Chapter 9: To Protect Those I Love
Edit: I was re-reading some of the earlier chapters and I noticed a typo in chapter 2. I said that Kiyoko was about 15, and Naruto and co. are 14. I meant to say that Kiyoko was about 14, and the others are about 13 (also note that it's about a year later, so Kiyoko is now 15). That makes things a bit easier, and doesn't mess with the timeline as badly. Sorry for the confusion.
Also: this one is slightly graphic(ish) towards the end but nothing bad.
"My name...is Kiyoko," she said. "I'm going back to Konoha and turning myself in to Tsunade-sama."
"Are you insane?!" Ino exclaimed. "You'll be killed for sure!"
"I know. I thought of that. It's worth taking the risk, though," Kiyoko said with a firm conviction that didn't match the knot of fear twisting in her stomach.
"Why? Why is going back to Konoha worth losing your life?" Kiba demanded. Kiyoko clenched her hands until her nails made little crescents of blood on her palms. "This entire attack is my doing. If Konoha falls while I run away in fear of my life, I don't deserve to live. I know how the Earth military works, so I'm the only one who can stop them. If it is decided that I must die as punishment for my crimes, so be it. A ninja does not fear death. This is a war. People die in wars, that's the way things are. Whether it's my fate to die in battle or by execution, at least I won't die a coward. I've chosen my side."
They fell silent, realizing the truth in their friend's words. They knew that no matter what Kiyoko chose, she would get hurt. She silently placed her ANBU mask over her face and retied it. The familiar feel of the cool porcelain gave her renewed confidence in what she had to do. I am Kiyoko, the White Falcon of Konoha.
"We need to get back to Konoha as quickly as we can. In eight days, the Earth Country will begin their attack on our home. Konohagakure is still two full days away, so by the time we get there the village will have only six days to prepare," Kiyoko reminded them.
"Then we'll make double time," Hinata said. "If we don't stop at night, we can probably cut our travel time in half."
"Hn. We can use me and Akamaru's soldier pills to give us the endurance we need," Kiba added. They all nodded and immediately shot off, leaping from boulder to boulder at an urgent speed as the sun rose over the Hidden Rock Village far behind them. By dawn of the following day, they were begining to show signs of weariness, even with the soldier pills, but they went through the day without slowing down and pushed themselves through the following night, stopping only for brief rests to take another energy pill and catch their breaths. When they finally spotted Konoha in the distance, only miles away, they forgot their aching bodies and sped up like sprinters in the last few meters of a race. They went straight to Tsunade's office and knocked urgently on the door. She opened it to find the five of them, still panting from the journey, covered in dirt, blood, and sweat.
"Report," she barked shortly.
"Six days," Ino huffed, and Kiyoko proceeded to give her all the details they had collected on the attack.
"Damn, I was hoping we had more time," Tsunade cursed, scribbling a hasty message onto a scroll. She handed it to a guard and ordered him to take it to the head of the ANBU. Then she dismissed the exhausted team, telling them to go to the medics and get themselves patched up, but to be ready to return as soon as they were summoned. Kiyoko, however, stayed behind. She took off her mask and sighed, "Hokage-sama, there's something else you need to know."
She spent the next hour telling her all about their encounter with Haru, her sudden recovery of memory, and her affiliations with the Earth Country. When she finished, Kiyoko couldn't meet Tsunade's eyes. She felt so guilty. She untied her headband and set it on her desk.
"I'm sorry, Hokage-sama. I don't deserve this."
Tsunade closed her eyes and rubbed her temple. She didn't know how to handle this.
"Why did you choose Konoha over Hidden Rock, the place where you grew up? I just don't get it," she stated.
"To tell you the truth, I don't quite know myself. When I thought of going back to my old life, I felt this sense of dread. Then I remembered every kind thing this village has done for me. You guys took me in and made me a part of the village. As Izumi, I was only interested in power; becoming stronger so I could surpass my father and prove that I was more than the spoiled child of a Kage. I did whatever it took to bring me closer to my goal of becoming Tsuchikage, even if it hurt someone I loved," she explained. Like Haru and Soka.
"And now?"
