Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto would I really be writing this fanfic?
After one finished exam delaying me I decided to get this up before the next one. It's my first chapter with action as its focus. I think I did pretty well with it. Any help critique you guys would have for this area is greatly appreciated. Oh and just to warn the really squeamish, the F-word appears in this chapter.
So without further ado here's the next chapter of Neo Shinobi.
4. Losing is life
So far there were few moments in his life where Koudanshi could say that he had been terrified for his personal well-being. Whatever the number was sparring with a pissed-off Mikomi had increased it by a factor of one.
For the last ten minutes or so the blue haired boy had been doing his best to dodge vicious punches, fierce kicks and large rocks being thrown at him. The thought of even trying to counter attack had vanished from his thoughts when his teammate's first strike nearly dislocated his shoulder, and it would have if he hadn't rolled with the punch. Right now, his main priority was to just survive the sparring session.
He wasn't actually sure that he could call what they were doing sparring. It seemed more like a version of tag, only getting tagged would mean an extended hospital visit to mend his shattered bones. Whatever one would label their exercise he needed to stop it before he really did get injured, or worse.
"Mikomi-chan," He began while ducking under a blow that cracked the tree behind him. "Could we please take a break? I'm feeling a bit tired." He continued, with a hint of desperation in his voice, as he dodged to the left to avoid a hurtful looking downward kick that cracked the ground.
"What are you talking about?" Mikomi growled. "I haven't begun to sweat yet." She threw another punch which Koudanshi managed to narrowly block by putting his arms in front of his chest. He was still sent flying though, and skidded nicely on his back as he hit the ground.
"Yes, and your stamina is most impressive." The blue-haired boy commented as he picked himself up. "But I still think that we need to STOP!" He screamed the last part and raised his hands in defence to stop the bulldozing, purple-haired girl from knocking his head of.
Luckily Mikomi did stop, her fist inches away from Koudanshi's face. However, Mikomi was still looking quite pissed. "And why, pray tell, do you want to stop sparring?" His instincts told Koudanshi that he was not going to like where this was going.
"Is it because you find my skills so inferior that it's not worth anything to even train with me?!" Her voice became more like a roar with each word. "Or is it because you find it tedious to practice with a girl and you'd much rather do this with Kihano or Lee-sensei." Koudanshi was becoming rather flustered and tried to explain himself but was interrupted. "Or maybe you, and everybody else, just want me to get lost so you can all throw praise at little miss…"
"Iwantedtostopbecauseifwecontinuedanyfurtheryouwouldhaveinjuredmegreatly!" Koudanshi screamed, ending Mikomi's triad abruptly and leaving the Uchiha heir looking like a big question mark.
"You're afraid that I would beat you?" She asked incredulously.
"It's more that I'm afraid that your current temperament combined with your skills and strength would hurt me beyond repair." Koudanshi correct sheepishly. "Just look at what you've done to the surrounding area. Not to mention your fists."
For the first time today Mikomi let her eyes wander across the area in which they had been sparring and she realised that her friend was right. Everywhere she looked there small holes and trenches in the ground. Trees were cracked and/or bent out of shape. Large rocks littered the area in the most peculiar places.
The purple-haired girl then looked at her own hands. They were dirtier than ever before, and all that punching had cracked her knuckles. "Mom's not going to like this." Mikomi lamented as she sat down on the ground.
"You've been upset all week Mikomi-chan." Koudanshi stated as he sat down in front of her. "And as much as I like to help you anyway I can I would prefer it if it didn't involve venting your anger upon my person. Please, just tell me what's been bothering you."
For a moment she didn't say anything. The young Uchiha just stared into the ground before answering with a childish pout on her face. "I want a C-mission." She said briefly.
Koudanshi cocked his head to the right in confusion. "Why?"
Mikomi sighed before continuing with low voice that her teammate could barely hear. "I met Hinata-sama at lunch. She said that Konki's team got to go on a C-mission."
"And that upsets you?" Koudanshi asked with an analyzing voice.
"Yes!" Mikomi suddenly proclaimed loudly, catching Koudanshi of guard, before going into a short but speedy triad. "Because now dad will have another excuse to rank down on me for having the audacity to not get a C-mission five weeks after I became a genin, and at the same time praise Konki for whatever incredible heroics she'll pull while they're away!" She stopped there to catch her breath and the blue-haired boy took this opportunity to toss in his two cents on the matter.
"As long as we fulfil the tasks given to us I am certain that we will eventually reach the point where we're entrusted with a C-ranked mission. And then you shall see that your father will show the same amount of appreciation as he does with Konki-san." The blue boy smiled brightly at Mikomi, thinking that he had ended her moping fit. Those thoughts were quickly washed away when the girl in question laughed evilly.
"One, for every one mission our team actually does well there're three that has us breaking at least one thing. So I doubt that the hokage and village council are ready to trust us with anything more difficult than walking a cat. By the time we do manage to get a C-mission Konki's team will probably be making their way through A-missions."
While he didn't enjoy admitting it, she did have a point. More often than not there seemed to be something that kept them from completely finishing the mission. It usually involved something being violently broken and the customers wanting compensation for whatever had been destroyed. It really cut down the amount of money that they were paid for each mission.
"Two," Mikomi continued. "You obviously don't know my dad. Sure, he'll be polite at times, and sometimes even fatherly. But most of the time he will just degrade me, for no reason I might add." Her expression was growing sadder with each word and Koudanshi was beginning to panic. This was not going how he had hoped it would. Since he didn't know what to do the shinobi prodigy decided for a drastic course of action.
"You are right. I do not know your father. But from what you have told me he is clearly a fool." At this statement Mikomi looked up at her teammate, confusion apparent in her eyes. "Mikomi-chan, it is without a single doubt in my mind that I say this. You are an accomplished shinobi with great potential, and although you're a little rough," He gestured at the damaged trees and Mikomi nodded in agreement. "You more than make up for it with passion and determination." Mikomi looked down at the ground to hide the smile and blush combo that was creeping up on her face. "And I'm not the only one who sees it. Lee-sensei often comments on how impressed he is with your strength of body and heart."
Mikomi looked up again, meeting Koudanshi's eyes. "You really mean that?" She asked, as if trying to ascertain that it wasn't just a daydream she was having.
"If your father truly cannot see what I and Lee-sensei can then I think that my earlier statement about him is correct." Koudanshi said this while hoping that nobody besides Mikomi would notice that he was being disrespectful to a senior shinobi. Then he glanced at Mikomi. She was wearing a grateful smile on her face, and like that all his worries were washed away.
"Oh well, as long as Mikomi-chan is happy I guess there's no harm done."
"Thanks…" She whispered softly and got up on her feet again. "If you still want to, we can get back to training now. I promise that I'll take it easy on you." She teased and offered him her hand. Koudanshi gladly accepted it and she pulled him up.
