The Power to Heal and Destroy by Phoenixsun

Chapter 36: A Simple World is Worthless

Sighing, the Sharingan user accepted defeat. "Ok, Lee, you win this time..." He relented. "But you better not get yourself killed here or I will go the afterlife myself and drag you back just so I can beat the living hell out of you..." He warned his teammate. "Or better yet, I'll turn you over to Tenten and let her decide your punishment." The spiky haired boy added before turning around.

With another smile on his face, Lee gave his friend a quick glance. "Don't worry, I promise." The older teen said as he gave his friend a thumbs up.

Naruto started running back towards the movie set as Lee and the former Iwa shinobi resumed the fight. It took every last bit of the blonde's self-control to ignore the sounds of battle coming from behind him and keep his focus in the path ahead. "I'm serious, Lee... You better win..." The Sharingan user thought as he ran through the trees.

Eventually, the sounds of Lee's fight faded out, but unfortunately they were soon replaced by new sounds of struggle. Realizing that there was a battle going on back in the movie set, Naruto sped up his pace.

Yukie had gotten pretty far when she original ran off, and the fight with Gareki had taken the Leaf genin even further away than he had originally realized.

As he approached his destination, cold sweat started to run down the back of the blonde's neck. "The fight... Is over..." He said to himself after his surroundings had gone silent. The young man gritted his teeth and prepared himself for what could be waiting for him just beyond the tree line.

Destruction; that was the simplest way to describe the state of the movie set Naruto had returned too. Broken sets, twisted steel pipes, smoking mountains of rubble; it was hard for the blond to tell what had been caused by the original explosion and what had been from the fight he had heard. Eventually, the genin's sapphire eyes found the lifeless body of an impossibly fat man lying inside a perfectly round crater and surrounded by over dozens of kunai and shuriken, clear indication that he had been defeated by Neji and Tenten.

"I told him to be careful... But he refused to listen." A voice suddenly said from behind the Leaf ninja.

Immediately, the spiky haired boy wiped around towards the source of the voice, a kunai ready in his hand.

A young man with black haired tied up in a pony-tail walked calmly from the edge of the movie set. "I tried to warn Gentan that he had never faced a Gentle Fist user before, but I guess he though all the fat on his body would protect him... If he had only heeded my words he would not have died so pathetically... So sad, he was always very entertaining." The new comer said in an almost amiable tone despite talking about a dead acquaintance. "And from what I could hear from here, Gareki did not fare any better against you, Uzumaki-san."

Naruto's eyes narrowed as they focused on the Hidden Mist headband with an X carved on it that hung from the man's shirt and made note that, just like Gareki, this man knew his name as well. "Who are you and where is everybody?" The boy asked.

Smiling, the man focused on the younger ninja. "My name is Kikaku Honda... I guess you can think of me as Gareki's superior." He responded plainly. "As for the movie crew... I do believe that the Aburame boy is leading them back to the hotel. However, unfortunately for the Hyuuga and the kunoichi, the moment they defeated Gentan, my associates descended upon them. The two of them put up an impressive fight, but they were eventually overpowered." The man commented.

"What?!" Naruto exclaimed, bearing his fangs as the Sora Sharingan manifested itself on the boy's eyes.

Immediately, Honda brought his hands up. "Do not be so alarmed." He said. ""I'm not entirely sure why, but my employers decided to capture them instead of outright killing them, so you should be glad about that." The man casually added.