Chapter 2: Treetop Terror
Kainashi was sleeping. Shikamaru couldn't blame him; it wasn't like Kainashi had been exposed to such ninjutsu before, however basic it was. It was only another day of high speed running away from the Infected until they could lock the gates and stay there.
The temple was large enough to sustain a farm, of which just one would be enough to keep the twelve-man group fed. However, until harvest on the farm, they would have to eat, so they stockpiled food in scrolls as they went.
Shikamaru looked behind him, to see a squad of Infected just behind the last member in their line.
He flipped over the line, causing some shouts of surprise, and fired off a Shadow Sewing jutsu. It gored the lead ninja, and he fell clutching his wound, which wouldn't have harmed him, being immune to pain and all, except the force sent him falling to his death off of the precariously perched tree branches the ninjas were traveling on.
You didn't often get Infected this high up, which was why the group was traveling there.
Suddenly, the group of twelve was surrounded by at least thirty Jounin level ninja. Being infected didn't hamper your skill at all; you just lost your will for anything other then what who controlled the whole jutsu wanted.
Shikamaru glumly thought, 'How troublesome. I used to always say that, and never do now. How troublesome.'
One ninja by the name of Tenten, threw five shruiken out of each hand. Every single one hit the Infected she was aiming at (who happened to be male). It's just that the…. Section of body part that Tenten was aiming at really didn't matter for an infected. One of them fired off a quick fireball, and it hit Tenten in the mid-air.
She stopped moving, and landed on a tree branch. She looked at her team, and jerked her neck to both sides, in a series of violent spasms. She stopped her spasms abruptly, and stared at Shikamaru.
"Tenten!" he shouted, as his shadow split up into five parts, and all pierced the attacker. He moved them all apart, and the man ripped apart, blood gushing out onto the tree branches, and below.
Shikamaru was in shock. Tenten gave him a smile. A horrible smile. One that looked happy, but he knew wasn't. "Goodbye, Shika-kun."
She slung four shruiken at Shikamaru, slapping an exploding tag on the last one. Shikamaru, without a moment's notice, brought the five shadows up, each one redirecting a shruiken back towards Tenten. The last one ripped the branch she was standing on off of its tree trunk, and Tenten was sent shrieking to her death. And then there were eleven.
Ino tried to control ones mind, but found it impossible. The master jutsu blocked her out. She saw her own father, Inoichi, among the mix. One mind-control later, she was an Infected. She controlled Chouji's mind, and made him brutally attack Kiba, who fell off, leaving a very angry Akamaru on the branches. With a growl, the dog eviscerated Chouji, and ripped his arm off, as well as other body parts. Chouji fell off with the pain, but Ino did not, due to her resistance to it. Akamaru proved invaluable to the struggle, killing Infected after Infected, and finally ripping Ino's head from her young body, and sending it down, down to where so many other's lay slain. She jumped after it.
There was one medic-nin, whose direct chakra attacks were devastating, already giving them five to join their ranks. Neji dodged a Dynamic Entry, and Lee was falling down and landed with a sickening splat. The medic went to attack a certain Hyuuga Hinata, who had her back turned sending the Infected spinning down.
"NOOOOOO!" Neji screamed, diving towards the medic. "Sixty-four palms-" by now, Neji could go into a '1028 palms' frenzy with just using the lowest form of spoken words. By the time Neji reached 1000 palms, the Infected could no longer be seen. Neji was left pulverizing little bits of flesh.
"Hinata… ever since… I became a Jounin, and this… terrible thing happened, I always, released how powerful you really could be… and… I love you…" Neji's words sounded painful, as a kunai thudded into his body. "Like a sis….ter…"
Neji fell in a slow descent off of the branch, and into a fast running river. His fate was now sealed; his body was left free like his soul never was, until the very end.
Hinata screamed, and slowly began slicing Infected up with her Ninjutsu. Her mini-chakra things sliced and diced, and around her was a sphere of death, as she utterly destroyed them.
But they kept coming and coming, reinforced by the bulk of Infected. She saw a shadow wall that Shikamaru was behind, sending sharp tendrils of shadow over and under to rip the enemies off of the branches.
"Shikamaru!" she shouted, and Shikamaru saw her. He nodded, and she sprinted towards the wall, sending several swipes behind her.
The wall briefly opened, and Hinata rested against a trunk behind it.
"Shikamaru, what are we going to do?" she asked, breathing heavily.
"We have to retreat, we have no choice. They are too numerous." Shikamaru said, and walked over to Hinata. "I can hold my wall for about another fifteen minutes, we have that long to strategize." Shikamaru put his hands in his little thinking position thing.
Hinata waited, resisting the temptation to whistle. Shikamaru nodded, then smiled to himself. "Okay, here's the plan. The Infected are- hell, I'll just call them the zombies- are waiting just outside the wall. As soon as I lift it, they will no doubt fry and freeze and blow our sorry asses off of this tree. So, we need to run a while, and then raise the wall. They will still catch up with us; we are too low on chakra to run at full speed. So I will destroy the tree branches connecting us to them. We then run, without them being able to pursue. Okay?"