"You know," Koudanshi started as they got into their respective fighting stances. "From what I've gathered, C-missions aren't all that eventful. It's likely that nothing exciting at all will befall Konki-san and her team."
Konki jumped backwards into the air one moment before Same's trident speared the ground where she had been standing. An instant later Yaiba used Same's back as a springboard to follow the blonde kunoichi.
"Hey," Same yelled. "Don't go stealing my prey now!" He lifted up the trident and got ready to follow. That's when Chouya grabbed the trident with an empowered arm, stopping the large boy in his tracks.
Chouya smirked at Same's surprised face before calmly saying. "Don't focus all your attention on only one of us. It's insulting." The short girl then forcefully shoved the blunt end of the trident into Same's gut, knocking the breath out of him.
Before Same could react properly Chouya sprung forward and hit him with a fisted backhand across the chest, sending him flying backwards. Thinking that he at least would get knocked out the brown-haired girl was surprised to see that he managed to land on his feet. The only sign that he had been attacked was his heavy breathing.
"Brat." He growled and ran towards the Akimichi heir.
"Fun." Chouya said with dreamlike happiness and did the same.
Meanwhile Konki and Yaiba had landed and engaged each other in close combat. The orange-haired boy was forcing Konki back with a seemingly endless combo of quick kicks aimed at her torso and head.
"Damn, this guy sure likes kicking." The blonde thought as she frantically dodged kicks, patiently getting used to her assailant's speed, timing and movement. Then she remembered something Sasuke had said during their first week as a team. "You can never just attack or defend. There has to be a balance between the two. If there isn't you might as well paint a target on your chest."
Thinking that her opponent seemed abnormally focused on offence Konki decided to take a chance and counter. After dodging under a sharp kick aimed at her head, the blonde activated her byakugan and attacked Yaiba's mid-section. The older boy reacted just in time to escape the full burnt of the by jumping back. He was too late to avoid the attack entirely and was grazed by the juuken slap. The affect of the attack became apparent when Yaiba bit down in pain before meeting Konki's triumphant eyes.
"So you really are of the Hyuga clan then. Had to make myself sure of that." Yaiba grunted before biting the tips of his thumbs.
"I'm actually…" Konki began, unaware that she was about to go into a pointless rant.
"I don't really care." The orange-haired boy grazed his bleeding thumbs over his forearms, which had identical kanjis tattooed on them. An instant later he seemingly pulled twin katanas out the forearms, shocking the blonde girl.
"Normally I would assert that you are truly worthy to be killed by these swords before taking them out. But since I'm in a bit of a hurry I'll make an exception just for you." Konki gulped as her opponent glared fiercely at her. But she remained steadfast. "Well, this is my life now." She took the standard juuken stance and met Yaiba's glare with a look of determination.
"Bring it on." She said, and he complied.
During all this the young trapmaster of team seven was plagued by uncertainty on how to act. One part of him told the black-haired boy to just let his teammates fend for themselves, take Mako and run to the village. Another part told him to grow up and help them. Whenever he tried to listen to either of the voices the other one made him freeze up.
"Shit!" He cursed at himself."Why can't I move? I'm supposed to be better than…" That's when the decision was made for him. Instinctively he jumped back to avoid getting crushed when Oru smashed the ground with her hammers.
When Kame's feet touched the ground again he looked up at Oru, fear blatantly showing on his face. The black-haired boy's terror-struck expression was met with one of the friendliest smiles he had ever seen. In fact, the purple-haired girl seemed to be strangely calm considering the situation they were in.
"I must apologise for breaking you out of whatever daydream you were having but I was getting bored just standing around while Yaiba-kun and Same got to have fun. In short, I'm going to beat you up now and then kill you." She with a saint-like smile.
Kame blinked in confusion before responding. "What?"
"You do have a great robe though. Would you mind if I take it after you die?" She asked sincerely.
"Y-y-yes I wou-would m-mind." Oru giggled at the stammer causing Kame to blush and divert his eyes reflexively. A second later he realised that he had taken his eyes off of his opponent. He looked up and ducked to the left just in time to avoid getting his head smashed by one of Oru's hammers.
The black-haired boy jumped back to gain some distance for a range attack. But his opponent was hot on his tail. Side-stepping to the left he evaded a blow that left a large imprint on the ground. With a back-flip he dodged a strike to his ribs. When he landed the trapmaster had to bend to the right to avoid getting his chest smashed in. Oru's hammer seemingly missed its target, but that was not the case.
Kame noticed that the purple-haired girl stopped her arm in mid-swing so that the hammer ended up next to his side. Oru swung the hammer in a sideways arc and finally managed to hit her elusive target right above the ribs.
The last surviving Odayaka was flung away several meters before crashing to the ground. Oru slowly sauntered towards her downed foe.
"You could make it easier on yourself and just let me kill you. I promise that it will be quick and painless." She had barely finished the sentence before Kame rolled to face her and quickly threw a shuriken that lightly cut Oru's cheek.
The trapmaster then launched several shuriken and kunai at the purple-haired girl as he slowly got up. All of which she managed to knock out the air with her hammers. However, her sunny disposition had turned darker.
"You cut my face." She angrily growled as she knocked away the last of the tossed shuriken. "Screw quick and painless, you're going to suffer. And I am so taking that robe once you die."
Kame remained silent, mostly because he was too scared to talk, and pulled out more shuriken. Ready to fight for his survival.
A short distance away from the fighting shinobi Mako was watching on in fear. In his mind he knew that the most logical thing to do would run and hide in the border village. But he couldn't, not after seeing who it was that was after him.
"So you've finally decided to come for me kid. Well, I guess I deserve it. I just wish that you wouldn't involve these kids." The decoder looked of in the direction where they had left Sasuke with the Destruction Brothers. "Please hurry up konoha jounin. Or your students will die."
Sasuke liked to think of himself as a man who kept his word no matter what. But right now he was seriously regretting ever having taken that direction, and that he had sworn of from using ninjutsu and genjutsu for five minutes. Not because dodging several attacks of different elemental affinities at once was harder than he thought it would be. It was because the three morons he was fighting were so annoying that he just wanted to put a chidori through their faces.
"What do you say "Traitor"? Can you take the heat?" One of the triplets shouted as Sasuke jumped into the air to avoid getting scorched by another ones fire blast.
"One minute, just one more minute." Sasuke repeated in his head.
"Futon: Renkuudan!" One of the triplets launched a compact bullet made out of air at the still falling Sasuke. Staying true to his earlier boasting Sasuke didn't use any ninjutsu to defend himself and was hit square in the chest.
The jounin violently crashed to the ground. He would've liked to just lie there and rest for a few seconds before going back into action. But such luck did not befall him as one of the triplets was trying to blast him with a lightning bolt. So he sucked it up and in a flash he dashed of his left, thus avoiding being flash-fried.
