Wow! How long could it take anyone to update? Seriously: I think I have a problem; forgetting my stories all the time.
Thank you:
Thanks to everyone who read and who will still read this story despite the fact that I didn't update in about eight months. I should slap myself, but hats off to everyone.
I have a few new reviews and reviewers from my absence to thank.
Irsool: gracias. D
Princessaly: I FINALLY FOUND THE TIME:P Only…it wasn't school work that kept me, it was just laziness/procrastination. We are alike, I suppose, then.
Aldalena: Thanks for that compliment. I'm sorry I'm not giving enough ammunition for your imagination. I'll try to incorporate more sensory details and more visual aspects on the characters. As for your question: I picture him looking a lot like himself, but crisper and more developed characteristics: especially facial aspects. He's taller, has a bit longer hair and looks maybe more rugged from his travels and such. A pretty white skin color/fair complexion, and as for clothes, I think I mentioned that he was wearing a similar clothing style to before, basic black outfit. Also, thanks for the spelling check. I knew it was probably wrong when I started writing it.
Velvettears81969:D
Kakashifaves::D
C.A.M.E.O.1 and Only: oh…yeah…hahaha.
Kattylin: I only really put lemons in for fan service because I know there are many people whom like them. I don't want to put too much sexual content in the story, but there might be some more, so I'll try not and I hope I don't let you down. :P
Sekiryu: Thanks for the personality reassurance.
Suicidal Butterfly: Haha. Thank you. I don't think, if I remember, that I was going to make Sasuke just blurt out "I love you!". Be a little too strange, don't you think:P
Thanks a bunch and I'll be hoping for some more reviews, but I never force that. :P
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto-any of the characters, the story, the jutsu, ANYTHING-, never will.
So I guess it's time for the next chapter. You've all been waiting for it, and I don't want to disappoint:
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Recap:
His heart began to race as he heard the swishing of wind around them. Ritsuzen was near them, bouncing like a ballistic rubber ball in a small container, only through the air. Sakura turned after hearing a gushing sound, finding both of the ninja that were behind them, to be dead; blood was spewing from their necks. Sasuke pounced upon her, feeling cold steel nip at his back, grazing it and slightly drawing blood. He yelped, but retained his position atop Sakura. "Keep your head down." He whispered.
Ritsuzen suddenly seized and 'materialized' before them. Sasuke was spry in getting on his feet once more, followed by Sakura behind him. "Why did you come back here?!" Sasuke yelled towards the intruder, and Ritsuzen winced before giving off a loud laugh. "Oh, but didn't I tell you I would be?"
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The cold steel of Ritsuzen's blades barely against Sasuke's neck surprised him. It was difficult for him to figure out how he had drawn the weapons so quickly; when Sasuke looked down at the blades, he could see the cold eyes gazing back in the steely reflection. "What's wrong?" The chilling autumn air was no match for the coldness of the voice before them. "Have I frightened you?" The blades were firmly in place in the shape of an x, almost like scissors at the young Uchiha's neck. Sasuke tensed, but his gaze was firm as Ritsuzen gave a laugh of excitement and triumph.
"Do it." Sasuke looked sternly at the older ninja, cutting his triumphant spree short. There was a certain, unmistakable confidence in his black eyes that gave the blade wielder a small jolt. "What was that sneer?" In the back of his mind, he thought about how his prey could be so confident. There was a small pick up in wind fluctuation and the air almost tasted of salt. Or was it sand?
The colors were seen rummaging through the air everywhere, swiftly passing streaks of familiar color. Naruto and Kakashi had split up from the small group that had left the Hokage's establishment earlier. Why didn't the colors stop? "They're obviously not here so much for us as they are the village. We've got to stop them." Kakashi deducted from a high vantage point of a tree. The pair dropped down from the tree, shocked to observe the colors had vanished. "Be careful, Naruto. Those could have been clones just then." Their footsteps were quiet as they barely took steps from their location amidst downed buildings and various debris. "Do you think they came back again?" The blonde ninja was in a ready position; the scene was too quiet and adopted an eeriness found in horror movies.
