NARUTO: SPECTERS OF THE PAST

BY: SUTANREYU

A trickle of light appeared on the dark grass which had begun to cover the dirt ground of the fortress courtyard. It was a needle, puncturing the darkness of the outside, overcoming the faint ambient glow offered by the full moon. At first faint and dim, it now threatened to grow; growing ever so slightly, inch by inch. Soon followed a quiet, yet increasingly steady, rumble caused by the sound of stone rubbing with soil.

You're the only team I can rely on. You have all the necessary skills for this mission.

The light was no longer a needle. Fully visible, it was a full beam now, emanating from the opening in the large, stone fortress. It moved forward without hesitation, slowly creeping up the solid wall on the other side, making its way up to the top.

Your mission is of utmost importance – vital to the survival of Konoha.

Under normal circumstances, the guards up along the walls would have long noticed the glow now illuminating nearly the entire courtyard. It was pure night – any new source of light would have been noticed.

We need to find the exact location of his most prized possession. There can be no mistake in this. Be sure you are not mislead into a trap.

Under normal circumstances, the guards up along the walls would have long heard the rumbling of the stone door slowly opening amidst the quiet night. After all, the guards were Sound Ninja – one of their noted distinct advantages in battles in the recent years was their seemingly inhuman hearing.

It disgusts me to even say this, but due to the nature of your mission…at least one of you must come back with the location. Even if it means…

But no guard responded to either disturbance. Instead, each and every single one lay flat, dead - a single kunai to each of their heads with pinpoint accuracy. Not a single one had a chance to cry out in surprise or pain – their deaths had been instantaneous and masterfully orchestrated.

The rumbling silenced. The light's ascent up the wall stopped suddenly. The stone door stopped. Faint whispers came from the small, newly created exit out of the fortress.

I know you all know this already, but I'll just say it anyway – your mission's chance of success increases dramatically if you remain as unnoticed as possible by the enemy. But if you are discovered, then…

Something was wrong. The whispers became more frantic. Farther inside the fortress came distant shouts of surprise. Soon came the barking of orders. At that moment, each member of the team of four by the half-opened door came to the same realization: they were discovered!

The stone door was several metres thick, three times the height of a normal man, and easily many hundreds of pounds in weight, but it was nothing to the team of four. One of them swore and burst open the heavy stone door with a single kick, and bolted outside. Wasting no time, he easily leapt dozens of feet into the air up onto the wall. Quickly following him were his three other teammates. Taking only a split second to make a decision, the four looked at each other. The team leader gave a hand signal to the other three. They had gone through every theoretically possible scenario, failure and success, the night before. They were ready. Without hesitation, one of the three nodded and leapt away to the east; the other three made off to the south.

The once-small beam of light emanating from the entrance was now as large as the door itself, blanketing the entire courtyard that encompassed the fortress. But the light's glory was for naught, as a single dark shadow began to erase the yellow glow. Then came another shadow. And another. And another.

"Damnit, they took out all of the wall guards!"

Dozens of shinobi poured out of the entrance, furiously looking in all directions for any signs of the escaped intruders. The dark night obscured any vision they had. But they were sound ninja; they did not have to resort to vision to track the enemy. One of sound ninja began to concentrate, and started to perform hand seals…

Hearing of the Night Bat Technique!

All of the ninja suddenly went deadly silent. The technique performer closed his eyes and began to listen. I will distinguish the steps of the enemy from the steps of a running bear; I will distinguish the enemy's movements in the air from the flight of a bird in the wind. In a time that seemed like an eternity for the others, the ninja found out the direction of the intruders. His eyes snapped awake with a ferocious intensity. "Four of them, making away to the south! Quickly, they're fast!" And with that order, he, along with countless other shinobi that had joined him at the entrance, leapt up towards and over the wall…in their haste and fury, they did not notice the dozens of explosive tags attached to the kunais thrown at the dead guards…

Then, you will have to use brute force.