Sasuke didn't stop moving as lightning bolts rained after him. He focused his attention on the rapid lightning based attacks and barely noticed when pillars of earth and stone shot up at him from the ground. He threw up his arms in defence right before the pillars blasted him into the air. Ignoring the pain Sasuke flipped in mid-air and landed on his feet, happy that the lightning bolts seemed to have stopped.
Sliding somewhat as he landed Sasuke surveyed the once luscious field that had now become a battle ground. It almost seemed like there had been a small war going on in the area. The ground was torn up, burnt and/or muddied by the various attacks that had been thrown around with a frightening combo of callousness and coordination.
"They sure do live up to their nick-name. I'm just lucky this isn't in a populated area. The casualties and property damages would've been staggering."
He didn't have any more time to dwell on that however as he noticed that the triplets had surrounded him again and begun preparing their individual attacks.
"Well, well, well." One of them mused. "Looks like the "Traitor" has gotten himself in a little over his head." Sasuke responded with indifferent silence.
"Indeed, not so cocky now, are you "Traitor"." Another mocked Sasuke who remained stoic.
"Yeah. Despite your boasting you've barely been able to hit us. But we've been beating you around this field. What do you have to say to that?" The last one shouted gleefully. Sasuke remained silent.
"I see." The first triplet said devilish. "You've accepted that you've met your match and now you are readying yourself for a swift death. An admirable, if somewhat cowardly choice. We shall gladly cooperate. Let him have it brothers!"
"Suiton: Mizurappa." The second triplet expelled a powerful stream of water that came crashing towards Sasuke who soundlessly jumped into the air. The other brothers were quick to react.
"Katon: Karyuu Endan!" The first brother blew a large stream of fire into the air.
"Raiton: Kongou Ya!" The last brother thrust his open right palm into the air and released a thin lightning bolt that streak towards Sasuke.
The two attacks hit their target dead on and incinerated it.
"Well that's that." One of the triplets said as they walked over to the charred remains that had fallen to the ground. Taking in their moment of victory they once again giggled disturbingly before the same brother spoke once again.
"I know that this victory is an incredible step for us my brothers. But we have not finished our mission just yet. The children remain. Let us hurry." Madly grinning the frightening missing-nin were about to depart when a voice from behind took them by surprise.
"I have to say that I'm kind of impressed here. Forcing me to use a ninjutsu technique 32 seconds before my five minutes were up. I've clearly underestimated you three." Not really wanting to believe it the destruction brothers were stunned to silence and just stood in front of Sasuke with their mouths open.
"It cannot be." The middle one stated in disbelief.
"We watched you burn." The one to the right continued.
"You should be dead!" The left one finished.
"I don't blame you for thinking that. A log burnt to crisps probably resembles a man burnt to crisps." The jounin said with a mocking tone as he saw realisation hit his opponents.
"Whatever. We brought you to the brink of defeat and we can do it again!" The left triplet yelled and got agreeing comments from his brothers. Sasuke just smirked.
"I doubt that. Let me show you why." He pointed to the brother to the left. "You're Toukai," Then to the middle one. "You're Metsubou," And lastly to the one on the right. "And you're Inmetsu." The missing-nins horrified faces pleased Sasuke more than it probably should.
"How did you know?!" Metsubou asked.
"The trick to winning any ninja battle is to see through your opponent's technique." His voice was calm yet serious. "I'm going to guess that you guys usually win your battles by moving around so quickly that your opponents can keep track of you all. Since you look exactly alike not being able to see where even one of you guys go would cause serious trouble for lesser ninjas." He looked menacingly into their eyes, scaring the triplets. "But you can't fool me with a trick like that."
"That still doesn't explain how you knew which of us was which!" Toukai yelled, frustrated with Sasuke's attitude.
The jounin chuckled darkly. "Your elemental techniques gave you away." Understanding grazed the triplets' faces. "Nobody can master all the elemental affinities. Most people will only manage one or two. You guys belong to those people. From the very start I've kept track of you and pinpointing your elements wasn't that difficult. Toukai uses lightning techniques, Metsubou handles water and win and Inmetsu has fire and earth affinities. Once I figured all that out your strategy became clear as day to me." Sasuke smirked confidently at the Destruction Brothers' nervous expressions. "Now then, let me show you what I can really do."
He took a step forward, and immediately regretted it. Sasuke's buckled a little and he bit down in pain. With this demonstration his entire aura of superiority rapidly diminished. Like ravenous jackals the Destruction Brothers noticed the weakness in their prey.
"Hah, your pompous boasting seems to have been premature "Traitor"." Metsubou teased while rubbing his hands together.
"Your over-confidence in your physical abilities has left you weakened. With your body damaged victory is still ours." Toukai triumphantly declared and cracked his knuckles.
"The Destruction Brothers shall have your head yet Uchiha Sasuke!" Inmetsu shouted and all three went into their respective poses.
Sasuke sighed. "Fine, I admit that you got me before and that I'm not operating at 100 because of it. But don't think that it will change the outcome of this battle."
The brothers stood right up again and faced of against the Uchiha patriarch.
"Well then, bring it on "Traitor"." Toukai challenged, causing a vein to appear on Sasuke.
"I thought I told you," Electricity surrounded Sasuke's left arm and his eyes shifted into the famous sharingan. "Don't call me that."
"Heh, looks like we hit a nerve." Toukai said and the triplets grinned.
Sasuke growled so silently that only he could hear it. Then, he attacked.
Konki dodge to the left, avoiding a downward slash from her opponent's katana. Yaiba followed up by stabbing at the blonde girl. She jumped to the right but the blade still managed to cut her side ever so slightly.
The young Hyuga launched herself at the missig-nin. As she was about to launch a juuken slap at his left arm Yaiba slashed at her head with that very arm. Konki had to quickly halt herself and jump back so as to not become drastically shorter. Yaiba chased after her and slashed at Konki's right arm. She bended to the left, and once again avoided most of the damage. But just like before the sword cut her arm just a little.
The two shinobi leapt apart to size up one another and think up new strategies as their current ones obviously weren't effective enough.
It had been like this ever since Yaiba brought out his blades. While the juuken was as deadly as any sword, Yaiba's katanas gave him a superior reach. Yaiba had used this advantage to the fullest, never letting Konki get in close enough to even poke him. But it wasn't enough of an advantage to take her down apparently. Instead she had gotten several small cuts across her arms and torso. While her frustration with each new cut did amuse Yaiba it wasn't the same as chopping of her limbs.
"Logic dictates that I'll eventually land a hit at one of her vital points or limbs. But the way this is going that might not be for a long while. I'd rather finish this now." His gripped on the katana's tightened as he decided to finish this the next time she attacked.
"Come now little Hyuga-girl. Surely this isn't the best you can do." He goaded.
Konki's left eye twitch in annoyance. "The jerk wants it though huh. I'll show him tough!" Her mouth curved itself into an evil smirk, making Yaiba raise an eyebrow.
