A/N: FINALLY!! The document manager has been on the fritz like never before. I had this chapter completed on Thanksgiving, but I couldn't put it up because I couldn't upload my file. So, several days late (growling at FFN), here is the next one.
I got mixed feelings about other things right now. Good news: It's official that the Naruto anime will cease its fillers and progress to post-timeskip in due time. The bad news: The announced date is in February, 2007, which not only is a grueling two to three months away, but also matches my shipping date. An amazing, if unwelcome, coincidence.
There is a bright side to that, though, since when I finally have the opportunity to watch it, I won't be spending long months waiting week by week for each episode to come out. They'll all be ready and waiting for me at once!
Now then: CLIFFHANGER RESOLUTION NO JUTSU!
Chapter Six: Burning the Barriers
The sound was heartrendingly familiar. It was as real and corporeal as it had been the first time around, and just as terribly unbelievable. To anyone else, it would have been easy to disbelieve, to pass off as mere illusion—for illusion it was, a fiction induced by drugs that recalled shades of the past. But Keisuke believed it; this memory was a part of him as much as the invisible arms that his jailers sought to extract.
It was the sound of a dying town. The air rushed through the cluttered streets in the wake of the final explosion, bringing with it clouds of dust that choked the blind child where he stood. Buildings that had not been fully destroyed in the initial blast continued to crumble around him. And through it all, the moans and cries of those who had been pinned underneath the beams of their caved-in ceilings and walls as they slept rose up to meet unwilling ears.
Here now? Thought the dreaming Keisuke. Why does it have to be this memory?
He felt his younger self stand stock-still, as though paralyzed on his feet. He knew that the child was in shock; the youth's psyche was in the process of denying the reality of it, trying to lock it away in a place where it could deal no further damage. As for himself, he was completely awake and competent; the mature Keisuke had witnessed death and destruction many times, and the scene around him was nothing new. At the same time, though, this immunity to shock left him vulnerable to the sadness which permeated the air of the wreckage.
My home, he thought bitterly. Had I chosen to be more aware, "The Grave" would never have come to be. Orochimaru, you fiend... Did I really need to be reminded?
The young version of himself would not feel this sadness for months after, when he had managed to drag himself to a neighboring town for medical treatment and recovery. He could remember the long loneliness that came after...
And as he thought about it, the memories flowed past around him. At a rapid pace, he experienced his early teens all over again. They were dark years, spent in an orphanage with no real friends and a handful of adults who spoke of him with pity in their voices. The young blind child knew that they meant well for him, but he still could not stand it.
Keisuke hated being pitied.
"The poor child," the matrons would say. "So tragic... No child should have to go through that."
God, woman! Keisuke yelled at one of them, though she was long dead and would never hear. Don't say that! It's my fault that it happened... I let it happen! Pity the other orphans, pity my father, the poor manipulated fool, but not me.
The dream Keisuke did not yell, but kept to himself, hating their pity and hating himself for bringing it all to be. Clutching beneath his shirt the last memento of his happy childhood—a metal ring that his mother had given his father once, long before that incident—as it hung on a chain around his neck. One or two of the greedier matrons had tried to pilfer it from him, under the pretense of volunteering to keep it safe. He had refused ardently to let anyone touch it. Other than repressed memories of the tragedy itself, it was all that he had left of his home. In this fashion, he lived his young life day in and day out.
Until, at age sixteen, he accidentally lost control of the matron's cart one day, allowing it to smash through a shop window. The matrons might have pitied him, and paid for the damage themselves, but they were not present, and the shopkeeper was not as kind. It was in the act of repaying his debt to the shopkeeper by cleaning up and repairing the damage that he met and befriended the shopkeeper's daughter, Yuka. From there, the dream took a very surprising turn.
What the hell...?
The nightmare seemed to be over, giving way to memories of the start of Keisuke's less angst-filled second life. With Yuka's kind friendship, support, and understanding of his disgust for pity, the dream Keisuke began to recover from his dark ages. Within a week, he found himself smiling for the first time in years, laughing as they shocked the pants off of his caretakers with false eyes that she had crafted out of wood and paint, and enjoying the warmth of her skin as he laid his head in her lap so that she could remove the splinters from his sockets afterward. In two months, they were spending nearly all of their spare time together, picnicking on the banks of the river that supplied the town with water, fish, and commerce. By the end of the fifth month, the two of them were secretly courting each other.
