Naruto : Shadow King

30 hours, that how long took me to reach to the kidnappers with the help of divine dogs. I was sleepy as hell and was running low on chakra, don't even get me started with how tired I was after all that time. I only took 3 little breaks along the way and that too because I just couldn't go on.

It's already been almost two days since I left Konoha, by now things would have been already troublesome back in the village about my absence. Mainly both uncle and aunt. This was the exact reason I summoned another divine dog and send him to Konoha with a letter.

Just had to deliver the letter to the gatekeepers, and I learned that they got it. The only thing I wrote in the mission was that I needed more time to complete the mission as I was going further north.

Do you know what's the north of Konoha or the land of fire. Guess?

It's the country of Rice…

Now many wouldn't understand the importance of a country of rice by just name, so let me put it this way, the country of Rice has a shinobi village. Hidden Village of Sound.

The very same is established by a certain snake Sanin. I only realised where they were going after seeing the bigger picture on the map.

They kidnap 20 kids and head towards the country of Rice where Orochimaru has set up his own Shinobi village. Yeah, there is no way this is simple human trafficking and slavery.

My best guess would be that they are another one of his unfortunate batch of test subjects.

…

I can't believe that he is kidnapping people from so close to Konoha. Well, it's certainly not him personally, so there is still hope that I can save those children.

By the time I reached to them, it was already night. I was hiding up in a nearby tree, trying to scout the place around.

"5 common thugs and only one shinobi. I can't say his rank and there is no entry of this person in the Bingo book. But for the time being, anticipating a chunin-level strength from him will be my safe bet." I mutter as I was planning.

Divine Dog did an excellent job, being able to track them at 4 4-day distance. Even though they were moving slowly as kids can't move that fast but still, count me impressed.

'I might have no idea how other dogs do in this regard, let alone ninja dogs but for the time being, I Shika Nara declare you the strongest.'

They are sleeping out in the open, at least the common thugs are, they have no idea how open they are right now. And the so-called shinobi too haven't instructed them, which kind of makes sense as to why he should care about them, he wouldn't care whether they live or die as long as they don't know them personally and only work together for profit, but it's still a mistake.

While that shinobi was hiding well in the woods and covering his tracks but this thug here gave away his location. Spotting him at night was hard but my dog's nose was insane.

Most likely they are hiding the children deep inside the forest. I have to find them, without doing so I can't initiate an attack against the thugs.

And then there is that Shinobi. I have no idea how strong he is but I have to be careful against him.

The only problem is that I am almost out of Chakra, sleepy and tired.

Sleepiness I can handle, I am just good when it comes to sleep management, consider it a personal talent. I am tired but not enough that I need to rest just right now. But the chakra is the biggest problem here.

I never had the biggest chakra pool in the first place, close to Shikamaru, maybe a little better seeing how hard I trained recently. But that is not enough.

Summoning a Divine dog, even one takes quite some chakra, good thing that after summoning maintaining them needs little to no chakra but still, I had been maintaining him for very long at this point.

'Okay let's see, I can either summon another dog and use shadow manipulation or use one clone one time, and then I will mostly be out of chakra. Sigh, I envy Naruto so much right now.'

"Good thing I have you out here." I look at the black dog in front of me, summoning two dogs would have cost me too much chakra but if it's only maintaining him then I can do it easily.

Another good thing that I summon the black one, he has a natural camouflage effect at night.

"Okay boy, it's on you again, I want you to find the exact location of those kids, and make sure that you are silent, we don't want to wake them up," I whispered to him and to this he just nodded.

Slowly take me away from the thugs, finding where they are hiding the children.

.

.

.

A wise man once said that if something can go wrong, there is no doubt that it will go wrong, unfortunately for me, I just can't remember these wise quotes when I need them. Only after the deed has been done.

I stood in front of a man clearly in his twenties, he was the shinobi who I wanted to avoid the most. Apparently, he wasn't in the place where I thought him to be. That was a decoy.

Wearing the most basic shinobi outfit and almost covering his face, he looks kind of menacing. He had his face covered with a cloth and even was wearing glass. No headband on his face to identify his affiliation.

"You shouldn't have come here, Konoha Genin."

"Then you shouldn't have kidnap kids so close from Konoha."

It was dark, but thanks to the quickly approaching morning, there was enough light now that I could see the enemy clearly.

He could see those kids at my sight, the divine dog did his work excellently but only when I was so close to breaking them out, did this guy show up.

"It doesn't matter, you will never go back." Said the man as he formed some hand signs before holding onto his own hand. And then rush at me.

It was strange, but whatever, I took out a kunai, not resorting to use Ninjutsu as I was already running low on Chakra.

With kunai I swung my hand, it was clear by the man's action that he wanted to touch me with that one hand he was holding. I am not sure why but I am not that big of an idiot to let him.

I dodged and swung my kunai again, but it was clear that the man was much more skilled them me here. All I had done was practise fighting, but he had real-life fighting experience, it was clear by looking at how he was fighting.

I kept my distance as both of us fought. Making sure that I don't make any noise otherwise, there is a possibility that those thugs will come here.

He was bigger than me and much stronger, but I was faster. And honestly, I believe that this guy was having some problem seeing me in the dark, understandable when he wear those glasses in the night.

I pivot as his hand comes close to me and at the same motion throw the kunai I was holding right at his face.

Fully taking advantage of his few blind spots thanks to the glasses he was wearing, I landed a hit. It was a point-blank attack and no one except someone with good experience can dodge that attack. It's strange how shinobi don't throw the kunai at close combat fighting.

The man was able to barely dodge the attack, it left a slash mark on his face, he was taken aback, and I could sense his urge to take out those glasses.

But I didn't let him.

Keeping up the onslaught I kept on attacking. As the fight was happening he suddenly took out a Kunai and instead of throwing it at me, he threw it at one of those sleeping children.

My eyes widened, and though the kunai didn't hit any to my relief but that one distraction cost me. He outright tackled me to the ground and held me down while keeping his right hand on my head.

I immediately try to resist but then something happens. I felt it, my chakra…

'My chakra is getting absorbed.'

Eyes wide I look at the person in front of me, earlier I had no idea who this person was but now I know. There are very limited people who can absorb chakra and this guy was one of them. He originally fought Sasuke in the Chunin exam and surprise surprise he works for Orochimaru.

"You shouldn't have come here alone. What kind of idiot even takes such an underpaid mission? Coming all the way here for just 15,000 Ryo." He said with a little huff, both of us were huffing.

"I didn't …

I didn't see the price money before taking the mission. First C rank you see. Don't want to put a bad record on my books." I said with struggling as my Chakra was getting absorbed.

"And for the record, I am not alone." Suddenly the shadow under me darkened even more and a black dog ambushed the enemy, directly grabbing onto his neck.

xxx

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