Naruto: Ashes to Gold
Author's Notes/Scribbles: Posted June 17, 2011.
There is definitely a lot to do. I've been thinking about how this story is supposed to go but I'm having a bit of a harder time deciding how I should go about it by actually doing it. The main issue I've been having is actually sitting down to write this all out.
Chapter 6: Operation Black Tuesday
To Narine, it was almost scary how routine it seemed to step into a the familiar habits of a shadow op mission. If it weren't for the fact that Protocol: White Rebirth was merely a hidden mean for the Hokage to utilize "retired shinobi" in multiple missions while scaling back the actual costs of operations by keeping certain assets hidden. For the Hokage, it had also been a prime excuse to pull her out of ANBU after her tenure there when she had resigned, helping to keep the pressure for re-entry into the corps off her from the sticky fingers of some of his more independent ANBU commanders.
It was not an alien feeling to be disappearing through the trees at breakneck speeds like old times. This particular mission involved the pillaging of a shipping tycoon's illegal funds and returning it to the economy of the battered Wave Country. According to intelligence gleaned from a recent ANBU recon team that was conducting patrols in the area, they had managed to pinpoint multiple safe-houses where Gato's cash was stored but did not manage to pinpoint the central headquarters where Gato operated within the time period they had been given. The farthest safe house was located on the other side of Wave Country as Narine went over the details in her mind, padding across the channel that separated Wave Country and Fire Country. Quick disclosure of information by the ANBU team was all that could be done at the moment as any word of foreign shinobi operating openly in the area could spark a war based on "aggressive maneuvers" by shinobi. It didn't need to be Konoha shinobi either, which spoke of how fragile peace actually was between the Five Great Villages.
'If only that bridge was finished, I wouldn't have to deal with getting my feet wet. Can't wait until I'm feet dry,' she thought wryly to herself, dashing past a group of bandits before they realized she was even there.
Kakashi was in complete control of the fight as he continued to use his Sharingan to send Zabuza subtle suggestions to make him believe he could see the future. As Zabuza lost his finesse and resorted to brute force, Kakashi knew he had won. Using the Sharingan, he subtly suggested to Zabuza to use the Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu while pacing his own sealing speed to match Zabuza's own, freaking out the other Jounin even more. As Zabuza watched the two dragons collide with equal force and battle it out, Kakashi was already working his way through his next jutsu.
Zabuza felt a hint of relief as his dragon won out and was about to sweep Kakashi away when Kakashi yelled, "Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu!"
A twenty foot tall tidal wave swept away his water dragon and crashed into him, slamming him up against a tree. As he tried to regain his bearings and get back into a fighting stance, a kunai slammed into his shoulder, taking what fight remained out of him.
Looking up at Kakashi, he asked, "How can you foresee the future?"
"That is not for the dead to know," Kakashi answered back steely as he drew back another kunai to end Zabuza's life.
Before he could do anything, two senbon flew past him and slammed into Zabuza's throat, causing the missing-nin to choke before collapsing. The entirety of Team 7 instantly tracked the path of the projectiles and settled on a nin dressed in the ensemble of one of Kiri-gakure no Sato's Hunter-nin ensembles hunched over on a branch directly across from Kakashi.
"I must thank you for making my mission so much simpler," the newcomer spoke, dropping down from the tree branches and strolling over to collect Zabuza's body.
Kakashi slid his headband back over his Sharingan, 'No sense in starting unnecessary fights,'
"I will be taking the body with me. Once again, my thanks," the hunter-nin slung the body over the slight frame of its body and left in a swirl of wind.
'Well, now that-' Kakashi groaned as the adrenaline from the battle withered away, leaving him to feel the aftereffects of chakra exhaustion.
"Oh, shit! Kakashi-sensei!" Tobio yelled, rushing over to help his teacher.
"I'll be fine. It's just chakra exhaustion. Although I can't really move," Kakashi sighed as he wiggled his extremities to see if they were still in working condition, "anyone want to give me a lift?"
Being attacked from behind by Narine usually meant instant death. The missing-nin never knew what hit him as Narine quickly sliced the tendons behind his knees, dropping him into a kneeling position. He was about to yell for help but she was faster and with a quick thrust, she jammed the kunai up into his open mouth right into his brain, letting the body slump over. The sound of flesh hitting the floor grabbed the entire attention of the safe house, all activity ceasing as they took in the new arrival and the death of their most skilled guard.
