Author's Pre-Note

Sorry guys. For some reason it's been really hard to get back into writing. I'm gradually trying to get back to it cause I do miss it...

Well, I like to thank my new editor, Kao, who I adopted as a daughter a long time ago, for fixing my chapter up. She's amazing~

She's been trying to help me get into writing again. She's probably going to be pushing me into updating more too, so thank her as well for this new update, XD

I thank those who are still following this story and I hope you continue to stick with it.

And woooo, this story hit 2k in followers : ).

I couldn't have done it without you all~

Thanks guys!

Enjoy~

Chapter 22

"Nice weather we're having, huh?" the masked man Wanai sarcastically asked, while holding a kunai in each hand. His dark blue eyes glanced at the trembling child before smirking at Obito who simply glared at him through the dark holes of his mask in silence.

He noticed both the child and the masked man didn't seem to have any kind of headband on them. He assumed that these shinobi did not have an affiliation with any nation, just like him…

For a moment, Wanai wanted to take the two down just for fun, but something about the mask made him feel like Obito wasn't going to be an easy kill.

Standing in silence seemed to simply make the tension even worse, so the assailant couldn't help but frown at the lack of response.

"Giving me the cold shoulder I see…" he grunted, his grip tightening around the kunai as he lifted it up in front of him.

"What do you want?" The masked man finally asked in a dark tone.

"Oh, he speaks!" Wanai's eyes lit up with amusement. "And here I thought you were very shy."

Naruto stopped shaking from fright and slowly looked up to what was in front of him instead of imagining how close he was from getting struck down.

The old man was laying flat on the ground, wheezing for air as a small trail of blood began to pool underneath his shaky form.

Naruto's eyes widened as he imagined, for a moment, that it was his uncle's body that was laying in front of him.

"Un…cle…?" the boy let out weakly, barely above a whisper as his eyes began to moisten. Oddly, after blinking the tears away, his uncle was nowhere in sight.

Naruto slowly got back to his feet and stared at the old man.

Was he seeing things…?

"You're pretty boring," Wanai commented to the masked man. He still had the urge to just attack, but the more he stared at the dark holes of Obito's mask, the more his instincts urged him to take a step back and lower his kunai.

"I'm just here for this old man," he smiled casually, snapping the boy back to reality. "Nothing more."

Obito relaxed his stance.

He could take on Wanai with ease, but if the shinobi had allies near, then it could potentially quickly become a perilous situation for them. It was better that he didn't get involved with whatever Wanai was up to.

Naruto, on the other hand, stepped beside the masked man and glared at the stranger with defiance. He was no longer afraid of the twisted look in the man's eyes. He wasn't going to let the bully continue to harm the old man.

After all, his uncle always told him to never be a cowardly bystander.

Wanai was crazy to believe that they were going to let him take the old man away.

Naruto was expecting Obito to attack the rogue shinobi, and he was ready to assist in any way, but his thoughts stopped when he was pulled away by his neck.

He was shocked to find himself being dragged away by Obito.

"Wait," the boy let out, but Obito didn't even bother to spare a glance. "Wait!" Naruto almost tripped over his own feet. "What are you doing?!" the boy clutched Obito's hand and began to struggle against the tight hold. He desperately looked over his shoulder, only to see Wanai kneel to the old man.

"Please…" the old man whimpered as he tried to crawl away from Wanai. The man's tear-filled eyes begged Wanai. "Please don't do this."

Naruto's eyes widened as he saw the shinobi strike the old man's back with his kunai, earning a cry from the victim.

"Stop!" Naruto screamed in terror as Wanai twisted the kunai into the flesh wound. Naruto violently tugged against Obito's restraint. "We can't let him do this!" he yelled at Obito and couldn't help but feel his stomach drop when Obito completely ignored him and simply kept pulling him along.

Did Obito not care about the old man at all?

"Please!" the old man cried sadly. "Please don't kill me!" he begged in agony, earning a dark chuckle from Wanai. "I have a family!"

Oh, how much did Wanai love to make his prey suffer, however he quickly grew bored and raised his kunai above the man's head.

He had other matters to attend to.

"No!" Naruto screamed, still trying to aid the old man. He grew desperate when he lost sight of the two. "Let him go!"

Wanai met the boy's desperate eyes, mockingly giving him a wink.

It was in that moment the boy shut his eyes hard, remembering his uncle's lifeless body.

He wasn't going to let someone else die in front of him again.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Obito froze on his tracks, as both Wanai's and his eyes widened as countless Naruto clones burst into existence around him.