Suddenly, a flash of cobalt blue: muscle tension in the pair of shinobi began. Kakashi's thumb rose to his forehead protector, lifting it to reveal his sharingan eye. Soon came another flash and with it a grunt from Naruto. Kakashi looked around and noticed him gone. He had caught a glimpse of Kouu as he sped by. His eyes widened; Kakashi felt a hard blow to his stomach. Tensai stood before him with an obnoxious grin. "Don't look away, especially when you're all alone." There was a brief moment before a cloud of smoke appeared in front of Tensai's fist. His mouth was agape, but before he could turn, Kakashi maneuvered a jump kick into his rib region, knocking him away and to the dirtied road. "Who said I was alone?" Kakashi looked tiredly towards a coughing Tensai, not fully healed from his earlier wounds inflicted by Ritsuzen. "What the…" Tensai coughed before rising to his feet. "…fuck are you talking about? Of course you're alone."
The copy ninja shook his head, "Obito is always with me." The annoying former sand ninja cocked his head to the left, "I guess I'll have to get rid of Obito." Tensai drew a kunai and held it in a firm grasp like a knife; without warning, he charged with his full speed. Kakashi reacted thanks to his Sharingan and blocked Tensai's arm with his own. The kunai was only inches away from the eye before Kakashi grabbed hold of Tensai's arm, swinging him onto a piece of collapsed building. However, no sooner as he had thrown the ninja did the body erupt in smoke. "Your taijutsu sucks. Just letting you know." All Kakashi could hear was a voice, there was no body to put it to.
But as he searched for the body, mentally, Kakashi felt the impacts of twelve fists along his body, repeating the punching motion many times before moving to another location on the body. His body was tired, but his will to win was strong. After suffering impacts to his face, he opened his bloody eyelids and focused the sharingan on the movement around him. He stopped the fists from punching with his own, cupping Tensai's fists in his palms, tightly, almost crushing them. With a surge of chakra to his muscles, Kakashi crushed the man's smaller hands, the sound of crushing and breaking bones could be heard. Tensai screamed as he fell backwards in pain. "By the way, Obito stays." And with a hard swinging kick to the temple, Tensai was struck down by the copy ninja. Now he needed to search for Naruto.
In the meantime, Naruto recovered from a hard hit to a tree. Kouu had plastered the young shinobi to it with his light speed jutsu. 'Damn…' Naurto thought as he lifted himself off the ground. He didn't have time, nor did it take priority, for him to look at the nearly downed tree he had been stuck to. He focused on trying to find his enemy. Kouu couldn't be found in the small clearing within the woods. Shades of green, red and orange surrounded Naruto. He quickly made four doppelgangers of himself and instructed them to search the area. Sadly, just as they had set off, he heard four small eruptions that fit his senses well with the dispelling of clones. He tensed as the eruption were nearly at the same time.
Soon, out of the woods, Kouu launched himself on all fours towards Naruto. His tongue draped over the side of his mouth and his eyes held a wild expression, "What is this guy?" Naruto stepped backwards and jumped upwards, avoiding Kouu. However, just as Naruto landed on the ground, he was eyed as prey once more.
"What is this, some kind of a trick, boy?" Ritsuzen narrowed his eyes as he studied the air around them. The blades were still against Sasuke, but the air had suddenly become like a sandstorm. There was a smaller shadow that appeared behind Ritsuzen. Sasuke, noticing the new comer, dropped down from between the scissored blades and kicked into Ritsuzen's stomach, forcing him back.
As Ritsuzen fell, two spikes of sand made their ways to his shoulders, piercing him all the way through. He looked up and saw frightening red hair. 'This wasn't in the plan. We weren't expecting the sand village.' He launched himself off the spikes quickly. Gaara stared blankly at him. "Gaara of the sand? Well this certainly is unexpected." He smiled with slumped shoulders. "Seems this puts things in a whole new light for me." He tried to lift his shoulders and use his arms, but noticed he couldn't use them. 'Damn him.' "We never picked a fight with you!" With a puff of smoke, Ritsuzen was gone from the scene.
As expected, he took the rest of them with him, leaving Naruto in a daze as Kouu vanished right before he pounced once more. The village was surprised; not as much damage was inflicted before they left this time.