Hinata nodded uncertainly, that plan sounded a little iffy, and had rather low expectations of working.
Minutes later, they were running like crazy away from a crowd of zombies chasing them. Damn, they were fast. Hinata was fine, but Shikamaru was already gasping like crazy.
Shikamaru said, "Okay, here's the place." The zombies caught up with them within half a minute, and landed between the trunk, and the end of the branch that Shikamaru and Hinata were standing on.
A large shadow swiped through the thick tree branch, and Hinata realized something. "SHIKAMARU!!!!"
Shikamaru had cut them off of the tree, and they would fall to their deaths. Hinata reached for a kunai to kill Shikamaru. She landed unceremoniously in Shikamaru's arms. "Shut up!" he whispered.
"What-" she started, but was interrupted by Shikamaru, who had somehow ended up under her, and had no signs of strain. He put his fingers to his lips, and stealthily descended the tree, Hinata still in his arms. He set her down on the ground, and jumped off himself.
"Wait, Shikamaru-" she started, being stopped by a shush from Shikamaru.
" Yes, I know it's more dangerous. I replaced myself with a clone, the one that was talking to you, and scouted out to find that tree branch we landed on after I blew up the branch we were standing on. Come on, the temple is only a mile away." Shikamaru said, is a lazy tone.
They started walking, and encountered an Infected once or twice, but each time they prevailed. Suddenly, Shikamaru fell into a hole.
"What the hell?" Hinata heard Shikamaru shout. "Shadow Sewing no Jutsu!" She heard sickening squelching sounds, and then a loud shout. "Hinata! D- Follow!"
Hinata thought for a few seconds about the 'd' sound, but ignored it. "Shikamaru needs to be saved!" she thought.
She jumped in the hole. There were four infected, and a funny looking Shikamaru. The infected opened a barred door, and were about to close it, when Hinata felt a force take over her.
"Sixty-four palms, Chakra Blast!" she shouted, loudly and bravely. Blasts of chakra flew from her fingertips, annihilating the four infected, and blasting the door open.
Shikamaru was unresponsive, slumping towards the floor. Another infected dropped behind them, and closed the door with a smirk.. Hinata was scared to death because she was stuck in a cage, mostly because she recognized that man. Hyuuga Hizashi.
She sat on the ground; not even thinking about using her new-found jutsu to open the door, because she knew Hizashi was way beyond her power, even in infected state.
"DAMN IT!" she shouted, very uncharacteristically of her. She didn't care about Hizashi, she could blow him up like she did the other infected. "Sixty-four palms, Chakra Blast!"
Again, she blasted open the gate, not destroying it. She carved swaths of dirt out, the dirt vaporizing on contact with the powerful chakra. "HIZASHI!" She shouted, firing them at him. She hit him with every single one. He wilted under the blast, and then stood up.
Not using words or seals, which was customary of the infected, he launched into a 128 palms. He blasted Hinata, who slammed into a wall of dirt that had risen behind her, by Hizashi's bidding.
"I have spent a lot of time in Iwagakure!" Hizashi shouted. Suddenly, he disappeared. Hinata looked around frantically, screaming. She felt something brush her foot, and looked down.
"Ahh!" she screamed, as she saw Hizashi's hand. She felt herself being pulled into the hole, and ended up unable to move, looking up at Hizashi. And she smiled.
Hizashi looked at her. Was this the same Hinata? The screaming part, he expected. But this utterly confident smile? What was happening here? He wondered, until he felt the kunai slam into his back, warm blood spreading.
"Damn it!" he shouted, turning around to see the real Hinata.
Without another word, he launched into a Heavenly Spin, which was more like a Big Destruction Chakra Ball of Doom. Hinata went flying. Hizashi pulled out a kunai, and ground it into her head, mutilating her brains as they flew out, and watching the blood spurt out as if in a geyser. And with a poof of green smoke, she disappeared. Damn! It was another clone!
He breathed deeply, breathing the green smoke. He blinked heavily, his vision blurring. With horror, he ran from the green cloud, seeing two Hinata's. He randomly picked one, throwing a kunai at it. It sailed through the illusion, and Hizashi smiled, unleashing a barrage of chakra and weapons towards the clone. It merely grinned, and muttered, "Daibakuha."
The clone exploded, sending Hizashi flying backwards. He sent a spider web of cracks through the compressed dirt he crunched against.
The real Hinata walked forwards through the smoke and carnage, and whispered, "Sixty-four palms, Chakra Blast."
Hizashi literally blew up, his guts and blood flying everywhere, giving Hinata a new complexion.
Hinata collapsed, realizing that she could only use the technique three times before seriously tiring. She quickly used an illusion, and disguised herself as a rock before falling asleep.
Author's Note: Sorry, if the gore was a little excessive. More about the appearance of Hizashi (however brief it was) will be revealed later. And yes, everyone that is dead is permanently dead.