"You're right this isn't the best I can do. You have your trump card out." She put her hands together in the ram seal. "Let me show you mine! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Six clones appeared around Konki, all poised for a fight. Yaiba narrowed his eyes. "And like I tried to tell you before. I'm an Uzumaki, not a Hyuga. Get him!"
Two of clones rushed at the orange haired missing-nin who swung his left sword in a wide arc. At first it seemed like he attacked far too early, but like any good ninja he had a trick up his sleeve.
"Extend!" Blue chakra energy surrounded the blade and shoot out three meters, more than enough to let the swing tear through the surprised clone duo like nothing.
Konki's eyes, as well as her clones' eyes, grew in shock and disbelief. They didn't get much time for thinking as Yaiba had a chakra blade grow out of the other sword as well. Only this one raced towards Konki's head.
The blonde dodged the attack, but was scratched across the shoulder, and her clones spread out. Konki frowned as she summoned up two new clones to replace the lost ones. The last cut had gone deeper than the others and was beginning to bleed.
"The chakra extension is sharper than the actual blade. He could seriously cut me in half with those things." She concluded as the six Konki's surrounded her opponent. "No mistakes from now on. Any wrong moves and I'm dead. And yet I can't stop thinking how fun this is."
"Do you still want this, girl? If you would choose to run now I promise to not hunt you down for wasting my time." His voice was hauntingly calm yet filled with a suppressed rage.
"Huh, you really don't know the Uzumaki family, do you?" Yaiba turned his gaze to the blonde girl that had spoken to him. Her eyes were burning with excitement. "When we begin something, we see it through to the very end. Besides, why would I ditch now when we're having so much fun?" She smirked teasingly, causing Yaiba to snarled in-spite of himself.
"Your choice brat. No more mercy cards from me."
The missing-nin swung his two swords, chakra blades forming and extending from them, as the identical girls attacked in unison.
The heir of the Akimichi-clan cursed under her breath as she missed her target, again. Same had proven to be surprisingly quick and agile for his size and had managed to avoid her attacks fairly easily. This time he had managed to summersault over her punch, and her. While flipping over the brown-haired girl Same stuck out his trident and raked the sharp tips of the weapon across her back.
Warm blood sipped out of the wound and Chouya gritted her teeth in pain. The cut was mostly superficial, but it still hurt like hell. Ignoring her body screaming for her to take it easy for a second the short girl spun around and faced her opponent. He was charging her with his trident positioned to pierce her heart, a move he seemed to enjoy greatly.
She quickly brought out a pair of kunais and used them to barely block the weapon's sharp end, locking the two shinobi in a face-off.
"Your blood smells absolutely delicious. I bet that it'll make a great drink once I get rid of all the meaty parts."
Chouya frowned at the thought of her blood being used a beverage. Getting her act together she began pushing him back with her chakra-empowered arms. The surprised expression on Same's face made her smirk. The smirk didn't stay on her face for long as Same's face shifted into an evil grin. That was when she noticed the tiny blue chakra orbs forming at the three ends of the trident.
"Shit!" She screamed in her head and tried to react. But it was too late.
"Suiton: Focused Tidal Wave!" The blue orbs exploded into three powerful water blasts joining together before they had even reached Chouya. When they did she was easily swept away. The air was sharply knocked out of her and she forced her eyes shut. As sudden as the attack had come it ended with Chouya crashing to the ground.
She coughed up water that had been swallowed and almost didn't notice the descending shadow. It is a testament to Chouya's strength of will that she is able to roll away, while her body was still in shock no less, before Same and his trident smashed into her.
Chouya kicked herself up and put her arms up in a defensive stance. An instant later Same once again attempted to skewer her. The short girl did mange to sidestep most of her opponents attack but was still cut across her right arm.
Same laughed from behind her back, the superiority in his voice was as clear as the sun. Chouya was getting sick of it.
Without hesitation she turned around and smashed the ground next to Same's feet as forcefully as she could. The result was a small shockwave that knocked the large missing-nin of balance for a few seconds. In those few seconds Chouya struck him with a double-fisted uppercut that would've sent Same flying if his opponent hadn't grabbed a hold of his ankles.
"Hey, what are you doing?!" Chouya didn't respond. Instead she spun him around and around, faster and faster. Then, without warning, she used the gained momentum and tossed Same into the air and towards the forest behind them.
When she heard a crash in the from a short distance Chouya fell to her knees and panted heavily, relived for the few seconds of rest she had gotten.
"I am not suited to do battle against this man, and it is doubtful that he is permanently taken out of the battle. I need to switch with one of the others." She looked over to her teammates' situation and quickly found who she could trade with. Now she just needed to get up on her legs.
"ARGH!" Oru screamed as she stepped on more of the caltrops Kame had dropped on the ground. She flailed her arms about and barely managed to stay upright.
Once she had steadied herself the purple haired girl sent a glare towards Kame, who stood a few meters away from her with his arms crossed and shurikens in his hands. He would've looked cool if it wasn't for the obvious apprehension in his face.
Kame had managed to keep a safe distance from his opponent by moving away from her while constantly throwing shuriken at her approaching form. Forcing her to focus on deflecting the metal stars with her hammers, which had proven to be a surprisingly good defence.
While doing that he had also surrounded her with caltrops to the point where it was difficult for her to take a single step without hurting herself on them. And that's where they were now.
Hoping to end the fight quickly the black haired boy tossed the lethal projectiles in his hands almost perfectly at the hammer wielding kunoichi.
Oru scoffed at the projectiles and easily knocked them all out of the air. Then something that she hadn't expected happened. Two of the shurikens seemed to come to life and re-direct themselves in mid-air, attacking her anew.
The attack surprised her and she wasn't able to raise her hammers fast enough to stop the metal stars from hitting their targets. Luckily for her it wasn't her person that was being assaulted. They were stuck to the hammers' wooden handles.
Seeing them up close Oru noticed a tiny string attached to the shurikens, string that lead back to the hands of her nervous opponent. The next instant Kame pulled on the strings, snapping them free from the shuriken. Oru heard a fizzling sound from them and knew exactly what was going to happen.
So she threw the hammers high into the air where they exploded violently.
As bits and pieces of the hammers' remain fell to the ground Oru glared into Kame's eyes and as always he averted his gaze to something less nerve-wrecking, like his shoes.
"Man, you're turning out to be a real douche of a ninja." The girl stated with a voice that seemed to be both angry as well as sad. Though intrigued, Kame decided that his shoes were still more preferable that making eye contact. "I mean, it's bad enough that you've cut my face but now you're insulting me too."
Kame was somewhat baffled by this statement, causing him to temporarily to abandon his shy demeanour long enough to talk. "I h-ha-haven't d-done an-anything t-t-to insult yo-you."
"You could have killed me just now. But you didn't, jerk." Oru said as if it was a completely rational thing to say.
But since it wasn't, Kame responded like most people would. "What?"