"Now I can see how stupid I was. In Konoha, I don't have to prove myself to everyone for them to see that I'm strong. Here, I know that I got where I am because of hard work and talent, not just because my father is the Tsuchikage. It's like I know exactly who I am when I'm in Konohagakure. I know I don't deserve it though. People in Konoha are going to die because of the information I collected a year ago. I didn't come back expecting to be automatically forgiven, or even for you to spare my life. My life isn't worth sparing. I came back because the thought of everyone in Konoha being destroyed in this attack made me sick to my stomach. I couldn't let anything happen to the people I love. I'm the only one who knows everything about their tactics. I know all their attack strategies because I helped design them. I came back to save Konoha. I don't care whether I die or not."
Kiyoko dropped to her knees and bowed until her head nearly touched the ground for shame. Tsunade looked down at the kunoichi in front of her in pity. She was only fourteen, maybe fifteen, years of age. Still just a kid. She seemed much older. In normal villages, girls this age would be out with a group of friends giggling about some boy, not caught up in the middle of a war. It wasn't fair, but that was the life of a ninja. Tsunade sighed and touched Kiyoko's shoulder. She looked up at the older woman with a dead look on her face. A look that said she didn't care what happened to her. Tsunade handed Kiyoko's headband back to her.
"I think you'll be needing this," she said. "Join your teammates at the hospital and wait for my orders. I'm placing you in charge of organizing a counter-strike against the Earth Country."
"T-thank you, Tsunade-sama," she stuttered in relief. Tsunade smiled.
"Do this thing right, and everything you just told me won't even be mentioned in the records."
Kiyoko couldn't believe what she was hearing. Tsunade had just told her that she'd wipe her slate completely clean if she helped them. She wanted to hug the lady, but instead retied her headband and hurried out the door.
There's something different about her, Harumi concluded as she performed various healing jutsus on her white-haired ex-patient. She seemed both happier and sadder than when she left the hospital a year ago. Her appearence hadn't changed much; her hair was a bit longer, and she had a few new scars. Kiyoko caught her favourite nurse staring at her and cocked an eyebrow.
"What?"
"I can't figure out what's different about you. You haven't grown an inch, but there's something older about you," she said thoughtfully. Kiyoko opened her mouth to tell her it was probably the ANBU uniform or something, but Ino, Kiba, Hinata, and strangely, Shino, Tenten, and Sakura chose that moment to burst in and demand all at once what happened with Tsunade. Shino put a hand on her shoulder and said, "I apologize for not being around to go on this mission with you. I was gone on clan business with my father."
"That's okay," Kiyoko said, discretely slipping her ANBU mask further under the sheets of the bed she was seated on. No need to shock them with that. Yet.
"So what happened with Tsunade?" Tenten demanded, looking worried.
"How did you find out about that?"
"Well, I was here working and saw Hinata, Kiba, Akamaru, and Ino getting all bandaged up," Sakura said, "So I came in and asked what happened."
"Threatened is more like it," Ino muttered and Sakura shot her a look. Kiyoko just shrugged and told Ino not to worry about it. Sakura explained that the she told the other girls what happened, plus Shino since he was a teammember, because they were all worried.
"So what did Tsunade say?" Kiba asked. Kiyoko smiled and informed her friends about the good news. Well, the semi-good news anyway.
"An attack? On Konoha?" Tenten gasped. Kiyoko nodded grimly then said, "Listen, guys, I have some stuff to tell you. You're all my closest friends, so I think you deserve to know. No more secrets."
They all listened in awe as she told them everything, including her being a enemy shinobi of the Earth Country. They took it surprisingly well.
"I've been assigned to plan the defense of the village. That and the fact that I'm ANBU means I'll probably end up at the front of the lines during the actual battle. I have less than six days to plan this thing, so I'm more than a little nervous. I need you guys more than ever now."
"Don't worry, just tell us what you want us to do and we're there," Shino assured her. Hinata spoke up for once and asked, "Kiyoko-chan, won't you get in trouble for telling everyone about being ANBU?"
Kiyoko just shook her head. "It's not like it was going to stay a secret for very long. How many white haired, fifteen year old, five foot one kunoichi are there in Konoha?"
They all laughed, more to relieve the tension that had gathered in the room than anything else. Just then, Yuugao entered the room and told Kiyoko that she needed to report to the missions room immediately. All the laughter in the room disappeared faster than Naruto at the mention of the word 'ramen', and the four of them hurried away.
"They'll move out from Iwagakure two days from now, make their way southeast to Taki in the Waterfall Country for the night, then continue southeast to the border of the Rice Field Country and stopping for a day before heading south to Konoha," Kiyoko explained, pointing to each place in turn on a large map covering the wall.