"All right, you guys have five minutes to compile all of the money in this place before me or none of you leave alive," Narine called out, noting the thug trying to sneak up behind her.
Without seals or any movement, she created a Shadow Clone behind him when he was close enough. The clone gave the thug a hard punch in the kidney, causing him to stumble forward as he tried to turn around to see what had hit him but was only able to watch in horror as the clone stepped in after him into his guard and slammed the knife he had dropped through his stomach before wrenching it out, letting him fall to the ground.
"So, anymore body bags to fill?" the blonde asked as she spun the knife in her hand before throwing it into the ground, watching as everyone noted the knife sink hilt deep into the concrete ground.
As if she had stepped into a nest of fire ants, the entire safe house burst into activity as they began gathering the bills into a single pile, not wanting to join their comrade on the ground. It wasn't really much of a problem putting the knife hilt deep with some wind elemental chakra sharpening the edge into a monomolecular edge. It had the desired effect though.
After the workers were all done piling the bills together, Narine stared at the hefty bunch of bills stacked before her in a cube, six feet high, six feet long, and six feet wide.
"You have no idea who you're robbing, do you?" the foreman snarled, his bald head gleaming with sweat from desperation and despair.
The blonde merely laughed as she lit a match and tossed it onto the money, watching it burn, "Who said I was here to rob him?"
The look of abject horror spread across the entire staff's faces as they watched the money burn.
'It's burning too fast to be money. I would need to drench it in oil for that,' Narine thought to herself as she watched the pile burn away into ash, 'I bet these guys dun even know they're handling Gato's counterfeiting operations,'
"You won't get away with this!" the foreman yelled again from his kneeling position.
"Oh, really? If I wanted to get away with this, I'd just have to kill all of you," Narine swept an arm out as if to indicate a generous gesture, "tell Gato that this will not be the last time this will happen,"
With that, she left, disappearing in a swirl of leaves.
"Shit," the foreman gasped as he ran up to the flaming stack of money but was unable to do anything as the flames consumed all the money he had worked so hard to safeguard, "got to tell Gato about this,"
Kakashi stared at the ceiling of the roof he was under. He would be bedridden for another day or so while he made his recovery and the fact that the three genin poked at him randomly whenever they were bored wasn't helping.
'That hunter-nin,' Kakashi thought to himself before kicking himself mentally, 'ah, crap. I knew something was off,'
"Zabuza's still alive," the Hatake said from his supine position, getting a shock from his team.
"Eh," Tobio grimaced, "but that other shinobi put two of those needles in his neck. There's no way to survive that,"
"There's ways to feign death, dead-last," Sasuke answered for Kakashi, "and aren't hunter-nin supposed to burn the body on-site?"
"Yeah, they are," Kakashi nodded as he slowly sat up with a bit of help from Sakura, "Zabuza's in no condition to fight like I am. It'll probably be a week until he's battle-ready,"
"So, what are we going to do?" Sakura asked, a perplexed look on her face.
At this, Kakashi raised a finger to point at the roof, "We're going to train. By climbing trees,"
Zabuza suddenly sat up, wheezing for breath as the needles in his throat were removed.
"Damnit, Haku," the sword-wielding Momochi grimaced as he rubbed his neck, "did you really have to be that rough?"
The hunter-nin removed the mask to reveal an effeminate face to match the voice, "I'm sorry, Zabuza-sama, but I was trying to maintain my cover,"
"Damn that Kakashi," Zabuza grunted as he tried to will away the soreness taking over his limbs, "so, did you analyze that battle like I told you to?"
"Yes, Zabuza-sama, you were simp-" Haku was interrupted as the door slammed open to reveal Gato, their employer for this particular mission.
Gato was not very happy, "Well, what is this? I thought you were going to take care of that bridge builder!"
"It is not time yet," Zabuza replied frostily.
Sputtering, Gato threw his arms into the air, "Not time yet? What do I pay you to do? Play ninja. You're supposed to kill him!"
Zabuza growled, "I will take care of him, so quit worrying like a fat prawn,"
"Damnit, Zabuza, don't you dare cross me!" Gato walked up to Zabuza and made as if to strike.
