Here's celebrating 2,731 words, a new chapter length record! Almost twice that of previous chapters, we get the opinion of the exhausted Machina: "how was it writing a chapter so much larger than what you usually write?" Machina: "It was both difficult, and easy. I usually just write until I feel like I've reached the end. It has nothing to do with the length of the chapter, but more to do with the tension level. In fact, this is the first chapter that didn't have a 'cool down point' right before the end, because it felt right to leave the reader hanging, so they could sit back and go 'OMG I DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING'. Because this is going at the beginning of the chapter, I don't want to spoil it for the reader, so that's all I'm saying on that."
"How much farther till we reach the blockage?" Miku asked from near the back of the line. They had been travelling for some time now, and it was beginning to seem as if they would be walking forever.
"I honestly don't know." Naruto called back from the lead. "I mean, I wasn't here when they blocked it up in the first place. But I know where I would put the block if I had done it, and that's just a few more minutes ahead of us. There is this huge cavern and right after it the tunnel shrinks to almost nothing, and it would take almost no trouble at all to block it up there." Naruto smiled, forgetting that no-one could see facial expressions in the rear black darkness of the caves. "We're just three or four turns away from the cavern now!"
"Is there something special about this cavern?" Ryn asked from right behind him, "I mean this seems to be a long way to travel just to see a particular cave…" As she spoke, Ryn tripped on a ripple in the smooth floor. Sasuke, who was right behind her, jumped foreword and caught her.
"You ok?" Sasuke asked, just in time to get a fist in the face from his would be rescue-ee.
"I can catch myself, thank you!" Ryn jeered, following up with a chop to Sasuke's stomach, and causing him to trip himself on the same ripple Ryn had. As he fell, Miku stepped up from her spot in line behind them and caught Sasuke.
"Easy, Ryn! He was just trying to help!" Miku barked, helping Sasuke regain his footing. "Are you ok?" Sasuke wiped the blood from his split lip before Miku could see it.
"Yeah, I'm fine." He lied, "She just caught me off guard, is all." Kaito finished helping Len up to the last ridge and jogged up to the irritated kunoichi.
"Easy, girls. No need to get so edgy. After all, if someone gets hurt, we're stuck so far back here it will be a while before we can get help." Kaito wisely chose to avoid mentioning that fighting over Sasuke wouldn't make him like them any more than he already did.
"Yes, Kaito-sensei." The two responded simultaneously, unintentionally creating a harmony.
"We're almost there," Naruto called back, "Let's get up ahead. There's light in the cavern ahead, so we won't have to worry about tripping!" As he turned back to the front, a voice echoed from ahead:
"SUMMONING JUTSU! OCEAN CURRENTS!" Suddenly the rumbling that they had all learned meant incoming water reverberated throughout the caves, louder than it had ever been before. Naruto spun around and ran back towards the rest of the group.
"RUN!" Naruto screamed as he literally leapt over Sasuke, "THERE ISN'T A GOOD PLACE TO HIDE NEARBY! WE'RE GONNA HAVE TO HEAD BACK TO THAT RIDGE!" No-one needed a second warning as the all ran after Naruto, except for Len, who was in front of Naruto, and only had time to turn around before Naruto passed him, picking the young Genin up as he raced past.
Naruto and Len were the first to get to the ridge, and Miku was right behind them, but then the water came around the next bend, and it looked like it was going to run over the remaining ninja. Kaito arrived at the ridge then, followed shortly by Ryn, but Sasuke was still a ways behind, cursing the day he tried to catch Ryn. The water was practically on top of him when Miku jumped out from behind the ridge, one hand held to her headphones, and began to sing.
"Mou ikiba ga nai wa
kono koi no netsuryou
AHH…"
As she hit the final note, Miku yelled, and out of her mouth came not just the note, but a visible wave of sound. The Teal Wave flew past Sasuke without touching him, and ran full on into the water. The water halted, held in place by the power of Miku's voice. The note ended, but the water stayed frozen in place, unable to move, appearing to be glass. Miku stumbled over to the nearest wall and leaned against it heavily.
"Huff…huff…hurry…I can't hold it forever…Are you ok…?" Miku gasped, barely able to stay standing. Sasuke nodded, and put his arm over her shoulder as he helped her get back to the ridge. As they sat down beneath the ridge, Miku made a hand sign, and the water roared overhead and past them. Naruto's eyes were bugged out as he turned to Miku.
"What was that? You held the water in place with just your voice? I've never seen anything like that! How did you do it?" Naruto's eyes were bugging out as he laid question after question on the breathless Miku. Sasuke hit Naruto on the back of the head, cutting him off mid sentence.
