Hello guys, I'm back with another chapter.
Don't think I'm throwing in lemons for this story just because of that QotD. It was just a random question because I feel awkward writing lemons, however much I would like to have the skill to write them. I also know it could be uncomfortable for some readers, so yeah, I would rather not.
Still, it was interesting reading all of your brilliant responses as usual.
Also, regarding the questions about our dear Kin, I will definitely look to throw her back into this story sometime in the future. The question is, I don't know how! Leave your suggestions, guys!
beisenman1892: Hahaha, love your review. Does Gaara die? Read on to find out ;)
demonic hellfire: I like how you specifically typed 'Kisame' instead of Kisame. Clever little reader.
AFlashofSilver: Thanks! I didn't think it was too impressive of a fight scene myself and I'm glad someone else thinks otherwise.
Mr. Haziq: A lemon is basically a sex scene in writing slang. If I'm writing a lemon, it means I'm writing a sex scene, like a porno, except it's in words.
Raisuke Death: I don't get your review, but I have to correct you because it's Killer of thy Cookies... not Kookies :P
Lin: Ah, the return of your reviews - always love reading them. Hahaha. I hope moving goes well for you, and I look forward to your reviews again once you're done settling in.
Thanks to Jove99, GreyJedi1, Nta fanfic, Eternal Dagger Sailor Krypton, battle neurosis, beisenman1892, demonic hellfire, AFlashofSilver, FrozenFlamingFire, Arch The Ripper, Mr. Haziq, 15dragondream, akasukifangirl, Raisuke Death, Lin and Mr. Lionheart for the reviews!
"Ahhh... Argh..."
Itachi forcefully withdrew his blade from Kisame's heart, and the dying man fell forward.
"You..." He heaved.
Naruto walked over, taking out his Hiraishin Kunai from Kisame's back, making the shark-like shinobi cry out in pain again.
"It's over for you," the son of the Fourth said coldly.
To Naruto's surprise and anger, Kisame started laughing.
"You all... are skilled... indeed... but... hahaha..."
Sasuke and Sakura raced over, as Kisame began morphing. Itachi frowned, as Kisame fully transformed into a different shinobi - yet still in the attire of the Akatsuki.
"I knew it... It wasn't the real one," Itachi muttered, keeping his katana. "Anyhow... there is no way the real Kisame Hoshigaki would have been defeated so easily."
Sakura stared at the dead man. His body bore the wounds Kisame had suffered in the battle. "What... what is this? It's definitely not a clone..."
"The Impersonation Jutsu," Itachi replied grimly. "This man was used to impersonate Kisame Hoshigaki... a shape-shifting technique."
Naruto glared into the distance. "But he could use his jutsu..."
Itachi kept his gaze focused on the man. "Kisame Hoshigaki allocated a portion of his chakra to this guy. With the Impersonation Jutsu, you can use the one whom you impersonate's jutsu and techniques... even Kekkei Genkai. But once that chakra is gone, the user of this jutsu eventually..."
"... dies," Sasuke finished. "Brutal."
"Indeed," his brother agreed. "But we can't waste another second. Let's go."
Clenching his fists, Naruto didn't move, though his teammates did. Sakura stopped, looking back as her friend glared down at the dead user of the Impersonation Jutsu.
"Naruto...?"
Naruto smashed his fists together, before turning and running in the direction if Itachi and Sasuke. "Let's go, Sakura-chan."
Sakura's worried gaze fixed itself on the blonde's back as he ran past.
"Naruto..."
"It seems the Impersonation Jutsu has failed."
"Indeed, Kisame."
Deidara's eyes opened. "Let's not bother about those brats. When we're done with the sealing I'll finish them off, hm."
"Brats?" The projection of Kisame snorted. "Deidara-chan, you're only three or four years older than them."
"Shut up, Kisame!" Deidara snapped.
"The Kyuubi is with them too," Kisame explained. "The Kyuubi is supposed to be my target."
"And mine!"
"Shut up, Tobi."
Deidara glared at Kisame - well, his projection, anyway. "Do you think I care whose target is whose, hm? If I say I'm taking care of the Kyuubi, I'm taking care of the Kyuubi!"