However, Haku intervened and gripped Gato's hand in a vice grip, breaking Gato's wrist easily, "Do not touch Zabuza-sama with your dirty hands!"
Haku then quickly threw Gato back towards his bodyguards, both of them burly samurai who stepped in front of Gato as he stumbled away, ready to draw their swords.
"I suggest you leave now," Haku icily said, the temperature in the room dropping a few degrees as he narrowed his eyes, "before Zabuza-sama decides I should remove your heads,"
The two samurai took that as an offensive gesture and drew their swords before getting ready to bring their blades down in a double forward smash to remove the kid that was only half their size. It was a shocker to find their swords gone form their hands and held instead at their throats.
"I warned you to leave," Haku scowled softly he inched the blades closer to hammer home the severity of the threat, "I will not warn you again,"
Throwing the swords so that they landed tip-first in front of both of Gato's toe enough to cut into the shoes slightly, Haku then strode back into his place by Zabuza's bedside, keeping a wary eye on Gato and his entourage.
Gato scowled and decided to save face, retreating out the door shouting, " Just do your damn jobs!"
His guards pulled their swords out of the floorboards and sheathed them before making quick retreats of their own.
As Gato exited the building, one of his secretaries came over and whispered in his ear, "Sir, the foreman from the Seto-Nami safe house is here to speak with you. He says it is urgent business,"
"What is it about?" Gato asked, grimacing as he tried to avoid moving his wrist, "make it fast,"
"The counterfeiting operation was raided by a woman who destroyed all the money there," the secretary replied, making a checklist on her notebook, "and she's aware of all the locations of your safe houses,"
"Goddamnit!" Gato scowled, panicking at the thought of all his money being lost, "consolidate all my funds at our main HQ. Withdraw all the guards as well. We're taking no chances with this!"
Kakashi stood on a single crutch supporting his weight. He was tired but not as much as he had been when they had first brought them to Tazuna's home.
"So, Kakashi-sensei, why are we here to learn how to climb trees?" Tobio asked, scratching his head, "I mean, we already learned how to back at the academy,"
"You're not going to be using your hands though," the Jounin replied, earning a couple of skeptical glances, "perhaps a demonstration is in order,"
Kakashi put a foot on a nearby tree and prepared to walk up, seeming as if he was testing his weight. It came as a surprise to the genin watching when he simply began to stroll up the tree, even going so far as to hang upside-down off an overhanging branch. They were broken out of their rapture by a kunai landing by each of their feet.
"Well, you'll be using that to mark your progress as you do this. I'm sure you all realize now that you'll have to channel chakra to your feet in order to do this. Might help to get a running start as well," Kakashi pointed out.
Sasuke frowned and thought about it, 'So, the way aneue ran across the wall those couple of times was because of this? Interesting,'
The Uchiha gave a small grunt and started off at a dead sprint, grabbing the kunai off the ground. He made it eight paces up the trunk before the bark underneath his feet erupted in a small blast, throwing him off. In an acrobatic display, he slashed a cut into the bark and flipped onto his feet, landing in a crouch as he stared at the mark.
"Too much chakra and you'll get blown off the trunk. Too little chakra and you'll simply slip off," Kakashi explained, pointing at Sakura, who had landed flat on her back after walking up four paces.
Tobio gave a snicker and Sakura huffed, "You do it then, Tobio!"
Tobio grinned and grabbed the kunai before running towards the tree trunk. He made it up half-way up the tree before jumping off, slashing the trunk where he slipped off.
'What the hell?' Sasuke grimaced internally, 'how did he do so much better than me?'
"Impressive, Tobio. Didn't quite expect that from the dead-last of his class," Kakashi whistled as he slowly climbed down the tree, pulling out his Icha Icha Paradise book, "so, I guess you all have this in mind. Get to work,"
"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked from her perch on the highest branch, "what do I do after this?"
"Oh, Sakura already got it?" Kakashi asked rhetorically, "I guess you can just jump down if you've mastered this exercise,"
Sakura deadpanned at Kakashi, grimacing at the slight glare Sasuke gave her as he stared at the tree trunk now. Seeing Tobio hard at work, he, too, began to climb the tree.
"Well, since you've done it, you can come guard Tazuna with me at the bridge tomorrow," Kakashi's eye curved into a smile.