As Gaara cleared the sand in the air and Temari walked out beside him, he picked up a pair of clothes folded where Ritsuzen had disappeared. Sasuke walked up to him with Sakura beside him, "What are those?" He hadn't gotten a great look at them yet, still rubbing some sand from his eyes. Gaara lifted the collar of the light colored shirt revealing the Uchiha emblem. "Do you recognize these?" Sasuke froze. "I left those with Orochimaru's body so they would know who killed him. But why…did he bring them back?" He picked up the outfit that he had worn under his servitude to Orochimaru; the light purple garment with the darker wrapping, purple roping and darker pants. "He really left you the whole ensemble." Temari added, noticing the shoes as well. Sasuke took the clothes from Gaara and examined them. There was no note, nothing to explain the action. He pushed at the clothes noticing something else bundled in them; it was long and slender. "My sword?"
Kakashi stumbled into the block of woods. It was only a small amount of trees enclosing a grassy circle. The grass was rather high, up to his knees, but he spotted Naruto looking around himself still trying to figure out what happened. "They're gone, Naruto." Kakashi leaned on a tree, clenching to his abdomen. "Yeah…did you get yours before they left?" Naruto walked up to Kakashi, "I'm pretty sure I killed him, but the body disappeared, so I could be wrong unless they came back to get him." Naruto looked towards Kakashi with seriousness in his eyes, "Are you able to make it back?" There was a brief pause as Kakashi straightened up his composure, "Yeah, I'll be fine. What made them leave though?" Kakashi's sharingan was still out in the open, so he closed it back up with his forehead protector. "Let's head back and find out." Naruto and Kakashi shot up into the trees headed back towards the middle of the village.
Those that had left earlier were already looking for answers from anyone they could find, but no one seemed to have a real answer besides Sasuke and Sakura. Sasuke took the sword out of the wrappings. 'Why would he bring me a weapon?' He searched for any type of danger like an explosive tag or something of that nature, but he found nothing. The group examined it quietly. "Do you think it's a message, Uchiha Sasuke?" Gaara inquired folding his arms together. "I definitely believe that's what it is; but, I don't understand what he's trying to tell me."
Sakura looked at the clothes before speaking, "Back up a minute." Sakura stepped closer to Gaara and Temari, "We were briefed by Tsunade about your arrival, but why did it take so long for you to arrive? It should have only been two to three days, right?" Gaara nodded, "That's true, but what good would it have done me if I could not survey the damage myself? I would have been blindly committing murder against my own." Temari added, "So we watched your battles to gain information on the enemy. We hadn't planned on stepping in when we did, but we saw your situation." Gaara shifted his weight and turned around. "Let's go to your Hokage. We'll all explain what went on here."
Tsunade and Jiraiya had briefly encountered Yuuwaku, but she disappeared as quickly as she came. There was neither a battle nor words exchanged for that matter. "That was strange, Tsunade." She nodded as she walked in the direction of her office. "I'm not sure what it was either: what there purpose was, none of it. Maybe once we get to my office we'll fi-" Her words were cut short as her and Jiraiya came up on the establishment. Outside stood four Jounin level sand nin. She watched the backs of Gaara, Temari, Sakura and Sasuke enter the building. "Let me guess, you just figured it out." Jiraiya chuckled as he went on ahead of Tsunade, entering the building as well.
TBC
A/N: So like I said, I finally updated. Strange. Anyway, this chapter appeared to lack some earlier flow I was racking up in some of the other chapters and the battles are getting hard to write. I want to explore the baddies I bit more though, so maybe the next chapter will have a lot more of them in it.
Gaara coming out in this chapter was a little unexpected, even for me. -- But since I wrote up the scenarios over a couple of days, it kindof fits. At any rate, tell me what you think if you want to, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Since I'm done with sophomore year now, I can, hopefully, get a lot more writing in and maybe finish this story before the beginning of my junior year. Vacation is coming up in a week though, so I may need to resort to writing on the laptop and using a flashi drive O. Anyway kiddos, hope you enjoyed it. P
Wrecked Apocalypse.
