The crowd had been stunned into silence, but as the missing-nin pulled his sword off his back with an accompanying flash of steel, they were galvanized into action. Screaming, people, children and adults alike, began scrambling away from the path.
The same orphan boy who had tried to kick Naruto before came running at him with a panicked expression on his face; leaping forward, Naruto jumped past him, heading straight for the procession.
...
Naruto landed on the path, with Rai, Sakura and Menma right behind him. All of the guards were distracted, focusing their attention on the other side of the path, where now, on top of Sai's beast drawings, a flock of birds as well as several fast-moving bodies were wreaking havoc.
Naruto pulled the tantō from his back and in the same smooth action, burst forward to the princess and prince's sedan chair. The main guard, a tall disciplined-looking woman with hair tightly pulled back in a bun, noticed him and as she raised her blade toward him, her mouth opened to shout a warning. But before she could make a sound, Naruto was past her – with a spray of bright red blood, the body fell to the ground and her head rolled away on the ground. When Naruto glanced behind to check, he saw that Rai had similarly taken care of the other guard, while Menma and Sakura knocked out the third. Menma and Sakura looked at them with stunned expressions on their faces, but paying no mind, Naruto reached into the sedan chair.
The prince and princess, looking terrified, had backed away to the other side. Noticing that their eyes were fixated on the blood dripping from his tantō, Naruto hastily returned it to its sheath. Then, he grabbed the arm of the princess – Rai grabbed the prince – and pulled her trembling figure out. She began to struggle in his hands but she was weak, even for a civilian.
"What're you doing?" the princess cried out. "Stop!"
"We're here to save you," said Naruto quietly. He shot a look toward the daimyō's sedan; though Zabuza's back was toward them, one of the guards had noticed them and had started to move toward them with a sword in his hand. "We don't have time. Come quietly, or I'll knock you out."
Growing still, the princess' eyes became as round as the coins she'd been tossing out, and taking advantage of it, Naruto tossed her over his shoulder and jumped out of the chair. Just as he prepared to leap down into the crowd, there was a scream –
"Rai!"
Naruto turned to see Rai duck just in time to dodge a long sword. Rai backed away protectively in front of the prince as the guard thrust the sword again at him. Naruto's hand immediately went down to the kunai on his thigh holster, but before he could throw it, there was a flash of blue and then the guard was yelping, swiping at the air around his face with his hands.
"Mayu!" Rai yelled out, relieved. "I'm okay! Go help the others!"
Mayu, pale-faced, nodded. Menma tackled the guard she'd been distracting, and she ran off, her birds flocking around above her head. To Naruto's relief, Zabuza seemed to be completely ignoring them, focusing his attention instead on the jōnin weaving in and out to attack him – Shirakumo. Naruto and Rai jumped down into the crowd, the princess and prince collectively in their arms, and began to run swiftly past the shocked faces of the civilians.
As they ran through the mayhem, one guard managed to get past Menma and Sakura, but Naruto quickly disposed of him with a flick of a kunai. After that, with a cursory look around, Naruto confirmed that there was no one else coming after them.
"Send the signal," Naruto said shortly. Rai nodded, and brought his hands together in the snake hand seal. Immediately, there was a distant exploding sound; on the other side of the gigantic crowd, a billowing black cloud of smoke rose into the air – a planted harmless letter bomb that signaled that Naruto and Rai had successfully retrieved the prince and princess, and that the others should retreat.
Be safe, everyone, Naruto thought to himself, his teeth gritted and his heart pounding loudly in his ears.
...
With a long history of battle with fate, Jiraiya had set foot in the harbor city that morning steeling himself for whatever the day's events should throw at him. However, what was unfolding before his eyes had even his mouth dropping wide open.
It was utter chaos. Any semblance of order had dissipated as soon as the missing-nin from Mist drew his sword. Civilians were screaming and scrambling to distance themselves, while a scattered few in the crowd were drawing hidden blades and struggling to reach the procession.
From what Jiraiya had been able to see, it looked as though a group of ninja had attacked the guards standing around the daimyō's sedan chair. While the guards were distracted, a group of four civilian children swooped onto the sedan chair in front – it was at this point that Jiraiya realized they probably weren't as innocent as they looked – and pulled out a pair of children, before running off with them.
Jiraiya was now in a quandary. Should he interfere? And if so, which side? The supposed kidnappers, or those who had been keeping the daimyō hostage?
His gut was tugging him in the direction of the daimyō's sedan chair. As a cloud of black smoke suddenly burst beside him – the level of screaming around him elevated to even higher heights, but Jiraiya could tell it was harmless – he decided to trust it. It was, after all, what had kept him alive all these years.
Leaping strongly into the air, Jiraiya headed directly for the daimyō's sedan chair – and as he did so, immediately, he could tell that something was off.
The smoke must have been a signal for them to retreat, for the various ninja that had been attacking were now trying to flee. But even as he watched, the one named Zabuza knocked out a black-haired boy with a swing of his blade and then reached out to grab a thin woman, who slumped in his grasp.
There were two cloaked figures beside him, one holding an older man and a struggling young girl in each hand, the other exchanging blows with what appeared to be a shinobi wearing the Leaf hitai-ate. Now that Jiraiya was close enough to see, he knew immediately who he was facing: The masked one was Kakuzu. The other one was not a familiar face to Jiraiya, but judging from his black cloak, was a member of Akatsuki as well.
"Jiraiya-sama!" the shinobi, who Jiraiya suddenly recognized as one of the Leaf's jōnin, cried out. "Is that really you?!"
Leaning forward, Jiraiya thrust out his hand and struck a pose. "Yes, it is I! Jiraiya, the great Toad Sage and bestselling author of Icha Icha!"
Zabuza turned toward him. "So you're one of the legendary Sannin, Jiraiya..." He released the woman he'd been holding; falling to the ground, she scampered away.
The man beside Kakuzu looked interested. "A Sannin?"
"As much as I'd like to get the bounty on your head, Sannin," said Kakuzu. "I have no interest in fighting you today. Some other time, perhaps." He jerked his head at the other man, who scowled widely. Zabuza stepped back to the sedan chair to grab a frightened-looking man in fancy robes.
"Some other time, you say..." said Jiraiya. "That'll be difficult, seeing as how you'll be dead."
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