Suddenly the mature Keisuke understood what the dream was trying to do. This was a method of torture that he had heard about numerous times: Begin with pain, until the subject develops a tolerance. When that is through, subject them to a pleasurable experience—this will confuse the mental barrier that he has thrown up to withstand pain, corroding it so that eventually you can bring back the pain, blasting by the weakened defenses and driving him up a wall. In practice, this is usually repeated until the victim either gives his captor what he wants or is driven insane. Knowing this, Keisuke tried to steel himself. However...
Damn it! He wanted to cry. Damn you to hell, stupid drug! She feels and sounds too real...
Despite knowing what would happen to him, Keisuke could not help but soften to the incredibly realistic reincarnation of his long-dead lover. He immersed himself in every touch, sound, and smell, glutting himself on the sweet memory like a starved child. Orochimaru's trap was clever in that even though he had guessed its intent, the allure of it rendered him powerless to stop him from falling for it like a total sucker.
And when the sweetest of memories had passed him by, he found himself re-experiencing his eighteenth birthday—the day he left the town behind, taking Yuka with him to begin life completely anew. He listened to himself bid good-bye to the orphan matrons, who at last had given up their pity and become happy for him. He felt the scrapes on his hands and feet as he climbed down through rocks and rubble, returning to the place where all his sadness had begun. It was silent now, quiet as the grave itself. No more screams of the dying, no more noise of buildings succumbing to fire and collapse; just the blowing of the breeze.
The dream Keisuke faced that ruin with not an ounce of shame or regret apparent within him. He was a man now; the memory of the horror would be with him always, but he now had the strength and maturity—and the support of a kind and wonderful fellow human being—to bear the burden of that memory. He tore loose the chain around his neck which held his mother's ring, flinging it into the wreckage with no longer a care in the world what happened to it. Let the past be buried... the future awaited him.
Poor blind son of a bitch, the real Keisuke thought, exercising the pity that he still loathed upon his dream self. You have no idea what the future has in store for you.
The thought was drowned as his dream self carried him up and out of the crater, into the arms of the waiting Yuka. He lost himself in the heart-wrenching realness of her lips as he kissed them tenderly, signifying the end of an era. And as the kiss was broken, so was the dream.
"Enjoying yourself, Keisuke-san?" came the voice of his terrible caretaker. "That's right... it's me again. Let's begin tonight's work, shall we?"
Damn you to hell, Snake-eater.
OoOoOoOoOoOoO
Hinata's short dream was certainly out of the ordinary. Statues that magically transform into nude effigies of the person you like tend to inspire unconscious experiences involving similar characters and objects. If there was an advantage to fainting when exposed to such things, it was that the intensely graphic afterthoughts did not show on the outside, and she was spared the embarrassment of trying to speak and act normally while those thoughts were in her head, even though the fainting itself made her look a little weird.
The dream having run its course and relented, Hinata opened her eyes to find herself lying on a bench with Naruto's jacket lying draped over her. It was very warm, though its absurd color made her stick out against the stone like a neon light.
"Oh," said Naruto, seeing her wake, "You're up now, huh?" He was seated on the ground next to the bench, arms folded across his chest, leaning against the stone wall behind them. He regarded her with a cheerful look, but something on his face seemed distant, as though he had been absorbed in something.
Sitting up and pulling the orange and black jacket tighter around her, Hinata responded, "Yes. Naruto-kun, did I interrupt your thoughts?"
"Me, thinking?" Naruto said in a mock-affronted tone. "If you were a normal person, you'd be taking my temperature and asking me what I'd put in my last bowl of ramen." He chuckled to himself over that little joke, and Hinata giggled with him.
"But then again, you're not that normal," he went on. "That's one reason why I like you, though. 'Normal' for people who know me is either violence or disbelief. It's good to have people who have faith in me, you know?"
"Yes," Hinata agreed. "I always had faith in you, Naruto-kun. I find it impossible not to."
