Naruto: Cautious Ninja

The remaining three then looked down, where they saw to their utter disbelief a young boy with wild blonde hair with his hands in his pockets and his foot jutted skywards, standing inside of their circle. The kid had seemingly appeared out of nowhere and sent a kick straight up into a man twice his size with apparently no prior movement or windup leading into the blow. It was absurd.

"W-What the fuck?!" the head gangster choked out when he saw his second slam into the ground several feet away with a deafening thump. "H-How did… YOU LITTLE SHIT!" He spun around, swinging his sword straight down to slice the kid in two, only for his vision to fade to black when the one he was targeting leapt at him with a left overhand that blasted his face and upper body coiling backwards. Knocked unconscious from the one hit, the boss thug hit the ground with an even louder thud then his teammate's, like an anvil making landfall.

"You moron! It's just a kid!" the thug standing behind the attacking Naruto shouted before launching himself at the boy, aiming to grab his collar. "Stop screwing a-OOF!" He didn't have time to even start his assault when the runt he was trying to take from behind spun like a top, leapt into the air, and slammed a kick straight across his face. The ruffian literally spun through the air before landing painfully on his head.

Returning to earth gracefully, Naruto glanced over at the girl slumped against the wall and looking across at him in astonishment. Her tear strung eyes wavered under the sun when the boy sent her a grin before wordlessly back-flipping high into the air to avoid the fourth man diving at him from behind with a knife. He landed on the backstabber's back and dropped down to slam his feet into his beltline, at the same time grabbing the mercenary by the nostrils and pulling him into what looked like one of the most painful holds in recorded taijutsu history.

"OWOWOWOWOWOW-L-LET GO!" the grown man cried out in agony when he felt his snout begin to get pulled up to where his hairline stopped. His upper body was slowly bent backwards to the point where it was beginning to resemble the curve of an 'f'. "LET GO! LET GO! LET GO!"

"Hey! Run for it!" Naruto shouted, looking over at the girl leaning against the wall and looking on in awe. The red head responded with a blink and a jump in her shoulders. "Get out of here while you can. I'll hold them off. Go! Now!"

Not needing to be told twice the young musician nodded affirmatively before picking her things off the floor and sprinting into the nearest alleyway. She was gone in a matter of seconds, allowing Naruto to finish dealing with the trash littering the streets.

He kicked behind the locked man's knees, sending him dropping to the floor before releasing his face so that he sprang forward. When he did, Naruto quickly slammed his hand into the back of his head and rammed it straight into the ground, cracking the dry earth and splattering blood all over the road. Oh he didn't kill him, but the blow was strong enough to ensure that once he regained consciousness he'd find his face resembling that of Picasso's.

Scowling, Naruto looked up from on top of his out cold foe to see more thugs come rushing out of the nearby buildings and stands, all of them brandishing dangerous weapons from staffs, to swords, to chains, to knives. Dozens of them instantly surrounded the boy dressed in orange, cutting off all potential escape routes.

Conventional ones anyway…

But Naruto had no plans of running away. Not in this fight. Instead, he grinned widely once he'd made a head count of all participants and saw that every single one of them was baring their teeth at him. The villagers in the street backed off or made a great effort to conceal themselves where they stood, leaving the kid all on his own to fight the horde of mongrels.

"I've had a pretty dull week out in the forests breaking trees into splinters, so I've been dying for a good work out. You claw-hopping idiots better not disappoint me," Naruto said, standing up on top of the person he was perched on and slamming both of his fists together to produce an audible thump. His grin widened when he saw them all approach him at once.

"This is gonna be fun…"

OOO

Several blocks out, huddled in the shadow of buildings and backstreets after what felt like hours of running, there sat the young female musician. Breathing hard with her eyes shut tight and sweat dripping down her brow, the red head clutched her worldly possessions to her chest and held fast as her knees trembled and threatened to give out. However, knowing she was not free from danger, not while she was still in this village, she remained conscious of her environment and looked back down the road she had come.

She remembered the faces of those that had cornered her, their shadows, the cold steel of sword against her skin and their glares. She also remembered the flash of bright light and the person that had come to her aid. That boy, dressed in orange with a head of golden spiky hair, came between her and her antagonists and smote each of them with a single blow. It was the most incredible thing she'd ever seen in her life, especially from someone who appeared to be no older than her.

However, she knew that there were more of those goons hanging around the area. She was aware of their presence the moment she stepped onto that road. There had been an entire gang of thugs nesting in the bars, having lunch, counting cash, intimidating the locals, and everything else mercenaries did in their off time. Had her plight beforehand not attracted their attention than the boy's interference surely did. She had no idea what was going to happen to him now.

Gulping down breaths of air, the girl then rose from her place of rest and prepared to move out. However, when she looked around to begin walking again, she jumped back with a start and let out a shriek when she came face-to-face with the same boy that had leapt to her aid.

Naruto grinned from where he was hanging, upside-down from an overhanging pipe. "Yo!"

The young girl looked up and down several times, wondering when and how he had managed to catch up to her without her knowing. Blinking and shaking her head to make sure she wasn't hallucinating, she stared at him in confusion. "Y-You?"

"Yeah, me. Were you expecting someone else?" the blonde asked playfully while swinging back and forth on the pole, gripping the edge with his toes. "My name's Naruto, by the way. Can I ask what your name is, pretty girl?"

The musician blinked, "T-Tayuya." She shook her head suddenly when she eventually realized the absurdity of his presence and transformed her once bewildered gaze into a scowl. "Wait just a damn second! What or who in the hell are you?"

"I just told you," Naruto replied casually, suddenly flipping over so that he was hanging from his hand, "I'm Naruto… Naruto Uzumaki."

"Are you… like… a ninja?" the urchin now known as Tayuya asked while watching him sway, "If so, from what village?"

"Konohagakure. But I'm not really a shinobi. Not yet anyway. I'm still just an academy student."

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