Sasuke grimaced as he reached twelve steps up the tree but then noticed that Tobio was merely standing on the tree a few paces up, holding his hand in a ram seal as if he was concentrating on something.
"I wouldn't get too discouraged if I were you. Sakura's chakra reserves aren't that large, so it's actually easier for her to control them. Tobio has the right idea though," Kakashi pointed at the Kikuchi who had now managed to reach the thirty-five pace mark, "you'll need to concentrate a steady amount of chakra into your feet, rather than forcing as much as you can. Try it,"
With this, Sasuke also tried to focus his chakra and then sprinted off, making it past his recent mark of twelve paces and reaching twenty paces before behind blasted off.
"Not bad, Sasuke," Tobio grinned from his position higher up the tree, "guess they don't call you a genius for nothing,"
Sasuke scowled as he tried again.
"You'll need to find the right amount of chakra to channel and you'll need to channel it consistently," Kakashi called out as he flipped a page in his book.
Sasuke made it up to twenty-four paces this time as Tobio finally reached the top of the tree.
"Well-done," Kakashi nodded as Tobio strolled back down the tree, "you can join me on guard duty tomorrow as well then,"
"Nah," Tobio grinned, "I may be stupid but I'm not lazy. I'm going to be perfecting this exercise,"
Kakashi was a bit taken back, "Alright, but you're coming with me on the second day, alright?"
"Fair enough," Tobio shrugged as he ran up the tree again to practice more.
'He's trying to rub it in, isn't he?' Sasuke thought to himself sourly, 'well, I'm not going to fall behind!'
Kakashi thought to himself, 'He's strangely motivated. Not quite what I was expecting for a dead-last. Maybe he's a genius of hard work,'
The influx of memories from a dispelled clone let Narine know that one of the safe houses had completely packed up and left the premises.
'They're certainly in a hurry,' Narine thought to herself as she watched the first convoy inch its way into the main compound, 'and definitely not willing to part with it easily either. Guards are almost shoulder to shoulder along the walls and there's shinobi patrolling the surrounding area,'
Another influx of memories let her know that the last convoy was now en route and would arrive within the next few days.
'Well, I'm either going to lay waste to the entire facility or I can just simply get in and get out quickly,' the blonde thought as she backed up against a trunk, letting a four-man patrol pass her, 'getting in won't be a problem. If I want to do this quietly, I'm going to have to do it quickly,'
Forming a few shadow clones, she spread them out around the compound, 'Although I can ambush a few patrols and scare them into holing up inside the compound. If I time it right, I can get in and leave just as they all retreat inside. Hmm, alright, when the final convoy arrives, I'll slip into the vault room or wherever they're keeping the monies,'
To be honest, Kakashi was more than surprised by Tobio's strict work ethic. The genin had worked himself into a frenzy, perfecting his tree climbing when he was not with Kakashi on the bridge. It was a good thing though in a sense. Sasuke had pushed himself to the brink as well, trying not to be outdone by the dead-last, finishing the tree-climbing exercise a few days after. Kakashi sensed a rivalry forming, noting how Sasuke seemed to be developing an inferiority complex with Tobio. Although if it got out of hand, it might throw team dynamics off the rock. He was pretty sure Sasuke's natural talent would help him improve by leaps and bounds.
Kikuchi Tobio, as far as he was concerned, was born from two retired chunnin, both with standard service records. Nothing about him stood out in particular except for his meager scores in the academy and even then, he had been failing tests left and right. It was as if he barely scraped by on purpose. The jounin sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose with a hand, his other holding the orange book in front of him, having long since discarded the crutch. Although Sakura was a bit disbelieving that Tobio was advancing much faster than Sasuke but seemed to settle when Sasuke didn't finish that far behind Tobio. She had raised a concern about receiving backup and Kakashi was quick to point out that he had them do the exercise to improve them so that they stood somewhat of a better chance against what Zabuza might throw at them.
Tsunami and Tazuna were both in high spirits as the bridge slowly neared completion, despite the fact that a few men left every day or so. With the completion of the bridge, Gato's hold on the country would be broken and Wave Country would be able to make a recovery to stand on its own. The genin themselves had seen the conditions in which the town they were staying near and they were abysmal at best. Tobio had cuffed a boy younger than him for trying to lift his wallet and the fact that bread itself was about ten times more expensive than it was in Fire Country didn't help their tempers. Tazuna explained that Gato's company had driven more and more of its competition out of business in Wave country and charged exorbitantly for any shipping expenses. At the rate he was going, it wouldn't be long before there was a tax added onto it as well and that was not including the acts of extortion and blackmail going on illicitly.