Naruto was quiet as it sank in. Hinata knew that he was remembering the conversation he'd had with her father. It had been then that he had found out the entire truth of her feelings for him. He appeared to have accepted her love as real, but... was he still struggling with himself over how to respond to it?
"Yeah," he said finally, "I know..."
Apparently, he was. Another silence passed in which Hinata found herself torn between pitying him and wishing that he would make up his damned mind. She was benevolent, and understood the reasons behind his indecision to a certain extent, but the delay of his response was wearing on her nonetheless. She'd done everything that she needed to on her end; the rest was in Naruto's hands, and the suspense associated with having no control over an extended process daunted her. This was especially true due to the high risk involved with the mission, and the resultant possibility that there might never be another chance. Their recent pseudo-date, now that it was over and fresh in their minds, contributed to the stress as well.
"But, damn," Naruto said, "Hell of a night, huh? Haruka nee-chan's pranks are pretty funny, once you get over the initial shock."
"Yes, definitely," Hinata agreed hastily, glad to have something else to talk about. "And we collected some useful information, too. Neji nii-san will be pleased with us."
"Yeah," said Naruto, standing up. "A lot more useful than Ero-sennin's 'information gathering,' that's for sure."
Hinata giggled again. She had been subjected to several comical stories about the illustrious Toad Sannin's misadventures in the time since Naruto had returned to Konoha. What he said next, however, carried more weight:
"It was kinda nice, actually, doing it with just us two. I wouldn't mind doing it again..."
The prospect of spending more such evenings with Naruto—a happy and willing Naruto, no less—was a huge booster for her spirits. Hinata lightened considerably; this was significant progress, and helped to ease the tension of the long wait. Smiling happily, she opened her mouth to suggest that it was a wonderful idea and that she would gladly go along with it...
But the blaring sirens halted her suggestion in her windpipe.
"What the...?" Naruto said, swiveling his head around to seek the cause of alarm. "That's the village's raid siren! But I don't see any enemies. Damn it, have the front lines found us already?"
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
A huge explosion from the high barricade near the hotel roused Neji and the others from their rooms. Making certain that Sasuke was still securely tied into his sack on the bed, the young Hyuuga Jounin flung open the door to his room. In the hallway, Sakura, Kiba, and Shino were all congregated, looking confused and alarmed. Seeing their leader, they turned to him.
"Neji, what the heck is that?" asked Kiba. "The war wasn't supposed to come here... this town's supposed to be neutral, isn't it?"
"Then, who would be attacking here?" wondered Sakura.
Neji didn't know for himself. He could only listen to the commotion outside—the raid warning siren, the mercenaries scrambling to their battle positions, and the townsfolk bolting themselves indoors—and speculate.
"It may be," he said, "That there is something in this town that one side or the other wants. There could be rich stores of resources here that could be used to fuel a war machine, or they could simply be after a staging point from which to launch attacks at closer range to the enemy."
"So, the Sound would be after this place for those resources?" said Kiba.
"It may not even be the Sound," said Shino. "It could very well be our own Leaf forces or our allies from Sand. In that case, we would be expected to support the raid effort."
That rung Sakura and Kiba's bells.
"But..." said the medic, "Our allies wouldn't attack a neutral village just for that, would they?"
"It is a large-scale war," replied Shino, matter-of-factly. "The conflict could be spread out across the entire Shinobi map, eventually. Both sides must seize and secure as much territory and resources as possible, as quickly as possible, in order to gain an advantageous position early on."
"But," Kiba said, "That's... these guys never wanted any part of this! You're telling me our guys are just going to march in here and commandeer everything these people have so we can beat our enemies?"
"It is both likely and sensible," said the bug user. "A stronghold near the Sound border could shorten the war by giving us an early and easy access into their territory. This mountain village is both elevated and well-fortified, making it easy to defend. It is an ideal place for such a stronghold."
"That may be," said Sakura, "And I'm all for winning the war as soon as possible. But I still wouldn't feel any better if I were supposed to help capture these peaceful people..."