"Shut up, both of you, and concentrate on the sealing. We can talk about this after we are finished," the leader commanded, irritation present in his tone of voice.
Both Akatsuki members obeyed their orders, although Deidara still seemed annoyed.
"We will not be able to finish this in time. It has only been a day, but they are already near our hideout."
The leader considered this. "Then, what do you suggest, Kakuzu?"
"We stop the sealing for now. After Deidara and Sasori take care of the intruders, they move the Jinchuriki to another hideout of ours unseen. No one will track them down this way, and we can seal the One-Tail in peace."
The projection beside Kakuzu's broke his silence. "Eh, Kakuzu, you shut the fuck up. You just wanna get that target we've been hunting down for that stupid bounty of yours!"
"Be quiet, Hidan."
The leader mulled over Kakuzu's words.
"Kakuzu does make sense," he finally said. "It won't take them more than a day to discover the hideout, seeing as they have someone like Itachi Uchiha within their ranks. Sasori, do you think both you and Deidara can handle Itachi Uchiha and the Kyuubi?"
Sasori hesitated, but finally nodded.
"Excellent. Then we shall stop here."
The Sealing Jutsu stopped, and Gaara fell back to the ground, taking in short breaths.
"Good luck... Deidara, Sasori."
One by one, the astral projections vanished, and with them, the gigantic statue.
Deidara took a seat. "Guess we'll be waiting for now, huh, Sasori, my man?"
Sasuke walked out of the bushes, looking around with his Sharingan activated.
Searching for a good thirty minutes, he finally found it. With his dojutsu, he could spot chakra presences not far away - which didn't seem to resemble the chakra of his teammates.
Excitedly, Sasuke ran towards the direction of the detected chakra.
"Sasuke here," he spoke into his wireless radio. "Think I've got something."
Sakura's reply came a moment later, a simple one. "Where are you?"
Sasuke gave his location, as he stopped at his destination.
In front of the Uchiha was a giant boulder, with a tag placed on it. Beyond the boulder, with his Sharingan, Sasuke could see two human beings - or their chakra, at least.
A Five Seal Barrier, Sasuke observed.
Seconds later, the rest of Team Itachi arrived. The team's captain inspected the boulder.
"Looks like we'll have to spend some time removing this thing," Itachi frowned.
Sakura brought her fists up. "No problem. I'll just demolish this boulder and we can proceed!"
"No," Itachi said quickly. "It's not just a boulder. You can't see it, but there's a barrier here... A Five Seal Barrier. No matter how much strength you put into punching this rock, it'll be useless. We'll have to take care of the barrier first."
Naruto looked at Itachi. "What's a Five Seal Barrier?"
"The Five Seal Barrier is a type of Barrier Ninjutsu," a familiar voice explained, footsteps approaching. "There are five seal tags hidden around the nearby area, including the one you see up there on that boulder."
The team turned, to see Team Kakashi walking towards them. Kakashi looked up at the seal on the boulder. "To remove this barrier, each of these five seal tags will have to be taken off simultaneously."
"Kakashi-sensei," Sasuke smiled, acknowledging his tutor.
"Hey guys," Naruto couldn't resist a grin.
Hinata gasped. "N-Naruto-kun!"
"Hey, Naruto!" Kiba yelled, running over and slapping his friend on the back. "Good to see you, man!"
"Naruto," Shino nodded.
"You haven't changed a bit, Kiba," Naruto teased, bro-fisting the Inuzuka. "But woah... Akamaru certainly have."
"What're you talking about? Akamaru hasn't changed at all!" Kiba laughed. Naruto stared at the huge dog.
Akamaru barked in agreement with his human partner. "Arf!"
"Hey Hinata," Naruto waved. The Hyuga girl could only manage a small, slightly nervous but delighted smile. "And... uh... Shino?"
The hooded Aburame nodded again. "I'm glad you recognized me, Naruto."
"While I would hate to ruin the happy reunion and all, we have to make this quick. The Kazekage is in danger, and we can't waste any more time," Kakashi said seriously. Then, he eye-smiled. "Oh, and yo, Naruto."
Itachi chuckled. "Well, I think we should get going with finding these seal tags."
Everyone turned to Hinata expectantly.
The heiress blushed, disliking the attention already. She placed her hands together, forming the seal needed.