"Back off, Naruto. Give her a chance to catch her breath." Sasuke pointed out to the slightly chastened Naruto. After Miku had caught her breath, she turned to Sasuke.
"Thanks for holding him off." She then turned to Naruto. "That was a special kind of jutsu called 'sound style' that the ninjas of the Hidden Music Village specialize in. It's very hard to master because it requires a lot of discipline to control both chakra flow and voice tone at the same time, but if you can maintain it, it can be very powerful. Its only weakness is that it requires the one performing the jutsu to be able to create musical notes, so if we are gagged we are unable to perform most of our techniques. As you saw, it also requires a lot of energy and the more sustained jutsus can leave a person drained afterwards." The water had stopped by the time Miku finished her explanation, so they all got up and started heading forward again.
"So, you can all do stuff like that?" Naruto asked the music ninjas, "What else can you do, besides stopping massive walls of water?" Ryn blushed slightly as she answered his question.
"Well, not exactly. Just like there are different styles of music, there are also different styles of sound style jutsu. Miku is actually an expert in Electronica music, so her jutsu are usually more like genjutsu, but as you saw, she also has other talents, and her signature Teal Wall jutsu usually destroys anything in its path. I specialize in more traditional styles of music, and my sound jutsu are 'sound sword' style, where the notes turn into blades that cut the air." As she spoke Len looked at her, like he was hurt. "Oh, and Len is a moderate traditional style singer as well, and uses similar sound jutsu. Kaito is a jounin, so he is an expert in all kinds of music, and I've never seen him show preference for any kind of style. He just seems to be good at everything." Sasuke stayed silent throughout both explanations, but now spoke up.
"Hey, Naruto. Before the water came, we heard a voice calling out a summoning jutsu. It sounded kind of familiar, but I can't quite place it…" Naruto frowned and thought hard, squinting his eyes so they looked closed.
"…hmm…now that you mentioned it, it did. But the way it echoed around the tunnels it was distorted too much and I couldn't recognize it either…" Naruto smiled mischievously. "But it sounded like it was coming from the big cavern I was telling you about, so we'll probably get to sneak up on them!" After this they all remained silent as they snuck up on the opening ahead of them, with dim, pale green light pouring out of it. As they got closer, their carefully trained ears detected the heavy breathing of someone somewhere in the cavern.
As they looked around the corner, Naruto and Ryn, who were the two in the front, saw that the cavern was huge, big enough to hold the entire Hokage's building and still have room to spare. It was filled with growths of crystal which seemed to be the source of the aquamarine light that filled the cavern, giving the sense that the whole place was underwater. There were stalagmites all across the cave, made of blue-grey stone which looked like pillars, giving the two the impression that they were in a grand entry hall instead of a cave deep under the earth.
In the middle of the cave, surrounded by a summoning circle inscribed in the rock floor, was Jiraiya.
"PERVY SAGE!" Naruto yelled, as the others snuck up behind them, causing Len and Sasuke to both jump and hit their heads on the low roof, "You're the one causing all this water!" As Naruto yelled, Jiraiya jumped as well, and looking in their direction smiled like a monkey with a banana.
"Naruto. Good to see you. And I see you brought your VIPs as well. How I have waited for this moment!" As Sasuke and Len rubbed the quickly rising bumps on their heads, they group filed out into the cavern. Naruto was livid, yelling how Jiriaya was on purpose trying to make him fail his mission, and how he had been told to stay away. Jiriaya seemed to ignore him, as he walked strait past the ranting ninja towards the others.
"Oh, no you don't!" Naruto yelled and grabbed Jiraiya by the back of his hair, and yanked him back. "My mission is to keep people like you away from Ryn and the others, and I'm gonna finish my mission with flying colors! Do you hear me?" Jiraiya tossed his head, throwing Naruto on the ground in front of him. Jiraiya had taken on that mentor appearance that usually meant he was being serious for once.
"Naruto. I'm disappointed in you. Yes, I sometimes have a reputation of being…uncivil around beautiful women. But you don't think I would jeopardize the reputation of the leaf village over something like that, do you? I can control myself when I have too." Jiraiya sniffed as if he were a noble who had found something disdainful in front of him. Naruto just stared at him, his face making his thoughts clear: "Yeah, Right." Back near the entrance to the cave, the music ninjas plus Sasuke watched with a stunned silence, which Kaito was the first to break.
"Um, Sasuke. Who is that old man, and why is Naruto determined to not let him nervous? Is he a rogue ninja?" Kaito had stepped in front of the others, ready to jump in if a fight started. Sasuke gave a short laugh, and seeing the even more confused faces, began explaining.