"We're shinobi. When we fight we do it to the death." Her voice was becoming angrier with every word. "You could've stuck the shuriken into my body and have them explode. That would've ended the fight and possibly killed me." Kame realised that she did have a point but said nothing.
"Instead you just destroyed my weapons and gave me plenty of time to avoid not blowing up with them. Don't you see how insulting that is to a fellow warrior?!" Kame continued his silent approach just that now he was also hanging his head in shame.
"Hmph. No response huh. Man, I was hoping for somebody fun. But you're about as boring as they come." Suddenly her disposition changed back to a more upbeat one. "Oh well, I'll just have to kill you quickly then and be over with this."
As she gently pushed away a few of the caltrops in front of her Kame lifted his head and blankly stared at her while sweating.
"I don't want to kill you." He thought numbly while she bit her thumb.
"I'll just see them again." She had begun to form a chain of hand seals.
"Please don't make me kill you." He raised his face and looked at the purple haired girl with pleading eyes.
"Kuchiyose no jutsu!" Oru slammed her hand to the ground and a large cloud of smoke exploded into existence. As the cloud scattered Kame could see Oru sitting onto of an unusually large, black bull with red horns and hoofs.
"Oushimaru-kun." She said with a sugar-sweet voice. "Could you please remove all these nasty caltrops for me please?" The bull growled in acknowledgement. It lifted its frontlegs up into the air and they began to glow. It then slammed them to the ground, creating a shockwave that blasted the caltrops all away and knocked Kame on his ass.
"That's my Oushimaru-kun!" Oru screamed in childish triumph. Then her voice became sinister. "Now, kill him." Without delay the bull rushed at the currently paralysed trapaster.
When most people are faced with a life-and-death situation like this they usually see their life flash before their eyes. That's not the case with Odayaka Kame, he wouldn't let that happen. Instead concentrated on a single thought stuck in his head.
"Maybe it's for the best."
Oushimaru came closer and closer, shaking the ground with each step. His head lowered so that his now glowing horns would certainly skewer his target. Oru sat on top of the summoned bull, happily cheering for Oushimaru to kill the brat that had insulted her.
There was less than a meter between the tip of those dangerous horns and Kame, who had pushed up his upper-body from the ground. This was it, Kame was going to die.
Or that would've been the case if a timely and powerful shoulder-tackle from a certain brown haired girl hadn't knocked the bull and its rider away in the nick of time.
"While I am not sure why you're in a trance Kame-san I would appreciate it if you picked yourself up now." Chouya said with a steadfast voice as she stood before the boy with her back turned to him. The directness of the comment snapped Kame out of his funk, somewhat, and he slowly got up.
"Would you mind telling me why you were about to let that girl and her bull kill you?" She asked, never taking her eyes of her new targets. Kame decided to give her a brief version of it.
"M-m-my th-therapist calls i-it a s-state of r-re-regression."
The short girl glanced at him with a sceptical eye. She wasn't satisfied with the answer but she decided to pick up the subject at a less dangerous occasion.
"Well, while you were almost killing yourself I momentarily disposed of Same." She informed him. "His style of fighting was a bad match for mine and I believe that we would both benefit from switching opponents. Does that sound ok with you?"
"I g-guess…" Kame began making Chouya sigh.
"You little bitch!" Oru screamed as she and Oushimaru had turned to Chouya.
"Oh look, she's up again." Chouya said mostly to herself and smirked.
"Your new opponent should be coming out of the forest by now Kame-san." The black haired boy looked over to the forest and Chouya was indeed correct. The large missing-nin was stomping towards them and he did not look happy.
"Hey Oru!" Same shouted. "Don't you steal my prey too!"
Kame stared at the trident wielding shinobi approaching them. The trapmaster gulped.
"Oh, don't be such a fuddy duddy Same!" Oru answered. "You can have the boy. You'll like him. I bet he'll scream a lot more when he dies than she will!"
"That's not the point! I've already had to switch prey once today! It's not something I can tolerate!" Chouya and Kame stood back to back eying their opponents.
"You know, if this goes on like this they might kill each other for us." Chouya joked. Kame nodded hesitantly.
"Well you're just going to have to make due with…" Oru was interrupted by an explosion coming from where Konki and Yaiba were fighting.
A second later the aforementioned blonde girl came soaring through the sky and almost crashed into Chouya. But the brown-haired girl had enough presence to duck just in time. So Konki slammed into Kame instead, knocking him to the ground.
"Ow." Konki whined as she got up. "I probably shouldn't try that again."
3 minutes earlier…
Konki back up as fast as she could, barely managing to avoid getting cut down the middle.
The extending chakra blades had given Yaiba more of an advantage that Konki had thought they would. With the large area Yaiba could cover with wide sweeps the swords proved to be a perfect counter for Konki's multiplying tactics. It had already forced the blonde to go through two sets of clones.
Seeing that kage bunshin no jutsu wasn't going to cut it Konki decided to try fighting long-range weaponry with long range weaponry. So when Yaiba's chakra blade narrowly missed her and cut into the ground instead Konki was quick to pick out as many kunai and shuriken as possible and then barraged the orange haired teenager with them.
Yaiba retracted the chakra blades. He held out his arms in front of him with the katanas' bladed ends pointing to the right and left respectively, like a windmill. He then began spinning the swords around, again like a windmill. Yaiba moved them from one hand to another at such a speed that you couldn't see anything but a blur.
When Konki's assault reached him it all bounced harmlessly of the spinning swords. No matter how hard she tried, the gennin couldn't help but think how cool it looked.
Once he stopped Yaiba smirked maliciously at Konki and his swords once again glowed of blue chakra. "Well, if that's the limit of your repertoire I'll just finish you of then." He gloated and ran towards her.
Unsure of what to do the young Uzumaki desperately tried to think up a plan. "Come on stupid brain, work damnit! Outnumbering him doesn't work and his stupid spinning defence cancels any projectile attack." That's when it hit her. "Kaiten. I can block those swords with the kaiten. Excellent, now I just have to learn how to do it perfectly in a few seconds!" She screamed in her head as she remembered how previous attempts still ended up with a backlash that usually sent her flying.
She cursed inwardly as he came closer and closer. Then she came up with an idea. "It's almost stupid and crazy enough to work. Perfect!"
Once again she formed the ram seal and shouted. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Six clones appeared in front of her and they all rushed to meet Yaiba halfway.
"Moron! What good can this possibly accomplish?!" The platoon of Konki's didn't respond.
Feeling up for a game of chicken Yaiba decided to get as near as possible and cut down the Konoha brat before she had a chance to react. He crossed his arms and prepared himself.
When the two sides were almost upon each other Yaiba performed a slashing movement with both arms. At the same time the Konki's began spinning and simultaneously shouted. "Hakkeshou Kaiten!"
The backlash from seven failed kaitens exploded in Yaiba's face. It sent him flying backwards several meters and made him drop both his swords.
