A New Story

Loyalty to the Leaf:

The three gathered their courage and made chase after the spy to the Bridge. Knowing that their opponent outmatch them, they trusted in the reliance the Leaf held in its defences. The Bridge stretched over a large fault in the Earth's surface, one that few shinobi risked jumping and almost none could climb out of. Thus the access of the bridge became a land mark of defence and a critical strategic point of the utmost significances. For if the bridge where to fall or be taken by the enemy then that sector of the Leaf would become a fault in their defences and a crack in their amour, just as the crack in the Earth's surface; it would be a fault in the Leaf's guard.

Argies, who knew he could no longer rely on his abilities, hoped pensively that this sector of the Forest held its own garrison of shinobi; Shinobi that could surround Kabuto in an entrapment that would not rely upon Argies and his companions to seal the rear.

Naoki, who knew so little of the Leaf by his short time there yet remembered so much of what he shouldn't know as related to him by the Sand's intelligence sect in preparation for the Invasion, preserved his wanting for this moment. He knew with this mission he could reveal his intentions to be that of an ally, and as ambassador of the Sand, he could finally spark a friendship between the Fire and Wind.

Hatari, who was a greater mystery of all the others and leader of the current mission, sadly bit away at her temptations. As Konoichi, a ninja raised to be a spy, she had marvelled over the details she found whispered about Kabuto. His mission history as a mole was clouded by many half-truths, events that had been a shame to the ninja fooled by his deception but occasions Hatari drooled over. She refused to let a simply mission interrupt her opportunity to... misbehave with her eternal affection.

The three split, formation snare, they wanted their radius around Kabuto to prevent his escape to only that of the bridge; each summoning up their strongest will and greatest techniques to avert Kabuto's retreat.

Hatari removed her weapons from their holsters at her hip; Shining chakra down their strings, turning their spinning glory into cutting edges. She began to swing her weapons into the air whistling with technique, Kabuto will not pass this way. Weapon arts and Experience was Hatari's tool of obstruction this mission.

Argies knowing his blood mist jutsu was a danger to him and his team, fell back on his old tact; traps. Skilled in his preparation of trap making he unsealed a large reel of ninja wire, scattering kunai through the trees in his pass, with each thump of metal into wood dozens of paper bombs were strung up by the ninja wire attached to his kunai. Kabuto will not pass this way, entanglement and explosives were Argies jutsu today.

Naoki who had summoned up his greatest weapon even before the others, did not run so readily ahead. Now within the Leaf, he gathered his wit and sent his vision of destruction before him; his Arts of pain and suffering. His steady pace matching his comrades, now slowed to a stroll through the green Leafs and deep brown woods of the Forest. Taking in the shady hue of the freshly stripped bark, the scent in the air, seeing up to the distant blue sky that seemed to stretch for ever, he pondered the resulting mayhem his beast would cause on gazing around at the destruction it left behind. The trees were shattered and the canopy of the forest collapsed in pattern headed towards the bridge and Kabuto.

...

I was nearing the bridge when I heard the loud crashing of tees. I jumped up into a tall tree and look up into the sky at the horizon, scanning for any sign of smoke. The crashing wasn't coming from behind me, Kabuto couldn't be setting off my traps already, and there was no smoke ahead. These heavy rumbles of trees falling vibrated through the ground like small Earthquakes; extending the sound of large slow timbering hulks colliding with the Earth with dreadful thundering crashes and momentous power. These impacts are not coming from my traps. The trees are not being felled by paper bombs. I began to fear what was ahead; not just a gut feeling of fear that should be hushed away to press on, but a fear that was meaningful and wise. Accepting this fact I could not force myself to confront Kabuto; to rush ahead with eager ambition to capture or stop him at the bridge would be foolish. My precipitous actions slowed and I felt myself slip into the darkness, peering eyes out like a phantom of shadows I would act as the silent assassin assessing when my target was vulnerable to attack.