• Team three was on another mission about twenty miles north of Konoha. Their mission was to eliminate some shinobi that were in the area. According to the intelligence, the group was made of about ten chunnin and fifteen genin-leveled men.
    The team gathered next to a small spring to discuss the strategy. The four man cell huddled together to take their orders.
    “You three will head east and I will head west.” ordered Kazuya. “Scan the area as you go, and if you come into contact with the rouge shinobi eliminate them on the spot. Don’t ask question. Got it?”
    “Yes, Hokage-sama!” said the three boys in unison to their sensei.
    “Gatari you’re in charge this time.” said Kazuya.
    “Me?!” asked Monogatari surprised.
    “Something wrong with that?” asked Kazuya smiling.
    “No sensei.” Gatari replied immediately.
    “Fine then, I wish you boys good luck.” said Kazuya with a smile. “Scatter.”
    The boys headed east scanning for the smallest detail that a shinobi may be nearby. They traveled for a good five miles, and then stopped for a quick water break while making sure to stay on guard.
    “Well we haven’t seen anything yet.” said Shin.
    “No kidding. There have been no signs of any other shinobi.” said Renzo.
    “Still need to keep our guards up though.” said Gatari.
    “Yeah we know.” said Renzo.
    After taking the water break the boys stretched a bit. Then they huddled together.
    “Ok.” Gatari said. “Here on out Shin and I will be in front. Renzo you cover us from behind. Got it?”
    Renzo nodded his head in agreement. The boys set back out on the search. Jumping from branch to branch, they look for any clues. So far the boys could find nothing.
    “Gatari! Shin! Look out!” shouted Renzo.
    A kunai with a paper bomb flew in between Gatari and Shin. Time slowed as they watched the kunai, the paper bomb sizzled.
    Boom!
    The boys ducked behind a boulder for cover. Shin pulled out a scroll from his pouch, while Gatari and Renzo pulled out a kunai.
    “Come on out you little brats. We know where you’re hiding.” said a man.
    As soon as Gatari and Shin jumped out from behind the boulder, they charged at the men. The men threw a barrage of kunai at them. The boy effortlessly dodged and deflected all of them. Shin jumped behind Gatari and started stringing kunai together with paper bombs along the strings.
    “Ninja Art: Chakra Expansion Armor Jutsu!” Gatari shouted.
    Chakra enveloped his body making an armor-like covering and his eyes turned completely pure white. A shinobi charged the boys while pulling out a sword. Gatari went ahead, putting his right hand in a fist, the chakra extended and turned into sword–like form. Gatari blocked and held the man in place by enveloping the chakra around the blade.
    “Shin now!” ordered Gatari.
    “Right!” replied Shin.
    Jumping over them, he continued to charge. Then a man showed up behind him ready to swing an axe at his neck. Eye widening, Shin glanced back at the man.
    “Ninja Art: Shadow Stitching Jutsu!”
    The man yelled in pain as he was caught in mid-air. Shadow strings pierced and wrapped around his body, stabbing through his arms, legs, stomach, and even head.
    “Thanks Renzo!” thanked Shin.
    “No problem!” shouted Renzo.
    Shin jumped into the air and started to spin with incredible speed. Kunai flew in all direction making contact with tree, ground, and rock. As Shin landed on the ground a man swung a kunai. Shin ducked and as the man’s arm was over his head, he grabbed his arm. Taking a large, three spiked kunai from his pouch, Shin rammed it into the man’s throat.
    Shin and Gatari jumped back to Renzo. The men charged at the boys.
    “Kai!” shouted Shin.
    “Ninja Art: Shadow World Concealing Jutsu!” shouted Renzo.
    As the paper bombs ignited and exploded into a massive flame, Renzo shadow expanded and enveloped the three boys and then shrank into nothingness. The explosion was enormous leaving a profound carter. The smoke rose about fifty feet into the air.
    In the middle of the crater a small black dot appeared. The dot expanded, shapes rose from the shadow and then the shadow returned back to Renzo.
    “Did we get them all?” asked Shin.
    Gatari looked around, trying to sense the slightest bit of chakra.
    “Yep.” confirmed Gatari. “They’re all dead.”
    “There was a total of thirteen men, if memory serves.” said Shin.
    “Yep thirteen bodies.” said Gatari smirking.
    “Sensei probably found the rest of them.” said Renzo with his hands behind his head and a smirk on his face.
    “Come on let’s head back and meet up with sensei.” Gatari said.
    Fwoosh! Ssss!
    “Gatari look out!” shouted Shin.
    “Ninja Art: Shadow Stitching Jutsu!” Renzo said.
    As Gatari turned a shuriken was heading straight for his face. Then Renzo shadow caught it out of the air. The shuriken was about an inch from Gatari’s face. Gatari had a kunai in hand, raised to his chest, and when he saw that it was caught, he relaxed.
