The Masked Shinobi

Lingering Shadows

Warnings: mention of kidnapping, and mention of blood and violence

Please enjoy!

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"It's not fair!" Naruto screeched in frustration, for what felt like the millionth time.

"Naruto, there's no point in complaining," Sakura drawled out, clearly irritated with her blonde teammate's constant whine about the day's earlier fight.

"It's not fair!" Naruto yelled again, stomping his bare foot against the wooden floor of Tazun's house. Then pointed at the older Uchiha while glaring at the pink-haired kunoichi, as he continued yelling, "Sensei had that bandage-faced weirdo cornered! But that wolf masked clown, stolen his victory!"

Obito sighed, it has been like this for the last three days since the Wolf appeared and the end of the battle. When they arrived at the village, the group could hear sounds of celebration and the delicious smell of cooking meat. Then saw that the missing children of the village have been rescued and returned to their families, and several large baskets full of roots, berries, and wild vegetables from the mainland, as well as fish, rabbit carcasses, and three deer carcasses. While some of the village prepared food to celebrate the return of the children of their village.

"Naruto." The Uchiha-sensei called out to finally get the blonde Uzumaki's attention. Before adding in a calm tone, "winning the fight is not our team's main priority. It was to get the bridge builder back to his village, not win against every fight we come across."

"Sensei? That man, he stopped the Chidori, has that ever happened before?" Sasuke asked his older cousin in almost a fearful form of curiosity.

"I've never heard of anyone beating that Chidori in a one-on-one match, before," Iruka added, holding his chin between his thumb and forefinger.

"No, Sasuke. This was the first time I ever had the Chidori stopped or overpowered," Obito confirmed in a disappointed sigh, knowing Kakashi would be rolling in his grave if he has seen how Obito dishonor his prized jutsu technique.

"So, what are we gonna do if they come back?" Naruto loudly asked the question on everybody's mind.

"The power of the Chidori is not the only thing that makes us strong. You all know we are strong in our ways, and we have many ways of defeating an opponent." Obito spoke with pride and confidence, knowing he needs to raise his team's morale.

"The villagers seem pretty adamant, that they weren't the group causing trouble, or showing up again," Iruka commented as well, still unsure what to think about the group of rogue shinobi.

"More like they see them as heroes," Sasuke scoffed while looking deep in thought.

"Well, they did save and return their children, and brought food to the starving village," Sakura drawled out, remembering the villagers celebrating when they arrived in the village.

"SO ARE THEY ENEMIES OR ALLIES!! IT'S TOO CONFUSING!!" Naruto screeched while clutching his head.

"Naruto stop yelling," Iruka spoke in a warning tone.

"Yes, Iruka-sensei," Naruto dramatically drawled out.

"What's done is done. All we can do now is guard the village from Goto's henchman while they finish the bridge. However, keep your guard up, we don't know how many enemies are lingering in the shadows," Obito spoke, getting his team focused on the task at hand.

"Yes, Sensei," the three students replied in unison, as the Umino nodded in agreement.

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A week has passed, since the fight with the Wolf, Demon of the Mist, and the teen with a Mist Anbu mask. Things have so far been uneventful, besides the few bandits here and there. That all confessed to working for or being hired by Goto.

The group has been staying at Tazun's house, where they make sure the man was always guarded. When was working on the construction of the bridge he was always accompanied by Iruka or Obito and at least two if not all three students. Since the Uchiha-sensei decided that have his three students train to improve their chakra control. It would benefit them in fighting some of the lower-level bandits that Goto keeps sending their way.

However, Obito doesn't mind it since it gives his student some experience in fighting with enemies. Instead of fighting in a spar, knowing your opponent will not kill you. Of course, the two Sensei keep a close eye on the students when they are fighting in case, they need assistance.

After the second week, the bridge is almost finished and Naruto managed to get Inari, the master bridge builder's grandson, to open up and start believing in heroes again. After saving him and his mother from two bandits that tried to kidnap them at their house, to force Tazuna to stop the bridge's completion. That made the boy start smiling and following the blonde Uzumaki around.

During their time in the village, Obito and Iruka tried to get as much information on the kidnapping and kidnappers as possible. At first, the children were too afraid to talk about their experiences in the hands of who they called the Bad Man. However, slowly, and with the experience Iruka has with children, the rescued children told them their stories of what happened.

A large majority of the kids had a similar version of the incident, there were in bed for the night or walking in an empty street when a man grabbed them and covered their mouths before they could make a sound, then shortly after the world fades to nothingness. Only to wake up in cages too small to stand in and crowded with other children from their village. At most some of the children heard the Bad Man talking with a group of adults about transportation, and which shipments get sent to different hideouts. Before leaving his henchmen to prepare their new shipments for the journey.

However, that night several of the children saw a dark figure of a man with a white porcelain wolf mask with a painted design, swiftly kill their captors. Although, some of the older children noticed that the wolf-masked shinobi tried to prevent the little ones from seeing all the bloodshed. Before opening their cages and tell them it's time to go home. This made many of the children sob in relief, while the Wolf healed even the littlest of their injured.

When they were escorted out of the cave they were imprisoned in, they saw a man with short dark brown hair with bandages wrapped around his lower face and upper neck. He wore an X-shaped harness over his chest with light purple pants with thin dark violet stripes stitched straight down from one end to the other and white arm warmers designed with dark brown patches. The children could tell that this man was a shinobi since he had a headband tied lopsided on the left side of his upper forehead as the metal plate of a Hidden Mist Village symbol. Then the children noticed a teen wearing a white porcelain mask with the same shinobi village symbol, standing another few feet behind the man holding long steel needles.

Inari informed the two Sanseis' that before returning to the village, Wolf mentioned that he could sense a group with some strong chakra signatures approaching the village. However, the Wolf mentioned that the chakra signatures were not there to harm the village, and they need to return the kids and give the villagers the food before leaving. That's when he asked the Hidden Mist Shinobi to stall the approaching group, while he took the kids to their village.

After they gathered all the information they could from the kids, the Uchiha-sensei couldn't help but sigh at the change of events. Inwardly, Obito kind of felt bad for the information he was going to have to inform his Sensei about when they return to the Hidden Leaf Village. For now, though he's going to focus on protecting the Wave Village and its citizens. As the bridge builder finishes the last parts of the Bridge that will connect this struggling island to the mainland.

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Hello everyone! Sorry, it's been a while, and I've been super busy, and not in the best health as of late. I've been having a stressful time trying to finish this chapter as along with the other next updates in my other stories. I apologize for any grammar or spelling errors that you will come across in this chapter, I rushed it a bit to get it out to you all, as soon as possible, If you like this chapter please leave a vote and comment on what you thought about the chapter and what you think will happen next. Thank you all so much for taking the time to read this chapter, and I hope you're looking forward to reading the next update. Thanks again, and I hope you all have a wonderful day!