"What the hell?!" Wanai let out as he slowly stood up, shocked to see so many around and towering over him from the tree branches. All the clones were glaring daggers at him.

Obito didn't notice he had loosen his grasp on the original Naruto and stared at the way some of the clones shifted, their feet digging into the ground with anticipation to attack.

The clones were real and not just a mirage.

"Yeah, the boy can execute the Shadow Clone Jutsu pretty well." Obito remembered Kisame telling him the other day, but Naruto didn't just know how to create them well… as a matter of fact, the boy could make more than an experienced shinobi would be capable of.

He guessed that is was Kushina's blood running through the boy's veins that had something to do with the boy's ability to create so many tangible shadow clones.

Naruto broke free from Obito's hold and dashed to the enemy.

"I said, let him go!" Naruto screamed, yanking out his sword, as his clones did the same and jumped at the man.

Wanai quickly blocked multiple slashes that were directed to his mid-section with his kunai. Naruto's clones drove him back and away from the old man. Two clones tried to get a response from the old man, but he had fallen silent.

A clone jumped on two clone's shoulders and swung at the man's face, but Wanai blocked the attack with ease before thrusting his kunai at the clone's stomach, making him vanish.

Wanai jumped back, throwing one of his kunai harshly behind to cut through five clones in an instant before digging into his back pocket, hurling countless shuriken around him with one swing. The clones closest to him were struck down while the original was shielded by another two clones jumping in front of him just in time.

Obito turned in time to watch Wanai grab a clone to send hurling at those that dared to attack from above, making them disappear. Wanai used his one kunai to slice down clones from right to left without breaking a sweat.

Wanai was obviously an experienced shinobi…

Obito had to help the boy, but he didn't make any move to do so.

He was too curious to see how long the boy could handle himself alone. He wanted to know what the boy was really made out of.

A big chunk of Naruto's shadow clones was taken down without much effort.

The original took a step back, letting the remaining twenty clones surround the rogue shinobi who was breathing heavily, as a twisted smile made its way onto his lips.

"You should have just kept walking away, little runt…" Wanai chuckled darkly.

Naruto lowered his defensive stance, feeling his heart beat a bit too quickly against his chest.

Wanai was strong.

He had taken down the majority of his clones without getting a scratch on him.

How was that possible?

Naruto then realized something that made him turn white as a sheet.

He had never really fought anyone actually seriously before.

The only time he came close to actually fighting someone that wasn't holding back from harming him was back at the cave, when he fought his father's comrades, but even then, Minato had made everyone hold back their attacks on his clones and him.

"I'm going to make you scream!" Wanai lunged at the original but four clones came at him quickly from either side, stopping him from advancing.

When all four swung their swords to his torso, Wanai ducked down just in time as they accidentally slashed at one another and vanished.

Sixteen clones left…

Naruto didn't know what to do. He was half the man's size and he wasn't as strong as him. What the hell was he thinking when he charged at the man by himself?

A weak groan stopped the boy from having a panic attack.

He looked to the old dying man, whose blood had continued to ooze out of his back.

Right…

He couldn't stand around and let this evil shinobi kill an innocent old man…

Naruto gulped down his fears as much as he could and glared back at Wanai, who had in turn taken down six more of the clones that dared to attack.

Ten shadow clones left.

The boy knew they had to switch tactics if they were going to have a chance, but now his legs wouldn't stop shaking.

Wanai stuffed his kunai away and quickly made a few hand seals.

"Wind Style, Whirlwind!" he yelled, causing the last clone and Naruto's eyes to simultaneously widen as they were pulled from their feet.

Naruto lost his grasp on his sword and he couldn't help but scream out of desperation as his body was sucked into the gust of wind that formed around Wanai. He began to suffocate as his tiny body spiraled violently. The last of his clones vanished just as the gust reached the top of the trees before it stopped.

The boy began to fall to the ground, flailing his hands to grab onto a branch that ended up snapping on him. He fell hard on his back and before the boy had the chance to catch his breath, Wanai stomped on his stomach, making him cry out in pain.

"You shouldn't have messed with me, brat!" Wanai's wild eyes growled with malice as he pulled out his kunai back out.

Naruto froze in place, his eyes widening in fear.

"It's too bad you have to die so young." Wanai gloated, and Naruto shut his eyes hard when the kunai was driven down.

The next thing Naruto knew, there was no pain… no white light that asked him to follow.

He hesitantly opened his eyes and was met with the sight of the sharp tip of the kunai that had stopped just a hair away from his forehead.