Towards the end of the week that Team 7 had been there, there had been a particular incident with Inari.
While eating dinner, Tobio and Sasuke had broken out in a small bicker about how they'd take down Zabuza and Gato while saving Wave Country in the process. Sakura was all in support of Sasuke's triumph and simply laughed off Tobio who was trying to make his case while Kakashi looked on with a smile in his lone eye. Inari, Tazuna's grandson and Tsunami's son, had watched the shinobi joke and laugh, getting angry at how they could just simply pretend nothing was wrong. He had been silent at first and looked on, wondering why they were trying so hard.
"Yea, you just watch! I'm going to come out of this alive," Tobio shouted with a grin on his face, "I'm the dead-last so if you guys die on me, it means you're worse than me!"
At the mention of 'come out of this alive', Inari had enough and stood up abruptly, slamming his hands on the table, "What the hell is wrong with you? You're all just going to die. No one stands up to Gato and lives to tell about it,"
"Ah, come on. Quit raining on our parade. We don't have time for mopers," Tobio growled as he made a shooing motion.
Inari scowled, "You train so hard and work so hard but it's all for nothing. All your efforts going to go down the drain!"
Tsunami gave her son a scandalized look, "Inari, please! They're here to help!"
"Help? Help?" Inari asked disbelievingly, "What does it take to get to you all? No one can beat Gato,"
"We're shinobi. We're not civilians," Sasuke shot back, irritation evident in being disturbed in his meal and banter, "we will beat him,"
Surprisingly, there was no arrogance in Sasuke's voice, only a cool confidence.
"Yea, we can take anything Gato throws against us," Tobio seconded, pumping a fist, "so if you're not going to root for us or your gramps, go sulk somewhere else,"
"You're all just going to die, damnit! All of you. You're just too stupid to realize it!" Inari shouted at the top of his lungs, panting for breath before turning heel and fleeing to his room.
Tsunami watched her son run off with a soft sigh, "I'm sorry. He hasn't been the same ever since Kaiza passed away,"
"Kaiza?" Sakura asked from the side, a quizzical look on her face.
Tazuna and Tsunami gave each other somewhat piteous looks before Tazuna sat up straight, as if to brace himself, "Kaiza was the hero of this country. After he saved Inari from drowning, he settled down and married Tsunami later. It wasn't long until he single-handedly saved the residents of the surrounding villages that he made a name for himself,"
"Inari adored Kaiza," Tsunami sighed, as if remembering a bittersweet memory, "he was... not the same after Kaiza was murdered,"
"He tried to stop Gato's takeoever of the country. However, before he could gather enough men and power to do so," Tazuna paused as if testing the waters to continue, "Gato had both of his arms cut off in a public execution that shocked the rest of the country into compliance. No one could stand up to Gato after Kaiza was so brutally killed in front of them,"
Team 7 took a moment to digest the information.
"That's why I'm trying to finish this bridge as soon as possible. So we don't have to live in fear anymore. So that we can move forward without being strangled every step of the way," Tazuna finished, clenching a fist in front of him, staring at it as if it held something important, "for all those we have lost and for all that we have suffered, I will finish this bridge even if it kills me,"
Sneaking into the complex had been remarkably simple. The final convoy to arrive threaded itself slowly along the road towards Gato's fortress. When one of the guards had sneaked off to take a leak, she had silently disposed of him and assumed his place. Thankfully, he was at the rear of the group which made it extremely easy to fit back into the group while she set the wide-brimmed hat he had worn over her eyes. As they inspected the cart carrying everything, Narine took in everything around her as well quickly as she could.
"We didn't have any trouble getting any of this stuff here," the leader spoke, adjusting his cloak around him, "what's with the sudden recall anyways?"
A shinobi from Kumogakure no Sato simply shrugged as he looked over the entire escort, "Someone apparently had the balls to burn out of the counterfeiting operations. Gato's not taking any chances with the dough,"
"Ha, if he didn't, none of us would be able eat, now would we?" the leader chuckled humorlessly as he signaled for the cart to make its way to the vault.
