Naruto: The Leaves Have Shadows
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Chapter 2:
Near the border of Fire and Wind
Naruto was wrong. They struck midday hours before the rendezvous. It started off subtle with an area genjutsu that attempted to funnel them toward a certain area. It almost worked, but Hinata, who was running point re-activated her dojutsu and saw the flux in her team's chakra networks. In addition Anko's snakes reported a similar plan might be tried so they were quick to respond.
When one of Naruto's sage clones dispersed the original put his hand up in a pre-arranged signal. Hinata and Konohamaru gathered the clients and sped towards the rendezvous. They were accompanied by two of sage clones doing their best to travel stealthily. Meanwhile Anko and Naruto turned and engaged the enemy, the genjutsu broken shortly after it was detected.
Shuriken and kunai rained down on the leaf ninja from multiple angles. While deflecting the projectiles the leaf ninja pressed forward. Anko spotted a few attackers and promptly dispatched them with a few well-placed kunai.
"These guys are pussies!" she practically shouted with excitement. Despite himself Naruto grinned.
"Stay focused Anko. There are a few larger chakra signals in the area," he replied while catching an attackers hand and redirecting his attack so that his knife plunged into another foe coming from his left. A second later he sprung back simultaneously signing.
"Futon: Wind Scythe," he intoned softly. Wind surged around his body then morphed into scythes which shot outwards into the trees cutting branches and limbs alike. Anko nodded in appreciation to the destruction as she buried a kunai into her opponents' heart.
Meanwhile Hinata and Konohamaru were rapidly approaching the rally point. Suddenly she spotted something high in the sky.
"Watch out Konohamaru!" she yelled as she dived to the side. The young man quickly created 2 shadow clones and grabbed the clients then proceeded to leap to avoid the attack. Descending from the sky a dragon of fire impacted the ground like a missile destroying a large swatch of trees in the process. With her Byakagun active she spotted a rather large bird circling overhead with a person seated. Two of Naruto's remaining Sage clones landed next to them.
"Are you OK Hina-chan?" the duplicate asked to which she nodded.
"I need you two to head off with Konohamaru. We are not too far from the drop-off site. I will stall him," Hinata ordered the clones. They looked worried but complied.
"Be careful Hinata-sempai," Konohamaru said before speeding away. She watched for a moment before steeling her spirit for the battle ahead. 'Now to deal with this situation' she thought. Bounding to the top of a tree she activated a storage scroll summoning a bow and quiver full of arrows. Notching an arrow while channeling her second chakra affinity she aimed then fired.
"Raiton: Shadow arrow jutsu!" Instantly hundreds of electricity charged arrows flew through the air, the buzzing they produced deafening. The figure deftly piloted the bird dodging the projectiles, but Hinata wasn't finished yet. Flashing through hand signs rapidly she started her next jutsu.
"Suiton: Water bullet barrage!" As the bullets caught up to her arrows, an interesting thing occurred. Upon collision the electricity flared creating a domino effect of sorts. One after another lightning from each arrow linked to each other forming a net of sorts from which there was no escape.
"Shit," was all the mystery figure got out before the lightning over took him. The bird vanished as his body fell from the sky with a loud boom upon hitting the ground. Hinata, while inwardly cheering did not let down her guard as she rushed towards the crash site. That alone saved her life.
From below a hand burst from the forest floor intent on snapping her neck. Leaping backward she barely got her guard up as the person was on her. Blocking a left jab, she grabbed the hand pulling her enemy toward her only to let go in order to avoid being run thru by a kunai. Following up with a roundhouse kick and then two shuriken her opponent was relentless.
Normally, taijutsu against a Gentle Fist user is suicide but Hinata's opponent was very good. Springing forward with a punch toward her stomach, then a left uppercut with a kunai, all of which were dodged by Hinata, the ninja seemed adamant to take her out quickly. A downward slash blocked by a kunai of her own Hinata created some space by leaning back and launching a kick that to his jaw, nearly breaking it. In the pause in the action Hinata got a good look at her enemy.
Standing at around 5'7 he looked to be around 15 with a scar on his right cheek. For clothes he wore black ninja pants and a white and black shirt styled in the Chinese fashion. It reminded Hinata of a yin yang symbol. The fierce look would frighten a lesser opponent, but having spared with Naruto in Kyubi mode she was not impressed.
"What are you after? Why have you attacked us?" she asked more to buy time for her shadow clone to get into position. She received no reply except a smirk followed by the ninja flashing through a series of hand seals.
"Katon: Great fireball jutsu!" he shouted and a second later a large fire ball shot toward Hinata.
"Suiton: Water wall!" came her counter. The two jutsus clashed creating a heavy mist, then silence as they prepared to clash.