    “Not bad for three snot-nosed genin.” said a shinobi.
    The three boys looked to see who was talking. Eight men stood before them, all wearing the Rock Village headband.
    “How old are you brats?” laughed another shinobi. “Fourteen, fifteen?”
    “Actually we’re twelve thank you.” said Shin smirking.
    At this the men’s face changed to an angered, irritated look.
    “And who hell you calling a genin.” yelled Renzo. “We’re chunnin thank you very much.”
    “Chunnin?” said the shinobi questionly with a surprised look.
    “Only jounin are able to evade my sensing skills and even then they still have to be really strong in order to evade It.” said Gatari.
    “Not bad kid.” said the jounin. “Let’s see if you brats can handle all of us at once.”
    “Earth Style: Earth Dragon Jutsu!” shouted one of the men.
    “Fire Style: Great Dragon Flame Jutsu!” shouted Shin.
    The fire dragon engulfed the earth dragon and kept on its course towards the Rock shinobi.
    “What the!” shouted one of the men.
    “Wind Release: Twister Shot!” shouted Gatari.
    Gatari’s Twister Shot fused with Shin’s Great Dragon Flame Jutsu to make it even bigger and faster.
    BOOM!
    The crater was made larger from the discharge of the collaboration. Only one of the jounin were killed in the blast. Smoke and dirt rose high into the sky. The other seven Rock shinobi emerged. So did the three boys. The Rock shinobi charged drawing their swords and Kunai.
    “Ninja Art: Chakra Guardian Jutsu!” shouted Gatari.
    Again his eyes turned pure white and chakra enveloped his body, but this time the chakra kept expanding. Made of chakra, a fifty foot look-a-like version of Gatari stood before the Rock jounin. Gatari was inside a sphere located in the stomach of the guardian.

    Clink!
    Fwoosh!
    Two bodies fell to the ground from the treetops. Kazuya landed next to them. A shinobi jumped at him. Dodging his attack with ease, Kazuya plunged his sword through his heart. The body fell to the ground when he withdrew his sword.
    BOOM!
    Kazuya looked in the direction of the blast. He watched the smoke and dirt rise into the sky.
    “That can’t be good.” thought Kazuya to himself grabbing a kunai with his left hand.
    A shinobi charged at him from the other direction. The shinobi lunged his sword at Kazuya. Without looking away from the smoke, Kazuya pushed the sword to the side making the shinobi miss and with a simple wrist movement he threw the kunai at the shinobi. The kunai went straight between his eyes and sent him flying back into a tree sending a crack up the trunk of the tree.
    Kazuya raced up the nearest tree, all the way to the top. Sitting on a limb at the top, he looked to the east to see Gatari’s Guardian form above the trees. His eyes slightly widened.
    “The only time Gatari ever use that form is when he is going against a powerful shinobi, mainly jounin.” thought Kazuya. “I better quit fooling around with these guys, and hurry to help the boys.”
    Kazuya jumped back down from the tree to finish the job.

    The battle felt like it when on for hours, when only about half an hour passed. The boys were hiding behind a boulder. They had managed to kill four more of the Rock shinobi, there were three more left. The boys felt exhausted, Gatari is not normally able to hold the guardian form for more than ten minutes, but he pushed it to twenty and his muscles ached. Shin had a small cut on his arm from a sword and knuckles were bleeding, some even poked out. Renzo normally had a five minute time limit for his jutsu but pushed it to twenty minutes as well. All three were exhausted.
    “Don’t tell me you brats have given up already.” shouted one of the remaining shinobi. “You know I’m surprised you survived this long. Not to mention you took out five of our men. I have to give Konoha credit. Maybe they’re not as big of pansy as I thought they were.”
    The boys gritted their teeth at what he said. Anger swelled inside them, but they knew they had to remain calm and keep a cool head otherwise they could screw up and possibly cost them their lives.
    “Shin.” said Gatari.
    Shin nodded. Jumping from behind the boulder, Shin ran straight towards the three shinobi.
    “Stupid kid! You think you can take us on in your condition.” laughed one of the shinobi.
    As soon as Shin got close enough, he threw a kunai. At the same time the three shinobi threw a kunai. The three kunai hit their target. Shin started to fall back.
    Poof!
    “What the! Shadow clone?” said a Rock shinobi surprised.
    Shin’s kunai landed next to them. The three of them looked at it.
    Poof!
    “It’s a smoke bomb!” coughed one of the shinobi.
    When it cleared they ran to the boulder to find the boys had disappeared. The man had an irritated look on their face.
    “They went this way!” shouted one of the men.