For Konki the less than sane attack destroyed her clones and since she was closer to the attacks epicentre it sent her even flying even further than Yaiba. She was barely aware of where she was even after slamming into something that felt softer than the ground. With that, we're up to speed.
Regaining her focus Konki stood up and noticed that Chouya was in front of her glancing curiously at the blonde girl.
"Hi Chouya-chan. How's it going?"
Chouya blinked. "You're standing on Kame-san's back." She deadpanned.
Konki looked down confused. She discovered that she really was standing on her male teammate's back while he had his face planted to the ground. "Oh dear. Sorry Kame-kun. Here, let me help you up." She said in quick succession and lifted up the black haired boy.
"Ow." He whined after spitting out a few straws of grass from his mouth. "Yeah, I had the same reaction." Konki said sheepishly while scratching the back of her head.
"Fine Oru, who can have the short brat. My original prey is here anyway. Just wait for me to get over there!" Team seven looked over at Same who eyed Konki with bloodlust in his eyes while Oru cheered.
"Konki-san, might I ask what happened to your opponent?" Chouya asked after redirecting her attention to the bullriding kunoichi while Konki took a juuken stance directed at Same.
"I'm not sure. He flew the opposite way from me. If he's not knocked out somebody should go and keep check on him because… Crap."
"What now?" Chouya asked trying to sound calm.
"I think I dropped the scroll when I got blasted over here."
"So you're saying that both the object and the person that we are supposed to protect are currently unguarded and the closest person to them is an enemy?" Konki nodded.
While the severity of their new situation hit team seven Same had gotten within what he felt was a suitable charging distance. "Lets get them!" The two missing-nin charged and Chouya decided to take action before it was too late.
"We need somebody to protect Mako and the scroll." She said firmly yet absent-mindedly. Then she reached behind and grabbed the silent Kame's robe. "Sorry about this Kame-san." Before he could begin to protest Chouya tossed him in the direction Konki had previously come from.
"Why did you do that?" Konki asked with a shocked expression.
"He's the only these two won't chase after." Chouya answered, referring to their opponents. "Please focus on them now."
Chouya and Konki dodged to the right and left respectively as Oru and Same reached them. The missing-nin followed their targets and the new battles were underway.
The blast had slammed Yaiba into the tree he had speared before the battle had started. It had knocked him out for a few seconds. When he woke up again he noticed that Mako was the person closest to him while the konoha shinobi and his partners had ended up in some kind of faceoff. This was his chance.
Noting that his swords were no longer in his hands and a short distance away he contemplated whether he should pick them up or not. "It has been my dream to end him with them. If I move quickly I should be able to make it." He reasoned and speed of.
Near the two swords lay the scroll that team seven was supposed to deliver to Mako. Yaiba completely ignored it and just picked up his weapons. Then he set of towards Mako, who had fallen to his knees and was just staring at the tattooed boy.
"Not long now you bastard! Finally I'll have my revenge!" Yaiba almost began salivating as he got closer to the decoder.
Mako closed his eyes and prepared himself. "Here he comes, at least my shame is at an end. Goodbye Kinomi, I wish you all the best."
Just when Yaiba was preparing his strike three shuriken struck the ground in front of him, making him halt his process and back up cautiously. A second later Kame landed between them, he actually managed to stand up as he touched the ground. He was breathing heavily, his eyes were as large as tea plates and he was sweating like a pig. As he turned to face Yaiba he began shaking due to the killing intent the orange haired teenager was emitting.
"Great, another one of you punks. I'm through being mr. nice guy here. You die first, then the old bastard." Yaiba growled.
"You don't have to protect me kid." Mako said but got no reaction. "I deserve whatever he's giving me." He continued with a soothing voice.
"I-it's ok." Kame responded. "I c-c-can d-do th-this." Mako was far from reassured but there was something in the boy's stuttering voice that made it seem like he wasn't going to back down. So he let it be.
"I might not be able to kill him. But I can hopefully stall him long enough." Kame said to himself, hoping that his teammates and sensei would save him.
Electricity surged from Sasuke's left hand and destroyed the earth spikes that were threatening to impale him. He then spun around just in time to meet a large lightning bolt from above. He countered it with both his hands. They glowed brightly with lightning based chakra. A sharp wind seemingly caught him of guard and cut the jounin in half. A second later it was revealed to be another substitution.
Sasuke appeared behind Metsubou and gave him a sharp kick to the face which sent the missing-nin flying.
Sasuke turned his attention to Inmetsu who was in the process of forming seals. With the sharingan Sasuke saw what attack the triplet was going to use and began to mimic him.
"Katon: Dai Endan!" They both shouted as they spewed large streams of fire at one another. The attacks clashed and Sasuke's flames quickly began overtaking Inmetsu's. It got to the point where the missing-nin had to dodge to the side to not get roasted.
Sasuke appeared before him in a blur and before the missing-nin could react the jounin punched him hard in the stomach. Inmetsu was brought to his knees.
The sharingan master spun around and once again charged his hands with electricity. He was just in time to catch a large orb of concentrated lightning chakra. He pushed more chakra into his hands forced the orb into the sky where it exploded not harming anybody..
A moment later Toukai and Metsubou were upon him, striking with a kunai each to Sasuke's lungs. A puff of smoke later and it was revealed that Sasuke had evaded them with the help of yet another substitution.
Sasuke appeared ten meters in front of the brothers and began a glaring match with Toukai while Metsubou helped Inmetsu pick himself up.
"I'm winning." Sasuke smirked at the triplets, who had attained several bruises, black eyes and a few cracked ribs during the fight.
"Shut up!" The triplets screamed in frustration.
"We're battling evenly and you know it!" Metsubou shouted.
"Exactly, you may be doing better than before. But we will still defeat you." Toukai said, the frustration in his voice evident.
"Just you wait. We still haven't used our ultimate attacks!" Inmetsu proclaimed.
Sasuke had to keep himself from laughing. "I'm reminded of that old saying about dogs and their bark being bigger than their bite." That really set them of.
"You wouldn't be so cocky if you knew that your students were dying as we speak!" Toukai roared.
Sasuke smirked shifted into a look of unease. "What did you just say?" He asked stiffly.
The brothers smirked maliciously. "It's true. Our employer refused to let us take on this job by ourselves." Metsubou said while containing a mocking laugh.
"So they sent another trio to pick up any leftovers we might leave. We would've preferred to kill your student ourselves. But that's life for you." Inmestu finished of with a shrug to emphasize his point.
"So, now what "Traitor"? What are you going to do now?" Toukai asked, hoping to hear a hint of anger in Sasuke's voice.
His wish didn't come true however. Because when Sasuke spoke he was as calm as a cucumber.
"I'm sorry that I have to cut the fun here but it seems like I have somewhere to be." He informed them and began forming seals at an unusually slow pace. The Destruction Brothers laughed.
"HA! So you really think that you can still beat us?! How drool!" Metsubou shouted before addressing Inmetsu. "Come on brother, let's show this jerk our ultimate combination attack."