"Still, it was too easy," the shinobi muttered to himself, "it's almost as if whoever is after the money wanted us to gather it into one place,"
"Ha, like he's going to get past five hundred of us," another guard smirked, "we're not blind as bats,"
"Better to expect the unexpected than to just wind up dead," another shinobi spoke up from the shadows, "stay vigilant. We can't take any chances here,"
Narine only smirked as she tailed the cart, posing as one of the guards, 'If only you knew,'
After noting the location of a vault, Narine slipped away from the detail as they began unloading the cash. Spying a vent system, she pried the grating open and disappeared into it, replacing the grating carefully before discarding the disguise she was using.
The vent itself was a three feet by three feet system that gave her more than enough space to crawl her way back towards the vault room.
A soft echo caught her attention as she turned to listen, "Make sure the security seals are in place. No one gets in unless Hiruko-sama says otherwise. The moment someone opens that door, we'll be on them before they can say 'yen',"
She crawled up to the grating of the vent where she had heard it come from and peered out, noting the room she had vacated just minutes prior.
'Two guards for the vault room,' she thought to herself as she watched the rest of the detail leave the room through the open double doors, 'scratch that. Three. One guy sitting in the opposite corner of the room facing the two by the door,'
Looking behind her, she noticed the vent had another shaft that lead up. Silently, she crouched onto her feet and climbed up into it before setting off towards the vault room. Just her luck. The vent lead straight to the vault room but the grating itself was held in place by several gravity seals that held the grating into place, no matter how hard she pry the grating open, even bending one of her kunai out of shape.
'So much for not bending, breaking or rusting under any circumstances,' Narine thought to herself wryly, 'guess I'll have to counter-seal these then. Or...'
Forming both her index and middle finger into a familiar seal, she created three clones in the room. Looking up at their creator through the grating, they gave her a thumbs-up before going out sealing away the ridiculous amount of money into the scroll while one clone was looking at the gravity seals holding the grating in place.
"Amateurs did these or something?" the clone muttered to itself, "he placed the spring rune where the autumn rune should have gone and the runes for this sequence are wrong as hell. How the hell does this seal even work still?"
"If it works, don't break it?" the original replied as the clone took out a brush and quickly drew the counter-seal over the tags before channeling chakra into it.
As if on cue, the paper seals slowly peeled off and fell to the floor while the clone worked the grating loose, allowing Narine to drop into the room.
"So, we going to put everything into one scroll or we going to split it?" another clone asked, already drawing the basic foundation for a seal, "I'm suggesting we just pile everything away into one scroll and then high-tail it out of here,"
"I agree. We'll stay in here. If anyone comes while the boss is getting out, we'll just raise hell until she's at exfil point Alpha," the first clone suggested, helping to finish the scroll before waiting for the ink to dry, "any other suggestions, boss?"
"Yeah, I have this craving for salt ramen right about now," Narine grumbled to herself as she helped stack a million-yen bundle onto the now-finished scroll.
The rest of the clones sweatdropped.
"So, you guys ready?" Tobio asked, pumping a fist, "I feel like I can take on anyone now,"
"We're up against a jounin-level enemy, maybe two of them," Sasuke shot back, still a bit irked at how Tobio was able to improve so fast, "don't get cocky,"
"Hey, with you there, we don't have to worry about anything," the Kikuchi smirked, punching the Uchiha on the shoulder lightly, "besides, I'm your back-up right?"
"Right, Sasuke-kun will take care of everything," Sakura nodded, her fists held just under her chin.
"Hnn," was Sasuke's short reply.
Kakashi simply observed the team he was leading, 'I can sense a rivalry beginning to develop. Well, maybe it's one-sided at the moment. I'll have to look into that later,'
"Strange, I don't hear anything come from the construction area," Tazuna muttered to himself, "I know it's foggy but that's no reason to delay the building,"
"On your guard, Team 7," Kakashi grunted as he sharpened his senses, "we may have company,"
True enough, the workers on the bridge were all sprawled around the ground, injured or dead. Tazuna rushed over to one of the still-living men who was trying to crawl his way to safety.
"They... came from..." was the last thing he muttered before collapsing, face dropping to the concrete.
