certher
patreon
Naruto: The Art of Deception 12
🕑 Added 2025-03-09 21:29:12 +0000 UTCChapter 12: A Shinobi’s Job Ain’t Pretty
Naruto’s breathing was heavy, each inhale dragging through his lungs like sand. His eyelids felt like they weighed a ton, threatening to shut with every blink. Blood trickled from his nose smearing across his lips. He wiped it away with the back of his hand, barely noticing the sting. That Genjutsu had taken its toll. It always did. A brutal trick, but it got the job done.
He looked over at Gaiya’s crumpled form on the ground. The guy was a mess, barely clinging to consciousness.
But alive.
Having a prisoner was useful. A bargaining chip. A piece on the board he could move however he needed. And this wasn’t just any Yami Clan ninja. This was Gaiya, the brother of their clan leader.
He forced himself to move. His fingers dug into his pocket, pulling out a small wooden case. He popped it open and eyed the three pills resting inside. Soldier Pills. His own mix, stronger than standard issue.
He took one, bit down, and grimaced as heat spread through his body. The chakra boost burned away some of the fatigue, enough to keep him going. It wouldn’t last forever, but he wasn’t planning on dragging this out.
With a tired grunt, he slung Gaiya over his shoulder, formed a seal, and disappeared into the night.
Ino was awake, sitting up against the cave wall, her expression unreadable. His clones were still in position, standing guard at the entrance.
Without a word, Naruto raised a hand and dismissed them all at once. Memories from their watch flooded his mind, but he shoved it aside. He could sort through it later.
Naruto dropped Gaiya onto the cold cave floor with little care. The man barely stirred.
Moving quickly, he gagged him, shoved wadding into his mouth, and pulled a blindfold over his eyes.
Gaiya wouldn’t be waking up anytime soon, but if he did, Naruto wasn’t in the mood to listen to him scream.
His muscles ached, exhaustion settling deep in his bones, but there was still one more thing to do.
He looked up.
Ino was watching him.
Naruto crouched beside her, pressing his palm against her forehead without a word. Too warm. Damn it.
He’d planned to pass out the second he hit the ground, let his body pull itself back together while he slept. But now? That wasn’t an option.
Ino’s condition couldn’t get worse.
He reached into his pouch, pulling out the cloth bundle of herbs he had collected earlier. He untied the pouch and shook them loose onto a flat stone near the fire pit.
The broad green leaves were the base. They weren’t medicinal on their own, but they thickened the mixture, helped bind everything together so it would actually stay on her skin. Without them, the paste would dry too fast, crack, and lose effectiveness.
The smaller, dark-veined leaves were the numbing agents. Jiraiya had taught him to crush them fresh—boiling them killed their potency. A trick picked up from a medic in Rain Country, one who treated field injuries on the move.
Then there were the red strands. Rare. Not actually leaves, but thin, fibrous roots that tangled themselves around trees in humid climates. They worked best when broken down in hot water, extracting the deep crimson oils that carried their real medicinal properties. It accelerated clotting, reduced swelling. Not exactly a miracle cure, but the closest thing he had out here.
Naruto rubbed at his eyes. He needed water.
Pushing himself up, he moved toward the back of the cave. He had heard it earlier—the faint drip of water against stone. The sound led him to a thin trickle running down the rock face, pooling into a small depression in the floor.
He pulled out an empty metal canteen from his pack and let it fill. Then he grabbed a second container, smaller but sturdy, and did the same. He had taken it from one of the storage scrolls Tsunade had given him before the mission.
Back at the fire pit, he set the container down and grabbed a small metal pot from his supplies. It wasn’t much, probably meant for cooking, but it would work.
He poured the fresh water in and set it over the weak embers still glowing from earlier. The heat wasn’t strong, barely enough to do more than warm his hands if he hovered them over it, but that was easy to fix.
Naruto formed a quick seal with one hand.
A soft spark of chakra pulsed through his fingertips as he pressed them against the kindling. The flames stirred, flickering back to life.
Naruto worked quickly, fingers moving with practiced ease as he ground the dark-veined leaves against the flat of his kunai. The oils bled out, staining his fingertips a faint green. These were the numbing agents. If he boiled them, they would lose potency, so he kept them fresh. Jiraiya had taught him that.
The red strands came next. He rolled them between his fingers. The fibers were tough, but the heat would soften them. Dropping them into the warm water, he watched the liquid darken, swirling into a deep, rusty red. That was the key. Let them steep long enough to extract the oils, but not so long that they burned off. The crimson tint meant it was working.
A few minutes passed. The cave was quiet except for the soft bubbling of water.
He scooped out the softened strands, mixing them with the ground leaves. Kneading the mixture together, he pressed until it thickened into a dark paste, smooth and sticky. It smelled sharp, almost metallic.
Good.
He moved to her side without a word. She was awake enough to notice.
Carefully, he pulled back the torn fabric. The deep cut along her side was still raw, the edges slightly inflamed. This had to be first.
He scooped a small amount of the mixture onto his fingers and pressed it gently into the wound.
Ino watches him through lidded eyes.
“You got someone.” Her voice is weak. Really weak.
“Yeah.”
She swallows. “Who?”
Naruto secures the bandage with practiced ease. “One of theirs.”
That wakes her up a little. Her fingers twitch against the torn fabric of her sleeve. “…Did he talk?”
Naruto nods once. “They’re covering something up.”
She exhales slowly. “What?”
“The festival’s a distraction. They need the village focused on that while they work on something bigger.”
I am not super happy with this chapter tbh. Dunno why.
Comments
Kaido
Chapter wasnt bad only complaint is tbh id rather get updates less and have these chapters bigger, like the last couple could’ve just been 2 chapters instead of splitting a fight between 2 and a half chapters but interested in what the village is up to