Oooooo
As Hinata faced off with her foe Naruto and Anko had their own trouble. Simply put the enemy was huge. "Naruto Uzumaki, I've been waiting a long time to kill you", he said his green eyes burned with ferocity and hatred.
"Who the hell are you?" Naruto asked cautiously. Say what you want about Kakashi's lazy ways but after the war he threw himself into training Naruto and Sakura with the zeal of a psychotic slave driver. Looking underneath the underneath was now fully ingrained into him and as such he knew he had to get every scrap of information. Judging by the ninja's face he looks to be around the age his father would be or even a bit younger. The giant was not familiar to Naruto even with his knowledge of the bingo books.
"You will know soon enough Uzumaki," practically spitting his name out. "For now we dance. Consider it a small test if you will. I will enjoy this, believe it!" Naruto's eyes narrowed at his catchphrase being said in such a viscous manner. Moving slightly to away from Anko in order to present a harder target, Naruto started infusing chakra in his legs.
"Kit, be careful. There is something odd about his chakra," Kurama chimed in.
'Got it," he thought to the monster fox. In a burst of speed Naruto rushed the man while Anko circled right. Closing in Naruto waited until the last second before activating springing his chakra blades from his wrist holsters. The sage wind chakra channeled through them extended his reach by quite a bit. Somewhere Kakashi smiled knowing his teaching skills have been validated. With speed belaying his size the enemy jumped back then lashed out with a punch intent on taking Naruto's head off.
"Hidden shadow snake hands!" Anko cried forcing the man to abandon his follow up attack as snakes poured from her sleeves. Capitalizing on that, Naruto pressed forward as two shadow clones appeared on either side of the giant and attempted to grab him. 'Both seal less and smokeless, how impressive', he thought throwing his arms out to the sides; the ninja dispelled the clones with solid hits.
A punch thrown by Naruto was parried to the side followed by a counterpunch, which in turn Naruto blocked. Keeping up the initiative the huge Shinobi shot forward with another punch combo all of which were blocked by Naruto. Anko choose this time to intervene with 3 shuriken thrown at the attackers' feet forcing him to dodge. Another shadow clone sprung into being jamming a kunai into his back. A split second later the man dissolved into mud. Both Naruto and Anko tensed,
Just then Naruto sensed a massive buildup of chakra pooling under Anko's feet. "Below!" he bellowed an instant before the ground dissolved into a hole. Anko always quick on her feet jumped into the air forming seals as she did so.
"Katon: Fire dragon bullet!" A medium dragon shaped fire ball shot into the hole then detonated with so much force the ground split in several places. Silence reigned as the two ninjas took cover in the nearby trees.
"Think we got him?" Anko hand signaled to Naruto.
"No. I sense him with sage mode but I can't pinpoint him," signaled back. Slowly an interesting smell wafted to their noses followed by whispering that grew louder in their ears.
"Kai!" they both yelled seeking to disrupt whatever genjutsu being cast. Turing to each other both were shocked to see the other dead and their opponent standing over their comrade.
"You Bastard! Taju Kage Bushin no jutsu!" Hundreds of Narutos' appeared intent on avenging his fallen comrade.
"Katon: Shadow shuriken jutsu!" Hundreds of flaming projectiles were sent out by Anko to dispatch the enemies she saw coming at her from the tree. What Naruto saw were hundreds of ninjas tossing burning projectiles.
Quickly dodging he formed a series of seals and produced a thunderous shout laced with an enormous amount of wind chakra effectively pushing the projectiles off course. 'Heh Futon: Voice of the Kyubi works fine,' he thought. Just then Kurama agitated Naruto's chakra restoring his vision of reality.
'Brat, that was a doubled layered genjutsu. Very nasty stuff,' the fox said. In his mindscape Naruto grinned and did a nice guy pose.
'Thanks Kurama.' To which the fox snorted.
"Just hurry and wrap this up. I still don't like the feel of his chakra."
'Yeah, now that I'm in sage mode I can tell there is something up with those bracers. It's almost like they are alive. In fact they kind of remind me of the Biju.'
Vision now cleared he spotted Anko still under the effect of the genjutsu barreling towards him. A clone popped into existence in a nearby tree and began to gather nature energy. Meanwhile Naruto engaged Anko with a plan in mind.
Anko's snake style taijutsu made her a handful to deal with. Sudden and precise it was hard to shake the feeling that she was in fact a predator intent on having him for a meal. A sudden strike at his chest followed up by a trench knife aimed at his eye put Naruto on the defensive. His senses alert for his true enemy he struck back focusing nature energy into his legs, he seemingly vanished then reappeared at Anko's back. Pushing his chakra into Anko in a cross between Gentle fist and frog kumite he broke the genjutsu.
