Naruto Of The Shadow Clones

Chapter 50 Off To The Race Track

Story Start: Hidden Leaf Village Training Ground 46 One Month After Operation Snowcap

Naruto hummed in thought as he looked at the Rasengan he held in his hand. The spinning sphere of chakra was practically screeching at him with all the wind chakra he pumped into it and four blades sprouted out along its middle. Behind him Matto and Heza stood ten feet away as Heza said "I think fire and water are the only two elements you could add. Lightning would just fizzle out and earth would just add blockage into the mix."

Matto nodded knowing that Naruto would sense the movement with his air sensing abilities and said "I think Heza's right, though how you're going to mix the fire into the wind without taking out a city block the moment you do is beyond me."

Naruto cocked his head and said "If the chakra wasn't revolving inwards into a central point, I could probably put wind on the top hemisphere and fire on the bottom…maybe I could figure out a way to make a shell of fire chakra around the wind or vice versa, you know, make a rasengan inside a semi rasengan."

"That sounds a bit difficult." Matto said. Naruto hummed in agreement but before he could continue the conversation, a hawk's cry from above grabbed Team Maelstrom's attention. Naruto took in the color of the hawk's vest before he made a gesture that had the hawk begin winging its way back to its perch in the village aviary while Team Maelstrom began making their way to the mission hall.

Ten minutes later, the trio were accepting a scroll from the chunnin on duty as they listened to Morino Ibiki as he gave his report.

"The two main factions involved with your mission are the Wasabi family headed by Boss Jirocho who has hired us and the Wagarashi family. These two families are the main pusher powers in the Land of Tea and as such, their rivalry borders on legendary. In the past the two took potshots at each other with such frequency that the Land of Tea's Daimyo finally had enough and proclaimed that whichever family won the Todoroki Shrine's ceremonial ritual race will be the one granted regional control of their traditional base of operations. This race takes place every four years and it has been learned that the Wagarashi family has hired ninja in order to sabotage the Wasabi Family's runner thus winning them the race. In response to this the Wasabi family has hired the Leaf to protect their runner.

"This would be a standard B-ranked possibly A-ranked protection mission except that events from this village's past has decided to make themselves once more relevant. For starters, the runner for the Wasabi family is my brother, Idate. Five years ago, he was a shinobi of the Leaf taking his first Chunnin exam. I presided over the first stage of his exam but had a different tenth question then I did for the previous exam. Idate failed the tenth question and was rather upset with me. We had an argument about the question and he took off. From what I could gather later, his former instructor Aoi Rokusho told him he could become a chunin by stealing a secret scroll and the Sword of the Thunder God. Idate did as instructed and gave the stolen items to Rokusho only to learn that he had been set up. Ashamed, Idate made the mistake of fleeing with his former instructor. Me and a team of Anbu tracked them down to the Land of Rain where Rokusho used my brother as a hostage and tortured me in an effort to allow him to use the scroll. We managed to escape and my brother eventually made his way to the Land of Tea where he was adopted into the Wasabi family. There is a letter I have written with your mission scroll that I wish for you to give to my brother when you see him." Morino visibly switched gears as his tone became even more serious than before as he continued speaking.

"We have received intel that Aoi Rokusho was one of the four ninja hired by the Wagarashi family to sabotage the Wasabi family's chances. This is the first time in five years that the man has been outside the Hidden Rain Village's protective jurisdiction meaning we are finally able to bring him in." Morino's face took on a particularly sadistic look as he said "Team Maelstrom, an add on of your mission has been approved by Lady Tsunade: I wish to have a long awaited chat with Rokusho, and you are going to make that possible. You are to capture him by any means necessary, bring him in as battered a condition as you wish, but I want him alive."