they had already forgotten about their third teammate 'Kin'.

Turning to Hinata, Dosu snorted then waved his rods before das.h.i.+ng towards her.

"I am ready!!" Zaku exhaled a mouthful of air, then slowly raised his hands, locking into Hinata. He could feel the pressure in his arms. This time he had used all chakra that was left in his body.

"[Decapitating Air-oaf!"

Before Zaku could finish releasing the acc.u.mulated chakra, he was. .h.i.t right below the heart. The pain made him crouch down and grip his abdomen. He also lost control over his chakra, letting red bulges appear on his arms. It was the chakra that had acc.u.mulated in the pipes.

The Genjutsu was canceled as soon as Raito hit Zaku. He stood with black rocks covering his hands, looking at Zaku, looking at his blatant weakness. Raito looked at a stone and waved his arms.

Naruto popped transforming from the stone, taking a Fuinjutsu set out with him.

Dosu waved his hands countless times while running, generating sound waves and at the same time used chakra to control it.

Widely raising his blades high, Dosu struck the rods before throwing them towards Hinata. "Bang!!"

And as expected, those rods were also easily deflected by Hinata's chakra covered hands.

After releasing the rods, Dosu went for Hinata's head and heart, trying to kill her in one blow. "I am gonna make your blood-"

Before Dosu had even touched Hinata, Naruto popped out of nowhere and stuck to his front grabbing his hands and destroying his plan. The shockwave acc.u.mulating in his palm touched Naruto's clone, immediately destroying hit. But it didn't matter as more and more clones appeared from nowhere kicking him and punching him.

Dosu would swing his arm as fast as possible, destroying all the shadow clones near him with his shockwave.

Two Naruto clones appeared to Dosu's side, their palm aiming at Dosu.

'[Shadow Clone version: Gale Palm]'

Hinata struck from front, right at his chest.

'[Eight Trigrams: Air Palm]'

Under this combination attack, Dosu flew high cras.h.i.+ng at one of the tall trees.

Raito walked silently towards Dosu then paused for a while. He looked down at the extending shadow which was retreating before heaving a sigh of relief.

Raito pushed his chakra and placed his fingers over, Dosu's back. Instantly, two black lines with red dots appeared on his neck. One for restraining his chakra and the other a petrifying seal, blocking all the conscious actions.

"You can come out, s.h.i.+kamaru," Raito shouted.

s.h.i.+kamaru and Chōji walked out of the bushes with a smile on their faces.

"We didn't have to work for our scroll even a bit." s.h.i.+kamaru showed Raito the earth scroll from Zaku's pouch and their own heaven scroll.

"More importantly we got to meet with Raito," Chōji emphasized with his actions jumping onto Raito.

"Hey, Raito!" Ino stood on the tree looking at the faint talisman paper stuck on the trunk. "What's this!?"

"That? That is a seal I made but we didn't have a chance to use it." Raito shrugged his shoulders and explained it simply.

s.h.i.+kamaru looked around at the devastation then crouched down, looking at Dosu, "Did you get yours?"

"Of course we did." Raito patted his chest and added. "A long time ago."

s.h.i.+kamaru raised his brows and looked at quizzically.

"Then let's go. The faster, the better… I don't want to stay in this G.o.dd.a.m.ned forest anymore." s.h.i.+kamaru turned and poked on Dosu's face waiting for some reaction.

"If I could I would have done that." Raito sighed then along with s.h.i.+kamaru went to the tree surrounded by the earth wall, where he had asked Naruto to drag Team 8.

While walking, Raito told everyone what had happened until now.

s.h.i.+kamaru stopped and looked over Sasuke and Kiba who were still not awake. Feeling his face twitching, he patted his face and said, "Orochimaru of the Snake Sannin… that's unlucky. Double unlucky."

s.h.i.+kamaru crouched down and used a '[Diagnosis Jutsu]' on Akamaru. "Broken bones."

It was like trying to sell himself…

"I know." Raito rolled his eyes as he held Akamaru on his hand. "[Heal]"

The bones which were previously broken were aligned and connected with a soft layer of whiteness.

"[Earth Cover]" Then Raito made a small jacket like structure with earth covering Akamaru's body strong enough to force Akamaru to not move.

Raito used his [Observe] skill and smiled looking at the healing process. "At least one day or even less."

After looking after Akamaru, Raito walked towards s.h.i.+no and asked plainly. "How's your body doing?"

"Raito-san… With wounds like this, I don't think I can partic.i.p.ate in the next round." s.h.i.+no answered truthfully and plainly.