"Why are they going almost a full days journey out of the way instead of going directly through the Grass Country as they've done before?" questioned one of the ANBU present.
"It's a new strategy they've developed, hoping to catch us off-guard. The terrain is more rocky north of Konoha, which gives them a huge advantage," she told them, not mentioning that it was she who helped develop the plan in the first place. "The first wave of attack will take place five days from now and will consist of twelve nine-person teams. These teams will consist of their most experienced chuunin with one jounin per team. That's 108 ninjas total, for those of you who don't have a calculator, 96 chuunin and 12 jounin. Their jobs will be to set a series of explosives around the walls of Konoha to do a lot of damage quickly and incite panic. The second strike will take place immediately after that. Every available ninja from Iwagakure will enter the village and begin the final strike. Their orders are simple: destroy as much as possible and kill anyone in their path. With the Fire Country's shinobi out of the way, overtaking the rest of the country will be simple. That's their plan anyway."
Kiyoko almost smiled at the intense feeling of excitement that came from planning an attack, something that she'd almost forgotten in her year as a subordinate. This was the fun part of being a shinobi. She looked around at the determination present on the faces of all the jounin, chuunin, and special jounin gathered. This is what it's all about; protecting our fellow ninjas and defending our home.
"We also have come to believe that there is another purpose for stopping at the Rice Field's border," she added. "As you all know, the Hidden Sound Village lays somewhere in the Rice Field Country. It is likely that Orochimaru has had a hand in this. We think whatever explosives they'll be using are his making, so they're bound to be pretty nasty. We uncovered sketchy information mentioning some kind of large-scale summoning as well," she stated.
"Snakes," barked a brown-haired special jounin. Anko, she thought her name was. "His summoning animal is the snake."
Kiyoko nodded. It made sense. She began to explain her strategy. They would first try and take out as many of those bombs as they could. A dozen five-person cells would have the job of finding the twelve explosives and stop them from going off. Then they would rejoin the rest of the village's ninjas in fighting off the second wave.
"We have four days to prepare for this, not including tonight. I suggest we notify the village tonight and then get to work organizing the twelve first-wave cells. I will lead one of these teams myself," Kiyoko stated. The meeting adjourned a few minutes later, and Tsunade began sending out scrolls to all the various clans and families of Konoha, telling them of the attack. Word always travels quickly, especially in a ninja village. By the time Kiyoko finally was able to trudge tiredly home three hours after the meeting, it seemed the entire town was buzzing with talk of the coming battle. Unfortunately, battle wasn't the only thing being whispered about. Somehow, it had slipped out that Kiyoko was of the Earth Country.
"That's her, the one from Iwagakure."
"Traitor."
"Daughter of the Tsuchikage, I heard."
"Can she be trusted? I doubt it."
She pretended not to hear them and just made her way silently down the street towards her home. Dumping her stuff on the couch, Kiyoko went straight into the bathroom and ran a scalding hot shower. When she got out of the bathroom, her skin was bright red from the heat, but she didn't care. Her body demanded sleep, and she was happy to comply. The following morning, she left the apartment to go train. Actually, she first had to seek out a certain sensei she had been working with for help. Kiyoko concentrated on locating said ninja's chakra signature and picked it up on the outskirts of town.
"Kakashi-sensei, I need your help."
"Well, good morning to you, too," said the masked ninja, arching his visible eye in what Kiyoko had come to recognize as a smile. She had been working with Kakashi on a summoning technique, like the one he used to summon his ninja dogs.
"Do you have the scroll with you?" he asked, turning serious in an instant. Kiyoko tapped the large scroll on her back in answer. She took it out and unrolled it. Her name was written in blood above the crimson handprint. On the scroll was also the summoning jutsu pattern, the center stained with many layers of bloody fingerprints from repeated use.
"I see you've been practicing. Let's see what you've got."
Kiyoko nodded and pricked her finger with her kunai. She formed the required seals and brought her hand down on the scroll. There was a puff of smoke, which Kiyoko waved away. She groaned in frustration at the small red-tailed hawk she had summoned.
"See, I can only get this little thing. I need one bigger. Something that can carry me during the battle in four days," she explained, and dispeled the hawk in a second cloud of smoke. Kakashi tapped his chin lazily.