"Yes, let's do that. If you don't mind Toukai."
Toukai shook his head. "Go right ahead, take him down." He backed up a little as his brothers prepared their assault.
Sasuke didn't seem to mind them and just kept forming seals.
Metsubou and Inmetsu finshed their own seal chains quickly and shouted simultaneously. "Burning Vortex!"
Inmetsu spewed out an incredible amount of fire which mixed with the horizontal tornado that Metsubou formed with his hands. The combination attack raced towards Sasuke who was calmly still forming hand seals.
Just as he was about to get hit Sasuke ended the seal chain with the tiger seal. When he spoke his voice seemed to echo across the field.
"Katon: Shiro Ryuujin!" The fire he spew out was blazing white, almost twice as large as the combination attack and took the form of a serpent like dragon.
As the two attacks met the dragon completely overpowered the fire vortex as if it wasn't even there. The dragon moved at incredible speeds and was upon Metsubou and Inmetsu before they even realised it. The two brothers were incinerated instantly. A second later the dragon faded away, leaving only a trail of charcoaled grass and burnt earth as evidence of its existence.
Toukai was at loss for words. He couldn't really comprehend what had just happened. Then he heard Sasuke addressing him.
"Shiro ryuujin might lack the power and longevity of amaterasu. But in pure speed it is unmatched amongst fire techniques. Your brothers were dead before they knew it." The jounin slowly walked towards the missing-nin who's mind had caught up to the situation.
"You killed my brothers! You fucking little piece of shit! I'll kill you!"
Sasuke stopped, unfazed by Toukai's anger. "Try it." His voice devoid of emotion.
Toukia formed seals at neck-breaking speed and his arms were engulfed in lightning chakra and stretched out his middle and index fingers. "Raiton: One Thousand Paralyzing Needles!" Toukai moved his arms back so fast that they became blurs and fire tiny needle shaped lightning bolts towards the ever calm Sasuke.
Sasuke closed his eyes in concentration. "Chidori no Tate." A solid aura of lightning chakra formed around his body. The aura protected him perfectly against the attack. Not a single one of the needles broke through it.
When he was finished and noticed that Sasuke was unharmed and still moving towards him, Toukai began to shake in fear.
"I hate you, you bastard! How can anyone kill a man's sibling in front of him and still have that face!? That emotionless and superior face! Bastard! Monster! I hate y…" He was cut short as Sasuke speed up at stabbed his still electrified arm through Toukai's chest.
"I wanted to kill all three of you at once." He said as he pushed the now dead missing-nin to the ground. "But you had to back away from them." The lightning aura faded away and Sasuke speed away to help his students. Not at all caring about what might go on in the devastated field he left behind.
"Will you just stand still so that I can kill you?" Same grunted as Konki danced away from his trident.
"Why should I do that when this is so much more fun?" Konki teased and leaped above the blue haired boy. She landed right behind him and they both spun around and attacked. Same trying to spear Konki on his trident and Konki tried to damage his back with a juuken strike. In the end Konki won out as she at least nudged him by the ribs before having to jump back to avoid his attack.
"AARGH!" Same screamed in pain from the attack. But he still stood and faced down with his younger foe. She was somewhat faster than he was and he was beginning to really feel the affects of her attacks by now. But he could tell that she was tried from her breathing. And all that jumping around was slowly opening up all the cuts that Yaiba had given her. Same smirked, delighted with his own insight. This girl really was the most fun here. He decided to kill her fast but painfully, after torturing her of course.
Close by Chouya was dealing with Oru and Oushimaru. The short girl's chakra-enhanced strength was fairing quite well against the bull's raw power. If only she hadn't been hurt from fighting Same before she might've been able to win, pumping chakra to keep her arms in super-strength mode wasn't exactly easy either.
But neither of the two kunoichis' had given in to the pressure of the situation yet. Kame on the other hand almost seemed to have lost it.
He was desperately pelting everything he had at Yaiba, who had resorted to his spinning sword defence again. The orange-haired teenager was surprised at the speed with which Kame was attacking him.
"He certainly has a knack for this kind of attack, even if he is somewhat unpolished. But now's not the time to admire some brat's potential. As soon as he finishes with this nonsense, I'll take him down."
Moments after he finished his train of thought Kame ran out of ammunition and now nothing stood between the two combatants. Yaiba sneered at Kame, until he noticed the state that the black haired boy was in.
He was shaking and sweating. His eyes wouldn't stay in one place and his facial expression showed nothing but fear. Yaiba assumed that the only reason he wasn't running for his life was because he was frozen in terror.
It sickened him and made him feel pity for the boy.
"I said before that I will show no mercy, and I hold myself to that, somewhat." Yaiba declared with disgust in his voice as he pointed on of his swords in Kame's direction.
"If I were to use the chakra extension of these blades you would be cut in half. I will not so there will be a chance, however small it may be that you will survive. That is all the mercy you will get from me." He snarled.
A voice in Kame's head told him to get upset about this form of pity. Then there was this other one that told him that there was something familiar about this.
"Please Yaiba, I'm the one you want. This boy hasn't done anything wrong." Mako pleaded.
It clicked in Kame's head. Yaiba told the old man to shut up and something about a ruined life. But Kame wasn't listening. The shaking and sweating had stopped. Not that the sword wielding teenager in front of him noticed.
Yaiba charged, with his arms crossed, at Kame, who wasn't moving because he was busy cursing himself for not paying attention throughout the battle. He stared directly at Yaiba, who was almost upon him.
Kame might have been able to dodge the attack. But he didn't. Instead he took the time needed for that to stare into the eyes of his enemy. It was as he suspected.
Suddenly Kame felt pain racing through his body as the two swords cut him deeply across the chest. Blood splattered all over his clothes and he began to fall. Darkness was taking over his consciouness as the trapmaster thought he heard a voice call out his name. But it didn't matter. What mattered were the swords, the name, the eyes and the situation.
"I've met this person before." His face hit the ground and everything went black.
It was thanks to her byakugan that she could see it happen. Konki had subconsciously been keeping an eye on Kame throughout the entire battle. She felt that it was her duty to do so. But it wasn't until she saw him get cut down by her former adversary that she turned all of her focus in his direction.
She dodged under Same's trident and ran past him. At first she wasn't sure what had happened to her shy teammate, maybe she subconsciously didn't want it to be true. Nonetheless, she eventually did realise what had happened and made a potentially fatal mistake.
"KAME!" She focused all her attention on one person.
The blonde had begun to run towards the scene when she was attacked from behind. While her byakugan made it possible for her to see Same getting ready to beat her down, but then again she didn't pay attention to that.
So she was struck down and smashed to the ground. Same then made a point of it by stepping on her back.
"You know, while I do love a good fight watching the hope run out of a person just can't be beat. So I'm going to make you watch as not only your teammate dies but also the person you guys were supposed to protect." Same turned his head as he heard a soft thud next to him. Chouya, breathing heavily and with her arms in their normal state was lying on her back as Oru and Oushimaru came closer.