"If it comforts you, Sakura-san," said Neji, "The Sound will want to do the same thing, and they would not treat a captured town nearly as well as our allies would. You can think of it as the lesser of two evils."
A second explosion rocked the town. This time, it came from the other direction.
"An attack from two directions?" said Sakura.
"Hey, that isn't good," said Kiba. "Naruto and Hinata are still out there!"
This realization struck all of the present shinobi into action. If the two waves of advancing forces were the enemies of Leaf, it would not be good for their friends, nor for them. In that case, they would need to locate Naruto and Hinata and escape with them quickly.
"It seems that we will all need to get used to war," Neji said, "And quickly. Kiba, you and Akamaru stay here with me. If it is the enemy, I won't be able to hold them off forever, and it is possible that our traitor guide may escape in the confusion. Sakura-san, Shino, you two go and look for Naruto and Hinata. If you find Haruka-san, take her with you as well. If not, don't worry about her; she is competent and skilled enough to slip away unharmed."
"Are you sure you'll be all right with just two of you?" Sakura asked.
The first sounds of combat reached their ears. An involuntary shiver ran down the Jounin's spine; he'd been in many fights, but with such a large battle, and such an important prisoner and two friends' lives in his hands...
"We can manage," he affirmed. "We're in close quarters; Naruto and Hinata-sama are exposed in the streets, and will need you more than we will. Go immediately!"
Shino and Sakura nodded affirmative, and vanished forthwith. Neji and Kiba went back into the room which held Sasuke, and settled in for a long siege.
OoOoOoOoOoOoO
The mountain town was under heavy siege from two opposite directions. Walls on both ends had been breached by explosives, and shinobi strike teams were quickly overpowering the mercenary soldiers. Split between two fronts, the town's defenders had to spread themselves evenly to both of them. This inability to concentrate their forces led to them being sorely beaten back before they could mount a retaliation.
On one end, Sakura and Shino leaped towards the center of the village, their civilian disguises removed, bearing the Leaf insignia to alert any military in the area to their allegiance. From their vantage point, and with the aid of the bright warning lights that accompanied the sirens, they could see the invading force on their side of the village with little effort.
"Those are Sound shinobi," Sakura said. "And there's quite a few of them! They still have all these ninjas, even after losing so many in Konoha?"
"This might be the remainder of their forces," replied the bug user from under his heavy coat. "It makes sense that they would want to make their last stand here. It is well-fortified, and they might withstand months of siege. Do you see now?"
"Yes," Sakura said, looking over at it. "The town forces are over the surprise now. They're starting to push back at them. With such a small hole in the wall to come through, the shinobi can't dodge all of the fire as they come in."
Shino nodded. "Even in coming through here, they will take significant losses," he said. "But if they succeed, then they will have a very effective protection behind these walls. These are ordinary soldiers manning the walls; can you imagine how well-defended they would be if they were guarded by shinobi?"
Very, very well, imagined Sakura. Even with just a few, the deadly precision and accuracy of ninjas, coupled with sturdy walls like these, would make a flat-out assault nearly suicidal.
"The soldiers won't keep the Sound out for long," said Sakura. "We should hurry. We have to find those two and get out of here, now!"
Shino was silent, but he stepped up the pace. He had no desire to lose his teammate in this war, and Naruto was enough of a friend to him to merit saving, as well. The two of them zipped from roof to roof with as much speed as they could muster, all the while scouring the ground below for signs of their allies.
However, keeping their eyes focused downward turned out not to be an especially good idea. It left them almost completely unaware to the dangers that came from above. Fortunately, Shino's bugs were more alert than he was, and they warned him in time.
"Sakura, get down!" the bug user yelled. He grabbed her and pushed her down hard against the roof, dropping down himself just in time. The blast of concentrated air whooshed over their heads, missing them by millimeters and crashing into the roof just in front of them.
Their attackers were prepared to react to this maneuver, however. Vines sprung up from below, from the shadows of the walls of the building they lay upon. They whipped rapidly towards Shino, wrapping him up tightly.
"Shino-san!" Sakura yelled, pushing herself up and pulling a kunai to cut him free.