"… Even if you don't want to partic.i.p.ate… you have to complete this round. Fire country Daimyō, Wind country Daimyō and various other small nations want Sasuke to be displayed on the stage a month from now"

Using '[Heal]' a couple of times, Raito stood up and sighed, "I think you can figure out why and what not things."

s.h.i.+no moved his shaking hands and fixed his gla.s.ses, "I think I have some idea what is going on. I would guess that-"

"Shut it! Get some rest, you will feel new when you wake up." Raito turned around and walked towards Kiba.

"Seals!?" an involuntary question rose from Raito's mouth, looking at Naruto drawing seals on his finger.

"Yep, its seals." Ino nodded sagely waving her finger.

"A complex level… maybe level five. Naruto-kun is trying to undo the seal, right now." Hinata added.

Bang!

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata appeared behind Naruto holding him.

Naruto was forced back by the rebound force from the collision between the seals on the Kiba and his own chakra.

[Forced Sleep Seal]

Expiration time - 2 days 12 hours

"It's a forced sleep seal and will last for two days if we don't do anything," Raito explained to everyone then extended his hand forward.

"[Destroy Fuinjutsu]" Red glow covered Raito's hand then traveled to Kiba's body tracing the seal-work.

[Destroy Fuinjutsu Lvl 40]

After a minute had pa.s.sed, the seal-work on Kiba's body started disappearing, slowly little by little.

When it completely disappeared, Kiba woke up then started blinking rapidly. Letting out a loud yawn, Kiba greeted everyone, "Everyone's here? That's great."

His hands reached for Akamaru but before patting his head, Kiba noticed the ugly looking jacket-like thing covering him.

"Hey, Akamaru what's that?" Kiba traced the homemade earthen jacket and gave it a few sniffs.

"Kiba~!!" Ino raged.

Bang!

"Ino-chan!" Hinata called out, stopping her from raining down any more punches.

"You!! Just look at your team!" Ino kicked Kiba then pointed at Sasuke and s.h.i.+no.

"Ino, calm down." Chōji pulled Ino back.

"Shees.h.!.+" Kiba twitched. He wanted to move, but he felt too much pain when trying to move.

"If you beat Kiba too much, Raito will have to use too much chakra. Then he will have to…"

"… BakChōji!!" Ino gripped her fist then looked at Chōji with fires burning on the background.

"Raito!" s.h.i.+kamaru shouted then there was a 'thwack' sound.

"s.h.i.+ka!" Raito hurriedly stood up, turning to the shout when a shadow went by his left.

[Fast Thinking]

's.h.i.+ka!' 'Sasuke?' looking around Raito saw Sasuke standing. His back facing Raito, Sasuke was covered in purplish chakra. Black tattoo covered his body, giving a creepy feeling.

Under '[Fast Thinking]' chakra threads escaped from Raito's body and latched on to s.h.i.+kamaru.

s.h.i.+kamaru never thought that his kind-hearted support of poking Sasuke with a stick would go to such a waste. He promised to never do it in the future, ever again.

Just as he closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable fate of cras.h.i.+ng, s.h.i.+kamaru felt a light tug on his arms, legs and various other parts of the bodies.

"s.h.i.+ka! What happened?" Naruto pulled s.h.i.+kamaru down.

"Stop, Naruto. Stop!" s.h.i.+kamaru pushed Naruto, who was pulling his broken arm or something, then clutched his arm in pain.

"s.h.i.+kamaru!" Ino ran and immediately crouched down and used '[Diagnostic Jutsu]', discovering soft tissue damage on his arm.

Hinata also used the '[Diagnostic jutsu]' then quickly used '[Mystic Palm Technique]' on him.

"Sasuke! What the h.e.l.l was that!?" Ino stood up and while pointing at Sasuke, she shouted with anger.

Raito looked at Sasuke in anger but his first priority was s.h.i.+kamaru right now.

He crouched down and used '[Heal]' on him. Seeing the relief on s.h.i.+kamaru's face, Raito calmed down.

Naruto who was crouching beside s.h.i.+kamaru looked at Sasuke. He frowned looking at s.h.i.+kamaru, at his injured arm. Even Chōji was holding himself back. His big hands gripping Naruto's shoulder.

"Oi! Raito… fight me… I'll show you today who is stronger." Sasuke chuckled looking at his hands and said even without looking back. He felt so much stronger right now and thinking about it, there were perfect targets for his practice.

Raito nodded as he looked at s.h.i.+kamaru's worried face then stood up. The 'Seal lines' on Raito's body appeared on his will. Looking at Sasuke, Raito replied to Sasuke's challenge "I wanted to beat Oto-s.h.i.+n.o.bi first but… I guess I will have to start with you."