Naruto: Wolf of the Hidden Leaf

One second.

That was all the time it took to make the situation turn 180 degrees. Just as I saw the horrifying deeds inside the cave, my instincts kicked in. My enhanced night vision far surpassing anyone of the groups picked up things even experienced shinobis might miss.

Without even wasting a heartbeat, I grabbed my sword with my right hand, infused my chakra and with clear precision slashed right towards the chunin beside me. I found heard the sweet sound of my sword slicing through his neck.

He did not even have time to react to my movements as his head went flying and his body went limp. Along with the hidden kunai he was just moments away from throwing right at my heart. Red hot blood splattered all over my face and I kicked the body away before my vision was impaired by the blood.

Even before the dead body could hit the ground, I launched myself towards the chunin right beside Daigo. Neither Daigo nor Sayuri were even mentally prepared to tackle their sudden predicament and I did not have enough time to reach Sayrui before her opponent chopped her head off.

Thankfully, we had a jonin with us. A sword appeared out of nowhere and stabbed the chunin beside Sayuri right through his heart.

I was keeping tabs of the battlefield as my sword clashed with the enemy's kunai. Seeing as he had blocked my sword, he did not even notice the five-foot-tall wolf that was hiding in his shadows.

Umbra lunged from his shadow and but directly on his neck. Blood poured out of his neck slowly as his body gradually went limp.

Seeing this another chunin tried to rush towards Umbra, but halted on his steps sensing that I will definitely kill him if he takes even a single step.

The remaining three jonins and chunins took a step back and took a defensive formation. Just as soon as Umbra had finished his kill, we took a simple formation.

Sayrui and Daigo had already recovered. Although they still had no idea what the hell was going on, they were at least smart enough to be battle ready. Sayuri activated her Byakugan while taking her stance and Daigo enlarged his wrists with partial expansion, getting ready to punch things to oblivion.

Reiga sensei had summoned an enormous great sword within this time and was wielding it with both of his hands.

"This was not part of the request Tatsumi. Is the Hot Water village betraying Konoha? You should know the backlash your village is going to face for doing this."

"Sensei, they're not shinobis from the village. Well, not anymore, I think. The bandit hideout we were supposed to investigate is filled with corpses, most probably the villages they had raided before. They are most probably cultist follower of someone named Lord Jashin."

With my mention of their Lord's name, smiles blossomed in their faces. A smile that emitted so much collective bloodlust that even I felt hesitant.

"When did you find out about us, little genin?" the jonin woman from before asked.

Seeing that they were not attacking and were more interested in talking about unnecessary things, I decided to stall them while I prepared for the eventual fight we were going to have to do. Although initially I had identified a total of hundred chakra signatures, upon closer inspection I have realized that only twenty of them were actually shinobis.

The excess smell of blood along with the fact that the hideout was underground made it difficult for me initially to properly understand the enemies. But now with Umbra's help, I had a much better picture.

The underground hideout was not as simple as I had initially though. Rather it is an intricate tunnel system that might even encompass the whole area. And those tunnels had exit points around us. Behind one of which, the twenty or so Jashinists were going to come through to block our escape.

And even if we wanted to escape from the front, we needed to go through three jonins and three chunins to whom surprise attacks won't work.

We wouldn't have been in this situation if I had been an extra bit careful. I had initially thought that we might face Jashinists, but I discarded the idea considering the fact that timeline doesn't add up. Hidan's betrayal and his eventual join of Akatsuki happens much later. I had assumed the Jashinists weren't a threat yet. According to what I remembered, Hidan doesn't show up for years. But now I wasn't sure. What if he joined Jashinists earlier than expected? Immortality would've made time irrelevant. If Hidan was present in this hideout then we were so screwed.

Fighting Hidan without having any immobilizing technique is practically suicide. I can hit him with the strongest Rasengan I can and he'll probably dust off that damage within seconds and try to taste my blood. And our team didn't exactly have anyone like Shikamaru who can use his 'Shadow Paralysis' to incapacitate Hidan momentarily.

I put my attention elsewhere. I'll shelve the what if scenarios for later, but first we needed to deal with this group. A battle plan started to form in my mind as I started stalling the cultists.