    Gatari, Renzo, and Shin ran south back towards Konoha. Along the way, they were setting many traps as possible.
    “They’re gaining on us!” shouted Gatari.
    “What?!” shouted Renzo and Shin in unison.
    “They’re gaining and fast.” shouted Gatari.
    “God damn it.” grunted Shin.
    The boys picked up the pace. They made sure to carefully cover their tracks by backtracking and whatever else they could think of to hide it. They ran to a small cave for cover. Inside the boys rested and tried to plan out a strategy. Shin wrapped his knuckles and arm with bandage tape. Gatari and Renzo rubbed some medical cream on their legs and arms to help their aching muscles.
    “Shin, Renzo, here take one.” said Gatari as he handed them a soldier pill.
    The boys took one and immediately ate the pill and started to gain more chakra back. As soon as the boys were ready, they set back out again, trying to make up for the distance they lost.
    The boys ran through some bushes and skidded to a stop. Renzo and Shin ran into Gatari then pulled him back and fell backwards. In front of them was a large gorge and down at the bottom was a raging river.
    “Guys look out!” shouted Renzo.
    Renzo pushed Gatari and Shin back about twenty feet. Pulling out a kunai, Renzo started to deflect and dodge one the shinobi as he swung a sword at him. Then the shinobi pulled out another sword and started attacking with both. Renzo did his best to block and dodge the attacks.
    Ssss!
    Ssss!
    Renzo ended up with two deep cuts on his cheeks. Renzo let out a grunt in pain and jumped back to his teammates.
    “Renzo are you ok?” asked Gatari.
    “I’ll be fine.” Renzo said gritting his teeth as blood dripped from the cuts.
    “We’re not done yet.” said one of the shinobi as he threw a kunai at them.
    The explosive tag on the kunai ignited. Gatari was sent flying into a tree causing him to hit his head and go temporarily blind. Renzo flew about twenty feet back and sent skidding along the ground about fifteen more feet. Shin went over edge of the cliff, just barely getting a grip on the edge. Then he grabbed the ledge with his other hand, holding on for dear life. Sending chakra to his feet, Shin tried to get a grip on the side, but getting little grip and slipping multiple times. The sides were wet from the rain from two nights ago. Apparently the sunlight did not go into the gorge.
    Gatari finally gained his vision back in time to see several shuriken heading in his direction. Letting instincts kick in, he dodged the shuriken with ease.
    “Gatari! Renzo!” shouted Shin from the gorge. “Help! I can’t get any grip and my hands are slipping!”
    “Shin!” shouted Gatari and Renzo in unison in a worried tone.
    One of the shinobi charged at Gatari, swinging his swords at him. Gatari jumped back out of the way. His face had started to turn red with anger.
    “Ninja Art: Chakra Expansion Armor Jutsu!” shouted Gatari.
    Gatari caught the swords in his hands and the armor engulfed the swords and the man’s arms instantaneously. Holding him in a tight grip, He used the chakra to start crushing his arms. The man yelled in pain as it crushed the bones into pieces making them useless. Then kicking out, Gatari kicked at the man’s chest with a chakra spike leaving a huge hole inside chest. Gatari let the man go and the body dropped to the ground.
    Renzo was caught in a choke hold and the man withdrew his sword to plunge it through his stomach. Before the shinobi was able to though, Renzo grabbed his arm.
    “Ninja Art: Shadow World Concealing Jutsu!” said Renzo with an enraged look in his eye.
    Renzo’s shadow engulfed him and the shinobi. Within a few seconds, Renzo reappeared with the body of the shinobi next to him. The body was punctured in several places including the head and stomach, along with huge gash over the body.
    Shin finally pulled himself up enough to see his head, shoulders, and his hands trying to find a grip. Then looking up, he saw a kunai with a paper bomb land about two feet from him.
    “Ah!” gasped Shin.
    Boom!
    Part of the ledge broke off and started to fall along with Shin. Shin immediately jumped from broken piece to broken piece to get back to the ledge.
    “Earth Style: Earth Dragon Jutsu!” shouted the last Rock shinobi.
    “Ah!” Shin let out another gasped.
    The dragon broke through the rock and hit Shin, sending him down to the river below.
    “Shin!!” yelled Renzo and Gatari together.
    “Ahhhh!” screamed Shin.
    Splash!
    Shin appeared again trying to use chakra to stand on the water. Then a wave knocked him back under. Shin reappeared and struggled to stay above the water, while still trying, but unsuccessfully trying to stand on the water. Waves kept knocking him back underwater.
    Gatari and Renzo ran along the ledge trying to keeping an eye on Shin. The river kept pushing him further and further away from them. Then Shin came up at the wrong time. A giant tree was floating along the river, but Shin was facing the other way. Shin hit the back of his head on the trunk and went back under. He struggled to come back up, but he did not stay up for long this time.