"You are terrible Same-san." Oru said with a fake mock voice. "Do you mind if we stay and watch too?"
"Whatever. Just don't bother me too much." He felt Konki struggling against his weight so he pressed down a little more. "Don't worry princess. It'll be over soon. But it will hurt like hell before that happens." His manical laughter filled the air as Konki cursed herself for her weakness.
Yaiba stared at Mako, not sparing the boy he had just slashed a second glance. "Take of your hood. I want to see your face before I end you."
Mako did as he said and removed his hood. With the hood Yaiba stared into the eyes of 70 year old, bald man with a thin grey beard that was tucked inside his robes. Gentle green eyes met with furious browns and neither blinked.
Not a word was said. Yaiba simply raised both his swords for a killing slash straight down the middle and Mako just bowed his head.
As he was about to do it a sharp pain suddenly raked into Yaiba's shoulder and he felt stunned. A shuriken crackling with electricity flew passed his head after cutting into his shoulder. He screamed a blood-chilling scream that made Mako raise his head in surprise. Blood flowed out from the wound and he had to drop both his swords. The first because his arm had gone numb and the other so that he could use his hand to cover his injury.
Suddenly Mako disappeared in a blur. Frustration found his way to his lungs and once again he screamed.
"What's going on?" Same asked when he heard Yaiba scream and saw him drop his swords. Then, suddenly, a blur went past him and Oru. Before he knew it the old man that Yaiba wanted to kill appeared in front of him.
"Huh?" Was all he got out before he noticed the same blur coming up in his face and punching him off of Konki.
"Same-san!" Oru shouted as the blur ran next to Oushimaru who screamed in pain a second later. Oru looked down and saw several kunai imbedded in Oushimaru's hide. With a puff of smoke the bull retreated to its home world.
Just as she touched down on the ground Oru felt herself being kicked in the stomach and she flew into Same.
As they got up they were able to see the new combatant. Uchiha Sasuke stood before them with his sharigan eyes in full effect. The aura of killing intent he was giving of was almost tangible and even the bloodthirsty Same felt hesitation when met with it.
"Leave or die." His voice was brimming with darkness. Same pulled on Oru to follow him.
"We can't leave Yaiba-kun." She protested.
"Yeah, like we have any chance of helping him. Stop being an idiot and come on." He disappeared into the woods and Oru followed after a moment of hesitation. As they did so Sasuke let out a breath he wasn't aware that he been holding.
"Sasuke-sensei. What about Kame-kun?" Konki asked.
"Couldn't carry him and the old man. Don't worry about it." He disappeared in a blur again.
The next second he appeared in front of the Yaiba and unconscious Kame. Yaiba had managed to pick up his swords with his numb arm. They stared intensely at each other before Yaiba blinked.
"This isn't over." He said shortly before disappearing in the same direction as his partners.
Waiting a second to make sure that they were really gone Sasuke put his hands on his legs and spat out some blood that had made it's way to his mouth. He took a moment to let himself calm down before checking Kame's wounds.
"You better not die on me kid. Naruto will be pissed if you do." Sasuke tore of a large piece of Kame's robe and began wrapping it tightly around the boy's chest.
As Sasuke attended to Kame's wound Konki and Chouya hurried over with Mako.
"How is he? Will he be ok? Is there anything I can do?" Konki asked in rapid succession, the worry in her voice was too obvious for a shinobi Sasuke thought. He gave her one hard look that silenced her immediately.
"He's relatively fine but he needs medical treatment from a professional. Otherwise he'll bleed to death." Sasuke informed them and looked over at the two girls and noticed their own injuries. "We all need medical attention." He was quiet a moment before adding. "And if any of you start blaming yourself for this I will punch you." All three of them nodded. "Ok then, I've done what I can for Kame here. Now we just need to find a hospital."
"There's a pretty decent one over at the border village. With all the conflicts it raises the Hokage and grass-leader just thought that it was a good idea to build one." Mako informed Sasuke, who nodded just a little.
"Good," As he stood up Konki quickly took his place next to Kame. "Do we have the scroll?" Chouya held it up in the air and Sasuke smiled approvingly. "Good, now let's get some transportation."
The jounin took a few steps away from the others and preformed a summoning jutsu. When the smoke from the summoning cleared a large, red snake had materialised in front of them. Unlike the previous snake they had seen today this one was cheerful.
"Hello Sasuke-sama. Great to see you again, what can I do for you today?" The snake asked with a friendly voice.
"Just take us to that town over there Haabu. But be careful, we have an injured person with us." Haabu nodded and waited for the group to jump up on him.
Chouya and Konki helped up Mako while Sasuke carried Kame in his arms as he jumped onto the snake's back. Once the girls had jumped on Haabu he set of.
Konki hurried to take a place next to Kame to make sure that he wouldn't fall of or anything. Mako kept to himself and wondered how much he was going to have to tell these people. Chouya sat herself next to Sasuke, who was covering his face with his hands while and taking a deep breath.
"Tired?" Chouya deadpanned.
"Yep," He answered, deciding that there would be no point in hiding it. "I've preformed two summoning techniques, used my most powerful fire technique, run back and forth like a crazy person and before all that I took too many hits for my own good." He chuckled a little. "That's what I get for trying to turn have fun during a life and death life and death." Chouya nodded slowly.
She looked back at the unconscious Kame and fidgeting Konki before addressing Sasuke again. "We lost, right? I mean, before you saved us."
"Pretty much." Sasuke answered honestly. "At least you're alive to fight another day."
Chouya nodded. "Indeed," She then turned to Konki's direction. "Hey, Konki. When Kame-san's fixed, lets get strong enough so that we can beat those guys next time!" Konki stared at Chouya like she had grown an extra head for a minute. Then she smirked. "You took the words right out of my mouth!"
Chouya turned back to Sasuke and smirked dreamily. "We'll be fine."
Sasuke couldn't stop the small smile that had crawled onto his face as he looked at the setting sun. "I'm going to have to thank Naruto for these little weirdoes one day. Right after I kick his ass for the same reason."
Later that night, at a certain field, a tall figure with a billowing coat on him approached Toukai's corpse. His features were cloaked by the shadows of the night.
"Look at that. You punks lost." His voice was deep and gravely.
With one arm he picked up the dead missing-nin by the head.
"Guess that means Taizen wins the bet, again." He muttered with a grumpy voice.
"Oh well, at least the boss will appreciate the new addition to his collection."
With that he walked away from the clearing, dragging the missing-nin's carcass with him.
Minutes later the field was quiet once again.
Author's note: There you have it, the first major battles of this story. It's was fun to write, especially Chouya's parts. And I love little teaser epilogues like the one above.
Don't worry about the absence of team six. We'll get to see more of their antics in the next chapter. Now be a darling and please review. Until next time.