"Hm, maybe try putting more chakra into it. Try using a bit more blood, too. The predatorary animal summonings require more blood a lot of times," he suggested. Kiyoko sliced across her palm this time, wincing at the sudden sharp pain. She waited for the blood to seep out before doing the seals. Again, she brought her hand down onto the scroll, but this time, she focused on pushing more chakra into the blood. This had to work. She needed to protect her village, and to do that, she needed help. She pictured a massive hawk and concentrated as hard as she could on the image. Kiyoko jumped back in surprise, landing on her butt, as a huge cloud of smoke appeared. From the cloud stepped a gigantic falcon as tall as a tree.
"I did it! Yosh!" Kiyoko cheered. The bird looked down at her, and Kiyoko felt intimidated, suddenly aware of just how big those talons were. She looked nervously behind her for Kakashi. He was gone. Stupid ero-sensei probably went somewhere to read his precious porno. (ero-sensei means 'perverted teacher')
"Such sad and beautiful thoughts, coming from one so young," the falcon boomed, and Kiyoko realized that the falcon boss was female. "I am Takachi Soraku." (Taka is 'falcon' or 'hawk', chi is 'thousand', Sora is 'sky', and ku is 'eternal'. So Takachi means 'A Thousand Falcons', and Soraku means 'Eternal Sky')
"K-Kiyoko. Just Kiyoko, Soraku-sama."
The great bird tilted her head and said, "A girl with a sad soul and no family name, who only has thoughts of protecting her friends. That is why I answered your summon. I felt your plea for help in saving those you hold dear to you. What is it that troubles you, pure child?" (Kiyoko means 'pure child')
Kiyoko explained about the attack, and how she wanted to use the falcon's wings to fight from above and help save her village from destruction. When she finished her tale, she could swear Soraku was smiling at her. Then she spoke.
"Do another summoning. Use the name Suzune."
Kiyoko nodded and did the jutsu, pressing her still bleeding hand to the scroll once again. She called the name Suzune in her mind and a second falcon appeared. This one was nowhere as big as Soraku, only about a foot taller than Kiyoko. When the falcon spoke, she saw that this one was also female.
"Hello, mother," she said, raising a wing in greeting Soraku.
"Suzune, I am placing you as the personal summon of this kunoichi," said Soraku to Suzune, then turned to Kiyoko. "This is Suzune, my eldest daughter. During your battle, summon her and she will aid you."
"Battle? What battle?" Suzune demanded, looking from Kiyoko to Soraku. Soraku vanished in a cloud of chakra smoke, leaving Suzune and Kiyoko alone. Suzune ruffled her feathers indignantly, but then stuck out a wing and said, "Nice to meet you, shinobi-san. So what battle are we fighting in?"
Kiyoko shook the outstretched wing, mentally laughing at the ridiculousness of shaking hands (or perhaps wings) with a bird, and said, "I'm Kiyoko, by the way."
She told Suzune about the attack happening in four days, and the young falcon appeared excited at the prospect of combat. For a falcon, she was surprisingly bubbly and friendly, matching her namesake perfectly (Suzune means sparrow). She sort of reminded Kiyoko of a certain hyperactive ninja she knew.
"So your plan is to locate and attack the enemy from above?"
"Hai, that's right."
"Well then, Kiyoko-chan, it looks like we're going for a ride," Suzune said with clear enthusiasm. "Climb on my back and hold on tight."
Moments later, Kiyoko was clinging for dear life on the back of a six foot hawk a hundred feet above the ground. At first, she was terrified, keeping her eyes squeezed shut. When she got used to the feeling, however, she opened her eyes and felt her heart jump into her mouth. This is amazing, I can see all of Konoha from up here! When they landed, Kiyoko stumbled around dizzily for a moment. She rubbed her eyes, which were watering horribly from the rushing wind in her face during the flight.
"Ready for another go?" Suzune asked. Kiyoko nodded and Suzune added, "This time, try steering by leaning the way you want to turn. Lean forward to dive and backward to go higher."
The pair took to the sky again, soaring above the trees and rooftops of Konoha. Kiyoko practiced steering until she had it down perfectly. Then she spotted a building below her and shouted to Suzune above the wind, "Land on that building right there."
Suzune descended and landed gracefully on said rooftop. Kiyoko told her that she'd be right back and hopped down to the ground. She entered the establishment, which happened to be the weaponry and ninja apparel store where Tenten worked, and went up to the counter.
"Hey, Tenten-chan, I need a pair of goggles."
"Dude, what happened to your hair?" laughed Tenten. "You look like you just came out of a windtunnel."