"Hey, pink-head, play with me!" The loud voice stopped Sakura, and as she looked around frantically for the source, something struck her from directly in front, knocking her backwards away from Shino. As she regained her footing, she still couldn't find any trace of her mysterious attacker.
"I know you're here!" she yelled. "Show yourself, my 'mistress!' I've got a score to settle with you!"
"Ayaka-chan wasn't the one that hit you, girlie," said the voice of her attacker. "I was!"
And suddenly Sakura was struck again by the invisible opponent. She managed to stay on her feet this time, however, and turned in the direction the blow had come from, slamming her fist into the roof and causing it to ripple outward in a shock wave.
She had apparently missed, however; there was no sign of anything but the roof having sustained damage. Cursing, she swiveled her head, and caught sight of a tall, white-haired man in a sky-blue robe. The man was currently making seals with his hands. Sakura braced herself; she didn't know what it was this shinobi was capable of.
"Ninpou: Arashi Shibari no Jutsu." (Secret Art: Storm Binding Technique)
Seemingly from nowhere, a small cyclone sprung to life, trapping Sakura in its center. Roof shingles were torn up all around her as the high winds ripped round and round. There was nowhere that she could go.
"I apologize," said the man in the robe. "I normally would not resort to killing such young ones as yourselves, but my teammates have identified you as obstacles between us and our targets. You will understand if we eliminate you now."
"Those jutsus... You're the team from Kumogakure, aren't you?" yelled the pink-haired girl from above the roar of the winds. "You're after Hinata again? Why here, in this dangerous place, where you could get caught up in the war?"
"Ha! Caught up in it, she says," scoffed the invisible attacker. "As though we should be actually afraid..."
"Hikaru, be quiet," said the wind user. "Finish the task."
"All right, all right, Kouhei," sighed Hikaru. "I'm going." Five kunai suddenly fell to the ground in a circle around the wind-trapped Sakura. Each one had a differently-colored tag attached to it. Where they had come from, Sakura still could not see, for the jutsu that the boy had which allowed him to hide within the bright lights affixed to the raid sirens was still in effect.
"Ninpou... argh! What the hell?"
Through the swirling cyclone, Sakura could at last make out the outline of Hikaru. A pair of shuriken had lodged themselves in his left hand and arm as they were making the hand seals for his killing technique. Standing near to him, bugs swarming out from their living hive, was Shino, freed from the vines by the destructive potential of his insects.
"You!" shouted Hikaru. "How the heck did you get me?"
"The bugs alerted me," replied Shino. "Your invisibility works well to deceive the eyes, but preparation for any ninjutsu will utilize chakra that the bugs can sense. They felt you molding chakra and alerted me to your general direction enough for me to react quickly."
"Damn it!" yelled the enemy. "Ayaka-chaaaaan! Weren't you supposed to be holding him?"
"I have said before, Hikaru," said the plant user, appearing next to Kouhei, "That the Aburame is strong against my plants. Knowing this, you should have spent less time talking and killed the girl quickly, rather than allow him time to eat through my vines."
"Ayaka, Hikaru," interrupted Kouhei sternly, "That is enough bickering. If we do not kill these two quickly, we will not have time to capture the targets before the end of the countdown. Do you understand?"
The other two Cloud shinobi didn't have time to answer. A loud crash sounded as the roof below the two ninja parties erupted, making way for a huge mass which tore the building apart. The mass was colored red-orange, and it was wearing shiny steel battle armor. The Cloud leaped away from it onto another nearby roof. Shino attempted to do the same, but a hand grabbed his arm and hauled him toward the mass. The other hand on the same person retrieved Sakura and brought her, too, straight onto the back of the thing.
It was a very large frog. On top of it stood Jiraiya.
"Your time is already up, Kouhei!" yelled the Frog Hermit, the light of battle-fires glinting off of his unique forehead protector. "Did you miss me?"
The one who had pulled Shino and Sakura up to join him on the frog's back now advanced forward to see the enemy as well. A long braid blew in the winds of war.
"So, these are the punks who attacked Hinata-chan in the cave," said Haruka. "They don't look like much, Jiraiya. Are you sure they're as strong as you say they are?"