    “Crap! Ninja Art: Shadow Stitching jutsu!” shouted Renzo and his shadow stretched down and into the water as he ran.
    At the same time, Gatari, using his armor, stretched his chakra arm down and into the water as well, a few feet from where Shin last went under. They kept running and running yelling for their teammate, hoping he would come back up.
    Driven to exhaustion, they stopped and watched the river flow on. Gatari fell to his knees and punched at the ground.
    “Dang it!” shouted Gatari holding back tears.
    “Shin.” whimpered Renzo.
    Renzo and Gatari just sat there. Gatari looked up at Renzo and his eyes widened.
    “Renzo behind you!” shouted Gatari.
    Renzo turned around and a sword jabbed straight through his chest. Renzo coughed up blood onto the ground. Then the man threw him into a tree with his sword. Renzo laid there unmoving.
    “Renzo!” shouted Gatari tears pouring from his eyes.
    Renzo did not move or stir. He just laid there. Gatari ran to his friend, slid on his knees, and picked up his old friend.
    “Renzo!” said Gatari shaking to wake him as his tears hit his face.
    “Gatari.” stuttered Renzo blood dripping from his mouth.
    Gatari just cried unable to say a word.
    “Gatari. I’m glad to have been your blood brother.” stuttered Renzo.
    “Don’t say that! You’re not gonna die here, Renzo. I won’t let you.” yelled Gatari shaking his head.
    “It’ll be ok Gatari.” smiled Renzo.
    “Awww, isn’t this touching. It’s so sweet, I’m about to puke.” said the Rock shinobi drawing out his second sword. “Now, how about we finish this, so I can finish my mission.”
    “I’m gonna kill you.” whispered Gatari.
    “What was that?” asked the shinobi smirking.
    “I said!” Gatari shouted. “I’m gonna kill you!”
    Gatari instantaneously turned his head to look at the man. His eyes were pure white. The shinobi jumped in surprise. After that, Gatari blacked out.

    “Gatari! Wake up, Gatari!”
    Monogatari opened his eyes slightly and saw a blurred vision of a man, then shut his eyes again.
    “Come on, Gatari! Wake up!”
    The voice sounded like Kazuya’s voice. He slowly opened his eyes to see Kazuya’s face. He let out a moan in pain.
    “What happened?” asked Gatari as he sat up.
    “Looks like you passed out from overexerting yourself.” said Kazuya. “Where’s Shin?”
    Gatari’s eyes fell and tears tried to form in his eyes again.
    “He fell into a river in a gorge. He hit his head and went under. He didn’t come back up.” Gatari said fighting the tears.
    Kazuya face saddened and his eyes seemed to start to lose life.
    “What about Renzo?” Kazuya asked with a sad tone.
    “Renzo!” Gatari yelled as he jumped to his feet.
    Gatari ran through the forest back to the gorge with Kazuya close behind him. They both ran along the ledge and stopped at where Renzo was last seen, but his body was gone. The only thing that was left there was a puddle of blood that was probably from the wound in Renzo’s chest.
    Gatari stared at where Renzo was supposed to be, not believing what he was seeing.
    “Where? How? What?” Gatari stuttered. “He was right here. He’s… gone.”
    Gatari fell to his knees and tears flowed from his eyes. Kazuya knelt down next to his student and put his hand on Gatari’s shoulder to comfort him.
    “Let’s head back to the village. We can’t do anything right now.” said Kazuya. “You need to go to the hospital and get treated. I’ll send out dispatch teams to look for them, ok. We will find them no matter what.”
    “Ok,” Gatari muttered crying.
    Gatari tried to stand, but he kept stumbling. Finally, Kazuya carried him on his back back to the village.
    Months passed and their bodies still were not found. Gatari mainly stayed in his room most of the time. Never training or going on any missions. He had been in a deep depression. Gatari cried himself to sleep for the first few weeks. Gatari eventually lost all his emotions. He felt guilty for what had happened. He lost his blood brothers in one day. He felt like giving up on life until Kazuya dragged him out of his house to look at the stone faces.
    Kazuya gave him a speech, one that Gatari remembered for the rest of his life. Slowly but surely, Gatari started to regain his emotions. Life started to come back into his eyes. Gatari was out-of-shape for a shinobi. Kazuya helped him get back on his regular training schedule. Gatari started to build his stamina and muscle back up to what it originally was. Even once he got it back, he kept going to become stronger. He trained harder and harder so that next time he would be able to protect his comrades no matter what. Gatari became known as one of the strongest shinobi of his age group in village, along with many of the older groups as well. He even started to give his sensei, the Hokage, a good fight. He promises to always protect his comrades, even at the cost of his own life.