"I'll show you later," Kiyoko told her, making a mental note to tie her hair up the next time she flew. She followed her friend to where the goggles were and selected a pair that would protect her eyes from the wind, but not look completely stupid on her. Then she led Tenten outside and jumped up onto the roof, motioning for her friend to follow.
"Holy crap!" Tenten exclaimed upon seeing the gigantic falcon.
"Hi, I'm Suzune. What's your name?" asked the bird cheerfully.
"Gyah! It talks!"
"Tenten-chan, this is Suzune-san. Suzune-san, this is Tenten-chan," Kiyoko introduced. "She's my awesome new animal summoning."
Suzune shook her feathers proudly at Kiyoko's compliment. Recovered from her initial shock, Tenten closed her gaping mouth and greeted the falcon. Then she turned back to Kiyoko and pulled out a scroll from her pocket.
"I almost forgot, Tsunade-sama wanted me to give this to you. It's the cell assignments for the attack."
Kiyoko quickly opened the document. It gave the names, ranks, and specialties of the four she would be working with. It also explained that each group was chosen specially for the mission, which was why they wouldn't be in their regular teams. She looked through the list and smiled when she read her own info.
Shirotaka Kiyoko- team leader, special jounin (ANBU), age 15, bloodline limit allows her to manipulate earth element.
They gave me a last name, she thought happily. It was her, Tenten, Nara Shikamaru, Hyuuga Neji, and Ino. She didn't know either Shikamaru or Neji very well, but from what she had heard from Ino, Shikamaru was a lazy genius. She had fought against Neji in the chuunin exams, so she was quite familiar with his fighting abilities, but other than that, she didn't really know him personally. This should be interesting, she thought with a smirk. Kiyoko decided she should probably get the team together so they could practice, so she told Tenten to meet her at the training grounds in an hour before flying off in search of the others. When they were all at the training grounds, Kiyoko introduced herself and Suzune before explaining their mission. They spent the rest of the day training and practicing working together. At the end of the day, Kiyoko headed off to the ANBU headquarters. She had to attend nightly meetings to discuss strategies and go over new information. The following days were the same; get up, train, go to the meeting, go home, eat, sleep, repeat. On the evening before the attack, however, Kiyoko recieved a surprise visitor.
"Hey, Kiyoko!" Kiba called, catching up with her as she entered her apartment complex.
"C'mon, we're going to my house for dinner. My mom said that you shouldn't be alone the night before the big event, so she had me invite you over for dinner. Shino and Hinata will be there with their families, too, so go get changed quick and we'll get going." he explained, grabbing her arm and pulling her up the stairs to her apartment. She put on a lavendar yukata with violet floral designs and quickly brushed through her hair before heading off with Kiba. When they got there, his mother greeted her happily.
"Ah, Kiyoko-chan, so glad you could come. Good to see you," she said.
"Thank you for inviting me, Mrs. Inuzuka, I really appreciate it," Kiyoko replied.
They ate dinner, all the Hyuugas (main branch), Aburames, Inuzukas and their dogs, and Kiyoko, seated at the large table laughing and talking excitedly about the battle tomorrow. They all knew that the real reason for having this gathering of friends and family was because it could very well be the last time they saw each other, but even that couldn't dampen their spirits. It was as if they'd already won and were celebrating victory. When the end of the night was reluctantly announced, everyone went to their seperate homes to get a good night's sleep, for tomorrow was the big fight.
It was early, really early, four a.m. to be exact, when Kiyoko and her team, along with the fifty-five other chosen shinobi, gathered outside the gates of Konoha. There was a feeling of hushed excitement among the ninjas, and the air buzzed with chakra. Once the radio head-sets were passed out to each team, Kiyoko took the opportunity to summon Suzune. The plan was that she and Tenten would search for the enemy by air, and Neji, Ino and Shikamaru would do the same on the ground. When either of them had located one of the twelve enemy cells, they would radio the others and go in for the attack. It wasn't long before Suzune spotted a group of rock ninjas sprinting through the woods towards Konoha.
"Sky unit to ground unit, we found 'em," Kiyoko said into the headset, giving them the coordinates and telling Suzune to dive down at them as they ran though a field. As the giant falcon swooped down over the scattering earth-nin, Kiyoko and Tenten launched themselves off and began their attack. Tenten hurled a few dozen projectiles at the nearest ninjas, and grinned in satisfaction as two dropped to the ground. Kiyoko, meanwhile, was occupied with slashing at two opponents who had decided to gang up on her with her Iwa Tsume no Jutsu. She raked her talons across the neck of one of them with one hand, while shoving her claws into the stomach of the second one with the other hand. She heard Ino cry out and she turned around to see her being flung into a tree. Ino slumped to the ground.