A single figure laid in wait, about fifty metres east of the fortress in eager anticipation. She knew the enemy had fallen for her first trap of the night. She allowed herself a quick smile as the first of the sound ninja leapt to the wall of the fortress…

Explosive Tags! Release!

At that very moment, miles away, a poor old man taking a midnight stroll could've sworn he heard something. But as quickly as the sound came, it was over.

---

The rumbling and tremors of the powerful explosion at the fortress was all part of the pre-meditated plan, but yet, Rock Lee could not help but look back in surprise as he leapt forward from tree branch to tree branch. Tenten had just activated all of the explosive tags carefully planted on the kunais used to kill the wall guards of the Sound Fortress. That was phase one of the escape plan. The second phase was for Tenten to regroup with the rest of the team.

Tenten…I hope you're alright. Lee worried to himself. It had only been a few seconds since the explosions – so there was no way Tenten could've possibly caught up to them so soon – but Lee could not help but worry.

"Of course Tenten is alright, Lee." Hyuuga Neji called out from ahead of Lee. Lee snapped out of his thought and looked ahead at the jonin. He could not see Neji's face as they weaved left and right in midair. Neji's hair, considered long even many years ago, was even longer and thicker now, reaching all the way down to his waist. It flowed in quick beautiful waves, as did the rest of Neji's traditional white Hyuuga robes. Often Lee would berate Neji for not wearing the combat vest that almost all Chuunin and Jonin wore, and not without cause; the standard-issue vests of today had been developed in conjunction with the Hidden Village of Sand, and featured a special thin inner layer composed of Sandweave, a rare sand that could only be found deep within the harshest deserts in the Country of Wind. It had been demonstrated years ago that even a thin 5 millimetre thick layer of Sandweave had the same absorbency as a large sand beanbag, and yet added virtually no noticeable extra weight to the vest overall. So effective the Sandweave layer was, Konoha had quickly issued upgrades to all the existing vests in service at the time.

Of course, it didn't matter how many times Lee lectured this to Neji. He chose to wear the old Hyuuga robes at all times, even in battle, if only to honour the horrific incident that had occurred only relatively recently…something that Neji swore to never discuss again.

"We went over the escape plan very carefully. This is easily within her capability." Neji continued, without looking back at Lee. It always seemed that Neji never really looked at anyone in a conversation; he always seemed somewhat distant, his mind deep in reflection. "And Tenten is a very careful and precise ninja as her fighting style demands…probably more so than even the rest of us. Besides…"

Neji quickly focused his chakra, and effortlessly activated his Byakugan eyes as his veins coming from his eyes came into plain view. Finding Tenten in this forest was no problem for Neji's experienced eyes. His white vision shot out to the forest behind him at blinding speed, covering the span of many hundreds of metres in a few seconds.

"…She's coming up right behind us as I speak."

Lee turned his head back again. He knew it was a pointless gesture; Neji's Byakugan was never wrong, save for that one time, long ago, when they were but children and still genin.

He caught the black blur that was Tenten's uniform moving up quickly behind them. A few seconds later, she was alongside Lee. Like Lee, she wore the combat vest, as well as dual weapon pouches, one on each side of her waist.

Lee smiled. "Tenten, since when did you get so fast?" he inquired lightly. "I didn't think you catch up with us already."

Tenten smiled in return. Her face still retained a certain simple, yet strikingly beautiful simplicity. Unlike Neji, who had undergone a drastic visual transformation since becoming a Chuunin, Tenten looked nearly the exact same as she did many years ago, keeping the dual hair buns on her head. "Give me some credit, Lee-san! I've been working hard, you know!"

