"Taijin," the village chief sighed. Taijin, a man in his 40s, entered the Fijinosa house; he stood imposing at over 6 feet, and the armour did little to hide his massive muscles.
"Ehh, what are these brats doing here? Old man, don't tell me these are the shinobi Konoha sent?" Taijin stood, surprised.
"Yes, these are indeed the shinobi from Konoha." The village chief nodded. "Hmm," Taijin rubbed his beard, thinking, sometimes scrunching his face and shaking it slightly.
"Well, don't die, brats! Hahaha!" Taijin burst out laughing, and the village chief sighed in relief.
The 5 men who were killed were Taijin's men, and he had kicked up a fuss, having been restrained by his men to stop him from charging into the mountain.
"Well, I'm Shimura Takao and a jonin of Konoha. So, rest assured Konoha has an interest in seeing this situation resolved." Takao stepped forward and shook Taikin's hand. 'Damn, Kurenai wasn't lying, but at least this worked out for the best.' Takao thought. With Jonin-sensei, it was a well-known problem that clients didn't welcome genin, especially academy students. It looked like disregard on Konoha's part.
"Taijin-san, can you lead us into the mountain so we can start tracking the beast.'' Takao was eager to finish this as soon as possible.
"Alright, follow us. Just make sure you blast the damned thing to pieces." Taijin walked away in giant strides, leading them outside where the sun was setting.
Coming to the base of the mountain forest, "Are you sure you want to hunt in the night? We could wait for sunrise tomorrow." Taijin advised.
"It's fine; we have ways to sense in the dark, and given our presence, it's likely the beast might run," Takao replied as they went deeper into the forest past the low-lying areas.
"Enya, try tracking the beast. Ai and Kudo, go set traps on a 15-meter radius around my position. Scatter the prey and make a trail into an ambush zone." Takao gave orders. Ai and Kudo vanished with body flicker jutsu, something they had gotten proficient in, especially for combat.
En route, Kudo made the ram real, and a water clone of him appeared. "Go east; I will take the north." Kudo rushed ahead, his chakra levels down by 10%. Takao had insisted they learn elemental clones before they learned the shadow clone jutsu since it divided chakra reserves in half. The majority of shinobi used elemental clones even though the shadow clone jutsu was widespread because the risk of being in combat with half your chakra reserves meant certain death.
Over in the northern part of the mountain forest,
"Swoosh!" A wire attached to a kunai flew, "Thwack!" embedded into a tree as Kudo laid various traps around him. 'A kill zone, huh?' His thoughts were disrupted by a vague sense of being watched. 'It's here,' He thought, but made no rash movements, continuing to do what he was doing.
About 30 feet from him, in the veiled darkness, a pair of green, almost cyan eyes gazed at Kudo moving about in the distance. Its instincts flared in danger; unlike the villagers, this was stronger but perhaps would be more fulfilling, allowing it to grow stronger.
Kudo flared his chakra field but detected nothing. 'Damn, it's good at hiding its chakra.' Still, he didn't react impulsively. He moved to quickly finish his traps.
The chakra beast, its body bathed in darkness, moved amongst the shadows, semi-circling around Kudo, watching him as it drew closer. It was fast, and mere traps wouldn't impede it like with the previous hunters.
"Swoosh!!" In the darkness, the sound of subtle movement caught Kudo's ears. "Shit." He pulled out a kunai, eyes darting between the trees, his chakra field still salient, but at the last second he jumped, his figure darting amongst the treetops, but the predator also ascended the trees, chasing him.
'What is it?' Kudo looked back, trying to get a clear view of the beast, and what he saw was pitch-black fur, a pair of green eyes staring fiercely at him, and a subtle growl as the four-legged beast chased him, avoiding all the traps.
"Damn it, why isn't it falling into the traps?!" Regardless of how he led it the beast didn't trigger the traps in fact is steps were so light almost soundless. "Fine!" Kudo made a hand seal; a clone darted alongside him, rushing the beast, but its eyes were still focused on the form with the larger chakra. The beast widened its maw, "ROOooaRRR!" A soundwave blasted Kudo's cloned head, while the original had long hidden himself, observing. The clone, slightly disoriented, struck with his kunai, but the cat was faster. Its maw dug into the flesh, but blood didn't seep out; instead, pale lightning flashed, electrocuting the beast as the lightning clone dissolved. The beast gnarled, its eyes shining more vibrant green as its body morphed, enlarging. Its paws that were so light now dug pits into the ground. Its snout flared, smelling the air.
Kudo burst out from the cover of a tree, sending out 5 kunai with his left, but rapidly reversed his right arm, shooting out shuriken. The beast roared, its form vanishing as, with inhuman speed, it darted amongst the trees. "Thwack! x4" The 4 kunai struck nothing as the beast easily evaded, but the last Kunai was headed up into the air; it exploded into red smoke illuminated by the moon.
4 figures were already en route, rushing towards the battle, but Kudo didn't relax; in fact, his fighting intent only soared while staring at the beast trying to dodge the shuriken. He smirked, "Not so fast." he pulled back his hand's wires, flashing as the shuriken curved and struck the beast, causing it to scream in pain, and the wires bound its form. The wires were taking too long to subdue it, but that wasn't the point; pale lightning flashed, striking the beast and causing growls of pain. Kudo channeled more lightning chakra, its light illuminating the stunned gazes of Takao, Enya, Ai, and a breathless Taijin as they stared at the young boy and a bound beast submerged in lightning, crying out in pain.
Kudo smirked, "Sensei, mission complete."