"Kiyoko! Behind you!" shouted Tenten in warning. Kiyoko whirled around to see a particularily big shinobi run at her with a very large sword. She put up her blood-covered hands to brace herself, but he suddenly stopped, dropping his sword and bringing his hands together in the rat hand seal.
"What the hell?! I can't move!" he cursed.
"You alright?" asked Shikamaru, appearing from behind a tree. She nodded and left him to finish off the trapped enemy while she ran over to see if Ino was okay. Kiyoko was relieved to see that she was merely unconscious with a large gash on her forehead. She quickly looked around to count how many Earth ninjas were left. I got two, Tenten got two, Shikamaru and Suzune got one. That's six, plus Neji and Tenten are each fighting one. Where's the ninth one?
"Neji, there's still one left! Can you see them?" she called out. He looked around with his Byakugan.
"Hai, she's right there," he said, pointing to a group of trees, but then whirled around and pointed. "And there, and there, and over there, too...Shit, we're surrounded."
All at once, over a dozen identical, blonde-haired, rock kunoichi sprang from the forest at the six of them. Tenten threw some shuriken experimentally at one of them, and it disappeared in a puff of smoke and a small pop. Kage Bunshins. Damn, this must be their jounin.
"Suzune!" Kiyoko called, then leapt up into the air. She landed on Suzune's back and told her to go higher.
"Oi, guys, get Ino away from here. I don't want her to get caught in the crossfire," she said into her radio.
"Where the hell are you?"
"About a hundred and fifty feet above you. Listen, I'm gonna be coming fast, so make sure you're not on the ground."
She flipped off her radio and reformed the earth on her hands from her Iwa Tsume into two long, curved blades. Once Suzune had flown up a few hundred feet, Kiyoko dove off in a swan dive, plunging headfirst towards the ground. She spread her arms out to her sides so her body was in a T position and began to spin. Using her chakra to keep her spinning, she rotated faster and faster until she couldn't see anything. Kiyoko closed her eyes and concentrated her chakra to her feet. When she got about fifty feet from the ground, she flipped herself around so she was going feet first. She sliced right through several of the clones before slamming into the ground with the force of a traincrash. Right as she hit, she released the chakra in her feet all at once so it created a huge shockwave upon impact. The ground rose like ripples in a pond, disappating clones left and right and leveling trees that got in the way. Kiyoko swiped an arm through the air, and the dust created from her attack cleared in an instant, revealing a single earth ninja laying on the ground. She was scraped up pretty badly, and clearly had quite a few broken bones, so Kiyoko finished the jounin with a single swipe of her kunai. She felt a brief pang of sadness for the girl as she slumped to the ground and wondered if she had any family to mourn her. No matter how many she killed, Kiyoko always felt guilty afterwards. She had taken something that she had no right to take. A life. But this was war, and therefor she had no time to dwell on emotions.
"Search the bodies for the explosives," Kiyoko ordered, wiping the girl's blood from her face. She found several exploding tags in the girl's pouch and let out a low whistle. I'm impressed. These are the most powerful explosive seals I've ever seen. Just one of these could take out an entire building. The others found a tag on each of the eight other bodies. Kiyoko took them and spread them out on the ground. There were fifteen altogether. Enough to take out an entire block.
"Where's Ino?" she asked.
"I put her up a tree," Shikamaru said boredly, pointing to a tall oak. Kiyoko rolled her eyes, though she had to admit it was pretty smart to put her up there. She got her down and set her on the ground. Pressing her hands against either side of her head, Kiyoko used her chakra to revive her. Ino stirred and opened her eyes. She sat up and looked around at the bodies littering the ground.
"Ah, damn. I missed it," she joked. Tenten laughed and told her that next time she wouldn't get out of fighting that easy. Suddenly, the ground trembled, and a second later they heard the unmistakable sound of a massive explosion off in the distance.
"Kiyoko!" Suzune shouted from the air, "It's Konoha! The east wall has been breached!"
Shiori's Blurbs:
Bwahahahahahaha! Evil cliffhangers! Sorry this one took so long. I was out of town (again). Anyways, thanks for reading. The next one will be the last one, so show some lovin' by reviewing! I'm gonna miss writing this series.