"You two! Pay attention! It's not over yet. We're moving to Phase Three now." Gai interrupted as he pushed off a tree branch, with a slight hint of annoyance. While all four of them were technically Jonin, Gai always had a little trouble not treating them, especially Tenten and Lee, as if they were still rookie Genin fresh out of the Academy, and was always quick to point out little mistakes. Of course, he knew that it was completely unnecessary, and that Lee and Tenten were heavily focused on the task at hand despite their minor chitchat. Neji, Gai had noted, was not so much subject; he always seemed calm, collected, and mature in any situation. In reflection, Gai always blamed his nitpicking on his relative old age; at 35, he knew, as hard as it was to swallow (and it indeed it was,) that his exploding youth power had all but evaporated. He noticed it in his rougher, scruffier voice, the wrinkling on his face, and his more serious attitude. Of course, as a strong advocate of hard work and commitment, he still prided himself on the fact that he seemed just as fast and strong as he was nearly a decade ago.

But even more so, Maito Gai prided himself over the fact that this team – his team, the team that he trained and built to the excellence it was now – was currently regarded as the most elite out of all of Konoha's active teams today.

"Yes!" acknowledged the rest of his team unanimously.

Just like old times.

---

So…they made away with the secret location.

A single ninja, covered in a long, black cloak, stood at the smouldering ruins and rubble that was once the walls of his fortress. Dead bodies of sound ninja, some with kunais precisely lodged in the back of their skulls, other charred from the explosion, decorated the area. He figured at least a dozen were killed from that little trick explosion alone.

Such a simple tactic, the ninja noted to himself. Is this all my soldiers are capable of? Are they so incompetent?

Of course this was not enough to deter the rest of his guard, which had laid pursuit to the intruders. There was one thing he knew for certain: his men would eventually catch up to the enemy; after all, this was their territory, and they knew the most efficient way through it.

He walked towards the mixture of rubble and bodies slowly, like an old man. He removed his black hood from his head as he crouched down to one of the bodies, with smoke still emanating from the burnt uniform. With one hand, he turned the corpse over, so that the back was facing upward. He examined the kunai, with its expired explosion seal wrapped around the handle, and noted it was lodged just one centimetre over the occipital bone, exactly in the middle of the back of the skull. This piqued his interest, if only slightly. His face remained emotionless; his eyes betrayed no hint of that interest. He got back up, and looked for another ninja that had died from a thrown kunai.

A good number of bodies were buried under the rubble. With a simple, effortless kick, the ninja sent most of the rubble flying outward, as well as several corpses from the sheer power of the kick. The rocks and bodies bounced off uselessly the trees in the distance. He found another ninja that appeared to have been killed the same way as the previous subject, and examined the head.

The kunai was lodged in the exact same position as the previous one. One centimetre over the occipital bone.

Just like the other bodies that he examined subsequently.

This kunai work…is from a single ninja. The pattern is the consistent throughout all the bodies. And the explosion tags used to detonate the wall.

This style…it rings a bell…from a long time ago…

Could it be…her?

If that is the case, then they are responsible for the attack.

Hmph. It looks like these men wont be the only to die tonight…and it looks like I'll have to get my hands dirty as well…

The dark figure disappeared into the night.

---

"Byakugan!" Neji activated his bloodline technique once more.

He scanned the region several hundred metres behind him and the rest of his team. And then he saw them: pursuers, wanting revenge for their dead comrades, closing in.

"I see them," Neji declared to the rest of his team. "Tenten, you ready?"

Tenten reached into her weapon pouches, each with one arm, and readied several kunai in each hand by her fingers, and nodded. "Ready!"

Neji focused hard on the ninja with his Byakugan eye. "Two of them. Forty-two degrees downward, fifty-seven degrees to your right; the other same vertical angle, sixty-one degrees to your right. And…now!"

In midair, Tenten twirled to face the direction that Neji just indicated. Her movements in the air were smooth and graceful, like a dancer. With her right hand, she threw the two kunai in her hand with deadly, 100 precision. The kunai bore down on its targets at that precise angle, narrowly avoid branches and trees.

The two targets down below were just about ready to mount their own attack to avenge the death of their comrades. Pouring all of their chakra into their feet, they desperately tried to catch up to the intruders.

In their focused intent to kill, they never anticipated a perfectly executed counter. By the time they had noticed the two kunai speeding with impossible speed, power and accuracy bearing straight towards their heads, it was over. The kunai cut straight through their forehead protectors. The inertia of the kunai sent their heads reeling backwards, with the rest of their bodies following as they fell to the ground in a heap.