"Byakugan!"
As she felt her veins bulging, confirming the activation of her dojutsu, as well as her enhancing vision, Hinata immediately went to work.
She quickly gave out directions to four different locations.
"Alright," Naruto made no attempt to mask the eagerness in his voice. "Let's go to those places and get this barrier off!"
"Patience, Naruto," Kakashi said, his hand going into one of the pockets on his Jonin vest. "Team Kakashi will handle these seal tags. You guys sit tight over here until we give you the go-ahead to remove the tag up there."
"Sounds good," Itachi agreed, bringing out four wireless radios from one of his pockets on his Jonin vest. He tapped the one on his ear. "All these wireless radios are connected. We can use them to communicate."
"Alright," Kakashi took the miniature device. "Let's work out who goes where. I'll be heading to the cliff. Kiba will go to the northeast forest. For Hinata, it'll be the northern field. Shino, I leave the river located at the southeast to you."
"Roger."
"Spread!"
At the command, Team Kakashi separated.
"So..." Sakura looked at Itachi. "... now what?"
He looked at the boulder again, casting one more glance at the seal tag.
"We wait."
Kakashi looked down the cliff, before pushing chakra into his feet.
Slowly, he defied gravity, walking down the steep cliff. He soon spotted a seal tag.
The masked Jonin spoke into his communicator.
"Kakashi here. I've found the tag."
Kiba grinned, looking at the trunk of the tree he was leaning on. Present on the trunk was a tag. "This is Kiba. Found mine too."
Standing in front of a semi circle-shaped boulder, Hinata smiled in satisfaction. "Hello, this is Hinata. I've found the seal tag."
"And I've found a tag too," Shino's voice came.
"Brilliant. Are you ready, Itachi?"
Itachi jumped onto the giant boulder. "Yes, and I'm ready."
"Let's do this. On the count of three, we shall all peel off our tags."
Shino placed his hand on the tag he'd found, as Kakashi started counting down.
"One..."
Kiba reached out for his tag.
"Two..."
Naruto watched on in anticipation.
"Three!"
Itachi ripped the tag off. "Sakura, now!"
He jumped off the boulder, tearing the tag into half and dropping it as Sakura charged forward, her fist raised.
"Haaaa... Chaaaa!"
With every ounce of her chakra-enhanced strength, Sakura slammed her fist into the boulder. Naruto and Sasuke covered their ears, as a boom followed. Cracks quickly gathered on the surface of the giant boulder, and eventually, it shattered into pieces.
The team rushed into the hideout.
"Welcome..."
Kakashi listened intently. Through Itachi's wireless radio, he could faintly hear conversation. Soon, he could hear no more. Itachi had disconnected the radio, probably to focus on his upcoming battle.
"Alright, Team Kakashi, let's-"
From the surface of the cliff, an identical copy of him sprung up. Kakashi frowned.
His copy reached out, grabbing onto Kakashi's arm and trying to pull him off. However, he stuck, thanks to the chakra in his feet.
Huh? Kakashi stared, but his thoughts were cut off as his clone punched him in the face. "Hey, some trouble on my side. A clone of me just appeared and attacked. I think it's some kind of defense measurement."
"Same here," Shino noted. His clone raised his arms, and bugs flew towards Shino. They've even cloned my Kikaichu...
Hinata locked eyes with her copy. "I think... we will have to defeat them before we go anywhere else..."
"It'll be easy for me," Kiba boasted with a smirk on his face. "My clone won't be able to match me."
"Don't speak so soon," Kakashi warned, as he stopped the chakra going to his feet, resulting in him slipping down towards his clone, and slammed an outstretched foot into the copy's face. The two masked men fell further down the cliff.
"I'm not being overconfident or anything," Kiba replied. "But their cloning technique... heh."
Kiba's copy used the Tunneling Fang, rushing towards Kiba.
Akamaru performed a Tunneling Fang of his own, and the dog knocked the Kiba copy away.
"They didn't clone my partner! Let's go, Akamaru!" Kiba yelled, hopping onto the over-sized dog.
"Arf!" He agreed with a bark, scampering towards the Kiba copy.
Hinata's eyes widened and she smiled. "So, they only copied you, because you were the one who tore the tag off..."
