Jun stared at him dumbly for a few moments."This guy … wasn"t he holding a grudge for me kicking his a.s.s and now is sending me to my death. From what he describes, the forest is of absolute high risk. What the heck is he thinking?!" Jun commented in his mind. "however I have no choice. It would be good if I can have this place as a base for developing my personal equipment for future."
"OK fine. I will do it. Just an animal, how hard can it be?" Jun said to rea.s.sure himself.
"That"s the spirit! Now go and come back soon!"
"Ya right, as if that"s possible." jun exclaimed in his mind as he went out.
"I hope the kid can survive this, he will gain lot of benefits if he does" The uncle thought and went back to sleep and everything went back to how it was before Jun"s arrival.
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Jun went out of the shop while dragging his feet. He tried to devise one plan after another to tackle the challenge, but all ended up short. He wanted something that would give him a real advantage. Suddenly his eyes narrowed, he felt someone or more than one watching him. He looked around and saw he was somehow in an abandoned corner of the village. Only few shacks dotted the place . Training grounds were still some distance away , if he got attacked he would have to fight it right here. He kept a close sense in his surroundings and he walked slower than before , but not enough that his pursuers would notice.
A slight chakra fluctuation was detected and Jun smirked as he realized who it was. Shadow stretched behind him and extended to grab his feet like some kind of black gra.s.s. It tried to inch forward up but maybe insufficient chakra made it impossible.
"Haaahhhh!!" a mult.i.tude of cloaked kids suddenly attacked Jun. Since it was just physical attacks, Jun responded without any Jutsu, just pure Taijutsu and that to with just hands since his feet were bound. The punches of the kid army were redirected to strike their companions. Once or twice Jun caught their arm and entirely threw the attacker onto a bunch of others. When only a few were left, five of them suddenly jumped up and caught various of Jun"s limbs, one even wrapped himself on his back.
"Fire release : fireball!" taking advantage of this one more cloaked kid released a fireball at them. When the fireball struck, the kids covering Jun vanished into thick smoke. The fireball completely covered are around Jun, seemingly impossible to escape. Three cloaked kids appeared in front of the burning area.
"We won! We won!!" One of the kids pulled back the hood revealing a spiked blonde, with whisker like marks on the cheeks, jumping with hands in air and shouting. Next to drag back his hood was a raven haired kid with a smirk on his face. Sasuke was pleased with his final attack. He had compensated its timing to be used as a combination finisher instead of a starting move after a lot of practice.
"Where are you getting that much energy from after that fight? Yaaawwnnn , what a drag!" Shikamaru turned out to be the final one , his spiky black tied up swaying slightly as he removed his hood.
"Come on you need to celebrate, we finally got one up on him. Our training paid off!" Naruto called out to Shikamaru cheerfully.
"I agree!" Sasuke agreed with a happy smirk at his friend"s antics.
"Two idiots. Haargh!" Shikamaru sighed with a hand covering his face "Did you two really think we got him? Look again!" Shikamaru countered their claims by pointing a thumb towards the burning area. The flames that covered it had started to dim. Naruto and Sasuke lost their smiles in shock when they saw that all that was left was a pile of slightly burnt vines.
"He escaped ?" asked Naruto, his mouth open wide in surprise and his hands hanging down.
"Not exactly" a voice sounded behind Naruto and Sasuke, Shikamaru slightly shook his head in resignation before looking back. Jun was standing behind Naruto with a grin on his face "You guys improved tremendously in these past few weeks. I guess you have all been practicing a lot ?"
Naruto nodded eagerly , while Sasuke did so grudgingly. Shikamaru just yawned with his hands back on his head.
"I am really impressed. Your planning I presume Shikamaru ?" Jun asked to which Shikamaru gave a small nod.
"Really good, uncle would be proud." Shikamaru gave a sheepish grin before tilting his head back again with hands on the back of his neck.
"Naruto, you have completely mastered Shadow Clone, but try to improve your Taijutsu more, or use an attack like Water projectile which you can spam endlessly along with your clones to create an enormous combination attack. There is even the method of duplicating and spamming huge amounts of shuriken to cover an enormous area, but that"s a bit advanced for now." Naruto nodded with a hand on his chin like a wise elder, making Jun laugh at his antics.
"And finally Sasuke," Sasuke stiffened a bit and braced himself "Perfect timing, Perfect Jutsu, Perfect Control" Sasuke allowed himself a small grin while Jun continued "However, you are too confident in the result of your attacks and don"t doubt them for a second. Confidence is good but there is only a fine line between confidence and over confidence. However I was glad to see you cooperating seamlessly with these two. That"s a huge improvement from before where you just went off and attacked on your own." Sasuke scratched his head at that comment, feeling abashed at Jun"s point.
"Remember as a Ninja Look at the surface, then whats beneath it, and finally whats hiding even deep inside. Always make counter plans for if your initial is defeated." Jun advised "By the way. How did you guys know I was here? It wasn"t long that I have been back." Jun asked
"Ah, that would be me."
Jun turned towards the voice and saw a young black haired boy walking towards him, smile on his cute boyish face with small dark tear like tracks on the side of his nose.
"Ah, so its you." Jun exclaimed "Been a while…."