"I noticed the moment I met your team that something was wrong. You had bleached your whole body to hide the smell of blood but that just made it more suspicious. So, as handy precaution, I left a shadow clone. I recalled him instantly when I saw what the hell was in that cave."

Tatsumi seemed displeasured hearing that. He clicked his tongue as he spoke,

"Youngsters now-a-days are so unreliable. They didn't even check their surroundings before they started the ritual, did they?"

"No, they didn't. After my clone saw them making weird markings and saying something about immortality through killing or something; it quickly dispatched them without much problem." I said in a provocative tone. Tatsumi was clearly the strongest one on the surface. If he makes even a little mistake then we could get out of this situation even more quickly.

But he did not bite. Rather he seemed oddly pleased that his subordinates died. Fucking psychopaths. Whatever. My preparations were done.

Throwing an explosive kunai with my left hand, I created the diversion while I formed the necessary hand signs. Umbra like the good hunter that he is had already sneaked right behind them. He did not try to bite or anything. He just howled.

'Demonic Howl Technique'

A piercing howl traveled through the night as even I felt the recoil of the technique to an extent. This was the problem with sound based genjutsu. Unlike visual type genjutsu, it doesn't have the precision needed to target someone specifically. But in return it had a much larger AoE than the visual genjutsu. Perfect for using on multiple targets at once. And as I used this technique earlier this day, Reiga sensei might have some idea on how to take control without taking much damage.

The only reason I even bothered to talk to Tatsumi was for my team to warn about the upcoming attack and prepare themselves appropriately while Umbra got as close as he possibly could towards the targets.

From my periphery, I noticed that Sayuri and Daigo had opted to close their ears with their hands. It was quite comical to see Daigo hold his ears with his partially expanded enormous hands. Reiga sensei had used an ear plug and he was in fighting shape just as quickly as me.

With visual communication, we identified our targets and launched right towards the enemy. Reiga sensei was going towards the three jonins who were quite disoriented by the attack, but did not flat out fall unconscious. Meanwhile, my target was the three remaining chunins who were already showing signs of fainting.

Does it seem morally wrong to cut down foes that cannot resist?

I would've said 'yes' in most cases, but not when they are bloodthirsty cultists.

Umbra lunged and clamped his jaws around a chunin's neck as I imbued my sword the chakra and cut right through the torso of another chunin in half. Blood sprayed through every cut I made and I subconsciously wondered if there was a jutsu to keep blood off my body while fighting. With my left hand, I threw a kunai towards the last remaining opponent. But surprisingly, she blocked it on the very last second and tried to counterattack in an awkward way.

Being able to move while under my genjutsu, she must have good charka control. That didn't matter as multiple of her chakra points were disabled within a second by Sayruri and Daigo closed in as she got crushed by arms the size of her torso.

I nodded towards them with confirmation as I instructed Umbra to find the exact location of the tunnel that the cultists were going to get out through. As Umbra went towards his way, I found Reiga sensei fighting with three of the jonins. Fighting three jonins at once was much harder that fighting inexperienced chunins. And judging by how Reiga sensei fought mainly with his enormous great-sword, I would assume that he didn't have the best speed here.

That was especially bad considering the three jonins had perfect teamwork. Tatsumi was using earth style ninjutsu to block most of sensei's attack while the blond woman used her daggers to try and swiftly land a blow on his vitals.

But Reiga sensei was much more masterful with his weapon as he placed it perfectly to block and divert her attacks. The remaining jonin was using his wind style to support both his combatants. They had experience working together before.

I debated whether or not I should go try and help him, but ultimately decided against it. Twenty more problems had just been added to our problems and they were not at all like the untrained chunins we had just faced.

I wasn't even sure if those we face just now were actual chunin or not. Doesn't matter anymore.

I looked towards my two teammate whom I had met just this morning. And now we were going to fight twenty trained shinobis while having a severe home field handicap.

I should've been scared. Hell, I probably was. But as my blade hummed in my hand and the shadows stirred with enemies, I felt my lips curl into a grin.

I had never known battle like this—where every breath could be your last, and a single misstep meant death. It was terrifying, exhilarating… intoxicating.

I think I can get used to this.