"J..." gasped Sakura, surprised at their appearance, "Jiraiya-sama! Haruka-san!"
"I know the leader, Kouhei, is very strong," said the Toad Sannin. "He gave even me a rough time; I've still got cuts that haven't quite healed. He's stronger than Kakashi. Be careful with him."
"Really?" said Haruka, licking her lips absentmindedly. "Sounds like a challenge..."
"Not one I'd recommend taking on at your level," Jiraiya said. "Not without that Keisuke fellow, anyway. As for the other two, I can't say. I've never seen them before."
"They can't be that good," Haruka mused, "Seeing as they lost to Naruto and his friends so easily..."
"HEY!" yelled Hikaru from below. "We didn't lose, you bitch! That was a tactical retreat!"
"Same difference, little boy," rejoined the Sadist, smirking down at him.
Though Hikaru fumed, Kouhei had the stronger will. He caught and held his teammate's eye, keeping him from rushing forth in blind anger.
"You surprise me by showing up here, Jiraiya-sama," said the wind master. "It seems that we will not be able to retrieve our targets tonight. Not with the Sannin and these three all at once in our way. We will make another retreat."
Kouhei made a short set of hand seals, and then a powerful gust blew towards the giant frog and its passengers. The shinobi, forced to hang onto the frog's skin with all their strength to prevent being blown off, could not pursue the Cloud ninjas, who retreated under the wind's cover.
"Damned cowards," Haruka grumbled when she had picked herself up.
"Let them go," said Jiraiya. "We have more important things to worry about. Aburame, Sakura, where is Naruto?"
"We were just out here looking for them," Sakura reported. "But we haven't found..."
"Them?" Jiraiya asked.
"Naruto went into the village with Hinata," explained Shino, "To gather information."
The Toad Sannin's jaw dropped. "He did what? No! I haven't taught him how to..."
"And what was that about more important things to worry over, Jiraiya-sama?" asked Haruka, her eyebrows raised.
"ERO-SENNIN!" yelled a loud and frenzied voice. "Where the hell were you? If you were looking for us, why was your mind is still in the gutter? Didn't you learn anything the last time we were here?"
Naruto and Hinata leaped up to join their comrades, and Naruto gave the white-haired hermit a smack on the head. Sakura gave a sigh of relief, and Shino noted their return with approving silence. The two of them were still both in one piece and apparently unharmed. Aside from Naruto's anger at his former mentor, everything seemed to be okay.
"We saw your frog," said Hinata, "And came right away. Reinforcements are right behind us."
"Reinforcements?" asked Shino.
"Yeah!" said Naruto. "The Sand! They thought the Sound would be moving here and came to keep them out of it. Who'd have thunk they would both get here at the same time?"
Sakura was struck speechless. The village was under attack from two different factions? Her mind went immediately to the aftermath of the battle; there would be many dead, and a lot of homes could be destroyed from the clashing superpowers. This war might tear the town apart in a single night!
"So it comes to this," said Shino. "We have been caught on the front line of this war. If we are to move any closer to our destination, we will first need to win this battle."
"Yeah, it looks like it," Naruto said. "Damn, I didn't think I'd be seeing another huge battle like this so soon."
"None of us did," agreed Haruka. "But that doesn't make winning any less important. Let's find Neji and Kiba and get to work. We've got a lot of flies to swat before morning!"
"We may not have that long," added Shino. "The enemy in blue mentioned a countdown..."
The village defenses had been completely overrun. The mercenary soldiers who were still alive had surrendered to either the Sound or the Sand, and the two shinobi forces were on a collision course with each other towards the middle of the village. The sirens began to die as the buildings on which they were mounted were crushed or burned. And in the middle of it, nine shinobi of the Leaf, originally on a rescue and reconnaissance mission, were about to become part of the broader and more destructive war.
OoOoOoOo Plot-Twist no Jutsu! End Chapter Six oOoOoOoO
Next Chapter: The Leaf ninjas have ended up smack in the middle of a major battle! Can they survive and secure the town for their allies without wrecking the entire place? What is this "countdown" that Kouhei has mentioned? What is it that Jiraiya forgot to teach Naruto about "information gathering?"
Keep reading...