"Damnit," Tazuna cursed as he checked for a pulse, "how many more have to die before this is over?"
"Probably a lot more," Kakashi muttered darkly, looking over at a particular portion of the mist, "on your guard, Team 7. We have company,"
Assuming defensive positions around Tazuna, the genin of Team 7 followed Kakashi's gaze, landing on a particular man they thought was dead. Zabuza stood in all his glory, alive and kicking.
"Looks like you guys missed me," Zabuza chuckled as Kakashi came out to confront him, forming a half-ram seal as he drew Kubikiri Boucho, "Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu,"
Four water clones formed around Team 7 as Zabuza held his ground.
'Damn, he's trying to get us all into one area for one strike,' Kakashi thought to himself grimly as he shouted, "Take care of them, Sasuke!"
Utilizing the tree-climbing training, Sasuke was able increase his speed and seemingly strike all the water clones in a blur of action, taking Zabuza by surprise, "Oh, seems like your pretty good, brat,"
Sasuke leapt past Kakashi, brandishing the kunai he had used to slash through the water clone. His attack was stopped by another blur that jumped in to block his attack. Scowling, Sasuke pushed against the senbon of Zabuza's defender.
"It will be my honor to fight you, Uchiha," was the cold reply he received.
With a enormous shove of strength belying his statue, the hunter-nin shoved Sasuke back before plowing in for a taijutsu battle.
"Hey, don't forget me!" Tobio grinned as he threw a kunai at the hunter-nin, who dodged the projectile, stepping into a roundhouse kick Sasuke had aimed for his head.
Tobio then shoulder-barged right into the hunter-nin, throwing both himself and his victim into the thick mist that broiled to life around the bridge as Zabuza covered the bridge in a thick mist.
'Damn, I won't be able to help those two now,' Kakashi thought to himself as he positioned himself between Zabuza and Tazuna, listening to the clashes of metal and fists as he kept track of the battle between the genin and the unknown hunter-nin.
"So, Kakashi, I made the mistake of making eye contact with you last time," Zabuza called out from the mist, "I can guarantee you that this will not happen again,"
Kakashi merely grunted in return as he stepped back and reached into his pouch, his other hand tilting his headband up, "Well, let's dance,"
Narine quickly went through the six hand seals necesary and put her palms on the scroll laid out in front of her, channeling her chakra into the seal written out on it.
"Fuuin: Rokuya Houin!"
The six points of the seal glowed softly as a swirl of chakra engulfed the stack of money placed on it, the currency disappearing in a plume of smoke that dissipated slowly.
Narine then quickly rolled up the scroll and stowed it into one of the pouches attached to the sash around her waist before quickly leaping up into the vents, disappearing intodark as she made her way to the central maintenance unit that would lead her to a safe exit. The clones looked at each other as one of them quickly replaced the grating and removed the counter-seals, sealing the grating in place.
"So, now what?" the clone that put the grating up asked.
"Decide who gets first blood?" the second clone put in with a questioning look on her face.
"How about we just use Rasengan the door and then beat everyone up?" the third asked.
"How come you're so straightforward?" the second clone grimaced as she placed a breaching charge on the door and stood to the side of the door.
The first only sweatdropped, "Breaching charge?"
"It's only if they come in," the second one grimaced.
"Hey, did you hear a voice inside the vault?" one of the guards asked, standing up in his seat as he strolled over to the other side of the door, "I think I'm going crazy,"
"Yeah, you are. Just open the door anyways and check. You can never be too careful," his companion said as he stood up.
The first guard keyed in the combination to the vault and began opening the door only for it to blast open, sending him flying back.
"What the..." the second guard started, trying to get what happened only for a gold blur to suddenly tackle him to the ground and punch him right in the face, sending him into dreamland.
"Not going to kill him?" the clone asked, as she checked the other guard.
The clone that had tackled the guard simply shrugged, "Do you really need to keep killing people? These guys aren't even shinobi,"
The clones nodded as the third dispelled itself to relay a message to the original before the two clones turned and separated throughout the facility. As the original got the message, the clones set about wreaking havoc throughout the facility, knocking out guards and sending shinobi sprawling as the watchmen tried to figure out what was going on. Narine quickly reached the central ventilation system and made her way to the grating that lead out to the top of the building. The grating was merely set in place by the sheer weight of the object itself, so it was no real problem to blast the grating off with a small breaching charge.