"Exactly! So this clone of mine will only be half as skilled as me! I'll crush him!"
"I can't say the same for the rest of us, unfortunately..." Kakashi did a back-flip in mid-air, landing a kick on his clone's chin. "Shino, have they cloned your bugs?"
"Yes," Shino spoke, raising his arms like his clone and calling forth his bugs.
Kikaichu battled against Kikaichu.
"This is going to be a very troublesome fight," Kakashi muttered, as he pushed chakra into his feet again, landing safely on the ground. His clone did the same.
The two lookalikes glared at each other with their single eyes, before both got out a kunai.
Kakashi poured Lightning chakra into his, and saw that his copy was doing exactly the same.
They rushed towards each other, and Kakashi made a sudden movement, a Raikiri forming in his hand instead of thrusting the chakra-infused kunai forward, confident that it would catch his clone off-guard.
However, the clone made the same moves. Kakashi jumped over his copy, and tried to use the Raikiri again, this time on his enemy's back.
But the Kakashi lookalike denied him by swinging around quickly and kicking him away.
"Damn it," he muttered. How are we supposed to defeat someone who knows everything about us, someone who fights like us? Our strengths, our weaknesses, the way we fight...
"Yahoooo!"
Kakashi winced as Kiba shrieked into his mic.
The Inuzuka was having the time of his life.
Kiba's clone backed away from him, bruised everywhere. He leaped forward, trying a Tunneling Fang.
"That again, huh?" Kiba grinned. "Too bad I know every single thing about my own weaknesses, and I know I can't fight well without my partner! Let's have another go at him, Akamaru!"
"Wait, Kiba!"
"Huh?" Kiba looked up, as Akamaru performed a Tunneling Fang to counter the clone's, both dog and copy getting knocked back. "What is it, Kakashi-sensei?"
"You said something earlier... about knowing your own weaknesses?"
Kiba looked at his clone. "Yeah..."
"That's it," Kakashi whispered, as he threw shuriken at his clone, who threw shuriken back. Throwing star after throwing star fell to the ground harmlessly.
"That's what?"
"They know our weaknesses and our strengths," the Jonin said, as he lifted his forehead protector, opening his Sharingan eye. "But we also know theirs."
Shino jumped back as hostile insects flew towards him. "What do we do with that knowledge in possession?" He raised his arm, and his Kikaichu swarmed out from his sleeve. "Parasitic Insects: Spear!"
His bugs joined together to form a giant purple spear, and flew towards the Shino clone.
The Aburame's clone surrounded himself with his insects, and the spear bounced off the rotating insect wall harmlessly.
"We exploit them," Kakashi replied, running forward and then jumping into the air. Just as his copy was about to use his Sharingan, Kakashi unleashed a flying kick on his cheek.
The copy recovered quickly, but Kakashi didn't give him time to even move. "Fire Style: Trapping Vortex!"
He blew fire towards his clone, and it evolved into a flaming vortex around him. The clone was caged.
And I know what I would do in this situation, Kakashi placed his palm on the ground. But this copy of me isn't going to have any time to do that.
"Earth Style: Hardening Cocoon!"
Through the translucent flames, the former ANBU man could make out his clone concentrating, attempting to do a jutsu.
The Earth Style: Hardening Cocoon hardens the earth, he eye-smiled at his work. Nothing can get in... or out. That means you can't use the Earth Style: Hidden Mole Jutsu here... so I have you right where I want you.
I wouldn't have known to use the Hardening Cocoon if I wasn't fighting myself. It appears the user of this mirroring technique didn't consider it's setbacks.
Kakashi did more hand seals, and breathed in.
"Fire Style: Great Dragon Flame Jutsu!"
Flames were spouted again, and this time, the flames took the form of a giant dragon, crashing into the flaming vortex. An explosion came soon after.
A victorious smile present under his mask, Kakashi exited the battlefield.
Probably the longest chapter on my story yet, 2,726 words!
Alright, I know, I know, not that great. :/
Question of the Day: The ultimate question that's being passed around these days - Sasuke or Naruto for Hokage in canon, and why? Readers who only watch the anime won't know how to answer this though :S
Leave your interesting responses in the reviews.