'Hmm looks like Uzumaki has improved quite a bit. No matter the plan will succeed,' the ninja thought.
"Gaki, what the hell happened? Never mind it must have been a double layered genjutsu. But where the hell is that bastard?" Anko asked. As if answering the question the ninja rose from the earth.
"Well, well it looks as though your victory over Madara and Obito wasn't a fluke after all. It's a pity you weren't able to end the Uchiha once and for all. Perhaps I should track him down and finish the job hmm?" the giant taunted the leaf ninja.
"Why you... Don't even think about harming my friend. For attacking my comrades I will crush you!" Slowly a golden aura began to appear around Naruto and his eyes changed color as the cloak of the nine tails surrounded him. The giant's eyebrow rose.
"Don't be hasty young one. We will meet again Naruto Uzumaki. I am called Sago. Know me and fear me, for I will crush all you hold dear. I will turn all you love to ash," he said then dispelled into smoke. Naruto's eyes narrowed as he realized that was a shadow clone, the real Sago probably miles away by now.
Anko turned to Naruto her senses still buzzing. Everything felt so intense after a fight. Forcing her breath and heart rate to normal she said, "Normally I love a good fight but I have a very bad feeling about this. We must inform the Hokage."
He took in Anko's serious demeanor and the fact that she didn't make a joke about her juices flowing combined with his own instincts. "I agree,' was all he said before performing the summoning jutsu. A second later a small blue and greyish toad appeared.
"Naruto-sama, what is your wish?"
"Gamaden, I hope all is well." The toad nodded indicating this to be the case. "Great. Listen I needed you to deliver this Granny Tsunade," he said handing him a scroll describing the recent events, along with a request for back up just in case.
"It will be done right away Naruto –sama." Dispelling himself back to Mt. Myoboku he planned to enter the leaf village via a portal Naruto installed in his connecting the two places.
"Come on Anko, let's get to the others." She nodded and they both took to the trees.
Ooooooo
Meanwhile Hinata was playing a deadly game of hide and seek. The mist created by the jutsu clash was thickened by Hinata's use of the Hidden mist jutsu. Unlike other members of the Hyuuga, Hinata had no problem learning ninjutsu and whatever else in order to become stronger. Already by her example she has started her clan on the road to change. One of the main things she wishes to do is confront the council and turn them from the stuffy ways. By forcing certain issues she is slowly setting the stage for something wondrous: revolution. Among the new techniques she has learned is something called Suiton: Eye of the world. In essence it is a powerful sensory jutsu used in conjunction with a technique like the hidden mist. Hinata is able to literally feel and track anyone who comes in contact with the chakra laced mist,very useful in discerning movements of shadow clones and the original.
'Hmm, the mist is too thick to see in even with that Byakugan of hers. But that lighting nature might be a problem,'' her opponent thought. Creating a mud clone then slipping underground he travelled near the trees and waited.
Just then a shout of Ration: God's hand rang out throughout the area. Arcs of lighting chakra in the form of a hand streaked towards the mist and grabbed the young fighter. .5 seconds later it detonated resulting in a hellish flash of light and an unearthly roar.
'That should draw out the real him. I'm so glad I learned that water sensory jutsu,' Hinata thought. Just then she picked up the original about to burst from the ground directly below the tree she was perched in. As soon as an earth chakra hardened hand sought to tear her ankle off an arrow coated with lighting launched by her shadow clone streaked through the sky only to be intercepted by a smallish lady with blood red hair.
"Kenpachi, stop fucking around, we are leaving," she said rather blandly.
' 'I didn't see her even with my Byakugan nor did I sense her. I must be careful,' thought Hinata.
"Oh come on Lady Yui, it was just getting interesting," he whined.
"Kenpachi, I won't say it again. We are leaving." Yui said with a voice that promised unspeakable horror, it was as if it was made from the bitterest cold and the hardest steel. Without another word the two disappeared in a fire shunshin, the women's eyes piercing Hinata's own. To Hinata's credit she neither flinched nor looked down, but stared impassively.
"Curious. Well, the rest of the team is approaching I'd better head toward Konohamaru. They will catch up eventually..." With that she took off to regroup and complete the mission.
A/N: A lot of action in order to introduce some of the villains. Rest assured they will be back and it may get a bit brutal. Also what do you all think of Naruto's fighting style. I didn't want to make him overpowered but he is a lot smarter and stronger than before. This is only a taste of what he can do. Next time we revisit Kakashi, and perhaps we will get a glimpse of another fan favorite. Until then please Read & review. Peace!