"You…bastard…" Naruto heard Wanai hiss. He looked past the kunai and was surprised to see Obito clutching the man's wrist tightly.

The masked man had stopped the man just in time.

Wanai let out a cry when his wrist was crushed. Quickly, he threw a hook punch at Obito's head which was caught with ease.

Obito slammed his head against the man's head harshly, cracking Wanai's skin open and thereby causing blood to gush out. He then released the man before punching him across the face so hard that it sent him crashing through the forest, far away from them.

Naruto was shocked as he stared at the direction the shinobi was sent flying towards.

The boy stayed in place, waiting for Wanai to come back running in any moment, but there was nothing but silence.

A punch…

Had a punch from Obito really just defeated a shinobi?

Now that he thought about it, he never really saw Obito in action… and now that he did he wasn't sure how to take it.

He slowly sat up, letting out a small whimper at how badly his body ached from the fall. He grabbed the back of his head as it throbbed badly.

He looked up at Obito flexing his hand calmly. Unknowingly to the boy, the harsh punch required a massive amount of chakra which did, in fact, take a big toll on Obito. Of course, after that display he wasn't going to show how tired he was now.

"The old man…" Naruto spoke up with a hoarse voice, looking over to the man who laid on the ground motionless.

The old man's back didn't rise.

He looked still as a rock…

Just like his uncle…

Naruto looked away, clenching his teeth hard.

It couldn't be….

"We need to help him." The boy tried to keep his eyes from shedding tears as he tried to get up on his feet but his legs gave out and he fell back to his knees in pain.

"We-" the boy felt a cold shiver run up to his spine and noticed that the forest fell deadly quietly for a moment.

Slowly, he looked up to bunch of shinobi surrounding them.

No…

He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Obito glared at the handful of shinobi. He had a feeling that it was Wanai's whirlwind attack that had attracted the unwanted attention.

He mentally cursed and took step closer to the boy whose face was filled with nothing but despair.

Naruto honestly didn't know what to do. He was having trouble getting up on his own, so how was he going to defend himself?

Now he actually ended up letting the tears escape again.

Another shinobi stepped into view, carrying Wanai's body over his shoulder. He simply dropped him to the ground, earning a groan from Wanai as he sat up, a hand clutching his cracked jaw.

He glared at Obito with pure hatred.

"Kill…them!" he managed to say,

Before the other shinobi could make a move, Obito quickly maneuvered into a series of hand seals.

"Water Style, Water Dragon Jutsu!" he yelled, as an impressive dragon consisting of water and chakra burst out of the lake, crashing into most of the shinobi while the others dived out of the way at the last second.

Obito felt his head go faint, but stepped to the side quickly as a tall shinobi slashed at him with a sword. Obito slammed his arm down at the man's hand, grabbing his shoulder before yanking him to his right to use him as a shield from another hostile shinobi's downward slice.

Said sword brutally sliced down the makeshift man-shield's back, leading to a large spurt of blood that spilled everywhere, which evoked a scream to erupt from the tall man.

Obito front kicked the human shield harshly at the other shinobi, slamming them both back against a tree with ease.

He mentally cursed as he saw the other shinobi get back up after getting slammed by his earlier water Jutsu.

Obito noticed how the boy hadn't moved an inch, frozen in fear because of the enemy party and possibly grief as he stared at the old man's corpse.

He couldn't count on the boy on this fight and he couldn't risk the area turning into a huge battlefield…

They couldn't attract more shinobi.

"Wood Style, Wood Dome Jutsu!" he announced after placing his hands together before huge wood pillars shot from the ground and encased him and the child in one huge wooden dome.

"Wood style?!" one shinobi was shocked to have seen with the masked man summon wood from the ground with his own eyes. "That's impossible…"

The other shinobi ran to the dome and began using their swords to slice down the dome until it cracked open on one side.

"Move aside!" Wanai dragged his feet to the dome. "Now you two are dead!" He signaled one of his comrades with a jerk to his head.

The shinobi faced the small gap and made a few hand seals.

"Wind Style, Air Bullets Jutsu!" He shot multiple bullets of air into the dome, which viciously punctured through the wood, creating countless holes.

The others waited a bit impatiently, and when the shinobi ended his attack, they all tore the rest of the dome down only to find the masked man and the child gone with just a huge dirt hole left in the ground to indicate that they were ever there.

Author's After-Note

I wasn't really into this chapter but it was necessary to move things along.

I'm going to try to update once a month, but no promises, still trying to get that writing spirit back .

Anyways, let me know what you guys thought about things and what you think it's going to happen in the future chapters.

Please review and comment~