At the same time, Tenten finished her 360 degree spin in the air, and was facing forward once again.

"Another one, fifty-eight degrees downward, seventy-two degrees to your left!"

Perfect. Tenten readied one of the two kunai in her left hand. The position of the target did not require her to twist her direction like the first time. Almost casually, Tenten launched the kunai at the third target. Like his first two brethren, he never saw it coming.

By then, the remaining pursuers had caught on, realizing the nearly impossible deaths of their fallen comrades. With an unspoken thought, they all switched their tactics. Their reckless, suicidal running through the wilderness suddenly became a deliberate dash from tree to tree, using them as cover from Tenten's counterattacks.

Neji, with Byakugan still activated, noticed their pattern shift almost as soon as it was executed, and quickly re-analyzed the situation. "It would appear as though our pursuers have changed their pursuit strategy."

"They've decided suicide wasn't quite their style?" Lee quipped jokingly, raising an eyebrow towards Neji.

"They're finally acting like real ninja…they're using the terrain as cover now." Neji replied, without looking back. "I don't think the window of time between their jumps from cover to cover is large enough for me to detect and for you to counter, Tenten."

"That's a shame," Tenten frowned.

"We'll move to the third phase then," Gai called out. "Le-"

"The third phase! ALRIGHT!" Lee interrupted loudly, catching both Gai and Neji off guard. "Neji, tell me where to strike, please!"

I see you still haven't lost the power from your explosion of youth, Lee. Gai smiled faintly to himself. And you're just as eager as you've always been. In that case…

"NEJI! COMMENCE THE THIRD PHASE, NOW!" Gai screamed wildly, with twice the ferocity of Lee's.

Gai sensei…it seemed kind of weird to act that way ten years ago…now its just downright…freaky…Tenten thought to herself.

"…Uh…" Neji stuttered for a moment. He certainly didn't expect that outburst coming. "Three of them have regrouped; fifteen degrees to your left, twenty-two degrees downward-"

"Alright!" Lee acknowledged, with a clenched solid fist. As he landed on a tree branch, he quickly reached down under his ankle coverings for his massive weights, and detached them with a solid clunk. Gripping one in each hand, he threw both down to the forest ground below, and with a quick smile, he seemingly disappeared.

---

The three sound ninja ran with lightning speed from one tree cover to the other. Despite the minor recent setbacks – one of them was impossibly good at throwing weapons, it seemed – they were ready to attack. Two other teams were in position – they would unleash the full power of their long range sound ninjutsu.

Commence in three, two-

All of a sudden, the ground around them trembled, and a loud explosion echoed through the forest. Then they saw it: a large mound of dust, rising from the ground to their right.

"What the hell was that?" one of the sound ninja exclaimed.

"A distraction."

That voice did not belong to any of them. They all looked forward, and suddenly saw a green blur materialize in front of them.

"What-"

"Konoha Whirlwind!"

Lee's wide sweeping, powerful kick sent one of the ninja flying backwards. His body collided with the two other ninjas, who had been following tight formation. Their bodies flew backwards into a large tree.

Lee smiled again, and in a flash, rejoined the rest of his team.

---

"Back." Lee proclaimed as he materialized in front of Neji.

That was almost instantaneous, Neji noted. Lee, your speed is incredible…

"Right." Neji acknowledged, and scanned for the remaining two teams in pursuit. As expected, he found them at the same relative position as they were before. But at the very moment, something completely unexpected happened.

They stopped.

Gai sensed Neji's unusually long moment of hesitation as a sign that something was wrong. "Neji. What's wrong?"

Neji's face, in slight disbelief, still looked forward. "The ninja…they stopped."

Lee smirked. "Heh. They must've broken off pursuit since we took out so many of them-"

No. That isn't it. Neji told himself, his look of disbelief growing slowly. They stopped for another reason. But what else could it possibly be, if-

And then the reason hit him.