Breaching charges were smaller versions of a specialized shaped charge. Instead of a spherical explosion meant to catch people around, it utilized a concentrated blast by focusing the energy released into a cone. The result was normally a small hole created by the jet of energy but the resulting transfer of kinetic energy usually shattered the material it passed through. In this case, it simply blasted the grating apart bending the inch-thick steel bars, allowing Narine to climb out onto the roof. She heard a small blast to the right as she spotted one of her clones jump out the window of a building, rolling to its feet as it pinned a man to the wall with a kunai through the shirt.
"Oi, get her!" another man shouted as he swung a katana, only to have his hand grabbed and disarmed before being flipped onto his back. A quick chop to his throat knocking him out of commission.
Without a second glance, she slipped out over the empty walls as the clones continued putting out men like nothing.
The distinct clash of metal echoing through the mist signaled to Sasuke and Tobio that Kakashi was still engaging Zabuza somewhere. His attention was focused more on the hunter-nin in front of him. Even with his chakra enhanced speed, Sasuke found that his opponent seemed to still be holding back. Tobio was having not much better luck himself.
Sasuke then flipped through the handseals necessary for his jutsu as Tobio stepped back and threw a batch of shuriken to cut off his movement.
"Katon: Goukakyou no Jutsu!" Sasuke finished with the tiger hand seal and took a deep breath before shooting a blast of hot fire at the hunter-nin.
The hunter-nin jumped up over the fireball and threw senbon down at Sasuke, forcing the Uchiha to cut his jutsu short and step back quickly to avoid the projectiles.
Tobio closed the distance and engaged in another taijutsu bout but was quickly outmatched, sending him sprawling as Sasuke jumped in right after.
Clashing multiple times with kunai and senbon, Sasuke and the hunter-nin were both equal in speed and power as they clashed in battle over and over again.
"I have you where I want you now," the hunter-nin spoke cooly from under his mask as he pressed up against Sasuke's kunai.
"You don't have an advantage," Sasuke grunted as he pushed back with one hand clasped in a half-ram seal.
"True, but you can't make hand seals," the senbon user formed one-handed seals as he stomped the ground, shocking Sasuke, "Sensatsu Suishou!"
The mist around Sasuke shifted, forming into thousands of needles and suddenly shot off at Sasuke. Sasuke grimaced as he focused chakra into legs and jumped, the needles slamming into a splashing mess that scattered droplets everywhere as the hunter-nin looked around for Sasuke.
'Above!' he heard the sound of whistling weapons, jumping back successively as shuriken slammed into the concrete where he had been standing previously.
Suddenly, he heard a step from his right as a fist crashed into his face, sending him stumbling as he guarded against a follow-up roundhouse kick that might have knocked him away and sent him into a sideways lariat.
"I see I have to take you seriously," the hunter-nin murmured to himself, "for Zabuza-sama's dream, I will have to remove you from the picture,"
"Zabuza's dream?" Tobio growled as he hurled a few shuriken, "what are you talking about? Guys like him don't have dreams,"
The hunter-nin shrugged as he side-stepped the shuriken, "Someone like you cannot understand my feelings, the feelings of being useless and being given a reason, a meaning, and a life,"
The two male genin couldn't really believe that was so.
"In this world we live in, there is no white or black. There are many shades of grey that exist and because of that, we, as shinobi, clash because of merely slight differences," the hunter-nin explained as he formed the handseals for his next technique, "you don't understand the concept of being strong. It is easy to sacrifice others for a cause but to give one's self for a cause is the greatest feat of strength. I intend to go through with that for Zabuza-sama's dream, even if it costs me my life,"
"Hyouton: Makyou Hyoushou!"
More notes: I am rather curious. Do people prefer the jutsu to be written in Romanized Japanese or to be translated into straight English? Anyways, I think I'll stop this chapter here. I did flesh out a few scenes here and am trying to get past this part to get into the more juicy action bits where you have giant explosions and snakes with red clouds on a black background but there seems to be a lot of stuff that likes to get in the way of life...
You're also more than welcome to ask what certain terms and phrases here in the story mean.
For example, feet dry and feet wet refers to being on land and water respectively.
Getting active in replies will help me concentrate on writing.