"No, he's not a rogue ninja. In fact he's one of the three Sanin. His name is Jiraiya, and while he's a powerful ninja, he's also a notorious pervert. He and Naruto have a sort of mentor-student relationship, but Naruto is actually the more serious of the two. Most of the time Jiraiya can be found inside the ladies side of the hot springs, or on a rooftop nearby using a telescope to look in. As you can understand, we have specific orders to keep him away from your group while you visit." As Sasuke explained, Miku frowned slightly.
"Jiraiya…I've heard that name before. It's not the Sanin, though I am familiar with them. It's on the edge of my memory, give me a moment…" Miku closed her eyes and her frown deepened, as she concentrated hard on tracing the thought down. "Has something to do with writing…author of a book…Jiraya…!" Miku's eyes opened like saucers, and immediately closed again "NO! Not that!" Miku clamped her hands on her ears and she closed her eyes again, except this looked like she was trying NOT to think of something. The other music ninjas looked at her a moment, then they're eyes began to light up, and they quickly jumped Miku, holding her down.
"You are Miku Hatsune, do you hear me! HATSUNE!" Kaito yelled in her ear. Miku seemed to go into a seizer, and though Sasuke jumped in and tried to get one of them to explain what was going on, they all seemed to focused on Miku to notice.
The commotion attracted the attention of Naruto and Jiraiya, who over to see what the problem was, Naruto forgetting his earlier comments about not letting Jiraiya near. As they got closer, Sasuke looked at Jiraiya, giving up on asking the others what was happening.
"What did you do?" Sasuke asked the Toad Sage, who just stared with a confused look.
"I don't know. I didn't do anything. My plan only went as far as you arriving." Jiraiya tried to help hold Miku still, but Ryn gave him an uppercut which knocked him all the way back to the summoning circle.
"Sasuke," Naruto turned to his teammate, "What happened?"
"I don't know. She said Jiraiya's name sounded familiar, and she focused for a moment, trying to figure out why, then she suddenly freaked out and then fell into a seizer. I tried to get them to tell me, but they're too focused to listen." The two talked hurriedly, even though there was nothing either of them could do because of the limited space between the sound ninjas. Jiraiya, returning with a bloody nose, stopped well back from the commotion.
"What? You're saying this happened because she was trying to remember me? But we've never met!" Jiraiya, like the other two, was talking both hurriedly and loud, the urgency of the others conveying itself too all of them.
"Then she most know of you" Sasuke yelled, "What could it be?" Jiraiya looked even more confused at that.
"The only reputations I have are as a Sanin, Naruto's nickname for me, and of course my books." Jiraiya pointed out, giving Naruto a dirty look when he got to the nickname. At the mention of books, Sasuke had a lightbulb moment.
"Author! She said something about an author! What books have you written?" At this Naruto and Jiraiya both looked at Sasuke like he was an alien.
"You mean to tell me you don't know his books?" Naruto questioned Sasuke, "I mean, Kakashi is always reading them for goodness sake!" At this Sasuke looked at Jiraiya with surprise.
"You wrote…"
"Yes, I wrote the Make Out Series! I-" but before Jiraiya had finished the thought there was a scream from Miku, followed by a burst of Black and Red light which threw the other music ninjas back.
As everyone looked into the slowly dimming light, the music ninjas all began to freak out.
"Oh, crap. We were too late!"
"Not this! Anything but this!"
"Not her! She's too strong!"
As the light finished dimming, the on looking ninjas could make out a figure standing in the middle of it. It looked like Miku's silhouette, but it was holding a katana in the right hand, and a giant axe in the left. The light was gone now, and they could tell it was not the Miku who had come through the caves with them. This Miku had black hair, and all the blue on her outfit had been replaced with black. Her skirt, Jiraiya noted wolfishly, had shortened an inch or two as well, and while her top resembled Miku's sleeveless school uniform outfit, this black Miku had a lowered neckline, so that it more resembled a dress, but still had a collar and tie that neither of which were attached to the dress in any visible way. Her eyes were a deep blood red, and it was as though there was no soul behind them whatsoever.
"Who are you! And what did you do to Miku!" Naruto yelled at the black and red stranger.
"I am MIku," said the figure, her voice deeper and huskier than Miku's. "Miku Zatsune!"
Disclaimer: the song Miku sings to stop the water is the first few lines of Love is War. I do not own it, nor possess any rights to it. Please do not sue me. Miku Zatsune is a creation of Hatsune fans, and is also not one of my possessions. The weapons come from a GIF by dimona93 on photobucket called " Zatsune scythe thingy".
It came to my attention, due to a friend's reviewing, that I was misspelling Jiraiya's name, so in this chapter and all following chapters I will attempt to use the correct spelling.
